Ancient Skies: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Discover how centuries of knowledge, experimentation, and engineering helped our ancestors understand the mysteries of space. Expert contributors decode astronomical myths and uncover the science behind their origins.

With breathtaking CGI, beautiful landscape footage and some of the world's most important astronomical artifacts, Ancient Skies looks at the cosmos through the eyes of our ancestors, charting our changing views of the cosmos throughout history. We take a journey through past visions of the heavens from all over the world, and from the dawn of civilization to the recent past.

From hunter-gatherers to Edwin Hubble, we'll see the myriad of ways that we have observed and chronicled the movements of the heavens. And with a cast of expert historians and astronomers, we explain the science behind the phenomena that our ancestors sought to explain through mythology.

Throughout the series, we use cutting-edge animation to demonstrate our ever-evolving understanding of how the universe works and our place in an ever-expanding cosmos.

Series details

• Title: Ancient Skies
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Genres: Mystery, History
• Premiere date: 2019-07-24
• Final broadcast date listed: 2019-08-07
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: PBS
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 7/10
• TVMaze ID: 43077
• IMDb ID: tt10091398
• TVDB ID: 366764

Cast and credited roles

• Jason Alan Carvell — Narrator
• Phil Plait — Astronomer

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2019-07-24; final listed air date 2019-08-07; episode order: 3.

Source and licence

Adapted from Ancient Skies on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.