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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,759 For 270,000 years, our species, Homo sapiens, 2 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:19,760 lived in a world inhabited by other types of human. 3 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,759 We hunted and foraged for food, 4 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,160 alongside many of our human relatives. 5 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,240 But one by one, we out-survived them... 6 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:44,320 ..and spread across the planet as small bands of nomads... 7 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:51,080 ..until we'd reached almost every corner of the globe. 8 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,280 But a great landmass still evaded us. 9 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:08,600 The Americas. 10 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:18,920 As we entered this new world, we would face ferocious predators... 11 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:22,839 ..and towering giants. 12 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:24,880 MAMMOTHS BELLOW 13 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,080 But how we took on these challenges... 14 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:34,279 ..and the ways we began to tame nature 15 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:36,760 in our journey through the Americas... 16 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:43,160 ..would set us on a path to how we live today. 17 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,519 It's a chapter of our story 18 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,199 that begins in one of the coldest and most dangerous times 19 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,320 humans have ever known. 20 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:36,919 {\an8}At the height of the last Ice Age, 21 00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:41,159 a time when sea levels were lower than today, 22 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:44,319 people were spreading from East Asia 23 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,880 into a place that no longer exists. 24 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:53,040 A vast land bridge called Beringia. 25 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,799 WIND HOWLS 26 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:58,959 And in this frozen north, 27 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:03,040 small groups of travellers dispersed ever eastward... 28 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:10,080 ..and found themselves stepping into a new land. 29 00:03:43,951 --> 00:03:48,279 If you were asked to conjure up in your mind 30 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,999 a world that was magical, that was pristine, that was primal, 31 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,479 you'd imagine something like this. 32 00:03:55,480 --> 00:04:00,480 The northwest coast of America absolutely takes your breath away. 33 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:10,200 We don't exactly know when humans first arrived in North America... 34 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:13,839 ..but many archaeologists believe 35 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:18,079 it was sometime around 20,000 years ago. 36 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:22,440 A time when this would have been a challenging place to live. 37 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:32,560 They were here at one of the coldest moments Homo sapiens had ever known. 38 00:04:32,561 --> 00:04:37,039 And the landscape would have looked so different. 39 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,959 There would have been very few trees. 40 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,519 And, as far as the eye could see, 41 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,800 there would have been barren, icy rock. 42 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:51,479 They knew how to survive 43 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,680 in the barren lands of Beringia that they'd come from. 44 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:01,560 But their new environment was different in a few crucial ways. 45 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:05,399 The northern half of this continent 46 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,640 was covered in a vast, towering ice sheet. 47 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,559 From here in the northwest, 48 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:18,480 this wall of ice blocked routes into the deep interior... 49 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:25,600 ..largely confining people to the ice-free land nearer the coast. 50 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,080 WAVES CRASH 51 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,479 All that's left from their time here 52 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,159 are footprints, stone tools, and animal bones. 53 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,999 Now, we know that they sometimes would have hunted seal, 54 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:50,679 they would have eaten fish, 55 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,719 they would have eaten seabirds if they could catch them. 56 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:55,760 GULLS CRY 57 00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:01,039 Only tiny fragments of evidence remain... 58 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:02,600 {\an8}SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 59 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,320 {\an8}..that hint at how they survived. 60 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:17,639 And whilst this northwest coast 61 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,359 offered them steady but limited sustenance, 62 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:25,199 the strip of land between the shore and the ice sheets 63 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,920 promised new opportunities to find food... 64 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:36,880 ..but also hid unexpected new dangers. 65 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:47,120 Oof. 66 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,919 This is a now-extinct predator, 67 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,999 and it would have roamed these parts in the northwest 68 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,599 when the first people arrived in the Americas, 69 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,040 and they actually call it the short-faced bear. 70 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:04,239 And there is nothing short about this bear. 71 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:05,639 When it stood on its hind legs, 72 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:09,399 it would have been about 11, 12 feet tall. 73 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:11,039 That's about four metres. 74 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:13,479 And so it would have made the grizzly bear look... 75 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,999 ..actually somewhat manageable. 76 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:20,119 And then look at these teeth, look at these canines. 77 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,519 The stuff that nightmares are made of. 78 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:24,400 And when it bumped into humans... 79 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,919 ..it must have been absolutely terrifying. 80 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,919 And just like those humans, 81 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,360 these bears, too, would have been hungry. 82 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,239 But the early people of the northwest 83 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,200 did not run from the monsters that roamed this land. 84 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,880 Instead, it seems, they went on the offensive. 85 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:20,720 Signs of their bravery remain in caves along the Canadian coast. 86 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,760 Here, archaeologists sift through the muddy layers of time... 87 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:47,640 ..to find out more about the risks these early people took to survive. 