We are all a part of the Universe as crew members of Spaceship Earth – setting the stage on an even tone for what is next in our history.

By studying the skeletons of the Cro-Magnon people, notably the physical features associated with spoken language, such as the vocal tract, the structure of the brain and the size of the spinal cord we see they are identical to humans living today.

The Spaceship Earth time machine blasts ahead 15,000 years to an era of cave-dwelling people. We enter a dimly lit cavern with men, women, and children in the flickering light of the fire. Here is where we first see the immense details that went into this attraction.

Now we transition from cave drawings to hieroglyphics as we move into an Egyptian temple (representing the New Kingdom approximately 1567 – 1085 B.C.). On the left is a man sitting in front of the reeds along the Nile making papyrus.

From Egypt we move North to the Mediterranean Sea where over the next 1,000 years the Phoenicians were the prime sea merchants of the region. These Semitic sea-traders were not strictly defined to a specific region and were ruled by various empires in the region.

In the ’82-’97 VERSION we move slightly West and on to the 5th – 4th Century BC to find ourselves in Ancient Greece amidst a performance of “Oedipus Rex” written by Sophocles circa 428 B.C.

In the 2008 refurbishment, the theater scene was abandoned and replaced with a scene depicting a philosopher lecturing a number of students. Far away/little dude is still in the back! Two young dudes/students were added to the scene. The handwriting we learned about with the Greek alphabet changed from an aid to oral performance in antiquity to the vital component in education.

From Ancient Greece we move forward about 500 years to Ancient Rome. There are many details before even reaching the main scene with characters. The first thing we see after leaving Greece is a marble statue of Augustus (63 BC – AD 14), the first Roman Emperor.

As you leave the meet up between the Romans (and shake your head in despair that the the chariot is missing) look to the right and you’ll see Ancient Roman graffiti!