0:00:03 > 0:00:05For thousands of years,
0:00:05 > 0:00:10the Ayoreo tribe have lived in the forests of South America.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16They're still leading much the same hunter-gatherer lifestyle
0:00:16 > 0:00:18as the very first humans on Earth.
0:00:21 > 0:00:27But in June 1998, they came face to face with the 20th century.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43KNOCKING
0:00:49 > 0:00:54This was a chance encounter between two worlds,
0:00:54 > 0:00:58both equally human but completely divided by history.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03In this series, I'm going to tell the story
0:01:03 > 0:01:07of the adventures and events that divided them...
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Thousands of years of explosive change.
0:01:18 > 0:01:2270,000 years of human history -
0:01:22 > 0:01:27stories that we thought we knew and others we were never told.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34None of us can hope to know all of the human story
0:01:34 > 0:01:36but it does help to have the big picture
0:01:36 > 0:01:40because it's really the story of who we are now,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44our own ancestors' long walk,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47the tiny things that changed the world...
0:01:47 > 0:01:48EXPLOSION
0:01:48 > 0:01:50..nature biting back,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52old glories,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56winners...and losers,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00truth seekers and astonishing discoveries...
0:02:00 > 0:02:02GUILLOTINE FALLS
0:02:02 > 0:02:04..revolutions in blood and in iron...
0:02:06 > 0:02:08EXPLOSION
0:02:08 > 0:02:14..modern madness and the wonders of the digital age.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19We have been brilliantly clever at reshaping the world around us -
0:02:19 > 0:02:25almost as clever as we think we are, though not perhaps as wise.
0:02:26 > 0:02:31There will be challenges, triumphs and surprises,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35all the essentials of the story -
0:02:35 > 0:02:40except, of course, how it ends.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Africa, around 70,000 years ago.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11These people are fully developed modern humans, just like us,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Homo sapiens - it means "wise man".
0:03:17 > 0:03:23As hunter-gatherers we were driven by familiar basic needs -
0:03:23 > 0:03:26food, water, shelter.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31And for over 100,000 years, we'd been changing, adapting
0:03:31 > 0:03:35and struggling to survive.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Climate was a big part of this -
0:03:40 > 0:03:43the Earth shivered its way through ice ages,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47the skies were darkened by vast volcanic eruptions,
0:03:47 > 0:03:52the planet grew hotter and drier, and then colder and wetter again,
0:03:52 > 0:03:58and each change challenged mankind to find new ways to survive.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00Those who did survive
0:04:00 > 0:04:04emerged tougher, cleverer and better organised.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14And in this particular tribe, there was someone special.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16She was part of one small group
0:04:16 > 0:04:19of probably fewer than a thousand people,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23slowly moving towards the north-east coast of Africa.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43For early people, life really was a journey.
0:04:43 > 0:04:49It was an endless trek after game and fruit and seeds.
0:04:49 > 0:04:55Settle down, call anywhere home, and you would starve to death.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Criss-crossing Africa over tens of thousands of years,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28dealing with the changing climate
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and animals rather bigger and faster than they were,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35people learned the essentials of survival -
0:05:35 > 0:05:38language, clothing and cooked food...
0:05:40 > 0:05:44..and, above all, working together to stay alive.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Africa nourished us,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57but she was always difficult and always dangerous.
0:06:07 > 0:06:08WIND HOWLS
0:06:45 > 0:06:47SHE BREATHES HEAVILY
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Over tens of thousands of years,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43there's evidence that other tribes
0:07:43 > 0:07:47made the same dangerous journey out of Africa.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59But after studying the evolution of human DNA,
0:07:59 > 0:08:03scientists have concluded that only one tribe lasted
0:08:03 > 0:08:08long enough outside Africa to leave a lasting legacy.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12This is the tribe that made it.
0:08:12 > 0:08:13HE YELLS
0:08:13 > 0:08:16They probably hopped from island to island,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19across what is now the Red Sea,
0:08:19 > 0:08:25arriving in today's Arabia around 65,000 years ago,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and, amazing as it sounds,
0:08:28 > 0:08:34almost all of us alive today are related to one woman in this tribe.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43Of course, we don't know her name but she was a survivor,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and we could call her simply "Mother",
0:08:46 > 0:08:49because there is a tiny genetic mutation
0:08:49 > 0:08:54in every single person alive today who isn't from Sub-Saharan Africa,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58and scientists have tracked it back
0:08:58 > 0:09:00to one migration out of Africa,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03one tribe, one woman.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05WOMAN CRIES OUT
0:09:14 > 0:09:16It seems impossible,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20but whether you're from Aberdeen or Islamabad, Tokyo or New York,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Scandinavia or the Pacific Islands,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28she is your universal African mother.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34BABY CRIES
0:09:37 > 0:09:43And the journey didn't end in Arabia because her tribe kept on moving.
0:09:43 > 0:09:49Step by step, mile by mile, generation by generation,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53modern humans spread out and slowly colonised the rest of the planet.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15First, we travelled east along the coast towards India and East Asia.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18It's reckoned that some of us may have reached Australia
0:10:18 > 0:10:1950,000 years ago.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25The land bridge that then connected Asia and America wasn't crossed
0:10:25 > 0:10:28until around 15,000 years ago,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32but then quickly people spread right down through the Americas
0:10:32 > 0:10:33to the far south.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38All these journeys were slowed or accelerated by cold or heat
0:10:38 > 0:10:41or climate change.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45From the Middle East, another branch of humans headed north-west,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49arriving in Europe around 45,000 years ago.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03By the time we arrived in Europe we were already deeply tribal,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06living and co-operating together in groups much larger than families,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10which was very important to our success as hunters,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12but it had another side.
0:11:12 > 0:11:18Our tribal loyalties meant we had an ingrained hostility to outsiders -
0:11:18 > 0:11:21anyone who looked a little different, spoke differently,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25dressed differently or perhaps even smelt differently.
0:11:25 > 0:11:31Truer still of people who really WERE different
0:11:31 > 0:11:36because when we got to Europe, we discovered that we were not alone.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Another variety of human had been living here
0:11:46 > 0:11:50for an almost unimaginable period of time...
0:11:52 > 0:11:54The Neanderthals.
0:11:55 > 0:11:56Stocky and tough,
0:11:56 > 0:12:01they'd survived ice-age conditions we can barely comprehend
0:12:01 > 0:12:07and now they faced a rather more dangerous challenge - us.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09TWIG SNAPS SHOUTING
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Scientists argue about this
0:12:26 > 0:12:29but we probably co-existed with the Neanderthals in Europe
0:12:29 > 0:12:33for between 5,000 and 10,000 years,
0:12:33 > 0:12:34and during that time
0:12:34 > 0:12:38the Neanderthals went into rapid decline.
0:12:48 > 0:12:49NEANDERTHAL CRIES OUT
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Nobody knows for sure what happened to them.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59They were tough survivors
0:12:59 > 0:13:03who had been around for at least 250,000 years -
0:13:03 > 0:13:05rather longer than we've managed.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12It's probable that we pushed them out of their hunting grounds.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17It's also possible, I regret to report, that we liked to eat them.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26HE CRIES OUT
0:13:29 > 0:13:31HE YELLS
0:13:38 > 0:13:40NEANDERTHAL YELLS
0:13:55 > 0:14:0030,000 years ago the Neanderthals became extinct,
0:14:00 > 0:14:05and modern humans - clever, clannish and remarkably violent -
0:14:05 > 0:14:08were ready to rule the planet.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Except that now our ruthless determination
0:14:18 > 0:14:21came up against something rather more formidable
0:14:21 > 0:14:23than the Neanderthals.
0:14:25 > 0:14:32Around 20,000 years ago, temperatures plunged even further.
0:14:34 > 0:14:38We were forced once again to adapt or die.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42Adversity favours the versatile,
0:14:42 > 0:14:47and this time a very homely piece of technology
0:14:47 > 0:14:50would make all the difference.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59This is a needle, made out of bone.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03This is the real thing.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08It's about 17,000 years old.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10It's got a beautifully made little eye in it,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14very similar to the needles you may have at home,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and what a needle allows you to do
0:15:17 > 0:15:22is to wear not animal skins, but clothes that actually fit.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32The invention of the needle would help revolutionise human life.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Wearing sewn clothing in layers,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39we could huddle and judder our way through the harsh ice-age winters.
