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04:31όταν είναι ο ΑΠΑΤΕΙΣΕΙ, δεν είναι μια πράγμα πραγματικά.
04:35Δεν είναι μητήρια στιγμή γιατί θα έρθει στον αρχαλόγικό σημείο.
04:39Αν όταν αυτό ήταν σαν το Κύριο Ιδάκο,
04:43πως, όλοι, αυτό είναι αρχαλόγης αρχαλόγης αρχαλόγης στην Αμερική.
04:47Μετά, ένα τίπος αρχαλόγης της βικης ιστορίας
04:51έχει πειθανότητα από την Αλανδία και έρχεται
04:55Σε 1,000-ηρο χρόνια πράγμα, στον χώρο του Μαίου.
05:00Και αυτό είναι υγεία.
05:04Ακούσαν οι χωρίς δικαίωσης που διευθύνει ότι Κόλμβουσαν αποκλύπτωσε το Αμερικα.
05:09Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
05:11The idea that there were somehow Vikings in contact with Native Americans 500 years before Columbus was big news.
05:22Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
05:26So where is the evidence to back this up?
05:28The idea that Vikings might have got to North America first isn't news to Scandinavians.
05:39They know of the great Viking tales contained in the Icelandic sagas.
05:45In particular, the story of legendary explorer Leif Eriksson.
05:50Leif Eriksson heard a tale from a shipwrecked mariner
05:54who had been carried by currents near a land to the west of Greenland,
06:00which he noted was covered with trees.
06:03This enticed Eriksson, so he set out with one well-laden and equipped boat.
06:09According to the sagas, Eriksson reaches a new land he names Vinland.
06:15When historians saw his descriptions of this country and the people he encountered,
06:21they thought there's only one place that this can be.
06:23This must be somewhere in North America, very possibly Newfoundland.
06:31If there's any truth to those stories and those sagas,
06:34then it really does mean that the Vikings have made landfall on the North American continent
06:39much earlier than anybody else from a European perspective.
06:47Could this incredible object really be proof of that?
06:51It certainly isn't the first Viking artifact to turn up in the States.
07:01In 1898, there was the Kensington rune stone in Minnesota.
07:06The rune's translation records a voyage by eight Goths and 22 Norwegians to Vinland in 1362
07:15that encounters hostile locals.
07:18This seems to fit more or less with the Icelandic sagas.
07:23And there are other finds, too.
07:26In Ontario, there was a Viking sword, axe and shield found.
07:30And there are also various bits of writing on stones, which people attributed to being Viking runes.
07:40North America seems to be littered with evidence that the Vikings were there before Columbus.
07:44The problem is that none of these were in fact authentic.
07:52The Kensington rune stone is now known to have been a forgery.
07:57The axes and shields likewise.
08:01So why all the Viking fakes?
08:04The Kensington rune stone may hold the answer.
08:07If you look at the name of the man who discovered it, Olaf Ullmann, you'll have a clue.
08:15These objects were found by people of Scandinavian descent who were combating a negative image.
08:30Scandinavian immigrants to the U.S. had often been taunted and belittled.
08:34So if these immigrants could prove that it wasn't the Italian, Columbus, who discovered the New World,
08:42but instead, effectively, the Scandinavian, Leif Eriksson,
08:47this would be greatly to their credit.
08:50And that makes the discovery of the main penny particularly suspicious.
08:56Because Melbourne, the man who finds it, is of Swedish descent himself.
09:01So is this strange artifact just another hoax?
09:11One thing that isn't in doubt is the coin's origins in 11th century Norway.
09:16The coin is definitely authentic.
09:18It's definitely a coin of King of the Peaceful.
09:21But the big question then is, how could we know that this coin comes from an archaeological context?
09:28Or more bluntly, did Melgren plant it?
09:33So Melgren, himself of Swedish descent, has both a motive and an opportunity to plant this find.
09:42To pull off a hoax, Melgren would need the right coin.
