Secrets of the Dead

History Series / 9 Seasons

Secrets of the Dead is part detective story, part true-life drama that unearths evidence from around the world, challenging prevailing ideas and throwing fresh light on unexplained events.

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Did Richard III Maintain a Healthy Diet from Birth to Death?

2m 20s

A team of scientists has traveled to Richard’s birthplace in Northamptonshire to find out if he was a fit and capable warrior at the Battle of Bosworth. By analyzing the chemical isotopes in Richard’s teeth, legs and ribs, they can create a complete profile of Richard’s diet over the course of his life. Resurrecting Richard III premieres on Wednesday, September 24th at 10 p.m. on PBS.

Preview | The Mona Lisa Mystery

30s

Discover a portrait of a younger and more beautiful Mona Lisa that predated the famous Louvre masterpiece. In September 2012, headline news shook the art world. A secret da Vinci had been uncovered, a portrait of a younger and more beautiful Mona Lisa that predated the famous Louvre masterpiece.

Theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre

1m 45s

In the summer of 1911, the relatively obscure Mona Lisa portrait was stolen from a Renaissance gallery in The Louvre Museum. The scandal soon made the Leonardo da Vinci painting a household name. A handyman Vincenzo Peruggia committed the crime, removing the wooden panel portrait from its frame and escaping in broad daylight the following day when the museum was closed.

What Is the Isleworth Mona Lisa?

4m 13s

Two years before the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the aging artist was visited by Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona to survey his works. A diary written by the Cardinal’s secretary suggests da Vinci showcased a Mona Lisa portrait different than the one now on display in The Louvre Museum.

Preview | The Lost Gardens of Babylon

43s

Examine a world wonder so elusive that most people have decided it must be mythical. Centuries of digging have turned up nothing — but the searchers were digging in the wrong place. Now, this film proves that the spectacular Hanging Gardens of Babylon did exist, shows where they were, what they looked like and how they were constructed.

Archimedes' Screw & the Date Tree of Babylon

2m 8s

Archimedes of Syracuse is known for inventing a device that efficiently raised water for irrigation. Dr. Stephanie Dalley translated a cuneiform text from of the Assyrian king Sennacherib which led her to believe the Hanging Gardens of Babylon made use of a comparable device approximately 350 years before the time of Archimedes.

Who Built Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

3m 12s

Dr. Stephanie Dalley, an expert on the ancient cuneiform texts, is one of a handful of people who can read this language which dates back to the Babylonian era. Her translation of the cuneiform on a prism at the British Museum, leads her to an intriguing theory about the location, builder, and look of the Hanging Garden.

Preview | Carthage's Lost Warriors

30s

In 146 BC, as the Romans conquered the vast Carthaginian Empire in North Africa, thousands of people fled their homeland. Now, science is suggesting some may have taken refuge thousands of miles away in South America. In addition to the scientific evidence, blonde, blue eyed indigenes suggest that contact with the West occurred long before Columbus arrived.

The Petroglyphs on Pedra do Ingá

2m 10s

Countless figures and symbols have been engraved into the monolith since the Itacoatiara culture existed in Rio Paraíba. At an early stage local archaeologists noticed that many of the petroglyphs on the Rock of the Ingá displayed similarities with writing from the Old World in classical times.

Preview | The Lost Diary of Dr. Livingstone

30s

Dr. David Livingstone is the renowned British explorer, whom American journalist Henry Morton Stanley greeted with the now famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” When New York Herald reporter Stanley found him in a small African village on November 10, 1871, the reclusive Livingstone had lost contact with the outside world for six years.

Dr. Livingstone Discovers & Names Victoria Falls

2m

Livingstone charted large parts of the continent previously unseen by European eyes. Where there was once a blank space, he filled in the map of Africa. One of Livingstone’s most famous discoveries was the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi River.

Dr. Livingstone Concocts "Rousers" to Fight Malaria

2m 34s

150 years ago, malaria was a mystery to doctors in Africa and the west. On earlier expeditions, when Livingstone travelled along these same river banks, he recorded suffering from malaria dozens of times. Livingstone develops his own medicine and pioneered a systematic dosage to keep him alive. The main ingredient was quinine, found in the bark of the South American cinchona tree.

Preview | JFK: One PM Central Standard Time

30s

Fifty years after the tragic shooting of President John F. Kennedy, Secrets of the Dead chronicles minute-by-minute the assassination as it was revealed in the CBS newsroom from the moment the President was shot until Walter Cronkite's emotional pronouncement of his death, one hour and eight minutes later.

Preview | Bones of the Buddha

30s

The mystery surrounding the bones of the Buddha dates back more than 100 years ago, when colonial estate manager William Peppe and his workers began digging at a mysterious hill in Northern India. Peppe had no idea what they'd find just a little more than 20 feet down. They unearthed an astonishing discovery: a huge stone coffer, containing five reliquary jars, more than 1,000 separate jewels.

Preview | Ultimate Tut

30s

In 1922, in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter made the greatest archaeological find in history: the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and its golden treasures worth nearly a billion dollar. Carter’s find made Tutankhamun the most famous pharaoh in ancient Egyptian history. But the real story of King Tut has become shrouded in myth.

Preview | Caveman Cold Case

30s

A tomb of 49,000 year-old Neanderthal bones discovered in El Sidron, a remote, mountainous region of Northern Spain, leads to a compelling investigation to solve a double mystery: How did this group of Neanderthals die?

Preview | Bugging Hitler's Soldiers

30s

Spied upon by MI19 in a bugging operation of unprecedented scale and cunning, 4,000 German POW’s revealed their inner thoughts about the Third Reich and let slip military secrets that helped the Allies win WWII.

Preview | The Man Who Saved the World

31s

Fifty years ago, in October 1962, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. This is the little-known story of how close to nuclear destruction the world really was during those dark October days, and how the heroism of one man saved us all.

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