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00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:19our own feet.
00:23And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:30Tonight, divine discoveries from a sacred fortress in the heart of Rome.
00:38The whole place is buttressed like a defensive stronghold.
00:41They have uncovered one of the most important religious institutions in the entire world.
00:48To a stone tablet with a sacred message.
00:51He does his best to read the writing, and what he's got astonishes him.
00:57To the oldest temple in the world.
01:01It's so ancient that it predates the construction of Stonehenge and the pyramids at Giza.
01:06And the fact that it survived for over 11,000 years, only to be discovered by chance, makes
01:13that even more extraordinary.
01:16Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:27Sometimes just doing your job results in astonishing finds, especially when that job is construction
01:37in an area rich in biblical history.
01:41It's 1913, and construction of the Palestine-Egypt railway is moving full steam ahead along the
01:48coast of what is now the modern state of Israel.
01:51But as these railroad workers are clearing out space to lay track, they strike a large stone
02:00that seems out of place.
02:04In this sandy earth, they find a flat piece of marble about two feet tall and two feet wide.
02:10As a few workers start to excavate it from the ground, they notice that there's very faint writing on it.
02:19It's been etched into the marble, and it's in a language that they can't understand.
02:25Intrigued by the find, one worker decides to take the large marble slab home with him.
02:32And when he gets it to his house, he puts it in his courtyard and uses it as a stepping stone.
02:39The inscription is placed face up, and it stays that way for 30 years.
02:46Then, in 1943, he puts the stone up for sale, and it attracts the attention of archaeologist
02:54Jacob Kaplan.
02:56Kaplan heads to the house, and when he takes a look at the inscription, he immediately recognizes
03:01the writing.
03:05It's Paleo-Hebrew, which is a style of writing that was used from 1000 BC up until about 135 AD.
03:14So, right off the bat, Kaplan knows that this thing is really, really old.
03:19And although he can identify the script, he can't actually understand it.
03:24Nevertheless, he goes ahead, and he buys the slab, and he takes it home, and enlists some
03:28of his colleagues to help him to decipher it.
03:32As they start to translate, the first line grabs their attention.
03:36It reads,
03:37Then, further down the stone, they identify other words.
03:49Kaplan has found a fully intact stone of the Ten Commandments that dates back to the era
04:06of the Old Testament.
04:07In the Bible, the Ten Commandments were famously given to Moses by God at the top of Mount Sinai.
04:15But those tablets are smashed by Moses when he sees the Israelites worshiping the golden calf.
04:21God later dictated the commandments back to Moses, who inscribed them onto a second set of tablets
04:28in the 13th century BC.
04:30And then, according to the Bible, those tablets are stored in the Ark of the Covenant.
04:34But then, later on, the Ark and those tablets go missing.
04:38For a moment, it seems the mystery of the missing tablets may finally be solved.
04:45But as researchers study the stone more closely, they realize something doesn't add up.
04:51Only nine of the Ten Commandments from the Bible are present on this stone.
04:57The Third Commandment is missing.
04:59The Replacement Commandment is an order to build a temple on Mount Gerizim,
05:06which is a sacred site for Samaritans.
05:09Further research discovers that a Samaritan synagogue
05:13was built in the place where this stone tablet was found.
05:19That temple was constructed between 300 and 800 AD.
05:24So the stone, while old, was likely created hundreds of years after Moses' time.
05:32Dr. Kaplan holds on to the stone for the next 50 years
05:36until finally his wife sells it after his death in 1995.
05:41Over the following decades, it changes hands a few times without much fanfare.
05:46Then, in December of 2024, the stone goes up for auction.
05:51The stone's age, its distinct Third Commandment,
05:55and the unusual story of its chance discovery ignite interest in the sale.
06:02Bidding starts out high, and then the price just keeps going up and up and up.
06:06Until finally, when the final gavel falls, the selling price is $5 million.
06:12The marble tablet goes to an anonymous buyer
06:15who pledges to donate it to an Israeli institution.
06:19In the end, this humble relic will be preserved and admired for generations.
06:27Next, a different kind of sacred discovery,
06:31one frozen in time, high up in the Andes.
06:34On September 18th, 1995, a mountain climber named Johan Reinhardt and his guide
06:43are climbing Ampato Mountain in southern Peru.
06:46They are hoping to get a photo of an active volcano nearby,
06:51but as they get close to the volcano,
06:53the sky fills with smoke and ash begins to rain down on them.
07:00The ashfall is melting the snow under their feet,
07:04exposing rock that has been covered by ice caps for centuries.
07:09And as they near the peak,
07:11there's something bright and red on the ground catching Johan's attention.
