An upcoming analysis to be published in June on the evolution of human language suggests that we’ve been communicating with each other for more than 1.6 million years.
Big Archaeology believes that humans only bothered to develop language around 200,000 years ago, according to The Independent. But an upcoming book from British archaeologist Steven Mithen suggests we’ve been mumbling and developing our communication styles for at least 1.6 million years.
Based on analysis of archaeological, paleo-anatomical, genetic, neurological, and linguistic evidence, Mithen believes we first started chatting somewhere in eastern or southern Africa.
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“Humanity’s development of the ability to speak was without doubt the key which made much of subsequent human physical and cultural evolution possible. That’s why dating the emergence of the earliest forms of language is so important,” Mithen told the Independent.
The human brain rapidly developed in size between 2 million B.C. and 1.6 million B.C., suggesting this was when we started reorganizing our neurological structures on our journey to apex predators. We developed our frontal lobe, which is specifically used for language comprehension, but that didn’t stop us from communicating with our hands and arms (still a popular practice in parts of Europe).
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Mithen also suggests that our survival was dependent on communication. Homo sapiens are smaller and weaker than our ancient enemies like the Neanderthals. We were also amazing prey for the myriad beasts we roamed the world with. To survive these perilous conditions, we needed to pass on knowledge from generation to generation. This is why we developed speech. (RELATED: Undeciphered Easter Island Tablet May Hold Secrets Of The Ancient World)
And it could be that some of the words and linguistic developments made by our most ancient ancestors are still in use today. Further analysis is needed to determine specifically what these could be, but it would be pretty cool to think humanity has spoken similar words for literally millions of years.