1 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:05,720 For thousands of years, 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:10,000 the Ayoreo tribe have lived in the forests of South America. 3 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:16,000 They're still leading much the same hunter-gatherer lifestyle 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,840 as the very first humans on Earth. 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:27,680 But in June 1998, they came face to face with the 20th century. 6 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,040 KNOCKING 7 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,040 This was a chance encounter between two worlds, 8 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:58,480 both equally human but completely divided by history. 9 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:03,560 In this series, I'm going to tell the story 10 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,560 of the adventures and events that divided them... 11 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,800 Thousands of years of explosive change. 12 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,080 70,000 years of human history - 13 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:27,560 stories that we thought we knew and others we were never told. 14 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,320 None of us can hope to know all of the human story 15 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:36,600 but it does help to have the big picture 16 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:40,360 because it's really the story of who we are now, 17 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,280 our own ancestors' long walk, 18 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,320 the tiny things that changed the world... 19 00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:48,800 EXPLOSION 20 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:50,160 ..nature biting back, 21 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:52,720 old glories, 22 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:56,720 winners...and losers, 23 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:00,720 truth seekers and astonishing discoveries... 24 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:02,160 GUILLOTINE FALLS 25 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:04,720 ..revolutions in blood and in iron... 26 00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:08,360 EXPLOSION 27 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:14,040 ..modern madness and the wonders of the digital age. 28 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:19,560 We have been brilliantly clever at reshaping the world around us - 29 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:25,120 almost as clever as we think we are, though not perhaps as wise. 30 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:31,920 There will be challenges, triumphs and surprises, 31 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:35,320 all the essentials of the story - 32 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:40,080 except, of course, how it ends. 33 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,560 Africa, around 70,000 years ago. 34 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:11,400 These people are fully developed modern humans, just like us, 35 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:16,800 Homo sapiens - it means "wise man". 36 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:23,800 As hunter-gatherers we were driven by familiar basic needs - 37 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,680 food, water, shelter. 38 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:31,880 And for over 100,000 years, we'd been changing, adapting 39 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:35,080 and struggling to survive. 40 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,320 Climate was a big part of this - 41 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,720 the Earth shivered its way through ice ages, 42 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,760 the skies were darkened by vast volcanic eruptions, 43 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,240 the planet grew hotter and drier, and then colder and wetter again, 44 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:58,960 and each change challenged mankind to find new ways to survive. 45 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:00,720 Those who did survive 46 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,840 emerged tougher, cleverer and better organised. 47 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:14,360 And in this particular tribe, there was someone special. 48 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,480 She was part of one small group 49 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,440 of probably fewer than a thousand people, 50 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:23,560 slowly moving towards the north-east coast of Africa. 51 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,880 For early people, life really was a journey. 52 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:49,440 It was an endless trek after game and fruit and seeds. 53 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:55,520 Settle down, call anywhere home, and you would starve to death. 54 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,680 Criss-crossing Africa over tens of thousands of years, 55 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:28,600 dealing with the changing climate 56 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,880 and animals rather bigger and faster than they were, 57 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,880 people learned the essentials of survival - 58 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,760 language, clothing and cooked food... 59 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:44,680 ..and, above all, working together to stay alive. 60 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:53,400 Africa nourished us, 61 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:57,640 but she was always difficult and always dangerous. 62 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:08,920 WIND HOWLS 63 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:47,640 SHE BREATHES HEAVILY 64 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,120 Over tens of thousands of years, 65 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:43,720 there's evidence that other tribes 66 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:47,160 made the same dangerous journey out of Africa. 67 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:59,120 But after studying the evolution of human DNA, 68 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:03,160 scientists have concluded that only one tribe lasted 69 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:08,040 long enough outside Africa to leave a lasting legacy. 70 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:12,400 This is the tribe that made it. 71 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:13,800 HE YELLS 72 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,320 They probably hopped from island to island, 73 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:19,720 across what is now the Red Sea, 74 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:25,040 arriving in today's Arabia around 65,000 years ago, 75 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,560 and, amazing as it sounds, 76 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:34,240 almost all of us alive today are related to one woman in this tribe. 77 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:43,520 Of course, we don't know her name but she was a survivor, 78 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,680 and we could call her simply "Mother", 79 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:49,600 because there is a tiny genetic mutation 80 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:54,680 in every single person alive today who isn't from Sub-Saharan Africa, 81 00:08:54,680 --> 00:08:58,240 and scientists have tracked it back 82 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,720 to one migration out of Africa, 83 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,520 one tribe, one woman. 84 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,280 WOMAN CRIES OUT 85 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:16,200 It seems impossible, 86 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:20,200 but whether you're from Aberdeen or Islamabad, Tokyo or New York, 87 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:23,560 Scandinavia or the Pacific Islands, 88 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:28,360 she is your universal African mother. 89 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:34,160 BABY CRIES 90 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:43,520 And the journey didn't end in Arabia because her tribe kept on moving. 91 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:49,080 Step by step, mile by mile, generation by generation, 92 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:53,480 modern humans spread out and slowly colonised the rest of the planet. 93 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:15,080 First, we travelled east along the coast towards India and East Asia. 94 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,080 It's reckoned that some of us may have reached Australia 95 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:19,760 50,000 years ago. 96 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,880 The land bridge that then connected Asia and America wasn't crossed 97 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:28,280 until around 15,000 years ago, 98 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:32,400 but then quickly people spread right down through the Americas 99 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:33,560 to the far south. 100 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:38,800 All these journeys were slowed or accelerated by cold or heat 101 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:41,840 or climate change. 102 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,960 From the Middle East, another branch of humans headed north-west, 103 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,520 arriving in Europe around 45,000 years ago. 104 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:03,240 By the time we arrived in Europe we were already deeply tribal, 105 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:06,960 living and co-operating together in groups much larger than families, 106 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:10,400 which was very important to our success as hunters, 107 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,040 but it had another side. 108 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:18,240 Our tribal loyalties meant we had an ingrained hostility to outsiders - 109 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:21,400 anyone who looked a little different, spoke differently, 110 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,720 dressed differently or perhaps even smelt differently. 111 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:31,960 Truer still of people who really WERE different 112 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:36,560 because when we got to Europe, we discovered that we were not alone. 113 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:46,880 Another variety of human had been living here 114 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:50,440 for an almost unimaginable period of time... 115 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:54,120 The Neanderthals. 116 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:56,800 Stocky and tough, 117 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:01,880 they'd survived ice-age conditions we can barely comprehend 118 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:07,280 and now they faced a rather more dangerous challenge - us. 119 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:09,840 TWIG SNAPS SHOUTING 120 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:26,800 Scientists argue about this 121 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,800 but we probably co-existed with the Neanderthals in Europe 122 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,280 for between 5,000 and 10,000 years, 123 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:34,400 and during that time 124 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,040 the Neanderthals went into rapid decline. 125 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:49,920 NEANDERTHAL CRIES OUT 126 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,720 Nobody knows for sure what happened to them. 127 00:12:57,720 --> 00:12:59,440 They were tough survivors 128 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:03,560 who had been around for at least 250,000 years - 129 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:05,760 rather longer than we've managed. 130 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:12,280 It's probable that we pushed them out of their hunting grounds. 131 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:17,440 It's also possible, I regret to report, that we liked to eat them. 132 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:26,320 HE CRIES OUT 133 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:31,240 HE YELLS 134 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:40,440 NEANDERTHAL YELLS 135 00:13:55,320 --> 00:14:00,000 30,000 years ago the Neanderthals became extinct, 136 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,760 and modern humans - clever, clannish and remarkably violent - 137 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:08,160 were ready to rule the planet. 138 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:18,040 Except that now our ruthless determination 139 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:21,200 came up against something rather more formidable 140 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:23,200 than the Neanderthals. 141 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:32,320 Around 20,000 years ago, temperatures plunged even further. 142 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:38,680 We were forced once again to adapt or die. 143 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,760 Adversity favours the versatile, 144 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:47,760 and this time a very homely piece of technology 145 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,120 would make all the difference. 146 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:59,400 This is a needle, made out of bone. 147 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:03,960 This is the real thing. 148 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:08,400 It's about 17,000 years old. 149 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:10,920 It's got a beautifully made little eye in it, 150 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:14,480 very similar to the needles you may have at home, 151 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,320 and what a needle allows you to do 152 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:22,680 is to wear not animal skins, but clothes that actually fit. 153 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:32,360 The invention of the needle would help revolutionise human life. 154 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,640 Wearing sewn clothing in layers, 155 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,680 we could huddle and judder our way through the harsh ice-age winters. 156 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:50,920 We could be out, tracking animals further, hunting for longer - 157 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:53,480 better predators. 158 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,240 We had arrows, yes, and spears of course, 159 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,480 but the needle was the great, unexpected 160 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:02,520 life-or-death breakthrough. 161 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:13,920 Modern humans were proving to be 162 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:17,800 one of the most resilient species on the planet, 163 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:20,160 something new under the sun. 164 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,720 But it's in the French Pyrenees we find evidence 165 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:31,400 that Homo sapiens might live up to the boastful "wise man" label, 166 00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,440 and hope for something more than survival. 