Documentary films & series
Our analyses and companions to the great documentaries on prehistory and antiquity: what science actually says, with sources.
Beneath the waters of Alexandria's bay lie the remains of the Ptolemaic royal palace, the lighthouse foundations, and colossal statues. Underwater …
Watch the documentary →At Kromdraai in South Africa, palaeoanthropologist Jose Braga unearthed two children aged 2.5 million years side by side: one Homo, one Paranthropu…
Watch the documentary →Hisarlik, Turkey: for 150 years, archaeologists have been excavating the site believed to be Homer's ancient Troy. Between myth and reality, scienc…
Watch the documentary →Beneath the frozen steppes of Mongolia and the Altai, Scythian kurgans have kept their secrets intact for over 2,500 years: tattooed mummies, ancie…
Watch the documentary →For eight years, a Franco-Saudi mission excavated Hegra (Mada'in Saleh), the ancient Nabataean capital of Arabia. Over 130 monumental tombs, a sophisticated hydraulic network, and Aramaic inscriptions reveal a crossroads city at the heart of ancient caravan routes.
Watch the documentary →Beneath the sands of Saqqara, the world's oldest royal necropolis keeps delivering: 59 sarcophagi in 2020, a gold-covered 4,400-year-old mummy, the Serapeum's underground labyrinth. Imhotep built for eternity.
Watch the documentary →Through the Dame du Cavillon, the burials of Dolni Vestonice, Sungir and the Cussac cave, this ARTE documentary (2021) reveals the unsuspected complexity of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer societies.
Watch the documentary →Paintings of extinct thylacines, mouthless Wandjina figures, 17,000-year-old Gwion Gwion: Australia holds humanity's oldest rock art tradition, spanning 50,000 years and millions of images.
Watch the documentary →Beyond its monumental palaces, Persepolis concealed an entire city: artisan quarters, cuneiform archives, royal workshops. Recent excavations reveal the true nature of the Achaemenid capital.
Watch the documentary →Thirty-seven metres underwater near Marseille, Cosquer cave hides 27,000 years of prehistoric art: horses, aurochs and great auks painted by Homo sapiens deeply connected to the coastal world. This documentary explores the maritime roots of our species, from the shell-adorned Lady of Cavillon to the whales of prehistoric Atlantic Europe, and asks what the rising seas have swallowed of our past.
Watch the documentary →A team of palaeontologists ventures into the Namibian Kalahari for Mission HON (Human Origins in Namibia), searching for limestone caves sealed for 3 to 4 million years. Following in the footsteps of Little Foot and the Australopithecines of South Africa, they develop a novel calcite-detection method to unlock the buried secrets of humanity's origins.
Watch the documentary →In the Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia, close to one million petroglyphs engraved over 50,000 years form the world's largest ensemble of engraved rock art. This SLICE HISTOIRE documentary explores this unique Aboriginal heritage and the threat posed by adjacent industrial installations.
Watch the documentary →In Brazil, within 25,000-year-old layers at Serra da Capivara, archaeologist Eric Boeda examines strange quartzite pebbles. Dating, microscopic analysis and experimental archaeology reveal tools that challenge the chronology of the peopling of the Americas.
Watch the documentary →In July 2001, Michel Brunet announced the discovery of a 7-million-year-old skull in Chad's Djurab desert. This documentary retraces the scientific adventure that redefined the origins of humanity.
Watch the documentary →A century after Howard Carter, specialists reopen the crates of Tutankhamun’s treasure for its transfer to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. This 2018 Arte documentary reveals surprising secrets about the young pharaoh and the story of the discovery itself.
Watch the documentary →In 2010, Eric Audinet and Patrick Glotin created a dizzying science mockumentary: what if an unknown branch of the genus Homo had survived to the present day, hidden deep in the forests?
Watch the documentary →Between January and February 2026, Jean-Jacques Hublin, professor at the Collège de France, delivered six lectures on the fundamental question: how and why did <em>Homo sapiens</em> replace all other human species? Available in full on YouTube, they are an exceptional resource for understanding our own evolutionary history.
Watch the documentary →Beneath the ruins of Byblos, one of the world's oldest cities, a royal Bronze Age necropolis reveals its secrets: Phoenician treasures, pharaonic gifts, and the birth of the alphabet. A dive into a vanished world.
Watch the documentary →35,000 years ago, humans anatomically identical to us ventured into the darkness of caves to paint masterpieces. Who were the Cro-Magnons, and what were they expressing on the walls of Font-de-Gaume, Altamira, and Lascaux?
Watch the documentary →Its entrance is 37 metres below the sea. Its paintings are 27,000 years old. Cosquer Cave, discovered by a diver in 1985 in the Marseille calanques, is the only known decorated cave in the world whose access is submerged, a masterpiece that rising seas threaten to engulf for ever.
Watch the documentary →Since 2019, dozens of international teams have returned to Mesopotamian sites around Mosul, inaccessible for half a century. This ARTE documentary follows their excavations and traces the history of the Sumerian and Assyrian dynasties.
Watch the documentary →From the Fertile Crescent to the first cities of Mari and Ebla, from Palmyra to Damascus: beneath Syria's sands lie the roots of civilization. A documentary, from the Neolithic revolution to living heritage.
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