09:47But by the late 1950s, that is relatively easy.
09:51In 1879, a horde of more than 2,000 such coins had come to light.
09:56So the coins themselves were easy enough to find.
10:01Could Melgren have got hold of a real coin to plant?
10:04Now, brand new research claims to have finally answered this question.
10:12The Swedish coin expert, Vine Gulbek, decided to take on the enormous task of tracing every known coin find of Olaf the Peaceful.
10:24Galbeck tracks down more than 2,300 coins to find out if any could have made it into Melgren's hands.
10:32It's an enormous piece of research that takes over a decade to complete.
10:37The result, after exhaustive study, is that no Olaf the Peaceful coins were unaccounted for.
10:45Additionally, unlike the main penny, all other Olaf the Peaceful coins are in very good condition.
10:51The main penny is very heavily corroded, and that's hard to fake.
10:57This is a process that goes on across the centuries.
11:02The Maine State Museum analyzes the chemistry of these layers of corrosion.
11:07The results support the object's authenticity.
11:13There's evidence water has sat around the coin.
11:17It's been sat in slowly moving water for a very long period of time.
11:21And this will be supportive of the fact that it's been buried for a long period of time.
11:26There's no doubt that the Maine Penny is the real deal.
11:32Melgren did not plant the Maine Penny.
11:35In which case, how did it find its way to a Native American settlement a thousand years ago?
11:41In 1960, three years after Melgren discovers the Maine Penny,
11:51Norwegian archaeologist Anna Stina Ingstad and her husband Helga
11:55are investigating a site at Lanzao Meadows in Newfoundland.
12:01Locals describe it as an old Indian camp.
12:04But it's something far stranger.
12:09They find the bases of turf structures.
12:13One large hall, also a blacksmith's workshop.
12:17They find remnants of Viking boat sheds.
12:20So this is definitive proof that the Vikings were the first Europeans to come to America.
12:28The Icelandic sagas are true.
12:32Vikings really do reach North America 500 years before Columbus.
12:36It's a revelation.
12:43But it doesn't explain the coin's discovery 1,200 kilometers further south.
12:49Because not a single scrap of evidence ever turns up to suggest the Vikings reach anywhere near this far down.
12:58So how does a Viking coin end up in Maine?
13:01Renewed professional excavations at Nasciag Point have not found any other traces of Norse artifacts.
13:15But what they have found are stone tools and stone raw materials coming from as far away as Labrador,
13:21hundreds of miles to the north.
13:23So there's evidence here for trade, for the movement of goods,
13:28and also the movement of people over really quite significant distances.
13:33The penny could have come down gradually along with other trade materials from hand to hand to hand,
13:41perhaps over centuries from its initial fine spot, which might have been in Labrador or even Newfoundland.
13:49Despite the fact that it has no value to the indigenous people as a coin,
13:55one feature may explain why and how they carry it south.
13:59Although it has since crumbled away, when Melgren finds the coin, it has a hole in it.
14:05It's been perforated, which would indicate that it was being used as an object of decoration,
14:13perhaps worn around the neck or around the wrist or perhaps forming decoration on an object.
14:18We don't know.
14:19But the important thing is that this object was not being used as a coin,
14:24but rather it was being used as a prestige good.
14:28So this is why the penny would have been retained.
14:33So it's likely local peoples transport the coin from Newfoundland all the way to Maine.
14:40This remarkable object was created a millennia ago on the far side of a stormy ocean.
14:45Like the Fines at Lanzo Meadows, it proves that Columbus isn't the first European in North America.
14:54The Vikings beat him to it 500 years earlier.
15:01In a museum in Crete sits a strangely marked clay disc that has sparked over a century of controversy.
15:09Some say it is one of the most astonishing texts ever found.
15:14A 3,000-year-old cryptic message from an ancient civilization.
15:19Others claim it's just too good to be true.
15:23Now, using the latest imaging technology, we're bringing it into the light.
15:29This is the Festos disk.
