1 00:00:10,367 --> 00:00:13,643 ALICE ROBERTS: they say this is where it all began. 2 00:00:16,647 --> 00:00:20,003 that we are all children of Africa. 3 00:00:23,327 --> 00:00:27,002 But if so, why do we look so different? 4 00:00:28,967 --> 00:00:32,596 And how on earth could a handful of African families 5 00:00:32,687 --> 00:00:35,406 become a whole world full of people? 6 00:00:47,887 --> 00:00:52,597 I'm Alice Roberts, medical doctor and anthropologist. 7 00:00:52,687 --> 00:00:57,841 I'm fascinated by what bones, stones, 8 00:00:57,927 --> 00:01:01,966 and even our bodies can reveal about the distant past. 9 00:01:03,807 --> 00:01:08,323 I'm going in search of the traces left by our African ancestors 10 00:01:08,447 --> 00:01:11,325 and their journeys to populate the world. 11 00:01:13,007 --> 00:01:15,077 this time, Europe. 12 00:01:16,047 --> 00:01:18,117 A dangerous journey 13 00:01:19,447 --> 00:01:21,802 and a formidable rival. 14 00:01:23,807 --> 00:01:26,367 We're going to be excavating the sea bottom 15 00:01:26,447 --> 00:01:28,085 in search of Neanderthals. 16 00:01:28,167 --> 00:01:32,683 the unexpected weapons in our battle for survival. 17 00:01:32,767 --> 00:01:36,999 I don't think it would have even crossed my mind to mate with a Neanderthal. 18 00:01:37,847 --> 00:01:40,441 Spectacular new discoveries. 19 00:01:40,527 --> 00:01:43,360 I'm blown away by that. I mean, that is just amazing. 20 00:01:44,167 --> 00:01:49,287 And the surprising story of why Europeans turned white. 21 00:01:53,527 --> 00:01:56,519 Come with me in the footsteps of our ancestors 22 00:01:56,607 --> 00:01:59,883 on the most epic adventure ever undertaken. 23 00:02:21,247 --> 00:02:25,684 My journey begins in the remote forests of Eastern Europe. 24 00:02:28,407 --> 00:02:31,285 SILvIu: Okay, so you see the cave is down there. 25 00:02:33,087 --> 00:02:36,124 ROBERTS: I'm being led to an ancient cave. 26 00:02:37,327 --> 00:02:41,240 Its location is only known to a handful of people, 27 00:02:41,327 --> 00:02:44,125 including Silviu constantin. 28 00:02:59,327 --> 00:03:03,161 I'm in Romania, somewhere to the south of Transylvania, 29 00:03:03,247 --> 00:03:08,162 and I'm just about to enter the cave of pestera cu Oase. 30 00:03:08,247 --> 00:03:09,646 It's very remote - 31 00:03:09,727 --> 00:03:12,844 about a day and a half's drive from the capital, Bucharest, 32 00:03:12,927 --> 00:03:15,361 and then a trek through the woods. 33 00:03:15,447 --> 00:03:17,642 But I've wanted to come to this place 34 00:03:17,727 --> 00:03:20,605 ever since I first heard what was found here. 35 00:03:20,687 --> 00:03:22,439 Because just a few years ago 36 00:03:22,527 --> 00:03:27,282 an incredibly exciting discovery was made in this cave. 37 00:03:32,647 --> 00:03:34,319 (WATER DRIPPING) 38 00:03:37,727 --> 00:03:41,606 ROBERTS: Something had been hidden here for thousands of years. 39 00:03:42,127 --> 00:03:44,721 Something extremely rare. 40 00:03:48,247 --> 00:03:50,203 In 2002, 41 00:03:50,287 --> 00:03:54,599 a group of divers exploring the furthest reaches of the cave 42 00:03:54,687 --> 00:03:57,155 discovered a hidden chamber. 43 00:03:58,607 --> 00:04:02,725 the cave became known as Pestera cu Oase, 44 00:04:02,807 --> 00:04:05,162 ''the cave of Bones. '' 45 00:04:05,247 --> 00:04:08,205 (SILvIU SPEAKING ENGLISH) 46 00:04:08,927 --> 00:04:11,487 ROBERTS: And how's it looking? Are we gonna have to go right underwater? 47 00:04:11,567 --> 00:04:17,483 (SILvIU SPEAKING ENGLISH) 48 00:04:19,487 --> 00:04:23,082 ROBERTS: We're following the course of an underground river 49 00:04:24,167 --> 00:04:26,840 through narrow tunnels. 50 00:04:27,847 --> 00:04:29,326 ROBERTS: pretty tight. 51 00:04:40,807 --> 00:04:45,483 Eventually, we get close to where the discovery was made. 52 00:04:48,447 --> 00:04:50,802 (PEOPLE CHATTERING) 53 00:04:58,167 --> 00:05:00,044 Silviu, this looks like the end of the line. 54 00:05:00,127 --> 00:05:01,685 (SILvIU SPEAKING ENGLISH) 55 00:05:02,407 --> 00:05:05,717 And, Silviu, when you came to the cave, what did you find here? 56 00:05:05,807 --> 00:05:08,560 (SPEAKING ENGLISH) 57 00:05:21,047 --> 00:05:22,765 ROBERTS: And how old is it? 58 00:05:23,767 --> 00:05:26,565 And 40,000 years old makes it 59 00:05:26,647 --> 00:05:30,322 the first human remains, modern-human remains, 60 00:05:30,407 --> 00:05:33,797 in Europe, and you must have been excited when you got that date. 61 00:05:33,887 --> 00:05:35,843 (SILvIU SPEAKING ENGLISH) 62 00:05:38,407 --> 00:05:39,886 Which was... 63 00:05:41,247 --> 00:05:45,798 (SPEAKING ENGLISH) 64 00:05:55,167 --> 00:05:57,886 And this is what they found. 65 00:05:57,967 --> 00:06:01,880 Not in one piece like this, but in hundreds of fragments 66 00:06:01,967 --> 00:06:05,357 which have been painstakingly glued back together 67 00:06:05,447 --> 00:06:11,602 until we can look at the face of the first known modern European. 68 00:06:15,047 --> 00:06:19,916 And we can be absolutely sure that this is a modern human. 69 00:06:20,007 --> 00:06:22,680 The shape of the skull is unmistakable. 70 00:06:22,767 --> 00:06:27,522 This lovely round brain case just gives it away. 71 00:06:27,607 --> 00:06:32,681 But there are some bits of it that are distinctly less modern-looking. 72 00:06:32,767 --> 00:06:34,962 It's got enormous teeth. 73 00:06:35,047 --> 00:06:39,165 They are massive, compared with the teeth of people today. 74 00:06:39,847 --> 00:06:44,443 Now, those huge teeth are also reflected in the jawbone from the cave, 75 00:06:44,527 --> 00:06:46,165 which is from another person, 76 00:06:46,247 --> 00:06:49,842 but it's also very robust, very chunky. 77 00:06:49,927 --> 00:06:53,124 And so, when I look at the jawbone and the skull together, 78 00:06:53,207 --> 00:06:58,122 I can start to imagine what those early Europeans looked like. 79 00:06:58,207 --> 00:07:02,405 Much more rugged in the face than people do today. 80 00:07:09,287 --> 00:07:12,006 ROBERTS: Who was this person? 81 00:07:23,727 --> 00:07:25,957 Forensic artist Richard Neave 82 00:07:26,047 --> 00:07:31,679 has helped the police solve murder cases by reconstructing faces from skulls. 83 00:07:35,367 --> 00:07:39,280 In the hope of discovering more about the first Europeans 84 00:07:39,367 --> 00:07:43,838 we've asked him to reconstruct the face of the Oase skull. 85 00:07:46,007 --> 00:07:49,477 -So this is Oase. -This is Oase. There we are. 86 00:07:52,887 --> 00:07:57,005 It's wonderful to see, him or her, we're not quite sure, are we... 87 00:07:57,087 --> 00:07:58,520 -No, no. -...fleshed out. 88 00:07:58,607 --> 00:08:01,075 RICHARD: A touch androgynous, maybe, this one. 89 00:08:01,167 --> 00:08:02,566 ROBERTS: It's quite strange, actually, 90 00:08:02,647 --> 00:08:05,161 'cause this doesn't particularly look like 91 00:08:05,287 --> 00:08:08,484 European or African or Asian. It looks, sort of, 92 00:08:08,567 --> 00:08:10,922 almost quite generic, but then I suppose 93 00:08:11,007 --> 00:08:13,646 that's what you'd expect from one of the earliest Europeans. 94 00:08:13,727 --> 00:08:15,558 RICHARD: You look at this and you can think to yourself, 95 00:08:15,647 --> 00:08:17,285 it could go either way. 96 00:08:17,367 --> 00:08:20,643 (STAMMERS) It's almost as though it's a face in flux. 97 00:08:20,727 --> 00:08:24,163 It's got features which could go in any direction. 98 00:08:24,247 --> 00:08:30,322 It could become Negroid. It could become Southeast Asian. 99 00:08:30,527 --> 00:08:32,882 It could become European. 