Summary: Far from disappearing after the Hellenistic age, Greek art flourished with the rise of Christianity and the Orthodox church. This program explores the development of icon painting, the influence of Greek artists on later European movements, and the advent of neoclassical architecture as a manifestation of an age-old cultural legacy. With historical context from the conversion of Constantine...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What led the great powers of antiquity to install themselves on the minuscule island of Delos? And how did Delos, one of the most important religious centers in Greece, come to be an international trading hub, as well? To answer these questions, this program traces the island's history between the 9th and 1st centuries BC: Delos' renown as the mythological birthplace of Apollo; the subsequent...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Who actually built the pyramids? What innovations enabled the ancient Egyptians to practice mummification? Why did they select certain treasures for their journeys to the afterlife? This classic program travels to a land of mystery and marvel as archaeologists investigate the secrets of long-lost Pharaonic culture and technology. Viewers encounter the sophisticated methods used to construct the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program captures the feverish work of the multinational rescue archaeology team that excavated low-lying areas of Zeugma and key portions of Apamea before inundation by the Birecik Dam, in Turkey. Catherine Abadie-Reynal, director of the French contingent, and other experts describe their efforts to map the cities and to discern the tides of Greco-Roman history that once flowed through the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Before there was writing, people remembered-the history of the tribe, how to make tools or placate the gods, who owned what. The growth of commerce required written records. This program traces the development of writing, from the earliest Sumerian cuneiform examples and the almost parallel development of hieroglyphics in Egypt, through the evolution of different concepts and shapes to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a world-renowned cultural center filled with some of the ancient world's most precious artifacts-including the famed burial mask of King Tutankhamun and the Royal Mummies of Luxor. The museum's collection is so large that it has traditionally shown only half of its holdings at any one time. This program documents an expanded presentation that enables viewers to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Discovered by chance in the early 1930s, the ancient city of Mari provides insights into Mesopotamian culture and humankind's first steps toward urbanization. In this program, archaeologists Jean-Claude Margueron and Beatrice Muller-Margueron lead a team in the excavation of Mari's urban center as they work to uncover the successive layers of the third, second, and first towns. Geographic and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Once the Berber town of Volubilis, in modern-day Morocco, was absorbed into the Roman Empire, subsequent construction aimed at Romanizing it. The result was a blend of European and African, imperial and tribal, that brought out some of the best of both worlds. This program tours the ruins of the town to point out key landmarks and explain their primary political purpose: to tightly bind this...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The 20,000-year-old caves of Altamira are among the greatest and the least known of the monuments of prehistory. Closed to visitors to prevent disintegration through pollution, the caves are known only through a replica located in the Archaeological Museum in Madrid. This tour of Altamira shows the cave paintings in their extraordinary power as they depict the daily life of Magdalenian people...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program studies cultural transformations that began in the fifth century BC as Greek art discarded religious functions and moved toward human-centered concerns. Views of Cycladic sculpture and Koiros statues demonstrate an evolving realism, leading to stunning examples of the idealized human figure: the Kritios boy, the Temple of Zeus pediments, Praxiteles' Hermes, and others. With...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Standing in the Jordanian desert is a singular archaeological treasure: the bath complex at Qusair Amra. Inside, the walls display lively frescoes depicting hundreds of characters engaged in a wide variety of activities. Using a computer-generated reconstruction of the least well preserved paintings, this program restores the faded images to their original vibrant colors in order to unravel the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Was there a "big bang" in human language and cognitive development, or did speech and abstract thought evolve slowly-perhaps across 200,000 years or so? Surveying prehistoric burial sites and other archaeological finds, including what might be the world's oldest work of art, this program attempts to locate the junction of creativity and communication at which human intelligence was born....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beginning about 500 BC, Greek artists and architects began working at an unprecedented level of sophistication, paralleling the rise of Athens as a Mediterranean power. This program illustrates the awakening of that classical Greek vision, from which emerged the most influential sculptures and buildings of Western culture. With detailed visual analysis of the Parthenon, its frieze in the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005