Ancient Discoveries - Season 3 - Eps 5: Mega Machines
Today, when you have to move a three-ton limestone sarcophagus you just grab a heavy-duty forklift. But what options did ancient engineers have in an age when the only sources of power were humans and animals? What ingenious methods and machines were utilized to move phenomenally heavy objects and to create structures that would put even today’s machines to the test? From the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Parthenon on the Acropolis, this episode reveals the ingenuity of the ancient heavy engineers and shows how their machines built and transported some of the most amazing structures in Antiquity.
About Ancient Discoveries
Title: Ancient Discoveries
First Air Date: 2003-12-21
Last Air Date: 2009-12-28
Status: Ended
Rating: 9/10 (from 6 votes)
Language: EN
Seasons: 6
Total Episodes: 42
Network: History
Genres: Documentary
Production Companies: Unknown
Synopsis
Ancient Discoveries was a television series that premiered on December 21, 2003, on The History Channel. The program focused on ancient technologies. The show's theme was that many inventions which are thought to be modern have ancient roots or in some cases may have been lost and then reinvented. The program was a follow-up to a special originally broadcast in 2005 which focused on technologies from the Ancient Roman era such as the Antikythera mechanism and inventors such as Heron of Alexandria. Episodes of the regular series expanded to cover other areas such as Egypt, China and East Asia, and the Islamic world. Ancient Discoveries was made for The History Channel by Wild Dream Films based in Cardiff in the UK. Much of the filming was done on location across the world. The series used contributions from archaeologists and other experts, footage of historical sites and artifacts, computer generated reconstructions and dramatized reconstructions along with experiments and tests on reconstructed artifacts.
Cast
Sean Barrett
