The Ancients

When the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, one remarkable avian survivor traded the skies for the sea. Tristan Hughes and paleontologist Dr Steve Brusatte explore how prehistoric penguins emerged on ancient Zealandia, lost their flight and grew into colossal apex predators. But how did these giant ocean rulers eventually shrank to conquer the frozen continent of Antarctica?

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Terror Birds

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Dinosaurs: The Last Days

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Joseph Knight and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

The Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch HERE

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for early access ad-free, plus exclusive subscriber-only episodes.

PLUS with a History Hit subscription you can watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. But what was life really like for the people who lived there? Behind its magnificent temples and royal palaces lay a city of crowded streets, disease, danger and everyday struggles.

Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show and Babylonian extraordinaire Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones to uncover the realities of life in Hammurabi's Babylon. Drawing on the remarkable texts left behind by its people, they explore everything from marriage and childbirth to taverns, rubbish-filled streets and the strange demons believed to haunt the home. What did it mean to walk the streets of Mesopotamia's most famous ancient city?

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The Fall of Babylon

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The Tower of Babel

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Tim Arstall. Producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS early ad-free podcasts and exclusive subscriber-only episodes every fortnight. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How much can we really know about the historical Jesus? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have shaped Christianity for nearly 2,000 years, but they were written decades after the events they describe. So how should we treat them as historical sources?

Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Helen Bond to examine where the Gospels came from, who wrote them and how closely they reflect the world of first-century Judea. Were they based on eyewitness testimony and earlier traditions? And what do their stories reveal about the life of Jesus of Nazareth?

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The Pharisees

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Rise of Christianity

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Editor is Matthew Wilson. The producers are Joseph Knight and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

The Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch HERE

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for early access ad-free, plus exclusive subscriber-only episodes.

PLUS with a History Hit subscription you can watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forget everything you thought you knew about the ancient Maya. Cracking their mysterious hieroglyphs didn't just reveal boring calendars, it exposed a cutthroat, Game of Thrones-style world of rival superpowers, Tikal and Calakmul.

Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor David Stuart to uncover tales of powerful female warlords, dark pilgrimages to the underworld, and the secret jungle "whiteboard" of an ancient mathematician.

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The Maya Collapse

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The Olmec: Mother of Mesoamerican Civilisations

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited and produced by Joseph Knight.

The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of graphic violence from the start.

When we picture human sacrifice in ancient Britain, the iconic, flaming Wicker Man often comes to mind. But how much of this is Roman propaganda, and what does the actual archaeology reveal? Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Dr. Miles Russell to separate popular myth from gruesome reality. From perfectly preserved bog bodies in the north to mysterious grain pit burials down south, who were these victims and why did they die?

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio & video editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Robin McConnell. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

The Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch HERE

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for early access ad-free, plus exclusive subscriber-only episodes.

PLUS with a History Hit subscription you can watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before the mammoths disappeared, people hunted them across Ice Age America. Armed with distinctive stone spear points, the mysterious Clovis culture left behind traces of a world filled with giant beasts and landscapes now lost to time.

Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Dr Madeline Mackie to explore the latest discoveries surrounding America’s prehistoric history. Who were these remarkable hunter-gatherers? How did they hunt some of the largest animals ever to walk the continent? And what mysteries still surround one of the most fascinating cultures of Ice Age America?

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Ice Age America

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The First Americans

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 

You can take part in our listener survey here:

https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did the Romans ambush a massive Carthaginian fleet from behind a Sicilian island to win one of history's fiercest sea battles? For over 20 years, Rome and Carthage fought a brutal war for supremacy over Sicily. Tristan Hughes is joined by Carthage expert Dr. Eve MacDonald to explore the epic First Punic War; a conflict defined by titanic naval clashes, lethal boarding bridges, war elephants...sacred chickens!

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Rise of Hannibal

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How To Survive in Carthage

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Natasha Hughes. The producers are Joseph Knight & McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

The Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch HERE

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for early access ad-free, plus exclusive subscriber-only episodes, including our recent 'After Ancients' interview with Dr. Eve MacDonald.

PLUS with a History Hit subscription you can watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How much of Iron Age Ireland is myth, and how much is archaeological reality? At the monumental Hill of Tara, sacred kings ruled over a landscape steeped in ancient ritual and ancestral memory.

Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. John Waddell, author of The Celtic World, to explore the truth to be found through the mist and beneath the hills. We hear about legendary rulers like Queen Medb, epic cattle raids, massive ceremonial feasts, and lawless, roaming war bands.

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Iron Age Britain

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Origins of the Celts

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS ad-free, early access podcasts AND exclusive subscriber-only Ancients episodes. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of human origins is often imagined as a simple journey from Africa, but is the truth actually much messier? Tristan Hughes and leading palaeoanthropologist Prof. Chris Stringer dismantle the traditional narrative, discussing how recent breakthroughs in fossils and ancient DNA reveal a complex, shifting history of multiple migrations and cross-breeding to uncover where we truly come from.

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The First Britons with Prof. Chris Stringer

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Rise of Humans

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The studio manager is Hanif Hussain. The producers are Joseph Knight and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

The Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch HERE

Want even MORE Ancients? Sign up to History Hit for early access ad-free, plus exclusive subscriber-only episodes.

PLUS with a History Hit subscription you can watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when an entire city disappears? Beneath the sands and wetlands of Egypt lie the remains of forgotten cities that once stood at the heart of one of the ancient world’s greatest civilisations.

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Egyptologist Chris Naunton to uncover the story of Egypt’s lost cities. From the rediscovery of Tanis, the mysterious city immortalised by Indiana Jones, to ancient capitals like Memphis and Amarna, they explore what caused these cities to vanish. And how many more are still waiting to be found?

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The Silver Pharaohs

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Alexandria: The Sunken City

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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.