Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 19, Episode 2 - Lady Sapiens - full transcript
Scientific investigations from around the world help piece together the untold story of prehistoric women.
-For more than
a century and a half,
experts have been uncovering and
analyzing ancient human remains
on a quest to understand
the story
of the earliest members
of our Homo sapiens species
who migrated from Africa
to Eurasia
around 45,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
The typical image of early man
is a strong spear-throwing hero
who ensured the very survival
of the species...
[ Woolly mammoth roars ]
...while the study of
early woman has been limited,
emphasizing her role as a mother
and preventing
a full understanding of her.
But brand-new discoveries
and cutting-edge science
are painting a whole new
portrait of early woman.
-We operate under the assumption
that it's the prime-age males
that are the be-all and end-all
of Ice Age lifeways,
and they're not.
♪♪♪
-Now the true story
of prehistoric woman
is being brought to light.
♪♪♪
Archaeology, DNA analysis,
the study of prehistoric art,
and other research
is introducing us
to a much more complex woman.
♪♪♪
So, what is her story?
Who were the Lady Sapiens?
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
- "Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
♪♪♪
-Caviglione cave.
Northern Italy.
♪♪♪
Here, French archaeologists
uncovered a 24,000-year-old
human skeleton...
from a time when the earliest
members of our species
roamed this land
in small hunter-gatherer groups.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
The remains show signs
that this ancient being
had strong muscles
and a wide and imposing stature.
And the artifacts
around the body
suggest an elaborate
horse-themed burial.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: She was buried
with a sense of grandeur.
Not everyone was buried
in this royal fashion,
with a very elaborate
funeral rite
based around the horse figure.
A pin made of horse bone
was placed in front of her face.
A pendant carved
into the shape of a horse
was placed atop of the grave.
And engraved
on the exterior wall,
five feet from the ground,
this magnificent
horse engraving.
♪♪♪
-The body had been covered
in red ochre
and given an intricate headdress
made of Mediterranean shellfish
and more than a hundred
stag teeth.
The grave held
other astonishing objects,
including two fine blades
of flint used for hunting.
-[ Speaking Italian ]
-Interpreter:
This tells us indirectly
that there existed
a spirituality
in these prehistoric communities
to the point of providing
their most valued members
the essentials needed for
their journey to the afterlife.
-[ Speaking Italian ]
-When the remains
were found in 1872,
experts were quick to label
the skeleton as male.
Their assumption
was typical of the time,
when scientists
were almost exclusively men.
For more than a century,
the assumption remained fact.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: We have to
think back to a society
in the 19th century,
when women
were not highly regarded.
The women were at home,
and men played all the important
economic and social roles.
So, naturally, it was assumed
that roles were similar
in the Paleolithic era,
that it was solely the male
hunter who advanced society.
The female was simply forgotten.
We did not talk about her.
And if she was mentioned,
she was simply the homebody
who took care of the children.
-But in 1995, scientist
Marie-Antoinette de Lumley
took a closer look
at the pelvic bone.
Usually quite delicate
and rarely found intact,
this one was well-preserved...
and led to an astonishing
realization.
-Interpreter: My wife,
Marie-Antoinette de Lumley,
while clearing the skeleton,
which was kept
at the Musée de l'Homme,
noticed that the iliac bone
had an enlarged cavity
and that this was, in fact,
a woman.
-This curve indicates the width
of the human pelvis.
A woman's pelvis
is larger than a man's
to facilitate childbirth.
The specific shape of the pelvis
of this strong,
seemingly important person
indicated it belonged
to a woman.
The discovery stunned
the world of paleontology.
It defied long-standing
presumptions that hunter men
were the sole leaders
of prehistoric societies...
and the belief that they were
their tribes' primary providers,
to whom we owe the survival
of our species.
-Interpreter: What is implied
here is that if hominization
is based on hunting,
then that means
the male was solely responsible.
In other words, that the female
did not have a role
in the evolution of humanity.
-Can science lead
to a better understanding
of prehistoric
Homo sapiens women?
♪♪♪
[ Drill whirring ]
The most reliable indicator
of biological sex is DNA.
♪♪♪
But extracting a quality sample
is deeply invasive
and limited to fossils
less than 100,000 years old.
♪♪♪
But at the Paul Sabatier
University in Toulouse,
José Braga is developing
a whole new technique
to determine the sex
of ancient remains,
even those that are
several million years old.
[ Beeping ]
♪♪♪
Using state-of-the-art
X-ray microtomography,
he can access a special clue
in an ancient ear.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: We can observe
miniscule details
in a fossilized skull.
This allows us access
to the interior structure
to reveal what is invisible
to the human eye.
-From the data collected,
Braga can then create
a virtual 3-D model
of the internal ear
with accuracy that's finer
than a quarter
of the thickness of a hair.
-Interpreter: Microtomography
enables me to see this series
of images here.
The interior
of this bone appears,
which we see here in white,
a void...
more notably, a particular shape
that corresponds to a void
left by an organ
that has since disappeared
since the individual's death.
And this organ is the
hearing organ, the cochlea,
which is shaped like the shell
of a snail, a spiral form.
-The ear's spiral-shaped cochlea
rotates in a way that's
distinctive to every individual,
as unique
as a person's fingerprints.
There is also a difference in
the cochlea's form between sexes
that allows women
to hear higher frequencies
better than men.
-Interpreter:
We had good reasons to think
that there could be
differences here,
because when we measure
the precision
with which humans
hear high frequencies,
we see that women
have a better sensibility
to high frequencies
compared to men.
Using this method,
we are able to determine,
with 95% accuracy,
the correct sex
of that individual.
-Exciting new techniques
like this one
allow for a more precise study
of Homo sapiens female
fossil remains.
In turn, scientists
are learning more
about how these women
spent their days.
First and foremost,
did women participate
in the hunt for large game?
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[ Woolly mammoth roars ]
♪♪♪
To find out, scientists
have turned to one particular
Olympic sport.
♪♪♪
When it comes
to weight and size,
spears used by
prehistoric hunters
have often been compared
to the javelin.
♪♪♪
Hunting with spears engages
very similar muscle groups
to javelin throwing.
It's an action that leaves
its mark on muscle joints.
♪♪♪
French javelin champion
Jona Aigouy knows far too well
the toll her sport
can take on a body.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: Javelin throwing
is a high-intensity sport.
The most common injuries are
in the shoulder or elbow areas.
When it comes to the elbow,
the stretching movement
will cause internal constraints,
which in turn
will cause tendonitis.
It can also cause a nerve
to pop out of its place,
which we call
a dislocated nerve.
-At the University of Bordeaux,
Dr. Sébastien Villotte
has been investigating
a range of European fossils
from the Paleolithic era,
like these Elbow joints
found in northern Italy.
♪♪♪
Time and again, he's found signs
of muscle trauma
that can only be caused
by a specific dynamic motion.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: In this area,
we see a small remodeling,
which seems to be the healing
of a tiny bone tear.
-[ Speaking French ]
-This is something that I have
observed in other individuals
of the Upper Paleolithic.
I have also seen
this similar tear
in many prehistoric
European collections...
and often only in men.
♪♪♪
This lesion
is usually only caused
by the gesture of the throw.
Obviously, the first idea
that comes to mind
when we talk about this gesture
is the javelin throw,
a projectile used in hunting.
-Evidence of close-range,
high-energy impact...
but found exclusively
on male fossils.
[ Creature growls ]
Villotte's analysis
seems to confirm
the long-standing
"man the hunter" hypothesis.
[ Hunter whistling ]
♪♪♪
But one discovery,
high in the Andes in Peru,
tells a completely different
story.
♪♪♪
Archaeologist Randy Haas
from the University
of California, Davis,
uncovered an impressive set
of six stone projectile points
and blades
in the 9,000-year-old
burial tomb of a woman.
The find led experts
to re-examine
other ancient burials
in the Americas
and identify 10 more women
buried with projectile points,
a sign that ancient women here
may also have been hunters.
Perhaps gender roles varied
from one prehistoric
Homo sapiens group to another.
-Interpreter: Many, many studies
of the Paleolithic era
show a diversity of cultures.
Perhaps in some
Paleolithic societies
there were women who hunted.
Perhaps in other societies there
were women who did not hunt.
[ Woolly mammoth groans ]
♪♪♪
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-Interpreter: It's rather
simplistic to think
that there are activities
that are exclusively male
and activities
that are exclusively female.
Even if it's true that big-game
hunting is often done by men,
we have ethnographic examples
to the contrary.
