The Search for the First European
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- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Luis, young and curious, is determined to find out where Europeans come from. His early investigations lead him to meet Eudald Carbonell, co-director of excavations at Atapuerca, and he invites him on a journey in search of the traces of Europe's ancestors. The extraordinary journeys take the viewer through Africa and Asia to reach Europe where Luis finds that the origin of what are now called Europeans is not in the old continent. Organized as a scientific road movie, the The Search for the First European mixes scientific knowledge, adventure and humor in equal measure to let the viewer know in a rigorous but easy and entertaining way the incredible story of the origin of Europeans.
"The simple, straightforward narrative of human evolution and migration he uncovers makes it pedagogically effective. Focusing on the basics of the evolutionary story, in a leisurely yet fun manner, makes this a great film for undergraduates and the general public." - Educational Media Reviews Online
Citation
Main credits
Yamir, Iván (Director)
Yamir, Iván (Screenwriter)
Yamir, Iván (Cinematographer)
Yamir, Iván (Film editor)
Quevedo, Luis (Director)
Quevedo, Luis (Screenwriter)
Par, Alfonso (Director)
Par, Alfonso (Screenwriter)
Par, Alfonso (Producer)
Other credits
Director of photography and editor, Iván Yamir; original music, Tito Rosell.
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
TITLE : The Search for the First European - Full Episode
DATE: 6 November 2013
NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: Multiple Speakers
TRANSCRIPT STYLE: Intelligent Verbatim
FILE DURATION:58 minutes
TRANSCRIPTIONIST: Jodene Antoniou
TIME |
SPEAKER |
DIALOGUE |
0:00:01.2 |
CAPTION |
Una producción de Turkana Films. |
0:00:04.7 |
CAPTION |
En coproducción con TVE. |
0:00:09.3 |
CAPTION |
Con la participacion del Oiphes, Institute Catala de Paleoecologia Humana I Evcolucio Social. |
0:00:12.9 |
CAPTION |
Con la financiación de OFECYT. |
0:00:15.9 |
RODRIGO |
Hello. I am Rodrigo. |
0:00:18.9 |
GINGIE |
My name is Gingie. |
0:00:20.1 |
IAN GIBSON |
My name is Ian Gibson. |
0:00:21.2 |
ANTONELLA |
I am Antonella, I’m Italian. |
0:00:23.2 |
FEMALE SPEAKERS |
I’m from England. |
0:00:25.0 |
MALE SPEAKER |
I am from Stockholm, Sweden. |
0:00:26.7 |
FEMALE SPEAKER |
I am Dutch. |
0:00:28.0 |
FEMALE SPEAKER |
And I am European. |
0:00:28.6 |
MALE SPEAKER |
From Europe. |
0:00:29.6 |
FEMALE SPEAKERS |
And I’m European. |
0:00:31.3 |
MALE SPEAKER |
I’m European. |
0:00:32.3 |
MALE SPEAKER |
I’m European. |
0:00:33.5 |
IAN GIBSON |
I’m European. |
0:00:35.0 |
LUIS |
My name is Luis, I’m Spanish. How did I get here? Searching for the First European. |
0:00:41.8 |
CAPTION |
Quest for the First European |
0:00:48.5 |
CAPTION |
Un Documental de Ivàn Yamir, Luis Quevedo, Alfonso Par. |
0:00:52.2 |
MALE SPEAKER |
Don’t know. Where do Europeans come from? |
0:00:55.1 |
MALE SPEAKER 1 |
Same place as the rest of humans? |
0:00:58.4 |
MALE SPEAKER 2 |
The Middle East, perhaps. Mesopotamia, Egypt and all that... |
0:01:02.4 |
MALE SPEAKER 3 |
They come from Africa. |
0:01:03.5 |
YOUNG FEMALE SPEAKER 1 |
I think we Europeans descend from monkeys. |
0:01:06.8 |
MALE SPEAKER 4 |
I’m in no position to provide you with an answer. I’d like to know it, though. |
0:01:15.1 |
NARRATOR |
Everyone has wondered once in a while about... ...the origin of all things. How did it all start? The Universe, life on Earth, our species... And, what is the origin of Europeans? It was a good question, I had no answer for. |
0:01:33.8 |
NARRATOR |
To find one, I thought of paying a visit to an old friend... ... at the Science Museum. |
0:01:42.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
Jorge, where do Europeans come from? |
0:01:44.9 |
CAPTION |
Jorge Wagensberg, Director Cientifico Fundación “la Caixa” |
0:01:45.0 |
JORGE WAGENSBERG |
Well, the first thing we must do is to deconstruct that question. I suppose by European you mean human. And it is not clear what tells apart a human being from a hominid... or the Homo genus. We should ask an expert... Eudald Carbonell, for instance. |
0:02:23.8 |
NARRATOR |
Archaeologist and Geologist, Atapuerca’s team co-director... ... an discoverer of the First European. Sure! Eudald Carbonell had the answer I was looking for. |
0:02:39.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
Dr. Carbonell, I suppose? |
0:02:39.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Of course! I’m working in my orchard... |
0:02:43.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
How do you do? |
0:02:44.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Good. |
0:02:45.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
I guess Jorge warned you, I’m looking for the First European. |
0:02:49.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
You’re Luis. |
0:02:50.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
Yes, Sir! |
0:02:52.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Peppers... and there’s some peas brought down by the rain. Pumpkins... look at the leaves. And these are onions... Cereals grow over there, only rice is missing and we’d have a cultural synthesis of the last 10,000 years. |
