Humans are the only species to live in all of the environmental niches in the world. We are the most dominant species because we are socially connected.
Stone tools in southern Africa show that the social connections of our ancestors who lived around 65,000 years ago were much stronger than we had thought.
The early humans were not always close. Without this success, the first humans to leave Africa died out.
It was different for the ancestors of the people living outside of Africa. They were able to adapt to every type of environment on the planet within a few thousand years.
The ability to share knowledge between different groups was the key to this success, according to archaeologists. We don't know how to observe these social networks in the past.
Archaeologists look at tools and other objects that were made by humans. The people who made those objects were social creatures who made objects with cultural meanings.
During a time known as the Howiesons Poort, a stone tool gave us an opportunity to test this idea. The kind of useful tool you carry around is called a "stone Swiss Army knife" by archaeologists.
There are knives in Africa. They are found all over the world and come in a variety of shapes. The hypothesis that social connections existed more than 60,000 years ago can be tested using these small blades.
There are similar designs of Stone Swiss Army knives in southern Africa. It's calledPaloma de la Pea.
The blades could have been made in many different shapes. They were made to be a very similar template across thousands of kilometers and multiple environmental niches.
The fact that they were all made to look the same points to the strong social connections that existed at this time.
This shows for the first time that social connections existed in southern Africa before the big migration.
The Swiss Army knife is multi-functional and multi-use, so it has been thought that people made these blades to respond to environmental stresses.
Stone blades were bound to handles or shafts to make complex tools such as spears, knives, saws, scrapers and drills, and used as tips and barbs for arrows. They were used to process a wide range of materials.
The binding of the stone to the handle was complicated and involved a lot of glue and glue recipes.
The blades were produced in huge numbers in southern Africa.
The peak in production was during a very dry period. The tools were manufactured for thousands of years before the Howiesons Poort, but it is during this time of change that we see a huge increase in their production.
A key advantage for hunting and gathering in uncertain or unstable environments is the multi-functionality of this stone tool.
The production of this tool can't be seen as a response to the changing environment.
If they were just a response to changing conditions, we should see differences in different environmental niches. There is a similarity in production numbers and shapes between different environments.
The increase in production should be seen as part of a socially mediated response to changing environmental conditions with strengthened long-distance social ties.
The strength of social ties in this key period for human evolution can be seen in the similarity of the stone "Swiss Army knife" in southern Africa. It is believed that the strength of this social network allowed populations to prosper and adapt to changing climates.
Expanding social networks contributed to the expansion of modern humans out of Africa and into new environments across the globe, according to findings.
Amy Mosig Way is an Archaeologist and lecturer at the University ofSydney.
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