Secrets of the Dead

Preview | The Herculaneum Scrolls

Making headlines around the world, Brent Seales and his team of computer scientists set out on a mission to read the 2,000-year-old carbonized scrolls found in the remains of a villa in Herculaneum. Mt. Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD transformed the papyri, fusing together the layers of the scrolls and making them impossible to read. Can particle physics and AI finally reveal what the scrolls say?

Preview | The Herculaneum Scrolls

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  • Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (Part Two): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (Part Two)

    S22 E6 - 54m 25s

    Historian Jonathan Petropoulos investigates former Nazi art dealer Bruno Lohse’s role in post-war America. Lohse established relationships with curators at some of the nation’s most important cultural institutions and became an invisible hand, dealing in looted art – even as the families of the original owners pursued the restitution of works rightfully theirs.

  • Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (Part One): asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (Part One)

    S22 E5 - 54m 50s

    Historian Jonathan Petropoulos investigates the life of former Nazi art dealer Bruno Lohse, who became Hermann Göring’s personal collector in Paris, tasked with finding the most desirable works of art the Nazis stole from Jews. Post-war, Lohse spent a brief time in prison, but then returned to Munich and resumed his career as a dealer, more often than not trading in art looted during World War II.

  • Lost Treasures of Angkor – King's Gold: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Lost Treasures of Angkor – King's Gold

    S22 E4 - 55m 15s

    The discovery of gold and silver artifacts in Laos, dating to the early days of the Khmer Empire, leads scientists to investigate how the priceless objects were made and where they might have originated. On their journey, they retrace the steps of the ancient kings and explore the sacred landscape around Vat Phou to learn more about this ancient civilization.

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