Chinese Chariots Revealed
A team of experts rebuild an ancient battle chariot to help uncover its design secrets.
Search Results
Sort By:
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:46
Chinese Chariots Revealed
For over a thousand years, chariots thundered across China’s battlefields, dominating warfare far longer than anywhere else on Earth. Now a series of amazing archaeological discoveries, including whole chariots buried with their horses, has enabled a team of experts to probe the genius of China’s first super-weapon. By recreating a battle chariot, they investigate the design secrets which made them such a long-lived war machine, all while discovering how they were used, what set them apart from the rest of the world, and their role in the unification of China.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:33
Secrets of the Sky Tombs
The towering Himalayas were among the last places on Earth that humanity settled. Scaling sheer cliff sides, a team of daring scientists hunts for clues to how ancient people found their way into this forbidding landscape and adapted to survive the high altitude. They discover rock-cut tombs filled with human bones and enigmatic artifacts, including gold masks and Chinese silk dating back thousands of years, and piece together evidence of strange rituals and beliefs designed to ward off the restless spirits of the dead.
Secrets of the Sky Tombs
Evidence discovered in the world’s highest tombs reveals ancient rituals and beliefs.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:09
Secrets of Noah's Ark
In 1948, a British pilot serving in Iraq acquired a clay tablet with an intriguing, 3,700 year-old inscription. The ancient writing tells the story of how the god Enki warns a Sumerian king named Atra-Hasis of a future flood that will destroy mankind; Enki gives him instructions for building a boat to save his family and livestock. If that sounds like a familiar tale, it’s because this was one of several ancient flood traditions that, centuries later, would inspire the biblical story of Noah. But the tablet’s inscription describes a boat very different from the traditional image of the Ark—it’s said to be circular and made of reeds. Is this nothing more than a fanciful myth? Or could such a reed boat have carried Atra-Hasis’ family of more than one hundred and his many animals? Join NOVA as a team of historians and expert boat builders investigates this fascinating flood legend and sets out to rebuild a tantalizing, ancient forerunner of the Ark.
Secrets of Noah's Ark
A team attempts to build the flood boat using inscriptions from an ancient clay tablet.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 52:52
Iceman Reborn
He was stalked, attacked and left to die alone. Murdered more than 5,000 years ago, Otzi the Iceman is Europe’s oldest known natural mummy. Miraculously preserved in glacial ice, his remarkably intact remains continue to provide scientists, historians, and archeologists with groundbreaking discoveries about a crucial time in human history. But in order to protect him from contamination, this extraordinary body has been locked away, out of reach, in a frozen crypt—until now. NOVA joins renowned artist and paleo-sculptor Gary Staab as he has been granted rare access into the Iceman’s frozen lair. Gary has been charged with creating an exact replica of the mummy, which scientists and the public alike can then study up close and in person. As we see the Iceman reborn from 3D printing, resin, clay and paint, new revelations about Otzi’s life and legacy come to light, including surprising secrets hidden in his genetic code.
Iceman Reborn
Watch as Otzi, a 5000-year-old mummy, is brought to life and preserved with 3D modeling.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:07
Mystery of Easter Island
A remote, bleak speck of rock in the middle of the Pacific, Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has mystified the world ever since the first Europeans arrived in 1722. How and why did the ancient islanders build and move nearly 900 giant statues or moai, weighing up to 86 tons? And how did they transform a presumed paradise into a treeless wasteland, bringing ruin upon their island and themselves? NOVA explores controversial recent claims that challenge decades of previous thinking about the islanders, who have been accused of everything from ecocide to cannibalism. Among the radical new theories is that the islanders used ropes to "walk" the statues upright, like moving a fridge. With the help of an accurate 15-ton replica statue, a NOVA team sets out to test this high-risk, seemingly unlikely theory—serving up plenty of action and surprises in this fresh investigation of one of the ancient world's most intriguing enigmas.
Mystery of Easter Island
A team of scientists and volunteers test a theory on how the ancient stone statues were moved, using a 15-ton replica.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 52:51
Secrets of the Viking Sword
The Vikings were among the fiercest warriors of all time. Yet only a select few carried the ultimate weapon of their era: the feared Ulfberht sword. Fashioned using a process that would remain unknown to the Vikings' rivals for centuries, the Ulfberht was a revolutionary high-tech tool as well as a work of art. Considered one of the greatest swords ever made, it remains a fearsome weapon more than a millennium after it last saw battle. But how did Viking sword makers design and build the Ulfberht, and what was its role in history? Now, NOVA uses cutting edge science and old-fashioned detective work to reconstruct the Ulfberht and finally unravel the "Secrets of the Viking Sword."
Secrets of the Viking Sword
A modern-day swordsmith reverse engineers the ultimate weapon of the Middle Ages—a sword both prized and feared.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 52:52
Emperor's Ghost Army
In central China, a vast underground mausoleum conceals a life-size terracotta army of cavalry, infantry, horses, chariots, weapons, administrators, acrobats, and musicians, all built to serve China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, in the afterlife. Lost and forgotten for over 2,200 years, this clay army, 8,000-strong, stands poised to help the First Emperor rule again beyond the grave. Now, a new archaeological campaign is probing the thousands of figures entombed in the mausoleum. With exclusive access to pioneering research, "Emperor's Ghost Army" explores how the Emperor directed the manufacture of the tens of thousands of bronze weapons carried by the clay soldiers. NOVA tests the power of these weapons with high-action experiments and reports on revolutionary 3D computer modeling techniques that are providing new insights into how the clay figures were made, revealing in the process the secrets of one of archaeology's greatest discoveries.
Emperor's Ghost Army
Explore the buried clay warriors, chariots, and bronze weapons of China's first emperor.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 1:51:29
The Bible's Buried Secrets
In this landmark two-hour special, NOVA takes viewers on a scientific journey that began 3,000 years ago and continues today. The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies: Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one God—the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—emerge?
The Bible's Buried Secrets
An archeological detective story traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible.
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:09
Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery
Whether serving as Christian church, Islamic mosque, or secular museum, Hagia Sophia and its soaring dome have inspired reverence and awe. For 800 years, it was the largest enclosed building in the world—the Statue of Liberty can fit beneath its dome with room to spare. How has it survived its location on one of the world's most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since it was built in 537? As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is urgently investigating Hagia Sophia's seismic secrets. Follow engineers as they build a massive 8-ton model of the building's core structure, place it on a motorized shake table, and hit it with a series of simulated quakes, pushing it collapse—a fate that the team is determined to avoid with the real building.
Hagia Sophia: Istanbul's Mystery
How has this unique structure, built on a seismic fault, survived centuries of quakes?
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:05
Petra: Lost City of Stone
More than 2,000 years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants whose camel caravans transported incense and spices from the Arabian Gulf. They carved spectacular temple-tombs into its soaring cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple at its heart, and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains, and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra's unique culture faded and was lost to most of the world for nearly a thousand years. Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone. Meanwhile, scientists using remote sensors and hydraulic flumes uncover the vast city and its sophisticated water system. The race is on to discover how these nomads created this oasis of culture in one of the harshest climates on Earth.
Petra: Lost City of Stone
How did early engineers carve tombs into rock cliffs and funnel water to this desert city?
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 53:37
Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
One of the ancient world's most iconic buildings, the Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners, and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage gladiators and people condemned to death. Then, just as quickly, the Colosseum could be flooded with so much water that ships could engage in sea battles to the delight of the crowd. Now, archaeologists and engineers are teaming up to recreate a 25-foot lifting machine and trap door system capable of releasing a wolf into the Colosseum's arena for the first time in 1,500 years. Do they have what it takes to replicate the innovation and ingenuity of the Romans?
Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
1500 years ago, how did the Romans engineer bloody spectacles and reenact sea battles?
- Video
- Format:
- Full Episode
- Running Time:
- 52:37
Great Cathedral Mystery
The dome that crowns Florence’s great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore—the Duomo—is a towering masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. Still the largest masonry dome on earth after more than six centuries, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs as much as an average cruise ship. Historians and engineers have long debated how its secretive architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, managed to keep the dome perfectly aligned and symmetrical as the sides rose and converged toward the center, 40 stories above the cathedral floor. His laborers toiled without safety nets, applying novel, untried methods. Over 4 million bricks might collapse at any moment—and we still don’t understand how Brunelleschi prevented it. To test the latest theories, a team of U.S. master bricklayers will help build a unique experimental model Duomo using period techniques. Will it stay intact during the final precarious stages of closing over the top of the dome?
Great Cathedral Mystery
Master craftsmen explore how Florence's monumental dome was built nearly 600 years ago.
Narrow Results
Add filters to refine your search
Format
NOVA Topics
Subjects
- Anthropology (4)
- Archeology (5)
- Earth Science (1)
- Engineering (1)
- Forensic Science (2)
- Geography (1)
- Health Science (1)
- History (6)
- Science & Society (1)
- Technology (3)
Media Type
- Video (20)
Year
Haven't found what you're looking for on NOVA? Search all
