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00:00:00 [Music]
00:00:05 7 million years.
00:00:06 It is the estimated date of the appearance of the first representatives of the human race.
00:00:11 On the scale of our planet, older than 4 billion years,
00:00:14 we have only been present since the time of a battle of the isles.
00:00:17 In a few millennia, evolution has made Homo sapiens,
00:00:21 the dominant species on Earth,
00:00:23 as were the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic era
00:00:26 and before them the aquatic animals of the Paleozoic.
00:00:29 There are many theories explaining the appearance of man on Earth.
00:00:33 Whether debated, criticized or still in study,
00:00:36 they still allow us to get a glimpse of what was the history of our species.
00:00:40 They give us clues to better understand how we went from arboreal primates in the savannah
00:00:45 to modern man.
00:00:47 This exciting story begins in the Cenozoic,
00:00:50 the last great geological era in which we are still evolving today.
00:00:54 [Music]
00:01:00 The beginning of this era was marked by a great diversification of mammalian animals,
00:01:05 thus succeeding the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic.
00:01:08 The small rodents, which had survived the mass extinction of dinosaurs,
00:01:11 multiplied and evolved until they repopulated the Earth with a new fauna.
00:01:16 After a few million years, the first monkeys appeared in Asia.
00:01:20 They then looked like Lemurians and Tarsiers.
00:01:23 These first primates were mostly frugivores.
00:01:26 To suit their search for food, they developed a color vision
00:01:30 in order to better differentiate the ripe fruits from the rest of the flora.
00:01:33 Thus, the primates evolved in turn
00:01:36 according to similar natural selection processes.
00:01:39 [Music]
00:01:43 Then came a key point that marked the beginning of the human line,
00:01:47 the creation of the hominid branch in the genelogical tree of primates.
00:01:51 If we still have not been able to determine the common ancestor between man and monkey,
00:01:56 we nevertheless know who is the oldest representative of the homo genus.
00:01:59 To make his discovery, we must go to Central Africa, 7 million years before.
00:02:04 [Music]
00:02:06 Today I take you on an exceptional journey through the millennia
00:02:10 to go back to the first traces of our distant ancestors.
00:02:13 Enjoy the video.
00:02:14 [Music]
00:02:23 The first traces are found in 2001 by a team of archaeologists
00:02:27 who then make a revolutionary discovery in the Jiorab desert, Chad.
00:02:32 This is a fossil primate skull, about 7 million years old,
00:02:36 called "Tumay skull".
00:02:38 If this vestige is so important, it is because at the time of its discovery,
00:02:42 it questions all beliefs about the origins of the human species.
00:02:45 At that time, it was still here, famous Australopithecus,
00:02:49 whose fossil was presented as the oldest vestige of the human line.
00:02:53 The age of these bones was then estimated at 3.2 million years.
00:02:57 With the discovery of the Tumay skull,
00:02:59 we now know that the origins of man are at least twice as old.
00:03:03 [Music]
00:03:07 The place of the occipital hole, that is, the hole making the connection between the skull and the spine,
00:03:12 tells us that the Tumay was undoubtedly a biped,
00:03:16 a characteristic characteristic of the individuals of the Homo line.
00:03:19 Indeed, it is the biped that differentiates us from our close cousins the monkeys,
00:03:23 and that allow us to stand on our two posterior limbs.
00:03:27 More than going back to the date of origin of the human line,
00:03:30 the discovery of the Tumay also questions the date of the separation of man with the chimpanzee.
00:03:36 [Music]
00:03:38 It was admitted that it dates back to about 6 million years,
00:03:42 but we know today that it is well before.
00:03:45 The Tumay skull is also a weight proof to raise the question of the East Side Story theory.
00:03:50 [Music]
00:03:55 Popularized by the famous archaeologist Yves Coppens in 1982,
00:04:00 this theory wants the appearance of man to be the consequence of important climate changes
00:04:04 that occurred millions of years ago in Africa, and more precisely in East Africa.
00:04:09 It would be in a geographic area called the Grand Rift Valley,
00:04:13 corresponding to Ethiopia, Kenya and present-day Tanzania, that the human species would have appeared.
00:04:18 This region is delimited by mountain ranges,
00:04:21 which are the result of the meeting between two tectonic plates.
00:04:25 This natural delimitation would have, according to Yves Coppens,
00:04:29 generated a drier, more arid and more hostile climate to life,
00:04:34 far from the humid and luxurious forests of West Africa.
00:04:38 [Music]
00:04:40 Bipedalism would have appeared as a logical evolution,
00:04:43 allowing a better adaptation to the rougher living conditions of the savannah.
00:04:47 It must be understood that in this more arid part of Africa,
00:04:50 trees were fewer than elsewhere.
00:04:52 Our primate ancestors could therefore take refuge less easily if they were attacked by a predator.
00:04:58 A bipedal mode of travel would then have allowed them to mine sticks and projectiles
00:05:03 to repel their attackers in the event of an attack.
00:05:06 However, the discovery of the Tumey skull seems to invalidate this theory,
00:05:10 which until then was presented as a reference.
00:05:13 Indeed, the skull was found in Chad, that is to say west of the Grand Rift, in Central Africa.
00:05:18 The biped would thus have a different origin,
00:05:21 even if it is no less true that it provided primates with an evolutionary advantage in the savannah.
00:05:26 Before the discovery of the Tumey, other fossils such as that of the Ororain
00:05:30 had already questioned the status of it as being the oldest fossil ever found of the Romo genus.
00:05:35 The Ororain was discovered in 2000, shortly before the Tumey.
00:05:39 This endomyninae species was then the oldest ever discovered at the time.
00:05:43 The age of the fossil was estimated at 5.9 million years.
00:05:47 [Music]
00:05:51 However, unlike his cousin, the Tumey,
00:05:54 the Ororain fossil does not invalidate the East Side Story theory,
00:05:58 since it was found in Kenya, therefore in the Grand Rift Valley.
00:06:02 The Tumey fossil is thus the oldest fossil of a biped species ever found to this day.
00:06:07 However, it is not impossible that other fossils, even older,
00:06:11 will soon be discovered by archaeologists in areas unexpectedly African.
00:06:16 The origins of the human line certainly did not reveal all their secrets.
00:06:20 [Music]
00:06:29 [Music]
00:06:34 Speaking of secrets, there is one mystery specific to the Romo genus
00:06:38 that is still being debated within the scientific community.
00:06:41 It is the biped.
00:06:43 As we have seen, it reappeared before the entry of the first primates into the savannah.
00:06:47 However, if the location of the occipital hole shifted forward at Tumey,
00:06:51 seems to indicate that it was biped,
00:06:53 the first official proof of biped was discovered in Tanzania.
00:06:58 These are footprints found in Laetoli in volcanic sediments.
00:07:02 Due to the composition of the soil in which they were found,
00:07:06 the footprints are still extremely well preserved today.
00:07:09 Modern analysis techniques have estimated the age of these footprints,
00:07:13 at 3.6 million years.
