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00:00The Libyan desert make a surprising discovery.
00:03It's an airplane from World War II.
00:06An American B-24D Liberator bomber.
00:11So what plane is this, and how did it end up in the middle of the Libyan desert?
00:17A team of archaeologists conducting a survey in Turkey reveal intricate carvings and symbols of the Gebekli Tepe pillars.
00:25In addition to images of wild birds, snakes, and scorpions,
00:30there are several rows of a V-shape carved into one of the pillars of the largest enclosure.
00:36What does that mean, and how does that connect with the megalith's intended purpose?
00:43Archaeologists are excavating a site near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem when they uncover a strange structure.
00:49They unearthed a walled complex carved right into the rock base that spanned an area of over 2,000 square feet.
01:00What exactly was this place, and how is it connected to the Temple Mount?
01:05Ancient lost cities.
01:07Forgotten treasures.
01:10Mysterious structures.
01:11As new technology uncovers remarkable tales hidden beneath the deserts of the world,
01:18the secrets in the sand will finally be revealed.
01:23Dominated by actively shifting sand dunes that reach heights of 350 feet,
01:43the Kalanshuo Sand Sea covers over 23,000 square miles of desert in eastern Libya.
01:50A sand sea, or Urg, as it's known in Arabic, is an area consisting of at least 20% windblown sand
02:00and receiving no more than six inches of annual precipitation.
02:04So the resulting climate in active Urgs like the Kalanshuo is dry, hot, and windy,
02:11making this part of eastern Libya particularly treacherous and inhospitable.
02:16While the intense sandstorms create significant challenges for settlement,
02:23underneath all that sand, Libya holds massive oil reserves.
02:28Drilling for oil was first authorized in 1955, and in recent years,
02:32that country has been producing over a million barrels per day,
02:35creating billions of dollars in annual revenue.
02:38Geologists prospecting for an oil company are flying over eastern Libya
02:49when they spy something unusual on the ground below.
02:54They were conducting a survey of an area that included the Kalanshuo Sand Sea,
02:58and they spotted something that, from the plane,
03:01looked like a huge damaged vehicle of some kind, half buried in the sand.
03:06The geologists alert the authorities, and a ground crew is dispatched to investigate.
03:15What they find astounds them.
03:19It's an airplane from World War II.
03:23An American B-24D Liberator bomber.
03:27These planes measured roughly 65 feet long and 18 feet high,
03:33had a high cruise speed, long range, and the ability to carry a heavy payload.
03:39But in comparison with its contemporaries, the B-24 was difficult to fly and had poor low-speed performance.
03:50Despite this, at around 18,500 units, it held the record for the world's most produced bomber.
03:57On first inspection, it was clear the plane had not been shot down.
04:04It appears to have made a controlled descent,
04:08then skidded across a flat stretch of sand and gravel for over 2,000 feet when it landed.
04:16The stress of the crash broke the main body of the plane, just behind the wings.
04:23But aside from that, it was largely intact, including the propellers.
04:28How did it end up in the middle of the Libyan desert?
04:34Searching for answers, the team examines the bomber's wreckage.
04:38Eerily, the plane's interior contained the crew's belongings, rations, even flasks of water and coffee.
04:48The dry desert conditions had preserved almost everything from the aircraft's last mission.
04:56All of the plane's .50 caliber machine guns and ammo were still there.
05:00One of the machine guns was even still working.
05:02The bomber's radio, also working.
05:05But although the airplane's engines did not work anymore,
05:08it was clear from analyses that the engine was running when the plane crashed.
05:15The rear escape hatch doors were open,
05:17and all of the plane's parachutes and life preservers were missing.
05:21All these findings support a mostly functional airplane abandoned by its crew,
05:26rather than a terrible crash with all on board.
05:29We know that during World War II, there was an allied base in Sulu, Libya.
05:38So it's reasonable to assume that this plane originated there.
05:43But that still doesn't tell us the identity of the mystery wreck.
05:47Military records show that on April 4th, 1943,
05:5525 American Air Force bomber planes took off from the base at Sulu.
06:01Their mission was a high-altitude attack on the Axis-held port of Naples, Italy.
06:06By 1943, the fate of North Africa had become critical to the outcome of the war,
06:15as control of the region meant access to Mediterranean sea routes
06:19and a launch pad for invasions into Southern Europe.
