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6 Objects That Changed Everything We Know About Human History | Human | BBC Earth Science | BBC Earth Science | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: 6 Objects That Changed Everything We Know About Human History | Human | BBC Earth Science
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[Music]
How can we tell the story of our
species, Homo sapiens, over 300,000
years across seven continents?
Well, let's try doing it using six objects.
objects.
Because these objects tell a tale that
spans all the way back to the distant
past. First off, a skull that
transformed our understanding of how and
when we came into existence. Here's
Here's
a question we should all probably know
the answer to. When did our species
begin? Like, how old are we? Well, until
recently, we got that completely wrong.
For a long time, our species, Homo
sapiens, were thought to have emerged
about 200,000 years ago, probably in
East Africa. But then, research
conducted at one site warped our
understanding completely. Back in the
60s, in a remote cave in Morocco, a
mining operation stumbled across a
fossilized skull. Soon the site was full
of archaeologists and over the years
they discovered human remains that were
frankly kind of weird.
This is a replica of Jebel Hudwan which
is one of the fossils that was found in
that Moroccan cave. This skull was so
confusing for archaeologists because it
has a mish mash of features. So if you
look at this brow ridge here that
protrudes so much you would just not
find that on a homo sapiens living
today. That is very old. It's more
reminiscent of some of the older species
like Neanderthalss for example. And
yeah, the face
that's pretty grassile. It's very
delicate, very similar to our own. It's
kind of all tucked in underneath the
brain case. So, how did this really
strange mix fit into the human tree? It
was a complete mystery. Some people
thought perhaps it was an African
Neanderthal. Others thought it was just
some strange thing that was happening in
Morocco and had nothing to do with us.
So, this skull that is a strange blend
of old and new is actually around
300,000 years old and a homo sapiens.
So, it pushes back the age of our
species by about 100,000 years. Turns
out, thanks to this discovery, we're a
lot older than we thought we were. This
fossil was also found in Morocco,
remember? And we used to think our
origins were in East Africa. And so it
points to a much more complex continentwide
continentwide
process that led to the beginning of our
species. Next, a mysterious rock
formation that reveals the awakening of
human minds.
If you to meet an early homo sapiens,
you might recognize them. They might
look like us, but did they think like
us? Well, there's a cave in the Zadilo
Hills of Botswana that contains a clue.
The rocks were formed in a way which
looks like the body and the head of a
snake. Now, the overall shape is
natural, but there is nothing natural
about the detail. The rock has over 300
man-made indentations all over, and
those indentations
end up looking like scales. So, were the
people in the cave trying to make the
rock look even more like a snake?
Archaeologists also found the remnants
of prehistoric tools that were burnt or
intentionally smashed. Why would you go
to the trouble of making a tool only to
damage it? Well, some of the
archaeologists that have worked on this
material have suggested that it's
ritualistic destruction. Could this be
an offering? All of this points towards
a kind of abstract thought. This cave
paints a picture of these people that
were able to see and think beyond what
was tangibly in front of them. Now, that
is something that we thought only
happened quite recently, but this site
is dated to about 70,000 years ago. And
we can't be 100% sure how they were
thinking and about their belief system.
But it's possible that they were asking
for very similar things to what we would
ask for, health, children, food. And
it's remarkable to think that a cave
like that shows us some of the
beginnings of the behaviors which we,
you and I, and every single person on
the planet know so well. Christmas, Eid,
birthdays, Glastenbury. We are obsessed
with ritual and this cave shows us that
we have been for a very, very long time
now. A piece of technology that helped
The rainforest, dynamic, dangerous, and
full of predators. You would think it
would be a bad place for squishy bipedal
apes like us. And it does seem like all
the other species of human avoided the
rainforest and yet we took it on by
adapting our technology so that we could
thrive there. Now when I say technology
be honest you're imagining weapons,
bows, arrows, spears and that's a huge
part of the story. But deep within the
Sri Lankan rainforest we also see
something else. the teeth of monkeys who
lived in the canopies of this rainforest
which had been sharpened and modified
perhaps to puncture materials like
animal hides. This might have allowed
humans to string together plant and
animal materials perhaps creating things
like clothes, bags, shelter. And all of
this would have been fundamental to
living in the challenging environment
that is a rainforest where clothes could
protect humans from insect born
diseases. Shelter would keep them safe
from the rain and bags could be created
to carry equipment over long distances.
