The Ancient World

Before Writing

Billions of Years -- a scientific theory

Dinosaurs, Birds, and Survival -- 245 to 65 million years ago

Genes, Ageing and Evolution -- a theory natural selection and the lifespan of creatures

Biology, the Brain and History -- history versus biological determinism

Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers and Gods -- to 4001 BCE

Origins of War -- tribal raiding to empire

The Middle East and Africa

The Sumerians -- religious continuity, writing, conquest, a concept of sin and paradise

Africa and Egypt to 1750 BCE -- from south of the Sahara to civilization on the Nile

Sargon and the Vanishing Sumerians -- Mesopotamia, sin and the Amorites

Myths of Creation and a Great Flood -- literature surviving the Sumerians

Hammurabi : Babylon -- Hammurabi's conquests, dynasty and its fall to 1550

The Middle East to 1050 BCE -- Hyksos, Egyptians, Hittites, Hurrians and Aramaeans

From Abraham to David -- stories of Abraham, Moses and King David

Solomon, Prophets and Punishment to 640 BCE -- Israel to the "lost tribes" and the Assyrian Empire

Zoroastrians and Judaism to 400 BCE -- a Jewish state within the Persian Empire

Civilization in India

Ancient India and Hinduism to 1000 BCE -- lost civilization, invasion, conquest and caste

The Upanishads and India to 500 BCE -- new cities and attitudes

Jains and Buddhists to 450 BCE -- rebellion against Hinduism

Hindu Epic Literature -- the Ramayana and Mahabharata

The Maurya Empire and a Dark Age -- 320 BCE to 185 CE

The Gupta Empire and Hinduism -- to 550 CE

The Far East

The Shang and Zhou Dynasties -- to 1000 BCE on the North China plain

Confucius, Taoists and Change, to 260 BCE -- argument and war

The Qin and Han Dynasties -- 350 BCE to 306 CE

China and Korea, 300 to 500 CE -- Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, disintegration and rule by murder

The Ancient Japanese -- 300 BCE to 500 CE

Greeks, Alexander, Hellenism and Jews

Europe before 1000 BCE -- agriculture, the Mycenae Greeks, Minoans and a dark age

The Greeks to 480 BCE -- Homer, class rule and the birth of philosophy

Ancient Greeks, Democracy and Decline -- to the 300s BCE

Ideas from Anaxagoras to Aristotle -- 480 to 322 BCE

Alexander the Great -- 356 to 323 BCE

Alexander's Empire Disintegrates -- to 246 BCE

Hellenistic Societies to 222 BCE -- trade, diffusions, prosperity and misery

Cynics, Epicureans, Stoics and Skeptics -- 400 to 200 BCE

Jews, the Septuagint and Tradition -- to 200 BCE

Rome, Jews and Christians

The Rise of Rome -- 753 to 221 BCE

Roman Empire, Republic and Politics by Violence -- to 79 BCE

Judea and Civil War -- 150 to 63 BCE

From Republic to Emperor Augustus -- 73 BCE to 14 CE

Jews and Christians in Rome's Golden Age --- the Essenes, Jesus, and Christianity organizes

Family Rule from Tiberius to Nero -- 14 to 65 CE

Rome, from Golden Age to Political Chaos -- from prosperity to decay under the Severans

Rome's Decline and Christianity's Ascent -- to 306 CE

Rome's Christian Emperors -- to 410 CE

Augustine Influences Christianity -- to 420 CE

Remnants of the Roman Empire to 500 CE -- Rome disintegrates

Persia under the Sassanids

Ardashir and the Persians, to 241 CE -- Persian culture and the Sassanid Empire begins

Manichaeism, a Universalist Faith -- 210 to 276 CE, the Zoroastrian priesthood against religious innovation

The Sassanids to 500 CE -- Shapur the Great, war, weakness, communist revolution, and defeat

Africa, Oceania and America

The Americas to 1000 BCE -- and benefits prior to agriculture

Southeast Asia and Oceania to 1000 BCE -- migrations

Africa, Iron and Empire to 500 CE -- aggressions, migrations, iron and empire

The Americas, Southeast Asia and Oceania to 500 CE -- migrations, order, disorder and demise