167 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:39,040 We are already trying to mark ourselves out, 168 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:42,640 to understand our place in the world. 169 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:47,400 Here at the Gargas caves in the South of France, 170 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:52,080 we can see our ancestors' determination to leave a record. 171 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:04,760 What's down here isn't exactly art and it's not graffiti. 172 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:08,200 It's something more personal 173 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:12,400 and, I think, more emotional. 174 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:47,720 These marks were made by people like us 175 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,880 27,000 years ago. 176 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:56,200 Mouth and hand - it doesn't get more personal than that. 177 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,560 There is something so common, 178 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:15,680 so ordinary about making a hand print - 179 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:18,880 children in primary schools all over the world still do it - 180 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:22,120 that you can't help 181 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:26,320 but feel oddly connected to these people 182 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:31,400 who were standing here at the very beginning of the human story. 183 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:43,160 These hand prints are some of the oldest human markings in the world. 184 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:45,240 Similar prints have been discovered 185 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,360 in South Africa, Australia, North America and Argentina. 186 00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:54,320 It's the first example of what you might call recorded history - 187 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:59,080 a universal statement saying, "We are here." 188 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,720 Around 16,000 years ago, 189 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,720 the northern hemisphere began to warm up. 190 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,480 After tens of thousands of years living as hunter-gatherers 191 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:25,600 at the mercy of nature, 192 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,440 this transformation of the world's climate 193 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:32,960 helped our ancestors to do something radically new. 194 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:40,560 The river Tigris, Eastern Turkey, in the Fertile Crescent. 195 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:45,000 Humans can eat 56 kinds of wild grass, 196 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,640 and 32 of them grew here, 197 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:53,360 compared, for instance, to just four in America. 198 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:55,480 Fertile indeed. 199 00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,440 This is where 200 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:04,560 the single biggest change that humans have ever made to the planet, 201 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,880 even in our age of science and great cities... 202 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:12,360 The one thing that has changed Earth more than any other, 203 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:16,080 started here in the "land of the rivers". 204 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:25,240 The people who lived in this blessed place ate wild plants, 205 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:28,120 kept a few tame animals, and hunted, 206 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:33,400 but they were also lazy enough to not to want to keep walking further 207 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:35,920 to find more tasty seeds to eat. 208 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,320 Laziness turns out to be an underestimated force 209 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:42,840 in human history. 210 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,360 So, if you don't want to go to find your food, 211 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:56,080 you can hardly make your food come to you. Or can you? 212 00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:13,120 These are the great anonymous inventors, 213 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:16,600 and it's from this breakthrough that everything follows. 214 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:21,600 It's a crucial moment in shifting the balance between humankind 215 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,120 and the rest of nature. 216 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:32,960 THEY CONVERSE IN NATIVE LANGUAGE 217 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,240 It's not an obvious thing to do. 218 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:19,920 You gather the grains - the food that you're hungry for 219 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:22,160 and your family is hungry for - 220 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:26,280 but instead of eating it, you keep some of it back... 221 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:32,880 ..and you take it and you plant it back into the dirt. 222 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,840 And then you wait. 223 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,720 WIND HOWLS 224 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:07,920 THUNDER CLAPS 225 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,520 To take a seed and plant it seems such an obvious idea now 226 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:17,240 but 13,000 years ago it really was a gamble. 227 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,440 It shows thinking ahead, 228 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,560 it shows planning, 229 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,080 it shows a certain faith. 230 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,960 But by making that simple change, 231 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,680 foragers who live throughout the landscape 232 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:36,880 picking things up all over the place 233 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,360 are starting to become farmers 234 00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:43,400 who have an investment in ONE piece of earth. 235 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,560 And by choosing the biggest seeds to grow, 236 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:05,000 people reshaped the plants, as well. 237 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,200 Bigger seeds and, eventually, bigger everything. 238 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:14,240 Later on, 239 00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:16,440 people in China, India and South America 240 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,560 would invent farming for themselves. 241 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:26,240 Three grasses triumphed in ancient times - wheat, rice and corn. 242 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:32,680 12,000 years on, and they are still the bedrock of the human diet. 243 00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:45,640 Farming was the great leap forward, but progress came at a price. 244 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:50,800 When people settled down to farm, life got harder. 