The World

* Competition was brutal: in Europe around 5500 BC, the villages of early farmers were annihilated by invasions or wars, with unknown enemies leaving mass graves of tortured, scalped, cannibalized bodies.

* Around 3000 BC, at Waun Mawn, in Wales, the inhabitants created a circle henge of bluestones, some of which were later dragged a long way to build a new and larger circle at Stonehenge.

* One of the rulers of Uruk named in its king list was Gilgamesh, whose mythical story – The Epic of Gilgamesh, written down around 2000 BC and known by most Sumerians – recounts the rise of a single family and the development of cities. Gilgamesh is part god, part man, who travels with his wild friend Enkidu in search of eternal life. Such travels reflect early trading that allowed flint and obsidian to reach Sumer from Anatolia. Enkidu, creature of nature, is seduced by a divine harlot, Shamhat, but their sexual passion depletes his savage power and he settles in the dazzling city of Uruk. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, a flood threatens all mankind, revealing a theme of world history: the ever-present fear of the world’s end felt as strongly then as today. Only the family of Utnapishtim/Ziusudra, a Noah-like figure, survives – the definition of an elite family. The story, which inspired many sacred books, ends with the gods teaching Gilgamesh the limits of human supremacy, a lesson that Sapiens still struggles to learn: ‘You were given the kingship, such was your destiny; everlasting life was not your destiny.’

* Different versions of the Osiris myth were favoured during different periods. Osiris ruled the earth, but his brother Seth seized power and murdered him. Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, found his body and resurrected him – perhaps the origin of mummification. His death and revival were linked to the annual flooding of the life-giving Nile. He impregnated Isis but, barely alive, fell to Duat, the underworld, which he then ruled. The world was inherited by their son, Horus, god of the sun, moon and stars, the personification of life and power. There were thousands of gods in the Egyptian pantheon, but the kings were protected by Horus; in some ways they were themselves Horus. Like Osiris they could marry their sisters.

* Khufu’s favourite dwarf and jester Perniankhu, with his short twisted legs, lived in the Great Palace with him, nicknamed ‘One who delights his lord every day, the king’s dwarf’. His royal favour was underlined by his tomb close to the Great Pyramid itself and he may have achieved great wealth – and have been a member of a dwarf dynasty. Another court dwarf, Seneb, who served Khufu’s son King Djedefre, was buried at Giza very near Perniankhu: it is possible Seneb was Perniankhu’s son. Seneb was a high court official with many titles, owned thousands of cattle and was married to a well-born priestess, who was not a dwarf, with whom he had children. A beautiful statue shows them together. Next to the Great Pyramid, Khufu buried a barque, 140 feet long and made of Lebanese cedar, for his voyage into the underworld. When he died in 2525 BC, Khufu was succeeded in turn by two sons Djedefre and Khafra. Neither attempted to outdo their father, but Khafra built a funeral pyramid that was smaller but on a higher site. It contained twenty-five statues of himself sitting on his throne with the falcon Horus behind his head in white stone. But his masterpiece was the sculpture of a recumbent lion with Khafra’s own face: the Sphinx.

* This was mistranslated by the Jewish authors of the Bible as ‘Sargon’ – though they were referring to the much later king Sargon II, Neo-Assyrian king circa 720–705 BC.

* Some scholars argue that this is a description of Akkad; others insist it depicts Babylon, the greatest city when later versions of The Epic of Gilgamesh were written down.

* Their rulers lived in plastered palaces with large basalt columns and their ordinary people in wattle houses on massive terraces. They pierced their bodies with thorns; they may have practised ritual bleeding and sacrifices; and they used rubber to make the balls used in their ritualistic games. We do not know the name of the city – we call it San Lorenzo – nor of the people. Much later the Mexica called them Olmecs – the Rubber People.