06:23At 2.50 p.m., the bomb group took off for Italy.
06:31Unfortunately, sandstorms created poor visibility,
06:34so all the planes aborted the mission
06:36and returned safely to the base at Soluc that night.
06:39That is, all of them but one.
06:42The lone exception was the Lady Be Good.
06:46The Lady Be Good carried on until she was almost at her target,
06:50at which point she turned around and headed home alone.
06:53And that was the last known detail about the plane's movements.
06:58But the assumption was that it went down somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea.
07:04For several years following the war,
07:06neither the plane nor its crew had been located,
07:09making it one of the most famous lost airplanes of World War II.
07:13So the big question is,
07:15is the aircraft in the desert the wreck of the Lady Be Good?
07:18A full inspection of the crash site reveals the plane's identity.
07:26But the mystery of its fate only deepens.
07:30They found the flight logs and two notebooks containing the names of each of the nine crew members.
07:37And the interior of the plane also contained identifying marks of the Lady Be Good.
07:42So, without a doubt, this was the famous missing airplane.
07:48Discovered, recovered, and parts of it in remarkably good working condition.
07:53We know that the rear escape hatch doors were open and all of the life preservers and parachutes were gone.
08:00So it's safe to assume that the crew bailed out of the Lady Be Good at some point before the crash.
08:06But where?
08:08And where are their bodies?
08:12An international search team is assembled and dispatched.
08:16During the initial search, several items were found in the sand,
08:21confirming the crew had survived their jump from the plane.
08:26Improvised arrowheads had been created from used parachutes all pointing north.
08:32A pair of servicemen's rubber boots were also discovered almost 20 miles north of the crash site.
08:40It was believed the crew placed these items as directional markers to lead air and sea rescue teams to their location.
08:50But despite months of searching, no remains were found.
08:55A year later, oil surveyors discovered the first five bodies of the Lady Be Good crew.
09:03They were on a plateau under the sand sea along with equipment, canteens, flashlights, pieces of parachute, and flight jackets.
09:12They had trekked 85 miles before finally succumbing to the brutal desert heat.
09:20Three more bodies were eventually recovered at various distances from the first five, indicating they had the strength to continue,
09:30but ultimately they too collapsed from dehydration and exposure.
09:34The remains of the ninth crew member has still not been found.
09:37Tragically, if the airmen had walked south instead of north after their parachute escape,
09:44they would have arrived at the plane wreck with a working radio and plenty of rations.
09:49The Lady Be Good crashed hundreds of miles from its intended flight path
09:55and over 400 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, where it was believed to have disappeared.
10:01So what went so horribly wrong?
10:05Is it possible the rookie crew couldn't handle a bomber with a reputation for being challenging to fly?
10:11A re-examination of the Lady Be Good's missing in action report sheds light on a possible explanation.
10:29The official version essentially places the blame on the navigator who was serving as a navigator for the first time.
10:40In the report, it states he misinterpreted a directional reading sent from an allied airbase in Benina,
10:49resulting in the plane going off course.
10:51A more recent study points to failure by an airbase operator in Benghazi to respond to the Lady Be Good's radio calls for help
11:00because he mistakenly believed that the airplane was German.
11:07Both scenarios highlight the possibility that human error was a factor.
11:13And while it was the maiden mission for all nine on board,
11:17they were highly trained expert servicemen.
11:19And it's almost impossible to state definitively if their rookie status played a role in the plane's disappearance.
11:27So is it possible that poor flying conditions contributed to the crash?
11:34The last known contact between the Lady Be Good and the home base in Salouj provides a critical clue.
11:41All 25 bombers from the mission turned back towards the base because of high winds and poor visibility.
11:49The Lady Be Good was the last to do so.
11:53And as she was making her way back, the crew radioed the base for navigational assistance.
11:58The base responded by firing flares into the night sky, but they were likely unseen by the pilot who kept flying and overshot the base.
12:09They continued south for two hours deep into the desert until the Lady Be Good ran out of fuel.
12:17At this point, the crew decided to bail and let the empty plane glide for another 16 miles until it skidded to a relatively gentle crash in the sand.
12:26It's like when the crew believed they were over the Mediterranean Sea when they jumped because they took their life preservers with them.
12:37Once they landed, they began to walk north, perhaps heading into the wind, believing once again they were close to the Mediterranean and possibly safety.
12:47Unfortunately, they were over 400 miles from the sea.
12:54Now recovered, parts of the Lady Be Good have been sent to various military museums for commemoration.
13:01And while the story has a tragic ending for those involved, it is also a story of courage, perseverance, and the human will to survive the harshest conditions on Earth.
13:1460 miles north of the Syrian border, Turkey's Harun Plain spreads for 580 square miles between the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
13:39Like most of southeastern Turkey and what used to be called Mesopotamia, the Harun Plain is characterized by dry conditions with large fluctuations between the hot days and the cool nights.
13:52The region rarely gets more than 15 inches of rain per year.
13:57The terrain is mostly made up of limestone plateaus with occasional patches of grassland steps.
14:03Evidence of human activity in the area dates to the pre-pottery Neolithic period, roughly 9,500 to 8,000 BCE, a time when tribes of hunter-gatherers were beginning to transition towards settled communities.
14:19By the 3rd millennium BCE, the plain emerged as an important trade hub, connecting the Tigris River to the Mediterranean Sea.
14:26The region is best known for an archaeological site called the Gebekli Tepe, which means pot-belly hill in Turkish.
14:36Built roughly 12,000 years ago, the Gebekli Tepe features four massive circular stone monuments that sit at the crest of a hill overlooking the plain.
14:47The pillars of the site are among the earliest known examples of megalithic structures, and their circular shape has led Gebekli Tepe to being called the world's first temple.
15:01A team of archaeologists is surveying a section of the Gebekli Tepe pillars containing intricate carvings and strange symbols when they make a curious discovery.
15:11In addition to images of wild birds, snakes and scorpions, which were interpreted to be mythological representations, there are several rows of a V-shape carved into one of the pillars of the largest enclosure, which is known as Enclosure D.
15:30Elsewhere, that same V symbol appears to be worn around the neck of a large bird-like beast.
15:36On other pillars, there are circles, or disks, carved right below the placement of the horizontal slab of the rock, kind of like where the two lines of the T intersect.
15:49Now, inside the disk, at its center, is a second smaller circle, so it sort of looks like a donut.
15:57What does that mean, and how does that connect with the megalith's intended purpose?
16:02A survey of the world's notable megalithic structures offers a critical clue.
16:11One of the most famous examples of a man-made megalith is Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest and oldest of the Giza pyramid complex.
16:20Constructed for the pharaoh Khufu of the 4th dynasty, it was completed around the early 25th century BCE, as a mortuary temple to honor the king.
16:34The Great Pyramids were central to the Egyptians' many elaborate funerary rituals, all intended to prepare the king for the afterlife.
16:42But they were also created to honor their various gods that held the highest position in divine society, including the solar deity Ra, who is usually credited with the creation of the world and was connected with the life-giving power of the sun.
16:59In northeast Scotland, many stone circles and other megalithic remains from the Bronze Age have been discovered near Aberdeenshire.
17:12They often featured recumbent stone circles, with one large stone on its side, flanked by upright stones, and are believed to be monuments created to honor astronomical phenomena, such as the solstice and the equinox.
17:23So, given these megaliths' associations with the power and pathway of the sun and moon, is it possible the markings on the pillars of Gobekli Tepe were also connected to the solar and lunar calendars?
17:46A team of archaeologists is surveying a section of the Gobekli Tepe pillars containing intricate carvings and strange symbols.
17:53When they make a curious discovery, a deeper exploration of the pillars' circular shapes points to a potential answer.
18:04Solar disks and lunar crescents are frequently depicted in ancient cultures all around the world, because the sun and moon are often viewed as religious deities.
18:14Maybe the Gobekli Tepe disk shapes represent the sun and moon with one circle inside the other.
18:21One of the most significant archaeological finds in the past century was the Nabra sky disk, discovered buried in Mittelberg Hill near the German town of Nabra.
18:33The bronze disk, 12 inches in diameter and weighing nearly five pounds, is a beautiful depiction of the sun, crescent moon, and a cluster of seven stars, believed to be the constellation Pleiades.
18:44Radiocarbon dating puts the item's origin as being from 1500 to 1700 BCE, consistent with the early European Bronze Age, making the disk the oldest depiction of astronomical phenomenon known from anywhere in the world.
