What Did Ancient Humans Do For Pleasure? (50,000 BC)

What did ancient humans do for pleasure, fifty thousand years ago, with no phone, no TV and no candy? The answer is hiding in caves, in old bones and even in our own genes. We follow Borr and his family through a 40,000-year-old bone flute, shell jewelry, the oldest cave paintings, wild honey hunts, rotten fruit and the first beer, tickled baby apes, ancient dice and the first written kiss. Three riddles, real science, and yes, the price they paid for it. 0:00 Hook 0:41 The First Riddle 1:56 Jewelry 2:41 Art 3:14 The Second Riddle 4:15 The Party Drink 5:34 The Third Riddle 6:23 Games 7:00 Love 7:46 Why 8:10 The Dark Side 8:24 Ending Sources: • Conard, Malina & Munzel 2009, New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany, Nature (Hohle Fels vulture-bone flute) • Henshilwood et al. 2004, Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa, Science (Blombos Cave) • Henshilwood et al. 2002, Emergence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa, Science • Oktaviana et al. 2024, Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago, Nature (Leang Karampuang, Sulawesi) • Spottiswoode, Begg & Begg 2016, Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism, Science • Marlowe et al. 2014, Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and human evolution, Journal of Human Evolution • Dams 1978, Prehistoric rock art of the Cuevas de la Arana, Valencia (honey-gathering scene) • Carrigan et al. 2015, Hominids adapted to metabolize ethanol long before human-directed fermentation, PNAS • Hockings et al. 2015, Tools to tipple: ethanol ingestion by wild chimpanzees using leaf-sponges, Royal Society Open Science • Liu et al. 2018, Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports • Davila Ross, Owren & Zimmermann 2009, Reconstructing the evolution of laughter in great apes and humans, Current Biology • Arboll & Rasmussen 2023, The ancient history of kissing, Science • Brindle et al. 2025, The evolutionary history of kissing, Evolution and Human Behavior • Burnt City (Shahr-e Sukhteh), Iran: game board and dice, c. 3000 BC #ancienthumans #ancientpleasure #stoneage #prehistory #huntergatherer #humanhistory #history