100 00:08:32,967 --> 00:08:36,004 There's the potential for all those different directions 101 00:08:36,087 --> 00:08:39,159 and that's what I find so exciting about it. 102 00:08:39,247 --> 00:08:42,000 ROBERTS: Obviously you've made this in clay and that's why it's brown, but... 103 00:08:42,087 --> 00:08:44,999 -Yes. -...in fact, it's very likely that these 104 00:08:45,087 --> 00:08:47,726 earliest of Europeans were 105 00:08:47,807 --> 00:08:50,321 quite dark-skinned, much, much darker-skinned 106 00:08:50,407 --> 00:08:52,523 than we think of Europeans being today. 107 00:08:52,607 --> 00:08:54,325 -Yes. -Because, at the end of the day, 108 00:08:54,447 --> 00:08:56,756 you know, they're only just arriving in Europe. 109 00:08:56,847 --> 00:08:58,724 They're coming from much more tropical places. 110 00:08:58,807 --> 00:09:00,035 -Yeah. -So, I think, you know, 111 00:09:00,127 --> 00:09:02,482 we may be looking at something which is actually quite lifelike here. 112 00:09:02,567 --> 00:09:05,035 RICHARD: We're not too far from... No. ROBERTS: No. 113 00:09:09,727 --> 00:09:13,925 I've been really excited to see what this face would end up looking like, 114 00:09:14,007 --> 00:09:19,525 and I do feel as though I'm getting much closer to our ancestors. 115 00:09:22,487 --> 00:09:26,446 But where did these first European people come from? 116 00:09:28,887 --> 00:09:33,278 And why do we find their bones in a Romanian cave? 117 00:09:42,647 --> 00:09:46,720 Previously, I found evidence that everyone outside Africa 118 00:09:46,847 --> 00:09:49,839 descends from one small group of people 119 00:09:49,927 --> 00:09:54,205 that left the continent around 70,000 years ago. 120 00:09:56,967 --> 00:10:00,755 Some of their descendants must have made it north, 121 00:10:00,847 --> 00:10:04,965 through the Middle East, towards modern-day turkey. 122 00:10:16,127 --> 00:10:18,004 This is border country. 123 00:10:18,087 --> 00:10:21,716 Thirty miles away, Turkey meets Syria and the Middle East. 124 00:10:21,807 --> 00:10:26,085 Today, everything in that direction might look alien and hostile, 125 00:10:26,167 --> 00:10:27,805 but 50,000 years ago 126 00:10:27,887 --> 00:10:30,924 it was Europe, the land that lay ahead, 127 00:10:31,007 --> 00:10:35,523 which would be more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. 128 00:10:40,207 --> 00:10:43,165 Venturing this way, people would have been coming to lands 129 00:10:43,247 --> 00:10:49,038 far colder and more challenging than anything they'd experienced before. 130 00:10:51,487 --> 00:10:54,684 traces of their journey all that time ago 131 00:10:54,767 --> 00:10:57,565 are few and far between. 132 00:11:01,567 --> 00:11:05,276 But some important clues have been unearthed 133 00:11:05,367 --> 00:11:07,198 in southern turkey. 134 00:11:12,207 --> 00:11:15,916 And this is how we know that people came through Turkey 135 00:11:16,007 --> 00:11:17,201 at this point in time. 136 00:11:17,287 --> 00:11:20,279 Now, it might look utterly insignificant, 137 00:11:20,367 --> 00:11:22,676 but shells like this one were found at a place 138 00:11:22,767 --> 00:11:24,883 called ucagizli on the Turkish coast 139 00:11:24,967 --> 00:11:27,527 and they are vital clues. 140 00:11:27,607 --> 00:11:29,563 The hole in them suggests 141 00:11:29,647 --> 00:11:32,081 that they were pendants, perhaps part of a necklace, 142 00:11:32,167 --> 00:11:34,044 and the ucagizli shell beads 143 00:11:34,127 --> 00:11:38,279 date back to around 42,000 years ago. 144 00:11:38,367 --> 00:11:41,006 They are the first pieces of evidence that we have 145 00:11:41,087 --> 00:11:45,160 as we follow the trail of our European ancestors. 146 00:11:49,127 --> 00:11:51,687 there may have been other routes into Europe, 147 00:11:51,767 --> 00:11:55,840 but the evidence we have seems to point in this direction. 148 00:12:00,247 --> 00:12:04,081 So I'm heading to Istanbul. 149 00:12:18,607 --> 00:12:20,723 Here, for a few turkish lira, 150 00:12:20,807 --> 00:12:22,923 taxi drivers like Ehsan Akmar 151 00:12:23,007 --> 00:12:26,283 carry their passengers between two continents. 152 00:12:26,367 --> 00:12:28,278 EHSAN: That's Golden Horn. ROBERTS: Right. 153 00:12:28,367 --> 00:12:30,801 (LAuGHING) I'll tell you what, I'll hold that, you drive. 154 00:12:30,887 --> 00:12:33,196 No, no. Don't worry about that. I don't kill anybody yet. 155 00:12:33,287 --> 00:12:35,243 Allah! Allah! Why you don't trust me? 156 00:12:35,327 --> 00:12:36,396 (ROBERTS LAuGHING) 157 00:12:36,487 --> 00:12:37,715 (EHSAN SPEAKING ARABIC) 158 00:12:37,807 --> 00:12:39,479 ROBERTS: So, Ehsan, as a taxi driver... EHSAN: Yeah? 159 00:12:39,567 --> 00:12:42,764 ...do you cross over between Asia and Europe every day? 160 00:12:42,847 --> 00:12:45,315 -Most people live in Asian side. -ROBERTS: Yeah. 161 00:12:45,407 --> 00:12:49,798 Working that side. Because most office and business here, 162 00:12:49,887 --> 00:12:51,957 more houses there. 163 00:12:52,047 --> 00:12:56,359 But I'm here looking for traces of people who crossed the Bosporus 164 00:12:56,447 --> 00:13:00,156 maybe 50, maybe 40,000 years ago. 165 00:13:00,247 --> 00:13:01,919 My God! How can I know that time? 166 00:13:02,007 --> 00:13:03,565 (SPEAKING ARABIC) 167 00:13:03,647 --> 00:13:04,762 Let me I pray. 168 00:13:04,847 --> 00:13:05,882 (BOTH LAuGHING) 169 00:13:05,967 --> 00:13:07,082 This is too... 170 00:13:07,167 --> 00:13:08,998 I don't know how can this generation... 171 00:13:09,087 --> 00:13:11,396 How can I know that generation? My God! 172 00:13:11,487 --> 00:13:15,116 Alice, now, you're made me trouble that kind. But that's okay. 173 00:13:20,407 --> 00:13:23,956 ROBERTS: I bail out of the taxi and catch the ferry 174 00:13:24,047 --> 00:13:27,278 to cross from one continent to another. 175 00:13:33,687 --> 00:13:35,917 this is the Bosporus, 176 00:13:36,007 --> 00:13:40,159 and here it separates Asia from Europe. 177 00:13:50,607 --> 00:13:54,600 this is one challenge our ancestors would not have faced. 178 00:13:56,967 --> 00:14:00,801 When they came this way, sea levels were much lower 179 00:14:00,887 --> 00:14:03,481 and they could have walked across into Europe. 180 00:14:19,567 --> 00:14:24,197 But can we really retrace their steps, using only a few shells 181 00:14:24,287 --> 00:14:25,959 and a scattering of artefacts? 182 00:14:27,287 --> 00:14:29,881 The good news is we don't have to. 183 00:14:29,967 --> 00:14:31,764 The evidence is all around us - 184 00:14:31,847 --> 00:14:34,486 or to be more precise, inside all of us. 185 00:14:36,207 --> 00:14:39,279 Our DNA tells us something incredible 186 00:14:39,367 --> 00:14:44,646 by revealing the existence of one very special woman. 187 00:14:44,727 --> 00:14:47,764 We don't know who she was or where she lived. 188 00:14:47,847 --> 00:14:51,442 And in fact, we have no physical evidence of her at all. 189 00:14:51,527 --> 00:14:55,236 No bones. No stone tools. No beads. 190 00:14:55,327 --> 00:15:00,003 But we do know that she existed because of her genetic legacy. 191 00:15:00,087 --> 00:15:03,875 And some scientists have felt moved to name her Europa, 192 00:15:03,967 --> 00:15:08,916 because in one sense hers is the founding lineage of Europe. 193 00:15:12,647 --> 00:15:16,196 today, 10% of Europeans can trace their genes 194 00:15:16,287 --> 00:15:18,482 back to this one woman. 195 00:15:18,567 --> 00:15:22,958 Geneticists estimate that she lived around 40,000 years ago. 196 00:15:23,047 --> 00:15:25,800 And that fits with the archaeological evidence, 197 00:15:25,887 --> 00:15:28,003 like those shell beads. 