This coincides with what is also described as the Fall from Eden. What really happened around 35,000 BP, is that we lost mind to mind comms used by all other critters on earth to some degree or the other. Thiis is real and testable by going head to head. We lack the range of others.
A channeled report tells us of just one day out of the blue, while doing walk about, of the comms dropping and the ensuing panic and withdrawal to shelters against the night.
It was a random report you would never make up.
Nothing belse explains the data.
The Prehistoric Time Hole No One Can Explain
For nearly 250,000 years after Homo sapiens first appeared around 300,000 years ago, archaeological evidence shows minimal cultural development: basic stone tools, rare symbolic artifacts, and little technological change. This period, often referred to as "the Long Silence" — a term that emerged in the late 20th century among researchers to describe this puzzling stagnation — lasted until about 50,000 years ago. Then, a rapid cultural explosion occurred: complex tools, cave paintings, musical instruments, burial rituals, and long-distance trade networks appeared almost simultaneously, marking the start of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. 00:00 Intro 01:30 The Old Theory 02:55 Rewriting The Timeline 04:40 Why Did We Missed It? 05:45 The Other Humans 11:35 The Laws Of Scale 19:52 What Really Happened? 22:38 What Are We Becoming? 23:00 Outro Thanks for watching ! If you liked this video, please consider subscribing, this supports this channel immensely ! Also, feel free to like and comment the video and check the rest of the content available, we post twice a week :) <iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0sVzWOYaM9w" title="The Prehistoric Time Hole No One Can Explain" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
it's one of the strangest facts in our species story homo sapiens modern humans physically and biologically just like us have been around for at least 200,000 years if you brought one of them into the present day gave them a haircut and a decent hoodie they could walk down the street and no one would look twice but here's the thing for most of those 200,000 years it's like nothing much no cave art no instruments no jewelry no grave goods no signs of religion myth or metaphor just people surviving using stone tools hunting gathering living then around 50,000 years ago give or take a wave of creativity crashes through the archaeological record suddenly humans are painting deep in cave systems they're making beads and carvings they're inventing symbolic language complex hunting strategies maybe even sailing out to islands with no visible land on the horizon so what happened why the 150,000year delay why did it take so long for humans to start acting well human this mystery this sudden emergence of what scientists call behavioral modernity has puzzled researchers for decades and as it turns out the answer is much more complicated and far more interesting than anyone thought the old theory one mutation to rule them all for a long time the leading theory was clean and dramatic it said that around 50,000 years ago a genetic mutation suddenly rewired our brains sparking symbolic thought culture and language the prime suspect a gene FOXP2 this gene discovered in the 1990s was linked to speech and language disorders in families with rare mutations when scientists found that FOXP2 helps regulate dozens of other genes involved in brain development the hype began maybe this was the long sought language gene maybe FOXP2 was the trigger for everything that makes us Us but in 2007 this theory took a major hit a team of researchers including Svonte Peebo sequenced the FOXP2 gene in Neanderthalss and discovered they had the exact same version as modern humans that was a problem if Neanderthalss had this same gene then it wasn't unique to foxp2 might still be important for speech but it couldn't explain the sudden burst of culture that showed up 50,000 years ago so the idea of a single mutation sparking modern humanity that theory didn't age well rewriting the timeline at the same time geneticists were questioning the FOXP2 idea archaeologists were finding evidence that pushed behavioral modernity much farther back than anyone had thought in Blambo's Cave on the southern coast of South Africa excavations revealed engraved pieces of red ochre some with intricate cross-hatch patterns these date back to around 100,000 years ago nearby researchers found shell beads with holes drilled into them likely used as personal ornaments or status symbols that's not survival behavior that's symbolic behavior even more impressive at Pinnacle Point another coastal site nearby archaeologists found evidence that humans were using fire to process stone tools and harvesting shellfish both signs of advanced planning and environmental knowledge and the dates some layers go back 164,000 years that's three times older than the supposed 50,000year revolution more discoveries followed deep cliff rock shelter showed signs of painted ostrich eggshells used as water containers cibbu cave revealed early bedding composite tools made with glue and clear use of ochre these were people thinking ahead decorating making things with meaning using the environment with precision the picture that emerged was clear behavioral modernity didn't arrive in a single leap it was building up slowly over tens of thousands of years the 50,000year explosion wasn't a beginning it was a tipping point why did we miss the signs so why did the old theory stick around long well for one thing Europe a huge chunk of archaeological work in the 19th and 20th centuries happened in Europe and modern humans didn't reach Europe until surprise about 50,000 years ago it's not like archaeology was born in 19th century Europe but it really took off at that point so it's only natural they started looking in their close vicinity like most fields it's biased like medicine psychology and so on so the first signs of modern behavior we found cave paintings in France and Spain figurines from Germany were dated to that moment but that was a local event it wasn't when modernity began it was when it arrived in Europe in a way it's like assuming a band's first hit single is the first time they ever picked up a guitar in reality they'd been playing garages bars and empty basement for years we just weren't looking the other humans we like to imagine we had that main character energy all along that we were the chosen ones the thinkers the artists the only species that could stand in front of a fire look into the flames and start asking why but we weren't alone for most of our history homo