Man's achievement, eh?
Language. Defined by Meriam Webster as " a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings," language is, without any doubt to me, humankind's greatest achievement. It's the primary foundation for civilization and for all other accomplishments of humanity. This includes the sort of buildings, monuments, and cities shown in photographs here, the art of writing, scientific discoveries, academic studies, and the general pursuit of knowledge.
At this point in evolutionary history, language is an instinctive human capability, though the vocabulary and specificites of grammar are determined by the environment and the individual's observations during neurological development. There are a plethora of hypotheses, but until recently with the rise of computer modeling and other advances in technology, they remained vague and prone to logical problems, including the suggestion that language rose from onomatopeia, spontaneous vocal reactions to stimuli, warnings of approaching threats, or the vocalization of hand and bodily gestures. The hypotheses remained as such largely due to the historical lack of empirical data.
However, empirical data on the neurology of language today is obtainable. There are many areas of the brain that are thought or known to play a role in the use of language, a large number of which are located in the temporal and parietal lobes, as shown in this diagram:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Surfacegyri.jpgDifferent forms of aphasia (loss of lingusitc ability not caused by muscle paralysis) after sustaining brain damage show that Broca's area plays a significant role in the formation of grammar and syntax, while Wernicke's area is involved with comprehension, understanding, and vocabulary. in addition, separate studies show the importance of the angular gyrus in understanding figurative language.
No matter what the method by which it originally came about, language is the greatest human achievement. As spoken and written language rose, the intellectual level of group dynamics and interpersonal relations rose to a then unprecedented point. With communication could come collaboration for the construction of cities, law, a hierarchal social structure, as well as art, concepts, and ideas. And the rest is history.