0:03:20.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, why do you cultivate? |
0:03:23.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Because to cultivate is what makes us human! |
0:03:26.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
Why? |
0:03:28.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Because it requires logic, thinking, retrospective, prospective... That makes us human. And Luis, why are you after the First Europeans? |
0:03:39.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
Because I’ve always wanted to know: where do we come from, how all this came to be... Elephant hunters in the Iberian Peninsula?! |
0:03:45.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, in the Spanish plateau. |
0:03:59.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
But this is wonderful! |
0:04:01.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
The heidelbergensis hominids of Atapuerca. |
0:04:04.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
Where’s all this coming from? |
0:04:07.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
A life’s work. All my life, researching the First Europeans. |
0:04:15.7 |
NARRATOR |
To get my answer, I’d have to follow Eudald in a journey to the beginning... Luckily, a beginning just 20Km far from home. |
0:04:27.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is a primate rescue center. |
0:04:31.0 |
INTERVIEWER |
OK, and what are we going to see? |
0:04:33.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
How they live, how they’re de-humanized. Here they are: Pan troglodytes, the chimp. We share more than 90% of our genome. We’re evolutive cousins, so to speak. |
0:04:52.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
And shared and ancestor over 10 million years ago. |
0:04:59.6 |
INTERVIEWER |
Why did we part ways 10 million years ago? |
0:05:03.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Probably because they stayed living in jungles, in densely vegetated areas, while we, the Homo genus, moved into the savannahs and evolved differently. |
0:05:19.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
They start by throwing greens, leaves and dirt... but then go and pick pebbles and stones. This is a menacing display. To appear both taller and wider. |
0:05:29.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
Do they consider us a menace? |
0:05:30.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, indeed. This is their territory. All primates are very territorial. It’s just natural that we have so many commonalities. But I think there are traits that tell us apart. Cranial capacity, for instance. If we compare a chimp’s cranium to one of our genus’ we can see a great difference. |
0:05:59.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
But then, when did we master fire, start talking, making tools...? |
0:06:03.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Let’s slow down here! First, we are bipedal. We stand up and walk on two feet. This allows us to save energy with just two contact points on the ground. Secondly, you receive less radiation from the Sun. You also have a larger visual field and, of course, freeing your hands allows you to carry and systematically make tools. |
0:06:54.2 |
NARRATOR |
Even though the journey seemed easy at first, I’d have to follow Eudald very far. The next stop would take us to the beginning of the beginning. Where chimps and humans took different paths, 10 million years ago. |
0:07:15.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
So now we’re going to buy food for three days? |
0:07:17.8 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, we’ll be far for 3 or 4 days. |
0:07:32.5 |
NARRATOR |
Jungle, savannah, city and market. Africa was rich in contrasts. How did I end up in a journey such as this, together with an eminence in evolution? No idea... But sure it promises to be a great adventure. |
0:07:59.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Here you can see this savannah, full of trees and dry. In sharp contrast to what was here 6 million years ago. |
0:08:07.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
A jungle? |
0:08:08.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, a jungle with plenty of trees where the hominins lived. Eating fruits and leaves. Later they came down off those trees and occupied stretches of savannah. |
0:08:20.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
But, Eudald, why did the jungle disappear? |
0:08:23.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
There was a climate change, less humidity led to progressive aridification. And the result was something like this savannah. |
0:08:29.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
Climate change? Like the one going on now? When? |
0:08:31.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
It was 3 million years ago, in the Pliocene. |
0:08:37.2 |
NARRATOR |
When climate changes, to adapt or to die are the only options. How could our ancestors survive? |