In the Philippines,
among the Agtas,
women hunted with machetes
and bow and arrow.
♪♪♪
-Whether or not women
actually chased down
large prey themselves,
one discovery
in the Parisian suburbs
has shed light on the vital role
they played during a hunt.
♪♪♪
Dr. Michèle Julien
and Claudine Karlin
from the French National Centre
for Scientific Research
have spent years
excavating a prairie
that, 13,000 years ago,
was seasonally occupied
by reindeer hunters.
♪♪♪
Judging by the number and scale
of hunting camps
found at the site,
it seems around 30 people...
Men, women, and children...
ambushed migrating herds
of reindeer here.
♪♪♪
A casting of one of the camps
is preserved
at the Ile-de-France
Prehistory Museum.
One single layer of strata
represents one hunting season
and holds precious insight into
the daily life of this group
and the sheer volume of meat
they butchered.
-Interpreter: We found a very
large quantity of reindeer bones
which, after analysis,
totaled to about 76 animals.
They weren't all killed
at the same time,
but probably over a period
of one to two weeks
because they traveled
in small herds.
-76 reindeer.
Roughly three tons of meat.
According to the analysis,
men of the group could never
have killed so many animals
in such a short amount of time
without help.
Comparing this evidence
with observations
of today's modern hunting tribes
suggests hunts must have
involved the entire community.
-Interpreter:
The men did the hunting,
and the women and children
and the men who didn't hunt
led the herd
to where the hunters awaited.
And so the whole group
participated in the hunt.
-Once the carcasses
were brought back to the camp,
processing such a high volume
of meat
was extremely labor-intensive.
Every adult
would have been needed.
-The principal work included
cutting up the carcasses,
treating the meat
by either drying it,
or perhaps by other means,
in order to create reserves
for the winter.
And the animal furs
then needed to be treated.
♪♪♪
-There was
a real complementarity,
and this allowed the group
to function.
-Karlin and Julien
also uncovered
the remains of wild hare.
They believe that if the men
were busy hunting large game,
trapping smaller animals
like hare
might have been
the work of women.
-There were hares
inside the camps.
This animal demands
different hunting techniques.
And all the skeleton pieces
from the hares
were found in one single space.
They were not shared
like the larger animals were.
One can therefore assume
that women were the ones
who hunted the hares.
♪♪♪
-Women also hunted
and trapped small game.
We have numerous
ethnographic examples of this.
This type of hunt provided
a much more stable food supply,
much more reliable
than hunting large animals.
So about 70% of the food supply
came from either small game,
from fishing,
or the harvesting of plants.
♪♪♪
Evidence clearly demonstrates
the roles prehistoric women
played in hunting
both large and small game.
♪♪♪
Ethnographic studies
of gender roles
in today's
hunter-gatherer tribes
suggest women supervised the
gathering of plants, as well.
At an archaeological site
in Northern Israel,
inside a brush hut
from 22,000 years ago,
experts have found seeds from
thousands of medicinal plants.
Mallow to treat wounds,
milk thistle to cure liver
inflammation and poisoning,
and sweet clover
to stop bleeding.
-We can assume
that since it was mainly women
who collected plants,
then they must have known
their properties...
not just nutrition and taste,
but also as medicine.
Therefore, woman is perhaps
the founder of medicine.
[ Children shouting playfully ]
-Small-game hunters.
Botanical experts.
Early Homo sapiens women
were crucial members
of their hunter-gatherer
societies.
But did they resemble
one of the most common
and iconic depictions of women
from the time...
the Paleolithic Venus?
Hundreds of these
small figurines
have been found
across Europe and Asia,
all produced between
38,000 and 14,000 years ago.
Carved from a variety
of materials,
the Venus generally depicts
round women with wide hips.
♪♪♪
[ Beeping ]
Thanks to DNA analysis,
we do know
that the prehistoric
women and men who lived
when these figurines
were created had dark skin.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: The first
Europeans to arrive in Europe
are Black in skin color.
We expected that because
sapiens originated in Africa.
So when they leave Africa
for the European continent,
they are dark-skinned.
But the remarkable fact
is that the populations
of Western Europe
remain dark-skinned color
for quite a long time.
That is to say, we arrive
in Europe 40,000 years ago,
but ancient DNA extracted
from an individual
who is 6,000 years old
or 8,000 years old, for example,
shows that he still carries
the genetic code variant
for dark skin color.
-And the genetic studies
have also revealed
a surprising mutation
that occurred
after Homo sapiens tribes
arrived in Europe... blue eyes.
-Why blue eyes?
We think that this is a
phenomenon of sexual selection.
That is, the fact that one
has personal preferences.
So, one prefers a partner
who, for example,
has lighter eye color,
and that trait
will reproduce better.
Generation after generation
of this preference
will result in this mutation,
and it will spread
within the population.
♪♪♪
-It seems unlikely,
but did the women of prehistory
have round, voluptuous bodies
like the Venus figurines?
♪♪♪
Dr. Nicholas Conard
offers some insight.
In 2004, he and his team
unearthed a Venus
dating from
roughly 40,000 years ago.
It's the oldest such statue
ever found in Europe.
-That's where it's from.
And all the pieces
were very close together,
right around here,
in about this position
at the base of the Aurignacian.
-Carved from the ivory
of a woolly mammoth,
the statuette stands
just over 2 inches tall.
Today, it's carefully preserved
at the Museum
of Prehistory Blaubeuren,
where Conard
has analyzed it in detail.
-What really is noticeable
at the beginning
are the sexual characteristics.
The very full breast,
the pubic triangle
are unmistakably
the center of the depiction.
The legs are hardly there
at all, right?
Locomotion was not important
for this find.
And perhaps most importantly
there's no head,
there's no face at all.
Real people living a mobile
hunter-gatherer lifestyle
would not have physiques
like this.
This is in no way
a realistic depiction.
It's a depiction of an idea
of strength, fertility,
but it's certainly not
a realistic depiction.
-With their simplified features
and abundant curves,
Venus statues
aren't faithful depictions
of early woman's physicality.
Rather, they're tributes
to her all-important ability
to bear children.
[ Baby cooing ]
♪♪♪
[ Children shouting playfully ]
♪♪♪
But in prehistoric times,
when it came
to a woman's partner,
who did she pair up with?
[ Indistinct conversation ]
♪♪♪
By comparing DNA samples
from an extensive database,
Evelyne Heyer and her colleagues
have found
that early man and woman
were seemingly
already well-aware
of the dangers of inbreeding.
-Interpreter: What we see in
European Paleolithic populations
is that there is
no incestuous marriage.
There is no marriage between
brother/sister, father/child.
So it's a system that has
existed for a very long time,
at least in
the Paleolithic period.
-[ Speaking French ]
-But when it comes
to ancient mating patterns,
genetic code
can reveal much more.
For certain regions,
Heyer has actually managed
to map out
who belonged to which group
and who left their group to mate
with a member of another.
The results are very clear.
-Data available from
Paleolithic era studies suggests
that there are no differences
between males and females
in terms of migration patterns.
In other words,
both males and females
married and changed tribes.
♪♪♪
-Ancient men and women were
equally transient and mobile
when it came
to searching for partners.
♪♪♪
All these clues
give us precious insight
into early woman's relationship
with her mate 40,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
But does this mean
she fully understood
the intricacies of reproduction?
♪♪♪
Experts long believed
that humans only made
the connection
between sex and procreation
when they adopted
an agrarian lifestyle...
growing crops and livestock,
moving away from
hunting and gathering.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
But the discovery
of a 15,000-year-old
wall engraving in Central France
debunks this theory.
♪♪♪
Archaeologists Geneviève Pinçon
and Oscar Fuentes
are experts
in prehistoric wall carvings,
working to decode the messages
left by ancient nomadic humans.
♪♪♪
They believe an incredible
prehistoric fresco
at the Roc-aux-Sorciers
rock shelter
demonstrates the connection
prehistoric people made
between sex and reproduction.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: We are here
in front of the panel of women,
which makes Sorcerers' Rock
so important
in the study of prehistory.
-Interpreter:
It is an extraordinary site,
because you have animals
and you have this
magnificent panel of women.
Here in the Lascaux cave,
there is nothing else like it.
♪♪♪
-Today this limestone cliff
is carefully preserved
under a modern shelter.
But 15,000 years ago,
it was out in the open
for all to see.
The red ochre and charcoal
paintings on white rock,
surrounded by low foliage,
were easy to see,
even from afar.
-We are not looking
at hidden art,
since here we are in symbiosis
with nature.