198 00:15:29,927 --> 00:15:32,839 It's incredible to think of Europa's descendants 199 00:15:32,927 --> 00:15:37,637 as a small wave of nomads, making their way through this region 200 00:15:37,727 --> 00:15:39,399 all those years ago. 201 00:15:43,607 --> 00:15:46,280 But where might they have gone next? 202 00:15:59,727 --> 00:16:01,957 For our ancestors, where I'm going now 203 00:16:02,047 --> 00:16:04,481 would have been a journey into the unknown. 204 00:16:04,567 --> 00:16:06,159 This is the River Danube, 205 00:16:06,287 --> 00:16:10,644 and today it flows through capital cities like Budapest and vienna. 206 00:16:10,727 --> 00:16:12,843 But 40,000 years ago, 207 00:16:12,927 --> 00:16:16,602 it would have been a gateway to a whole new world. 208 00:16:16,687 --> 00:16:19,326 I'm going to follow our ancestors upstream, 209 00:16:19,407 --> 00:16:21,875 right into the heart of Europe. 210 00:16:39,927 --> 00:16:42,725 North of Istanbul is the Black Sea, 211 00:16:42,847 --> 00:16:45,202 and the mouth of the Danube. 212 00:16:45,287 --> 00:16:47,482 the river runs through Romania, 213 00:16:47,607 --> 00:16:52,840 very close to the Oase cave and the earliest known European. 214 00:16:53,567 --> 00:16:58,721 It looks like those first few colonisers may have been using the Danube 215 00:16:58,807 --> 00:17:01,765 as a super-highway, heading west. 216 00:17:11,007 --> 00:17:15,239 But as they followed the Danube's mighty meandering course, 217 00:17:15,327 --> 00:17:17,522 they were in for a shock. 218 00:17:17,607 --> 00:17:22,237 Something or someone had got there before them. 219 00:17:32,247 --> 00:17:36,206 Europa's descendants weren't entering virgin territory. 220 00:17:45,607 --> 00:17:47,404 For a quarter of a million years, 221 00:17:47,487 --> 00:17:51,480 another species of human had called Europe home. 222 00:17:55,207 --> 00:17:57,277 the Neanderthals. 223 00:18:05,767 --> 00:18:11,205 This is a reconstruction of a man who lived a very long time ago in Italy. 224 00:18:11,287 --> 00:18:14,757 And he's not a modern human, he's a Neanderthal. 225 00:18:15,567 --> 00:18:18,718 And I think when you first look at his face, 226 00:18:20,087 --> 00:18:22,965 the similarities probably strike you more than the differences, 227 00:18:23,047 --> 00:18:25,845 so he looks quite human. 228 00:18:25,927 --> 00:18:28,282 Would you notice him walking along in the street? 229 00:18:29,167 --> 00:18:31,681 But then there are things which do look a bit odd. 230 00:18:31,767 --> 00:18:33,883 The distance between his eyes. 231 00:18:33,967 --> 00:18:35,958 The breadth of his nose, just here. 232 00:18:36,047 --> 00:18:38,038 That looks a bit strange. 233 00:18:38,127 --> 00:18:41,756 And he's got this amazing brow ridge. 234 00:18:41,847 --> 00:18:44,281 It really sticks out over his eyes. 235 00:18:47,967 --> 00:18:50,879 Neanderthals are our distant cousins. 236 00:18:50,967 --> 00:18:52,525 their ancestors reached Europe 237 00:18:52,607 --> 00:18:55,485 hundreds of thousands of years before us. 238 00:18:57,287 --> 00:18:59,562 they spread across a huge region, 239 00:18:59,647 --> 00:19:02,286 from Siberia to Spain. 240 00:19:04,207 --> 00:19:08,917 So when Homo sapiens first arrived around 40,000 years ago, 241 00:19:09,007 --> 00:19:11,840 Europe was already taken. 242 00:19:19,007 --> 00:19:21,680 What were our ancestors up against? 243 00:19:23,847 --> 00:19:28,716 the popular image of Neanderthals is lumbering and slow-witted. 244 00:19:37,127 --> 00:19:39,687 ROBERTS: What do you think they would have thought of each other? 245 00:19:39,767 --> 00:19:43,043 (LAuGHS) I think they would have been really scared of each other. 246 00:19:43,127 --> 00:19:45,880 It's actually very hard to imagine what they would have thought of each other. 247 00:19:45,967 --> 00:19:48,800 I think it would have been a fascinating experience 248 00:19:48,887 --> 00:19:51,447 to watch a sort of contact like that, 249 00:19:51,527 --> 00:19:54,166 between two very closely related species, 250 00:19:54,247 --> 00:19:56,158 that are also clearly very different from each other, 251 00:19:56,247 --> 00:20:00,126 both anatomically, as you can see, but also behaviourally. 252 00:20:00,207 --> 00:20:03,165 And in terms of differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, 253 00:20:03,247 --> 00:20:05,158 is there anything we can say about 254 00:20:05,247 --> 00:20:07,238 how that might have influenced behaviour? 255 00:20:07,327 --> 00:20:10,319 Okay, the one thing to point out is that 256 00:20:10,407 --> 00:20:12,477 Neanderthals were actually sophisticated hunters, 257 00:20:12,567 --> 00:20:14,398 we know that they were top predators. 258 00:20:14,487 --> 00:20:17,047 And actually, they have very large brains - 259 00:20:17,127 --> 00:20:19,402 on average, larger than ours. 260 00:20:22,687 --> 00:20:24,439 ROBERTS: As well as big brains, 261 00:20:24,527 --> 00:20:27,644 the Neanderthals may have had another advantage. 262 00:20:27,727 --> 00:20:32,084 they had been in Europe long enough to adapt to the cold. 263 00:20:33,287 --> 00:20:36,120 their stocky bodies and short limbs 264 00:20:36,207 --> 00:20:38,596 helped them to stay warm. 265 00:20:38,687 --> 00:20:41,440 And that's not all. 266 00:20:42,407 --> 00:20:45,126 This is a reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton, 267 00:20:45,207 --> 00:20:49,803 and generally speaking the skeleton is very similar to ours. 268 00:20:49,887 --> 00:20:51,286 Having said that, 269 00:20:51,367 --> 00:20:52,686 there are definite differences - 270 00:20:52,767 --> 00:20:55,964 the shape of all the bones is subtly different. 271 00:20:56,047 --> 00:20:58,800 And anywhere that muscles attach on this skeleton 272 00:20:58,887 --> 00:21:02,926 is much more prominent than it would be in a modern human. 273 00:21:03,407 --> 00:21:06,877 So this would have been a person who was much more heavily muscled, 274 00:21:06,967 --> 00:21:10,516 generally much more rugged-looking than us today. 275 00:21:15,087 --> 00:21:18,124 they would have been formidable competitors. 276 00:21:34,527 --> 00:21:38,440 The Neanderthals were tougher and better cold-adapted than us, 277 00:21:38,527 --> 00:21:42,315 and some of them even had bigger brains than modern humans. 278 00:21:42,407 --> 00:21:43,726 On the face of it, then, 279 00:21:43,807 --> 00:21:47,925 it seems quite surprising that our species lasted very long at all. 280 00:21:49,167 --> 00:21:52,398 So how did we overcome the Neanderthals? 281 00:21:56,087 --> 00:21:59,682 Maybe our tools and weapons were just better than theirs. 282 00:22:00,807 --> 00:22:05,005 Well, for decades that's exactly what the experts thought. 283 00:22:09,287 --> 00:22:13,838 But this idea hadn't been thoroughly tested - until now. 284 00:22:15,567 --> 00:22:17,523 So how are you doing? 285 00:22:17,607 --> 00:22:18,881 Oh, doing all right. 286 00:22:18,967 --> 00:22:20,446 (ALL SIGH) 287 00:22:21,447 --> 00:22:25,122 ROBERTS: Bruce Bradley and Metin Eren spent over a year 288 00:22:25,207 --> 00:22:28,040 making thousands of basic cutting tools. 289 00:22:31,727 --> 00:22:33,877 ROBERTS: So you've got these two tools, this one 290 00:22:33,967 --> 00:22:36,435 a basic tool made by a Neanderthal, 291 00:22:36,527 --> 00:22:38,483 and this one a basic tool made by a modern human, 292 00:22:38,567 --> 00:22:40,523 -at the same sort of period. -BRuCE: Correct. 293 00:22:40,607 --> 00:22:42,404 Now, they're obviously very different-looking. 294 00:22:42,487 --> 00:22:45,240 This one's long and thin and this one is round. 