0:00:40 > 0:00:43Why are you going that way?
0:01:09 > 0:01:15You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on Earth.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21We live on the ice caps at the pole and the tropical jungles at the Equator.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24We've climbed the highest mountain and dived deep into the seas.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29We've even left the Earth and set foot on the moon.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32And we're certainly the most numerous large animal.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36There are something like 4,000 million of us today.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40And we've reached this position with meteoric speed.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44It's all happened within the last 2,000 years or so.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48We seem to have broken loose from the restrictions
0:01:48 > 0:01:52that have governed the activities and numbers of other animals.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Why should this be?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Well, the story starts back in Africa.
0:02:02 > 0:02:08Ten million years ago, much of East and Central Africa was covered by wide open plains,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12just as it is today, and living there were herds of grazing animals.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19The ancestors of the antelope originally lived in the forest.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Other kinds of animals from there also ventured out into the open
0:02:23 > 0:02:25in search of food.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Apes had come down from the trees.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Like the vervet monkeys of today,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38those ancient apes probably stayed close to the fringes of the forest at first,
0:02:38 > 0:02:44but regularly wandered out into the open to collect insects, seeds and other morsels.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51The earliest of these ground-living apes were not much bigger than vervets,
0:02:51 > 0:02:56but slowly, as they colonised the grasslands, they became better adapted to life in the open
0:02:56 > 0:02:59and they grew somewhat in size.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05About three million years ago, there were several species of them on the African plains,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08and this is the reconstructed skull of one of them.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12It has several characters which are an inheritance
0:03:12 > 0:03:15from the tree-living, ape-like ancestors of this creature.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19We can guess that its sense of smell, for example, wasn't very good.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22The nasal cleft is quite small.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27On the other hand, its vision was very good. It had two large, forward-facing eyes.
0:03:28 > 0:03:35Its brain, while quite large, is only about half the size of that of modern man.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Although the teeth are missing in this specimen,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42we know from others that they were remarkably even
0:03:42 > 0:03:48and lacked the two long downward-pointing fangs which are sometimes present
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and which lock the lower jaw in position.
0:03:50 > 0:03:56So we can guess this animal could move its lower jaw from side to side
0:03:56 > 0:04:02and was able to chew roots and nuts as well as eating flesh and maybe fruit.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Their fossilised bones are very rare.
0:04:06 > 0:04:12We still don't know how many kinds there were or how they were related.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16But on one thing, all who've studied their remains are agreed.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20Those ancient apes included the ancestors of mankind.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24They can be called, in fact, apemen.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29And grasslands like these must have been the cradle of humanity.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41Out on the grasslands, the talents the apemen's ancestors developed to cope with life in the trees
0:04:41 > 0:04:43were put to other purposes.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Hands, once used for gripping branches,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49were not much use for burrowing or tearing flesh.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53But as time passed, they became more precise and dexterous in their grip
0:04:53 > 0:04:57than any other primate's, and very like our own.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02And these enabled the apemen to pluck not only leaves and fruit
0:05:02 > 0:05:07but also to gather relatively fiddly morsels - nuts, seeds and insects.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19The apemen were still quite small and largely defenceless.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21This was a serious handicap,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24for life on the open plain was dangerous.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28As well as the harmless herds, there were hunters around.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30LION GROWLS
0:05:44 > 0:05:47The only way of escaping such enemies
0:05:47 > 0:05:50was either to run fast, which the apemen weren't very good at,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54or to climb a tree, of which there were not many.
