Footprints on lake margins, contact between hominin species, and changing fortunes in arid landscapes characterize the earliest attempts of Homo sapiens to leave Africa.

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Despite the relatively harsh and fluctuating environmental conditions of North Africa, Middle Stone Age people there developed aspects of modern human behavior earlier than anywhere else.

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The crossroads of human evolution, tropical Africa supported several different populations of Homo sapiens between 130,000 and 40,000 years ago. They expanded, contracted, migrated, and eventually revealed their growing capacity for innovation.

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Before our species left Africa for good, human creativity began to emerge along the southern tip of the continent in the form of new technology, symbolic objects, and greater social organization. Distinct cultures were finally appearing.

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The very first members of our species adopted innovative stone tools, hunted a variety of large animals, sat around campfires and used pigments. But were they as smart as we are today?

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The earliest members of our species appeared around 300,000 years ago in Africa. As they spread across the continent and split into different genetic lineages, they encountered other hominin species and weathered millennia of fluctuating climates.

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Welcome to Our Prehistory. Why is the earliest history of our species worth learning about? Find out in this introductory episode where I lay out the plan for this podcast.

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