Summary: Britain's legendary warrior-queen Boudica led an uprising against Roman occupation in 60 AD. After a few victories, her army was slaughtered. But what happened to the surviving members of her tribe, the Iceni? This program describes archaeological work that is filling in the gaps in Boudica's story, focusing on a site in Norfolk which may provide some important clues. Following archaeologists...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: How long has civilization flourished in the Nile Valley? Were the area's first inhabitants the ancestors of the pyramid builders? Or was pharaonic culture imported, as some scholars have claimed? This program pursues the answers in an effort to understand the identity of Egypt's original people, exploring archaeological sites that predate the pyramids by thousands of years. Information on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: At the height of its power and influence, the Etruscan civilization extended from the Po Valley to Campania, and its merchant fleet was the master of the Mediterranean. This program documents the salvaging of the first Etruscan ship ever found: a spectacular wreck off the coast of southern France with a perfectly preserved lower hull and laden with hundreds of amphorae. What artifacts are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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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
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Summary: Approximately 30,000 years after the last Neanderthals vanished from Europe, this documentary brings them back to life. Combining computer imaging, knowledge from excavated skeletal pieces, and a meticulous sculptural process, the program showcases an astonishing physical reconstruction that embodies almost everything cumulatively known about Neanderthals-their musculature, the way they moved,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Although their function and architecture have inspired centuries of debate, the Egyptian pyramids harbor yet another enigma, having to do with their location. This program looks at why particular places were selected for pyramid-building and why new sites were chosen as Egypt's culture evolved. Explaining the architectural leap from the mastaba to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the program...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Comparable to Luther's split with Catholicism, Pharaoh Akhenaten's religious revolution caused an upheaval in Egyptian society. This program sheds light on the royal renegade's motives for abruptly switching to monotheistic sun worship and relocating 50,000 of his people to the hastily planned capital at Armana. Studying several archaeological discoveries-including the tombs of Akhenaten's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
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: The discovery in the Alps of a 5300-year-old corpse, perfectly preserved by five millennia of ice, allowed a rare glimpse into the daily life of Stone Age man: his diet, his clothing, and way of life. This program follows scientists and archaeologists as they analyze his hair, clothing, and stomach to uncover clues to how our ancestors lived and died. The program offers a fascinating glimpse...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The construction of a high-speed train line in eastern France quickly turned into the start of a major archaeological dig when a Celtic necropolis was discovered. Who were the Celts, a people that dominated broad stretches of Europe for more than 500 years? In this program, archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, and other team members follow the migratory trail of the Celts across Europe,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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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: The life-size statue of Pharaoh Khafra at Giza evokes an intriguing logistical question: how did ancient Egyptian builders transport a three-ton block of gneiss granite five hundred miles from its source? This program offers a set of viable answers, examining technology and working conditions prevalent in Egypt 4,500 years ago. Considering the possibility that the statue was precut at Khafra's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like Howard Carter before them, modern Egyptologists observe something puzzling in the way Tutankhamun was entombed-the riches surrounding him seem intended for someone else. This program sifts through the mystery, studying the link between the young pharaoh and the heretical Akhenaten, who most experts agree was the boy's father. The significance of Aye, the courtier who bore allegiance to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Hidden beneath the modern city of Alexandria is the ancient one. How was that Alexandria laid out? Where are its legendary signature structures located? And how is renowned archaeologist Jean-Yves Empereur to gather the information he needs when rapidly encroaching construction projects and a proposed breakwater in the harbor force him to do in months what rightly should be done over years?...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although vital to ancient Egyptian religion, the preservation of dead animals evidently held varying shades of meaning. This program studies ways in which the Egyptians mummified a wide range of creatures, highlighting two purposes for the practice-one spiritually reverent, one blatantly commercial. Exploring the web of tunnels beneath the Saqqara pyramids, the program distinguishes between...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: What can the Dead Sea Scrolls tell modern theologians about 1st-century Judaism and the roots of Christianity? Drawing on the experiences of Frank Moore Cross, of Harvard University; Emanuel Tov, chief editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project; James Charlesworth, of Princeton Theological Seminary; and other experts, this program describes the battle for open access to the scrolls...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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: A collection of extraordinary plaques, seized as loot during the colonial aggression that ended the powerful Benin Empire in 1897, depict life in the African kingdom's royal court at its height. In this program art historian Gus Casely-Hayford travels to legendary Timbuktu, the Great Mosque of Djenn, the Oba Royal Palace, and Dogon country to learn more about how the plaques were made and what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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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
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Summary: About 2,000 years ago, a group of people lived at Qumran, on the shore of the Dead Sea. Were they really the Essenes? And did the inhabitants write the more than 800 scrolls that were found there? In this program, Geza Vermes, of Oxford University; Lawrence Schiffman, of New York University; archaeologist Hanan Eshel; and other experts search for the answers. The startling counter-theories of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Among scientists, Africa is the undisputed birthplace of humanity. But anthropologists are split into two camps over other questions. How many waves of Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa? Did other highly developed hominid species-such as Homo neanderthalensis-make the same journey? And to what extent did these populations mingle and compete with each other? This classic program presents...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Hidden away in the Butana region of northern Sudan lie the ruins of ancient Nubia, an African civilization that rivaled Egypt for centuries. This film familiarizes students with ongoing excavations that study and preserve the deteriorating remains of the Nubian kingdom of Kush. Interviews with Sudanese, American, and European archaeologists and historians are interwoven with stunning footage...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beneath Rome's famous cityscape lies an ancient and largely unexplored bed of ruins. This program introduces students to the work of archaeologists, historians, and other researchers who have undertaken surveys of subterranean Rome, often relying on techniques used in cave exploration. Dr. Darius Arya, executive director of the American Institute for Roman Culture, explains how the city's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: When ground was broken for a luxury hotel in modern-day Hammamet, Tunisia, no one was expecting to find what has turned out to be the largest Roman necropolis in North Africa. In this program, necropolis expert Marc Griesheimer collaborates with archaeologist Aicha ben Abed and other specialists to piece together fragile clues to the history of the region. Painstaking analysis of the human...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006