- hace 8 horas
Suscríbete para más programas de TV
Categoría
😹
DiversiónTranscripción
00:00A bizarre skeleton is uncovered in Chile's Atacama Desert.
00:05Is this a human skeleton that's been altered somehow?
00:08Or could it be a completely different species?
00:11In the Gobi Desert, researchers discover a massive structure which had been hidden for centuries.
00:17This was no ordinary wall.
00:19It was one of four ramparts surrounding the remains of a town or even a small kingdom.
00:25Archaeologists uncover a macabre scene in Peru's Mochi Valley.
00:29About 1,000 feet from the Pacific, they spotted human bones.
00:33In total, they recovered 137 complete human skeletons.
00:38Could this be an ancient burial ground?
00:41Ancient lost cities.
00:44Forgotten treasures.
00:46Extraordinary curiosities, once lost to the sands of time, are finally exposed.
00:53As new technology uncovers remarkable tales hidden beneath the deserts of the world,
00:59the secrets in the sand will finally be revealed.
01:04The Atacama Desert dominates northern Chile's landscape, extending over 600 miles from one end to the other.
01:23The Atacama is one of the driest deserts in the world.
01:27On average, they get less than an inch of rain a year.
01:30And that's partly because of an ocean current in the Pacific called the Humboldt Current.
01:34That brings up really cold water from the bottom of the ocean, and that keeps the air above it very, very dry.
01:43So any wind blowing into the desert from the ocean has no water in it.
01:47The desert is also surrounded by the Andes and the Chilean coastal range.
01:52These mountains block moisture from reaching the desert, creating a kind of death zone for any living plant or animal.
01:58The extreme environment is almost otherworldly.
02:02In fact, soil samples from the region are comparable to samples from Mars.
02:06For decades now, scientists at NASA have used the Atacama Desert as a testing ground for instruments designed to explore the Red Planet.
02:16In the heart of the Atacama, long abandoned buildings have created ghost towns.
02:22The people who once lived and worked here move to nearby cities for a more comfortable life.
02:29While walking the empty streets of one of these towns, an intrepid explorer makes an astonishing discovery.
02:36In one of the town's abandoned buildings, he finds an extraordinary skeleton.
02:43It's incredibly small, measuring only six inches from head to toe.
02:47The tiny skull is especially striking.
02:51It's elongated and has a distinct cone shape.
02:54And while typical human skeletons have 12 pairs of ribs, this one only has 10.
03:00It's really bizarre and certainly raises a lot of questions.
03:03Is this a human skeleton that's been altered somehow?
03:07Or could it be a completely different species?
03:10The skeleton soon enters the world of rare artifacts, eventually landing in the hands of a private collector in Spain, where it sparks intrigue and controversy.
03:20Now, as it so happens, this collector was a UFO enthusiast.
03:24So it wasn't long before this skeleton caused a big stir in the UFO community.
03:30You had all these UFO believers claiming that this body's unique morphology only had one possible explanation.
03:36It couldn't possibly be human.
03:38It had to be an alien.
03:40Unsurprisingly, these claims attracted a lot of media attention.
03:45A team of scientists caught wind of the story and offered to sequence the skeleton's DNA to find out once and for all whether the bones belonged to a human or to some other, maybe unidentified species.
03:56The scientists began a series of tests on the Atacama skeleton, now nicknamed Atta.
04:04Their results lead to a resounding conclusion.
04:08Using skeletal radiography, computed tomography, or CT, and whole genome sequencing, they prove that Atta is beyond a doubt human.
04:18They even go one step further and identify her as a female.
04:24Looking at the body, you can see that her skeleton was actually mummified.
04:28Was this done deliberately?
04:31Could a burial ritual have resulted in Atta's striking bone abnormalities?
04:35Atta's remarkable preservation may point to a link between this tiny skeleton and one of the world's oldest mummification rituals.
04:43The Atacama Desert is home to the oldest mummies in the world, like 2,000 years older than Egyptian mummies.
04:51These astonishing remains belong to the Chinchorro culture.
04:55They're the first marine hunter-gatherers that settled in this desert, and they settled between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago.
05:04The oldest Chinchorro mummy, known as the Acha Man, was found near the city of Arica and was estimated to be over 9,000 years old.
05:11Over the course of the last century, hundreds of these mummies have been uncovered along perused desert beaches.
05:18Some of the mummies were preserved naturally, desiccated by the extreme heat and dry conditions.
05:23But others were mummified artificially, according to a precise ritual.
05:28First, the Chinchorro would remove the skin and soft tissue from the body.