19:03The enclosed area surrounding Middleburg Hill was originally settled in the Neolithic era.
19:12If you're standing in the enclosure's entrance, the sun set perfectly every summer solstice right behind the highest peak of the Harts Mountains, 50 miles to the northwest.
19:22It's believed that the Nebra disk was created to record and commemorate that specific event.
19:29So, is it possible that the Gobekli Tepe also contained information about a single event in the astronomical calendar, coded and carved into those stone pillars?
19:42A re-examination of the V-shaped carvings leads to a breakthrough.
19:49One of the marked pillars was found to have 365 of the V-shapes carved into it.
19:55And from this, it was interpreted as each V representing one day.
19:59It was then possible to count a solar calendar of 365 days, consisting of 12 lunar months and 11 extra epigominal days, the days added to a calendar to make it synchronized with the solar year, like our leap year day of February 29th.
20:15A separate day appeared as a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast in the shape of the solstice constellation.
20:25It was believed the isolated V was a representation of the actual solstice recorded right onto the Gobekli Tepe pillar.
20:34If this were the case, the implications would be huge.
20:37Up to this point, the Nebra sky disk was considered the oldest known depiction of solar and lunar phenomena.
20:44But the Gobekli Tepe was created thousands of years before that.
20:50Based on the analysis of the double-circled disk and the V-shape, it seems entirely possible that those who built the Gobekli Tepe had astronomical knowledge that included a clear observation of the course of the sun, including the single-event solstice.
21:05So why was this information so important to them?
21:08And what did they do with this knowledge?
21:10A deeper dive into the known history of Gobekli Tepe reveals a critical clue.
21:19Until the site's discovery in 1994, archaeologists generally believed that humans only began building organized societies and complex structures after the emergence of agriculture.
21:31And it was only after those events that complex religions emerged.
21:38And while this fertile crescent region of Mesopotamia was considered one of the birthplaces of organized farming, Gobekli Tepe was built by a pre-agricultural society.
21:49This pushes back the origins of the first megalithic structure to the late Paleolithic era of the hunter-gatherer.
21:58Amazingly, the builders of Gobekli Tepe were organized and settled enough to accomplish its temple-like creation without the use of pack animals or specialized tools.
22:09They also had a spiritual life that likely included rituals to celebrate the summer or winter solstice.
22:17But there was another practical explanation for the significance of the solstice.
22:23As Mesopotamian societies transitioned from hunter-gatherers to early Neolithic farmers, it became far more important to pay close attention to the seasons.
22:34For societies dependent on agriculture for their food, knowing when to plant and when to harvest becomes a matter of life and death.
22:44So the picture that emerges is of a community coming together to celebrate and honor the changing of the seasons.
22:53Whether that's an abundance of food, a drought, or colder temperatures.
22:59Over 30 years after its discovery, the Gobekli Tepe continues to fascinate and educate.
23:07And it no doubt still contains a multitude of secrets waiting to be revealed.
23:14The Gobekli Tepe
23:15Stretching across the vast rock plateau between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world.
23:34Jerusalem sits in the foothills of the Judean mountains at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet.
23:44Its Mediterranean climate is characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
23:50The three major Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all consider Jerusalem a holy city.
23:59So throughout its long history, it's been a popular pilgrimage destination.
24:04But Jerusalem has also been a center for religious and political conflict.
24:08Governed by multiple dynasties over the years, the city has been attacked, besieged, and conquered over a hundred times.
24:15According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.
24:27David's son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the first temple in the 10th century BCE.
24:36The first temple is said to have stood on the Temple Mount, where the later second temple stood, a sacred area of Old Jerusalem surrounded by fortified walls.
24:45A team of archaeologists is excavating a site near Temple Mount when they make a surprising discovery.
24:57On the eastern slope of the mount, they unearthed a walled complex carved right into the rock face that spanned an area of over 2,000 square feet.
25:09The complex was uncovered, but divided into a series of chambers, ranging in size from 20 by 10 feet to 8 by 6 feet.
25:19The first chamber opened onto all the other ones, which indicated it was the center of the complex.
25:26So what exactly was this place, and how is it connected to the Temple Mount?
25:39This wasn't the first time that archaeologists had stumbled on the mysterious chambers near Temple Mount.