0:05:54 > 0:06:01So it obviously was of the greatest importance to get the earliest possible warning of danger.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Their ancestors' life in the trees led to a reduction in their sense of smell
0:06:06 > 0:06:08but extremely good vision.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14So the apemen must have reared up to get a good view of their surroundings.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23And the vervets, faced with a similar problem, adopt just the same solution.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38It's unlikely the apemen stood erect as a way of increasing speed,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42for running on four feet is a much swifter way of getting around.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45A vervet can outpace any two-legged primate.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52But if you habitually rear on your hind legs, you can use hands for other things,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56and one modern ape, the chimpanzee, does just that.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07Chimps are the only animals that defend themselves with weapons like this.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10ANGRY CHATTERING
0:07:32 > 0:07:38There's every reason to suppose those early apemen could throw sticks and stones
0:07:38 > 0:07:40just as modern chimps can.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44Indeed, they would be in need of every form of defence they could get
0:07:44 > 0:07:49because their teeth were small and they had no claws.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52So, if threatened by a predator, they would pick up a stick
0:07:52 > 0:07:57to try and defend themselves out on these African plains, as indeed I would.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00And, what's more, with this in their hands,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04they would stand some chance of driving off a predator from its kill
0:08:04 > 0:08:07in order to claim the meat for themselves.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16And eating meat has a lot to be said for it.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Getting all your sustenance from leaves is laborious and time-consuming.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25They have comparatively little nourishment in proportion to their bulk.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30So zebras are compelled to spend nearly half of their days grazing
0:08:30 > 0:08:33in order to get all the food that they require.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38The flesh-eaters, on the other hand, have a much lazier life.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Meat is so nourishing that lions only need to eat every two days or so,
0:08:52 > 0:08:54and then only for about half an hour.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Doubtless, leisure had its appeal to the apemen too.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Whereas lions simply sleep, maybe the inquisitive apemen
0:09:02 > 0:09:06used their spare time to socialise, to play, to create.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11A kill on the plains, no matter who makes it, attracts all kinds of flesh-eaters.
0:09:13 > 0:09:20A whole pride of lions may find more than they need in a single zebra carcass.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45One way or another, everything is consumed,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48even the tail.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59And when the biggest and most powerful have taken all they want,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02there are plenty of scavengers to clear up the remains.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25Well, I only had vultures to deal with that time, and I didn't even need a stick.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30If there'd been hyenas, I guess I would have needed it, but I could have got rid of them.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36And maybe if I'd had a few companions, I could have shifted a pride of lions.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42But having got here, how could an apeman with small teeth
0:10:42 > 0:10:45manage to get into a carcass like this?
0:10:45 > 0:10:49Well, he could take a stone and...
0:10:54 > 0:10:59And it's already cutting, and this is really a quite ordinary stone,
0:10:59 > 0:11:06but one that has just been chipped here on either side to produce a cutting edge.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11And just such stones have been found with the skeletons of the earliest apemen
0:11:11 > 0:11:14of about two million years ago.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20So, with a chipped stone, a stick and a pair of manipulative hands,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24the apemen could have survived out on the plains as hunters.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28This state of affairs lasted for several million years.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Slowly, the apeman became better at walking.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34His legs lengthened to increase his stride,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38and he grew to a height of about five and a half feet.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42To mark his new stance, science has given him a new name.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46Homo erectus - "upright man".
0:11:46 > 0:11:49The foot acquired an arch to give a spring to his stride,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53and his first toe grew to take the thrust of the foot.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58The name "man" here has no sexist implications.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03It's the scientific name for the genus to which these women, children and men belonged.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07And a million years ago, they spread widely over the African plain.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Their fossilised remains are very rare,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15for bodies lying out in the open are eaten by scavengers
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and bones weather into dust.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23But stone is much more durable, and in some places, the tools made by upright man
0:12:23 > 0:12:25still litter the ground in huge numbers.
0:12:25 > 0:12:32From them, we can see he was using his dexterous hands with increasing skill.
0:12:32 > 0:12:38Almost every one of these stones, which have washed out from that bank over there,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41have been worked by man in one way or another.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46Some of them are far more elaborate than anything produced by the apemen.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Like this one, for example. Beautifully chipped.
0:12:49 > 0:12:56This was probably a hand axe, used for digging up roots.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01And then there are cleavers like this with a flat cutting edge.
