De prehistorie

Presenter Tom Waes presents the formula starring him as narrator and on historical sites or interviewing experts. Chapter One is on the Prehistory, which left least traces, no records. It started in the Ice Age, when the present North Sea was frozen and most of Europe, including Flanders, a windy plain with poor vegetation. The first Homo Sapiens to migrate in were hunter-gatherers, mainly in the woods. Spy is a main finding site of remains of the co-existing Neanderthal, who must have mingled as Flemish DNA is on average still 2,4% from them, the cause of their extinction despite stronger physique and comparable intelligence is unclear. The main ancestors immigrated from the Middle East later, importing seeds and techniques enabling the introduction on by then -temperatures normalizing- fertile land of agriculture, a very different (sedentary) way of life, forming proper settlements and developing social stratification and professional specialization. The metal age saw massive mining, trade, a warrior class, tribal units and primitive states.