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7 stories
Capuchins, chimpanzees and macaques are using tools, passing down traditions and leaving archaeological records behind. What does that tell us about the origins of human intelligence?
Tools, fire, language and culture did not arrive together, and none of them is unique to us. The interesting part is the accumulation.
An artifact is data. Its meaning is an argument — and archaeology is mostly the discipline of keeping those two things apart.
Monumental construction predates agriculture at some sites. That single fact broke a very tidy story about how civilization began.
Humans revise their stories constantly. Sediment does not, which is exactly why geology keeps ruining comfortable timelines.
The planet is not scenery for human history — it is a machine that feeds, buries and occasionally resets everything living on it.
The evidence describes a branching, messy bush of relatives, most of which are dead. We are a surviving twig, not a summit.