We are outdoors.
We're in sunlight.
And all of a sudden,
there you go.
It's, in fact,
accessible to everyone.
-We can share stories.
-For Pinçon and Fuentes,
one panel tells the story
of three distinct moments
in a woman's childbearing years.
First, she is expecting,
with that recognizable
pregnancy line
carved over her rounded belly.
The second image carved
in the rock shows her nursing,
having just given birth.
The third scene
appears to be a woman
with the potential to procreate,
as symbolized
by the surrounding bison,
animals that also have
a nine-month gestation period.
♪♪♪
-On this panel of women,
what we see is a myth,
a concept.
That is, we want to express
a general concept
of the female's essential role
in the survival of the group.
Namely, fertility.
-And another related image
is nearby...
a panel of mountain goats.
-The narrative is laid out
like a comic book.
We can add voices
without much explanation.
The female, her calf...
the male, the males...
then procreation.
For me, there is no doubt that
the Magdalenians understood
the link between sexuality
and its consequences.
♪♪♪
-It's possible
that if early woman
knew that sex led to pregnancy
and understood
the reproductive cycle,
she could control
when she became a mother.
♪♪♪
But despite this,
when a pregnancy did come,
was it always wanted?
Has the maternal instinct
been engrained in our genes
since the days of our earliest
Homo sapiens ancestors?
[ Baby fussing ]
At the Max Planck Institute
in Germany,
Jean-Jacques Hublin
is an expert
in behavioral evolution,
studying what binds a mother
to her child...
and how this may have changed
over time.
He works closely with
Professor Sarah Hrdy,
who is mapping the biological,
social, and cultural factors
that have shaped human behavior.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter:
The work of Sarah Hrdy
and other anthropologists
are very important
because they have shifted
the spotlight
from technical progress
to not only social
but also behavioral progress.
-[ Speaking French ]
-The maternal instinct
to protect,
of attachment,
of caring for newborns...
one must understand that this
is not unique to humans.
It exists in the animal world.
There are biological instincts
at play here,
and these instincts are present
in animals and in humans alike.
-For millions of years,
the human mother/child bond
has thrived,
thanks in part to a hormone
that both secrete... oxytocin.
But according to Hublin,
the precariousness
of nomadic life
meant this bond
may have been compromised
by the mother's
survival instinct.
-Depending on the circumstances,
this attachment may be,
if not annihilated,
at least reduced
under extreme circumstances.
It is conceivable
that situations may exist
that result
in the abandonment of the child
or in handing over the child
to other adults.
Attachment is just as possible
as detachment.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Studies of women from
modern hunter-gatherer tribes
reveal that, when the timing
isn't right to have a child,
some control births
with sexual abstinence,
prolonged nursing,
or abortifacient plants.
[ Children shouting playfully ]
Despite all this, if a baby
is born during hard times,
it can be rejected by the mother
in favor of her own well-being
and that of her tribe.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: It is a decision often
made by the women themselves.
One example
is the Kalahari San women,
who give birth
all alone in the desert.
They alone
will make these decisions.
This does not suggest that these
decisions are easy to make.
-But according to experts,
instances like this would have
been exceptions to the norm.
♪♪♪
If she understood
her reproductive system,
early woman could control
her journey to motherhood.
Can science also show
how prehistoric women,
once they had children,
cared for them, fed them?
At the Ecole Normale Supérieure
de Lyon,
archaeologist
Dr. Vincent Balter's research
examines how long
prehistoric women
breastfed their children.
♪♪♪
For Balter, the secret
is hidden in the teeth.
[ Drill whirring ]
-Interpreter: We can analyze
the amount of milk
that we ingest in our diet.
And we can then see the isotopic
signature of milk in fossils.
♪♪♪
-Balter is then able to estimate
when a child began eating
a more varied diet,
having reduced or eliminated
its intake of breastmilk.
[ Beeping ]
These teeth are from the extinct
species Homo erectus,
which lived
1.5 million years ago
and, it turns out,
depended on breastmilk for much
longer than modern humans do.
♪♪♪
-These signature
milk characteristics
have been found in children
up to the age of four,
which shows that young
Homo erectus children
were pampered by their parents.
-The Homo erectus species,
reliant on breastmilk as
its main source of nutrition
for a lengthy four years.
If we compare this with
hunter-gatherer tribes today,
it seems the duration
of breastfeeding
shortened as humans evolved...
and had important benefits
for the species.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: What is
very particular with humans
is that development
is quite long.
-[ Speaking French ]
-But, paradoxically, the age
at which babies are weaned
is getting younger and younger.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Once children are able
to eat solid food,
then the mother
can share with other adults
the time and energy needed
to ensure
the children's development.
This is what makes us
cooperative breeders,
and this behavior
has an extraordinary influence
on the organization
of human groups.
[ Baby cooing ]
♪♪♪
-With pregnancies spaced out
and the burden of childcare
shared,
it seems prehistoric mothers
may not have been overwhelmed
by the demands
of raising their young.
♪♪♪
And new evidence now suggests
they may have relied on help
from one group of clan members
in particular... grandmothers.
♪♪♪
Kristen Hawkes
has studied grandmothers
from modern
hunter-gatherer tribes
and witnessed
the important role they play
in the survival of their groups.
She recalls
one particular experience
with the Hadza tribe
in Tanzania.
-I was spending hours
in the hot sun every day
with these old ladies.
I mean, with other people,
as well,
but with these old ladies
who were doing
what is the heaviest kind
of resource acquisition,
foraging for these
deeply buried tubers
that can be
more than a meter deep.
They were spending
more hours a day
doing that particular
energetically expensive thing
than anybody else,
and our records
were beginning to show
that the weaned kids,
their weights were correlated
with their grandmothers'
foraging effort.
♪♪♪
-The older women
collected roughly 30%
of the group's
daily food intake,
which was intended
primarily for the children.
Hawkes has demonstrated
how the support of grandmothers
contributed to the doubling
of the early Homo sapiens
species' lifespan.
-Older females,
by subsidizing the fertility
of the younger ones,
allowed them
to have the next baby sooner
without the previous one
being left to die
because the weaned kids
were subsidized
by their grandmothers.
♪♪♪
-In addition to assisting with
children's physical well-being,
it's believed the elderly women
also passed on their knowledge.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter:
Human societies are societies
that share, that redistribute.
They are also societies
that learn and innovate.
And this transmission
obviously takes time.
It's a factor that weighs in
in terms of natural selection,
basically pushing
human beings towards,
for example,
greater and greater longevity.
-[ Speaking French ]
-The human species
is one of the few
in which postmenopausal females
still have a fairly long
life expectancy.
Why?
Because they are
a benefit to the group
and to their descendants.
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪♪
-Supported by older women
who helped make childrearing
more manageable,
prehistoric Homo sapiens women
could take on other pivotal
roles within their groups...
hunters, gatherers,
managers, and planners.
♪♪♪
Early Homo sapiens women
did a great deal more
than just providing
for their tribes.
-From a study
of about 70 populations
of hunter-gatherers,
we determined
that the time
that women spend gathering
could vary
based on the tribe's needs.
If there is a lot
of big-game hunting,
there will be less need
for gathering,
and therefore
the women will be able
to devote themselves
to other activities.
At that point, they focus
on more technical activities.
♪♪♪
-One incredible example
of this craftsmanship
was discovered
on the outskirts of Dordogne
in Southwest France...
a collection of intricate,
decorative ornaments
from around 37,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
Randall White
from New York University
has been carefully
re-creating the steps needed
to produce these objects.
In doing so, he has determined
that they were made by women.
-They created a series
of pencil-like rods
that they then split
into segments,
which you can see
very clearly here.
Those were then thinned
along one end,
leaving a bulb at the other.
And finally,
using abrasive tools,
they were ground down into
this very characteristic shape
that's known as
"basket shaped."
They're absolutely tiny.
It's rare that you can
actually answer
the question,
"Who made these objects?"
I have relatively, I suppose,
normal hands for a man,
and I can't make the smallest
of these beads,
but most of
my female graduate students
can get down
to the very smallest ones.
So it kind of supports the idea
that this might have been
a women's activity.
-By analyzing traces
of friction on the pearls,
White can even gauge
how these ornaments were worn.
-Each of the beads
is sewn onto a garment,
probably a skin garment.
They shouldn't be seen
as individual ornaments
because they're
almost invisible,
but you have to imagine that
they were sewn on in patterns
that were
the visible part of it.
♪♪♪
-This is just one sample
of women's artisanship
and technical abilities.
♪♪♪
Scientists have uncovered
other stunning examples
in the south
of the Czech Republic.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Some of the most well-known
pieces of Paleolithic art
have been found there,
including one from
the Pavlov Archaeological Park,
a museum built on the site of
a woolly mammoth hunting camp.
♪♪♪
It's the 29,000-year-old
clay Venus of Dolní Vestonice,
evidence that
the prehistoric people here
had an astonishing mastery
of clay art.
♪♪♪
The region is scattered with
a variety of clay remnants that,
for archaeologists
Olga Soffer and James Adovasio,
serve as stunning examples
of plant-based craftsmanship.
-These items were preserved
because they had been impressed,
pushed into clay,
by the aboriginal inhabitants,
and the clay
was subject to heat.
♪♪♪
-By studying the clay imprints
under a microscope,
Soffer and Adovasio
have spotted evidence
of intricate braiding
and knot-making
decorating a variety
of day-to-day objects.
-They could have been pieces
of floor covering.
They could have been
items of clothing.
In some cases, they were nets
or bags that had been produced
for the use
of the hunter-gatherers
who lived at Vestonice.
♪♪♪
-Because of their durability,
ancient flint weapons
and cutting tools
have long overshadowed
the study of other forms
of prehistoric craftsmanship,
likely produced by women.
-90% or more of the artifacts
that are produced
by hunting and gathering
populations in any environment,
whether it's the far north
or the tropical rainforest,
is made of
non-durable materials.
These kinds of things,
items made of plant fiber,
were critical to the survival
of these groups.
The majority of the items
that are made of
non-durable materials
are, in fact, produced by women.
This is based on
archeological evidence,
as well as
ethnographic analogues
to living hunting-and-gathering
populations.
-And for Soffer and Adovasio,
a lack of artifacts,
plus contemporary social biases,
have limited the understanding
of prehistoric women's work.
-We have tended, both
in Europe and North America,
to minimize all the plant
material, all the small animals,
in favor of
the more dramatic image
of hunting big animals
with spears.
We operate under the assumption
that it's the prime-age males,
our age, so to speak,
that are the be-all and end-all
of Ice Age lifeways,
and they're not.
Nor is stone.
♪♪♪
-Plant-based items,
from clothing to bedding
to carrier bags,
all skillfully produced by women
and just as important
as hunting spears
and cutting tools
to a group's survival.
♪♪♪
These items
may have been lost to time,
but there are others,
still with us
40,000 years later,
that illustrate
not just a practical mind-set
but also an artistic one.
[ Fire crackling ]
Most researchers
have long assumed
that men were responsible
for the mysterious
prehistoric wall paintings
found underground and in caves.
And they speculate that,
for prehistoric societies,
men believed caves
were too dangerous for women.
♪♪♪
In Southern France,
the Pech Merle cave
holds a jewel
of Paleolithic art.
♪♪♪
An extraordinary panel of horses
surrounded by handprints.
In many present-day
hunter-gatherer cultures,
the handprint
is an artist's signature.
It's possible the ancient people
who stamped their hands
around these horses
were the artists...
though it's difficult
for experts to say
whether the prints
belonged to men or women.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: Most of the hands
found from the Paleolithic era
are incomplete.
Phalanges are missing,
and so it's difficult
to determine whether
they are female or male hands.
With the few hands that we were
able to determine gender,
we did indeed have female hands.
-These handprints may indicate
that women, like men,
ventured deep underground
and made art.
♪♪♪
But there is another piece
of evidence
that women spent time
underground and in caves...
preserved footprints.
♪♪♪
Dr. Andreas Pastoors
and his team
study prehistoric human tracks.
Their latest analysis is in the
Aldène cave in Southern France.
♪♪♪
Here, an underground path
is covered
with 8,000-year-old footprints
perfectly preserved in clay...
600 of them.
To find out more
about the people
who left these footprints,
they have joined forces with
contemporary tracking experts.
-[ Speaking native language ]
- [ Speaking native language ]
- Yeah.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [ Speaking native language ]
♪♪♪
-Interpreter:
We requested the assistance
of trackers from Namibia
because they have
a lot of experience
in interpreting both animal
and human footprints.
♪♪♪
-It's a daunting trek
to reach the site.
The team must follow
a 90-foot-long fault in the rock
and a narrow channel
for more than half a mile.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Inside the chamber, the prints
are spread across 90 feet.
The Namibian trackers
get to work.
-Interpreter:
For about two hours
or two and a half hours
every day,
they observe the soil.
They move
from section to section,
they observe,
and then they discuss.
They will reconstruct the steps
and then explain their findings.
♪♪♪
The trackers are able to create
what archaeology cannot...
the gender and behavior
of these steps.
They create a whole scenario.
Their observations
bring these footprints to life.
-Back at the lab,
Pastoors is able to illustrate
the trackers' analysis using
a 3-D scan of the footprints.
Each path
is individually highlighted.
Then, by studying
the footprints' impressions
in the clay,
the team can determine
how many people
left these tracks...
26, including women
and children.
The layout of the tracks
helps fill in the details
of the story.
-Interpreter:
As she exited, the woman left
a row of three footprints...
A right, a left, and a right.
She walks towards the exit.
And something happens here.
Here she positions her left foot
a little bit diagonally.
Doing so can be interpreted
to mean that she adjusted
something on her back
and then continued walking.
♪♪♪
The trackers reasoned
that she carried a child
or a baby on her back.
-According to the trackers,
the number of children's
footprints going into the cave
is greater
than the number going out.
It suggests that some mothers
may have felt the need
to carry their young.
-Interpreter:
The analysis was that people
were in such a rush to get out
that they carried the children
to speed up the pace.
We determined they had issues
with lack of lighting,
which forced them to turn around
and exit the cave.
Using only their visual analysis
of the footprints,
the trackers came to
the exact same conclusion.
♪♪♪
-The study confirms
that, in Paleolithic times,
caves and underground chambers
were not exclusive to men.
Women, too,
roamed the underground
and may have also contributed
to the magnificent cave art
we still see today.
♪♪♪
Were early Homo sapiens women
given special status
because of their many talents
and their unique ability
to bear children?
♪♪♪
The elaborate burial
of the Lady of Caviglione
is one indication
of the esteemed place
women held
in prehistoric societies.
♪♪♪
And there are other examples.
At the Renancourt site
in Northern France,
archaeologists have found
fragments of female statues
that are 27,000 years old.
Frost may have broken some,
but others were found
mixed with carving waste.
Experts have
an intriguing hypothesis
as to why they were destroyed.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: Another hypothesis
as to the condition
of these statuettes
is that they may have been
broken intentionally,
for example,
during a ritual practice.
♪♪♪
-These statues could be symbols
of a particular belief,
a reflection of powers
Paleolithic people
may have invested
in these female depictions.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: When we talk about
the power of the statuettes,
we imagine powers linked
to motherhood, to fertility,
perhaps powers linked
to the group's survival.
-[ Speaking French ]
-We can also imagine that
they wanted to represent women
who beared multiple children
and who therefore
contributed greatly
to the longevity of the group
and... why not...
To that of humanity.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
-But now research suggests
that women may have been
at the heart
of humanity's earliest myths.
There is a narrow passage in the
rocks at Fontainebleau Forest,
south of Paris,
just large enough
to crawl through.
Experts believe that,
for early men and women,
it evoked the birth canal.
♪♪♪
And at one end
of the rock tunnel,
a remarkable engraving.
Three lines
were purposefully carved
to emphasize the naturally
evocative shape of the rock.
The domed ceiling
suggests a pregnant belly.
♪♪♪
And on each side,
two galloping horses...
carved in a similar style
and technique,
therefore believed to have
been made at the same time...
offer a date stamp.
These engravings were made
around 20,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
During a heavy downpour,
rain naturally flows down
the central channel,
perhaps to evoke
a mother's water breaking
just before childbirth.
♪♪♪
All this is an homage
to the beginnings
of the prehistoric world.
♪♪♪
Perhaps an origin myth,
a woman birthing the earth
into existence.
♪♪♪
The latest
archaeological discoveries,
combined with
cutting-edge science,
have provided
a new understanding
of the earliest
Homo sapiens women.
♪♪♪
She played many vital roles
in prehistoric society...
strong, powerful hunter...
medicinal healer...
artisan and artist... mother.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
All of her skills
and accomplishments
tell the story of a woman
respected and honored,
responsible for the survival
of her community
as much as any man.
A tale of men and women
united in a common destiny...
of which we are the heirs today.
