- 2 days ago
Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo - Season 2 Episode 5 -
Famous Finds
Famous Finds
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under our own feet.
00:22And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:30Tonight, famous discoveries from a missing masterpiece.
00:36Out of nowhere, members of the media begin calling Susan, asking, where did you find it?
00:41And most importantly, did she know what she had?
00:44To an incredible national treasure.
00:47As the appraiser starts reading, some familiar words start to jump out at them.
00:52But there's more, because at the bottom there's a signature.
00:56To one of the most famous lost ships of all time.
01:00This is the holy grail of found shipwrecks.
01:04People have been searching for it for over 70 years.
01:08Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:12We've all done it.
01:24Borrowed a book and forgot to return it.
01:26For one family, this slip-up leads to finding a long-lost literary treasure.
01:33In 1990, Barbara Testa is going through some old boxes and bags in her attic.
01:43As she digs and rummages through the clutter, she comes across some old family letters and some of her grandmother's handwritten poems in an old steamer trunk.
01:52It's a sentimental and nostalgic trip through family history.
01:57But then Barbara pauses.
01:59Tucked between the familiar stories and memories are pages in a handwriting she doesn't recognize.
02:08As she's reading the pages, they appear to be a part of a manuscript, and the words are becoming more and more familiar.
02:16Right is right, and wrong is wrong.
02:18And a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and knows better.
02:24Barbara's uncovered a handwritten manuscript of Mark Twain's masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
02:34Barbara reaches out to Sotheby's, who sends an armored truck to her home to collect the book.
02:41Sotheby's works with the Mark Twain Papers Project at UC Berkeley.
02:45They compare the handwriting style and structure to other authenticated Mark Twain manuscripts.
02:52Sure enough, the handwriting matches perfectly.
02:55But there's a twist.
02:57It's only half the book.
02:59The rest is missing.
03:01So how did this part end up in Barbara's attic, and where's the rest?
03:06Barbara tells the researchers that her grandfather, James Fraser Gluck, was the curator of a library in Buffalo, New York.
03:14And the man was a zealous collector.
03:17He was collecting manuscripts from some of the world's most famous writers, people like Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott.
03:24And everything he collected, he donated to the library.
03:29Researchers discover that back in the mid-1880s, Gluck had contacted Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, requesting the manuscript for his collection.
03:40Twain, who was a former resident of Buffalo, New York, agreed to send Gluck the handwritten manuscript of a Huckleberry Finn, but he only finds the second half of the book.
03:50So that's what he sends over to Gluck, which remains in the library to this day.
03:54And that's where the story is thought to end.
03:58But it turns out, in 1887, unbeknownst to everybody, Twain did find the first half, and he sent it to Gluck.
04:06Except for some reason, it never makes it into the Buffalo Library's collection to join the second half of the book.
04:12We do know that Gluck died suddenly in 1897, and the whereabouts of the manuscript were unknown.
04:20It's not until Barbara's discovery, over 100 years later, that the lost half is found.
04:27One rare book collector calls it the greatest literary find of the 20th century.
04:33Twain lovers are ecstatic, and so are Barbara and her sister, who plan on auctioning it off to make a pretty penny.
04:40But before the bidding even starts, they get a notice from the Buffalo Public Library, claiming they own the rights to Barbara's half of the manuscript.
04:50While Barbara wants to sell the book, the library wants to keep it with the other half in their collection.
04:57After some legal back and forth, the two sides finally reach a deal.
05:02Barbara and her sister get a finder's fee of $1 million, and the library promises to put Twain's complete manuscript on display,
05:10just as her grandfather intended.
05:12So all in all, everybody ends up getting what they want, 114 years later.
05:18Meanwhile, another crew isn't digging through paper.
05:21They're pulling something far stranger from the ground.
05:25It's 1872 in Los Angeles, and Major Henry Hancock has set up an operation quarrying natural asphalt from his property.
