Domestication of plants and animals – ‘hot spots’ – ‘founder crops’ – increasing control of fire – cultivation of cereals
– fertile crescent – drawbacks of agriculture – a more arid world – population crises in pre-history – sedentism – health crisis in pre-history –
sedentary foraging – the first houses – Natufian/Khiamian cultures – the Woman and the Bull, the origin of religion – ‘fire-pits’ – first use of clay
– female figurines – transition from stone to pottery – megaliths – stone temples of Malta – the Great Goddess – ‘Old Europe’ – copper
smelting – bronze – iron – daggers, mirrors and coins – the intellectual impact of money
4. Cities of Wisdom
The first cities – ‘temple cities’ – temple cult – origin of writing – tokens – Vinca marks (Old European scripts) – Indian
script – first pictographs – cuneiform at Shuruppak – early names and lists – syllabary and then alphabet – Ras Shamra (Ugarit) – the first schools –
the first archives/libraries – the first literary texts – Gilgamesh – the ‘en’ and the ‘lugal’: rival leaders – the wheel – domestication
of the horse – horses and war – the first law codes
PART TWO: ISAIAH TO ZHU XI
The Romance of the Soul
5. Sacrifice, Soul, Saviour: ‘the Spiritual Breakthrough’
Sexuality in agriculture – self-denial as the basis of sacrifice – ‘sky gods’ – concepts of the soul – Indo-Aryans and the soul in the
Rig Veda – Greek ideas of the psyche and thymos – the afterlife and the underworld – Islands of the Blessed – paradise – napistu/nephesh – the ‘Axial
Age’ – stone worship in the Bible – Yahweh becomes the dominant god – the prophets of Israel – Zarathustra – Mithras – Hinduism – the Buddha
– Pythagoras – the Orphics – Plato – Aristotle – Confucius – Taoism
6. The Origins of Science, Philosophy and the Humanities
Homer – the Odyssey and the Iliad – myth – ‘hoplite’ infantry – coins and agriculture – Dracon – Solon as tyrant –
Athenian democracy – the polis – Pericles and the golden age – the Assembly – Ionian science – Pythagoras and square numbers – the planets as
‘wanderers’ – atomic theory – Hippocrates and Asclepius: early medicine – sophistry – Protagoras and Xenophanes: scepticism leads to philosophy –
Socrates – Plato – Aristotle – tragedy – Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides – history – Herodotus and Thucydides – sculpture – the Parthenon –
Phidias – Myron – vase painting – Praxiteles and the female nude – Eastern influences on Greece – the birth of Greek individualism
7. The Ideas of Israel, the Idea of Jesus
