Alright, grab your bone flute
and gather around the fire.
Today on WHAT IF,
we're taking you back to the time
of woolly mammoths
and saber-toothed cats.
Yeah, that's right.
You're living in the Stone Age.
If you were living day-to-day
in this primitive world,
2.6 million years ago started a period
we call the Stone Age.
And in this period
that spanned almost 2.5 million years,
our ancestors faced three ice ages,
limited resources and hungry predators.
Every day tested the limits
of early human endurance
and challenged their bodies and minds.
The Earth was plunged into ice ages
for hundreds of millions of years.
The entire world was cold and dry.
Never warm enough to rain or snow,
this was hell frozen over.
But when temperatures rose,
humans had to adapt, and fast.
These early nomads wandered
from one area to the next,
never finding permanent homes
until much later in human history.
So if you were in this group
of hunter-gatherers,
You wake up in a dark cave
next to a dying fire.
Next to you,
your sleeping family is huddled for warmth.
Put on your best fur.
It's time to provide for this tribe.
Outside your cave,
you would find other members
of your group in tents,
ready to move at a moment's notice.
You and your fellow hunter-gatherers migrate like birds,
moving to wherever the resources
can feed you best.
So now grab your spear made of bone and wood.
You learned how to craft it
from watching another tribe put one together.
Or maybe you were a genius ahead
of your time and created tools
like this on your own.
Scientists still aren't clear on how much
influence Stone Age humans
had on one another.
Why is this still shrouded in mystery?
Well, that's because early humans weren't
communicating with each other
on a high level at this time.
You would have to reverse engineer
what you've seen others use before.
Or wise up and learn to invent it yourself.
You would be in search of woolly mammoths.
These massive beasts were the size
of African elephants
and weighed around six tons.
You could follow their large footprints to track them down.
And you'd use fire to herd them
to fall off a cliffside.
Or you could spear one to death.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Just one woolly mammoth could feed
up to 30 people for two weeks.
But what if you weren't lucky enough to catch this early mammal?
Well, no worries.
You'll just gather nuts and berries.
Or eggs from bird nests.
There's even evidence to suggest
early humans used clay pots to cook
their food once they had
everything they needed.
Lucky for you,
Stone Age humans were true culinarians.
Tools found in the Paleolithic Age
show evidence they may have created flour from oats.
How does some oat flatbread sound?
A little bland?
Hey, no problem.
Just grab some garlic,
mustard seeds, turmeric or even some wild onions you've cultivated.
But if you're not careful,
these spices could be used to season you.
Markings discovered on the bones
of our ancestors indicate that, occasionally,
we ate each other.
Yeah, we even sucked out the marrow
from the bones.
Better sleep with that axe next to you.
But these people didn't need food
as an excuse to kill each other.
Many skeletons from the late Stone Age have nasty head injuries.
Whether it was raids,
in-fighting or all-out battles,
early humans led violent lives
that were often cut short by each other.
So when you're not out fighting for your life
or searching for food,
Humans in this period were the first
to leave behind art.
Using a combination of minerals,
charcoal and burnt bone meal,
they created images of one another,
animals and symbols.
They even made flutes from bones.
That's right, you could have a jam session around the fire.
And you better make the most of every day
because the average lifetime
in the Stone Age maxes out at 40 years.
Just enough time to mate and have kids.
But your dating pool would definitely be limited.
So what if you married a family member?
Well, don't have that awkward
talk with your cousin yet.
Just stay here,
because that's a story for another WHAT IF.