05:40Large pools of the black, sticky liquid are all over his ranch near the surface, and there's a big demand for the substance right now.
05:50It's needed to pave roads, tar roofs.
05:53Los Angeles, at this time, is a growing city.
05:55But as workers start digging out the tar, they come across a large bone.
06:03Then they find another.
06:06Then dozens.
06:07Then hundreds.
06:09Then thousands.
06:11This land used to be a Spanish ranchero, so people first assume that these are the remains of cattle or horses that accidentally stumbled into the tar.
06:24Hancock wants to know just what is going on, so he calls his geologist friend named William Denton to come and take a look.
06:32Denton looks at many of the fossil bones and starts to realize they're too large, not shaped correctly for cattle at all.
06:40Denton also finds a very large fossilized tooth, much bigger than any mountain lion or other cat native to the area.
06:49After further research, he determines that the tooth fossil comes from a saber-toothed cat that went extinct in this area over 9,000 years ago.
07:01The discovery is fascinating, and it's just the beginning.
07:05Over the years, more massive bones are unearthed.
07:09Then, in 1901, a geologist named W.W. Orcut takes over, and he's determined to find even more.
07:18He sets up a major excavation and research operation to remove and catalog the thousands of bones that are still being pulled from the asphalt.
07:29Orcut and his team find skeletons from thousands of different species, all from the Pleistocene Epoch between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago.
07:39These include mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and other massive megafauna that ruled the world during the Ice Age.
07:50The area eventually gets named the La Brea Tar Pits, and it's a gold mine, one of the biggest deposits of prehistoric bones in the world.
08:01But how did so many end up in one spot?
08:04Researchers believe that animals were lured to the area to drink from nearby streams, and then would get trapped in the black, sticky substance.
08:13Researchers have even found bones from entire families, meaning they obviously got caught together and perished in this tarry trap.
08:23Exploration of the area continues for decades.
08:27Then, in 2006, another project stirs up something brand new.
08:34The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, next door to the La Brea Tar Pits, decides that they want to build an underground parking garage.
08:42They bring in these cranes and heavy earth movers to begin the task, and as soon as they do, what do they find?
08:49But, you guessed it, more bones.
08:52All together, the workers uncover 16 new fossil deposits.
08:58But by far, the most important discovery is an 80% intact adult mammoth skeleton.
09:06This is the most complete set of mammoth remains to come out of the tar pits, and one of the most complete adult specimens ever found anywhere in the world.
09:15The animal is given the affectionate name Zed.
09:19Researchers determined that he died around the age of 48, nearly 37,000 years in the past, probably from injuries sustained fighting over a mate.
09:29Today, you can go see Zed at the La Brea Tar Pit Museum, one of the most famous natural sites in Los Angeles, and one that attracts around 400,000 visitors every year.
09:40Antiques, old clothes, dusty heirlooms.
09:48That's all one woman thought she'd find, cleaning out her dad's house.
09:51But what she had covered turns out to be worth far more than just memories.
09:59It's 2004 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Susan Hendry Chereau is going through the belongings of her late father, Basil Hendry Sr.
10:08they're going through antiques and old clothing and some religious artwork that he had collected
10:15susan keeps a few paintings that have sentimental value and then assigns the rest to a pile that
10:22she's willing to sell including a dark old gloomy painting of jesus christ so a year passes and
10:32susan finally gets around to having these paintings appraised the appraiser isn't really
10:36blown away by any of them but he thinks that that one of jesus could maybe get 750 from the right
10:42collector the piece has been heavily over painted maybe even multiple times it looks almost cartoonish
10:50plus the painting's condition is deteriorating so susan is eager to get rid of it and she puts it
10:57up for auction when the painting hits the auction floor something happens that shocks everyone the
11:04bidding starts low but several paddles go up blasting past the 750 mark they start going above
11:13two thousand dollars three thousand dollars and eventually this painting sells for roughly ten
11:20thousand dollars ten grand isn't going to change her life but it's certainly a lot more than she'd
11:25hoped to get from cleaning out some of the old family belongings so susan pockets the money and
11:30she really doesn't think much more about it a few years later susan's phone starts ringing off the
11:37hook out of nowhere members of the media begin calling susan asking her about this jesus painting
11:43that she sold at auction they asked where did you find it where did it come from and most importantly
11:49did she know what she had to most it looked like just another old painting but as the new owners
11:56embark on a skilled restoration a very different story comes to light as they clean it up and remove
12:04the dark layers of paint on the surface a new different image starts to be revealed
12:11the group takes infrared photographs to get a better look at this image that's peeking through
12:17they see what's called a pentimento which is basically a tracing of an earlier piece
12:22there's a version underneath the painting where jesus's thumb is straight instead of in a curved
12:29position based on this the new owners believe they've uncovered a lost work from one of the most
12:36famous artists of all time leonardo da vinci as it's carefully restored the piece becomes easily
12:44recognizable as a missing da vinci known as salvator monday which translates to the savior of the world
12:51the revelation sparks a flurry of headlines how did such an important work of art end up in baton
12:59rouges louisiana susan believes that her father acquired the painting from her aunt millie but no one
13:08ever mentioned that this painting was anything overtly special with little to go on experts dig deeper
13:16to better connect the dots researchers track down records from a sotheby's auction in 1958 featuring the
13:24estate of james cook the grandson of famous british art collector sir francis cook sure enough there's a
13:31record of aunt millie buying this painting for 45 pounds roughly 120 bucks once it's fully restored
13:40the salvator mundi goes back up for auction in 2017 so this time a member of the saudi royal family
13:51buys it at auction for 450 million dollars making this once discarded painting the most valuable piece of art in
14:04world history you'd think if you were spending almost a half a billion dollars on a painting
14:10you'd want to show it off but nobody's seen it since the sale the rumor is that it is in a high security
14:18vault somewhere in switzerland and with the history of the salvador mundi of appearing and disappearing
14:24you may never see it again or maybe we will
14:30in 2012 another revered piece of history falls into one woman's lap
14:39marie malciotti who is a book conservation technician at brown university's library is going through
14:48a recent donation from the estate of solomon drown who graduated from brown in the year
14:541773 and while going through a book that was published in 1811 called the modern practice of
15:03physics she finds something unusual a little slip of paper is tucked in the back she carefully unfolds
15:11the paper and she sees a depiction of jesus's baptism by john the baptist but at the bottom she notices
15:18an inscription that says p revere sculpt malciotti can't believe her eyes she knows that sculpt in a
15:27signature stands for sculpts it which is latin for he engraved it and she sees the name p revere so she
15:36started thinking to herself there's no way that this could be the paul revere from the revolutionary war
15:42most americans know from school that in april 1775 paul revere was responsible for warning the
15:50colonists that the british military was on their way less well known is the fact that before he became
15:57a celebrated patriot revere made copper plate engravings for books and magazines arguably his most
16:06famous engraving was the boston massacre in 1770 which was used as a key piece of propaganda for the
16:14american revolutionary war effort but this piece is a little different this etching is of a religious