sapiens shared the world with other humans different species with their own tools their own lives their own stories and the more we learn about them the more it challenges that old myth that we were the only ones with a mind for meaning let's start with the best known Neanderthalss they first emerged around 400,000 years ago spreading through Europe and parts of Western Asia for a long time they were painted as brutish hunched cave dwellers primitive compared to us that stereotype stuck for over a century but now that image has been thoroughly debunked neanderthalss made sophisticated mysterian tools tailored to different uses and environments they used fire likely knew how to control it and there's evidence they used manganese dioxide a black powder to help ignite wood that's not just survival that's chemistry they also buried their dead at sites like Shannadar Cave in Iraq dating back at least 65,000 years archaeologists found Neanderthal skeletons positioned in burial pits sometimes accompanied by what may have been flowers or pollen was this ritual mourning we can't know for sure but it points to symbolic thought or at the neanderthalss also painted at least one cave in Spain La Paci contains red pigment markings that have been dated to over 64,000 years ago long before homo sapiens ever set foot in Europe and then France in 2016 researchers dated the construction of ring-shaped structures made from hundreds of snapped off stelagmites at nearly 176,000 years old Neanderthalss in the pitch dark over 300 m from the cave entrance that's not instinct that's planning deliberate intentional possibly even symbolic and it wasn't just Neanderthalss further east in the mountains of Siberia we met another mysterious cousin the Dennisovvens they were first identified in 2010 when a tiny fragment of pinky bone from a young girl was recovered from Dennisova cave in Russia's Alai Mountains what made her remarkable her DNA didn't match Neanderthalss or modern humans she was something else a new branch on the family tree since then we've learned that Dennisovvens interbred with both Homo sapiens and Neanderthalss their genetic legacy lives on most strongly in Melanesian and Australian Aboriginal populations who carry up to 4% Dennisovven DNA and here's the kicker dennisovans weren't just passive cave dwellers either in 2019 archaeologists discovered a green chlorolyte bracelet in the same Denosova cave layer dated to 40,000 years ago or earlier the bracelet had a board hole likely made with some sort of drill-like tool and was polished to a shine it may be the oldest piece of fine jewelry ever found and it wasn't made by us that's a level of craftsmanship that sapiens and then we have the OG of the human saga Homo Erectus they first appeared nearly 2 million years ago and lasted until at least 100,000 years ago that's a longer run than any other human respect erectus was the first to leave Africa the first to use fire regularly and probably the first to cook food that alone had massive evolutionary effects cooked food is easier to digest and more calorie rich which likely helped fuel brain development but they weren't just surviving in 2014 researchers working in 500,000-year-old freshwater muscle shell with a zigzag engraving precise deliberate and undeniably symbolic it's the earliest known example of abstract ancestor this wasn't a doodle done out of boredom it took planning intention fine motor control it's a signature not a physical one but a cognitive one evidence of a mind that could imagine beyond the present moment we weren't the only thinkers we weren't the only ones with culture we weren't even the only ones making jewelry we were part of a family of humans a tangle of branches evolving in parallel sometimes isolated sometimes intertwined homo sapiens didn't invent humanity we inherited it and in some ways that inheritance may be deeper and richer than we ever imagined because modern humans carry traces of those other humans in our DNA we carry their stories unwritten but embedded in our blood when we marvel at ancient art when we bury our dead when we try to make sense of the cosmos we may be echoing habits that began long before we were here we're not the climax of a heroic saga we're just the ones still around to tell the story it's not about smarts it's about numbers so if Homo sapiens Neanderthalss Denisvens even Homoerectus were all capable of symbolic thought why didn't we see culture take off right away why the long silence why didn't humanity light up the archaeological record with cave art instruments and storyrich burials 150,000 years ago the answer might not be about intelligence at all it might be about math specifically population size and connectivity see even if an individual or even a small group figures out something ingenious that knowledge only survives if it gets passed on and to pass it on you need a community you need people you need enough humans close enough living long enough and talking often enough for ideas to be remembered if a clever hunter in a group of 30 invents a new type of spear but dies before teaching it to anyone else that knowledge dies with him no matter how groundbreaking it was no legacy no innovation curve just a dead idea this is what scientists call cultural drift the loss of information over time especially in small isolated populations it's the same reason languages fragment traditions fade and oral histories vanish when communities shrink now zoom out for most of early Homo sapiens history global population numbers were tiny we're talking about a few thousand people scattered across entire continents according to genetic bottleneck studies the total number of breeding individuals during some periods may have dipped as low as a,000 to that's fewer people than the average convention center crowd that's smaller than most MMO RPG servers and when numbers are that low culture struggles to scale but then something shifts by about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago populations started to grow climate stabilizes in some regions migration accelerates homo sapiens start clustering along coasts rivers and resourcerich areas places where life is easier and groups can stay together longer and with more people comes more exchange stories skills songs tools beliefs ideas don't just survive they start to snowball this is what researchers like Powell Shannon and Thomas argued in a 2009 paper on the role of demography in human innovation the evolution tree not latter absolutely here's an expanded version of the evolution tree not latter keeping in mind everything that's come before gradual cognitive buildup the role of demography and other intelligent hominins