ExtinctZoo - The Sentinelese: The Last Humans Living In The Stone Age

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

60,000 years of isolation and one island...

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Around 3.4 million years ago, before the pyramids, great to all of China, and everything in between, hominins first entered what we now call the Stone Age, a prehistoric period during which stone, surprise, surprise, was heavily used to create a variety of tools with an edge, percussion, or pointed surface. It's expanded across the entire world, moved between entire species, in genera, and lasted for a mind-boggling amount of time, only officially ending modern humans about 4,000 years ago, around 2000 BC, with the advent of metalworking. And while the Stone Age can seem very distant from the present, given how much we have progressed,

it has nearly been our entire story, so to speak, as the species, as it is by far the longest technological era we've been in, and as a whole, it encompasses over 99% of our history. Yet, alas, we have as a world moved on from those simpler times, and depending on who you ask, we have progressed up about eight different ages so far. Yet, with that said, there is one group, or rather tribe, that despite all the advancements in the world, have remained in the past for the most part, and are perhaps the most removed group of people on the entire planet,

contained to the very own island with a very distinct culture, with some researchers referring to them as the last humans living in the Stone Age, and for a few rather interesting reasons of that. And these are the Sentinelese people. Within the center of the Bay of Bengal, which lies in the Indian Ocean, you will find the Ataman Islands, a cluster of about 200 islands that greatly vary in size. In all, these islands are home to over 300,000 people, who for the most part live lives that somewhat resemble the lives that you might find anywhere else in the planet.

But, on one of the smaller islands, known as North Sentinel, you will find a completely different story. Now, this piece of land is about the same size of Manhattan. Yet instead of skyscrapers, you will instead find an extensive beach, and then a sprawling tropical and subtropical broadleaf forest that's home to, at the minimum, Indian boar, coconut crabs, and then on the beaches, sea turtles, as the island is also surrounded by a large coral reef. Of course, another resident on this island are the most isolated humans on the planet, who would be the Sentinelese, which number between 35 and 400 individuals. Overall, they belong to the broader Antomeneese peoples, being one of the six indigenous groups known to the area. And while the other groups can be a bit reclusive as well,

the sentinoles are on a whole other level, having had minimal contact with outsiders throughout the years. In fact, even the other groups in the region do not know much about their neighbors, despite being the first ones to recognize their existence. And this is reflected by the fact that there is no group on the planet that knows how to communicate with the Sentinelese, with the tribe having a currently unclassified language, and very little interactions. In fact, their language, often dubbed the language of the island, is considered by many to be the most isolated and mysterious language that currently exists. But even with that fact, the surrounding islanders' history with the group is still far more

extensive than what the rest of the world has, as the quote-unquote modern world was only made aware of the group in 1771 when an East Indian ship reported seeing a multitude of lights upon the shore, which is the first time anyone had reported an observation of the Sentinelese. But at the time they chose not to investigate. And for nearly 100 years, that's all we got, as it wasn't until 1867 that a more in-depth run-in with a tribe occurred when an Indian vessel accidentally became stuck upon the island's reef. And so thinking the island was abandoned, the crew and passengers made their way into the shore, where they then set up camp. And for the first two days, nothing happened,

but on the third day, something did, as on the third day during breakfast, they were suddenly attacked by a group of people that they described as being very short, possibly due to insular dwarfism, dark, short-haired, and naked, as well as having their skin painted by some red substance.

They attacked the beach group with bows and arrows, but thanks to their superior numbers, the strana group was able to beat back the attackers with sticks and stones, and thus the Centralese were treated back in the jungle forest, staying hidden until the group was finally rescued. And while this specific encounter ended in no deaths,

it did signify the start of what would be a rather tumultuous relationship between the modern world and the sentinoles. It was also the first direct contact with the tribe, and news of the event soon made people understand that this seemingly unimportant island was home to a quite mysterious group of people, leading to numerous individuals embarking on quest to explore this island and better understand the tribe. And this included someone known as Jeremiah Humphrey,

who in the very same year did a drive-by, or rather shipped by, of the island, reporting that fish seemed to be very important to the sentinoles to catch them, which appeared to be, at least in some cases, stone tipped. Well, the arrows, that is. It was also in his journey that Humphrey also became the first person to realize that the greater Antomones people were already aware of the Sentinelese, but ultimately he did end up leaving without ever having landed on the island. But by the 1880, the Royal Navy decided to try and make contact, forming a motley group of armed sailors, convict orderlies, and then Antiminez truckers, who then did finally set foot.

