Blazing the Trail

Beginning with the earliest origins or our species, Blazing the Trail opens with a look at how we came to appear on the Earth. Human evolution was not a simple, linear progression, but a complex process involving multiple branches and populations. While modern humans did not evolve from modern apes, we share a common ancestor with chimpanzees that lived 6-7 million years ago. Around 300,000 years ago, when the first definitively modern humans (Homo sapiens) appeared in Africa, they coexisted with other archaic human species, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans.

In this podcast series, we also discuss one of the most significant milestones in human evolution - the control of fire. Evidence from sites in Kenya suggests that Homo erectus was interacting with fire as early as 1.5 million years ago. The control of fire allowed for the cooking of food, which increased caloric intake and led to significant physical changes in humans, such as a reduction in tooth size and changes in gut morphology. Fire also provided warmth and light into the evening, extending the day and creating more time for socializing, storytelling, and the development of cultural practices. The campfire became a focal point for communities, fostering the exchange of knowledge and strengthening social bonds. Fire also allowed humans to venture into previously inaccessible spaces, such as deep caves, where they engaged in symbolic and artistic expressions, as evidenced by the cave paintings found in France.

The series also explores the emergence of language, another defining feature of humans, and traces the migration of humans out of Africa and their dispersal across the globe. Homo sapiens demonstrated remarkable adaptability, settling in diverse environments around the globe. This adaptability was facilitated by their ability to modify their stone tool technologies to suit different environments and animals. The culmination of these adaptations is seen in the extraordinary journey of early humans crossing the ocean from Southeast Asia to Australia around 60,000 years ago. This journey, which involved multiple sea crossings and spanned many generations, represents the earliest known example of multi-day, open-ocean voyaging by humans. These early seafarers were skilled navigators and fishermen, as evidenced by their sophisticated fishing technologies, including shell fishhooks and the movement of obsidian tools across islands.

This series is a co-production between University of Sydney, Australian Museum, BreakThru Films, University of Liverpool, and University of Wroclaw.