0:08:55.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, such a mystery! What is it? |
0:08:58.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
In my life, I’ve seen many things but today I’m going to show you a really exceptional fossil. |
0:09:08.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
What do you think, uh? |
0:09:11.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
These are footprints. |
0:09:12.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Indeed. This is the proof that 3.5 million years ago, there were bipedal primates that walked on the savannah. |
0:09:20.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
But how was this preserved? |
0:09:22.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Because they [treaded] on fresh volcanic ashes that rain solidified. And so their footprints turned into stone. |
0:09:40.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Look at this. |
0:09:43.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
What is it? |
0:09:45.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is Australopithecus afarensis, it made the tracks we’re seeing here. We know they walked on two feet because of [these] tracks, and also because they had the foramen magnum in an upright position. |
0:10:04.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
This is where the spinal column connects with the skull? |
0:10:07.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
They had a cranium of 350 cc. Ours have up to 1300 cc. |
0:10:10.8 |
CAPTION |
Australopithecus afarensis. 3.5 millones de aňos Cerebro de 350 cc. |
0:10:14.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
It is very prognathic, it has a very protruding face. An oval-shaped palate. In chimps it is squared. No fangs, though its canine teeth are bigger than ours. But above all: it was bipedal. |
0:10:33.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
It walked on two limbs, 3.5 million years ago. This is the most important fact about it. |
0:10:44.7 |
NARRATOR |
When still resembling chimps, we survived climate change standing up on our hind limbs. How long did it take for the first human traits to appear on stage? |
0:11:04.7 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, what happened to Australopithecus? |
0:11:07.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
After Australopithecus two lines of hominids appear: robusts, such as Paranthropus and gracile, such as Homo habilis. |
0:11:22.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
But this looks like a gorilla, doesn’t it? |
0:11:25.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes. Look, it has an enormous face, larger than its cranium and a huge sagittal crest where powerful muscles are attached. |
0:11:36.6 |
CAPTION |
Paranthropus boisei, 1.8 millones de aňos, Cerebro de 450 cc. |
0:11:37.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This powerful mandible was used to grind dried nuts and fruits. It had a squared palate and big molar teeth. |
0:11:51.7 |
INTERVIEWER |
... and still bipedal? |
0:11:53.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Of course. |
0:11:55.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
So what happened to them? |
0:11:56.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
It disappeared. It was a specialized animal, a vegetarian. It was eliminated through natural selection. But... for graciles, like Homo habilis, the first member of our genus, from which we all descend, the story is different. It had a 500 cc cranium, a smaller face. |
0:12:17.2 |
CAPTION |
Homo habilis, 2.2 millones de aňos, Cerebro de 500 cc. |
0:12:26.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
An oval shaped palate and small canine teeth. |
0:12:32.7 |
INTERVIEWER |
And no sagittal crest, right? |
0:12:34.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
No, because it ate anything. He was an omnivore. That fact made him very adaptable. |
0:12:43.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
And what about that name, Homo habilis? |
0:12:45.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Precisely. Homo habilis, because he made the first tools in the Homo genus. They truck stones to produce sharpened edges to chop and cut and flints as a by-product. |
0:13:20.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
If we’d been here 2 million years ago, we’d probably [have] seen a group of Homo habilis walking across the savannah. A community of hominids, 1.3 metres in height... (3.3 feet) [wobbling], amongst the animals and carrying sticks and stone tools for defence. |
0:13:55.9 |
NARRATOR |
To understand the importance of prehistoric diet, Eudald invited me to spend a day as if we [were] 2 million years ago, Homo habilis, looking for food in the African savannah. |
0:14:07.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, I’m starving! How do we get something to eat, hominid-wise? |
0:14:14.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Scavenging some dead herbivore or as an alternative, we could eat termites. |
0:14:20.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
Man, I’d rather go for the termites! |
0:14:23.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Let’s see if we can find a nest, then. Look at the tree base. That’s a termite nest. |
0:14:31.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Let’s try to catch some with this stub. |
0:14:41.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
They’d have done it this way? |
0:14:41.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes. |
0:14:51.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
Look, we have one. |
0:15:07.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
We caught the queen! |
0:15:23.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
How was it? But it can take hours to feed. |
0:15:30.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
If you find a good termite nest... I’ve caught up to 15 or 20 at once. I mean, if you’re patient, in half an hour you can catch a lot of energy and proteins, powerful stuff. |
0:15:47.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Rotate. Let them bite. It’s bending. Wait a second. OK. Take it out and watch that they don’t’ get off. |
0:15:57.0 |
INTERVIEWER |
Nay! Eudald, I’m not lucky today. |
0:15:59.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
No problem. Let’s go scavenge! |
0:16:01.0 |
INTERVIEWER |
Scavenge?! |
0:16:04.6 |
NARRATOR |
With no fangs or claws, how could we extract meat from a corpse? |
0:16:12.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, what do you want to do here? |
0:16:14.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
We’re going to pick tools. Stones to cut. Beware of the elephants! |
0:16:21.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
Elephants? Here? |
0:16:23.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Oh, yes. Look, this is a good one. |
0:16:34.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
And this one, would it work? |
0:16:36.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, but the material’s not very good. [It would] break too easily. Look, there’s more... This is it, we have enough. |
0:16:51.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
So our ancestors went to the riverbed to pick stones? No matter the crocodiles, hippopotamus or elephants? |
0:16:58.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Exactly. |
0:17:08.8 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Look, still hungry, Luis? There’s your food! |
0:17:12.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
A corpse! |
0:17:13.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Well, yes. Hominids scavenged thousands of years ago. |
0:17:19.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
And how am I supposed to eat this? |
0:17:22.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Using tools. |
0:17:25.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
OK, the stones we picked up earlier? |
0:17:26.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Indeed. Let’s go. |
0:17:27.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
All right. |
0:17:57.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
It can’t be done. You need a stronger material. This one, for instance. You have to hit no matter where, and try to get something out. |
0:18:12.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
No way? |
0:18:14.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
We can’t scavenge here. There’s only skin and bone. We need to find something else. |
0:18:19.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
So, as hominids in the savannah we’d be... |
0:18:20.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
... as hominids in the savannah we’d be... |
0:18:35.1 |
NARRATOR |
Before nightfall, Eudald decided to show me how to use stone tools. Even if on meat bought at the market. |
0:18:48.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
I have a stone knife, yours is metallic. Hundreds of thousands of years separate them. You’re about to see how efficient a stone knife can be. |
0:18:58.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
Finally, some food! |
0:19:08.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
Why [was] developing these tools so important? |
0:19:11.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
To scavenge, cut through skin when the prey was still fresh and reach the soft tissues. |
0:19:20.7 |
INTERVIEWER |
An otherwise impossible task? |
0:19:20.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes. Otherwise they couldn’t. |
0:19:27.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This tool is losing its edge. I could sharpen it but I’d rather make a new one. |
0:19:31.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
That’s why we find so many of them today? |
0:19:34.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Exactly. This is too abrupt, it won’t cut. |
0:19:40.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
It won’t work? |
0:19:41.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
No. You need to shift angle. For instance, hit here. |
0:19:46.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
From here to there? |
0:19:47.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Down. Not, hit here. |