0:15:44 > 0:15:50We could be out, tracking animals further, hunting for longer -
0:15:50 > 0:15:53better predators.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57We had arrows, yes, and spears of course,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00but the needle was the great, unexpected
0:16:00 > 0:16:02life-or-death breakthrough.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Modern humans were proving to be
0:16:13 > 0:16:17one of the most resilient species on the planet,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20something new under the sun.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25But it's in the French Pyrenees we find evidence
0:16:25 > 0:16:31that Homo sapiens might live up to the boastful "wise man" label,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and hope for something more than survival.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39We are already trying to mark ourselves out,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42to understand our place in the world.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47Here at the Gargas caves in the South of France,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52we can see our ancestors' determination to leave a record.
0:16:58 > 0:17:04What's down here isn't exactly art and it's not graffiti.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08It's something more personal
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and, I think, more emotional.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47These marks were made by people like us
0:17:47 > 0:17:5127,000 years ago.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56Mouth and hand - it doesn't get more personal than that.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11There is something so common,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15so ordinary about making a hand print -
0:18:15 > 0:18:18children in primary schools all over the world still do it -
0:18:18 > 0:18:22that you can't help
0:18:22 > 0:18:26but feel oddly connected to these people
0:18:26 > 0:18:31who were standing here at the very beginning of the human story.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43These hand prints are some of the oldest human markings in the world.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Similar prints have been discovered
0:18:45 > 0:18:49in South Africa, Australia, North America and Argentina.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54It's the first example of what you might call recorded history -
0:18:54 > 0:18:59a universal statement saying, "We are here."
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Around 16,000 years ago,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18the northern hemisphere began to warm up.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23After tens of thousands of years living as hunter-gatherers
0:19:23 > 0:19:25at the mercy of nature,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28this transformation of the world's climate
0:19:28 > 0:19:32helped our ancestors to do something radically new.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40The river Tigris, Eastern Turkey, in the Fertile Crescent.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45Humans can eat 56 kinds of wild grass,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47and 32 of them grew here,
0:19:47 > 0:19:53compared, for instance, to just four in America.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Fertile indeed.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59This is where
0:19:59 > 0:20:04the single biggest change that humans have ever made to the planet,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07even in our age of science and great cities...
0:20:07 > 0:20:12The one thing that has changed Earth more than any other,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16started here in the "land of the rivers".
0:20:20 > 0:20:25The people who lived in this blessed place ate wild plants,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28kept a few tame animals, and hunted,
0:20:28 > 0:20:33but they were also lazy enough to not to want to keep walking further
0:20:33 > 0:20:35to find more tasty seeds to eat.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Laziness turns out to be an underestimated force
0:20:41 > 0:20:42in human history.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51So, if you don't want to go to find your food,
0:20:51 > 0:20:56you can hardly make your food come to you. Or can you?
0:21:08 > 0:21:13These are the great anonymous inventors,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16and it's from this breakthrough that everything follows.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21It's a crucial moment in shifting the balance between humankind
0:21:21 > 0:21:23and the rest of nature.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32THEY CONVERSE IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:22:12 > 0:22:15It's not an obvious thing to do.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19You gather the grains - the food that you're hungry for
0:22:19 > 0:22:22and your family is hungry for -
0:22:22 > 0:22:26but instead of eating it, you keep some of it back...
0:22:28 > 0:22:32..and you take it and you plant it back into the dirt.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39And then you wait.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01WIND HOWLS
0:23:05 > 0:23:07THUNDER CLAPS
0:23:09 > 0:23:13To take a seed and plant it seems such an obvious idea now
0:23:13 > 0:23:17but 13,000 years ago it really was a gamble.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23It shows thinking ahead,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25it shows planning,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28it shows a certain faith.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30But by making that simple change,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34foragers who live throughout the landscape
0:23:34 > 0:23:36picking things up all over the place
0:23:36 > 0:23:39are starting to become farmers
0:23:39 > 0:23:43who have an investment in ONE piece of earth.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01And by choosing the biggest seeds to grow,
0:24:01 > 0:24:05people reshaped the plants, as well.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Bigger seeds and, eventually, bigger everything.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Later on,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16people in China, India and South America
0:24:16 > 0:24:18would invent farming for themselves.
0:24:20 > 0:24:26Three grasses triumphed in ancient times - wheat, rice and corn.