07:14As he gets closer, he sees that the red is, in fact, red feathers sticking out from some rocks.
07:23And when he looks, he sees that the feathers seem to be part of a hat.
07:28Johan moves away some of the stones, and he is astonished.
07:35Looking up at him from the rocks is the face of a young girl,
07:40no more than 12 or 13 years old.
07:41The body looks very well preserved.
07:44She's wrapped in beautiful, colorful textiles,
07:47and she's surrounded by gold and silver figurines and pottery vessels.
07:53It's a breathtaking discovery, but one that's also incredibly fragile.
07:59Johan's worried that the heat from the active volcano
08:02will soon destroy this naturally preserved mummy.
08:05He carefully picks up the girl's body and begins with his guide the dangerous descent down the mountain.
08:13It is a perilous journey, a treacherous 45-degree descent.
08:19It takes two full days.
08:21And then when he and the guide are down at the bottom,
08:24it takes another 13 hours to walk to the nearest village.
08:26Safely recovered, the mummy becomes known as Juanita
08:31and is an international sensation hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of the century.
08:37But when researchers begin to study her more closely,
08:40they uncover something surprising.
08:43Juanita is sent to John Hopkins University in Baltimore
08:46where she's scammed and researchers determined
08:50that she was likely killed between the ages of 11 and 15.
08:54Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head.
08:57But the evidence suggests that this was no accident,
09:02that Juanita was intentionally killed.
09:05Her death may have been brutal,
09:07but the treasures buried with her point to something far more sacred than murder.
09:12Several of the items Johan finds with her remains
09:15are fashioned of precious metals.
09:19It's not likely these would have been left accidentally behind by a murderer.
09:23It's much more likely that they were intentionally left behind as a sacrificial offering.
09:30The figures and ceramics feature Incan designs,
09:36which suggest that Juanita had been sacrificed to the gods.
09:40Juanita's child sacrifice is, of course, abhorrent.
09:43But at the time, it was a sacred duty.
09:47And this places her death to some time in the Incan Empire,
09:50between 1400 and 1450.
09:53Juanita's sacrifice wasn't just ceremonial.
09:56It may have been a plea to calm a furious natural force.
10:01Historians believe that the nearby Misti and Sabancayo volcanoes
10:05were really at the point of erupting
10:08and that Juanita may have been sacrificed
10:10in order to placate the gods
10:12and maybe make that eruption less catastrophic.
10:16There is something almost poetic, if you think about it,
10:20that Juanita may have been sacrificed to stop the eruption,
10:23only to be discovered as the ash melted away and revealed her grave.
10:28Let's say you're a regular guy with a passion for scuba diving.
10:38You love looking at coral reefs and tropical fish.
10:42Then one day, you accidentally spot something surprising under the waves.
10:48To 1998 in Guatemala, a local businessman named Roberto Samaioa
10:56is out enjoying one of his favorite pastimes,
11:00scuba diving in Lake Atitlan.
11:03This is a picturesque lake flanked by volcanoes and mountain peaks
11:08and charming villages.
11:12Around 50 feet below the surface in very murky waters,
11:17Samaioa sees something out of place.
11:20He sees a shape start to emerge.
11:22Getting closer, he discovers it's a large stone structure.
11:28As he continues to explore,
11:30he finds a series of staircases, temples, plazas.
11:34This is not just one structure.
11:37In essence, it looks like some kind of underwater city.
11:40Samioa reports his findings to local archaeologists,
11:49but no one believes him.
11:51Frustrated, he leaves the site untouched until 2007.
11:57Samioa decides to take matters into his own hands.
12:01He dives upon his find once more,
12:05but this time he comes equipped with an underwater digital camera.
12:09He snaps a few photos,
12:11and now everyone is beginning to believe him.
12:16Researchers spend the next five years using sonar
12:19to map out this underwater metropolis.
12:24What they uncover is more than ruins.
12:26It's the remains of a 2,500-year-old Mayan city.
12:32Once thought to be just a legend,
12:35they name it Samabaj,
12:37a blend of Samioa's name and the Mayan word for stone.
12:43As researchers explore further,
12:45it's the religious elements that unlock the mystery of Samabaj.
12:49Within the ruins,
12:50they find 16 different religious structures
12:53and two saunas,
12:55which the Maya would use to cleanse themselves
12:57before religious ceremonies.
12:59And then there's a large central square
13:01with a stone altar and a sacred pillar at one end.
13:06When the Maya were thriving in this area,
13:09around 350 B.C. to 250 A.D.,
13:11this city sat on an island in the middle of this lake.
13:15For centuries,
13:16Samabaj stood as a sacred sanctuary.
13:20So how did this entire ancient city wind up underwater?
13:27One of the volcanoes along the shore of Lake Atitlan erupted.
13:32Lava flowed down toward the lake
13:34and plugged up a drainage channel
13:36that carried overflow down the mountain.
13:38It's kind of like when you plug up your bathtub
13:40while the water's running.
13:41The water just continues to rise and rise and rise.
13:45By the time the water stopped rising,
13:47Samabaj was deep under the lake
13:49and stayed at a site for 1,700 years
13:52until Samayoa found it.
13:56Ironically,
13:56the same water that drowned Samabaj helped preserve it.
14:01Because of the island's location deep down in murky waters,
14:04the site has not fallen victim to things like looting,
14:07which has caused desecration of other historical sites
14:11all throughout Central America.
14:13So thanks to that volcanic eruption,
14:15combined with Samayoa's discovery,
14:17Samabaj is probably the most well-preserved site
14:20of Mayan culture to this day.
14:22From an ancient city lost below the waves
14:28to an even older site buried under the earth,
14:32our next story takes us to a hilltop in Turkey.
14:37Back in 1986, in southeastern Turkey,
14:41a farmer is plowing his property
14:43along the foothills of the Taurus Mountains.
14:46He reaches this area, which is called Belly Hill,
14:49a mound of land that stands about 50 feet higher
14:53than the surrounding plateaus.
14:55This area is filled with large stones
14:58that all poke up through the earth,
15:00threatening to break his equipment.
15:02The farmer's been trying to remove some of these stones.
15:05Most of them are too large to get out of the ground.
15:07But on this day in particular,
15:09one of these stones catches his attention.
15:12He takes a closer look
15:14and he clears away some of the surrounding dirt.
15:16It's a limestone statue of a human figure
15:20with finely carved eyes, nose, and mouth.
15:24Below that, there's not much of a body
15:26except for a large phallus.
15:30The statue looks really old,
15:33and so the farmer decides to take this
15:35to a museum about 12 miles away.
15:37The director of the museum
15:38does not seem very interested in this find,
15:40but when the farmer threatens to throw it away,
15:42they do reach a compromise
15:43and decide to place the statue in the museum garden.
15:46The statue sits there until 1992
15:50when a visiting archaeologist named Klaus Schmidt sees it.
15:55Dr. Schmidt has been doing excavation work nearby
15:58and recognizes this as a Neolithic figure
16:01at least several thousand years old.
16:03He wants to know more,
16:04so he travels to the farm where it was found.
16:06When he sees the large mound of land
16:09that rises up above the plateau,
16:11he can tell that it's man-made,
16:12and these large stones
16:14that keep getting in the farmer's way
16:16are actually the tops of limestone structures.
16:19Schmidt turns his attention to the mound
16:22and begins to dig.
16:27Not very long after these excavations began,
16:30archaeologists find massive limestone megaliths
16:33that are so close to the surface
16:35that some of them have actually been scraped
16:37by the farmer's equipment.
16:39Further down,
16:39they find 16-foot-tall stone pillars,
16:42each weighing between 7 and 10 tons.
16:45Some of them are carved
16:46with detailed reliefs of animals,
16:49like lions, foxes, snakes, and vultures.
16:53There are also enormous megaliths
16:56arranged in a circular pattern
16:58over 90 feet in diameter.
17:01Altogether, the site leads archaeologists
17:03to believe that they've uncovered
17:04some kind of giant temple.
17:08The site is called Gobekli Tepe,
17:11and carbon dating puts its construction
17:13between 9,500 and 9,000 B.C.,
17:18making it the oldest temple
17:20ever discovered in the world.
17:23It's so ancient that it predates writing
17:26and the invention of the wheel.
17:28It was constructed 6,000 years
17:30before Stonehenge
17:31or the pyramids at Giza.
17:34Its age is astonishing,
17:36but what's even more surprising
17:38is how it was built.
17:42Schmidt estimates it would have taken
17:44over 500 people to build Gobekli.
17:47But humans were believed
17:49to be hunter-gatherers at this time,
17:52and this site suggests
17:53that there was much more intelligence,
17:56cooperation, and planning
17:58that went into this
17:59than archaeologists
18:00could have possibly thought.
18:02Gobekli Tepe was a truly epic feat
18:05of design and construction
18:06for its time.
18:08And the fact that it survived
18:10for over 11,000 years,
18:12only to be discovered by chance
18:14by a farmer,
18:16makes that history
18:17even more extraordinary.
18:18When we think of papal palaces,
18:26we usually think of the Vatican.
