All language subtitles for BBC.The.Incredible.Human.Journey.1of5.Out.of.Africa.720p.BluRay.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

Text: WTC-SWE

ALICE ROBERTS:
They say this is where it all began.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

That we are all children of Africa.

But if so, why do we look so different?

And how on earth could
a handful of African families

become a whole world full of people?

I'm Alice Roberts,
medical doctor and anthropologist.

I'm fascinated by what bones,

stones,

and even our bodies
can reveal about the distant past.

I'm going in search
of where the first people were born

and how they began their journey
to populate the world.

Leaving Africa was virtually impossible,

but new evidence suggests
just one tiny group might have done it.

I just think it's absolutely remarkable.

Isn't that amazing? It's stunning.

Can I find their trail out of Africa
and across the world?

And discover how those journeys
changed them

to become who we are today?

Come With me
in the footsteps of our ancestors

on the most epic adventure
ever undertaken.

(INDISTINCT RADIO EXCHANGE)

ROBERTS: Ask yourself
where do you come from?

How did the first humans become you?

It's a surprisingly tricky question.

And in search of an answer,
I'm starting in East Africa.

I've dreamt about coming to this place
since I Was a teenager.

As unlikely as it sounds,
palaeontologists

noW think We have a pretty good idea

of Where We modern humans
first appeared.

And I'm trying to get there.

But it is in one of the most
remote parts of the continent.

I'm heading
to Africa's great Rift Valley

and the Omo River in Ethiopia.

Very feW foreigners ever come here.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

The place I'm trying to reach
lies on the far western side of the Omo.

There are no bridges
for hundreds of miles,

so my best option
is the slightly leaky passenger ferry.

Past the crocodiles.

There's quite a Welcoming committee.

-Hello.
-Hello.

(LAUGHING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

I'm looking for the route
taken by a scientific expedition

about 40 years ago.

They stumbled across
perhaps the most important clue

about the beginning of our species.

I've got map coordinates, but there
are no obvious tracks to follow.

I think What I'm going to do
is head to Kibish, the nearest village,

and get some local help.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

Kibish is home to the Nyangatom tribe.

Soya, salaam.

HoW are you? Mata.

-I'm Well. HoW are you?
-Mata. Mata.

I'm fine.

-I need to find a very particular place.
-Mmm-hmm.

ROBERTS: My only chance of help
is if the chief agrees.

-Mata.
-Mata.

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

Soya, can you tell him Why I'm here?

Can you say that I'm here
to find the place

Where people Were digging?

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

This all sounds very promising.

-He said someone Was digging.
-Someone Was digging.

-And he found something like bone.
-Yes.

And, I don't knoW, he say the bone
that stayed there for long time.

When can We go? Can you ask them?

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

-Let's go noW.
-We can go noW?

ROBERTS: I'm not sure that
these guys know where they're going,

but they seem to have come
prepared for something.

And, uh, Why's he carrying a gun?

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

For protection.

-For protection from Whom?
-For protection from enemies.

-Right.
-Like Surma, Turkana and Mursi.

-So these are other tribes?
-Yeah, the other tribes.

Are they likely to attack us?

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

Yeah, they just come to attack them.

-So there's alWays fighting going on?
-Yeah, they alWays fighting.

Right.

ROBERTS: It's noon and
the temperature has soared into the 40s.

Although I've wanted to come here
for years,

after four hours in this searing heat

I'm not sure I'm going to make it.

(SPEAKING EASTERN NILOTIC LANGUAGE)

-So What are they saying?
-They say it's there.

-Really?
-Yeah.

-That's Where it Was found?
-Yeah, it is there.

-Just here?
-Yeah.

-Just there?
-Just there.

Well, this is it. This is the place.

Because this is Where
the earliest human remains

in the entire World Were discovered.

It's been really difficult to find it.
It's taken us four hours to Walk here

and We've been a circuitous route
through the bush.

And it seems really strange
that there's nothing to mark it.

Because this is such an important place
in our story.

And it's as close as I can get

to Where We all began.

Amazing.

And this is what
the archaeologists discovered.

This is a cast of the skull
that Was found here

and Which Was dated
to 195,000 years ago.

I think, considering it's so old,

it's remarkably complete.

Okay, the fragile face bones
are missing,

but most of the brain case is here.

We can see the size of the brain

and We can see
this very characteristic forehead.

No other remains of our species
even approaching this age

have been found
anywhere else on the planet.

This is as near as we can get

to the origin of our species.

There's something very special about
sitting here looking out at the Omo.

I could be on the banks
of any African river,

apart from the fact
We knoW that this landscape

has been home to humans,
people like you and me,

for nearly 200,000 years.

So if this is where we first appeared,

what did we come from?

The evidence suggests that
the very first human-like creatures

evolved in Africa
over four million years ago.

They were much more ape-like than us.

A series of human species
with gradually bigger brains

came and went.

The most recent, and only surviving,

is our own species, Homo sapiens.

Modern humans.

Here is a skull of one of our nearest
ancient human relatives,

Homo heidelbergensis.

If We compare it With this modern skull,

some things just leap out at you.

This heidelbergensis skull
has an enormous broW ridge

and a sWept-back, sloping forehead.

Much steeper in the modern skull.

In fact, the Whole brain case here
is much rounder.

Using the skull of the ancient human,

experts have reconstructed his face,

to reveal our flatter-headed,

beetle-browed predecessor.

In contrast With this reconstruction
of a very old but modern human,

and I think you'll agree
that she looks a lot more like me.

But if East Africa is where
the first humans were born,

there are some big questions to answer.

Are we all descended
from black Africans?

If so, why do most of us
look so different?

And how could a handful of people
from such an isolated place

go on to colonise first Africa

and then the rest of the world?

So what do we know about
these shadowy first families?

200,000 years ago,

it's likely there were so few of them,
living such a precarious existence,

that today they'd be classified
as an endangered species.

Life was fragile.

And the African savannah
was a dangerous place.

Well, I'm going to be spending the night
out here in the bush -

presumably something our ancestors did
all the time,

but years of living in civilisation
have softened me.

I've got a big torch here,
so that if anything comes by

I can get a better look at it
in the dark.

And I've got this little camera

so I can make a video diary
throughout the night

and talk about What comes along.

I'm doing this for real,
I'm going to be out here all night.

And I really am quite scared.

The film crew head for the safety of
our camp, over ten kilometres away,

leaving me with just a few thorn bushes
for protection.

(WHISPERING) It's just amazing
the amount of noises you suddenly hear.

About half an hour ago,
there Was the sound,

a really distinct sound,
of something lapping Water.

Maybe a hyena, maybe a leopard -
it sounded like a big cat.

Literally like a cat lapping at milk.

Hopefully nothing can get through that.

(SIGHING)

Suddenly feel really vulnerable,
as an animal

Which is designed
to be out in the daylight.

I mean, can't see very Well at night.

Hearing's all right. Just about enough
to get you feeling scared.

And sense of smell as Well -

compared to all these other animals,
might as Well not have it.

(ANIMAL CALLING)

Did you hear that?

I'm scared noW.

(ANIMAL CALLING)

(ANIMAL CALLING)

Is that a... Is that a lion?

Is that a leopard?

(ANIMAL CALLING)

Is that...

(ANIMAL CALLING)

Is that a hyena?

(ANIMAL CALLING)

Oh, I don't like that noise.

That's really spooky.

(ANIMAL CALLING)

That's got to be one of the most
frightening nights of my life.

I did get some sleep,

but then I got Woken up
by these horrendous noises.

Sometimes it Was hyenas.

And then there Was something
that sounded

like a standoff
betWeen a hyena and a leopard

or some... I don't knoW What it Was.
AWful noises.

Really, really scary.

With the return of the crew,
I pluck up my courage

and look for signs of the animals
that I heard in the night.

God, just look at this.
This is a big, male leopard paW print.

And there are
large hyena prints as Well.

So these predators, these carnivores,

Were literally here,
about 25 metres aWay

from Where I Was sleeping,

underneath that tree.

They sounded really close
during the night.

And I can see noW that they Were.

At night-time especially,

our ancestors must have been
very vulnerable.

So how did those first families survive,

let alone go on to spread
across the world?

In the hope of finding out more,
I'm heading south to Namibia.

I'm meeting one of the last groups
of hunter-gatherers on this continent,

the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

-What's your name?
-My name is Sedray.

-Sedray?
-Sedray.

(COUGHING)

Their Way of life is the closest
I can find to that of our ancestors.

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

The Bushmen are expert hunters.

But before I see hoW they do it,

I Want to persuade Un and Lau
to take part in a little experiment.

Un, I need to check
your body temperature using this.

Is that all right? I'm going to put
it in your ear, like that.

-Yeah.
-Stick it in your ear.

-Mmm-hmm.
-Right. Just going to pop it in there.

(THERMOMETER BEEPING)

Lovely.

-36.2
-HoW is it?

-That's hoW hot you are.
-There's my ears.

-Yes.
-Okay.

And Lau, I need to do it to you as Well.

There We go,
it's ready to take your temperature.

(THERMOMETER BEEPING)

Right. 35.8.

So you're even cooler. You're very cool.

(LAUGHING)

It's turned into a competition.

Humans usually hunt in the day.

So I want to see how our bodies cope
with this blazing heat.

It's a pretty relentless pace.

We're looking for the trail
of an antelope.

What have you found?

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

(WHISPERING) Oh, yeah.
Right, this is really exciting.

We've got an oryx track.
And We're going to folloW it.

I'm going to have to be
really quiet noW.

We've got to move fast
to gain on the oryx.

We've been walking and running for over
an hour, when we find more prints.

But not the ones we were hoping for.

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

I think We give up the chase
at this point.

The animal's being chased by a hyena.

Don't knoW if it'll live to tell
the tale, either.

But no dinner for us.

It's now just past midday
and the temperature is in the high 30s.

So what effect has all this running
in the heat

had on our body temperatures?

Uh, 37.4, so a bit hotter
than you Were before.

If I could try you as Well.

(THERMOMETER BEEPING)

Ooh, 36.7. Cooler than him.

(LAUGHING)

All right, What about me?

(THERMOMETER BEEPING)

Thanks. 36.9!

-Ohh!
-We beat him.

Incredibly, our temperatures
have barely risen.

Well, the key to this is that We're all
regulating our body temperatures

even in this heat.

And this is the secret.

We keep cool by sweating.

Something humans do more effectively
than most mammals.

Not having fur, we can sweat
from glands all over our bodies,

which allows us to keep moving
in pursuit of prey for hours

without overheating.

Even in the middle of the day,

when most big predators
are just trying to keep cool.

And there are other things
about your body

designed specifically for running.

And this is one of them.
Yes, it's a foot.

And it is brilliantly designed
to provide spring.

The ligaments and tendons support
the sprung arches of the foot

so that every time our foot hits
the ground, the spring stores

and then releases energy,
making running more efficient.

And there's a really important muscle
in our bums.

Our gluteus maximus muscle is huge

and We hardly use it at all
When We're Walking.

But it comes into its oWn When We run.

So all of these adaptations
suggest that running,

especially over long distances,

Was really important
to our early ancestors.

But there was something else

that may have really given
our ancient ancestors the edge.

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

Language.

The ability to communicate and plan.

Red, yelloW, green.

HoW do you say it?

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

We don't know when people
started to speak,

but there's evidence that languages
like this, click languages,

may be the oldest in the world.

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

So it's possible that the first families
sounded a bit like this.

It is an amazing language.

Every sentence is peppered
With these clicks and tutting noises

that are consonants.

They're just very unlike any consonants
that I'm used to pronouncing.

So I'm struggling With it.

So this is...

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

(LAUGHING)

See, I think it's easier to say yelloW.

And it's a type of language

that could have been crucial
to our ancestors' survival.

It may be that these click languages
have been around for so long

because they're particularly useful
during hunting.

Apparently, When the Bushmen
are stalking an animal,

they drop their voices to a Whisper

so they're talking
almost entirely in clicks,

Which makes a lot of sense to me.

The clicks are high-pitched noises
that don't travel far through the bush,

so the hunters aren't going to
scare off their quarry.

(SPEAKING KHOISAN LANGUAGE)

Equipped with language
and hunting skills, we flourished.

And began to do something else..
spread out.

We don't know for sure
which routes they took,

but new evidence shows
that very early on,

modern humans were living at the
extreme southern edge of the continent.

I'm heading along
the South African coast

to a place called Pinnacle Point.

Today it's a playground for the rich.

But during the construction
of this golf course,

archaeologists discovered
something amazing

deep beneath the fairway.

This could be the oldest knoWn
dWelling of our species

anyWhere in the World.

-So this is Where you've been digging?
-This is the oldest part of the cave.

And What are the dates here, then,
as We go doWn through these layers?

Uh, these layers date
from 130,000 to 167,000 years ago.

-It's just so incredibly ancient.
-It's amazing.

Did you knoW hoW important
What you Were excavating really Was?

Not until We got those dates.

But, yeah. Amazing, stunning.

ROBERTS: The evidence in this cave
reveals that those ancient families

were behaving in ways quite unlike
previous species of human.

Well, Kyle, that's not from this cave,
is it? 'Cause I recognise this.

This is a hand axe, isn't it?

That's correct. NoW, that's more typical
of What you Would find

from about a million and a half years
ago to about 300,000 years ago.

So, What sort of thing
Were you finding in the cave, then?

Okay, Well, tools like these.

Blades and points are much more typical
of What We find in this cave.

Made on quartzite, locally available
on the beach doWn here.

And in our oldest levels here,
alongside these types of tools,

We also have these very small
bladelet tools.

These are tiny.

What could such minute blades
have been used for?

Obviously, these Weren't used
just in your hand like this,

so hoW Would they have been used?

It's more likely that those Were set
in some kind of a handle

to make a compound tool.

Maybe something more like this.

This is a series of small blades
set into a handle for use as a knife.

Yes, I think that Would Work.

So you think that's hoW these stone
tools Were used, then, as a knife?

Um, that's one possibility.

And it's also possible they Would
have been used for hunting Weapons.

ROBERTS: Kyle and his team
have discovered

you can make some lethal weapons
with these bladelets.

This one looks
particularly vicious, I think.

This is one interpretation of hoW

those small back blades
might have been mounted.

The advantage to this Would be
that there's these barbs

that Would prevent the tip
from pulling out immediately,

um, and Would inflict a greater injury.

ROBERTS: So by 160,000 years ago,

those early resourceful families
seem to have colonised much of Africa.

But what about the rest of the world?

How did some of those ancient wanderers
get out of Africa

to become me, and perhaps you?

It's one of the most baffling mysteries
of our origins.

Africa south of the Sahara
is cut off from the rest of the planet.

To the west, south and east, ocean.

To the north, the vast deserts
of the Sahara and Arabia.

So could there be another way

that people first appeared
all over the world?

Did they, as some have suggested,

evolve separately
on different continents?

It's a huge question.

A different branch of science

is beginning to provide
very surprising answers.

To find out more,
I've come to Cape Town.

Cape ToWn today is a World city
With representatives of just about

every group and creed
you can possibly imagine.

And every single one of these people
unknoWingly carries inside them

a story of their ancient ancestors.

That's because,
buried in the genes of each of us,

is an indelible record of our past.

By studying DNA
from people all over the world,

geneticists are piecing together
that ancient story.

Cape Town,
a product of its colonial past,

has citizens who bring
their own genetic stories

from every corner of the planet.

And the minute differences in their DNA
provide clues

about the ancient migrations that led
our species to colonise the world.

Thanks again, folks, for coming.
This is the tree of humanity, okay?

ROBERTS: geneticist Raj Ramesar
has used these differences

to help build a global family tree

by tracing genes down the female line.

Our modern genes are
the branches of the tree,

and geneticists have followed them
back in time to find our ancient roots.

The DNA of everyone alive today
fits somewhere on this tree.

Although it's not always obvious
exactly where you fit.

Steven, What about you?

Where do you think
your maternal heritage stems from?

Probably southern Europe.

Um, just the Italian community,
that's Where my family comes from.

Well, actually,
you are on a European branch,

but you're on a European branch up here,
and that's much more northern Europe.

So I'm very sorry, Steven,
you're not Italian.

You're a Laplander.

But follow the branches
back to the beginning

and the tree reveals that ultimately
we all have our roots in the same place.

There's no question
from the genetic data

that is generated
on the people here,

as Well as other studies
that have been done,

that humanity arose in Africa.

