The World before 1000 BCE

Billions of Years -- a scientific theory -- from the earth's beginning to human species

Dinosaurs, Birds, and Survival -- a focus on the Triasic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods

Genes, Aging and Evolution -- creature biologies

Biology, the Brain and History -- distribution of differences among humans

Origins of War -- beginning with tribal raiding

Origins of Religion -- hunter-gatherers try to understand their world

Population Growth, Harvest Gods and Sacrifices -- agriculture, animal and human sacrifices

The Sumerians -- class, power, women, polytheism, sin and myth of a great flood

Sargon's Empire and the Sumerians -- rise and fall of Sargon's empire

Babylonian Myths of Creation and a Great Flood -- the retelling of Sumerian stories

Hammurabi and the Kassites at Babylon -- Babylon, from Hammurabi to the Kassites

Diffusions from Mesopotamia to Egypt -- Hyksos, Hittites, Hurrians, Aramaeans, medicine

Biblical Hebrews in conflict with their Neighbors -- wars to King David

Hebrew Ideology before the time of David -- Abraham; Moses and the Ten Commandments

Early Agriculture and Herding in Northern Africa -- then climate change, the Berbers and others

Agriculture and Power Politics along the Nile -- authoritarian rule, privilege and war to 1750 BCE

Ideology and Myth in Egypt -- myths dominate Egypt and its politics

The Lost Civilization of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa -- to the squatter period and squatter disappearance

Aryans Invade, Conquer and Make War in the Indus Valley -- waves of pastoralists into the Indus Valley

Aryans, beginning Hinduism and the Vedas -- Hinduism's origins and oral history

Shang and Zhou Dynasties and Empire -- political power from Shang to Zhou emperors

Religion on the North China Plain -- polytheism, human sacrifice, to the Zhou emperors

Civilization to Europe and Greece's Dark Age -- agriculture, the Mycenae Greeks to a Dark Age." />

Migrations into Southeast Asia and Oceania -- Mons, Malays, Micronesians, Polynesians and Australians

Agriculture, Sacrifices and Civilization in the Americas -- Tehuacan Valley, Olmecs, and north of the Rio Grande