♪♪♪
a century and a half,
experts have been uncovering and
analyzing ancient human remains
on a quest to understand
the story
of the earliest members
of our Homo sapiens species
who migrated from Africa
to Eurasia
around 45,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
The typical image of early man
is a strong spear-throwing hero
who ensured the very survival
of the species...
[ Woolly mammoth roars ]
...while the study of
early woman has been limited,
emphasizing her role as a mother
and preventing
a full understanding of her.
But brand-new discoveries
and cutting-edge science
are painting a whole new
portrait of early woman.
-We operate under the assumption
that it's the prime-age males
that are the be-all and end-all
of Ice Age lifeways,
and they're not.
♪♪♪
-Now the true story
of prehistoric woman
is being brought to light.
♪♪♪
Archaeology, DNA analysis,
the study of prehistoric art,
and other research
is introducing us
to a much more complex woman.
♪♪♪
So, what is her story?
Who were the Lady Sapiens?
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
- "Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.
Thank you.
♪♪♪
-Caviglione cave.
Northern Italy.
♪♪♪
Here, French archaeologists
uncovered a 24,000-year-old
human skeleton...
from a time when the earliest
members of our species
roamed this land
in small hunter-gatherer groups.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
The remains show signs
that this ancient being
had strong muscles
and a wide and imposing stature.
And the artifacts
around the body
suggest an elaborate
horse-themed burial.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: She was buried
with a sense of grandeur.
Not everyone was buried
in this royal fashion,
with a very elaborate
funeral rite
based around the horse figure.
A pin made of horse bone
was placed in front of her face.
A pendant carved
into the shape of a horse
was placed atop of the grave.
And engraved
on the exterior wall,
five feet from the ground,
this magnificent
horse engraving.
♪♪♪
-The body had been covered
in red ochre
and given an intricate headdress
made of Mediterranean shellfish
and more than a hundred
stag teeth.
The grave held
other astonishing objects,
including two fine blades
of flint used for hunting.
-[ Speaking Italian ]
-Interpreter:
This tells us indirectly
that there existed
a spirituality
in these prehistoric communities
to the point of providing
their most valued members
the essentials needed for
their journey to the afterlife.
-[ Speaking Italian ]
-When the remains
were found in 1872,
experts were quick to label
the skeleton as male.
Their assumption
was typical of the time,
when scientists
were almost exclusively men.
For more than a century,
the assumption remained fact.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: We have to
think back to a society
in the 19th century,
when women
were not highly regarded.
The women were at home,
and men played all the important
economic and social roles.
So, naturally, it was assumed
that roles were similar
in the Paleolithic era,
that it was solely the male
hunter who advanced society.
The female was simply forgotten.
We did not talk about her.
And if she was mentioned,
she was simply the homebody
who took care of the children.
-But in 1995, scientist
Marie-Antoinette de Lumley
took a closer look
at the pelvic bone.
Usually quite delicate
and rarely found intact,
this one was well-preserved...
and led to an astonishing
realization.
-Interpreter: My wife,
Marie-Antoinette de Lumley,
while clearing the skeleton,
which was kept
at the Musée de l'Homme,
noticed that the iliac bone
had an enlarged cavity
and that this was, in fact,
a woman.
-This curve indicates the width
of the human pelvis.
A woman's pelvis
is larger than a man's
to facilitate childbirth.
The specific shape of the pelvis
of this strong,
seemingly important person
indicated it belonged
to a woman.
The discovery stunned
the world of paleontology.
It defied long-standing
presumptions that hunter men
were the sole leaders
of prehistoric societies...
and the belief that they were
their tribes' primary providers,
to whom we owe the survival
of our species.
-Interpreter: What is implied
here is that if hominization
is based on hunting,
then that means
the male was solely responsible.
In other words, that the female
did not have a role
in the evolution of humanity.
-Can science lead
to a better understanding
of prehistoric
Homo sapiens women?
♪♪♪
[ Drill whirring ]
The most reliable indicator
of biological sex is DNA.
♪♪♪
But extracting a quality sample
is deeply invasive
and limited to fossils
less than 100,000 years old.
♪♪♪
But at the Paul Sabatier
University in Toulouse,
José Braga is developing
a whole new technique
to determine the sex
of ancient remains,
even those that are
several million years old.
[ Beeping ]
♪♪♪
Using state-of-the-art
X-ray microtomography,
he can access a special clue
in an ancient ear.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: We can observe
miniscule details
in a fossilized skull.
This allows us access
to the interior structure
to reveal what is invisible
to the human eye.
-From the data collected,
Braga can then create
a virtual 3-D model
of the internal ear
with accuracy that's finer
than a quarter
of the thickness of a hair.
-Interpreter: Microtomography
enables me to see this series
of images here.
The interior
of this bone appears,
which we see here in white,
a void...
more notably, a particular shape
that corresponds to a void
left by an organ
that has since disappeared
since the individual's death.
And this organ is the
hearing organ, the cochlea,
which is shaped like the shell
of a snail, a spiral form.
-The ear's spiral-shaped cochlea
rotates in a way that's
distinctive to every individual,
as unique
as a person's fingerprints.
There is also a difference in
the cochlea's form between sexes
that allows women
to hear higher frequencies
better than men.
-Interpreter:
We had good reasons to think
that there could be
differences here,
because when we measure
the precision
with which humans
hear high frequencies,
we see that women
have a better sensibility
to high frequencies
compared to men.
Using this method,
we are able to determine,
with 95% accuracy,
the correct sex
of that individual.
-Exciting new techniques
like this one
allow for a more precise study
of Homo sapiens female
fossil remains.
In turn, scientists
are learning more
about how these women
spent their days.
First and foremost,
did women participate
in the hunt for large game?
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[ Woolly mammoth roars ]
♪♪♪
To find out, scientists
have turned to one particular
Olympic sport.
♪♪♪
When it comes
to weight and size,
spears used by
prehistoric hunters
have often been compared
to the javelin.
♪♪♪
Hunting with spears engages
very similar muscle groups
to javelin throwing.
It's an action that leaves
its mark on muscle joints.
♪♪♪
French javelin champion
Jona Aigouy knows far too well
the toll her sport
can take on a body.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: Javelin throwing
is a high-intensity sport.
The most common injuries are
in the shoulder or elbow areas.
When it comes to the elbow,
the stretching movement
will cause internal constraints,
which in turn
will cause tendonitis.
It can also cause a nerve
to pop out of its place,
which we call
a dislocated nerve.
-At the University of Bordeaux,
Dr. Sébastien Villotte
has been investigating
a range of European fossils
from the Paleolithic era,
like these Elbow joints
found in northern Italy.
♪♪♪
Time and again, he's found signs
of muscle trauma
that can only be caused
by a specific dynamic motion.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: In this area,
we see a small remodeling,
which seems to be the healing
of a tiny bone tear.
-[ Speaking French ]
-This is something that I have
observed in other individuals
of the Upper Paleolithic.
I have also seen
this similar tear
in many prehistoric
European collections...
and often only in men.
♪♪♪
This lesion
is usually only caused
by the gesture of the throw.
Obviously, the first idea
that comes to mind
when we talk about this gesture
is the javelin throw,
a projectile used in hunting.
-Evidence of close-range,
high-energy impact...
but found exclusively
on male fossils.
[ Creature growls ]
Villotte's analysis
seems to confirm
the long-standing
"man the hunter" hypothesis.
[ Hunter whistling ]
♪♪♪
But one discovery,
high in the Andes in Peru,
tells a completely different
story.
♪♪♪
Archaeologist Randy Haas
from the University
of California, Davis,
uncovered an impressive set
of six stone projectile points
and blades
in the 9,000-year-old
burial tomb of a woman.
The find led experts
to re-examine
other ancient burials
in the Americas
and identify 10 more women
buried with projectile points,
a sign that ancient women here
may also have been hunters.
Perhaps gender roles varied
from one prehistoric
Homo sapiens group to another.
-Interpreter: Many, many studies
of the Paleolithic era
show a diversity of cultures.
Perhaps in some
Paleolithic societies
there were women who hunted.
Perhaps in other societies there
were women who did not hunt.
[ Woolly mammoth groans ]
♪♪♪
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-Interpreter: It's rather
simplistic to think
that there are activities
that are exclusively male
and activities
that are exclusively female.
Even if it's true that big-game
hunting is often done by men,
we have ethnographic examples
to the contrary.
In the Philippines,
among the Agtas,
women hunted with machetes
and bow and arrow.
