- 28/06/2025
Documentary, Mankind: The Story of All of Us S01E01 Inventors
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LearningTranscript
00:00We are born to survive in a world full of dangers.
00:15Hardship makes us stronger.
00:20We dream impossible dreams and make them real, but we are not one.
00:28Mankind's struggles shape our destiny.
00:33And in those struggles, new worlds and new futures are born.
00:46Amidst the chaos of an unforgiving planet, most species will fail.
00:52But for one, all the pieces will fall into place.
00:57And a set of keys will unlock a path for mankind to triumph.
01:04This is our story. The story of all of us.
01:10At the dawn of time, the universe explodes into being.
01:25With it, every atom in our bodies.
01:32Countless galaxies, innumerable stars.
01:38And around one of them. A blue planet. Our Earth.
01:53No other known planet has both an atmosphere and liquid water.
02:08The conditions needed for life.
02:20Thirteen billion years after the universe begins, a unique species is born.
02:27Mankind.
02:32Now, in the grasslands of east Africa, we begin our struggle against the odds.
02:37the odds, a band of brothers, their leader, the genetic ancestor of all mankind.
02:59Every man alive today shares a portion of his DNA.
03:05Two inches taller than a modern American, a natural athlete, a born hunter.
03:16This is his home, the Rift Valley of East Africa, a fertile laboratory for life.
03:29In his sights, a thousand pounds of meat, enough to feed his family of six for a month.
03:49Soon there will be seven.
03:51The woman he shares his life with is expecting their first child.
03:58Stereoscopic vision to accurately judge distance, dextrous hands, speed on two legs.
04:09But he has none of the natural weapons of Africa's other predators.
04:18He cannot run a cheetah, nowhere near the strength of a lion, or the bone-crushing jaws of a hyena.
04:29So he invents.
04:31Tools make me better.
04:33Weapons make me more powerful.
04:38You have to be on two feet.
04:44You have to free up your hands.
04:47And freeing up your hands to work with tools changes the game.
04:52And there's no other species on this planet that committed to weapon use and tool use like us.
04:59Man's ability to project power, the key to controlling our world.
05:12We'll spend the next hundred millennia perfecting weapons that kill at a distance.
05:24There's a window that's closing.
05:27You've got a half a second.
05:29And that's the kind of moment where if you can explode and do the right thing, you'll eat.
05:34You'll survive.
05:35And if you blow it, you're dead.
05:37You're dead.
05:38You're dead.
06:06You're dead.
06:07You're dead.
06:08You're dead.
06:09You're dead.
06:10You're dead.
06:11You're dead.
06:12You're dead.
06:13You're dead.
06:14You're dead.
06:15You're dead.
06:16You're dead.
06:17You're dead.
06:18You're dead.
06:19You're dead.
06:20You're dead.
06:21You're dead.
06:22You're dead.
06:23You're dead.
06:24You're dead.
06:25You're dead.
06:26You're dead.
06:27You're dead.
06:28You're dead.
06:29You're dead.
06:30You're dead.
06:31You're dead.
06:32You're dead.
06:33You're dead.
06:34You're dead.
06:35You're dead.
