What does it mean to be human? When in our evolutionary past did ‘humanity’ emerge, and how do we recognise this in the fossil and archaeological records? What does the study of human evolution tell us about our place on Earth and the future of humanity?
In this module, you will develop a framework for addressing these big questions. You will be introduced to the record of ~7 million years of human evolution from our earliest ancestors to walk on two legs, to the development of farming and settled village life ~10,000 years ago. You will learn about such key events in our evolutionary past as the development of large brains, the making of tools, the control of fire, the emergence of language and art, and the spread of humans across the globe, as well as how to evaluate the archaeological (material culture) and fossil evidence for these developments.