In the depths of ancient Jericho, beneath layers of earth dating back 10,000 years, archaeologists uncovered something extraordinary: human skulls cast in plaster, their faces carefully reconstructed and their eyes set with shells. Who were these haunting figures meant to represent?

In this epis...

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Irving Finkel to uncover how cuneiform actually worked and how you would write it yourself.

More than five thousand years ago, a revolutionary script emerged in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia that would transform how people count...

Adam and Eve: parents of humanity, or characters in a dark Near Eastern myth about wisdom, mortality, and the limits of being human?

Tristan Hughes and Dr Dylan Johnson strip away the Sunday school varnish to re-examine the story of Adam and Eve, starting with the question, Was there really an ...

He is one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world, remembered for leading a vast Persian invasion of Greece. Yet Xerxes the Great was far more than just a battlefield king.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones to e...

What can ancient DNA tell us about the first homo sapiens to arrive in Arabia over 50,000 years ago? Tristan Hughes is joined by Prof. Pierre Zalloua to delve into the groundbreaking advances in ancient DNA research that illuminate the complex journeys of these early human populations.

They dis...

She helped Jason win the Golden Fleece, betrayed her own family, and became one of the most feared figures in Greek myth. Medea’s name has echoed through the ancient world for over two millennia, a byword for passion and revenge but was she really a villain?

In this episode of The Ancients, Tri...

Sea Peoples, Bronze Age Collapse, and Eric Cline are the focus of today's deep-dive podcast. Tristan Hughes is joined by world-renowned archaeologist and author Eric Cline to interrogate the enigmatic groups that allegedly brought the "G8 of the ancient world" to its knees. We explore the primary...

Rome was coming apart at the seams. Civil wars, economic collapse, breakaway empires, invading armies - the Third Century Crisis pushed the ancient superpower to the edge of extinction. Then an obscure soldier from the Balkans stepped into the chaos.

In this episode, we interview Dr. David Gwynn...

Few dinosaurs are as instantly recognisable as the plated titan Stegosaurus - it's the Jurassic giant with a brain the size of a walnut and a tail that could kill.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Susannah Maidment of London’s Natural History Museum to uncover the ...

Uncover the historical, archaeological, and religious context of the Ten Commandments (the Decalogue) with Dr. Dylan Johnson.

Historian and biblical scholar Dr. Dylan Johnson joins Tristan Hughes to delve into the complex history of one of the world’s most famous texts. We go beyond the biblical...

How did Indian culture shape the wonders of Southeast Asia?

Tristan Hughes is joined by William Dalrymple to explore the fascinating first millennium AD, from vibrant trade dynamics with the Roman Empire to the establishment of powerful Indian trading guilds and the spread of Hinduism and Buddhi...

WARNING: This podcast contains adult themes and discussion of paedophilia

A brilliant general. A brooding autocrat. A recluse surrounded by scandal. Few Roman emperors divide opinion like Tiberius. But was he truly a monster, or the victim of centuries of salacious storytelling?

In this episod...

Tristan Hughes and Matt Lewis (host of 'Gone Medieval') have a lively debate about the blurred boundary between the ancient and medieval worlds. Can Tristan champion Roman Emperor Justinian as an Ancient? What about Charlemagne? Which period can lay claim to the worst year in history? And was t...

Rome. Egypt. Love. War. Over 2,000 years ago, the fates of two ancient worlds collided in one of history’s most legendary love stories: Antony and Cleopatra.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Daisy Dunn to uncover the truth behind the myth - from their first meeting...

Did you know fossil sharks are older than the dinosaurs and even the rings of Saturn?

Tristan Hughes and leading palaeontologist Professor John Long delve into the epic evolutionary journey of these ocean survivors, from the earliest microscopic scales to the monstrous apex predators of the 'Gol...

Tristan Hughes and Conn Iggulden talk all about Emperor Nero's traumatic rise to power in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, featuring Agrippina the Younger, Caligula, and Claudius in this episode of the Ancients.

In this in-depth ancient history podcast, host Tristan Hughes welcomes acclaimed historic...

Was the Eye of Sauron based on ancient Irish mythology? What can we know about these prehistoric legends and their effect on our stories today?

Tristan Hughes and ancient history expert Anthony Murphy dive deep into the written tales to uncover how the seemingly "pagan" stories, written down by ...

Tristan Hughes and Raven Todd Dilva discuss Arctic archaeology, revealing the Thule Inuit, an ancient civilisation that mastered survival across northern Canada and Greenland. This episode explores the remarkable migration of the Thule Inuit from Alaska around 1000 CE, their eventual replacement ...

Ancient Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Persian Empire clash in this deep dive into the 539 BC conquest. Tristan Hughes and Reverend Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones discuss the unexpected fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the rise of Cyrus the Great's Achaemenid Persia.

They explore the pi...

Exploring the origins of the fall of Rome, ancient history expert Dr David Gwynn uncovers the 4th-century transformation of the Roman Empire under emperors like Diocletian and Constantine. This episode delves into a period often overlooked, examining how the empire consolidated after the tumultuo...