05:32The cavities left behind were then stuffed with leaves, feathers, sticks, and other natural fibers,
05:38before the skin was sewn back on with wreaths.
05:42The last step involved attaching thick black hair to the mummy's head,
05:46and covering its face with a clay mask and openings for the eyes and mouth.
05:51These rituals were performed on both children and adults, which begs the question,
05:57could Atta be one of these Chinchorro mummies?
06:00Could the mummification process have altered her skeleton somehow?
06:03To date Atta's remains, the team conducting her skeletal analysis focuses on the DNA fragments.
06:12The Chinchorro mummies are thousands of years old, and over that length of time, DNA degrades.
06:17You get fragmented samples of low quality.
06:20But that's not what scientists see with Atta at all.
06:24Her DNA looks great.
06:26Atta's DNA fragments averaged around 300 base pairs,
06:30remarkably large for a specimen that might be very old.
06:33When they compared this data to established DNA decay models,
06:37they determined that Atta couldn't be more than 500 years old.
06:40So she didn't belong to the Chinchorro culture,
06:42and their mummification rituals weren't the cause of her skeletal abnormalities.
06:46So how did her bones form in this peculiar way?
06:50As genetic testing continues on the skeleton,
06:53the team analyzing Atta's DNA makes a breakthrough.
06:57They discovered a series of mutations in seven of Atta's genes.
07:01Many of these mutations are known to be associated with bone development abnormalities,
07:07including dwarfism, cranial malformations, rib anomalies, and premature joint fissures.
07:13While these gene mutations have all been documented individually before,
07:17this specific cluster has never been seen anywhere else.
07:21It's unlikely that Atta would have survived her many conditions,
07:24and we now think that she was most likely born prematurely,
07:27at only about 15 weeks old.
07:30While this unique series of mutations seems to explain why Atta looks so unusual to untrained eyes,
07:36another question remains unanswered.
07:39Where did she come from?
07:41And could her environment have played a role in her unique development?
07:46In the never-ending search for clues about Atta's history,
07:50experts returned to the place where she was found,
07:52the ghost towns of the Atacama Desert.
07:56These towns were not ordinary settlements.
07:58They were mining towns,
07:59and they were established to extract one mineral in particular,
08:03saltpeter.
08:04Saltpeter, or potassium nitrate,
08:07is an essential ingredient for gunpowder and for fertilizer,
08:10and it was once so valuable,
08:12it was referred to as white gold.
08:15The Atacama Desert is the world's largest natural deposit of saltpeter,
08:19and these small mining communities thrived for decades.
08:22But life here was extremely tough.
08:25Long hours in the hot sun meant that working conditions were brutal,
08:28and the towns were entirely dependent on the saltpeter industry for survival.
08:32These towns boomed for nearly a century,
08:36so much so that saltpeter once accounted for 50% of Chile's total revenue.
08:41But in the 1930s and 40s,
08:44German chemists realized they could synthesize the compound in factories,
08:48saving time and money.
08:50Almost overnight, the mining towns of the Atacama lost their lifeline.
08:54Atta was found in the oldest of these communities,
08:59a town called Lenoria,
09:01that was founded in the 1820s
09:03and abandoned just after the Second World War.
09:05We aren't sure when Atta was born,
09:08but we do know that she's less than 500 years old.
09:12Could she have been from Lenoria,
09:14where she was found?
09:15The potential link between Atta and Lenoria
09:27leads to new, intriguing possibilities.
09:31Besides its use in gunpowder and fertilizer,
09:34potassium nitrate is a common ingredient
09:36in a ton of different foods and cosmetics.
09:39In small quantities, potassium nitrate is completely safe,
09:42but too much of it can be fatal.
09:44It can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin,
09:47and high enough levels of exposure
09:48reduces the blood's ability to transport oxygen.
09:51This causes a bluish tinge to the skin,
09:53could cause trouble breathing, collapse, and even death.
09:58Animal studies have found that high levels of saltpeter
10:01may have devastating effects on pregnancy.
10:05Over the course of several generations,
10:07rats fed a diet high in potassium nitrate
10:09began to develop physical malformations,
10:12including cleft palates and deformations of the skull and eyes.
10:17The people who lived in Lenoria
10:19would have been exposed to exceptionally high levels
10:21of saltpeter during the mining process,
10:24as well as in day-to-day life.
10:26So the environment Atta's parents lived in
10:28may have likely contributed to her skeletal anomalies.
10:31Despite years of research,
10:35Atta remains an enduring mystery.
10:38Now, we don't fully understand whether Atta's malformations
10:41are the result of those toxins,
10:43or whether they're just random mutations.
