All language subtitles for Human.2025.S01E01.The.First.of.Us.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Where do we come from?

When did our story really begin?

Who were the first Homo sapiens?

Not just humans who looked like us,

but people who thought
and behaved as we do.

People we would
recognise as truly one of us.

We, Homo sapiens, first appeared
over 300,000 years ago.

We were not the first
species of human.

We're not the biggest,
we're not the strongest,

we're just the latest in a long
line of other humans.

Yet, a few hundred thousand years
later, we are the only ones

left, and the most dominant
form of life on this planet.

How on earth did this happen?

I'm Ella Al-Shamahi,
a paleoanthropologist.

People spend their whole lives
trying to find

a fossil as significant as this.

You might think you know the story
of human evolution, but now

we are discovering it's stranger and
more dramatic than we ever imagined.

This was something that wiped
out 13 people in the same family.

Thanks to ground-breaking
new science, we are

rewriting the story of our origins.

From our tentative first steps...

..to the migrations that carried us
across continents.

And our encounters with other human
species we met along the way.

It's small, it's really tiny.

I can see why you would
call it the Hobbit.

From the first marks we made
on cave walls...

..to the rise of cities...

..these are the unlikely events
that forged us.

Moments of chance,
but also ingenuity,

of beauty and destruction.

This is us, this is our story,
and it's what happened

in the 99% of our history before
the invention of writing, when our

story wasn't written in books, but
was written in our bones and DNA.

This is the story
of how we became...

..human.

This story begins in Africa,
in a time long ago...

..in a world before we existed
at all.

In many ways,
this world would feel familiar...

..teeming with animals
we'd recognise.

But there was one crucial
difference.

This world was inhabited by not one,

but by many other types of human.

We're used to living in a world
filled with other species.

Over eight million
share our planet with us.

But there is only one of us, only
one human species, Homo sapiens.

And so, it's really easy to forget
that it wasn't always like this.

The world before us
was alive with other human activity.

Around six million years before
Homo sapiens appeared...

..some primates left the trees.

They started walking upright and
over time, began using stone tools.

These toolmakers became
the earliest form of human.

Over millions of years,
these humans continued to evolve...

..forming a diverse family
tree of different human species.

Who were these other humans
and how are we connected to them?

Well, they're all
part of our extended family,

so our parents, grandparents,
great-aunts, cousins.

Some were our ancestors,
others just relatives.

But all of them were part
of our lineage, our family tree,

that spanned millennia.

Around the time Homo sapiens
emerged...

..there were at least six
different human species.

And using the latest
scientific data,

we can reconstruct what
they might have looked like.

There were so many species of human.

You had Homo erectus, an ancestor
of ours, and an incredibly

successful species, because they
lived for about two million years.

Now, Homo erectus was actually the
first in our genus to leave Africa.

And we also think that they were
the first to use fire.

There's also Homo neanderthalensis,

who you probably
know as the Neanderthals.

Neanderthals lived in Europe,
all the way into Central Asia.

They were cold-adapted.

And they were expert hunters.

There was also Homo floresiensis,

who some people affectionately
call the Hobbit...

..because they were
only about a metre tall,

so that's about
three and a half feet.

Tiny, and yet
adapted for living on an island.

It seems like a fantastical world,
and I can't help it,

it reminds me of Lord Of The Rings.

Only, instead of a world with elves
and dwarves,

you had a magical place
with other humans.

The human family tree
had many branches.

But which branch did Homo sapiens
first emerge from?

We don't know for sure,

but we're getting closer than
ever to finding out.

For the longest time, we thought
we knew the origins of our species.

We thought we began 200,000 years
ago in East Africa.

But new revelations from
out here in Morocco,

from a part of Africa that people
weren't really considering,

are forcing us to rethink our very
first steps on this planet.

In a remote cave
in North West Africa,

a chance discovery uncovered some
mysterious human remains.

Someone unexpected
was living here...

