BBC Dinos 24/7 Alastair Sooke explores the sumptuous treasures of the Golden Age of Egyptian art, starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III, and ending with the golden mask of boy-king Tutankhamun. 2026-08-06 Alastair Sooke looks at how, despite political decline, the final era of the Egyptian Empire saw its art enjoy revival and rebirth. From the colossal statues of Rameses II that proclaimed the pharaoh's power to the final flourishes under Queen Cleopatra, Sooke discovers that the subsequent invasions by foreign rulers, from the Nubians and Alexander the Great to the Romans, produced a new hybrid ar 2026-08-06 Exploring fresh archaeological excavations that shed new light on the lives of those who worked tirelessly on the pyramids. 2026-08-06 Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He begins by going back 2,000 years to explore how archaeology began by trying to prove a biblical truth - a quest that soon got archaeologists into dangerous water. 2026-08-06 Archaeologist Richard Miles shows how discoveries in the 18th and 19th centuries overturned ideas of when and where civilisation began, as empires competed to 'own' the past. 2026-08-06 Part 2/3. Millions of years before the dinosaurs, a world full of giant sabretooth reptiles and huge armoured herbivores was obliterated when global temperatures soared and vast deserts blanketed the land. As the environment recovered, populations of one species of tough reptile exploded until it alone dominated the planet, but its reign was short-lived. 2026-08-07 Part 3/3. The struggle for survival moves onto land in the shape of early reptiles such as Petrolacosaurus. In the Carboniferous swamps, insects and arthropods have taken over and grown into giants, from the giant spider Mesothelae to millipede-like monsters. As the swamps dry up, the world becomes dominated by the first ever giant reptiles - the huge, sail-backed Edaphosaurus. 2026-08-07 The life of the first reptilian carnivores on Earth, told through computer animation. 2026-08-07 This programme travels 152 million years into the past to a planet dominated by mighty, long-necked sauropods - the largest animals ever to walk the earth. There were no birds, flowers or grass, and the land was carpeted by fern prairies and coniferous forests. 2026-08-07 A look at the world as it was 149 million years ago - in the late Jurassic Period. The old continents have broken up and much of the land is under water. Huge shallow seas have supported a revolution in marine life. 2026-08-07 A mind-expanding trip back through time to look at how the skies of 127 million years ago were dominated by huge flying reptiles, some as large as aeroplanes. The programme also follows the extraordinary journey of the pterosaur, which flew for thousands of miles in order to reach its breeding site. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh. 2026-08-07 This programme looks at the Cretaceous period, 106 million years ago. Volcanic activity forces the continents apart, and dinosaurs diversify into a range of species to cope with environmental extremes. The landmass that will become Australia and Antarctica is in sunlight for half of the year, and in frozen darkness for the rest. 2026-08-07 Looking at the closing chapters of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago, when the world is poisoned by massive volcanic activity. Among the fields of burning ash, the dinosaurs struggle for survival, oblivious to the Earth's impending collision with a giant comet. 2026-08-07 A journey to discover the legendary lost city of Piramesse, a magnificent ancient capital built 3,000 years ago by the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great. When it was finally rediscovered by early archaeologists, it opened up a bizarre puzzle because it was in the wrong place. 2026-08-07 In the Lambayeque valley in northern Peru lies a strange lost world, the forgotten ruins of 250 mysterious pyramids, including some of the biggest on the planet, colossal structures made out of mud bricks. 2026-08-07 Scientists investigate the meteorite impact responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs. According to a theory, the event was triggered by a comet hitting the present-day Gulf of Mexico. 2026-08-07 Historian Dr Michael Scott unlocks the secrets of a mysterious tomb containing over 2,000 bodies unearthed within one of the catacombs of Rome. The bodies are found to have been wrapped in elaborate plaster and cloth shrouds, liberally sprinkled with ground up amber. Working with an international team of archaeologists, Scott gathers clues to identify who these men and women were and how they died 2026-08-07 Part 1/4. David Attenborough shows us how ancient creatures have come to be preserved as fossils and how those fossils can shed light on characteristics of these creatures' lives, and even their death. 2026-08-07 Part 2/4. Could pterodactyls fly? And why did trilobites have such good eyes? David Attenborough investigates the secret lives of animals from the past, as told in the fossil record. 2026-08-07 Part 3/4. David Attenborough uncovers dinosaur bones in the Sahara desert and visits the biggest, most spectacular dinosaur displays in the world. 2026-08-07 Part 4/4. David Attenborough uncovers bizarre creatures of the earliest seas, tiny horses the size of spaniels and an animal that's half bird and half reptile - the rarest of them all. 2026-08-07 Exploring fresh archaeological excavations that shed new light on the lives of those who worked tirelessly on the pyramids. 2026-08-07 Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He begins by going back 2,000 years to explore how archaeology began by trying to prove a biblical truth - a quest that soon got archaeologists into dangerous water. 2026-08-07 Archaeologist Richard Miles shows how discoveries in the 18th and 19th centuries overturned ideas of when and where civilisation began, as empires competed to 'own' the past. 2026-08-07 Richard Miles shows how 20th-century attention turned from civilisation and kings to the search for the common man against a background of science and competing political ideologies. 2026-08-07 Dan meets the mummies of Tutankhamun's parents at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and discovers that they were actually brother and sister. CT scans reveal how this incestuous relationship could have been responsible for Tutankhamun's poor health. Raksha heads underground to a rare tomb excavation in the Valley of the Kings which has never been seen before on television. 2026-08-07 Picking up the story in 1323BC, the pharaoh sustains the injury that would eventually kill him. On a scan of Tutankhamun's skeleton, Dan sees a break to his thigh bone which could have been a battle injury. John visits Howard Carter's house and probes the 1920s craze of `Tutmania', when the Western world went crazy for all things Egyptian. 2026-08-07 Dan discovers a series of curious anomalies in Tutankhamun's burial, and spots that the faces on his coffins and canopic jars do not match that of the famous golden mask. Raksha looks at Seti's tomb, which shows how low quality and hurried Tutankhamun's was in comparison. John learns how to dance like an Egyptian at a funeral, and investigates the truth of the `Curse of Tutankhamun'. 2026-08-07 Scientists investigate the meteorite impact responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs. According to a theory, the event was triggered by a comet hitting the present-day Gulf of Mexico. 2026-08-07 Historian Dr Michael Scott unlocks the secrets of a mysterious tomb containing over 2,000 bodies unearthed within one of the catacombs of Rome. The bodies are found to have been wrapped in elaborate plaster and cloth shrouds, liberally sprinkled with ground up amber. Working with an international team of archaeologists, Scott gathers clues to identify who these men and women were and how they died 2026-08-07 Part 1/4. David Attenborough shows us how ancient creatures have come to be preserved as fossils and how those fossils can shed light on characteristics of these creatures' lives, and even their death. 2026-08-07 Part 2/4. Could pterodactyls fly? And why did trilobites have such good eyes? David Attenborough investigates the secret lives of animals from the past, as told in the fossil record. 2026-08-07 Part 3/4. David Attenborough uncovers dinosaur bones in the Sahara desert and visits the biggest, most spectacular dinosaur displays in the world. 2026-08-07 Part 4/4. David Attenborough uncovers bizarre creatures of the earliest seas, tiny horses the size of spaniels and an animal that's half bird and half reptile - the rarest of them all. 2026-08-07