4.7 • 10.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Join historian Greg Jenner for a snappy, silly and seriously fascinating journey into the Indus Civilisation - one of the world’s earliest urban societies, and one that deserves way more hype. This episode of Dead Funny History is packed with jokes, facts and sound effects that bring ancient history to life for families and Key Stage 2 kids.
From Minecraft-worthy city planning and elephant-wide streets to private indoor toilets and artisan craft markets, the Indus people were ahead of their time. They built over 1,400 towns and cities across what is now Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, all connected by shared writing, pottery and beads. But despite leaving behind thousands of texts, we still can’t read their script.
Greg explores the mystery of their faceless society, the unicorn obsession, and their surprisingly bougie diet of beef, mango and turmeric. There’s also a deep dive into their plumbing prowess, some historians say their sanitation systems weren’t matched until Victorian Britain.
Expect musical numbers, sketch comedy, and a quiz to test what you’ve learned. It’s history with heart, humour and high production value. Perfect for curious kids, families, and fans of You’re Dead To Me.
Written by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Athena Kugblenu and Dr Emma Nagouse Host: Greg Jenner Performers: Mali Ann Rees and John-Luke Roberts Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Associate Producer: Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Audio Producer: Emma Weatherill Script Consultant: Dr Danika Parikh Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy Production Manager: Jo Kyle Sound Designer: Peregrine Andrews
A BBC Studios Production
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. Give me hip-hop Christmas bangers every day. Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. Get all kinds of Christmassy. Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.9 | Hello and welcome to Dead Funny History. |
| 0:40.3 | I'm Greg Jenner. |
| 0:41.3 | I'm a historian and I want to tell you about something really cool. |
| 0:45.2 | The ancient Indus civilization, a fascinating society that doesn't get the hype it deserves. |
| 0:51.1 | They're the bastile of ancient societies. |
| 0:59.0 | The Indus civilization existed between 4,700 and 4,000 years ago in what is now modern Pakistan and India, and with another known site also in Afghanistan. |
| 1:06.9 | It was one of the world's first known urban civilizations, which means they had city planning, |
| 1:12.6 | drainage systems and all sorts of clever stuff. |
| 1:15.8 | The Indus people would be amazing at Minecraft. |
| 1:19.3 | Some people refer to the Indus civilization as a faceless society, |
| 1:23.8 | because it's really hard for archaeologists to find or identify individual people, |
| 1:29.2 | like we can with Egyptian pharaohs or Roman emperors. |
| 1:33.0 | And even though they left behind lots of writing, |
| 1:35.7 | we still haven't been able to translate or decode any of it. |
| 1:39.6 | Why couldn't they leave behind a duolingo or something? |
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