245 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:55,320 The archaeologists are clear. 246 00:24:55,320 --> 00:25:00,560 Farmers became smaller and they died younger than hunter-gatherers. 247 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:05,880 Labour in the fields led to joints inflamed by arthritis, 248 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:07,840 and the diet of sticky porridge 249 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,800 brought tooth decay for the first time. 250 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:16,960 So why would people farm when the world was still teeming with game? 251 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,440 More to the point, why would they carry on farming? 252 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,160 Well, part of the reason is that they got trapped 253 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,960 by their own population explosion. 254 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,800 Once people were settled down with more food, 255 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,280 the numbers in the families grew. 256 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,320 Hunter-gatherers had to limit the number of children 257 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,080 to those who could be carried with them, but farmers didn't. 258 00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:45,880 As human numbers rose, and people started to work together, 259 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:50,960 farmers began settling down in larger groups. 260 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:58,440 Scattered across the plains of Anatolia in Turkey 261 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:00,920 are mysterious mounds. 262 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:06,960 Hidden inside them is the earliest evidence of that next big step - 263 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:08,360 towns. 264 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,720 HE CHANTS 265 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,080 9,000 years ago, a community, 266 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:25,440 a small town of up to 8,000 people, 267 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:27,800 lived here at Catalhoyuk. 268 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,240 And it's here that we meet one of the first individuals 269 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,800 to emerge from our early history. 270 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:45,480 Her skeleton was excavated in 2004. 271 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:46,960 She was only in her twenties 272 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,640 when she was buried underneath the floor of her home. 273 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:58,320 She was found curled up, tightly holding a skull, 274 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,640 forehead to forehead like this. 275 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,640 The skull had been plastered 276 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:10,840 and, in fact, it had been plastered and re-plastered quite a few times, 277 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,840 suggesting that it had been used for one burial and then another, 278 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,960 buried again and dug up and used again. 279 00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:24,600 It was almost certainly an ancestor, somebody who mattered to her family. 280 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:34,640 What we seem to be seeing here is ancestor worship - 281 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:40,880 worship of the ground that you stand in and the people you come from. 282 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:50,640 The young woman was buried wearing a rare leopard-claw necklace. 283 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:59,360 What's going on here is the opening up of another human frontier. 284 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:03,960 As a town, Catalhoyuk is a little conquest of physical space, 285 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:06,600 the here and now, 286 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:08,720 but the leopard lady's grave 287 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:13,120 is an attempt to take control of time, too, 288 00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:19,080 to link the dead, the living and those still to be born. 289 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,920 These were people who, if asked, "Who do you think you are?" 290 00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:31,680 could give a very clear answer. 291 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:38,360 Their town was a compact network of mud-brick houses, 292 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,800 almost like a human beehive, 293 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:46,040 and not so different from modern shanty towns in today's world. 294 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,800 People walked across the town on flat roofs 295 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:53,720 and they entered their homes via ladders through the rooftops. 296 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,880 First of all, it is recognisably a house, 297 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,600 not so different in the way it's laid out 298 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:05,280 to innumerable flats and apartments and homes today. 299 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,240 Through here is, if you like, the pantry 300 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,920 with great big clay buckets originally, 301 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,960 where they kept all kinds of grains and seeds. 302 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:18,280 Through here there is what was probably some kind of bedroom. 303 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,720 Five to ten people probably lived in this place, 304 00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:24,240 so a familiar design. But the second thing about it 305 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:28,120 is that the people who lived here were scrupulously clean 306 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,280 and they couldn't wash the floors and walls 307 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:31,840 because they were made of earth 308 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:34,720 but what they did was they whitewashed them, endlessly. 309 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,800 Over here you can see these little lines 310 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:42,840 and that was layer upon layer of whitewashing, 311 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,800 and this wall, archaeologists tell us, 312 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:50,320 was whitewashed more than 400 times. 313 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:55,360 So here we are, right at the beginning of human society, 314 00:29:55,360 --> 00:30:00,240 in a place and surrounded by the ghosts of people 315 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,080 that we already recognise. 316 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,840 The Leopard Lady grew up in a well-ordered and stable community 317 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,080 where men and women were equally well fed 318 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,960 and enjoyed the same social status. 319 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:22,480 This seems to have been a peaceful place with no defensive walls 320 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,240 and no signs of social division or conflict. 