From the first Homo sapiens to the Sumerians, this episode sprints through 200,000 years of prehistory. 

It covers the Neanderthals, denisovans, drowned land masses, mesolithic hunter-gatherers, the first farmers, indo-europeans, the Green Sahara, the unification of Egypt, and the first writing.

This is the first of four prologue episodes to set the stage before the decades narrative begins in 1 AD.