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00:01A trove of artifacts in the Persian Gulf
00:04disrupts the established history of early human migration.
00:08The oldest date back more than 200,000 years.
00:12Why did these early humans choose to come here?
00:15And how did they survive?
00:17On the edge of the unforgiving Gobi Desert,
00:20an abandoned fortress is unearthed,
00:22along with an arsenal of weapons.
00:24There are crossbows made of copper, bronze, and iron,
00:27sword guards, knives.
00:29This place seems to have been armed to the teeth.
00:32But if this was a military fortress, who built it and why?
00:36Near the Valley of Elah,
00:38where David is said to have slain Goliath,
00:40a strange stone is spotted by a young hiker.
00:44She picked it up and told her family
00:46it looked like it had teeth.
00:48This was no ordinary stone.
00:52Ancient lost cities,
00:54forgotten treasures,
00:56mysterious structures,
00:58as new technology uncovers remarkable tales
01:02hidden beneath the deserts of the world.
01:05The secrets in the sand will finally be revealed.
01:09The Emirate of Sharjah extends across the northwestern United Arab Emirates,
01:26stretching east away from the Persian Gulf.
01:30Like much of the UAE,
01:33Sharjah is dominated by incredibly hot weather.
01:36In the summer,
01:37the temperatures average around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:40And the climate is extremely dry,
01:42with only about eight rainy days per year.
01:45Despite the inhospitable climate,
01:48people have been living and thriving in the area for millennia.
01:51Over the years,
01:54Sharjah has become renowned amongst archaeologists
01:56for its Iron and Broads Age tombs and settlements.
02:02About 40 miles inland from the Persian Gulf
02:04is the Jebel Faya site.
02:06It's located on a limestone hill
02:08which forms part of the Al-Hajjar Mountains.
02:11At its northeastern end,
02:13there's this prominent rock shelter
02:15which has turned out to be an archaeological treasure trove.
02:20A team of archaeologists
02:22is excavating the rock shelter site
02:24when they uncover something unexpected.
02:28There's an assemblage of stone tools
02:30primarily made up of long flakes
02:32carefully shaped with sharp parallel edges.
02:36The craftsmanship necessary to produce these tools
02:40tells us they had to have been made by early humans.
02:43But why were these tools left here
02:45abandoned in the rock shelter?
02:48The emergence of stone tools
02:50during the Paleolithic era
02:52came along with a whole host of cultural changes
02:55for anatomically modern humans.
02:59Around the middle Paleolithic era,
03:01Homo sapiens started to develop
03:03more sophisticated shelters.
03:05And that is thought to have led to advances in art,
03:09in sculpture.
03:10And it's even been hypothesized
03:11that this accelerated the evolution of human rituals.
03:17We can't be sure exactly what these rituals were
03:19or what purpose they served,
03:20but there are certain clues.
03:22For instance, looking at many cave paintings,
03:25we can see large animals and hunting scenes,
03:27which could mean that the artworks were created
03:29as a way to bring luck to a group of outgoing hunters.
03:32Similarly, small sculptures might have been made to carry around
03:37as a kind of talisman.
03:39But some of the most convincing evidence
03:41of Paleolithic rituals comes from burials.
03:44One of the most impressive Stone Age tombs
03:49comes from Soongir, just over 100 miles from Moscow.
03:54This is where archaeologists uncovered three graves
03:57belonging to an adult man and two juveniles,
04:00who had been covered with thousands of ivory beads
04:03and red ochre.
04:04As well as the ornaments, the younger two were buried
04:09with over a dozen ivory spears, daggers, and throwing javelins.
04:15We don't know why these weapons were left behind.
04:18They may have been a way to honor the dead.
04:21Or they could even indicate these ancient people
04:24had a belief in the afterlife
04:26and hoped the offerings would travel with their loved ones.
04:31But their presence begs the question,
04:34could the blades found at the Jebel Faya site
04:36have also served some ritual function?
04:42Could this have been a memorial of some sort?
04:46The absence of certain clues from the site in Sharjah
04:49only raises more questions.
04:51With so little else to work with,
04:54the tools are the only real clues
04:56as to who lived here and how the shelter was used.
05:00But they actually tell us a lot.
05:03For example, many of these sharp blades
05:05were produced using a method called the Levallois technique.
05:09Unlike earlier Stone technology,
05:11the Levallois technique showed a high level
05:13of intentional design.
05:16Rather than just randomly chipping bits of rock,
05:19the Levallois technique involved carefully preparing
05:22a large stone called a core.
05:28Once the core was properly sharpened and curved,
05:31one large flake would be chipped away from its center.
05:37This final flake was flat on one side
05:40and had incredibly sharp cutting edges.
05:45Producing Levallois blades left a lot of debris.
05:48From removing the outer layers of larger rocks
05:51to chipping away the final product.
05:55We can see traces of all these different steps
05:57in the debris at Jebel Faya,
05:59which tells us that this rock shelter
06:01was likely used as a center for blade production.
06:05Kind of like a workshop.
06:07The sophistication of these tools reveals crucial information
06:11about where these ancient Homo sapiens came from.
06:16The Levallois technique most likely originated in East Africa
06:20and actually predates Homo sapiens.
06:24The oldest known examples of that technique
06:26come from a sedimentary sequence called the Kapthurin Formation
06:30in Kenya and are more than 400,000 years old.
06:33Over the course of millennia, Homo sapiens adopted this technique
06:38and carried it with them as they began to migrate out of Africa.
06:42So it's likely the people who set up shop in the Jebel Faya shelter
06:46were among these early human migrants.
06:48The team conducts further analysis using optically stimulated luminescence
06:55to date the objects.
06:58Optically stimulated luminescence, or OSL,
07:01measures the natural radiation in various minerals
07:04to find out when a sample was last exposed to sunlight.
07:11The results in this case demonstrated that these tools
07:14date back roughly 80,000 years.
07:18This means that Jebel Faya contains the oldest known examples
07:23of systematic blade production in the entire Arabian Peninsula.
07:28And not only that, the stone tools aren't even the oldest evidence
07:32of human occupation found here.
07:37The oldest assemblages at Jebel Faya date back more than 200,000 years.
07:43This challenges mainstream interpretations of early human history,
07:46which often placed the main migrations of humans out of Africa
07:50between 70,000 and 50,000 years ago.
07:55But this prompts the question, why did these early humans choose to come here?
07:59And how did they survive?
08:00Critical insight into the world of these ancient humans comes from a different rock formation
08:14called the Al-Huta Cave in Oman.
08:18Today, huge swaths of the Arabian Peninsula are covered by desert.
08:23But tens of thousands of years ago, it looked really different.
08:27Inside the Al-Huta Cave, there are these stalagmites, which only form when rainwater seeps through the ground
08:33and drips down gradually, building up into these tall mineral deposits.
08:39Samples taken from the cave show that between 82 and 78,000 years ago,
08:45the stalagmites experienced this period of rapid growth.
08:50And that suggests more water, which suggests a wetter climate.
08:54Looking back over tens of thousands of years, we find evidence of streams and rivers carving their way through the region,
09:03leaving distinct channels in the desert landscape to this day.
09:07This abundance of water would have been invaluable for early human migrants
09:12and may well have attracted them here as they followed available water resources into new territory.
09:18The absence of any human remains at the Jebel Faya site tells us that these early humans may not have stayed in the area long before moving on.
09:29But even so, they went to the trouble of setting up a fairly sophisticated tool production system.
09:36This shows that these blades were very important.
09:41But what were they being used for?
09:42The search for answers invites us to imagine the world from the perspectives of these ancient travelers.
09:52When Homo sapiens began to migrate across new continents, they faced a world full of danger.
09:59Not only were they going to have to hunt to survive, they may well have had to defend themselves against attacks from hyenas, cave cats, and even wolves.
10:09On top of the dangerous carnivores, these early modern humans also faced competition with their cousins, the Neanderthals.
10:20Neanderthals are thought to have evolved mostly outside of Africa, spreading throughout Europe hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens ever got there.
10:32For a long time, they just dominated those landscapes.
10:35As early modern humans began to cross paths with Neanderthals, they relied on their stone technology to help them compete for resources.
10:45It was several thousand years before Homo sapiens eventually out-competed Neanderthals.
10:50Thanks in large part to their advanced tools like the ones discovered in the rock shelter at Jebel Faya.
10:57Layer by layer, the excavations at Jebel Faya continue to reveal traces of our earliest modern ancestors and their ancient migration routes long hidden beneath the sand, waiting to be discovered.
