Secrets of the Dead Season 3 Episodes

Episode 1

Search for the First Human

Wed, May 8, 2002

Could fossilized remains discovered in Kenya in 2000 belong to the oldest direct human ancestor?

Episode 2

The Mystery of the Black Death

Wed, Oct 30, 2002

Geneticist Steven O'Brien investigates what made the inhabitants of a small English town immune to the black plague that raged throughout Europe during the dark ages.

Episode 3

Titanic's Ghosts

Wed, Nov 20, 200257 mins

Swedish Titanic passenger Alma Paulson and her four young children died when the ship sank. Only Alma's body was identified. Days later, Canadian rescue workers spotted the lifeless body of a fair-haired toddler floating near the site of the wreck. He was buried with other unidentified Titanic victims. Historian Alan Ruffman and a team of scientists use incredible technology to help provide answers and hopefully closure for relatives of the Titanic victims. One of the results later proved to be erroneous and PBS apologized.

Episode 4

The Great Fire of Rome

Wed, Nov 27, 2002

Secrets of the Dead examines the 64 AD fire of Rome in an effort to determine if it was caused by Nero as reported by Tacitus, Christians as Nero contended or by accident. The program reviews recently uncovered forensic evidence, the historic record and motivations of the suspects.

Episode 5

Tragedy at the Pole

Wed, Jan 15, 2003

Scientist Susan Solomon reconstructs the perilous journey of the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition led by the British explorer Robert F. Scott, who in 1912 tried to reach the South Pole first.

Episode 6

Bombing Nazi Dams

Wed, Feb 12, 200356 mins

The story behind the courageous Dam Busters, who crippled the Nazi war machine by skimming Ruhr Valley rivers. When imprecise Allied bomber attacks targeting Nazi weapons factories killed many nearby civilians but KOed few factories, in 1943, after years of development, a brilliant British engineer, Barnes Wallis, managed to design a new type of large aerodynamic bouncing bombs which thanks to a special allied bomber unit specifically trained in secrecy for this suicide mission blew up key massive Nazi dams, disrupting the hydro-electric power feeding the nearby munitions plants, and flooding factories.

Episode 8

Sounds from the Stone Age