16:20nature it depicts jesus being fully submerged in the jordan river by john the baptist the piece is titled
16:28buried with him by baptism for more insight malciotti brings the etching to richard noble the brown
16:37university library's rare material cataloger noble first examines the paper itself he holds the paper up
16:45to the light and he sees a rib structure which is a telltale sign of 18th century paper then noble moves
16:52on to his next area of focus looking at who solomon drown actually was the alumnus who owned that
17:00collection of books it turns out that he was a contemporary of reveres so the age of the books as
17:07well as the etching they both line up finally noble discovers that there are actually four other copies of
17:16this etching attributed to paul revere so he calls the american antiquarian society and the worcester art
17:21museum to have this copy compared to the others sure enough they're a match so it's an authentic
17:29paul revere etching but there is one difference between this one and the other copies this is the
17:35only one with the full plate mark visible making it extremely rare the exact value of this etching isn't
17:42known but other revere works including one of the boston massacre have sold for over four hundred
17:49thousand dollars at auction and this one is even more unique now while this incredible engraving has
17:56been featured in numerous exhibits you can actually go see it today whether you're a history buff or a
18:02paul revere enthusiast it's at the john hay library of brown university by appointment only
18:08imagine it's 1799 you're a young french soldier digging near a dusty fort in egypt when your shovel
18:20hits something strange a stone slab covered in symbols no one can read what it meant and who left it
18:28they're puzzles historians for decades
18:31july 1799 napoleon and his army are marching across egypt
18:40conquering everything inside
18:44after the army takes the town of rasheed they begin to construct a fort laying claim to this area
18:52under the blazing sun the soldiers are digging a foundation for the fort when they strike something
19:00unexpected in the sand a large black stone
19:07this isn't the kind of stone that you skip across a pond this one is almost four feet tall
19:14two and a half feet wide and it weighs over 1600 pounds
19:18these soldiers have no idea what they're looking at so they call over a superior officer
19:23this army officer is not an archaeologist but he notices the stone is covered in strange inscriptions
19:33he tells his soldiers to dig it out and they bring it straight to napoleon
19:38napoleon gathers some of his best scholars to try and figure out what it says
19:45these scholars have never seen anything like this but what they are able to determine is that
19:50the inscriptions look like three distinct languages
19:54one of these languages is ancient greek which these experts can read
19:58and it translates to some kind of text about an ancient pharaoh's accomplishments
20:03the other symbols look like hieroglyphics and demotic script
20:08demotic script being a kind of ancient egyptian language used by ordinary people but now lost
20:14so the scholars are able to identify what it is they're looking at but they're not able to read
20:19before napoleon's team can decipher the mysterious writing the british close in
20:26on march 21st 1801 in the battle of alexandria the british defeat the french in egypt
20:33they seize control of rasheed and the stone right along with it they ship it back to england
20:39where king george iii decides to place it at the british museum in london the british send copies of
20:46the inscriptions on the stone's face to scholars around the world hoping someone will be able to
20:51unlock its lost languages one of these copies lands on the desk of a young french linguist named jean
20:58francois champollion he's a prodigy who can speak 13 languages by the time he was 20. champollion knows
21:06the greek alphabet so like scholars before him he has no trouble reading one third of the inscriptions
21:12the other two are going to take him some time based on rudimentary knowledge of hieroglyphics champollion can
21:21already identify where a royal name occurs it's surrounded by an oval called a cartouche he compares
21:30the name tolemaios in the greek text with a matching cartouche in the hieroglyphics then comes the key
21:38realization all three languages have the same message that connection helps him begin cracking the code
21:47not just in hieroglyphics but in the middle script as well then he discovers that hieroglyphics is a
21:55hybrid language some symbols represent words others depict objects but other symbols convey entire ideas
22:04piece by piece champollion maps phonetic sounds to the symbols slowly unlocking a language that's been
22:11dead for nearly 1500 years essentially the stone reads like a resume of king ptolemy v epiphanies it's
22:20a chronicle of his good deeds everything from tax cuts to restoring peace after a rebellion during his
