Humans
Today, we are the only surviving human species, but in the past there was a whole tangle of human species living side by side over millions of years. The exhibition therefore tells not one story about humanity, but many: stories about the evolution of the brain and body, technology and social life – everyday life involving hunting, food, childcare, waste and art.
What you can experience
Explore, peer into caves from the distant past, meet your relatives and watch the past come to life.
Humans and nature. Come face to face with the mighty aurochs, found with arrowheads still lodged in its hindquarters – just as they had been since the day it was killed more than 9,000 years ago.
See original finds from Denmark’s prehistoric shell middens. The remains of our ancestors’ meals include enormous heaps of oyster shells, bones and flint tools from Stone Age settlements – finds that helped make the museum’s collections famous around the world. And peer through the viewing holes in the cave wall to discover cave paintings from France, South America and Indonesia.
Humans and food. Watch prehistory come to life in five miniature dioramas. Five human species, from Australopithecus afarensis to modern Homo sapiens, appear in landscapes showing how we have obtained food over millions of years – from hunting to farming to life in the modern city. The displays use Pepper’s Ghost, an optical illusion from nineteenth-century theatres, brought back to life with detailed models and set design.
The human from Flores, Indonesia. Descend into Liang Bua Cave on the island of Flores, where researchers discovered Homo floresiensis: a tiny human, just one metre tall, who lived alongside giant rats and giant storks. Dig down through the layers of soil from the excavation on the interactive screen, stand next to the infographic and see for yourself how tall Homo floresiensis was compared with you.
Meet your family. Enter the central room, where extinct human species appear all around you. Make contact with them: mirror their movements, reach out and hear what they ate, how they lived and what the finds tell us about them. This is your chance to meet the family you have never met before.
Primates. Meet our living relatives, including the chimpanzee and the tiny mouse lemur, represented by skeletons from the museum’s collections. Discover what we have in common: large brains, forward-facing eyes and dexterous hands. Try the Lice Game and see how many lice you can pick out of your relatives’ fur.
The family from the past. Meet three lifelike people from the past – a Neanderthal, Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis – reconstructed with anatomical accuracy, from skeleton to every last hair. They appear as an artist, using the natural world around them to create something beautiful; a grandmother, passing on the family’s stories and knowledge; and a hunter who has just brought down his prey.
- Meet your family: Enter the interactive room and meet several extinct human species. They follow your movements and tell you about their lives.
- The aurochs: See the mighty aurochs and the arrowheads that killed it more than 9,000 years ago.
- The skull from Borreby: See the skull discovered in a burial mound from Denmark’s Neolithic period.
- The cave paintings: Peer through the viewing holes and use a torch to reveal prehistoric cave paintings from France, South America and Indonesia.
- Miniature dioramas: Watch five human species come to life in five miniature dioramas about food, hunting, waste and urban life.
- The human from Flores, Indonesia: Stand next to Homo floresiensis and see just how small this human from Indonesia was.
- The Lice Game: Pick lice out of the fur of your primate relatives and discover why social grooming is a shared family trait.
Our family tree is a sprawling thicket
Humanity is not one single story, nor is it a straight line from ape to human.
For many years, the story was a simple one: a hairy figure stands up and evolves from ape into human, eventually becoming an upright man holding a spear. Today, science tells us otherwise. Many human species lived at the same time over millions of years, and our family tree looks more like a thicket than a straight line.
That is why there are no evolutionary timelines on these walls. Instead, the exhibition highlights similarities and connections: the brain, the hand and social life – traits that helped make us the species able to survive across the globe.
We are all products of evolution and history. Like humans throughout the ages, we use nature and leave our mark on it.
