Somewhere in the University for the Sciences of Anthropology, Political Science, and History
A camera crew sits themselves in the office of Dr. Brown, the lead professor for the Department of Anthropology at the university. Issa, the interviewer and overall project for the documentary, is the closest person near Dr. Brown with his seating just a few meters away from his oak desk. Issa moves his hands and gets a microphone near Dr. Brown’s mouth. The sound-man checks the audio equipment and settings before he gives the ok-sign.
“How are you, Dr. Brown?” Issa starts off.
“I’m good. I’m good. Happy to be here,” Dr. Brown gives a big warm smile as he folds his hands onto the desk.
“I would like to ask a few questions about early human civilization. Could you just give a small overview of them?” Issa inquires.
“Glad you asked. The earliest evidence of human civilization dates back around six thousand five hundred years ago. More specifically, I’ll focus on the people of Machaka. At this time, at the end-stage of the neolithic age, we can see the adoption of agriculture and sedentary society. This development was mainly focused around the Shani Delta - becoming the cradle of human civilization.”
“Can you go into more detail about Machaka and its society?” Issa asks.
“Of course. The formation of hierarchy and government was very much still in its youth. The closest thing that you’ll get was a grand council of elders that would talk about important issues. This would later be the staging place for early human government and politics, but that is much later down in the history of Machaka. Early religion was focused on the sun, moon, and river. Marini was the sun god. Nia was the moon god, and Eshe was the river god,” Dr. Brown pauses for a second, uncapping a bottle of water to drink. He continues.
“It would be important to also note that agriculture was still developing. A lot of people still had to hunt and gather food to fulfill their daily needs. Fun fact, we now know that the first crop grown was in fact barley. Moving on, I would like to share the daily activity of an average human at this time period,” Dr. Brown pauses to think.
“Let’s call our person...Josh. Josh normally woke up as the sun demanded. Next, he would go outside and pray to Marini. After that, Josh tasked himself to either gather or hunt down food. If not that then he would trend to the fields. It’s important to note that this society was still largely egalitarian, and the roles of man and women were largely the same. The humans of Machaka only ate two meals a day - one in the noon and one near sundown. Once their duties were done then they had their free time and did whatever they wanted for the rest of the day,” Dr. Brown states.
“Thank you for your insight. One last question. How did the people of Machaka advance?” Issa wonders.
“Good question. The humans of Machaka largely focused on developing their agriculture, focusing on gaining better yields of grains. The barley that you know today is largely due to their investments of breeding. With new yields of crops, they eventually developed photo-writing and then the concept of numbers,” Dr. Brown notes.