Secrets in the Dust

Experts examine how the ancient Cambodian city was abandoned and destroyed

Documentay examining the legacy of archaeologist Alfred Merlin who, in 1907, discovered Roman remains beneath the surface of the Mediterranean.

It was a chance find of a coin in a field that led Isodoro Falchi to identify the site Vetulonia the last township of the Etruscan federation. This loose grouping of hilltop cities inhabited Italy's beautiful Tuscany region for 1,000 years, until their disappearance around 500 BC. Because they decorated their tombs as facsimiles of their homes, we know exactly how they lived. From these, their unmistakable statues and other artifacts, we know that they used iron tools, built towns with stone temples, and lived in terraced houses with small interior pools. Theirs was a sensuous, prosperous lifestyle of banquets and pleasure, with equality between the sexes - and a healthy interest in sex itself. As if all this was too good to be true, they predicted their own downfall, after a thousand years. The Romans seemed almost too happy to oblige, for no-one must be seen to have influenced them - even though they built on the achievements of the Etruscans. Literally, in the case of Rome, where they even adopted their sewerage system! In Falchi's day the archaeological authorities in Rome seemed almost as reluctant to recognise his discoveries as the Romans themselves had been to remember the Etruscans; but today's geneticists have proved that Falchi was right. They have discovered that the current inhabitants of Campiglia Marittima , once called Vetulonia, are descended from the Etruscans of old; and they have solved a second mystery. The original ancestors of the Etruscans came not from Italy but from Asia Minor: today's Turkey. From the latest excavations by Simona Rafanelli and Sylvia Guideri we understand one more crucial fact. The Romans may like to pretend that the Etruscans never existed - and the Etruscans may have predicted their own downfall. But today, archaeologists find evidence that Etruscans and Romans lived in harmony for a long period, worshipping the same gods, before the Romans took over, conquering lands far beyond the Italian hills to become the supe.

Documentary exploring the discoveries made by archaeologists in the city beneath Mexico's capital, and examining how Eduard Seler deciphered the mystery of the Aztec calendar.

Archaeologists examine the ice-age theories created by Alfred Rust, who cycled from Germany to Syria in 1930 for his research purposes.

In 1923 Ernst Herzfeld was the greatest living scholar of the Persian Empire, that ruled in the Middle East from 612BC until it was defeated by Alexander the Great in 330BC. That year Herzfeld set out on his last major expedition. It would last more than 10 years. It would make crucial discoveries about this misunderstood civilisation, and it would end in personal disaster. A German expedition in the 1920s was of necessity small-scale, operating with little or no money. The defeated power in WWI could no longer afford such "luxuries". But this was also an opportunity: the colonial powers - Britain and France - were not popular with the local governments in the region. By teaming up with oil money from America, Herzfeld could gain both political, and financial, support - enough to continue his work. And what discoveries he made: Herzfeld excavated the administrative centre of Persepolis, the Persian imperial capital, uncovering thousands of clay tablets which described in detail the administrative system and the trade networks of the Empire. Far from being the tyranny described by their Greek conquerors, this was evidence of a tolerant and cosmopolitan Empire that took the best from all the peoples it ruled. If Herzfeld found the information, his assistant Friedrich Krefter discovered the treasure - the solid gold plaque forged for the great King Darius to acknowledge his glory. But Herzfeld was Jewish, and while he was in Persia his country was taken over by the Nazis. Once again, distrust and prejudice ruled; stripped of his professorships by 20th Century tyranny, he was even accused of theft of Persia's national treasures. Politics refuses to spare the region today, as archaeologists - notably from Australia - continue to research the ancient Persian Empire, trying now to understand how this Empire extended its power so many hundreds of kilometres from the capital.