Ancient Discoveries Episode Guide, Season 6 - Pazsaz Entertainment Network

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Airborne Assault
Assault from the air didn't begin with the era of the airplane. Take a look back at early methods of airborne attack. The kite bomb was a medieval siege weapon that dropped bombs from a kite over cities. They'll build one and test it with startling new insights and success. Ancient bouncing bombs that actually skipped across water - the forerunners of the famous Dam Buster projectiles - terrorized shipping in Turkey in 1453. Learn the secrets of ancient China's whistling arrows - used by commanders to direct the flow of a battle. Investigate the world's earliest rocket-powered explosive missile from the ancient battlefields of China. Finally, in one of the most dramatic tests ever conducted, they'll build the earliest known successful parachute and drops a skydiver from 6,000 feet.

Guns 'N Ammo
Some of the strangest and deadliest weapons ever built were prototypes of the modern gun. Find out whether a simple bamboo tube could have been the world's first gun. Hidden in an ancient manuscript lays a secret recipe for ancient tracer fire, but does it really work? How far and how high could the mega-mortar "Roaring Meg" have fired its shots to take out a Royalist stronghold? Can a team of experts discover the truth behind the bizarre battlefield phenomena of "wind of the cannonball," when men were seen to drop dead without apparently having been touched by a shot? And did a nine-barreled medieval volleygun mark the birth of the modern machine gun?

The Ancient Mega-Fort
Holding off invasion and protecting its people, ancient civilizations came up with creative, efficient and effective means of self-protection and defense. Walk the grounds of the castle that helped create Great Britain and learn why it was such an impregnable fortress. Discover the invisible underground defensive systems of Cappadocia and how they proved so successful that it is the longest continually inhabited fortress in history. Test the ancient Mayan killer bee castle defenses, and release bees in an attack. Next, 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 defenses in just six weeks. Investigate the most impregnable walls in history - the multi-layered defenses of Constantinople, and discover the type of cannon that the sultan Mehmet used to finally destroy them in the great siege of 1453.

Ancient Secret Agents
Investigate the systems by which ancient intelligence services transmitted messages over thousands of miles - the fire beacon, the horse and the pigeon. This episode sets up a great race between these three systems to see which communicates the swiftest. 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. Discover how Japan's covert assassins, the ninja, used more than darts and poisons - they were pretty good with explosives as well. Find out how a Roman James Bond used a suit made of cork to support him in full armor during a covert operation across a river.

Ancient Record Breakers
Amazingly some of the world records that still stand today were set in the ancient world. The most valuable thing in the ancient world is still the most valuable thing today--2000 dollars per gram! And incredibly it is made from nothing more than rotting shellfish. What was the fastest thing in the ancient world and is it still the fastest man-made machine today? Ancient Discoveries builds a replica of a 2000 year old jet engine. A weapons team finally reveal the only weapon in history that can shoot around corners--and solve a 500 year old debate. Explosives experts reveal that the world's first gun was made of fruit. And on a windswept beach in Britain, can a team of historians and engineers beat the ancient world land speed record?

Mega Ocean Conquest
From conquering the depths of the oceans to defending the freedoms of the seas - ancient man pushed the technological boundaries to the limits in the mega battle for the oceans. New discoveries will reveal how an ancient destroyer rammed its way to victory in one of the most significant battles in human history. In Denmark, a team of divers build and test the world's first ever deep sea diving suit that was designed 350 years before the history books tell us it was possible to walk along the seabed. Can CSI science unravel the mystery of a time traveling ghost ship? And in a groundbreaking sea cannon experiment, naval experts will discover how a 16th century war fleet blasted their way to victory against an enemy armada seven miles wide, without the loss of a single ship.

Rituals Of Death
Travel to Egypt to discover the mysteries of the mummified crocodiles of Kom Ombo. We'll x-ray an ancient mummy that has held a secret for 2000 years, and reveal the lengths that people will go to to ritualize death. New discoveries at the site of the world famous terracotta army in China reveal incredible insights into the mind-state of the great first emperor of China and his people; and what they believed about death. In Britain, forensic scientists solve a year old murder using 15th century forensic science, as well as hundreds of mini-detectives - blowflies. And using virtual reality techniques doctors will now look inside the body of a victim during a live crucifixion to discover horrific new truths about the suffering on the cross.

Secret Science Of The Occult
In Mexico, explorers use a sacred ancient Mayan temple code to search for an occult underworld engineered in the depths of the earth - a mysterious site where no TV cameras have ever ventured. In Britain, investigators uncover the secret technologies behind a life size statue of Jesus Christ that miraculously came to life. Weapons experts reveal the science that saved a holy military order from certain annihilation in the bloodiest siege in history. In Greece, archaeologists solve the mystery of the oracle of the dead; an eerie sanctuary where flying ghosts appeared from the depths of hell.