Cursed Is the Ground

Available for over a year

What really happened when we ate from the Tree of Knowledge? Paul Howard-Jones, Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Bristol University, has had a lifelong fascination with the story of the Garden of Eden. He first heard it in the Herefordshire church where his father was the vicar. Now, he investigates how knowledge has changed us, and whether the Eden story contains within it a nostalgic longing for our simpler, hunter-gathering past. In episode four, Paul looks at the links between knowledge and conflict, and visits the Talheim death pit in Germany, perhaps the earliest evidence of organized violence to have been found in Europe. Producer: Chris Ledgard.