Secrets of the Dead

Father Marius Zerafa, director of museums in Malta, risks his life to recover a Caravaggio masterpiece stolen from a cathedral in 1984.

Father Marius Zerafa (director of museums in Malta), the Malta Police Force, and the Armed Forces of Malta all work together to recover a priceless Caravaggio painting. Utilizing an established channel of communication with a trio of thieves, Zerafa and a detective negotiate the return of the stolen work of art.

In 1613, feudal lord Date Masamune sent a Japanese diplomatic mission to Europe to negotiate with the Pope and the King of Spain in hopes opening a new trade route. Led by samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga and Franciscan monk Luis Sotelo, the expedition spent seven years traveling one-third of the globe.

In Spain, samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga was baptized and christened Felipe Francisco Hasekura. This new identity for the Japanese ambassador would potentially unlock a new trade route between Japan and New Spain. However, King Philip III ultimately passed the responsibility for approving the trade route onto the Vatican, leaving Hasekura to seek the Pope's approval.

A fresh look at the science and conditions surrounding the Hindenburg explosion reveals ten particular flaws that directly led to the infamous disaster in 1937.

A recently discovered letter reveals that Captain Ernst Lehmann, the world's most experienced Zeppelin pilot, knew about the Hindenburg's damaged gas bag and it's crude repairs. Not anticipating catastrophe, these specific problems led Lehmann to fly on the infamous airship's trans-Atlantic flight because he worried there would be a problem that the staff and crew may not be equipped to handle.

A decade-long archaeological quest reveals that the oldest stones of Stonehenge originally belonged to a much earlier sacred site – a stone circle built on a rugged, remote hillside in west Wales.

Archaeologists, led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson (University College London), use the latest tools of geotechnology in their painstaking search for the evidence that reveals the Stonehenge Bluestones originally came from a specific location in West Wales' remote Preseli Hills.

The 1995 discovery that an important Paleolithic skeleton was actually a woman changed how historians perceived the role of our foremothers in ancient societies. No longer relegated solely to the home and hearth, it is now understood that ancient women were also hunter-gatherers and held prominent positions of importance within their communities.

Incredible scientific investigations from across the globe are helping piece together the untold story of prehistoric women. The latest research separates fact from fiction and sheds new light on our ancient foremothers.

500 years ago, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set sail to gain control of the global spice trade. What resulted was the first circumnavigation of the earth, laying the groundwork for colonization and globalization still felt today.

The expedition to the Spice Islands becomes an unexpectedly long, arduous trip for Ferdinand Magellan and his crew. While he believed the Islands to be only 600 nautical miles away from the tip of South America, they were in reality 20,000 nautical miles away, extending the length of the trip by months.