Re: Has human intelligence changed since the beginning of the Common Era?

Hello Chris!

You pose quite a complicated question.  Human craniums haven't really
changed terribly in the modern era.  I'm afraid you won't really find a
definitive answer to your question, mostly because there is so very little
that we understand (definitively) about the brain and, specifically, about
intelligence.  Like beauty, intelligence is in the eye (and the mind!) of
the beholder.  

The question, in many ways, is more philosophical than biological or
evolutionary.  My personal and professional take on it is that intelligence
and human ability has always been pretty much steady.  We have always had
the same *potential*.  How we develop it and how we use it depends highly
on our environment, the time period and so many other factors.

Measuring human intelligence is something we've been trying to do for the
last hundred and fifty years and, for the most part, we've failed.  We have
some scales that allow us to take a guess at where people fit, in
comparison to each other, but even those are flawed.  They allow us to
figure out where children and adults are, academically, comparatively,
against standards we've established.  Other than that, we still grope in
the dark.  What we DO know, however, is that once in a while, there comes
someone who just absolutely stuns us with their talent - a musical,
mathematical, scientific, artistic wizard who, on all accounts, is of
superior intelligence.  

As a whole, man has probably gained greater access to his brain over the
centuries - tapped into sections of it that his ancestors didn't.  Our fine
motor skills have significantly improved because we're called to use them
more than, say, our great grandparents were.  Is that a sign of greater
intelligence?  Maybe.  It may also simply be a necessary development given
the way our world works today with all our fiddly little electronic
devices.  Our brains have adapted, for better and for worse (!) to those
changes.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you a more definitive answer.  When it comes to
matters of brains and intelligence, it's probably one of the most
"philosophical" of the evolutionary and biological sciences I'm afraid... 
we just don't have answers, but we do marvel at all that the human mind can
do.  From the first dude who figured out how to build a cart, to the
Vikings' shipbuilding mastery, to the miniaturization of... well... everything.

Best of luck to you in your studies,

Marie-Helene