This is a space to discuss and learn about ancient archaeology, history, philosophy, etc.
Ancient History Videos/Podcasts
With the advent of AI slop videos the ancient history space has been hit especially hard with generated conspiracy videos making it difficult to find informative and well sourced information. This section is intended to provide a human curated list of informative podcasts and video documentaries on topics relating to ancient history. This list is in its infancy and I will add more as I have time. Feel free to suggest a documentary or history creator you feel belongs here.
Traditional Documentaries/Doc Series'
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a documentary film by Werner Herzog about the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, which contains some of the oldest human-painted images yet discovered. Some of them were crafted around 32,000 years ago.
Justwatch
Available on Look movie 2 (dot) to
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Lost Kingdoms of Africa (2010)
Explores the pre-colonial history of Africa. The series is narrated by Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford.
Justwatch
BBC
Available on Look movie 2 (dot) to
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lost Kingdoms of Central America (2014)
Explores the pre-colonial history of Central America. The series is narrated by Jago Cooper and Álvaro Marenco.
Internet Archive
BBC
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Lost Kingdoms of South America
Explores the pre-colonial history of South America. The series is narrated by Jago Cooper.
BBC
Youtube
(Ep 1)
(Ep 2)
(Ep 3)
(Ep 4)
Justwatch
Youtube Channels
History With Cy
Cy does both short (~15min) videos and long-form documentary videos covering the ancient world. He has dynasty by dynasty coverage of ancient Egypt, lots of coverage of the Persian Empire, lots of coverage of ancient Greece, and a few great videos on the Indus Valley. I’m not sure what Cy’s formal education is but he clearly does detailed work. He lists the sources he relies on under each video. His video animation is a bit rudimentary but it gets the job done.
He also has some podcasts.
Website
Youtube
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Fall of Civilizations
Paul Cooper writes and produces a podcast and video documentary series covering ancient civilizations. His documentaries are all long (1-6 hours), atmospheric, engaging, and well informed. The podcast is the same content but without visuals. He holds a PhD in the cultural and literary significance of ruins.
website
Youtube
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Historia Civilis
HC covers the ancient world through videos with a special focus on Roman history. His videos tend to be a bit shorter (10-20 min) though he has a handful around an hour. He lists the sources he relies on under each video. His video animation is a bit rudimentary but it gets the job done.
Website
Youtube
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History Time
History Time is written and produced by Pete Kelly. Pete does long-form (1-4 hours) video documentaries on ancient civilizations. He has some great coverage of the ancient Americas (check out the this one on the Amazon). He has a lot of coverage on the Vikings. He has an excellent video on Doggerland. Stuff on Rome, Greece, the medievals, myths…he casts a wide net.
Website
Youtube
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The Entire History of the Earth
Co-created by Pete Kelly, his brother David, and Dr. Leila Battison, this video documentary series delves into geological research about the deep past including the formation of the earth, formation of life, etc. Super intriguing standpoint to consider our planet from.
Dr. Battison Website
Pete Kelly Website
Youtube