295 00:22:45,367 --> 00:22:46,800 But are they different in terms of function, 296 00:22:46,887 --> 00:22:48,559 in terms of what they're used for? 297 00:22:48,647 --> 00:22:52,435 They were used for the same kind of tasks. Mostly cutting tasks. 298 00:22:52,527 --> 00:22:54,563 So, for example, I mean, both are really sharp, 299 00:22:54,647 --> 00:22:56,797 if you want to use both of those to cut. 300 00:22:56,887 --> 00:22:58,366 Some pretty thick leather here. 301 00:22:58,447 --> 00:23:00,358 ROBERTS: This is a typical Neanderthal tool? 302 00:23:00,447 --> 00:23:02,119 Exactly. You can see that 303 00:23:02,207 --> 00:23:04,323 it just cuts through this very thick leather very easily. 304 00:23:04,407 --> 00:23:06,841 (LAuGHS) That is incredibly sharp. 305 00:23:06,927 --> 00:23:09,043 METIN: Yes. ROBERTS: Look at that. Wow. 306 00:23:09,127 --> 00:23:12,119 -And this is really tough leather. -That's really effective, isn't it? 307 00:23:12,247 --> 00:23:13,521 ROBERTS: That's brilliant. METIN: Yeah. 308 00:23:13,607 --> 00:23:15,325 BRuCE: Now let's try the blade. 309 00:23:15,407 --> 00:23:16,681 Hold it very carefully, 'cause it's... 310 00:23:16,767 --> 00:23:19,076 ROBERTS: This is the sort of thing that was made by modern humans. 311 00:23:19,167 --> 00:23:20,486 BRuCE: Exactly. 312 00:23:23,607 --> 00:23:26,121 ROBERTS: If anything, I would say that the flake is a bit... 313 00:23:26,207 --> 00:23:28,596 I mean, that's cutting, but just... 314 00:23:28,687 --> 00:23:30,723 You know, just picking up the tool and using it immediately, 315 00:23:30,807 --> 00:23:33,275 I'd say the flake's actually a bit easier to use. 316 00:23:33,367 --> 00:23:36,040 When we created thousands of tools, 317 00:23:36,127 --> 00:23:40,359 we found that the technology of the Neanderthals 318 00:23:40,447 --> 00:23:43,598 actually produced more cutting edge, overall, 319 00:23:43,687 --> 00:23:47,475 it wasted less raw material and you could produce more tools 320 00:23:47,567 --> 00:23:50,081 than the blade cores of the modern Homo sapiens. 321 00:23:50,167 --> 00:23:51,839 I imagine that's very new, isn't it? 322 00:23:51,927 --> 00:23:53,838 It's quite remarkable, because you're telling me 323 00:23:53,927 --> 00:23:56,839 that the Neanderthal technology is just as good, 324 00:23:56,927 --> 00:23:59,316 in fact, if not better than the modern humans'. 325 00:23:59,407 --> 00:24:00,965 I mean, that goes against everything 326 00:24:01,047 --> 00:24:03,322 that people have said for the last few decades. 327 00:24:03,407 --> 00:24:06,638 That's true, and it was a very exciting result. 328 00:24:10,247 --> 00:24:12,158 ROBERTS: It's just one study 329 00:24:12,247 --> 00:24:14,841 on one aspect of tool-making. 330 00:24:16,287 --> 00:24:18,596 But I still think it's important. 331 00:24:21,087 --> 00:24:25,797 This is fascinating, and it means that the long-standing theory 332 00:24:25,887 --> 00:24:31,678 about modern human technology being superior to Neanderthal stone tools 333 00:24:31,767 --> 00:24:33,439 just doesn't stand up. 334 00:24:42,607 --> 00:24:45,758 I want to see if there's another explanation 335 00:24:45,847 --> 00:24:49,396 for why we survived and Neanderthals didn't. 336 00:24:55,487 --> 00:24:57,523 I'm on my way to meet an expert 337 00:24:57,607 --> 00:25:00,599 who thinks the answer may be much less obvious... 338 00:25:03,807 --> 00:25:07,720 Okay, Alice, let's see if I can find everything. 339 00:25:07,807 --> 00:25:11,436 ROBERTS: ...thanks to some discoveries made here in Germany. 340 00:25:15,807 --> 00:25:20,642 This is a very unusual artefact, because it's a flute 341 00:25:20,727 --> 00:25:24,322 and the strange thing about this is, what's really spectacular, 342 00:25:24,407 --> 00:25:26,762 is that it's made of solid mammoth ivory. 343 00:25:26,847 --> 00:25:29,680 It takes between 50 and 100 hours to make one if you know how to do it. 344 00:25:29,767 --> 00:25:31,962 ROBERTS: Yeah. It's been carved down to that shape. 345 00:25:32,047 --> 00:25:36,404 Yes. It really takes talent and, really, genius in the same sense that, 346 00:25:36,487 --> 00:25:39,638 I don't know, a Michelangelo or Rembrandt or something like that. 347 00:25:39,767 --> 00:25:42,281 ROBERTS: So it's the first sign we've had, 348 00:25:42,367 --> 00:25:44,562 the first archaeological evidence we've had 349 00:25:44,647 --> 00:25:46,444 of people making music? 350 00:25:46,527 --> 00:25:48,563 Yeah. Music was a part of their lives 351 00:25:48,647 --> 00:25:50,638 just like it's a part of our lives today. 352 00:25:50,727 --> 00:25:52,240 So what's in here? 353 00:25:52,327 --> 00:25:56,366 Okay. This is a very interesting piece. This is... 354 00:25:57,527 --> 00:26:00,121 the representation 355 00:26:00,847 --> 00:26:04,476 of a phallus. And it's not delicate at all. 356 00:26:04,567 --> 00:26:06,444 -It won't break. You can hold it. -(LAuGHS) All right. Okay. 357 00:26:06,527 --> 00:26:08,677 -And if you look at it, the ring... -Yeah. 358 00:26:08,807 --> 00:26:12,083 NICHOLAS: ...around here, you know, it makes a fairly obvious sexual image. 359 00:26:12,167 --> 00:26:13,316 (LAuGHING) Yeah. 360 00:26:13,407 --> 00:26:17,366 Yeah, one could, you know, easily imagine using it in 361 00:26:17,447 --> 00:26:20,678 -ritual functions, or also... -Yeah. 362 00:26:20,767 --> 00:26:24,237 ...you know, straight sexual functions in one form or another. 363 00:26:24,327 --> 00:26:27,922 So do you think this is the first archaeological evidence of smut? 364 00:26:28,007 --> 00:26:29,645 (BOTH CHuCKLE) 365 00:26:29,767 --> 00:26:32,122 I don't know. I wouldn't rule that out. 366 00:26:32,207 --> 00:26:33,526 (BOTH LAuGH) 367 00:26:33,607 --> 00:26:35,757 I can't believe it. I'm an anatomist and you've made me blush 368 00:26:35,847 --> 00:26:38,645 with a bit of prehistoric phallic imagery. 369 00:26:40,007 --> 00:26:44,205 ROBERTS: It seems our ancestors were more like us than we might imagine. 370 00:26:48,127 --> 00:26:50,960 But this doesn't really answer my question. 371 00:26:51,047 --> 00:26:55,563 After all, what use is a flute against a Neanderthal? 372 00:27:03,767 --> 00:27:08,363 Nicholas takes me to see the cave where the artefacts were found. 373 00:27:12,127 --> 00:27:15,961 Our ancestors weren't the only people who lived here. 374 00:27:18,447 --> 00:27:21,564 This is the famous southwest entrance of the cave. 375 00:27:21,647 --> 00:27:25,356 This is actually very close to where the human remains remained, 376 00:27:25,447 --> 00:27:27,324 but there were definitely Neanderthals here. 377 00:27:27,407 --> 00:27:30,877 There are a number of deposits in the lower sediments 378 00:27:30,967 --> 00:27:33,435 made by Neanderthals. So Neanderthals and modern humans 379 00:27:33,527 --> 00:27:35,324 were definitely both here at Fuldevert, which is... 380 00:27:35,407 --> 00:27:36,635 ROBERTS: Both using these caves? 381 00:27:36,727 --> 00:27:38,319 Both using this cave, 382 00:27:38,407 --> 00:27:41,399 but also using a number of other caves in the Lohne valley where we are. 383 00:27:49,567 --> 00:27:53,082 ROBERTS: Many beautiful objects have been found in this region. 384 00:27:54,607 --> 00:27:56,438 Made by our ancestors, 385 00:27:56,527 --> 00:28:01,237 they reveal a crucial difference between us and Neanderthals. 386 00:28:03,647 --> 00:28:05,842 this figure of a lion man 387 00:28:05,967 --> 00:28:09,482 was made around 35,000 years ago. 388 00:28:09,567 --> 00:28:11,603 But it's not a one-off. 389 00:28:11,687 --> 00:28:14,440 Other strikingly similar pieces 390 00:28:14,527 --> 00:28:16,563 have been found in the region. 