10:46And we also don't know a lot of other very basic things about her.
10:49And the main reason for all of that is that
10:52she's held in a private collection,
10:54and she's not accessible for further study.
10:56All in all, Atta's this really special situation
11:00that has sparked a ton of controversy.
11:03Ever since she entered the spotlight,
11:05people around the world have called for Atta to be returned to Chile.
11:08Her genetic analysis suggests that she was likely of Chilean descent,
11:12which raises the very real possibility
11:13that she may have descendants still living in the country.
11:16Maybe more genetic testing can be done to find them
11:19and bring Atta home.
11:21To this day, Atta's story haunts the Atacama Desert.
11:25As calls for her repatriation continue,
11:28she remains a powerful symbol of our responsibility
11:31to honor the dead.
11:33The steps and sand dunes of the Gobi Desert
11:47stretch for 1,000 miles from northern China to southern Mongolia.
11:52It gets its name from the Mongolian word for waterless place.
11:57The Gobi isn't the largest or even the driest desert in the world,
12:02but it is the Earth's most northerly desert.
12:06It's also the least populated and least visited environment
12:10outside of the polar caps,
12:13no doubt due to its harsh conditions.
12:17Extreme fluctuations in temperature make it inhospitable,
12:21and punishing sandstorms from the West
12:23can bury everything in their path.
12:27Despite this, the Gobi Desert boasts a rich human history.
12:31From the clashes of ancient Chinese dynasties and the Mongol Empire
12:35to the Silk Road trade route
12:36that facilitated the exchange of goods, ideas, and beliefs
12:41between East and West.
12:42To the outside world, the Gobi has largely remained unknown.
12:47While there have been folktales and rumors about lost cities
12:50and civilizations buried under the sand,
12:53aside from a handful of European and American explorers,
12:56most of the desert's secrets have stayed with its inhabitants.
13:01A team of explorers is conducting research
13:04in western Inner Mongolia,
13:06downstream from the Aegean River,
13:08when they come across something unexpected.
13:11There was an enormous sand dune
13:14partially covering a man-made mud-brick structure.
13:18As the sand was cleared away,
13:21the structure was revealed to be the corner of two large walls.
13:26After the rest of the sand was removed,
13:29they discovered the corner wall was 13 feet thick
13:32and 30 feet tall.
13:35So this was no ordinary wall.
13:36It was one of four ramparts surrounding the remains of a town
13:40or even a small kingdom.
13:42The massive walls roughly form a rectangle,
13:461,200 feet across north to south
13:48and almost 1,450 feet from east to west.
13:52There are two openings or gates on the east and west sides.
13:56And inside this rectangle,
13:58the crumbled remains of the town are pretty much everywhere.
14:01The buildings to the south are smaller
14:04and appear to be former dwellings,
14:06while the larger buildings to the north
14:07are more decorated and official-looking.
14:09Clearly, this is some kind of settlement
14:13that had been occupied for a long time
14:15at one point in the region's long history.
14:18But when? And by whom?
14:21As a team of archaeologists proceeds with an excavation,
14:25vital clues about the city's identity are uncovered.
14:29The first structures within the city walls to be cleared
14:32were five temple-like buildings to the north.
14:35They resemble pagodas, which indicates a Chinese influence.
14:41But they're actually Tibetan Buddhist temples called stupas.
14:47But it's what was within the stupas that was truly stunning.
14:50Hundreds upon hundreds of artifacts, statues, and painted murals
14:54filled with Buddhist iconography
14:56and beautifully rendered calligraphy.
14:59Much of it was in shockingly good condition
15:02since the desert climate had prevented moisture.
15:05And most of the artifacts were buried and preserved by the sand.
15:09The researchers turned their attention to the city's south end,
15:13which leads to more surprises.
15:15Many everyday items were found,
15:18like bits of broken pottery, coins, tools,
15:22and more books and religious artifacts.
15:24Many of the items were from Eurasia and further afield,
15:28which strongly suggests a once vibrant hub
15:32of busy trade and cultural exchange.
15:35Historical records have indicated
15:37the presence of a legendary lost city called Karakoto,
15:41somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
15:42But its location has never been known.
15:45So is it possible that this is Karakoto?
15:48Also known as the Black City,
15:52Karakoto was an enclosed settlement
15:54built in 1032 CE by the Tangut,
15:57a distinct ethnic group of northwestern China.
16:01Despite the harsh desert conditions,
16:03the city grew into an important mercantile trade hub
16:06and became a key stop along the Silk Road.
16:10The Silk Road was a network of trade routes
16:12that connected China to the western Mediterranean world
16:15and even beyond.
16:16It didn't only spread goods and spices,
16:18but also cultures, languages,
16:20and beliefs across continents.
16:23Karakoto became a bustling commercial
16:25and cultural epicenter
16:26because, according to records,
16:28it was strategically located,
16:30the only stop in the desert for hundreds of miles.
16:34Tradesmen making long treks across the sand for weeks
16:37would stop to do business,
16:38but also to rest and get supplies like food and water.
16:42But there's a shroud of darkness surrounding the city.
16:46After flourishing for hundreds of years,
16:48by the late 14th century,
16:50Karakoto had vanished without a trace.
17:00As the researchers begin to delve
17:02into the treasure trove of relics collected from Karakoto,
17:06they come across a significant clue.
17:08In addition to the religious artifacts,
17:11there were stacks and stacks of manuscripts,
17:14written texts, and scriptures in the temples.
17:17But they weren't just Tibetan.
17:19These manuscripts were also written in other languages,
17:23including Chinese,
17:24and most tellingly, the rare Tangut script.
17:27This definitely tracks with the year 1032,
17:31when Karakoto was said to be a Tangut stronghold
17:34of the Tibeto-Burman Tribal Union.
17:38Taken in total,
17:39all signs point to the conclusion
17:41that this is the mysterious dark city of Karakoto after all.
17:46But one question remains.
17:48How did such a thriving center just disappear?
17:52Karakoto wasn't the first ancient city
17:55on the Silk Road that suddenly ceased to exist.
17:58One of the most famous stops along the trade route
18:01was the walled city and kingdom of Laolan,
18:03located in Western China's Xinjiang region.
18:07Laolan was referred to as an oasis state
18:09due to its proximity to the lake waters of the Lopner.
18:14However, at some point between the 3rd and the 7th century,
18:17the city vanished,
18:19and its whereabouts remained a mystery
18:20until the early 1900s
18:23when a Swedish explorer discovered it below the desert sand.
18:27It was initially believed Laolan's demise
18:31was a result of climate change.
18:33As the lake waters of Lopner dried up over the years,
18:36Laolan was abandoned
18:37since the survival of the city depended on a water supply.
18:41But more recent studies have shown
18:43that the environmental crisis was partially man-made.
18:47Irrigation practices of the time
18:48also contributed to the draining of the lake.
18:51Could this have happened at Karakoto too?
18:54Karakoto was located next to a water source,
18:59the Aegean River.
19:00And while the Aegean did eventually suffer
19:03from a reduction in water flow,
19:05there's no proof it was the cause of Karakoto's demise,
19:09with or without human intervention.
19:12A closer look at the region's history
19:15may prove it was human activity
19:17that brought Karakoto to its premature end,
19:21the human act of war.
19:23Although Karakoto was established in 1032
19:27and continued to thrive under the rule
19:29of the Tengut-led Western Shia dynasty,
19:32the city functioned as a peaceful sanctuary
19:34for several different cultures and religions.
19:38But just to be safe,
19:40the exterior walls and ramparts
19:41were built to defend against potential invasions,
19:45which may have allowed the city to thrive
19:47where other settlements fell to enemy attack.
19:51However, Karakoto wasn't going to stay immune forever.
19:55After a series of punishing attacks from the Mongols,
19:59a nomadic tribe from Central Asia led by Genghis Khan,
20:03Karakoto was captured in 1226.
20:06And a year later, the Tenguts surrendered.
20:09If the Mongols didn't have any use for the Silk Road,
20:13then Karakoto's reason for being would have no longer existed.
20:16It's possible, as one of the rumors suggested,
20:20that the city fell into ruin shortly after the Mongols seized it.
20:24But the aftermath of the Mongol invasion tells a different story.
20:28The reality was that Karakoto not only continued to prosper
20:33after the Mongol conquests,
20:35but the Mongolian Empire was instrumental
20:37in growing the Silk Road even further.
20:40This would have resulted in more traders passing through the city.
20:44The Mongols held on for another 150 years
20:47until the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty,
20:51and the Mongols were expelled from China,
20:53with one exception.
20:55A large holdout army fled to Karakoto to plan a counterattack.
21:00And the Chinese learned of this,
21:02they sent thousands of soldiers,
21:04and in 1372,
21:05defeated the last Mongols within the city walls.
21:09It's just one of the many stories and possible explanations
21:12for an ancient city that continues to inspire speculation
21:16even after its discovery.
21:18While it's generally accepted that Karakoto fell into decline
21:22at some point after the Chinese reclaimed it from the Mongols,
21:26we may never know the exact reason for its disappearance.
