Who We Are 1: the beginning of culture

Modern humans first appeared in Africa around 150,000 - 180,000 years ago; one of a closely-related group of hominids that had populated the savannah over the preceding three million years. During that time, our ancestors learned how to talk, how to make fire and cook and how to cooperate in groups. We probably lived in a similar way to earlier hominids, but something extraordinary happened: we developed culture. Toba: fire and brimstone Between 69,000 and 75,000 years ago a gigantic super-volcano in Indonesia, today called Toba, erupted. Its consequences were felt globally. This was a cataclysmic event that would change us dramatically. Toba was one of the biggest eruptions ever and certainly the greatest in human times. Mount St. Helens, which exploded in 1980, erupted about half a cubic kilometre of material. The biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history was at Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa in today's Indonesia, which erupted forty-one cubic kilometres in 1815