What does it mean to be human?

For over 35 years, SapienCE scientists have investigated the origins of modern human behaviour through archaeological work at three key Middle Stone Age sites in South Africa: Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter, and Klasies River. Their research combines cultural, environmental, and cognitive data to uncover how early Homo sapiens lived, created, and evolved.

Through these films, you’ll step behind the scenes of archaeological discovery—witnessing excavations, meeting researchers, and exploring the ancient landscapes that shaped our species.

How was Blombos Cave found?

Chris Henshilwood, Professor in Archaeology, tells about how he found Blombos cave on the family's property as a child, and how it lead to his research on early human behavior.

A glimps into pre historical humaniy

Archaeologist Karen van Niekerk talks about a typical day in the field; excavating, recording and studying the materials found, such as food remains, stone tools and ochre. The core of the project is to analyze the materials and interpret prehistory by looking at the material from a holistic perspective.

How was the climate at Blombos in the past?

Eystein Jansen is a Professor in Earth Sciences/Paleoclimatology. His research tries to find out how adaptable humans at that time were to environmental change, and how climate impacts acted as drivers for technological innovation and subsistence adaptations.

Studying the cognitive abilities of early humans

Doctoral Fellow in Psychosocial Science, Heidi Øhrn, have investigated the cognitive abilities of humans in the Stone Age, like the people who lived at Blombos Cave. Where they able to use ropes and knots? If so, that would have been a great advantage.

Reconstructing the temperature of the past

Postdoctoral Fellow in Earth Science, Jenny Maccali, tries to reconstruct how the climate in the region must have been in the past, by unlock the climate information, stored in natural climate archives such as dripstones in the Cave.

Discovery shows that people were hunters

Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology, Asia Alsgaard, tells about their descovery of a seal bone in the cave. This shows that the people who were using the Blombos Cave were hunting seals around 90 000 years ago. But where were they hunting from? The sea level was much further away than it is today.

Early Human Behavior Exhibition

These films were made for the exhibition "Early Human Behavioror", a collaboration between The Center for Early Sapience Behavior (SapienCE) and the University Museum of Bergen - University of Bergen.

Humans have invented technology to study the smallest particles of the universe, communicate through writing, and reach the deepest parts of the ocean. We share knowledge, learn from each other, and build complex societies. But when, how and why did we develop these distinctly human qualities?

On the South African coast, an international and interdisciplinary research team from the SapienCE Centre of Excellence at the University of Bergen, combines the efforts of archaeologists, climatologists, and psychologists to explore exactly how modern humans developed. What we consider common human behaviour today, is the result of thousands of years of evolution. Evidence from around Africa suggests a tipping-point in early modern human development between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago, evidenced by bursts of innovation and signs of complex behaviour and symbolic thought. Understanding this change could help unlock the past and rediscover the beginning of our human story.