00:07:15 This could well have been left by our distant cousin Australopithecus.
00:07:20 Indeed, several Australopithecus bones were found in the surrounding regions.
00:07:25 In addition, the study of Australopithecus skeletons, found today,
00:07:29 claim that these primates were biped, almost permanently.
00:07:34 [Music]
00:07:38 However, it is more than likely that other species prior to Australopithecus
00:07:42 were also biped.
00:07:45 But without additional bones or footprints, it is impossible to be sure.
00:07:50 [Music]
00:07:53 [Music]
00:07:58 Making a leap of almost 100,000 years in history,
00:08:01 we witness the birth of Homo habilis.
00:08:04 Its name literally means "skilled man".
00:08:07 It was named so because of its ability to master rudimentary tools.
00:08:11 Here again, its first fossils were found in Tanzania, on the site of Olduvay.
00:08:16 The bones were accompanied by rudimentary stone tools.
00:08:20 This suggests that Homo habilis was able to use sharp tools
00:08:24 to cut meat, break bones, or even defend himself.
00:08:28 [Music]
00:08:33 Subsequently, older fossils, such as a mandible found in Ethiopia,
00:08:38 will confirm that Homo habilis was present in Africa at least 2.3 million years ago.
00:08:45 [Music]
00:08:47 The birth of the first representatives of this species is estimated at 2.7 million years.
00:08:52 However, a surprising discovery on the archaeological site of Lokalale
00:08:57 indicates that this date could be even earlier.
00:09:00 It was on the soil of Lomekuy, Kenya, that the oldest known cutting tools were discovered.
00:09:05 Initially estimated at 2.7 million years, the age of these carved stones would be 3.3 million years.
00:09:12 This discovery makes the place the oldest archaeological site in the world.
00:09:17 [Music]
00:09:20 However, experts do not attribute the creation of these tools to any species of the Homo genus, such as Homo habilis.
00:09:27 For them, the way the stones are carved, as well as their ancientness,
00:09:31 suggests that these tools are rather the work of Australopithecus, of which we know today that they were able to conceive.
00:09:38 They could also have been shaped by another species,
00:09:41 whose fossil of a single individual was found near the site of the excavation, the Kenyanthrope.
00:09:47 [Music]
00:09:50 However, in the face of the lack of representatives of this species,
00:09:53 scientists believe that it is rather the remains of an Australopithecus.
00:09:57 [Music]
00:10:00 Homo habilis would then have appeared a few hundred thousand years later,
00:10:04 standing out from the dedicated Australopithecus by the size of its skull.
00:10:09 It is estimated that the skull capacity of Homo habilis was from 550 to 680 cm3,
00:10:15 while that of Australopithecus would be limited to 530 cm3, that is, that of a chimpanzee.
00:10:22 This increase in the size of the ancephalus would have allowed Homo habilis to develop a better control of its environment,
00:10:29 especially in the shaping of tools.
00:10:31 [Music]
00:10:35 Other notable characteristics of the species prove that Homo habilis were bipedal, but also very good climbers.
00:10:41 As for the development of the air of Broca, associated with the area of the language in the brain,
00:10:46 this seems to indicate that they were able to communicate with each other in a primitive articulated language.
00:10:52 The analysis of the dentition also reveals that our ancestor was undoubtedly not a hunter,
00:10:57 but rather an omnivorous carabinier measuring between 1.30 and 1.40 meters, for a weight of about 40 kg.
00:11:04 [Music]
00:11:07 Homo habilis would have died 1.5 million years ago after having flooded the lands of Africa for generations.
00:11:14 [Music]
00:11:16 He would have cohabited with species of anterior Australopithecus and his likely descendant Homo ergaster.
00:11:23 It is still important to note that the validity of Homo ergaster, that is, the man-maker, as a species, is not truly affirmed.
00:11:31 For some, it is indeed a species in its own right, for others, the alleged use of Homo ergaster
00:11:37 are in fact the remains of another well-known protagonist of our history, Homo erectus.
00:11:43 [Music]
00:11:52 Homo erectus is one of our most famous ancestors,
00:11:55 as it was in particular the first to exploit an essential element in our development, fire.
00:12:00 [Music]
00:12:02 The dates of the appearance and extinction of this species are still unclear.
00:12:06 There is not really a consensus as to the geographical perimeter
00:12:09 and the period in which Homo erectus would have appeared.
00:12:13 Some paleontologists consider that Homo ergaster, Homo georgicus and other subdivisions of the Homo genus
00:12:19 would actually all be Homo erectus, featuring minor anatomical peculiarities.
00:12:25 For others, they are very distinct species.
00:12:28 [Music]
00:12:31 Geographical distance from fossils is thus an advanced argument to validate the fact that these are different species.
00:12:38 Many fossils were found in Africa, others in Georgia,
00:12:42 which gave birth to Homo georgicus and others in Asia.
00:12:45 [Music]
00:12:48 A fairly large estimate says that Homo erectus lived between 2 million years and 900,000 years ago.
00:12:54 Its main feature is its apparent biped.
00:12:57 That's where it gets its name, since Homo erectus literally means "man erect".
00:13:03 It was a little taller and a little heavier than its ancestor Homo habilis and is measured between 1.5m and 1.65m, weighing up to 55kg.
00:13:12 [Music]
00:13:16 Its bone structure was quite massive and the shape of its skull was marked by a slender forehead as well as a certain prognathism.
00:13:24 It also stands out from its ancestors by the size of its brain.
00:13:28 It is the first hominid whose brain volume exceeds 1000 cubic centimeters.
00:13:32 For comparison, the skull volume of the modern man is about 1350 cubic centimeters.
00:13:38 [Music]
00:13:41 This increase in skull volume could well explain why Homo erectus was the first hominid to exploit fire.
00:13:48 However, he did not master it, but exploited the sources of natural heat when he could.
00:13:53 He was also able to produce more complex tools, always by cutting stone.
00:13:58 Although the origin of his appearance is not really certain, we nevertheless know that the behavior of Homo erectus was close to that of our ancestors, Homo sapiens.
00:14:07 [Music]
00:14:11 He was not content with being a simple carpenter like Homo habilis and Australopithecus before him.
00:14:16 Homo erectus was a hunter-gatherer.
00:14:19 He settled with his peers in nomadic camps, he lived from the harvest,
00:14:23 and his great mastery of stone cutting allowed him to make weapons to practice group hunting.
00:14:29 However, Homo erectus also had to feed on carcasses if his survival was at stake.
00:14:34 [Music]
00:14:36 Remnants of biface tools and ax-holes are dated from the time when Homo erectus lived.
00:14:41 An additional proof of his mastery of the arithmetic, namely stone cutting.
00:14:46 These carved and sharp stones could be used to defend themselves, hunt, cut meat and even make fire.
00:14:54 We know for sure that Homo erectus appeared in Africa
00:14:58 and we think today that small groups would have migrated further north, going as far as to leave the continent.
00:15:03 [Music]
00:15:06 These are the first migrations that allowed the development of the Homo genus on the whole globe.