0:19:49.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
Ah, OK, from here to there. |
0:20:07.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
See this? Try it. This is very good. |
0:20:47.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, all dinner long, I was wondering, why does Paranthropus go extinct and habilis leads to us? |
0:20:53.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
All right, pay attention. Bipedalism + Encephalization + Technification + being omnivorous allowed these hominids to progress up until they became humans. |
0:21:09.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
All right, let’s see if I got that correctly. Walking on two feet + having a larger head, a larger brain, + making tools + eating anything made us human? |
0:21:21.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Exactly. |
0:21:21.7 |
INTERVIEWER |
OK, I got it. |
0:21:26.7 |
NARRATOR |
3 million years ago, A. Afarensis walked upright on savannah. Just half a million years later, little Homo habilis made the first tools in history, inaugurating out genus: the genus Homo. |
0:21:49.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
How does this hominid journey continue? |
0:21:51.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
We’re in the savannah: north to the northern wind territories. After our ancestors, the first who left Africa... To the Caucasus. |
0:22:12.2 |
NARRATOR |
For the next stage in my journey, I’d be on my own. From the African savannah to the foot of the Caucasus. |
0:22:18.0 |
CAPTION |
1.8 million years BP. Have 1.8 millones de aňos. |
0:22:19.1 |
NARRATOR |
A 200,000 year journey, in hardly a day. |
0:22:35.4 |
NARRATOR |
I’d met David Lordkipanidze, discoverer of Homo georgicus. A hominid that inhabited this land 1.8 million years ago. |
0:22:50.8 |
DAVID LORDKIPANIDZE |
This is a jaw we found in ’91. This was a big sensation. Nobody could trust that Dmanisi could be 1.8 million. |
0:23:01.8 |
CAPTION |
David Lordkipanidze, Director Museo Nacional de Georgia. |
0:23:03.1 |
DAVID LORDKIPANIDZE |
And this jaw was the subject of big discussions. But to learn about how hominids, to know hominid stories, you should have skulls. You can see it. Please, look on it. |
0:23:22.1 |
CAPTION |
Homo georgicus, 1.8 millones de aňos. Cerebro de 600 cc. |
0:23:23.5 |
DAVID LORDKIPANIDZE |
This is a teenager. The most interesting thing is that it has a very small brain capacity, around 600 cubic cm. We have almost 1,500 cc. It was a very big surprise to have so primitive hominids out of Africa. |
0:23:45.3 |
DAVID LORDKIPANIDZE |
They’re the earliest representatives of Homo out of Africa. |
0:24:01.5 |
NARRATOR |
Tbilisi to Dmanisi, where Homo georgicus was found. I wanted to know what lured these hominids far from the savannah and into the Caucasus. |
0:24:54.7 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
This was Dmanisi’s first surprise: thousands of mode 1 tools indicating that the hominids that left Africa weren’t active hunters but scavengers that made such simple tools, hardly useful to fracture bones in search of marrow or tear meat out of prey other predators have killed. |
0:24:57.1 |
CAPTION |
Jordi Agusti, Coordinator, Investigación IPHES. |
0:25:27.3 |
NARRATOR |
According to Jordi, both habilis and georgicus always inhabited wooded areas like this one. The climate change dessecating Africa and expanding the savannah pushed them, generation after generation, to green refuges such as Dmanisi. |
0:25:44.9 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
In this journey, they’d be accompanied by predators like meganterion, a forest saber-tooth cat. When a carcass is produced by meganterion, or another saber-tooth, georgicus is the first to eat it and don’t have to compete with other big carnivores. |
0:26:22.7 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
In more than 15 years of excavation, Dmanisi’s given given discoveries. Here’s one of the most prominent. It’s a toothless hominid. You can appreciate it in this skull and more easily in this toothless mandible. |
0:26:41.0 |
INTERVIEWER |
How old could this be? |
0:26:42.1 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
This’d be about 40 to 50 years old. At that time, it was already an elder. This individual needed help to eat. He was actively [fed] by the group. This is the earliest proof of what we could see as cooperative behaviour, solidarity in prehistory, 1.8 million years ago. |
0:27:20.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
Jordi, from the Caucasus, from Dmanisi, how do we reach Europe, the First Europeans? |
0:27:26.4 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
You’ve got to take into account that Dmanisi is not only a destination, but a starting point by itself, too. From here, a fraction of them quickly reach the Far East. In about 100,000 years – little time in geological terms – they reach the island of Java. Homo erectus and Homo florisiensis appear there. Another fraction of that population will colonize Europe. |
0:27:52.3 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
But it’ll take a longer time, almost another half a million years. |