..thousands of years earlier
than we imagined.

This is Jebel Irhoud 1,
and it was a complete mystery,

because some of its features
are very much like us,

very Homo sapiens, and others
are much older, much more primitive.

So, if you look at this
individual's face,

its face looks a lot like ours.

The Homo sapiens face
is incredibly gracile.

We have incredibly delicate
features.

They, kind of,
tuck in under our brain case.

If you imagine
a prehistoric human,

you kind of always imagine a much,
kind of more prognathic,

we say, much more
kind of jutting forwards face.

This individual's face is much more
tucked under, it's much shorter.

But there are some features
that aren't us.

Notice this brow ridge up here,
this supraorbital structure.

Now, look at me.

You don't get modern humans
walking around today with these

massive things on top of their eyes.

I mean, it would actually be quite
terrifying today if we saw that.

Now, the brain case is not us.

You see how round my brain case is?

It's globular, whereas this
is almost stretched out.

It's almost like somebody's
got my brain case but kind of

stretched the back of it out.

It's almost like straight-on,
the face is Homo sapiens,

but from the other angles,
it's not us.

These finds posed a mystery.

They were anomalies that didn't fit
neatly into the human family tree.

They looked partly like
Homo sapiens...

..and partly like an earlier human.

So, the question was,
was this a different species,

or could it be an early
version of us?

Several decades after the initial
discoveries came a breakthrough.

Archaeologists uncovered
another 16 fossils...

..all with the same blend
of features.

With each new find,
the evidence grew.

These were not some other species,
but Homo sapiens,

with hints of an earlier ancestor.

But it wasn't until archaeologists
were able to more accurately

date the remains that the final
piece of the puzzle fell into place.

The archaeologists, using new
and improved dating techniques,

were able to give us dates for these
fossils, and they tell us

that these individuals
lived about 300,000 years ago.

And that is mind-boggling,

because we thought our species was
only about 200,000 years old.

What these fossils tell us
is that our species, Homo sapiens,

is 100,000 years older
than we thought.

We are a third older
than we realised.

This fossil went from
being enigmatic

and basically a mystery,

to being one of the most important
fossils in our whole field.

Thousands of miles from East Africa
where we thought we began,

and far older than expected...

..these are the earliest
Homo sapiens ever found.

And they have forced us to rethink
other finds across Africa...

..which are painting an entirely
new picture of our origins,

suggesting that Jebel Irhoud...

..was just one of many emerging
populations,

all in the process of taking shape.

It's...

It's a bit like having a peek
behind the curtain of evolution.

This is a stage in the journey
to becoming us.

I wonder what it would
feel like to come face-to-face with

one of the people from Jebel Irhoud?

If we were to look
into their eyes...

..into those quite
delicate features,

would we see ourselves
within them?

The answer is,
they were not modern humans like us.

Not yet.

They were an earlier
stage in our evolutionary journey,

bridging the gap between us
and our ancient human ancestors.

Our emergence was actually slow,
and honestly, at the beginning,

we were just not that special.

Now, early iterations of
Homo sapiens, like Jebel Irhoud,

were popping up all over Africa.

We once believed in a single origin,
a sole cradle of humanity

in East Africa, but our story is far
richer and more interesting.

The latest evidence suggests
we emerged gradually,

across thousands of miles, and over
hundreds of thousands of years...

..appearing bit by bit...

..like a series of sparks...

..igniting across the
African continent.

THUNDERCLAP

And yet, Homo sapiens could have
easily vanished without trace.

Because just as we were
finding our place in the world...

..something threatened to wipe us
out altogether.

It's in East Africa's Great Rift
Valley that we can trace

the next chapter of our story.

This dynamic landscape holds
some of the clearest

evidence of the forces that set
our species on a radically new path.

When they say the Great Rift Valley
of East Africa is a dramatic

place, they're not kidding.

I mean, look at it.

