
Human: Building Empires Preview
Preview: Season 52 Episode 16 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Discover how two revolutionary ancient inventions changed the course of humanity forever.
Discover how Homo sapiens transformed from nomads to empire builders. Witness the innovations – from animal domestication to writing – that revolutionized ancient life and shaped our modern world.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers.

Human: Building Empires Preview
Preview: Season 52 Episode 16 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Discover how Homo sapiens transformed from nomads to empire builders. Witness the innovations – from animal domestication to writing – that revolutionized ancient life and shaped our modern world.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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NOVA Labs is a free digital platform that engages teens and lifelong learners in games and interactives that foster authentic scientific exploration. Participants take part in real-world investigations by visualizing, analyzing, and playing with the same data that scientists use.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- We're not the first species as human, but we are the only ones left.
How on earth did this happen?
We took on perilous journeys.
Every other species just stopped, but not us.
How did humanity transform from scattered groups of nomads into our modern, interconnected world?
"Human" on Nova.
(exciting music)
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National Corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Carlisle Companies. Major funding for NOVA is provided by the NOVA Science Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers.