In this five-part series, acclaimed Cambridge University lecturer Nigel Spivey leads you on a fascinating journey through the history of visual imagery and its impact on the world today.

More Human Than Human (6/26) seeks to explain why our world is so dominated by unrealistic images of the human body. The story, which begins in Austria with the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf, a tiny statue with greatly exaggerated female features, created some 25,000 years ago, chronicles our obsession with the "body beautiful" over the centuries.

The Day Pictures Were Born (7/3) explores when and why humans underwent what archeologists call the "creative explosion" and began making pictures. The examination of prehistoric European cave paintings and the rock art discovered in South Africa and North America indicates that this "explosion" may have been an effort to depict sights from the inner - rather than outer - worlds of our ancient ancestors.

The Art of Persuasion (7/10) ventures back approximately 5,000 years to the creation of the prehistoric monument Stonehenge, then leaps forward to the reign of Alexander the Great and on to the modern day to reveal how images have been used by kings, emperors and politicians for millennia to influence and manipulate the masses.

Once Upon a Time (7/17) sheds light on how film, the most powerful storytelling medium ever created, exploits techniques invented by artists in the ancient world. The program examines the evolution of storytelling through visual images and sound, from Australian aboriginal paintings dating back tens of thousands of years to such monuments as Trajan's Column in ancient Rome, right up to the present.

The final episode, To Death and Back (7/24), delves into the compulsion of human beings over thousands of years to surround themselves with powerful and often terrifying images of death. The investigation examines ancient Jericho, Aztec civilizations in Latin America and Italian classical art.

Mondays, 6/26-7/24 from 10-11 p.m. ET