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- [Narrator 1] The
missing Peking Man fossils

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are one of the great
longstanding mysteries

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in the history of
human evolution.

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The Peking Man fossils

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were a set of 200
Homo erectus fossils

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excavated from a cave in China,

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during the 1920s and 1930s.

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During World War II,

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Chinese authorities
packed up the fossils

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and sent them to a Marine base
in the US for safekeeping,

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but they vanished along the way,

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never to be seen again.

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However, new evidence suggests

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that the fossils may
finally have been found.

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(page swishing)

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During excavations,
34 miles southwest

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of Peking, Beijing, China,

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between 1929 and 1937,

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researchers discovered a
number of partial skulls

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of the species, Homo erectus.

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The hominids, are
thought to have live

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around 400,000 years ago,

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and came to be
known as Peking Man.

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In 1921, Swedish geologist
Johan Gunnar Andersson

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was visiting Dragon Bone Hill,

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when he was taken
by a local resident

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to see a cave full
of dragon bones,

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Andersson immediately
recognized them as fossils.

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Later in the 1920s,

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paleontologists discovered
the teeth and bones

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of primitive humans
in the same caves.

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By the time excavations
ended on the site,

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at least 12 individuals were
represented in the assemblage.

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These remains estimated to
be about a million years old.

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This was an extremely
significant find,

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pushing hominid activity
in Northeast Asia

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back hundreds of
thousands of years

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earlier than previously thought.

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This caused a sensation in China

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and throughout the
world at the time.

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A hundred years ago,

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the known human family
tree was fairly scant,

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as scientists had
then only discovered

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three extinct
species of hominids,

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Neanderthals in Europe,

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Homo erectus in Indonesia,

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and the controversial
Africanus in South Africa.

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Canadian anthropologist
Davidson Black

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was convinced that
the Chinese fossils,

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constituted a new
hominid species

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and should be added to the list,

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this was named, more commonly
known as "Peking Man."

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The original fossils
were being studied

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at the Peking Union
Medical College in 1941,

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when Chinese authorities,

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realizing that a Japanese
invasion was imminent

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and worried what might happen

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to the country's most
important fossil collection,

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decided to act.

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They packed up the fossils

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ready to be smuggled out
to the United States,

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who had agreed to take them

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to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York,

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for as long as
hostilities persisted.

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The bones were seen
in December, 1941,

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when they were packed into
crates and loaded onto trucks,

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ready to be handed
over to US Marines,

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stationed in China at
the beginning of the war.

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An eyewitness account
by Ms. Mary Ferguson,

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an employee of the Union
Medical College in Peking,

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testified to the fact

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that the crates had
indeed been placed

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on the Marine vehicle

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for removal to the Marine
barracks in Peking.

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According to one source,

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"It was intended that the
crates containing the fossils

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were to be transported in
metal containers to the US,

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aboard the transit ship
of President Harrison

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from the Port of Qinhuangdao,

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near the Marine Base
Camp of Holcomb,

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the President Harrison

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encountered Japanese
warships, ran aground,

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and never reached
its destination."

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After that, there is nothing,

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the fossils seemed to disappear
off the face of the Earth.

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Despite one of the
most intensive searches

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in the history of archeology

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and substantial
rewards being offered,

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no verifiable evidence
for the whereabouts

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of these important historical
objects was ever discovered.

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Although no one knew
what had happened

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to the remains of Peking Man,

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there were a number of theories.

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The first, and
perhaps most obvious,

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was that Japanese soldiers might
have intercepted the trucks

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and taken the boxes
back to Japan with them.

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The second is that the bones
are still in China somewhere,

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perhaps buried by
someone who found them,

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before they reached the Marines,

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and didn't recognize
their significance.

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The third explanation,

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is that the bones are
in the United States,

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the Marines having successfully
carried out their mission,

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but have been subsequently lost.

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In 1949, excavations resumed,

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and since then,
archeologists have uncovered

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numerous additional
fossils and stone tools.

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They now date Peking Man
inhabitation of the site,

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to between 780,000
and 400,000 years ago,

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much more recent than
originally believed.

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Researchers who also
recognized that Peking Man,

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was not a new species,

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but actually a member of
the species Homo erectus.

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All evolutionary branches
from this species,

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eventually died out,

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the last, the
European Neanderthals,

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surviving up to as recently
as 35,000 years ago,

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but there was still no
news of what had happened

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to the original fossils.

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Then in April, 2010,
paleoanthropologist Lee Berger,

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of the University of
Witwatersrand in South Africa,

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received an email from
a man named Paul Bowen,

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the son of a former US
Marine Richard Bowen,

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who had been stationed in China

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at the end of World War II.

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The Senior Mr. Bowen

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had been a Corporal attached
to the 1st Pioneer Battalion

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of the 1st Marine Division,

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and was one of the last
soldiers to leave China

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during the 1940 movement

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of the Communist Chinese
in Northern China,

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and subsequent evacuation of
foreign military personnel.

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In his email, Paul
Bowen described what
his father told him.

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"Day after day, the war was
getting hotter and closer.

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South of us, was mostly overrun.

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The city was now under siege

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by the communist
Eighth Route Army,

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with nationalist gunboats
shelling them over our camp.

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One day, a group of them
asked us to surrender,

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saying that they
had 250,000 men.

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to prove the point, that night,

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thousands of fires
were lit by them

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on the adjacent hills
and high ground,

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it looked like Christmas time.

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From that time on, we started
digging foxholes at night,

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and napping during the day.

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I had a 30-caliber machine gun

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and our lieutenant
would from time to time,

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change our crossfire.

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in this nightly digging process,

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we dug a lot of holes.

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In one of them, we found a
box that was full of bones.

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At night, it gave
us a little scare

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and we filled in that
hole and dug another.

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Shortly after we
evacuated the area,

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we went back,

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and then back to
the United States,

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with the 1st Marine
Division colors."

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Berger was understandably
astonished at this information.

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In subsequent
correspondence with Berger,

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Paul Bowen elaborated on
details of the incident.

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"The camp he was
at was Camp Holcomb

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near the Manchurian border,

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this is the last place the
bones were known to be.

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The box he found he describes

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as being of US Marine
Footlocker size,

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and it was full of small bones,

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it is beach dunes,

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the key would be to
find a local there,

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who could accurately place
the barracks and TT1's,

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which was the BAR
the Marines used.

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The only thing I ask is that
if anything comes of this,

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my father gets some credit.

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He is in his eighties now,

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he has talked of
this for decades."

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If Bowen's account is true,

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and most researchers
believe it is,

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then the metal containers
containing the fossils,

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did indeed reach the
Marine barracks in Peking

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and then went by
train to Camp Holcomb,

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but obviously, not in time

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to be loaded on a
ship to evacuate.

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Understandably, getting
people out was the priority,

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in what was surely a confused

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and chaotic
evacuation from China,

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as war broke out
across the Pacific.

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It's certainly possible
that in all this confusion,

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the officer in charge
of the fossils,

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chose to bury them

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near one of the permanent
structures in the camp,

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the brick barracks
for later retrieval.

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Investigations at the
location in November, 2010,

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soon discovered something
extremely discouraging,

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Camp Holcomb had been
located extremely close

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to the highly-developed
part of the docks,

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and the area was now
heavily industrialized

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with a few original structures
from the 1940s remaining.

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The investigation team
surveyed the area also,

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and with the help of
a local historian,

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managed to work out a few
possible locations for the site,

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where the event
took place In 1947.

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Unfortunately,
one of these sites

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had been built over by
warehouses and parking lots,

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belonging to the provincial
food export and import company,

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however, the remaining locations

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were all underneath a large
parking area and roadway.

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If the excavations of the
foundations that these roads

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and lots was not too deep,

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the researchers believed

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the crates with the fossils
may survive underneath.

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So, the lost fossils Pekin Man,

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may well lie buried under
a few feet of asphalt,

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or they may have been destroyed

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in the construction of the
warehouses and car parks,

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but the only way to
find out for sure

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is to excavate the area,

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however, researchers
are hopeful,

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as the area is expected to
undergo a large redevelopment

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in the near future.

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When this happens,

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local officials at the
Cultural Heritage Office,

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will be monitoring any
excavations with interest,

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in the hope that the
bones of Peking Man,

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will finally turn up.

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(dramatic music)

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(rhythmic didgeridoo music)

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(rhythmic didgeridoo
music continues)

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- [Narrator 1] The
question of when

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and how the continent of
Australia was first populated,

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has always been a bit of
a puzzle to archeologists,

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but recently, some new light

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has been shed on the problem.

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An international team
of archeologists,

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geographers, ecologists,
and computer scientists,

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mapped the probable
superhighways

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that led to the first peopling
of the Australian continent,

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around 50,000 to
70,000 years ago.

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The team generated
a fascinating map,

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which reveals these
migration superhighways

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traversed by early
humans in Australia,

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which mysteriously bear
striking similarities

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00:11:02,596 --> 00:11:05,232
to Australia's modern
highways and stock route.

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(rhythmic didgeridoo music)

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Some researchers have also
suggested a connection

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00:11:13,940 --> 00:11:16,543
between these newly
discovered superhighways

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and the mysterious
Aboriginal Dreaming Tracks.

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Over the years, there
have been many theories

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about where the
indigenous ancestors

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00:11:25,085 --> 00:11:26,753
first settled in Australia,

255
00:11:26,820 --> 00:11:28,822
tens of thousands of years ago,

256
00:11:28,889 --> 00:11:32,592
but evidence for this
activity is extremely scarce.

257
00:11:32,659 --> 00:11:35,362
Only a very small number
of archeological sites

258
00:11:35,429 --> 00:11:37,330
date from these early times,

259
00:11:37,397 --> 00:11:39,132
when sea levels were much lower

260
00:11:39,199 --> 00:11:41,935
and Northern Australia
was joined by land bridge

261
00:11:42,002 --> 00:11:45,972
to present-day Southern New
Guinea and Eastern Indonesia,

262
00:11:46,039 --> 00:11:47,174
and people and animals

263
00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:49,509
were able to walk
at various times

264
00:11:49,576 --> 00:11:52,045
across to Tasmania
from the mainland.

265
00:11:52,112 --> 00:11:54,548
This mega-continent,
known as Sahul,

266
00:11:54,614 --> 00:11:58,552
was 30% larger than
Australia is today.

267
00:11:58,618 --> 00:12:01,054
One of these early
archeological sites

268
00:12:01,121 --> 00:12:03,123
was at the now-dry Lake Mungo

269
00:12:03,190 --> 00:12:05,392
in Western New South Wales.

270
00:12:05,459 --> 00:12:09,096
Here, in 1968, Earth
scientist Jim Bowler

271
00:12:09,162 --> 00:12:12,132
uncovered the cremated
remains of an Aboriginal woman

272
00:12:12,199 --> 00:12:13,767
in an eroding dune,

273
00:12:13,834 --> 00:12:15,969
close to the
shoreline of the lake.

274
00:12:16,036 --> 00:12:20,440
In 1974, the ancient remains
of a man were found nearby,

275
00:12:20,507 --> 00:12:24,244
both of these remains now
called Mungo Lady and Mungo Man,

276
00:12:24,311 --> 00:12:27,981
were found to date back to
staggering 40,000 years,

277
00:12:28,048 --> 00:12:30,016
thus, doubling
scientific estimates

278
00:12:30,050 --> 00:12:33,820
of how long Aboriginal people
had lived in Australia.

279
00:12:33,887 --> 00:12:36,056
The amazing discoveries
at Lake Mungo,

280
00:12:36,123 --> 00:12:38,058
reveal that Aboriginal history

281
00:12:38,125 --> 00:12:40,460
stretched back at
times so remote

282
00:12:40,527 --> 00:12:43,230
that the only humans in
Europe were Neanderthals,

283
00:12:43,296 --> 00:12:47,134
and people had not
yet reached America.

284
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:51,071
By about 70,000 years ago,
modern humans, Homo sapiens,

285
00:12:51,138 --> 00:12:53,540
began moving into
Southeast Asia,

286
00:12:53,607 --> 00:12:55,408
where they would
probably have encountered

287
00:12:55,475 --> 00:12:57,711
existing groups
of archaic humans,

288
00:12:57,777 --> 00:13:01,281
like Homo erectus,
Homo floresiensis,

289
00:13:01,348 --> 00:13:03,150
often referred to
as the Hobbits,

290
00:13:03,216 --> 00:13:06,620
and possibly also the
mysterious Denisovans.

291
00:13:06,686 --> 00:13:09,723
In May, 2021, it was
announced that researchers

292
00:13:09,789 --> 00:13:11,358
had to use supercomputers

293
00:13:11,424 --> 00:13:15,061
to simulate 125 billion
possible travel routes

294
00:13:15,128 --> 00:13:18,198
and reconstruct the most
likely super highways.

295
00:13:18,265 --> 00:13:20,433
The first humans to
arrive in Australia,

296
00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:22,636
used to navigate
across this new land,

297
00:13:22,702 --> 00:13:25,639
more than 65,000 years ago.

298
00:13:25,705 --> 00:13:27,407
The international
team of scientists

299
00:13:27,474 --> 00:13:29,042
who undertook the research,

300
00:13:29,109 --> 00:13:30,577
was led by researchers

301
00:13:30,644 --> 00:13:33,914
from the Australian Research
Council Centre of Excellence

302
00:13:33,980 --> 00:13:37,817
for Australian Biodiversity
and Heritage, CABAH,

303
00:13:37,884 --> 00:13:41,221
and recently revealed some of
their methods to the press,

304
00:13:41,288 --> 00:13:44,758
they said, "We think people
navigated in new territories,

305
00:13:44,824 --> 00:13:46,593
much as people do today,

306
00:13:46,660 --> 00:13:48,929
by focusing on
prominent land features

307
00:13:48,995 --> 00:13:51,264
protruding above the
relative flatness

308
00:13:51,331 --> 00:13:53,300
of the Australian continent.

309
00:13:53,366 --> 00:13:54,668
To map these features,

310
00:13:54,734 --> 00:13:57,671
we built the most complete
digital elevation model

311
00:13:57,737 --> 00:13:59,873
for Sahul ever constructed,

312
00:13:59,940 --> 00:14:02,409
including areas now underwater.

313
00:14:02,475 --> 00:14:04,811
We used this digital
elevation model

314
00:14:04,878 --> 00:14:07,948
to understand what was
visible to early travelers.

315
00:14:08,014 --> 00:14:10,650
Essentially, from each
point in the continent,

316
00:14:10,717 --> 00:14:13,386
we asked, 'What can
you see from here?'

317
00:14:13,453 --> 00:14:14,788
This moving window

318
00:14:14,854 --> 00:14:17,924
calculates the largest
viewshed map ever created.

319
00:14:17,991 --> 00:14:19,726
When our virtual travelers move,

320
00:14:19,793 --> 00:14:22,329
they reorient based
on visible terrain

321
00:14:22,395 --> 00:14:24,364
everywhere they go."

322
00:14:24,431 --> 00:14:25,665
For their work,

323
00:14:25,732 --> 00:14:28,001
the researchers created
an imaginary traveler,

324
00:14:28,068 --> 00:14:29,669
a 25-year-old woman,

325
00:14:29,736 --> 00:14:31,905
carrying 10
kilograms of supplies

326
00:14:31,972 --> 00:14:33,940
to traverse the landscape.

327
00:14:34,007 --> 00:14:36,243
They collected all the
various pieces of data

328
00:14:36,309 --> 00:14:38,778
they accumulated
into a mega-model,

329
00:14:38,845 --> 00:14:42,482
known as From Everywhere
to Everywhere, FETE,

330
00:14:42,549 --> 00:14:46,486
and created over 125
billion possible pathways

331
00:14:46,553 --> 00:14:48,388
from every spot
on the continent,

332
00:14:48,455 --> 00:14:50,156
to everywhere else.

333
00:14:50,223 --> 00:14:51,558
Each route represented

334
00:14:51,625 --> 00:14:54,828
the easiest way to move from
one location to another,

335
00:14:54,894 --> 00:14:56,396
obviously, the researchers

336
00:14:56,463 --> 00:14:58,265
could not possibly
examine every path

337
00:14:58,331 --> 00:15:02,135
of the 125 billion pathways
that they had created,

338
00:15:02,202 --> 00:15:03,603
so they reduced the number

339
00:15:03,670 --> 00:15:06,373
by comparing all
plausible pathways

340
00:15:06,439 --> 00:15:07,641
with the distribution

341
00:15:07,707 --> 00:15:09,876
of the oldest known
archeological sites

342
00:15:09,943 --> 00:15:11,544
on the ancient continent,

343
00:15:11,611 --> 00:15:14,848
providing weighted
possibilities for each path.

344
00:15:14,914 --> 00:15:17,317
This work produced
a scale of pathways,

345
00:15:17,384 --> 00:15:19,085
going from the most likely

346
00:15:19,152 --> 00:15:21,521
to the least likely
chosen paths.

347
00:15:21,588 --> 00:15:24,257
The most likely pathways
in the map above,

348
00:15:24,324 --> 00:15:27,527
are what the researchers
called the "superhighways"

349
00:15:27,594 --> 00:15:31,031
of the first Indigenous
populations on the continent.