88 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,559 - You know when people talk about archaeology? - Yes. 89 00:08:56,560 --> 00:08:58,880 At the back of a cave, digging mud is... 90 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,679 ..is... This is the hard stuff. 91 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:02,999 {\an8}One thing that has been found 92 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,679 {\an8}in a number of caves on the northwest coast 93 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:10,879 {\an8}is, er...spear points in association with bear bones. 94 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:14,399 - Yeah. - And these date as far back as 13,000 years. - Mm. 95 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,439 So is this one of these spear points? 96 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,599 This is a fragment of a spear point 97 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,360 - that was found in a cave not too far from here. - Yeah. 98 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,959 We have uncovered a bone in the wall of this unit. 99 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,319 And it's, er, 20 centimetres below the surface. 100 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:37,960 - And, er, so I'm going to pull it and we'll see if it moves. - All right. 101 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,599 And we don't know what species it is or what bit of bone it is? 102 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,479 - Er, there's not enough here to know for sure. - Yeah. 103 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:49,719 - But it is a pretty big mammal, for certain. - Oh, look at that. 104 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,640 Oh, it's not ending. 105 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,640 THEY CHUCKLE 106 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:55,480 Just make sure it slides out. 107 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,599 - Ah, it's a rib, isn't it? Is it? - It looks like a rib. - Yeah. - Yeah. 108 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:05,839 So that could be a bear rib. 109 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,839 It's probably most likely what it is, cos it's quite robust. 110 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:11,879 How amazing. 111 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,039 What age do you think it is? 112 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:19,639 - Well, we have some other samples from above where this bone is. - Yeah. 113 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:23,079 And they're coming back, er, around 14,000 years old. 114 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,600 - OK. So it's old. - So it could be the same age or older. - Yeah. 115 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:30,959 You know, one of the most wonderful things about archaeology 116 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:33,959 is that sometimes you uncover something 117 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,399 that hasn't seen the light of day in thousands of years. 118 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:40,919 And in this case, well, maybe 14,000 years. 119 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:45,279 Well, we're interested in where bears were hunted in the past. 120 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:46,999 And in the winter, 121 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,439 when there's... There's not as many resources around 122 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:51,879 and people are feeling a bit hungry, 123 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:55,999 knowing where there is a bear den is quite a valuable thing, 124 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:01,319 cos you can come up there and dispatch the bear. 125 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,920 You'll have a load of meat, fur, as well as bones. 126 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,719 {\an8}One theory of how they hunted bears 127 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,920 {\an8}would have meant getting perilously close. 128 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,759 Essentially, a hunter would go with a party to a cave, 129 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,559 smoke the bear out of the cave, 130 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:30,399 and entice that bear to attack a single hunter. 131 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,279 That hunter would be armed with a bracing spear. 132 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:39,319 A bear would come, er, to take the hunter up in a bear hug, 133 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,159 - which is a common thing that they do. - Yeah. 134 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,239 And the idea is a bear would take that hunter 135 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:48,759 and cru, er... essentially give him a good crushing. 136 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:52,359 The hunter, at the same time, would brace the spear on the ground 137 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,039 and aim it at the bear's heart. 138 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,119 - And so essentially the bear would take... - Oh... 139 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:59,319 ..the hunter and the spear into the bear hug, 140 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,560 thereby spearing itself through the heart. 141 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:19,960 A successful bear hunt could have meant food through the winter. 142 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:29,880 But not every hunter survived. 143 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,279 This is the bone cast of the oldest adult 144 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:50,799 to have been found along this coast. They were born 10,000 years ago. 145 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:54,319 And this individual has been given a name - Shuka Kaa. 146 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,039 And there's so much we don't know about this person. 147 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:58,719 We don't know about their family life. 148 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,119 We don't know if they had children. 149 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:02,959 But the amazing thing about bones 150 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,559 is that they can tell a story if you know how to read them. 151 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:09,599 We know that this individual was a male. 152 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:11,679 We can tell that from various features, 153 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:14,919 like the squareness here of the chin, 154 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,599 like the back of the mandible, 155 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,079 like the angle here on the pelvis. 156 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:24,600 On a female, you would typically expect that angle to be much wider. 157 00:13:25,680 --> 00:13:27,559 And it's kind of sad 158 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:33,279 because you can also tell quite a tragic story on the bones as well. 159 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,919 If you notice here - 160 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,519 that is a puncture wound, 161 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:42,999 and it fits quite well with the canine of a bear. 162 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,679 And so we think that this individual possibly met their demise 163 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:48,760 because they were hunting for bears. 164 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,359 The dangers early humans faced down in order to survive 165 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,080 are hard to imagine now. 166 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:05,679 But their precarious relationship with this unforgiving land 167 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,280 had begun to shift... 168 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,040 ..thanks partly to a surprising form of help. 169 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:26,839 WOLVES CHATTER 170 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:28,519 By hunting in packs, 171 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:33,559 wolves can bring down prey far larger than themselves. 