Tracks the advance of history from human origins to the Renaissance in all parts of the world simultaneously, through specially designed time charts featuring full-color photographs of fascinating artifacts from a diversity of cultures.

Part one: First life on Earth (4,600-1 million years ago): Olduvai Gorge -- Surviving the ice ages (1 million- 100,000 years ago): The Ice Age -- First modern humans (100,000-35,000 years ago): The Neanderthals -- Crossing to America (33,000-13,000 BC): Decorated caves -- Ice thaws (13,000-8000 BC): The big-game hunters -- Farmers and hunter-gatherers (8000-5000 BC): Origins of food production -- Part two: From village to city (5000-3000 BC): The Uruk civilization -- An age of monuments (3000-2000 BC): The pyramids ar Giza -- Diverging cultures (2000-1600 BC): Alpine lake villages -- Expansion and consolidation (1600-1000 BC): The Shnag state in China -- Rise and fall of empires (1000- 500 BC): The Olmec of Mexico -- Part three: An age of expansion (500-200 BC): The art of classical Greece -- Imperial realms (200 BC- AD 200): Urban life in Ephesus -- Struggle for power (AD 200-600): Colonization of the Pacific -- Rise of Islam (AD 600-800): Temple-pyramids -- Thriving economies (AD 800-1000): Pueblo villages -- Conquests and crusades (AD 1000-1250): East African trade -- Contact and diversity (AD 1250-1500): Inca roads.