18:28But the popes actually had
18:29an earlier home,
18:31one lost to time,
18:32until very recently.
18:37It's the summer of 2024,
18:39and the city of Rome in Italy
18:41is gearing up for Jubilee 2025.
18:44It's a massive Catholic celebration,
18:48and it's expected to draw
18:49roughly 30 million pilgrims
18:51to the city.
18:53To prepare for the influx of tourists,
18:56the city undergoes a lot of upgrades.
18:58One major project
18:59is renovating and repaving
19:01the public square
19:02in front of Basilica di San Giovanni
19:04in Laterano,
19:06the oldest public Catholic church in Rome,
19:09which was founded in 324.
19:11The plan is to add new landscaping,
19:16lighting, even a fountain.
19:17But not long after shovels hit the ground,
19:20workers strike something
19:22that appears to be an ancient wall.
19:28Then another.
19:30Then another.
19:32It seems they've stumbled
19:34on some kind of structure.
19:36They call in a team of archaeologists
19:39largely led by Daniella Porro.
19:42She's the special superintendent
19:43of archaeology in Rome.
19:46She analyzes these walls
19:48and sees that they're made of tuff,
19:50basically an amalgam of stone
19:52from volcanic ash
19:54buttressed by wood.
19:56She's able to realize
19:58through her analysis
19:59that these walls date back
20:01to the 9th century,
20:02which means they have found
20:05something incredibly special.
20:08These are the fortification walls
20:10that protected
20:11the original palace of the pope.
20:16Before the pope
20:17and the Catholic church
20:18were based in nearby Vatican City,
20:20the head of the church
20:21resided in an elaborate papal palace
20:24in the heart of Rome.
20:25It was built around 312 AD
20:28during the reign
20:29of the emperor Constantine the Great.
20:31The palace would undergo
20:33several expansions and upgrades
20:35over the next 500 years
20:36as the church grew in power.
20:39As the church expanded,
20:41the people palace
20:42became a target
20:43for Arab anti-Catholic invaders
20:47and even Roman aristocratic infighting
20:50right at its doorstep.
20:52In fact, the violence
20:53and the conflict got so bad
20:55that in 1309,
20:57the papacy left the basilica
21:00and actually relocated
21:02the seat of the pope
21:02to Avignon, France.
21:05Abandoned and empty,
21:06the palace falls into neglect
21:08and ultimately is decimated by fire.
21:13In 1377,
21:15the papacy finally made its way
21:16back to Italy,
21:17this time to Vatican City.
21:20A few hundred years later,
21:21Pope Sixtus V
21:23decided to tear down
21:24most of what remained
21:26of the original palace complex.
21:28When construction crews
21:30rediscovered the palace ruins
21:32500 years later,
21:34archaeologists turn their attention
21:36to preserving the site.
21:38Antiquity experts
21:39and archaeologists feel
21:41it may take years
21:42to fully grasp
21:43the enormity
21:44of what is in this structure.
21:47What they do know
21:48is that they have uncovered
21:50an incredibly well-preserved
21:51time capsule
21:52of one of the most important
21:54religious institutions
21:55and religious titles
21:57in the entire world.
22:01Next,
22:02a casual walk in the woods
22:04leads to finding
22:05another piece
22:07of papal history,
22:08one that dates back
22:09hundreds of years.
22:11It's January 2024.
22:16Jacek Kukowski
22:17is walking along
22:18railroad tracks
22:19in northwest Poland
22:21near the German border.
22:23This area was used
22:25as a Nazi escape route
22:26at the end of World War II.
22:28So people sometimes find
22:30remnants of the past here,
22:32helmets, firearms,
22:33or other military artifacts.
22:35As he's walking,
22:37his eye catches something
22:38half-buried
22:39under the base of a tree.
22:43He realizes
22:44it's a wedge-shaped object.
22:46It's made of metal.
22:47But upon closer inspection,
22:49he sees this is not
22:50a Nazi war relic.
22:52In fact,
22:52he doesn't even think
22:53it's from the modern era.
22:55It's nothing like
22:56he's ever seen before.
23:00Jacek Kukowski
23:00brings his discovery
23:01to a local museum,
23:02hoping their experts
23:03can shed some light
23:04on this find.
23:05There,
23:06archaeologist
23:07Jagor Shkirka
23:08identifies
23:08that the object
23:09is made of lead.
23:11He examines it,
23:12and on one side,
23:14he sees letters
23:15and some Roman numerals,
23:16which captures his attention.
23:18Kukka has seen
23:19an artifact
23:20like this before.