0:24:27 > 0:24:3212,000 years on, and they are still the bedrock of the human diet.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45Farming was the great leap forward, but progress came at a price.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50When people settled down to farm, life got harder.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55The archaeologists are clear.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00Farmers became smaller and they died younger than hunter-gatherers.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05Labour in the fields led to joints inflamed by arthritis,
0:25:05 > 0:25:07and the diet of sticky porridge
0:25:07 > 0:25:10brought tooth decay for the first time.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16So why would people farm when the world was still teeming with game?
0:25:16 > 0:25:19More to the point, why would they carry on farming?
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Well, part of the reason is that they got trapped
0:25:23 > 0:25:25by their own population explosion.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Once people were settled down with more food,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32the numbers in the families grew.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Hunter-gatherers had to limit the number of children
0:25:35 > 0:25:39to those who could be carried with them, but farmers didn't.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45As human numbers rose, and people started to work together,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50farmers began settling down in larger groups.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58Scattered across the plains of Anatolia in Turkey
0:25:58 > 0:26:00are mysterious mounds.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06Hidden inside them is the earliest evidence of that next big step -
0:26:06 > 0:26:08towns.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13HE CHANTS
0:26:18 > 0:26:219,000 years ago, a community,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25a small town of up to 8,000 people,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27lived here at Catalhoyuk.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33And it's here that we meet one of the first individuals
0:26:33 > 0:26:35to emerge from our early history.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Her skeleton was excavated in 2004.
0:26:45 > 0:26:46She was only in her twenties
0:26:46 > 0:26:50when she was buried underneath the floor of her home.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58She was found curled up, tightly holding a skull,
0:26:58 > 0:27:00forehead to forehead like this.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05The skull had been plastered
0:27:05 > 0:27:10and, in fact, it had been plastered and re-plastered quite a few times,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13suggesting that it had been used for one burial and then another,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16buried again and dug up and used again.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24It was almost certainly an ancestor, somebody who mattered to her family.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34What we seem to be seeing here is ancestor worship -
0:27:34 > 0:27:40worship of the ground that you stand in and the people you come from.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50The young woman was buried wearing a rare leopard-claw necklace.
0:27:52 > 0:27:59What's going on here is the opening up of another human frontier.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03As a town, Catalhoyuk is a little conquest of physical space,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06the here and now,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08but the leopard lady's grave
0:28:08 > 0:28:13is an attempt to take control of time, too,
0:28:13 > 0:28:19to link the dead, the living and those still to be born.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29These were people who, if asked, "Who do you think you are?"
0:28:29 > 0:28:31could give a very clear answer.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38Their town was a compact network of mud-brick houses,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40almost like a human beehive,
0:28:40 > 0:28:46and not so different from modern shanty towns in today's world.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48People walked across the town on flat roofs
0:28:48 > 0:28:53and they entered their homes via ladders through the rooftops.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57First of all, it is recognisably a house,
0:28:57 > 0:29:00not so different in the way it's laid out
0:29:00 > 0:29:05to innumerable flats and apartments and homes today.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Through here is, if you like, the pantry
0:29:08 > 0:29:10with great big clay buckets originally,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13where they kept all kinds of grains and seeds.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18Through here there is what was probably some kind of bedroom.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Five to ten people probably lived in this place,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24so a familiar design. But the second thing about it
0:29:24 > 0:29:28is that the people who lived here were scrupulously clean
0:29:28 > 0:29:30and they couldn't wash the floors and walls
0:29:30 > 0:29:31because they were made of earth
0:29:31 > 0:29:34but what they did was they whitewashed them, endlessly.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37Over here you can see these little lines
0:29:37 > 0:29:42and that was layer upon layer of whitewashing,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and this wall, archaeologists tell us,
0:29:45 > 0:29:50was whitewashed more than 400 times.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55So here we are, right at the beginning of human society,
0:29:55 > 0:30:00in a place and surrounded by the ghosts of people
0:30:00 > 0:30:03that we already recognise.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10The Leopard Lady grew up in a well-ordered and stable community
0:30:10 > 0:30:14where men and women were equally well fed
0:30:14 > 0:30:16and enjoyed the same social status.
