Mysteries of the Ancient Dead

Ancient Moche burial mounds hint at an advanced civilization. The skeletons of ancient boats protrude from the sands, who were their mummified passengers? Archaeologists uncover men, women, and children buried in their beds all across Europe.

On the island of Alor, the first complete child burial from the Holocene is an archaeological anomaly. Unusual funerary frescoes defy Greek convention. Hopewell burial mounds reveal an ancient culture with grasp on science and engineering.

From a dizzying burial tradition found on the cliffs of the Cordillera Mountain range, to Kom El Shoqafa, a catacomb network, and Scythian burial mounds all over the Eurasian Steppe, what do burial practices reveal about death through the ages?  

Expansive cities are carved into limestone by the Lycians to house their dead. For the Lhop, the transition between life and death is a perilous path. As the age of the pyramid winds down in Egypt, the Nubians build pyramids of their own.  

Shattered skulls found suggest a violence but also reverence for the deceased. From the ruins of an iconic temple, the remains of Aztec human sacrifices provide new insights. A kiln is unearthed, bearing the bodies of two mysterious women.  

In caves on the Canary Islands, mummies offer a window into a lost civilization. Haniwa clay figures connect the earthly to the otherworldly in a Japanese tomb. Under Stonehenge, cremated remains challenge theories about the site's purpose. 

To ensure body and spirit remain everlasting, the ancient Egyptians developed elaborate rituals, massive tombs and even magic incantations to entomb their remains.

A mysterious well reveals a strange ritual in ancient Persia; archaeologists in Mongolia uncover a 2000-year-old textile that holds the key to the mystery of an elixir.

Explorers uncover one of the largest Incan burial sites at Ancon on the Peruvian coast. It may be proof that the Chacoans were a matriarchal society.

In 1928, an earthquake shift uncovers a row of painted warriors: seven-foot statues encasing mummies from an ancient civilisation and curious bone arrangements in Winterborne.

The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, rests in a tomb so large that the dig could last a century; researchers discover that the oldest of the Chinchorro mummies are children.

Researchers find new evidence at the sacrificial alter El Castillo that could shed light on the Maya.