Waypoint History: History for Sleep

When someone died in the England of Henry the Eighth, a clerk walked through their home, room by room, and wrote down everything in it. A bed. A brass pot. Six pewter dishes. Those lists survive by the thousand, and they let us walk back inside.

Tonight we spend one slow day in Tudor England around the year 1540: a farmhouse before dawn, the village at its ploughing, spinning, milling and market, the inn, the church and the herbs of the village healer, the river, streets and taverns of London, Henry the Eighth's court at Hampton Court, and the Mary Rose at Portsmouth, with the combs, shoes, bowls and longbows raised from her wreck. Then back to the village for supper, stories, prayers and a long quiet night. We keep the hard parts too: plague, poverty, the closing of the monasteries and a dangerous court.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 The Clerk's List
00:42 The Green and Rainy Island
04:00 King Henry and the Old Faith
05:05 A Village Built from Records
06:25 The Timber House
08:54 Cockcrow
10:42 Ale, Bread and Pottage
14:03 Children at Work
15:47 Washing Day
17:53 Ploughing the Open Field
20:44 Sheep and Wool
22:30 Spinning at the Hearth
23:56 Smith, Miller and Potter
27:30 Market Day
30:03 The Market Town
32:30 The Cloth Trade
34:18 Apprentices and Guilds
35:08 At the Inn
37:14 Schools, Print and the English Bible
39:04 The Parish Church
41:18 Law and Punishment
42:04 Herbs and Healing
44:41 Archery, Feasts and Holidays
47:31 Hard Times and the Poor
48:55 Down the Thames to London
51:48 Streets and Cheapside
54:36 Merchants and Fashion
57:36 Tower, Taverns and Music
59:12 Westminster

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jTkZQsJdpRo

The narration voice is AI.

About four and a half thousand years ago, a crew leader named Merer kept a logbook of his work, hauling white stone by boat for the Great Pyramid. His papyrus was found by the Red Sea in 2013, and it is among the oldest written papyri ever found.

Tonight we spend a long, slow day with the people who built the Great Pyramid of Khufu: the bakers grinding grain before dawn, the work gangs with names like the Friends of Khufu, the quarrymen and their copper chisels, the sculptors, carpenters, rope makers and coppersmiths in the workshops, Merer's boats crossing the Nile flood and the sea to Sinai, the farming year in the villages the workers came from, the old tales told about Khufu's court, and the stars the Egyptians watched over the sleeping town. We also look at what the evidence really says about the old idea that slaves built the pyramids, and at the questions scholars still argue about, like the ramps.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Merer's Logbook
00:38 The Black Land
01:49 King Khufu
02:30 Learning to Build Pyramids
03:43 The Horizon of Khufu
04:25 Measured to Perfection
06:09 Two Million Blocks
07:44 Inside the Pyramid
08:34 The Gang Names
09:23 Who Was in Charge
10:15 Were They Slaves?
11:27 The Workers' Cemetery
13:40 The Lost City
14:51 Before Dawn
17:19 Bread and Beer
19:24 The Work Gangs
20:58 In the Quarry
21:51 The Wet Sand Trick
22:40 The Ramp Mystery
23:52 Setting the Stones
25:54 Midday
27:07 The Workshops
31:19 Cedar from Lebanon
33:54 Copper, Clay and Brick
39:55 Merer's Diary
42:35 Tura Limestone
43:58 Across the Flood
45:09 Life on the River
49:17 Across the Sea to Sinai
53:35 Granite from Aswan
55:57 The End of the Work Day
57:47 Evening in the Town
1:00:28 Women and Children
1:01:17 Doctors and Healing
1:03:15 How Many Builders?
1:04:33 The Village Year
1:11:27 Flax and Linen
1:12:42 Village Homes
1:15:53 The Marshes
1:18:38 Festivals and Faith
1:19:48 Memphis and the Gods
1:22:15 Scribes and Writing
1:24:20 Games
1:25:38 Tales of Khufu's Court
1:30:42 How Khufu Was Remembered
1:31:57 Night Falls
1:34:13 Under the Stars
1:38:34 The City of the Dead
1:40:56 Queen Hetepheres
1:43:03 Khufu's Boat
1:44:19 The King's Funeral
1:45:47 The Next Pyramids
1:47:07 Robbers and Travellers
1:48:25 Losing the White Coat
1:49:52 Explorers and Myths
1:51:12 Hidden Spaces
1:52:08 The Pyramid Today
1:54:37 Goodnight

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PpfOAIhS2NU

The narration voice is AI.

