The Cognitive Revolution
Explore the Cognitive Revolution — the emergence of language, art, and symbolic thought that made Homo sapiens uniquely capable around 70,000 years ago.
Something changed in the human mind around 70,000 years ago. Homo sapiens had existed as a species for over 200,000 years, but suddenly — in evolutionary terms — they began producing art, crafting complex tools, burying their dead with grave goods, and almost certainly using fully developed language. This transformation, often called the Cognitive Revolution, marks the moment our ancestors became behaviorally modern.
The key innovation was symbolic thought — the ability to think about things that don't physically exist. A Homo sapiens could now conceive of gods, create myths, plan for the distant future, and cooperate with strangers through shared beliefs. This capacity for abstraction and imagination set humans apart from every other species, including other hominins like Neanderthals who had larger brains but apparently lacked the same cognitive flexibility.
The Cognitive Revolution's effects were immediate and dramatic. Armed with language and symbolic culture, Homo sapiens rapidly expanded out of Africa, displaced other hominin species, and adapted to environments ranging from tropical forests to arctic tundra. Within a few tens of thousands of years, they had colonized every continent except Antarctica. The world was forever changed.