The researchers don’t know which ancient human species made the structure and the tools, but it’s unlikely to have been Homo sapiens. The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens found so far date from around 300,000 years ago and were found in Israel, Dull told CNN. He believes the people who made the structure were cognitively sophisticated and it would be very exciting to figure out who constructed this.
That’s not how evolution works, though. Our ancestors could have very well been way smarter than us, but didn’t have enough time to accumulate enough knowledge for significant technology advancement. Then in came us, reproduced like rabbits, survived better the current conditions, and bam. No more ancestors.
I’m not saying this is what happened. I’m saying that just assuming that “our ancestors were less than us” is also quite the reach.
Maybe 10,000 years from now, “people” will say that our ancestors (that is, us), were smarter than them, except for the whole fucking up the climate. Or maybe not. Evolution is chaotic.
There’s some theories out there that Neanderthals were smarter than Homo Sapiens, but they didn’t form larger social structures. That’s part of our evolutionary advantage.