Andrew Marr’s History of the World

Episode
Episode 1 - Survival
Broadcast Info
2012 (59 mins)
Description
Starting with our origins in Africa 70,000 years ago, Marr traces the story of our nomadic ancestors as they spread out around the world and settled down to become the first farmers and townspeople. Marr visits Cederberg Park showing the harsh landscape and tough conditions that humans travelled through in order to survive. In Europe modern humans encountered the Neanderthal. Marr uncovers extraordinary hand prints left in the Gargas caves in the French Pyrenees nearly 30,000 years ago. Marr holds one of the first ever eyed-needles, a Cro-Magnon needle made of bone. Next stop is the river Tigris in eastern Turkey, known today as the Fertile Crescent, where humans first began to plant seeds resulting in the agriculture revolution. Agriculture allowed us to settle for the first time, creating the first towns, such as that visited on Catalhoyuk in Turkey. Marr uncovers the Leopard Lady, whose body and burial tells us much about the first towns and their lives at that time. From first towns to first engineering projects, we travel across to China to see how the Yellow River was tamed by the emperor Da Yu. Demonstrating the development of writing, Marr travels to the Pyramids in Egypt, revealing the day-to-day life in ancient Egypt, such as Paneb the tomb-builder. At Set Ma’at (now known as Dier-El Medina), the ruins of an ancient village have revealed writings on ostraca, detailing the extraordinary yet everyday lives at that time. Visiting the ruins of Knossos in Crete, Marr discovers how the first civilisations were driven to extremes to try to overcome the forces of nature as demonstrated in the Minoan’s Sacrifice.
Genre
History; Philosophy and Ethics; Architecture; Science; Technology; Religion; Art and Design

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Andrew Marr’s History of the World". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/83130 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)