11:11Bayan Khungor province stretches over 40,000 square miles across southwestern Mongolia.
11:28The province lies northwest of the Gobi Desert, one of the largest deserts in the world.
11:34Unlike many sandy deserts, the Gobi is characterized as a winter desert because of its extreme weather.
11:40The summers are blisteringly hot, well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
11:46But the winters are the polar opposite, often plunging down to minus 40 degrees.
11:50That harsh climate has a huge impact on Bayan Khungor.
11:57Like the Gobi, the province is incredibly dry and endures these long, frigid winters.
12:03But as you head north toward the foothills of the Khangai Mountains, the landscape starts to shift.
12:09It becomes less sandy and more rocky, opening up into these vast plains.
12:14A team of archaeologists is working in the northwestern district of Bayan Bulag when they unearth a surprise.
12:24They found the remains of an old structure, specifically two massive walls made of rammed earth.
12:34It's an ancient building technique that involves compacting damp soil and clay until it becomes extremely dense.
12:41These walls were incredibly durable, well insulated and even fireproof.
12:49There are several chambers associated with the walls, which look like barracks or some kind of bunkers.
12:56And inside are all kinds of weapons.
13:00There are crossbows made of copper, bronze and iron, sword guards, knives and pieces of iron armor.
13:07But if this was a military fortress, who built it and why?
13:12The answers may lie in the pages of one of the most important historical documents ever written.
13:18A record known as the Shiji.
13:21It's difficult to overstate the importance of the Shiji, which is also known as the records of the Grand Historian of China.
13:32It was written more than 2,000 years ago by a man named Sima Qian, who served as a grand historian to the Emperor Wu Di.
13:39Wu Di was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty and one of the most influential.
13:45Under his reign, the Han Dynasty dramatically expanded its influence and developed a strong, centralized state.
13:52Before the Shiji existed, independent states would chronicle their own histories, which could often be confusing and conflict with one another.
14:03This was the first time a historian took the time to sift through these accounts and organize them into a coherent structure.
14:12This process took Sima Qian almost two decades.
14:19And by the time he had finished the Shiji, it covered roughly 2,000 years of Chinese history.
14:26In the record, there are references to a military structure built in southern Mongolia during the Han Dynasty, around 104 BCE.
14:35The fortress was called Shoujiangchong, which roughly translates to fortification for receiving surrender.
14:43Its exact location has been debated for centuries, but the discovery at Bayan Bulag seems to fit the profile.
14:51Could these be the ruins of the very same fortress?
14:55The archaeologists working at the Bayan Bulag site come upon a second, far more chilling discovery.
15:02The team was digging in a second pit, close to the fortress, when they began to notice bones sticking out of the earth.
15:11But this wasn't just one body. As they started to excavate the skeletons, they realized what they were looking at was a mass grave.
15:18The skeletons are tightly mixed together and they're hard to disentangle, but based on the number of skulls, it looks like there are at least 17 individuals buried here.
15:32The clay surrounding the bodies preserved their positions, and it seems as though many were kneeling when they were killed.
15:41One of the victims appeared to have been laying down, attempting to cover or defend himself with his hands when his legs and arms were cut off.
15:50All of the skeletons show signs of dismemberment or amputation, and that's not all.
15:58The bones also bear the scars of sharp and blunt force trauma, painting a picture of a group that died an exceptionally violent death.
16:06But who were they?
16:07The long forgotten grave at the Bayan Bulag site isn't the only astonishing burial in the region.
16:24Just over 200 miles northeast of Bayan Bulag, in the Under-Ulan district of Arkhangai province, archaeologists discovered the remains of another extraordinary resting place, known today as Gol Mod 2.
16:40The Gol Mod 2 site isn't so much a grave as a necropolis.
16:45Over the years, roughly 400 graves have been uncovered here.
16:48They are carefully arranged, with the largest and grandest elite tombs surrounded by smaller satellite burials, which suggest a clear social hierarchy.
16:57Inside the elite tombs, there were elaborate grave goods, including gold and silver ornaments, silk, and impressive felt rugs.
17:07Gol Mod 2 is one of ten enormous necropolis scattered across Mongolia and Russia.
17:13These huge complexes belonged to an ancient civilization known as the Xiongnu.
17:19They were a nomadic people who dominated the Eurasian steppe for over 500 years.
