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THIRTEEN’s award-winning Secrets of the Dead celebrates its 10 th year on PBS this fall with three new episodes exploring riveting moments in world history
The Silver Pharaoh launches the new season on November 3, 2010. Upcoming films will examine Egypt’s Dark Age, a mutiny on a Dutch slave ship, and an ancient Roman prison for wayward royal women. Watch Secrets of the Dead episodes online at pbs.org/secrets .
Part detective story, part true-life drama, THIRTEEN’s Secrets of the Dead has captivated audiences for nearly a decade and has become one of PBS’s highest-rated programs. Now in its 10 th year, the series continues its unique brand of archaeological sleuthing to uncover surprising answers to history’s most puzzling mysteries. Combining forensic science and the latest investigative techniques to debunk myths and challenge long-held theories about memorable events from the past, Secrets of Dead approaches history with a modern eye. Secrets of the Dead is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG – one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. “When Secrets of the Dead premiered in 2000, there was little like it in the television landscape. Many have tried to duplicate its success since but none have attracted the kind of audience of Secrets of the Dead ,” says William R. Grant, THIRTEEN’s Director of Science, Natural History & Features Programs and series Executive Producer. “Secrets is one of the most popular strands on the PBS primetime schedule. We are please critics have praised the series as a ‘ valid reassessment of history.’ Its endurance is a testament to our audience’s continuing craving for historical knowledge and high quality productions.” The upcoming season maintains its unparalleled tradition of intriguing explorations into our past. Along with special encores, new episodes begin with The Silver Pharaoh on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). The film explores the royal tomb of the largely unknown Pharaoh Psusennes I. His story holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of Egypt’s Dark Age. Slave Ship Mutiny follows on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 8 p.m. (ET) to tell the dramatic story of the eighteenth century shipwreck of the slave ship Meermin. The season concludes with Lost Ships of Rome , Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 8 p.m. (ET) , which tracks the underwater excavation of five Roman ships sunk near a remote island prison originally used in ancient Rome for noble women of questionable virtue. Actor Liev Schreiber ( Salt and X-Men Origins: Wolverine ) returns as series narrator. This season’s encore episodes include: Aztec Massacre - Wednesday, September 15 at 8 p.m. (ET) Zultepec, Mexico. Archaeologists make a grisly find: 400 skeletons buried in a mass grave. The bodies have lain undisturbed for 500 years, since the time of the Spanish conquest. But this is no ordinary gravesite. The remains suggest these people met a gruesome end at the hands of the Aztecs, who ruled Mesoamerica from the 14 th through 16 th centuries. But who were the victims and why were they killed? Examining the mass burial and cryptic codices through the prism of modern forensic anthropology, Aztec Massacre offers a frightening new perspective on the conflict between the Conquistadors and the Aztec Empire.
Irish Escape - Wednesday, September 22 at 8 p.m. (ET) A desperate, furtive plea smuggled to a New York reporter from deep within the impregnable confines of Western Australia’s Fremantle Prison sent a humble American whaler half way around the world to stand its ground against a heavily armed British steamer for the cause of freedom and independence. The whaler was the Catalpa , its captain was George Anthony and its precious human cargo consisted of six Irish political prisoners, who had languished and suffered at the Fremantle prison for a decade. Irish Escape reveals how the American belief in justice helped six political prisoners in Australia find their way to freedom in America.
Herculaneum Uncovered - Wednesday, October 21 at 8 p.m. (ET) In A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius exploded, entombing the city of Pompeii and its doomed inhabitants in pumice and ash. In recent years, some 2.5 million tourists visited the ancient Roman city and its famous casts of bodies that suffered a slow and suffocating death. Just a few miles away is Herculaneum, the other, lesser-known victim of Vesuvius, where people experienced a different, more grisly death in the grip of superheated pyroclastic flows from the volcano. Those flows transformed the living, breathing city of Herculaneum into an astonishing time capsule that is even better preserved than Pompeii. The film documents the conservation efforts and explores how people lived – and the shocking way they died – in Herculaneum.
Since its premier with the two-part miniseries Catastrophe! The Day the Sun Went Out , the award-winning strand has examined dozens of the world’s iconic historical mysteries and events. Its library of documentaries include: the Emmy Award-nominated Mumbai Massacre , which tells the story of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai solely from the perspective of the survivors; Doping for Gold which investigates East Germany’s state-sponsored doping program in the 1970s; and Executed in Error which analyzes the criminal case of Hawley Crippen. These programs are among the full-length episodes available for viewing on Secrets of the Dead Online (pbs.org/secrets ). Along with the extensive online video catalog, the series web site provides resources for educators with lesson plans for middle school and high school teachers. Secrets of the Dead has received 10 CINE Golden Eagle Awards and six Emmy nominations, among numerous other awards.
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