First Civilizations

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Journalist and writer Graham Hancock travels the globe hunting for evidence of mysterious, lost civilizations dating back to the last Ice Age. He attempts to prove that a climatic event 12,000 years ago wiped out an entire civilization far more sophisticated than the simple hunter-gatherers some archaeologists believe lived at that time.

Morgan Freeman presents his quest in order to find how most religions perceive life after death, what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked.

Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.

Don Wildman unearths relics from the world's greatest institutions to reveal secrets from the past. He examines each artifact to illuminate history's most incredible triumphs, sensational crimes and bizarre encounters.

American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.

A British genealogy documentary series in which celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past.

This docuseries takes an unprecedented look at the enduring and influential legacy of DC, allowing fans to rediscover the universe of characters, as well as the iconic comic book company’s origins, its evolution and its nearly nine-decade cultural impact across every artistic medium.

Antiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979. There are also international versions of the programme.

Go inside the franchise's 20-year journey, from the unique chemistry that fueled six Super Bowl wins to the internal strife that sparked a turf war. Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, and key players reveal the road to—and cost of—greatness.

Actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in a travel show that explores healthy, sustainable ways to live.

The fascinating stories of the families behind the food that built America, those who used brains, muscle, blood, sweat and tears to get to America's heart through its stomach, those who invented new technologies and helped win wars.

Oscar and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist Mark Ronson explores the intersection of technology and musical innovation with his heroes and fellow hitmakers – including Paul McCartney, DJ Premier, Charli XCX, Dave Grohl, and Questlove.

MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.

This docuseries captures the remarkable rise and unprecedented success of one of the most dominant and iconic franchises in professional sports. Featuring exclusive access to the Buss Family and probing, revealing interviews with players, coaches, and front office execs, this series chronicles this extraordinary story from the inside – told only by the people who lived it.

Utilizing the latest scientific innovations and leading-edge filmmaking technology, this documentary reveals the secret powers and super-senses of the world’s most extraordinary animals, and invites viewers to see and hear beyond normal human perception to experience the natural world as a specific species does — from seeing flowers in bee-vision to eavesdropping on a conversation between elephant seals to soaring the length of a football field with glow-in-the-dark squirrels.

Come one, come all to The Circus. This real-time documentary series pulls back the curtain on the current political stories, revealing the intense, inspiring and infuriating stories behind the headlines. Key characters and events are presented in real time, as they are happening.

Investigates a wide range of historically compelling topics and the mysteries surrounding each including the Titanic, D.B. Cooper, Roswell, John Wilkes Booth, and more. Fresh, new evidence and perspectives will be showcased, such as never-before-released documents, personal diaries and DNA evidence.

Steve Martin is one of the most beloved and enigmatic figures in entertainment. Dive into his extraordinary story from two distinct points of view—past and present—as Martin reflects on how his beginnings led to his unexpectedly fulfilling life today.

Each of the twelve 50-minute episodes features a different aspect of the journey through life, from birth to adulthood and continuation of the species through reproduction.

From eradicating disease to selecting a child's traits, gene editing gives humans the chance to hack biology. Meet the real people behind the science.

Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on British Channel 4 from 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining the process in layman's terms. This team of specialists changed throughout the series' run, although has consistently included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites excavated over the show's run have ranged in date from the Palaeolithic right through to the Second World War.

The Bible is both a religious and historical work, but how much is myth and how much is history?

It was an archaeological find that became global news. An extraordinary mega-tomb, filled with the largest concentration of coffins ever unearthed in Saqqara, Egypt. This four-part series places you at the site to witness this ground-breaking discovery as it happened and follows Egyptologists as they try to determine why all of these mummies were buried together and what this ancient cemetery can tell us about the Egyptian civilization's way of death 2,500 years ago.

A mission to discover and re-create unexcavated worlds still hidden beneath the earth.

Millions of tourists visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia every year to marvel at its remarkable architecture, yet most are probably unaware that when it was built nearly 1,000 years ago it was even more impressive. Using remote sensing technology, scientists now know what is hidden beneath the nearby paddy fields and jungle: a sophisticated metropolis with an elaborate network of houses, canals, boulevards and temples covering 30 square kilometres that housed three-quarters of a million people. To put that into perspective, London at that time was home to just 18,000. These previously hidden finds tell us a great deal about life during the golden age of the powerful Khmer dynasty.

For centuries, explorers have searched for the Bible’s most sacred religious artefacts. One of the most mysterious of these objects is the famed Ark of the Covenant. The gold-plated wooden chest – one of the most instrumental symbols of faith and God's presence – was believed to house the two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. The Ark’s exact whereabouts has long puzzled scholars. Where did it go? And why has it remained such a mystery?

At the world-famous Explorers Club, a gathering place for trailblazers, club member Josh Gates recounts the greatest adventures of all time.

This gripping documentary miniseries investigates the mystery of two 1300-year-old burial ships from the Viking Age. With dramatic reconstructions and unearthed evidence, follow key archaeologists as they investigate the remains, and reveal how they fundamentally alter our understanding of Viking Europe.

The Greco-Persian War was pivotal in the creation of the modern world - yet all that is generally remembered are the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. This documentary examines the whole history, from the Ionian Revolt (497BC) to the Peace of Callias (449BC), and also covers the legacies of the war - including Democracy.

The construction of the Egyptian pyramids remains an enigma, an unsolved mystery. But today, Egyptologists and archaeologists have developed a new tool which uses aerial and satellite images to provide valuable fresh clues about the position, construction, and evolution of these edifices. This series sets out to decode the mysteries of the pyramids' construction, and to recreate Egypt as it was more than 5000 years ago.

America from the Ground Up was filmed on location at archaeological and historical sites throughout the U.S. and Canada. Join us in the search for clues to America's hidden history: from exploring the ruins of America's lost civilizations, to the settlement of the North American continent in the 19th Century.

Vetenskapens värld is a popular science TV documentary program broadcast on Swedish Television (SVT).

It is said to be one of the oldest books in the world. Has it been altered? If yes why? A remarkable journey back in time to see what the Old Testament and the New Testament is hiding from us.

A five-part series that features the latest research exploring how early humans evolved. See how the mixing of prehistoric human genes led the way for our species to survive and thrive around the globe. Archaeology, genetics and anthropology cast new light on 200,000 years of history, detailing how early humans became dominant.

Explore a world never seen before a world hidden under miles of water, the landscape of the seabed. Join expeditions to dive long-lost vessels, discover ancient sites and follow the scientists who are probing the darkest and deepest corners of this underwater world. Computer generated, three-dimensional maps and imagery will offer a first glimpse of these mysteries.

Crash Course World History is a video course hosted by John Green that teaches world history from growing the first crops in the First Agricultural Revolution to global textile production in the 2010s. Across the series, it builds skills in identifying and explaining historical developments, analyzing events in broader context, and tracing patterns and connections across time and place—aiming to help viewers become more informed citizens of the world. Season 1 follows the 2012 AP World History curriculum in a 42-episode chronological survey, while Season 2 continues in 30 episodes with a more thematic approach that focuses on systems and encourages viewers to question how “history” is written and what biases shape it.

Alice embarks on her most ambitious journey to date, in search of the Roman Empire, travelling 1300 miles through Italy, France and Spain to discover the origins and secrets of Rome’s success.