22:27predecessor's reign he wants everyone to know about his legacy and he leaves a record to prove it no matter
22:35what language you speak it's called the rosetta stone named for the town it was founded the rosetta stone
22:44functions almost like a decoder ring this allows scholars to finally read and interpret countless
22:52inscriptions texts and artifacts unlocking a wealth of knowledge about one of the most significant
22:59civilizations in history for many historians the rosetta stone is the best thing to come from napoleon's
23:06otherwise quite brutal reign our next great find takes us from the sands of egypt to a greek island
23:15where a farmer stumbles upon one of the world's most famous faces
23:20on april 8th 1820 a greek farmer by the name of yorkos kentrotas is looking for stones to help
23:31build up a retaining wall on his property on the island of milos and as he's gathering together
23:36all these stones he notices that there's one that seems curiously out of place he gets closer brushes
23:43some dirt away and he realizes he's found a smooth piece of marble sticking up from out of the earth
23:52the island of milos is known for rich mineral deposits things like sulfur or obsidian but not
23:59marble as the farmer continues to look for rocks to build his wall he finds another piece of marble
24:07and another and before you know it he's got a pile of marble and he can't believe his eyes
24:14coincidentally a french naval officer named olivier voutier is exploring the ruins of an ancient
24:22theater nearby he notices the farmer's reaction to the strange stones that he's finding in his field
24:28and so he goes over to see what confront us has discovered the two men sort through the pile of stones
24:35and they realize that some of them actually might fit together it takes a little trial and error but they
24:41slowly reassemble something very surprising in front of them is the torso of a beautiful naked woman
24:51although they're unable to find her arms voutier however knows enough about ancient relics
24:57to recognize something valuable when he sees it and so he contacts officials back in france urging them
25:04to purchase this piece
25:07the french ambassador arranges to purchase the statue and soon it's on its way to paris where she is
25:14presented to king louis the 18th the king donates the statue to the louvre where experts identify the
25:21statue as aphrodite the greek goddess of love who's also known as venus in roman mythology
25:28this identification gives the statue her iconic name the venus de milo
25:38this masterpiece is carved from two distinct pieces of marble and then carefully joined together
25:43and when it is the venus de milo stands at an imposing six feet seven inches tall today this
25:50statue that once lay in pieces across a farmer's field is seen by about seven million people a year
26:04you expect to find important pieces of american history in philadelphia washington dc
26:10or even new york but imagine how unexpected it is when one turns up on a quiet farm in north carolina
26:20in 2022 the wood family of edenton north carolina decides to sell their 184 acre
26:29estate the property is historic dating all the way back to the 1700s so the state of north carolina
26:35decides to buy it and turn it into a landmark the house itself is old and it has some original
26:41period items that the wood family believes probably worth some money to prepare for the sale
26:46the woods bring in an appraiser to see what they might be worth as the appraiser surveys a room
26:54he spots a dust-covered metal filing cabinet curious he decides to take a look inside along with some
27:02old and insignificant stacks of paper one thing stands out
27:06there's a folder that's holding a very old creased piece of paper and as the appraiser starts reading
27:18some familiar words start to jump out at him
27:23we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union this is of course the famous
27:30first line to the preamble of the u.s constitution but there's more because at the bottom there's a
27:35signature charles thompson while charles thompson is not a well-known name the appraiser knows his
27:43history charles thompson is the secretary of congress during the constitutional convention when the
27:49constitution was written in 1787 the presence of his signature on the document provides a powerful
27:56indication that this could be one of the original copies of the u.s constitution
28:03so how does a document of such historical significance end up in a filing cabinet on a north carolina farm
28:12back in the 1780s before the wood family had owned the property it was the home of the state's
28:18governor samuel johnston after the constitution is ratified by the u.s congress in june of 1788
28:26copies of the document are sent to the governors of the 13 original colonies one of those copies
28:32ends up at the estate on governor johnston's desk when the governor passes away at his estate in 1816
