First Civilizations: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Having lived as mobile foragers for 99 percent of our time on Earth, why did humans set out on the road to civilization? How did they create villages, towns, cities and states, and establish the blueprint for the modern world? This series identifies four cornerstones of civilization - war, religion, cities and trade - and explores each in the context of a different location. Criss-crossing the globe, camera crews travel to Mexico, Guatemala, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Oman, Morocco, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. They record the latest archeological discoveries, test new theories and uncover original information.

Drama reconstructions and computer graphics are used to visualize the lost world of the first civilizations. In each episode, the ancient story is also complemented by a modern-day analog, with an expert interviewee connecting the dots between past and present. The idea is to show how our ancestors were motivated by the same impulses that persist today: the inevitability of war, a need for religion, the lure of the city, a love of trade. Their story is our story.

Series details

• Title: First Civilizations
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Genres: Travel, History
• Premiere date: 2018-04-24
• Final broadcast date listed: 2018-05-15
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: PBS
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 55 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 36469
• IMDb ID: tt8539056
• TVDB ID: 346394

Cast and credited roles

• Kerry Shale — Narrator

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2018-04-24; final listed air date 2018-05-15; episode order: 4.

Source and licence

Adapted from First Civilizations on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.