Věstonické mysterium
1947 · Documentary
More Like This
Pompeii: Sin City
2020 · ★ 5.5
A story about one of the most famous and mysterious archaeological sites in the world.
More info →
The 1001 Faces of Palmyra
2021 · ★ 7
Two thousand years ago, it was a flourishing city in the middle of what is now a Syrian desert. At the crossroads of trade routes, Palmyra attracted caravanners from Mesopotamia, India and China. In what remains of its ruins, rediscovered by Europeans in the 17th century, its numerous necropolises bear witness to a prosperous past. Carved in limestone in the first centuries of our era, the faces of the representatives - men, women and children - of its greatest families adorn the walls of its tombs. Since 2012, Danish archaeologist Rubina Raja has been leading a long-term project to find, document and retrace the family trees and daily life of these Palmyrenians.
More info →
The Mystery of the Trojan Horse
2021 · ★ 7.3
The story of the Trojan Horse is probably one of the most famous stories ever told: after ten years of bloody war, the Greek coalition decides to lift the siege and depart, but not before leaving at the gates a huge wooden horse, which the Trojans confidently lead into the city. A few hours later, the once invincible Troy goes up in flames. What exactly happened? Is this myth true or false?
More info →
Palmyra: Rising from the Ashes
2017
Documentary following a team of technicians in Italy as they reconstruct a number of historic Middle Eastern artifacts that were vandalized at the hands of Islamic State.
More info →
Tut-ankh Amen's Tomb (Daily Sketch Topical Budget 600-1)
1923
"No discovery of our time has so moved the whole world," proclaims an intertitle introducing this special extended newsreel edition. For once, Topical Budget's characteristic hyperbole is on the money. The discovery and excavation (some would say grave-robbing) of the tomb of the 14th Century BC Egyptian pharaoh was already an international sensation by the time this newsreel screened in February 1923. The sense of breathless excitement surrounding the discovery extends to Topical's intertitles, which expend a good portion of the film's running time explaining the relatively fleeting, poor quality images of the excavation itself. But we do get to see the removal of an ebony, ivory and gold chair, and two glimpses of expedition leader Howard Carter - in long-shot from behind as announced in an intertitle, but also a much clearer, unheralded shot at the 'halfway rest house', where he cuts a dash in white shirt and trousers.
More info →
Aku-Aku
1960 · ★ 7.7
Documentary following the 1955–1956 Norwegian Archaeological Expedition's investigations of Polynesian history and culture at Easter Island.
More info →
The Whisper of Ziggurat: Untold Secrets of Elamite Civilization
2020
5000 years ago the ancient Elamites established a glorious civilization that lasted about three millennia. They created marvelous works in architecture and craftsmanship. These works of art depict the lifestyle, thoughts, and beliefs of the Elamites.
More info →
The Nobles of Prehistory: Ladies and Princes of the Paleolithic
2021 · ★ 6.6
In 1872, in the cave of Cavillon in Monaco, archaeologist Émile Rivière (1835-1922) unearthed an apparently very old human skeleton, at least 24,000 years old, a discovery that changed the modern image of prehistoric men and women.
More info →
The Mystery of the Rascar Capac Mummy
2019 · ★ 8.3
Rascar Capac, the sinister creature featured on Hergé's album The Seven Crystal Balls (1948), has left its mark on many generations of readers. To draw it, the Belgian cartoonist was probably inspired by a mummy exhibited in the first pre-Columbian exhibition organized by the Brussels Cinquantenaire Museum in 1923. Two intrepid archaeologists embark on a fascinating journey to reconstruct the story of the mysterious mummy.
More info →