You can imagine grandparents sitting
there with their grandchildren teaching
them how to use these tools, teaching
them how to perfect the techniques. They
show us something amazing about our
species. How we adapted technology and
passed it on so that we could take on
environments once thought to be impenetrable.
impenetrable.
Next, some fossils that show we were a
lot more intimate with other species of
human than we once thought. Most of you
watching this have about 2% Neanderthal
DNA, which basically means that one of
your great great great great go a lot of
great grandparents
in the early 2000s. These fossils were
discovered in a cave in Romania. Now, if
you look at these replicas, they do
clearly look homo sapiens, but if you
look really closely, there are some
features on them which are kind of mysterious.
mysterious.
The large mers and notice the forehead,
it recedes. Those features are
Neanderthal. This led the team to wonder
if this was evidence of Neanderthalss
and Homo sapiens interbreeding.
Thanks to a revolution in ancient DNA
technology, we now know that
Neanderthalss and Homo sapiens did
interbreed and that one of those awas
fossils was in fact definitely a hybrid.
They had a Neanderthal relative about
four to six generations earlier. This
Neanderthal genetic legacy in us is
really interesting. Not just because it
tells us something about the private
lives of our ancestors, but because it
tells us something about our DNA today.
See, that Neanderthal DNA within us is
associated with both positive and
negative things. On the plus side, the
Neandthal DNA is associated with things
like immunities and even increased
fertility. And on the negative, it's
associated with things like increased
severity of CO. The Neanderthalss have
died out, but for better or worse, a
part of them still lives on within us.
Now, onto a remarkable prehistoric
weapon that helped humanity triumph in a
whole new continent.
Imagine being the first humans to set
foot in the Americas. No other species
of human had. And so, it was a land mass
that was untouched by human activity,
including hunting. So imagine the
creatures you would have encountered
there. Mammoths, giant bison, mastadons.
So isn't it amazing that these
prehistoric humans looked at these
animals and thought, "Yum." This is a
Clovis spearhead. These artifacts are
around 13,000 years old, and they are
extraordinarily wellcrafted. Long and
narrow, thinning towards the end with
sharp edges, allowing them to pierce the
hides of enormous animals. But there's
another version of the Clover spearhead
that is mysterious, striking, and
beautiful. This is a spearhead made of
crystal quartz. Quartz crystal is
beautiful to look at, but vulnerable to
shattering. So, if it wasn't used as a
weapon, what was it used for?
Maybe it was ceremonial. We also know
that a boy from this period was buried
with about a hundred clovislike tools.
Again pointing to this idea that this
technology had deep cultural meaning.
Finally, a small written document that
exemplifies the power and scale of human ambition.
ambition.
What if I was to tell you that the first
of the great pyramids of Giza, one of
the most astonishing achievements in
human history, was built thanks in part
to a boring spreadsheet. Day 24,
Inspector Merror spends the day with his
file hauling stones. Day 25, Inspector
Merror spends the day with his team
hauling stones. Riveting read. So, how
It was here on the Red Sea coast that
archaeologists discovered fragments of a
text dating back over 4,500 years. This,
thought to be the world's oldest known
papyrus, is the diary of Mea, a time
capsule for the reign of the pharaoh
Kufu. Kufu is best known for overseeing
the construction of the first of the
great pyramids of Giza. Amra, the author
of this diary, was an inspector, an
official involved in the transportation
of things like limestone and food
supplies. And his journal describes just
that. It is a bit amusing, but one of
humanity's oldest known texts is
essentially a spreadsheet. A dull list
of goods and transportation details, the
kind of thing that you would hate to be
given at work, but it's the kind of
thing that you need to actually build
the pyramids. You see, humanity by this
point were much more numerous and
writing allowed us to communicate with
each other and organize these huge
numbers of people. And maybe there's
some comfort in the diary of mirror.
It's nice to realize that boring
spreadsheets are not a uniquely modern thing.
So hopefully these six objects give you
a sense of our 300,000y old story. But
if you want another object, just look in
the mirror because you are a byproduct
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