321 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,840 There are no temples, there's no palace, 322 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:37,640 there are no warriors' areas or special women's quarters - 323 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,920 just families living alongside one another and co-operating, 324 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,400 almost like the modern anarchists' fantasy 325 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,600 of a world without rulers, a society without bosses, 326 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,840 and the problem, of course, with that 327 00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:57,000 is that these kinds of arrangements always fall apart very quickly. 328 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:02,800 The people of Catalhoyuk could only manage it for 1,400 years. 329 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:07,560 SHE TUTS 330 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,920 But this was no Garden of Eden. 331 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:15,520 Like farming, living in towns brought new dangers. 332 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,080 Thousands of people and goats, cows and ducks 333 00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,920 living in close quarters 334 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:25,080 created perfect conditions for diseases to spread, 335 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:26,520 and there's evidence that 336 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:32,480 tuberculosis passed from cattle to humans at about this time. 337 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:40,640 THUNDER CLAPS 338 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:54,400 Most of the worst threats to human health - 339 00:31:54,400 --> 00:32:01,200 smallpox, measles, flu - came first from farm animals. 340 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,720 Maybe that's why the Leopard Lady died an early death, 341 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,480 before being buried beneath the floor of her home, 342 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:11,640 like her ancestors. 343 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:20,520 Farming and town-living had both brought new dangers 344 00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:21,920 but the trap had closed. 345 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,520 There was no going back. 346 00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:28,120 Across the world, many of our ancestors were now living 347 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,680 in independent settled communities. 348 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:35,960 But what would possibly bring them together into bigger groups? 349 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:41,400 Again, we have to look to nature - not simply its opportunities 350 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,680 but also its threats. 351 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:49,600 All around the world people have told stories about a great flood, 352 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,400 and it really does seem that something happened 353 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,160 about 4,000 years ago 354 00:32:55,160 --> 00:33:00,240 which caused devastation to many of the first civilisations, 355 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:01,760 including China. 356 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:03,800 But what makes China different 357 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,120 is that they still tell stories, 358 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,480 part myth but part, probably, history, too. 359 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,520 In China, it really does all start with the Flood. 360 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:20,200 THUNDER 361 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,640 WIND HOWLS 362 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:33,560 According to the ancient chronicles, there were nine years of heavy rain, 363 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:38,360 causing the Yellow River to change its course with devastating effects. 364 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,760 WIND HOWLS 365 00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:42,200 SHE CRIES OUT 366 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:48,840 The Yellow River is also known as "China's Great Sorrow". 367 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:52,960 For thousands of years it regularly burst its banks, 368 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,720 wiping out entire villages, destroying everything in its path. 369 00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:58,960 THUNDER SHE CRIES OUT 370 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,280 The 3,000-mile-long river 371 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,560 flooded an area greater than the entire United Kingdom. 372 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,200 The old legends say that one of the clan leaders 373 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:31,680 appointed a man named Gun to devise a way to tame the river. 374 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,720 The stakes were rather high. 375 00:34:42,720 --> 00:34:45,960 If Gun succeeded, he'd be richly rewarded. 376 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,120 If he failed, he'd pay with his life. 377 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,080 He built huge earth dams. 378 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,880 But time and again, they were brushed aside by the floodwaters. 379 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:19,480 Gun was unable to save his people... 380 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:21,160 or himself. 381 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:27,040 The father's burden would now fall upon his son, Yu. 382 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:44,840 After Gun's execution, 383 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:48,440 the clan leader ordered Yu to come up with a new idea 384 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,720 about how to control the floods, 385 00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:53,320 and Yu dedicated his life to the job. 386 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,320 According to old Chinese legends, 387 00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:58,600 he said he wouldn't return to his pregnant wife 388 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,120 until the river was tamed. 389 00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,840 The ancient chronicles say that Yu decided to begin 390 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,320 by surveying the entire length of the river. 391 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,360 On this epic trek he came up with a radically different plan. 392 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,880 No more confrontations with nature, no more dams. 393 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:39,080 Instead of trying to confront the raging waters like his father, 394 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:41,200 he would divide them. 395 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:53,760 Yu planned to create a vast network of channels. 396 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,480 During the flood season, 397 00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,400 they would divert the full force of the river 398 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,440 and reduce its destructive flow, 399 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:06,560 but that meant a colossal work of engineering... 400 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:18,640 ..and a huge diplomatic challenge - because in order to succeed, 401 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,600 he'd have to convince hundreds of rival clans 402 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,080 to set aside centuries of hostility. 403 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:36,520 We're going back to the old strength of pre-historic humanity, tribalism, 404 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:39,360 which was now becoming a weakness, 405 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,000 because only by working together 406 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:48,960 could the clans possibly solve the problem of the Yellow River. 