Volume IV of the History of Humanity takes a global perspective on the period between the seventh and sixteenth centuries, making special reference to indigenous civilizations in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The volume also examines the increasing interaction, along sea and land routes, between these continents and focuses on the resulting cultural influences upon them. It takes a broad view extending from the examination of long-term trends and developments across the period to the everyday lives of ordinary people: where they lived, where they worshipped, what tools they used, what materials they crafted. It examines traditional and more recently discovered sources of historical data, including major excavations, local archives, manuscripts, oral data, interpretation of folklore and literature and ethnography.