06:36cooking our foods gives us a second stomach outside of our body now we begin to digest the
06:47fats the carbohydrates the proteins before we chew the food making it easier for us to digest it
06:53which means we get a smaller stomach and therefore a bigger brain
06:58better nutrition boosts the human brain over two million years it more than doubles in size
07:10with trillions of connections
07:18the most complex structure in the universe letting us think communicate
07:25and love
07:28it could be argued that society any kind of society began with the cooking of meat over flame
07:41but man is not always the hunter
07:55fire protects them from other predators
08:06but this couple will be lucky to live to 30
08:11their unborn child has only a 50% chance of surviving to adult
08:20there are perhaps only 10,000 humans on the planet
08:27fewer people than are born in a single hour today
08:32scattered in small isolated groups
08:38always on the brink of extinction
08:42but around 70,000 years ago
08:47a few hundred pioneers wander out of Africa
08:53the beginning of an extraordinary adventure
08:57everyone is related to those first pioneers who dared to venture away
09:03out of their homeland
09:05and look beyond
09:06we are a restless bunch we humans
09:12we're always looking over there and over there may mean oceans or mountains or continents away
09:19this is our hard wiring
09:22our DNA
09:23over 50,000 years
09:35over 50,000 years
09:36mankind settles the Middle East
09:37Asia
09:38Australia
09:39and Europe
09:42as we spread out
09:44a slight shift of the Earth's axis away from the Sun
09:48cools the planet
09:50average temperatures drop up to 14 degrees
09:54a third of the planet under ice
10:00mile-high glaciers advance across northern Asia and Europe
10:13and now hardship makes us who we are
10:20just a few hundred miles from the glacier wall
10:23in what will become modern-day France
10:29a family survives in the harshest climate mankind has known
10:44extreme cold is like a living thing
10:46it sort of sneaks around and finds you where you're weakest
10:49it's gonna seep up from the floor
10:51it's gonna come in from all angles and just
10:53just crush you
10:59we devise new technologies to help keep us alive
11:02but our world is as treacherous as ever
11:07nature's perfect killing machine
11:20top speed 35 miles per hour
11:26their jaws bite with 1500 pounds of force per square inch
11:34enough to shatter bones
11:45wolves are ruthlessly efficient pack hunters
11:48just like us
11:49in this frozen world
12:05mankind makes a great leap forward
12:08fire turns caves into homes
12:12we sharpen animal bones into the first needles
12:16and make tailored clothes for the first time
12:24clothing for us is fashion
12:26but for a man in the ice age
12:28you have to keep your skin warm
12:30you have to maintain a micro climate against your skin
12:32and if you don't you start to fall apart
12:35on the walls of the cave
12:47the most uniquely human invention of all
12:50images of our lives and our world
12:53some of the first works of art
12:56they're saying i lived i had a sense of my own identity
13:05i am somebody
13:10that's really the beginning of humans moving farther and farther away from our animal roots into a new kind of creature
13:18it might have been the first example of individuality
13:25we know we survived that period
13:28but it's good to see tangible physical evidence of that
13:31a few wolves have genes that make them tamer than the rest
13:58the ancestors of all the dogs alive today
14:05the first initial contact was probably made by wolves who were looking to exploit a new food source
14:15who were able to you know stand being near people long enough to eat what was being thrown in the scrap heap behind the cave
14:23our ice age enemy becomes man's best friend
14:38he can hunt at night
14:39he can hunt by sound
14:40he can hunt by smell
14:41he can hear the reindeer over the horizon
14:44hours before you'll even become aware of their presence
14:47it's an unbeatable combination
14:49humans and dogs together nothing can stop them
14:52as ice grips the planet
15:06mankind pushes onward
15:08against all odds
15:10against all odds
15:11we flourish
15:13then
15:15the planet starts to warm again
15:17by 10,000 BC the human population reaches a million
15:23snow turns to rain
15:29four hundred generations ago
15:40in the middle east
15:43a woman whose name we'll never know
15:46nurtures into life the future of humanity
15:50scientists call her
15:52our farming mother
15:54what she invents changes the pace of the human story
16:01gives rise to cities
16:05new technology
16:07science
16:08and empires
16:10but also crime
16:12poverty
16:13disease
16:14and war
16:1610,000 years ago
16:23in the fertile hills of the middle east
16:25an idea
16:27gives birth to the world we live in today
16:30ice age snow turns to summer rain
16:38earth is the only known planet where water exists in liquid form
16:49covering more than 70% of the globe
16:53an essential for life
16:55while men hunt
17:02women gather wild grains
17:06nearly half a ton of seeds
17:09from one acre of grass
17:12every calorie spent gathering
17:15yields 50 in return
17:18people settle around rich sources of food
17:24now in groups of 60 or more
17:28and 10,000 years ago
17:31one woman makes a breakthrough
17:34the foundation of our modern world
17:38discarded seeds take root in the garbage
17:44it gives her an idea
17:47she plants her best seeds
17:54in a fertile patch of land
17:58planting the first seed
18:00is the first step towards civilization
18:02they can take the landscape and use it to their advantage
18:06more of a guarantee that they and their children will survive
18:10she tends the seeds
18:13weeds and waters them
18:15the world's first farmer
18:17now an acre of land can feed a hundred times as many people as hunting and gathering
18:34farming is a game changer
18:37it's the difference between there being only a few million humans on the planet
18:41and there being billions of humans on the planet
18:43a new crop conquers the globe
18:50wheat
18:56from a single sixty pound bushel
18:58seventy loaves of bread
19:00by three thousand b.c. farming reaches southern england
19:12creating a blueprint for the future
19:21the village
19:24mankind's first settled communities
19:29and a new figure
19:31the leader
19:33smart
19:37outspoken
19:38charismatic
19:40the first farm animals
19:47pigs
19:48sheep
19:49goats
19:50cattle
19:51it's a turning point
19:53within a thousand years
19:58most domesticated animals we have today
20:02have been tamed for human use
20:05taming and breeding other animals is the key to the growth of our population
20:15but farming also opens up a new battlefront
20:24against mankind's most enduring enemy
20:30disease
20:32so many of the common diseases we fear the most
20:36syphilis
20:37syphilis
20:38tuberculosis
20:39smallpox
20:40bubonic plague
20:41they came because of our living in proximity with animals
20:45animals
20:47with hard work and a restricted diet
20:50we become less healthy
20:52and shorter
20:54the average man is only five foot three inches tall
20:58women only five feet
21:00and owning land gives birth to a new enemy
21:11each other
21:13in the neighboring village crops have failed
21:17in the neighboring village
21:19in the neighboring village
21:21well i don't know if you've ever been hungry
21:23but when you get hungry
21:24it takes over your mind in an incredible way
21:26there's
21:27you start having you know olfactory hallucinations
21:30you start smelling things that aren't there
21:32you can't think of anything else
21:34you can't talk about anything else
21:35you'll get together with your friends and talk for four hours about the next meal
21:39eventually you get to cannibalism
21:41you'll eat your friends
21:42i mean it will take over
21:44it comes down to yours versus mine
22:12that's my land
22:15i worked hard for that land
22:17i put my time
22:18my effort
22:19my energy into that land
22:20i've learned how to cultivate it
22:22i've learned how to manage it through the seasons
22:24if you come in here to try and steal it from me
22:27to take it from me
22:29especially without my consent
22:31i have to do something about it
22:33or i'm dead
22:37the birth of warfare
22:42one in ten skeletons from early farming folk show signs of violence
23:03a farmer
23:06a farmer
23:07can expect to die five years before our hunter gatherer ancestors
23:10ะฝะพัั
23:12re
23:21stop
23:22stop
23:23stop
23:24stop
23:25stop
23:26stop
23:27stop
23:29on
23:31stop
23:32stop
23:33no
23:34With farming life comes another leap for mankind, new ways of mourning, and the beginnings
23:55of organized religion.
23:57On a plain in southern England, a monument to those we have lost, Stonehenge.
24:27Belief in the afterlife inspires some of mankind's greatest engineering projects, and at the same
24:47time as Stonehenge, 2,200 miles away, another extraordinary monument to the dead takes shape.
25:01The greatest building on earth for another 4,000 years.
25:13On the banks of the river Nile in Africa, mankind builds one of the first great civilizations.
25:26Its greatest engineering feat, a vast pyramid tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu, the god-king of
25:36Egypt.
25:43It's going to feel that that monument represents something that is bigger than human.
25:54It must be built by a god.
26:04The tallest man-made structure for the next 4,000 years.
26:0935,000 workers, no iron tools, no wheeled vehicles, just soft copper chisels and saws.
26:27Entire towns built for the workforce.
26:32These aren't slaves.
26:35Many are skilled craftsmen, paid in grain and beer.
26:41In charge of construction, Hemi Una.
26:47Prince of Egypt, prime minister, and one of the first and greatest engineers in the story
26:55of mankind, a logistical challenge made possible by a single invention.
27:06The key to most of the achievements of mankind, writing.
27:14Imagine that you're trying to organize 20,000 to 30,000 men.
27:19The only way to do that is to write stuff down.
27:26Developed 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, writing is an extension of the human brain.
27:35We can speak to each other over distance and across time.
27:44Hemi Una's vision brings together a workforce never seen before.
27:52You had to quarry, move, and place a block every 2 to 3 minutes to complete that structure
27:58in a 10-hour workday.
27:59It's insane.
28:01It takes 20 years and 2 million blocks of stone.
28:09Each weighing more than a pickup truck, lifted 400 feet above the ground.
28:18Workers organized into competing gangs.
28:24People are smart.
28:25They understand that we have competitive natures.
28:28And they separated these people up into groups and said,
28:31OK, you guys are going to drag these stones.
28:33You guys are going to drag these stones.
28:34Who can do it faster?
28:36Who can do it faster?
28:37Who can do it faster?
28:38Who can do it faster?
28:39Who can do it faster?
28:40Who can do it faster?
28:41Who can do it faster?
28:42Who can do it faster?
28:43Who can do it faster?
28:44Who can do it faster?
28:45Who can do it faster?
28:46Who can do it faster?
28:47Who can do it faster?
28:48Who can do it faster?
28:49Who can do it faster?
28:50Who can do it faster?
28:51Who can do it faster?
28:52Who can do it faster?
28:53Who can do it faster?
28:54Who can do it faster?
28:55Who can do it faster?
28:56Who can do it faster?
28:57Who can do it faster?
28:58Who can do it faster?
28:59Who can do it faster?
29:00Who can do it faster?
29:01Who can do it faster?
29:02Who can do it faster?
29:03In cemeteries around the Pyramid,
29:32One in five skeletons of workers shows evidence of serious injury from accidents
29:55It takes 20 years and 2 million blocks to complete
30:03Covered in polished limestone
30:06Capped with gold
30:11And deep inside, a burial chamber
30:17The pyramid is a resurrection machine
30:22Where the Pharaoh Khufu will live on
30:26Among the gods
30:33Across the Middle East, the first cities rise
30:38A revolution in human life
30:45Kanes, today in modern Turkey
30:48Part of the rise of the city is so farmers can live together
30:54And not just farmers, but the people who make the tools for the farmers
31:00The city gives birth to two new keys to human progress
31:04Trade
31:07And industry
31:09And a new kind of man
31:12The entrepreneur
31:17M.D. Ilum
31:18One of the first traders we know about in the story of mankind
31:26He trades in one of the rarest and most valuable materials of his day
31:32Tin
31:38Tin is the key to a new industry
31:40A new industry
31:46Added to copper, it produces bronze
31:51Strong, sharp
31:53The metal that changes the face of warfare for the next 2,000 years
31:57Tin
32:03But tin is one of the ancient world's rarest metals
32:08Found in only a few distant places
32:10Amur is M.D.'s son
32:21A partner in his father's business
32:27On a trade mission that widens the horizons of mankind
32:30Hundreds of miles from home
32:36He's carrying a cargo of tin
32:40Mined in the mountains of Iran and Afghanistan
32:49Here you start to see the rise of literally international trade
32:54Almost 4,000 years ago
32:59Traders like M.D. turned writing
33:02Into something new
33:04They literally
33:06Make history
33:09Hundreds of M.D.'s letters on clay tablets survive
33:13In one letter to a business partner
33:16He writes about his son
33:18Amur is only interested in food and beer
33:22He needs to learn to do what he's told
33:26He needs to become a man
33:30The great value of the invention of the act of writing
33:34Was leaving all of us
33:36A track record, a trail
33:38What we now know as our history as human beings
33:45But Amur's manhood is about to be tested
33:51People would begin to transport the tin across these vast distances
34:01They could make an enormous return, but it was extremely risky
34:07Half a ton of tin that will sell for 100% profit
34:11But this is Bandit Country
34:29Trade and industry are forging new connections across the world
34:33Amur transports a valuable cargo through Bandit Country
34:44Well the people who made the world are the people who are the risk takers
34:50Are the people who didn't play it safe
34:53The people who can see opportunity where others see only risk
34:57This is the only risk
35:27Trade opens new frontiers
35:49Connecting the world like never before
35:54You start to see the very beginnings of the trade and specialization
36:02That Adam Smith would talk about thousands of years later
36:06In The Wealth of Nations
36:08Where different groups have different abilities
36:10Right there in bronze
36:13You start to see the beginnings of the modern economy
36:15Traders spread civilization across the world
36:22Connecting the Middle East to India, Europe and beyond
36:28But the trade in bronze
36:31And the struggle to control it
36:34Now lead to the birth of modern warfare
36:37Megiddo in modern day Israel
36:39April 16th of 1457 B.C.
36:54Egypt's new pharaoh, Thutmose III
36:58Young, ambitious, untested
37:03Middle Eastern warlords have seized control of the city of Megiddo
37:20The key to the trade networks of the ancient world
37:24He's been groomed for this
37:30And when he finally becomes pharaoh
37:32They challenge him
37:34When you're looking at Megiddo
37:36You have to realize that is the life's blood of that civilization
37:40That's the trade routes
37:42And he's like, okay, I'm gonna show you what I can do
37:4412,000 troops
38:00Officers
38:02Regiments
38:04Platoons
38:06A new kind of army
38:14Most are conscripts
38:20Farmers called up to arms
38:27But also trained professionals
38:32Fierce Nubian soldiers from modern day Sudan
38:36All await the God King's orders
38:39There's nothing like seeing your leader in the front
38:44There's nothing like seeing your leader in the front
38:46Whether it's a pharaoh or General Patton
38:50Men seeing their leaders going into the fray, risking their lives
38:56You just want to step up and prove to your boss
39:00You've got what it takes to win
39:03Come on!
39:04This is the first recorded battle in the story of mankind
39:22His majesty issued forth at the head of his army
39:25In a chariot of fine gold adorned with the instruments of war
39:29In the bible, Megiddo will give its name to Armageddon
39:41The Egyptian chariot
39:44With a top speed of 25 miles per hour
39:56The chariot is more like a helicopter gunship
39:57The chariot archer is the warrior here
40:00The chariot archer is the warrior here
40:03They ride in, shooting as they go in
40:07It would be unnerving, it would be chaotic
40:11Over an area of miles, this great dust cloud of confusion
40:16That alone must have struck terror into the enemy standing there
40:20The man that's standing there
40:38The age of mass warfare has begun
40:51Mankind's struggle for resources
40:55Creates the world's first great empires
40:58Egypt's pharaoh Thutmose the third
41:02Leads an army of 12,000 into battle
41:06For control of the city of Megiddo
41:09He's untested, he's young, he's inexperienced
41:12His men really don't know what to expect from him
41:15So what he has to do
41:17Is he has to get out and lead from the front
41:19And show his men
41:21That yeah, I am in charge
41:23I am the leader, I'm gonna set the example
41:25Let the first arrow be cast at me
41:26My leader will be cast at me
41:56I don't know.
42:26You would hold your manhood in question if you could not step up like your god-king.
42:48Egyptian scribes record the turning point.
42:56The enemy fled headlong to Megiddo in fear.
43:07He was able to wipe out an incredibly powerful coalition of forces.
43:12And he was able to do it through wit and bravery and balls.
43:16An Egyptian poet records the fate of the common soldier.
43:26Young men called up for war.
43:33A child snatched from his mother's bosom.
43:37When he reached his manhood, his bones shattered.
43:41The rebel warlords hand over their children as hostages.
44:00Taken back to Egypt, if the pharaoh's new subjects ever rebel again, they will be killed.
44:10Thutmose III expands the Egyptian empire to its greatest size ever.
44:21400,000 square miles.
44:25He claims...
44:25I have extended the dominion of Egypt as far as the circuit of the sun.
44:33From a species struggling to survive, mankind has unlocked the keys to controlling our destiny.
44:44Fire.
44:46Farming.
44:48Communication.
44:49Building cities, pioneering trade, and the art of war.
45:01One man can now control the lives of millions.
45:06One man can now control the lives of millions.
45:07Man with the power of a god.
45:31But the era of the godlike king is coming to an end.
45:35a new material dug from the earth's crust
45:39will transform our future
45:43new technologies
45:47new people
45:49and new ideas
45:56the age of iron
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