and everything still to come the humility and continuity of human evolution tone stays thoughtful and grounded with just a dash of humor to keep things friendly and relatable the evolution tree not ladder for a long time people imagined human evolution as a ladder you've probably seen the image a hundred times that lineup of figures moving from stooped ape to proud modern man each one a little taller and smarter than the last the classic march of progress it's clean simple easy to remember and completely wrong evolution doesn't work like that it's not a ladder with homo sapiens waiting patiently at the top it's a branching tree full of twists forks and evolutionary experiments many of which ended up as ends imagine a tech tree from a strategy game or a skill tree in an RPG there's not one straight path to final form there are side branches plenty of builds available overlapping abilities some species developed great tools but didn't expand far others spread wide but vanished in the long run sometimes the game is just too hard for the build you chose you then need to pivot most species aren't really able to do that so swiftly including us we're just the take Neanderthalss for example they weren't some failed prototype they were perfectly adapted to ice age Europe stocky strong resilient they hunted big game survived harsh winters and as we've seen may have had complex culture and rituals if the climate had stayed the same or if homo sapiens had never migrated into their territory Neanderthalss might still be here we could be sharing cafes in Berlin with them today or consider Dennisovvens we've never even found a full skeleton but we know from DNA that they were genetically distinct interbred with us and passed on traits that helped some modern populations thrive at high altitudes if you're from Tibetan or Melanesian ancestry you've got some Denisovven upgrades built in think of it content and homoni discovered in 2013 in South Africa's rising star cave system this species had a weird mix of traits small brains curved fingers for climbing but surprisingly complex behavior they may have been burying their dead in deliberate chamber deposits over 200,000 years ago with brains the size of oranges not bad considering they missed out on modern neuroscience then there's Homo Floresensis aka the hobbit about 3 feet tall lived on the Indonesian island of Flores possibly as recently as 50,000 years ago smallbodied small but likely making stone tools and hunting animals in a complex island ecosystem all of these species lived at the same time as early Homo sapiens and for thousands of years we all coexisted sometimes interbred which means the story of our evolution isn't just about competition it's also about collaboration blending and memory our DNA is proof if you're of European Asian or indigenous American descent you've got 1 to 4% Neanderthal DNA in your genome if you're from Oceanania that could include another 5% Denisovven DNA that's not trivia that's ancestry that's you you carry their legacy literally in your cells so no Homo sapiens didn't replace other humans because we were smarter better or more evolved we were just more numerous more connected and frankly luckier a volcanic eruption at the wrong time could have wiped us out a drought a virus an ice age even a little bit colder in fact we nearly were wiped out probably more than once genetic evidence points to a bottleneck around 70 to 80,000 years ago possibly linked to the Toba super volcano eruption at one point our global population may have dipped below 10,000 individuals we weren't inevitable we weren't destined we're just the ones who made it through thanks to adaptability endurance intelligence and let's not lie to ourselves a great deal of luck so when we talk about human evolution we're not talking about a royal bloodline or a chosen path we're talking about a saga one with characters we're only just understand homo sapiens didn't invent humanity we inherited it from a family tree full of explorers innovators survivors and we're still evolving so what really happened we've been asking this question since the beginning what changed what happened around 50,000 years ago that turned ordinary humans into cave painters jewelry makers mythbuilders explorers was it a genetic mutation a language gene unlocking suddenly like a cheat code did someone wake up one day and invent symbolic now after decades of research and a flood of new evidence we can say this probably not there was no single Eureka moment no one gene no one invention no one shaman in a cave overnight what really happened was time and connection and scale homo sapiens had the capacity for culture maybe even for hundreds of thousands of years we had the brain power we had the curiosity the sparks of symbolic thought were already flickering at Blombos at Brun but for culture to survive to evolve to snowball into something more it needed people lots of people and enough stability between them to remember what they knew that's what changed around 60 to 50,000 years ago conditions lined up populations grew climate settled in some regions groups began to connect through migration marriage trade and memory ideas that once vanished with their inventors began to spread adapt and survive and that's when culture took off not because the lights suddenly came on in our brains but because enough people were finally in the room to keep them burning it's not a story of a spark it's a story of kindling slowly gathering until the fire finally caught and once it did it humans painted dreams onto cave walls buried their dead with care and meaning crossed seas they couldn't see across imagined spirits stories futures told tales so powerful that they lasted thousands of years we became in the truest sense human not just because we could think but because we could share and here's the humbling part that moment didn't make us special forever because we weren't the first to wonder we likely weren't the first to paint and we might not be the last so maybe the real question isn't what happened maybe it's what are we still becoming absolutely if this journey through deep time sparked something in you a question a curiosity maybe even a sense of wonder don't let it end here subscribe to the channel for more stories from the edge of extinction and the roots of who we are like the video if it helped reframe how you see our species share it with someone who's ever looked at the stars and wondered where it all began and drop a comment what part of this story stuck with you the most this channel grows with your support your thoughts your clicks your curiosity they help these stories echo further thanks for being part of that
