ZDF - Crime Scene: Antiquity (2020)

Crime has been around since the beginning of humankind. This five-part series evolves around crimes and criminal cases of antiquity ranging from common murder, to raids, arson, cannibalism, assassinations, high treason, and terrorism. We investigate the cases using modern forensics, elaborate CGI and experimental archeology.
History tells stories of rage and hate, greed and suffering, death and destruction. Nothing lets us look deeper into the dark abyss of a past epoch than the murders and misdeeds committed during it. But many crimes of the past remain unsolved today. The perpetrators were not identified or punished, and evidence hasn’t been presented against them — until now.

Part 1: Faith and Power
This episode deals with a mysterious mass death of children in ancient Athens, the Great Fire of Rome and the fanatical destruction of Egyptian temples by Pharaoh Akhenaton. With the help of modern forensics and experimental archaeology, "Crime Scene: Antiquity" identifies the perpetrators. Is Athens the crime of cruel child murderers? Was Emperor Nero involved in the Great Fire of Rome? And was the desecration of Egyptian sanctuaries only the expression of Akhenaten's madness?

Part 2: Secrets of the Dead
This episode is about a dark conspiracy against the Pharaoh Ramses III, the mysterious multiple killing of a Celtic druid whose two-thousand-year-old body was discovered in a moor near Manchester, and the brutal murder of a Neolithic family from Eulau in Saxony. With the help of modern scientific methods and archaeological experiments, an international team of experts is tracking down the perpetrators who once got off so lightly.

Part 3: Baffling Violence
This episode deals with a sinister massacre in a Swedish fortified castle, the brutal execution of a man from Eisenberg and the mysteriously early death of Tutankhamun. An international team of experts successfully uncovers those questions that have remained unanswered for centuries: Why were dozens of inhabitants of a fortified castle murdered but no valuables stolen? Why was the man from Eisenberg executed so brutally? Did Tutankhamun die of an accident, an illness or was it murder after all?

Part 4: Cases with Grave Consequences
This episode is about crimes that have changed the course of history. It deals with the death on the cross of a Jewish itinerant preacher, the oldest known murder case in human history and the high treason of Arminius, which led to the legendary Varus Battle. Modern forensics and experimental archaeology provide new answers to long forgotten questions: Did Jesus really die on the cross? Who killed Neanderthal Shanidar 3? How did it come about that Arminius defected to the Germanic tribes?

Part 5: Conspiracy and Revenge
This episode deals with the murder of the world-famous glacier mummy Otzi, the conspiracy against the Macedonian King Philip II and the assassination of the later first emperor of China. The search for the perpetrators also provides answers to the crime: What were the last hours of Otzi's life like? Was the murder of Philip II really just the act of a jealous lone perpetrator? Did the assassination attempt on the Chinese king really happen as the court chronicles report?