Expert: John Shea - 11/4/2007

Question
Hi John,
Considering how primitive people seem to us to have been 400-500 years ago, I'm interested in your thoughts regarding human behavior 4000-5000 years ago. Do you think people could reason together, carry on what we would consider to be normal conversations, work together, share things, etc.? Do you think they had vocabularies sufficient to understand each other? Do you think they could develop trust and friendships? I realize I'm asking a lot but I have a hard time imagining that, if we could be with them for a day, that we'd consider them to be similar to ourselves at all. I'm guessing they would behave much more like animals. Thank you very much for your thoughts!!

Answer
Dear Charlie
This is a relatively easy question to answer.  We have written records that we can read from Egypt and Mesopotamia that are 4000-5000 years old.  These records contain every indication of fully modern cognition.
There are contracts, bills of sale, laws, even (my favorite) an Egyptian note from a student begging his parents for more money.
There really isn't any solid evidence for major cognitive differences among Homo sapiens until at least 45,000 years ago, and even this evidence is controversial.
I hope this answers your question, if not, send another question.
Cheers,
John Shea