Season 1

6 episodes · 22nd February 2000

Series exploring the origins of human life, from African beginnings to Ice Age artists.

Episodes

Human

Ice Age cave paintings could provide clues to our past. Their meaning is discovered by using research into hallucination, Namibian bushmen's dance and South African rock art.

Episode 2

First Born

Did our ancestors the australopithecines or 'upright apes', flourish because of the abandonment of vegetarianism?

Episode 3

Body

The discovery of a skeleton, nicknamed Nariokotome Boy, confirmed that 'ape-man' lived about one and a half million years ago, and the 'missing link' moved from theory to fact.

Episode 4

Love

For years, primitive hominids roamed Africa and Asia. Archaeological discoveries have shown how Europe was colonised and uncovered the moment when human feelings of friendship, trust and love began.

Episode 5

Exodus

A look at the daily lives of the first Homo sapiens found at cave sites on the southern coast of Africa. Over generations these beach dwellers migrated to Australia, the Far East and finally Europe.

Episode 6

Contact

For 200,000 years the Neanderthals lived unchallenged in Europe. But 30,000 years ago climate change and the arrival of modern humans from the east forced them to adapt or die.