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A single ember glowing on dark volcanic ash in the night.

For almost all of our history, we were few, and the night was long.

A wide plain of grey volcanic ash at dusk, a volcano smoking far away.

About 3.66 million years ago

Our oldest footprints were not made alone.

Two tiny figures walk side by side across the ash plain toward the volcano.

Two walked side by side, in step.

Others crossed the same ash.

Two weathered hands strike one river stone against another; flakes fly.

About 3.3 million years ago

A sharp edge had to be shown.

Stone tools are older than our genus.

An adult hand places a stone flake into a smaller, younger hand.

The skill passed from hand to hand.

A small group of early humans sits close around a fire at the mouth of a rock shelter.

At least about 1 million years ago

We kept fire.

An adult and a child, faces lit from below, looking into the fire.

Fire gave us nights.

The nights gave us stories.

A very old person sits quietly in the dark, one cheek lit by a fire out of frame.

About 1.77 million years ago

They lived for years without teeth.

Who fed them?

A hand, lit by firelight, holds out soft food on a leaf.
A small piece of red ochre engraved with a cross-hatched pattern.

About 100,000 to 75,000 years ago

A mark that meant something.

A short string of pierced shell beads tinted with red ochre.

Engraved ochre, shell beads.

Meaning that could be shared.

A single ancient red-ochre hand stencil on a torchlit cave wall.

At least about 67,800 years ago

We were here.

A cave wall covered in dozens of hand stencils, adults' and children's.

We.

Massive carved T-shaped stone pillars at dusk, small fires burning among them.

About 11,600 years ago

We built a place to gather before we built farms.

An early farming village of mud-brick houses at dusk, fires in the doorways.

Villages.

A clay tablet pressed with wedge-shaped signs, lit by a lamp.

Writing.

An ancient mud-brick city with a stepped temple, lamps glowing at dusk.

Cities.

A modern city at night from far above, a field of warm lights.

Now

More than 8 billion people. One fire, still burning.

We made it together.

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