History of the World podcast

1750 - 700 BCE - Continuing the journey through the Bronze Age, crossing over the Late Bronze Age Collapse and into the Iron Age, to a time where history meets the origin of modern religion.

3000 - 1750 BCE - The rise of powerful kingdoms and civilisations in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley, bronzeworking in Europe and China and long distance trade and construction in the Americas.

10000 - 700 BCE - The Neolithic Revolution was a huge leap forward for humankind, but it came at a price in regard to our health.  How did we interpret these new ailments and diseases and how did we combat them?

2500000 - 700 BCE - Why did we start killing each other and how come we were so good at it?

7000 - 700 BCE - Starting in Mesoamerica, we head south to explore the rainforests, highlands and savannah of South America, before heading to the Arctic tundra and heading south again to the grasslands and woodlands of the modern United States.

3500 - 200 BCE - In the mysterious Peruvian highlands, people were gathering from far and wide to take a psychedelic journey into a dark labyrinth to meet the ferocious looking jaguar deity of the Chavin.

1600 - 400 BCE - Just what was the Olmec fascination with rubber balls all about?  Did the Olmecs copy the Egyptians by constructing the first Mesoamerican pyramid?

1750 - 1046 BCE - Plotting the rise and fall of the Shang dynasty where archaeology meets traditional stories.  An incredible bronze age with innovative techniques and the comparison of cultural advances with the rest of the world.

7000 - 1750 BCE - What happened before the Shang dynasty?  We have the traditional stories to go by, but does it stack up against the archaeological evidence?

3400 - 2600 BCE - The Yamnaya Culture was a successful part of the wider Kurgan culture of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. This Bronze Age culture influenced its neighbours and may have brought Bronze Age culture and modern European language to the European continent, as well as influencing the futures of Persia and India. (True first publish date - 1st May 2013)

7000 BCE onwards - Proto-Indo-Europeans are believed to have spoken a language ancestral to over four hundred languages of the modern world.  Why do we believe this when there is no firm evidence of a Proto-Indo-European language though?

2500 - 1600 BCE - The city of Mohenjo-daro has some surprisingly modern civil aspects. This episode explores the discoveries and suggest what they can tell us about the people who lived there.

3300 - 1600 BCE - A mysterious, but peaceful and successful trading civilisation.  Their undeciphered script cannot hide some amazing and unique aspects.

1190 BCE? - The Trojan War is a mythological story about a city called Troy which was attacked after a large wooden horse was pulled into the city secretly containing Greek warriors.  Is there any chance that it could be based on truth?

1600 - 1070 BCE - Mythology and archaeology are the ingredients of a good ancient period story and the Mycenaeans are no exception.  The rise and fall of the first civilised mainland Greeks.

2000 - 1450 BCE - Our first European civilisation takes us to the island of Crete in the Mediterranean where we learn of bare breasted ladies, bull-leaping, huge palaces and the ferocious Minotaur in the labrynth.

1200 BCE - 900 CE - Alphabets emerged from early writing systems and were so practical that they evolved and supplanted many of the systems in place around the world.  Find out how.

3300 - 1200 BCE - What is writing and why did people start doing it?  We analyse the earliest known writing systems and read between the lines.

3150 - 30 BCE - A rapid, rollercoaster ride through three thousand years of drama, dynasties, deities, disputes and development.  Who can resist?

1213 - 525 BCE - Just what caused the New Kingdom to collapse and what did Egypt become in the one thousand years between this and Cleopatra?

3100 - 30 BCE - The complex pantheon of Egyptian deities and their links to everyday life and other cultures are explored.

1274 BCE - The Hittites have control of the city of Kadesh, but the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II wants it back.  Find out what happens when Ramesses takes 20,000 men and 2000 chariots into the lands of modern Syria to conquer the city.

1303 - 1213 BCE - This is first of our special profile episodes which focus on an historical individual.  This time we are looking at Ramesses II, otherwise known as Ramesses the Great, Pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Egypt.

1620 - 1324 BCE - More specifically the story of the Eighteenth Dynasty, a golden age in Egyptian history.  However, keeping it in the family may not have necessarily been beneficial to the Royal Family.

2600 - 1525 BCE - An attempt to decipher the mystery of the last remaining wonder of the ancient world, The Great Pyramid of Giza, as well as all the other pyramids, the people who built them and their motives and methods.