0:27:57.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
And why those 500,000 between Asia’s and Europe’s colonization? |
0:28:01.8 |
JORDI AGUSTI |
Probably, it’ a matter of climate. Half a million years later, climatic conditions changed in Europe allowing hominids to colonize at least the South of Europe, south of the principal ridge systems and the Mediterranean region. |
0:28:35.2 |
NARRATOR |
Now, from Asia to Europe. |
0:28:37.8 |
CAPTION |
1.5 million years BP, Have 1.5 millones de aňos. |
0:28:39.2 |
NARRATOR |
Eudald told that, this time in Spain, I’d meet the First European. |
0:28:55.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Hey, what’s up? |
0:28:55.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
How are you doing? |
0:28:57.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Fine, and you? |
0:28:57.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
Good! Finally here. |
0:28:59.8 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
A “chico-chico”, Luis. This is the ritual one has to perform before entering the site. |
0:29:05.6 |
INTERVIEWER |
Cheers! |
0:29:14.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Along this road, if it wasn’t by the wheat and rye, we’d see a great grassland. Quite like the African savannah we saw. A great crossroads, on the north side of the Iberian Peninsula between East and West, North and South. A strategic place to settle. |
0:29:43.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is one of the caves we’re excavating in Atapuerca. The “Mirador” cave. I started digging here about 11 or 12 years ago. |
0:29:57.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
I’m going to show you something exceptional. In Atapuerca we find burials like this one here dating 4,000 years and others over 500,000 years old. This 4,000 is a girl in fetal position. She’s buried with a grinding stone that you can see back there. She was buried by her group. |
0:30:20.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
A group of farmers and cattle breeders that settled here. |
0:30:24.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
Then, of course, these couldn’t be the first dwellers here, if you told me you’ve found burials dating 500,000 back...? |
0:30:30.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Look, in Atapuerca we have settlers as far back as 1.4 million and until 4,000 years. To tell you more about human evolution in Atapuerca, we must go to the trench. The oldest remains are there. |
0:30:43.1 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, why did you call this the time tunnel? |
0:30:44.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Because here, more than a hundred years ago in the XIX Century, the hill was cut up so a railroad could cross along. When they cut the rock, the caves appeared on both sides where we find the fossils. |
0:31:04.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
First, we found tools at the lower level of “Gran Dolina”. But, most surprisingly, in 1994, we found these remains of Homo antecessor. You can see the frontal bone very askew with little cranial capacity. Typical of African hominids. |
0:31:29.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
On the other hand though, the maxillary has canine pits like ours, or supraorbital depressions. A meld of very archaic and very modern traits. A specimen of about 1.60 to 1.50m, with 1,000 cc of cranial capacity. |
0:31:47.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
What’s antecessor’s place in our timeline? |
0:31:51.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Between 1.5 million and 900-800,000 years. |
0:31:55.5 |
INTERVIEWER |
So this antecessor came from Georgia? |
0:31:58.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Well, yes. We think antecessor could be the first European species. And that it evolved from Homo georgicus. |
0:32:08.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
May I? |
0:32:10.8 |
CAPTION |
Homo antecessor, 1.2 millones de aňos, Cerebro de 1,000 cc. |
0:32:11.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
So at last, this is the First European I’ve been chasing for so long! |
0:32:14.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Actually, this is the first European species. There’s a lot left to learn. We’ve got to go upstairs and see what happened there. |
0:32:19.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
But... I’m not a descendant of...? |
0:32:21.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
No. |
0:32:21.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
No kidding?! |
0:32:24.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
These stairs will take us from 1 million years ago to the present. |
0:32:44.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
880,000 years ago, here in Atapuerca, we’ve found proof that humans practiced cannibalism. Pass me that. |
0:32:53.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
With an object like this, a flint made out of it, hominids butchered other hominids to eat them. Like we did in Tanzania. We can see cutting marks on those bones. |
0:33:05.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
