The Slow Crawl Forward

If Africa was the cradle of humanity, then Europe was the site of our species’ adolescence--or so it has often been supposed. Forty thousand years ago, according to this theory, when the first anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe, they suddenly developed complex modern behaviors. They became master toolmakers, cave painters, and speakers of language; they underwent, all at once, a Great Leap Forward. I think that old theory is going to go out the window, says Alison Brooks.