25:47In 1909, a British adventurer named Montague Parker embarked on a search for the elusive Ark of the Covenant,
25:54which was alleged to contain the original Ten Commandment tablets along with other treasures.
25:59When word got out that a team of foreign treasure hunters was digging into one of the world's most sensitive and sacred landmarks,
26:06it caused a massive outcry, and the dig was abandoned.
26:10But during his excavations, Parker uncovered three of the Temple Mount chambers and concluded that they were tombs.
26:19According to tradition, the Jews wouldn't bury their dead inside the city walls.
26:25So Jerusalem was surrounded by buried tombs, which were primarily intended for high-ranking officials, priests, and their families.
26:35So is it possible that Parker was right?
26:38Is the Temple Mount discovery a series of ancient tombs for powerful priests and rulers of Judea?
26:47As the excavation continues, each one of the chambers reveals a clue.
26:52In the center of one of the rooms, there's a circular depression cut right into the rock floor,
27:00two feet in diameter and two inches deep.
27:03Inside that circle, a second, smaller one was carved, only a foot in diameter and less than a foot deep.
27:10These were the marks of an ancient olive press.
27:12Another room has a single rectangular depression cut into the rock,
27:19measuring 16 by 18 inches and roughly 8 inches deep.
27:25It appears to have been occupied by a wine press.
27:29The surrounding floor was likely used to tread on the grates,
27:32and the sunken rectangular used as a reservoir to collect the pre-fermented wine.
27:38The third room contained the most intriguing installation.
27:45Standing upright in the northwestern corner, there was a flat, thin slab of limestone,
27:51measuring roughly three feet across, sitting atop a raised platform,
27:56and supported on three sides by small field stones.
28:00Archaeological records and the Bible offer many examples of stones erected by the ancient Israelites.
28:11They're called matzava and are referred to in the Hebrew Bible as sacred stones or pillars,
28:18typically associated with religious or commemorative practices.
28:22Variants of the matzava appear in the Bible 34 times, usually in a positive light,
28:30such as when Moses set up 12 matzava at Mount Sinai to ratify the covenant between God and Israel.
28:39So, given the presence of the mazbah at the site and the wine and olive presses,
28:44which were used by many ancient cultures in ceremonial rituals to give thanks for the earth's abundance,
28:50all signs point to it being a place of ceremony and worship, possibly even a shrine, not a burial site.
29:00Further excavation of the site reveals more rooms and more clues.
29:05The complex has eight rooms in total, each intended for some form of ritualized worship.
29:12One room contains a rock-cut rectangular basin measuring 10 by 16 inches across and 8 inches deep.
29:19It's connected to a raised platform and a shallow channel on the floor, likely used to drain liquids.
29:26It's believed the installation was an altar, possibly used for animal sacrifice.
29:32Another room was filled with a thick layer of earth,
29:35containing various artifacts typically associated with spiritual offerings.
29:39These included shards of pottery and ceramic vessels, figurines, beads, and animal bones.
29:45It appears to have been a storage space known as a favisa,
29:51and the various artifacts had been collected from different sections of the complex
29:55and put together in one location.
30:00Interestingly, the opening to the favisa was covered over by a large stone wall,
30:05created after the items were placed in the room, as if to seal it up.
30:10The question is, why would someone have blocked the entrance?
30:16The artifacts from the storage room were all dated to the Second Iron Age,
30:21roughly 950 to 586 BCE.
30:26The era corresponds with the First Temple Period,
30:29which includes the emergence, growth, and eventual fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
30:36Key events from the period may provide some answers.
30:39One of the most significant changes in the religious life of ancient Israel
30:45occurred during the reign of the Judahite king Hezekiah in the late 8th century BCE.
30:52According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah sought to centralize all worship at the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.
30:58So he abolished many of the ritual sites scattered across the kingdom,
31:03hoping to put an end to the worship of idols.
31:05In this context, there's a potential explanation for the favisa of room 5,
31:12having its entrance blocked by a large stone wall.
31:15It's possible that the complex was one of Israel's ancient ritual sites,
31:19abolished by King Hezekiah as part of his reforms,
31:22and that an effort was made to protect or hide the evidence of its use.
31:26Samples are taken from the site for radiocarbon testing.
31:33Sure enough, it was determined that the complex fell out of use in the 8th century BCE,
31:39coinciding with Hezekiah's reign.
31:42But beyond that, without proven documented records,
31:45it's difficult to verify if the king ordered the site to be destroyed or sealed up.
31:50It's also possible the site simply went out of use after the Babylonian conquest,
31:57which resulted in the fall of the kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE.
32:04The discovery of the mysterious shrine near Temple Mount
32:07offers compelling new insight into the changing beliefs and practices of the ancient Israelites.
32:13Who knows how many others like it are out there, lost to the sands of time?
32:20Tucked into the farthest reaches of northwestern Iraq lies southern Kurdistan.
32:44It is one of four regions that together form Greater Kurdistan,
32:48a region extending across West Asia.
32:53Kurdistan is enormous.
32:55Generally defined as the region traditionally inhabited by the Kurdish people,
33:00it stretches across large parts of modern-day Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.
33:05In Iraq, the movement for Kurdish independence has made major strides,
33:10including the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region
33:12with its own parliamentary government.
33:14Most of Iraqi Kurdistan is dominated by enormous mountains, like the Zagros.
33:22Because of its high altitude, the region is generally cooler than the rest of Iraq,
33:26and the network of rivers running through the area means it's incredibly fertile.
33:29But as you move south, the landscape changes dramatically.
33:36Just over six miles from the town of Kalar,
33:39at a site called Shaki Kora in southern Iraqi Kurdistan,
33:43archaeologists uncover a surprise.
33:46They found the remains of a series of large ancient buildings.
33:54One contained the remains of several rooms divided by thick mud brick walls.
34:01And inside the rooms, they made an even stranger discovery.
34:05On the mud floor were stacks and stacks of upturned bowls, neatly arranged in pairs.
34:12When you look at the bowls, it's clear that they weren't ornamental or decorative.
34:18They were purely functional, hastily and roughly made for everyday informal use.
34:24You can think of it like your family's everyday dishware not to find china.
34:29But it raises a question.
34:31Why were so many of them found here?
34:34Just over 200 miles south of Shaki Kora,
34:41archaeologists digging in the ruins of the ancient city of Lagash
34:45discovered a seemingly similar structure.
34:49Lagash was founded over 5,000 years ago
34:52and was once one of the most important cities in ancient Sumer.
34:55Over the years, thousands of artifacts, including early cuneiform tablets,
35:01have been recovered from the city,
35:03giving us unprecedented insight into life in ancient Mesopotamia.
35:07Given how well documented the site at Lagash is,
35:10it came as a total shock when a recent excavation found
35:14that there was this previously undiscovered building.
35:16And it wasn't even that deep underground.
35:18It was just 19 inches below the surface.
35:20Inside the structure, they found dozens of bowls.
35:26And after analyzing them,
35:28it was revealed that they had once been used to hold fish and other meat dishes.
35:35Other vessels showed evidence that at one point,
35:38they contained beer, a popular drink among ancient Sumerians.
35:44This evidence tells us that this wasn't just any building.
35:48These are the remains of the world's oldest known tavern.
35:54Could the ruins at Shaki Kora have served a similar purpose?
35:58Is it also an ancient tavern?
36:03In the search for answers,
36:06the team begins testing 10 of the ancient bowls
36:08using several methods,
36:11including gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
36:15Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry
36:19are techniques that in combination
36:21can isolate and analyze individual chemicals in various products,
36:26including in food.
36:29In this case,
36:30the results show that the bowls found at Shaki Kora
36:32were once used to hold a whole range of dishes,
36:35including seed and dairy-based foods,
36:37as well as meat dishes like stew and broth.
36:39Given that piece of evidence,
36:42it's tempting to just jump to the conclusion
36:44that this was a tavern.
36:46But there are a few important differences
36:48between the Lagash and Shaki Kora sites,
36:51and the biggest one is also the most obvious,
36:53the seating.
36:55The Lagash Tavern had tons of seats,
36:57indoors and out.
36:59The Shaki Kora ruins have none at all.
37:02That is a massive clue.
37:04On closer inspection,
37:08another key difference emerges.
37:10The complex at Shaki Kora
37:12seems to have been much larger
37:14than the Lagash Tavern.
37:16So the question is,
37:18what need did this ancient settlement have
37:21for such a large-scale operation?