391 00:28:18,967 --> 00:28:20,685 What's going on here? 392 00:28:25,047 --> 00:28:28,198 The modern humans, here, and for instance in the neighbouring valley 393 00:28:28,287 --> 00:28:31,882 make the exact same artefacts and they are definitely part of the same group. 394 00:28:31,967 --> 00:28:35,516 There's no way that it's chance that you get identical artefacts 395 00:28:35,607 --> 00:28:38,360 at sites, you know, 20, 30, 40 kilometres away. 396 00:28:38,567 --> 00:28:41,684 And that tells us that populations with a shared identity 397 00:28:41,767 --> 00:28:44,679 were fairly large, covering fairly large areas. 398 00:28:44,767 --> 00:28:48,521 presumably interacting, mating with one another, helping each other, 399 00:28:48,607 --> 00:28:52,759 and Neanderthals don't seem to have had that kind of symbolic communication 400 00:28:52,847 --> 00:28:57,318 and seem to have maintained smaller social networks than modern humans. 401 00:28:59,127 --> 00:29:01,846 ROBERTS: So it seems that, unlike Neanderthals, 402 00:29:01,927 --> 00:29:05,966 the scattered tribes of our ancestors were held together 403 00:29:06,047 --> 00:29:08,561 by a strong shared identity. 404 00:29:16,207 --> 00:29:19,438 The great flowering of art suggests 405 00:29:19,527 --> 00:29:23,566 that people were reaching out to each other across the landscape 406 00:29:23,647 --> 00:29:26,161 in a way they'd never done before. 407 00:29:26,247 --> 00:29:29,922 Art wasn't just something they were doing in their spare time. 408 00:29:30,007 --> 00:29:32,567 It was crucial to survival, 409 00:29:32,647 --> 00:29:36,117 a way of marking territory and identity. 410 00:29:36,207 --> 00:29:40,166 A bit like national flags or football shirts today. 411 00:29:40,247 --> 00:29:43,319 And in that competition with the Neanderthals, 412 00:29:43,407 --> 00:29:49,243 it seems that art and what it stood for may have given us the edge. 413 00:29:52,607 --> 00:29:57,601 these links between family groups may have been critical to our success. 414 00:30:03,327 --> 00:30:07,639 And as we advanced, Neanderthals began to retreat... 415 00:30:09,367 --> 00:30:12,006 to the very edge of the continent. 416 00:30:20,567 --> 00:30:24,879 I'm heading to what may have been the last-ever Neanderthal colony. 417 00:30:29,287 --> 00:30:34,156 And I'm hoping to discover why they finally died out. 418 00:30:50,047 --> 00:30:53,756 I'm in Gibraltar, a naval stronghold for centuries, 419 00:30:53,847 --> 00:30:58,125 and new evidence from these rocky shores suggests 420 00:30:58,207 --> 00:31:01,802 that thousands of years after they disappeared from the rest of Europe, 421 00:31:01,887 --> 00:31:04,765 the Neanderthals were clinging on here. 422 00:31:06,567 --> 00:31:11,561 When Neanderthals lived here, sea levels were up to a hundred metres lower, 423 00:31:11,647 --> 00:31:16,004 so much of the evidence from that time could be underwater. 424 00:31:19,927 --> 00:31:25,001 A team of specialists is probing the ocean floor looking for traces 425 00:31:25,087 --> 00:31:27,317 of the Gibraltar Neanderthals. 426 00:31:30,487 --> 00:31:34,196 We've come to a stop now because we are over the archaeological site. 427 00:31:34,287 --> 00:31:37,962 It's about 20 metres below the surface of the sea below us. 428 00:31:38,047 --> 00:31:39,844 The divers are all getting ready, 429 00:31:39,927 --> 00:31:42,680 and these are divers but also archaeologists, so they're going to be 430 00:31:42,767 --> 00:31:46,123 excavating the sea bottom in search of Neanderthals. 431 00:31:52,527 --> 00:31:55,837 these divers are up against poor visibility 432 00:31:55,927 --> 00:31:58,122 with a limited oxygen supply. 433 00:31:58,207 --> 00:32:01,324 Underwater archaeology is always challenging. 434 00:32:04,967 --> 00:32:10,599 But clive Finlayson has already made a series of significant discoveries 435 00:32:10,687 --> 00:32:12,757 in the sea caves nearby. 436 00:32:13,807 --> 00:32:16,196 CLIvE: This is where the last Neanderthals made their last stand, 437 00:32:16,287 --> 00:32:18,084 if you like, 24,000 years ago. 438 00:32:23,247 --> 00:32:25,477 We get the feeling it's the nearest thing to a Neanderthal city 439 00:32:25,567 --> 00:32:26,716 you're gonna find anywhere. 440 00:32:26,807 --> 00:32:30,641 We've got fossils, stone tools, animals that they've been butchering, 441 00:32:30,727 --> 00:32:34,197 all kinds of evidence, hearths, Neanderthal barbecues if you like. 442 00:32:34,287 --> 00:32:35,925 It's a very, very special site. 443 00:32:44,007 --> 00:32:47,443 ROBERTS: they think that Neanderthals may have held on here 444 00:32:47,527 --> 00:32:51,042 long after they'd been wiped out in the rest of Europe. 445 00:32:55,647 --> 00:33:00,118 But after the Neanderthals finally disappeared from Gibraltar, 446 00:33:00,207 --> 00:33:04,678 there was a gap of 5,000 years before we turned up. 447 00:33:07,967 --> 00:33:12,597 So it looks as though whatever finally killed Neanderthals off, 448 00:33:12,687 --> 00:33:14,484 it wasn't us. 449 00:33:17,447 --> 00:33:19,756 What do you think eventually wiped them out? 450 00:33:20,727 --> 00:33:22,957 It may have been a numbers game - there were so few left. 451 00:33:23,047 --> 00:33:25,845 As would happen to populations of endangered species today, 452 00:33:25,927 --> 00:33:27,360 like the panda or the tiger. 453 00:33:28,207 --> 00:33:30,767 Just random fluctuation in numbers can bring it down to zero, 454 00:33:30,847 --> 00:33:33,407 and there's no recovery from zero, so it could've been that. 455 00:33:33,487 --> 00:33:36,240 It could've been disease, in-breeding, 456 00:33:36,327 --> 00:33:39,046 a whole range of factors that can affect a small population 457 00:33:39,127 --> 00:33:40,526 and knock them over the edge. 458 00:33:41,167 --> 00:33:43,681 (BIRDS SQUAWKING) 459 00:33:48,367 --> 00:33:52,326 I find it very moving to think that one day the last Neanderthal 460 00:33:52,407 --> 00:33:56,639 might have been sitting here, staring out to sea 461 00:33:56,727 --> 00:34:00,083 and perhaps waiting for their companions to return. 462 00:34:00,167 --> 00:34:04,763 Or maybe he or she knew that they were the last of their tribe or their family. 463 00:34:04,847 --> 00:34:07,998 But they can't have known that they were the last 464 00:34:08,087 --> 00:34:10,078 of their entire species. 465 00:34:15,247 --> 00:34:18,398 So that was the end of the Neanderthals. 466 00:34:20,567 --> 00:34:22,364 Or was it? 467 00:34:25,087 --> 00:34:28,159 Some scientists believe their descendants 468 00:34:28,247 --> 00:34:30,807 are still walking around today. 469 00:34:33,567 --> 00:34:36,684 If our ancestors interbred with them, 470 00:34:36,767 --> 00:34:40,806 some of us could be part Neanderthal. 471 00:34:43,727 --> 00:34:48,084 Obviously to Neanderthals, a fine Neanderthal man must have been 472 00:34:48,167 --> 00:34:50,123 very handsome to a Neanderthal woman. 473 00:34:50,207 --> 00:34:54,120 And a Neanderthal woman, despite her massive brows and very chunky face, 474 00:34:54,207 --> 00:34:57,961 must have looked wonderful to a Neanderthal man. 475 00:34:58,047 --> 00:35:00,515 But I think we look at them and think they look, 476 00:35:00,607 --> 00:35:04,441 I don't know, yeah, just a bit ugly. 477 00:35:04,527 --> 00:35:08,122 I don't think it would've even crossed my mind to fancy 478 00:35:08,207 --> 00:35:10,675 or perhaps mate with a Neanderthal. 