0:13:01 > 0:13:08They may have been used in butchering animals, cutting flesh and stripping skin.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11These aren't the only tools.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20This rounded stone has not been rounded by a stream, which would produce smooth surfaces,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22but carefully chipped,
0:13:22 > 0:13:28and it's probable that these rounded stones, of which huge numbers have been found here,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33were used either for pounding vegetables of some kind
0:13:33 > 0:13:35or as weapons.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38And the reason we suppose they were used as weapons
0:13:38 > 0:13:44is because also on this site have been found great numbers of animal bones.
0:13:44 > 0:13:51This and most of the bones found on this site belonged to an extinct baboon
0:13:51 > 0:13:54that was even bigger than the living baboon.
0:13:54 > 0:14:00Most of these bones, like this fragment from the lower jaw, there are the teeth,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05have actually been split open in order to get out the marrow.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14This remarkable site provides a lot of evidence about the nature of upright man.
0:14:14 > 0:14:20The stone from which tools are made, and there's around a ton of them,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23doesn't occur naturally within 30km of here.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28So all these stones must have been brought here deliberately by the people,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32and that suggests foresight and planning.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36For another thing, the baboon they hunted must have been a ferocious animal.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41I don't imagine there are many men who would fancy the idea of going out
0:14:41 > 0:14:46and trying to hunt a baboon armed with a few cobblestones.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51And yet the extinct baboon was even bigger and presumably more ferocious.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56So it seems likely that the early people hunted in teams.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Teamwork, foresight, planning.
0:14:59 > 0:15:05That argues that they had some considerable skill in communicating among themselves.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08SHOUTING
0:15:32 > 0:15:37Letting others know how you feel is a basic part of communication.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41No creature in the world does so more eloquently than man,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45and no organ is more visually expressive than his face.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13Even in repose, the human face sends a message, and one we tend to take for granted.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Each face proclaims individual identity.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21In teams, recognition of other members is of great importance.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26A hunting dog in a pack proclaims its identity by its own smell.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Primates, with their reduced sense of smell but very acute vision,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34do it by the infinite variety of their faces.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41We have more separate muscles in our faces than any other animal.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45So we can move it in a variety of ways no other animal can equal.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49And not only convey mood but send precise signals.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53By the expression on our face, we can call people and send them away,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57ask questions and return answers without a word being spoken.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Eyebrows are particularly eloquent.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12We can use them as question marks and as greetings.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19But are our gestures recent conventions we've learned from one another?
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Or are some inherited from our remote ancestors?
0:17:23 > 0:17:28Did upright man formulate his hunting plans by pointing and nodding
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and express his delight with a smile?
0:17:30 > 0:17:35If we could meet modern men who have never been in contact with our world
0:17:35 > 0:17:38and discover whether we had signals in common,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40then we might find clues to the answer.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Ten years ago, I had the chance to do just that.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47A patrol led by an Australian government officer
0:17:47 > 0:17:52was going to cross one of the last patches of unexplored country in central New Guinea.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54And I went with it.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02The tribesmen who came with us said there were people living in these forests.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06They saw them rarely and knew only one word of their language, their name.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Biame.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10But no European had ever seen them.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12Biame!
0:18:13 > 0:18:18We walked for about a week without meeting anyone, and then one morning
0:18:18 > 0:18:20the Biame quietly appeared.
0:18:32 > 0:18:33Biame!
0:18:38 > 0:18:43With gestures, they seemed to be saying we were in the middle of their territory.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55They nodded in agreement, they smiled to give reassurance.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38We wanted them to bring down other members of their group
0:19:38 > 0:19:43and tried to convey this complicated message with gestures.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Although our two societies had never come into contact before this moment,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19it seemed that many of our gestures did have the same meaning.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23These nods and smiles, frowns and headshakes
0:20:23 > 0:20:27were surely not mere conventions but deep in us.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32It seemed they used the same name for their rivers as the tribesmen who were with us.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Their leader counted them for us.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38To do that, he used a quite different gesture,
0:20:38 > 0:20:44not a deep-seated one like a nod or a smile, but a conventional one, that has been learned,
0:20:44 > 0:20:48and here, our cultural backgrounds divided us.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52He used the fingers of one hand for numbers up to five.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Above five, the Biame clearly have their own individual code.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08It's easy to follow it in sequence like this,
0:21:08 > 0:21:13but the Biame also use these gestures individually, in bargaining, for example.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17And then how would we know this gesture meant "eight"?
