Ape-Man: Adventures in Human Evolution

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

• Ep 1

  1.Human

  22-02-200050 min

  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.

• Ep 2

  2.First Born

  29-02-200050 min

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

• Ep 3

  3.Body

  07-03-200050 min

  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.

• Ep 4

  4.Love

  14-03-200050 min

  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, tru...

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• Ep 5

  5.Exodus

  21-03-200050 min

  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 a...

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• Ep 6

  6.Contact

  28-03-200050 min

  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.