350
00:15:31,965 --> 00:15:33,099
The team's conclusion

351
00:15:33,166 --> 00:15:35,635
drawn from their
computer-generated maps,

352
00:15:35,702 --> 00:15:37,037
is that the early population

353
00:15:37,103 --> 00:15:39,873
spread across the
now-submerged wide plains

354
00:15:39,939 --> 00:15:43,076
on the western and eastern
margins of the continent,

355
00:15:43,143 --> 00:15:44,711
and through to the region

356
00:15:44,778 --> 00:15:47,547
that now forms the
Gulf of Carpentaria,

357
00:15:47,614 --> 00:15:48,948
the large shallow sea,

358
00:15:49,015 --> 00:15:51,951
which now connects
Australia to New Guinea.

359
00:15:52,018 --> 00:15:54,321
The nagging question of
whether there was evidence

360
00:15:54,387 --> 00:15:56,256
that anyone had actually used

361
00:15:56,323 --> 00:15:59,459
these computer-identified
highways in the remote past,

362
00:15:59,526 --> 00:16:01,995
was soon answered
by their research.

363
00:16:02,062 --> 00:16:04,798
A large number of archeological
sites in Australia,

364
00:16:04,864 --> 00:16:07,534
known to be at least
35,000 years old,

365
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,870
were located on, or near
these superhighways,

366
00:16:10,937 --> 00:16:13,006
and many tracks also coincided

367
00:16:13,073 --> 00:16:15,942
with ancient trade routes
known from the oral histories

368
00:16:16,009 --> 00:16:17,644
of the Indigenous people,

369
00:16:17,711 --> 00:16:20,547
all agreed with genetic
and linguistic studies

370
00:16:20,613 --> 00:16:23,983
used to trace early
human migrations.

371
00:16:24,050 --> 00:16:25,518
But these superhighways

372
00:16:25,585 --> 00:16:26,886
may well have been much more

373
00:16:26,953 --> 00:16:30,190
than routes used for the
initial peopling of Sahul.

374
00:16:30,256 --> 00:16:31,725
A number of these superhighways

375
00:16:31,791 --> 00:16:33,660
identified by the research team,

376
00:16:33,727 --> 00:16:36,029
follow well-known
Aboriginal trade routes,

377
00:16:36,096 --> 00:16:37,797
which cross the country.

378
00:16:37,864 --> 00:16:39,165
These include the route

379
00:16:39,232 --> 00:16:42,635
from Cape York to South
Australia via Birdsville,

380
00:16:42,702 --> 00:16:45,972
used by traders of
Pituri-native tobacco,

381
00:16:46,039 --> 00:16:48,508
and the trade of
Kimberley Baler shell

382
00:16:48,575 --> 00:16:50,977
into central Australia.

383
00:16:51,044 --> 00:16:52,746
There are also
obvious similarities

384
00:16:52,812 --> 00:16:55,548
between the researchers
map of ancient highways

385
00:16:55,615 --> 00:16:56,783
and the most common

386
00:16:56,850 --> 00:16:59,753
trading and stock routes
used by early Europeans,

387
00:16:59,819 --> 00:17:00,887
which is not surprising,

388
00:17:00,954 --> 00:17:02,789
as they followed
established routes,

389
00:17:02,856 --> 00:17:05,291
long used by the
Aboriginal peoples.

390
00:17:06,826 --> 00:17:09,462
The research's groundbreaking
work on these superhighways,

391
00:17:09,529 --> 00:17:12,132
has impressed the
archeological community,

392
00:17:12,198 --> 00:17:13,833
Archeologist Kyle Bocinsky

393
00:17:13,900 --> 00:17:16,569
of the University of
Montana Missoula said,

394
00:17:16,636 --> 00:17:19,239
"This is a really
compelling illustration

395
00:17:19,305 --> 00:17:22,442
of the power of using
these simulation techniques

396
00:17:22,509 --> 00:17:24,344
at a huge continental scale,

397
00:17:24,411 --> 00:17:27,347
to understand how people
navigate landscapes,

398
00:17:27,414 --> 00:17:30,650
its impressive,
extreme computing."

399
00:17:30,717 --> 00:17:33,353
One intriguing aspect
of this new research

400
00:17:33,420 --> 00:17:35,388
is that it has
revealed major routes

401
00:17:35,455 --> 00:17:39,159
that cut across several dry
areas in Australia's center,

402
00:17:39,225 --> 00:17:42,262
and in the northeastern
State of Queensland.

403
00:17:42,328 --> 00:17:45,031
The existence of paths
in such locations,

404
00:17:45,098 --> 00:17:47,534
would appear to challenge
the long-held view

405
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:49,436
that the earliest
people on the continent

406
00:17:49,502 --> 00:17:51,404
avoided the deserts.

407
00:17:51,471 --> 00:17:53,206
CABAH Deputy Director,

408
00:17:53,273 --> 00:17:55,475
distinguished Professor Sean Ulm

409
00:17:55,542 --> 00:17:57,343
from James Cook University,

410
00:17:57,410 --> 00:18:00,580
commented on the importance
of the research team's work

411
00:18:00,647 --> 00:18:02,916
in revealing the
significance of landscape

412
00:18:02,982 --> 00:18:05,518
to the native inhabitants
of the continent.

413
00:18:05,585 --> 00:18:08,688
He said, "Australia is
not only the driest,

414
00:18:08,755 --> 00:18:11,991
but also the flattest
populated continent on Earth.

415
00:18:12,058 --> 00:18:15,061
Our research shows that
prominent landscape features

416
00:18:15,128 --> 00:18:16,329
and water sources,

417
00:18:16,396 --> 00:18:18,398
were critical for
people to navigate

418
00:18:18,465 --> 00:18:20,333
and survive on the continent.

419
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:22,302
In many Aboriginal societies,

420
00:18:22,368 --> 00:18:24,938
landscape features are
believed to have being created

421
00:18:25,004 --> 00:18:27,941
by ancestral beings
during The Dreaming.

422
00:18:28,007 --> 00:18:31,811
Every ridge line, hill,
river, beach, and water source

423
00:18:31,878 --> 00:18:34,380
is named, storied, and inscribed

424
00:18:34,447 --> 00:18:36,649
into the very
fabric of societies,

425
00:18:36,683 --> 00:18:38,952
emphasizing the
intimate relationship

426
00:18:39,018 --> 00:18:41,120
between people and place.

427
00:18:41,187 --> 00:18:43,923
The landscape is literally
woven into people's lives

428
00:18:43,990 --> 00:18:45,258
and their histories.

429
00:18:45,325 --> 00:18:47,093
It seems that
these relationships

430
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:48,695
between people in the country,

431
00:18:48,761 --> 00:18:49,929
probably date back

432
00:18:49,996 --> 00:18:52,599
to the earliest peopling
of the continent."

433
00:18:52,665 --> 00:18:54,934
This quote brings in a
question of a connection

434
00:18:55,001 --> 00:18:57,770
between these newly
revealed superhighways

435
00:18:57,837 --> 00:19:00,073
and Aboriginal Dreaming Tracks.

436
00:19:00,139 --> 00:19:02,075
to the Aborigine,
a Dreaming Track

437
00:19:02,141 --> 00:19:04,477
or Song Line, as
it is also known,

438
00:19:04,544 --> 00:19:08,414
is a route taken by ancestral
heroes in the Dreamtime,

439
00:19:08,481 --> 00:19:11,184
in which all Aboriginal
culture has its roots,

440
00:19:11,251 --> 00:19:12,986
and before, which
in their minds,

441
00:19:13,052 --> 00:19:14,854
the Earth did not exist.

442
00:19:14,921 --> 00:19:16,990
As with the ancient
superhighways,

443
00:19:17,056 --> 00:19:19,526
these mostly invisible
paths or tracks,

444
00:19:19,592 --> 00:19:22,529
usually connect
Aboriginal sacred sites.

445
00:19:22,595 --> 00:19:23,997
In the Dream Time,

446
00:19:24,063 --> 00:19:26,933
groups of ancestral beings
journeyed across the land,

447
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,635
performing mighty deeds,

448
00:19:28,701 --> 00:19:31,070
and creating the living
species and features

449
00:19:31,137 --> 00:19:32,639
of the desert landscape.

450
00:19:32,705 --> 00:19:34,774
The adventure of
these ancestors,

451
00:19:34,841 --> 00:19:37,477
also referred to as
totemic ancestors,

452
00:19:37,544 --> 00:19:42,248
are chronicled in sacred
songs, stories, and rituals.

453
00:19:42,315 --> 00:19:43,950
These totemic ancestors,

454
00:19:44,017 --> 00:19:47,186
also establish the rules
of Aboriginal religion,

455
00:19:47,253 --> 00:19:50,256
law, moral systems,
and social life.

456
00:19:50,323 --> 00:19:51,858
In the mind of the Aborigine,

457
00:19:51,925 --> 00:19:55,628
Dreamtime is a true record of
how the landscape was formed,

458
00:19:55,695 --> 00:19:57,597
a landscape which
is still inhabited

459
00:19:57,664 --> 00:20:00,333
by the spirits of
their Ancestor Beings.

460
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,702
By reenacting the
myths in the Dreamtime

461
00:20:02,769 --> 00:20:05,004
in song, story, and ceremony,

462
00:20:05,071 --> 00:20:08,608
the Aborigines keep their
ancestors' rules, beliefs,

463
00:20:08,675 --> 00:20:11,144
and relationships with
the landscape alive.

464
00:20:12,412 --> 00:20:15,114
The massive rock form
of Ayers Rock, Uluru

465
00:20:15,181 --> 00:20:17,717
in the local Anangu language,

466
00:20:17,784 --> 00:20:20,086
is an isolated
sandstone outcrop,

467
00:20:20,153 --> 00:20:23,957
rising 1,140 feet above
the red desert plain

468
00:20:24,023 --> 00:20:26,426
in the Northern Territory
of Central Australia,

469
00:20:26,492 --> 00:20:29,929
208 miles southwest
of Alice Springs.

470
00:20:29,996 --> 00:20:32,532
This sacred place is
seen by the Anangu,

471
00:20:32,599 --> 00:20:35,201
as a living record of
the Dreamtime activities

472
00:20:35,268 --> 00:20:36,603
of their ancestors,

473
00:20:36,669 --> 00:20:38,171
and the appearance and origin

474
00:20:38,237 --> 00:20:40,139
of every feature
of the giant rock

475
00:20:40,206 --> 00:20:41,874
is present on the mental map,

476
00:20:41,941 --> 00:20:45,078
carried around by the
Anangu people of the area.

477
00:20:45,144 --> 00:20:47,714
One reason why the
local Anangu population,

478
00:20:47,780 --> 00:20:49,882
prefer tourists not
to climb the rock,

479
00:20:49,949 --> 00:20:51,184
is that the hiking path

480
00:20:51,250 --> 00:20:52,719
crosses one of the many

481
00:20:52,785 --> 00:20:55,722
traditional Dreaming
Tracks on the site.

482
00:20:55,788 --> 00:20:58,291
Hopefully, future work
on possible connections

483
00:20:58,358 --> 00:21:00,693
between these
fascinating superhighways

484
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,595
and Aboriginal Dreaming Tracks,

485
00:21:02,662 --> 00:21:04,430
might reveal important insights

486
00:21:04,497 --> 00:21:07,600
into the spiritual
nature of both.

487
00:21:07,667 --> 00:21:11,304
(rhythmic didgeridoo music)

488
00:21:15,108 --> 00:21:17,810
(dramatic music)

489
00:21:21,180 --> 00:21:22,448
- [Narrator 1]
Archeologists digging

490
00:21:22,515 --> 00:21:25,585
in the Atapuerca Mountains
in Northern Spain,

491
00:21:25,652 --> 00:21:27,420
have uncovered the
fossilized remains

492
00:21:27,487 --> 00:21:29,288
of an archaic group of humans,

493
00:21:29,355 --> 00:21:32,091
different to any
other ever seen.

494
00:21:32,158 --> 00:21:34,727
The bones are among
the oldest Homo fossils

495
00:21:34,794 --> 00:21:36,329
ever found in Europe,

496
00:21:36,396 --> 00:21:38,564
and some researchers
have speculated,

497
00:21:38,631 --> 00:21:40,099
that they may represent

498
00:21:40,166 --> 00:21:43,770
the elusive common ancestral
of Neanderthals, Denisovans,

499
00:21:43,836 --> 00:21:45,672
and modern humans.

500
00:21:45,738 --> 00:21:48,474
Recent DNA analysis of
these ancient bones,

501
00:21:48,541 --> 00:21:50,243
the oldest ever examined,

502
00:21:50,309 --> 00:21:53,112
revealed some fascinating facts,

503
00:21:53,179 --> 00:21:54,814
but although this
may be the oldest

504
00:21:54,881 --> 00:21:57,417
human genetic material
ever analyzed,

505
00:21:57,483 --> 00:22:00,286
a recent examination
of permafrost preserved

506
00:22:00,353 --> 00:22:03,856
1.6-million-year-old
mammoth teeth from Siberia,

507
00:22:03,923 --> 00:22:07,360
has shattered the record
for the world's oldest DNA.

508
00:22:07,427 --> 00:22:10,063
This work has inevitably
led to the question,

509
00:22:10,129 --> 00:22:13,700
could scientists bring
dinosaurs back to life?

510
00:22:13,766 --> 00:22:15,768
The Atapuerca Site.

511
00:22:15,835 --> 00:22:18,871
The Atapuerca Mountains
are a small row of hills

512
00:22:18,938 --> 00:22:22,608
that lie just south of the
Cantabrian Mountain Range,

513
00:22:22,675 --> 00:22:24,510
which runs across
Northern Spain,

514
00:22:24,577 --> 00:22:26,813
just south of the Bay of Biscay.

515
00:22:26,879 --> 00:22:30,116
In 1896, work began
on a small rail line,

516
00:22:30,183 --> 00:22:32,785
which was to be constructed
through the hills,

517
00:22:32,852 --> 00:22:35,722
which was to connect
Balboa's Steel Mines

518
00:22:35,788 --> 00:22:37,857
with mines to the southeast.

519
00:22:37,924 --> 00:22:41,360
During the work, a series of
limestone caves was exposed,

520
00:22:41,427 --> 00:22:43,463
but the rail line
was soon abandoned,

521
00:22:43,529 --> 00:22:44,764
and although one large cut

522
00:22:44,831 --> 00:22:46,933
eventually became
a limestone quarry,

523
00:22:46,999 --> 00:22:49,902
nothing more was heard about
the newly exposed caves

524
00:22:49,969 --> 00:22:52,038
for almost 70 years.

525
00:22:52,105 --> 00:22:55,408
In the 1960s, a small
amount of archeological work

526
00:22:55,475 --> 00:22:56,676
was carried out there,

527
00:22:56,743 --> 00:22:59,145
but it wasn't until 1972,

528
00:22:59,212 --> 00:23:01,447
after cavers had
discovered the caves,

529
00:23:01,514 --> 00:23:03,549
and began working exploring them

530
00:23:03,616 --> 00:23:06,085
that their importance
was realized.

531
00:23:06,152 --> 00:23:08,421
The discovery in 1972

532
00:23:08,488 --> 00:23:11,290
of Bronze Age artifacts
by Swiss cavers

533
00:23:11,357 --> 00:23:13,526
attracted the interest
of archeologists,

534
00:23:13,593 --> 00:23:17,830
and excavations were
soon begun at the site.

535
00:23:17,897 --> 00:23:20,433
The archeological sites in
the Atapuerca Mountains,

536
00:23:20,500 --> 00:23:22,602
soon revealed a
rich fossil record

537
00:23:22,668 --> 00:23:24,971
of the earliest human
beings in Europe,

538
00:23:25,037 --> 00:23:26,873
from nearly 1 million years ago,

539
00:23:26,939 --> 00:23:29,242
right up to the Roman Period.

540
00:23:29,308 --> 00:23:30,943
The most astonishing discoveries

541
00:23:31,010 --> 00:23:33,079
were made in the Pit of Bones.

542
00:23:33,146 --> 00:23:34,514
Over the years,

543
00:23:34,580 --> 00:23:37,383
this pit has yielded thousands
of ancient human bones,

544
00:23:37,450 --> 00:23:40,586
ranging in age
from 350,000 years,

545
00:23:40,653 --> 00:23:42,989
to over a million years old.

546
00:23:43,055 --> 00:23:45,158
These hominids
inhabited the caves

547
00:23:45,224 --> 00:23:47,727
before fully evolved
Neanderthals,

548
00:23:47,794 --> 00:23:50,930
some were known
Neanderthal ancestors,

549
00:23:50,997 --> 00:23:55,234
but in 1994, sensational
discoveries from
the Pit of Bones,

550
00:23:55,301 --> 00:23:58,171
made the world sit
up and take notice.

551
00:23:58,237 --> 00:24:01,307
These enigmatic remains
were much older in date

552
00:24:01,374 --> 00:24:03,342
than those previously
discovered,

553
00:24:03,409 --> 00:24:04,610
and seemed to have belonged

554
00:24:04,677 --> 00:24:07,146
to however came before
the Neanderthals,

555
00:24:07,213 --> 00:24:11,284
at first, thought by
researchers to be Homo erectus.