0:30:16 > 0:30:22This seems to have been a peaceful place with no defensive walls
0:30:22 > 0:30:25and no signs of social division or conflict.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32There are no temples, there's no palace,
0:30:32 > 0:30:37there are no warriors' areas or special women's quarters -
0:30:37 > 0:30:42just families living alongside one another and co-operating,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46almost like the modern anarchists' fantasy
0:30:46 > 0:30:50of a world without rulers, a society without bosses,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52and the problem, of course, with that
0:30:52 > 0:30:57is that these kinds of arrangements always fall apart very quickly.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02The people of Catalhoyuk could only manage it for 1,400 years.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07SHE TUTS
0:31:07 > 0:31:11But this was no Garden of Eden.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Like farming, living in towns brought new dangers.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Thousands of people and goats, cows and ducks
0:31:19 > 0:31:21living in close quarters
0:31:21 > 0:31:25created perfect conditions for diseases to spread,
0:31:25 > 0:31:26and there's evidence that
0:31:26 > 0:31:32tuberculosis passed from cattle to humans at about this time.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40THUNDER CLAPS
0:31:50 > 0:31:54Most of the worst threats to human health -
0:31:54 > 0:32:01smallpox, measles, flu - came first from farm animals.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Maybe that's why the Leopard Lady died an early death,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09before being buried beneath the floor of her home,
0:32:09 > 0:32:11like her ancestors.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20Farming and town-living had both brought new dangers
0:32:20 > 0:32:21but the trap had closed.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24There was no going back.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28Across the world, many of our ancestors were now living
0:32:28 > 0:32:30in independent settled communities.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35But what would possibly bring them together into bigger groups?
0:32:35 > 0:32:41Again, we have to look to nature - not simply its opportunities
0:32:41 > 0:32:43but also its threats.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49All around the world people have told stories about a great flood,
0:32:49 > 0:32:53and it really does seem that something happened
0:32:53 > 0:32:55about 4,000 years ago
0:32:55 > 0:33:00which caused devastation to many of the first civilisations,
0:33:00 > 0:33:01including China.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03But what makes China different
0:33:03 > 0:33:07is that they still tell stories,
0:33:07 > 0:33:11part myth but part, probably, history, too.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18In China, it really does all start with the Flood.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20THUNDER
0:33:24 > 0:33:26WIND HOWLS
0:33:28 > 0:33:33According to the ancient chronicles, there were nine years of heavy rain,
0:33:33 > 0:33:38causing the Yellow River to change its course with devastating effects.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40WIND HOWLS
0:33:40 > 0:33:42SHE CRIES OUT
0:33:43 > 0:33:48The Yellow River is also known as "China's Great Sorrow".
0:33:48 > 0:33:52For thousands of years it regularly burst its banks,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56wiping out entire villages, destroying everything in its path.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58THUNDER SHE CRIES OUT
0:34:12 > 0:34:14The 3,000-mile-long river
0:34:14 > 0:34:18flooded an area greater than the entire United Kingdom.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27The old legends say that one of the clan leaders
0:34:27 > 0:34:31appointed a man named Gun to devise a way to tame the river.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The stakes were rather high.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45If Gun succeeded, he'd be richly rewarded.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49If he failed, he'd pay with his life.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03He built huge earth dams.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14But time and again, they were brushed aside by the floodwaters.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19Gun was unable to save his people...
0:35:19 > 0:35:21or himself.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27The father's burden would now fall upon his son, Yu.
0:35:43 > 0:35:44After Gun's execution,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48the clan leader ordered Yu to come up with a new idea
0:35:48 > 0:35:50about how to control the floods,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53and Yu dedicated his life to the job.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56According to old Chinese legends,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58he said he wouldn't return to his pregnant wife
0:35:58 > 0:36:01until the river was tamed.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12The ancient chronicles say that Yu decided to begin
0:36:12 > 0:36:16by surveying the entire length of the river.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25On this epic trek he came up with a radically different plan.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30No more confrontations with nature, no more dams.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39Instead of trying to confront the raging waters like his father,
0:36:39 > 0:36:41he would divide them.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Yu planned to create a vast network of channels.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56During the flood season,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59they would divert the full force of the river
0:36:59 > 0:37:02and reduce its destructive flow,
0:37:02 > 0:37:06but that meant a colossal work of engineering...
