Stories from the Stone Age

15,000 years ago, our ancestors emerged from the desolation of the last Ice Age as hunter-gatherers with stone knives and axes. In the Middle East, a unique combination of climate and plants enabled people to build huts and begin to settle down. It's a Stone Age revolution, but in Europe, people continue to hunt and gather as the continent is overwhelmed by advancing forests.

Eleven thousand years ago, across the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, the first farmers domesticated goats and sheep. The Stone Age has become sophisticated as people develop vital and creative villages.

As the last hunter-gatherers turn to farming, agricultural life is dominated more and more by elites. Weapons are spreading and iron brings better farming tools and cheap, effective swords. The Stone Age is finally over but the Age of Empires has just begun.