How do you make a good archaeology documentary?

Episode Transcript

Follow this link for an annotated episode transcript.

Teaching Guide

This episode brings up several topics that can be used for classroom discussion.  See the sections below for topics/questions/and links to use along with the podcast episode in your classes.

Archaeology Documentaries

You can pair this episode by having students watch some of the documentaries produced by Zoot Pictures. They are frequently available online or on streaming platforms. 

• Angkor: Hidden Jungle Empire

• Fall of the Maya Kings

• Secrets of the Maya Warrior Queen (Coming Dec 2026)

These readings also tackle how archaeological stories are told in documentaries

• Archaeology on the Screen

• Off the record: Archaeology and documentary filmmaking. A PhD thesis which aims "to locate archaeology’s place in documentary, and documentary’s place in archaeology."

• The archaeological aesthetic in ancient world documentary

The documentary Science Friction was also mentioned in the podcast and can be incorporated in a unit that looks at science and misinformation in the media.  

• https://sciencefriction.tv/

Episode 1, The Myth of the Gay Caveman, also deals with issues regarding the misrepresentation of archaeological research in the media.

Activity Suggestions

• Have students work in groups to make their own annotated script for an archaeology documentary. Have them identify the statements being made, and then have them identify scholarly sources that back up those statements. 

  • For a one-hour documentary, you will want to divide and conquer by having groups follow different sections of a film. 

• Similarly, you can have students watch a less reliable (or even pseudoarchaeological) "documentary" and ask them to evaluate if and how the statements can be fact-checked. 

• Have students use their web-literacy and media skills by looking up the talking heads in real documentaries vs. shows like Ancient Aliens or Ancient Apocalypse.  What kinds of expertise do these people have? Are they reliable sources of information?

CGI in Archaeology

Part of this episode talked about using CGI in archaeology documentaries. Leif and Leslea worked with Monash University to use their CGI models for the Virtual Angkor Project. 

• Check out the Virtual Angkor website (which has its own teaching modules about Angkor as well). 

Readings below consider how these resources can be used in the classroom and how the Monash team worked with archaeologists to come up with the models. 

• Building a Virtual City for the Classroom: Angkor

• Teaching Angkor and the Khmer Empire with 3D Technologies

• A Review of Sources for Visualising the Royal Palace of Angkor, Cambodia, in the 13th Century (PDF download)

• Through the visualisation lens. Temple models and simulated context in a virtual Angkor