Secrets of the Dead
Mysteries involving notable historical events, people and locations are scientifically examined.
Genre: Documentary, History, War
Cast:Liev Schreiber , Jay O. Sanders , Salima Ikram , Andrew Lambert , Addison Bain , Roy Scheider , Piers Gibbon , Chris Naunton , Michael Brown , Osamu Tagaya , Yasmin El Shazly , Charles Nicholl , Martin Gilbert , Denise Schaan , Anthony D. Call , Dominic Powlesland , Lindsey Fitzharris , Susan Solomon-Shapiro
S1.E1 ∙ Catastrophe! Part 1: The Day the Sun Went Out
Evidence leading to the conclusion that a major worldwide catastrophe occurred just prior to the start of the Dark Ages in Europe is reviewed.
S1.E2 ∙ Catastrophe! Part 2: How the World Changed
Could a violent volcanic eruption of Krakatoa be responsible for the climatic cataclysm that hit Earth in 535 A.D. causing two years of darkness, famine, drought and disease, and did this lead to emergence of new nations and religions?
S1.E3 ∙ The Lost Vikings
With the help of ever advanced technologies, scientists and researchers seek out and explore possible causes for the apparent and almost sudden and inexplicable disappearance of the Vikings of Greenland.
S1.E4 ∙ What Happened to the Hindenburg?
In 1937, dirigible LZ 129 Hindenburg, pride of the Third Reich, caught fire over Lakehurst, NJ and crashed. NASA scientist Addison Bain reexamines what may have been the cause of one of the most famous disasters of the 20th century.
S1.E5 ∙ Cannibalism in the Canyon
Anasazi were a Native American tribe that lived in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Scientists investigate if the newly discovered Anasazi remains in Chaco Canyon, NM imply that cannibalism may have been a part of their culture.
S2.E1 ∙ The Witches Curse
Historical accounts of witchcraft are re-examined in the light of modern forensics. Scientific theories are advanced to explain the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. Could a poisonous fungus be responsible?
S2.E2 ∙ Murder at Stonehenge
Archaeologist Mike Pitts investigates the cause of death of a person, whose 3,000-year-old remains were found in a shallow grave at Stonehenge.
S2.E3 ∙ Death at Jamestown
Scientists investigate what led to the demise of the British colony of Jamestown, VA around 1610. Were the starvation and outbreaks they faced caused by a string of unfortunate events or did Spain have something to do with it as well?
S2.E4 ∙ Day of the Zulu
The battlefield and weapons of the famous Battle of Isandlwana are examined to determined what really happened on 22 January 1879 when the Anglo-Zulu War began with the forces of Zulu Kingdom beating the unstoppable British Empire.
S2.E5 ∙ Tomb of Christ
Researchers Martin Biddle and his wife Birthe investigate whether or not the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem holds the tomb of the Jesus of Nazareth.
S2.E6 ∙ The Syphilis Enigma
Where did syphilis actually come from? An old theory suggests that indigenous people of South America may have given it to the first European colonists who followed Columbus, but is there another explanation?
S3.E1 ∙ Search for the First Human
Could fossilized remains discovered in Kenya in 2000 belong to the oldest direct human ancestor?
S3.E2 ∙ The Mystery of the Black Death
Geneticist Steven O'Brien investigates what made the inhabitants of a small English town immune to the black plague that raged throughout Europe during the dark ages.
S3.E3 ∙ Titanic's Ghosts
In the aftermath of the Titanic, Canadian rescue ships recovered 328 bodies and buried dozens in unmarked graves. Today, scientific breakthroughs may help 3 families of missing passengers learn the true fate of their relatives.
S3.E4 ∙ The Great Fire of Rome
Secrets of the Dead examines the 64 AD fire of Rome in an effort to determine if it was caused by Nero as reported by Tacitus, Christians as Nero contended or by accident. The program reviews recently uncovered forensic evidence, the historic record and motivations of the suspects.
S3.E5 ∙ Tragedy at the Pole
Scientist Susan Solomon reconstructs the perilous journey of the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition led by the British explorer Robert F. Scott, who in 1912 tried to reach the South Pole first.
S3.E6 ∙ Bombing Nazi Dams
While working to aid Britain's military efforts Wallis toyed with a problem the British military had largely considered unsolvable -- how to destroy the Nazis' most important hydroelectric dams.
S4.E1 ∙ Bridge on the River Kwai
As early as 1939, the Japanese had drawn up plans to build the railway, which was to provide a supply line capable of transporting 3,000 tons of supplies per day to support their front-line troops in Burma.
S4.E2 ∙ Killer Flu
Scientists investigate the Spanish Flu, an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza that caused the 1918 flu pandemic which killed almost 100 million people around the world.
S4.E3 ∙ Shroud of Christ
Scientist investigate the Turin Shroud, a linen cloth that bears the image of a man who some believe to be the Jesus of Nazareth. Some also believe that the cloth is actually the burial shroud he was wrapped in after the crucifixion.
S4.E4 ∙ D-Day
In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, SECRETS OF THE DEAD tells the story of how it all came together, and shows step by step how the Allies achieved victory on June 6, 1944. The film calls upon the testimony of and includes spectacular dramatic reconstructions and incorporates arresting 16mm archive footage that brings the panic and terror of D-Day to the fore. All of these elements combine to create a definitive and dramatic account of what really happened.
S4.E5 ∙ Amazon Warrior Women
An American and a Russian archaeologists work over a period of ten years to dig out and positively identify the remains of warrior women of probable Scythian origin, and further determine that their bone DNA analysis are an exact match of contemporary Mongolian tribe women.
S5.E1 ∙ The Hunt for Nazi Scientists
World War 2 offered few spoils for the victors. But the Nazi nuclear and aeronautical scientists were a well recognized prize that could have geopolitical implications in the post war world. The desperate efforts of Russians and Allies to capture the scientists, their equipment and creations are described.
S5.E2 ∙ Gangland Graveyard
In 1981, Three Mafia captains were murdered by Massino in a power play for control of the Bananno family. Over the next 20 years the FBI would use undercover testimony and accounting forensics to eventually topple Massino's Mafia career.
S5.E3 ∙ Voyage of the Courtesans
The story of Australia's founding mothers and their bawdy journey to a new land as convicts on a floating brothel. Female convicts set up a brothel for sailors on a ship sailing from London to Australia in 1789.
S5.E4 ∙ The Sinking of the Andrea Doria
The sinking of the Italian luxurious cruiser Andrea Doria after a collision with a Swedish ship in 1956 is covered. The official cause of the accident was never disclosed. The wreck is so deep, some divers died trying to reach it.
S5.E5 ∙ Umbrella Assassin
The mysteries behind the apparent Cold War murder of political dissident and author, Georgi Markov, a vocal anti-communist Bulgarian defector assassinated in London in 1979, are revealed.
S6.E1 ∙ Dogfight Over Guadalcanal
Barrett Tillman, an author and historian who appears in the film "Dogfight Over Guadalcanal," discusses the art of the dogfight and the Guadalcanal campaign.
S6.E2 ∙ Battle for the Bible
Three men of the Middle Ages dare to circulate English-language translations of the Bible and pay dearly for their heresy.
S6.E3 ∙ Herculaneum Uncovered
Pompeii was not the only town buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Scientists explore Herculaneum, the biggest of the cities that were lost in this catastrophe.
S6.E4 ∙ Headless Romans
What happened to the 30 Romans whose decapitated bodies were found buried in York, the town from which in the 3rd century A.D. the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta led a brutal campaign against the Scots.
S6.E5 ∙ Irish Escape
In 1876, a group of Irish rebels traveled on a three-masted whaling bark called Catalpa from Massachusetts to the British penal colony of Western Australia to aid in the escape of six Irish political prisoners.
S7.E1 ∙ Aztec Massacre
A grisly discovery of more than 400 mutilated bodies in Mexico is turning history on its head. Aztec Massacre paints a new picture of the violent relations between the Aztecs and the Conquistadors and rewrites much of what we thought we knew about the Aztec civilization.
S7.E2 ∙ Escape from Auschwitz
Follow the route used by Vrba and Wetzler in their "great feat of escapology" when fleeing the Auschwitz death camps.
S8.E1 ∙ Doping for Gold
The story of the secret East German sports doping program of the 1970s and 80s, which won Gold Medals for the communist state at the expense of its athletes' health - especially the women.