15:32Roughly 2 centimeters thick and around 16 centimeters in diameter, it's made from fire-baked clay.
15:39Its two sides are covered with inscriptions.
15:43Made using a technology thousands of years ahead of its time, this disk is unique.
15:50It's the only object that we know of that looks like that.
15:53There are 242 strange symbols.
15:57From Mohican-haired men to twisted figures, birds, fish, and other cryptic shapes.
16:04The Festos disk is one of the greatest mysteries of the Bronze Age.
16:09And we've not been able to decode it yet.
16:12But now, after more than a century of debate, new research may have made the first steps to revealing its secrets.
16:21So what do these bizarre symbols mean?
16:25What is the disk for?
16:27Is it genuine?
16:29The mystery of the Festos disk begins on the island of Crete in Greece.
16:43A place steeped in mythological stories of a lost civilization called the Minoans.
16:50Ancient legends tell the story of their ruler, King Minos.
16:54Beneath his palace, he builds a vast labyrinth to imprison a fearsome beast called the Minotaur.
17:02The Minotaur was this terrifying half-man, half-bull creature.
17:05And it was kind of the scourge of anyone who came to visit Minos.
17:09They would basically be eaten by this Minotaur.
17:11The creature and the civilization behind it were considered little more than ancient Greek legends.
17:18A lot of people thought it was mythology, that perhaps they were just kind of mythical people.
17:22But in 1900, near the north coast of the island, British archaeologist Arthur Evans makes a discovery that changes everything.
17:31The ruins of a vast Minoan palace, 4,000 years old.
17:38It's really a major deal for archaeologists.
17:41This is the first time we discover that they're actually a real civilization.
17:44They're not just some made-up mythology.
17:47It transformed our understanding of what Mediterranean civilizations were capable of at this time.
17:52The site is called Knossos, and it has intriguing links to the ancient legends.
17:59When Arthur Evans began excavations at Knossos, he noticed that there are a lot of bull symbols.
18:05He understood that, hey, this may be a place associated with the Minotaur story.
18:12It is a previously unknown and extraordinarily sophisticated ancient civilization.
18:17It existed at a time when the crowning achievement of most other European societies
18:23is building wooden huts and stone circles.
18:27So we often see the Greeks as the bedrock, effectively, of European civilization.
18:33So this is even the forerunners of that.
18:35And also it's the first city of European civilization.
18:38So we know that urbanism effectively begins at Knossos in Europe.
18:42So this is also a place where a lot of firsts effectively are found.
18:47But there is more to come.
18:49In 1908, Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier excavates a second Minoan palace complex
18:56on the south of the island.
18:58It is called Festos.
19:02One evening, Pernier's foreman happens on a small clay disc lying in the ruins.
19:06The bizarre symbols covering its surface are unlike anything Pernier has ever seen.
19:14But this disc is exceptional in every way.
19:20Normally, such tablets for writing would have been formed out of wet clay.
19:26And then when they were leather-hard, they would have been written upon
19:29and simply left to dry in the sun.
19:33The disc was very different.
19:35This disc, first of all, was baked.
19:37So rather than sun-dried, it was actually fired.
19:40It is the only Minoan clay tablet ever found that's been fired in a kiln.
19:46And that's just the start.
19:48Because there's something remarkable about the symbols on it.
19:52Most writing at this time was inscribed into the clay.
19:55But the symbols on the Festos disc have been stamped.
19:58The fact that it was impressed by a stamp has also been considered a unique discovery.
20:06And some archaeologists have, in fact, called this perhaps the oldest or first evidence of a type of printing press.
20:12There is literally nothing else like it in the ancient world.
20:18Given the care that was taken in it, the degree of its firing,
20:23all of these things mean that this was a special object,
20:25which was viewed as worthy of special treatment and preservation.
20:29What could have been worth all this effort?
20:35Could the answer lie in decoding these strange symbols?
20:39For over 100 years now, people have been trying to decipher what exactly is on that disc.
20:48Is it a language?
20:49Is it just a form of symbology?
20:51Is it something else?
20:52So people have come from all kinds of backgrounds,
20:55from codebreakers to linguists to classicists to archaeologists to historians.
21:01Everyone, effectively, who has some knowledge in expertise related to the ancient world
21:06and codes in general, has tried to actually determine what exactly is on that disc.
21:12There have been a number of interpretations.
21:14It could have been an ancient game, perhaps, a kind of backgammon or something like that.
21:18Another interpretation is it's used for some kind of astronomical or astrological purposes.
21:22But one obvious theory has gained more traction among experts than any other.
21:27More likely, it's some kind of language.
21:30Whether it's a localized language or a slightly more widespread language is debatable,
21:33but it seems to be something meant to be read or at least perhaps even announced to an audience.
21:40But experts couldn't even agree which direction they should read this language in.
21:46Archaeologists initially thought that you started from the inside of the disc
21:51and read kind of in a swirl pattern coming out to the outer edges.
21:56But then when they looked more closely at the symbols,
22:01they seemed to get more crowded and difficult as you move from the outer rim inside.
22:08So, scholars now think that it's more likely that it was read working from the outside in.
22:15But what does it actually say?
22:17There are 242 impressions on the disc, using 45 unique symbols.
22:26Most alphabets have far fewer symbols than the Festos disc.
22:31So, experts think it's probably not an alphabet.
22:34But it has too few symbols and too many repetitions to be a pictographic script,
22:42where one symbol can represent an entire word,
22:46such as Egyptian hieroglyphics or Babylonian cuneiform.
22:52Instead, experts suspect the Festos script is what's known as a syllabary,
22:57in which symbols represent syllables, such as DO, RE, MI.
23:02Cylabaries fit well with the number of symbols on the disc.
23:08And we already know another Minoan script uses them.
23:13But even if experts work out what kind of writing it is,
23:17figuring out what it actually says is a whole new problem.
23:21In terms of a translation, you need some kind of Rosetta Stone.
23:26The Rosetta Stone is an ancient inscription discovered in Egypt in 1799 by Napoleon's soldiers.
23:35The Rosetta Stone allowed us to understand hieroglyphics.
23:40It had three parallel scripts, one in hieroglyphics, one in Demotic, and one in ancient Greek.
23:47And so it was possible to act as a sort of key for translation.
23:51No equivalent to the Rosetta Stone had ever been found for the Festos disc.
23:58And a century of intense effort by experts has failed to translate it.
24:02But now, after years of analysis, Gareth Owens, a British linguistics scholar,
24:09claims to have solved at least part of the riddle.
24:12What Owens has done is try and find a parallel text,
24:17something else that either has a similar function or has a similar type of text.
24:23going through, looking for other examples in other languages is a kind of natural process.
24:30Owens has matched a sequence of symbols on the disc
24:33with a pattern of symbols on Minoan religious artifacts, believed to be a prayer.
24:39He has also identified another pattern of symbols on the disc,
24:43repeated three times like a chant,
24:45which is similar to an older Cretan symbol pattern, meaning Mother Goddess.
24:50His theory? The disc is a prayer to the Mother Goddess.
24:55This would fit quite well with what we know.
24:57The Mother Goddess was very important to Minoan society,
25:00so having some kind of dedication, a prayer to her, seems to be logical.
25:05We do see some repetition in this disc, like you would do in a prayer.
25:09And the fact that it's baked clay seems to indicate that it's a high-valued item.
25:13And so having a religious reason as to why you have this disc, I think, makes a lot of sense.
25:17But the problem with every theory about the disc is that nothing quite like it has ever been found.
25:25The strange symbols, the use of stamps thousands of years before anyone else,
25:31the fact that it's the only kiln-fired tablet the Minoans ever produce,
25:36it seems out of place and out of time.
25:39And that has stirred controversy in the world of archaeology about this ancient relic.
