[blam]

"Even a subtle climate change could have driven or allowed the offensive horse culture mongols to invade westward across grasslands (Steppe) thousands of miles of "Kansas" into defensive "infantry" cultures. "

Yup. I believe a severe drought drove the inhabitants of the Tarim Basin east and west. The western movement included the people we know as the Han, Xiongnu, Hun and Hakka Chinese, The eastern movement included the Scytians, Hun and possibly the Picts.(...and probably other un-named) The Mongols included a genetic mixture of all these folks.

[SevenDaysInMay]

It is difficult for the "modern" mind to picture living in those days of kill or be killed. Life must have been brutal and over quickly. That filthy, treacherous, destructive humans made it to the nuke age surprises me. We are not yet past the Islamists' submit or die epoch.

The first 8,000 years of glacial ge melt pre-history intrigues me. Killing was so up close and personal. Slaving was the natural order, as was "ethnic cleansing".

Humans needed the messages of Jesus and others as an alternative.