21:31The discovery of Karakoto revealed a compelling blend
21:34of the rich cultural, political, and religious life
21:38of ancient China and Mongolia.
21:40A testament to human resilience
21:42and the transient nature of empires.
21:45The city continues to beckon explorers and historians
21:49eager to uncover more of its secrets.
21:52The Mochi Valley stretches along Peru's northern coastline,
22:05spreading out from the Mochi River
22:07into the La Libertad region.
22:09Despite the fact that it's so close to the Pacific Ocean,
22:13Peru's northern coastline is remarkably dry.
22:16That region gets almost no precipitation at all,
22:19less than one inch of rain per year.
22:23The dry climate is partly due to the Andes Mountains.
22:27As the winds blow from east to west across Peru,
22:30they carry moisture from the Amazon rainforest.
22:33The Andes act as a barrier,
22:35trapping the moisture on their eastern slopes,
22:37leaving the land to the west much drier.
22:39You might think that agriculture would be impossible in a place this arid.
22:45But actually, people have been cultivating this land since the pre-Columbian era.
22:50The Mochi people, whom this valley is named after,
22:53flourished between 100 and 700 CE
22:55by building sophisticated canals around the river.
22:59People have lived here and farmed this land ever since,
23:02relying on irrigation technology for survival.
23:05On the outskirts of Trujillo, the region's capital,
23:11at a site known as Huanchiquito Las Llamas,
23:14residents notice strange objects protruding from nearby sand dunes.
23:19About 1,000 feet from the Pacific,
23:21they spotted what looked like human bones,
23:24still mostly buried beneath the sand.
23:26An archaeological team is summoned and begins to excavate,
23:30and it isn't long before they're greeted with an unsettling scene.
23:33An archaeological team is summoned and begins to excavate
23:48at a site known as Huanchiquito Las Llamas,
23:51and it isn't long before they're greeted with an unsettling scene.
23:55There are hundreds of bodies buried here.
24:00In total, they recovered 137 complete human skeletons in the sand.
24:06So, considering the sheer number of bodies,
24:08could this be an ancient burial ground,
24:10maybe built by one of the pre-Columbian civilizations that lived here?
24:15Using radiocarbon dating techniques,
24:17the team successfully dates dozens of the Huanchiquito Las Llamas skeletons.
24:21The results showed that the bones are over 600 years old.
24:26The burials date back to the middle of the 15th century,
24:29when this land was home to the ancient Chimu civilization,
24:33the culture that rose from the ashes of the moche.
24:38The Chimu had enormous influence,
24:40ruling over 800 miles of what's today coastal Peru.
24:44Thanks to their advanced irrigation techniques,
24:45they transformed the desert valleys into farmland
24:49fertile enough to support entire cities.
24:52The Chimu capital, Chan Chan,
24:54was the largest city in pre-Columbian America,
24:56and it stood just a 15-minute walk from Huanchiquito Las Llamas.
25:01Today, the ruins of the city cover 14 square miles.
25:05For over five centuries,
25:07the Chimu kingdom was the dominant civilization in Peru,
25:11until an unexpected threat loomed.
25:13In 1470, the Chimu came face to face with the infamous Incan Empire.
25:19The Inca had controlled their own separate kingdom
25:21for more than 200 years,
25:23until King Tupac Inca Yupanqui set his sights on Chimu land.
25:27The Incan expansion was very strategic.
25:31To minimize the risk of revolution,
25:34they forcibly resettled huge populations,
25:37scattering distinct ethnic groups
25:39and absorbing their major cities.
25:41Using this system, the Incas eventually managed to increase their empire
25:45to a population of 12 million people.
25:50Given that the skeletons found at Huanchiquito Las Llamas
25:54date back to the time of the Incan expansion,
25:57maybe they could be linked to some sort of massacre.
26:00Could these people have been murdered by invading Incan armies
26:04as a brutal show of power?
26:05A violent massacre would likely have left behind a chaotic mass burial,
26:10with the bodies discarded without ceremony or dignity.
26:13These burials were anything but.
26:15The bodies had been carefully arranged,
26:17with many buried in groups of three.
26:19Traces of cotton left on the remains
26:20tell us that they were likely wrapped in shrouds
26:22before being placed in the ground.
26:24As the archaeologists carefully excavate the vast gravesite,
26:29they come to a grim realization.
26:32Looking at the remains,
26:33this one really chilling detail stands out right away.
26:37These skeletons are small.
26:38In fact, all but three of them belong to children.
26:42Most of them seem to be between the ages of about 8 and 14,
26:46but some of them are as young as 5.