407 00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,680 Yu's epic engineering project began. 408 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:10,040 Myth or not, there were major river-taming projects at this time. 409 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:22,880 The story goes that over the next 13 years, 410 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,320 Yu passed his home three times, 411 00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:29,480 but he remained true to his vow of self-sacrifice 412 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,440 and never went inside. 413 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:03,640 Finally, his vast network of channels was complete. 414 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:17,800 THUNDER 415 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,400 And the rains came again. 416 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,840 Yu's great feat of engineering would be put to the test. 417 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:51,360 But the channels calmed the floods. 418 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:57,280 Yu's story tells us an important historical truth 419 00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,360 about how natural challenges 420 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,400 brought river-dwelling people together. 421 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:18,920 Da Yu had united the clans of the Yellow River for the first time 422 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:23,640 because only by coming together, under a single authority, 423 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,520 could they solve this problem. 424 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,760 As a reward, the clan leader made Yu his heir. 425 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:36,640 Some people argue he founded the first Chinese dynasty, 426 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:41,960 and certainly Chinese history begins on the banks of the Yellow River. 427 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:48,000 Yu is known to this day as Da Yu - the Great Yu - 428 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:52,520 and it's interesting that the first Chinese hero 429 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,280 was a civil engineer and a civil servant. 430 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:01,360 All around the world, 431 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:06,880 history is shaped by the desire to shape nature to suit us. 432 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,040 BABY CRIES 433 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,960 That means working together, 434 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,040 but it's also competitive and violent. 435 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:25,640 Each move forward brings fresh problems. 436 00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:31,960 Farming brings more people, but it brings more disease, 437 00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:37,440 and in more complex societies, leaders and priests will emerge. 438 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,880 It's all a shaggy-dog story of unexpected consequences. 439 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:49,440 From the sweat and success of the first farmers, 440 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,280 all the world's hierarchies, 441 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,280 from landlords and popes to emperors would grow, 442 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,200 and they only thought they were planting next year's porridge 443 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,880 or trying to keep dry. 444 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:15,200 Egypt, 3,200 years ago. 445 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:18,320 The Nile is the longest river in the world. 446 00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:21,920 It flows from south to north, 447 00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,960 but the prevailing winds go the other way, 448 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,560 making it a wonderful two-way transport system 449 00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:30,320 and a lush green corridor. 450 00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:41,120 So it's not so surprising 451 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:45,600 that the world's first great civilisation started here, 452 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,520 with its temples, writing, priests, 453 00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:50,840 its awesome rulers. 454 00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:06,800 The pharaohs thought that their stony, river civilisation 455 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,840 would last for eternity, 456 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,840 and, of course, all of this is only possible 457 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:17,320 because of the huge numbers of people planting, and cursing, 458 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:20,120 and lifting and cutting - 459 00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:26,080 all the workers on whose backs these great edifices were raised 460 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,920 and you never hear about them. 461 00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:31,320 You never know what THEY thought of it all. 462 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,960 Well, except sometimes, you do hear. 463 00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,480 FAINT SHOUTS 464 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,480 Thanks to one remarkable invention, 465 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,760 we know exactly what life was like for ordinary Egyptians. 466 00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:13,360 This was once the town of Set Ma'at, "the Place of Truth". 467 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:17,720 The stonemasons and carpenters who built the pharaohs' tombs 468 00:44:17,720 --> 00:44:20,840 in the nearby Valley of the Kings lived here. 469 00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:33,120 22,000 years after we splashed our hand prints onto the walls of caves, 470 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,880 our enthusiasm for leaving our marks on the world 471 00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:39,800 had reached a new level. 472 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:44,640 Writing had developed in Egypt around 5,000 years ago, 473 00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:49,360 and at first it would have been the preserve of specialist scribes 474 00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:50,800 but the people of Set Ma'at 475 00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:57,400 are among the first working people in the world to learn how to write. 476 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,640 The ordinary villagers sent letters and messages, 477 00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,960 rather as we fire off texts and e-mails today, 478 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:12,320 but they wrote them down on little pieces of limestone 479 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:14,880 or on broken pieces of pottery. 480 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:16,760 They're called ostraca. 481 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:19,200 And they were discovered in their thousands 482 00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:22,040 where they'd just been chucked away, 483 00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:27,560 so that we can eavesdrop on village life from more than 3,000 years ago. 484 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:34,920 SHE SIGHS 485 00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:43,120 SHE SIGHS 486 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:49,120 One of the voices we hear is from an old woman called Naunakthe. 