172 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:38,400 A person, especially on their own, would be highly vulnerable. 173 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:47,959 Good girl. Yeah. 174 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,560 It's unusual to have them all just around, hey? 175 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:53,880 OK, come on. Let's go. 176 00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:01,520 Wolves are, and always have been, wild animals. 177 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:07,880 - Shelley, am I able to come a bit closer? - Yep. 178 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:14,520 I think the question is, how close? 179 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:20,839 It's funny, I can feel it in my shoulders. 180 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:22,840 My shoulders are a little bit tense. 181 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,600 But, given time, wolves are able to habituate to humans. 182 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:41,320 Hello. 183 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:43,720 WHISPERING: Hello. 184 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:54,839 From around 40,000 years ago, probably in Siberia, 185 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,319 before humans had even reached North America, 186 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,599 the threat they faced from wolves 187 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,880 began to transform into something different. 188 00:16:06,011 --> 00:16:10,119 Now, we're not exactly sure of the details, 189 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,119 but it might have gone something like this. 190 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,519 Wolves would gather around human campsites. 191 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:17,839 Now, at first, maybe humans were terrified. 192 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,999 Maybe they thought that they wanted to eat them. 193 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,639 But actually, some of those wolves weren't interested in that at all - 194 00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,599 they were looking for scraps. 195 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:29,279 And as they were doing that, 196 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:32,639 maybe they started fending off other predators 197 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,439 and protecting our combined territory. 198 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,759 And because of this, humans started tolerating 199 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:42,239 some of the least aggressive, some of the most docile of these. 200 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,440 Maybe they even started feeding them. 201 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,920 We were reshaping wolves into dogs... 202 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:55,600 ..and began to use them... 203 00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:58,720 ..to guard our camps... 204 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:03,560 ..hunt prey... 205 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:07,120 ..and pull sleds. 206 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:11,799 Generation after generation, 207 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:16,560 we selected the most docile animals and reared their pups... 208 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,479 ..driving the evolution of a cooperative behaviour 209 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:25,200 that suited our needs. 210 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,880 This marked a turning point for the human species. 211 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:37,759 Living with dogs helped us hunt for food and survive. 212 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:41,719 It gave us this much-needed edge over hunger, 213 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:47,439 but it also marked this profound and completely unprecedented shift 214 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:49,519 in our relationship with nature. 215 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:51,879 Because never before had any living thing, 216 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,239 whether plant or animal, been domesticated. 217 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:57,320 This was a complete first. 218 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:11,479 Unbeknownst to us, we were becoming curators of nature 219 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:14,680 and gaining more control over our own fate. 220 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:21,399 But powerful forces far beyond the control of any human 221 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:26,120 were about to open new gateways into the North American continent. 222 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:33,839 And as people answered the call of the interior, 223 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,599 far beyond the mountains and glaciers, 224 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:42,800 they would be forced to find entirely new ways to survive. 225 00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,839 A fresh wave of human innovation would be triggered 226 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:04,920 around 15,000 years ago, when the climate began to warm. 227 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,640 The ice sheets and glaciers started to retreat. 228 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:32,519 And as they did, the last major barrier 229 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,480 blocking routes into the continent fell. 230 00:19:56,531 --> 00:20:01,239 {\an8}The first people to enter into the Americas 231 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:03,479 {\an8}were coastal people in the northwest, 232 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,399 {\an8}but it's likely that they eventually travelled 233 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:12,239 {\an8}incredibly rapidly down south, all the way to Central America 234 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,199 {\an8}and then carried on all the way to the tip of South America. 235 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,399 Because remember - they were coastal people. 236 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:23,600 It's likely that they were using some kind of seafaring method. 237 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:26,199 So, very early on, 238 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,199 some humans would have started to enter the continent 239 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:30,720 from along this sea route. 240 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,079 But when the ice sheets eventually started to retreat, 241 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,680 many new routes would have opened up. 242 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:49,239 More people started travelling into the interior of the country 243 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:53,320 and finding these completely new landscapes. 244 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,119 Some of the first humans to reach the interior 245 00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:04,720 left traces here in New Mexico. 246 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,840 {\an8}SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 247 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:10,600 {\an8}Fossilised footprints. 248 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,760 {\an8}Left in the muddy shore of an ancient lake. 249 00:21:24,681 --> 00:21:27,719 {\an8}The people who made them 250 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:31,399 {\an8}may have been part of one of the very earliest waves 251 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,520 {\an8}of what was to become 10,000 years of human migration inland. 252 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:44,640 Where there is now desert, they saw rich grasslands. 253 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:53,079 The fossilised footprints of these continental pioneers 254 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:57,480 reveal what kind of a world they'd stepped into. 255 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:02,199 These are the footprints of an actual human being 256 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,679 who stood basically where I'm standing. 