♪♪♪
-Whether or not women
actually chased down
large prey themselves,
one discovery
in the Parisian suburbs
has shed light on the vital role
they played during a hunt.
♪♪♪
Dr. Michèle Julien
and Claudine Karlin
from the French National Centre
for Scientific Research
have spent years
excavating a prairie
that, 13,000 years ago,
was seasonally occupied
by reindeer hunters.
♪♪♪
Judging by the number and scale
of hunting camps
found at the site,
it seems around 30 people...
Men, women, and children...
ambushed migrating herds
of reindeer here.
♪♪♪
A casting of one of the camps
is preserved
at the Ile-de-France
Prehistory Museum.
One single layer of strata
represents one hunting season
and holds precious insight into
the daily life of this group
and the sheer volume of meat
they butchered.
-Interpreter: We found a very
large quantity of reindeer bones
which, after analysis,
totaled to about 76 animals.
They weren't all killed
at the same time,
but probably over a period
of one to two weeks
because they traveled
in small herds.
-76 reindeer.
Roughly three tons of meat.
According to the analysis,
men of the group could never
have killed so many animals
in such a short amount of time
without help.
Comparing this evidence
with observations
of today's modern hunting tribes
suggests hunts must have
involved the entire community.
-Interpreter:
The men did the hunting,
and the women and children
and the men who didn't hunt
led the herd
to where the hunters awaited.
And so the whole group
participated in the hunt.
-Once the carcasses
were brought back to the camp,
processing such a high volume
of meat
was extremely labor-intensive.
Every adult
would have been needed.
-The principal work included
cutting up the carcasses,
treating the meat
by either drying it,
or perhaps by other means,
in order to create reserves
for the winter.
And the animal furs
then needed to be treated.
♪♪♪
-There was
a real complementarity,
and this allowed the group
to function.
-Karlin and Julien
also uncovered
the remains of wild hare.
They believe that if the men
were busy hunting large game,
trapping smaller animals
like hare
might have been
the work of women.
-There were hares
inside the camps.
This animal demands
different hunting techniques.
And all the skeleton pieces
from the hares
were found in one single space.
They were not shared
like the larger animals were.
One can therefore assume
that women were the ones
who hunted the hares.
♪♪♪
-Women also hunted
and trapped small game.
We have numerous
ethnographic examples of this.
This type of hunt provided
a much more stable food supply,
much more reliable
than hunting large animals.
So about 70% of the food supply
came from either small game,
from fishing,
or the harvesting of plants.
♪♪♪
Evidence clearly demonstrates
the roles prehistoric women
played in hunting
both large and small game.
♪♪♪
Ethnographic studies
of gender roles
in today's
hunter-gatherer tribes
suggest women supervised the
gathering of plants, as well.
At an archaeological site
in Northern Israel,
inside a brush hut
from 22,000 years ago,
experts have found seeds from
thousands of medicinal plants.
Mallow to treat wounds,
milk thistle to cure liver
inflammation and poisoning,
and sweet clover
to stop bleeding.
-We can assume
that since it was mainly women
who collected plants,
then they must have known
their properties...
not just nutrition and taste,
but also as medicine.
Therefore, woman is perhaps
the founder of medicine.
[ Children shouting playfully ]
-Small-game hunters.
Botanical experts.
Early Homo sapiens women
were crucial members
of their hunter-gatherer
societies.
But did they resemble
one of the most common
and iconic depictions of women
from the time...
the Paleolithic Venus?
Hundreds of these
small figurines
have been found
across Europe and Asia,
all produced between
38,000 and 14,000 years ago.
Carved from a variety
of materials,
the Venus generally depicts
round women with wide hips.
♪♪♪
[ Beeping ]
Thanks to DNA analysis,
we do know
that the prehistoric
women and men who lived
when these figurines
were created had dark skin.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: The first
Europeans to arrive in Europe
are Black in skin color.
We expected that because
sapiens originated in Africa.
So when they leave Africa
for the European continent,
they are dark-skinned.
But the remarkable fact
is that the populations
of Western Europe
remain dark-skinned color
for quite a long time.
That is to say, we arrive
in Europe 40,000 years ago,
but ancient DNA extracted
from an individual
who is 6,000 years old
or 8,000 years old, for example,
shows that he still carries
the genetic code variant
for dark skin color.
-And the genetic studies
have also revealed
a surprising mutation
that occurred
after Homo sapiens tribes
arrived in Europe... blue eyes.
-Why blue eyes?
We think that this is a
phenomenon of sexual selection.
That is, the fact that one
has personal preferences.
So, one prefers a partner
who, for example,
has lighter eye color,
and that trait
will reproduce better.
Generation after generation
of this preference
will result in this mutation,
and it will spread
within the population.
♪♪♪
-It seems unlikely,
but did the women of prehistory
have round, voluptuous bodies
like the Venus figurines?
♪♪♪
Dr. Nicholas Conard
offers some insight.
In 2004, he and his team
unearthed a Venus
dating from
roughly 40,000 years ago.
It's the oldest such statue
ever found in Europe.
-That's where it's from.
And all the pieces
were very close together,
right around here,
in about this position
at the base of the Aurignacian.
-Carved from the ivory
of a woolly mammoth,
the statuette stands
just over 2 inches tall.
Today, it's carefully preserved
at the Museum
of Prehistory Blaubeuren,
where Conard
has analyzed it in detail.
-What really is noticeable
at the beginning
are the sexual characteristics.
The very full breast,
the pubic triangle
are unmistakably
the center of the depiction.
The legs are hardly there
at all, right?
Locomotion was not important
for this find.
And perhaps most importantly
there's no head,
there's no face at all.
Real people living a mobile
hunter-gatherer lifestyle
would not have physiques
like this.
This is in no way
a realistic depiction.
It's a depiction of an idea
of strength, fertility,
but it's certainly not
a realistic depiction.
-With their simplified features
and abundant curves,
Venus statues
aren't faithful depictions
of early woman's physicality.
Rather, they're tributes
to her all-important ability
to bear children.
[ Baby cooing ]
♪♪♪
[ Children shouting playfully ]
♪♪♪
But in prehistoric times,
when it came
to a woman's partner,
who did she pair up with?
[ Indistinct conversation ]
♪♪♪
By comparing DNA samples
from an extensive database,
Evelyne Heyer and her colleagues
have found
that early man and woman
were seemingly
already well-aware
of the dangers of inbreeding.
-Interpreter: What we see in
European Paleolithic populations
is that there is
no incestuous marriage.
There is no marriage between
brother/sister, father/child.
So it's a system that has
existed for a very long time,
at least in
the Paleolithic period.
-[ Speaking French ]
-But when it comes
to ancient mating patterns,
genetic code
can reveal much more.
For certain regions,
Heyer has actually managed
to map out
who belonged to which group
and who left their group to mate
with a member of another.
The results are very clear.
-Data available from
Paleolithic era studies suggests
that there are no differences
between males and females
in terms of migration patterns.
In other words,
both males and females
married and changed tribes.
♪♪♪
-Ancient men and women were
equally transient and mobile
when it came
to searching for partners.
♪♪♪
All these clues
give us precious insight
into early woman's relationship
with her mate 40,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
But does this mean
she fully understood
the intricacies of reproduction?
♪♪♪
Experts long believed
that humans only made
the connection
between sex and procreation
when they adopted
an agrarian lifestyle...
growing crops and livestock,
moving away from
hunting and gathering.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
But the discovery
of a 15,000-year-old
wall engraving in Central France
debunks this theory.
♪♪♪
Archaeologists Geneviève Pinçon
and Oscar Fuentes
are experts
in prehistoric wall carvings,
working to decode the messages
left by ancient nomadic humans.
♪♪♪
They believe an incredible
prehistoric fresco
at the Roc-aux-Sorciers
rock shelter
demonstrates the connection
prehistoric people made
between sex and reproduction.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: We are here
in front of the panel of women,
which makes Sorcerers' Rock
so important
in the study of prehistory.
-Interpreter:
It is an extraordinary site,
because you have animals
and you have this
magnificent panel of women.
Here in the Lascaux cave,
there is nothing else like it.
♪♪♪
-Today this limestone cliff
is carefully preserved
under a modern shelter.
But 15,000 years ago,
it was out in the open
for all to see.
The red ochre and charcoal
paintings on white rock,
surrounded by low foliage,
were easy to see,
even from afar.
-We are not looking
at hidden art,
since here we are in symbiosis
with nature.
We are outdoors.
We're in sunlight.
And all of a sudden,
there you go.
It's, in fact,
accessible to everyone.
-We can share stories.
