Ancient

Ancient

The ancient world is full of wonder and mystery. From the discovery of Britain's oldest complete human skeleton to the disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion, we have documentaries, interviews and podcasts covering all of periods and key events in antiquity. Learn more about this fascinating period in history with world leading experts such as Mary Beard and follow us as we take you on tours around some world famous sites as well as the more unknown hidden gems of the ancient and classical era.

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Ancient
  • 🎧 Nero

    Shusma Malik joined me on the podcast to discuss the infamous Emperor Nero. He ruled nearly 2000 years ago, after taking over from his stepfather Claudius. Nero was a despotic ruler, enamoured in his own talents. His reign was characterised by tyranny and debauchery. To what extent is the commonl...

  • 🎧 Old King Tut with Dr Colleen Darnell

    Dr Colleen Darnell talks to Dan about 'Tutmania', the phase of obsession with the uncovering of the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as all things Egyptology.

  • 🎧 Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World with Adrian Goldsworthy

    Dr Adrian Goldsworthy is a historian and novelist who specialises in ancient Roman history. His latest book is, Pax Romana.

  • 🎧 Pertinax. Son of a Slave to Emperor of Rome.

    The son of a former slave, Pertinax was the Roman Emperor who proved that no matter how lowly your birth, you could rise to the very top through hard work, grit and determination.This previously untold story brings a fascinating and important figure out of the shadows. A self made everyman, a man...

  • 🎧 Roman Legionaries with Simon Elliott

    Dan has his regular catch-up with Simon Elliott on all things Roman. Why were the legionaries so successful, and how did they maintain that success for several centuries?

  • 🎧 Roman Navy in Britain: The Classis Britannica with Simon Elliott

    SImon Elliott is an historian and archaeologist. In this episode, he discusses his book 'Sea Eagles of Empire: The Classis Britannica and the Battles for Britain'.

  • 🎧 Saturnalia with Kevin Butcher

    Dan talks to Kevin Butcher about the Roman festival of Saturnalia, with its drinking, gift-giving, and sense of a world turned upside-down.

  • 🎧 Septimius Severus in Scotland with Simon Elliott

    Dan talks to Simon Elliott about Septimius Severus, the first Hammer of the Scots, about his Northern Campaigns, and the true story of this savage 3rd century invasion of Scotland.

  • 🎧 Socrates and Love with Armand D'Angour

    Armand D'Angour, a renowned classical scholar, has found new sources that Socrates in fact received many of his ideas, particularly those about love, from a woman he had an affair with. This is a new look at a man often considered the father of western philosophy, and Dan talks to Armand in depth...

  • 🎧 Stonehenge Sunrise with Sue Greaney

    Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. Stonehenge's ring of standing stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred buri...

  • 🎧 Terracotta Warriors: Part 1 with Janice Xiuzhen Li

    Professor Janice Xiuzhen Li is Senior Archeologist at Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum.;The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE and whose pu...

  • 🎧 Terracotta Warriors: Part 2 with Lucas Nichol

    Lucas Nichol is Professor of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

  • 🎧 Terracotta Warriors: Part 3 with Albert Lin

    Albert Yu-Min Lin is a Nat Geo Explorer, UCSD Research Scientist, Fellow of the Explorers Club, and co-founder of Tomnod Inc and planet3 Inc.

  • 🎧 The Bible

    John Barton joined me on the pod to discuss the history of the Bible. Tracing its dissemination, translation and interpretation in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity to the rise of modern biblical scholarship, Barton elucidates how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and imposed upon it.

  • 🎧 The Black Sea Shipwrecks with Helen Farr

    Dr Helen Farr is leading a team looking at prehistoric wrecks in the Black Sea. Dan chats to her about how the Black Sea's anaerobic waters have preserved ancient ships for many centuries, including a Greek ship very similar to one on an urn in the British Library.

  • 🎧 The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey

    Catherine Nixey @catherinenixey is a classicist, radio critic of The Times and author of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.

  • 🎧 The Future of Archaeology and Egyptology with Professor Sarah Parcak

    Sarah Parcak talks to Dan about how advances in technology have enabled us to discover far more historical sites than we believed ever existed. She talks about drones and satellites and how they can read topography and vegetation to give us all new pictures of the world beneath our feet, and disc...

  • 🎧 The History of Iran: Part 1 with Ali Ansari

    Dan talks to Ali Ansari about the history of Iran, and discovers just how much of it there is.

  • 🎧 The Hunt For The Killers Of Julius Caesar

    Peter Stothard joined me on the podcast to discuss the assassination of Julius Caesar. Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. From the spring of 44 BC through one of the most dramatic and influential periods in history, Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, the ...

  • 🎧 The Julio-Claudians with Tom Holland

    Dan sits down with Tom Holland to discuss Rome's first five emperors - the Julio-Claudian dynasty. From Augustus to Nero, they are some of the most colourful characters in history. But how much of what we know of these figures is actually true? Beware this podcast contains very strong language.

  • 🎧 The Last Wolf and the Missing Lynx with Ross Barnett

    Dan talks to Ross Barnett, a scientist who has studied the extinction of megafauna across Britain and the world. They discuss the killing of the last wolf in Britain, whether that mosquito in Jurassic park could have really held dinosaur DNA and the ecological impact of the loss of British megafa...

  • 🎧 The Lost City of Z

    David Grann @davidgrann is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and a best-selling author. His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was published in 2009.

  • 🎧 The Lost World of Doggerland with Simon Fitch

    Just off the British coast is a sunken world that was once the hub of mesolithic Europe. Simon Fitch, a specialist in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradbury, joins Dan to talk about the discovery and the part he played in making them. Producer: Peter Curry

  • 🎧 The Neanderthals

    Rebecca Wragg Sykes joined me on the pod to discuss our perception of the Neanderthals, which has undergone a metamorphosis since their discovery 150 years ago. We discuss how this has changed from seeing them as the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins.