Unearthing Mysteries: The Complete Series 1-8

All 31 episodes of the archaeological series investigating the mysteries and secrets of the past

Much of human history is hidden from us, buried deep under our feet. Layered beneath the landscape are the unknown stories of ancient peoples and civilizations, written in bones and long-lost artefacts, waiting to be revealed and deciphered. Between 1999 and 2006, over eight radio series, renowned author and broadcaster Aubrey Manning followed geological and archaeological clues in an attempt to unravel some of these mysteries – from the Lost Map of London and the Amber Room to the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Antikythera Mechanism and the Land of Punt. This landmark radio series, lost for years, can now be listened to again.

Journeying around the British Isles and worldwide, he visits sites including tombs, tunnels and temples, setting out to uncover the secrets that lie within them. Could ‘KV 55’ in the Valley of the Kings be the final resting place of the great Pharaoh Akhenaten? What can the ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland tell us about how homo sapiens succeeded Neanderthals? Did the Saxons make top-notch steel 1,000 years before the Industrial Revolution? And was a swamp in the South Anatolian plain the unlikely location for the world’s first city?

These and other burning questions are tackled by Manning, with erudite input from a host of expert researchers, historians, scientists and archaeologists. His investigations take in a Roman drinking cult; a Bronze Age archer dubbed the ‘King of Stonehenge’; Boudica’s forgotten husband, Prasutagus; the tale of a saint, severed hands and a sword in the stone – and the remarkable discovery of British prehistoric cave art...

Production credits

Presented by Aubrey Manning and Brian Moffat (Series 1, Episode 4)

Produced by Dave Sharp, Sue Broom, Pam Rutherford, Helen Sharp and Martin Redfern

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

Series 1 (first broadcast 13 July-3 August 1999)

Valley of the Kings

Glozel

Lost Map of London

Soutra

Series 2 (first broadcast 7-28 November 2000)

Sounds of the Stone Age

The Amber Room

The Drinking Cult

The Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria

Series 3 (first broadcast 30 October – 20 November 2001)

The ''Red Lady'' of Paviland

London''s Mediaeval Medicine

Saxon Steel

San Galgano and the Sword in the Stone

Series 4 (first broadcast 5-26 November 2002)

Taming the Horse

Catal Huyuk

The Amesbury Archer

Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

Series 5 (first broadcast 5-26 August 2003)

Lynford Neanderthals

Ancient Egyptian Illnesses

Tri Radial Cairns

Great Orme Mine

Series 6 (first broadcast 7-28 December 2004)

The Land of Punt

Wharram Percy

British Cave Art

Mound Builders

Series 7 (first broadcast 20 December 2005-17 January 2006)

The Tunnellers of the First World War

The Romans in India

Ben Lawers and Loch Tay

The First Americans

Series 8 (first broadcast 12-26 December 2006)

The Antikythera Mechanism

First Residents of Britain

Prasutagus, husband of Boudicca

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