28:40all of his papers and his office is essentially turned into a storeroom so eventually all those
28:46documents are filed away in that metal filing cabinet only to be discovered by the wood family
28:52appraiser more than two centuries later thinking that they might have something really valuable
28:57here the family decides to put the item up for auction the last time that an original state copy
29:04of the constitution went up for auction it sold for about 400 in 1891 which in today's money is about
29:11fifteen thousand dollars so not bad for an old piece of paper but it's definitely not a fortune
29:17now over a century later the wood family hopes for the best as the auction begins
29:23people are participating in person by phone and online and the price quickly soars past one million
29:32dollars bids begin jumping by five hundred thousand dollar increments it's a seven minute
29:39frenzy as the family watches the price soar when the gavel finally falls the woods constitution sells for
29:45nine million dollars an anonymous bidder ends up winning the auction and according to sotheby's
29:54pays the highest amount ever for a book manuscript or text at auction as for the wood family this
30:03single piece of paper earns them three million dollars more than the six million dollars that they earned
30:10on the sale of their entire property up next a discovery on a whole different scale and this one
30:20wasn't tucked away in a drawer so it's 1984 it's the reagan administration and with renewed tension
30:28between the united states and the soviet union the u.s navy is eager to recover the wrecks of two sunken
30:35u.s nuclear submarines the uss scorpion and the uss thresher both of which sank in the 1960s the
30:44officials are desperate to find these two sunken submarines to ensure that the soviet union doesn't
30:51get there first and discover vital nuclear secrets the navy wanted to know the status of their nuclear
30:59reactor so they went to a man who was one of the most lauded names in underwater exploration
31:05bob ballard so in august of 1985 ballard and his team set off in this top secret mission to locate and
31:13survey the wreckage of these two missing subs the team uses a deep-toed sonar coupled with the
31:20submersibles to search the sea floor in the grid in the search they find the uss thresher and two weeks
31:29later they identify the wreckage of the scorpion ballard and his team complete the expedition
31:3612 days ahead of schedule they take the remaining days and they comb the ocean floor seeing what else
31:42they could find they continue using this incredible sophisticated underwater imaging and on september 1st
31:501985 operators in the camera room observe something unexpected it's a debris field on the floor of the
31:59north atlantic ballard follows the debris field for roughly 2 000 3 000 feet ultimately culminating
32:07at the hull of a sunken ship while the ocean floor is filled with thousands of shipwrecks
32:14ballard recognizes this as perhaps the most famous of all her name of course the titanic
32:24he can't believe it this is the holy grail of found shipwrecks
32:29people have been searching for the titanic for over 70 years but ballard and his team find the titanic
32:38almost as a footnote on a military mission the find makes headlines around the world makes a
32:44celebrity of ballard and reignites interest in this so-called unsinkable ship
32:51in the years after the discovery one key detail was kept under wraps only in 2008 could ballard finally
33:00reveal that were it not for the secret search for the thresher and the scorpion the titanic might
33:07never have been discovered
33:09it's 1592 and a team in southern italy are hard at work digging a ditch for a powerful duke
33:22when they unearth something unusual buried in the air
33:29a team of workers are trying to excavate an underground tunnel system to bring water from
33:35the sarno river to a town four miles away called torre annunziata workers encounter layer after layer of
33:42hardened ash compacted like cement from previous eruptions of the nearby volcano mount vesuvius
33:53one day as workers are digging they find pieces of what appears to be ancient frescoes and some have
34:00inscriptions on them they stop and grab their supervisor and when he looks at what the
34:04workers have found he can't believe his eyes these seem to be ancient ruins and upon closer examination
34:15the architect finds ancient walls adorned with paintings and inscriptions he petitions the duke for
34:22permission to excavate but the duke is focused on just one thing getting water to torre annunciata
34:28the site sits untouched for the next 150 years until king charles the third of spain decides to explore
34:37it further in the mid 1700s we're in the middle of the age of enlightenment which is a time period where
34:44rulers were literally competing with each other for knowledge and information as part of that thirst for
34:50glory the king of spain wants to be the first to excavate fontana's worksite