257 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,399 And we think she was a female. 258 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,599 And if you look closely at those footprints, 259 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:13,359 what you see is that, at times, the footprints, 260 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:15,880 they get broader and they slip a little in the mud. 261 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,640 SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 262 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:29,679 {\an8}And that's because 263 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:31,959 {\an8}she was carrying a child. 264 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:35,000 Sometimes on this hip and sometimes on this hip. 265 00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:52,199 Then at other times, she stopped and put the child down, 266 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,760 and you end up with two sets of footprints. 267 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:00,000 SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 268 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,639 And she walked for at least a kilometre north, 269 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,839 and then heads back south. 270 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:14,279 I just can't think of anything more...more human 271 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:17,559 than a mother and a child walking together, 272 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,439 and a mother carrying her child. 273 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,079 And it's interesting, cos this whole journey 274 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:28,439 has been us tracing the footsteps of our ancient ancestors. 275 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,840 And in a moment like this, that's actually literal. 276 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:49,079 Archaeologists are finding more of these footprints, 277 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:53,759 left by a female or possibly an adolescent male carrying a child, 278 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:56,560 hidden beneath the hard, packed sand. 279 00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:02,999 It's allowing us to piece together an ever more detailed snapshot 280 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,440 of what happened in the moments captured here. 281 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,330 - Let's see if we can define the footprint a little bit. - Yeah. 282 00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:15,239 It's always scary when you start these things. 283 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:16,290 You've got to... 284 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:18,799 ..take them out. 285 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,479 There's a subtle difference between the soil in the print... 286 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,679 It's looser, it's a little damp, so it's going to smear a bit today, 287 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,160 but it will come out. 288 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,120 You see it so... 289 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:35,639 ..so clearly. 290 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,679 OK. So how have you...? So you've just traced along the...? 291 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:43,759 {\an8}I've just... I've literally just broken the surface 292 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,079 {\an8}- with the dental pick. - Yeah. 293 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:48,239 And then this particular example 294 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,239 - just brushes out with a little bit of encouragement. - Yeah. 295 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:56,239 - And you can see the contrast between the white... - Yeah. 296 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,479 - ..and the fill in there. I'm removing the... - Wow. 297 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,960 ..the sediment that's blown into the footprint. 298 00:25:01,961 --> 00:25:05,519 So we think she was walking quite quickly, then? 299 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,959 Yeah, she's walking at about 1.6, something like, metres per second. 300 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:15,039 - Wow. - And, and a comfortable, normal sort of walk is about 1.3 to 1.5. 301 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:19,239 So she, she's moving. And this surface is wet, it's slippy. 302 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,879 We do know that this was a mission. 303 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:23,039 They were on a mission. 304 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,519 They were moving quickly at speed, for whatever reason, 305 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,520 and the footprint, um, tells that story. 306 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:39,600 Why that person was hurrying might be explained by evidence nearby. 307 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:52,080 Other footprints, each one around two feet in diameter... 308 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:57,960 ..left by mammoths. 309 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,879 And crisscrossing the footprints of the mother and child 310 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,840 are the tracks of a giant ground sloth. 311 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,239 Out in the open, with dangerous animals close by, 312 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:23,200 the mother was perhaps seeking safety for herself and her child. 313 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:29,959 This landscape would have been filled with mammoth and mastodon 314 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:34,079 and sabre-toothed cats - just huge animals. 315 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,119 They would have dwarfed us. 316 00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:38,879 The mammoth alone would stand at about four metres high, 317 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:42,079 that's about 13 feet, at the shoulders, 318 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:44,720 and the mastodon were only slightly smaller. 319 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,120 For the humans here, this was their new world. 320 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,319 {\an8}The early people of the plains 321 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,400 {\an8}would have given these prehistoric mammals... 322 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:00,160 {\an8}..a wide berth. 323 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:04,960 {\an8}SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 324 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:13,879 {\an8}But they must have realised 325 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,080 {\an8}that those animals also represented opportunity. 326 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:25,200 That these grazing giants could provide them with food... 327 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,000 ..if they could find a way to bring them down. 328 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,719 We know they eventually found a way to do this 329 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,599 because they left a massive clue. 330 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:43,600 {\an8}SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 331 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:48,920 {\an8}Skeletons of this megafauna. 332 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,400 {\an8}Some clearly killed by humans. 333 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,399 Humans would have exploited some megafauna, 334 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,119 some large land animals on the coast, 335 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:05,599 but it was once they hit the interior 336 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,279 that they saw them on a scale like something else, 337 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,800 in terms of their sheer numbers, in terms of their diversity. 338 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,280 {\an8}But how on earth could people hunt these giants? 