0:21:20 > 0:21:22This one "nine"?
0:21:30 > 0:21:34But before he got to 11 he used two of those facial expressions
0:21:34 > 0:21:37that were immediately understandable to us.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Bafflement, because we got the names wrong,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and amusement at our stupidity.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Although we belonged to such different societies
0:21:51 > 0:21:54and the only words we had in common were some names,
0:21:54 > 0:22:00we had exchanged complicated messages using gestures inherited from our common past.
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Gestures that may well have been used before the emergence of our own species
0:22:05 > 0:22:08by our distant ancestors, upright man.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13For a long time, upright man lived only in Africa,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16as far as we can tell from evidence found so far.
0:22:16 > 0:22:22But slowly his numbers increased and he began to extend his territories.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26About a million years ago, he moved north into the Nile valley
0:22:26 > 0:22:27and up into the Middle East.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31His bones have been found in Asia dating from about the same time
0:22:31 > 0:22:34in a hill near Peking.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Others have been dug up farther south, in Java.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42And about 800,000 years ago, judging from fossil remains,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45upright man was in Europe in some numbers.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Now the climate of Europe changed.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55It got so cold, the ice caps on the mountains and in the north expanded,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59locking up so much water that the sea level dropped,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02exposing bridges of land across the Mediterranean
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and making it easier for man to spread.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Then the weather warmed again.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Four times this happened.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15The ice, even at its worst, never got as far as these valleys in central France
0:23:15 > 0:23:20but at the peak of a glaciation, this land, now so verdant and fruitful,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22must have been bitterly cold.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And in response to that changing climate,
0:23:28 > 0:23:33men took to caves like this one.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36There are literally hundreds of caves along this valley,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41and there's scarcely one that doesn't have some sign of habitation.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Because of lots of excavations in them, we now have a clear picture
0:23:45 > 0:23:48of the sort of lives these people led.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53They wore clothes made out of skins
0:23:53 > 0:23:57which they sewed with bone needles like these.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01They went down and fished in the river with bone harpoons
0:24:01 > 0:24:06and they hunted with spears and harpoons in the woods.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13Their skill in working stone reached new heights
0:24:13 > 0:24:17and they had a marvellous material to work on - flint.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Instead of making three or four blows,
0:24:20 > 0:24:26some 400 to 500 precise actions were required to get the best out of a piece of flint.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29It must have taken a lot of learning.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44To chip an edge accurately, it has to be made even.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56A razor-sharp knife made in about ten minutes.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And a deadly weapon in the hands of these people.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02They were brave and skilful hunters,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06and we know from blackened stones that they had control of fire,
0:25:06 > 0:25:12which must have been a precious possession, not just to keep warm but to cook their meat.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16This is the skull of a man
0:25:16 > 0:25:19that was excavated from just near here.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24You can see his teeth for chewing that meat are now relatively small,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27so cooking was a very valuable technique.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31But it's not just the teeth that have changed. So has the cranium.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35The parts of the brain that control speech are fully developed,
0:25:35 > 0:25:40so this man had probably a fluent and complex language.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44In fact, there are virtually no significant differences
0:25:44 > 0:25:48between this man's skeleton and skull and mine.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54So anthropologists have called him, somewhat immodestly, Homo sapiens.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57"Wise man".
0:25:59 > 0:26:02The huge difference that separates this man
0:26:02 > 0:26:05leaving such a cave as this and going down to fish in the river
0:26:05 > 0:26:12and a smartly-dressed executive in Tokyo or London or New York stepping into his car
0:26:12 > 0:26:17and driving off to his office to consult the latest computer printout
0:26:17 > 0:26:21is not due to any change in the brain or the anatomy.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26It's due to the emergence of a completely new evolutionary factor.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32And the first dazzling signs of it are miraculously preserved right here.