34:55the site is still buried under tons of hardened volcanic ash and holds little known significance but
35:03they call in swiss military engineer carl weber to oversee the dig anyway
35:10as they dig deeper weber and his team uncover something shocking right there on one of these
35:18ancient walls workers discover an inscription ray publica pompeianorum the republic of pompeians
35:32now weber knows without a doubt that they've uncovered something remarkable it's the legendary lost city of
35:40pompeii pompeii missing for nearly 1500 years pompeii was perfectly preserved by one major catastrophic event
35:50the eruption of mount vesuvius in 79 a.d
35:59this is not your average volcanic eruption when this thing blows experts estimate it releases
36:06thermal energy 100 000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on japan at the end of world war ii
36:16it erupts so suddenly that many residents don't have time to flee they're preserved in the same
36:22positions sitting standing hugging that they were in at the time of the eruption in all most scholars
36:29think that 1500 to 2000 people died in the eruption but some estimates suggest that as many as 16 000 people died
36:38they had no chance everything happened so fast so chaotically pompeii and its citizens are wiped off the map
36:47simply put it's total devastation with more than a third of pompeii still buried there's still plenty
36:54more to be discovered and it's all thanks to workers digging a ditch in the 1500s
37:04it took five years and many dead ends but when one of archaeology's greatest discoveries is finally made
37:11in egypt it happens by accident thanks to a young water boy
37:16in november 1922 12 year old hussein abdel rasul does what he does every day
37:27carries heavy jugs of water to the dig site of famous british egyptologist howard carter
37:33carter's team has been digging at this site known as the valley of the kings on and off for years
37:38as you can imagine digging in the egyptian desert is a brutal undertaking temperatures reach well over
37:47100 degrees and all the sand reflects the heat onto the workers at the site
37:55so carter and his team rely on water boys like hussein to bring jugs of water to the dig team
38:01all day every day the egyptian sands can often be unsteady and so hussein and the other water
38:08boys will often dig little trenches in order to place these jugs to ensure that they don't tip over
38:14one day hussein buries a jug of water just as he's done hundreds of times but on this day
38:20something is different as he digs he hits something hard something that shouldn't be there
38:30he clears the sand off it and there's the shape of a step
38:33now hussein doesn't know where this leads but in all his time he's never seen anything like this
38:40and so he calls howard carter over to take a look when carter sees the step he can't believe it he
38:46wants to know where it leads he brings the rest of the team over and they ferociously dig for the next
38:52three weeks
38:59eventually they discover a sunken staircase ending at a heavy stone door
39:08on the door he sees something incredible a seal with the markings of tutankhamen
39:13one on november 24th carter breaks a small hole in the door and peers inside then silence
39:22when asked if he sees anything carter responds in awe yes wonderful things
39:30the rest of the team heads down to join him and as they enter they find four burial chambers
39:37filled with 5 000 extraordinary treasures there are gold covered chariots stunningly crafted jewelry
39:47and a sarcophagus inscribed with king tutankhamen's cartouche this discovery is a dream come true for
39:55carter because he's wanted this for such a long time it also captures the public's fascination and it
40:01leads to what many call tutmania effectively after this king tut becomes the first world famous pharaoh
40:08archaeologists spend years cataloging and removing these fragile items all left to honor this fallen
40:16king who ascended the throne when he was just nine years old and died when he was 18. perhaps the most
40:23iconic discovery of all is a solid gold mask that once covered the face of king tut's mummy
40:31unfortunately embalming agents acted like a glue to attach the mummy to the golden coffin around it
40:37and experts have to dismember tut's mummy to remove it from the tomb
40:43howard carter goes into the history books as the discoverer of tut's tomb but hussein abdel rasul's role
40:51in this discovery is much less known carter purposely leaves him out of his published report
40:57and attributes the fine to his own workmen perhaps to save face so that the world doesn't learn that
41:04this expert archaeologist was digging in the wrong place
41:08either way it's fitting that the boy king's tomb is finally discovered by a 12 year old boy himself
41:19some of history's greatest treasures were never meant to be found but fate or maybe just dumb luck
41:26had other plans i'm danny trejo thanks for watching mysteries unearthed
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