339 00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,399 BIRD CALLS 340 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,440 CRICKETS CHIRP 341 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,799 One animal still exists which gives us a sense 342 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,400 of just how difficult that would have been. 343 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,520 RUMBLING 344 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:56,600 HOOFBEATS RUMBLE 345 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:06,439 This beast can sprint at up to 40mph. 346 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,360 The male's horns are over two feet long. 347 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,039 And, 14,000 years ago, 348 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,799 these bison had an even bigger prehistoric relative 349 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,120 roaming these parts. 350 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:27,080 WHISPERING: Absolutely incredible, but they're also so... 351 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:32,639 ..big. They're about one tonne in size. 352 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,719 And the giant bison, the one that's now extinct, 353 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,439 but would have been around back then, 354 00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,559 was up to 50... 50% bigger. 355 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,199 HOOFBEATS RUMBLE, BISON SNORT 356 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:47,639 It's one of those things, I think - 357 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,359 today, you can romanticise the idea of these hunts 358 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,599 and you think about them as some kind of, 359 00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,079 you know, adrenaline-filled adventure, 360 00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:00,639 but it's harder to grasp that, actually, back then, 361 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,800 it would have been filled with fear and risk. 362 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:13,240 Only a powerful spear thrust could penetrate the giants' hides... 363 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,400 ..so hunters needed to get close. 364 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:44,760 ALARM CALL 365 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:50,960 Many hunts ended in failure. 366 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:58,920 They needed a technology upgrade. 367 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,079 Up until this time, 368 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,239 the way spear points were attached to their shafts 369 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,119 was a serious weakness. 370 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,120 SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 371 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,880 {\an8}Spear points frequently broke on impact... 372 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,400 {\an8}..until the design was altered. 373 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,039 {\an8}A subtle shift at first glance, 374 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,160 {\an8}but one that would change everything. 375 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:33,239 This is special. 376 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,199 So, it's about 18 centimetres long. 377 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,439 It's pretty sharp. 378 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:40,919 If we look at the shape, 379 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:46,279 it's long and narrow with the broadest point being quite low down. 380 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,679 Notice also this thinning here compared to the middle. 381 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,879 It's thought that the shape might help with the penetration of hide, 382 00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,959 and it's thought that this might help 383 00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,640 with reducing shattering on impact. 384 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,399 We call it a Clovis point, 385 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,800 because it was found near Clovis in New Mexico. 386 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,519 The narrow base of the Clovis points 387 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:16,279 allowed them to be slotted firmly into the spear shaft, 388 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,640 better absorbing the force of impact. 389 00:32:24,721 --> 00:32:28,279 {\an8}From archaeological finds, 390 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:33,200 {\an8}we know this new design rapidly spread across the continent... 391 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,150 {\an8}..and the technology continued to develop. 392 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,239 {\an8}Within 500 years, these points had evolved 393 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,960 {\an8}into more slender and sharper forms... 394 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,720 {\an8}..able to penetrate deeper into prey... 395 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,239 ..and archaeologists think these spear points 396 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,639 were delivered with such lethal force 397 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:18,320 because of another piece of technology... 398 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,720 ..whose use was exploding. 399 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:41,199 So this is a replica spearhead, 400 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:46,079 and it's been hafted or attached on to a wooden shaft. 401 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,239 So, this would have been quite an effective weapon, 402 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,079 but this is where technology gets really interesting 403 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:56,959 because it's thought that one of the ways that they threw these spears 404 00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,239 is with a spear thrower. 405 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,439 So you'd attach it to the top here, 406 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:05,439 and then you would effectively use it to... 407 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,720 ..propel the spear forward. 408 00:34:31,240 --> 00:34:36,640 At that velocity, you're more likely to pierce the hide of an animal. 409 00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:40,159 And to me, it's... 410 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:44,359 It's especially interesting because what you get with this 411 00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:50,439 is the ability for female hunters to be more effective, 412 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:56,880 because suddenly it's not just about strength, it's also about skill. 413 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,119 The new hunting technologies 414 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:13,080 allowed people to take down the largest animals in their world. 415 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,679 Humans had become the apex predator of the plains, 416 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,400 and now feasted on a glut of meat. 417 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:43,280 Our hunting prowess was shaping society here. 418 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:53,999 This is absolutely stunning. 419 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,319 It's one of the most striking spearheads I've ever seen. 420 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,959 It's... It's so well-crafted, and it shines, 421 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,719 and it looks like it was made of glass - 422 00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:05,879 but actually, it's made of quartz, 423 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,319 so it's incredibly strong and it's sharp, 424 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,919 and yet it doesn't have any signs that it was actually ever used, 425 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,759 and that, along with the fact that it's so beautiful, 426 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:17,999 suggests that it was ceremonial. 