Europe
Dr Alice Roberts discovers how humans left Africa to colonise the world. In Europe, she investigates how our species coped with the rival Neanderthals and the Ice Age.
There are seven billion humans on Earth, spread across the whole planet. Scientific evidence suggests that most of us can trace our origins to one tiny group of people who left Africa around 70,000 years ago. In this five-part series, Dr Alice Roberts follows the archaeological and genetic footprints of our ancient ancestors to find out how their journeys transformed our species into the humans we are today, and how Homo Sapiens came to dominate the planet.
When our species first arrived in Europe, the peak of the Ice Age was approaching and the continent was already crawling with a rival: Stronger, at home in the cold and even (contrary to the popular image) brainier than us. So how did the European pioneers survive first the Neanderthals and then the deep freeze as they pushed across the continent?
Alice Roberts reconstructs the head of the 'first European' to come face to face with one of our ancestors; she discovers how art became crucial for survival in the face of Neanderthal competition; and what happened to change the skin colour of these European pioneers.
Finally, spectacular new finds on the edge of Europe suggest that the first known temples may have been a spark for a huge revolution in our ancestors' way of life - agriculture.
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The oldest European
Duration: 05:00
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Alice Roberts |
Director | Philip Smith |
Producer | Paul Bradshaw |
Executive Producer | Kim Shillinglaw |
Broadcasts
- Sun 24 May 2009 21:30麻豆官网首页入口 Two except Yorkshire
- Wed 27 May 2009 21:00麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Thu 4 Jun 2009 01:05
- Fri 11 Sep 2009 00:05麻豆官网首页入口 HD
- Sat 29 Oct 2016 20:00
- Thu 3 Nov 2016 23:30
- Sat 7 Oct 2017 19:00
- Tue 22 Jan 2019 20:00
- Wed 23 Jan 2019 02:00