Africa's Great Civilizations

Host: No matter What we look like today,

We're all directly descended

From ancestors who evolved On the African continent.

The oldest human population emerged in Africa.

Africa is the home Of the world's

most ancient civilisations.

Far too often, Africa has been thought of

as isolated and static,

but nothing could be further from the truth.

The roots of every family tree

trace here to Africa.

And so does the history of civilisation.

In this series, we'll be going on a journey

through 200,000 years Of history.

We'll explore great cities

Built along Africa's Extensive trade networks,

Discover art of Unparalleled beauty

And technical brilliance,

And marvel At thousands of years

Of breathtaking architecture.

Driving all this were Africans

Who prospered, created, And suffered

Through their rich, Sometimes tragic,

Yet endlessly Fascinating history.

This is a seldom-told story Of how Africans,

By shaping their own worlds,

Shaped the larger world As well.

Africa's great rift valley.

This is where humanity's story Most likely begins.

Homo sapiens, Anatomically modern humans,

Have lived here For about 200,000 years.

This great geological fault,

Stretching 3,000 miles Through Africa,

From Ethiopia to Malawi,

With its great lakes And savannahs

Full of animal life,

Gave our ancestors The perfect environment

In which to evolve.

Man: the rift valley, It's like a crucible,

Like in a chemistry lab,

Where humans have been tested.

Because nature constantly tests

Different parts of the species.

Those who can fit The environment or the situation

That is around Survive and continue,

And the others, you know, Get replaced.

Host: in 1997, The rains fell heavily

In Ethiopia's Northern rift valley.

Layers of sediment dislodged,

Revealing An extraordinary find--

A human skull.

It's one of the oldest Homo sapiens remains

To be found anywhere In the world.

Scientists named the skull Idaltu, meaning firstborn,

And Idaltu walked these valleys

160,000 years ago.

Dr. Berhane Asfaw Was one of the scientists

Who made the discovery.

This is one Of the few specimens

That we found almost complete.

The whole, the face And the brain case.

And the most impressive thing About this is

Even at this early age,

The face is modern homo sapiens,

The brain case Is modern homo sapiens,

The shape from the back Is a modern homo sapiens.

It's exactly us.

Host: the anatomy and age Of Idaltu's skull

Provided the strongest Evidence yet

That anatomically modern humans

Emerged in Africa.

Man: each stage Of the evolution

Toward modern humans,

It takes place in Africa.

Asfaw: when we found Homo sapiens Idaltu,

It's very important because It pushes the time far back.

It means anatomically modern Homo sapiens

Started walking on this planet

Much earlier than we thought,

And the interesting thing is

At the same time, Europe was Packed with Neanderthals,

Which are completely different From homo sapiens.

Host: one of Africa's most Respected paleoanthropologists

Is dr. Richard Leakey.

He and his colleagues have made Ground-breaking discoveries

About how our species evolved On the African continent.

I've come to meet him at his Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.

How do we know

That the first Human beings

Evolved on The African continent?

The fossil evidence and the Archaeological evidence

That's come to light In the last 20, 30 years

Is very, very substantial,

Testable, and real.

Why do you think This idea

Was so disturbing In some quarters?

Historically, the science Of palaeoanthropology

Or anthropology came into Existence at a time when

We really knew very little.

Africans were considered Primitive, heathen, Who knows.

And the origins Of the subhuman Status of Africans

Begins, really, In the 18th century.

In the enlightenment, Ironically enough.

They weren't really Considered to be

One of our species.

Host: continuing Archaeological finds

And now major Scientific breakthroughs

Have confirmed that Africa absolutely

Was the cradle of humanity.

Man: it's like if we're Exploring our past

And looking at where Our roots are sunk down,

We'll find that they're The deepest in Africa,

And that's where we get Most of our genetics.

Host: geneticists Have identified

An astonishing link to our Earliest human relations

Through our DNA.

Every living person Shares a common direct

Maternal ancestor.

She's known as Mitochondrial eve.

We believe that she was part Of a small group of humans

Who lived in this

Around the time Of the Idaltu skull.

Man: our common ancestry Through the mitochondrial eve

Means that our Genetic differences

Are literally skin deep.

That at the bottom, we are all

Descended from the same family.

Host: mitochondrial DNA, Found in our cells,

Is the genetic signature Passed down through females

From mother to child.

What it means is that This was a woman, Hypothetically,

Who lived 200,000 Years ago,

Who had enough daughters In a continuous chain,

Straight back so that Her mitochondrial DNA survived.

Absolutely right.

And all of us today, No matter what We look like,

Are descended From black ancestors?

Yeah, that is Exactly,

That's what happened.

All the humans, All the homo sapiens

All over the world, Be it yellow, white, black,

We are descended From a common ancestor

In Africa.

What would life For human beings

200,000 years ago Have been like In this valley?

200,000 years ago, I would imagine

The groups were Quite small.

Mm-hmm.

The dangers around, We had predators,

Things like hyenas

And groups of carnivores All around.

Mm-hmm.

It's difficult For us to imagine

Prehistoric life Or a world without

Any trappings Of the things that have

Come to define humanness Over the last 10,000 years,

And so, In the modern zeitgeist,

The only thing that comes close

Is actually The post-apocalyptic

Zombie shows, for example.

You have small bands of people

Roaming the landscape, Working together,

Fighting off predators That are trying to eat them,

And worried about The other groups of humans

That they might bump into.

So, there are a lot of Interesting parallels

That could be drawn.

Host: modern homo sapiens

Initially lived only in Africa,

Slowly spreading Across the continent

Over 120,000 years.

But between 80,000 and 50,000 Years ago,

They began successfully To populate

The rest of the world.

Host: so, what happened 80,000 years ago?

Leakey: well, i wish We knew what happened,

But there's No doubt at all

That a very small Population

Somewhere in that Time zone

Caught some adaptation That gave them A huge advantage.

I have a feeling it Might have been speech.

I don't know What it was.

But they spread very Quickly out of Africa.

So, 80,000 years ago,

The human community Was black.

Wherever they were In the world.

Host: but when those Early human beings

Migrated out of Africa,

They weren't traveling alone.

They were carrying something Within them.

And that something had developed Slowly, over millennia.

It was culture.

That culture would Develop to include

The greatest achievements Of human creativity,

And it began here On the African continent.

In 1991, archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood,

Exploring his Grandfather's land,

Discovered the opening To a cave

On a cliff face

Above the crashing waves