-For Pinçon and Fuentes,
one panel tells the story
of three distinct moments
in a woman's childbearing years.
First, she is expecting,
with that recognizable
pregnancy line
carved over her rounded belly.
The second image carved
in the rock shows her nursing,
having just given birth.
The third scene
appears to be a woman
with the potential to procreate,
as symbolized
by the surrounding bison,
animals that also have
a nine-month gestation period.
♪♪♪
-On this panel of women,
what we see is a myth,
a concept.
That is, we want to express
a general concept
of the female's essential role
in the survival of the group.
Namely, fertility.
-And another related image
is nearby...
a panel of mountain goats.
-The narrative is laid out
like a comic book.
We can add voices
without much explanation.
The female, her calf...
the male, the males...
then procreation.
For me, there is no doubt that
the Magdalenians understood
the link between sexuality
and its consequences.
♪♪♪
-It's possible
that if early woman
knew that sex led to pregnancy
and understood
the reproductive cycle,
she could control
when she became a mother.
♪♪♪
But despite this,
when a pregnancy did come,
was it always wanted?
Has the maternal instinct
been engrained in our genes
since the days of our earliest
Homo sapiens ancestors?
[ Baby fussing ]
At the Max Planck Institute
in Germany,
Jean-Jacques Hublin
is an expert
in behavioral evolution,
studying what binds a mother
to her child...
and how this may have changed
over time.
He works closely with
Professor Sarah Hrdy,
who is mapping the biological,
social, and cultural factors
that have shaped human behavior.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter:
The work of Sarah Hrdy
and other anthropologists
are very important
because they have shifted
the spotlight
from technical progress
to not only social
but also behavioral progress.
-[ Speaking French ]
-The maternal instinct
to protect,
of attachment,
of caring for newborns...
one must understand that this
is not unique to humans.
It exists in the animal world.
There are biological instincts
at play here,
and these instincts are present
in animals and in humans alike.
-For millions of years,
the human mother/child bond
has thrived,
thanks in part to a hormone
that both secrete... oxytocin.
But according to Hublin,
the precariousness
of nomadic life
meant this bond
may have been compromised
by the mother's
survival instinct.
-Depending on the circumstances,
this attachment may be,
if not annihilated,
at least reduced
under extreme circumstances.
It is conceivable
that situations may exist
that result
in the abandonment of the child
or in handing over the child
to other adults.
Attachment is just as possible
as detachment.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Studies of women from
modern hunter-gatherer tribes
reveal that, when the timing
isn't right to have a child,
some control births
with sexual abstinence,
prolonged nursing,
or abortifacient plants.
[ Children shouting playfully ]
Despite all this, if a baby
is born during hard times,
it can be rejected by the mother
in favor of her own well-being
and that of her tribe.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: It is a decision often
made by the women themselves.
One example
is the Kalahari San women,
who give birth
all alone in the desert.
They alone
will make these decisions.
This does not suggest that these
decisions are easy to make.
-But according to experts,
instances like this would have
been exceptions to the norm.
♪♪♪
If she understood
her reproductive system,
early woman could control
her journey to motherhood.
Can science also show
how prehistoric women,
once they had children,
cared for them, fed them?
At the Ecole Normale Supérieure
de Lyon,
archaeologist
Dr. Vincent Balter's research
examines how long
prehistoric women
breastfed their children.
♪♪♪
For Balter, the secret
is hidden in the teeth.
[ Drill whirring ]
-Interpreter: We can analyze
the amount of milk
that we ingest in our diet.
And we can then see the isotopic
signature of milk in fossils.
♪♪♪
-Balter is then able to estimate
when a child began eating
a more varied diet,
having reduced or eliminated
its intake of breastmilk.
[ Beeping ]
These teeth are from the extinct
species Homo erectus,
which lived
1.5 million years ago
and, it turns out,
depended on breastmilk for much
longer than modern humans do.
♪♪♪
-These signature
milk characteristics
have been found in children
up to the age of four,
which shows that young
Homo erectus children
were pampered by their parents.
-The Homo erectus species,
reliant on breastmilk as
its main source of nutrition
for a lengthy four years.
If we compare this with
hunter-gatherer tribes today,
it seems the duration
of breastfeeding
shortened as humans evolved...
and had important benefits
for the species.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter: What is
very particular with humans
is that development
is quite long.
-[ Speaking French ]
-But, paradoxically, the age
at which babies are weaned
is getting younger and younger.
-[ Speaking French ]
-Once children are able
to eat solid food,
then the mother
can share with other adults
the time and energy needed
to ensure
the children's development.
This is what makes us
cooperative breeders,
and this behavior
has an extraordinary influence
on the organization
of human groups.
[ Baby cooing ]
♪♪♪
-With pregnancies spaced out
and the burden of childcare
shared,
it seems prehistoric mothers
may not have been overwhelmed
by the demands
of raising their young.
♪♪♪
And new evidence now suggests
they may have relied on help
from one group of clan members
in particular... grandmothers.
♪♪♪
Kristen Hawkes
has studied grandmothers
from modern
hunter-gatherer tribes
and witnessed
the important role they play
in the survival of their groups.
She recalls
one particular experience
with the Hadza tribe
in Tanzania.
-I was spending hours
in the hot sun every day
with these old ladies.
I mean, with other people,
as well,
but with these old ladies
who were doing
what is the heaviest kind
of resource acquisition,
foraging for these
deeply buried tubers
that can be
more than a meter deep.
They were spending
more hours a day
doing that particular
energetically expensive thing
than anybody else,
and our records
were beginning to show
that the weaned kids,
their weights were correlated
with their grandmothers'
foraging effort.
♪♪♪
-The older women
collected roughly 30%
of the group's
daily food intake,
which was intended
primarily for the children.
Hawkes has demonstrated
how the support of grandmothers
contributed to the doubling
of the early Homo sapiens
species' lifespan.
-Older females,
by subsidizing the fertility
of the younger ones,
allowed them
to have the next baby sooner
without the previous one
being left to die
because the weaned kids
were subsidized
by their grandmothers.
♪♪♪
-In addition to assisting with
children's physical well-being,
it's believed the elderly women
also passed on their knowledge.
♪♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-Interpreter:
Human societies are societies
that share, that redistribute.
They are also societies
that learn and innovate.
And this transmission
obviously takes time.
It's a factor that weighs in
in terms of natural selection,
basically pushing
human beings towards,
for example,
greater and greater longevity.
-[ Speaking French ]
-The human species
is one of the few
in which postmenopausal females
still have a fairly long
life expectancy.
Why?
Because they are
a benefit to the group
and to their descendants.
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪♪
-Supported by older women
who helped make childrearing
more manageable,
prehistoric Homo sapiens women
could take on other pivotal
roles within their groups...
hunters, gatherers,
managers, and planners.
♪♪♪
Early Homo sapiens women
did a great deal more
than just providing
for their tribes.
-From a study
of about 70 populations
of hunter-gatherers,
we determined
that the time
that women spend gathering
could vary
based on the tribe's needs.
If there is a lot
of big-game hunting,
there will be less need
for gathering,
and therefore
the women will be able
to devote themselves
to other activities.
At that point, they focus
on more technical activities.
♪♪♪
-One incredible example
of this craftsmanship
was discovered
on the outskirts of Dordogne
in Southwest France...
a collection of intricate,
decorative ornaments
from around 37,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
Randall White
from New York University
has been carefully
re-creating the steps needed
to produce these objects.
In doing so, he has determined
that they were made by women.
-They created a series
of pencil-like rods
that they then split
into segments,
which you can see
very clearly here.
Those were then thinned
along one end,
leaving a bulb at the other.
And finally,
using abrasive tools,
they were ground down into
this very characteristic shape
that's known as
"basket shaped."
They're absolutely tiny.
It's rare that you can
actually answer
the question,
"Who made these objects?"
I have relatively, I suppose,
normal hands for a man,
and I can't make the smallest
of these beads,
but most of
my female graduate students
can get down
to the very smallest ones.
So it kind of supports the idea
that this might have been
a women's activity.
-By analyzing traces
of friction on the pearls,
White can even gauge
how these ornaments were worn.
-Each of the beads
is sewn onto a garment,
probably a skin garment.
They shouldn't be seen
as individual ornaments
because they're
almost invisible,
but you have to imagine that
they were sewn on in patterns
that were
the visible part of it.
♪♪♪
-This is just one sample
of women's artisanship
and technical abilities.