00:15:12 The time of the fearful primates, taking refuge in the trees to flee from predators, was indeed revolutionary.
00:15:19 Two million years ago, the representatives of the Homo genus had already developed techniques
00:15:24 allowing them to hunt wild boar and live in groups.
00:15:28 Their ability to survive, mixed with a thirst for discovery typical of humans, pushed them to migrate to other lands.
00:15:34 It is possible that the reason for this migration is more rational, like a climate change or a lack of resources.
00:15:40 But for the moment, it is impossible to know.
00:15:43 [Music]
00:15:52 It was in 1999, in Dmanisi, Georgia, that archaeologists discovered about thirty dominid skulls.
00:16:00 They then think that the bones are the remains of a group of Homo ergaster, the able man,
00:16:05 seen by many as a close cousin of Homo erectus.
00:16:08 But after analysis, the conclusions of scientists are quite different.
00:16:12 The differences in the shape of the skulls do not allow to classify these fossils among a species of unknown dominidae.
00:16:18 Researchers do not come back to it, they have just discovered a new ancestor to man.
00:16:23 [Music]
00:16:25 It is then known as Homo georgicus or man of Dmanisi,
00:16:29 considered as a descendant of Homo habilis and an ancestor of Homo erectus asiatica.
00:16:34 [Music]
00:16:36 Because of the age of bones, it is estimated that Homo dmanisi would be the first hominicide to have conquered Europe before Homo ergaster.
00:16:44 Again, the subject is ready for debate.
00:16:47 All scientists do not think that this is a new species of dominidae, like a variation of Homo erectus.
00:16:53 Maybe a cousin, with a slightly different morphotype, but certainly not a new species.
00:16:59 The fairly small skull volume of the man of Dmanisi, as well as its sexual dimorphism,
00:17:04 tend to show that it is a fairly primitive group of hominidae, more than Homo erectus at least.
00:17:10 One thing remains certain, the presence of these bones in Europe proves that the hominidae were already present on the old continent, 1.7 million years ago.
00:17:19 Their expansion was then made on the European and Asian continents, as evidenced by the many bones found in Asia.
00:17:26 [Music]
00:17:30 This was particularly the case of P. techantropes and C. sinanthropes, discovered respectively in Indonesia and China.
00:17:37 After their exhumation in the 19th and 20th centuries, researchers thought that the Java man and the Pekin man also formed new species.
00:17:46 It was only later, with the discovery of Homo erectus in Africa, that the status of the latter was corrected.
00:17:52 We now know that these are Asian cousins of the African Homo erectus.
00:17:56 However, a surprising fact surrounds these two fossils.
00:18:00 [Music]
00:18:03 Current discoveries do not allow us to affirm that Homo erectus was still present in Africa less than 900,000 years ago.
00:18:11 But for Asian Homo erectus, the analysis of the sediments in which some bones were found in Indonesia indicates that it would be 500,000 years old.
00:18:20 Homo erectus would have survived longer in Asia than in Africa.
00:18:24 [Music]
00:18:27 As shown by the morphological differences between Eurasian and African Homo erectus,
00:18:32 we can think that they evolved differently to adapt to very different environments.
00:18:37 This is what scientists appreciate, in particular thanks to an unexpected discovery on French soil.
00:18:43 This one goes back a few thousand years.
00:18:47 [Music]
00:18:50 [Music]
00:18:54 We are now 450,000 BC.
00:18:57 It was at this time that the oldest individuals of the Homo genus lived, never found on French soil.
00:19:03 These are the men of Totabel, whose skeletons were found in the town of the same name, within the eastern Pyrenees.
00:19:10 At this place, at the level of the Largon Cone more precisely,
00:19:14 the sedimentary composition of the soils has allowed the conservation of many fossils as well as lithic tools.
00:19:21 In total, more than 150 fossil human remains were found in Totabel.
00:19:26 [Music]
00:19:30 The first estimates dated these remains to be about 450,000 years old,
00:19:34 but in 2018, a tooth was found on the site.
00:19:38 According to the analyzes, it would be over 570,000 years old.
00:19:42 Another tooth found earlier, in 2014, would be, as for it, 550,000 years old.
00:19:49 These two discoveries have then pushed back the estimates of the age of the Totabel man by nearly 100,000 years.
00:19:55 [Music]
00:19:57 But which species of hominid does our mysterious ancestor belong to?
00:20:01 Is it one of the last representatives of the Homo erectus?
00:20:04 Well, for scientists, nothing is less certain.
00:20:07 The belonging of the Totabel man is attributed to the Homo aldelbergensis.
00:20:11 Once again, there is no scientific consensus on the validity of this new species of the Homo genus.
00:20:16 If some consider it to be a family of Homo erectus,
00:20:19 most scientists agree that it is the common ancestor of the man of Denisova and his brother, the man of Neanderthal.
00:20:27 [Music]
00:20:31 The first mention of Homo aldelbergensis was in 1907, with the discovery of a jawbone, a fragment of jaw.
00:20:38 The bone was found in the region of Moher, Germany.
00:20:42 His study has defined the cranial volume of this species as being between 1000 and 1300 cm3,
00:20:49 a volume higher than that of Homo erectus found in Africa and quite close to ours.
00:20:54 [Music]
00:20:57 All suggests that the Totabel man was part of an intelligent species,
00:21:01 capable of organizing group actions and manufacturing relatively complex tools.
00:21:06 Archaeologists even suggest that Homo aldelbergensis would be the origin of the Acheulean culture,
00:21:12 this complex shaping of European stones.
00:21:15 [Music]
00:21:18 Before its appearance on European soil, this culture was present only in Asia and Africa.
00:21:23 The way of life of this species was then very much around hunting and gathering.
00:21:28 We know that Homo aldelbergensis was able to make long weapons,
00:21:32 such as poles over 2 meters and geese sticks used for hunting.
00:21:36 They were thus able to track and hunt large gibbous, such as horses for example.
00:21:42 [Music]
00:21:44 The habitat of the Totabel men has also revealed remains of surprising animals,
00:21:48 such as rhinoceros bones, moufflons, musked beef, deer and reindeer.
00:21:54 [Music]
00:21:57 Their finely cut tools could also have been used to exploit the entire gibbet,
00:22:02 including the bones from which they had to extract the moil to feed.
00:22:06 At least that's what scientists have deduced from the burrs observed on bones.
00:22:10 [Music]
00:22:13 For the Totabel man in particular, it is estimated that they were more carpenters than hunters,
00:22:18 but this was essentially due to their habitat,
00:22:21 whose limestone rocks made it difficult to produce hunting tools.
00:22:25 The bone analysis even revealed that they were probably practicing cannibalism,
00:22:31 as evidenced by the traces of cleaning and the burrs on the bones found.
00:22:35 [Music]
00:22:37 It is also unlikely that the first men of Totabel have mastered the fire.
00:22:42 The burnt bones, coal and combustion furnaces found in the Largon Cone are dated 400,000 years ago.