427 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,759 Now, when you've got an everyday object 428 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:25,319 and it's made to look so... so beautiful, and so striking, 429 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,439 it implies that it had become a symbol. 430 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,479 We're not sure of what - perhaps of how important hunting was, 431 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:35,320 but perhaps of a cultural identity, perhaps of who they were. 432 00:36:47,720 --> 00:36:51,640 Feasts began to bring different communities together... 433 00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,160 ..and cement social ties. 434 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:02,800 Sharing meat fostered cooperation. 435 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,440 Food was fuelling a culture. 436 00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,959 In the midst of this abundance, 437 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:20,280 it must have felt as if it would go on forever. 438 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:31,920 But their world was changing. 439 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:41,919 The end of the Ice Age 440 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,759 that had gifted them this warm world of plenty 441 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:50,520 was now beginning to have an effect they could not have foreseen. 442 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,960 It's thought that melting ice at the poles disrupted ocean currents. 443 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:06,959 Temperatures in the northern hemisphere 444 00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:09,960 rapidly cooled by several degrees. 445 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:15,039 Across North America, 446 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:19,880 the vegetation had begun to alter in unpredictable ways. 447 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,119 In some areas, trees and shrubs 448 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,439 began to replace grassland and tundra. 449 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:29,960 SLIDE PROJECTOR CLICKS 450 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,679 {\an8}Woolly mammoths could not effectively chew or digest 451 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:36,560 {\an8}these woodier plants... 452 00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,920 ..and as their environment transformed... 453 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,200 ..the giant herbivores dwindled. 454 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:57,519 Over the space of just a few hundred years, 455 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:02,159 three-quarters of the large animal species in North America 456 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:06,680 became extinct, vanishing forever. 457 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:14,439 I imagine it must have been a shock for the early people here 458 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:19,239 to witness the megafauna disappearing, 459 00:39:19,240 --> 00:39:21,919 because that's what they would have seen - 460 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,119 and they're such a part of your culture and your diet 461 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,000 and your lifestyle, and suddenly they're not. 462 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,520 That... That must have been quite difficult to comprehend. 463 00:39:34,531 --> 00:39:40,159 Now, the main cause of the giant megafaunal extinction 464 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:45,639 is climate change, but it's likely that human hunting played a role, 465 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,559 that it was this final nail in the coffin - 466 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:53,360 and so, perhaps unknowingly, we humans tipped the balance of nature. 467 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,639 The once bountiful land of giants 468 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,880 had become a pile of bones. 469 00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:11,519 All the hunting technology in the world 470 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:15,360 could do nothing to reverse this catastrophe. 471 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:28,680 {\an8}The people here were plunged back to a time before the feasts. 472 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:39,720 With these animals gone, how would they now find enough food? 473 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:48,280 A clue lies in ancient holes carved in the rock. 474 00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:52,599 People needed to branch out 475 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,519 and exploit every part of the food chain, 476 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,439 all the way through to something you probably don't think of as food - 477 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,119 and that's acorns. 478 00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,719 Now, these are incredibly bitter because they're full of tannic acid, 479 00:41:05,720 --> 00:41:07,159 and to get rid of some of that, 480 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:11,599 what they would do is they would firstly get rid of the shells, 481 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:15,279 and then they would grind the nuts up 482 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:22,159 with water in the hopes of getting rid of some of that bitterness. 483 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:27,799 And...honestly, acorns sound disgusting 484 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,559 and they taste disgusting. 485 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:31,479 They're still incredibly bitter - 486 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:36,519 and yet it's likely that the flour from these and the paste from these 487 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,239 were some of the earliest processed plant food. 488 00:41:39,240 --> 00:41:41,879 We actually have some of the grinding stones 489 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,279 preserved in the archaeological record - 490 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,639 and if you look at all this, it seems so clever, 491 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,159 it seems so inventive, 492 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,839 and yet it's a lot of effort to go to 493 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:55,680 for what are essentially some really unpleasant calories. 494 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,280 If you were starving, no question you'd do this... 495 00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:04,959 ..and with the loss of the megafauna, 496 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,599 people's survival now hinged on smaller game 497 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,640 and foraging for plants. 498 00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,280 But there had to be another way. 499 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,599 The solution people came up with in the Americas 500 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:40,320 would be found in tropical forests to the south. 501 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:12,599 This place, it has... 502 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:14,999 It has real challenges. 503 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:17,879 There are plants - so many of them look edible, 504 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:21,919 and yet some of them are definitely poisonous. 505 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:26,320 It requires a process of trial and error to find the actual food. 506 00:43:31,720 --> 00:43:37,359 It was in a forest, archaeologists think in present-day Mexico, 507 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,839 that a momentous change took place - 508 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,480 and it began with the simplest of actions. 509 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:50,959 Every so often, someone would have come across a plant 510 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,519 that was safe to eat, 511 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,320 and would have sought out more of it. 512 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,679 An example of this is this grass called teosinte. 513 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:08,839 Now the seeds are incredibly small and hard, 514 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,919 but they can be ground up into an edible flour. 