25:45The uniqueness of this object, as is often the case with unique objects,
25:52rings a lot of alarm bells.
25:53We would expect to find more of these objects,
25:58because if someone had made the stamp and had the set,
26:02then we would think particularly something that is made in clay,
26:06which is a relatively durable material,
26:08that we would have more of these surviving.
26:12Establishing its age is also troublesome.
26:15The disc itself has not been directly dated.
26:19But as it was found near a tablet made between 1700 and 1600 BCE,
26:26archaeologists have assumed it's the same age.
26:30But the issue is clouded by the unusual circumstances of its discovery.
26:35It wasn't actually found by a professional archaeologist.
26:40It was an area which had been previously excavated
26:43and was spotted by a foreman doing their rounds.
26:46So is it the real deal, or did someone plant it?
26:50Suspicion has fallen on one person in particular at Festos.
26:55Site director Luigi Pernier has a strong motive to conjure up a fake.
26:59What was being found to the north at Knossos by Arthur Evans
27:04was quite sensational, the supposed throne of King Minos.
27:09Festos, by comparison, is a relatively humble palatial complex,
27:16which had up to the find of the Festos disc
27:19provided nothing really sensational for the media of the time,
27:24or to the credit of Luigi Pernier.
27:27The disc definitely puts Pernier's Festos site on the map.
27:33It raises his archaeological profile immensely.
27:36And that's not the only detail that casts a shadow over Pernier.
27:41What is particularly worrying is that Pernier was also responsible
27:47for antiquities in Florence, in Italy, and the museum there.
27:52And in its collections was a remarkable Etruscan disc,
27:59known as the Milano disc.
28:00The disc is circular, and there is a set of symbols
28:03engraved in a helical or spiral shape,
28:06which looks uncannily similar to the Festos disc.
28:11Pernier has means, motive, opportunity, and even inspiration.
28:15Case closed?
28:18Nothing about this unique object is that simple.
28:25Decades after the disc's discovery, another relic turns up.
28:31In 1934, an axe was found.
28:34This bronze axe actually had symbology
28:37that were very similar to what was found on the disc.
28:40It is known as the Arkalahori axe.
28:44Running down the center of the axe
28:45are a series of unusual symbols.
28:48Some appear strangely similar to symbols on the Festos disc.
28:52A plant.
28:54A T-shaped.
28:56A Y-shaped stick-like symbol.
28:58And most striking of all,
29:01a man with spiky hair.
29:02So, that supports the argument
29:05that this was an authentic disc.
29:08That these kinds of symbols
29:10were symbols that would have been known
29:11to at least somebody from this region.
29:15The question is,
29:17how would Pernier have known,
29:20if he was faking the disc,
29:21to make symbols which had not yet officially
29:23been archaeologically discovered?
29:25This might attest
29:28to the authenticity of the disc.
29:31But Pernier, as someone active
29:34in archaeology on Crete,
29:35could have encountered in various objects
29:37which had never been catalogued.
29:40It can be argued either way.
29:42So, fake or not fake?
29:45I think it's real.
29:46I think the symbology that has been found
29:48subsequent to this disc,
29:50the fact that it's very similar to it,
29:52and at the time of the discovery
29:54were not known symbols,
29:56indicates to me that it's real.
29:59Others are less certain.
30:02The Feistos disc is one of those
30:03rare enigmatic objects
30:06that it is very difficult
30:08to make an absolute judgment about.
30:12What I've often found is,
30:14when we call something a fake,
30:17sometimes that is largely
30:19because we can't understand
30:21what it was used for.
30:23I don't see clear signs
30:26that it's a fake.
30:29And I would certainly
30:30like to believe that it's real.
30:34Controversy about the disc's authenticity
30:36has raged for a hundred years.
30:39It shows no signs
30:41of being settled anytime soon.
30:42On display in an old workshop in Paris
30:54is the death mask
30:56of a drowned girl.
30:58Some claim this is the most
31:00kissed face in history.