S8.E2 ∙ Sinking Atlantis
Scientists of various disciplines uncover what really happened to the Minoans on the Island of Crete and find strong evidence of a disaster that correlates with Atlantis's fabled demise.
S8.E3 ∙ Executed in Error
The forensic evidence that lead to the conviction and execution of Dr. Hawley Crippen for the murder of his wife in 1910 is re-examined with modern methods resulting in some surprising new conclusions.
S8.E4 ∙ Blackbeard's Lost Ship
Blackbeard's career in piracy is described in conjunction with the salvage of a ship thought to be Blackbeard's flag ship.
S9.E1 ∙ Michelangelo Revealed
Art historian Antonio Forcellino investigates whether Michelangelo was part of the Spirituali, an influential theological group within the Catholic church that tried to bring reforms to the Vatican and avoid the war with the Protestants.
S9.E2 ∙ Airmen and the Headhunters
In 1944, a U.S. bomber was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, and the crew ejected and parachuted into the wilderness. They were taken in and protected by members of the Dayak tribe - the "wild men of Borneo".
S9.E3 ∙ Mumbai Massacre
Accounts of the survivors of the indiscriminate terrorist massacres in Mumbai by Islamic Extremests in November 2008 and how the news media aided the terrorist by giving away the hiding places of the soon to be victims.
S9.E4 ∙ Japanese SuperSub
During World War 2, Japan developed a super-submarine capable of launching bomber aircraft as a strategic weapon to carry the conflict to the United States mainland. But in the rapidly changing Pacific Theater, one intended mission after another becomes obsolete before the submarines can be deployed.
S9.E5 ∙ Churchill's Deadly Decision
An examination of Winston Churchill's ordering of Operation Catapult to both neutralize the German captured French Navy and impress the US government of British determination.
S9.E6 ∙ Deadliest Battle
Previously secret Soviet accounts of the Soviet resistance to Germany's Operation Blue in 1942 overturn some established assumptions about the course of the battles and also explain the surprising outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad.
S10.E3 ∙ The Silver Pharaoh
Secrets of the Dead examines the the tomb of Psusennes I an Egyptian Pharaoh of the Intermediate Period whose burial place was discovered shortly before World War II.
S10.E4 ∙ Slave Ship Mutiny
The slave ship Meermin set sail from Madagascar for South Africa in 1766, but would never make it to Cape Town, the slaves mutinied and managed to overpower the Dutch crew, ordering the ship be sailed back to Madagascar and freedom.
S11.E1 ∙ Lost Ships of Rome
Secrets of the Dead follows a group of maritime archaeologists as they examine several Roman shipwrecks near the island of Ventotene.
S11.E2 ∙ Lost in the Amazon
What happened to the British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who went missing in the Amazon jungle in 1925 along with his son while searching for what he, due to his theosophical beliefs, believed to be a mythical lost city he called "Z".
S11.E3 ∙ China's Terracotta Warriors
Secrets of the Dead looks at the construction and history of the Terracotta Warriors who were built to guard the tomb of the first emperor of China.
S11.E4 ∙ The World's Biggest Bomb
Secrets of the Dead chronicle's the development of more and more powerful nuclear weapons through with the surprises and miscalculations.
S12.E1 ∙ The Man Who Saved the World
How, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a Soviet submarine fleet commander and K-19 survivor, Vasili Arkhipov, kept his cool under enormous pressure and prevented his men from starting WWIII after being surrounded by the US fleet.
S12.E2 ∙ Bugging Hitler's Soldiers
An examination of British Intelligence's World War II systematic eavesdropping on German prisoners of war.
S12.E3 ∙ Death on the Railroad
Has the 150-year-old mystery behind the deaths of 57 Irish immigrants who came to Pennsylvania to work on the railroad finally been resolved?
S12.E4 ∙ Cavemen Cold Case
Scientists investigate the recently found 49,000 year-old remains of a group of Neanderthals in El Sidron, Spain. Could they have been victims of cannibalism?
S12.E5 ∙ Ultimate Tut
Scientists investigate pharaoh Tutankhamun. Was his tomb originally his and why hasn't it been raided like the other pharaoh tombs? Also, how did he die, why was his burial so rushed and why was he erased from history by his successors?
S12.E6 ∙ Bones of the Buddha
in India in 1898, a British foreman called Willie Peppe supposedly found a jar that contained the remains of Gautama Buddha himself. Historian Charles Allen investigates this claim.
S13.E1 ∙ JFK: One PM Central Standard Time
How the JFK assassination was reported by journalists on the scene in Dallas and Walter Cronkite, who anchored CBS News coverage from New York. Included. The recollections of Dan Rather , Bob Schaeffer, Marvin Lamb. Narrated by George Clooney.
S13.E2 ∙ The Lost Diary of Dr. Livingstone
On his third and final journey to Africa, David Livingstone, one of the greatest explorers in history, kept a diary that's only now being deciphered. It shines a new light on the horrors of slave trade in Africa, and Livingstone himself.
S13.E3 ∙ Carthage's Lost Warriors
Did Iberian Celts reach Brazil 1500 years before Columbus by joining the fleet of refugees from defeated Carthage in search of a new home like Peruvian Andes, where a strange tribe of "white Indians" known as the Chachapoya later lived?
S13.E4 ∙ The Lost Gardens of Babylon
Doctor Stephanie Dalley who dedicated her career to deciphering the ancient cuneiform texts that may contain the actual location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon travels to war-torn Iraq to find the place where they once stood.
S13.E5 ∙ The Mona Lisa Mystery
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.
S13.E6 ∙ Resurrecting Richard III
Scientists investigate whether Richard III was the villain Shakespeare describes in his plays or a warrior king who fell victim to a smear campaign propagated by his enemies after his ultimate defeat at Bosworth Field in 1485.
S14.E1 ∙ Ben Franklin's Bones
Why were skeletons found in the basement of Ben Franklin's home in England? Scientists investigate the people who lived at the house at the time, including a professor of medicine.
S14.E2 ∙ The Real Trojan Horse
Piecing together evidence from digs and using Homer's poem The Iliad, archaeologists and engineers attempt to prove or disprove the myth of the Trojan Horse.
S15.E1 ∙ Vampire Legend
Information gathered about aberrant, unorthodox burial practices from medieval times shed some light on how today's myths about vampires may have started.
S15.E2 ∙ Jamestown's Dark Winter
Forensic anthropologists investigate the recently found remains of a young girl in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia, which may prove the rumors of cannibalism in the colony during the time of great hunger around 1610.
S15.E3 ∙ The Alcatraz Escape
Scientists investigate the case of bank robbers, Frank Morris and Clarence and John Anglin, who in 1962 tried to escape from Alcatraz only to vanish in the stormy waters surrounding the prison island. Could they have survived?
S15.E4 ∙ Cleopatra's Lost Tomb
Dr. Kathleen Martinez searches for Cleopatra's lost tomb in a 35-meter deep underground shaft within a temple complex dating from the time of Cleopatra that's dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Osiris and his wife the goddess Isis.
S15.E5 ∙ Teotihuacan's Lost Kings
Despite many decades of research, not much is known about the long-lost Teotihuacán society. But when archaeologists enter the newly discovered burial chambers, they find the clues that may finally tell us who these mysterious people were.
S15.E6 ∙ Graveyard of the Giant Beasts
A mining operation in Cerrejon, Northern Colombia, opened a window onto a previously unknown period of the earth's history and a world teeming with giant creatures emerged.
S16.E1 ∙ After Stonehenge
Scientists investigate the charred remains of a 3,000 years old English settlement located in a quarry. Is this the first solid evidence of a booming town from a time when this part of Europe didn't have any developed townships.
S16.E2 ∙ Van Gogh's Ear
Scientists investigate what happened on the night of Dec. 23, 1888, when in Arles, France Vincent van Gogh cut his ear off.
S16.E3 ∙ Nero's Sunken City
Baiae was a favorite vacation spot for ancient Rome's elite including emperors like Nero. Not unlike Pompeii, everything was allowed there. Then one day, this coastal town sank into the sea. Today, scientists slowly uncover its secrets.
S16.E4 ∙ Leonardo: The Man Who Saved Science
Did Leonardo da Vinci come up with all of his ideas and inventions by himself or did he also borrow some of them from ancient scientists including those who lived 1,700 years before him.
S16.E6 ∙ Secrets of Spanish Florida
Long before the British invasion of America the Spanish had begun to settle in Florida. The land would become a multiracial community and its little known but colorful history would change the course of European and American history.
S17.E1 ∙ Scanning the Pyramids
Scientists perform a non-invasive internal scan of the Great Pyramid of Giza using radiation no one can see and most have never heard of. They find there's something big and as yet undiscovered inside.
S17.E2 ∙ Hannibal in the Alps
Explorers, archaeologists and scientists combine technology and ancient texts to prove that Hannibal's army crossed the Alps to launch an attack on Rome.
S17.E3 ∙ The Woman in the Iron Coffin
Construction workers unearth the body of an African American woman in Queens, New York. NYPD detectives assume that she had been dead for just a few days, but this is far from the truth.
S17.E4 ∙ The Nero Files
Take a closer look at the life and legend of Nero, the infamous Roman emperor, as a forensic profiler attempts to find out what history may have gotten wrong about his alleged tyranny.
S17.E5 ∙ King Arthur's Lost Kingdom
Uncover new archaeological evidence rewriting our understanding of the Dark Ages in 5th- and 6th-century Britain that might also explain the legend of King Arthur.
S17.E7 ∙ World War Speed
Historian James Holland explores how amphetamine use affected the course of World War II.
S18.E1 ∙ Galileo's Moon
Using observations of the Earth's moons and Jupiter's moons, Galileo's "Sidereus Nuncius" proves Earth is not the center of the universe.
S18.E2 ∙ Bombing Auschwitz
Join historians, survivors and experts as they consider one of the great moral dilemmas of the 20th century. Should the Allies have risked killing Auschwitz prisoners and bombed the camp to stop future atrocities?
S18.E3 ∙ Building Notre Dame
Follow an investigation into the centuries-long construction of Notre Dame de Paris, uncovering the vast architectural, technical, and human challenges experienced throughout the history of one of the world's most celebrated buildings.
S18.E4 ∙ Viking Warrior Queen
Swedish archaeologists prove through a DNA study that remains found in the burial chamber of a Viking warrior in 1878 are that of a woman -- not a man.
S18.E5 ∙ Abandoning the Titanic
Investigators search for the identity of the captain of a "mystery ship" that turned away from Titanic the night it sank in 1912.
S18.E6 ∙ Gangster's Gold
Three groups of treasure hunters search for the gold fortune buried somewhere in New York by gangster Dutch Schultz in 1935.
S19.E1 ∙ Magellan's Crossing
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set sail to gain control of the global spice trade, but end up becoming the first to circumnavigate the earth.
S19.E2 ∙ Lady Sapiens
Scientific investigations from around the world help piece together the untold story of prehistoric women.
S19.E3 ∙ The First Circle of Stonehenge
An archaeological quest reveals the oldest stones of Stonehenge originally belonged to an earlier sacred site -- a stone circle built on a remote hillside in west Wales.
S19.E4 ∙ Hindenburg's Fatal Flaws
A fresh look at the science and conditions surrounding the Hindenburg explosion reveals ten particular flaws that directly led to the infamous disaster in 1937.
S19.E5 ∙ A Samurai in the Vatican
Japanese samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga and the Franciscan monk Luis Sotelo lead an expedition to open a new sea route in 1613.
S19.E6 ∙ The Caravaggio Heist
The Reverand Marius Zerafa sets off on a quest to recover a piece by Italian master Caravaggio after it is stolen from a cathedral in 1984.
S20.E1 ∙ Archaeology at Althorp
A team of British archaeologists search Althorp, the Spencer family estate, for a medieval village but find evidence of something far older.
S20.E2 ∙ Last Days of Pompeii
What were the last days in Pompeii like before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago?
S20.E3 ∙ The End of the Romans
What if climate change and pandemics caused the decline of the Roman Empire?
S20.E4 ∙ Decoding Hieroglyphics
How ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics were first translated 200 years ago and the archaeological work being done in Egypt to understand one of the most important scribes.
S20.E5 ∙ Hidden in the Amazon
Recent discoveries, including funerary urns with highly decorative patterns, and technological advances like the remote sensor system known as LiDAR, are shedding new light on our understanding of pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon.