17:25They were actually a confederacy of nomadic tribes, but they banded together to fight against the Chinese, who were expanding from the south.
17:33The Xiongnu were formidable fighters, both expert horseback riders and archers.
17:40They formed armies of up to 300,000 mounted warriors, strong enough to pose an existential threat to China's northern borders.
17:51The Xiongnu rose in power roughly alongside the Han Dynasty, and the two kingdoms went on to fight a series of wars over the course of two centuries, from about 133 BCE to 89 CE.
18:07During Emperor Rudi's reign, tensions between the Han and Xiongnu escalated sharply.
18:16The Han military began to build more infrastructure than ever to fight against the Xiongnu's nomadic army.
18:23According to the Shijing, one of these fortresses was the Shoujiangcheng.
18:28Based on its location, the Bayun Belog fortress may well be the Shoujiangcheng, built to defend Han territory from incoming Xiongnu attacks.
18:41The mass grave could well be the result of one of these clashes.
18:44But one question remains, which side do these bodies belong to?
18:49The archaeologists working in Bayun Belog began to spy clues that could point to where these soldiers came from.
18:57Rather than digging a new grave for these bodies, it looks like the people burying them took advantage of a hole that was already available.
19:03The pit they were found in was a mine beforehand, and it was only repurposed as a grave after the massacre.
19:12So it definitely seems like an undignified resting place.
19:17Combine that with the level of violence inflicted on the victims, and you can see this hypothesis that maybe these were the bodies of enemy soldiers who had been taken prisoner.
19:26But other clues point to a different possibility.
19:32Alongside the bodies, the team discovered other objects, including shards of Han-style pottery, an iron halberd, and a clay seal with the mark of a Han official.
19:45These artifacts suggest that these men weren't Xiongnu soldiers taken to the fortress,
19:51but actually Han soldiers killed near their own fortress and buried next to it.
19:59To confirm the identities of these forgotten soldiers, the archaeologists gather forensic evidence from the mass burial for testing.
20:07Using samples pulled from the bones and teeth, they confirmed that these skeletons all belong to men of military age, between 20 and 50 years old.
20:16These samples were then compared to a set of modern East Asian populations, which established that the individuals were genetically closer to Han descendants than any other group.
20:29This single discovery sheds new light on the chaos of the burial itself.
20:33It's possible that the Xiongnu riders managed to lay siege to the fortress, successfully attacking and killing some of the men stationed there.
20:40These deaths were intentionally violent. At the time, death by dismemberment was considered the most shameful way to die, and the Xiongnu appeared to have inflicted as much shame on their victims as possible.
20:53But that isn't the end of the story. Once these Han soldiers had been killed, their comrades actually gathered their dismembered bodies, collecting the pieces of severed arms and legs to be buried all together.
21:10Chinese beliefs at the time, like those in a lot of other cultures even today, dictate that bodies should be buried whole to rest peacefully in the afterlife.
21:18So, this gesture might have meant a great deal.
21:22The Bayon Belag Fortress remains the only example of a mass grave from the Han-Xiongnu Wars, an enduring reminder of a long forgotten conflict between two of Asia's most powerful ancient civilizations.
21:37Located between the Judean mountains and the Mediterranean coast, Israel's Shvela region runs roughly 35 miles long and 8 miles wide.
21:59Shvela is a transition zone between the highlands of Jerusalem and Hebron and the coastal plain.
22:08It's made up of gently rolling hills and sandy plateaus, and it has a varied semi-arid climate.
22:13So, while it can get cool in the winter, the summer months are dry and hot, and it receives between just 10 and 20 inches of rain all year.
22:22Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Shvela going back as far as 3500 years, to the Bronze Age.
22:32That was followed by centuries of rising and falling populations, including a strong Canaanite enclave of over 50,000 settlers.
22:40And like much of the surrounding area, the region continued to be populated during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods.
22:46But the lowlands of Shvela are best known for being the site of the ancient city of Telazica.
22:55Which played a prominent role in several biblical texts, including the battle between David and Goliath.
23:05After the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE, Telazica was one of only two fortified cities that remained.
23:13And during the Hasmonean dynasty, from 140 to 116 BCE, a second fortress was built by King John Hyrcanus, the remains of which can still be seen today.
23:26Despite this long history of occupation and settlement, Telazica and its surroundings were eventually abandoned until the late 1800s, when it was rediscovered by British archaeologists.
