Engraving of horse Bone 15,000 years old photo D. Finnin/AMNH

Beginning around 40,000 years ago, modern Homo sapiens—people who looked essentially just like us—gradually began to filter into Europe. Our species probably originated in Africa, and scientists believe that the populations arriving in Europe moved in from the east. In terms of behavior, these new humans were creatures of a different order. With their elaborate rituals, artwork and highly advanced tools, these hominids possessed virtually the entire array of behaviors that characterize modern humans today. Many scientists believe that these attributes helped Homo sapiens gain an advantage over the Neanderthals and eventually drive them out of existence.

The Cro-Magnons
Before modern humans (Homo sapiens) moved into Europe, they had already developed novel stoneworking techniques that were much more sophisticated than any that had come before. These first behaviorally modern people, often called Cro-Magnons, also worked bone and antler into tools and other objects.

But it was another advance that made Cro-Magnon people truly extraordinary: they began to show what anthropologists call symbolic behaviors. These people painted the walls of caves and rock shelters with representations of animals and geometrical designs, made notations on stone and bone plaques and decorated their tools. They made music and began practicing elaborate rituals such as burying their dead with grave goods, suggesting a belief in the afterlife.

For these first behaviorally modern humans, the urge to express themselves in symbolic ways probably dates back 50,000 years and was as strong as the urge to survive.