This course introduces students to important historical and archaeological questions in human prehistory and history, from the origins of humankind to approximately the year 1500 CE.

Students will become familiar with the development of, and interactions between, peoples, states, civilizations, and empires. Important themes include the emergence of anatomically modern humans, the peopling of the New World, the origins of agriculture the rise of cities, the evolution of technology and navigation, the development of means of communication, the importance of agriculture, the rise and fall of empires, the evolving conduct of warfare, and the emergence of intellectual thought and local and world. We will be taking a comparative and global approach and utilise case studies from across time and space to better understand fundamental historical processes.