Secrets of the Stone Age - 4oD

Series 1 Episode 1

First Broadcast:

Richard travels from New York to the Pyramids and beyond in search of evidence of writing, medicine and architecture from the Neolithic or New Stone Age (8000 - 3000 BC) - way before conventional history says they existed. It was the time when human beings embarked on a bold experiment - settling down in fixed communities - and establishing a style of living that still exists today.

Challenging the notion of what it means to be 'civilised', Richard sets out for the oldest stone buildings in the world - temples to a Mother Goddess in Malta. He visits 'Otzi', the so-called 'Ice-Man' discovered in the Alps in 1991. Otzi is the oldest surviving corpse in the world and his body shows clear signs of acupuncture, even though he is over 5000 years old.

Richard finds clay tokens - the origins of the first communications revolution - and visits probably the oldest city in the world - a settlement of tightly packed but meticulously clean houses in Turkey, with something surprising under the floorboards....

SERIES:

1. Series 1 Episode 1
  
  Richard travels from New York to the Pyramids and beyond in search of evidence of writing, medicine and architecture…
2. Series 1 Episode 2
  
  Richard Rudgley continues his journey back in time and discovers that woolly mammoths and cave paintings aren't the…
3. Series 1 Episode 3
  
  In this final programme of the series, Richard Rudgley meets Neanderthal Man - our supposedly stupid cousin who became…