HUMAN EVOLUTION
THE ORIGINS OF
CREATIVITY New evidence of ancient ingenuity forces scientists to reconsider when our ancestors started thinking outside the box By Heather Pringle
IN BRIEF
Scientists long thought that early humans were
stuck in a creative rut until some 40,000 years ago, when their powers of innovation seemed to explode.
Illustration by David Palumbo
But archaeological discoveries made in recent years have shown that our ancestors had flashes of brilliance far earlier than that.
These findings indicate that the human capacity for
innovation emerged over hundreds of thousands of years, driven by both biological and social factors.
March 2013, ScientificAmerican.com 37
Heather Pringle is a Canadian science writer and a contributing editor to Archaeology magazine.
, 779 the Louvre’s brilliantly lit Salle des États. A few minutes after the stroke of nine each morning, except for Tuesdays when the museum remains closed, Parisians and tourists, art lovers and curiosity seekers begin flooding into the room. As their hushed voices blend into a steady hivelike hum, some crane for the best view; others stretch their arms urgently upward, clicking cell-phone cameras. Most, however, tilt forward, a look of rapt wonder on their faces, as they study one of humanity’s most celebrated creations: the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci.
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Completed in the early 16th century, the Mona Lisa possesses a mysterious, otherworldly beauty quite unlike any portrait that came before it. To produce such a painting, Leonardo, who once famously wrote that he wished “to work miracles,” developed a new artistic technique he called sfumato, or “smoke.” Over a period of several years he applied translucent glazes in delicate films—some no more than the thickness of a red blood cell—to the painting, most likely with the sensitive tip of his finger. Gradually stacking as many as 30 of these films one on top of another, Leonardo subtly softened lines and color gradations until it seemed as if the entire composition lay behind a veil of smoke. The Mona Lisa is clearly a work of inventive genius, a masterpiece that stands alongside the music of Mozart, the jewels of Fabergé, the choreography of Martha Graham, and other such classics. But these renowned works are only the grandest manifestations of a trait that has long seemed part of our human hardwiring: the ability to create something new and desirable, the knack of continually improving designs and technologies—from the latest zero-emissions cars made in Japan to the sleekly engineered spacecraft on ’s launchpads. Modern humans, says Christopher Henshilwood, an archaeologist at the University of the Wit watersrand, Johannesburg, “are inventors of note. We advance and experiment with technology constantly.” Just how we came by this seemingly infinite capacity to create is the subject of intense scientific study: we were not always such whirlwinds of invention. Although our human lineage emerged in Africa around six million years ago, early family members left behind little visible record of innovation for nearly 3.4 million
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years, suggesting that they obtained plant and animal foods by hand, with tools such as digging or jabbing sticks that did not preserve. Then, at some point, wandering hominins started flaking water-worn cobblestones with hammerstones to produce cutting tools. That was an act of astonishing ingenuity, to be sure, but a long plateau followed—during which very little seems to have happened on the creativity front. Our early ancestors apparently knapped the same style of handheld, multipurpose hand ax for 1.6 million years, with only minor tweaks to the template. “Those tools are really kind of stereotypical,” says Sally McBrearty, an archaeologist at the University of Connecticut. So when did the human mind begin churning with new ideas for technology and art? Until recently, most researchers pointed to the start of the Upper Paleolithic period 40,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens embarked on what seemed a sudden, wondrous invention spree in Europe: fashioning shell-bead necklaces, adorning cave walls with elegant paintings of aurochs and other Ice Age animals, and knapping a wide variety of new stone and bone tools. The finds prompted a popular theory proposing that a random genetic mutation at around that time had spurred a sudden leap in human cognition, igniting a creative “big bang.” New evidence, however, has cast grave doubt on the mutation theory. Over the past decade archaeologists have uncovered far older evidence of art and advanced technology, suggesting that the human capacity to cook up new ideas evolved much earlier than previously thought—even before the emergence of H. sapiens 200,000 years ago. Yet although our capacity for creativity sparked early on, it then smoldered for millennia before finally
findings
Fermenting Genius Surprisingly early examples of technological and artistic inventiveness indicate that human creativity simmered for hundreds of thousands of years before reaching a boil around 90,000 to 60,000 years ago in Africa and 40,000 years ago in Europe. Social factors, including an increase in population size, seem likely to have amplied our ancestors’ powers of innovation, both by improving the odds that someone in the group would come up with a breakthrough technology and by fostering connectedness between groups that allowed them to exchange ideas. This timeline charts the earliest known evidence of key innovations leading up to the cultural boiling point.