0:26:42 > 0:26:48From the back of many of these caves, tunnels lead down into the depths of the earth.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50And into this blackness,
0:26:50 > 0:26:56finding their way by lamps with a rush for a wick and animal fat for fuel, went early man.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21They made these long and, surely for them, most important journeys
0:27:21 > 0:27:24in order to do this, to paint.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28This for me is one of the most moving of their paintings.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34It represents a stylised horse, here its small black head with a long black mane.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39And these spots on it, which appear to be dapples, probably have some other meaning
0:27:39 > 0:27:43because they extend beyond the outline of the horse.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47And here, perhaps most intimate and vivid of all,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49a hand-print of one of those people.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Made probably by taking a mouthful of black paint
0:27:53 > 0:27:57and blowing it over the hand like a stencil.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04These early people were superlative artists
0:28:04 > 0:28:09and drew the animals of their world with great sensitivity and such accuracy
0:28:09 > 0:28:14that often we can identify the species they had in mind.
0:28:14 > 0:28:20These are bison, no longer to be found in France but still surviving farther east.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Aurochs, a kind of giant cattle now totally extinct.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32This gallery contains a procession of animals,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36among them mammoths, shaggy with long hair.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10The oldest of these paintings is thought to be about 30,000 years old.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13The youngest maybe 10,000.
0:29:13 > 0:29:14That's an immense span of time.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19Five times the length of the entire history of western civilisation.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24So it's unreasonable to suppose they all, throughout this time,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27served exactly the same purpose.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Some, however, may well have been connected with a hunting magic.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36By painting images of animals they sought, the hunters tried to control them.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41Certainly, most of the images represent animals that were hunted for food.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48It's tempting to interpret these signs as arrows or spears.
0:29:48 > 0:29:55Perhaps they were drawn during a ritual when the men mimed the hunt they prayed for.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04And among these sensitive and accurate drawings of animals,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07there are much more mysterious designs.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12This has been interpreted as a human figure, perhaps even a sacrifice
0:30:12 > 0:30:16with spears in its flanks.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19As well as these, and this is significant for what is to come,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24there are geometrical symbols like these paired dots.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33There are other odd shapes that occur again and again.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43What these abstract symbols signify we have no idea,
0:30:43 > 0:30:48but the fact they occur at all is significant for what is to come,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51even though we don't know exactly what they mean.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57In one place in the world, however,
0:30:57 > 0:31:03we can discover why a nomadic hunting people paint on rock in caves
0:31:03 > 0:31:08because here, in northern Australia, the aborigines still do so.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12They too portray the animals they hunt for food.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Some are drawn as part of rituals to maintain the animals' fertility.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21Others are made during ceremonies where people recount stories of their creation.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25For this cave is a sacred place for them.
0:31:25 > 0:31:32On the back of it, they've painted the image of one of their great creator spirits.
0:31:32 > 0:31:38It lies on its side, its head to the left, its legs stretching out to the right.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45And aborigines also draw abstract symbols.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49These lines and dots are not aimless doodles.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51They represent particular things.
