Tooth Samples Reveal Scope of Justinianic Plague

Scientists analyze DNA from tooth samples collected from dig sites across Europe, dating to the Late Roman Empire, and identify Yersinia pestis – the bacteria that causes the Black Plague. Gradually they map where they’re finding plague, noting that, based on the succession of waves of illness, the epidemic lasted roughly a century.

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Clip Season 18 Episode 6 Length 01:43 Premiere: 10/26/22

Kentucky Connections on Secrets of the Dead

One of public television’s most popular series, Secrets of the Dead, brings its historical analysis to Kentucky! This series uses the latest science to challenge prevailing ideas and share fresh perspectives on historical events.

An image of writing on paper with the KET and program logos superimposed over the image

Join us for a screening of Secrets of the Dead: The Herculaneum Scrolls

Making headlines worldwide, the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Brent Seales and his team of computer scientists set out on a mission to read the 2,000-year-old carbonized scrolls found in the remains of a villa in Herculaneum. Mt. Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD transformed the papyri, fusing the layers of the scrolls and making them impossible to read. But can particle physics and AI finally reveal what the scrolls say?

KET will be hosting a screening of Secrets of the Dead: The Herculaneum Scrolls at The Kentucky Historical Society, Brown-Forman Room. Dr. Seales will lead a discussion after the screening.

Due to historic flooding in Frankfort, the event originally planned for April 10 has been rescheduled for Wednesday, May 14th, 6:30 – 8 pm EDT.

This event is free, but reservations are required.

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Secrets of the Dead: The Civil War’s Lost Massacre

The Secrets of the Dead investigates an incident in Kentucky history known as the “Simpsonville Massacre,” when 22 Civil War soldiers from the 5th US Colored Cavalry on a cattle drive to Louisville were ambushed and slain by outlaws.

The episode “The Civil War’s Lost Massacre,” which was co-produced by KET, revisits the events of January 25, 1865, tracing the stories of several of the Kentucky soldiers and their families with help from guest historians, including two who hail from Kentucky: Jerry Miller, a former state legislator from Louisville, and Juanita White, a docent at the Farmington Historic Plantation in Louisville.

Aided by University of Kentucky archeologist Dr. Philip Mink and the university’s EduceLab Mobile Team, the historians search the land around where the massacre occurred, hoping to find the burial grounds of the slain soldiers. The episode also features interviews with Kentucky’s Civil War scholars, Dr. Amy Murrell Taylor, author and history professor at UK; Steve Phan, chief of interpretation at Camp Nelson National Monument; Dr. W. Stephen McBride, former director of interpretation and archeology at Camp Nelson National Monument; and Joni House, former park manager of the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site.

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Funding for Secrets of the Dead: The Civil War’s Lost Massacre was made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

Clips & Previews

Preview | The End of the Romans

Preview Length 00:32 Premiere Date 10/26/22