26:48Strangely, among the children's skeletons,
26:53it was determined that the remains likely belong to roughly 200 llamas.
26:58Typically, when we find humans and animals buried together,
27:01there's a reason for it.
27:02For instance, elite burials might feature pet or livestock sacrifices
27:07designed to sustain the dead and accompany them in the afterlife.
27:11But even if that's the case here,
27:13how do you explain the fact that the vast majority of these remains
27:17are children?
27:19The research team analyzes the skeletons for any clues
27:23that might reveal just how these children died,
27:26and it leads to a disturbing discovery.
27:29A lot of the skeletons show evidence of clean cut marks across the sternum
27:34and signs of broken or missing ribs.
27:38That suggests that the ribcage was forced open to retrieve vital organs,
27:43most likely the heart.
27:45And that really only leads to one possible explanation.
27:48These are the remnants of a massive human sacrifice.
27:52A sacrifice of this scale would have come at an enormous cost to the Chimu,
27:59who prized their children's lives above all else.
28:03Not only did children represent the future of Chimu communities,
28:06but they also embodied a high level of spiritual purity.
28:11Llamas were also extremely valuable,
28:13essential for travel, trade, clothing production, and food.
28:17So what could have warranted a sacrifice of this magnitude?
28:22One theory suggests that the Chimu may have inherited the practice of human sacrifice
28:26from their moche ancestors,
28:28who lived in the area hundreds of years earlier.
28:30The moche frequently depicted these rituals in their artwork,
28:34often decorating ceramic vessels with an image known as the presentation scene.
28:40A few miles from the Chimu sacrifices stands the Huaca de la Luna,
28:45a sacred moche monument.
28:47Archaeological digs here have revealed the bodies of roughly 70 sacrifice victims.
28:53Cut marks on the skeletons indicate that the bodies were mutilated and dismembered
28:58before being swept into large pits and abandoned.
29:04Based on the bone and tooth analysis of the remains at Huaca de la Luna,
29:08it seems unlikely that the Chimu child sacrifices were connected to these moche rituals.
29:13There's one glaring difference.
29:16The moche victims were mostly fully grown men.
29:19Many of them were in their 30s and 40s.
29:21So these were likely warriors who had been captured during territorial battles.
29:27New theories point away from moche culture to the Chimu's own myths and legends.
29:33The Chimu left no written records of their spiritual beliefs,
29:36but we do know that they worshipped a legendary character known as Taikanomo.
29:40According to myth, he was the founder of the Chimu people
29:44who emerged from the sea after hatching from a golden egg.
29:48Stories tell of Taikanomo protecting his people from the sea
29:50by calming storms and teaching them advanced agricultural technology.
29:55In light of this mythical story,
29:57the orientation of the sacrifice victims starts to make sense.
30:00Almost all of those children are posed facing the same direction,
30:04and that direction is west, toward the sea.
30:06So could it be that these children were sacrificed in the name of Taikanomo?
30:22In an effort to learn more at Juanchiquito Las Llamas,
30:26the researchers begin to investigate the burial grounds,
30:29taking samples from the earth surrounding the skeletons.
30:31This leads to a startling revelation.
30:36The burials were dug through a layer of mud so thick
30:39that it actually preserved the footprints of the people traveling through the area.
30:44Footprints leading back to the ruins of the Chimu capital, Chanchan,
30:48can clearly be seen.
30:50This may well be the evidence of a macabre procession,
30:53where the children would have walked to their deaths from the city.
30:56Beneath the layer of mud, there's loose sand,
31:02indicating that the mud was most likely linked to an isolated weather event.
31:06It would have required a huge amount of water,
31:09either rainwater or coastal flooding, to produce this mud.
31:12To the Chimu, who relied on dry weather
31:15and their sophisticated irrigation systems for food,
31:18this event would have had profound significance.
31:21Every few years, the northern coast of Peru is battered by a phenomenon known as El Nino.
31:27The surface waters of the Pacific become abnormally warm,
31:30leading to increased evaporation and massive amounts of rain and flooding.
31:34These sacrifices were likely performed in a desperate attempt
31:37to stop torrential rains from destroying the Chimu's precious crops.
31:41Until the discovery at Juanchiquito Las Llamas,
31:44there was little evidence the Chimu practiced human sacrifice at all.
31:48But new discoveries at the nearby Pampa La Cruz archaeological site
31:53proved that this was far from a one-time ritual.
31:57To date, they've found over 300 child sacrifices at Pampa La Cruz.
32:02But unlike the sacrifices at Las Llamas,
32:05these children weren't all killed at the same time.
32:08They were spread out over the course of several centuries,
32:11with the earliest remains dating back to 1100 CE
32:14and the most recent, dating to about 1500 CE.
32:18So all of this is really strong evidence
32:20that child sacrifices were very much a part of Chimu culture.
32:25These children undoubtedly gave their lives
32:28in order to ensure the survival of a much larger community,
32:32maybe even the entire empire.
32:34As researchers continue to dig at both the Juanchiquito Las Llamas
32:40and Pampa La Cruz sites,
32:42the remains of these child sacrifices stand as a stark reminder
32:46of a lost people's struggle for survival
32:49in one of the world's driest climates.
32:51Located on the western delta of the Nile River,
33:05just 50 miles southeast of Alexandria,
33:08the Egyptian city of Hash-Isa stands alone
33:11in the district of Al-Bihara.
33:14Al-Bihara is extremely arid and sandy,
33:17despite being so close to the Mediterranean Sea,
33:19as well as the Nile River tributaries.
33:20It's also hot.
33:23In the summer, the temperatures can regularly get
33:24to 93 degrees Fahrenheit,
33:26and it only receives an average of 1 16th of an inch
33:29of rainfall per month.
33:31Now today, it's mostly rural and poor,
33:33but this area has a rich history
33:36going back more than 4,000 years.
33:39It's home to some of the first Coptic Christian monasteries,
33:43a royal palace, and several ancient fortresses.
33:47Not surprisingly,
33:48Behera is also home to a number of archaeological sites.
33:52It has a long history of ancient discoveries.
33:54The most famous find was the Rosetta Stone in 1799.
33:59This was a slab that was inscribed
34:01with three different and distinct scripts.
34:03This led to the translation
34:05of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
34:07for the first time.
34:10A group of archaeologists
34:11is excavating a section of Hashisa
34:13when they make a surprising discovery.
34:17They were digging into a wide, flat area of sand
34:20when they unearthed what looked like
34:23the corner of a mud brick structure.
34:26As the surrounding debris was brushed away,
34:29what at first appeared to be
34:30just a couple of densely packed bricks
34:32turned out to be the foundation
34:35of a building with several rooms and chambers.
34:39So what is this place?
34:41Other mud brick structures like this one
34:43have been discovered and identified
34:45across the western Nile Delta of Behera,
34:48including archaeological sites
34:50containing evidence of the Roman occupation of Egypt,
34:53which lasted about 700 years,
34:56starting around 30 BCE.
34:58West of the Rosetta Nile tributary,
35:00a large survey project with 14 dig sites
35:03found examples of a distinctly Roman cultural practice.
35:08Two of the sites, Com Alamar and Com Wasit,
35:11were discovered to have walls of mud and red brick
35:13buried below the desert surface.
35:15When the walls were cleared and cleaned,
35:18the unmistakable form of an ancient Roman bath complex
35:21called a tholos was revealed.
35:24Smaller artifacts were also retrieved
35:27from the bath's immediate surroundings,
35:29including shards of pottery, brick fragments,
35:33and several coins with dates consistent
35:35with the Roman occupation.
35:37So maybe the structure at Hosh Issa
35:40is also from the Roman era.
35:43Further exploration of the dig site
35:45tells a different story.
35:47When they analyzed the samples taken at Hosh Issa,
35:50they figured out that this mud brick composite
35:52predates the Roman Empire by at least 1,000 years.
35:56They figured out that this structure
35:58had to be between 3,000 and 3,200 years old.
36:02That corresponds to an era
36:04known as the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom.
36:08That goes from about 1290 to 1190 BCE.
36:11The 19th Dynasty was a tremendously important time in Egypt's history.
36:17It was a period of massive expansion of the empire,
36:20and this was only achieved by centuries of aggressive military conquest
36:24combined with the ability to repel attacks from enemy forces.
36:28As the excavation continues,
36:31several intriguing artifacts are uncovered
36:34within the building's many rooms and chambers.
36:37Some of the rooms had pottery containers and storage vessels
36:40filled with fish bones, animal remains, and other food provisions.
36:43There were also large granaries and pottery ovens,
36:46which had clearly been used for cooking and baking.
36:48In other rooms, they found items that were a little bit more personal,
36:51things like beaded pendants and amulets
36:54with these intricate carvings of scarab beetles.
36:58Now, those were really popular throughout Egypt at this time.
37:02The scarab beetle was associated with the sun god Kepri,
37:06and that meant that it had protective powers for whoever wore it.
37:10Taken as a whole,
37:11the site's inventory included domestic items for cooking,
37:14jewelry, and other adornments for personal wear,
37:17as well as more practical items like tools and swords.