23:37Making it one of the first biblical sites ever excavated in Israel.
23:43A family is out for a hike in the Shvela foothills, when they make an incredible discovery.
23:50They were walking along a sandy dirt trail, when a small rock caught the attention of the young daughter.
23:55She picked it up and told her family it looked like it had teeth.
24:00Which was probably the first indication that this was no ordinary stone.
24:05When they brushed the residual sand and dirt away, they saw that what looked like teeth marks were intricate markings.
24:13The engravings of a beautifully crafted amulet or talisman.
24:16But where did it come from, and how long has it been here?
24:29A family is out for a hike when they make an incredible discovery.
24:35It wouldn't be the first time a young explorer stumbled upon an ancient artifact in Israel.
24:40A 13-year-old boy was on a hike with his family close to Herbet Shalala, an archeological site near Mount Carmel in Haifa.
24:51The boy picked up what he thought was a rusty old metal bolt.
24:56It was round, green, and slightly corroded.
24:59But a closer look revealed it was a bronze ring with an engraving of a human figure holding a spear like a warrior.
25:07When the family turned it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority, they identified the ring as being nearly 2,000 years old, from the late Roman period.
25:18The engraving was the image of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and war, known to the Greeks as Athena.
25:26The exact provenance of the ring remained a mystery, but several intriguing possibilities were considered.
25:33It might have belonged to a woman who lived on a farm on Herbet Shalala, or a worker at the nearby rock quarry.
25:43Or it may have been used as an offering at one of the many burial sites close by.
25:48Depictions of Minerva were extremely popular during the Roman Empire, but not many have been recovered in present-day Israel.
25:58So is it possible the amulet in the Shvela foothills was from around the same era?
26:02The amulet is tested to determine its age, with surprising results.
26:10It's from roughly 1800 BCE, corresponding to the Middle Bronze Age, which is almost two millennia before the Roman Empire expanded into what's known as the Southern Levant.
26:23The people who lived in the Southern Levant during the Bronze Age were referred to in ancient biblical text as the Canaanites, who likely were descendants of various nomadic Neolithic tribes.
26:37And although they lived in different city-states, including the city of Azekah, the Canaanites were culturally and genetically very similar.
26:44Much of what we know about the Canaanites comes from records left by the people they encountered.
26:52Some of the most detailed surviving records come from the Hebrew Bible, and additional information comes from artifacts recovered from archeological sites where the Canaanites are thought to have lived.
27:03A recently discovered Canaanite artifact points to a possible origin story for the Shvela amulet.
27:10Once again, the discovery was made by a junior archeologist.
27:17In this case, a seven-year-old boy who was exploring a section of Tel Rahav in the Jordan Valley with his father and a group of friends.
27:24The boy was climbing an archeological mound when he came across a stone that had shifted, and he saw the image of a person covered in dirt.
27:31When he brushed away the soil, the stone turned out to be a clay figurine in the shape of a woman, likely created by pressing soft clay into a mold.
27:44It was identified as being roughly 3,400 years old, and was typical of Canaanite artifacts from the 15th to the 13th century BCE.
27:54It was believed the figurine belonged to one of the residents of the ancient city of Rahav, and that the figure depicted was either that of a real flesh and blood woman, or a representation of the fertility goddess Astarte, referenced in several Canaanite sources, as well as in the Bible.
28:14So given that the figurine's unique design helped place it both historically and geographically, maybe the key to determining the amulet's origin might be found in its engravings.
28:28A close examination of the amulet's intricate design leads to a critical clue.
28:35The flat side of the stone has a beautifully rendered engraving of a scarab, which has origins going back to ancient Egypt.
28:45Scarab beetles, or dung beetles, lay their eggs in balls of dung from which a new generation emerges.
28:52The Egyptians saw this as a powerful symbol of rebirth, and an incarnation of their sun god, Kepri.
29:01A beetle rolling a ball of dung was associated with Kepri rolling the disk of the sun across the celestial universe.
29:10Scarab imagery appeared in many different forms in ancient Egypt.
29:15As amulets, a scarab beetle could be made from precious metals like gold and faience.
29:20They were worn as pins or jewelry for protection and to ensure a safe passage into the afterlife.
29:27A scarab talisman was frequently placed on the hearts of mummies as a symbol of eternal life.
