First Peoples

When Homo sapiens turned up in prehistoric Europe, they ran into the Neanderthals. The two types of human were similar enough – intellectually and culturally - to interbreed.

Find out why Neanderthals, with whom early humans in Europe interbred, went extinct.

Deep inside a Romanian cave, archaeologist Joao Zilhao and his team uncover a modern human, amongst the bones of prehistoric bears. On First Peoples: Europe, Zilhao describes the "extreme archeaology" needed to examine the cave.

Learn how Homo sapiens, new in Australia and truly alone, managed to survive and flourish.

There is a close cultural and genetic link between early Australians and modern-day Aborigines; here the ancient and modern story intersect as nowhere else.

On First Peoples: Asia, geneticist Svante Paabo uncovers a new branch of the human family tree; the Denisovans. Named after the Siberian cave where the single finger bone was found, these early humans were previously undiscovered.

Discover a type of ancient human whose genes helped us face down extinction.

On First Peoples: Asia, scientists explore Homo sapien migration out of Africa and into Asia. Much like modern humans, it was curiosity that drove them to explore new river valleys and make their way into a new continent.

200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have long imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of Eden, the latest research suggests humans evolved in many places across the continent at the same time.

Examine research that suggests we humans are patchwork species of hybrids.

Omo-1 died while still in his twenties, but he is the oldest member of our species found anywhere in the world. His remains are 195,000 years old, yet he looked like a modern human.

It has long been thought that the first Americans were Clovis people, who arrived 13,000 years ago. The Clovis point is an amazing piece of Stone Age technology used to hunt animals. In a lot of ways, the Clovis point can be considered the first American invention. On First Peoples: Americas, watch a demonstration of how the invention was used for ancient hunting.