A thousand years ago, Norse sailors crossed the North Atlantic in open wooden boats and built a few turf halls on a quiet shore in Newfoundland. The tree rings in their wood show they were cutting timber there in the year 1021.

Tonight we sail slowly through one ordinary day on a Viking voyage: an open cargo ship with no cabin, dried fish and sour whey for breakfast, the endless bailing, finding the way by sun, stars, birds and whales, the turf houses of Iceland and Greenland, and the short-lived camp at L'Anse aux Meadows, the first known European site in the Americas. We also look plainly at the parts of the story that are easy to leave out: the raids, the enslaved thralls who crossed in the same boats, and the people who already lived on the far shore.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A Thousand Years Ago
00:35 Across the Top of the World
00:59 Farmers, Raiders and Traders
03:45 Why They Sailed West
04:39 The Ships
05:49 The Roskilde Ships
06:40 Built by Eye
08:04 No Cabin
08:23 Packing for a New Land
11:01 Morning at Sea
13:14 A Cold Breakfast
13:58 Bailing and Steering
16:07 Finding the Way
18:25 Fog and Storms
19:32 The Quiet Days
21:44 Land
22:28 Iceland
24:00 Turf Houses
25:51 The Althing
26:38 The Thralls
28:18 Greenland
31:46 Seals and Walrus Ivory
33:16 West to Vinland
35:36 Can We Trust the Sagas?
36:01 L'Anse aux Meadows
39:00 The Butternuts
39:44 The Year 1021
40:53 A Day at the Camp
42:34 The Skraelings
44:13 Gudrid
45:26 Evening by the Fire
46:36 The End of Norse Greenland
49:25 Before Columbus
50:12 No Horned Helmets
52:27 Goodnight

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8euW7Zp_YFw

The narration voice is AI.

Five hundred years ago, the largest empire in the Americas ran without money, and without writing as we know it. It kept its records on knotted strings, and we still cannot fully read them.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in the world of the Inca: a cold dawn in a stone house at Machu Picchu, potatoes freeze-dried on the high plains, terraces climbing the mountainsides, relay runners on the great road, bridges woven from grass, the keepers of the knots, and the mountains settling into darkness under the Milky Way.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 An Empire of Knots
00:33 The Four Parts Together
01:37 Children of the Sun
03:38 The Sapa Inca
04:22 Cusco
05:58 Machu Picchu
08:04 The People of the Estate
08:48 A Stone House at Dawn
10:59 The Potato
12:46 The Terraces
15:19 No Money, Only Work
16:04 The Storehouses
17:04 Llamas, Alpacas and Guinea Pigs
18:57 Water in the Mountains
20:04 Walls Without Mortar
22:56 Temple of the Sun
24:04 The Great Road
25:35 The Runners
27:17 Bridges of Grass
28:18 The Khipu
30:04 Cloth Worth More Than Gold
32:20 Gold, Silver and Clay
33:49 Family Life
35:11 Healers and Coca
37:04 Sun, Earth and Sacred Mountains
38:56 Inti Raymi
40:24 Evening
42:03 Night in the Mountains
43:47 The Empire Falls
45:43 The Hidden City
47:37 The Inca World Today
50:11 The Knots Still Wait
50:33 Goodnight

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OcNmLRqJ340

The narration voice is AI.

Nearly two thousand years ago, a Roman town went to sleep under a quiet green mountain. The next day it was buried in ash, so deeply that its bread was still in the ovens when archaeologists found it.

Tonight we don't dwell on that last day. Instead we spend one slow, gentle, ordinary day in Pompeii: the bakers lighting their ovens before dawn, the street food counters, the laundries and the wine shops, the election notices and the jokes scratched on the walls, an afternoon at the baths, a night at the theatre, and the town settling down to sleep by lamplight.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Before the Ash
00:39 Pompeii and the Mountain
01:44 An Old Town
03:53 Before Dawn
04:58 Inside a Roman House
08:12 Morning Visitors
09:18 Water for the Town
10:40 The Shops Open
11:41 The Bakers
13:26 Street Food and Wine
16:15 A Busy Street
16:57 Notices on the Walls
18:03 Running the Town
18:47 Laundries, Dyers and Workshops
20:33 Wine and Trade
21:39 The Banker
22:44 The Forum
26:13 Voices on the Walls
27:37 The Grand Houses
30:30 Freedmen and the Enslaved
31:15 Children and School
32:42 Midday
33:23 The Baths
36:30 Theatres
37:30 The Amphitheatre
39:19 Gods and Festivals
40:45 Evening and Dinner
43:09 Night Falls
44:53 The Earthquake
45:38 The Mountain Wakes
47:47 Buried and Found
49:40 Pompeii Today
50:24 Goodnight, Pompeii

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2IxlvGa5n0Y

The narration voice is AI.

Nine hundred years ago, beside the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois, there was a city roughly as large as London was at the time. Its people raised an earthen pyramid taller than a ten storey building, one basket of soil at a time, built great circles of wooden posts to follow the sun, and filled their grand plaza with crowds for a game called chunkey. Then the city emptied, and today most people have never heard its name.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in Cahokia: grinding corn at dawn, working the fields of the floodplain, fishing the old river channels, shaping pots and shell beads, climbing toward Monks Mound, watching the sun rise over Woodhenge, and listening to the city fall quiet at night.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 America's Lost City
01:02 Where Was Cahokia?
02:31 Before the City
03:15 The Big Bang of 1050
04:25 Building a House
05:28 Who Built It?
06:13 An Ordinary Morning
09:07 Food for the Winter
10:12 Healers and Hard Lives
10:58 The Cornfields
13:53 Fishing, Hunting and the Woods
16:41 Rivers and Canoes
17:23 Pots, Beads and Copper
21:29 Monks Mound
25:12 The Grand Plaza and Chunkey
28:26 Woodhenge
30:34 Mound 72
32:23 Trade Across a Continent
34:34 An Afternoon in the City
37:29 Music and Ceremony
38:54 Night Falls
39:38 The Great Wall
41:24 Why Cahokia Emptied
44:53 The Name Nobody Knows
45:34 The Mounds in Modern Times
47:02 Rediscovering Cahokia
48:24 Cahokia Today
50:15 What We Know and What We Don't
51:22 Goodnight, Cahokia

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_bcIFF68sVc

The narration voice is AI.

More than two thousand years ago, on the Nile far to the south of Egypt, a kingdom built more pyramids than Egypt itself. Its kings once ruled Egypt as pharaohs, its queens led armies against Rome, and its people wrote in a script that we can read aloud today but still cannot understand.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in Meroe, the capital of the kingdom of Kush: grinding sorghum at dawn, herding cattle across the summer grasslands, iron furnaces glowing at the edge of town, painted pottery, temples to the lion god Apedemak, the royal city and the queens called kandake, and the steep pyramids glowing at sunset.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A Morning in Meroe
02:04 What Was the Kingdom of Kush?
03:12 Kerma and the First Kingdom
04:45 When Kush Ruled Egypt
06:19 The Move South to Meroe
07:25 A Day Begins at Home
09:23 Cattle and the Summer Rains
10:09 Water from the River and the Hafirs
11:37 Cotton, Pots and Painted Cups
13:36 The Iron Workers
16:01 The River Road and the Trade
17:58 Children and the Bow
19:11 Temples and the Lion God
21:31 Musawwarat and the Elephants
22:20 The Script Nobody Can Read
24:43 The Royal City
25:55 The Queens of Kush
26:41 The War with Rome
28:20 The Head of Augustus
29:32 Kitchens and Storerooms
30:20 An Afternoon on the River
32:34 Lions, Elephants and the Hunt
34:44 Harvest and Festivals
37:02 The Pyramids of Meroe
40:58 Evening in the City
44:18 How the Kingdom Faded
47:23 Rediscovering Kush
49:48 Meroe Today
51:38 What We Know and What We Don't

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JQqFIbD7FnE

The narration voice is AI.