0:37:12 > 0:37:18..and a huge diplomatic challenge - because in order to succeed,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21he'd have to convince hundreds of rival clans
0:37:21 > 0:37:24to set aside centuries of hostility.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36We're going back to the old strength of pre-historic humanity, tribalism,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39which was now becoming a weakness,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42because only by working together
0:37:42 > 0:37:48could the clans possibly solve the problem of the Yellow River.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Yu's epic engineering project began.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10Myth or not, there were major river-taming projects at this time.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22The story goes that over the next 13 years,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25Yu passed his home three times,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29but he remained true to his vow of self-sacrifice
0:38:29 > 0:38:31and never went inside.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03Finally, his vast network of channels was complete.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17THUNDER
0:39:22 > 0:39:25And the rains came again.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Yu's great feat of engineering would be put to the test.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51But the channels calmed the floods.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Yu's story tells us an important historical truth
0:39:57 > 0:39:59about how natural challenges
0:39:59 > 0:40:02brought river-dwelling people together.
0:40:12 > 0:40:18Da Yu had united the clans of the Yellow River for the first time
0:40:18 > 0:40:23because only by coming together, under a single authority,
0:40:23 > 0:40:25could they solve this problem.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30As a reward, the clan leader made Yu his heir.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Some people argue he founded the first Chinese dynasty,
0:40:36 > 0:40:41and certainly Chinese history begins on the banks of the Yellow River.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Yu is known to this day as Da Yu - the Great Yu -
0:40:48 > 0:40:52and it's interesting that the first Chinese hero
0:40:52 > 0:40:56was a civil engineer and a civil servant.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01All around the world,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06history is shaped by the desire to shape nature to suit us.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10BABY CRIES
0:41:10 > 0:41:12That means working together,
0:41:12 > 0:41:17but it's also competitive and violent.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25Each move forward brings fresh problems.
0:41:25 > 0:41:31Farming brings more people, but it brings more disease,
0:41:31 > 0:41:37and in more complex societies, leaders and priests will emerge.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43It's all a shaggy-dog story of unexpected consequences.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49From the sweat and success of the first farmers,
0:41:49 > 0:41:51all the world's hierarchies,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54from landlords and popes to emperors would grow,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and they only thought they were planting next year's porridge
0:41:58 > 0:42:00or trying to keep dry.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15Egypt, 3,200 years ago.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18The Nile is the longest river in the world.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21It flows from south to north,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24but the prevailing winds go the other way,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27making it a wonderful two-way transport system
0:42:27 > 0:42:30and a lush green corridor.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41So it's not so surprising
0:42:41 > 0:42:45that the world's first great civilisation started here,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48with its temples, writing, priests,
0:42:48 > 0:42:50its awesome rulers.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06The pharaohs thought that their stony, river civilisation
0:43:06 > 0:43:09would last for eternity,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12and, of course, all of this is only possible
0:43:12 > 0:43:17because of the huge numbers of people planting, and cursing,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and lifting and cutting -
0:43:20 > 0:43:26all the workers on whose backs these great edifices were raised
0:43:26 > 0:43:28and you never hear about them.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31You never know what THEY thought of it all.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Well, except sometimes, you do hear.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38FAINT SHOUTS
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Thanks to one remarkable invention,
0:43:50 > 0:43:54we know exactly what life was like for ordinary Egyptians.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13This was once the town of Set Ma'at, "the Place of Truth".
0:44:13 > 0:44:17The stonemasons and carpenters who built the pharaohs' tombs
0:44:17 > 0:44:20in the nearby Valley of the Kings lived here.
0:44:27 > 0:44:3322,000 years after we splashed our hand prints onto the walls of caves,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36our enthusiasm for leaving our marks on the world
0:44:36 > 0:44:39had reached a new level.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44Writing had developed in Egypt around 5,000 years ago,
0:44:44 > 0:44:49and at first it would have been the preserve of specialist scribes
0:44:49 > 0:44:50but the people of Set Ma'at
0:44:50 > 0:44:57are among the first working people in the world to learn how to write.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05The ordinary villagers sent letters and messages,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07rather as we fire off texts and e-mails today,
0:45:07 > 0:45:12but they wrote them down on little pieces of limestone
0:45:12 > 0:45:14or on broken pieces of pottery.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16They're called ostraca.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19And they were discovered in their thousands
0:45:19 > 0:45:22where they'd just been chucked away,
0:45:22 > 0:45:27so that we can eavesdrop on village life from more than 3,000 years ago.
0:45:33 > 0:45:34SHE SIGHS
0:45:41 > 0:45:43SHE SIGHS
0:45:43 > 0:45:49One of the voices we hear is from an old woman called Naunakthe.
0:45:49 > 0:45:50As we hear her speak,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53a civilisation that seemed distant and alien
0:45:53 > 0:45:57suddenly becomes surprisingly familiar.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02'I have raised eight children and brought them up well,
0:46:02 > 0:46:04'given them everything they need.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09'Now look, I have become old and they don't care for me.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13'The ones who put their hands in mine and looked after me,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16'I will leave them my property.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20'But as for the others, they will get nothing.'
0:46:26 > 0:46:29The records are packed with all human life -
0:46:29 > 0:46:33children's homework, laundry lists, a remedy for piles -
0:46:33 > 0:46:36green beans, salt, goose fat and honey
0:46:36 > 0:46:39on the backside for four days.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42Oh, yes, and the story of Paneb,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46a married man with a son and two daughters.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52A builder with a sideline -
0:46:52 > 0:46:56because Paneb was also a tomb raider.
0:47:11 > 0:47:17His story is told in the court records of a scandalous trial.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20HE SPEAKS THE LOCAL LANGUAGE
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Paneb was the talk of the village.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28He was accused of "plundering the tomb of the Pharaoh
0:47:28 > 0:47:30and stealing burial goods".
0:47:30 > 0:47:34The judge also charged him with drunk and disorderly behaviour...
0:47:34 > 0:47:37HE SPEAKS THE LOCAL LANGUAGE
0:47:40 > 0:47:45..and with a violent assault against his stepfather.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47HE YELLS
0:47:59 > 0:48:05Bad enough - Paneb, thief and hooligan - but there was more.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09Paneb...
0:48:09 > 0:48:13He'd slept with the wife of his fellow builder Kenna,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17and, no, it didn't stop there.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24To make matters worse,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28Paneb then went on to sleep with Kenna's daughter.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31THEY GASP
0:48:31 > 0:48:32THEY GIGGLE
0:48:39 > 0:48:44It's beginning to sound like an early draft of EastEnders.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48An outbreak of wild Nile naughtiness.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56But what's really interesting is the court itself.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Each Egyptian community had one.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08What's happening here is another major development
0:49:08 > 0:49:10in early human history.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14They're trying to impose order on society.
0:49:15 > 0:49:21In villages and towns, the instinct for fairness is producing law.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26This is good news for human civilisation,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31although, on the whole, pretty bad news for Paneb.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38Life wasn't easy for ordinary Egyptians,
0:49:38 > 0:49:41but order was infinitely better than disorder.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43We all remember the pyramids and pharaohs,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47but advances which were, in the long term, just as significant
0:49:47 > 0:49:50were being made behind humbler walls.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55But it wasn't just ancient Egypt. All around the Mediterranean,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59you start to see people learning to read and write.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03They trade little luxuries. They eat better food.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05They consume spices and herbs.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07They drink beer and they drink wine.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11And things are just going to get better and better.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15Or maybe not.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Writing helped speed up the spread of ideas.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Trade accelerated the growth of towns and cities,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28and civilisation was spreading.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31But the battle with nature never stopped.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40The Greek island of Crete sits in an area
0:50:40 > 0:50:44prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes
0:50:44 > 0:50:47and this was the home of what's been described
0:50:47 > 0:50:52as Europe's first civilisation - the Minoans'.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57So what does that mean, "civilisation"?
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Literally, "people living in towns and cities"
0:51:00 > 0:51:04but it implies more style, more polish
0:51:04 > 0:51:09and few civilisations have seemed as stylish as the Minoans'.
