Documentary films & series
Our analyses and companions to the great documentaries on prehistory and antiquity: what science actually says, with sources.
Hidden in the valley of the Anglin river lies one of the most spectacular sculpted friezes of the Palaeolithic. Some 14,000 years ago, Magdalenian artists carved bison, horses, and human figures into limestone with breathtaking mastery.
Watch the documentary →The "Sistine Chapel of prehistory" is no longer where art was invented. Patrick Boucheron of the College de France revisits Lascaux in this short ARTE documentary to question our relationship with prehistoric time and the invention of images.
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 →Thirty-seven metres underwater near Marseille, Cosquer cave hides 27,000 years of prehistoric art: horses, aurochs and gréât auks painted by Homo sapiens deeply connected to thé coastal world. This documentary explores thé maritime roots of our species, from thé shell-adorned Lady of Cavillon to thé whales of prehistoric Atlantic Europe, and asks what thé rising seas have swallowed of our past.
Watch the documentary →In thé Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia, close to one million petroglyphs engraved over 50,000 years form thé world's largest ensemble of engraved rock art. This SLICE HISTOIRE documentary explores this unique Aboriginal héritage and thé threat posed by adjacent industrial installations.
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.
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