Lost Cities Of The Ancients

Lost Cities Of The Ancients: The Vanished Capital Of The Pharaoh

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Lost Cities Of The Ancients

The Vanished Capital Of The Pharaoh

Season 1 | Episode 1 | ABC | December 6, 2009

Ancient history

Science

Classification: General

Rediscovering the buried treasures of the ancient world. What did these legendary places really look like, who lived in them, and why did they vanish?

Overview

Rediscovering the buried treasures of the ancient world. What did these legendary places really look like, who lived in them, and why did they vanish?

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Rediscovering the buried treasures of the ancient world. What did these legendary places really look like, who lived in them, and why did they vanish?

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A nation of seafarers and merchants, the Vikings revolutionised exploration and trading in the Middle Ages and discovered America 500 years before Columbus. Their bad reputation as wild, murdering and pillaging norsemen will be unveiled as misguided and a strikingly tolerant people with an elaborate trading network that stretched right through Europe will be revealed. For 900 years, their light, manoeuvrable sailing-ships could not be matched. As the best seafarers of their time, daring, tolerant explorers and expert merchants, they set new benchmarks and left their mark everywhere.

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Professor Alice Roberts tells the story of the iconic Irish artefacts that have helped to shape and create modern Ireland, both North and South. The programme reveals the surprising tales behind treasures such as the Tara Broach, the Broighter Hoard, the Waterford Charter Roll and others, revealing new stories behind the artefacts that we thought we knew. It also reveals the most recent astounding finds, that are adding to the list of Ireland's Treasures. Using key access to Ireland's two largest museums, in Belfast and Dublin, the programme brings together archaeologists and curators who have spent their lives working to understand the true context for these emblematic treasures. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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What kind of a place was Britain before the Romans invaded? With no written history, only archaeology can provide the clues. Alice uncovers a world that is complex, sophisticated and pretty strange. She examines the two Hebridean Bronze Age skeletons known as the Cladh Hallan mummies. Not only do they appear to have been mummified, new analysis has revealed they are made up of a jigsaw of different people. What did our ancestors use the mummies for? And are there more British mummies out there? In Norfolk, Alice gets her hands dirty helping to pull up timber from a huge prehistoric monument that has been hidden in mud for at least 2000 years. And she visits the famous Roman town of Silchester, near Reading, where archaeologists are digging below the Roman layers to reveal the Iron Age settlement that lies beneath, uncovering evidence for a sophisticated pre-Roman lifestyle. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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Orkney - seven miles off the coast of Scotland, and cut off by the tumultuous Pentland Firth, the fastest-flowing tidal race in Europe - is often viewed as being remote. However it is one of the treasure troves of archaeology in Britain, and recent discoveries there are turning the Stone Age map of Britain upside down. Rather than an outpost at the edge of the world, recent finds suggest an extraordinary theory - that Orkney was the cultural capital of our ancient world and the origin of the stone circle cult which culminated in Stonehenge. In this episode, Andy dives below the waves in search of the inspiration for the first stone circle, Chris and Neil spend the night on an abandoned island as they hunt for clues as to why cultures change, Shini tests the technology behind a Bronze Age sauna, and the archaeologists uncover a remarkable find.

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Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Viking Age and visits excavations that are revealing a different side to these seafaring pirates from Scandinavia. She looks for signs of the earliest Viking settlers in the Outer Hebrides, and in Orkney - where Viking dominance outlasted anywhere else in Britain - she visits the excavation of a Viking chief's citadel and finds evidence of their way of life. There's an extraordinary collection of silver and gold that demonstrates the furthest reaches of the Vikings' trading empire, and excavations in York - famously the capital of Viking England. This episode also includes a fresh look at some of Britain's most celebrated Viking finds, such as the fantastic Lewis Chessmen, which are currently the subject of major new research. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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Dr Alice Roberts travels back to the Viking Age and visits excavations that are revealing a different side to these seafaring pirates from Scandinavia. She looks for signs of the earliest Viking settlers in the Outer Hebrides, and in Orkney - where Viking dominance outlasted anywhere else in Britain - she visits the excavation of a Viking chief's citadel and finds evidence of their way of life. There's an extraordinary collection of silver and gold that demonstrates the furthest reaches of the Vikings' trading empire, and excavations in York - famously the capital of Viking England. This episode also includes a fresh look at some of Britain's most celebrated Viking finds, such as the fantastic Lewis Chessmen, which are currently the subject of major new research. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

The first episode concentrates on Roman Britannia, where finds include the thickening mystery of 97 baby skeletons found by the Thames, a newly discovered town in rural Devon that turns history on its head, and a Roman cult figure buried for 1700 years beneath a fort. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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In Norfolk, newly unearthed flint tools push the earliest human occupation back by 200,000 years, to around 1 million years ago. In Orkney, an early farm yields glimpses of our ancestors' earliest religious beliefs and customs - cattle skulls buried within building walls, and tiny household goddesses. In Devon, we find one of the oldest known shipwrecks. And a bronze age burial holds a mystery, and touching evidence of grief echoing down over 2000 years. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

Digging for Britain: Prehistory

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In Norfolk, newly unearthed flint tools push the earliest human occupation back by 200,000 years, to around 1 million years ago. In Orkney, an early farm yields glimpses of our ancestors' earliest religious beliefs and customs - cattle skulls buried within building walls, and tiny household goddesses. In Devon, we find one of the oldest known shipwrecks. And a bronze age burial holds a mystery, and touching evidence of grief echoing down over 2000 years. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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This pioneering series unearths the amazing stories and thrilling treasures hidden just below Britain's surface. Everywhere you stand on this small but significant island, there are worlds beneath your feet, and every year hundreds of excavations bring more of them to light. Ambitious, bold and multi-layered, Digging for Britain follows the lead of the experts, cross-referencing one discovery against another, using new information to illuminate existing collections and building a fascinating picture of life in bygone eras. Professor Alice Roberts follows a year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results of these digs are astonishing, and sometimes disturbing. Roman finds include the mystery of 97 babies murdered by the Thames, a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset, and a man buried on a layer of dead animals. Alternative title: Digging for Britain's Secrets.

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