And that's Where the depth
of this thick trunk illustrates

Where the majority of humanity
can look for its roots.

So because We originated in Africa,

there's been more time
for branches to develop here

-than there has been anyWhere else.
-Yeah, that's a crucial point.

Humanity has spent most of its life
in Africa.

I'm African?

(LAUGHING)

-Yes, my cousin.
-We all are.

Absolutely.

It's only more recently that We see
this aspect of the tree.

ROBERTS: But the really amazing thing

is what the tree tells us
about those who left Africa.

You might expect lots of branches,
lots of genetic lineages,

leaving Africa at different times.

But instead, the rest of the world
connects back to Africa

through one thin branch.

What does that mean?

There Was a single
branching out of Africa.

It amounts to, historically,
a single band of individuals

leaving the African continent.

So that Was the original migration out
of Africa that We can track With DNA.

From there, there Were branchings out
in many different directions

into Europe, into the rest of Asia,
Eurasia and to the north,

and then doWn to Australia and Japan

and ultimately to the Americas
on the other side.

ROBERTS: geneticists across the world
have come to the same conclusions..

everyone outside Africa
descends from not many,

but just one tiny group of pioneers.

I just think it's absolutely remarkable.

Isn't that amazing? It's stunning. Yeah.

Oh, WoW, man.

ROBERTS:
It may be that others tried, too.

But their descendants have not survived.

So the genetics
tells us our species

made just one successful attempt
to leave.

And this Wasn't a mass exodus.

It Was a small group of people
taking one route out of Africa.

And everybody in the World today
Who isn't African

is descended
from that handful of people.

It's just mind-boggling to think
hoW different the World Would be today

if it Weren't for that small group
of pioneers.

And it begs the next question:

Which route did they take?

The genetics may be convincing,
but the geography is a huge problem.

For these early families,
deserts and oceans

would have been massive obstacles.

But we know they did it somehow.

From this map, I think there are perhaps
four possible routes out of Africa.

Across the Straits of Gibraltar here,
so a bit of a sea crossing,

from Tunisia up through
Sicily and Italy -

even more sea to cross there -

doWn here across the mouth
of the Red Sea,

but you'd need a boat for that, as Well.

Or here,
through the Sahara and Sinai deserts.

Well, all of those routes
have their challenges,

but We knoW that it Was just one of them
that Was taken.

So Which one Was it?

It's a real puzzle.

But could it be that the world
was different back then?

Well, there is a way to find out.

We've asked a team of Britain's
leading climate scientists

to work out how the global environment
has changed,

going back over thousands of years.

And the ansWer is in here.

With this climate computer, I can look
at the changing environment over time.

Starting at 140,000 years ago,
we're moving towards the present.

Forests and grasslands are green,
and deserts light brown.

NoW, this is interesting.

1 25,000 years ago,

there's a change in the climate.

It's been very dry in this area
and then suddenly it gets greener.

And the World's biggest, driest,

most impassable desert briefly blossoms.

For just a few thousand years,

the Sahara, Sinai and Arabian deserts

were lush and green.

So it looks like, 125,000 years ago,

it Would have been possible
for our ancestors to have Walked

through the Sahara
and leave Africa to the northeast.

I'm after some evidence
that at least one band of pioneers

made it to the other side of the Sahara,

and through that northern exit
to the rest of the world.

I'm on my way to Israel
and the site of an intriguing discovery.

But one which may present
as many questions as answers.

Back in the 1930s,
an international team of archaeologists

was excavating here at Skhul Cave.

But it's What Was found outside the cave
that Was really interesting.

The archaeologists dug doWn through
one and half metres of soil just here,

finding masses and masses
of stone tools.

But as they got doWn close
to the bedrock,

they found something
even more exciting -

human burials, 10 of them.

When the bones were dated, they were
found to be about 100,000 years old,

the oldest modern human remains
outside Africa.

The dates fit well
with that greening of the Sahara.

So could these people
be the pioneers I'm looking for,

whose descendants went on
to populate the rest of the world?

Some of their remains are now kept
in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

This skeleton
is incredibly Well-preserved.

And the main reason for that
is that the bodies at Skhul

Weren't just left
on the surface of the ground.

They Were deliberately buried.

And not only that,
they Were buried With objects,

With shell beads, and one of them

even had a boar's jaW
enclosed in its arms.

Surely this is further evidence for
modern Ways of thinking and behaving,

for spirituality,

and perhaps even a belief
in the afterlife.

But not everything here
is what it seems.

These people may well have been
the first to leave Africa,

but it looks like they
can't be our ancestors.

Because the trail then dries up.

All evidence of modern humans
disappears.

It looks like these families
died out completely...

around 90,000 years ago,

when the Middle East and Sahara
returned to desert

and life here became impossible.

For our species,
it seems that this Was a dead end.

And it shoWs just hoW fragile
our existence Was,

and What a massive impact climate change
could have on a human population.

But it Wasn't the end
of the human journey.

So Where Was that elusive route
out of Africa?

The Sahara Desert once again
closed the door on any migration north,

leaving just one of my four routes
out of Africa, the Red Sea.

If they did try to cross it,
the most likely point is at its mouth,

the gate of grief.

Could at least a few families
have broken out of Africa here?

BeloW me is the Red Sea,

and to the West,
the small African state of Djibouti.

And over to my east, I can just about
make out the coast of Yemen

on the tip of the Arabian peninsula.

At this point, it is just 30 kilometres
betWeen Africa and Arabia.

30 kilometres of sea
is still a big problem

if you don't have a seagoing vessel.

But from about 90,000 years ago,
something interesting began to happen.

The very same climate change that had
turned the Sahara back to desert

had another impact.

It made sea levels drop.

And at the gate of grief,
the gap between Africa and Arabia

became much smaller.

As sea levels fell, the distance across
the Red Sea at this point

dropped to just 1 1 kilometres.

So perhaps, here at last,
Was a chance to risk everything,

to cross the Gate of Grief
and take a step into the unknoWn.

And geneticists working for this series
have been able to estimate

how many people made that leap
out of Africa,

whichever way they took.

They estimate the size of this group
that made the crossing

from Africa to Arabia
Was just a feW hundred people.

And geneticists have noW tested the DNA

of thousands and thousands
of non-Africans,

and not one single person has been found
Who can't trace their ancestry back

to this tiny group of Wanderers.

It may have been just a single tribe.

And whatever you look like,
if you're not African,

you descend from them.

But getting beyond the Red Sea
may have been the easy bit.

I'm leaving Africa
to travel deep into Arabia.

And here I'm confronted
by another great mystery.

How could those pioneers
have survived here?

Back then,
most of Arabia was brutal desert,

pretty much as it is today.

Is it really possible that a handful
of Stone Age people

could have trekked through
hundreds of miles of this

and gone on to populate the whole world?

Well, here's one man
who looks like he knows

how to get around in the desert.

Archaeologist Jeff Rose has spent years
scouring Arabia for evidence

of our earliest ancestors.

And he's come to meet me in Oman.

-Jeff.
-Hello.

Hello, hoW are you?

So, Jeff, Why are We
in this desolate place?

It's actually quite a special location.

If you look round,
you see all these black rocks

that are lying across the surface.

Yeah, there's a particular concentration
of them just round here.

Well, they're not really rocks.

They're all ancient stone tools
made by early humans.

So, for instance,
We just pick this piece up here,

it's got this flat surface

and this surface With flake scars,
they're called, on it.

And then they've done
some retouch on it.

They've hit it here,
and they've hit it here,

to create this chisel-like edge.

So that can't have occurred naturally?

No.
This couldn't have occurred naturally

because of the pattern of scars
that We see on here.

It's called a burin.

And it Would have been used
for Working soft materials,

hides, leather, bone, Wood,
anything like that,

for carving tools out of that.

-So it's a little bit like a chisel.
-Yeah.

That's just amazing,
to pick up a stone tool like that

just lying on the surface.

You get used to it Working in Arabia,
'cause they're everyWhere.

Really?

It's just covering the surface
everyWhere you look.

So you reckon most of these,

if they've got sort of
flat surfaces on...

Yeah, just about anything you see
that's flat lying...

Even things like that?

That's a blade.
And that's from the edge of the blade,

-so that's called a cortex.
-Yeah.

And a lot of times,
they leave that cortex on

because if you're using it,
you're not going to cut yourself.

So you can even see almost hoW they
Would've held it, something like that.

