Episode Guide

In this episode we investigate the kite bomb - a never-before-built medieval siege weapon that dropped bombs from a kite over cities. We build one and test it with startling new insights and success.

Next we investigate ancient bouncing bombs that actually skip across water - the fore-runners of the famous Dam Buster projectiles - that terrorised shipping in Turkey in 1453. We also learn the secrets of ancient China's whistling arrows - used by commanders to direct the flow of a battle.

We investigate the world's earliest rocket-powered explosive missile from the ancient battlefields of China, dropping an ancient experimenter 6000 feet from a balloon with only a pair of umbrellas. We build the earliest known successful parachute and drop a skydiver from 6000 feet in one of the most dramatic and successful tests we've ever done.

We investigate the castle that helped create Great Britain and learn why it was such an impregnable fortress. Then it's off to discover the invisible underground defensive systems of Cappadocia and how they proved so successful they are they longest continually inhabited fortress in history.

We test the ancient Mayan killer bee castle defences, and release bees in an attack. We build a replica section of the ancient Roman fort of Alesia and discover whether the great general Julius Caesar could really have built 24 miles of defences in just 6 weeks.

We investigate the most impregnable walls in history - the multi-layered defences of Constantinople - and discover the type of cannon that the sultan Mehmet used to finally destroy them in the great siege of 1453. Finally, we fire one of these cannons for the first time in hundreds of years and collect invaluable ballistic data.

The Romans created a hydraulic mining system that literally blew millions of tonnes of mountain away. How was this possible?

Ancient sappers dug under the walls of the mega castle Jacobs Ford in 1178 and brought a whole castle down. How? Ancient Discoveries has built a wall and will dig a tunnel and bring it down the ancient way.

Castle defenders invented listening devices to warn them of miners digging under their walls - how did these work, and what was the lethal concoction they used to smoke attacking sappers out of the tunnels? Also investigated is exactly how gunpowder explosives were brought to the mines.

We investigate the systems by which ancient intelligence services transmitted messages over thousands of miles - the fire beacon, the horse and the pigeon - and set up a great race between these three systems.

We learn how ancient spies sent secret messages using invisible ink made of human sperm and how they wrote on the inside of a raw egg. We learn how Japan's covert assassins, the ninja, didn't only use darts and poisons: they were pretty good with explosives as well.

Finally, we learn how a Roman James Bond used a suit made of cork to support him in full armour during a covert operation across a river.

We discover the ancient Roman navy SEAL technique of capturing enemy ships from underwater and replicate the feat with a champion free-diver who will work with ancient tools underwater on one breath for six minutes.

We then attempt to solve one of history's greatest mysteries: the tactics of ancient Roman war dog units, meeting a historically savage breed of dog - the Mastiff - that may have been used on the battlefields of antiquity.

We learn the secrets of the samurai sword, from how it was made to how it became the most legendary blade in history. Finally, we build and test an ancient Horro - a Japanese device that could protect a galloping cavalryman from arrow fire, yet was only made from a billowing layer of thin silk.

We reveal the history of the elephant as the ancient tank, right up to the addition by the Indian emperors of a fully rotational cannon.  We also look at anti-elephant rockets - and how they ended the elephants' 2000 year domination of the battlefield.

We then look at the ancient battering ram - the king of siege machines - asking how it worked, and could the ancients have really discovered the secrets of chemical fire-proofing?

We finish was an examination of the amazing flexibility of the medieval fully armoured cavalry knight.

Grim new investigations re-write history by revealing that the rack actually ripped bone apart, not joints, as was previously thought. We then look at the whip, which was used extensively by the Romans, famously against Jesus. But there was a lot more biology and materials science involved that purely hitting someone.

Next up, the pear of anguish was inserted into a person's body cavity and then a screw twisted that caused it to expand ripping the cavity apart. We discover how this might have worked and what damage could have been done.

Lastly, hundreds of people were burnt at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition. But we ask what actually killed them: flame, smoke or heat?

The oldest known weapon is the staff. Watch the surprising results of a comparison test between a staff and a shotgun.

Then learn about the ermei, a deadly Chinese underwater attack weapon, before we ask: which is more powerful, a meteor hammer or a punch?

Can Chi Warriors really kill a man with a single touch? Investigate the ability of eastern warriors to withstand pain such as smashing concrete on live human heads.

Finally, ancient Chinese crossbows are examined, including one small enough to fit up your sleeve.

Explore the leech as an ancient medical cure and test one on a live patient to see how much blood comes out. Then to the electric torpedo ray cure: we travel to Spain to take a reading from a live torpedo fish and do a pain test with the same level of electricity on a live volunteer.

Investigate trepanning, the ancient Inca art of relieving pressure on the brain by cutting open a hole in the skull. Then we look at Roman battlefield surgery techniques and tools, before explaining how snake venom was used as medicine in the ancient world - an technique medics are re-learning today.

The amazing successes and stunning failures of ancient military engineers have directly affected the weapons and tactics we use today. In fact, an ancient Greek weapon is still used on modern aircraft carriers.

We ask how the Chinese developed a catapult with a firing rate of 10 rounds per second? Did the living horse battlefield torpedoes of the middle ages battlefield actually work?

And how did the great Carthaginian general Hannibal cross the highest mountain range in Europe using equipment still used by today's Special Forces, dissolving solid rocks in his path using an ancient chemical version of dynamite?

At the siege of Tyre, Alexander the Great built a massive causeway in 332 BC out across the water to bring his siege machines up to the island fortress. We ask how it was done, and whether it could be done again.

We look at Emperor Nero's Death Yacht, a collapsible yacht designed and built with the plan of luring his own mother on board, activating the trap and killing her. The mechanism worked but the queen survived.

Also investigated are the oxen powered warship, Assyrian white water rafting, and the keel breaker.
 

Might the stories of the Bible have their basis in ancient scientific fact? How big was the giant Goliath, and what was the technology of the sling that brought him down?

We'll demonstrate that the tower of Babel could have been as tall as two miles in height and create fire from water as Elijah may have done.

Finally, in a never before attempted investigation, watch as archeologists fully levitate a replica of the Ark of the Covenant.

We discover a book that has never been seen in the west until now,  tracking down the secret manual that explained how the Vietnamese defeated not only the U.S. in the 20th century, but the Mongols 700 years earlier - including a revelation of the largest booby trap in history - one that snagged an entire battle fleet.

We discover how King Mithridates used a substance called burning mud in his revolt against Rome. We explain what it is and how it worked, by burning a full set of Roman armour.

Then we learn how the terrorist booby-traps and letter bombs of today were invented hundreds of years ago. We build a replica of the earliest known parcel bomb and set it off.

Lastly we investigate the legend that the Christians wiped out paganism in an attack on theie temples with fire so hot it could melt bronze. We learn the secret ingredients of how they did it.