3.4 million years ago Cut-marked animal bones from Dikika, Ethiopia 2.6 million years ago Flaked stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia
1.76 million years ago Bifacial stone tool from Turkana, Kenya 1 million years ago Burned bone and plant material indicative of controlled re from
Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa 500,000 years ago Composite tools—in the form of stone points
164,000 years ago Heat-treated stone tools from Pinnacle Point, South Africa
that would have been axed to wood
shafts—from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa
; d i r d a M f o y t i s r d e v n i n A U h e T s I n m e t s l u h p T m u o r C
ë A v r o u T A f s o o y r s d e e T P r f u o o C s ; y e o t n T r o r o u o T f o C ; y e n t i s g r e n I v b i n U ü s T f n I o K y l T I I s W e r n e v y I A J n f u o f o y y s e s T e T r r u u o o C C ; P ; y t A i T r s e W v / i K n P U s n m i t e © W g T n h d I b g ü I o r o T f y W l o P I o h y C s T , I r n e s e I h r x e v e r e I T . h n J . P u P o © f T s T o I h y r g s h I e C r T f y r o P u o o y C , C s : e T n e r e n u s I l o n e e C J m ; . I T o h f m f o o T s r e y s e o e d n T r e r o u m o I n I s C
100,000–75,000 years ago Engraved ocher (iron oxide) from Blombos Cave,
South Africa 71,000 years ago Projectile points from Pinnacle Point, South Africa
77,000 years ago Insect-repellent bedding from Sibudu Cave, South Africa 40,000–30,000 years ago Sewing needles from Kostenki, Russia
43,000 –42,000 years ago Musical instruments
40,000–35,000 years ago Figurative art from Hohle Fels, Germany
(utes) from
Geissenklösterle Cave, Germany
41,000–37,000 years ago Cave paintings from El Castillo, Spain
March 2013, ScientifcAmerican.com 39
an n u p n a and Eup. T vdn m nda a u pw nnvan dd n bu n xn uy md a n u vunay y bu a and am v undd uand ya, ud by a mpx mx ba and a a. Exay wn dd umanknd bn nkn ud bx, and wa a nvd umay an u ban av ? Undandn na qu wn a dv y mpd va and vdn, an w n wn a ba u avy da bak mu u an n n u. Mother of invention
ArchAeologists av n vwd u ymb a n m mpan nda mdn uman nn, n a pa bau a a apay anua—a amak uman a. Tu, paua av a Upp Pa ay na pn pp w u a w d. Bu m ny, xp av bun an n knd mdn bav and andn n a aa d—and mn up w anan u.
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a Lyn Wady Unvy Wwaand a pn mu a udyn ann nn, a a d n 1990 pn xavan a Sbudu Cav, m 40 km n Duban, Su a. Tw ya a and am dvd a ay an, w, bu pan maa . T Wady, pa, b ma kd k ann bddn—u and pan a a pp n ad n und n and pn n. Bu ay ud a av md m wnd-bn a . T ny way n m wa na n ay n a pv pa jak and ak bak abay. “I k u wk mak a a pa,” Wady un, “and I wa ay umpy w m. I kp wndn, ‘m I wan wk n d?’ ” Bu Wady’ amb pad f y. In Dmb 2011 and au pd n Science a Sbudu’ upan d av m ju n many wdy p n aa mak bddn 77,000 ya a—nay 50,000 ya a an pvuy pd xamp. Wa m upd Wady, wv, wa upan’ pad knwd a van. nay wd a n av am m Cryp-
g r u b s e n n a h o J , d n a r s r e t a W t i W e h t f o y t i s r e v i n u f o y s e t r u o C
ancient wisdom:
Painstaking excavation of Sibudu Cave in South Africa (lef ) has yielded evidence that its inhabitants made bedding (top right ) from insect-repellent plants (bottom right ) some 77,000 years ago— 50,000 years earlier than the previously known examples of this technology.