-That makes a neat little knife.
-Exactly.

Okay, so What is the date of this site?
Putting you on the spot here, I knoW.

Well, it's hard to say.
It's a surface site,

so it's impossible to date
anything specifically,

but from that technology,
from that core I shoWed you,

We can say it's anyWhere
betWeen 70,000 and 12,000 years ago,

-and maybe even earlier.
-As long ago as 70,000 years?

There Was a site that Was recently found
on the Red Sea coast in Yemen

that Was dated
to about 70,000 years ago,

and it's the same technology.

So there Were people here
70,000 years ago.

And I find that really difficult
to believe,

because at that time
the landscape Would have been

just as dry and harsh as it is today.

I mean, okay, there's stone
to make tools out of.

But Where Were they living?

The biggest problem
for those pioneering families

would have been the lack of water.

But a few short miles
from these arid mountains

I'm in for a surprise.

Well, just look at this.

I'm only tWo miles aWay
from the desert here,

but I could be in rural Somerset -

if it Weren't for the camels.

Definitely in Arabia.

This place near the coast of Oman

sits right on the edge of
the monsoon region of the Indian Ocean.

Every year, the monsoons
turn this valley into a green oasis,

somewhere you can imagine
our ancestors flourishing.

But this is a green island
in the middle of the desert.

The desert stretches on
for hundreds of miles around here.

So hoW did our ancestors
move through Arabia

to reach the World beyond?

There's no way they could have done it

without more widespread sources
of fresh water.

But where are they?

I'm at sea, just off the coast of Oman,

a coastline that our ancestors
may have passed along -

except that 70,000 years ago
the coast Wouldn't have been there

because the sea level Was much loWer.

It Was up to 50 kilometres
in that direction.

And Jeff Rose thinks that the key
to our ancestors'journey

along this coast lies at the bottom
of the sea.

One of the strangest things about Arabia
is We have this dry surface,

this completely arid landscape,
and yet beneath the surface

there are heaps of fresh Water
that's bubbling toWard the coast,

running toWard the coast,
and coming up directly beneath us.

So right doWn beloW, if you Were
to dive doWn With a canteen,

you could fill it up With fresh Water
and have a drink.

So the springs doWn there
are still Working today?

Still Working today. There are heaps
of fresh Water coming toWard the coast.

Only When the sea level Was loWer
Would it have been available,

so it really shoWs Why that coastline
Was so important

for the early humans
moving out of Africa.

ROBERTS: So, around 70,000 years ago,

the Arabian coastline
was very different to today.

Freshwater springs bubbled up
all the way along it.

If our ancestors attempted this route,
they would have found a lifeline

stretching all the way from the Red Sea
to the Persian gulf...

a place which back then
was a great fertile plain.

So the Gulf as We knoW it today
didn't exist.

It Was a vast, green, lush plain.

Green and lush, you had estuaries
and rivers and lakes.

It Was probably the most important place

in southWest Asia
for all of early humans

because of so much fresh Water
that Was available at that time.

So they had everything
they needed for survival.

-Well, it sounds idyllic.
-It Was.

ROBERTS: Finding the route
that our ancestors took out of Africa

has been challenging.

But I really think
that this could have been it.

And it's perhaps no wonder,
with the obstacles they faced,

that there seems to have been
just one successful attempt,

a massive leap
in our ancestors'journey.

Africa Was the original home
of our species,

and it Was our only home
for tens of thousands of years

until a small handful of people
made their Way out of Africa.

And it Was their descendants that Went
on to colonise the rest of the World.

I'm going to try to trace
their footsteps

as We continue
on the great human journey.

Come with me as I travel
right across the world...

This is looking
like a pretty big footprint.

...in search of the traces
left by our ancestors.

-That's the original?
-Yeah, original.

I didn't knoW any of it had survived.

I want to know how so few people could
have populated the rest of the planet...

That makes us rethink all of
our theories about early Americans.

...facing the unimaginable,

rival species
and even near extinction...

I don't knoW I've ever been so cold
in my entire life.

...to reach the most distant
corners of the world.

I'm really Worried We're going to get
sWept in by these breakers.

(WHOOPING)

And how did those journeys change us
into who we are today?

Text: WTC-SWE