The Ancients
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The Ancients
A podcast for all ancient history fans! The Ancients is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Featuring interviews with historians and archaeologists, each episode covers a specific theme from antiquity. From Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome. Hosted by Tristan Hughes. New episodes ever...
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Odyssey | Sea of Monsters & Slaughter of the Suitors
When Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, his homecoming turns into a ruthless reckoning. Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emily Hauser dive into the shocking cl...
Caral: Oldest City in the Americas?
Long before the age of the Inca and Maya, a remarkable city once flourished on the coast of modern Peru. Founded more than five thousand years ago, th...
Odyssey | Cyclops, Circe and Calypso
What if the world’s most famous homecoming was really a nightmare of monsters, gods, and one very stubborn king trying to get back to Ithaca?
In...
Egypt's Book of the Dead
For over a thousand years, the Book of the Dead guided ancient Egyptians through the afterlife. Filled with powerful spells these remarkable texts wer...
The Trojan War
The story of Achilles, Odysseus and the siege of Troy has captivated audiences for millennia, but behind the legends lies a deeper mystery. Was this e...
The Library of Alexandria
The Library of Alexandria was one of the most important and most celebrated buildings of the ancient Mediterranean. It was a great hub of learning and...
The Cambrian Explosion: When Life Began?
538 million years ago, life on Earth changed forever. In an evolutionary burst known as the Cambrian Explosion, complex animals rapidly appeared in th...
Spartacus
In 73 BC, a gladiator escaped slavery and launched a rebellion that shook the Roman Republic to its core. His name was Spartacus, and his uprising bec...
Iron Age Britain
What if Iron Age Britain was never a land of barbarians at all, but a world of skilled farmers, powerful women, trade, ritual, and spectacle? Tristan...
Prehistoric Greenland
What can a frozen island reveal about the people who thrived there for thousands of years? Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Asta Mønsted to explore pre...
The Other Humans: Why We Survived?
For most of human history, we were not alone. Human evolution was shaped by multiple human species living side by side, from Neanderthals in Europe to...
What If Alexander Fought Rome?
Rome vs Alexander. It's a counterfactual of suitably epic proportions, fit for movie theatres and sprawling strategy video games. What would've happen...
The Real Armageddon
Armageddon is more than just a biblical prophecy hailing the end of days. It is a real place: Megiddo, an ancient city that for thousands of years sto...
Ancient China: The Warring States
How did ancient China plunge into 261 years of chaos, and how did that turmoil forge an empire?
Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Andrew Set...
The Prehistoric Plague
The first ever outbreak of 'plague' - Yersinia Pestis, the most feared disease in human history - was long thought to be the Plague of Justinian in 54...
The First Tools
What if the first technology was just a stone?
Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emma Finestone, - Curator and the Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz Endowed Ch...
The Hittites
What made the Hittites one of the great Bronze Age powers, and how did their empire survive on war, diplomacy and faith? Tristan Hughes is joined by P...
The Romans and China
How did Roman silver travel from Egypt to China across monsoon seas, pirate waters, and bustling ports?
Tristan Hughes is joined by legendary a...
Herodotus: The Father of History
What drove Herodotus to write the first great story of history? Tristan Hughes speaks with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk to uncover the world of Herodotus of...
Alexander the Great | Lord of Asia
As friendships fracture and old alliances break, Tristan Hughes and Dr Adrian Goldsworthy chronicle the epic downfall of Alexander the Great.
A...
The Skulls of Jericho
In the depths of ancient Jericho, beneath layers of earth dating back 10,000 years, archaeologists uncovered something extraordinary: human skulls cas...
The First Popes
What do we know about the earliest Popes, and how did they shape the early Christian Church amidst persecution?
Tristan Hughes is joined by Prof...
The Origins of Rome's Empire
396 BC. The city of Veii lies in ruins, destroyed by Rome in a brutal act of early imperial expansion. Yet just six years later, Rome itself would fac...
The First Arabians
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...
How to Survive on Hadrian’s Wall
Step into the daily lives of those stationed along Hadrian's Wall, from Roman soldiers to civilians. Tristan Hughes and Dr. Francis Macintosh are your...
Fall of Sparta
How did Sparta, the most feared military state in ancient Greece, fall from grace in a single generation?
In this episode of The Ancients, Trist...
The World's Oldest Letters
What do the world’s first letters reveal about life in the Bronze Age?
Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Amanda Podany to uncover the remarkable wr...
Fall of Babylon
The year is 539 BC. The greatest city of the ancient world has fallen. Babylon has opened it's gates to a new conqueror: the mighty Persian king Cyrus...
Origins of Mythology
From Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast, the roots of fairy tales stretch back thousands of years — to the dawn of Indo-European languages and beyond....
The First Pharaohs
Unveiling the Enigmatic Story of Egypt's First Pharaohs, roughly 5,000 years ago. Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Aidan Dodson to discuss the re...
Inanna: Mesopotamian Sex Goddess
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, fertil...
The Picts: Rulers of the North
Tristan Hughes journeys up to windswept Scotland to uncover the secrets of the Picts — fierce warriors, skilled artisans, enemies of Rome and rulers o...
The Permian Extinction: When Life Nearly Died
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...
541 AD: The Worst Year in History
Was this the worst year in human history? Bubonic plague sweeps across the Mediterranean. The sun vanishes behind volcanic ash. Crops fail, famine bit...
Fall of the Sumerians
Tristan Hughes continues our special series on Great Disasters, journeying back to ancient Mesopotamia with Dr Paul Collins to explore the fall of the...
The Minoan Eruption: Bronze Age Cataclysm
More than 3,500 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption devastated Thera - modern day Santorini - engulfing the Bronze Age world in ash and fire. Entir...
How Greece Shaped Rome with Mary Beard
Professor Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins join Tristan in this episode all about Greece and Rome - the two greatest civilisations of classical antiqu...
The Sumerians
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 inve...
The Sea Peoples
Tristan Hughes sits down with Professor Eric Cline to explore the enigmatic Sea Peoples, often blamed for the catastrophic Bronze Age collapse over 3,...
Origins of Homo Sapiens
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 o...