37:20In other words, this was an extremely wide variety of objects
37:24found within a concentrated and contained space.
37:27So could these recovered artifacts be proof
37:29of some lost or forgotten city?
37:39A group of archaeologists is excavating a section of Hashisa
37:43when they make a surprising discovery.
37:46It wouldn't be the first time a contemporary archaeological dig
37:51led to the discovery of an ancient Egyptian civilization.
37:55Close to the historic city of Thebes,
37:58known today as Luxor,
38:00a team of archaeologists were looking for
38:02the undiscovered mortuary temple of King Tut
38:05when they found something just as remarkable.
38:08They unearthed the remains of a 3,000-year-old city
38:13so sprawling it invited comparisons to Pompeii.
38:16The city was called Atain, or Dazzling Atain,
38:19after yet another Egyptian sun god.
38:22There were sections of mud-brick walls
38:25that fan out in all directions.
38:28When it was finally cleared,
38:29the site revealed completed rooms
38:32filled with items from daily life,
38:35similar to the Hashisa site.
38:38With most of the excavation work at Hashisa completed,
38:42the layout of the emerging structure
38:44shocked the team of archaeologists.
38:47This was no city like Atain,
38:49with individual buildings spread over a large area.
38:52The structure at Hashisa
38:53appeared to be one single building.
38:55But given the sheer size and scale of its foundation,
39:00plus the number of rooms,
39:01it must have served a great civic purpose.
39:04Or could it have been some kind of grand house or palace?
39:07The layout and design of the building was unique.
39:11In fact, it was made up of two large buildings
39:14connected by a single narrow passageway.
39:17The two separate structures were identical in size and shape,
39:22but that's where the similarities ended.
39:24As the excavation continued,
39:27it was revealed to have been used
39:28as a storehouse for food and provisions.
39:30This was where the granaries and animal remains were found.
39:33But more significantly,
39:34the first building also stored a large cache of weapons,
39:37much more than was needed for any one household.
39:40More like an army.
39:42And it was the second building
39:44that ultimately revealed its true purpose.
39:46There were rows and rows
39:48of mud-brick soldiers' barracks
39:51carved out of the sand.
39:52This building was a military fort,
39:55and it was totally unlike any fort
39:58that had ever been discovered before.
40:00For one thing, the fort was a standalone structure.
40:03It wasn't connected to any other buildings
40:05or storage units or infrastructure, nothing.
40:06So why was such an isolated fortress built here?
40:12A closer look at Egypt's military history
40:15during the 19th Dynasty offers some clues.
40:20Throughout the 19th Dynasty,
40:22Egypt was under the constant threat of attack
40:24from two main adversaries.
40:25One of them was tribes from Libya,
40:28who first attempted to invade the Nile Delta
40:30from the west in 1208 BCE.
40:32The second threat was a collective force
40:36known as the Sea Peoples,
40:39a coalition made up of tribes
40:41of the Shardana, Shekelesh,
40:44Akawasha, Luka, and Tersha.
40:48Together, the Sea Peoples terrorized
40:51the northern coast of Africa
40:52for almost a century
40:53with brutal naval attacks
40:55from the Mediterranean Sea.
40:58In response, Egypt doubled down on its defense
41:01by building impenetrable forts
41:03along a line of strategic outposts.
41:05The fort at Hoshisa was built
41:07on a military route called Western War Road
41:09for the sole task of defending
41:10Egypt's northern and western border.
41:13And given its well-preserved remains,
41:15it appeared to have succeeded in that task.
41:17This fort was standalone
41:19because it contained
41:20all the necessary supplies
41:22and infrastructure
41:23within its fortress walls.
41:26The picture that emerges
41:27is a self-sufficient military complex
41:30filled with enough food and equipment
41:31to outlast any enemy.
41:34That's a brilliant strategy,
41:35and it worked.
41:36The Sea Peoples
41:37were eventually wiped out
41:39by the Egyptians.
41:41Having successfully served its purpose,
41:44the remarkable fort at Hoshisa
41:46was likely abandoned
41:47and then lost to time
41:49until now.
41:51As experts continue
41:52to dig into its past,
41:54more clues will likely be revealed
41:56about the lives of the soldiers
41:58who lived and fought there.
Recomendada
43:00
|
Próximamente
45:53
1:08:30
19:54
21:38
22:08
46:01
1:03:02
42:01
44:02
1:26:12
44:37
38:22
41:48
45:20
44:51
44:11
43:33
44:27
46:33
41:31
Sé la primera persona en añadir un comentario