Jurassic America

What happens when a defensive alliance slowly turns into an empire? Tristan Hughes and Professor Polly Low explore the Delian League, the so‑called “ancient NATO”, from its Persian War origins to Athenian domination. Discover tribute, revolt, contested sources and how a league of ...  Show more

In 480 BC, at the narrow pass of Thermopylae, a vastly outnumbered Greek force prepares to face the advancing army of the Persian king Xerxes. At its head stands Leonidas, king of Sparta, ready to make a final stand that will become one of the most famous moments in ancient histo ...  Show more

When fossils were discovered in the US during the 19th Century, it altered American understandings of science, religion, race and more. So what was the Hadrosaurus Foulkii, and why did it have such an enormous effect?

Caroline Winterer, William Robertson Coe Professo ...

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the dramatic story of the first European encounters with the indigenous people of Australia. She's joined by Professor Alistair Paterson who sheds light on the reported events of February 1606 when the Dutch unexpectedly stumbled upon th ...

Using high-powered ballistics experiments, fancy computer algorithms, and good old-fashioned ancient geology, scientists have woven together a theory about the extinction of the dinosaurs that is so precise, so hot, so instantaneous, as to seem unimaginable. Today, we ...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by ...  Show more