Extreme space weather events documented in human material culture

What is it about?

This research explores humanity’s cognitive evolution within the framework of Big History, identifying three primary mechanisms—natural selection, symbolic language, and collective learning—as key to our species’ unique development. The study argues that external symbolic storage, first seen in the Upper Paleolithic era, revolutionized Homo sapiens’ ability to transmit knowledge across generations, with evidence of such systems found as early as 130,000 years ago. The paper contends that extreme space weather events, including auroral activity, played a significant role in triggering bursts of mental complexity, particularly during three prehistoric junctures: 130,000–100,000 ybp, 40,000–39,000 ybp, and 25,000–11,700 ybp. These epochs are linked to key milestones in material culture, such as rock art and symbolic artifacts. By analyzing the alignment between space weather episodes and shifts in hominid behavior, the study offers new perspectives on the cognitive milestones that laid the groundwork for complex social organization, symbolic expression, and the eventual rise of civilization. The findings suggest that symbolic and visual systems, predating written language, were influenced by both environmental and cosmic factors, providing a foundation for the continued evolution of human cognition.

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Photo by Raul Popadineți on Unsplash

Photo by Raul Popadineți on Unsplash