0:31:51 > 0:31:57Homo sapiens, "wise man", has made a huge step forward in his ability to communicate.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01He's discovered how to represent objects not by their likeness
0:32:01 > 0:32:03but by symbols.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12In this great frieze, the educated eye of a man of the tribe
0:32:12 > 0:32:13can read a sacred legend
0:32:13 > 0:32:18telling how the great creator spirit moved across the land in the beginning of time
0:32:18 > 0:32:23and showed men how to make spears and go hunting.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31The ability to distinguish the edible from the poisonous,
0:32:31 > 0:32:36to track and kill animals, to discover food in all but the most sterile of lands,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40enabled "wise man" to spread throughout the world.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45Many groups of people today still live entirely by these ancient skills.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52The aborigines, by understanding their land with an intimacy that baffles outsiders,
0:32:52 > 0:32:58can survive in desert country where strangers would die of starvation in days.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07In the Kalahari desert, the bushmen too live in a similar way,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10with the help of similar skills.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28They are the most expert of hunters.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31They know how to prepare poison to tip their arrows
0:33:31 > 0:33:35and with them bring down big game, like a giraffe,
0:33:35 > 0:33:40though the hunt may take many days and demand the greatest bravery and endurance.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54Bushman women can recognise the characters of a leaf
0:33:54 > 0:33:58that tells the knowledegable that this spindly stem
0:33:58 > 0:34:03leads to a tuber in the ground that is loaded with water in the most severe of droughts.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12As "wise man" spread through the world, so his body responded to his surroundings.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16The rays of the sun in excess can be harmful
0:34:16 > 0:34:21and many dwellers in the tropics acquired black pigment in their skins
0:34:21 > 0:34:23which protected them from it.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31But too little sunshine can also be bad for you.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34The body needs it for vitamins,
0:34:34 > 0:34:40so in northern lands, in Lapland, for instance, races possess fair skins.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47In Asia, there developed a race with olive skins and slanting eyes.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52Some of them migrated across the Bering Strait into the New World
0:34:52 > 0:34:56and down to the rainforests of South America, where they still live.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14They too are skilled hunters, and some still find all they need
0:35:14 > 0:35:17from the wild animals and plants of their forests.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31This was the way all human beings in the world existed until comparatively recently.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34Nowhere were they numerous.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Their expectation of life was short.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Their birth rate and the survival of their children
0:35:39 > 0:35:43kept in check by the scarcity of food and the hazards of their lives.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54But then came a revolution, one that was to start that explosion of man's population.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58And the trigger was this.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02A wild form of wheat or barley
0:36:02 > 0:36:06that grew then as now on the fertile deltas of the Middle East.
0:36:06 > 0:36:12It's got a lot of seeds, easily separated from the husks and full of nourishment.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16About 10,000 years ago, man realised
0:36:16 > 0:36:20he no longer need go searching for the wild plant.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23He could take these seeds and plant them.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28And then he would no longer be compelled to follow the wandering life.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30He could settle down.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44Some animals too could be domesticated and kept permanently around his settlements,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46to be slaughtered when he wanted meat.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57So human beings were able to build permanent homes in groups close by one another.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00And around the eastern end of the Mediterranean,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04in the Middle East and India, small villages appeared.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06The villages grew into towns,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11and by 5,000 years ago, there were great cities like this one, Uruk,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15whose ruins have been excavated from the sands of Iraq.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19It held several thousand people. Its citizens built walls around it for protection,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23ordered their streets, dug canals to protect from floods.
0:37:23 > 0:37:29And in the centre of their city, they built their temple, the ziggurat,
0:37:29 > 0:37:32an artificial mountain made out of brick,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35bonded together with layers of reeds.
0:37:35 > 0:37:41Clearly, to build such a carefully designed monument as this on such a scale,
0:37:41 > 0:37:45the people had to have real organisation.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48And they must have led complicated lives too,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51for not only were they skilled architects, but they were farmers,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54they made pottery, fragments of it are all over this site,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58they were traders and they probably also paid taxes.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01At all events, they found it necessary
0:38:01 > 0:38:04to have some way of recording their affairs and transactions,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08because in this very site has been found this.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11The earliest known piece of writing.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19It's thought to be some sort of tally recording the issue of rations
0:38:19 > 0:38:21over a five-day period.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31Each column represents one day, and, incidentally, reads vertically.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39The symbols are a mixture of pictorial representations
0:38:39 > 0:38:42and abstract designs.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48This triangular one is purely abstract and is believed to mean "bread".