556
00:24:11,350 --> 00:24:13,486
The Mysterious Ancestor.

557
00:24:13,553 --> 00:24:17,290
These mysterious ancestors
were about five feet six tall,

558
00:24:17,356 --> 00:24:19,525
and used very basic tools,

559
00:24:19,592 --> 00:24:21,327
but close examination
of the bones

560
00:24:21,394 --> 00:24:23,396
revealed a disturbing detail,

561
00:24:23,462 --> 00:24:24,997
they were cut and fractured,

562
00:24:25,064 --> 00:24:27,700
and appeared to have
been cannibalized.

563
00:24:27,767 --> 00:24:29,268
The largest skeletal remains

564
00:24:29,335 --> 00:24:31,370
came from at least
six individuals,

565
00:24:31,437 --> 00:24:35,274
and dated to at least
800,000 years ago.

566
00:24:35,341 --> 00:24:39,145
They're similar in some ways
to modern humans, Homo sapiens,

567
00:24:39,212 --> 00:24:41,514
as well as the now-extinct
human relatives,

568
00:24:41,581 --> 00:24:44,116
like Neanderthals
and Denisovans,

569
00:24:44,183 --> 00:24:45,852
but the remains were
different enough

570
00:24:45,918 --> 00:24:49,455
to resist classification
as any known species.

571
00:24:49,522 --> 00:24:51,757
Many believe that the
bones are a missing link,

572
00:24:51,824 --> 00:24:55,394
the elusive common ancestor
of Neanderthals, Denisovans,

573
00:24:55,461 --> 00:24:56,796
and modern humans,

574
00:24:56,863 --> 00:25:00,633
and have been named by
scholars, Homo antecessor,

575
00:25:00,700 --> 00:25:03,536
the name comes from the
Latin word for predecessor.

576
00:25:03,603 --> 00:25:06,239
Initial interpretations
based on physical shape

577
00:25:06,305 --> 00:25:07,940
and appearance of the fossils,

578
00:25:08,007 --> 00:25:12,178
concluded that Homo antecessor
was the last common ancestor

579
00:25:12,245 --> 00:25:15,147
to modern humans
and Neanderthals.

580
00:25:15,214 --> 00:25:17,183
The DNA Discovery.

581
00:25:17,250 --> 00:25:18,784
A recent study of the DNA

582
00:25:18,851 --> 00:25:21,020
from some of the
Atapuerca bones,

583
00:25:21,087 --> 00:25:23,422
was published in the
Journal "Nature."

584
00:25:23,489 --> 00:25:24,924
The study was groundbreaking,

585
00:25:24,991 --> 00:25:27,059
as it examined the
single-oldest sample

586
00:25:27,126 --> 00:25:30,363
of human genetic
material ever analyzed.

587
00:25:30,429 --> 00:25:35,301
Researchers used a technique
called mass spectrometry,

588
00:25:35,368 --> 00:25:38,504
to sequence ancient
proteins from dental enamel,

589
00:25:38,571 --> 00:25:41,207
and were thus able to
determine the position

590
00:25:41,274 --> 00:25:45,177
of Homo antecessor in
the human family tree.

591
00:25:45,244 --> 00:25:46,812
This new molecular method

592
00:25:46,879 --> 00:25:49,715
enabled scientists to
recover molecular evidence

593
00:25:49,782 --> 00:25:52,351
to precisely reconstruct
human evolution

594
00:25:52,418 --> 00:25:55,621
from much farther back
in time than ever before.

595
00:25:55,688 --> 00:25:59,058
Lead author of the new
paper, Enrico Cappellini,

596
00:25:59,125 --> 00:26:01,460
Associate Producer at
the Globe Institute,

597
00:26:01,527 --> 00:26:03,696
University of
Copenhagen, commented,

598
00:26:03,763 --> 00:26:05,698
"Much of what we know so far

599
00:26:05,765 --> 00:26:09,702
is based either on the results
of ancient DNA analysis,

600
00:26:09,769 --> 00:26:11,938
or on observations of the shape

601
00:26:12,004 --> 00:26:14,340
and the physical
structure of fossils.

602
00:26:14,407 --> 00:26:17,643
Because of the chemical
degradation of DNA over time,

603
00:26:17,710 --> 00:26:20,780
the oldest human DNA
retrieved so far is dated,

604
00:26:20,846 --> 00:26:24,317
at no more than
approximately 400,000 years.

605
00:26:24,383 --> 00:26:26,719
Now, the analysts
of ancient proteins

606
00:26:26,786 --> 00:26:28,254
with mass spectrometry,

607
00:26:28,321 --> 00:26:31,290
allow us to overcome
these limits.

608
00:26:31,357 --> 00:26:34,961
The researchers sequenced the
ancient proteins of the enamel

609
00:26:35,027 --> 00:26:38,431
of an 800,000-year-old
antecessor tooth,

610
00:26:38,497 --> 00:26:41,767
using the proteins to decrypt
the portion of genetic code

611
00:26:41,834 --> 00:26:43,235
that created them.

612
00:26:43,302 --> 00:26:45,938
They found that Homo
antecessor's DNA,

613
00:26:46,005 --> 00:26:48,240
was too similar to
fit on the same branch

614
00:26:48,307 --> 00:26:49,909
of the evolutionary tree,

615
00:26:49,976 --> 00:26:53,212
as humans, Neanderthals
and Denisovans."

616
00:26:53,279 --> 00:26:55,047
The researchers concluded

617
00:26:55,114 --> 00:26:57,283
that the bones from Atapuerca,

618
00:26:57,350 --> 00:27:00,853
probably belonged to what they
described as a sister species

619
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:02,355
of the shared ancestor

620
00:27:02,421 --> 00:27:04,924
that led to the evolution
of modern humans,

621
00:27:04,991 --> 00:27:07,660
and our extinct
hominid relatives.

622
00:27:07,727 --> 00:27:09,929
In a statement,
co-author of the study,

623
00:27:09,996 --> 00:27:12,598
José María Bermúdez de Castro,

624
00:27:12,665 --> 00:27:14,567
who was also
Scientific co-Director

625
00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:17,103
of the excavations
Atapuerca said,

626
00:27:17,169 --> 00:27:20,006
"I am happy that the protein
study provides evidence

627
00:27:20,072 --> 00:27:22,641
that the Homo
antecessor species,

628
00:27:22,708 --> 00:27:23,976
may be closely related

629
00:27:24,043 --> 00:27:26,912
to the last common
ancestor of Homo sapiens,

630
00:27:26,979 --> 00:27:29,615
Neanderthals, and Denisovans.

631
00:27:29,682 --> 00:27:32,051
The features shared
by Homo antecessor,

632
00:27:32,118 --> 00:27:34,954
with these hominins clearly
appeared much earlier

633
00:27:35,021 --> 00:27:37,123
than previously thought.

634
00:27:37,189 --> 00:27:40,393
Even if Homo antecessor proves
not to be the missing link

635
00:27:40,459 --> 00:27:41,727
in human evolution,

636
00:27:41,794 --> 00:27:44,497
the study's use of the
new molecular method

637
00:27:44,563 --> 00:27:47,400
is extremely significant
in its reconstruction

638
00:27:47,466 --> 00:27:48,968
of human evolution.

639
00:27:49,035 --> 00:27:51,237
Who knows what
fascinating results

640
00:27:51,303 --> 00:27:53,973
this method will turn
up in the future."

641
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,208
The World's Oldest DNA.

642
00:27:56,275 --> 00:27:58,044
In February, 2021,

643
00:27:58,110 --> 00:28:01,480
a sensational article published
in the Journal "Nature,"

644
00:28:01,547 --> 00:28:02,982
revealed that mammoth teeth

645
00:28:03,049 --> 00:28:05,751
preserved in Eastern
Siberian permafrost,

646
00:28:05,818 --> 00:28:08,854
had produced the
oldest DNA on record.

647
00:28:08,921 --> 00:28:11,057
In fact, the work nearly
doubled the record

648
00:28:11,123 --> 00:28:13,392
for the oldest genome
ever sequenced.

649
00:28:13,459 --> 00:28:16,395
DNA researchers have
believed for some time

650
00:28:16,462 --> 00:28:19,398
that ancient DNA under
the right circumstances,

651
00:28:19,465 --> 00:28:21,500
and if the right
sample could be found,

652
00:28:21,567 --> 00:28:24,336
it can survive beyond
1 million years.

653
00:28:24,403 --> 00:28:27,339
The problem is, that as
soon as an organism dies,

654
00:28:27,406 --> 00:28:29,341
its chromosomes
break into pieces

655
00:28:29,408 --> 00:28:31,243
that get shorter over time.

656
00:28:31,310 --> 00:28:34,213
In the end, these DNA
strands become so small

657
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,348
that even if they
could be extracted,

658
00:28:36,415 --> 00:28:39,985
they would have lost any
information they contained.

659
00:28:40,052 --> 00:28:43,889
The DNA comes from three mammoth
teeth discovered in Siberia

660
00:28:43,956 --> 00:28:48,060
in the early 1970s by a
Russian paleontologist.

661
00:28:48,127 --> 00:28:51,363
Scientists estimate that the
youngest of the three teeth

662
00:28:51,430 --> 00:28:55,201
is around 500,000 to
800,000 years old,

663
00:28:55,267 --> 00:28:57,436
but the other two,
are far more ancient,

664
00:28:57,503 --> 00:28:59,805
dating back to between 1 million

665
00:28:59,872 --> 00:29:02,041
and 1.2 million years old.

666
00:29:02,108 --> 00:29:04,844
The further back in
time DNA records can go,

667
00:29:04,910 --> 00:29:07,179
the more researchers
are able to learn about

668
00:29:07,246 --> 00:29:09,048
how evolution works.

669
00:29:09,115 --> 00:29:11,083
Two of the new studies
mammoth genomes

670
00:29:11,150 --> 00:29:12,785
have been assigned
to the lineage

671
00:29:12,852 --> 00:29:15,454
that later gave rise
to woolly mammoths.

672
00:29:15,521 --> 00:29:16,889
Fascinatingly, however,

673
00:29:16,956 --> 00:29:19,525
DNA from the oldest
of the three teeth,

674
00:29:19,592 --> 00:29:22,528
nicknamed "Krestovka"
by the researchers

675
00:29:22,595 --> 00:29:24,597
after the river near
which it was found,

676
00:29:24,663 --> 00:29:28,234
appears to belong to
a previously unknown
genetic lineage,

677
00:29:28,300 --> 00:29:30,936
one, that about 1.5
million years ago,

678
00:29:31,003 --> 00:29:35,007
split from the lineage
containing the two other teeth.

679
00:29:35,074 --> 00:29:38,377
Could scientists bring
dinosaurs back to life?

680
00:29:38,444 --> 00:29:41,747
Due to the rapid advances
in DNA in recent years,

681
00:29:41,814 --> 00:29:44,250
exemplified by both
research on bones

682
00:29:44,316 --> 00:29:46,418
from the Atapuerca
Mountian site,

683
00:29:46,485 --> 00:29:49,088
and the study of the
Siberian mammoth teeth,

684
00:29:49,155 --> 00:29:52,057
there has been much speculation
about the possibility

685
00:29:52,124 --> 00:29:55,060
of recreating dinosaurs
from their DNA,

686
00:29:55,127 --> 00:29:58,497
but will such "Jurassic
Park"-style recreations

687
00:29:58,564 --> 00:30:00,032
ever be possible?

688
00:30:00,099 --> 00:30:02,434
In the movie, the dinosaur
resurrection begins

689
00:30:02,501 --> 00:30:04,537
with a DNA-filed mosquito

690
00:30:04,603 --> 00:30:08,207
that has been preserved in
amber for millions of years.

691
00:30:08,274 --> 00:30:11,076
It's actually not as
farfetched as it sounds.

692
00:30:11,143 --> 00:30:14,046
Theoretically, dinosaur
DNA could be recovered

693
00:30:14,113 --> 00:30:17,416
from ancient blood-sucking
insects trapped in amber,

694
00:30:17,483 --> 00:30:19,318
and serves as a
genetic blueprint

695
00:30:19,385 --> 00:30:22,121
for recreating these
extinct animals,

696
00:30:22,188 --> 00:30:24,089
but it's not so straightforward,

697
00:30:24,156 --> 00:30:25,824
as Dr. Susie Maidment,

698
00:30:25,891 --> 00:30:29,328
a research at the Natural
History Museum in London says,

699
00:30:29,395 --> 00:30:31,830
"We do have mosquitoes
and biting flies

700
00:30:31,897 --> 00:30:33,566
from the time of the dinosaurs

701
00:30:33,632 --> 00:30:35,634
and they do preserve in amber,

702
00:30:35,701 --> 00:30:37,469
but when amber preserves things,

703
00:30:37,536 --> 00:30:40,906
it tends to preserve the
husk, not the soft tissues,

704
00:30:40,973 --> 00:30:42,775
so you don't get blood preserved

705
00:30:42,841 --> 00:30:45,177
inside mosquitoes in amber."

706
00:30:45,244 --> 00:30:47,046
But the search for dinosaur DNA,

707
00:30:47,112 --> 00:30:49,248
has other avenues open to it,

708
00:30:49,315 --> 00:30:52,785
blood residue has
been discovered inside
ancient insects,

709
00:30:52,851 --> 00:30:54,954
though, they weren't
found in amber.

710
00:30:55,020 --> 00:30:57,790
According to Dr. Maidment,
"A couple of years ago,

711
00:30:57,856 --> 00:31:01,393
a paper came out about a
mosquito from the Eocene,

712
00:31:01,460 --> 00:31:03,862
that's around 45
million years ago,

713
00:31:03,929 --> 00:31:05,831
so around 20 million years

714
00:31:05,898 --> 00:31:08,133
after the dinosaurs died out.

715
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,736
The mosquito was preserved
in lake sediments

716
00:31:10,803 --> 00:31:13,239
and had a red pigment
in its abdomen.

717
00:31:13,305 --> 00:31:15,507
When they tested that
pigment chemically,

718
00:31:15,574 --> 00:31:18,644
they discovered
hemoglobin-derived porphyrins.

719
00:31:18,711 --> 00:31:20,546
The idea that we may one day

720
00:31:20,613 --> 00:31:23,048
still find a mosquito
or biting fly

721
00:31:23,115 --> 00:31:24,483
from the age of the dinosaurs

722
00:31:24,550 --> 00:31:26,952
with some parts of the
blood still preserved

723
00:31:27,019 --> 00:31:28,687
is not outrageous,

724
00:31:28,754 --> 00:31:31,223
but the fact is that
dinosaurs became extinct

725
00:31:31,290 --> 00:31:33,392
about 66 million years ago,

726
00:31:33,459 --> 00:31:36,528
and with such a vast amount
of time having passed,

727
00:31:36,595 --> 00:31:38,163
it's extremely unlikely

728
00:31:38,230 --> 00:31:41,267
that any dinosaur DNA
would remain today.

729
00:31:41,333 --> 00:31:43,569
Unlikely, but not impossible,

730
00:31:43,636 --> 00:31:45,104
which is why some scientists

731
00:31:45,170 --> 00:31:47,573
will continue to search for it."

732
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,342
(dramatic music)

733
00:31:53,679 --> 00:31:55,581
- [Narrator 1] The recent
discovery of an isolated,

734
00:31:55,648 --> 00:31:57,182
ancient human skull

735
00:31:57,249 --> 00:32:01,020
in the natural Marcel Loubens
Gypsum Cave in Northern Italy,

736
00:32:01,086 --> 00:32:03,088
has baffled the archeologists.

737
00:32:03,155 --> 00:32:06,191
The skull was discovered at
the top of a vertical shaft,

738
00:32:06,258 --> 00:32:08,460
which could only be
reached by a 40-foot,

739
00:32:08,527 --> 00:32:10,429
almost impossible climb.

740
00:32:10,496 --> 00:32:12,231
How and when did it get there?

741
00:32:12,298 --> 00:32:13,799
Whose was it?

742
00:32:13,866 --> 00:32:17,536
In 2015, cave explorers were
climbing slowly and carefully

743
00:32:17,603 --> 00:32:20,406
through a vertical passage
of a natural gypsum cave

744
00:32:20,472 --> 00:32:22,541
near Bologna, Northern Italy,

745
00:32:22,608 --> 00:32:25,177
when they discovered
something extraordinary,

746
00:32:25,244 --> 00:32:29,181
a human skull, complete
apart from a missing jawbone.

747
00:32:29,248 --> 00:32:31,383
The cave is named
Marcel Loubens,

748
00:32:31,450 --> 00:32:33,319
after a French speleologist,

749
00:32:33,385 --> 00:32:35,020
who died in 1952

750
00:32:35,087 --> 00:32:37,523
at the age of 29 in an accident,

751
00:32:37,589 --> 00:32:40,092
while exploring the
cave system there,

752
00:32:40,159 --> 00:32:42,227
it's situated in
the central area

753
00:32:42,294 --> 00:32:45,898
of what is known colorfully,
as Hell's Sinkhole.

