The Incredible Human Journey

They say this is where it all began.

That we are all children of Africa.

But if so, why do we look so different?

And how on earth could a handful of African families

become a whole world full of people?

I'm Alice Roberts, medical doctor and anthropologist,

I'm fascinated by what bones,

stones,

and even our bodies can reveal about the distant past,

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

and how they began their journey to populate the world,

Leaving Africa was virtually impossible,

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

I just think it's absolutely remarkable.

Isn't that amazing? It's stunning.

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

And discover how those journeys changed them

to become who we are today?

Come with me in the footsteps of our ancestors

on the most epic adventure ever undertaken.

Ask yourself where do you come from?

How did the first humans become you?

It's a surprisingly tricky question,

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

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

As unlikely as it sounds, palaeontologists

now think we have a pretty good idea

of where we modern humans first appeared.

And I'm trying to get there.

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

I'm heading to Africa's Great Rift Valley

and the Omo River in Ethiopia,

Very few foreigners ever come here.

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

There are no bridges for hundreds of miles,

so my best option is the slightly leaky passenger ferry,

Past the crocodiles,

There's quite a welcoming committee.

- Hello. - Hello.

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

about 40 years ago,

They stumbled across perhaps the most important clue

about the beginning of our species,

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

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

and get some local help.

Kibish is home to the Nyangatom tribe,

Soya, salaam,

How are you? Mata,

- I'm well. How are you? - Mata, Mata,

I'm fine.

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

My only chance of help is if the chief agrees,

- Mata, - Mata,

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

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

where people were digging?

This all sounds very promising.

- He said someone was digging. - Someone was digging.

- And he found something like bone. - Yes.

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

When can we go? Can you ask them?

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

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

but they seem to have come prepared for something,

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

For protection.

- For protection from whom? - For protection from enemies.

- Right. - Like Surma, Turkana and Mursi.

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

Are they likely to attack us?

Yeah, they just come to attack them.

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

Right.

It's noon and the temperature has soared into the 40s,

Although I've wanted to come here for years,

after four hours in this searing heat

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

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

- Really? - Yeah.

- That's where it was found? - Yeah, it is there.

- Just here? - Yeah.

- Just there? - Just there.

Well, this is it. This is the place.

Because this is where the earliest human remains

in the entire world were discovered.

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

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

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

Because this is such an important place in our story.

And it's as close as I can get

to where we all began.

Amazing.

And this is what the archaeologists discovered,

This is a cast of the skull that was found here

and which was dated to 195,000 years ago.

I think, considering it's so old,

it's remarkably complete.

Okay, the fragile face bones are missing,

but most of the brain case is here.

We can see the size of the brain

and we can see this very characteristic forehead.

No other remains of our species even approaching this age

have been found anywhere else on the planet,

This is as near as we can get

to the origin of our species,

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

I could be on the banks of any African river,

apart from the fact we know that this landscape

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

for nearly 200,000 years.

So if this is where we first appeared,

what did we come from?

The evidence suggests that the very first human-like creatures

evolved in Africa over four million years ago,

They were much more ape-like than us,

A series of human species with gradually bigger brains

came and went,

The most recent, and only surviving,

is our own species, Homo sapiens.

Modern humans,

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

Homo heidelbergensis,

If we compare it with this modern skull,

some things just leap out at you.

This heidelbergensis skull has an enormous brow ridge

and a swept-back, sloping forehead.

Much steeper in the modern skull.

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

Using the skull of the ancient human,

experts have reconstructed his face,

to reveal our flatter-headed,

beetle-browed predecessor,

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

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

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

there are some big questions to answer,

Are we all descended from black Africans?

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

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

go on to colonise first Africa

and then the rest of the world?

So what do we know about these shadowy first families?

200,000 years ago,

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

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

Life was fragile,

And the African savannah was a dangerous place,

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

presumably something our ancestors did all the time,

but years of living in civilisation have softened me.

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

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

And I've got this little camera

so I can make a video diary throughout the night

and talk about what comes along.

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

And I really am quite scared.

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

leaving me with just a few thorn bushes for protection,

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

About half an hour ago, there was the sound,

a really distinct sound, of something lapping water.

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

Literally like a cat lapping at milk.

Hopefully nothing can get through that.

Suddenly feel really vulnerable, as an animal

which is designed to be out in the daylight.

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

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

And sense of smell as well...

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

Did you hear that?

I'm scared now.

Is that a... Is that a lion?

Is that a leopard?

Is that...

Is that a hyena?

Oh, I don't like that noise.

That's really spooky.

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

I did get some sleep,

but then I got woken up by these horrendous noises.

Sometimes it was hyenas.

And then there was something that sounded

like a standoff between a hyena and a leopard

or some... I don't know what it was. Awful noises.

Really, really scary.

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

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

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

And there are large hyena prints as well.

So these predators, these carnivores,

were literally here, about 25 metres away

from where I was sleeping,

underneath that tree.

They sounded really close during the night.

And I can see now that they were.

At night-time especially,

our ancestors must have been very vulnerable,