question: How much more information does the typical human today have stored in their brain, compared to early man?
comment: I'm not sure it can be measured, but your average hunter gatherer has to know a _lot_. Remember there's no writing, to start with, so everything the society knows has to be remembered by people. And that's a lot of information: hunter gatherers will normally have a good idea of pretty much all the animals and plants in their part of the world and know them by sight (and sound if applicable) and what they are good for. They also have to have a good mental map of the territory their group usually covers, including what food can be found where and when, environmental hazards, sources of water, etc. And how all this changes from season to season. Then you need the daily life skills of gathering food, making camp, making tools, etc. And then there's all the social stuff (that we still keep track of today, but requires more brainpower than you might think). Of course, this is talking about earlier modern humans, which were just as intelligent as you or I (and in some cases had larger brains). Earlier hominids had smaller brains and probably _didn't_ store as much information...for example, one of the outstanding things about modern humans is that they use a much wider variety of resources than other hominids, including aquatic things like fish and shellfish. Using more types of food means having to know a lot more...getting to be an expert in whole new types of ways of making tools (eg, fishhooks and fish spears vs land spears) and whole new species of prey and their behavior, and whole sets of hunting and gathering grounds to remember. It's probable that earlier species couldn't keep track of all this, and that's one reason their behavior patterns seem to have been more limited. They also showed less variety and diversity in their tool production.
passages: The oldest brain to have been discovered was in Armenia in the Areni-1 cave complex. The brain, estimated to be over 5,000 years old, was found in the skull of a 12 to 14-year-old girl. Although the brains were shriveled, they were well preserved due to the climate found inside the cave.
   The emergence of archaic humans is sometimes used as an example of punctuated equilibrium. This occurs when a species undergoes significant biological evolution within a relatively short period. Subsequently, the species undergoes very little change for long periods until the next punctuation. The brain size of archaic humans expanded significantly from in "erectus" to . Since the peak of human brain size during the archaics, it has begun to decline.
  
  Section::::Origin of language.
   Lyn Wadley et al. have argued that the complexity of the skill needed to process the heat-treated compound glue (gum and red ochre) used to haft spears would seem to argue for continuity between modern human cognition and that of humans 70,000 BP at Sibudu Cave.
  
  Section::::Evidence for modern human behavior.:Evidence for language.
   Some studies suggest that the average brain size has been decreasing all over the world over the past 28,000 years, including hunter gatherers like Indigenous Australians. It is possible that the end of the Ice Age had an effect on the diet, muscle mass, or endocrine system of humans, which decreased brain size. Others suggest that the cranial capacity for males is unchanged, but that the cranial capacity of females has increased.
  
  Section::::Humans.:Biogeographic variation.
  
  Average cranial capacity in humans varies significantly depending on geographic ancestry in humans, in the range of 1,200 to 1,450 cm between populations.
   Robin Dunbar has argued that archaic humans were the first to use language. Based on his analysis of the relationship between brain size and hominin group size, he concluded that because archaic humans had large brains, they must have lived in groups of over 120 individuals. Dunbar argues that it was not possible for hominins to live in such large groups without using language, otherwise there could be no group cohesion and the group would disintegrate. By comparison, chimpanzees live in smaller groups of up to 50 individuals.
  
  Section::::Fossils.
  
  BULLET::::- Atapuerca Mountains, "Sima de los Huesos"
  
  BULLET::::- Saldanha Man
   The timeline of human evolution spans some 7 million years, from the separation of the genus "Pan" until the emergence of behavioral modernity by 50,000 years ago. Of this timeline, the first 3 million years concern "Sahelanthropus", the following 2 million concern "Australopithecus", while the final 2 million span the history of actual "Homo" species (the Paleolithic).
  
  Many traits of human intelligence, such as empathy, theory of mind, mourning, ritual, and the use of symbols and tools, are already apparent in great apes although in lesser sophistication than in humans.
   It is estimated that the average life span of hominids on the African savanna between 4,000,000 and 200,000 years ago was 20 years. This means that the population would be completely renewed about five times per century, assuming that infant mortality has already been accounted for. It is further estimated that the population of hominids in Africa fluctuated between 10,000 and 100,000 individuals, thus averaging about 50,000 individuals. Roughly multiplying 40,000 centuries by 50,000 to 500,000 individuals per century, yields a total of 2 billion to 20 billion hominids, or an average estimate of about 10 billion hominids that lived during that approximately 4,000,000 year time span.
   Archaeologists have discovered and are still discovering fossil records that allow comparative anatomy to occur between the modern-day Homo Sapien and primate ancestors. The tissue that the human brain is made up of decomposes once the organism has died, so old brain tissue cannot be analysed, however, due to the large percentage that the neomammalian brain takes up in the human brain, estimated to be 76% , comparative anatomy shows that the Homo Sapien has a much larger cranial size then early primate ancestors. 
   "Homo erectus" was probably the first hominin to live in a hunter-gatherer society, and anthropologists such as Richard Leakey believe that "erectus" was socially more like modern humans than the more "Australopithecus"-like species before it. Likewise, increased cranial capacity generally coincides with the more sophisticated tools occasionally found with fossils.
   In the Upper Paleolithic, anatomically modern humans began living longer, often reaching middle age, by today’s standards. Rachel Caspari argues in “Human Origins: the Evolution of Grandparents,” that life expectancy increased during the Upper Paleolithic in Europe (Caspari 2011). She also describes why elderly people were highly influential in society. Grandparents assisted in childcare, perpetuated cultural transmission, and contributed to the increased complexity of stone tools (Caspari 2011). The woman found at Dolni Vestonice was old enough to have been a grandparent. Although human lifespans were increasing, elderly individuals in Upper Paleolithic societies were still relatively rare. Because of this, it is possible that the woman was attributed with great importance and wisdom, and revered because of her age. Because of her advanced age, it is also possible she had a decreased ability to care for herself, instead relying on her family group to care for her, which indicates strong social connections.
   One theory of the premise that Stone Age humans did not record birth date but instead assumed age based on appearance holds that if milder punishment to juvenile delinquents existed in Paleolithic times, it would have imparted milder punishment for longer on those retaining a more youthful appearance into adulthood. This theory holds that those who got milder punishment for the same breach of rules had the evolutionary advantage, passing their genes on while those who got more severe punishment had more limited reproductive success due to either limiting their survival by following all rules or by being severely punished.
   Archaic humans had a brain size averaging 1,200 to 1,400 cubic centimeters, which overlaps with the range of modern humans. Archaics are distinguished from anatomically modern humans by having a thick skull, prominent supraorbital ridges (brow ridges) and the lack of a prominent chin.
   In addition to standard wood artifacts, many cut lengths of reed were recovered from the higher sequences. These are thought to have played an important role in making the composite tools characteristic of the Wilton Industry, and some may also have been used as arrow shafts.
   In Kent's Cave the implements obtained from the lower stages were of a much ruder description than the various objects detected in the upper cave-earth ... And a very long time must have elapsed between the formation of the lower and upper Palaeolithic beds in that cave.
   Despite the limitations to endocasts, they can and do provide a basis for understanding human brain evolution, which shows primarily a gradually bigger brain. The evolutionary history of the human brain shows primarily a gradually bigger brain relative to body size during the evolutionary path from early primates to hominins and finally to "Homo sapiens". This trend that has led to the present day human brain size indicates that there has been a 2-3 factor increase in size over the past 3 million years. This can be visualized with current data on hominin evolution, starting with "Australopithecus"—a group of hominins from which humans are likely descended.
   The major find site for the Palaeolithic is Petralona Cave, where the Petralona Skull was found, from a fully human Hominid believed to be ancestral (or close to it) to both modern and Neanderthal men. The date is the Middle Pleistocene (700,000–128,000 BP, or "before present"). Some assign it to the later Middle Pleistocene, 200,000–150,000 BCE, but a carbon date on the ashes of a fire yields 700,000 BCE. The fire is the earliest known one of human origin.
   Section::::Early life and education.
   Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Exceptional preservation of a prehistoric human brain from Heslington, Yorkshire, UK. O'Connor et al. "Journal of Archaeological Science" 38 (7): 1641
  
  BULLET::::- Analysis of the Bronze Age Heslington Brain by FTIR Imaging and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. Correia Faria E., Dorling K.M., O’Connor S. and Gardner P. In: SPEC2010 "Shedding Light on Disease: Optical Diagnosis for the new Millenium"; 26 Jun 2010-01 Jul 2010; University of Manchester. 2010.
   All items were found within three strata, with certain items unique to each. For example, while sandals were found in each level, the hair was found only in the earliest stratum. Prepared floors were discovered in the earliest two levels of the cave, which were created by “bringing in earth that was then consolidated by water and probably tamped.” Although thin, they served the function of smoothing the cave floor. Fireplaces seem to have been distributed at random. Although they were found in many other caves in the area, Taylor reports that there were no arrow parts found in Frightful Cave, “whose occupation was probably too early.”
   The second key growth period in human brain size occurred between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, when the brain reached its modern size. While this growth is still not fully explained, Mithen believes that it is related to the evolution of language. Language may be the most complex cognitive task we undertake.[citation needed] Language is directly related to social intelligence because it is primarily used to mediate social relationships.
  
  Social intelligence was a critical factor in brain growth. Social and cognitive complexity co-evolve.
  
  Section::::Measurement.
   The large and highly significant finds assemblage included large quantities of shell-tempered Deverel-Rimbury pottery, flint-tempered finewares, animal bone, bone needles, a bronze spearhead, flint arrowheads, land large numbers of heated sandstones.
   Palaephatus uses four principal devices for explaining the wonders of myth, and a number of minor devices:
   Australopiths lived from 3.85-2.95 million years ago with the general cranial capacity somewhere near that of the extant chimpanzee—around 300–500 cm. Considering that the modern human brain weighs around 1,352 cmon average this represents a substantial amount of brain mass evolved. Australopiths are estimated to have a total neuron count of ~30-35 billion.
   Additionally, a few leather artifacts were found in the main bedding. Only one fully reconstructible garment was found: a pull-through made of grysbok (antelope) leather, similar to those worn by present-day hunter-gatherer groups in South Africa. The remaining leather artifacts were small pieces of skin, some sewn, mostly from small antelope.
  
  Section::::Material Culture/Findings.:Plant & Animal Remains.
   Archaeologist Steve Mithen believes that there are two key evolutionary periods of human brain growth that contextualize the social intelligence hypothesis. The first was about two million years ago, when the brain more than doubled in size. Mithen believes that this growth was because people were living in larger, more complex groups, and had to keep track of more people and relationships. These changes required a greater mental capacity and, in turn, a larger brain size.
  