How Sapiens conquered the world — Jean-Jacques Hublin's six masterclasses

It is rare for a leading scientist to distil the best of their knowledge on one of the deepest questions in human history for a general audience. Jean-Jacques Hublin, holder of the Chair in PalaeoanthropologyPalaeoanthropologyThe science that studies human evolution from the fossil remains of hominins (bones, teeth, footprints) and their context, to reconstruct our biological origins.→ at the Collège de France and former head of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, did exactly this between January and February 2026, in a series of six lectures devoted to a dizzying question: how and why did Homo sapiensHomo sapiensThe present-day human species, which emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, the only surviving human lineage after the extinction of Neanderthals and Denisovans.→ replace the Neanderthals and every other human species that preceded it?

These lectures, filmed in the Collège de France amphitheatre and freely available on YouTube, constitute an exceptional document. Hublin synthesises the most recent advances in genetics, palaeontology and archaeology to paint a complete picture of our species' global expansion. We present them here session by session.

Lecture 1 — Homo sapiens: models of origin

This opening session sets the theoretical framework: what is Homo sapiens? How is it defined anatomically and genetically? Hublin traces the history of origin models — from the classic single Out of AfricaAfricaThe cradle of humankind: the continent where the first hominins appeared, then Homo sapiens around 300,000 years ago, before the expansion to the rest of the world.→ to multiregional hypotheses — before introducing a more nuanced view: a species born in Africa, but in a vast, fragmented Africa where several populations contributed to our genetic heritage. The Jebel Irhoud fossils (Morocco, 315,000 years), co-discovered by Hublin himself, are central to the argument¹.

Lecture 2 — The archaicArchaicRefers to an ancient, now-extinct human population or form (Neanderthals, Denisovans, ghost lineages), as opposed to anatomically modern humans.→ populations of Eurasia

Who inhabited Eurasia before the arrival of Sapiens? Hublin maps the populations that occupied the continent: Neanderthals to the west, Denisovans to the east and perhaps beyond, and poorly defined "archaic" populations in South and Southeast Asia. This human geography of the world on the eve of Sapiens' expansion is an indispensable prerequisite for understanding what "replacement" really means².

Lecture 3 — Out of Africa

There was not one Sapiens "Out of Africa" but several waves, by multiple routes and at different times. Hublin analyses the genetic data and fossils to reconstruct these movements: an early Levantine presence (Qafzeh, Skhul), dispersals via the southern coast of Arabia, and the great wave that ultimately colonised all of Eurasia around 50,000–45,000 years ago. The question of "why at that moment" — climatic factors, cultural innovations, demography — is at the heart of this lecture.

Lecture 4 — Homo sapiens in the mid-latitudes

The direct confrontation: Hublin traces Sapiens' advance through the temperate zones of Europe and Asia, where Neanderthals and Denisovans had been established for hundreds of thousands of years. Which sites witness the earliest Sapiens presence in Europe? How do archaeological and genetic data overlap to reconstruct this advance? Bacho Kiro (Bulgaria) and Grotta del Cavallo (Italy) are among the key examples analysed¹.

Lecture 5 — Hybridisation: where and when?

The most dizzying lecture in the series. DNA does not lie: non-African humans today carry between 1 and 4 % Neanderthal genome, and some Southeast Asian and Oceanian populations carry up to 6 % DenisovanDenisovanAn extinct human population, cousin of the Neanderthals, identified in 2010 from the DNA of remains in Denisova Cave (Siberia).→. Crossings occurred — not once but multiple times, in multiple regions. Hublin analyses the probable geographic zones of these hybridisationsHybridisationCrossing between two distinct species or lineages, such as Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, leaving a trace in the genome.→, the genetic profile of transmitted heritage, and what these mixtures tellTellAn artificial mound formed by the accumulation of successive layers of settlement remains at the same spot, typical of the Near East. Each destruction-rebuilding event adds a stratum.→ us about the biology and behaviour of our ancestors².

Lecture 6 — The reasons for replacement

The final lecture is the most synthetic and ambitious. Why did Sapiens prevail? Hublin reviews the competing hypotheses: technological superiority (but the ChâtelperronianChâtelperronianA transitional material culture (c. 45,000-40,000 years ago) straddling the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in France and northern Spain; curved-backed knives and, at the Grotte du Renne at Arcy, ornaments and bone tools attributed to Neanderthals.→ and Uluzzian show Neanderthals could innovate too), demography (Sapiens may simply have been more numerous from the outset), complex language and symbolic networks, or differential pathogen resistance. His conclusion is nuanced: there was probably no single reason, but a bundle of factors in which demographic advantage and cultural flexibility form the hard core³.

Why watch these lectures?

The "Sapiens Replaces Neanderthal" series is, to our knowledge, the best available French-language synthesis on this subject in 2026. Jean-Jacques Hublin is not only a leading researcher: he is also a remarkable teacher, capable of navigating effortlessly between genetic data, fossils and archaeology without ever losing the narrative thread. The lectures are dense — allow roughly one hour per session — but accessible to any curious listener willing to engage seriously with the subject.

The Collège de France makes all its lectures freely available on YouTube, in a tradition of scientific openness dating back to its origins. For prehistoryPrehistoryThe span of human history before the invention of writing, from the Palaeolithic to the Metal Ages, known mainly through material remains.→ enthusiasts, this is an incomparable resource: world-class research, explained in French, by one of its principal actors.