Description
Hominids have walked the Earth for six million years. About 30 thousand years ago, there was an explosion in the archaeological record of mobile and parietal art – figurines and cave painting. This evidence of symbolic behavior suggests that humans were thinking differently from before. Humans transformed from being just anatomically modern to being cognitively modern as well. This transformation in human behavior placed our species on the trajectory for the successive transformations in human society that have brought us the level of progress we enjoy today. (This two-part lecture is about Paleolithic Art and Cognitive Archaeology.) For other classes in the Revolution series, see class #681 and #701.