Out of the Past – 35 Years Later

The acclaimed 8-part series Out of the Past, led by Penn State professors David Webster and William Sanders in the early 1990s, delves into key anthropological and archaeological themes — such as signs and symbols, and artisans and traders — by drawing connections between ancient and contemporary societies across the globe. Originally filmed on Betacam cassettes, the CORVA Studio Lab is now undertaking the digitization of the entire Out of the Past collection – approximately 400 hours of unused footage and outtakes. The overall goals of the project are two-fold. The first is to preserve this valuable resource for future generations. Secondly, we plan to return to the locations where the original footage was filmed and host public screenings for the communities – such as the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico, Copan, Honduras, and Fes, Morocco.

Here's the intro to an Out of the Past episode from 1991: