Naked Archaeology, from the Naked Scientists
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Naked Archaeology, from the Naked Scientists
Where did the Nazca Lines come from? Who built Stonehenge, and what secrets lie concealed within Egypt's pyramids? To find out, join the Naked Archaeologists as they undress the past...
Recent Episodes
35 episodes
Landscapes: Drainage, Plants and Palaces
We're back! And this month we start by taking a tour of the terribly glamorous ditches in East Anglia. Yes, the whole landscape is one giant piece of...
Annual Round-Up of Archaeology
This month we return to some of the moist enjoyable archaeological interviews recorded this year. There's everything from alien donkeys, to Pompeiia...
Bayesian Prehistory, Surface Metals and Sea Defenses
This month: how a neat piece of statistical analysis has led to the construction of a prehistoric history; how satellites have revealed some hidden...
Detailed Science of Dating, Data and Ceramics
This month: the most recent Neanderthals in the Caucasus, the science of ceramic petrology, the truth about 'The Anthropocene' and Syrian hunting trap...
Dam Busting, Ancient Archaeologists and Iron Age Fort Raids
Researchers re-create the experiments carried out by Barnes Wallis on the bouncing bomb; we discuss the Texan pre-Clovis finds; the Nichoria bone earn...
Warrior Art, Fire and Throwing Spears
This month: Aegean warriors in art; the most genetically diverse people in the world; prehistoric Californian seafarers; Neanderthals building fires;...
Egyptian Looting, Behavioural Variability and Pollen
This month: current events in Egypt affecting ancient artefacts; Britons fashioning cups from skulls; games played in the Indus; and when humans behav...
First Farmer DNA, Crystals and Chessmen
This month's divested archaeology consists of the mitochondrial DNA of Europe's first farmers; how to identify plaster using infrared light; who the D...
Roman bodies, site survival and collapse
This month: why a Roman horse became a donkey; how part of Pompeii recently collapsed; how a Roman village survived underneath London; and what obesit...
Hard-to-Reach Heritage: Israel and Peru
We make our way to some of the least accessible bits of heritage this month: Naked Scientist Laura Soul treks to Machu Picchu and we hear about the fe...
Maya burial and abandonment
This month we explore the dramatic burial of an El Zotz Maya king; he was seemingly interred with the remains of six sacrificed children. Also under t...
Roman food: before and after
What did the Romans eat at their feasts? What came out the other end afterwards? This month we explore the toilets of Pompeii and the kinds of food ea...
Human remains and genetic legacies
Human remains are our main topic of interest in this month's Naked Archaeology. Diana and Duncan explore the nature of Bronze Age cremations, the repa...
Southeast Asia: Hobbits and Niah Caves
The diminutive, one-time inhabitants of Flores are probably the most famous early humans from this area of the world but where does H. floresiensis fi...
Australian Archaeology and Rabbit Warrens
This month on Naked Archaeology: when and how did the first humans make it to Australia? We unearth the evidence from archaeology and genetics. Also t...
Changing sea levels and thin sections
This month on Naked Archaeology: the discovery of a possible link between genus Homo and Australopithecus - Aus. sediba; we find out how people first...
First cities and first writing: Mesopotamia
How is it that the first farms, cities and writing all originated in Mesopotamia, now Iraq? We explore the so-called 'fertile crescent' and fanatical...
Illicit Antiquities: Repatriation and Curating
This month we divest the darker world of black market archaeology. We find out how illicit antiquities can be tracked down after being lost for decade...
Make-up, Cleopatra and Temples
Neanderthals wore make-up too! We explore the cosmetics worn by early humans and Egyptians. Naked Archaeology this month also explores the discovery o...
Troy, Ithaca and Iceland
This month in divested archaeology we cover the archaeology that just happened to turn up in the legends of Homer. We find out about the man who disco...
Mary Rose, Underwater Landscapes and Metal Hunting
This month's edition of Naked Archaeology hails from Poseidon's Realm: we find out how synchrotrons can help in the preservation of the famous raised...
Nero, Hoards and Aberdeen Ships
This month has seen an archaeological spoil heap the size of Nero's party leftovers. And it's been quite a month for Roman archaeologists who've just...
Hadrian's Timber Wall, Shell Beads and Brucellosis
We find out how the Romans got to grips with building a 73.5 mile-long wall, why humans were bejewelled 82,000 years ago and how a disease called bruc...
Lost Legends: Altinum, Herod's Tomb and the HMS Diana
Sometimes archaeologists know there's a site worth digging but don't quite know where to find it! We join the search for the original city of Venice,...
Hunting, Submerged Traps and Flutes
We dive into the underwater traps at Lake Huron, explore the origins of hunting and play a tune on the world's oldest flute. Plus, in Backyard Archaeo...
Naked Special: 800th Anniversary Dig
2009 is The University of Cambridge's 800th birthday and what better way to celebrate than by digging an archaeological trench? We take a trip to the...
Dating, Pottery and Norway
We strip down the science of dating this month by taking a look at rehydroxylation. We unearth some of the oldest pottery in the world, find out why M...
Technology - Iron, Glass and Slag
Archaeology bared this month includes the 'long sleep' of human innovation, a technological accomplishment in the form of a 2000 year-old millefiori b...
The Mediterranean and the Romans
This month we explore the mysterious anchors buried off the shores of Cyprus, the unusual burial practices in Malta and the highly decorative shipshed...
Horses, battleships and pillboxes
This month we explore the archaeology of war. We explore the earliest-known domestication of horses, find out about an armed Elizabethan privateer shi...
Battles, Chocolate and Brothels
The sins of the past are uncovered in this month's Naked Archaeology, including chemical warfare; consuming desires for chocolate and finding the hidd...
Oetzi, American migrations and animal bones
The mitochondrial story of tzi, or the Tyrolean iceman, is unearthed in this month's Naked Archaeology. Also, how the Americas were populated and the...
TB, Underwater Archaeology and the Shaman
The tale of TB's earliest victims, the science of archaeology underwater and the first shamanic burial all go under the trowel in this month's Naked A...
Egyptian Mummified Foetuses, the First Crops and Solomon's Mines
Mummified foetuses found in Tutankhamun's tomb go under the genetic spotlight to find out who they were and where they came from, we dig up the histor...
The Vanishing Nasca, Repairing Pompeii and Peruvian Water-works
Why cutting down a precious tree species brought the Nasca people to their knees, how Pompeii is receiving a makeover, a new source of Neanderthal fli...