More of History's Hidden Secrets: New Season of "Unearthed" to Premiere Next Week

Continuing to examine the world's oldest structures and decoding some of its secrets, Science Channel's "Unearthed" returns for a new season.

Scheduled to premiere on Sunday, November 15, 9PM ET, "Unearthed" returns to investigating the past - from still-standing monuments to ruins of once-great cities - in a combination of scientific investigation, expert opinion, and CGI animation to reconstruct what the past might have looked like.

For each following week, viewers will be treated to exclusive access at some of the world's most famous dig sites, with some of them remaining closed off to the public.

Opening With The Persian Empire

The all-new season begins with an attempt to bring the ancient Persian Empire back to life. Following the First Persian Empire, better known as the Achaemenid, was founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 BC. It reached its greatest territorial extent under the reign of Darius I, covering almost 40 percent of the known world at the height of its power - ruling over 49.4 million out of the world's 112.4 million people in 480 BC.

One of the stops for Unearthed's season pilot is an access to the Persian Empire's ceremonial capital, Persepolis. A team of archaeologists will be going down the ancient ruins in hopes of finding new insights about how one of the world's largest empires operated - and what led to its downfall.

The team behind the hit series will be working with a team of experts to use cutting edge technology to trace the Royal Road - an ancient highway that runs across the empire. Most details, as the exact route taken by the Royal Road, have been reconstructed based on historical records, such as those of the Greek historian Herodotus. Whether Unearthed would be able to trace the actual steps of the Royal Road remains to be seen.

Another feature of the great Persepolis that the Unearthed team will be examining will be the massive network of its subterranean tunnels mostly used for routing its sewage and housing its aqueducts that supplied clean, drinkable water to Persians for the centuries that followed.

Still in the Middle East, another episode in the new season is set to probe around the excavation site surrounding the Great Ziggurat of Ur, a monument built by a much older civilization. It was first built by the Sumerians back in the 21st century BC, before being restored by the last Neo-Babylonian king, Nabonidus in the sixth century BC.

Combining Archaeology and Modern Science

Unearthed is a television show created by award-winning London-based production studio Windfall Films, part of the Argonon Group, for the Science Channel. The Discovery Inc subsidiary is available in more than 63 million households in the United States alone. Unearthed, together with the rest of the Science Channel, is also available as a Video On Demand (VoD) offering, with its SCI Go app offering an on-the-go solution for mobile devices - its viewers can access full episodes anytime, anywhere.

Check out more news and information on Archaeology in Science Times.