00:22:49 It was at this time that the last Totabel fossils were found.
00:22:53 But analyzes carried out in 2021 could well reveal the opposite.
00:22:58 Indeed, traces of combustion 560,000 years old were discovered in the Totabel caves.
00:23:04 These fossilized coals were found next to bones and carved stones.
00:23:09 It is a very rare discovery for remains of this time.
00:23:13 However, the analysts remain on the lookout.
00:23:16 Nothing can be said to affirm that these coals are the product of a domestication of fire.
00:23:20 They could have been brought into the cave after a natural combustion occurred outside.
00:23:26 For the moment, no combustion furnace has been found in the Largon Caves.
00:23:31 Further research is therefore necessary to determine the origin of these coals,
00:23:36 in order to estimate the actual date of the domestication of fire by man.
00:23:40 [Music]
00:23:42 If we currently think that this was done 400,000 years ago,
00:23:45 discoveries continue to push back this date.
00:23:48 It could even be that Homo Erectus groups have acquired the mastery of fire before everyone else.
00:23:53 This is just a theory that makes paleontologists dream in search of great discoveries.
00:23:58 [Music]
00:24:05 If many doubts persist about the origins and progress of the history of humanity,
00:24:10 one thing remains certain, man mastered fire 400,000 years ago.
00:24:14 It is around this date that many traces of domestication of fire have been found all over the globe.
00:24:21 300,000 years ago, in the caves of Kessem in Israel and Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.
00:24:26 370,000 years ago in Beilzinsleben in Germany.
00:24:30 Or 430,000 years ago in Zugudien near Pekin in China.
00:24:34 We find traces of domesticated fire on this same period in France, England, Hungary, Italy and Spain.
00:24:42 But one of the oldest evidence of man's mastery of fire is located on the site of the Jacob Bridge,
00:24:47 on the edge of the Jordan in Israel.
00:24:50 It is on this archaeological site that researchers have highlighted traces of fire mastered 790,000 years old.
00:24:57 Long before that, man was already using fire, potentially to cook his food, but he did not have the mastery.
00:25:03 [Music]
00:25:06 Several pieces of burnt wood and water found in the caves
00:25:10 indicate that man used natural combustion sources when he had the opportunity.
00:25:15 A natural fire could occur after the lightning struck near a lava flow caused by a effusive volcano.
00:25:22 It is by bringing these incandescent elements back to their place of life that our ancestors would have started to exploit fire.
00:25:30 [Music]
00:25:32 This would have even started very early in history, since the first traces of fire use date back to nearly 2 million years.
00:25:39 In the Swartkrans cave in South Africa, researchers also identified the remains of about 270 burnt bones.
00:25:46 These remains would testify to the use of fire by man from 1 to 1.5 million years ago.
00:25:52 Calcined plant ashes dating from the same time were also found in the Van der Weck cave, still in South Africa.
00:26:00 [Music]
00:26:03 As you know, the domestication of fire by man was a real turning point in our history.
00:26:09 Just as the acquisition of the Abbey, which allowed the release of superior members for the creation of tools,
00:26:14 fire led to notable physical changes, responsible for our evolution.
00:26:19 For our ancestors, fire was no longer an indomitable natural element, but a domesticated force
00:26:25 that they could use to heat up, create tools, keep predators away, and above all, feed themselves.
00:26:31 [Music]
00:26:33 In general, cooking food increased their digestibility.
00:26:37 Where before, you needed powerful chewing muscles, a dentition close to that of our Siamese cousins, and an imposing digestive system,
00:26:45 the hominids evolved to give way to more reduced and more adapted organs to their new eating habits.
00:26:52 [Music]
00:26:54 It is estimated that it was the cooking of food grains that was responsible for the significant increase in the size of the brain in our ancestors.
00:27:02 Indeed, the cooking process greatly increases the digestibility of food.
00:27:07 This means that an equal proportion of a cooked food brings more energy than a raw food.
00:27:13 This is decisive when we know that the brain is the most energy-consuming organ in the entire body.
00:27:19 [Music]
00:27:21 Cooking would also have reduced the size of the chewing device.
00:27:25 The powerful maxillary muscles of our ancestors would then be astrophysed,
00:27:30 causing a decrease in pressure on the cranial box and a release of space at the neck level.
00:27:36 This muscular regression would have given rise to a greater development of the brain mass and vocal cords,
00:27:43 until we gradually acquired the gift of speech.
00:27:47 The astrophysis of the digestive organs, which is very energy-consuming,
00:27:51 would also have allowed to allocate more resources for the development of our brain.
00:27:56 Researchers have shown in an American study that a raw food diet put limits on the size of the brain or body of a primate.
00:28:04 By counting the number of neurons in the brain of 13 primate species, researchers have discovered two things.
00:28:10 First, the size of the brain is directly related to the number of neurons in a brain.
00:28:14 And secondly, that this number of neurons is correlated with the amount of energy or calories necessary to feed a brain.
00:28:22 They calculated how many hours a day it would take various primates to eat enough calories of raw food to feed their brains.
00:28:29 The observation is that it would take 8.8 hours for gorillas, 7.8 hours for orangutans, 7.3 hours for chimpanzees, and 9.3 hours for our homo sapiens species.
00:28:41 [Music]
00:28:42 The diet of a monkey in nature differs from a modern raw food diet.
00:28:47 We get enough calories by transforming raw foods by mixing them with proteins and other nutrients.
00:28:53 In nature, monkeys cannot develop larger brains unless they reduce their body size.
00:28:59 They cannot exceed the limit of the number of calories they can consume in 7 to 8 hours of food per day.
00:29:05 But humans have managed to bypass this limit by cooking, and that is why we have more neurons than any other living animal.
00:29:14 The thesis of cooking aliments for the development of the human brain is more or less accepted today.
00:29:20 [Music]
00:29:23 The mastery of fire in our ancestors did not only allow the evolution of digestive organs.
00:29:28 The strength of fire was a major asset to increase life expectancy.
00:29:32 The simple fact of being able to smoke meat allowed them to keep it longer and therefore have access to more food resources.
00:29:39 Cooking was also the origin of the disappearance of many diseases transmitted by parasites.
00:29:45 In Europe and North Asia, the heat produced by combustion was undoubtedly a precious aid to spend the coldest days, especially for the most fragile individuals.
00:29:56 Flames, due to their flash and their strong heat, also allowed to ward off predators after sunset.
00:30:04 [Music]
00:30:07 By artificially repelling the fall of the night, our ancestors could, thanks to the light of the flames,
00:30:12 continue their activities for longer and therefore strengthen the development of the tribe.
00:30:17 Fire was probably the origin of the creation of powerful social bonds.
00:30:21 Just as in the tribes that still exist today, the nocturnal vigilantes around the fire must have been a moment of exchange and sharing,
00:30:28 creating social interactions and promoting discussion, even in an archaic language.
00:30:33 [Music]
00:30:37 It is today widely accepted that the cohesion of a tribe or a group of individuals is a key factor in its survival.