479 00:35:14,327 --> 00:35:18,036 It seems our ancestors felt the same way as me. 480 00:35:19,207 --> 00:35:23,166 Researchers are now sequencing the Neanderthal genome, 481 00:35:23,247 --> 00:35:28,002 using DNA from bones tens of thousands of years old, 482 00:35:28,087 --> 00:35:30,043 and comparing it with our own. 483 00:35:32,207 --> 00:35:36,359 And so far there's no sign of any interbreeding. 484 00:35:38,447 --> 00:35:41,917 Neanderthals really did die out, 485 00:35:42,647 --> 00:35:45,286 and Europe was ours. 486 00:36:05,487 --> 00:36:10,845 Soon descendants of the first pioneers would be joined by new arrivals. 487 00:36:12,007 --> 00:36:15,443 About 100% of Europeans living today are descended 488 00:36:15,527 --> 00:36:19,566 from those ancient pioneers who shared the continent with the Neanderthals. 489 00:36:19,647 --> 00:36:20,875 But what about the rest of us? 490 00:36:20,967 --> 00:36:25,165 Well, our genes tell us that after the Neanderthals disappeared 491 00:36:25,247 --> 00:36:28,762 there was a second big wave of colonisation into Europe, 492 00:36:28,847 --> 00:36:32,965 and some of us appear to be descended from that wave. 493 00:36:34,807 --> 00:36:37,765 I'd like to know where I fit in this story. 494 00:36:39,887 --> 00:36:42,003 I've taken a genetic test. 495 00:36:44,007 --> 00:36:45,884 Something anyone can do. 496 00:36:46,247 --> 00:36:50,160 It should be possible for me to find out if I can trace my DNA 497 00:36:50,247 --> 00:36:52,681 all the way back to Europa, 498 00:36:52,767 --> 00:36:55,600 or whether my ancestors arrived much later. 499 00:37:00,567 --> 00:37:04,037 So I've got the results back of my DNA analysis 500 00:37:04,127 --> 00:37:06,038 and they look extraordinarily complicated, 501 00:37:06,127 --> 00:37:10,962 even though this is actually only a tiny fragment of my genetic code. 502 00:37:11,047 --> 00:37:16,360 And I've also got the genetic code for Europe's first lady, Europa, 503 00:37:16,447 --> 00:37:21,601 here in front of me, so I can compare our DNA sequences. 504 00:37:22,807 --> 00:37:25,719 At first sight we seem identical. 505 00:37:33,727 --> 00:37:36,002 But when you look really carefully, 506 00:37:36,087 --> 00:37:38,317 there are some differences. 507 00:37:38,407 --> 00:37:41,638 they may be tiny, but they're crucial. 508 00:37:45,127 --> 00:37:48,324 So this means I'm not descended from Europa. 509 00:37:48,407 --> 00:37:53,606 And in fact these mutations tell me that I'm descended 510 00:37:53,687 --> 00:37:56,918 from another European founding mother. 511 00:38:01,687 --> 00:38:04,360 Some have called this woman Iris, 512 00:38:04,447 --> 00:38:09,441 and her descendants may have been part of a new wave into Europe 513 00:38:09,527 --> 00:38:12,758 around 25,000 years ago. 514 00:38:15,207 --> 00:38:18,119 People that seem to have come from the east, 515 00:38:18,207 --> 00:38:20,596 bringing a new culture with them. 516 00:38:28,247 --> 00:38:30,124 I've come to the Czech Republic, 517 00:38:31,767 --> 00:38:35,442 to the small village of Doln/' Vestonice, 518 00:38:35,527 --> 00:38:38,997 famous for some big archaeological discoveries. 519 00:38:41,487 --> 00:38:45,162 So what do they reveal about this new culture? 520 00:38:52,767 --> 00:38:54,041 ROBERTS: Oh, that's beautiful. 521 00:38:54,127 --> 00:38:59,042 So, we've got several tusks like this in Central and Eastern Europe 522 00:38:59,127 --> 00:39:02,278 which always have a very complex type of engraving. 523 00:39:03,127 --> 00:39:06,437 And one thing that could be suggested 524 00:39:06,527 --> 00:39:09,758 is that this thing could be a meandering river. 525 00:39:09,847 --> 00:39:10,882 ROBERTS: Right. 526 00:39:10,967 --> 00:39:16,519 The way how the tusk is decorated could have had some sort of a meaning, 527 00:39:16,607 --> 00:39:21,317 like accessibility of the field or good for hunting, bad for hunting, 528 00:39:21,407 --> 00:39:24,797 you can push mammoth through or you cannot. 529 00:39:24,887 --> 00:39:26,878 -ROBERTS: So it's a map? -A kind of a map. 530 00:39:26,967 --> 00:39:30,721 And the whole strategy of an action could be planned 531 00:39:30,807 --> 00:39:34,038 on a piece of ivory like that. 532 00:39:38,687 --> 00:39:41,599 ROBERTS: We'll never know for sure if it was a map. 533 00:39:43,167 --> 00:39:47,479 But other artefacts found here are much more significant. 534 00:39:51,727 --> 00:39:56,482 this is the Venus of Doln/' Vestonice. 535 00:39:56,567 --> 00:40:00,355 One of the earliest pieces of pottery in the world. 536 00:40:08,647 --> 00:40:13,482 But the really exciting thing is that other Venus figurines 537 00:40:13,567 --> 00:40:17,003 have been unearthed all over the continent. 538 00:40:21,327 --> 00:40:24,558 What this means is that for the first time 539 00:40:24,647 --> 00:40:29,516 people shared a distinct culture right across Europe. 540 00:40:32,207 --> 00:40:34,596 But in the next few thousand years 541 00:40:34,687 --> 00:40:37,838 our European ancestors would face a threat 542 00:40:37,927 --> 00:40:40,441 that would almost wipe them out. 543 00:40:41,687 --> 00:40:45,646 (THuNDERCLAP) 544 00:40:45,927 --> 00:40:50,398 ROBERTS: Europe was about to experience devastating climate change. 545 00:40:50,847 --> 00:40:53,202 the peak of the Ice Age. 546 00:40:56,127 --> 00:41:00,882 Animals disappeared from the landscape and the ground froze over. 547 00:41:02,207 --> 00:41:06,598 Our ancestors couldn't survive in these Arctic conditions. 548 00:41:12,527 --> 00:41:17,806 By 24,000 years ago, Britain was uninhabitable, 549 00:41:17,887 --> 00:41:20,481 covered in ice half a mile thick. 550 00:41:21,007 --> 00:41:22,565 (WIND BLOWING) 551 00:41:26,087 --> 00:41:29,602 And still the ice sheets pushed further south, 552 00:41:31,007 --> 00:41:35,637 squeezing life from the land and almost wiping out 553 00:41:35,727 --> 00:41:37,604 our ancestors in Europe. 554 00:41:42,287 --> 00:41:45,518 This is the vezere valley in the Dordogne. 555 00:41:45,607 --> 00:41:48,360 During the last Ice Age, the hills around here 556 00:41:48,447 --> 00:41:51,041 would have been bound tight by frost. 557 00:41:51,127 --> 00:41:53,925 And with wind chill, the temperature up there 558 00:41:54,007 --> 00:41:58,239 could be as much as 20 degrees colder than down here in the valley, 559 00:41:58,327 --> 00:42:02,525 where a warmish micro-climate meant life could go on, 560 00:42:02,607 --> 00:42:06,282 and small bands of hunter-gatherers would've huddled together 561 00:42:06,367 --> 00:42:09,564 to survive the long, bitter winters. 562 00:42:15,527 --> 00:42:19,918 But they may not have survived at all, had it not been for this... 563 00:42:23,567 --> 00:42:27,719 the rock shelters and caves that riddle the landscape. 564 00:42:30,847 --> 00:42:36,558 And deep underground, they left something that we still marvel at today. 565 00:42:38,527 --> 00:42:40,836 (WATER DRIPPING) 566 00:43:10,287 --> 00:43:14,758 I'm in a cave called pech Merle, which is stunningly beautiful naturally, 567 00:43:14,847 --> 00:43:19,318 but look at this - this is real artistic expression. 568 00:43:19,407 --> 00:43:23,844 Something that defines us and sets us apart as a species. 569 00:43:23,927 --> 00:43:25,679 And pech Merle is unusual, 570 00:43:25,767 --> 00:43:29,077 because artists were coming here to paint these images 571 00:43:29,167 --> 00:43:33,319 both before and after the peak of the last Ice Age, 572 00:43:33,407 --> 00:43:36,319 generations of them returning to the cave 573 00:43:36,407 --> 00:43:39,240 as the world outside froze over. 574 00:43:42,327 --> 00:43:47,276 This is a very beautiful image and it uses the contours of the rock. 575 00:43:47,927 --> 00:43:52,079 The horse's back sort of curves along a bulge in the rock 576 00:43:52,167 --> 00:43:56,046 and there's an echo of the horse's head on this right side there. 577 00:43:56,127 --> 00:43:59,119 And it's obviously a very stylised horse as well. 578 00:43:59,207 --> 00:44:02,324 And I love the way those spots carry on into the background, 579 00:44:02,407 --> 00:44:05,160 as though the horse is sort of camouflaged against the rock. 580 00:44:06,967 --> 00:44:10,243 And there's a hand placed against the rock just above the horse's back. 581 00:44:10,927 --> 00:44:14,397 I mean, that is amazing, isn't it? That's an Ice Age hand. 582 00:44:14,487 --> 00:44:17,240 (SpUTTERING) 583 00:44:20,327 --> 00:44:25,799 Michel Lorblanchet has devoted his life to studying the art found in caves 584 00:44:25,887 --> 00:44:27,206 like Pech Merle. 585 00:44:27,287 --> 00:44:29,323 (SpUTTERING) 586 00:44:37,847 --> 00:44:41,760 I think I naively imagined that you just take a mouthful of charcoal, 587 00:44:41,847 --> 00:44:45,078 a bit of water and just spit it at the wall and that'd be it. 588 00:44:45,167 --> 00:44:47,476 But of course all that would happen would be that the mess 589 00:44:47,567 --> 00:44:51,446 would run down the wall and obscure the stencil that you were trying to do. 590 00:44:51,527 --> 00:44:54,644 So you have to do it like this, using an almost dry mouth, 591 00:44:54,727 --> 00:44:58,879 and just building it up very gradually with a fine spray. 592 00:45:06,327 --> 00:45:09,763 Michel Lorblanchet did a recreation of the horses at pech Merle 593 00:45:09,847 --> 00:45:11,963 using this technique. It took him a whole week. 594 00:45:13,047 --> 00:45:14,605 -Is it finished? -Yes... 595 00:45:14,687 --> 00:45:16,882 -It's finished. -Yes. That's right. 596 00:45:17,967 --> 00:45:23,121 ROBERTS: But what drove these people, struggling just to survive, to paint? 597 00:45:24,047 --> 00:45:27,756 The vast majority of these images seem to be animals, 598 00:45:27,847 --> 00:45:30,998 there don't seem to be many representations of humans. 599 00:45:31,087 --> 00:45:35,205 No, that's true, they are mainly animal figures. 600 00:45:35,287 --> 00:45:40,884 And for them, of course, animals were not only game, 601 00:45:40,967 --> 00:45:43,606 but also spirits, symbolic, 602 00:45:43,687 --> 00:45:47,965 so the animal figures are, in fact, symbolic figures. 603 00:45:48,047 --> 00:45:51,562 And going into pech Merle, I mean, it's such a beautiful cave 604 00:45:51,647 --> 00:45:53,763 with all the stalactites hanging down 605 00:45:53,847 --> 00:45:58,762 and it does feel as though it was, I don't know, almost a temple. 606 00:45:58,847 --> 00:46:01,566 Yes, that's right, this is a natural temple, if you like. 607 00:46:01,647 --> 00:46:04,115 They are sacred sites. 608 00:46:04,207 --> 00:46:07,279 They are not painting just for fun. 609 00:46:07,367 --> 00:46:11,440 By painting a cave and having a sanctuary, 610 00:46:11,527 --> 00:46:17,762 it is a way for them to say, ''Here is our sacred place.'' 611 00:46:17,887 --> 00:46:22,005 The painted cave is symbolic of the whole tribe. 612 00:46:25,247 --> 00:46:27,966 ROBERTS: Being bound together in this way 613 00:46:28,047 --> 00:46:30,515 may have helped our ancestors survive 614 00:46:30,607 --> 00:46:34,805 the kind of climate change that only haunts our imaginations today. 615 00:46:39,087 --> 00:46:40,884 (WIND BLOWING) 616 00:46:42,887 --> 00:46:47,836 Nearly two thirds of modern Europeans can trace their lineages back 617 00:46:47,927 --> 00:46:52,205 to ancestors who held on in those southern refuges. 618 00:46:58,207 --> 00:47:01,199 It would be more than 1 00 generations 619 00:47:01,287 --> 00:47:04,279 before the world would begin to warm again. 620 00:47:09,687 --> 00:47:13,839 And it may have been around this time that something happened 621 00:47:13,927 --> 00:47:17,476 which would stamp a new identity on the Europeans. 622 00:47:18,567 --> 00:47:21,286 Since the birth of our species in Africa, 623 00:47:21,367 --> 00:47:25,360 our ancestors' skin had almost certainly been dark, 624 00:47:25,447 --> 00:47:29,122 protection against the tropical sun. 625 00:47:29,207 --> 00:47:33,837 But why in Europe did it turn from brown to white? 626 00:47:37,207 --> 00:47:41,200 the surprising answer may lie with a single vitamin. 627 00:47:42,567 --> 00:47:43,920 Vitamin D. 628 00:47:45,007 --> 00:47:48,158 A lack of vitamin D may not sound particularly significant, 629 00:47:48,247 --> 00:47:50,886 but it can be life-threatening. 630 00:47:50,967 --> 00:47:53,162 It can wreak havoc with a growing skeleton, 631 00:47:53,247 --> 00:47:56,683 causing bones to grow bent and misshapen. 632 00:47:56,767 --> 00:48:00,282 These are all skeletons of patients with rickets, 633 00:48:00,367 --> 00:48:02,801 and you can see how it's affected the bones. 634 00:48:02,887 --> 00:48:07,802 These leg bones here are all curved, making walking difficult. 635 00:48:07,887 --> 00:48:12,403 And the chest is deformed, so breathing would be problematic as well. 636 00:48:12,487 --> 00:48:16,844 And not only that, rickets can affect your chance of having children. 637 00:48:16,927 --> 00:48:20,476 This is the pelvis of a woman who had rickets. 638 00:48:20,567 --> 00:48:24,242 And you can see the way that the pelvic bones have collapsed together. 639 00:48:24,327 --> 00:48:28,115 You just could not get a baby's head through this space. 640 00:48:28,207 --> 00:48:31,677 It would've been impossible for her to give birth naturally. 641 00:48:35,287 --> 00:48:37,881 So vitamin D is vital 642 00:48:37,967 --> 00:48:41,721 and we make it in our skin in the presence of sunlight. 643 00:48:42,767 --> 00:48:45,440 But dark skin blocks out the sun, 644 00:48:45,527 --> 00:48:50,362 and in Europe, with its weaker sunlight, this could've been a problem. 645 00:48:50,447 --> 00:48:55,202 Our ancestors may have struggled to make enough vitamin D. 646 00:48:55,287 --> 00:48:59,883 So this could be why Europeans turned white. 647 00:49:08,127 --> 00:49:11,039 But this change in skin colour was nothing 648 00:49:11,127 --> 00:49:14,324 compared with the massive upheaval approaching. 649 00:49:21,287 --> 00:49:23,437 I'm heading back to turkey, 650 00:49:23,527 --> 00:49:28,203 because a recent discovery here shows that after the Ice Age, 651 00:49:28,287 --> 00:49:31,438 our ancestors abandoned their way of life, 652 00:49:32,127 --> 00:49:36,598 one they had followed since our species first appeared in Africa. 653 00:49:41,447 --> 00:49:45,406 And what happened here still defines our world today. 654 00:49:55,487 --> 00:50:01,039 this final stage of my European journey leads to a remote hillside 655 00:50:01,127 --> 00:50:03,436 in the far south of the country. 656 00:50:07,447 --> 00:50:09,358 This is Gobekli Tepe, 657 00:50:10,527 --> 00:50:14,964 an extraordinary site that I'm just incredibly excited to look at. 658 00:50:19,287 --> 00:50:20,606 Hi. Alice. 659 00:50:20,687 --> 00:50:22,120 -Are you Klaus Schmidt? -Nice to meet you. 660 00:50:22,207 --> 00:50:23,481 Hello. I'm Alice Roberts. 661 00:50:23,567 --> 00:50:25,478 (LAuGHS) I heard from your visit. Yeah. 662 00:50:25,567 --> 00:50:27,444 Nice to meet you here in Gobekli Tepe. 663 00:50:27,527 --> 00:50:29,199 I'm so excited about coming here. 664 00:50:29,287 --> 00:50:31,084 It's such an amazing discovery you've made. 665 00:50:31,167 --> 00:50:32,759 It's amazing, that's true, that's very true. 666 00:50:32,847 --> 00:50:34,565 -You seem very excited. -I just this season 667 00:50:34,647 --> 00:50:36,160 we have a lot of new findings. 