At least 200,000 years ago, early “modern humans” left the African continent for the first time. But other hominins would still largely have Europe and Asia to themselves for quite some time. The extremely successful expansion of Homo sapiens began around 60,000 years ago. They were good at adapting to new living spaces and bit by bit they settled all over the world. In some regions different hominins lived side by side and with each other for a long time. With the aid of state-of-the-art analysis techniques, scientists are able to prove that genetic traces of Neanderthals and Denisovans have survived in humans today.
The history of humans is a very active field of research. New fossils and artefacts are continually being found, and modern research methods allow completely new insights into their relations.
Analysis techniques are developing very fast too. Svante Pääbo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, is even regarded as the founder of an entirely new research discipline – paleogenetics. Genetic analysis of bones found changes our perception of human development radically. This exhibition shows how far research had progressed in 2020: what new findings might there have been by now?
The origins of humanity
A new species does not emerge in a single day, it’s a very long process. Things are no different with the emergence of Homo sapiens. At excavations on the Moroccan site of Jebel Irhoud in 2017, scientists found bones around 300,000 years old belonging to early Homo sapiens. That contradicts the long-standing hypothesisof the emergence of modern humans in East Africa. Today we know that “modern humans” were already spread out over the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago. Fossils 260,000 years old from Florisbad in South Africa provide further evidence of this. So humans emerged across the whole African continent as a result of early migratory movements and a complex evolution process. Thanks to a social network, genes and cultural systems were passed on over huge distances.
300,000 years ago
Jebel Irhoud cave
2017, Morocco
At 300,000 years old, these bones and stone tools from Homo sapiens are the oldest known so far, disproving the old theory that “modern humans” developed solely in East Africa.
190,000 – 200,000 years ago
Omo Kibish
1967, Ethiopia
The Omo I-III bone finds are very early remains of Homo sapiens. For a long time they were considered proof that “modern humans” emerged in East Africa.
90,000 years ago
Al-Wusta
2018, Saudi Arabia
A finger bone found in the Nefud desert is the oldest Homo sapiens fossil known so far outside Africa. Today the Arabian peninsula is extremely arid, but back then there was a green landscape here, with rivers and lakes.
70,000 – 80,000 years ago
Denisova cave
2010, Russia
The DNA analysis of a tiny fragment of finger bone led to a surprising discovery: the bone belonged to a hominin that was hitherto completely unknown.
63,000 years ago
Tam-Pa-Ling cave
2009, Laos
The bones of a woman discovered here are the oldest known fossils of “modern humans” in South-East Asia.
45,000 years ago
Ust’Ishim
2008, Russia
Around 45,000 years ago the ancestors of Europeans and Asians began to develop separately from each other. We can see that from the genome of a Homo sapiens who lived in Ust’Ishim.
42,000 years ago
Neanderthal cave
1856, Germany
The fossils found in Neanderthal were already identified as the bones of a distinct hominin in the 19th century. The Neanderthals, who were later named after the site at which they were found, died out around 40,000 years ago. However some of their genes live on in “modern humans”.
42,000 years ago
Lake Mungo
1974, Australia
For a long time “Mungo Man” was considered the oldest evidence of settlement in Australia. However recent research findings indicate that humans were already living there 65,000 years ago.
40,000 years ago
Tianyuan cave
2003, China
Genetic analysis of the thighbone of a Homo sapiens from the cave near Beijing shows: the indigenous population of America is significantly more closely related to Asians living today than to Europeans.
The settlement of America
America was the final large landmass to be settled by Homo sapiens. But how and when did humans arrive there? The most convincing and generally accepted theory assumes settlement via a land route between Siberia and Alaska. A land route? Today the Bering Strait is 82 kilometres wide and up to 50 metres deep. But in the Ice Age 20,000 years ago the sea level was very much lower and the region was inhabited. At that time there were many glaciers in North America as well. For this reason, archaeologists thought for a long time that people could only spread south after the end of the Ice Age. But a few finds in the south of the continent don’t fit in with this theory. Because of this, some researchers believe that there were already earlier settlements – maybe by humans who arrived in America by boats from Siberia, the South Pacific or even from Europe.
20,000 years ago
Serra da Capivara
1980s, Brazil
Has America already been inhabited by humans for more than 20,000 years? Rock art and archaeological finds of stone tools and charcoal suggest this – however the exact date is controversial. For some researchers these things are nevertheless an indication that humans were already crossing the Atlantic from West Africa with simple boats back then.
13,000 years ago
Clovis
1937, USA
Distinctively crafted spearheads made of flint are typical of the Clovis culture. The people who made them came across the Bering Strait from Siberia. They have long been considered to be the oldest Americans.
13.000 Jahre
Hoyo Negro underwater cave
2007, Mexico
The almost completely preserved skeleton of a girl and many other finds in recent years in this cave system suggest that the settlement of America could have been far more complex than previously thought.
Prehistoric art
Long before our time humans were creating impressive artworks, not just the early Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals left us significant historical evidence as well.
115,000 years ago
Aviones cave
2010, Spain
Perforated seashells, pigments and residues of complex colour blends. Over 100 000 years ago, Neanderthals created objects with symbolic meaning.
44,000 years ago
Leang-Bulu’-Sipong cave
2017, Indonesia
Pictures of several animals and animal-human hybrids are some of the oldest depictions of their kind in the world – created by “modern humans”.
