Documentaries · the ancient world, recreated
Slow, wordless recreations — made by Hathor on our own servers from the scenes, characters and objects of the Studio. On-screen cards say plainly what is the historical record, what is scripture or tradition, and what is the Institute's reading. Watch, then tell her what works: vote, comment, or leave a note at any moment of the film.
Mount Hermon and the Descent of the Watchers
A ten‑minute visual journey linking the real mountain of Hermon with the ancient myth of the Watchers as recorded in 1 Enoch and related traditions.
The Giants of Enoch
A ten‑minute exploration of the biblical Nephilim, their elaboration in 1 Enoch, and the fragmentary Book of Giants from Qumran, tracing tradition to modern rec
Enoch's Heavenly Journeys
A visual tour of the celestial gates, winds, and world‑ends described in 1 Enoch and the Astronomical Book, traced through Ethiopian manuscripts and Kush‑Aksum
Where the Demons Came From
Explores how ancient Jewish texts link the spirits of the fallen giants to the earliest concept of demons.
The Phoenician Colonies & Carthage
c. 1000 – 29 BC · the sea road from Tyre to the Atlantic, and the city that ruled it
Hannibal: Across the Map
219 – 201 BC · from New Carthage over the Alps, and back to Africa
Saïs and the Priests of Neith
A ten‑minute journey through Saïs, its temple of Neith, the Saite dynasty, and the Greek legends that linked Egypt and Greece.
The Four Peoples of the Egyptian World
How the Egyptians painted the peoples of their world — Egyptians, Nubians, Libyans and Asiatics — and the envoys who came bearing gifts.
The Perfumed Banquet
Lotus, kyphi and perfumed wax — the scents of Egyptian feasts and temples, as the tomb paintings show them.
Faces of Roman Egypt: the Fayum Portraits
Painted faces laid over mummies in Roman Egypt — real people, looking back at us across two thousand years.
Delphi and the Oracle
The navel of the world: the Pythia on her tripod, the Castalian spring, and the pilgrims who climbed the mountain to ask Apollo.
The Amazigh and the Queen of the Hoggar
The Amazigh of North Africa — the Garamantes of the desert, the Tifinagh script, the rock art of Tassili, and the tomb of Tin Hinan, remembered as the mother of
Carthage and the Phoenicians
From the purple-dye cities of Phoenicia to Carthage, its round harbour, its goddess Tanit and its war with Rome.
Minoan Crete: The Palace of the Bull
Knossos, the bull-leapers, the saffron gatherers of Thera, and the myth of the Minotaur — Bronze Age Crete in slow recreation.
The Nile's Gods in Real Places
For the Egyptians the gods lived at real places on the river — the flood at Elephantine, Isis at Philae, the crocodile god at Kom Ombo. A journey down the Nile
Kush and the Nile
A wordless journey up the Nile into the land of Kush — the river and its flood, the archers of Kerma, the sacred mountain of Jebel Barkal, the pharaohs from Kus
Living with the Dead: Egyptian Tomb Life
Inside the painted tombs of Thebes — banquets, fishing, harvests and the journey of the soul, as the Egyptians painted them for eternity.