23:22It's a lead papal bull seal,
23:24or bulla,
23:25used to authenticate
23:26papal decrees.
23:28Kukka is now all in,
23:30and he wants to find out
23:31which pope
23:32this actually belonged to.
23:34Every pope's bulla
23:35has on one side
23:37an image
23:38of Saints Peter and Paul,
23:40but the other side
23:41is always unique.
23:42It has the pope's name.
23:45Unfortunately,
23:46this seal is cracked,
23:47but he's able
23:48to decipher
23:49certain things
23:50that give him clues
23:51as to which pope
23:52this might be from.
23:54He's able to see
23:55the letters
23:55E and U-S.
23:58And based on these clues,
23:59he's able to deduce
24:01that this was
24:02the papal bull seal
24:03of one of four
24:05possible popes.
24:08Benedict XI,
24:10Clement V,
24:11Benedict XII,
24:13or Clement VI,
24:15all of which
24:15will date the seal
24:16between 1303
24:17and 1352.
24:20Unfortunately,
24:21the document
24:22the seal was attached to
24:23decayed long ago.
24:25So we may never know
24:28exactly which pope
24:29this bull belonged to.
24:31In any case,
24:32the seal survived
24:33in that spot
24:34for centuries,
24:35but the mystriate
24:36will likely survive
24:37for many, many more.
24:38Imagine finding
24:44an unusual stone
24:45in a pile of rubble
24:47and learning
24:47it's covered in writing,
24:49dating back
24:50thousands of years.
24:51What happens next
24:52is an adventure story
24:54straight out
24:55of the movies.
24:56In 1868,
24:58a French missionary
24:59is traveling
25:00in what is now
25:01modern-day Jordan,
25:03delivering aid
25:04and spreading
25:04Christianity
25:05in the region.
25:06His work takes him
25:07to a small,
25:08abandoned area
25:09near the village
25:10of Dubon
25:10where something
25:11catches his eye.
25:14In a pile of rubble
25:16in ruins,
25:17there's one stone
25:18that looks
25:20out of place.
25:23It's about
25:24four feet tall,
25:25it's black,
25:26and it's covered
25:27in strange characters.
25:30He can't read
25:31the writing on it,
25:32but he does his best
25:34to copy out
25:35some of the script
25:36with a quick sketch.
25:39Later,
25:40he returns to Jerusalem
25:42and shows it
25:42to a friend
25:43who thinks
25:44that the writing
25:45looks like Phoenician,
25:47an ancient script
25:48that was the foundation
25:49of the Greek
25:50and Hebrew alphabets.
25:52Soon,
25:53news of the Phoenician stone
25:55catches the ear
25:56of Charles Clermont Ghanot,
25:58a French translator
25:59and amateur archaeologist
26:02based in Jerusalem.
26:03Charles is intrigued,
26:04and so he dispatches
26:06a friend called
26:06Yacoub Karavaga
26:08to go make
26:09what's called
26:09a squeeze.
26:11A squeeze
26:12is a paper impression
26:13when the paper is wet,
26:15pressed in the inscription,
26:16and then pulled away,
26:18sort of like
26:18when you rub
26:19a tombstone
26:20to get the inscription
26:21off of the front of it.
26:22But before the impression
26:24can set,
26:25rising tensions
26:26between nearby tribes
26:28take a dangerous turn.
26:31Yacoub and the stone
26:33are surrounded
26:34by two Bedouin tribes,
26:36and it seems
26:36that the locals
26:37have understood
26:38that there's something
26:39significant about
26:40this monument,
26:41and they're now
26:41fighting over it.
26:44In the melee,
26:46the paper impression
26:47is torn up,
26:48and then suddenly...
26:49Yacoub gets stabbed
26:53in the leg.
26:55Yacoub narrowly escapes
26:57on horseback
26:58and brings the torn
26:59inscription fragments
27:00to Charles.
27:02Slowly,
27:03one by one,
27:04Charles begins
27:05to piece these pieces
27:06of paper together,
27:08and what he's got
27:09in the end
27:10is something
27:10that astonishes him.
27:13It's 34 lines of texts
27:15written in first person
27:17by somebody called
27:19King Mesha.
27:20According to the Bible,
27:22back in the 9th century B.C.,
27:25Mesha rebelled
27:26against the kingdom
27:27of Israel
27:27and ruled Moab,
27:29an ancient territory
27:31located in modern-day Jordan.
27:34The writing
27:34is mostly
27:36a recounting
27:37of Mesha's
27:38military victories
27:39and other history
27:41of the region.
27:42But what really
27:43gets Charles excited
27:44is that the text
27:45contains historical references
27:47to Israel,
27:49the house of David,
27:50biblical events.
27:51It even gives
27:52the Hebrew name for God.
27:54These are some
27:54of the earliest references
27:56to events in the Bible
27:57in the historical record.
27:59Basically,
28:00this rock
28:00could be evidence
28:02that the events
28:03of the Bible
28:04are based
28:05in real history.
28:06They call it
28:09the Moabite stone.
28:11But as word spreads,
28:13the locals fear
28:14the stone
28:15will be plundered
28:16by Westerners.
28:17So they decide
28:19to destroy it.
28:21So they pour water
28:23on the stone
28:24and then they light
28:25a fire underneath it.
28:27When the water
28:28gets hot,
28:29it turns to steam
28:30and the steam expands
28:32and effectively
28:35blows the stone
28:37to pieces.
28:39The Moabite stone fragments
28:41are then hidden
28:42among the members
28:43of the local tribe.
28:45And Charles
28:46spends three years
28:47trying to find them.
28:49Initially,
28:49he's able to find
28:5138 pieces
28:53and then eventually
28:54another 19
28:56are either recovered
28:57or donated.
28:58And then utilizing
28:59the squeeze
29:00as reference,
29:01he begins to painstakingly
29:03reassemble
29:04the shattered stone.
29:08In 1873,
29:09it makes its debut
29:11at the Louvre.
29:13It's an absolute sensation.
29:16People flock
29:16to get a personal look
29:18at this real-world piece
29:20of biblical history.
29:21And the story
29:23of how it was
29:24discovered,
29:26destroyed,
29:27and pieced back
29:28together again
29:28only adds
29:29to the mystique
29:30of this relic.
29:34Over 2,000 miles away,
29:37another hidden box
29:38holds proof
29:39of a different kind
29:40of worshipped figure.
29:42In 1827,
29:46an English soldier
29:47named James Lewis
29:48is posted
29:49with the army
29:50in Agra, India.
29:52He fakes his own death
29:54and deserts
29:55the army.
29:57A crime, by the way,
29:58which is punishable
29:58by death.
29:59He then changes his name
30:00to Charles Masson
30:01and for the next few years
30:03goes adventuring
30:04and seeks fame
30:05and fortune
30:06in places like India
30:07and the Middle East.
30:08Charles, as he's known,
30:10is quite the character.
30:12During his travels,
30:13he assumes
30:14several identities.
30:16He poses
30:17as a monk,
30:18as a Frenchman,
30:19as a haji,
30:20as a healer,
30:21all the while
30:22developing a keen eye
30:24for ancient artifacts.
30:26In 1833,
30:28the British East India Company
30:30hires him
30:31to explore
30:32and document
30:33ancient sites
30:34in what's now
30:35Afghanistan.
30:36Charles arrives
30:38in the Gandhara Valley
30:39and he sees there
30:41a series of
30:42ruined,
30:44domed buildings.
30:45And he goes
30:46to explore them.
30:48He is hoping
30:49to find
30:50some ancient coins
30:52that might have
30:53some value,
30:54but instead
30:54he finds
30:55a round
30:57soapstone
30:58box with a lid.
31:00Charles opens
31:00the container
31:01and discovers
31:02pearls and coral
31:03and sapphire beads
31:05all burnt.
31:06and at the center
31:08of the container
31:08he finds
31:10an intricate
31:10gold cylinder
31:11adorned with carvings
31:13and rubies.
31:14The gold cylinder
31:15is a reliquary
31:17or casket
31:18which would traditionally
31:19hold sacred offerings
31:21and physical remains
31:23of a holy person.
31:25This reliquary
31:26doesn't contain
31:27any human remains.
31:29Instead,
31:30it's carved
31:30with a series
31:31of eight human figures
31:33and Charles
31:34recognizes
31:35one of them
31:36as the Buddha.
31:37We typically
31:38associate Afghanistan
31:40with Islam,
31:41but early trade routes
31:43actually brought Buddhism
31:44to the area
31:45around the 4th century B.C.,
31:47about a thousand years
31:48before the arrival
31:49of Islam.
31:50While Charles thinks
31:51he's uncovered
31:52a treasure
31:52nearly 2,000 years old,
31:54it takes another
31:5550 years
31:56before the true
31:57significance
31:58of his discovery
31:59is fully understood.
32:00In the late 19th century,
32:03Western scholars
32:04start to take
32:05more of an interest
32:05in Buddhism
32:06and his teachings
32:07in Gandhara.
32:09They soon realized
32:10that the image of Buddha
32:11that Charles saw
32:12on the casket
32:13was the earliest depiction
32:15of Buddha
32:15ever found.
