Okay, I know this is vague but it's been killing me. There was a 3 part historical dramatization of early human history that aired on either the Discovery Channel or History Channel earlier this year. I am thinking maybe this spring? Anyway, I caught the airing of all three hours back to back one weekend afternoon and have been kicking myself for not recording it.
Bear with me and I'll try to describe it. I know SOMEONE else is bound to have seen it. But I've looked through the Discovery Store and History.com and can't seem to find it.
The first hour dramatizes interactions between two stone age bands that met. One group was still primarily a band of nomadic hunter/gatherers and they encounter a more sedentary group that lives in permanent shelters and practices rudimentary agriculture. The nomads want grain and the settled group wants the nomads' dog.
The second hour jumps forward to a primitive city. One character suffers a head injury after being exiled for attempting to run away with the daughter of a higher status member of the community. The local doctor practices trepanation and saves the man although leaving him with speech and motor impairments. He gets his revenge, however, when he becomes the first to realize the connection between irrigation and crop growth. A little hokey, I know, but still neat. His family goes on to become high status in the city and I believe his brother or one of his sons becomes a corrupt shaman who can't cure a plague-like epidemic that besets the town. I seem to remember the last scene involved one of these men exiled to a beach encountering a band of people that had domestic horses and bronze.
I get a little hazy as to where the 2nd hour ended and the last hour started, but I believe the last hour dealt primarily with a villager or something like that who wanders into a new, large city that resembles something like a Sumerian city. He sees the scribe of the royal court and wants to learn how to write like him.
Anywho, I know I live a dull life but I'd like to track down the name so that maybe I could set Tivo to catch it if it comes on again. It was a neat little documentary that did a good job of relating what everyday life was like in these developmental periods.
Bear with me and I'll try to describe it. I know SOMEONE else is bound to have seen it. But I've looked through the Discovery Store and History.com and can't seem to find it.
The first hour dramatizes interactions between two stone age bands that met. One group was still primarily a band of nomadic hunter/gatherers and they encounter a more sedentary group that lives in permanent shelters and practices rudimentary agriculture. The nomads want grain and the settled group wants the nomads' dog.
The second hour jumps forward to a primitive city. One character suffers a head injury after being exiled for attempting to run away with the daughter of a higher status member of the community. The local doctor practices trepanation and saves the man although leaving him with speech and motor impairments. He gets his revenge, however, when he becomes the first to realize the connection between irrigation and crop growth. A little hokey, I know, but still neat. His family goes on to become high status in the city and I believe his brother or one of his sons becomes a corrupt shaman who can't cure a plague-like epidemic that besets the town. I seem to remember the last scene involved one of these men exiled to a beach encountering a band of people that had domestic horses and bronze.
I get a little hazy as to where the 2nd hour ended and the last hour started, but I believe the last hour dealt primarily with a villager or something like that who wanders into a new, large city that resembles something like a Sumerian city. He sees the scribe of the royal court and wants to learn how to write like him.
Anywho, I know I live a dull life but I'd like to track down the name so that maybe I could set Tivo to catch it if it comes on again. It was a neat little documentary that did a good job of relating what everyday life was like in these developmental periods.