515 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:15,919 So, that same ingenuity that humans brought to acorns, 516 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,320 they were now bringing to this grass. 517 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:26,239 Where people found teosinte growing, 518 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:29,520 they encouraged it by weeding out other plants... 519 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:33,840 ..and collected the seeds for food. 520 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,800 This may have continued for centuries... 521 00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:45,399 ..until one individual would have become the first person 522 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,399 in the Americas to do something completely original 523 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:51,760 with a teosinte seed. 524 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:18,559 There is something so magical about planting a seed, watering it, 525 00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,759 and hoping that it sprouts 526 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,880 and becomes a tiny little delicate green shoot. 527 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:34,959 And there would have been somebody 528 00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,440 who planted the very, very first seed... 529 00:45:37,441 --> 00:45:40,879 ..and they would have - they would have known 530 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,799 that it would require effort and care 531 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:46,319 and protection from herbivores 532 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,919 if it was to ever become something big enough 533 00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:50,560 to feed their families with. 534 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:57,119 And anybody who's ever had an allotment, or a garden, 535 00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:02,000 or a balcony knows how much care and commitment goes into it. 536 00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:15,200 This was an idea whose time had come. 537 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:26,199 Because humans all over the planet started to plant seeds 538 00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,120 and grow them for food... 539 00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:33,320 ..and it was an experiment that began to pay off. 540 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:38,039 Because across the world, the people who did this 541 00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:44,159 were creating a more dependable way of feeding their families, 542 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:48,480 and so triggered a pivotal moment for our species. 543 00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:55,799 In different places all over the Earth, 544 00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:59,160 humans were inventing farming. 545 00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,519 Probably first around 10,000 years ago, 546 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,519 in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, 547 00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:09,640 where we domesticated wheat... 548 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,000 ..then rice in China... 549 00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:18,760 ..sugar cane in present-day New Guinea. 550 00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:24,719 Farming emerged independently 551 00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:27,720 in separate locations across the globe... 552 00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:33,840 ..Central and South America among the first. 553 00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:41,559 Here, people created what would become 554 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:45,199 one of the three most important staple crops 555 00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,680 for feeding the world... 556 00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:55,160 ..because as the early farmers planted and harvested teosinte... 557 00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,000 ..they began to shape it into a new kind of plant. 558 00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:08,839 Every so often, a genetic mutation would arise in teosinte 559 00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:12,199 that would actually be quite beneficial for humans - 560 00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:14,919 that would give rise to, say, larger seeds, 561 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,599 or more seeds, or sweeter seeds - 562 00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:19,599 and, perhaps most important of all, 563 00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,279 would get rid of the hard seed covering, 564 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:26,119 and humans started selecting for these better varieties, 565 00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:30,759 and over thousands of years, they created something new, 566 00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,679 that looked very different from teosinte - 567 00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:37,360 because they created maize. 568 00:48:38,880 --> 00:48:41,959 It was no longer a wild plant. 569 00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:45,040 It was now a domesticated crop. 570 00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,839 The invention of farming was to set in motion a change 571 00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,560 that would go far beyond how we fed ourselves. 572 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:11,399 The clue is in that word, "plant" - to be put down in one place - 573 00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:14,839 and just like the plants that they grew, 574 00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:18,559 those early farmers would have had to have adopted 575 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:20,759 a very similar lifestyle. 576 00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:24,039 Because you couldn't exactly keep moving 577 00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,759 if you had to tend to your crops, 578 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:31,919 and so, for the very first time since the birth of Homo sapiens, 579 00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:36,239 we were no longer a completely nomadic species. 580 00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:41,880 More and more of us were quite literally putting down roots. 581 00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:52,360 Farming supercharged our capacity to fuel human activity... 582 00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:57,120 ..and what emerged was extraordinary. 583 00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:06,799 Here in South America, 584 00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,479 there's a place where they began a new way of living 585 00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,680 on an unprecedented scale. 586 00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:32,960 The stepped pyramids of Caral were once lost under the desert sand. 587 00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:44,760 Archaeologists are now uncovering a vast complex of structures. 588 00:50:56,120 --> 00:51:01,000 And what made it possible to build these extraordinary edifices... 589 00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:06,560 ..were the fields of crops that surrounded them. 590 00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:16,920 Caral became an immense hub for trading food. 591 00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:25,359 It represented a new path humans could take 592 00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:28,280 towards permanence and stability... 593 00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,719 ..but for our species to choose that path 594 00:51:35,720 --> 00:51:38,360 was not a foregone conclusion. 595 00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:53,679 I just can't help but think, 596 00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:55,559 what would it have been like 597 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:59,759 for people visiting it for the first time back then? 598 00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:03,759 Because they would have never seen a city before. 