37:23What was the function of this enormous complex?
37:26The secret of Shaki Kora
37:39may lie in the engraved inscription
37:41of a single clay tablet dating back millennia.
37:44This tablet was found in an area
37:46that was one of the world's first cities,
37:49called Uruk,
37:50which would have stood about 200 miles
37:52from the Shaki Kora settlement.
37:53It's one of the earliest known examples
37:56of human writing,
37:57dating back roughly 5,300 years.
38:00And it tells an amazing story.
38:03On it, we can see a human head
38:06eating from a bowl,
38:07which is interpreted as meaning ration.
38:09It's followed by the symbol of a vessel,
38:12which signifies beer.
38:15There are also scratches
38:16across the cuneiform tablet
38:18that seem to indicate
38:19how many beers a person has had.
38:22Most likely in return
38:24for some kind of payment,
38:26maybe as labor.
38:27So this is pretty incredible.
38:28What we're looking at
38:29is a bar tab.
38:34Mesopotamian officials
38:35working in Uruk
38:36thousands of years ago
38:37depended on these cuneiform writing systems
38:39to keep track
38:40of their administrative duties,
38:42making sure they knew
38:43what was traded
38:43and to whom.
38:44Knowing that these bartering systems
38:48existed in southern Mesopotamia
38:49during the early Bronze Age
38:51casts a whole new light
38:53on the complex at Shaki Kora.
38:56Could this site have been used
38:57for a similar purpose?
38:59And if so,
39:00who was responsible
39:01for running this enormous operation?
39:06The team builds a chronology
39:08of the food hall,
39:09using the ceramic remnants
39:10to retrace the ancient
39:12building's development.
39:15The ceramic vessels here
39:16span several centuries.
39:18And this is in keeping
39:19with the buildings themselves.
39:21They appear to have been rebuilt
39:23and remodeled
39:23over and over again,
39:25though their function
39:26never changed.
39:28With each rebuild,
39:30the complex became
39:31more elaborate.
39:32And in its final phase,
39:33even featured monumental pillars
39:35and a sophisticated
39:36subterranean drainage system.
39:38When we arrange the pottery
39:41from the ruins
39:42in chronological order,
39:44an intriguing pattern emerges.
39:46The earlier pieces
39:47are often shaped
39:48like large flowerpots
39:49or bowls with beveled rims.
39:52Over time,
39:53we see the quantity
39:54of these beveled rim bowls increase,
39:56eventually overtaking
39:57the older flowerpot styles.
40:00Other forms of pottery
40:00also appear as time goes on,
40:02like rounded jars
40:03and vessels with spouts,
40:05which are both commonly associated
40:07with Uruk
40:07and southern Mesopotamian culture.
40:10The shift in pottery styles
40:12points to a significant
40:14social transformation
40:15where the local culture
40:17was slowly being replaced
40:19by Uruk practices.
40:20If this site really was
40:22a food distribution center,
40:23it was almost certainly overseen
40:25by outsiders from the south
40:27where these kinds of bartering systems
40:29had already been established.
40:31And that means
40:32that what we're seeing
40:33might be one of the earliest experiments
40:35with centralized government
40:37ever found
40:38from ancient Mesopotamia.
40:39This experiment seems to have worked,
40:45at least for a time.
40:46But then things changed dramatically.
40:49Sometime in the late 4th
40:50to the early 3rd millennia BCE,
40:52the monumental structures
40:54at Shaki Kora
40:54were abandoned.
40:55There were no signs of violence,
41:00no evidence of war.
41:02So what happened?
41:05We can't be sure
41:06why this experiment
41:07with centralized government failed,
41:09but it could be
41:11that the people living here
41:12just had enough.
41:14It may have been a question
41:15of food, housing, or politics.
41:17But the upshot was
41:20that the institution
41:21that fed local workers
41:22for centuries
41:23was abandoned.
41:24People returned
41:25to smaller,
41:26self-sufficient villages,
41:27essentially protesting
41:29the urbanization
41:29of their land
41:30and their way of life.
41:34Today,
41:36the remains of the vast
41:37institutional food hall
41:39at Shaki Kora
41:40stand as a monument
41:41to some of the earliest forms
41:43of centralized rule.
41:45A system that,
41:46despite centuries of success,
41:49ultimately proved
41:50too fragile to last.
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