I can literally hear it
bubbling behind me, and it's

the result of a geological process
that sees three tectonic plates

tearing away from each other, which
results in a dynamic landscape.

And even though this
part doesn't look that hospitable,

it has been a home to
people for a very long time.

This is one of the most
fossil-rich regions in Africa.

Its unusual geology has not only
preserved human remains,

but also offers a glimpse into the
forces that drove our evolution.

So, within the lakebeds here,
if you dig deep, you can

actually extract sediment cores.

Now, one here in Ethiopia
was about 280 metres deep,

so that represents
over 600,000 years.

And within that sediment, it's
a bit like a time machine,

because bits of ancient
environment are trapped.

By analysing these sediment layers,

scientists have uncovered a window

into the world some of the earliest

Homo sapiens were living in.

The information from those
sediment cores has been

collated into this graph,
and when you zoom out, it actually

paints a really interesting picture,
because for the first 300,000

years, you see a period of relative
climate stability.

But then, at around 275,000 years
ago, something shifts,

and we see a period of fluctuations,
volatility, between humid

and arid periods, in a way that just
wasn't happening before.

Now, East and West Africa are linked
in a kind of climate seesaw.

So, when one is humid,
the other is arid, and vice versa.

Over thousands of years, wild
climate swings engulfed Africa...

..plunging fledgling
populations of Homo sapiens...

..into a world of extremes.

Ecosystems were destroyed.

Rivers and lakes swelled...

..cutting people
off from one another.

Elsewhere,
grasslands turned to desert.

Survival was a battle
against relentless change.

I do think that when we look
at these zoomed-out graphs,

we sometimes make a vital error.

We forget to zoom back in.

After all,
human evolution is about humans.

There are people like you and me
experiencing the peaks

and troughs of those graphs.

People who were suddenly facing
droughts, or flash floods,

or perhaps the disappearance
of a food source.

Entire communities...

..found themselves isolated.

Some populations dwindled.

The ones who couldn't
adapt died out.

This struggle for survival
could have wiped

Home sapiens out altogether.

But it didn't.

It had the opposite effect.

It drove us forward.

Under pressure, isolated
populations learnt new skills.

Those who could adapt and innovate
had a better chance of survival.

Then, as the climate changed,
groups came back together.

They shared skills and crucially,
they interbred...

..passing beneficial
traits on to their children.

It was a process that began
to change us permanently.

The people who survived emerged
stronger than ever.

Today, most of us
live in towns and cities...

..and so, the reality of being
affected by the climate

as a result of being a nomadic
person kind of escapes us.

But you've actually got a really
good example here,

with the Afar people.

They are nomadic,
and so they get pushed

and pulled around the landscape.

And it would've been very similar
with our ancestors,

but actually in a more
extreme fashion.

These different groups,
as they were moving around,

would've at times met,
and when they did,

they would've, of course, shared
skills and knowledge and DNA.

It was this mixing of groups
that ultimately brought us

closer to becoming the
Homo sapiens we are today.

Our origins as a species are so much
more complicated and dynamic,

involving not just East Africa, but
the whole of the African continent.

Africa was a continent
rich in diversity, and climate acted

as a sort of catalyst, blending
these various groups together.

And so, we were formed as a result
of a mosaic of these

different populations across Africa.

It was our diversity, our resilience
in the face of climate change...

..it shaped us,
our minds and our bodies,

and transformed us into a
new and evolved human.

We all carry an echo of
what happened in Africa

at this pivotal moment...

..because what happened
then changed us forever.

What began as diverse,
scattered populations...

..in the face of adversity
came together...

..propelling us to become
one stronger, smarter species.

This is a museum that houses
some of the most important

fossils in the human story.

And one of those fossils is Herto 1,
easily one of the most

significant Homo sapiens fossils
that has ever been found.

And that's because this individual
is one of the very first

in our lineage that we can describe
as an anatomically modern human.

Its physical characteristics

and traits are overwhelmingly
similar to those of yours and mine.