754
00:32:45,964 --> 00:32:48,334
Archeologists were alerted
and recovered the skull

755
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,036
from the deep in the
Marcel Loubens Cave,

756
00:32:51,103 --> 00:32:53,939
at the top of a
40-foot vertical shaft,

757
00:32:54,006 --> 00:32:57,343
which was only accessible with
special climbing equipment.

758
00:32:57,409 --> 00:32:58,977
The team had to climb upwards

759
00:32:59,044 --> 00:33:02,715
from the lower-lying
Meandro della cattiveria,

760
00:33:02,781 --> 00:33:03,782
Maze of Malice,

761
00:33:03,849 --> 00:33:06,051
about 85 feet underground,

762
00:33:06,118 --> 00:33:09,355
and named due to
the difficulties of
moving through it.

763
00:33:09,421 --> 00:33:11,857
The cranium was placed
in a vertical position,

764
00:33:11,924 --> 00:33:14,426
partly embedded
in a loamy matrix.

765
00:33:14,493 --> 00:33:16,562
However, because the
access to the place

766
00:33:16,628 --> 00:33:18,831
where the skull was
found was so difficult,

767
00:33:18,897 --> 00:33:21,467
consisting of numerous
passages, not wide enough

768
00:33:21,533 --> 00:33:24,203
to allow more than one
person to squeeze through,

769
00:33:24,269 --> 00:33:26,338
the recovery of the
remains was delayed

770
00:33:26,405 --> 00:33:29,608
until the 7th of June, 2017.

771
00:33:29,675 --> 00:33:32,544
It was recovered by a team
of a dozen volunteers,

772
00:33:32,611 --> 00:33:34,646
including a number
of speliologists

773
00:33:34,713 --> 00:33:38,650
from the GSM-USB
Bologna Caving Club.

774
00:33:38,717 --> 00:33:42,054
Professor Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
of Heidelberg University,

775
00:33:42,121 --> 00:33:43,989
highlighted the
difficulties involved

776
00:33:44,056 --> 00:33:45,991
in the recovery of the skull.

777
00:33:46,058 --> 00:33:49,595
"Speleological reconnaissance
is still a dangerous matter,

778
00:33:49,661 --> 00:33:52,197
which requires lots
of respect for nature,

779
00:33:52,264 --> 00:33:54,933
and more so, for these
remote environments

780
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,536
where you are
essentially on your own."

781
00:33:57,603 --> 00:34:00,639
Archeologist Maria
Giovanna Belcastro,

782
00:34:00,706 --> 00:34:02,708
led the team that
undertook the work

783
00:34:02,775 --> 00:34:05,344
of reconstructing the
story of the skull.

784
00:34:05,411 --> 00:34:08,680
Immediately, the team noticed
mysterious marks on the bone,

785
00:34:08,747 --> 00:34:10,048
which could have been caused

786
00:34:10,115 --> 00:34:12,484
during the removal of
soft tissues after death,

787
00:34:12,551 --> 00:34:14,987
perhaps as part of
a funeral ritual.

788
00:34:15,053 --> 00:34:17,756
There was also damage
to the skull itself,

789
00:34:17,823 --> 00:34:20,159
an encrusted
sediment on the bone.

790
00:34:20,225 --> 00:34:22,795
This practice is not
unusual in prehistory

791
00:34:22,861 --> 00:34:26,665
and has been documented at other
Neolithic burials in Italy.

792
00:34:26,732 --> 00:34:29,368
At Re Tiberio Cave
in Northern Italy,

793
00:34:29,435 --> 00:34:30,803
the long arm and leg bones

794
00:34:30,869 --> 00:34:33,772
of around 17 Neolithic
human skeletons

795
00:34:33,839 --> 00:34:35,174
were arranged in order,

796
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:36,708
but their heads were missing,

797
00:34:36,775 --> 00:34:39,711
indicating that the body
parts may have been separated

798
00:34:39,778 --> 00:34:42,114
and rearranged after death.

799
00:34:42,181 --> 00:34:44,116
There were also other
Neolithic remains

800
00:34:44,183 --> 00:34:45,751
found in neighboring caves,

801
00:34:45,818 --> 00:34:48,454
which showed evidence
of cranial scrape marks

802
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,522
that were also made after death.

803
00:34:50,589 --> 00:34:54,726
The research team used CT
scanning to analyze the skull,

804
00:34:54,793 --> 00:34:56,728
which revealed that it
belonged to a woman,

805
00:34:56,795 --> 00:35:01,567
who was between the ages
of 24 and 35 when she died.

806
00:35:01,633 --> 00:35:03,469
The results of
radiocarbon of the bone,

807
00:35:03,535 --> 00:35:05,170
showed that she
was not the victim

808
00:35:05,237 --> 00:35:08,440
of a relatively recent
accident in the caves,

809
00:35:08,507 --> 00:35:10,642
as some newspapers
had speculated,

810
00:35:10,709 --> 00:35:15,414
in fact, she had lived
between 3630 and 3380 BC,

811
00:35:15,481 --> 00:35:19,117
during the New Stone
Age or Neolithic Period.

812
00:35:19,184 --> 00:35:21,520
Further analysis of
the young woman's skull

813
00:35:21,587 --> 00:35:23,355
revealed odd details.

814
00:35:23,422 --> 00:35:24,623
There was a dent in the bone,

815
00:35:24,690 --> 00:35:26,425
which showed signs of healing,

816
00:35:26,492 --> 00:35:28,393
indicating that
whatever caused it

817
00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:30,762
happened when she
was still alive.

818
00:35:30,829 --> 00:35:33,232
The team believed this
may be made by force

819
00:35:33,298 --> 00:35:34,733
with primitive tools,

820
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,536
as they found parallel
grooves below it,

821
00:35:37,603 --> 00:35:38,871
could this woman have undergone

822
00:35:38,937 --> 00:35:42,040
some kind of prehistoric
cranial surgery?

823
00:35:42,107 --> 00:35:44,943
The idea is not as
far-fetched as it sounds.

824
00:35:45,010 --> 00:35:48,313
A crude surgical procedure
known as trepanation,

825
00:35:48,380 --> 00:35:49,815
which involves making a hole

826
00:35:49,882 --> 00:35:51,550
in the skull of a living person,

827
00:35:51,617 --> 00:35:53,118
by either drilling, cutting,

828
00:35:53,185 --> 00:35:56,388
or scraping away layers
of bone with a sharp tool,

829
00:35:56,455 --> 00:35:59,424
was employed during the
Neolithic and later,

830
00:35:59,491 --> 00:36:01,760
in fact, thousands
of ancient skulls

831
00:36:01,827 --> 00:36:03,662
show signs of trepidation,

832
00:36:03,729 --> 00:36:06,198
and they have been discovered
at archeological sites

833
00:36:06,265 --> 00:36:07,599
across the world,

834
00:36:07,666 --> 00:36:10,569
including cultures as
diverse as ancient Greece,

835
00:36:10,636 --> 00:36:13,872
North and South America,
Africa, Polynesia,

836
00:36:13,939 --> 00:36:15,507
and the Far East.

837
00:36:15,574 --> 00:36:17,943
The earliest clear
evidence of the procedure,

838
00:36:18,010 --> 00:36:21,513
dates back to around
7,000 years ago.

839
00:36:21,580 --> 00:36:24,650
The research team also
discovered another curiosity

840
00:36:24,716 --> 00:36:26,718
in the Neolithic woman's skull,

841
00:36:26,785 --> 00:36:29,187
an area of red ochre pigment.

842
00:36:29,254 --> 00:36:31,223
This was actually
found on the dent,

843
00:36:31,290 --> 00:36:32,457
and could have been put there

844
00:36:32,524 --> 00:36:35,594
for therapeutic or
symbolic reasons.

845
00:36:35,661 --> 00:36:38,530
The young woman had obviously
led a challenging life,

846
00:36:38,597 --> 00:36:40,532
and was not in the
best of health,

847
00:36:40,599 --> 00:36:42,834
though perhaps that
was not so unusual

848
00:36:42,901 --> 00:36:44,770
during the Neolithic Period.

849
00:36:44,836 --> 00:36:48,040
the team discovered minute
holes on the top of her skull,

850
00:36:48,106 --> 00:36:50,409
which could be related
to inflammation,

851
00:36:50,475 --> 00:36:53,312
possibly caused from
chronic amnesia.

852
00:36:53,378 --> 00:36:56,014
Two dense spots rose
her found on her skull,

853
00:36:56,081 --> 00:36:58,817
which the team believed
were benign tumors.

854
00:36:58,884 --> 00:37:01,920
Furthermore, her tooth
enamel was underdeveloped,

855
00:37:01,987 --> 00:37:04,389
signifying that she had
suffered from health problems

856
00:37:04,456 --> 00:37:05,657
in early childhood,

857
00:37:05,724 --> 00:37:08,460
when her permanent
teeth were developing.

858
00:37:08,527 --> 00:37:10,796
Some researchers put
forward the idea,

859
00:37:10,862 --> 00:37:12,931
that the marks on the
young woman's skull,

860
00:37:12,998 --> 00:37:15,500
could be attributable to
the action of animals.

861
00:37:15,567 --> 00:37:19,037
However, the research stated
in their report on the skull,

862
00:37:19,104 --> 00:37:21,673
that this could not
be the explanation.

863
00:37:21,740 --> 00:37:23,442
"The interpretation
of the injuries

864
00:37:23,508 --> 00:37:25,510
and the composition
of the sediment

865
00:37:25,577 --> 00:37:27,346
covering and filling the skull,

866
00:37:27,412 --> 00:37:29,748
made it possible for
us to hypothesize

867
00:37:29,815 --> 00:37:32,517
some potential
scenarios," they said.

868
00:37:32,584 --> 00:37:35,153
"The lesions observed
in the cranial vault,

869
00:37:35,220 --> 00:37:37,990
may be due to intentional
human intervention,

870
00:37:38,056 --> 00:37:39,625
before and around death

871
00:37:39,691 --> 00:37:41,426
on the young female corpse,

872
00:37:41,493 --> 00:37:42,928
at least her head,

873
00:37:42,995 --> 00:37:49,034
and non-human tap harmonic
processes occurred after death.

874
00:37:49,101 --> 00:37:50,402
None of the lesions
observed are attributable

875
00:37:50,469 --> 00:37:52,938
to animal actions,
involving teeth,

876
00:37:53,005 --> 00:37:55,240
gnawing, nails, and claws,

877
00:37:55,307 --> 00:37:58,210
trampling and scratching."

878
00:37:58,276 --> 00:37:59,811
But it was the other
damage to her skull

879
00:37:59,878 --> 00:38:02,948
and the presence of
encrusted sediment inside it,

880
00:38:03,015 --> 00:38:04,049
which revealed the most

881
00:38:04,116 --> 00:38:05,884
about what might
have happened to her

882
00:38:05,951 --> 00:38:07,419
after her burial.

883
00:38:07,486 --> 00:38:08,754
Using this evidence,

884
00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:10,656
the researcher
team reconstructed

885
00:38:10,722 --> 00:38:12,024
what they believed
to have happened

886
00:38:12,090 --> 00:38:14,292
to the skull after death.

887
00:38:14,359 --> 00:38:16,595
After the body of the
woman was laid to rest

888
00:38:16,662 --> 00:38:19,231
during a funeral ritual
in a burial place,

889
00:38:19,297 --> 00:38:21,033
somewhere in the cave system,

890
00:38:21,099 --> 00:38:22,768
the skull rolled away,

891
00:38:22,834 --> 00:38:24,870
probably moved by water and mud,

892
00:38:24,936 --> 00:38:27,873
perhaps during heavy
rainfall or a mudslide,

893
00:38:27,939 --> 00:38:29,641
down the slope of a sinkhole,

894
00:38:29,708 --> 00:38:31,243
and into the cave.

895
00:38:31,309 --> 00:38:35,113
Later, continual sinkhole
activity over 5,000 years,

896
00:38:35,180 --> 00:38:37,416
created the modern
structure for the cave,

897
00:38:37,482 --> 00:38:39,885
with the skull still
preserved within.

898
00:38:40,986 --> 00:38:42,454
There is, in fact,
some precedence

899
00:38:42,521 --> 00:38:45,290
for such an
unlikely-sounding occurrence.

900
00:38:45,357 --> 00:38:47,459
Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
and his team,

901
00:38:47,526 --> 00:38:50,562
recently investigated a
partial female skeleton,

902
00:38:50,629 --> 00:38:53,899
known as Chan Hol 3,
near Tulum, Mexico,

903
00:38:53,965 --> 00:38:56,468
in a submerged cave system.

904
00:38:56,535 --> 00:38:58,970
Dating back almost
10,000 years old,

905
00:38:59,037 --> 00:39:00,706
these remains are much older

906
00:39:00,772 --> 00:39:02,741
than those from
the Italian cave,

907
00:39:02,808 --> 00:39:04,643
indeed, they are
among the oldest

908
00:39:04,710 --> 00:39:06,945
of such finds in the Americas.

909
00:39:07,012 --> 00:39:08,980
Stinnesbeck's team used methods

910
00:39:09,047 --> 00:39:11,383
similar to those
employed by the Italians,

911
00:39:11,450 --> 00:39:14,252
and came up with
surprisingly similar results.

912
00:39:14,319 --> 00:39:16,521
They found that the woman
had survived disease

913
00:39:16,588 --> 00:39:17,456
and head trauma,

914
00:39:17,522 --> 00:39:19,524
before being buried in the cave,

915
00:39:19,591 --> 00:39:21,026
which was dry at the time

916
00:39:21,093 --> 00:39:23,028
because of the lower sea levels.

917
00:39:23,095 --> 00:39:26,164
as the waters rose, most
of the caves were flooded,

918
00:39:26,231 --> 00:39:28,633
However, not everyone
is completely convinced

919
00:39:28,700 --> 00:39:31,436
by the research team's
version of events.

920
00:39:31,503 --> 00:39:33,805
Thomas Terberger an archeologist

921
00:39:33,872 --> 00:39:35,640
at the Lower Saxony State Office

922
00:39:35,707 --> 00:39:38,443
for Cultural Heritage
in Hanover, Germany,

923
00:39:38,510 --> 00:39:40,579
believes some aspects
of the discovery

924
00:39:40,645 --> 00:39:42,481
are still unexplained.

925
00:39:42,547 --> 00:39:44,850
"I have the feelings,
the authors themselves,

926
00:39:44,916 --> 00:39:46,284
who did a very good job,

927
00:39:46,351 --> 00:39:48,653
are not a hundred
percent sure about this.

928
00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:52,023
It's not always easy to
distinguish between striations

929
00:39:52,090 --> 00:39:55,427
caused by transport in
sediment and rocky ground

930
00:39:55,494 --> 00:39:56,895
and cut marks.

931
00:39:56,962 --> 00:39:58,797
Though the explanation
that the skull

932
00:39:58,864 --> 00:40:02,167
simply rolled to its final
destination in the cave system

933
00:40:02,234 --> 00:40:03,769
is largely accepted,

934
00:40:03,835 --> 00:40:06,538
one wonders if perhaps
another explanation

935
00:40:06,605 --> 00:40:08,640
for the fate of this
young woman exists,

936
00:40:08,707 --> 00:40:10,242
both in life and death.

937
00:40:10,308 --> 00:40:13,311
Perhaps, there was someone
else involved in what happened,

938
00:40:13,378 --> 00:40:15,547
an unnaturally agile individual,

939
00:40:15,614 --> 00:40:17,015
who was able to place the skull

940
00:40:17,082 --> 00:40:19,284
in its final resting
place in the cave,

941
00:40:19,351 --> 00:40:21,086
but was unable to get out,

942
00:40:21,153 --> 00:40:24,089
could their remains like hidden
somewhere in the cave system

943
00:40:24,156 --> 00:40:27,392
waiting to be discovered
by future cave explorers?

944
00:40:27,459 --> 00:40:30,328
Perhaps when this individual's
remains are found,

945
00:40:30,395 --> 00:40:33,532
they will shed important light
on what actually did happen

946
00:40:33,598 --> 00:40:35,233
in Marcel Loubens Cave,

947
00:40:35,300 --> 00:40:38,403
over 4 1/2 thousand years ago."

948
00:40:38,470 --> 00:40:41,173
(dramatic music)

949
00:40:44,042 --> 00:40:46,211
- [Narrator 1] In
September of 2019,

950
00:40:46,278 --> 00:40:47,412
it was announced to the world

951
00:40:47,479 --> 00:40:49,681
that scientists
analyzing the DNA

952
00:40:49,748 --> 00:40:51,950
of an extinct group of hominins

953
00:40:52,017 --> 00:40:54,085
that was discovered
around 10 years ago,

954
00:40:54,152 --> 00:40:55,887
known as the Denisovans,

955
00:40:55,954 --> 00:40:58,890
had discovered what they
may have looked like.

