More than 2 million years ago, a mutation reduced the power of the chewing muscles of human ancestors. That may indicate that they were preparing more food, but also possibly doing more controlled use of the mouth. Expanded nerve outputs in the thoracic vertebrae appeared in homo erectuswhich indicates the control of breathing in milliseconds necessary for language.
And later, 400,000 years. Homo heidelbergensis remains of Atapuerca in northern Spain had perfectly preserved ear canals which were tuned to the frequencies used in human language. As these Atapuerca hominids were likely Neanderthal ancestors, it is very likely that at least a simple form of language was widespread at that time, if not before.
Paintings first appeared (or were preserved) about 50,000 years ago, but beads and ornaments date back much earlier. The oldest so far are shell beads from the Es-Skhul cave on Mount Carmel in Israel, which dates back to about 130,000 years ago. They mark personal identity and hence the idea that one person can appreciate these signals in another. Shell beads reappeared in Blombos, South Africa, about 70,000 years ago, along with a piece of engraved ocher.
The burials are of similar age: both Neanderthal and the first modern burials occurred about 130,000 years ago, although older finds, such as the numerous human remains in a cave at Atapuerca, or cut marks on a skull in Bodo, Ethiopia, may indicate that there was already a special interest in human bodies. The burials suggest that early humans had a clear idea of the needs of others.
Some burials, both of early moderns and Neanderthals, had bodies stained with red ocher. It is likely that this had a symbolic meaning. “Symbolism” has played a crucial role in all modern human behavior, underpinning language, religion and art. However, studying their origins presents difficulties, because other animals seem capable of using symbols, such as when a chimpanzee offers a cut sheet to another.
The line between those “signs” and symbols is easily blurred. But the projection of symbols to the outside world in the form of material objects is a measurable step, as long as they survive. The beads and burials are among the first evidence of behavior that may, in fact, have had much deeper origins.
The Great Break (100,000 years ago)
More than 100,000 years ago, the first modern humans began to expand out of Africa, giving rise to the largest diaspora in human history. Variation in modern human DNA preserves geographic signals that tell us something about past population movements. Even better, fossil DNA can be isolated from bone specimens up to about 50,000 years old in cold climates and sometimes even older.
The results confirm that Neanderthals were a truly separate species, with their ancestors separating from ours between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago, and lived until about 40,000 years ago.