''Ancient Discoveries'' is a television series that premiered on December 21, 2003, on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

. The program focused on ancient technologies. The show's theme was that many inventions which are thought to be modern have ancient roots or in some cases may have been lost and then reinvented. The program was a follow-up to a special originally broadcast in 2005 which focused on technologies from the

Ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

era such as the

Antikythera mechanism The Antikythera mechanism ( , ) is an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System). It is the oldest known example of an Analog computer, analogue computer. It could be used to predict astronomy, astronomical ...

and inventors such as

Heron of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria (; , , also known as Heron of Alexandria ; probably 1st or 2nd century AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria in Egypt during the Roman era. He has been described as the greatest experimentali ...

. Episodes of the regular series expanded to cover other areas such as Egypt, China and East Asia, and the

Islamic world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

. ''Ancient Discoveries'' was made for The History Channel by Wild Dream Films based in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

in the UK. Much of the filming was on location across the world. The series used contributions from archaeologists and other experts, footage of historical sites and artifacts, computer generated reconstructions, and dramatized reconstructions along with experiments and tests on reconstructed artifacts.

Episodes

Series 1 (2003)

Michael Carroll was the initial narrator of the series for The History Channel (US).

Series 2 (2005)

Phil Crowley was narrator of this series of episodes and for all subsequent episodes for The History Channel (US).

Series 3 (2007)

This was the first series of episodes presented in wide screen format on The History Channel (US).

Series 4 (early 2008)

Series 5 (late 2008)

Series 6 (2009)

An episode about ancient surgery is available through

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

OnDemand, even though it has not aired on History.

References

External links

Official Site (History Channel)

Official Site of Wild Dream Films
* (Incomplete Episode Listings)
Ancient Discoveries on Zap2It
(Most Complete Episode Listings)