00:30:44 In nature, groups that are too heterogeneous unfortunately do not survive.
00:30:48 The fire would have thus allowed the creation of more close-knit tribes, almost clanic, among our ancestors.
00:30:54 [Music]
00:30:56 In addition to the evolution of physiology and the increase in life expectancy generated by fire,
00:31:01 we also know that this incandescent force was used to create more robust tools.
00:31:06 [Music]
00:31:09 The thermal treatment of wood, plus its rapid soaking, notably allows to strengthen the solidity of the spines.
00:31:15 As for silex and other stones, their heating by fire would have facilitated the debiting operations to make them more precise and sharp tools.
00:31:25 To make flames so convoyed, our ancestors would have used mainly two techniques,
00:31:30 the percussion between a silex and an iron ore, and the friction between two pieces of wood.
00:31:36 [Music]
00:31:40 More than a simple discovery, fire was truly a catalyst for human evolution.
00:31:46 It was the origin of new species of more intelligent hominids until the arrival of modern man.
00:31:52 Let's go a little further back in time to discover these new ancestors, just as fascinating.
00:31:58 [Music]
00:32:05 If we assume that fire was mastered 400,000 years ago, let's make a leap of 100,000 years to the present.
00:32:11 At that time, the northern hemisphere of our planet saw the appearance of a new hominid species, the Neanderthal man.
00:32:19 [Music]
00:32:21 We know with certainty that it was present in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
00:32:26 It was also still present in this region of the globe 30,000 years ago.
00:32:31 [Music]
00:32:33 Researchers have never found any trace of this species in Africa, and it is unlikely that they will find any one day.
00:32:39 The Neanderthal man indeed has a physiology adapted to the cold climate.
00:32:44 Smaller, more ragged and more robust than the modern man, the Neanderthal man had to have imposing musculature
00:32:51 made to generate more heat, in particular to withstand the winter cold.
00:32:56 [Music]
00:32:59 The first proven Neanderthal skeleton was found in Germany in 1856 in the Neanderthal Valley, hence the species takes its name.
00:33:08 [Music]
00:33:10 The oldest Neanderthals were indeed found on the site of Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca, Spain.
00:33:17 The remains date back more than 400,000 years.
00:33:20 If at first it was believed that it was a subspecies of Homo sapiens,
00:33:24 we now know that the Neanderthal man is a species with its own characteristics.
00:33:29 Physically, it stands out by the size of its eye orbits, much wider than that of Homo sapiens.
00:33:35 Its elongated-shaped skull left more room for the development of the encephalus.
00:33:40 It is estimated that the cranial capacity of Neanderthals varied from 1,500 to 1,750 cubic centimeters, exceeding that of Homo sapiens.
00:33:48 The two species would come from a common ancestor, having given on one side the Neanderthal man and his brother the man of Denisova, and on the other Homo sapiens.
00:33:57 [Music]
00:34:00 It is this still undetermined kinship that would have allowed the exchange of genetic material between the Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens.
00:34:08 Indeed, the study of the fossils of our ancestors allowed us to determine that the Neanderthals
00:34:14 had indeed coexisted with Homo sapiens in Eurasia for nearly 20,000 years.
00:34:19 An introgression of Neanderthal genes would then have taken place in Homo sapiens.
00:34:24 Today, the study of the human genome on a large scale has made it clear that European and Asian populations
00:34:31 had between 1.5 and 2.1% of Neanderthal genetic heritage in their DNA.
00:34:37 [Music]
00:34:39 The genes of this ancestor acted so strongly on the immune system, making man more or less sensitive to certain diseases.
00:34:47 He could even explain the manifestation of certain allergies.
00:34:50 [Music]
00:34:53 Regarding the way of life of this ancestor, popular culture tends to represent it as a savage, guided by its primitive instincts,
00:35:00 growling with a mass of wood in hand.
00:35:03 In reality, research has shown that the Neanderthals were much more civilized than we could have imagined.
00:35:10 If the intellectual capacities of the species were not as developed as those of Homo sapiens,
00:35:15 all suggests that the Neanderthals were gifted beings of reason, but also of a culture.
00:35:20 They mastered the creation of complex bone tools, and they were able to produce blades,
00:35:25 as well as to hunt bird and marine animals.
00:35:29 They also mastered more complex manufacturing techniques, such as gluing with plant bray.
00:35:35 [Music]
00:35:38 We also know that they had to use natural pigments to paint their bodies,
00:35:43 and that they made veneers, perhaps for funerary rites.
00:35:47 Because yes, the implementation of funerary rites by the Neanderthal man is more than likely.
00:35:52 Various Neanderthal graves dating back a few tens of thousands of years have been found in the regions where they populated.
00:35:59 The bodies were sometimes arranged in fetal positions, or other postures, meaning that they had been inhumated.
00:36:06 This totally questions the "a priori" that we could have on this species,
00:36:11 which seemed, just like us, to have its own rites and beliefs.
00:36:16 [Music]
00:36:19 Some researchers even claim that the different Neanderthal tribes had their own customs.
00:36:25 They formed micro-societies that could sometimes interact with each other.
00:36:29 But this is only a hypothesis.
00:36:32 Neanderthals thus inhabited European and Asian lands for nearly 370,000 years.
00:36:37 [Music]
00:36:40 The species has officially been extinct for 30,000 years due to more recent discoveries.
00:36:45 But what could have caused the disappearance of the Neanderthals?
00:36:49 Why did they disappear so suddenly, in favor of their homo sapiens cousins?
00:36:54 Once again, no theory makes consensus.
00:36:58 A possible cause of their disappearance is the introduction of new diseases after the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa to Europe.
00:37:06 If they were two different species, Homo sapiens could very well have introduced an inoffensive virus to the Neanderthal population.
00:37:15 [Music]
00:37:17 In history, there are examples proving that such facts have already occurred,
00:37:22 especially with the arrival of European civilizations in America.
00:37:26 The introduction of new pathogens was one of the first causes of mortality among the indigenous populations of the new continent.
00:37:33 [Music]
00:37:35 Another explanation is that the arrival and expansion of Homo sapiens on the lands of Neanderthals
00:37:41 has led to a conflict over the sharing of resources.
00:37:44 If no sign of violent conflict between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens could have been evidenced,
00:37:50 the selection could very well have been done naturally.
00:37:53 We know that the diet of the Neanderthal man was very meaty,
00:37:57 the latter essentially feeding on hunting and gibbet.
00:38:00 As for Homo sapiens, its diet was more varied.
00:38:04 He was above all a hunter-gatherer and undoubtedly a carter when the situation imposed it.
00:38:10 This ease of sustenance would have given a strategic advantage of survival to Homo sapiens.
00:38:16 [Music]
00:38:18 It is also proven that Homo sapiens had already domesticated canine species
00:38:22 at the time when he was dating the man of Neanderthal.
00:38:25 Their canines were then excellent hunters but also fierce protectors.
00:38:29 They could have greatly helped Homo sapiens during his group hunts and could also have protected the vulnerable groups of the different predators.
00:38:37 As for the disappearance of Neanderthal due to a natural disaster, this hypothesis is dismissed.
00:38:43 Nothing proves that such a disaster occurred at that time,
00:38:46 in addition it would also have caused the disappearance of our ancestors Homo sapiens.
00:38:50 [Music]
00:38:53 One last theory wants Neanderthals to have indeed disappeared because of Homo sapiens,
00:38:58 but not in the way described by the theory of genocide.
00:39:01 The arrival of Homo sapiens and its rapid expansion on the territories of Neanderthals
00:39:06 would have pushed Neanderthal societies to be more and more isolated from each other.
00:39:11 This restriction of the number of individuals per tribe,
00:39:14 as well as the lack of interaction with other Neanderthals,
00:39:17 would have led to a lack of genetic diversity among our distant ancestors.
00:39:22 The possible incest and this cantonment of genetic material gave birth to less viable individuals,
00:39:28 less good immune resistance and finally the disappearance of the Neanderthal man.
00:39:35 Thus, the Neanderthal man was born while Homo sapiens persisted and developed throughout the globe.
00:39:43 The last Neanderthal skeleton was found in the cave of Gorham in Gibraltar.
00:39:48 He would have died 24,000 years ago.
00:39:52 [Music]
00:39:59 Continuing our chronological progress, history brings us to Ethiopia.
00:40:04 It is to Homo that the oldest Homo sapiens fossils were discovered.
00:40:09 Near Kibish, archaeologists found skulls named respectively Homo A and Homo II.
00:40:15 The first estimate of their age gave them 130,000 years,
00:40:18 but it was only in 2022 that the latest analyses have allowed to push this date back.
00:40:24 Kibish skulls would actually be nearly 233,000 years old.
00:40:29 They are the oldest remains of Homo sapiens ever discovered,
00:40:32 with fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco,
00:40:35 on the opposite side of the African continent, dated in 2017 to about 300,000 years.
00:40:40 [Music]
00:40:42 However, the analysis of fossils found in Morocco shows that they were primitive Homo sapiens,
00:40:47 not having all the characteristics of modern man.
00:40:50 For the men of Kibish, it clearly appears that they were already much closer to the current man from a physiological point of view.
00:40:57 This discovery of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils tends to show that our ancestors,
00:41:01 who appeared in Africa, gradually colonized the continent,
00:41:05 before going further north to meet their cousins, the Neanderthal.
00:41:10 [Music]
00:41:12 During their pilgrimage, they also developed a certain spirituality,
00:41:17 moving them even further from the animal stage.
00:41:20 [Music]
00:41:23 [Music]
00:41:27 We are now 100,000 years before our era.
00:41:30 It was at this time that the first graves appeared.
00:41:33 The awareness of death and the passing of time is an almost exclusively human characteristic.
00:41:39 Only a few rare species of animals seem to be aware of death,
00:41:43 like elephants, which all go to the same places once their last hour has come.
00:41:48 We do not know if the awareness of death was already present in Homo erectus and its close descendants.
00:41:54 However, it is certain that Homo sapiens, like Neanderthals, were endowed with it.
00:41:59 For the two species, graves dating back nearly 100,000 years were found.
00:42:03 [Music]
00:42:05 For the case of Homo sapiens, we have to go to Kav Zey, in Israel.
00:42:09 It is in the depths of the caves of this archaeological site
00:42:12 that the remains of 6 adults and 8 children were discovered, arranged in graves.
00:42:17 Archaeologists even found shells from a site 35 km away,
00:42:22 deliberately brought near the rubble as to honor their memory.
00:42:26 Holes in these shells show that they could have been worn as jewelry.
00:42:31 As for the traces of ocher found on them, they could indicate that these shells had been painted,
00:42:36 perhaps for decoration or for the funeral rite.
00:42:40 [Music]
00:42:42 Still in Israel, other graves belonging to a Neanderthal have been discovered.
00:42:47 This time, it is in Kebara that we go.
00:42:50 [Music]
00:42:52 In the cave, an Israeli search team discovered Neanderthal bones in 1983.
00:42:58 The dating of the latter indicates that its former cousins from Homo sapiens
00:43:02 would have lived in this place between 60,000 and 48,000 years ago.
00:43:07 But more surprising still, the discoveries seem to indicate that the cave was in fact used as a grave.
00:43:13 It is the discovery of a skeleton of a Neanderthal, nicknamed Moïse,
00:43:17 found in a very particular position that led to the issuance of such a hypothesis.
00:43:22 In addition, archaeologists have found that the skull of the skeleton had been posthumously exhumed,
00:43:28 perhaps in order to practice a funeral rite.
00:43:31 If no previous grave has been discovered for the moment,
00:43:35 that does not mean that it does not exist.
00:43:37 It is even quite likely that the two species were already practicing funeral rites before that.
00:43:42 [Music]
00:43:44 A funny theory was also attributed to the Neanderthal man,
00:43:48 stating that the latter worshipped a bear cult.
00:43:51 In France, in Regourdoux in Dordogne,
00:43:54 a brown bear skeleton rested under a monolith slab weighing 850 kg in a shallow pit.
00:44:01 Nearby, the body of a Neanderthal was laid, on the left, the head to the north, in a fetal position.
00:44:08 The top of the skull of the Neanderthal skeleton was missing, just like in the Cave of Kebara.
00:44:13 Dozens of bear skulls were also found in the cave.
00:44:16 Some have then raised the hypothesis of the bear cult among the Neanderthal.
00:44:21 [Music]
00:44:23 However, this one was reputed by its peers.
00:44:26 It is indeed more likely that this accumulation of brown bear bones
00:44:29 is only the result of the tendency of bears to hibernate and take refuge in caves.
00:44:35 [Music]
00:44:37 In Shindar, in northern Iraq,
00:44:39 another Neanderthal grave, even more spectacular, was found.
00:44:44 Researchers discovered the body of a Neanderthal under a large slab,
00:44:49 acting as a tombstone.
00:44:51 A large amount of pollen is then present under the remains.
00:44:55 For experts, this is no doubt.
00:44:57 This is proof of flower deposits during the burial of the deceased.
00:45:02 [Music]
00:45:04 However, some archaeologists are still skeptical of the idea
00:45:08 that Neanderthals could have developed any religiosity,
00:45:12 given that the graves are systematically found near places of residence.
00:45:17 They had, according to some,
00:45:19 the only use of burying the bodies for hygiene,
00:45:22 practicality and, why not, security.
00:45:25 The smell of the body could have indeed attracted carpenters.
00:45:29 But in this case, how to explain the similar disposition of the bodies
00:45:33 in fetal position and the presence of ornaments?
00:45:36 Also, why tombstones would they have been placed on the remains
00:45:41 when they could have simply been covered with earth?
00:45:45 In some graves, bones of animals,
00:45:48 including deer antlers, were discovered
00:45:51 and it is certain that they were placed there intentionally.
00:45:55 [Music]
00:45:57 Scientists therefore think that the first funeral rites
00:46:00 began 100,000 years ago, before spreading little by little
00:46:04 in Homo sapiens, like in Neanderthals.
00:46:07 It is likely that these species sometimes had to bury their dead in a hygiene concern,
00:46:13 but some evidence of funeral rites is not wrong.
00:46:16 It was with the sedentarization of Homo sapiens 10,000 years ago
00:46:21 that the rites became more complex and the first necropolises were created.
00:46:26 [Music]
00:46:28 [Music]
00:46:33 Before going back to the year -10,000 of our era to observe the sedentarization of man,
00:46:39 let's take a break 60,000 years ago on our chronological frieze.
00:46:43 Today gone, the man of Neanderthal never ceases to surprise us.
00:46:48 It would seem that he was the first hominid to produce habitable constructions.
00:46:53 [Music]
00:46:55 By going to the archaeological site of Molodova, Ukraine,
00:46:59 we would discover very strange bones.
00:47:02 Arranged in a circular way, these are actually old mammoth bones,
00:47:06 which experts estimate they could have been used to make primitive habitats.
00:47:11 The oldest bone would date back to about 60,000 years ago,
00:47:15 thus making the cabins of Molodova the oldest habitable constructions ever built.
00:47:21 Given the amount of bones found, as well as their circular arrangement,
00:47:26 other experts think it could simply be a kind of hunter's ritual.
00:47:32 A way to dispose of bones once the animals are hunted,
00:47:35 decomposed and taken from their flesh.
00:47:38 [Music]
00:47:40 But other more recent bones, dating back to 24,000 years ago, were found on the site.
00:47:46 In addition, many tools were unearthed such as gratings, spikes and blade sheaths.
00:47:52 This seems to indicate that Neanderthals did indeed occupy these places.
00:47:57 It is therefore more than likely that the latter built habitats,
00:48:01 without having a cave under the ground.
00:48:04 [Music]
00:48:05 This circular arrangement of mammoth bones is reminiscent of the site of Gondsi, still in Ukraine.
00:48:11 Certainly more recent, the study of the site nevertheless allowed to demonstrate
00:48:15 an occupation over a period of about 1,000 years, this time by Homo sapiens.
00:48:20 [Music]
00:48:22 They would have resided in Gondsi about 15,000 years ago.
00:48:25 They lived from hunting and gathering,
00:48:28 exploiting a territory of more than 500,000 square kilometers.
00:48:31 [Music]
00:48:33 The discoveries of the site also allowed us to learn a little more about the ways of life of our ancestors.
00:48:39 Already at that time, they were able to live in organized tribes.
00:48:43 The arrangement of the cabins and the location of the artifacts found
00:48:48 shows that the tasks were divided according to different points.
00:48:51 There was thus a housing area, butchery,
00:48:54 rejection and accumulation of waste,
00:48:57 as well as areas of activity for the manufacture of weapons and tools.
00:49:01 [Music]
00:49:03 Moreover, in terms of manufacturing, the inhabitants of the region of Gondsi
00:49:08 had already largely exceeded the simple use of carved stones.
00:49:12 They exploited with great mastery the animal materials,
00:49:15 as evidenced by the relics found by archaeologists,
00:49:18 such as ivory sages made from mammoth bones,
00:49:22 knives still made of mammoth bones,
00:49:24 wooden hammers,
00:49:26 or even deer or fox bones.
00:49:30 [Music]
00:49:32 More than artisans, our ancestors also began to develop a certain artistic sensitivity.
00:49:39 They sometimes used bones or shells to make jewelry.
00:49:44 Engravings on mammoth bones were also discovered,
00:49:48 and it was common to find traces of ocher in their areas of activity.
00:49:52 All this of course led to the emergence of the first rough paintings
00:49:56 relating the hunting parties and detailing the way of life of our ancestors.
00:50:00 [Music]
00:50:07 Now let's leave Ukraine to head to Italy,
00:50:11 and more particularly, to the Horse Cave.
00:50:13 This is where very old teeth were found.
00:50:17 [Music]
00:50:20 In fact, these are the oldest remains of Homo sapiens ever discovered in Europe.
00:50:24 The teeth are nearly 40,000 years old.
00:50:27 Remains of Homo sapiens, almost as old,
00:50:30 were found in the cave of Kant, in England,
00:50:33 then others dating back 35,000 years in Romania.
00:50:36 In France, bones were also found,
00:50:39 nearly 30,000 years old, on the site of Cro-Magnon,
00:50:42 which gave the famous nickname to our ancestors.
00:50:46 [Music]
00:50:48 It was around the same time that the oldest rough paintings in Europe were painted,
00:50:53 at present.
00:50:55 It was in the Chauvet cave, located in Ardèche, in the Hexagone,
00:50:58 that nearly a thousand rough paintings were found,
00:51:01 containing 447 representations of animals, painted in fuzine.
00:51:05 [Music]
00:51:07 On the walls of the cave,
00:51:09 we distinguish bear silhouettes, lions of caves, horses,
00:51:13 and even rhinoceros.
00:51:15 If these paintings make you think of those of the Lascaux caves,
00:51:18 they are actually much older,
00:51:20 since it is estimated that they were painted 37,000 years ago.
00:51:23 [Music]
00:51:26 However, they are not the oldest in the world.
00:51:29 The record is held by the paintings found in Indonesia,
00:51:32 thanks to the searches carried out by Australian researchers.
00:51:35 Representing wild pigs,
00:51:37 the frescoes of the mural would be nearly 45,000 years old.
00:51:41 Next to it, there are hands made with a handkerchief,
00:51:44 as is often found next to the rough paintings of this time.
00:51:48 Perhaps this is the signature of the prehistoric painter
00:51:52 who decorated the walls of Sulawesi Cave in Indonesia.
00:51:56 [Music]
00:51:58 As soon as art integrated into the culture of Homo sapiens,
00:52:01 it never ceased to evolve it,
00:52:04 creating ever more elaborate works,
00:52:06 including sculptures.
00:52:08 Among the ancestral sculptures,
00:52:10 the figure of Venus is one of the most popular.
00:52:13 It is nothing more than the incarnation of fertility,
00:52:16 and therefore of new life.
00:52:18 It is characterized by the representation of a feminine body,
00:52:21 whose distinct physical attributes,
00:52:23 such as the chest or the width of the hips,
00:52:25 are deliberately exaggerated
00:52:27 to represent fertility.
00:52:29 The oldest Venus ever discovered
00:52:31 is potentially 40,000 years old,
00:52:34 which is older than the oldest rough paintings in Europe.
00:52:37 The date Carbon 14 actually gives only an estimate,
00:52:41 its age would therefore be between 31,000 and 40,000 years.
00:52:45 In parallel to the development of rough art in Homo sapiens,
00:52:49 the representation of feminine figures made their appearance.
00:52:53 This suggests that our ancestors began to develop
00:52:56 a certain reflection and sensitivity to the surrounding world.
00:53:00 Perhaps they now had a higher consciousness of life and death,
00:53:04 and sought to pay homage to nature through its representations.
00:53:08 Perhaps they also began to develop beliefs,
00:53:11 as evidenced by the found graves.
00:53:14 Art would have been like an offering or a prayer,
00:53:17 both for the abundance of food and therefore of food,
00:53:21 as for fertility and the obtaining of a vigorous offspring.
00:53:27 The techniques developed by Homo sapiens,
00:53:29 both for art and for craftsmanship,
00:53:31 have therefore continued to modernize over the millennia.
00:53:35 We see in particular the first propellers of formidable geese weapons
00:53:39 about 15,000 years ago.
00:53:41 It was also at this time that the first harpoons were invented.
00:53:44 Homo sapiens had become a formidable hunter.
00:53:47 He was the origin of the extinction of many large mammals,
00:53:50 starting with the famous mammoth.
00:53:53 But the intensive hunting practiced by man during prehistory
00:53:57 led to the disappearance of many other species,
00:53:59 such as the dodo, the saber-toothed tiger, the rhino or the giant parry.
00:54:05 Moreover, if man is such a good hunter,
00:54:09 it is not due to any physical attribute or overdeveloped sense.
00:54:14 Certainly, our ancestors were much more robust than us,
00:54:17 and their senses had to be sharper.
00:54:19 But their strength was in their ability to organize group actions
00:54:23 and think in time, as well as their mastery of murderous weapons.
00:54:28 This allowed them to dominate wild and ferocious animals,
00:54:32 which were a priori much more dangerous,
00:54:34 until they caused their extinction.
00:54:37 Man also stands out from the other species of the animal kingdom
00:54:41 by its remarkable endurance.
00:54:44 It is not impossible that the hunting games took place over several days,
00:54:48 a group of men tracking a prey,
00:54:50 using hand-tamed canines, until the end of the beast.
00:54:53 However, even if he was an excellent hunter,
00:54:56 Homo sapiens ended up abandoning the nomadic lifestyle
00:54:59 to adopt a more sedentary behavior.
00:55:02 Agriculture replaced hunting and gathering about 10,000 years ago.
00:55:06 The first signs of farming and agricultural production
00:55:10 were found in the Middle East at the level of the fertile croissant.
00:55:13 This geographic area was ideal for the first sedentary men
00:55:17 since it gave them access to the resources of the Nile,
00:55:19 the Tigris and the Euphrates,
00:55:21 essential for the irrigation of crops.
00:55:24 In all regions of the globe where agriculture has appeared,
00:55:27 man selected the species of plants,
00:55:29 giving the most abundant resources.
00:55:31 This was the case with rice in China,
00:55:33 with corn in America,
00:55:35 and with cereals such as wheat, barley and rye in Mesopotamia.
00:55:39 It was the same with animals,
00:55:43 the most domestic and the most nutritious were selected.
00:55:47 Even today, researchers are not unanimously convinced
00:55:50 of the reasons that have pushed man to agriculture.
00:55:53 Some evoke demographic changes
00:55:55 and an overexploitation of resources
00:55:57 that would have led our ancestors to produce their own food.
00:56:01 For others, the reasons are climatic or sociological,
00:56:05 with an evolution of ways of thinking.
00:56:07 It is even likely that all these reasons are just.
00:56:12 If agriculture led to the creation of tools
00:56:15 and the emergence of a new way of life,
00:56:17 it mostly allowed the development of the first great civilizations.
00:56:21 This is how man left prehistory
00:56:23 to officially enter the era of antiquity.
00:56:27 More than the development of agriculture,
00:56:38 it is the appearance of a written language
00:56:40 that marked the beginnings of antiquity.
00:56:42 Before that, man already had the gift of speech.
00:56:44 Millions of years earlier,
00:56:46 our distant ancestors communicated with a more or less articulated proto-language.
00:56:52 It is even possible that the Neanderthals
00:56:56 were able to produce a spoken language similar to that of Homo sapiens.
00:57:00 Yet it was the modern man who invented writing around 3300 BC.
00:57:06 The first traces were found in Low Mesopotamia
00:57:09 with the arrival of cuneiform writing,
00:57:12 that is to say literally in the form of a corner.
00:57:14 The people who lived in this region formed the Sumerian civilization.
00:57:18 They used a lot of clay and rose for their construction,
00:57:23 two materials present in abundance near the nearby waterways.
00:57:27 They also used it for writing as paper and pencil.
00:57:31 The clay tablets acted as a support
00:57:33 and the writing was done with the help of a carved rose stem.
00:57:38 Such tablets in very good condition were found
00:57:43 in the ruins of this ancient civilization,
00:57:45 at the level of present-day Iraq.
00:57:47 They thus form the first proof of a written language developed by man.
00:57:51 Later, around 3000 BC,
00:57:53 the Egyptians invented writing by hieroglyphs.
00:57:56 The symbols composing this ancient alphabet
00:57:59 will be transcribed on Russian paper,
00:58:01 a writing support close to paper,
00:58:03 made from plant stems of the same name.
00:58:06 They could also write on pieces of leather
00:58:09 or directly engraving the stone,
00:58:11 as shown by the pyramids of Giza.
00:58:14 Antiquity continues until the fall of the powerful Roman Empire,
00:58:19 in 467 BC.
00:58:22 The separation of man from the monkey
00:58:25 took place several million years ago.
00:58:28 This key event led to the appearance of a multitude of species,
00:58:32 more and more evolved, until we became the modern man we are.
00:58:36 The learning and discovery of these stages
00:58:39 that make up our history never ceases to fascinate us.
00:58:42 It is indeed by looking at our past, our origins and our evolution
00:58:47 that we are able to understand who we are,
00:58:49 why we are like this
00:58:51 and what are the reasons for our actions,
00:58:53 however instinctive they may be.
00:58:55 Even today, paleontologists make new discoveries
00:58:59 that constantly expand our knowledge
00:59:01 and understanding of our ancestors.
00:59:03 We now know that the image of the man of Chromagnon,
00:59:06 unable to produce a reflection,
00:59:08 and growing in mass while groaning,
00:59:10 is more than wrong.
00:59:11 The more discoveries we make,
00:59:12 the more we understand that our ancestors
00:59:14 looked more like us than we would have imagined.
00:59:17 Yet many mysteries remain.
00:59:20 The complete genealogical tree of the human line has not yet been established,
00:59:24 and there are still many fossils
00:59:26 sleeping underground for thousands of years
00:59:28 that could well shake the dates currently taken as a reference.
00:59:32 We do not know with certainty
00:59:34 what could have triggered the movements of migration out of Africa,
00:59:38 what caused the extinction of Neanderthal
00:59:40 or why man has sedentarized.
00:59:43 Scientists are also impressed by the knowledge
00:59:46 that our ancestors possessed,
00:59:48 capable of building gigantic monuments
00:59:51 with yet rudimentary tools.
00:59:53 However, if we can say one thing with certainty,
00:59:56 it is that the history of humanity
00:59:58 has not stopped surprising and amazing us.
01:00:02 [Music]