The story of how humans first started building the globalised world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than ten thousand years from the origins of farming around 9,000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the C13^th AD. Cunliffe brings into clearer focus those basic underlying factors that have driven change throughout the ages: the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live and the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation. The Emeritus Professor of Archaeology is the author of The Ancient Celts, Facing the Ocean, and Britain Begins.