First Civilizations

There is a paradox at the heart of civilization.

To be civilized is to be cultured, enlightened.

But enlightenment comes at a price.

The cost of civilization is war.

These people, they were on a one-way path to warfare.

We have evidence of raiding, warfare, violence.

War is not simply an unfortunate byproduct.

It's the driving force in the development of civilization.

Why is conflict such a powerful agent of change?

How does good come from bad?

For 99% of our time on earth,

humans had no armies or generals.

But then we settled down, grew food,

worshipped gods, wrote stories, sold goods,

built cities... And waged war.

This is the story of that transition,

stepping stones on the road to civilization.

It's a story set across the globe, in the middle east,

central America, Southern Asia...

All seabeds of civilization.

Here our ancestors shaped the ideas

by which we still live our lives.

This is where the modern world began.

Mesoamerica, stretching from Nicaragua to Mexico,

one of the cradles of civilization.

But nowhere was civilization born with so much blood.

The rainforests of Guatemala.

Here in 2010, archaeologist Tom Garrison

made the discovery of his life.

When you get into archaeology,

you dream about having one of those king Tutankhamen moments,

and for me, this was it.

While exploring the ruins of a temple,

Garrison and his team uncovered a dazzling array

of ancient mesoamerican art.

They then started digging deeper to see what lay beneath.

It was the tail end

of a very productive season for us.

And we really started to wonder what was this temple all about.

So we decided to excavate down right on this spot.

We excavated down for about a meter and a half,

and then the ground gave way into an open void.

And the first sense that we get is this waft, this smell.

It smelled like death.

They had discovered a hidden chamber

that had been sealed shut for 1,600 years.

We shined a light down into the hole,

and we start seeing marvelous things:

Textiles, ceramic vessels, Jade,

all of these wonderful objects,

and we knew that we had found a royal tomb.

It was the last resting place of a king.

He had been laid out and buried in splendor...

His tomb decorated with the finest artifacts.

But alongside his body were ceramic ornaments

containing a shocking secret.

There was a line of ceramic vessels

that ran the length of the chamber.

As we removed the lid from the first one...

We see burned bone, and as we look closer,

it's little ribs and little teeth that we're seeing.

And we realized these are the unmistakable remains

of a human child.

It turns out there are 6 children

that have been sacrificed as an offering to this king.

Two of the children had clearly been decapitated.

This was a shockingly gruesome discovery.

Since unearthing this scene of depravity,

Garrison has been exploring the surrounding jungle.

Hidden among the roots and vines,

he's found a huge defensive structure.

We came upon this massive ditch and rampart system about two days ago.

It's probably the largest such feature that we've ever seen.

This is a 9-meter-high rampart.

It's a serious piece of military engineering.

It reminds me of the way that one might fortify a medieval castle.

It's as if the lowlands are locked

in this endless cycle of violence and sacrifice.

Conflict is endemic.

War has always been the bedfellow of civilization.

But how and why does one lead to the other?

The first seeds of civilization in Mesoamerica

were sown in the Oaxaca valley of Southern Mexico.

Archaeologist Jeff Rose has come to where it all began:

The cave of Guilá Naquitz.

Here, 6,000 years ago,

people made the transition from hunting and gathering

to farming.

They stopped foraging for wild food

and started growing domesticated crops.

One of the most important foods from this valley is this.

So this is called teosinte.

Now, teosinte is a wild grass.

It's not very big,

but it's got these kernels that are loaded with carbohydrates,

with fiber, with proteins.

It's incredibly nutritious.

However, what the archaeologists digging in this cave found

wasn't pure wild teosinte.

It had slightly bigger kernels that held onto the cob a little bit better,

and what this tells us is the process of domestication had begun.

Now, with domestication you choose certain plants,

certain animals with desirable traits,

so in this case, they wanted bigger kernels,

they wanted more food out of it.

And this process took thousands of years,

but eventually you end up with giant corn on the cob.

This is the same process the world over

in every early civilization.

In Mesopotamia, it's cereal grains like wheat and barley and rye.

In the Nile valley, it's sorghum and millet.

And they all do the same thing.

They all provide enough easy food

to fuel the entire civilization.

But with domestication comes a new relationship to the land.

Once people here started growing crops,

there's no going back.

I mean, this was a one-way ticket forward.

They could no longer be these free nomads

wandering the landscape looking for food.

They have to sow the crops, they have to harvest the crops,

store them away for the season.

So they are now tied to the land,

tied to this place.

This becomes their land. They own it.

Good farmland is always at a premium

and needs to be defended at any cost.

This was true throughout the ancient world,

but here in Oaxaca,

the effects were exaggerated by geography.

Wow!

This is incredible.

Looking down here, there's no wonder

this was the birthplace of agriculture in Mesoamerica.

I mean, this green, lush valley

filled with rivers running through it.

But on the other hand, it's hemmed in on both sides

by these steep mountains.

As these populations are growing

and they're developing settlements along these rivers

and adopting this new farming way of life,

suddenly real estate is a big issue

because space is limited.

So this poses a major problem.

What happens if one year you have crop failure?

Well, your whole village is gonna starve.

One way of getting around this

is by going over to your neighbor's village

and raiding them and taking their land.

And this trend toward conflict doesn't just happen here in Mesoamerica,

but this is something that goes hand in hand

with the shift to agriculture all over the world.

This is a universal phenomenon.

Farming creates a world of haves and have-nots.

The resources of some become a target for others.

You really get a sense from up here

that Oaxaca isn't just a single valley;

it's actually 3 valleys shaped like a "Y"

that meet in the middle.

So this means potentially there's not just raiding between villages,

but there's the possibility of conflict between valleys.

So it's almost like the geography of this area

set these people on a one-way path to warfare.

Aah!

Peter Turchin is an evolutionary scientist

with a difference.

He applies the theory of evolution to the study of human culture

and believes the violent beginnings of civilization in Mesoamerica

are echoed across the world and throughout time.

Think about the Romans, imperial China...

All great civilizations

and all all left mountains of dead bodies behind them.

It's not an accident.

War and civilization are intertwined.

War is not simply an unfortunate byproduct;

it's the driving force in the development of civilization.

I call this force destructive creation.

The Hindus got it right.

The god Shiva is both a destroyer and a creator.

That's destructive creation.

For Turchin, civilization is a struggle for existence.

Societies that flourish are those that come out on top

in the theater of war.

When you look back at history,

almost any kind of situation that involves competition

lead to conflict.

If you settled down in a farming village,

you must be prepared to defend yourselves.

Winning or losing depends on who can bring the most warriors

to the battlefield.

But the waging of war

requires us to put aside our instinct for self-preservation

and think about what's best for the group.

Mainstream evolutionary theory

suggests that we all should be selfish.

We have been programmed to look out for number one.

And from this selfish point of view,

war does not make any sense.

You are much better off skipping the battle

because getting killed means you will not be able