All language subtitles for First Civilizations S01E03 Cities 1080p Amazon WEB-DL DD+ 2.0 x264-TrollHD

Viewed from space,

it's easy to see the impact
of civilization.

Every cluster of light
is another city...

Millions of strangers

coexisting, cooperating,

sharing ideas.

The city is civilization.

But why are we compelled to live
in such large groups?

What are the advantages
of city life?

Cities act almost
like collective brains,

where you have access to the viewpoints
and talents of millions of people.

If you want your city
to be successful,

you need people to be there.

You have to give them
a piece of the pie.

These people were
bursting with ingenuity,

and this really goes
to show how the city

is the engine of invention.

We didn't always live this way.

For 99% of our time on earth,

humans stayed among
friends and relatives

in small, mobile bands.

But then...

We settled down, grew food,

worshiped gods...

Fought battles,

wrote stories,

sold goods, and built cities.

This is the story
of that transition,

stepping-stones on the road
to civilization.

It's a story
set across the globe

in the middle east,

central America,

Southern Asia...

All of them seedbeds
of civilization.

Here, our ancestors
wrote the blueprint

by which we still
live our lives.

This is where
the modern world began.

The world's
earliest civilization

emerged in the middle east.

It was here, 12,000 years ago,

we started on a journey
that would lead

to the cities of today.

There have been
no civilizations without cities,

no cities

without civilization.

And the spark was lit here,

in Southern Turkey,

at a place called Gobekli Tepe.

Over the last 20 years,

archaeologists have discovered

more than a hundred
t-shaped stone pillars,

erected in up to 20 circles.

The site is currently closed

while Turkish authorities build
a roof to protect it.

But nearby,

researchers can examine
a full-size replica,

a duplicate of
the ancient structure.

Archaeologist Jens Notroff

believes he knows why
Gobekli Tepe was built.

There are strong hints that it
was used as a gathering place,

where several groups
of hunters and gatherers

from the surrounding landscapes
were meeting there

for occasional feasts
and rituals.

We've found a lot
of bones, actually,

oryx and gazelle bones,
in particular.

And you could imagine
that alcohol played a role,

so there are certain hints
that even beer was consumed

and, personally, I don't see
why dancing and music

shouldn't play a role
here as well.

Hundreds of people
would meet here,

usually in late summer
or early fall,

and stay for a few weeks.

For mobile groups,
it's very important

to regularly meet

just to exchange information,
maybe goods,

and most importantly,
marriage partners

to keep the gene pool
of the group fresh.

What's different at Gobekli Tepe
is that they somehow started

to decide to Mark these
meeting places with monuments,

leaving an impression
in the landscape,

basically saying, "we are here."

As well as building
these giant pillars,

the people at Gobekli Tepe
decorated them

with elaborate carvings.

If you think of the cave art
of the oldest stone age...

The famous cave paintings from
France and Spain, for example...

You immediately have pictures in your
mind of animals, a lot of animals.

Human beings are
rarely depicted,

and if so,
they are rather small.

Here at Gobekli Tepe,
there are still animals present,

like this fox here,

and while it looks
rather big, it dwarfs

compared to the background
it is projected onto,

and that is the t-shaped pillars which
are so characteristic for Gobekli Tepe.

And actually, we can recognize
these t-shaped pillars

as anthropomorphic,
as humanlike beings.

You can see that we have arms

and hands depicted in relief,

and even pieces of clothing,
like a loincloth

hanging down from a belt.

What is impressing here is
their sheer monumentality,

the size of 5.5 meters
of these central pillars.

I could imagine that they maybe
represent important ancestors,

so they are meant to depict something
bigger, something more special, I think.

The first stones were
put in place at Gobekli Tepe

almost 12,000 years ago.

The site is more than twice
as old as Stonehenge

or the Egyptian pyramids.

But why go to the effort
of building a monument?

The attracting factor
was the social aspect,

so people were gathering for a
feast, and while they were there,

they were starting to cooperatively
construct these monuments,

which were also part of
the social aspect of the feast.

So it's connected;
You can't separate it, actually.

It's all part of the same event.

Feasting and construction
activity goes hand-in-hand.

I think it's
very important to stress

that the community aspect

of this cooperative work

is like the glue putting...
Holding together

the whole society
of these hunter-gatherers.

Here, before
the emergence of civilization,

people were expressing
a basic urge...

To be together, to be social.

That same urge leads
to the mega-cities of today.

Tokyo is the world's
most populous city.

38 million people

living next to each other,

on top of each other,

side by side.

Just as at Gobekli Tepe,

we crave company.

We want to be social.

Evolutionary psychologist
Michael Muthukrishna

believes sociability is at
the heart of civilization.

Being social is fun.

We get to hang out
together, we tell jokes,

we swap gossip, but being social
is much more than that.

It's the primary way that we
transmit knowledge and information.

The more people that you have
access to, the better the selection

of ideas at your disposal, and the more you
can recombine into something brand-new.

This is the key
to cultural evolution:

Someone thinks of something,

someone else adapts it to
a brand-new environment,

someone incrementally
improves on it.

Copying, recombining,
and learning from each other...

This is what humans are good at,

and this is the key
to our intelligence.

The most important
requirement of any civilization

is to feed its people.

It's impossible to create cities

without a reliable supply
of food.

Back in the period
we're talking about here,

people were mostly still
mobile hunter-gatherers...

So where they're occasionally staying
seasonally in the same place,

but usually where they're
roaming the landscape

and living from what nature
actually delivered to them,

following game, gathering foods
and plants and nuts and so on.

To stay longer at one place,

you certainly have to go
a step further,

to not only take from nature,

but control the environment,
create your own food.

20 miles from Gobekli Tepe

grows a type of wild grass

found only in this region,

a strain of wheat.

10,000 years ago,

hunter-gatherers here
took a giant leap.

They started cultivating
the wheat,

selecting the best seeds,

planting...

Nurturing...

Harvesting.

This is known as domestication.

What happens to wheat once you
started domesticating it

is you actually changed
the plant.

So you are encouraging specific
characteristics you see an advantage in,

like less brittleness
or bigger seeds.

So you're creating a new form of the plant,
which is not anymore wild, but domesticated.

We are discussing
gene-manipulated food these days

as if it was something new,
but actually we're doing this

since the very beginning
of domestication.

The feasting activity here and the
need to supply these feasts with food,

in my opinion, triggered
a new development

which subsequently led
to the domestication of wheat,

and finally to farming.

Farming was the greatest
invention of the ancient world,

a catalyst for civilization,

essential for city life,

and farming spread
around the globe.

Wheat is now eaten

by 2 1/2 billion people
across the world...

A staple food of civilization.

For cities to emerge,

people had to settle down.

Farming a patch of land,

you need to tend to it
on a year-round basis.

It becomes home.

375 miles east of Gobekli Tepe

lies one of the oldest
farming villages in the world,

Asikli Hoyuk.

It was first settled
over 10,000 years ago.

The excavations here are run

by Turkish archaeologist
Mihriban Ozbasaran.

We discovered
a transition from a mobile,

hunter-gatherer way of life

to an agricultural way of life,

where people were now
looking after animals

and growing crops.

This excavated
cross-section of the village

has uncovered
1,000 years of life

at Asikli Hoyuk.

At the bottom are
the earliest remains.

Over generations,
the people of Asikli Hoyuk

built on top of what
had come before.

Here, archaeologists
discover evidence

of very early farming.

At the higher, later layers,

we see a greater variety
in their diet.

We see the beginnings
of animal domestication,

especially with sheep and goats.

For instance,
here in this section,

we find animal feces

dating to around 8200 BC.

This is crucial proof

that animals were kept
within the village,

next to the houses
and fed by humans.

At Asikli Hoyuk,

people were also growing
their own plants.

In my hand
is an ancient grain of wheat.

We know they grew wheat,

and through time,
it became more common,

and they began
to grow a lot more of it.

We are seeing the shift
to a farming way of life

through seeds like this.

This was
nothing short of a revolution.

For the first time
in human history,

people had stopped moving

and started settling...

Hundreds of people in one place.

Before villages
like Asikli Hoyuk,

no one had lived like this,

at this density,

in such permanent dwellings.

