Welcome to the History of the World Podcast. My name is Chris. This is episode 15, The Cradle of agriculture. We start this week's story at a point 12,000 years ago, but I now want to make a

definitive transition in the way that I refer to time.

12,000 years ago, the year was 10,000 B.C.E inhabitants of the Earth did not know it was 10,000 B.C. because the labelling of

years is a very modern concept. Essentially it is based on the Gregorian calendar

which is the most widely used calendar in the world. And even though it is associated with the Catholic

Church, it has become convenient for non-Christian countries and

organizations to use it when dealing with matters of

global significance such as global business. 10,000 B.C. E. was known as 10,000 B.C. which stood for Before Christ.

However, it is considered to be more secular in the modern world to use BCE, before the common

era as a direct replacement. The current year is 2018, CE or common era, was referred to previously as AD 2018 which stands for Anno Domini or in its full

sense Anno Domini or in its full sense Ano Domini

Nostri Jezu Christi, which in Latin is in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It wasn't invented in the year 1,

C, but was actually a sixth century creation which retrospectively dated years back to the life of Jesus

Christ. There was no B.C.

1 B.C. Around that period, however, people were more likely to refer to years in the name of the ruler and

the nominal year that he had held his post.

Enough about all of that though. For the purpose of this podcast we will now use B.C.

So in the context of our historical story, the year is around 10,000 B.C. E. Climate Change. The last glacial

maximum refers to the last time that the polar ice sheets reached the limit of their

growth before receding to the point where they are today. During this current interglacial in which we live in today.

Deglaciation began in the northern hemisphere around 20,000 years ago

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