31:02She inspired people,
31:04poets, music, dance,
31:07and she was really well known.
31:08and she's said to have saved
31:10over two million lives.
31:14Now, using the latest imaging technology,
31:16we're bringing this mysterious mask
31:19into the light.
31:22Every feature immortalized in plaster
31:25in exceptional detail.
31:26The serene expression.
31:29The eyelids lightly closed.
31:32And that strange, enigmatic smile.
31:36This mask appears again and again
31:38in museums and private collections
31:40across the world.
31:41But the woman behind it
31:43is shrouded in mystery.
31:46Who is she?
31:48How did she die?
31:50Why is she so famous?
31:52Her macabre story begins in Paris.
32:01In the mid-19th century,
32:03it is a sightseer's paradise.
32:05You can climb the 422 steps
32:08of Notre Dame's towers,
32:10meander through the halls of the Louvre,
32:13or marvel at the newly built
32:15Arc de Triomphe.
32:18But one of the biggest crowd pullers
32:20is the Paris Morgue.
32:25They were lining up and queuing
32:27to see which people were put on display.
32:32There were street vendors,
32:34like today,
32:34when there's something entertaining
32:36taking place.
32:37So it was just, you know,
32:38fashionable for normal people
32:40to go and watch the corpses.
32:43In theory, this is done to aid
32:45in the identification of the dead.
32:46But it quickly becomes
32:49a grisly form of entertainment.
32:52This is a show
32:54in the middle of Paris
32:56that's free to enter
32:58because they want everybody to come
33:00and have a look
33:01to identify the bodies
33:02in which naked dead people
33:04are laid out in front of you.
33:06So I think you have to imagine
33:08the sort of social thing
33:09that's going on here.
33:10We're looking at a sort of mixture
33:11of titillation and frill.
33:15Out of this macabre world
33:16appears this mysterious face.
33:19The story goes that
33:22a drowned woman
33:23was found in the river Seine.
33:25Nobody claimed the body,
33:27so it was brought to the morgue.
33:30Since there were no signs
33:31of violence on her body,
33:33people thought that she probably
33:34killed herself by drowning.
33:37Her flawless complexion
33:39suggests she is around 16 years old.
33:42Her hairstyle fits that
33:44of a peasant girl.
33:46Despite being displayed
33:47to the public,
33:48it seems no one steps forward
33:50to identify the drowned girl.
33:53But she catches someone's eye.
33:56One of the morgue staff
33:57decided that the face
33:59was calm and interesting
34:01and the person was captivated
34:03and decided to build
34:04a plaster cast
34:05and everybody who went in
34:07could also see the mask.
34:10In an era before photography,
34:13it isn't uncommon
34:14for morgue attendants
34:15to take plaster casts
34:16before the faces deteriorate
34:18too much to identify.
34:21But how does this one
34:22become one of the most famous
34:24death masks of all time?
34:32Making casts of a dead person's face
34:34sounds macabre today.
34:36But it wasn't always like that.
34:392,000 years ago in Rome,
34:43they are a family affair.
34:46The Greek historian Polybius
34:48in the 2nd century BC
34:49wrote about these things
34:51called imagines maorum.
34:53These are the wax masks
34:55that Romans would make
34:57after someone died.
34:59The idea would be
35:00that at every funeral
35:02they would get these masks out
35:04and wear them as part
35:06of the funerary procession
35:07as a way of remembering
35:09not just the one person
35:11being buried
35:12but making sure
35:12that the entire family
35:13was present.
35:16Kind of exciting
35:17but also a bit creepy.
35:20But as far as we know,
35:22no family comes
35:23to identify and preserve
35:24the mask of this young woman.
35:27Yet she achieves immortality.
35:31She's not the first death mask
35:33to become famous.
35:34Although others
35:37were rather better known
35:39in life.
35:41Oliver Cromwell,
35:42the 17th century general
35:43who overthrew
35:44the English monarchy.