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Whereas this sign looks like and may mean a wheatsheaf.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57The different-shaped dots in front refer to the quantities of each commodity.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01This tablet was baked over 5,000 years ago.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05But that, in the timescale that we've been thinking on,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09is comparatively recently, a mere 100 or so generations.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12When he marked and baked this,
0:39:12 > 0:39:17man turned the surge of evolution into a new course.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Now, for the first time, it was possible for a person
0:39:20 > 0:39:27to transmit information quite independent of his own existence or presence.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32And so an individual man was able to pass on information
0:39:32 > 0:39:36about his failures and successes, his insights, his strokes of genius,
0:39:36 > 0:39:38his accumulation of humdrum facts,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40from one individual to the community,
0:39:40 > 0:39:45from a community to a generation, and for generations beyond.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06The discovery of writing was made independently by many people worldwide.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33So the question inevitably arises -
0:40:33 > 0:40:39are we fundamentally and crucially different from all other living organisms?
0:40:39 > 0:40:44Or is there an overall pattern into which we and all other animals naturally fit?
0:40:51 > 0:40:56All living things are continually influenced by information from the past.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00And the more information they get, the better they can solve their problems.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05Every animal receives that information inherited from its parents,
0:41:05 > 0:41:10and coded not in letters but in chemicals - DNA.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15These are models of just one section of that giant molecule of DNA,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17vastly enlarged.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Many molecules go to make genes,
0:41:20 > 0:41:25and genes together can be regarded as a library of instructions to an animal
0:41:25 > 0:41:28on how to solve the problems of survival.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Clusters of genes in the primordial seas
0:41:42 > 0:41:47began to reproduce some 3,500 million years ago. Bacteria.
0:41:47 > 0:41:52If we represent the immense period of time between then and now by one year,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54and this stage is its first moment,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58then more complex micro-organisms like these
0:41:58 > 0:42:02didn't develop until the middle of August, over 1,000 million years later.
0:42:12 > 0:42:18As time passed, organisms accumulated more genes that could carry the instructions
0:42:18 > 0:42:21necessary for building bigger and more complex bodies,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25which in turn could solve more difficult problems of survival.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28And so animals found new ways of living in the seas.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35At the beginning of November, the first backboned creatures appeared.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43Towards the end of that month, the first animals left the water
0:42:43 > 0:42:46and colonised the land.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08And now the pace quickened.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11The backboned animals also invaded the land.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15By the beginning of December, some had acquired waterproof skins
0:43:15 > 0:43:18and broken their dependence on water.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25During the middle of December, one group could generate heat in their bodies,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28and had elaborated their scales into feathers.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38The first furry warm-blooded creatures appeared around the same time,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42but it wasn't until 25th December that the dinosaurs disappeared
0:43:42 > 0:43:45and the mammals came into their own.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48The information and instructions carried by the DNA in the sex cells was supplemented.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55The young mammal, dependent on its mother for milk and protected by her,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58begins to learn from her how to deal with the world around it.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16So animal communities developed traditions, cultures,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20and were able to transmit them from one generation to another.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Now the skills acquired during an individual's lifetime
0:44:24 > 0:44:26need no longer die with it.
0:44:26 > 0:44:32Some at least could be handed on, supplementing the inborn genetically programmed skills.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42In the early morning of December 31st,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45apes and apemen appeared.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53And we arrived about two minutes before the end of that last day.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03No creature is so dependent upon its mother for such a large proportion of its life
0:45:03 > 0:45:05as is the human baby.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10And through language, none learns so much from her or so quickly.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13Come on. You're not very awake, are you?
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Our spoken language is enormously more subtle and informative
0:45:19 > 0:45:22than any other system of communication in the animal world.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26It's almost impossible to prevent a baby from acquiring it.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Are you going to open that?
0:45:31 > 0:45:37By the age of five, every child will have mastered the meaning of 6,000 words
0:45:37 > 0:45:42and is able to operate 1,000 rules of grammar, an astonishing feat of learning.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51As their world expands, they learn not only from their parents
0:45:51 > 0:45:54but other children and adults,
0:45:54 > 0:45:59so that the whole accumulated experience of the community can become theirs.
0:46:04 > 0:46:10By means of words, skills can be rapidly taught and problems quickly explained and solved.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Make sure it's nice...and strong
0:46:14 > 0:46:16and helps the pot.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22Nitrogen...dioxide.
0:46:22 > 0:46:27And they learn, too, to comprehend symbols that not only represent spoken words
0:46:27 > 0:46:30but completely new concepts.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Di-nitrogen oxide.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37Now, as in our previous experiment, we're going to heat lead nitrate here.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41We're getting a nice flow of colourless gas in the gas jar.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Notice the residue...
0:46:44 > 0:46:48..Specimen to get this orientation, and this is achieved by
0:46:48 > 0:46:50this here, this control here.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Over the past 1,000 years,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56cultures have devised ways of duplicating those symbols
0:46:56 > 0:47:00so that one individual could communicate with thousands.
0:47:00 > 0:47:01Printing.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33A great library can be seen as an extension of the human brain.
0:47:33 > 0:47:39But it contains far more information than any single human memory could do.
0:47:39 > 0:47:46Here are stored the insight, the experience, the wisdom of past generations
0:47:46 > 0:47:51so that we can consult it, benefit from it and, in turn, contribute to it.
0:47:51 > 0:47:58So we're no longer dependent on the very slow processes of physical evolution.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01If we need to fly, we don't have to wait millions of years
0:48:01 > 0:48:04while our arms turn into wings.
0:48:04 > 0:48:09Over a few generations, we can study the problems of physics and metallurgy
0:48:09 > 0:48:11and mathematics and aerodynamics,
0:48:11 > 0:48:14and build ourselves aeroplanes.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18As this information increases with growing speed,
0:48:18 > 0:48:23so we've developed radically new methods of storing and retrieving it all.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36The computer, the transistor, the microprocessor and the silicon chip,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40all developed within the last decade or so,
0:48:40 > 0:48:44now give us greater power to sort our knowledge, to link fact to fact
0:48:44 > 0:48:48so that our understanding of the nature of the world we inhabit
0:48:48 > 0:48:51becomes ever more detailed and subtle.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56With the help of electronics, we can recall information
0:48:56 > 0:48:59from data banks, no matter where they are,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03and we can communicate directly and instantaneously with one another
0:49:03 > 0:49:06right round the globe.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13We can predict the behaviour of our machines
0:49:13 > 0:49:18and make calculations which were once quite beyond the human brain.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28And with the existence of worldwide communications
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and the use of powerful computers,
0:49:31 > 0:49:36we can forecast with greater precision that most unpredictable of events on our planet,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38its daily weather.
0:49:45 > 0:49:4920,000 years ago, man drew messages for the gods in caves.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54Now he sends them to extraterrestrial beings in the sky.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01In his rockets, he puts images to greet other beings in other galaxies
0:50:01 > 0:50:04in case they exist.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Images of himself in the gesture of welcome.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Details of his discoveries.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27And photographs that he hopes may give other intelligences elsewhere
0:50:27 > 0:50:31some impression of what life is like on Earth.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22This is the last programme in this natural history,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24and it's very different from the others
0:51:24 > 0:51:27because it's been devoted to just one animal - ourselves.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31And that may have been a misleading thing to have done.
0:51:31 > 0:51:36It may have given the impression that man was the ultimate triumph of evolution,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40that all those thousands of millions of years of development
0:51:40 > 0:51:44had no purpose other than to put man on Earth.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47There is no scientific evidence whatsoever for such a belief.
0:51:47 > 0:51:55No reason to suppose that man's stay on Earth should be any longer than that of the dinosaurs.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57He may have learned to control his environment,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00to pass on information from one generation to another,
0:52:00 > 0:52:06but the forces of evolution that brought him into existence here on these African plains
0:52:06 > 0:52:08are still at work elsewhere in the world
0:52:08 > 0:52:11and if man were to disappear, for whatever reason,
0:52:11 > 0:52:16there is doubtless somewhere some small, unobtrusive creature
0:52:16 > 0:52:22that would seize the opportunity and, with a spurt of evolution, take man's place.
0:52:22 > 0:52:28But although denying a special place in the world may be becomingly modest,
0:52:28 > 0:52:35the fact remains that man has an unprecedented control over the world and everything in it.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38And so, whether he likes it or not,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42what happens next is very largely up to him.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd