Homo sapiens evolved somewhere in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, where they quickly spread across the whole continent. Some of them took initial steps outside their homelands, too, but it was not until 100,000 years ago that our species spread increasingly to the Arabian Peninsula, from where they began exploring other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, the last ice age was advancing, opening new pathways for our ancestors to the unknown. Islands and even continents (Asia and North America) became connected as more and more water froze into glaciers and sea levels fell.

Some Sapiens walked even to the most southeastern parts of Asia (islands of Indonesia today), built boats, and learnt to sail, fish, and store drinkable water while at sea. Perhaps as early as 65,000 years ago, they navigated to Australia and became the first land animals to cross an open ocean without growing fins and tails.

Others settled in Europe around 45,000 years ago, while a few headed towards Siberia. Advancing deeper into the wilderness, they made snowshoes and knitted warm clothes from skins and furs, defying the extreme cold and dark. Perhaps chasing mammoths and reindeers, they ended up in the Americas around 16,000 years ago and soon spread into the entire western hemisphere.

While our forebears advanced and adapted to the wide variety of new environments, they hunted animals and burnt down forests. Landscapes became better suit human needs, but homes of many other creatures perished, and many species fell into oblivion. Some, however, blame climate change (the ice age) as well.

Other human species began to vanish, too. What happened to them remains a mystery. Smaller ones¹ may have been easy prey for Sapiens, though bones torn apart by violence are yet to be found. There may not have been enough food for everyone – life during the ice age was harsh and scarce, allowing only the most adaptive to survive. Destructive new diseases may have spread while Sapiens interbred to species with no resistance² – whether these rare relationships were loving or violent, we do not know.

Be that as it may, for one or more reasons, Homo sapiens became the only human species alive on Earth around 30,000 years ago when all the others had become extinct.

¹ Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis were still alive in Asia when Sapiens arrived, making it possible these species encountered each other. These archaic humans had smaller bodies, the latter one nicknamed 'Hobbit' being only a meter tall.

² A small amount of Neanderthal DNA is found in Europeans, while a small amount of Denisovan DNA is found in some Asian people, indicating Sapiens had sex and got some offspring with them.

Bibliography

Pettitt, P. 2022. Homo Sapiens Rediscovered the Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins. London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson. 304 p. ISBN 9780500252635. Pages 40, 42, 50-53, 56, 59, 61-62, 68-97, 106-109, 247-258.

Frankopan, P. 2023. The Earth Transformed an Untold History. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. 695 p. ISBN 9781526622563. Pages 44-53.

Harari, Y. N. 2015. Sapiens a Brief History of Humankind. London, United Kingdom: Vintage. 512 p. ISBN 9780099590088. Pages 15-20, 70-83.

Rutherford, A. 2017. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. London, United Kingdom: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 419 p. ISBN 9781780229072. Pages 61, 65.

Bregman, R. 2022. Humankind a Hopeful History. Translated by M. Janatuinen. Helsinki, Finland: Otava. 441 p. ISBN 9789511424178. Pages 73, 82-86, 103-104, 112.

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40,000 YA
Modern human behaviour

When did we become how we are today? The first humans evolved around two and a half million years ago, with more human-like body shapes and sizes appearing half a million years later. Our own species, Homo sapiens, began to develop more than 300,000 years ago, and 150,000 years later, they looked just like us. Behaviour, however, is far more difficult to trace than anatomy and look.

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120,000 YA
The Last Ice Age begins

The Last Ice Age began around 120,000 years ago as Earth travelled a bit farther from the Sun. Perhaps being appropriately skewed, too, fewer and fewer sunrays reached our poles. Summers became colder and could no longer melt the ice. Glaciers began to form and spread. Animals such as lions, rhinos, hippopotamuses, and elephants had to retreat from the North, yet some, including woolly mammoths, sabre-tooth cats, wolves, and humans, could cope with the surrounding cold.