956
00:40:58,957 --> 00:41:01,827
For years, these close
relatives of Neanderthals

957
00:41:01,893 --> 00:41:04,229
had been identified by their DNA

958
00:41:04,296 --> 00:41:07,098
from a handful of
fragmentary fossils,

959
00:41:07,165 --> 00:41:10,035
the study was published
in the Journal "Cell,"

960
00:41:10,101 --> 00:41:12,637
but recently, scientists
developed a method

961
00:41:12,704 --> 00:41:16,708
of assembling clues about
anatomy from ancient genomes,

962
00:41:16,775 --> 00:41:18,076
which has enabled them

963
00:41:18,143 --> 00:41:20,612
to compose a rough
image of a young girl,

964
00:41:20,679 --> 00:41:23,648
who lived at Denisova
Cave in Siberia, Russia,

965
00:41:23,715 --> 00:41:26,384
75,000 years ago.

966
00:41:26,451 --> 00:41:28,286
The results reveal
that Denisovans

967
00:41:28,353 --> 00:41:30,522
were a broad-faced species,

968
00:41:30,589 --> 00:41:33,625
somewhat similar in appearance
to the Neanderthals,

969
00:41:33,692 --> 00:41:35,827
but with some
distinctive differences,

970
00:41:35,894 --> 00:41:38,330
such as a wider jaw and skull.

971
00:41:38,396 --> 00:41:39,164
(page swishing)

972
00:41:39,231 --> 00:41:40,699
Geneticist, Liran Carmel

973
00:41:40,765 --> 00:41:43,335
of the Hebrew University
Jerusalem said,

974
00:41:43,401 --> 00:41:44,769
"While other researchers

975
00:41:44,836 --> 00:41:47,205
had worked to map
anatomical features

976
00:41:47,272 --> 00:41:50,575
obtained from the information
hidden in our DNA,

977
00:41:50,642 --> 00:41:53,511
his team had taken a
different approach."

978
00:41:53,578 --> 00:41:56,514
"We didn't rely on the
DNA sequence per se,

979
00:41:56,581 --> 00:41:57,816
but from the sequence,

980
00:41:57,883 --> 00:41:59,284
we used a technique,

981
00:41:59,351 --> 00:42:02,554
which allows you to reconstruct
gene activity patterns

982
00:42:02,621 --> 00:42:04,522
in these ancient individuals,

983
00:42:04,589 --> 00:42:07,125
so we can compare the
way the genes work

984
00:42:07,192 --> 00:42:09,194
in the different human groups.

985
00:42:09,261 --> 00:42:11,763
Evolutionary speaking,
it's well-known

986
00:42:11,830 --> 00:42:13,298
that many anatomical

987
00:42:13,365 --> 00:42:16,835
or physiological differences
between closely related groups,

988
00:42:16,902 --> 00:42:20,872
are attributed to changes
in gene activity patterns,

989
00:42:20,939 --> 00:42:24,142
this is exactly what we can
find using our technique."

990
00:42:24,209 --> 00:42:26,711
Chris Stringer, a
paleoanthropologist

991
00:42:26,778 --> 00:42:29,047
at the Natural History
Museum in London,

992
00:42:29,114 --> 00:42:30,849
was not involved in the study,

993
00:42:30,916 --> 00:42:32,817
but believes that
the reconstruction

994
00:42:32,884 --> 00:42:34,519
of the Denisovan anatomy

995
00:42:34,586 --> 00:42:37,522
is a pioneering
piece of research,

996
00:42:37,589 --> 00:42:38,690
which at first glance,

997
00:42:38,757 --> 00:42:41,159
seems almost like
science fiction.

998
00:42:41,226 --> 00:42:42,861
"This is exciting work,

999
00:42:42,928 --> 00:42:44,262
pushing the boundaries

1000
00:42:44,329 --> 00:42:47,499
of what it can be gleaned
from ancient genomes."

1001
00:42:47,565 --> 00:42:49,601
The technique, which
consists of mapping

1002
00:42:49,668 --> 00:42:51,736
methylation patterns in DNA

1003
00:42:51,803 --> 00:42:54,673
to determine gene
expression and anatomy,

1004
00:42:54,739 --> 00:42:56,641
is a relatively new one,

1005
00:42:56,708 --> 00:42:59,711
and at the moment, cannot
show us with complete accuracy

1006
00:42:59,778 --> 00:43:02,247
what a Denisovan looked like.

1007
00:43:02,314 --> 00:43:04,749
Before applying their
method to Denisovans,

1008
00:43:04,816 --> 00:43:06,017
Carmel and his team

1009
00:43:06,084 --> 00:43:08,219
had first tested whether
it could effectively

1010
00:43:08,286 --> 00:43:10,722
predict the anatomy
of Neanderthals,

1011
00:43:10,789 --> 00:43:13,658
which is known from many
hundreds of fossils.

1012
00:43:13,725 --> 00:43:17,128
The team's research found
33 Neanderthal traits

1013
00:43:17,195 --> 00:43:19,464
that could theoretically
be predicted

1014
00:43:19,531 --> 00:43:21,766
from methylation patterns

1015
00:43:21,833 --> 00:43:26,671
their results accurately
predicted 29 of those traits.

1016
00:43:26,738 --> 00:43:28,406
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

1017
00:43:28,473 --> 00:43:30,342
arose for Carmel and his team,

1018
00:43:30,408 --> 00:43:34,212
while their completed study was
waiting to be peer-reviewed.

1019
00:43:34,279 --> 00:43:37,682
This was the discovery of
an actual Denisovan jaw,

1020
00:43:37,749 --> 00:43:40,185
reported to the
media in May, 2019.

1021
00:43:41,453 --> 00:43:44,189
The 160,000-year-old specimen,

1022
00:43:44,255 --> 00:43:46,992
which contained
half of a lower jaw,

1023
00:43:47,058 --> 00:43:48,593
with two complete teeth,

1024
00:43:48,660 --> 00:43:52,364
had in fact been discovered
in 1980 by a local monk,

1025
00:43:52,430 --> 00:43:54,566
in Baishiya Karst Cave

1026
00:43:54,632 --> 00:43:57,268
high on the Tibetan
Plateau in China.

1027
00:43:57,335 --> 00:43:59,771
The find was passed
on to the university,

1028
00:43:59,838 --> 00:44:02,340
and remained there
until the 2010s,

1029
00:44:02,407 --> 00:44:05,343
when Archaeologist Dongju
Zhang and her colleagues

1030
00:44:05,410 --> 00:44:07,278
began studying it.

1031
00:44:07,345 --> 00:44:08,747
The problem with the bones,

1032
00:44:08,813 --> 00:44:10,115
was that it was so old

1033
00:44:10,181 --> 00:44:12,851
no DNA could be
extracted from it.

1034
00:44:12,917 --> 00:44:14,619
However, Jean-Jacques Hublin,

1035
00:44:14,686 --> 00:44:16,721
the Director of the
Max Planck Institute's

1036
00:44:16,788 --> 00:44:18,623
Department of Human Evolution

1037
00:44:18,690 --> 00:44:20,892
found a way around this problem.

1038
00:44:20,959 --> 00:44:22,260
Hublin and his team,

1039
00:44:22,327 --> 00:44:25,030
were able to use the
latest protein analysis

1040
00:44:25,096 --> 00:44:26,698
to date one of its teeth

1041
00:44:26,765 --> 00:44:29,834
and to link it genetically
to Denisovan specimens

1042
00:44:29,901 --> 00:44:31,536
found in Siberia.

1043
00:44:31,603 --> 00:44:34,139
Hublin said of the
extraordinary find,

1044
00:44:34,205 --> 00:44:37,108
"To have beings, even
if a little archaic,

1045
00:44:37,175 --> 00:44:39,844
living at 11,000 feet
on the Tibetan Plateau

1046
00:44:39,911 --> 00:44:42,480
160,000 years ago,

1047
00:44:42,547 --> 00:44:43,782
that's something

1048
00:44:43,848 --> 00:44:46,584
that no one could have
imagined, until today.

1049
00:44:46,651 --> 00:44:47,852
From my point of view,

1050
00:44:47,919 --> 00:44:50,121
it's confirmation of
a working hypothesis

1051
00:44:50,188 --> 00:44:51,723
I've had for a while.

1052
00:44:51,790 --> 00:44:55,460
In the all-Chinese and
East Asian hominin fossils

1053
00:44:55,527 --> 00:44:58,863
between 350 to 50,000 years ago,

1054
00:44:58,930 --> 00:45:01,299
are probably Denisovan."

1055
00:45:01,366 --> 00:45:03,134
So, with the
newly-studied jawbone,

1056
00:45:03,201 --> 00:45:05,336
Carmel and colleagues
had a unique chance

1057
00:45:05,403 --> 00:45:09,274
to check their work against
an actual Denisovan fossil.

1058
00:45:09,340 --> 00:45:12,410
Carmel said of the success
of his team's analysis,

1059
00:45:12,477 --> 00:45:14,846
"This was very exciting for us.

1060
00:45:14,913 --> 00:45:16,948
When we submitted
the paper to sell,

1061
00:45:17,015 --> 00:45:18,983
we only had a few
teeth and a finger bone

1062
00:45:19,050 --> 00:45:21,019
to compare to our predictions.

1063
00:45:21,086 --> 00:45:23,488
We immediately went to
check how it compared

1064
00:45:23,555 --> 00:45:24,923
to our predictions,

1065
00:45:24,989 --> 00:45:27,258
and we find a beautiful match,

1066
00:45:27,325 --> 00:45:30,195
so this was very
reassuring for us."

1067
00:45:30,261 --> 00:45:32,263
But who actually
wear the Denisovans?

1068
00:45:32,330 --> 00:45:34,065
And how are they
connected to us?

1069
00:45:35,166 --> 00:45:38,603
(suspenseful music)

1070
00:45:38,670 --> 00:45:41,906
Thanks to recent discoveries
in a Siberian cave,

1071
00:45:41,973 --> 00:45:44,442
a mysterious group
of extinct humans,

1072
00:45:44,509 --> 00:45:46,377
known as the Denisovans

1073
00:45:46,444 --> 00:45:48,279
is helping to rewrite
our understanding

1074
00:45:48,346 --> 00:45:50,081
of human evolution.

1075
00:45:50,148 --> 00:45:51,816
According to the latest studies,

1076
00:45:51,883 --> 00:45:54,219
these Denisovans co-existed

1077
00:45:54,285 --> 00:45:56,821
and mixed with modern
humans in New Guinea,

1078
00:45:56,888 --> 00:45:59,691
until at least 30,000 years ago,

1079
00:45:59,757 --> 00:46:02,794
but perhaps as recently
as 15,000 years ago,

1080
00:46:02,861 --> 00:46:04,662
a date that, if confirmed,

1081
00:46:04,729 --> 00:46:07,599
means Denisovans were
a last known humans,

1082
00:46:07,665 --> 00:46:10,602
apart from ourselves
to walk the Earth.

1083
00:46:10,668 --> 00:46:13,738
This incredible archeological
site of Denisova Cave

1084
00:46:13,805 --> 00:46:15,306
in the Anuy River,

1085
00:46:15,373 --> 00:46:17,742
in the Altai Region of Siberia,

1086
00:46:17,809 --> 00:46:21,646
contains more than 20 layers
of excavated artifacts,

1087
00:46:21,713 --> 00:46:24,115
indicating occupation
by hominins,

1088
00:46:24,182 --> 00:46:27,519
as far back as
280,000 years ago,

1089
00:46:27,585 --> 00:46:30,221
to as recently as
the Middle Ages.

1090
00:46:30,288 --> 00:46:33,258
Evidence of 13
separate occupations,

1091
00:46:33,324 --> 00:46:37,061
occurring between 125
and 30,000 years ago,

1092
00:46:37,128 --> 00:46:39,998
is attested by the
presence of stone artifacts

1093
00:46:40,064 --> 00:46:42,300
dating to within this period.

1094
00:46:42,367 --> 00:46:44,169
Overlooking the Anuy River,

1095
00:46:44,235 --> 00:46:46,504
where herds of
animals came to drink,

1096
00:46:46,571 --> 00:46:49,007
the site offered an
incomparable vantage point

1097
00:46:49,073 --> 00:46:51,543
for spotting game
and other humans,

1098
00:46:51,609 --> 00:46:54,746
as well as refuge
from Siberian storms.

1099
00:46:54,812 --> 00:46:58,183
The cave lies near modern
Russia's border with Mongolia,

1100
00:46:58,249 --> 00:47:00,785
China, and Kazakhstan.

1101
00:47:00,852 --> 00:47:03,655
Researchers believe that
the cave was inhabited

1102
00:47:03,721 --> 00:47:06,858
by early modern
humans, Homo sapiens,

1103
00:47:06,925 --> 00:47:10,028
and possibly Neanderthals
at different times,

1104
00:47:10,094 --> 00:47:13,198
additionally, they have
uncovered evidence of occupation

1105
00:47:13,264 --> 00:47:16,000
by a previously unknown
group of hominins,

1106
00:47:16,067 --> 00:47:18,069
named the Denisovans,

1107
00:47:18,136 --> 00:47:21,339
who were neither modern
humans nor Neanderthals.

1108
00:47:22,307 --> 00:47:25,143
In the 1970s and early 1980s,

1109
00:47:25,210 --> 00:47:29,581
Soviet archeologists began to
excavate at the Denisova Cave,

1110
00:47:29,647 --> 00:47:32,417
discovering tens of
thousands of stone tools

1111
00:47:32,483 --> 00:47:34,352
and fragments of animal bone,

1112
00:47:34,419 --> 00:47:37,522
many of which had been
gnawed and digested by hyenas

1113
00:47:37,589 --> 00:47:40,658
or other carnivores that
had inhabited the cave.

1114
00:47:40,725 --> 00:47:44,529
In 2010, a team of European
and American scientists,

1115
00:47:44,596 --> 00:47:45,997
reported the sequencing

1116
00:47:46,064 --> 00:47:49,334
of the complete
mitochondrial DNA genome

1117
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:51,035
obtained from a specimen

1118
00:47:51,102 --> 00:47:54,606
found in the Denisova
Cave in 2008.

1119
00:47:54,672 --> 00:47:57,709
The specimen, a finger
bone from a small child

1120
00:47:57,775 --> 00:48:02,113
was dated to between 30
and 48,000 years ago.

1121
00:48:02,180 --> 00:48:03,648
Although the bone was discovered

1122
00:48:03,715 --> 00:48:07,986
in association with artifacts
of the Mousterian industry,

1123
00:48:08,052 --> 00:48:09,220
the tool-making culture

1124
00:48:09,287 --> 00:48:12,056
traditionally associated
with Neanderthals,

1125
00:48:12,123 --> 00:48:13,925
its mitochondrial DNA

1126
00:48:13,992 --> 00:48:15,994
showed nearly twice
as many differences

1127
00:48:16,060 --> 00:48:18,796
from modern human
mitochondrial DNA,

1128
00:48:18,863 --> 00:48:22,767
that are present in
Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA.

1129
00:48:22,834 --> 00:48:26,104
These discoveries suggest
that the Denisovan lineage,

1130
00:48:26,170 --> 00:48:28,773
branched off from
some common ancestor

1131
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:30,141
long before the lineage

1132
00:48:30,208 --> 00:48:33,311
that includes Neanderthals
and modern humans.

1133
00:48:33,378 --> 00:48:35,680
The most recent common
mitochondrial DNA

1134
00:48:35,747 --> 00:48:38,650
that could have been shared
by these two lineages,

1135
00:48:38,716 --> 00:48:41,653
would've occurred around
1 million years ago.

1136
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:43,988
Accordingly, the
researchers have proposed

1137
00:48:44,055 --> 00:48:46,691
that Neanderthals, Homo sapiens,

1138
00:48:46,758 --> 00:48:48,059
and a third group

1139
00:48:48,126 --> 00:48:50,928
of genetically distinct
hominins, the Denisovans,

1140
00:48:50,995 --> 00:48:54,198
inhabited the Altai
Region at the same time,

1141
00:48:54,265 --> 00:48:56,167
around 40,000 years ago.

1142
00:48:57,268 --> 00:48:59,904
In another study
published in 2010,

1143
00:48:59,971 --> 00:49:02,240
it was revealed that
genetic material

1144
00:49:02,307 --> 00:49:04,542
removed from the nuclei of cells

1145
00:49:04,609 --> 00:49:06,577
taken from the same finger bone

1146
00:49:06,644 --> 00:49:10,148
was used to sequence the
Denisovan nuclear genome.

1147
00:49:10,214 --> 00:49:12,950
Genetic analysis revealed
that the finger bone,

1148
00:49:13,017 --> 00:49:16,654
as well as the tooth excavated
from the cave in 2000,

1149
00:49:16,721 --> 00:49:18,189
belonged to two different,

1150
00:49:18,256 --> 00:49:21,225
but genetically
comparable individuals,

1151
00:49:21,292 --> 00:49:22,727
and that these individuals

1152
00:49:22,794 --> 00:49:24,862
had substantial
genetic differences

1153
00:49:24,929 --> 00:49:27,899
from Neanderthals
and modern humans.

1154
00:49:27,965 --> 00:49:30,702
A comparison of the
Denisovian nuclear genome

1155
00:49:30,768 --> 00:49:33,671
with those of Neanderthals
and modern humans,

1156
00:49:33,738 --> 00:49:37,342
suggested that perhaps
4 to 6% of the material

1157
00:49:37,408 --> 00:49:39,243
in the Denisovan genome,

1158
00:49:39,310 --> 00:49:40,545
were also present

1159
00:49:40,611 --> 00:49:44,215
in the genomes of modern
humans from Melanesia.

1160
00:49:44,282 --> 00:49:46,984
Such results suggested
that the Denisovians

1161
00:49:47,051 --> 00:49:49,520
appeared throughout
large parts of Eurasia,

1162
00:49:49,587 --> 00:49:52,824
and that they interbred
with early modern humans.

1163
00:49:52,890 --> 00:49:54,192
(page swishing)

1164
00:49:54,258 --> 00:49:55,960
In August, 2018,

1165
00:49:56,027 --> 00:49:58,663
a paper published in
the Journal "Nature",

1166
00:49:58,730 --> 00:50:02,300
described genome analysis of
a bone discovered in the cave,

1167
00:50:02,367 --> 00:50:04,001
which revealed that a female,

1168
00:50:04,068 --> 00:50:06,871
who died there around
90,000 years ago

1169
00:50:06,938 --> 00:50:10,274
was half Neanderthal
and half Denisovan.

1170
00:50:10,341 --> 00:50:12,343
This was the first
time in history

1171
00:50:12,410 --> 00:50:15,680
that scientists had identified
an ancient individual

1172
00:50:15,747 --> 00:50:18,883
whose parents belonged
to distinct human groups.

1173
00:50:18,950 --> 00:50:20,418
Population geneticist

1174
00:50:20,485 --> 00:50:24,822
Pontus Skoglund of the Francis
Crick Institute in London,

1175
00:50:24,889 --> 00:50:26,391
said of the discovery,

1176
00:50:26,457 --> 00:50:29,727
"To find a first-generation
person of mixed ancestry

1177
00:50:29,794 --> 00:50:32,864
from these groups is
absolutely extraordinary.

1178
00:50:32,930 --> 00:50:34,265
It's really great science,

1179
00:50:34,332 --> 00:50:36,401
coupled with a
little bit of luck."

1180
00:50:36,467 --> 00:50:37,668
The researchers gave

1181
00:50:37,735 --> 00:50:40,438
the remarkable young
woman a name, Denny.

1182
00:50:42,740 --> 00:50:46,077
Taking into account the
patterns of genetic variation

1183
00:50:46,144 --> 00:50:48,312
in ancient to modern humans,

1184
00:50:48,379 --> 00:50:51,783
scientists already knew that
Denisovans and Neanderthals

1185
00:50:51,849 --> 00:50:53,050
must have interbred,

1186
00:50:53,117 --> 00:50:54,719
and with Homo sapiens,

1187
00:50:54,786 --> 00:50:56,621
however, up until then,

1188
00:50:56,687 --> 00:50:58,022
no one had found

1189
00:50:58,089 --> 00:51:00,858
the first-generation
offspring of such unions.

1190
00:51:00,925 --> 00:51:03,428
Scientists believed that
although Neanderthals

1191
00:51:03,494 --> 00:51:06,998
and Denisovans would've bred
with each other when they met,

1192
00:51:07,064 --> 00:51:09,133
such encounters were rare.

1193
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:11,169
The majority of
Neanderthal remains

1194
00:51:11,235 --> 00:51:13,838
have been discovered
across Western Eurasia,

1195
00:51:13,905 --> 00:51:16,107
whilst Denisovans have thus far,

1196
00:51:16,174 --> 00:51:19,076
only been discovered
in the Denisova Cave.

1197
00:51:19,143 --> 00:51:20,778
The two groups territories

1198
00:51:20,845 --> 00:51:24,382
did overlap in the
Altai Mountains and
possibly elsewhere,

1199
00:51:24,449 --> 00:51:28,152
but these areas would've
been sparsely populated.

1200
00:51:28,219 --> 00:51:29,720
Scientists are still studying

1201
00:51:29,787 --> 00:51:32,089
the remains from Denisova Cave,

1202
00:51:32,156 --> 00:51:34,559
and they believe that
they may have found signs

1203
00:51:34,625 --> 00:51:36,961
that modern humans
inhabited the cave,

1204
00:51:37,028 --> 00:51:40,097
and possibly encountered
these other groups.

1205
00:51:40,164 --> 00:51:42,200
In the cave's most
recent deposits,

1206
00:51:42,266 --> 00:51:45,136
archeologists have
discovered tools and jewelry,

1207
00:51:45,203 --> 00:51:47,472
crafted from ostrich eggshell,

1208
00:51:47,538 --> 00:51:50,475
and bones and teeth of
deer and other animals

1209
00:51:50,541 --> 00:51:53,077
that look similar to
artifacts associated

1210
00:51:53,144 --> 00:51:56,080
with the first Homo
sapiens to reach Europe.

1211
00:51:56,147 --> 00:51:57,348
This was during a period

1212
00:51:57,415 --> 00:51:59,984
known as the Initial
Upper Paleolithic,

1213
00:52:00,051 --> 00:52:02,720
which began around
50,000 years ago.

1214
00:52:04,522 --> 00:52:06,023
(page swishing)

1215
00:52:06,090 --> 00:52:09,193
The Russian archeologists in
charge of the caves excavation

1216
00:52:09,260 --> 00:52:11,395
have proposed that
the tools and jewelry

1217
00:52:11,462 --> 00:52:13,331
were made by Denisovans,

1218
00:52:13,397 --> 00:52:16,133
and suggested that the
group possessed the capacity

1219
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:17,902
for symbolic thinking.

1220
00:52:17,969 --> 00:52:21,172
However, most Western
archeologists disagree,

1221
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:22,607
believing that the artifacts

1222
00:52:22,673 --> 00:52:25,176
were made by early modern humans

1223
00:52:25,243 --> 00:52:28,679
whose remains have been found
at another Siberian site,

1224
00:52:28,746 --> 00:52:31,782
and date to the Initial
Upper Paleolithic.

1225
00:52:31,849 --> 00:52:33,317
A team of researchers

1226
00:52:33,384 --> 00:52:35,686
are currently searching
the most recent sediments

1227
00:52:35,753 --> 00:52:39,323
of Denisova Cave for more
hominin remains and DNA

1228
00:52:39,390 --> 00:52:42,627
that could help to find
out who made the artifacts.

1229
00:52:42,693 --> 00:52:46,631
Comparable work at other
archeological sites in Siberia,

1230
00:52:46,697 --> 00:52:49,600
including a number in the
area of Denisova Cave,

1231
00:52:49,667 --> 00:52:52,069
could also produce answers,

1232
00:52:52,136 --> 00:52:54,005
but researchers
have been hampered

1233
00:52:54,071 --> 00:52:57,074
by a lack a of fossil
evidence of Denisovans.

1234
00:52:57,141 --> 00:52:58,943
According to Bence Viola,

1235
00:52:59,010 --> 00:53:02,947
a paleoanthropologist at the
University of Toronto, Canada,

1236
00:53:03,014 --> 00:53:05,783
who has made a close study
of all the remains says,

1237
00:53:05,850 --> 00:53:10,388
"All the Denisovan material
fits in a very, very small box,

1238
00:53:10,454 --> 00:53:11,789
I've spent a lot of time

1239
00:53:11,856 --> 00:53:14,559
staring at these very
small fragments and teeth,

1240
00:53:14,625 --> 00:53:17,595
I'm probably the only
one who's seen it all."

1241
00:53:19,397 --> 00:53:22,466
Researchers are extending
the search for Denisovans

1242
00:53:22,533 --> 00:53:23,935
across the continent,

1243
00:53:24,001 --> 00:53:25,636
where traces of their DNA

1244
00:53:25,703 --> 00:53:29,006
are found in many modern
human populations.

1245
00:53:29,073 --> 00:53:30,241
They also hope to find out

1246
00:53:30,308 --> 00:53:32,410
the range of this
mysterious group,

1247
00:53:32,476 --> 00:53:35,746
which could have stretched
from Siberia to Oceana,

1248
00:53:35,813 --> 00:53:38,616
and also to record its
meetings with other hominins,

1249
00:53:38,683 --> 00:53:42,119
including Homo sapiens
and Neanderthals.

1250
00:53:42,186 --> 00:53:45,022
Scientists know how
valuable it would be

1251
00:53:45,089 --> 00:53:49,060
to have larger fossil and DNA
samples of the Denisovans,

1252
00:53:49,126 --> 00:53:51,996
who are still only known
from fragmentary fossils

1253
00:53:52,063 --> 00:53:54,031
in a single cave site.

1254
00:53:54,098 --> 00:53:56,734
In 2017, Katerina Douka,

1255
00:53:56,801 --> 00:54:00,237
an archeological scientist
at the Max Planck Institute

1256
00:54:00,304 --> 00:54:03,107
for the Science of Human
History in Jana, Germany

1257
00:54:03,174 --> 00:54:04,508
and her team,

1258
00:54:04,575 --> 00:54:08,446
won $2.3 million in European
Research Council funding

1259
00:54:08,512 --> 00:54:10,781
to expand the search
for Denisovans,

1260
00:54:10,848 --> 00:54:13,784
to around 20 sites
across Europe and Asia,

1261
00:54:13,851 --> 00:54:18,656
by scrutinizing another
30,000 to 40,000 bones.

1262
00:54:18,723 --> 00:54:20,691
"There are days
I'm very hopeful,

1263
00:54:20,758 --> 00:54:23,628
and there are days where you
go through a thousand bones

1264
00:54:23,694 --> 00:54:26,631
and find a thousand
hyenas," says Douka,

1265
00:54:26,697 --> 00:54:30,401
"I have a feeling, China
is the place to look."

1266
00:54:30,468 --> 00:54:34,538
Indeed, the distribution of
Denisovan in modern humans

1267
00:54:34,605 --> 00:54:37,842
is mainly in a number
of Chinese populations.

1268
00:54:37,908 --> 00:54:40,578
Some scientists have
suggested that it's possible

1269
00:54:40,645 --> 00:54:43,314
that there might even
be a Denisovan skeleton

1270
00:54:43,347 --> 00:54:46,917
already present in a museum
collection somewhere in China.

1271
00:54:46,984 --> 00:54:50,721
For example, in 2017,
paleoanthropologists

1272
00:54:50,788 --> 00:54:53,858
described the unusually
large skulls of hominins

1273
00:54:53,924 --> 00:54:57,995
that had lived 105
to 125,000 years ago,

1274
00:54:58,062 --> 00:54:59,864
and were uncovered from a site

1275
00:54:59,930 --> 00:55:03,300
near the City of Sichuan
in Central China.

1276
00:55:03,367 --> 00:55:06,237
Chris Stringer, a
paleoanthropologist

1277
00:55:06,303 --> 00:55:08,639
at the Natural History
Museum in London,

1278
00:55:08,706 --> 00:55:10,541
looked at age, location,

1279
00:55:10,608 --> 00:55:13,044
and distinct anatomy
of the skeletons,

1280
00:55:13,110 --> 00:55:16,480
and wondered whether they
might belong to Denisovans,

1281
00:55:16,547 --> 00:55:20,351
but thus far, none of the
later archaic Chinese fossils

1282
00:55:20,418 --> 00:55:23,487
has yielded publishable
ancient DNA sequences

1283
00:55:23,554 --> 00:55:26,424
to compare with those
ancient DNA sequences

1284
00:55:26,490 --> 00:55:29,026
from the Denisova Cave.

1285
00:55:29,093 --> 00:55:30,661
Denisova Cave was obviously

1286
00:55:30,728 --> 00:55:33,631
a hugely important
site in prehistory,

1287
00:55:33,698 --> 00:55:35,332
many scientists now believe

1288
00:55:35,399 --> 00:55:37,368
that the site was
a northern base

1289
00:55:37,435 --> 00:55:40,538
that Denisovans and other
hominins called home,

1290
00:55:40,604 --> 00:55:42,440
when the climate allowed.

1291
00:55:42,506 --> 00:55:45,509
It seems probable that
Denisovan-like humans

1292
00:55:45,576 --> 00:55:47,044
ranged over a region

1293
00:55:47,111 --> 00:55:50,514
from which we already possess
an adequate fossil record,

1294
00:55:50,581 --> 00:55:52,183
the question is finding out,

1295
00:55:52,249 --> 00:55:53,918
which of the known finds,

1296
00:55:53,984 --> 00:55:56,821
may actually
represent Denisovans.

1297
00:55:56,887 --> 00:55:58,222
One interesting fact

1298
00:55:58,289 --> 00:56:00,357
is that there are
large molar teeth

1299
00:56:00,424 --> 00:56:02,593
similar to those
from Denisovans,

1300
00:56:02,660 --> 00:56:05,963
from a fossil from a
site near the City Anina

1301
00:56:06,030 --> 00:56:08,099
in South-Western Romania,

1302
00:56:08,165 --> 00:56:11,535
This could mean that Denisovans
or their genetic influence

1303
00:56:11,602 --> 00:56:14,705
may have extended westward
as well as eastwards,

1304
00:56:14,772 --> 00:56:17,708
but but until more
complete Denisovan material

1305
00:56:17,775 --> 00:56:19,810
is uncovered from
the cave itself,

1306
00:56:19,877 --> 00:56:23,881
or more examples of
Denisovan-like ancient
DNA is extracted

1307
00:56:23,948 --> 00:56:27,351
from other fossils
in Asia or Oceana,

1308
00:56:27,418 --> 00:56:28,786
we won't know for sure

1309
00:56:28,853 --> 00:56:32,556
who this enigmatic human
group actually were.

1310
00:56:32,623 --> 00:56:35,426
(rhythmic music)

1311
00:56:35,493 --> 00:56:38,195
(dramatic music)

1312
00:56:41,232 --> 00:56:42,666
- [Narrator 2] It
was always thought,

1313
00:56:42,733 --> 00:56:46,137
that humans were the only known
life form that used tools,

1314
00:56:46,203 --> 00:56:48,773
it was unique to
our hominid lineage,

1315
00:56:48,839 --> 00:56:52,510
and a remarkable talent that
separated us from the animals,

1316
00:56:52,576 --> 00:56:54,311
so much for that idea.

1317
00:56:54,378 --> 00:56:56,380
In fact, we've
known for some years

1318
00:56:56,447 --> 00:56:58,949
that our closest living
relatives, chimps,

1319
00:56:59,016 --> 00:57:00,718
employ a variety of tools,

1320
00:57:00,785 --> 00:57:03,287
including some made of stone.

1321
00:57:03,354 --> 00:57:05,456
Recently, primatologists
have discovered

1322
00:57:05,523 --> 00:57:08,626
that this also applies to
two more distant cousins,

1323
00:57:08,692 --> 00:57:10,427
the capuchins and macaques,

1324
00:57:10,494 --> 00:57:13,197
living in the coastal
regions of Thailand.

1325
00:57:13,264 --> 00:57:14,732
The new findings have attracted

1326
00:57:14,799 --> 00:57:16,700
some of the top archeologists,

1327
00:57:16,767 --> 00:57:18,335
who are interested
in the so-called

1328
00:57:18,402 --> 00:57:21,238
Stone Age of non-human primates.

1329
00:57:21,305 --> 00:57:23,140
Delving through layers of dirt,

1330
00:57:23,207 --> 00:57:26,043
they have already begun to
unearth the remains of tools

1331
00:57:26,110 --> 00:57:27,778
made thousands of years ago

1332
00:57:27,845 --> 00:57:30,915
by our ancestors and
distant relatives.

1333
00:57:30,981 --> 00:57:33,951
The discoveries usher in
a new age of perspective,

1334
00:57:34,018 --> 00:57:37,321
which gives us novel
insight into our past.

1335
00:57:37,388 --> 00:57:40,291
It is now possible to make
archeological comparisons

1336
00:57:40,357 --> 00:57:41,592
for the first time,

1337
00:57:41,659 --> 00:57:43,460
regarding our own evolution,

1338
00:57:43,527 --> 00:57:46,197
compared to that of
our nearest ancestors,

1339
00:57:46,263 --> 00:57:48,032
and we can see what
characteristics

1340
00:57:48,098 --> 00:57:50,734
all tool-wielders
have in common.

1341
00:57:50,801 --> 00:57:53,003
This could also be
the missing link

1342
00:57:53,070 --> 00:57:54,905
that further
strengthens the argument

1343
00:57:54,972 --> 00:57:56,373
regarding human history

1344
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:58,509
and where we came from.

1345
00:57:58,576 --> 00:58:01,412
The gentleman at the forefront
of primate archeology

1346
00:58:01,478 --> 00:58:02,546
is Michael Haslam,

1347
00:58:02,613 --> 00:58:04,748
from the University of Oxford.

1348
00:58:04,815 --> 00:58:08,118
Dr. Haslam started out
as a normal archeologist,

1349
00:58:08,185 --> 00:58:10,855
preoccupied with
mainstream research.

1350
00:58:10,921 --> 00:58:12,323
His epiphany moment

1351
00:58:12,389 --> 00:58:15,459
came during a chance encounter
with Dr. Bill McGrew,

1352
00:58:15,526 --> 00:58:17,494
an expert in chimpanzee tool use

1353
00:58:17,561 --> 00:58:19,897
from the University
of Cambridge.

1354
00:58:19,964 --> 00:58:22,533
The conversation got
Dr. Haslam wondering,

1355
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:26,036
what chimp technology might
have looked like in the past?

1356
00:58:26,103 --> 00:58:27,338
It just seemed like something

1357
00:58:27,404 --> 00:58:29,940
that needed to be
investigated," he says.

1358
00:58:30,007 --> 00:58:32,443
"We had all of these
techniques from archeology

1359
00:58:32,509 --> 00:58:34,578
that help you
understand the past,

1360
00:58:34,645 --> 00:58:37,514
and they were only being
applied to humans."

1361
00:58:37,581 --> 00:58:39,583
In 2012, he then set up

1362
00:58:39,650 --> 00:58:43,254
the Primate Archaeology
Project, PRIMARCH.

1363
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,957
In 2007, Julio Mercader
and others reported

1364
00:58:47,024 --> 00:58:48,259
that they had
discovered the remains

1365
00:58:48,325 --> 00:58:52,663
of a 4,300-year-old
chimpanzee settlement,

1366
00:58:52,730 --> 00:58:55,466
there had been no
further digs since then,

1367
00:58:55,532 --> 00:58:57,968
but with the Foundations
of primate archeology

1368
00:58:58,035 --> 00:59:00,137
already laid in West Africa,

1369
00:59:00,204 --> 00:59:04,208
Dr. Haslam decided to look
across the Atlantic to Brazil,

1370
00:59:04,275 --> 00:59:06,844
where evidence of tool
use in wild capuchins,

1371
00:59:06,911 --> 00:59:09,280
was just starting to emerge,

1372
00:59:09,346 --> 00:59:10,814
specifically, they
were interested

1373
00:59:10,881 --> 00:59:13,617
in tools used for nut-cracking.

1374
00:59:13,684 --> 00:59:16,453
A cashew is a
tough nut to crack,

1375
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:18,822
you must carefully
balance it on an anvil

1376
00:59:18,889 --> 00:59:20,457
and bash it with a hammer,

1377
00:59:20,524 --> 00:59:24,228
while avoiding contact with
the caustic resin in its shell.

1378
00:59:24,295 --> 00:59:26,096
This takes great skill,

1379
00:59:26,163 --> 00:59:29,233
yet bearded capuchin monkeys
living in Northeast Brazil,

1380
00:59:29,300 --> 00:59:31,502
make it look like child's play.

1381
00:59:31,568 --> 00:59:33,304
When the team reached Brazil,

1382
00:59:33,370 --> 00:59:36,206
they decided to start digging
at the base of a tree,

1383
00:59:36,273 --> 00:59:39,076
where the monkeys kept
a stalk of stone tools,

1384
00:59:39,143 --> 00:59:40,711
and less than a meter down,

1385
00:59:40,778 --> 00:59:42,880
they found what they were after.

1386
00:59:42,947 --> 00:59:46,116
Some of the stones resembled
modern-day capuchin hammers,

1387
00:59:46,183 --> 00:59:49,520
which are much larger than
the average rocks in the area.

1388
00:59:49,586 --> 00:59:51,155
Others, looked like anvils,

1389
00:59:51,221 --> 00:59:54,224
which are four times
the size of the hammers.

1390
00:59:54,291 --> 00:59:58,629
Carbon dating put the tools
at 700 to 1,000 years old,

1391
00:59:58,696 --> 00:59:59,663
meaning they were in use

1392
00:59:59,730 --> 01:00:01,465
well before the first Europeans

1393
01:00:01,532 --> 01:00:03,067
arrived in the New World,

1394
01:00:03,133 --> 01:00:06,270
thus making them the oldest
non-human stone tools

1395
01:00:06,337 --> 01:00:08,472
found outside Africa.

1396
01:00:08,539 --> 01:00:10,507
Like the Thailand forest chimps,

1397
01:00:10,574 --> 01:00:13,344
the monkeys have clearly been
cracking nuts in the same way

1398
01:00:13,410 --> 01:00:15,179
for a long time.

1399
01:00:15,245 --> 01:00:17,114
The tools unearthed
in both cases,

1400
01:00:17,181 --> 01:00:20,084
are remarkably similar
to those used today,

1401
01:00:20,150 --> 01:00:21,785
but that doesn't
necessarily mean

1402
01:00:21,852 --> 01:00:24,922
their technologies have
stagnated since then.

1403
01:00:24,989 --> 01:00:26,724
To put things in perspective,

1404
01:00:26,790 --> 01:00:28,592
the sharp-edged stone flakes

1405
01:00:28,659 --> 01:00:32,262
used by early hominids
2.6 million years ago,

1406
01:00:32,329 --> 01:00:35,866
are identical to
those manufactured 1
million years later

1407
01:00:35,933 --> 01:00:38,268
by their distant ancestors.

1408
01:00:38,335 --> 01:00:39,737
Another behavior witnessed,

1409
01:00:39,803 --> 01:00:41,205
was the capuchin monkeys

1410
01:00:41,271 --> 01:00:44,308
often stopping to lick
mineral dust off the rocks,

1411
01:00:44,375 --> 01:00:46,076
ingesting the sharp particles

1412
01:00:46,143 --> 01:00:48,812
to cut up intestinal parasites.

1413
01:00:48,879 --> 01:00:50,347
We are still trying
to figure out

1414
01:00:50,414 --> 01:00:52,349
why exactly they're doing this,

1415
01:00:52,416 --> 01:00:54,918
and how they know
why to do this?

1416
01:00:54,985 --> 01:00:57,988
Further insights into the
history of hominin tool use,

1417
01:00:58,055 --> 01:01:00,591
could come from studying
the archeological record

1418
01:01:00,657 --> 01:01:03,093
of Burmese long-tailed macaques.

1419
01:01:03,160 --> 01:01:05,763
Troops of these monkeys
living on a series of islands

1420
01:01:05,829 --> 01:01:07,831
off the west coast of Thailand,

1421
01:01:07,898 --> 01:01:10,968
used rocks predominantly to
break open oysters, crabs,

1422
01:01:11,035 --> 01:01:13,771
and sea snails,
rather than nuts.

1423
01:01:13,837 --> 01:01:16,607
This behavior was only
discovered a decade ago,

1424
01:01:16,673 --> 01:01:18,442
but when Dr. Haslam
heard about it,

1425
01:01:18,509 --> 01:01:20,544
he was eager to research it.

1426
01:01:20,611 --> 01:01:23,480
This would prove trickier
than the others, however,

1427
01:01:23,547 --> 01:01:26,717
the big challenge with
macaques is the sea,

1428
01:01:26,784 --> 01:01:30,154
it washes away all the
remains of their tool use.

1429
01:01:30,220 --> 01:01:32,589
Waiting patiently for
the tide to recede

1430
01:01:32,656 --> 01:01:33,891
and macaques to emerge

1431
01:01:33,957 --> 01:01:35,726
from their forest
dwellings to forage

1432
01:01:35,793 --> 01:01:37,594
along the rocky shoreline,

1433
01:01:37,661 --> 01:01:38,829
they observed the monkeys

1434
01:01:38,896 --> 01:01:41,065
placing their catches
on big boulders,

1435
01:01:41,131 --> 01:01:42,866
and whacking them with rocks,

1436
01:01:42,933 --> 01:01:44,368
until the shells loosened,

1437
01:01:44,435 --> 01:01:47,171
and released the
juicy meat inside.

1438
01:01:47,237 --> 01:01:48,472
After their meal,

1439
01:01:48,539 --> 01:01:50,741
the monkeys would
retreat to the forest.

1440
01:01:50,808 --> 01:01:53,644
At that point, the
teams swung into action,

1441
01:01:53,710 --> 01:01:54,912
descending on the beach

1442
01:01:54,978 --> 01:01:57,347
and digging as
fast as they could.

1443
01:01:57,414 --> 01:02:00,484
They could only excavate for
a maximum of about four hours

1444
01:02:00,551 --> 01:02:02,486
before the tide came back in,

1445
01:02:02,553 --> 01:02:04,988
so that limited how
deep they could go.

1446
01:02:05,055 --> 01:02:08,192
Carbon dating of oyster shells
in the deepest deposits,

1447
01:02:08,258 --> 01:02:11,562
revealed that they were
less than 100 years old,

1448
01:02:11,628 --> 01:02:12,963
but the trenches they dug,

1449
01:02:13,030 --> 01:02:16,700
contain telltale signs
of much older use.

1450
01:02:16,767 --> 01:02:18,268
Back in West Africa,

1451
01:02:18,335 --> 01:02:21,438
PRIMARCH researchers found that
their archeological approach

1452
01:02:21,505 --> 01:02:25,075
can help reveal how cultural
traditions are maintained.

1453
01:02:25,142 --> 01:02:28,045
For example, the Tai
chimps live in communities

1454
01:02:28,112 --> 01:02:31,181
favoring one of two
nut-cracking tools,

1455
01:02:31,248 --> 01:02:33,951
Some, primarily use
hammers made of stone,

1456
01:02:34,017 --> 01:02:36,320
others, prefer wooden clubs.

1457
01:02:36,386 --> 01:02:38,122
These differences
are maintained,

1458
01:02:38,188 --> 01:02:41,892
despite females frequently
moving between groups.

1459
01:02:41,959 --> 01:02:45,195
By studying the tools made
in the past by females,

1460
01:02:45,262 --> 01:02:47,297
but left behind
when they migrate,

1461
01:02:47,364 --> 01:02:49,466
it has been discovered
that they tend to adopt

1462
01:02:49,533 --> 01:02:51,735
the tool of choice
of their new group,

1463
01:02:51,802 --> 01:02:53,537
even if that means
abandoning one

1464
01:02:53,604 --> 01:02:56,039
they have spent
years working with.

1465
01:02:56,106 --> 01:02:59,143
This tendency to conform
to local traditions

1466
01:02:59,209 --> 01:03:02,546
is also an essential
feature of human culture,

1467
01:03:02,613 --> 01:03:04,014
and one that allows communities

1468
01:03:04,081 --> 01:03:06,116
to retain their
distinct customs,

1469
01:03:06,183 --> 01:03:08,785
despite an influx of migrants.

1470
01:03:08,852 --> 01:03:10,754
In another fascinating study,

1471
01:03:10,821 --> 01:03:12,789
the chimps are helping
researchers work out

1472
01:03:12,856 --> 01:03:15,459
what hominin use
their tools for.

1473
01:03:15,526 --> 01:03:17,828
The archeological
record is full of rocks

1474
01:03:17,895 --> 01:03:19,196
that look like anvils,

1475
01:03:19,263 --> 01:03:21,165
but no one knows
whether a given slab

1476
01:03:21,231 --> 01:03:24,168
was for cracking
nuts, bones, or both.

1477
01:03:24,234 --> 01:03:25,736
To address this question,

1478
01:03:25,802 --> 01:03:28,539
archeologists from the
University College of London

1479
01:03:28,605 --> 01:03:32,075
are collecting stones from
Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania,

1480
01:03:32,142 --> 01:03:35,012
where early hominin
tools have been found.

1481
01:03:35,078 --> 01:03:38,315
They give these rocks to
chimps living in a sanctuary,

1482
01:03:38,382 --> 01:03:40,150
and the chimps use
them as anvils,

1483
01:03:40,217 --> 01:03:43,520
until they accumulate
unique damage patterns.

1484
01:03:43,587 --> 01:03:45,722
A side-by-side
comparison with anvils

1485
01:03:45,789 --> 01:03:47,457
found at the hominin sites

1486
01:03:47,524 --> 01:03:51,094
can then reveal if these were
used for nut-cracking or not.

1487
01:03:51,161 --> 01:03:52,663
A similar approach

1488
01:03:52,729 --> 01:03:55,132
could help with the problem of
distinguishing ancient tools

1489
01:03:55,199 --> 01:03:58,335
from stones damaged
by natural forces.

1490
01:03:58,402 --> 01:04:00,904
With three new tool
users on the block,

1491
01:04:00,971 --> 01:04:02,372
the primate archeologists

1492
01:04:02,439 --> 01:04:05,342
can also start to do
comparative studies.

1493
01:04:05,409 --> 01:04:06,610
Although, there is no doubt

1494
01:04:06,677 --> 01:04:09,379
that primate archeology
offers exciting new ways

1495
01:04:09,446 --> 01:04:11,615
to peer into our own past,

1496
01:04:11,682 --> 01:04:15,786
archeologists caution against
drawing too many conclusions.

1497
01:04:15,852 --> 01:04:17,221
What we observe in a chimp,

1498
01:04:17,287 --> 01:04:20,157
did not necessarily
happen in early hominins,

1499
01:04:20,224 --> 01:04:21,892
they are not the same species,

1500
01:04:21,959 --> 01:04:25,295
there are millions of years
of evolution dividing them.

1501
01:04:25,362 --> 01:04:28,699
That applies even more so
to capuchins and macaques,

1502
01:04:28,765 --> 01:04:32,302
with which we share
ancestors far further back.

1503
01:04:32,369 --> 01:04:35,906
Nevertheless, primate
archeology has come a long way

1504
01:04:35,973 --> 01:04:38,308
in the last few years.

1505
01:04:38,375 --> 01:04:41,111
(dramatic music)

1506
01:04:44,114 --> 01:04:45,182
(page swishing)

1507
01:04:45,249 --> 01:04:47,184
(gentle music)

1508
01:04:47,251 --> 01:04:49,052
- [Narrator 1] Over
the last few years,

1509
01:04:49,119 --> 01:04:50,587
archeologists have discovered

1510
01:04:50,654 --> 01:04:53,390
various skeletons
in caves in Mexico,

1511
01:04:53,457 --> 01:04:55,192
which they believe
are strong evidence

1512
01:04:55,259 --> 01:04:57,361
that humans lived
on the continent,

1513
01:04:57,427 --> 01:05:01,331
as far back as 13
to 15,000 years ago,

1514
01:05:01,398 --> 01:05:04,968
thousands of years earlier
than previously thought,

1515
01:05:05,035 --> 01:05:07,504
but last year, a much
more controversial find

1516
01:05:07,571 --> 01:05:09,072
of manmade artifacts

1517
01:05:09,139 --> 01:05:11,108
was announced from Mexico,

1518
01:05:11,174 --> 01:05:12,776
which suggested that humans,

1519
01:05:12,843 --> 01:05:15,279
may have in fact,
lived in the Americas,

1520
01:05:15,345 --> 01:05:18,048
at least 30,000 years ago,

1521
01:05:18,115 --> 01:05:22,819
far, far earlier
than conventional
timelines would have it,

1522
01:05:22,886 --> 01:05:25,155
but is this new
evidence to be trusted?

1523
01:05:26,590 --> 01:05:30,193
In August, 2017, it was
announced to the world

1524
01:05:30,260 --> 01:05:33,730
that a few years previously,
in February, 2012,

1525
01:05:33,797 --> 01:05:35,565
cave divers had discovered

1526
01:05:35,632 --> 01:05:38,468
one of America's
oldest human skeletons

1527
01:05:38,535 --> 01:05:42,205
in a submerged cave called
Chan Hol near Tulum,

1528
01:05:42,272 --> 01:05:44,875
on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

1529
01:05:44,941 --> 01:05:48,312
The divers posted photos
of their amazing discovery

1530
01:05:48,378 --> 01:05:50,013
of a nearly complete skull,

1531
01:05:50,080 --> 01:05:53,884
another, whose bones
online on social media.

1532
01:05:53,950 --> 01:05:55,218
The photos were seen

1533
01:05:55,285 --> 01:05:58,755
by archeologists Arturo
Gonzalez Gonzales

1534
01:05:58,822 --> 01:06:02,125
at the Desert Museum
in Saltillo, Mexico,

1535
01:06:02,192 --> 01:06:04,461
and Jeronimo Aviles Olguin,

1536
01:06:04,528 --> 01:06:08,031
of the Institute of American
Prehistory in Cancun.

1537
01:06:08,098 --> 01:06:11,335
However, the researchers were
not able to visit the cave

1538
01:06:11,401 --> 01:06:12,536
until late March,

1539
01:06:12,602 --> 01:06:14,237
and by then, it was too late,

1540
01:06:14,304 --> 01:06:16,540
the skeleton had been stolen,

1541
01:06:16,606 --> 01:06:20,010
all that remained were
around 150 bone fragments

1542
01:06:20,077 --> 01:06:21,345
and a pelvic bone

1543
01:06:21,411 --> 01:06:23,780
that had been incorporated
into a stalagmite

1544
01:06:23,847 --> 01:06:26,416
growing up from the cave floor.

1545
01:06:26,483 --> 01:06:29,586
By analyzing the rate at
which calcite had formed

1546
01:06:29,653 --> 01:06:30,854
around the bone,

1547
01:06:30,921 --> 01:06:32,689
the team determined
that the skeleton

1548
01:06:32,756 --> 01:06:35,325
was older than 13,000 years,

1549
01:06:35,392 --> 01:06:38,562
and therefore, one of
America's oldest skeletons.

1550
01:06:38,628 --> 01:06:41,965
Not everyone was convinced by
such an early date, however.