668 00:50:36,247 --> 00:50:39,683 -So it's worth to have a look. -Oh, come on then, let's have a look. 669 00:50:56,087 --> 00:50:59,841 ROBERTS: Gobekli tepe is 12,000 years old, 670 00:51:00,487 --> 00:51:02,921 over twice as old as the pyramids. 671 00:51:06,087 --> 00:51:09,796 Already, Klaus has found dozens of standing stones, 672 00:51:11,767 --> 00:51:15,237 each one carved with mysterious symbols. 673 00:51:19,767 --> 00:51:25,285 these stone circles are possibly the oldest purpose-built temples 674 00:51:25,367 --> 00:51:26,720 in the world. 675 00:51:34,407 --> 00:51:38,764 KLAuS: Sometimes, there are arms and hands and fingers depicted. 676 00:51:38,847 --> 00:51:43,637 So it's very clear that the T part is a human head in profile 677 00:51:43,767 --> 00:51:46,406 and the shaft of the pillar is the human body. 678 00:51:47,887 --> 00:51:51,562 Here we have an example of the depiction of an arm 679 00:51:51,647 --> 00:51:54,081 which is going down here, and the fingers. 680 00:51:54,167 --> 00:51:56,556 The hand and the fingers are not excavated yet, 681 00:51:56,647 --> 00:52:00,481 but it's clear they will appear when we continue to work here. 682 00:52:01,087 --> 00:52:04,557 So we've got a circle of smaller T-shaped pillars 683 00:52:04,647 --> 00:52:06,763 and then two enormous ones in the centre. 684 00:52:06,847 --> 00:52:10,123 It's always the same, there are two in the centre which are very big 685 00:52:10,207 --> 00:52:14,246 and free-standing, surrounded by smaller but similar ones. 686 00:52:14,327 --> 00:52:16,045 And we understand it as a meeting, 687 00:52:16,127 --> 00:52:19,039 as a gathering of these beings made of stone. 688 00:52:28,127 --> 00:52:31,119 Here now, we have the most interesting reliefs. 689 00:52:31,207 --> 00:52:32,196 ROBERTS: Oh, wow. 690 00:52:32,287 --> 00:52:35,324 KLAuS: Ibis, snake and a vulture. 691 00:52:35,927 --> 00:52:38,566 It's a story illustrated by these animals, 692 00:52:38,647 --> 00:52:40,603 and this story is not a peaceful one. 693 00:52:40,807 --> 00:52:42,843 A scorpion, snake, and so on. 694 00:52:42,967 --> 00:52:46,198 Our model for the function of all this installation is 695 00:52:46,287 --> 00:52:49,085 they have been made for burial reasons. 696 00:52:49,167 --> 00:52:52,921 To bring the dead bodies to open places 697 00:52:53,007 --> 00:52:55,646 and the vultures are eating the flesh and other birds. 698 00:52:55,727 --> 00:52:58,685 So you think this might have been a site for these sky burials? 699 00:52:58,767 --> 00:53:00,678 -KLAuS: Yes, yes... -Where people are left out in the open 700 00:53:00,767 --> 00:53:02,598 to be picked clean by vultures. 701 00:53:02,687 --> 00:53:04,439 -KLAuS: Yes... -And these are the vultures? 702 00:53:04,527 --> 00:53:05,926 KLAuS: (LAuGHS) These are the vultures, yeah. 703 00:53:06,007 --> 00:53:07,918 ROBERTS: It almost looks like hieroglyphics. 704 00:53:08,007 --> 00:53:14,526 Maybe pre-hieroglyphic messages or Stone Age hieroglyphics. 705 00:53:16,607 --> 00:53:20,566 ROBERTS: Klaus is anxious to show me his most spectacular discovery. 706 00:53:21,527 --> 00:53:22,846 KLAuS: And here we found... 707 00:53:22,927 --> 00:53:23,962 (ROBERTS EXCLAIMS) 708 00:53:24,047 --> 00:53:25,275 ...this nice animal. 709 00:53:25,767 --> 00:53:29,282 This is incredibly beautiful, I mean, this is sculpture. 710 00:53:29,367 --> 00:53:30,800 -It's not just a relief, is it? -Yeah, yeah, sure. 711 00:53:30,887 --> 00:53:32,240 ROBERTS: It's wonderful. KLAuS: Yes, clearly, 712 00:53:32,327 --> 00:53:34,966 it's a masterpiece of work. 713 00:53:35,047 --> 00:53:39,040 ROBERTS: It makes you rethink the Stone Age, doesn't it? I mean, it... 714 00:53:39,127 --> 00:53:41,925 You tend to think of hunter-gatherers as being, I don't know, 715 00:53:42,007 --> 00:53:44,441 fairly crude in some ways, 716 00:53:44,527 --> 00:53:49,317 and not necessarily capable of producing artefacts that beautiful. 717 00:53:49,407 --> 00:53:52,524 It's clear that these societies had specialists 718 00:53:52,607 --> 00:53:54,325 for stone-working, at least. 719 00:53:54,407 --> 00:53:58,195 So, really, people who didn't do anything else, as to produce sculptures 720 00:53:58,287 --> 00:54:00,164 and pillars and reliefs from stone. 721 00:54:00,247 --> 00:54:01,999 These are such exciting finds, aren't they? 722 00:54:02,087 --> 00:54:03,281 KLAuS: Yeah. 723 00:54:05,927 --> 00:54:10,876 ROBERTS: this place suggests a society that could support specialist craftsmen 724 00:54:10,967 --> 00:54:13,242 and perhaps even a priesthood. 725 00:54:15,607 --> 00:54:19,395 It was the beginning of a totally new way of life. 726 00:54:19,487 --> 00:54:21,443 KLAuS: These are sites of settled hunters. 727 00:54:21,527 --> 00:54:24,166 So it was a high culture of hunters here, 728 00:54:24,247 --> 00:54:27,922 which was nearly exploding in the tenth millennium, 729 00:54:28,007 --> 00:54:30,840 so it's still a hunter-gatherer society in its structures, 730 00:54:30,927 --> 00:54:33,157 and its buildings, its monuments. 731 00:54:33,527 --> 00:54:35,961 ROBERTS: But there was another very important difference 732 00:54:36,047 --> 00:54:39,722 between these hunter-gatherers and any of their predecessors. 733 00:54:40,487 --> 00:54:44,924 they were settling down, abandoning their nomadic lifestyle. 734 00:54:46,407 --> 00:54:51,606 A huge shift, which would help spark a Europe-wide revolution. 735 00:54:53,207 --> 00:54:58,076 And the evidence for this can be found growing in the surrounding fields. 736 00:55:02,007 --> 00:55:05,636 Locked inside this single stalk of wheat 737 00:55:05,767 --> 00:55:09,965 is a story of how the world was transformed. 738 00:55:10,047 --> 00:55:14,518 Geneticists have analysed DNA from domesticated wheat varieties 739 00:55:14,607 --> 00:55:18,282 from across the world, and the staggering thing is 740 00:55:18,367 --> 00:55:24,397 they can all be traced back to grasses which originally grew in this area. 741 00:55:28,327 --> 00:55:33,196 Which means that farming as we know it in Europe was born around here. 742 00:55:34,967 --> 00:55:38,960 communities settled down and populations expanded. 743 00:55:39,047 --> 00:55:42,881 this could've driven the need to start producing food. 744 00:55:45,367 --> 00:55:49,724 And as farming spread, the landscape was transformed. 745 00:55:52,927 --> 00:55:57,921 Forests were cleared and villages, then towns, 746 00:55:58,007 --> 00:56:00,567 then cities would grow, 747 00:56:02,127 --> 00:56:06,245 founded by descendants of the small groups of pioneers 748 00:56:06,327 --> 00:56:11,560 who first entered Europe around 45,000 years ago. 749 00:56:14,367 --> 00:56:19,122 those early Europeans were people just like you and me. 750 00:56:19,207 --> 00:56:23,405 But it is humbling when you see the challenges they faced. 751 00:56:27,327 --> 00:56:30,364 they overcame the competition from Neanderthals 752 00:56:31,647 --> 00:56:33,956 and made it through the Ice Age. 753 00:56:37,567 --> 00:56:40,639 In fact, at the time it wasn't at all inevitable 754 00:56:40,727 --> 00:56:45,403 that my ancestors, maybe yours, would've even survived. 755 00:56:45,487 --> 00:56:49,321 And it makes me wonder what would happen if today's Europeans 756 00:56:49,407 --> 00:56:52,479 were faced by such a harsh changing climate. 757 00:56:53,167 --> 00:56:55,123 But having taken this long view, 758 00:56:55,207 --> 00:56:59,439 we've seen how ingenious and adaptable we are as a species. 759 00:56:59,527 --> 00:57:03,156 And it gives me hope that we will be able to survive the changes 760 00:57:03,247 --> 00:57:04,999 of millennia to come.