Naked History – Unearthed

Attila the Hun was one of history’s most notorious warlords – but was he responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire? His terrifying army of horseback barbarians tore across Europe in the 5th century – the dying days of the Empire – but for all the tales of rampage and destruction, they left almost no material evidence. Now new investigations in the German city of Trier – once a capital of the Roman Empire – are revealing more about how a superpower of the ancient world came to its knees and Attila’s legendary reign of terror.

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The gigantic Moai statues of Easter Island are the legacy of one of the world’s most isolated civilizations: the Rapa Nui. For hundreds of years, they were cut off from the rest of the world by the vast Pacific Ocean, carving more than 900 monoliths using only stone tools. Archaeologists are unearthing evidence of how these unique statues evolved and the Rapa Nui’s incredible bid for survival, trapped on their remote island home. Why did the people of Easter Island carve so many of these magnificent monuments only to pull them down?

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Knossos in Greece – the ruined city of the Minoans, Europe’s first super-power. Immortalized in Greek mythology as the home of the fabled Labyrinth and the Minotaur, Knossos has inspired many legends. But what really went on here 4000 years ago? We strip back the ancient ruins to reveal that truth is stranger than fiction. Ritual sports and secret codes expose an advanced civilization older than the Greeks and Romans. But at the peak of their powers, the Minoans disappeared – why? Evidence for a series of natural catastrophes and human sacrifice could reveal the chaos that ended their world.

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The Statue of Liberty is one of the most famous monuments in the world. But what do we really know about this enigmatic lady? Today investigators are on a quest to uncover the Statue’s secret identity; was she inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes in Greece? We’ll explore the amazing engineering hidden beneath her copper robes. Archaeological discoveries in the ground beneath her feet provide a unique insight into the history of North America; and using a facial recognition expert we try to answer the immortal question; whose face is on the statue?

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For 5000 years, the incredible Pyramids of Caral lay buried beneath Peru’s desert sands. Today, their discovery has forced archaeologists to rethink the history of civilization in the Americas. They’ve unearthed a lost culture unlike any other - a society based on trade, that apparently grew in peace, not through conquest. A people guided by religious rituals, skilled in engineering and architecture, who battled earthquakes, floods and drought to build their monumental city. How did these people survive in this inhospitable landscape? And could they really be the very first civilization of the Americas?

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The Vikings are as famous as marauding pirates, but why did they also build monumental fortresses?

Archaeologists are investigating the great ring fort at Trelleborg in Denmark, built at the end of the Viking Age. This huge circular structure lay hidden for more than a thousand years beneath the frozen soil of Denmark. Now new discoveries across the Viking world are revealing more about the story of Harold Bluetooth - the great king who united Viking people – and what brought the Vikings’ reign of terror to an end.

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Petra is an ancient and enigmatic city, carved from the rock of Jordan’s desert. Hidden at the end of a winding chasm, it is famous for its extraordinary beauty. But for decades it has baffled archaeologists. Who were the mysterious people that built it, how did they found a civilisation in the arid desert, and why did they suddenly disappear?

Now, the latest laser-scanning techniques are resurrecting the lives of Petra’s forgotten people to reveal what happened to the greatest lost city of the ancient world.

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The Colosseum is the greatest icon of the world’s most powerful Empire. It was an arena of death and glory, and the source of epic legends. Now archaeologists are using new techniques to solve ancient mysteries about this spectacular ruin.

Why was it built here? And why did it collapse? With unique access to the only Gladiator bones ever discovered, we reveal astonishing new evidence of how they lived and died. The Colosseum’s most incredible legend of naval battles held inside its walls are uncovered and clues within the walls of the Colosseum answer ancient riddles about the rise and fall of the Roman empire itself.

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The Terracotta Army in Xi’an, China is perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery in the last 50 years, but it remains shrouded in mystery. Historians reconstruct the shattered remains of the warriors and reveal the dark secrets of a super-tomb built at the birth of China.

The discovery of real weapons and bizarre stone-plated armour amongst the statues reveals the supernatural enemy the army was designed to face. The discovery of dismembered skeletons thrown into the pits hint at the violent struggle for power that followed the death of China’s first emperor.

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Machu Picchu in Peru – the famous lost city of the Incas. Archaeologists discovered this mountaintop city one hundred years ago, but its purpose remains a hotly debated mystery. Was it a religious observatory or a holiday retreat for the emperor?

Could religious carvings and gruesomely deformed skeletons found in the city hold a crucial clue as to why this city was built? A newly uncovered network of roads places Machu Picchu as a strategic outpost for the Inca Emperor Pachacuti, but mysterious rock art suggests the site’s origins may be far older.

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