tocarya woodii, a tree containing traces o natural insecticides and larvicides eective against the mosquitoes that carry deadly disease today. “And that’s very handy to have in your bedding, particularly i you live near a river,” Wadley observes. The creative minds at Sibudu did not stop there, however. They most likely devised snares to capture small antelopes, whose remains litter the site, and crated bows and arrows to bring down more dangerous prey, judging rom the sizes, shapes and wear patterns o several stone points rom the cave. Moreover, Sibudu’s hunters concocted various valuable new chemical compounds. By shooting a high-energy beam o charged particles at dark residues on stone points rom the cave, Wadley’s team de tected multi-ingredient glues that once astened the points to wood hats. She and her colleagues then set about experimentally replicating these adhesives, mixing ocher particles o dierent sizes with plant gums and heating the mixtures over wood res. Publishing the results in Science, the team concluded that Sibudu’s occupants were very likely “competent chemists, alchemists and pyrotechnologists” by 70,000 years ago. Elsewhere in southern Arica, researchers have recently turned up traces o many other early inventions. The hunter-gatherers
who inhabited Blombos Cave between 100,000 and 72,000 years ago, or example, engraved patterns on chunks o ocher; ashioned bone awls, perhaps or tailoring hide clothing; adorned themselves with strands o shimmering shell beads; and created an artists’ studio where they ground red ocher and stored it in the earliest known containers, made rom abalone shells. Farther west, at the site o Pinnacle Point, people engineered the stone they worked with 164,000 years ago, heating a low-grade, local rock known as silcrete over a controlled re to transorm it into a lustrous, easily knappable material. “We are seeing behaviors that we didn’t even dream about 10 years ago,” Henshilwood remarks. Moreover, technological ingenuity was not the sole preserve o modern humans: other hominins possessed a creative streak, too. In northern Italy a research team headed by University o Florence archaeologist Paul Peter Anthony Mazza discovered that our near kin, the Neandertals, who rst emerged in Europe some 300,000 years ago, concocted a birch bark–tar glue to asten stone fakes to wood handles, abricating hated tools some 200,000 years ago. Likewise, a study published in Science last No vember concluded that stone points rom the site o Kathu Pan 1 in South Arica once ormed the lethal tips o 500,000-year-old
March 2013, ScienticAmerican.com
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a, uably blongng o Homo heidelbergensis, h la and h collagu dcod ha al ky ubaa undcoon anco o Nandal and H. sapiens. And a Wond- wn a ajo oganzaon dung honn oluon. Bod wk Ca n Souh Aca, an ancn lay conanng lan ah ann aa 10, o xal—whch lcad n bngng and b o bund bon ugg ha an n al honn, lan o uon and oganzng noy nu—naly doubld Homo erectus, land o kndl o n olu a chanz and bonobo wah and ocon o dao a a banchd o o ou huan lnag. Moly a on llon ya ago. o, h hozonal ac bwn nuon En ou y dan anco w caan h ubaa wdnd by naly 50 cn, bl on occaon o conng nw da. A wo cang o oo o axon and dnd. na h Kada Gona R n Ehoa, “Th an ha you can ha o cola a ld by aloanhoolog Slh cad conncon and on ha go ah Saw o Indana Uny Bloongon away, o you can g o colx and o ound h old known on ool—2.6-lynhc councaon bwn nuon,” lon-ya-old cho knad by AustraloFalk con. pithecus garhi o on o conoa, Pnonng ju how a bgg, oganzd lkly o ng a o anal caca ban ud cay a cky bun. . Such ool look cud o u, a a cy o Bu Gaboa hnk ha ychologcal ud h ahon, lao and abl ha oll o ca ol oday uly a ky clu. o ably ln oday. “Bu whn h wold Such nddual a xclln woolgah, cond olly o naually od objc, h xlan. Whn acklng a obl, hy —Mark ThoMas, h caacy o agn ohng and un l h nd wand, allowng on University College London no a aly ay wll ha d alo oy o hough o onanouly conju agcal,” w cogn cn Lan Gau anoh. Th aocaon ncouag boa o h Uny o Bh Coluba and analog and g o hough ha bak ycholog Sco Bay Kauan, now a Nw ok Uny, n ou o h box. Thn, a h nddual l on a agu da o a cha aang n The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity a oluon, hy wch o a o analyc od o hough. “Thy (Cabdg Uny P, 2010). zo n on only h o lan o,” Gaboa ay, and hy a nng an da o ak wokabl. cognition and creation In all lklhood, Gaboa no, a bgg ban ld o a ga Yet impressive a h aly fah o cay a, h ga ably o -aoca. Mo ul could b ncodd n a ban day n h dh and badh o nnoaon bwn odad u o any bllon o nuon. In addon, o nuon n huan and ou dan oba dand an xlanaon. could aca n h ncodng o a acula od, ladng Wha chang n h ban ou knd aa o ou dco a n-gand oy and o onal ou o aocao? By ong o h-dnonal can o ancn hong on ulu wh anoh. Iagn, Gaboa ay, ha a honn banca and by xanng h ban o ou na lnn buh agan a ny hub and ha hon a fh. ng oluonay kn—chanz and bonobo, who An aualohcn gh ncod h od y ly—a a anco banchd o o ou lnag o x llon ya no an and a an dnabl au o h hub. Bu H. erecago—ach a bgnnng o unlock h uzzl. T h daa tus, wh lag ably o nuon, could concably ncod how ju how xnly huan gay a old o . any ac o h od, ncludng h ha on o h Gnally akng, naual lcon aod lag ban n hon and own akd fh. Thn, whn h honn bgn huan. Wha ou aualohcn kn od an hunng, nd o kll y gh aca all oy locaon ad an canal caacy o 450 cubc cn, oughly ncodng on fh, bngng o nd h ncoun wh h ha o o chanz, H. erectus o han doubld ha ha ond hon. Tha oy, n un, could n a h caacy by 1.6 llon ya ago, wh a an o 930 cubc cnda o a waon: a a wh a ha ond . . And by 100,000 ya ago H. sapiens had a an caacBu lag-band honn could no aod o lng oo y o 1,330 cubc cn. Ind h acou banca, an long n an aoca a n whch on hng daly ad 100 bllon nuon ocd noaon and anndd h o a food o oh hng, boh oan and d along naly 165,000 klo o ylnad n nconqunal. Th ual dndd oly on analyc b and aco o 0.15 quadllon yna. “And you hough—h daul od. So ou anco had o dlo a look a wha h cola wh n h achaologcal cod,” way o wchng oohly o on od o anoh by ubly ay Dan Falk, a alonuolog a Floda Sa Uny, alng concnaon o doan and oh nuoan“h do o b an aocaon bwn ban z and . Gaboa now hyohz ha H. sapiens ndd n o chnology o nllcual oducy.” houand o ya o n-un h chan bo hy Bu z wa no h only ajo chang o . A h Uncould a h ull ca bn o h lag ban, and h y o Calona, San Dgo, hycal anhoolog Kana and h udn a now ng h da on an acal Snd ha bn udyng a a o h ban known a h nual nwok. Though a cou odl, hy ula h onal cox, whch aa o ocha hough and ban’ ably o wch bwn h analyc and aoca acon o accolh goal. Exanng h gon n odn od o how could hl oon bak ou o a cogn huan and n boh chanz and bonobo, Snd u and hng n a nw way. “Ju hang o nuon n’
“ It’s not how smart you are. It’s how well connected you are.”
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og,” Gbor ssrs. “Yo v o b bl o k s o ll xr gry r.” Oc l pic o biologicl pzzl ll io plc—prps lil or 100,000 yrs go— csrl id ws virl idr box, wiig rig socil circscs o brs io .
grr grop is, grr ccs r o br will dr p id cold dvc cology. Morovr, idividls i lrg grop wo rqly rbbd soldrs wi igbors d br cc o lrig w io vio os i sll, isold grops. “’s o ow sr yo r,” Tos sys. “’s ow wll cocd yo r.” building on brilliance To s s ids, Tos d wo collgs dvlopd In the autumn o 1987 wo rsrcrs ro Uivrsiy o copr odl o sil cs o dogrpy o Zric—Crisop d Hdwig Bosc—obsrvd bvior rcig procss. Wi gic d ro odr Erops, y d vr s bor i grop o cipzs orgig sid siz o odr poplios i or ood i Ti Niol Prk i vory Cos. Nr grod s Erop bgiig o Uppr Ploliic, w vidc blogig o spcis o drivr s, l soppd d o criviy srd o spik, d clcld poplpickd p wig. S dippd o d io loos soil covrio dsiy. T rsrcrs xid Aric poplios ig s’s rc d wid or coloy’s soldir s ovr i, silig ir grow d prs o igrory o ck. W drk swr d dvcd rly 10 ciciviy. Tir odl sowd Aric poplios rcd rs p wig, l cipz plckd i ro s dsiy s rly Uppr Ploliic Erops rod s d dly rolld i owrd r o, sckig o 101,000 yrs go, js bor iovio bg o k o i sbs. S rpd procss il s d r ll. Sr rgios, ccordig o rcologicl rcord. lso Cipzs r igly dp sig wid rg o ools— sowd lrg socil works civly spr criviy. crckig op s wi sos, spogig p wr ro r Nw rcologicl vidc pblisd i Nature i Novollows wi lvs d rig riios pl roos wi br 2012 sds lig o c rissc ollowd ris diggig sicks. B y s bl o bild o is kowldg o poplio dsiy i sor Aric. So 71,000 yrs go or o cr vr or dvcd cology. “Cips c sow Picl Poi, H. sapiens dvisd d pssd dow o ors or cips ow o ris,” Hsilwood sys, “b coplx cologicl rcip o k ligwig so blds y do’ iprov o i, y do’ sy, ‘L’s do i wi diror projcil wpos—cookig silcr o spcic prr kid o prob’—y js do s ig ovr d ovr.” o iprov is kig qliis, kppig isd ril Modr s, i cors, sr ro o sc liiios. io blds lil or copl o cirs log, d dd, w dily k ids o ors d p or ow wis oig o wood or bo ss wi od gl. o , ddig o odicio r or, il w d p “Lik virss,” o rcologiss Fio Cowrd o Royl Hollo wi soig w d vry coplx. No o idividl, or wy, Uivrsiy o Lodo, d M Grov o Uivrsiy o xpl, c p wi ll iric cology bddd i Livrpool i Egld i ppr pblisd i PaleoAnthropology lpop copr: sc cologicl civs ris ro i 2011, “clrl iovios d vry priclr socil codi criv isigs o grios o ivors. ios o sprd—os obly ... lrg cocd poplios Aropologiss cll is kck o ors clrl rcig. wo c ‘ic’ o or.” rqirs, rs d oros, biliy o pss o kowldg Wic brigs s o joslig, ig, iily likd ro o idividl o or, or ro o grio o world w liv i ody. Nvr bor v s crowdd ogx, il soo cos log wi id or iprovr i sc ssiv ciis, ccssig vs rls o kowldg wi . Ls Mrc sdy pblisd i Science by Lwis D, click o kybord d srig w cocps, w blpris bviorl priologis ow Pysiologicl Sociy i Lod dsigs cross sprwlig socil works o World do, d or collgs, rvld wy bigs c do is Wid Wb. Ad vr bor s pc o iovio cclrd cipzs d cpci okys co. D d is d so driclly, llig or livs wi w sios, w lc dsigd xpril pzzl box, wi r sqil roics, w crs, w sic, w rcicr. d icrlly difcl lvls: y prsd i o Hl illi r Lordo d Vici cocivd o is grops o cipzs i Txs, cpci okys i Frc os clbrd work, w rvl is iviv gis— gis d rsry scoolcildr i Egld. Oly o o 55 o- bil o colss ids d ivios o lig o riss pris— cipz—rcd igs lvl r srcig bck io Ploliic ps. Ad v ow w crop or 30 ors o ryig. T cildr, owvr, rd r o riss gz Mona Lisa wi y o rig i io so br. Ulik grops o okys, cildr workd collb- ig rs d dzzligly criv. T ci o ivio orivly—lkig og slvs, orig corg ris brok, d i or sprbly cocd world, or sid sowig o or rig wy o do igs. Ar wo glr l o cr rcs o d o s. d l ors, 15 o 35 cildr d rcd lvl r. more to explore Eqippd wi s socil skills d cogiiv biliis, or Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South csors cold rdily rsi kowldg o ors— ky Africa.lyn Wady a. in Science, V. 334, ags 1388–1391; Dcb 9, 2011. prrqisi or clrl rcig. Y soig ls ws Hominin Paleoneurology: Where Are We Now? Dan Fak in Progress in Brain Research, dd o propl rcig procss d ps H. sapiens o V. 195, ags 255–272; 2012. w criv igs i Aric so 90,000 o 60,000 yrs go SCIE NTI FIC A MER ICA N ON LIN E d i Erop 40,000 yrs go. Mrk Tos, voliory lan abu ay vidnc f huan caiviy a ScientifcAmerican.com/mar2013/creativity gicis Uivrsiy Collg Lodo, iks is ps c ro dogrpy. His pris is sipl. T lrgr r-
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