The Ancients

Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Kate Lister to take us on a journey through the fascinating history of Innana, an ancient goddess of love, war, fertility, and political power. They delve into her evol...

Tristan Hughes journeys up to windswept Scotland to uncover the secrets of the Picts — fierce warriors, skilled artisans, enemies of Rome and rulers of the North. In this special episode of The Ancien...

It was the biggest mass extinction event in Earth’s history. 250 million years ago, a 252 million years ago, Earth faced its deadliest crisis. 97% of all life was wiped out in the Permian Extinction –...

Was this the worst year in human history? Bubonic plague sweeps across the Mediterranean. The sun vanishes behind volcanic ash. Crops fail, famine bites, and the Roman empire lurches towards collapse....

Tristan Hughes continues our special series on Great Disasters, journeying back to ancient Mesopotamia with Dr Paul Collins to explore the fall of the Sumerians. 4,000 years ago, the great cities of S...

More than 3,500 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption devastated Thera - modern day Santorini - engulfing the Bronze Age world in ash and fire. Entire landscapes were buried, ash darkened the skies, ...

Professor Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins join Tristan in this episode all about Greece and Rome - the two greatest civilisations of classical antiquity. How did the Romans borrow, adapt, and sometim...

More than 5,000 years ago, in what is today southern Iraq, one of the world’s first civilisations emerged. A civilisation often credited with the invention of writing, the wheel and cities. The Sumeri...

Tristan Hughes sits down with Professor Eric Cline to explore the enigmatic Sea Peoples, often blamed for the catastrophic Bronze Age collapse over 3,000 years ago. Together they explore surviving sou...

Where do we come from? The origins of modern humans stretch back hundreds of thousands of years, and new discoveries are reshaping how we understand our species’ story.  In this episode, recorded on l...