Horizon
Season 40 Episode 6 - The Day We Learned To Think
Understanding of humans' earliest past often comes from studying fossils. They tell us much of what we know about the people who lived before us. There is one thing fossils cannot tell us; at what point did we stop living day-to-day and start to think symbolically, to represent ideas about our environment and how we could change it? At a dig in South Africa the discovery of a small piece of ochre pigment, 70,000 years old, has raised some very interesting questions. Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged in Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. We know from fossil evidence that Homo sapiens replaced other hominids around them and moved out of Africa into Asia and the Middle East, reaching Europe 40,000 years ago. Prof Richard Klein believes art is a landmark in human evolution. Unquestionable art that's widespread and common suggests you're dealing with people just like us. No other animals, after all, are able to define a painting as anything other than a collection of colours and shapes. This ability is unique to humans.
Episodes in Season 40
The Mystery Of Easter Island
60 min
Living Nightmare
60 min
Averting Armageddon
60 min
Dirty Bomb
60 min
Sexual Chemistry (Update)
60 min
The Day We Learned To Think
60 min
Trial and Error
60 min
Earthquake Storms
60 min
Life On Mars (Update)
60 min
The Secret Life Of Caves
60 min
God On The Brain
60 min
Flight 587
60 min
SARS: The True Story
60 min
The Big Chill
60 min
The Bible Code
60 min
Last Flight of the Columbia
60 min
The Hunt for an AIDS Vaccine
60 min
Percy Pilcher's Flying Machine
60 min
Time Trip
60 min