32:18Today,
32:19statues and images
32:20of the human figure
32:21of the Buddha
32:22are common.
32:23But before the 1st century AD,
32:26the Buddha
32:26was typically depicted
32:27with symbolic images
32:29like footprints,
32:31the lotus flower,
32:32or an empty throne.
32:33On this reliquary,
32:35the Buddha
32:35is clothed in a robe
32:37and holds up his hand
32:39in a mudra position.
32:42The amazing find
32:44becomes known
32:45as the Bimmeran casket,
32:46and it goes on display
32:48at the British Museum
32:49in 1900.
32:51Yet the story behind it
32:53and the man
32:54who brought it to light
32:55is almost as extraordinary
32:57as the relic itself.
32:58While there's no doubt
33:00that Charles was
33:01a colorful character
33:02and a skillful liar,
33:04it's undeniable
33:05that he's also responsible
33:06for one of the most
33:07important Buddhist discoveries
33:08of all time.
33:14The Old City of Jerusalem
33:16is known
33:16for its rich religious history.
33:19One small stone box
33:20found there
33:21contains a stunning link
33:23to the past,
33:24one dating back
33:25to the time of Jesus.
33:27It's early 1976
33:29in the old city
33:31of Jerusalem.
33:32A 25-year-old engineer
33:34named Oded Golan
33:36is looking through items
33:38in an antiquities market
33:39when his eye is drawn
33:41to a limestone box.
33:44The dealer tells him
33:45that it comes
33:46from a nearby neighborhood
33:47called Silouat,
33:48but he doesn't know
33:48anything else about it
33:50other than the fact
33:51that it is an ossuary
33:52or a bone box.
33:57Ossuaries were very common
33:59in the first century A.D.
34:00People would be buried
34:01for about a year
34:03and then their bodies
34:04would be exhumed
34:05and their bones
34:05would be placed
34:06in a limestone box.
34:08It was a way of dealing
34:09with space issues
34:11if you didn't have enough
34:12room for burials.
34:13They were often
34:14elaborately decorated.
34:16Sometimes the name
34:17of the person
34:18or a phrase
34:19was inscribed
34:19on the side.
34:21The box that Golan discovers
34:23is relatively unremarkable,
34:25but on the front of it
34:26there is some script
34:27in a language
34:28that he doesn't recognize.
34:30He likes collecting antiques.
34:31The dealer isn't asking
34:33very much,
34:33so he buys the box
34:34for about $200
34:35and puts it on a shelf
34:36in his parents' house.
34:38The box sits untouched
34:40for 26 years.
34:42Then, in 2001,
34:45Golan meets
34:45an ancient language expert
34:47named André Lemaire
34:49at a dinner party
34:50and asks for help
34:51deciphering the inscription
34:53on the box.
34:55Lemaire's amazed.
34:57It's written in Aramaic,
34:59and it says on it,
35:01James, son of Joseph,
35:04brother of Jesus.
35:08Names like Jesus
35:09and Joseph
35:10were common at the time,
35:12as was James.
35:13On the other hand,
35:14ossuaries don't normally
35:15list the names
35:17of siblings of the deceased,
35:18so it may be
35:20that this Jesus
35:20had to have been
35:21pretty important
35:22to be name-checked
35:23on his brother's bone box.
35:25That name-drop
35:26raises eyebrows,
35:28along with questions
35:29about Jesus' family ties.
35:31In the Bible,
35:32we do know there was
35:34a figure named
35:35James the Just
35:36who was said to be
35:38Jesus' brother,
35:39and he was a leader
35:40after Jesus' death
35:41of the first generation
35:43of Jesus' followers.
35:44We also know
35:46James the Just
35:46was martyred.
35:47He was stoned to death
35:49very violently
35:49around the year 62 A.D.
35:51If authentic,
35:53this would make
35:54the James ossuary
35:55the earliest written reference
35:57and very first physical
35:59piece of evidence
36:00connected to Jesus
36:01ever found in Jerusalem.
36:05Golan allows Lemaire
36:07to borrow the box
36:08to check its authenticity.
36:10Lemaire first examines
36:12the style of the script,
36:13which he dates
36:14to around 60 or 70 A.D.
36:17This just happens
36:18to correlate historically
36:20with when James actually died.
36:22Then he takes bits
36:25of limestone flecks
36:27from the surface of the box
36:28and he has them sent away
36:30to the Geological Survey of Israel
36:32in order to get tested.
36:35They determine
36:37that the script
36:38could not have been carved
36:39with modern tools,
36:41and they also say
36:42that the aged patina
36:43of the stone
36:44could not have been forged.
36:46Lemaire publishes his findings
36:48and then begins a press tour
36:49to publicize
36:51this amazing discovery.
36:52Even with all the evidence,
36:54there's no definitive proof
36:56of whose remains
36:57the box once held,
36:59leading the Israel Antiquities Authority
37:01and others
37:02to question its authenticity.
37:06Today, Golan loans it
37:08to museums around the world
37:10where visitors can get
37:11an up-close look
37:12at what might be
37:13an artifact of Jesus' life.
37:16They say history
37:21can be stranger
37:22than fiction,
37:23which is the case
37:24with what one young fisherman
37:26pulled from the sea
37:28in 2013.
37:31August 16, 2013,
37:33a young Palestinian fisherman
37:35named Judah Gorab
37:36takes his small boat
37:37out into the waters
37:38off the coast of Gaza.
37:39He's looking
37:40in the shallow waters
37:40for fish.
37:41As he's looking down
37:44from his boat,
37:45he sees a dark figure,
37:49maybe 15 feet down.
37:52It looks like a man.
37:54So he's startled at first,
37:57but then curiosity
37:58gets the better of him.
38:00And he jumps out of his boat
38:02and dives down.
38:04And what he finds
38:05is there's a large statue
38:07down there.
38:08Half buried in the sand.
38:14It's dark metal
38:15with hints of green and gold.
38:18And Judah wonders
38:19if he's found something valuable.
38:21But it's too heavy
38:23for him to lift by himself.
38:25Judah heads back to land,
38:28gathers up some friends
38:29and family,
38:29and they head back out.
38:31And they try to bring
38:33the statue to the surface
38:34by tying around it
38:35a clothesline.
38:36For four arduous hours,
38:40they take turns
38:40diving down to the bottom,
38:43yanking on the clothesline,
38:45dragging the statue
38:47across the sea floor
38:48until they finally
38:50reach the shore.
38:53They're able to heave
38:54the statue
38:55onto a donkey cart
38:57and take it
38:58to Judah's house
38:59for closer inspection.
39:00The statue
39:01is a six-foot-tall
39:03naked man
39:04with dark curly hair.
39:07Judah thinks
39:08it's made of gold
39:09and that he's hit pay dirt.
39:12And then about a month later,
39:14the statue makes
39:15a surprise appearance
39:16on eBay.
39:18It includes
39:20a few blurry photos
39:21of the statue
39:22laying on a bed
39:25in a child's bedroom
39:26with Smurf sheets.
39:28Even by eBay standards,
39:30this is a strange listing.
39:32Bidding opens
39:33at a mere $500,000.
39:35The post and asking price
39:38gets the attention
39:39of Gaza archaeologist
39:41Fadel Alitol,
39:42who identifies the statue
39:44as an incredibly
39:45well-preserved bronze
39:47of the Greco-Roman god
39:48Apollo.
39:49One of the 12 Olympians,
39:52Apollo is a son of Zeus,
39:54and he's the god
39:55of archery, music,
39:57truth, and healing.
39:59He's also considered
40:00to be one of the most
40:01beautiful gods,
40:02and this statue
40:03does him justice.
40:05Alitol is amazed
40:07by how beautifully
40:09well-preserved
40:10this statue is.
40:11He estimates it weighs
40:12more than half a ton.
40:14Given its purported size,
40:17condition, and rarity,
40:18this Apollo of Gaza
40:20could fetch anywhere
40:21between $20 and $45 million.
40:25Unfortunately,
40:26before Alitol
40:27can examine
40:28the statue in person,
40:30the Gaza authorities
40:31swoop in.
40:33Immediately,
40:34police arrive
40:35to the statue's location
40:36and haul it away.
40:40Soon after,
40:41in 2023,
40:43war breaks out
40:44in the region
40:45and news about
40:46the Apollo statue
40:48all but disappears.
40:50Whatever the fate
40:51of this particular statue,
40:53there is still the hope
40:55of other very similar
40:56discoveries,
40:57because we know
40:58that this statue
40:59was actually made
41:01from a cast,
41:02and so maybe there were
41:03other copies that were made
41:04at the same time.
41:06Maybe they're still out there,
41:07whether under the water
41:09or on land
41:10just waiting
41:11to be discovered.
41:15A long-lost papal palace,
41:17a statue of a Greek god,
41:19fragments of a priceless text.
41:21These are just some
41:22of the divine discoveries
41:23that give us
41:25new insight
41:26into the past.
41:27I'm Danny Trejo.
41:29Thanks for watching
41:30Mysteries Unearthed.
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