Are still visible? |
0:33:05.5 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, in human bones! |
0:33:14.0 |
NARRATOR |
At the foot of “Gran Dolina”, I met the First European, a species that lived here 1.3 million years ago. Somewhat higher, 800,000 years ago, Homo antecessor practiced cannibalism. Still higher, we’d meet the last dweller of this cave. |
0:33:51.0 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is level #10 of “Gran Dolina”. The roof of the cave. The end of the evolutionary journey. 350,000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis lived here. They were bison hunters. |
0:34:05.4 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is heidelbergensis’ skull from “Sima de los Hũesos” (Pit of the Bones). They were tall, strong, more than 1.8m (5’10”) tall and over 100Kg (220Lbs) of [weight]. |
0:34:14.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
Way more than antecessor. |
0:34:14.9 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes, way more! |
0:34:17.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Differently from us or antecessor, it has no canine pits. |
0:34:19.1 |
CAPTION |
Homo heidelbergensis, 500,000 aňos, Cerebro de 1,200 cc. |
0:34:19.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
He’s prognathic. And look, such a protruding torus. And how thick this bone is! |
0:34:33.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
What about their brain capacity? |
0:34:35.6 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Between 1,100 and 1,300 cc. Close to what we have. |
0:34:40.6 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, is this the kind of tool they made? What a leap forward! |
0:34:44.7 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes. This is antecessor’s, a mode 1 tool. And this is biface. Cut on both sides, with a triangular shape. |
0:35:05.9 |
INTERVIEWER |
This is the first species to master fire, bury their kin and also, talk? |
0:35:10.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
On top of fire, language and burying, they took care of the sick. Same thing as in Dmanisi hominids! |
0:35:29.4 |
INTERVIEWER |
Eudald, I’m flabbergasted. What a place! |
0:35:33.1 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
Yes. Here we have one and a half million years of human evolution. From Homo antecessor, probably the first species to live and evolve in Europe to the Heidelbergensis who fathered Neanderthals. We’ve found hominids every 200 to 300,000 years. |
0:35:57.3 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
No other site in all Eurasia has such a load of information in just one spot. |
0:36:05.2 |
INTERVIEWER |
Then, Eudald, how do we get to the present? |
0:36:08.2 |
EUDALD CARBONELL |
This is yet another great adventure. You must go to the Neanderthal world to know what happened before our species arrived in Europe. |
0:37:08.0 |
NARRATOR |
Eudald sent me here, to meet the Neanderthals and honestly, the last place I’d ever think of: Gibraltar. |
0:37:17.2 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
This was a strategic place for Neanderthals. |
0:37:17.2 |
CAPTION |
Clive Finlayson, Director, Museo de Gibraltar |
0:37:18.8 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
Think that, in 6 Km2 (2.3 sq miles) of peninsula, we’ve found 10 Neanderthal sites. Perhaps the greatest density on Earth. |
0:37:28.3 |
INTERVIEWER |
And, why all those Neanderthals here? When? |
0:37:31.8 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
The evidence suggests they lived here for a long period of time. As far as 100,000 years ago, until 20,000 odd, or 30,000. And we’ve got proof they lived here almost constantly. |
0:37:48.7 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
This is the south-western end of their geographical distribution. They lived as far as Mongolia and Siberia. What we’ve found is when climate was warm, they expanded. That is, Neanderthals in Germany, in Northern Europe lived there when climate [was] warm like now, or even warmer. When it’s colder, they go extinct and survive only in meridional southern latitudes. |
0:38:11.8 |
INTERVIEWER |
All these were caves inhabited by Neanderthals? |
0:38:15.5 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
Yes, indeed. This one’s Benet’s, have proof they were there. The next one is the most important, Gorham’s. An 18 m (60ft) tall deposit of archaeological evidence. Surely they lived there. The next, Vanguard, also inhabited. And possibly, the [ones] already washed - and emptied - by the sea. |
0:38:34.6 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
Neanderthals dwelled in all of them. |
0:39:07.0 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
This is a classic, typical Neanderthal. Very robust. With a huge cranial capacity. |
0:39:14.3 |
CAPTION |
Homo neanderthalensis, 170,000 a 25,000 aňos, Cerebro de 1,400 cc. |
0:39:15.5 |
CLIVE FINLAYSON |
In most cases, greater than ours. 1,450 cc (Neanderthal’s). Also, very Neanderthal is the lack of chin. And what we call prognathism. I mean, from moving all parts of the face results in this protruding of the face. |
0:39:34.1 |
CLIVE FINLAYS |