599 00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:05,759 It must have been so alien to them. 600 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,560 It must have looked like a place from a different world. 601 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:17,119 This was a commitment to a static way of life - 602 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:20,559 and yet we don't consider how tumultuous 603 00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,039 the process might have been, 604 00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:26,479 how much social upheaval might have been involved - 605 00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:30,759 because for those who chose to lead this life, 606 00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:34,879 it must have come with a huge cultural shift, 607 00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,639 because humans were becoming an urban species 608 00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:40,640 for the very first time. 609 00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:54,040 Humans across the planet stood at a fork in the road. 610 00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:57,839 For almost 300,000 years, 611 00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:01,640 we had survived as nomadic hunter-gatherers... 612 00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:05,999 ..but settled lives as farmers 613 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,319 promised a more reliable way to feed ourselves 614 00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:12,440 and plan for the future. 615 00:53:25,240 --> 00:53:27,959 The choice most of our species took 616 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:33,200 would bring dilemmas and dangers we could never have imagined. 617 00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:43,999 In the final chapter of our Human story, 618 00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:48,639 we begin to live together in ever larger numbers - 619 00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:51,640 but open a Pandora's box... 620 00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:55,720 ..of death and chaos... 621 00:53:57,240 --> 00:54:01,239 ..as we seek ways to harness human knowledge 622 00:54:01,240 --> 00:54:04,400 on our path to the modern world. 623 00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:21,640 {\an8}In this episode, we filmed at a place I'd long dreamt of visiting. 624 00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:25,400 White Sands in New Mexico. 625 00:54:30,240 --> 00:54:34,840 Underneath the surface of the desert are sets of fossilised footprints. 626 00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:43,599 They've become the subject of some of the most ground-breaking 627 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:48,480 but also most hotly debated research in archaeology. 628 00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:58,319 In 2018, the discovery of the double footprints, 629 00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:00,959 possibly a mother and child, 630 00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:05,640 revealed vivid details about who the early people here were... 631 00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:09,400 ..and what animals roamed alongside them. 632 00:55:11,051 --> 00:55:15,639 When we first started seeing the human prints 633 00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:17,279 walking alongside a mammoth print, 634 00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:20,159 when I'd first seen it, I was like, "Uh, that's not possible," 635 00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,279 but it takes a while to understand what you see, 636 00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:25,960 and then you go back and you start to understand them. 637 00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:30,599 But the prints themselves were just the start - 638 00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:34,959 because, in 2021, new research on their age 639 00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:38,560 sent shock waves through the scientific world. 640 00:55:40,240 --> 00:55:43,719 There's been a lot of ideas when people got to the Americas. 641 00:55:43,720 --> 00:55:46,519 Some of the main theories is there's a large ice sheet 642 00:55:46,520 --> 00:55:48,959 and people weren't really able to enter this area 643 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:52,400 until about 14,000 years ago, until that ice sheet melted. 644 00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:56,639 When humans first arrived in North America, 645 00:55:56,640 --> 00:56:00,400 an ice sheet covered the northern half of the continent. 646 00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:05,559 If no humans had been able to penetrate the interior 647 00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:07,719 until it had melted, 648 00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:13,679 then the oldest the footprints could possibly be is around 14,000 years - 649 00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:16,479 but the dating of the footprints 650 00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:19,560 seemed to overturn that conventional view. 651 00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:23,959 We put in a trench at the edge of the lakeshore 652 00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:25,399 and we're finding prints 653 00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:27,759 that were dated above and below the prints, 654 00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:29,680 so we can see the soil chronology. 655 00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:36,039 The footprints themselves can't be carbon dated - 656 00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,079 but fossilised plant seeds 657 00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:42,479 trapped in the mud near the footprints can be, 658 00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:44,239 and carbon dating of seeds 659 00:56:44,240 --> 00:56:49,360 in the layers above and below these footprints were explosive. 660 00:56:49,431 --> 00:56:53,639 So, we don't know exactly how old they are, 661 00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:56,319 but we're looking at the lake sediments, 662 00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,999 and what we see is there's at least 11 different layers right now, 663 00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,359 and those range from the top of the sediment to the bottom, 664 00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:05,440 from 21,000 to 23,000 years old. 665 00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,399 The dating research suggested the footprints 666 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:16,560 went as far back as 23,000 years ago. 667 00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:24,359 If true, it would mean humans had set foot in North America 668 00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:30,120 thousands of years earlier than many scientists had long believed. 669 00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:35,919 So, at White Sands we see people here 670 00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:37,839 before the last glacier maximum, 671 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:39,679 before there was these last ice sheets, 672 00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:41,040 people were already here. 673 00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:45,239 The very early dates are controversial. 674 00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:46,919 Further research will be needed 675 00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:51,320 to confirm how old the White Sands footprints truly are. 676 00:57:52,960 --> 00:57:56,479 If they date to before the melting of the ice sheets, 677 00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:00,559 did those pioneers travel around the ice? 678 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:02,559 Despite the debate, 679 00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:07,879 the footprints remain one of the most important archaeological finds 680 00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,239 of recent history, 681 00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:14,319 with huge significance for the entire question 682 00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:19,160 of when humans first set foot in the Americas. 683 00:58:19,210 --> 00:58:23,760 Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0 57076

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