35:46Ludwig von Beethoven,
35:47one of the most revered composers
35:49of the Western world.
35:51And scientist Sir Isaac Newton,
35:53the man who discovered gravity.
35:55These are all historical celebrities.
35:58And for the most famous
36:02celebrity death mask of all,
36:04you have to look to Egypt
36:05almost three and a half thousand years ago
36:08to the death mask
36:10of a king, no less.
36:12Tutankhamen.
36:14The ancient Egyptians believed
36:16that your bar
36:17or your soul
36:19would go into the afterlife
36:20and in order to
36:22identify its body,
36:25so soul and body
36:25can be reunited,
36:27it needed to have
36:28something really visual,
36:29really clear
36:30to identify your body as you.
36:34Tutankhamen's very famous
36:36death mask
36:37is a really, really good example
36:38of that.
36:42But this young girl
36:43is no royal.
36:45She doesn't produce
36:46great works of art
36:47or make world-changing
36:48scientific breakthroughs.
36:50She is the total opposite,
36:53completely unknown.
36:55So why does her death mask
36:56become so famous?
37:01It may just be a question
37:03of right time,
37:04right place.
37:06In Europe,
37:07during the Victorian era,
37:09masks become a key part
37:10of an obsession with death.
37:13They are keepsake reminders
37:15of our mortality,
37:15known as
37:17Memento Mori.
37:19Death masks
37:20were a normal way
37:21of dealing with death.
37:23People have them
37:24about themselves,
37:25have them in their houses,
37:27use them
37:27as little reminders
37:29of the sweetness of life
37:30as well as
37:31the shortness of life.
37:34Like we might keep
37:35the photograph
37:36of somebody who's passed away,
37:38you might keep
37:38a death mask
37:40of your child
37:41that you'd lost.
37:44In this culture,
37:45the plaster mask
37:46of the drowned girl
37:47from the Paris morgue
37:48finds a receptive audience.
37:51She becomes known
37:51as L'Inconnu de la Seine,
37:54the unknown woman
37:55of the Seine.
37:57At the beginning
37:58of the 20th century,
38:00the mask of L'Inconnu de la Seine
38:01was relatively widespread.
38:04Thousands of copies
38:05of her death mask
38:06of her death mask
38:06are made.
38:08Her enigmatic features
38:09capture the imagination
38:10of novelists and poets.
38:13Famous French philosopher
38:14Albert Camus
38:15even compares her smile
38:17to the Mona Lisa.
38:19L'Inconnu de la Seine
38:20became what we would today
38:21call an it girl.
38:22She was known,
38:23she inspired people,
38:25poets,
38:25music,
38:27dance.
38:27But how does a dead
38:31it girl
38:32become the most
38:33kissed face
38:33in the world?
38:39The answer
38:40to this mystery
38:41begins with the search
38:42for a way
38:43to preserve life.
38:48When L'Inconnu's body
38:49is fished out
38:50of the Seine,
38:51resuscitation
38:52is still in its infancy
38:53and there are
38:54some pretty bizarre methods.
38:57People are looking
38:58at many different ways
38:59that you might help
39:00stimulate a person
39:01to bring them back.
39:04One is to whip them
39:05all over
39:06with stinging nettles
39:07that that sort of
39:08would get the blood
39:08moving all over the body
39:10and therefore perhaps
39:11trigger something
39:11into action.
39:14Maybe they could
39:15resuscitate people
39:16by putting you
39:17over a trotting horse
39:18or putting hot ashes
39:21on your skin
39:22which is actually
39:23not the worst idea
39:24because this may
39:25actually wake you up
39:26if you're not really dead.
39:28One idea
39:29is really out there.
39:31A method
39:32that sounds surprising
39:33is to blow
39:34tobacco fumes
39:36inside of the anus
39:37of a person
39:38that you try
39:39to resurrect.
39:41You'd make up
39:41a really strong
39:43concoction
39:43infused with tobacco
39:45and then you'd
39:46introduce it
39:46at the other end
39:47and hope that
39:48that would also
39:49stimulate
39:50and excite
39:52the whole bodily system,
39:54jerk it back
39:55into life.
39:57Unsurprisingly,
39:58none of these methods
39:59really help.
40:01So how does
40:02this face
40:03become part
40:03of the solution?
40:10It isn't until
40:12the 1950s
40:13and the work
40:13of an Austrian
40:14anesthesiologist
40:15that modern medicine
40:17really gets to grips
40:18with resuscitation.
40:19Peter Safar
40:22came up
40:23with the idea
40:23that you could
40:24resuscitate
40:25a person
40:26correctly,
40:27for example,
40:28by putting the head
40:29a little bit
40:29to the back,
40:30giving mouth-to-mouth,
40:32applying chest compression
40:33to get the heart
40:34started again,
40:35so he invented CPR.
40:37Safar reasons
40:38that if everyone
40:39learns these techniques,
40:41more lives
40:41will be saved.
40:42to do that,
40:45he needs a realistic
40:45training model
40:46for people
40:47to practice on.
40:49But no such model
40:50exists
40:51yet.
40:56In 1959,
40:58Dr. Safar
40:58goes to a toy maker,
41:00a Norwegian toy maker
41:01of his acquaintance,
41:02Asmund Layardar.
41:04And Asmund
41:04has a lot of experience
41:05using PVC,
41:06brand new material,
41:07but he thinks
41:07that this might be
41:08the way forward.
41:09and between them
41:11they come up
41:12with a mannequin
41:13which mimics
41:14the basic usage
41:15of a pair of lungs
41:17within a person.
41:21Nearing the end
41:22of the process,
41:23Layardar has his doll,
41:24but it hasn't got
41:25a face at the moment,
41:26so where on earth
41:27is he going to get
41:27one of those?
41:29Layardar wants
41:30a passive,
41:31non-threatening face.
41:33Well, luckily,
41:34at this moment,
41:35he goes and visits
41:35his in-laws
41:37and there,
41:38on the wall,
41:39is hanging
41:40La Cornue de la Seine.
41:42Perfect.
41:44Absolutely perfect.
41:46And this is why
41:47you have the face
41:47of La Cornue de la Seine
41:48on the CPR mannequin.
41:54And the unknown girl
41:56finally gets a name,
41:58Ressussi Anne.
42:00It's estimated
42:01she has been used
42:02to train
42:03more than 500 million
42:04people worldwide
42:05and saved as many
42:08as two and a half
42:09million lives.
42:12A girl who drowned
42:13in the Seine
42:14more than 150 years ago
42:16has become
42:17the most kissed face
42:18in history.
42:20But there's one last twist
42:22to the story
42:23of La Cornue de la Seine.
42:28Her drowned face
42:29is famously picture-perfect.
42:32And that's a problem.
42:35When you die in water
42:37and your body
42:38is resting
42:38or laying in water
42:39for an amount of time,
42:41then your skin
42:42starts to slip
42:43or you get marbling,
42:44which means you have
42:45bacteria in your veins.
42:48And since you don't see that
42:50on the death mask,
42:51some people thought
42:52that maybe
42:53she was not dead.
42:54and that's not
42:56the only
42:57unexplained thing
42:58about her.
42:59One thing
43:00that is mentioned
43:01often is
43:02that when you
43:03look at the eyeballs,
43:04the eyeballs
43:05are not perfectly round.
43:07When your eyes
43:07are shut,
43:08the lens underneath
43:09creates a slight bump
43:11in the eyelid.
43:12Some have suggested
43:13that this bump
43:14is not circular
43:15on La Cornue's face,
43:17as though the eyes
43:18were moving
43:19while the plaster
43:20was setting.
43:22So is this really
43:24the face of a dead woman
43:25or is she just a fiction
43:27built around
43:28an artist's model?
43:30We'll probably
43:30never know for sure.
43:54That's a fiction
44:12that's just a fiction
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