HISTORY

- Turchin believes that war sparked civilisa tion, and that he can prove this theory on and archaeologist Abigail Levine. Here, a global scale. they investigate the ruins of villages that show signs of becoming states. They Judith Burkhart, an anthropologist at the evolved in different places around the University of Zurich, believes humans have globe at different times as the precursers a unique form of cooperation, unlike any to civilisation. These scientists say that war other living creature, and it was this trait triggered the transformation from state that lead us on the path to civilisation. - to civilisation. Without war, there would She sets out to prove it through experi be no complex societies. ments where the behavior of children is Episode 2 closes with a conundrum. War, compared to our closest primate relatives. says Levine, is actually a form of human cooperation. Why do we say that some cultures are civilised and others are not? EP03: A CHANGE OF MIND - In this episode, the war-and-coopera Which leads us to Filipe Fernandez- tion-theory is put to the test using a Armesto’s all encompassing new theory of futuristic scientific method. And scientists- civilisation. The hunter-gatherers that think they’ve found the spark of civilisa some of us were, and some of us still are, tion inside our minds! the societies with different belief systems, in all environments across the globe all Historian Filipe Fernandez-Armesto leaves have one thing in common. Without us with a theory that could blow the exception, they have all civilised . meaning of civilisation out of the water. He reminds us how the idea of civilisation What sparked civilisation? Can we ever has been used to justify wars, brutal know which of these theories, or any colonization and genocide. Civilisation has future theories are correct? Peter Turchin always been an us-and-them situation, thinks so. He tells us that will he says. help us find a grand unifying theory of history. A law that rules how societies rose Peter Turchin is a Professor at the from small groups to complex societies in University of Connecticut in the their millions. Departments of and Evolutionary , , and Mathematics. A spark that changed us all. He and his colleagues have designed a computer game of civilisation that uses mathematical models and the world’s largest database of historical facts.

THE SPARK OF CIVILISATION 3 × 53 min. Written and directed by Ruth Berry HISTORY Executive producers: Martin Mészáros, Sabine Holzer 4K, 5.1 and Stereo

/ Austria,

Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbH, Wambachergasse 2, 1130 Vienna www.terramater.com phone +43-1-87003-0, fax +43-1-87003-27609, [email protected] HISTORY

“To seek the origins of civilisation is to embark on a series of dangerous excavations.” Historian Lucien Fabre Steven Mithen, Professor of Early Prehistory at Reading University believes agriculture was an he Spark of Civilisation’ is a flagship accident. His theory is inspired by a chance series that immerses the viewer in one - discovery at Göbekli Tepe. Within sight of the of humanity’s most important investiga monument stands a mountain range where tions; the mystery of how civilisation - wheat was domesticated 1,000 years after Temerged. It questions the very meaning of Göbekli Tepe was built. Mithen sees a connec civilisation through ground-breaking new tion. He sets out to prove that the religious evidence. - worship practices of the hunter-gatherers of Göbekli Tepe lead to the chance domestication The most popular theory for the rise of civilisa of wild plants. tion is the advent of agriculture. It states that agriculture happened approximately 10,000 Acclaimed South African rock art specialist years ago because of favourable growing Professor David Lewis-Williams says it was not conditions at the end of the last ice age, or an religion itself, but a change of religion that increase in population. Agriculture transformed sparked civilisation. By comparing Göbekli us from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary Tepe’s art and burial practices to those found in farmers and this was the first step towards caves used thousands of years before, he civilisation. identifies a dramatic change. ‘The Spark of Civilisation’ challenges this enduring theory. Professor Giulio Magli, an astrophysicist and archaeoastronomer from Milan takes the new Solving the mystery of civilisation is traditionally - religion theory one step further. He presents the domain of historians. ’The Spark of evidence of the arrival of a new star linking it to Civilisation’ introduces a new trend, the involve the time of Göbekli Tepe’s construction and its ment of internationally acclaimed scientists who unique architecture. use the latest breakthroughs in disciplines like genetics, microbiology and mathematics to find EP02: HUMANITY RISING answers. Their investigations have uncovered We traditionally envisage civilisation through exciting, and even strange new possibilities that monuments, cities, hieroglyphics, temples, vast will be presented together for the first time in fields of grain, sophisticated canal systems. The this series. unconventional historian Fernández-Armesto questions this criteria. We now know that The evidence is empirical and sometimes monuments were being built before the rise of — the sex life of the fruit fly, the wild peculiar civilisation, and some civilisations did not have nature of yeast, the behaviour of marmosets, writing. Can there even be a definition? the domestication of foxes. This is civilisation as In Episode 2, the domestication of dogs, climate it has never before been presented, thanks to and war lead scientists to pursue new theories science. of what sparked civilisation. ‘The Spark of Civilisation’ is epic in scope, creatively visual, and unafraid to present new, Greger Larson is Director of the Palaeogenomics compelling ways to question traditional views at Oxford University and an expert in animal about what it means to be human. domestication. He believes that this success paved the way for domesticating plants and EP01: THE DAY IT ALL BEGAN other animals. Opening with Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Professional fellow, Queen Mary University of At the same time that we were domesticating London and member of the Modern History - dogs, the world was in the grip of an ice age. Faculty at Oxford; an unconventional historian Climatologist Nick Brooks and archaeologist with a mild, unassuming manner and a reputa Joanne Clarke dispute that the melting of the tion for thinking out of the box. ice ushered in better times which lead to the - History books say that 10,000 years ago there rise of agriculture and civilisation. Civilisation, was a revolution known as the Neolithic (new they say, was a last resort, sparked by deterio stone age) or the agricultural revolution. The rating climate conditions brought on by a severe scientists in this episode ask: ‘if agriculture then weather change that happened 5,000 years ago. why?’, replacing the traditional viewpoint with The strongest clues lay buried in the sands of new reasons: alcohol, an accident, a change of the Western Sahara. religion and a new star. In another desolate landscape in the Chinca Professor Patrick McGovern from Pennsylvannia Valley Peru, we meet Charles Stanish, Director museum uses microbiology to prove that of the Costen Institute of Archaeology UCLA alcohol was being brewed before large-scale agriculture took hold.