Category: 04. Humans and gods (10,000s BC)

As far back as the great “streaming in” when humans all started living in cities with leaders and worshiping their gods, we started to pass down knowledge and to separate the world into “us” and “them”.

A current guess for the starting points of this “streaming in” are cities like Jericho (having been continuously occupied since 8000 BC), river people between Tigris and Euphrates, and sea people in Greece. This season of history has stories, but they are typically so chalked full of supernatural and mystical details – it is difficult to not throw it all out. There are pieces of truth in myth, or it wouldn’t have been passed down.

I understand what you were just thinking, but myth is the smoke of history. It may take a good bit of work to fan it into flame, but when you see smoke – it’s best not to pretend it’s not there. (John Keay paraphrased)