Seven or eight hundred years ago, on a high granite plateau in southern Africa, people built a city of stone. Its great curving walls, raised without a drop of mortar, still stand today. Its rulers grew rich on cattle and gold, and its gold travelled down to the Indian Ocean coast, where it was traded for cloth and beads from across the sea.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in their world: from the first rooster at dawn to stories by the fire, and the long story of how the city faded, how its builders were denied credit for it for decades, and how the truth came back to light.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A Morning on the Plateau
02:09 What Was Great Zimbabwe?
03:19 Mapungubwe and the First Walls
04:57 What We Know and What We Don't
05:44 A Day Begins in a Daga House
08:07 Fire, Food and Beer
10:28 Water, Children and Learning
11:59 A Land of Cattle
13:35 Fields, Granaries and the Hunt
15:58 The Hill Complex
19:07 Clues in the Rubbish
19:32 The Great Enclosure
22:20 The Passage and the Conical Tower
24:33 Standing Stones and the Valley
25:22 How Many People Lived Here?
26:10 Iron, Copper and Gold
27:50 The Soapstone Birds
29:53 Pots, Cloth, Leather and Games
32:00 Following the Gold to the Coast
35:37 Rulers and Their Wealth
37:17 Ancestors, Rain and Music
39:48 Evening in the City
43:02 The Rhythm of the Year
45:46 The Decline
47:27 The Kingdoms That Followed
49:35 The Myth and the Truth
52:13 Great Zimbabwe Today
53:05 What We Still Don't Know

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G0SBrH23dWk

The narration voice is AI.

Three and a half thousand years ago, on the island of Crete, people built great palaces with light wells, painted walls and clay water pipes. They sailed to Egypt and Cyprus, leapt over charging bulls, and wrote in a script that nobody can read today.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in their world: from fetching water at dawn to sleeping on the flat roofs under the stars, and the long story of the volcano, the fires and the digging that brought them back to light.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A Morning on Bronze Age Crete
02:12 Who Were the Minoans?
05:19 A Minoan Town Wakes Up
07:29 Water, Fire and Breakfast
10:30 The Palace of Knossos
15:00 Scribes, Storerooms and Plumbing
16:53 The Throne Room Mystery
17:49 Phaistos, Malia and Zakros
19:11 Olives, Wine and the Countryside
22:10 Fishermen and the Harvest of the Sea
23:24 Mountains and Wild Goats
24:41 An Island of Makers
28:17 Spinning, Dye and Jewellery
30:27 The Frescoes and the Blue Monkey
32:43 Bull-Leaping
34:36 Peak Sanctuaries and Sacred Caves
37:43 Tombs and the Painted Coffin
38:35 Linear A and the Phaistos Disc
40:20 Ships and Trade Across the Sea
44:43 Akrotiri, the Buried Town on Thera
46:10 Evening Falls
49:04 The Rhythm of the Year
51:29 The Thera Eruption
53:49 Fire and the Mycenaeans
55:12 Legends and Rediscovery
57:28 What We Still Don't Know

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DkIRcDIkW00

The narration voice is AI.

Four and a half thousand years ago, on the plains of the Indus River, millions of people lived in planned cities with private bathrooms, covered drains and streets laid out on a grid. They traded with Mesopotamia, made beads that took days to drill, and wrote in a script nobody can read today.

Tonight we spend one slow, gentle day in their world: from drawing water at dawn to the stars over the rooftops at night, and the long story of how their cities faded and were found again.

Get comfortable, dim the lights, and let the history carry you to sleep.

CHAPTERS
00:00 A City Wakes on the Indus
02:01 Who Were the Harappans?
05:04 Morning at Home
06:18 Water, Drains and Bathrooms
07:59 Streets, Bricks and Citadels
10:35 Bread, Turmeric and the Harvest
14:52 Life in the Villages
18:14 A City of Makers
23:00 Shell, Bronze and Cloth
26:09 The Market and Its Weights
28:23 Seals and the Unread Script
31:33 Rivers, Ships and Mesopotamia
34:39 Dholavira, City of Water
37:12 The Great Bath
39:16 Who Ruled the Cities?
41:07 Toys, Games and Stories
44:37 Elephants, Tigers and Crocodiles
47:17 Evening Falls
48:57 The Rhythm of the Year
51:28 The Slow Decline
54:42 Buried and Found Again
56:34 What We Still Don't Know

Watch this journey with paintings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5dxmH65pHXU

The narration voice is AI.