487 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,600 As we hear her speak, 488 00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:53,920 a civilisation that seemed distant and alien 489 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,080 suddenly becomes surprisingly familiar. 490 00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:02,520 'I have raised eight children and brought them up well, 491 00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:04,240 'given them everything they need. 492 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,520 'Now look, I have become old and they don't care for me. 493 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:13,960 'The ones who put their hands in mine and looked after me, 494 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,360 'I will leave them my property. 495 00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:20,000 'But as for the others, they will get nothing.' 496 00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:29,320 The records are packed with all human life - 497 00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:33,080 children's homework, laundry lists, a remedy for piles - 498 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:36,520 green beans, salt, goose fat and honey 499 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:39,280 on the backside for four days. 500 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,160 Oh, yes, and the story of Paneb, 501 00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:46,080 a married man with a son and two daughters. 502 00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,760 A builder with a sideline - 503 00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,720 because Paneb was also a tomb raider. 504 00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:17,400 His story is told in the court records of a scandalous trial. 505 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,160 HE SPEAKS THE LOCAL LANGUAGE 506 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,520 Paneb was the talk of the village. 507 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:28,320 He was accused of "plundering the tomb of the Pharaoh 508 00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:30,840 and stealing burial goods". 509 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:34,800 The judge also charged him with drunk and disorderly behaviour... 510 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:37,360 HE SPEAKS THE LOCAL LANGUAGE 511 00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:45,560 ..and with a violent assault against his stepfather. 512 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:47,280 HE YELLS 513 00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:05,280 Bad enough - Paneb, thief and hooligan - but there was more. 514 00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:09,760 Paneb... 515 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:13,520 He'd slept with the wife of his fellow builder Kenna, 516 00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:17,680 and, no, it didn't stop there. 517 00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:24,480 To make matters worse, 518 00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:28,120 Paneb then went on to sleep with Kenna's daughter. 519 00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:31,040 THEY GASP 520 00:48:31,040 --> 00:48:32,320 THEY GIGGLE 521 00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:44,000 It's beginning to sound like an early draft of EastEnders. 522 00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,680 An outbreak of wild Nile naughtiness. 523 00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:56,360 But what's really interesting is the court itself. 524 00:48:57,480 --> 00:48:59,400 Each Egyptian community had one. 525 00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,200 What's happening here is another major development 526 00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:10,840 in early human history. 527 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,760 They're trying to impose order on society. 528 00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:21,400 In villages and towns, the instinct for fairness is producing law. 529 00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,760 This is good news for human civilisation, 530 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:31,040 although, on the whole, pretty bad news for Paneb. 531 00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:35,120 Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. 532 00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:38,280 Life wasn't easy for ordinary Egyptians, 533 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:41,600 but order was infinitely better than disorder. 534 00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:43,720 We all remember the pyramids and pharaohs, 535 00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:47,880 but advances which were, in the long term, just as significant 536 00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,560 were being made behind humbler walls. 537 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:55,640 But it wasn't just ancient Egypt. All around the Mediterranean, 538 00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:59,160 you start to see people learning to read and write. 539 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:03,120 They trade little luxuries. They eat better food. 540 00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:05,760 They consume spices and herbs. 541 00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:07,800 They drink beer and they drink wine. 542 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:11,520 And things are just going to get better and better. 543 00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,000 Or maybe not. 544 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:22,360 Writing helped speed up the spread of ideas. 545 00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:25,680 Trade accelerated the growth of towns and cities, 546 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,720 and civilisation was spreading. 547 00:50:28,720 --> 00:50:31,240 But the battle with nature never stopped. 548 00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:40,800 The Greek island of Crete sits in an area 549 00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:44,080 prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes 550 00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:47,440 and this was the home of what's been described 551 00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:52,200 as Europe's first civilisation - the Minoans'. 552 00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:57,600 So what does that mean, "civilisation"? 553 00:50:57,600 --> 00:51:00,600 Literally, "people living in towns and cities" 554 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:04,600 but it implies more style, more polish 555 00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:09,520 and few civilisations have seemed as stylish as the Minoans'. 556 00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:23,480 3,700 years ago, 557 00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:27,840 the Minoans were pioneers of international trade. 558 00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:30,840 They shipped wine, olive oil and timber 559 00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,640 throughout the eastern Mediterranean. 560 00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,680 At the heart of the Minoan civilisation 561 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,120 stood their great Palace of Knossos. 562 00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:51,080 In the early 1900s, 563 00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:55,880 Knossos was excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. 564 00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:59,120 He discovered a sophisticated city 565 00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:04,000 that had frescos, aqueducts and even rudimentary plumbing. 566 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:10,320 The frescos and figures of women holding snakes up to the sky 567 00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:15,200 suggest that women held a dominant position in Minoan culture. 568 00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,320 Evans was entranced by the Minoans, 569 00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,960 and he decided to reconstruct their city. 570 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:30,960 There's something interestingly cool and modern about the Minoan style, 571 00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:34,880 something very 1920s, 572 00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,640 and that's because it IS very 1920s. 573 00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:41,600 Reinforced concrete. 574 00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:45,360 The stonework is new and, as for the world-famous frescos, 575 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:49,480 well, they're based on fragments of Minoan art 576 00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:55,160 but they've been very, very seriously worked up. 577 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,080 The beauties shimmying down to a beach party 578 00:52:58,080 --> 00:52:59,760 with their flagons of wine 579 00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:03,560 were famously described by the novelist Evelyn Waugh 580 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:07,320 as being rather like the covers of Vogue magazine. 581 00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:14,640 Evans excavated and rebuilt 582 00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:19,640 at a time when Europe was being torn apart by the First World War, 583 00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:24,120 and he presented the Minoan civilisation as a peaceful utopia. 584 00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,600 Evans imagined the Minoans 585 00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:44,320 ruling over a gentler, more peaceful Europe, 586 00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:48,080 far from the blood-soaked Europe of his own time. 587 00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:03,640 The Minoan culture seemed idyllic, 588 00:54:03,640 --> 00:54:07,360 but first impressions are as dangerous in history 589 00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:08,720 as anywhere else. 590 00:54:09,720 --> 00:54:15,280 In 1979, a darker side to the Minoans was revealed. 591 00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,320 MAN YELLS 592 00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:24,280 And that dark underside was first uncovered here at a little temple 593 00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,680 a few miles inland from Knossos. 594 00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:30,280 It seems a tiny, quiet fragment of paradise today 595 00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:33,560 but when archaeologists started digging through the rubble, 596 00:54:33,560 --> 00:54:37,400 they made a satisfyingly gruesome discovery. 597 00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:43,160 MAN YELLS 598 00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,120 SNAKE HISSES 599 00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:58,600 Now, on these stones, there was some kind of altar 600 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:02,360 and on that the skeleton of a young man, about 18 years old, 601 00:55:02,360 --> 00:55:08,280 and across him was lying a bronze ceremonial dagger. 602 00:55:15,720 --> 00:55:18,960 The bones on the upper part of his body were white 603 00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:20,760 and on the lower part black, 604 00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:25,440 indicating to archaeologists that his heart had still been beating 605 00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,200 as the blood was draining from his body. 606 00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:31,800 He'd bled to death. He was a human sacrifice. 607 00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:34,720 WOMAN CHANTS 608 00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:38,400 Two other bodies were discovered, 609 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,440 here and over here. 610 00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:43,760 One was the body of a woman, 611 00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:48,880 just over five foot high, of medium build, 612 00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:52,480 and her hands were trying to protect her face. 613 00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,760 Now we know that women had high status in Minoan society, 614 00:55:55,760 --> 00:56:00,840 and it's possible, even probable, that she was a priestess. 615 00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:08,360 Minoan society was highly developed, 616 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:11,760 but they lived in fear of the natural forces surrounding them, 617 00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:18,080 and their desire to control nature wasn't matched by their ability. 618 00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:22,040 So they responded with the ultimate religious ritual 619 00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:24,360 in an attempt to appease the gods 620 00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:27,640 they believed controlled the natural world. 621 00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:31,920 KNIFE SLASHES 622 00:56:43,240 --> 00:56:45,920 RUMBLING 623 00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:48,760 Around 3,700 years ago, 624 00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:52,040 during this gory sacrifice, 625 00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:54,560 nature struck again. 626 00:56:57,480 --> 00:56:59,040 CRASHING 627 00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:08,240 LOUD RUMBLING 628 00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:34,440 Trying to police nature has always been the ultimate human challenge. 629 00:57:34,440 --> 00:57:36,320 It still is. 630 00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:40,320 All their attempts to placate the gods having failed, 631 00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:44,120 the Minoan civilisation was devastated. 632 00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:47,560 The Minoans will always be a mysterious people... 633 00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:53,880 ..and yet they do remind us of a fundamental truth, 634 00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:57,960 which is that although the journey from caves to civilisation 635 00:57:57,960 --> 00:57:59,920 had been awesome, 636 00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:02,720 there would be no final victories - 637 00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,520 certainly not over nature, 638 00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:09,280 nor over the darker side of human nature. 639 00:58:19,040 --> 00:58:21,280 THEY YELL RHYTHMICALLY 640 00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:22,440 In the next episode... 641 00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:23,640 HE YELLS 642 00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:26,840 ..the first great Age of Empire... 643 00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,960 ..bold new ideas in East and West... 644 00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:33,600 ..and Alexander the Great. 645 00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:35,160 HE YELLS 646 00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:40,360 If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed, 647 00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:45,280 you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That? 648 00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:47,080 Just call... 649 00:58:50,320 --> 00:58:51,920 Or go to... 650 00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:58,240 ..and follow the links to the Open University. 651 00:59:14,040 --> 00:59:17,280 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd