The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone

Author: History Hit June 7, 2026 Duration: 44:35

In July 1799, French soldiers unearthed a stone that would transform our understanding of the ancient world. Discovered in a fort at Rashid, the Rosetta Stone became the key to deciphering Egypt’s long-lost hieroglyphs. Within two decades, scholars began unlocking its secrets. But what does it actually say? Tristan speaks with Dr Ilona Regulski to explore the stone, the script, and the race to decode it.


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Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.


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Hosted by Tristan Hughes, The Ancients digs into the distant past, one specific theme at a time. This isn't a sweeping lecture but a series of focused conversations. Each episode brings you directly into dialogue with leading historians and archaeologists, who share the latest research and perspectives on the ancient world. The scope is vast, moving from the mysteries of Neolithic Britain all the way through to the complex events surrounding the Fall of Rome. You might find yourself immersed in the details of a single archaeological discovery one week and exploring the broader political currents of an empire the next. Produced by History Hit, this podcast benefits from the same depth and quality that defines their other award-winning series. With new episodes arriving every Sunday and Thursday, there's always a fresh journey into antiquity waiting. For anyone with a curiosity about where we came from, this podcast serves as a reliable and engaging guide, making the remote past feel immediate and vividly real.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Ancients
Podcast Episodes
Neanderthal Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:33
Fifty thousand years ago, Neanderthal artists in Ice Age Europe painted symbols and handprints deep inside caves, leaving behind some of the oldest known art on the continent. These discoveries are transforming how we un…
Spartacus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:10
In 73 BC, a gladiator escaped slavery and launched a rebellion that shook the Roman Republic to its core. His name was Spartacus, and his uprising became one of the greatest threats Rome had ever faced from within.Trista…
The Fall of Hadrian's Wall [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:02
When the Romans left Britain in the early 5th century AD, Hadrian’s Wall did not simply collapse into ruin. Its forts and ramparts endured, becoming strongholds for the communities who continued to live along this ancien…
Iron Age Britain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:37
What if Iron Age Britain was never a land of barbarians at all, but a world of skilled farmers, powerful women, trade, ritual, and spectacle? Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Tom Moore to reveal a far richer pre-Rom…
Prehistoric Greenland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:05
What can a frozen island reveal about the people who thrived there for thousands of years? Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Asta Mønsted to explore prehistoric Greenland through astonishing archaeology and living mytholog…
The Other Humans: Why We Survived? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:16
For most of human history, we were not alone. Human evolution was shaped by multiple human species living side by side, from Neanderthals in Europe to Denisovans in Asia, before all but one disappeared.Tristan Hughes is…
What If Alexander Fought Rome? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:50
Rome vs Alexander. It's a counterfactual of suitably epic proportions, fit for movie theatres and sprawling strategy video games. What would've happen had the great Macedonian general not perished in Babylon and advanced…
The Real Armageddon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:40
Armageddon is more than just a biblical prophecy hailing the end of days. It is a real place: Megiddo, an ancient city that for thousands of years stood at the crossroads of empires, trade routes and wars in the ancient…
Ancient China: The Warring States [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:45
How did ancient China plunge into 261 years of chaos, and how did that turmoil forge an empire?Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Andrew Seth Meyer to explore the Warring States period, from collapsing Zhou power and…
The Prehistoric Plague [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:53
The first ever outbreak of 'plague' - Yersinia Pestis, the most feared disease in human history - was long thought to be the Plague of Justinian in 541 AD. But new studies of ancient DNA have revealed traces of Yesinia P…