1551
01:06:42,032 --> 01:06:44,568
Alistair Pike, an
archeological scientist

1552
01:06:44,634 --> 01:06:47,237
at the University of
Southampton in the UK,

1553
01:06:47,304 --> 01:06:50,040
believed that the
stalagmite set over the bone

1554
01:06:50,107 --> 01:06:52,843
during a time of
extreme climate change,

1555
01:06:52,909 --> 01:06:56,179
which may have altered the
stalagmites rate of growth.

1556
01:06:56,246 --> 01:06:59,116
He therefore, thought bones
to be somewhat younger,

1557
01:06:59,182 --> 01:07:03,653
probably, a minimum
of 11,300 years old.

1558
01:07:03,720 --> 01:07:05,322
On the basis of these bones,

1559
01:07:05,389 --> 01:07:07,724
the researchers believed
that the skeleton,

1560
01:07:07,791 --> 01:07:09,960
dubbed the Young
Man of Chan Hol,

1561
01:07:10,026 --> 01:07:11,495
belonged to a young man

1562
01:07:11,561 --> 01:07:13,897
who died when sea
levels were much lower

1563
01:07:13,964 --> 01:07:16,666
and the cave was above ground.

1564
01:07:16,733 --> 01:07:18,935
A baffling mystery
is how this man

1565
01:07:19,002 --> 01:07:22,539
had arrived at the
location 13,000 years ago,

1566
01:07:22,606 --> 01:07:24,741
bearing in mind the
fact that Mexico

1567
01:07:24,808 --> 01:07:26,810
is well over 4,000 miles away

1568
01:07:26,877 --> 01:07:29,379
from the Bering Land Crossing.

1569
01:07:29,446 --> 01:07:32,949
Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the
Institute of Geoscientists

1570
01:07:33,016 --> 01:07:34,751
at Heidelberg University,

1571
01:07:34,818 --> 01:07:37,721
was lead author of the
initial study of the skeleton,

1572
01:07:37,788 --> 01:07:41,124
published in the Journal
August in "PLOS One."

1573
01:07:42,292 --> 01:07:44,127
He had a few theories in mind

1574
01:07:44,194 --> 01:07:45,896
as to what may have happened,

1575
01:07:45,962 --> 01:07:48,698
he says, "Scenarios
of travel by boat

1576
01:07:48,765 --> 01:07:51,701
along the Pacific
shoreline, the Kelp Highway,

1577
01:07:51,768 --> 01:07:53,603
must be taken seriously,

1578
01:07:53,670 --> 01:07:56,873
but alternative migration
routes by boat from Europe

1579
01:07:56,940 --> 01:07:59,042
along the Greenland Ice Margin,

1580
01:07:59,109 --> 01:08:01,912
or via Antarctica
are also possible,

1581
01:08:01,978 --> 01:08:04,047
though, highly speculative.

1582
01:08:04,114 --> 01:08:06,216
If travel by boat is correct,

1583
01:08:06,283 --> 01:08:09,553
then likely campsites
are now set underwater,

1584
01:08:09,619 --> 01:08:13,990
due to early Holocene
rise of sea levels."

1585
01:08:14,057 --> 01:08:16,660
There are very few human
remains from the Americas

1586
01:08:16,726 --> 01:08:19,062
older than 13,000 years,

1587
01:08:19,129 --> 01:08:22,699
the skeleton of a teenage
girl, named Eve of Naharon,

1588
01:08:22,766 --> 01:08:25,101
recovered from another
cave in Yucatan,

1589
01:08:25,168 --> 01:08:28,672
was carbon dated to more
than 12,000 years old,

1590
01:08:28,738 --> 01:08:32,542
and a skeleton found in another
submerged cave near Tulum,

1591
01:08:32,609 --> 01:08:36,713
was dated deemed to around
13 1/3 thousand years old.

1592
01:08:38,014 --> 01:08:40,650
In these early dates
caused some controversy

1593
01:08:40,717 --> 01:08:42,919
within the
archeological community,

1594
01:08:42,986 --> 01:08:44,721
it was nothing to the reactions

1595
01:08:44,788 --> 01:08:48,158
which followed the announcement
made in July, 2020,

1596
01:08:48,225 --> 01:08:51,528
of discoveries from a cave
high in the desert mountains

1597
01:08:51,595 --> 01:08:53,663
of North Central Mexico.

1598
01:08:53,730 --> 01:08:55,198
This remarkable find,

1599
01:08:55,265 --> 01:08:57,934
suggested that humans
had reached the Americas,

1600
01:08:58,001 --> 01:09:01,037
a staggering 15,000
years earlier

1601
01:09:01,104 --> 01:09:03,306
than previously thought.

1602
01:09:03,373 --> 01:09:04,841
The controversial discoveries

1603
01:09:04,908 --> 01:09:07,043
were published in
the Journal "Nature,"

1604
01:09:07,110 --> 01:09:09,613
and with a result of
eight years of work

1605
01:09:09,679 --> 01:09:11,481
at Chiquihuite Cave,

1606
01:09:11,548 --> 01:09:14,484
located almost 9,000
feet above sea level,

1607
01:09:14,551 --> 01:09:17,654
in Mexico's Astillero Mountains.

1608
01:09:17,721 --> 01:09:20,957
The excavation team led
by Ciprian Ardelean,

1609
01:09:21,024 --> 01:09:24,794
of the Autonomous University
of Zacatecas in Mexico,

1610
01:09:24,861 --> 01:09:27,764
discovered almost
2,000 stone tools,

1611
01:09:27,831 --> 01:09:29,499
239 of which,

1612
01:09:29,566 --> 01:09:31,468
had become fixed
in layers of gravel

1613
01:09:31,535 --> 01:09:32,736
that were carbon dated

1614
01:09:32,802 --> 01:09:37,207
to between 25,000
and 32,000 years old.

1615
01:09:37,274 --> 01:09:40,176
Ardelean said of his
team's amazing finds,

1616
01:09:40,243 --> 01:09:42,045
"Other results
provide new evidence

1617
01:09:42,112 --> 01:09:44,714
for the antiquity of
humans in the Americas,

1618
01:09:44,781 --> 01:09:46,483
there are only a few artifacts

1619
01:09:46,550 --> 01:09:47,751
and a couple of dates

1620
01:09:47,817 --> 01:09:51,988
from the range of 33,000
to 31,000 years ago,

1621
01:09:52,055 --> 01:09:54,791
however, the presence is there.

1622
01:09:54,858 --> 01:09:56,760
It's likely that
humans used this site

1623
01:09:56,826 --> 01:09:58,828
on a relatively constant basis,

1624
01:09:58,895 --> 01:10:01,298
perhaps in recurrent
seasonal episodes,

1625
01:10:01,364 --> 01:10:04,801
part of larger
migratory cycles."

1626
01:10:04,868 --> 01:10:07,304
But the Ardelean's
claims for the site,

1627
01:10:07,370 --> 01:10:09,039
have been met with
many objections

1628
01:10:09,105 --> 01:10:12,242
from the archeological
community.

1629
01:10:12,309 --> 01:10:14,611
The extreme age
claimed by Ardelean

1630
01:10:14,678 --> 01:10:16,813
for the Chiquihuite Cave,

1631
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:19,716
does not fit with the
generally accepted opinion

1632
01:10:19,783 --> 01:10:22,519
that people from Asia
walked over land bridge

1633
01:10:22,586 --> 01:10:25,522
via the Bering Strait
and into the Americas,

1634
01:10:25,589 --> 01:10:27,624
as the ice sheets
that covered Canada

1635
01:10:27,691 --> 01:10:30,060
during the last Glacial Maximum,

1636
01:10:30,126 --> 01:10:34,397
from 26 1/2 to 19,000
years ago began retreating.

1637
01:10:34,464 --> 01:10:35,231
(page swishing)

1638
01:10:35,298 --> 01:10:36,766
Professor David Meltzer

1639
01:10:36,833 --> 01:10:40,236
from the Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, Texas

1640
01:10:40,303 --> 01:10:42,505
is far from convinced
by the findings

1641
01:10:42,572 --> 01:10:45,075
of the Ardelean and his team.

1642
01:10:45,141 --> 01:10:46,943
He believes that what
they have claimed

1643
01:10:47,010 --> 01:10:49,145
are manmade artifacts
from the cave,

1644
01:10:49,212 --> 01:10:51,047
may well be nothing of the sort,

1645
01:10:51,114 --> 01:10:53,083
and that far more
evidence is needed

1646
01:10:53,149 --> 01:10:55,819
before claims of human
presence in Mexico,

1647
01:10:55,885 --> 01:10:58,588
around 30,000 years ago.

1648
01:10:58,655 --> 01:11:01,625
"It's not enough to argue
that the stone specimens

1649
01:11:01,691 --> 01:11:03,660
could be cultural artifacts,

1650
01:11:03,727 --> 01:11:06,830
one has to show that they're
not natural," he said.

1651
01:11:06,896 --> 01:11:10,934
"With a stone tool tradition
that long-lasting one expects,

1652
01:11:11,001 --> 01:11:13,570
would've been far more
widespread in the region,

1653
01:11:13,637 --> 01:11:14,871
raising the question

1654
01:11:14,938 --> 01:11:18,808
of why that hasn't
been spotted elsewhere?

1655
01:11:18,875 --> 01:11:21,311
Perhaps more important,
with modern humans,

1656
01:11:21,378 --> 01:11:24,080
one expects to see
evidence of technological

1657
01:11:24,147 --> 01:11:25,515
and cultural change,

1658
01:11:25,582 --> 01:11:28,518
over such a long span of time."

1659
01:11:28,585 --> 01:11:31,821
Meltzer questioned why
people would have a cave

1660
01:11:31,888 --> 01:11:33,556
located so high up,

1661
01:11:33,623 --> 01:11:35,859
that it would've been
easier and more convenient

1662
01:11:35,925 --> 01:11:37,894
to camp closer to
the valley floor.

1663
01:11:37,961 --> 01:11:40,497
He also questioned why
this particular site,

1664
01:11:40,563 --> 01:11:43,767
was supposed to have had
long-term repeated occupation

1665
01:11:43,833 --> 01:11:45,335
when there appeared
to be nothing,

1666
01:11:45,402 --> 01:11:46,770
which would've been used to,

1667
01:11:46,836 --> 01:11:49,172
the ancient humans had the spot?

1668
01:11:49,239 --> 01:11:50,573
Another doubter

1669
01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:53,510
is Loren Davis, the
Oregon State Archeologist.

1670
01:11:53,576 --> 01:11:56,012
He's pointed out that
the cave environments

1671
01:11:56,079 --> 01:11:57,147
can create numerous,

1672
01:11:57,213 --> 01:11:58,982
naturally fractured stones

1673
01:11:59,049 --> 01:12:00,583
that can be misinterpreted

1674
01:12:00,650 --> 01:12:02,385
as man-made artifacts.

1675
01:12:02,452 --> 01:12:05,121
He's also concerned about the
lack of any other evidence

1676
01:12:05,188 --> 01:12:08,258
for human presence
in the cave, he says,

1677
01:12:08,324 --> 01:12:09,392
"The thing to remember

1678
01:12:09,459 --> 01:12:11,594
is that humans don't
have a monopoly

1679
01:12:11,661 --> 01:12:14,431
on the physics required
to break rocks.

1680
01:12:14,497 --> 01:12:15,832
You can have a big list

1681
01:12:15,899 --> 01:12:18,334
of all the things you might
expect to see in a site,

1682
01:12:18,401 --> 01:12:20,603
and the researchers
don't have anything

1683
01:12:20,670 --> 01:12:22,605
except for some broken rock,

1684
01:12:22,672 --> 01:12:25,742
and if you take the rocks
away, there's really nothing."

1685
01:12:25,809 --> 01:12:28,545
University of Oregon
Professor Dennis Jenkins,

1686
01:12:28,611 --> 01:12:30,246
who directs excavations

1687
01:12:30,313 --> 01:12:32,582
at the early site
of Paisley Caves

1688
01:12:32,649 --> 01:12:34,517
in South-Central Oregon,

1689
01:12:34,584 --> 01:12:35,919
has voiced concerns

1690
01:12:35,985 --> 01:12:38,688
that many of the alleged
stone blades from the site,

1691
01:12:38,755 --> 01:12:40,724
don't appear to have
been sharp enough

1692
01:12:40,790 --> 01:12:42,792
to have been used effectively.

1693
01:12:42,859 --> 01:12:44,527
But despite the criticisms,

1694
01:12:44,594 --> 01:12:48,331
the team who excavated
Chiquihuite Cave are positive

1695
01:12:48,398 --> 01:12:51,668
about the significant of the
finds they discovered there.

1696
01:12:51,735 --> 01:12:53,336
Team member Devlin Gandy,

1697
01:12:53,403 --> 01:12:56,206
an archeologist at the
University of Cambridge said,

1698
01:12:56,272 --> 01:12:59,409
"I think this study shows
that we need to reexamine

1699
01:12:59,476 --> 01:13:02,245
what we now think about
the people of the Americas,

1700
01:13:02,312 --> 01:13:03,646
and we need to be open

1701
01:13:03,713 --> 01:13:06,349
to a much longer time span."

1702
01:13:06,416 --> 01:13:07,784
Professor Tom Higham,

1703
01:13:07,851 --> 01:13:11,121
the Director of Oxford's
Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit,

1704
01:13:11,187 --> 01:13:13,723
and a member of the team
who worked on the site,

1705
01:13:13,790 --> 01:13:16,226
is convinced their
conclusions are valid

1706
01:13:16,292 --> 01:13:18,128
and extremely important.

1707
01:13:18,194 --> 01:13:20,497
He says, "This is a unique site,

1708
01:13:20,563 --> 01:13:22,699
we've never seen
anything like it.

1709
01:13:22,766 --> 01:13:26,136
The stone tool evidence
is very, very compelling.

1710
01:13:26,202 --> 01:13:27,637
Anyone can see

1711
01:13:27,704 --> 01:13:30,406
that these are deliberately
manufactured stone tools,

1712
01:13:30,473 --> 01:13:32,742
and there are lots of them.

1713
01:13:32,809 --> 01:13:35,245
The dating, which is
my job, is robust,

1714
01:13:35,311 --> 01:13:39,015
and so, it's a very exciting
site to have been involved in.

1715
01:13:39,082 --> 01:13:40,784
In Brazil, there
are several sites

1716
01:13:40,850 --> 01:13:43,920
where you have stone tools
that look robust to me,

1717
01:13:43,987 --> 01:13:47,090
and a dated 26 to 30,000,

1718
01:13:47,157 --> 01:13:50,193
similar dates to the
Chiquihuite site,

1719
01:13:50,260 --> 01:13:52,028
this could be an
important discovery

1720
01:13:52,095 --> 01:13:53,730
that could stimulate new work

1721
01:13:53,797 --> 01:13:55,765
to find other sites
in the Americas,

1722
01:13:55,832 --> 01:13:58,535
that date to this period."

1723
01:13:58,601 --> 01:14:01,304
The initial colonization
of the Americas,

1724
01:14:01,371 --> 01:14:04,574
the last major landmass
to be populated by humans,

1725
01:14:04,641 --> 01:14:06,876
remains a highly debated topic,

1726
01:14:06,943 --> 01:14:09,345
and the exact timing
of the first arrivals

1727
01:14:09,412 --> 01:14:10,980
is currently unknown.

1728
01:14:11,047 --> 01:14:13,983
The earliest archeological
record of Mexico itself,

1729
01:14:14,050 --> 01:14:15,285
is far from clear

1730
01:14:15,351 --> 01:14:18,254
and has not been
studied extensively.

1731
01:14:18,321 --> 01:14:21,224
These new findings will
remain hotly contested,

1732
01:14:21,291 --> 01:14:22,992
probably until the next,

1733
01:14:23,059 --> 01:14:25,829
even more controversial
discoveries are made.

1734
01:14:25,895 --> 01:14:27,230
As Loren Davis,

1735
01:14:27,297 --> 01:14:29,899
an archeologist at Oregon
State University said,

1736
01:14:29,966 --> 01:14:32,468
"Everybody knows that
when you step in the ring

1737
01:14:32,535 --> 01:14:33,803
at this level,

1738
01:14:33,870 --> 01:14:35,872
you're looking for an
international debate.

1739
01:14:35,939 --> 01:14:37,173
You're going to get it,

1740
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:39,642
and you should have
your defense prepared.

1741
01:14:39,709 --> 01:14:41,578
To me, it's inevitable,

1742
01:14:41,644 --> 01:14:44,147
we're going to continue
to push this back,

1743
01:14:44,214 --> 01:14:46,616
until there's no
further back to go."

1744
01:14:47,584 --> 01:14:50,220
(suspenseful music)

1745
01:14:50,286 --> 01:14:53,756
(rhythmic dramatic music)

1746
01:15:04,167 --> 01:15:08,471
(rhythmic dramatic
music continues)

1747
01:15:17,780 --> 01:15:22,085
(rhythmic dramatic
music continues)

1748
01:15:34,864 --> 01:15:39,168
(rhythmic dramatic
music continues)

1749
01:15:49,913 --> 01:15:54,183
(rhythmic dramatic
music continues)

1750
01:16:03,626 --> 01:16:05,662
(gentle music)

1751
01:16:05,728 --> 01:16:09,198
(rhythmic dramatic music)