History Hit goes on a remarkable journey with classicist Natalie Haynes to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu to discover the truth behind the myth of Medusa: a woman who both beguiles and terrifies us.

In this first episode, Natalie explores the roots of the extraordinary myth and follows it ...

Characterised as super soldiers, formidable fighters who would rather perish than surrender - their reputation truly did proceed them.

But how accurate is this image - and does it correlate with what the ancient sources actually tell us?

In this filmed episode of The Ancients podcast Sparta mi...

Joined by historian Honor Cargill-Martin, Tristan Hughes explores the real sex lives of ancient Rome.

From popular series to kinky paintings, there is a recurring image today of Romans as sex-mad degenerates. And although there are sex stories in the dozens from the Roman period, when it comes ...

Did the Ancient Greeks really invent the olympics? What did they wear? How did they party? What did Ancient Greek music sound like?

Host of 'The Ancients' podcast, Tristan Hughes, answers the most searched Google questions about Ancient Greece.

Human evolution can’t help but fascinate us - the story of where we came from. Today we, Homo sapiens, are the only human species left. But that wasn’t always the case….

For millions of years, there thrived a great range of early human species. From small-brained island dwellers in Indonesia to ...

Dragons... from myths to fantasy novels, we’ve been obsessed with them for thousands of years, but what is a dragon and where do their stories originate? From 21st Century London to Ancient Mesopotamia, join Classicist Jasmine Elmer on a quest to investigate the Indo-European Dragon.

Jasmine beg...

In this film three leading Egyptologists explore how Cleopatra became one of the most influential and powerful women of the ancient world.

We trace how Cleopatra's learning and intelligence enabled her to gain control of her own Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt; skilfully and ruthlessly overcoming her...

The story of Pompeii’s destruction is renowned across the world. In 79 AD, this prosperous Roman town was destroyed by a massive, volcanic eruption. Pompeii became frozen in time, only to be rediscovered c.1500 years later.

Warning: contains very strong language and sexual content.

Vesuvius’ er...

Tristan Hughes explores the destruction of Pompeii, using extraordinary eyewitness testimony and the revelations of archaeology to understand what really happened here nearly 2000 years ago.

In 79 AD, one of the greatest natural disasters in Roman history occurred in southern Italy, when Mount V...

Hadrian’s Wall is celebrating its 1900th birthday… the perfect time for History Hit to investigate this potent embodiment of Roman dominance.

Dan Snow explores the physical remains of Hadrian’s vast project of 122AD - over 80 Roman miles of wall, turrets and forts, stretching from coast to coast...

History Hit's Tristan Hughes travels to Egypt to explore its extraordinary links to one of the most famous names from antiquity, Alexander the Great. Of all the lands in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is Egypt that has the most fascinating - and enduring - connection to this ancient conqueror.

I...

In 60 AD, the fledgling Roman town of Colchester witnessed ancient Armageddon. Thousands of British warriors descended on the settlement, turning what was then the capital of Roman Britain to ash. At the head of these attackers was one of the most well-known figures in British history - the warri...

Britain is an island where history is well and truly part of the landscape and an island where human feet have walked for a million years. We are constantly making groundbreaking archaeological discoveries that are helping us to better understand the way in which our distant ancestors lived.

Joi...

12,000 years ago, Britain entered a new chapter in its long history. By this point, hunting tools had evolved, from hefty spears to the slick and stealthy bow and arrow. This revolution in technology would change the way humans hunted forever.

In a period in which Britain was also thawing and e...

Around 800 BC, Britain entered the Iron Age. This era saw the gradual introduction of iron working technology, although the general adoption of iron artefacts did not become widespread until after 500-400 BC.

As the Iron Age progressed through the first millennium BC, strong regional groupings e...

History Hit’s ancient history expert, Tristan Hughes, digs deep into one of Ancient Egypt's greatest treasures, a site that ranks among the world’s most impressive religious sanctuaries in both its size, splendour and importance.

But there is another, fascinating side to exploring Karnak beyond ...

Egyptologist Dr Chris Naunton explores the story of how Ancient Egypt was rediscovered, and how its incredible sites and treasures were gradually decoded. Starting with the earliest travelers who ventured inside the pyramids, Chris traces how this curiosity exploded into Egyptomania in the 18th ...

On November 4th 1922 a breathless archaeologist, who had spent his life working in Egypt, wrote a hurried diary entry: “First steps of Tomb Found”. This was the very moment that Howard Carter found the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun.

In this very special film, shot in Egypt and England, Dan...

Roman connections with Britain stretch back to (at least) the mid 1st century BC, but what has archaeology revealed about the Late Iron Age British societies they interacted with? Do we have any concrete evidence for the druids? Was human sacrifice a thing? Sit back and enjoy as experts provide a...

Born in Paris in 1840, François-Auguste-René Rodin is quite possibly the most famous sculptor in recent history. Considered by many to be the first ‘modern’ sculptor, his works such as ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Thinker’ have become iconic throughout the world. He possessed a unique ability to model a c...

In 1974, 29 years after the end of the Second World War, Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda finally surrendered after almost three decades of fighting a guerilla campaign on a remote island in the Philippines.

Part 1 of 3.

5,000 years ago the remote islands of Orkney were a great centre of the Stone Age World, boasting connections that stretched across the length and breadth of Britain, Ireland and beyond. And yet, despite its fame and popularity today, there is still so much about Neolithic Orkney th...

Part 2 of 3.

Hidden away beneath a large slab of stone in an ancient tomb, lies one of the most exciting discoveries of the last five years - beautiful carvings of adult red deer, the first animal representations in Scotland. This is just one of the remarkable finds in one of the most extraordin...

Part 3 of 3.

All across northern Scotland, you can still see the skeletal remains of prehistoric skyscrapers. Unique to Scotland, these enigmatic Iron Age towers are called brochs. 2,500 years ago, these drystone structures dominated the Highlands and Islands, yet so much of their story remains ...