Season 1

Tony Robinson examines how a small band of our earliest African ancestors were saved from extinction by the last great global warming about 130,000 years ago, a climate shift that transformed the barren landscapes around their oases into lush savannah, enabling their migration across the continent and ultimately reaching Europe. As temperatures rose and later fell, in the Russian steppes Dr. Joy Singarayer reveals how European Homo sapiens adapted to survive the last great Ice Age. But not all humans endured. In Gibraltar, Tony uncovers the final resting place of our Neanderthal cousins, who, lacking the social intelligence that enabled Homo sapiens to trade and seek aid from outsiders, suffered famine, perished in isolated communities, and even resorted to cannibalism.