on the island. But upon touching down, the sentinoles were clearly quite afraid of them, as they quickly fled into the tree lines, sensing apparent danger, which, to be fair, there probably was. And interestingly, as if they knew the purpose of the party's presence, it seems that the tribe ended up abandoning various villages and paths, which were at the time described as being quite simple and paleolithic in advancement, with stone, wood, and bone tools all being reported. Eventually, though, the group did come across a group of six people, who in typical human fashion, they decided to capture and bring back to the mainland in order to study. However, they soon started to drop dead from various illnesses, the sentinoles that is, as they had not been

exposed to pathogens of the outside world. And sensing this issue, the Navy actually decided to bring the survivors back to the island, along with a large quantity of gifts to hopefully apologize for those who didn't make it, while so at the same time having essentially learned nothing in the process. And this disaster of sorts led to a lull on further investigations, but the tribe would find themselves wondering back into the headlines periodically, as within the vicinity of the island, penal colonies have been set up, and every so often a convict from these colonies would escape and then end up on the island, unbeknownst to what awaited them. As every single time this happened, the tribe ended up killing them, as apparently the gifts did not do the job,

which they usually did with arrows at first, and then also a final cut to the throat to make sure the job was done. And this aggressive approach to outsiders was actually first reported by Richard Temple, the chief commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who concluded that the tribe slays every single stranger, however an offensive they were on site. And this extended actually to their own, as one sentinelese man who had been a castaway and grew up with the Ong people, was brought back to North Sentinel in an effort to establish contact. But upon apparently not recognizing what would be their own relative, the group fired upon the

man. And in good sense, said man refused to remain on the island. And so, given this aggression in the past deaths, no other major expedition would really take place until after the 19th century, when in the later 1900s, the anthropological survey of India took great interest in the island, being spearheaded by Tien Pandit, an anthropologist who perhaps might know the most of anyone about the sentinelese. For decades, he would try to establish friendly contact with the tribe and explore the island, which would go on to reveal many things as well as lead to numerous interesting encounters. For starters, while also explore

in the island, he noted that the tribe constructed lean-to-huts, made from grass and leaves, while also having control of fire and largely relied on the wild boars for food, while then fruits, fish, and turtles, were stated to be primary foods as well. Regarding technology, it was documented that the tribe utilized fishing nets, bamboo and wooden buckets, cane baskets, multi-pronged spears, bows and arrows, and stone edzas as well, showing that they had developed a large array of technology. It was also during these very expeditions that more light was cast in the group's reaction to foreigners, which proved to be more mixed than one's thought, as gift exchanges and attempting to make contact garnered both aggressive and friendly responses. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

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whereas in other instances, they would simply fire upon the party, but after receiving the gifts, that is, showing a presumed deep mistrust to outsiders, which one researcher has speculated might have been a result of traumatic incidences in the past with outside groups. And something pretty traumatic, or rather history-changing, was just on the horizon as well. because there's a plot twist in the story of this air quote stone age group which is as of the 1980s you could no longer consider them stone age from a technology standpoint as the outside world might have accidentally pulled them right out of it and this is because in 1981 the cargo ship m v primrose which was carrying chicken feed ended up marooned just off the coast of the island after a long standoff of the tribe the crew was ultimately helicopter to safety but the large mostly metal ship that remained there and the sentinelese ended up salvaging iron where they could obviously the long standoffer the tribe the crew was ultimately helicopter to safety but the large mostly metal ship that remained there and the sentinelese ended up salvaging iron where they could obviously obviously recognizing that it could be used for weapons and tools, with the thought likely being that they could cold forge the metal into their desired shapes. Scrap dealers assigned to scrap the ship also observed the group frantically searching for small pieces of metal during their work, and were oddly quite friendly to the metal scrappers, who said that they would also give the sentinelese bananas in order to appease them.

Additionally, there is even talk that this metal acquisition from shipwrecks might have happened in the past too, which means that despite the best efforts of many, we have significantly changed the course of this group's history for good. Now this said, as far as their own capabilities go when it comes to mining, smelting, and crafting metal ores, that's pretty much non-existent, and thus many don't consider them to have actually entered a full-fledged metal age. Plus, others still refer to them as Stone Age in the sense that, at least one hypothesis has stated that their extreme isolation might have started a whopping 60,000 years ago, which, for reference, is before the last glacial maximum, which also means that genetically there is a direct line between all of them and their pre-Neolithic ancestors who first

arrived on the island, or at least that's the gist. And funny enough, it seems that post-chip-chip-wrecked and scrapping, the group actually began to soften up just a smidge, maybe hoping for more of that sweet, sweet metal, and not the music that is, as it was only after the shipwreck that the outside world made the first peaceful and physical contact with this extremely isolated group. To be exact, in 1991, a new expedition, spearheaded by Madhumala, Chato Padi, noted that for the first time, the sentinelings approached with no weapons on them when they came to collect the gifted coconuts. Then later in the same day, a second visit found the sentinelese had now armed themselves, but disarmed themselves after one of the woman amongst them

forcefully pushed a man's loaded arrow downward, which prompted him to bury his weapons in the sand, and along with the rest of the present tribe, approached the research team unarmed. And it was then that this gift exchange led to physical peaceful contact for the first time. Now, due to a yearning for their own spotlight, we don't actually know who the first person was to touch this reclusive population, but someone did, multiple, in fact, and the gift-giving event ended without incident. And so this experience partially spurred plans for more interactive programs with the Sentinelese, which included attempts to even plant coconut trees on the island and trips to the purpose to physical contact.

And no, not in that way. However, in 1994, the Indian government decided to scrap these programs and go for a deliberate no-contact policy as the group started to become reserved once again. In India, didn't want people visiting the island, assuming they were chill, and thus they made a rule stating that contact was only reserved for things such as thwarting poachers, defending against threats to the island for natural disasters. And Mother Nature has a pretty ironic way of working, seeing that just nine years after the rule went into effect,

the deadliest tsunami in modern times struck the area. The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed over 200,000 people and impacted massive swathes of Asia. Unsurprisingly, given the ferocity of the waves and the size of North Sentinel, it was feared that the sentinelies had been erased by the waves. And so multiple teams were sent to inspect the island using helicopters. But what they found was pretty surprising. The underwater earthquake that had preceded the tsunami, along with the wave itself,

had seriously altered the island, with its seafloor rising up by almost five feet, causing coral reefs to just jut into the air and destroying the island's shallow lagoons, which were the tribe's most essential fishing grounds. Meanwhile, the island had been temporarily split into three different sections, which based on observations did in fact also divide up the population, with 32 Centinolese being visibly scattered from one another. And yet, with all of this said, and with all of what happened, the tribe were still hostile toward the helicopters,

which must have been quite the odd sight after a seemingly nigh world ending tsunami, shooting their bows at them and performing aggressive gesturings, assigned to most that the community was actually rather unaffected by this catastrophe. This also led to the interesting explanation that their ups and downs and friendliness over the years was really a reflection of the tribe's well-being. For when things are good, they don't want to be bothered and will be more violent, yet when they are struggling perhaps they're more welcome to the outside world in hopes of help. But this is just one hypothesis, and the opposite could definitely be true as well.

But for the sake of the Sentinoles, it would be a good thing of this hypothesis was true, as since the 2004 checkup, almost all interactions between them have ended in blood. In fact, since then, there have been four well-known incidents in which death has occurred. The first happening just two years after the tsunami, when two Indian fishermen, illegally poaching crabs off the island, drifted too close overnight, not realizing that their anchor had failed. And once within range to the beach, ah, bad stuff happened, as a group ended up storming the boat and killing the fishermen with stone axes. And then get this, demonstrating a new undocumented behavior, so to speak, the tribe proceeded

to stake the bodies on bamboo sticks and face them outwards to the sea, almost acting like scarecrow's. In attempts to recover the bodies failed as well, as helicopters were again attached with arrows and if close enough, with spears, leading to a mission abort. However, what is interesting is that during the mission, the sentinoles were actually seen taking down the bodies and burying them, perhaps as a move to appease the giant flying metal box that had just appeared. And for the next 12 years, there was no incident, with people having apparently learned to steer a clear way.

Until that is, a 26-year-old American missionary came along, Chaun Chow. Now, you might have already heard of this unfortunate tale. But to recap, in 2018, a missionary from the All Nations organization, traveled to the island in hopes of living amongst them and converting them, apparently ignoring their historical aggression. And so this led to not just one, but multiple attempts by him to reach the island. And during this time, Chao actually documented some of his interactions, stating that the group community, using lots of high-pitched sounds and various different gestures. While attempts to speak to them was often met with laughter. He later would write, the group seemed to react with amusement, bewilderment, and hostility,

all at the same time in reaction to his presence. And one day, while trying to hand them gifts, he even got little taste of the recent metalwork, as the boy reportedly shot a metal-tipped arrow at him, possibly been made from the scrapped primrose, which then impaled the Bible he was holding to his chest. Now for most, this would be a pretty lucky warning and assigned to a never return to the island. But not for Chow, who some days later made a final visit, where he told fishermen aiding his travels to leave without him. It's not known exactly what transpired after this, but we do know that Chow was killed, as the next day the sentinoles were spotted dragging his body along the shore.

And unfortunately, in 2023, more deaths would occur on this island, as this time three fishermen are believed to have been marooned on the island, and then were promptly killed by the tribe. And so with all this said, it may come as a surprise that there are those that would seemingly still risk their lives visiting this island for Fonzie's, such as the Ukrainian-American YouTuber Mikhailo Poliakov, who made an unauthorized landing on the island and filmed a YouTube video in which he supposedly left a diet coke and coconut behind. So, not exactly the brightest idea, but at least he survived. And while our knowledge on this tribe remains next to none,

given the small amount of productive contact we've actually had with them, I don't really know if I want to learn more about them via YouTubers or anyone else showing up and shoving a camera down their throats. But who knows, maybe someone will voluntarily leave in the future and will finally know more about this isolated group of people. Thanks for watching, until next time.