29:34The scarab also appeared in hieroglyphic form on the walls of Egyptian tombs and burial sites.
29:39So, if the discovered amulet features imagery with Egyptian roots, is it possible that Egypt had some kind of cultural or religious influence over the Canaanites?
29:53The discovery of a Canaanite temple reveals the most likely explanation for the Shphela scarab.
30:02At the very top of the ancient city of Azekah, the ruins of a temple that appeared to have been built to greet the rising sun were discovered.
30:13The Late Bronze Age compound features an open-air sanctuary with a stone-paved platform that offered a spectacular eastward view of the Valley of Elah, the setting of the duel between David and Goliath.
30:26While worship of the sun and various sun gods has been a feature of Egyptian spiritual life throughout its long history, it was inside the temple walls where the biggest collection of evidence was found.
30:40Several of the temple chambers contained cultic objects that blended Egyptian and Canaanite elements, including a bronze statue of a Canaanite storm god and an amulet made from a mineral unavailable in Canaan, which would have been imported from Egypt.
30:57The amulet's back was covered with hieroglyphs, while the front depicted a triad of Egyptian deities, the sun god Ra, the lord of war and mischief, Seth, and the sky goddess, Hathor.
31:11Taken together, the findings suggest a strong influence of ancient Egyptian culture on Canaanite religious practices.
31:19And this is in line with the historical record. Canaanites, like others in the region, were fascinated by many aspects of Egyptian culture. They often imported or imitated their food, clothing, and even luxury items such as jewelry and personal talismans like the one found on the Shphela hiking trail.
31:38Plucked from thousands, a single stone reveals just one of the many hidden stories buried in the former land of Judea.
31:51Discoveries like the Shphela amulet strengthen our understanding of the ancient connection between the Egyptian and Canaanite civilizations.
32:08With a population of over half a million, Iraq's bustling city of Nazaria lies on the lower Euphrates River, around 225 miles south of Baghdad.
32:25Founded in the late 18th century by a tribal confederation called the Muntafi, Nazaria's hostile climate did not stop the city from growing into an important hub for transportation and industry.
32:37But the history of the surrounding area goes back much further over 5,000 years as the location of the ancient city of Lagash.
32:48Lagash is known for being one of the first urban centers of the Sumerian civilization of Iraq.
32:54What was then called Mesopotamia between the sixth and fifth millennium BCE.
32:59Today, it's one of the largest archeological sites in the region.
33:02And its excavations have provided critical insights into the Sumerian people.
33:08A team of archeologists is working at Lagash when they make a rare discovery.
33:14In the southern half of the site, they noticed traces of waste material from the manufacturing of ceramics and pottery.
33:20And when they continued to dig beneath the elevated sections of the Sandy Plateau, they unearthed a large square trench containing six kilns for producing ceramics, all right next to one another.
33:34The lower half of the kilns had oval pits made from baked mud brick.
33:42No upper portions remained, but it was determined that the tops were likely domed and made from the same mud and clay that lined them.
33:50Just west of the kiln pits was an open space with benches and a table, most likely used by the ceramic makers.
33:58The discovery of one kiln in Lagash is not unusual in the context of a domestic dwelling.
34:07In fact, in a nearby open square, a kitchen space had already been excavated to reveal clay jar stoppers, a grinding stone, and a toilet several rooms over.
34:19But what makes this find so compelling is the six kilns together, which suggests an organized and concentrated approach to ceramic production.
34:33Is it possible the kiln trench is just part of a larger industrial complex?
34:39For most of the third millennium, Lagash was one of the largest cities in all of southern Mesopotamia.
34:45Its strategic location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was the key to its growth as a major political and religious capital of Sumer.
34:55In the early dynastic period, 2900 BCE to 2350 BCE, the rulers of Lagash called themselves kings.
35:04Technically, that was a bit of an exaggeration because this city-state was never officially included in the Sumerian kingship.
35:10Not surprisingly, most of the recovered artifacts and architecture of Lagash have focused on the city's powerful rulers and elites.
35:20This has left many questions about the lives of the often overlooked middle class citizens who made up most of the population of Lagash and lived in the section of the city where the kilns were discovered.
35:31An expanded survey of the area surrounding the kiln site leads to surprising results.
35:38There was a large courtyard space nearby, but it was difficult to excavate having already been compromised by exposure.
35:45So, a new cutting-edge technique called microstratigraphic sampling was applied where high-tech tools are used to uncover the surface in thin sections one by one.
36:00The approach paid off. Just 19 inches below the initial surface, there was another kitchen area, including an oven, storage vessels for food, and more benches and tables dating to roughly 2,700 BCE.
36:18But the most curious thing was the sheer number of benches and the size of the eating area.
36:25This was no single dwelling dining room. It was an open-air public space dedicated to feeding many people at one sitting.
36:35So, was this some 5,000-year-old Sumerian food court or tavern dedicated to feeding the hungry masses of Lagash?
36:48As the excavation of the Lagash site continues, it wouldn't be the first time that an archaeological dig led to the discovery of what was thought to be an ancient tavern.
37:02If you want a really good look at the dining habits of the Romans, look no further than the excavated remains of a large communal space in Latte, France.
37:11This place is more recent. It dates to about 75 BCE, but it probably reflects what life was like in Lagash, too.
37:19The French site includes these three indoor grist mills and three ovens for baking flatbread.
37:26So, it was initially believed that these were the remains of a bakery.
37:29But further digging revealed the presence of several benches and a charcoal-burning hearth, along with pieces of large bowls and platters.
37:41Suddenly, it looked less like a takeout bakery and more like a dining establishment where the locals could sit and share a meal.
37:50The findings also provided insight into the foods that would have been featured on the menu, since bones from fish, sheep and cattle were also found on the site.
38:03The discovery cast a critical light on the history of the world's earliest restaurants.
38:08According to a recent study, the first establishments to sell food and drinks to the public began to emerge around 1550 CE in Constantinople.
38:20If it could be proven that this 2,000-year-old Roman tavern was a commercial enterprise, then it would challenge the previous record.
38:29However, the absence of any coins from the period at the site made it virtually impossible to verify.
38:35Maybe the discovery at Lagash would prove different.
38:39As the excavation of the Lagash site continues, compelling new evidence comes to light.
38:45Across from where the oven was discovered, there's a large circular half-buried structure containing a pot and layers of pottery shards.
38:52This was identified as a zeer, an underground cooling device similar to a refrigerator that was used to keep foods and drinks cool.
39:00There were also additional benches and shelves found close to the oven.
39:06Now, those shelves had collapsed, but each one had four levels, some of them stacked with conical bowls.
39:14And in some of those bowls, you could still find the remains of fish and other food.
39:18But the biggest surprise was revealed when three levels of a second building were discovered to the east of the large kitchen area.
39:31This building had an industrial-sized oven, a large basin made from baked brick, and several ceramic vats.
39:38In other words, all the necessary ingredients for a brewery.
39:45There was even a recipe for beer found on a cuneiform tablet.
39:51So at this stage, it's safe to call the gathering place a bona fide tavern.
39:56There was a public courtyard with benches and tables, a kitchen area with an oven, storage vessels for food, and a refrigeration unit.
40:05And of course, the brewery to the east.
40:08And at roughly 4,800 years old, it would also be the oldest known tavern in recorded history.
40:16But was the ancient tavern also a business, engaging in commerce of some kind?
40:21Or was it purely for social congregation?
40:23A closer look at the city's growth pattern offers an important clue.
40:28The Sumerians in Lagash were so successful at domesticating crops that it led to a food surplus.
40:35But it also led to the emergence of a new social class not directly involved in food production.
40:41In this case, a middle class that had a sizable degree of independence, that made decisions, that had both agency and mobility.
40:48The presence of the tavern offers this snapshot of a public gathering space where people could sit down, have a pint of beer, and a little bit of fish stew.
40:58This place suggests that the middle class didn't necessarily have wealth, but they did have money.
41:04Presumably, that's how they paid for their food here, and also at the site in France.
41:09The middle class of Lagash eventually developed trades, produced and exchanged goods, and became artisans and craftsmen.
41:20And one can easily imagine they went to the tavern to unwind after a long day of work.
41:27The initial discovery of the six kilns close by supports the image of a group of ceramicists who were no doubt thirsty after toiling over their hot kilns in the desert.
41:40The incredible tavern of Lagash is an important addition to our understanding of the Sumerian civilization, and a challenge to many historical perspectives.
41:52It suggests the lives of those who built the city were more varied, nuanced, and social than previously believed.
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