The Survivors chapter 5: Survivors

Period: Early Quaternary (Middle Pleistocene, Late Ionian)

Date: 150,000 BC

Location: Eastern Africa





Far on from the huddled group of dying Homo sapiens, over a mountain range, across valleys, past other dried-up rivers, and on through many generations of time, another tiny group of Homo sapiens is walking, foraging as they go, but clearly on a journey. They are a mated couple and their young daughter, and they are patently exhausted from a morning of toil. But the woman then approaches a very dry-looking tree, to dig around one side of the base, until she unearths a round white object and draws it out. It is a very large Common Ostrich egg, but it is not food for her and her family. She removes a plug of grass stuffed into a small hole, raises it to her lips and drinks: water. This is something that she and her partner placed there weeks ago, perhaps even months, when there was some rain. They knew that one day they would be passing this way again, and when they did, this water might be just what they needed.
A simple but lifesaving idea such as this marks the survivors out from those whose lines have come to an end, but it also shows what is special about the Homo sapiens that shall survive. This is not simply the spark of lateral thinking needed to use an Ostrich egg for a very different purpose. This is forward planning. They have the ability to think of what might happen in the future in a very advanced way, and to work out a way of dealing with it. When the climate eventually changes for the better, the Homo sapiens that shall come though the bottleneck will be the ones who are fittest not just physically, but mentally. They are the ones who can think their way out of the crushing circumstances they are in. They are the ones who have developed even further what one might call an imagination. And the small population size means that this mental attribute very quickly, in evolutionary terms, shall become a feature of this Human population.
As the couple and and their child continue their journey, the woman begins to lag behind. The man turns and chides her, clearly wanting her to catch up. She in turn rebukes him with a short stream of angry words that their distant future generations would not recognize. But words they are, for these survivors of the climatic squeeze on the planet have developed the ability to share their imagination, their plans and their points of view with others in a more advanced way. Around this time, Modern Humans have begun to master the art of language, with a subtlety far beyond the Neanderthals' communication of needs, actions and immediate concerns. Human imagination like this has brought with it an ability to think far outside their immediate circumstances, to think in metaphor and analogy, and the use of language like this enables Humans like these to use symbolic expression. It enables them to work with a wider range of others of their species than ever before.
With a shake of the head, the man is silent, and the trio resumes its journey. They have been walking for the best part of a day in search of something that will guarantee their survival: not food or water, but a future mate for their daughter. Arriving at an open sandflat, they find another, larger party of Homo sapiens waiting for them, and for a moment the two groups eye each other warily, weighing up the situation. Finally the leader of the larger group breaks the tension, stepping forward in greeting and speaking to the new arrivals. The other man steps near and gestures for the girl to come forward, and in turn the leader of the large group calls for a young boy to step out.
This is how a simple union between neighboring family groups is arranged. But whatever the ceremonial procedure, the advantages of such a union are clear to both sides. Each will now have allies to rely on, and so will stand more chance of survival when times become hard again, as both men know they will. As the meeting carries on into the evening, the men converse and agree the terms, promises of help, that will be to their mutual advantage. Complex verbal Human language has become the means by which whole groups can create and share a web of culture; it is a kind of social glue. At the most primitive level, this ability to share information and common experience, to share the future with another group, and to widen the immediate family, means that the species can exchange more genes, more quickly, and become ever stronger as a result.
So the stage is set for the final epic moments in the Human story. To the north in Western Europe and in Western Asia such species as the Neanderthals are the end stage of evolutionary adaptation to the harsher colder climate. To the south in the heat of Africa, it is the Modern Humans. Over the 100,000 years that follow the emergence of the nominate subspecies of Homo sapiens, the Anatomically Modern Humans, in Africa, armed with their sophisticated intelligence and ability to adapt to almost any environment, and they will move across much of the globe, and reach almost every continent. The effect on the populations of archaic Human species that already exist in some of those territories shall be perhaps inevitable. In East and Southeast Asia, pockets of Homo erectus, the longest surviving species of Human ever to live, shall survive until 143,000 BC, long before Modern Humans arrive in Eurasia. But it is in Europe that the flowering of Modern Human success as a species will be most graphically displayed.

To Be Continued