♪♪♪
Scientists have uncovered
other stunning examples
in the south
of the Czech Republic.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Some of the most well-known
pieces of Paleolithic art
have been found there,
including one from
the Pavlov Archaeological Park,
a museum built on the site of
a woolly mammoth hunting camp.
♪♪♪
It's the 29,000-year-old
clay Venus of Dolní Vestonice,
evidence that
the prehistoric people here
had an astonishing mastery
of clay art.
♪♪♪
The region is scattered with
a variety of clay remnants that,
for archaeologists
Olga Soffer and James Adovasio,
serve as stunning examples
of plant-based craftsmanship.
-These items were preserved
because they had been impressed,
pushed into clay,
by the aboriginal inhabitants,
and the clay
was subject to heat.
♪♪♪
-By studying the clay imprints
under a microscope,
Soffer and Adovasio
have spotted evidence
of intricate braiding
and knot-making
decorating a variety
of day-to-day objects.
-They could have been pieces
of floor covering.
They could have been
items of clothing.
In some cases, they were nets
or bags that had been produced
for the use
of the hunter-gatherers
who lived at Vestonice.
♪♪♪
-Because of their durability,
ancient flint weapons
and cutting tools
have long overshadowed
the study of other forms
of prehistoric craftsmanship,
likely produced by women.
-90% or more of the artifacts
that are produced
by hunting and gathering
populations in any environment,
whether it's the far north
or the tropical rainforest,
is made of
non-durable materials.
These kinds of things,
items made of plant fiber,
were critical to the survival
of these groups.
The majority of the items
that are made of
non-durable materials
are, in fact, produced by women.
This is based on
archeological evidence,
as well as
ethnographic analogues
to living hunting-and-gathering
populations.
-And for Soffer and Adovasio,
a lack of artifacts,
plus contemporary social biases,
have limited the understanding
of prehistoric women's work.
-We have tended, both
in Europe and North America,
to minimize all the plant
material, all the small animals,
in favor of
the more dramatic image
of hunting big animals
with spears.
We operate under the assumption
that it's the prime-age males,
our age, so to speak,
that are the be-all and end-all
of Ice Age lifeways,
and they're not.
Nor is stone.
♪♪♪
-Plant-based items,
from clothing to bedding
to carrier bags,
all skillfully produced by women
and just as important
as hunting spears
and cutting tools
to a group's survival.
♪♪♪
These items
may have been lost to time,
but there are others,
still with us
40,000 years later,
that illustrate
not just a practical mind-set
but also an artistic one.
[ Fire crackling ]
Most researchers
have long assumed
that men were responsible
for the mysterious
prehistoric wall paintings
found underground and in caves.
And they speculate that,
for prehistoric societies,
men believed caves
were too dangerous for women.
♪♪♪
In Southern France,
the Pech Merle cave
holds a jewel
of Paleolithic art.
♪♪♪
An extraordinary panel of horses
surrounded by handprints.
In many present-day
hunter-gatherer cultures,
the handprint
is an artist's signature.
It's possible the ancient people
who stamped their hands
around these horses
were the artists...
though it's difficult
for experts to say
whether the prints
belonged to men or women.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: Most of the hands
found from the Paleolithic era
are incomplete.
Phalanges are missing,
and so it's difficult
to determine whether
they are female or male hands.
With the few hands that we were
able to determine gender,
we did indeed have female hands.
-These handprints may indicate
that women, like men,
ventured deep underground
and made art.
♪♪♪
But there is another piece
of evidence
that women spent time
underground and in caves...
preserved footprints.
♪♪♪
Dr. Andreas Pastoors
and his team
study prehistoric human tracks.
Their latest analysis is in the
Aldène cave in Southern France.
♪♪♪
Here, an underground path
is covered
with 8,000-year-old footprints
perfectly preserved in clay...
600 of them.
To find out more
about the people
who left these footprints,
they have joined forces with
contemporary tracking experts.
-[ Speaking native language ]
- [ Speaking native language ]
- Yeah.
- [ Speaking native language ]
- [ Speaking native language ]
♪♪♪
-Interpreter:
We requested the assistance
of trackers from Namibia
because they have
a lot of experience
in interpreting both animal
and human footprints.
♪♪♪
-It's a daunting trek
to reach the site.
The team must follow
a 90-foot-long fault in the rock
and a narrow channel
for more than half a mile.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
Inside the chamber, the prints
are spread across 90 feet.
The Namibian trackers
get to work.
-Interpreter:
For about two hours
or two and a half hours
every day,
they observe the soil.
They move
from section to section,
they observe,
and then they discuss.
They will reconstruct the steps
and then explain their findings.
♪♪♪
The trackers are able to create
what archaeology cannot...
the gender and behavior
of these steps.
They create a whole scenario.
Their observations
bring these footprints to life.
-Back at the lab,
Pastoors is able to illustrate
the trackers' analysis using
a 3-D scan of the footprints.
Each path
is individually highlighted.
Then, by studying
the footprints' impressions
in the clay,
the team can determine
how many people
left these tracks...
26, including women
and children.
The layout of the tracks
helps fill in the details
of the story.
-Interpreter:
As she exited, the woman left
a row of three footprints...
A right, a left, and a right.
She walks towards the exit.
And something happens here.
Here she positions her left foot
a little bit diagonally.
Doing so can be interpreted
to mean that she adjusted
something on her back
and then continued walking.
♪♪♪
The trackers reasoned
that she carried a child
or a baby on her back.
-According to the trackers,
the number of children's
footprints going into the cave
is greater
than the number going out.
It suggests that some mothers
may have felt the need
to carry their young.
-Interpreter:
The analysis was that people
were in such a rush to get out
that they carried the children
to speed up the pace.
We determined they had issues
with lack of lighting,
which forced them to turn around
and exit the cave.
Using only their visual analysis
of the footprints,
the trackers came to
the exact same conclusion.
♪♪♪
-The study confirms
that, in Paleolithic times,
caves and underground chambers
were not exclusive to men.
Women, too,
roamed the underground
and may have also contributed
to the magnificent cave art
we still see today.
♪♪♪
Were early Homo sapiens women
given special status
because of their many talents
and their unique ability
to bear children?
♪♪♪
The elaborate burial
of the Lady of Caviglione
is one indication
of the esteemed place
women held
in prehistoric societies.
♪♪♪
And there are other examples.
At the Renancourt site
in Northern France,
archaeologists have found
fragments of female statues
that are 27,000 years old.
Frost may have broken some,
but others were found
mixed with carving waste.
Experts have
an intriguing hypothesis
as to why they were destroyed.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: Another hypothesis
as to the condition
of these statuettes
is that they may have been
broken intentionally,
for example,
during a ritual practice.
♪♪♪
-These statues could be symbols
of a particular belief,
a reflection of powers
Paleolithic people
may have invested
in these female depictions.
♪♪♪
-Interpreter: When we talk about
the power of the statuettes,
we imagine powers linked
to motherhood, to fertility,
perhaps powers linked
to the group's survival.
-[ Speaking French ]
-We can also imagine that
they wanted to represent women
who beared multiple children
and who therefore
contributed greatly
to the longevity of the group
and... why not...
To that of humanity.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
-But now research suggests
that women may have been
at the heart
of humanity's earliest myths.
There is a narrow passage in the
rocks at Fontainebleau Forest,
south of Paris,
just large enough
to crawl through.
Experts believe that,
for early men and women,
it evoked the birth canal.
♪♪♪
And at one end
of the rock tunnel,
a remarkable engraving.
Three lines
were purposefully carved
to emphasize the naturally
evocative shape of the rock.
The domed ceiling
suggests a pregnant belly.
♪♪♪
And on each side,
two galloping horses...
carved in a similar style
and technique,
therefore believed to have
been made at the same time...
offer a date stamp.
These engravings were made
around 20,000 years ago.
♪♪♪
During a heavy downpour,
rain naturally flows down
the central channel,
perhaps to evoke
a mother's water breaking
just before childbirth.
♪♪♪
All this is an homage
to the beginnings
of the prehistoric world.
♪♪♪
Perhaps an origin myth,
a woman birthing the earth
into existence.
♪♪♪
The latest
archaeological discoveries,
combined with
cutting-edge science,
have provided
a new understanding
of the earliest
Homo sapiens women.
♪♪♪
She played many vital roles
in prehistoric society...
strong, powerful hunter...
medicinal healer...
artisan and artist... mother.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
All of her skills
and accomplishments
tell the story of a woman
respected and honored,
responsible for the survival
of her community
as much as any man.
A tale of men and women
united in a common destiny...
of which we are the heirs today.
♪♪♪