0:51:20 > 0:51:233,700 years ago,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27the Minoans were pioneers of international trade.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30They shipped wine, olive oil and timber
0:51:30 > 0:51:33throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39At the heart of the Minoan civilisation
0:51:39 > 0:51:43stood their great Palace of Knossos.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51In the early 1900s,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Knossos was excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59He discovered a sophisticated city
0:51:59 > 0:52:04that had frescos, aqueducts and even rudimentary plumbing.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10The frescos and figures of women holding snakes up to the sky
0:52:10 > 0:52:15suggest that women held a dominant position in Minoan culture.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19Evans was entranced by the Minoans,
0:52:19 > 0:52:22and he decided to reconstruct their city.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30There's something interestingly cool and modern about the Minoan style,
0:52:30 > 0:52:34something very 1920s,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38and that's because it IS very 1920s.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Reinforced concrete.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45The stonework is new and, as for the world-famous frescos,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49well, they're based on fragments of Minoan art
0:52:49 > 0:52:55but they've been very, very seriously worked up.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58The beauties shimmying down to a beach party
0:52:58 > 0:52:59with their flagons of wine
0:52:59 > 0:53:03were famously described by the novelist Evelyn Waugh
0:53:03 > 0:53:07as being rather like the covers of Vogue magazine.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Evans excavated and rebuilt
0:53:14 > 0:53:19at a time when Europe was being torn apart by the First World War,
0:53:19 > 0:53:24and he presented the Minoan civilisation as a peaceful utopia.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38Evans imagined the Minoans
0:53:38 > 0:53:44ruling over a gentler, more peaceful Europe,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48far from the blood-soaked Europe of his own time.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03The Minoan culture seemed idyllic,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07but first impressions are as dangerous in history
0:54:07 > 0:54:08as anywhere else.
0:54:09 > 0:54:15In 1979, a darker side to the Minoans was revealed.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19MAN YELLS
0:54:19 > 0:54:24And that dark underside was first uncovered here at a little temple
0:54:24 > 0:54:26a few miles inland from Knossos.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30It seems a tiny, quiet fragment of paradise today
0:54:30 > 0:54:33but when archaeologists started digging through the rubble,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37they made a satisfyingly gruesome discovery.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43MAN YELLS
0:54:49 > 0:54:52SNAKE HISSES
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Now, on these stones, there was some kind of altar
0:54:58 > 0:55:02and on that the skeleton of a young man, about 18 years old,
0:55:02 > 0:55:08and across him was lying a bronze ceremonial dagger.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18The bones on the upper part of his body were white
0:55:18 > 0:55:20and on the lower part black,
0:55:20 > 0:55:25indicating to archaeologists that his heart had still been beating
0:55:25 > 0:55:28as the blood was draining from his body.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31He'd bled to death. He was a human sacrifice.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34WOMAN CHANTS
0:55:36 > 0:55:38Two other bodies were discovered,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41here and over here.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43One was the body of a woman,
0:55:43 > 0:55:48just over five foot high, of medium build,
0:55:48 > 0:55:52and her hands were trying to protect her face.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Now we know that women had high status in Minoan society,
0:55:55 > 0:56:00and it's possible, even probable, that she was a priestess.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Minoan society was highly developed,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11but they lived in fear of the natural forces surrounding them,
0:56:11 > 0:56:18and their desire to control nature wasn't matched by their ability.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22So they responded with the ultimate religious ritual
0:56:22 > 0:56:24in an attempt to appease the gods
0:56:24 > 0:56:27they believed controlled the natural world.
0:56:30 > 0:56:31KNIFE SLASHES
0:56:43 > 0:56:45RUMBLING
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Around 3,700 years ago,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52during this gory sacrifice,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54nature struck again.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59CRASHING
0:57:06 > 0:57:08LOUD RUMBLING
0:57:28 > 0:57:34Trying to police nature has always been the ultimate human challenge.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36It still is.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40All their attempts to placate the gods having failed,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44the Minoan civilisation was devastated.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47The Minoans will always be a mysterious people...
0:57:48 > 0:57:53..and yet they do remind us of a fundamental truth,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57which is that although the journey from caves to civilisation
0:57:57 > 0:57:59had been awesome,
0:57:59 > 0:58:02there would be no final victories -
0:58:02 > 0:58:05certainly not over nature,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09nor over the darker side of human nature.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21THEY YELL RHYTHMICALLY
0:58:21 > 0:58:22In the next episode...
0:58:22 > 0:58:23HE YELLS
0:58:23 > 0:58:26..the first great Age of Empire...
0:58:27 > 0:58:30..bold new ideas in East and West...
0:58:32 > 0:58:33..and Alexander the Great.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35HE YELLS
0:58:36 > 0:58:40If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed,
0:58:40 > 0:58:45you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That?
0:58:45 > 0:58:47Just call...
0:58:50 > 0:58:51Or go to...
0:58:55 > 0:58:58..and follow the links to the Open University.
0:59:14 > 0:59:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd