Communication · c. 152,000 years ago

Spoken language

Humans begin trading complex ideas in sound, and every later tool can be taught, not just copied.

Fully modern syntactic language likely emerged with Homo sapiens in Africa, though its exact timing is debated. Language let groups plan, teach toolmaking across generations and accumulate culture far faster than genes could change. Every writing system is a way of freezing it.

See it in the living treeWikipedia