How climate, trade, and collapse forged the ancient Mediterranean world.

Modern science uncovers the environmental forces that shaped human history, from the rise of cities and empires to the Bronze Age collapse and Rome's transformation. Through archaeology, climate data, and new discoveries, this series reveals how drought, disease, migration, and resources changed civilizations. Sign up to see the past with a wider, sharper lens.

Episode guide

3 episodes

1BRONZE AGE CATASTROPHE

In the last decade, the search for data about the planet’s environmental history has raised questions about how climate change has influenced human civilizations in the past. We find out how the era of the Trojan War and the Exodus was beset by a rapidly cooling climate.

52 min

2CITIES AND EMPIRES

The 1st Millenium BCE in the Mediterranean is the birth of the modern world. We’ll explore the environmental conditions that made this possible, and how people working with new technologies took advantage of a favorable climate to create a classical civilization.

51 min

3EMPIRE and EPIDEMICS

With the help of top scientists and historians including Kyle Harper, author of bestseller The Fate of Rome, we look into what science is now telling us about the impact of disease in toppling the Roman Empire.

52 min

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