and archaeologist Abigail Levine. Here, Turchin believes that war sparked civilisa- they investigate the ruins of villages that tion, and that he can prove this theory on show signs of becoming states. They a global scale. evolved in different places around the HISTORY globe at different times as the precursers Judith Burkhart, an anthropologist at the to civilisation. These scientists say that war University of Zurich, believes humans have triggered the transformation from state a unique form of cooperation, unlike any to civilisation. Without war, there would other living creature, and it was this trait be no complex societies. that lead us on the path to civilisation. Episode 2 closes with a conundrum. War, She sets out to prove it through experi- says Levine, is actually a form of human ments where the behavior of children is cooperation. compared to our closest primate relatives. EP03: A CHANGE OF MIND Why do we say that some cultures are In this episode, the war-and-coopera- civilised and others are not? tion-theory is put to the test using a futuristic scientific method. And scientists Which leads us to Filipe Fernandez- think they’ve found the spark of civilisa- Armesto’s all encompassing new theory of tion inside our minds! civilisation. The hunter-gatherers that some of us were, and some of us still are, Historian Filipe Fernandez-Armesto leaves the societies with different belief systems, us with a theory that could blow the in all environments across the globe all meaning of civilisation out of the water. have one thing in common. Without He reminds us how the idea of civilisation exception, they have all civilised nature. has been used to justify wars, brutal colonization and genocide. Civilisation has What sparked civilisation? Can we ever always been an us-and-them situation, know which of these theories, or any he says. future theories are correct? Peter Turchin thinks so. He tells us that mathematics will Peter Turchin is a Professor at the help us find a grand unifying theory of University of Connecticut in the history. A law that rules how societies rose Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary from small groups to complex societies in Biology, Anthropology, and Mathematics. their millions. He and his colleagues have designed a computer game of civilisation that uses A spark that changed us all. mathematical models and the world’s largest database of historical facts. THE SPARK HISTORY OF CIVILISATION 3 × 53 min. Written and directed by Ruth Berry 4K, 5.1 and Stereo Executive producers: Martin Mészáros, Sabine Holzer www.terramater.com Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbH, Wambachergasse 2, 1130 Vienna / Austria, phone +43-1-87003-0, fax +43-1-87003-27609, [email protected] “To seek the origins of civilisation is to embark on a series of HISTORY dangerous excavations.” Historian Lucien Fabre he Spark of Civilisation’ is a flagship Steven Mithen, Professor of Early Prehistory at series that immerses the viewer in one Reading University believes agriculture was an of humanity’s most important investiga- accident. His theory is inspired by a chance tions; the mystery of how civilisation discovery at Göbekli Tepe. Within sight of the Temerged. It questions the very meaning of monument stands a mountain range where civilisation through ground-breaking new wheat was domesticated 1,000 years after evidence. Göbekli Tepe was built. Mithen sees a connec- tion. He sets out to prove that the religious The most popular theory for the rise of civilisa- worship practices of the hunter-gatherers of tion is the advent of agriculture. It states that Göbekli Tepe lead to the chance domestication agriculture happened approximately 10,000 of wild plants. years ago because of favourable growing conditions at the end of the last ice age, or an Acclaimed South African rock art specialist increase in population. Agriculture transformed Professor David Lewis-Williams says it was not us from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary religion itself, but a change of religion that farmers and this was the first step towards sparked civilisation. By comparing Göbekli civilisation. Tepe’s art and burial practices to those found in ‘The Spark of Civilisation’ challenges this caves used thousands of years before, he enduring theory. identifies a dramatic change. Solving the mystery of civilisation is traditionally Professor Giulio Magli, an astrophysicist and the domain of historians. ’The Spark of archaeoastronomer from Milan takes the new Civilisation’ introduces a new trend, the involve- religion theory one step further. He presents ment of internationally acclaimed scientists who evidence of the arrival of a new star linking it to use the latest breakthroughs in disciplines like the time of Göbekli Tepe’s construction and its genetics, microbiology and mathematics to find unique architecture. answers. Their investigations have uncovered exciting, and even strange new possibilities that EP02: HUMANITY RISING will be presented together for the first time in We traditionally envisage civilisation through this series. monuments, cities, hieroglyphics, temples, vast fields of grain, sophisticated canal systems. The The evidence is empirical and sometimes unconventional historian Fernández-Armesto peculiar — the sex life of the fruit fly, the wild questions this criteria. We now know that nature of yeast, the behaviour of marmosets, monuments were being built before the rise of the domestication of foxes. This is civilisation as civilisation, and some civilisations did not have it has never before been presented, thanks to writing. Can there even be a definition? science. In Episode 2, the domestication of dogs, climate ‘The Spark of Civilisation’ is epic in scope, and war lead scientists to pursue new theories creatively visual, and unafraid to present new, of what sparked civilisation. compelling ways to question traditional views about what it means to be human. Greger Larson is Director of the Palaeogenomics at Oxford University and an expert in animal EP01: THE DAY IT ALL BEGAN domestication. He believes that this success Opening with Felipe Fernández-Armesto, paved the way for domesticating plants and Professional fellow, Queen Mary University of other animals. London and member of the Modern History Faculty at Oxford; an unconventional historian At the same time that we were domesticating with a mild, unassuming manner and a reputa- dogs, the world was in the grip of an ice age. tion for thinking out of the box. Climatologist Nick Brooks and archaeologist History books say that 10,000 years ago there Joanne Clarke dispute that the melting of the was a revolution known as the Neolithic (new ice ushered in better times which lead to the stone age) or the agricultural revolution. The rise of agriculture and civilisation. Civilisation, scientists in this episode ask: ‘if agriculture then they say, was a last resort, sparked by deterio- why?’, replacing the traditional viewpoint with rating climate conditions brought on by a severe new reasons: alcohol, an accident, a change of weather change that happened 5,000 years ago. religion and a new star. The strongest clues lay buried in the sands of the Western Sahara. Professor Patrick McGovern from Pennsylvannia museum uses microbiology to prove that In another desolate landscape in the Chinca alcohol was being brewed before large-scale Valley Peru, we meet Charles Stanish, Director agriculture took hold. of the Costen Institute of Archaeology UCLA .