Three million years of history reveal how early humans learned, taught, and evolved

How did our ancestors learn to craft tools, control fire, paint on cave walls, and sail across vast oceans – and how were these skills passed down through generations?

A new study explores the deep evolutionary roots of human cultural transmission, offering insights into how our thinking, communication, and social behaviour have developed over time. Here is one of the authors, SapienCE scientist Professor Francesco d’Errico.

(Photo: Lucinda Backwell)

Janne-Beate Buanes Duke COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER

Presented by: University of Bergen

Published 24 June 2025 - 00:01

A new study explores the deep evolutionary roots of human cultural transmission, shedding light on how our thinking, communication, and social behaviour have developed over time.

Learning is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history

The study offers the most detailed picture to date of how learning strategies have evolved throughout human history.

“This research allows us to chart, with unprecedented precision, the pathways through which early humans passed on knowledge and skills,” says Francesco d’Errico.

He is a professor at the University of Bergen's Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE).

“It demonstrates that our capacity for teaching, imitation, and cumulative learning is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history,” he says.

Spanning 3.3 million years, the research draws on archaeological, ethnographic, experimental, and animal behaviour data. It examines how 103 key cultural traits – from stone tools to symbolic burials – were passed from one generation to the next.

Ethnography refers to the study and detailed description of people, cultures, and everyday life, usually based on direct observation and participation. It helps us understand how communities live, think, and interact by exploring their customs, beliefs, and social practices.

As culture became more complex, so did learning

To understand how knowledge was shared, Francesco d’Errico and Ivan Colagè created a new, multi-dimensional model that focuses on the timing, setting, and social dynamics of learning.

They rated each cultural trait based on how much it relied on teaching, imitation, repetition, and other learning methods – resulting in nearly 2,000 data points that reveal clear evolutionary trends.

d’Errico explains that the model allows them to reconstruct how learning developed in deep time. This period covers human evolution from 3.3 million to 10,000 years ago, during which key biological and cultural changes took place.

“It provides a critical tool for linking the archaeological record to the emergence of behaviourally modern humans,” he says.

Their findings show that as human culture became more complex, so did the ways we learned. By 600,000 years ago, early humans were likely using forms of teaching that involved gestures and possibly even early forms of language.

It also shows a turning point between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, when ways of passing on knowledge began to change, closely connected to the development of modern language and behaviour.

A new perspective of early human learning

This groundbreaking study introduces a new perspective on how our ancestors learned and shared knowledge over time. It explores learning across three dimensions:

Spatially – Whether it occurred up close or from a distance.
Temporally – Whether it happened all at once or in stages.
Socially – Whether it was passed from one person to another, within groups, or through mutual exchange.

The findings reveal that these diverse learning methods evolved alongside increasingly complex tools and ideas. They also suggest that the origins of teaching and communication may date back much earlier than previously believed – well before the emergence of Homo sapiens.

Reference:

Colagè, I. & d’Errico, F. An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage during the last 3.3 million years, PLOS One, 2025. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0325059

About the study

The new study explores how cultural transmission shaped human cognition, communication, and social behaviour over 3.3 million years.
It was co-authored by Professor Francesco d’Errico (SapienCE) and Professor Ivan Colagè.
The study analyses 103 cultural traits using archaeological, ethnographic, experimental, and ethological data.
Key finding: Human learning strategies – such as teaching, imitation, and cumulative learning – are deeply rooted in our evolutionary history.