As this replica of
the village shows,

the architecture
developed over time

from subterranean, round houses

to something more recognizable.

These rectangular buildings,

made from mud blocks,

were used as houses.

They were built
very close to one another.

As you can see,

the gaps are quite narrow,

and life was lived
mostly on the roof.

The houses had no doors.

They were entered from above.

The houses here
are not really big.

Some have a single room,

others have two rooms.

6 or 7 people would live here.

What's interesting is people
here buried their dead

in a fetal position

in a pit dug under their floors.

Having laid them there,
they'd throw earth on top,

re-plaster, and life would
carry on as normal.

I don't think they
wanted to be separated...

So they could carry on
living with the dead.

There were also
public buildings here,

set apart from
the residential area.

This is a place
where people came together

for celebrations and ceremonies
from time to time.

Everything we discovered
at Asikli Hoyuk

suggests life here
was collective

and communal.

Everyone was more or less equal.

There were no social
or material differences;

whether it was food or jobs,

everything was shared.

We know they cooked
outside in roasting pits

and divided up the food,

so we believe it was
an egalitarian society.

Today, we take the farming
way of life for granted.

But for the first farmers,
the benefits were unclear.

The new diet,
dependent on wheat,

meant more carbohydrates,

less protein,
and fewer vitamins than before.

Archaeologist Brenna Hassett

has been studying the skeletons
found at Asikli Hoyuk

and has uncovered
a clear pattern.

Farming seems to coincide

with a revolution

in very bad dental hygiene.

The combination
of carbohydrates and sugar

is the worst thing that you could
possibly do for your teeth.

What we've got here is someone

who's worn their teeth
incredibly quickly

and also managed to get
just enough bacteria in there

to really start the rot.

That is a painful cavity, probably;
That one you would feel.

As a result of the new diet,

the first farmers got shorter.

Average height dropped
by 5 inches,

from 5'8 " to 5'3".

The femur is the
sort of top bone of your leg,

so it would fit here on me.

And my femur, of course,
goes from here to here.

This is much shorter.

The Asikli Hoyuk people would
have been shorter than me,

and I'm not that tall.

But it wasn't just the food

that put a strain
on their bones.

Farming was hard work,

a life of toil in the fields.

So what we have here

are several vertebrae.

This is in your back.

This is sort of... About yea,

and if you can just imagine
the horrible feeling...

That torsion you get when you lift
something heavy, and you shouldn't do it...

Imagine doing that repetitively

to the point

where your bones
actually grow together.

That's not a very mobile back.

The other thing that we will
look at is your knee.

This should be the nice,
clean surface of your knee.

There should be some cartilage
protecting the surface.

What you get here is where
the cartilage has failed,

stopped protecting that joint, and
the bone has started to react.

So all of this here,

extra bony growth,
that's arthritis.

That is the probably
quite painful changes

that are happening to the bone
as a result of wear and tear.

So you might think, having gone
from hunting-gathering lifestyle

with its sort of freedom
and its mobility

and the chance to seek resources
wherever, that, you know,

sort of waking up one day and finding
yourself an Asikli Hoyuk farmer,

you might look around
at your skinny legs,

rotting teeth, reduced lifespan,

and think that you got
a pretty poor deal.

But if living together
as farmers was so disastrous,

why did it catch on?

What was the upside
of being a farmer?

There is one major benefit to
farming, which is numbers.

Farmers have more babies.

Hunter-gatherers tend to space
their babies fairly far apart,

about every 4 years, on average.

If you are highly mobile,
trying to carry a toddler

and an infant at the same time is
not going to be terribly easy,

whereas if you're settled... if
you don't have to keep a toddler

within a sort of meter's
arm's reach at all times...

You actually don't need
to space your children

quite so far apart.

Compared to the 4 years
that the hunter-gatherers

are really sort of
spacing their children,

agriculture's... the average is
more like two years.

That's why the world
just gets covered in farmers,

and it's no longer covered
in hunger-gatherers.

As farming spread,

communities grew bigger.

More food meant more people.

Villages turned into towns,

which would turn into cities...

The building blocks
of civilization,

underpinned by farming.

♪ Boom! ♪

♪ Boom! ♪

♪ Boom! ♪

Another benefit of farming

was to create
a surplus of food...

Which allowed us
to reorganize our lives.

♪ Yeah ♪

While others produced
our daily bread,

we could do other jobs,

being builders or artisans
or chefs.

Rather than Jacks of all trades,

we became masters of one.

We became specialists.

In modern civilization, everyone is a
specialist of one kind or another.

I specialize in the evolutionary
sciences, but I know far less

about nursing, plumbing,
or practicing the law.

If I want to do something, even
something relatively simple,

I rely on a whole network
of specialists.

Take food, for example.

Food used to be
a relatively simple thing.

When we were hunter-gatherers,
I would forage for my own food,

process it in some way, cook it,
and then finally eat it.

But today, food is a highly
specialized part of our culture.

Let's say I wanted to make some
prawn and vegetable noodles.

The first thing I want to do
is to find a recipe...

Ideally from someone who
specializes in Japanese cuisine.

First, let's go to the
fishmonger and get some prawns.

Ebi, kudasai?
Ebi.

Arigato.
Hai, domo arigato.

I need some mushrooms,

but which ones?

I don't know, but she does.

Which mushrooms do you
recommend for noodles?

This is the shiitake mushroom.

This is a good aroma,
a deep flavor.

Mmm, that's lovely.

Finally, we need some noodles.

Arigato gozaimasu.

Each of these specialists relies on a
whole network of other specialists.

Take our fishmonger,
for instance.

He relies on someone
who knows how to catch the fish,

how to keep it fresh, how to get
it to market in that fresh state,

how to navigate the legal waters, how to
get the best price, and so on and so on.

Only now can Michael
get another specialist,

a chef, to cook
his meal for him.

Now, this sort of specialization
is about each person

getting very good
at something very specific

so that when they pool their
expertise, they become a part

of something much bigger and better
than they could have ever achieved

if they had to do everything
all on their own.

And this is what city life
and civilization is all about...

Having enough people
so that each of us can focus in

on one very specific thing
and get very good at it.

The more people we have, the more
narrowly and deeply we can focus,

and the higher we can
all climb together.

But specialization,
by definition, creates division:

Different jobs,
different places to live,

different social classes, different
social status, different wealth.

Land, food, and goods
are no longer owned

by the community.

They become
the property of a few

and often pass down through the
generations without being earned.

This is inequality;
Some people inevitably

become richer and more
powerful than others.

Across the world,
the road to civilization

always led to inequality.

Political power,
property, and wealth

were now in the hands
of a ruling elite.

300 miles from Asikli Hoyuk

are the remains of
the ancient town

of Arslantepe.

Archaeologist
Marcella Frangipane

has spent 3 decades
excavating this site.

She's discovered
that 5,500 years ago,

an elite Rose to power here.

By asserting their status
over the rest of the population,

they built up
great personal wealth.

The commoners could
only visit the public areas

of the palace.

They entered and then
turned a corner

to visit the storerooms.

Here, they handed over

what they'd produced
in the fields...

And took payment by way
of food in return.

Just beyond the storerooms
was a small temple.

Instead, they were greeted
by forbidding wall paintings,

some of which have survived
for 5,000 years.

Just beyond the watching eyes
was the core of the palace...

A courtyard where people
presented themselves

to the ruling elite.

At one end of the courtyard,

there was a raised platform.

But there's
a twist in this tale,

a warning for any
would-be dictator.

The walls are stained
by burn marks.

Archaeologists believe
this is evidence of a revolt,

the commoners turning
against their rulers

and destroying their power base.

What was true for Arslantepe

has been true ever since.

Inequality is one
of the great problems

facing any civilization.

Elites, and even inequality, are
not necessarily a bad thing.

Wealth generators and social organizers
are an essential part of any system.

Rules need to be enforced,
armies need to be organized,

resources need to be
efficiently allocated.

The trouble is when there is
a mismatch between the level

of inequality and your
contribution to society.

If the mismatch grows,

then the glue that binds civilization
together starts to come apart.

How do we ensure that
there's a match between

your contribution to society
and the level of inequality?

How do we keep corruption in check? How do
we ensure the well-being of all people?

The focus of these questions
is always the city.

This is where the wealth is.

This is where the power is.
This is where the people are.

There's a competition going on
between different societies,

different cities, and different
ways of doing things.

The winners of that competition
are going to be those

that find a way to have people
get along and to find a way

to maximize the potential
of more people.

Perhaps this is the secret
to Tokyo's success.

It's clearly a rich
and powerful city,

but it feels like we're
all on the same page.

It feels like there's
a common purpose.

Civilization works best

when people believe

they're all in it together.

The first time a city
got this formula right

was 4,000 years ago...

Not in Turkey,

but 900 miles further south,

in modern-day Iraq.

Archaeologist
Jeff Rose is paying a visit.

Today, Iraq is one of the most
hostile environments in the world.

I mean, just to get around, I've
got this convoy of 4 vehicles

with armor plating, which is ironic because
this is the cradle of civilization.

This is where the earliest
civilization arose.

All civilizations rise and fall,

but this one in particular,
in its heyday, was magnificent.

This was once a lush plain

between two rivers,

a land known as Mesopotamia,

and here was
the great city of Ur.

4,000 years ago,

it was a sprawling Metropolis

of 65,000 people...

Centered on
a huge temple complex

called the ziggurat,

reconstructed in the 1980s

by Saddam Hussein.

I can't overstate
the importance of this place.

So elsewhere at this time,
people were living in towns,

they were painting walls, they were
building palaces for the elites.

But down here at Ur
and other cities like this,

they were building the blueprint for what
all cities to come after would look like.

They had crossed the threshold
into civilization.

What was the secret
of Ur's success?

Why did civilization work
in this city,

when other large settlements
like Arslantepe had failed?

I'm standing in what was one of the most
fertile river valleys in the entire world.

But to make this
river valley work,

you needed to actually
transform the land.

You needed a workforce,
an organized workforce

of enough people to dig
the irrigation canals

to bring the water
into the fields,

and they had lots of people living
in Mesopotamia at the time.

They also had the right kind of
food; They had cereal grains.

To fuel a city, you need
cereal grains.

Mix together
a critical mass of people

with enough food to feed them

and a location where
they want to live,

and you get
a self-sustaining city,

a civilization.

Archaeologist Elizabeth stone

believes there's another reason
this city worked so well.

She's excavating
the residential area of Ur,

where most of
the population lived.

Early civilizations all have
kings, they all have priests,

they all have people at the top.

But where they differ

is what happens
to the larger population.

And in places like Ur,

I think there was quite a lot of equality
and quite a lot of social mobility.

Wherever we dig, everybody seems
to be doing pretty well.

There's a sense that, you know,
you're poor when you're young,

you get wealthier
as you get older,

and you've got more kids who can
work for you and help you.

It's no different from today.

They own their own houses,

so they inherit property
from their families.

They're engaged in business.

They have private documents.

They wrote on Clay, which, in this
environment, is pretty much indestructible,

and they wrote about
almost everything.

We often get contracts;
These are going to be where

people are selling a house, they're selling
a field or an orchard or things like that.

Everybody was kind of
middle-class.

Despite being ruled by a king,

the public had a say
in the running of his city...

And so Ur avoided
the dictatorship

that blighted Arslantepe.

I think it's
very difficult to have real,

large-scale urban life

with high levels of inequality

because people are going to be
living cheek by jowl with somebody

who has really
different types of access.

The question is,
why should they stay here?

If you weren't happy, you could
say, "well, to hell with it.

I'm going to get out of here."

So if you want your city
to be successful,

you need people to be there,
and under those circumstances,

you have to give them
a piece of the pie.

If they feel that they're now
part of something larger,

if they have a voice
in the decision-making,

if they have access to more
goods by being in the city,

then it's worth their while
to live in the city.

By creating a society
in which everyone felt invested,

the rulers of Ur built
a city that worked.

Little wonder
thousands came to live here.

Ur was a melting pot of people,

ideas, and invention.

Creativity skyrocketed.

Take this architectural marvel,
this thing called a ziggurat.

This was the symbolic center
of the city.

This is where the priestesses
would perform their rituals.

This is where the people
would congregate around...

But they didn't have any stone,
they had nothing to build with,

so the whole thing
is made out of mud.

The ziggurat's just
the tip of the iceberg.

If you had cereal
for breakfast this morning,

that's brought to you
by Southern Mesopotamia.

They invented large-scale
wheat production.

The bowl you had it in,

well, they invented
the Potter's wheel.

So while there are other
civilizations that emerge

in China and Egypt
and India and Mesoamerica,

it's here in Southern Mesopotamia that's
the root of western civilization.

These people were
bursting with ingenuity,

but they didn't have much to
work with in their environment,

so they... for instance,
they'd take a bundle of reeds,

which grow just along
the riverbanks.

They could turn these into boats,
which sail all the way to India.

They would also...

They could just cut the bottom
of them like so...

And you'd have a stylus, which
is essentially a kind of pen.

From this, they invented the
world's first writing system.

Every written word in
the western world

can trace its origin back
to the cuneiform markings

of Mesopotamia.

And not just writing.

Mathematics also comes directly
from Mesopotamian civilization.

They used reeds
for measuring distances.

So they had two
standardized measurements.

It was all based
on the anatomy of the king.

So they would take the length
from his elbow crease

to the tip of his finger, and that
was one standardized measurement.

And then the other was
the full arm span,

which really means that this is
the world's first ruler,

and this leads to
the birth of mathematics.

The way they did that

was they used the divisions
on their fingers...

1, 2, 3;

4, 5, 6;
7, 8, 9

10, 11, 12...
And then they had 5 fingers,

so multiply that, and they get
a base-60 system of mathematics.

Now, they used
this system to tell time.

Here's the mind-boggling part...
60 seconds in a minute,

60 minutes in an hour.

They divided their day up
into two 12-hour periods.

So we still tell time
the same way

the people of Southern
Mesopotamia developed it,

and this really goes
to show how the city

is the engine of invention.

The urban way
of life pioneered at Ur

was exported eastward
through Asia

and westward through Europe.

The civilizations of Greece,

Rome,

and Byzantium were all inherited

from Mesopotamia.

And eventually,
the same model was transported

across the Atlantic

to the new world.

We live as we do today

because they did it first.

The city is the quintessential
expression of civilization,

a hothouse for ideas,

an engine of progress.

If you look at
the tally sheet of history,

in the first 200,000 years
before the first cities,

we invented stone tools,
bows and arrows,

canoes, sewing, and pottery.

Now, that's quite impressive,
and certainly much more than

our chimp cousins have
managed to pull off.

But in the first 2,000 years
since the advent of cities

came the alphabet, mathematics,
writing, cement,

reservoirs, sewers,
aqueducts, soap, candles,

currency, silk,
paving, canals, furnaces,

and so on and so on.

The more viewpoints, and the
more diverse the viewpoints

that you have access to,
the better off you are.

That's the appeal of the city.

Cities act almost like
collective brains,

where you have access to the viewpoints
and talents of millions of people...

This fizzing, buzzing connectivity of minds
trying to learn and share with each other.

The more minds,

the more connections,
the more innovation.

Science fiction writers
sometimes like to imagine

some kind of alien species
connected by a single hive mind.

But in some sense, that's what
humanity is like today,

living together in
these mega-cities.

The human brain contains
billions of neurons,

but its power comes not simply
from the number of neurons,

but by the interconnectedness
in these elaborate networks

spanning trillions
of connections.

In just the same way,

our cities contain billions
of human beings,

but their power comes not simply
from the number of people,

but the interconnectedness of people,
and these elaborate social networks

spanning trillions of
connections and conversations.

In many ways, the city
and civilization itself

is a projection of
our own brains.

The city is much more
than the sum of its citizens.

I think it can be a little
threatening to think of yourself

as a single neuron
in this giant, connected,

collective brain that we
call humanity.

But I think that's both
fascinating and humbling.

It's estimated that every week

for the next 3 decades,

another million and a half
people around the world

will move to the city.

Just like our ancestors,

we're seduced by the lure
of being together

and sharing ideas.

The city... a cornerstone
of civilization.