And if you look at this individual
compared to Jebel Irhoud,

look how rounded it is.

Some people have put forward this
intriguing idea that perhaps

the shape of the skull reflects
a change in brain organisation.

This process of globularisation
has been linked to language skills

and coordination.

And it is really exciting
to consider that this

change in shape reflects a really
significant shift in the way

that Homo sapiens were
starting to think.

These larger,
reorganised brains had slowly

but surely opened a gap between
Homo sapiens and our ancestors.

But it wasn't only the size

and shape of our brains
that set us apart.

One of the lines of evidence
for this are actually the teeth.

Now, scientists have discovered
that if you look very

closely at the teeth, what you
find are very fine lines called

perikymata, that represent about a
week in the life of an individual.

So, that means you can count how
long an individual has been

alive, a bit like tree rings.

And so, if you look at a
Homo erectus individual

and compare it to, say,
a Homo sapiens living today,

our species takes an incredibly long
time to get to sexual maturity.

From the lines in their teeth,
we know that Homo sapiens

children were growing up much more
slowly than earlier humans.

The thinking behind it is that
we needed a really long time to

learn how to use these
brains of ours.

And the longer that you
exist in childhood,

the longer you have to learn.

And so, this thing that is a real
headache to so many parents

out there today, that our children
take so long to become fully

formed, that might actually be
a huge key to our success.

Reorganised minds
and longer childhoods,

our brains and bodies had evolved.

At last, we were Homo sapiens
who physically looked like us.

What you might call, Sapiens 2.0.

It was some of these anatomically
modern Homo sapiens that

began to step
out into the wider world.

But beyond Africa was already
home to other humans.

Neanderthals had spread
across Central Asia and Europe.

Other parts of Asia were
populated by multiple species,

including Homo erectus.

And there is evidence
in the Middle East

of an early group
of Homo sapiens...

..who followed in the footsteps
of these other human species.

I do love thinking about those
huge moments in our history,

like when Homo sapiens
first left Africa.

It was a massive achievement,
even though

they would've had no
idea of the significance of it.

And it's amazing to think that it
happened so early on in our story.

But it's in the Levant that I think
things get really interesting.

Evidence has been uncovered
of a community of Homo sapiens

living in caves,
in what is now Israel.

And it's in this place they would

have encountered
something unexpected.

There is one mountain called
Mount Carmel where one cave,

called Skhul, has been found
with Homo sapiens.

And another cave on the same
mountain, called Tabun Cave,

has been found with Neanderthal
individuals.

And these two peoples were
living at the same time.

It is kind of wonderful
to think about.

And of course, the Neanderthals
were not an African species,

they were used to living
outside of Africa,

whereas for us,
this was still very, very new.

Two species sharing
the same mountain.

We don't know if they interacted.

But we do know that
while Neanderthals remained

in the region, all traces of this
group of Homo sapiens vanished.

Their bloodline died out completely.

What is most fascinating about
these Homo sapiens isn't who

they met,
it isn't even what they achieved.

It's that all of these
early dispersals failed.

We know from genetic evidence
that those Homo sapiens are not

the ones who would go on to
ultimately populate the planet.

This failed migration was a stark
reminder of our fragility.

These people looked like us,
but there was something missing.

Because what really defines
our species isn't how we look.

It's not even
the size of our brains.

It's something else altogether.

While these early
migrants vanished...

..populations in Africa thrived...

..displaying that special
essence that makes us who we are.

A way of thinking and behaving
that would set Homo sapiens apart.

And some of the earliest
traces of it can be found in this

remote cave in Botswana.

This is a very large
natural outcrop.

And as you can see,
it goes on and on.

It's seven metres long.

The front has a natural
slit for a mouth,

and a natural depression for an eye.

And even if you want to go that far,
a nostril up at the front.

- Right.
- With the head rearing up, it does,

in modern eyes, look like a snake.

The overall form has been altered

to make it look even
more snake-like.

There are over 300 indentations
that have been ground into the

surface over what is obviously
an extended period of time.

When the initial excavations
were conducted,

they absolutely revealed
a number of questions.

One of the things found
was an extremely large

number of tools that appeared
to be manufactured

and then just left
there in pristine condition.

These look gorgeous. I mean,
they absolutely look stunning.

Once they were manufactured, then
you did one of three things with it.

You either manufactured it perfectly
and just left it.

- Mh-hm.
- Or more interestingly, you burnt it.

But not burnt to just,
like, throwing it in a bonfire.

It's controlled burning.

And the third and most bizarre
thing that they did with them

is they made it,
manufactured it perfectly,

and when they were finished, turned
it over, smashed it in the middle.

- These are offerings, aren't they?
- Yeah.

The only thing that makes sense,
the on... The best fit

is that they're sacrifices,
they're offerings.

They're not doing it for fun.

They feel that coming up and doing
this act would satisfy some

kind of a need, some kind of, um,
a wish, some kind of a desire.

Although it's absolutely
magnificent during the daytime...

..it comes to life at night.

We can't speak to these people,
but this...

..this whole place, it gets us

so much closer to what they were
thinking, what was going on inside.

Yeah. We had always had the
impression that this type of

abstract thinking would've been
beyond the ancestors at that time,

and now we definitely have evidence
that that was absolutely wrong,

that they obviously had the ability
to hold abstract thought.

You make an offering
and hope for something back.

Asking for probably some of the
things that we would ask for -

food, health, children, etc,
etc - and you just think,

"Oh, my gosh, that's some of the...
That's some of the earliest

"behaviour that we know so well."

Some believe the people who
performed these rituals must

have been holding abstract
ideas in their heads...

..imagining things
they couldn't see.

A clue their minds were sparking and
forming connections in a new way.

When I see this,
this is what moves me,

because this is who we are, in a way

that feels more us than bones.

See, it is so familiar to us.

We know this behaviour.
This is ritual.

Whether it is religion
and spirituality, or things

like the handshake, or birthdays,
graduation ceremonies, Burning Man,

Glastonbury, New Year's Eve, we are,
as a species, obsessed with ritual.

It is profoundly and fundamentally
Homo sapiens behaviour.

It's us. We know it.

It was as if they were
able to see beyond the tangible.

They were thinking beyond what
was just in front of them.

They were venturing into the
unknown and into the unseen.

Behaviour like this marked a new
chapter in our species' story.

Our minds were awakening, opening up
to a world of possibility.

This wasn't confined to ritual.

It touched every part of our lives.

Around 70,000 years ago,

new weapons began
appearing across Southern Africa.

Homo sapiens were using abstract
thought to innovate.

Inventing complex projectile
weapons, like the bow and arrow.

We were seeing the world not
just as it was, but as it could be.

It takes a lot to see
the potential in a piece of wood.

Projectile weapons were
revolutionary technology for us

humans, because up until now,
we'd been using close-range

hunting strategies, which were
less effective, less lethal,

and yet more dangerous
for the person holding the weapon.

For over two million years,
early humans mostly relied on axes

and spears.

But Homo sapiens imagined unseen
forces like the power

held in wood and string.

Creating something entirely new.

If you look at this bow
and arrow, you can

see how much knowledge is required.

You need to know where to get
the wood for the bow, you need to

know about the glue, you need to
know how taut the string should be.

So many elements that require,
not just knowledge,

but the ability to pass
that knowledge on.

Something like this is not
the result of one person's genius.

It's the result of many,
many people, over many generations,

inventing, reinventing,
perfecting, tinkering.

We weren't just inventing.

We were adapting
and expanding our knowledge.

Human culture was becoming
more complex,

that technology was exploding.

Now, many of us think that this
is a result of something called

cumulative culture, the idea that
you accumulate culture, so every

generation builds upon the previous
generation's science and technology.

With cumulative culture,
Homo sapiens were becoming

collectively smarter
with every generation.

And as our numbers increased, this
was more powerful than any weapon.

A giant leap towards becoming
the species we are today.

When was our species truly born?

Was it when we first appeared?

Or when we started to
look like modern humans?

Or was it when our minds lit up?

Creating, inventing,
and building on our knowledge.

Each was a crucial
step in our evolution.

But none would be possible without
one special ingredient.

The glue that binds
all of our achievements together.

It leaves no direct fossil evidence,

but we can find traces of it
in some unexpected places.

In archaeology, sometimes
the smallest finds actually tell

the grandest of stories.

These are tiny marine shells,

and shells like this have been
found in caves in South Africa,

and they are just too small to have
been collected for meat.

If you look really closely, what you
see is that they have holes in them.

Now, some of these were collected
because they already had holes,

but others were
perforated by Homo sapiens.

And really close examination of the
shells in these caves show that they

had wear marks on them consistent
with having been worn on the body.

So, that, along with these holes
in them, well, it's really easy to

paint a picture of them
having been strung...

..and turned into jewellery.

These weren't just beads,
they were emblems.

Symbols of value and meaning...

..shared and understood by everyone.

They've been found
with pigment on them,

and it's always the same-coloured
pigment, it's red ochre.

Even though ochre comes in yellow,
black and red, it's always red.

Perhaps you were trading
them for food, for goods,

perhaps you'd give them
as some kind of a gift at a wedding,

perhaps they were just
a sign of friendliness.

And you can also imagine that
people would be wearing them

to make themselves look good, it
would perhaps be a sign of prestige.

The making and sharing of these
beads was one more

sign our species had made another
revolutionary leap.

The ability to pass on knowledge
and technology,

sharing rituals and traditions.

All these things suggest
Homo sapiens were passing

sophisticated ideas from
one mind to another.

Our species had unlocked
the power of complex language.

The most remarkable thing
about these shells is that they

have been found not just in
South Africa, but all over Africa,

from the south, all the way to the
north, in Morocco and Algeria.

Not just along the coasts,
but all the way inland.

And that, for me, is so exciting,

because when you look at this,

you might think,
"Oh, my God, isn't that amazing?

"Humans have a kind
of cultural expression

"that they never had before."

While earlier humans probably
had basic language...

..it's thought Homo sapiens
were speaking to each other

in a more complex way.

Weaving a shared culture.

And forging an invisible bond
that united our species

across the entire continent.

All over Africa, we understood
the cultural symbolism

of these beads.

Somebody was telling you, "This
shell is important, not that shell.

"Red is important,
not the other colours."

We had an understanding
that wasn't just you, me,

and our three families, you, me,
and the village next-door.

We had a kind of symbolism
and understanding

and interconnectedness
that was continent-wide.

This has never happened before.

For me, this is the birth
of our species.

Our species' birth wasn't
a single moment.

It unfolded over millennia.

Complex language and our powerful
shared culture finally set us

apart from humans before us.

We had become one connected,
cooperative species.

We had become Homo sapiens...

..the ancestors of us all.

Sometimes in life,
things come together,

and this was a coming
together for our species.

It was a perfect storm.

You had a change in brain,
you had language, increased numbers,

increased connectivity, cumulative
culture, better technology

and weaponry, and the right climate.

But through all of this, there is
a hidden thread.

Our secret weapon is that we are
a social, cooperative species.

Friendliness, it turns out,
is our superpower.

We are more than
the sum of our parts.

Whether it's ritual,
technology, language,

all of it comes down to cooperation,
in my opinion.

And that's how you go from a species
that started off feebly,

unremarkably, to one that would

become so extraordinary,

one ready to explore this planet.

..we follow our ancestors as
they spread beyond Africa,

taking on extreme environments
no others could master...

..travelling beyond the realm
of another extraordinary

species of human - the Hobbit.

And eventually, even reaching
the distant land of Australia.