In these times of “raw power, the swagger of money, brutal poverty and hard reckonings,” there is surely a need to contemplate again the greatest achievements of human creativity, according to the historian Simon Schama.

Speaking as the BBC unveiled details about its blockbuster television series Civilisations, Schama said the greatest creative achievements were, for the most part, “our common possession”.

The new nine-part BBC Two series, which Schama presents with Mary Beard and David Olusoga, is a modern version of Kenneth Clark’s groundbreaking BBC series from 1969, Civilisation. It has been three years in the making and was filmed in 31 countries and on six continents.

Schama’s programmes look at the origins of human creativity, noting the first known marks, made about 80,000 years ago in South African caves. He travels to see the civilisations of Petra in Jordan and the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala. In a later episode he visits Palladian villas in Veneto, Italy, and the American landscapes captured by the photographer Ansel Adams.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of the ancient city of Petra, Jordan.

Photograph: Gennaro Esposito / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

Schama said: “Look at the crowds thronging any great art show from one end of the world to the other and you know that [human creativity] is felt as much a necessity as the air we breathe and the food we eat. All we and the BBC have done with Civilisations is to answer to that need as richly as we can. It’s taken three years of thinking, writing, filming and editing, every shoot, every encounter with great art, a daunting challenge and an immense satisfaction.”

The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, who made it a personal pledge to improve the corporation’s arts programming, said Civilisations would be a landmark series “which asks us to question what lies at the heart of our identity and what makes us human”.

Beard’s travels take her from colossal prehistoric Olmec heads in Mexico to the terracotta warriors of ancient China and the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

She said it had been exciting and humbling to have been part of the Civilisations team. “I hope that people will be dazzled by the wonderful works of art we have been able to show. But even more, I hope that the programmes will prompt all kinds of discussions and debates about what we now think ‘civilisation’ is … and our stake in the very idea of it.”

Olusoga’s episodes explore themes of contact, trade, interaction, empire and race, and include art such as the Nanban screens of the Tokugawa period in Japan, and the still life art of the Dutch “golden age”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail of a Nanban screen, circa 1593-1600. Photograph: Public Domain

The historian and broadcaster said he was thrilled to be one of the presenters. “When I was growing up on a council estate my family didn’t have the money to visit galleries or museums, but my mother was able to open up the worlds of art and culture to me through documentaries on the BBC, programmes that broadened my horizons and transformed my view of the world. Civilisations is the next chapter in that tradition of TV with the power to change lives.”

The series will be broadcast in the spring. There will also be a Civilisations Festival involving museums, libraries and archives.