Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo - Season 2 Episode 02- Blasts From the Past
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00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:14our own feet. And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:22Tonight, explosive discoveries from a ticking time bomb underneath our nation's capital.
00:34As he peers down into the hole, he's stunned. They are panics. This is a real World War I
00:40mortar shell. Two remnants of a killer asteroid. From the size of the crater, the asteroid was about
00:48twice the size of the Superdome, striking the earth at over 45,000 miles per hour.
00:55The impact was a cataclysmic event. To a lost weapon of war. It's loaded with over 270 pounds of high
01:04explosives. In other words, this thing could bring down a small building. Join us now,
01:10because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:18When fishermen head out to sea, they hope to return with a full net. But one captain
01:30hauls in a catch that might just sink him.
01:33It's October 2022. And Captain Glenn Westcott and his crew are fishing off the coast of Rhode
01:43Island. It's a family operation. So helping him man the rigging are his son and nephew.
01:50As they haul their catch and drop it on deck, fish are flopping around everywhere.
01:54That's when Captain Glenn notices something unusual. Mixed with the fish is a large corroded metal
02:02barrel. But it doesn't look like a normal barrel like an oil drum. It's covered with all these bolts
02:10and metal plates. And it's really heavy. Captain's first move is to call the Coast Guard, who then
02:17races a boat out to evacuate the crew. The Coast Guard quickly realizes that they're in over their head.
02:23So they call in the Navy. When the Navy explosive experts arrive, they lose no time in identifying
02:30the threat. It's a World War II MK-6 depth charge loaded with 270 pounds of TNT. It's enough to bring
02:40down a small building. During World War II, depth charges played a vital role, serving as a primary
02:48defense against German U-boats. After these depth charges roll off the back of a destroyer escort
02:55or a frigate, they sink very rapidly. And when they reach a specific depth, which has been preset by the
03:01crew, the pressure fuse triggers the bomb. And it goes off and it sends a shockwave. And that shockwave
03:08reaches the enemy submarine hull and crushes it. The goal was to sink any submarines lurking in the
03:14area. In some cases, multiple ships would rain down hundreds of depth charges, hoping one of them
03:22will cause the destruction of the U-boat. Based on where it was found, naval historians believe
03:29this particular depth charge was dropped in one of the final sea battles of the war.
03:36So in May 1945, a Coast Guard frigate and a Navy destroyer spotted a German submarine, U-853,
03:44just two miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The two American ships unleashed a barrage of 195
03:50depth charges, hoping to sink the sub.
03:53Eventually, the relentless pounding sent the German U-boat to the ocean's floor.
04:03Apparently, not all those depth charges detonated, because here one is, 80 years later, in Captain Glenn's net.
04:10All of those control measures that are in the depth charge to keep it from going off have all corroded.
04:16It really could go off at any minute. So the Navy works with the Coast Guard to set up a perimeter to ensure that
04:21nobody gets too close. The Navy carefully removes this from the fishing boat.
04:26They take it out to sea. They're a mile offshore. They put other explosives around it, and they detonate it.
04:33And as an explosion, bystanders said they could feel on the shore.
04:39I know fishermen are full of tall tales about the one that got away, but in this case, I'm sure that Captain Glenn and his crew
04:45were happy to let this one go.
04:46The ocean floor isn't the only place that World War II left behind a few surprises.
04:54Just ask the kids who uncovered something just as shocking on a beach a decade earlier.
05:03In May of 2008, two nine-year-old boys are playing on the sands of Ovik Beach in Denmark on a family vacation.
05:11They're jumping in the water, running around, and they're having a great time.
05:16One of the boys spots something near a bluff. It looks like a bucket sticking out of the sand, so he runs over to check it out.
05:25But when he gets there, he finds something even more interesting.
05:29Buried in the sand next to the bucket is what appears to be a metal door with concrete around it.
05:36They clear the sand from around the door and pry it open.
05:41When they peek in, they discover something amazing and horrifying.
05:47This is a concrete room that's about 200 square feet, and it's filled with beds, uniforms, and military equipment.
05:58They even find that some of the equipment is marked with a swastika.
06:03The authorities finally arrive and call in archaeologists, who confirm what the locals already suspect.
06:10They found a long-lost Nazi bunker from World War II.
06:14In the early days of the war, German forces invade Denmark.
06:20But the Danish military is no match for the Nazi war machine, and the country quickly falls.
06:27The Germans then spend the rest of the war fortifying Denmark's western shoreline.
06:32These bunkers are part of a broader system that Germany builds during World War II
06:36that consists of over 7,000 bunkers and fighting positions that stretch from Norway all the way to the Franco-Spanish border.
06:42It's designed to defend their conquered territory from a counterattack by the Allies.
06:48The project is known as the Atlantic Wall.
06:52The scale is staggering.
06:54It takes over 300,000 workers to build these bunkers.
06:58They use over 700 million cubic feet of concrete and over a million tons of steel.
07:04The Danish bunkers are designed to hold out against anything the Allies can hit them with.
07:12They have six-foot-thick walls to stop bomb blasts, mortars, and gunfire.
07:18With thousands of such bunkers and fighting positions along the Danish coast,
07:23archaeologists are convinced that there could be more hidden by sand bins.
07:26So they start searching.
07:29Sure enough, nearby they find two more bunkers poking out of the sand.
07:35These things have been buried out of sight for nearly 70 years,
07:38and now suddenly they've found three of them.
07:42What's really amazing is that the inside of these bunkers,
07:44they're like time capsules, untouched since the end of the Second World War.
07:48They find boots, socks, underwear, Hitler postage stamps, soda bottles, mustard.
07:57They even find half-finished bottles of schnapps and a pipe with tobacco still in it.
08:02What they don't find are any bodies or remains of German soldiers.
08:09When the war ended with the German surrender on May 8, 1945,
08:13the soldiers inside these positions simply walked out, closed the doors,
08:18walked to the nearest town, and surrendered.
08:20Soon after, many of the bunkers were looted and stripped,
08:23but some were never discovered until now.
08:27In the end, all of the items inside are preserved and sent to a museum.
08:32And the bunkers themselves, although once hidden,
08:35are now preserved and open to the public.
08:37They attract thousands of visitors every year.
08:43When you're digging in your yard, you have to be careful.
08:49You could hit a pipe, sprinkler line,
08:52or if you're really unlucky, something much more dangerous.
08:59In 1993, in the Spring Valley section of Washington, D.C.,
09:03a construction crew was preparing to dig a trench.
09:06They're surrounded by some of the fanciest houses in D.C.,
09:09the kind of place where your next-door neighbor might be a U.S. senator
09:12or an ambassador.
09:14A backhoe operator fires up his engine and begins digging.
09:18Suddenly, the bucket on his backhoe hits something and makes a large clang.
09:24He climbs out of the machine to go down and have a closer look.
09:27As he peers down into the hole, he's stunned.
09:31What he's hit isn't a rock, and it looks pretty alarming.
09:35It's metal and shaped like a foot-long bullet.
09:39They are panicked, so the crew calls the fire department.
09:43When they see it, they panic and call the cops.
09:45And yes, the cops also panic, so they call the bomb squad.
09:49The bomb squad confirms that this is a real World War I mortar shell.
09:53Concerned there could be more bombs buried nearby,
10:00the authorities carefully search the rest of the area.
10:04They find dozens more of these mortar shells.
10:07Of course, they immediately evacuate 25 of the surrounding homes,
10:11and they call in the army to try to get a handle on the situation.
10:14Even though these shells are old and corroded,
10:18they're still alive, therefore still dangerous.
10:20So they could explode.
10:22When the army arrives, they start carefully removing these shells,
10:26and within a few days, they've uncovered 140 of these.
10:31However, what looks like standard ammunition hides an even deadlier secret.
10:37These shells were not designed to kill and maim through fragmentation.
10:40It's worse than that because this site used to be home to a U.S. Army chemical weapons depot.
10:48Inside of these shells are some of the deadliest chemical compounds known to humankind.
10:54World War I broke out in 1914,
10:57and it was the first war that started since the Industrial Revolution.
11:02A lot of new weapons were being tried out for the first time,
11:05and one of the worst of these was chemical weapons.
11:07Highly poisonous compounds like mustard gas were loaded into shells and fired at the enemy.
11:14When they hit, they'd unleash a cloud of death.
11:18They would burn and blister flesh, destroy soldiers' lungs, cause blindness,
11:24and often they'd lead to an excruciating, painful death.
11:28In 1917, as the United States is preparing to intervene in the First World War,
11:33it establishes a chemical weapons service in the U.S. Army.
11:37The new U.S. Army Chemical Service enters into an agreement with the new American University,
11:43and together they established this facility called Camp Leach.
11:48There they tested chemicals on soldiers' skin,
11:51tried out new designs of gas masks,
11:53and they developed toxic chemical compounds,
11:56loaded them into mortars, and fired them there right on site.
11:59But before the new weapons could be sent to the front,
12:04Germany surrendered and the war was over.
12:07Camp Leach was shut down, they dug pits in the ground,
12:11stuffed the chemical weapons in, and just buried them.
12:14At the time, the military thought these chemicals will dissipate on their own.
12:18So no one really thought much when 10 years later, 1928,
12:22the ground was turned over to developers to build what would become this ritzy neighborhood.
12:28Now, seven decades later, these canisters remain just as lethal as the day they were buried,
12:36making this wealthy neighborhood a dangerous minefield.
12:39The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several private hazardous waste disposal companies
12:46have been working to try to bring this problem under control.
12:49But the problem keeps getting bigger and bigger.
12:52They'll clean up one burial site of former World War I chemical weapons,
12:56and then immediately find another one.
12:58The Spring Valley site is about 661 acres of land,
13:02and nearly 1,600 private homes, several embassies,
13:06an American university sit atop this collection of toxic chemicals.
13:13In the end, it takes the government nearly 30 years and $250 million to clean up the mess.
13:20They remove over 1,000 military shells filled with the deadliest chemicals and poisons man has ever developed.
13:26And yes, today they say they think they've got it all.
13:29But honestly, if I were buying a house, I'd be looking for a discount.
13:32Next up, another war-era surprise washes up on the shores of Normandy,
13:40just in time for its close-up.
13:46In 1961, a film crew is clearing the beaches
13:50where the historic D-Day landing site occurred in Normandy, France.
13:54They're prepping to start filming their own World War II epic film
13:58called The Longest Day, starring none other than the duke himself, John Wayne.
14:03Before the cameras can start rolling, the beach has a lot of debris on it.
14:07It's got to be cleaned up.
14:09As they coat the sand, they uncover what at first looks like a random piece of metal.
14:13But as they begin to clear the sand away from it, it gets bigger and bigger.
14:18They at first think they've uncovered some kind of vehicle, maybe a jeep.
14:22They keep digging, and it becomes pretty clear that this thing, it's way bigger than a jeep.
14:28It is a buried, full-size tank.
14:32The film's military advisors quickly identify the machine.
14:38It's a vintage World War II Sherman tank used by the Americans
14:43on the D-Day landing beaches 17 years earlier.
14:46On June 6th, 1944, nearly 160,000 Allied soldiers crossed the English Channel
14:55and landed on the Normandy beaches.
14:57This was a coordinated attack along 50 miles of German-controlled and fortified coastline,
15:02and it turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
15:06One of the reasons that it was so difficult for Americans
15:08was because that initial wave was also supposed to include 64 Sherman tanks.
15:15The tanks were supposed to provide cover, lay down fire, and then roll over German fortifications.
15:24Unfortunately, nearly half of the tank fleas sunk in the rough waters of the English Channel
15:29before they reached Normandy.
15:32While this particular tank was lucky enough to make it to the shore,
15:37it quickly ran into another problem.
15:39The film's military advisors think that the tank may have broken down not long after it made it to the beach
15:46and that it was left behind during the Allied advance.
15:49Eventually, it sank into the sand where, in the end, it was covered by a dune.
15:55But it turns out to be a fortunate find for the producers of The Longest Day.
15:59They're desperately looking for period-accurate props for the movie,
16:02so when they find the tank, they're ecstatic.
16:05The film crew refurbishes the tank, slaps on a fresh coat of paint,
16:09and gives it a role in the D-Day sequence of the movie.
16:12And that's how a lost, forgotten relic turned into a motion picture star.
16:25Sure, home improvement projects often come with surprises.
16:29But for one couple in France, what was hidden in their wall was no mold or mouse nest.
16:36In 2017, in France's Burgundy region, a couple is remodeling their home.
16:48And as they're doing so, they pull down the drywall.
16:53And in one area of the house, they see that there's something hidden inside.
16:58As it turns out, the object is an old pistol.
17:00They pull it out of the wall, and they're shocked to see there's another gun behind it,
17:06then another, and then a submachine gun.
17:13By the time they're done, the couple has pulled out three Sten submachine guns,
17:18three pistols, over a dozen live hand grenades,
17:21and a thousand rounds of ammunition.
17:25The biggest mystery is that two of the machine guns have names engraved on them.
17:30The couple contact a local military museum who date the weapons back to World War II.
17:40Turns out, at the same time, French resistance leader Armand Simonot was living in the house.
17:46The French resistance was a paramilitary unit waging guerrilla warfare against the German occupation.
17:52It started as a scattered and loosely organized group.
17:56But by 1943, French General Charles de Gaulle was coordinating the activities of multiple factions from exile in England.
18:05The French resistance blew up rail lines, sabotaged supply routes, rescued downed allied pilots.
18:13And by 1944, they grew into a 400,000-strong force that was a major thorn in Germany's side.
18:23Among them, the well-armed Commander Armand Simonot.
18:28It's clear that Simonot hid these weapons in his house from prying eyes or to keep them close in case the enemy came knocking.
18:35When he died, the secret died with him, and it wasn't unearthed until a sledgehammer hit the wall.
18:44It still leaves one question.
18:46Who were Pipette and Alice?
18:48Researchers wonder, were Pipette and Alice fighters, or were these just simply nicknames that people gave to the guns?
18:55Fortunately, the couple that found these items understood their historical significance.
19:01They donate them to a local museum, and they remain on display as a testament to the courage and the sacrifice of the French resistance.
19:13Finding an arsenal hidden in your wall is pretty wild.
19:18But that's child's play compared to what's found at one playground.
19:25On January 14, 2025, a crew is hard at work expanding a children's park in Northumberland, England.
19:34They're adding things like a balance beam and a net bridge, and they have to clear the land and lay foundations to install those.
19:43As they dig, one of the workers strikes something solid, and it rings out with a clang.
19:48Work grinds to a halt as the rest of the crew comes over to take a look at this partially exposed object.
19:56As they clear away more dirt, a shape comes into view that stops them cold.
20:03It's a bomb.
20:06It's a foot long with a conical shape and what looks like a fuse at one end.
20:11The first call goes to the local police, and within minutes, the bomb squad is on site.
20:19The experts quickly identify it as a British World War II era bomb.
20:24It's not big.
20:25It's only 10 pounds.
20:26So it's quite a bit smaller than most World War II bombs.
20:29But with a live fuse and an intact charge, it's still lethal.
20:34Authorities evacuate the entire park.
20:38Local officials bring in a private bomb disposal company for what they expect will be a couple of days of searching the site to make sure there are no more explosives.
20:46It soon becomes clear that this is a much bigger job than they expected.
20:51By the end of the first day, they've uncovered 65 more bombs.
20:57The next day, they find 90 more.
21:00Altogether, they remove 176 bombs and smoke devices.
21:06The real mystery isn't just how many bombs there are.
21:10It's why they're here in the first place.
21:13It turns out this playground was sitting on what used to be a British Home Guard training site.
21:19These are specialized training munitions that were called practice bombs.
21:24Don't be fooled by the name.
21:26Practice does not mean harmless.
21:27These bombs have a smaller explosive charge than regular ordnance, but they can still explode.
21:34And when they do, they can kill.
21:36These bombs are used in training exercises where the bomb is dropped over a target.
21:41When it strikes the ground, it can either produce smoke or a visible flash that allows the trainee to ascertain whether or not they hit the target.
21:50During World War II, the Home Guard was a last line of defense, a citizen militia trained to fight in case the Nazis invaded.
22:00But the German invasion never occurs.
22:02And then in the aftermath of the war, the practice bombs that were located there were not carefully dealt with.
22:09They were simply buried under the training grounds and forgotten about until now.
22:12Until authorities are confident that every bomb has been found, the playground in Northumberland remains closed.
22:20But when they are able to safely reopen, there's no doubt the kids will have a real blast.
22:26Some explosions don't impact cities or battlefields.
22:37They ripple through space.
22:39And on one quiet night in 2016, an amateur stargazer catches something no one has ever seen before.
22:50One night in September 2016, Victor Buzo is outside taking pictures with his new camera.
22:57When he gets a cool idea, he attaches the camera to his 16-inch telescope to try to take some pictures of the stars.
23:05After searching around for something interesting to shoot, he spots what appears to be a distant, spiral-shaped galaxy.
23:14Victor sets the camera to take a sequence of images, each with a 20-second exposure.
23:22He waits for the camera to click, and then he checks to see how each photograph turned out.
23:27The images turn out about how he was expecting some great images of the spiral-shaped galaxy.
23:36Cool, but ultimately unexceptional.
23:39But then, in one of the last photos, he sees something strange.
23:45A bright dot of light suddenly appears in the galaxy.
23:49But what's even weirder is that the dot of light gets brighter and brighter in subsequent images.
23:57Victor thinks he's captured something interesting, but he's not really sure what it could be.
24:02So he posts the pictures on an astronomer's message board, where they catch the attention of some Argentinian astronomers.
24:09They immediately freak out.
24:12It turns out that Victor Busso has captured something that no one has ever imaged before.
24:19One of the holy grails of astronomy.
24:26It's a supernova event taking place over 60 million light-years away.
24:31A supernova occurs when a very massive star, which is essentially a nuclear furnace, runs out of fuel.
24:38In that case, the outer layers of the star collapse inward, crushing the supernova down onto the core.
24:46A shockwave goes through the entire thing, and that triggers the biggest explosions in the universe.
24:53When a supernova blows, it destroys everything in its solar system.
24:59All the moons, all the planets, everything.
25:01The blast is so powerful, it can affect planets and other star systems light-years away.
25:12Victor's incredible photos give scientists their first visual evidence that many of their theories about supernovas are correct.
25:20It's one thing to think you know how something happens.
25:23It's another to see it with your own eyes.
25:25It just happened to be pointed in the right place to capture a star that burned for billions of years
25:34at the exact moment that flash of light hit planet Earth.
25:40It's proof you just never know what you might find the next time you look up into the night sky.
25:47Not all evidence of huge space explosions come from above.
25:54Sometimes it's hidden far beneath the waves.
26:01In 2017, engineers are exploring the sea floor off the coast of Guinea in West Africa.
26:08They work for a company that's looking for offshore oil deposits, and they use sound waves to create a map of the Earth deep underground.
26:18When Dr. U.S.D. Nicholson starts breaking down their data, he notices something strange, and it has nothing to do with oil.
26:27About 3,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface, there appears to be a small ridgeline or mountain range.
26:34What's strange is that it doesn't fit with the known geology of the region.
26:40As he expands his search, Nicholson realizes this odd geological feature stretches nearly five miles, and it's in the shape of a circle.
26:53He's looking at a massive round ridge, and in the center appears to be a mountain.
27:00He also sees that outside of this ring is debris that looks like it's been blown out of the center in all directions.
27:08Nicholson has an aha moment, because he's seen this type of formation before.
27:14It's the site of a massive meteorite crater.
27:17News spreads in the scientific community about the discovery, which becomes known as the Nader Crater.
27:24From the size of the crater, astronomers are able to calculate that the asteroid that created it was about 1,500 feet wide.
27:33That's an object twice the size of the superdome in New Orleans, striking the Earth at over 45,000 miles per hour.
27:40Upon impact, it would have created a tsunami, 2,600 feet high.
27:49That's a wall of water twice the height of the Empire State Building, crashing upon the Atlantic coast, wreaking complete heaven.
27:57But the real surprise comes when scientists date samples from the impact zone.
28:03It turns out that this asteroid struck 66 million years ago, and that catches everyone by surprise,
28:10because there was another very well-known asteroid that also struck around the same time.
28:16That asteroid was called Chicxulub, and its impact is credited with wiping out the dinosaurs.
28:23That asteroid was between 6 and 9 miles wide, which is wider than the island of Manhattan.
28:31It left a 124-mile crater under the Yucatan Peninsula, and it blackened the skies with ash and debris,
28:39triggering global fires and wiping out 75% of all life on Earth.
28:44So the discovery of the Nader Crater led to the question,
28:50was the extinction event due to two asteroids at once, like a one-two punch?
28:56Or is the Nader Crater a completely separate event a few hundred years before or after the Chicxulub impact?
29:05Until scientific dating methods are more precise, we'll likely never know.
29:10Either way, the impact was still a cataclysmic event of the magnitude that we certainly wouldn't want to experience in our lifetimes.
29:21It started as a search for something ordinary, water.
29:32But what surfaced was anything but.
29:35In 1709, in the town of Racina, Italy, a group of workers is digging a well for a monastery.
29:45When they get about 50 feet down, they strike something hard.
29:50It appears to be a man-made wall, five stories underground.
29:56They decide to break off some pieces so they can show them to the local Prince of Lorraine, Emmanuel Maurice.
30:05The Prince examines the stone and identifies it as marble.
30:10This gets the Prince thinking.
30:12If there's a marble wall down there, then maybe there are more treasures to be found as well.
30:18He orders some crews to dig a tunnel.
30:21When they do, they find that the wall is part of an entire buried building and it's stuffed with ancient artifacts.
30:29These incredible finds are buried under several feet of solid stone that the workers have trouble cutting through.
30:39Eventually, it becomes too difficult and they give up.
30:42The site lays undisturbed for nearly 30 years until King Charles VII of Naples hears about the mysterious underground structure.
30:53Charles hires military engineers to conduct a proper excavation.
30:58As the king's engineers restart the dig, they realize that this discovery goes way beyond marble walls and statues.
31:06First, they find more rooms in the uncovered building.
31:11Then, they discover more buildings.
31:14And soon, they realize what they found is incredible.
31:19An entire city buried underground.
31:24There are city streets, beautiful frescoes, bronze sculptures, ornate jewelry, and even statues of Roman emperors.
31:34Clearly, this is a city of wealth and importance.
31:38It's a stunning discovery.
31:41So, experts scramble to figure out what city it could be.
31:45They scour ancient records and texts, trying to put some clues together.
31:50And eventually, scholars realize that this is the long-lost city of Herculaneum.
31:57Herculaneum was the exclusive seaside retreat of luxurious houses for the Roman elite.
32:02Think of it as the Hamptons of ancient Rome.
32:05But this paradise turned into hell.
32:09In the year 79 AD, the nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius, erupted.
32:14This is the same eruption that famously buried the nearby city of Pompeii.
32:19The cities were struck by a wall of 750-degree superheated gas, rock, mud, and ash.
32:29Within five minutes, the entire city was buried under volcanic tuff.
32:35Ironically, the same searing heat that brought devastation also preserved items from the past.
32:44Wood, textiles, loaves of bread, even human waste were instantly cooked by the intense heat,
32:53preserving their shapes in a kind of charcoal.
32:56It's a process that's called carbonization.
33:00And many items look exactly like they did on the day of this disaster.
33:05What archaeologists don't find are any human remains.
33:09Then, in the 1980s, archaeologists discover 300 human skeletons packed together in a boathouse.
33:19They speculate that these were residents trying to escape the eruption by sea, but they didn't make it.
33:26The extreme heat was so intense that it burned away flesh and violently contorted bodies in an instant.
33:33All that's left are twisted skeletons, all piled together, frozen in their final moments.
33:41While much of Pompeii has been uncovered, it's estimated less than a third of Herculaneum has been explored.
33:48Considering what has already been found, there are surely more discoveries to be made
33:53in this unique and tragic archaeological site.
34:00Not all blasts bury history.
34:03Sometimes they reveal it.
34:07In 1954, workers are clearing out and rebuilding an area of Walbrook Square in East London.
34:14The city as a whole is basically still recovering and rebuilding from the massive amount of damage inflicted upon it
34:23by German bombers during the Blitz of World War II.
34:28As the workers are digging test wells in preparation for construction, they hit something long and flat.
34:35It doesn't look like a slab of rock or part of the rubble.
34:40So the workers are confused.
34:42What they've struck isn't a World War II casualty.
34:46It's something much older.
34:48So the workers call over an archaeologist to take a closer look.
34:5221 feet down lies what looks like a pinkish-gray mortar floor.
34:59They continue the excavation and expose more of the foundation.
35:05What they find is a floor that's roughly 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, a perfectly rectangular chamber buried below ground
35:18with the remnants of pillars that must have stretched all the way up to the ceiling.
35:23Then they start finding amazing artifacts, sculptures and statues.
35:30There's a bust of the goddess Minerva.
35:34There's a statue of the god Mercury seated next to a ram.
35:39They begin to put two and two together and realize this isn't just some random assortment of relics.
35:43This is some kind of temple or a shrine.
35:46They feel it most likely dates back to the Roman origins of the city when it was still called Londinium.
35:52But beyond that, the archaeologists are mystified.
35:57Then, on the last day of their excavation, the team makes a critical discovery.
36:04It's another bust, this time of a man wearing a special hat known as a Phrygian cap.
36:11The archaeologists know this particular image very well.
36:16It's the Roman god Mithras.
36:19Mithras was originally a Persian god that was adopted by Roman soldiers in the second or third century.
36:26He became sort of a patron saint to them, representing loyalty, strength and secrecy.
36:33In fact, he was so revered that his followers sort of built a secret society around him.
36:38Followers traveled all throughout Europe and they built hidden temples called Mithraims where they could worship in secret.
36:47We do know that only men were allowed inside to worship Mithras, but beyond that, it's mostly a mystery.
36:54Despite the mystery, archaeologists date the site to 240 AD and they turn it into a museum.
37:02As many as 30,000 people come out and wait for hours just to see the site.
37:08This temple stands once again and the mystery and intrigue of Mithras lives on.
37:15Imagine your life's work going up in flames, but when you return to assess the damage, you find an even bigger mystery.
37:29That's just what happened to one researcher in Wyoming.
37:38In 2003, Wyoming state archaeologist Dan Eakin is researching wooden animal traps left behind by the indigenous Shoshone people.
37:48On one summer day, he's watching uneasily as storm clouds gather over the forest.
37:54Sure enough, within moments, lightning strikes and trees erupt in flames.
38:03Over the next few days, this fire burns over 11,000 acres of the Shoshone National Forest.
38:11Dan is devastated because he really believes that all these wooden traps that he's been looking at,
38:17and any other sort of artifact would have perished in this kind of a blaze.
38:23As soon as authorities give the all clear to re-enter the forest, he goes in and tries to survey the damage.
38:31The devastation is even worse than he had initially feared.
38:35The fire had burned through nearly all the trees and brush, leaving behind only smoldering earth.
38:41And the ancient wooden traps he's dedicated his entire career to are nearly all wiped out.
38:48But as Eakin surveys the charred grounds, something catches his eye.
38:53Scattered on the smoldering earth are hundreds of ancient looking artifacts.
39:01There are arrowheads, flint tools, glass beads and ceramics.
39:09Eakin recognizes that these are Native American items.
39:13But he's stunned to suddenly find so many where none had been noticed before.
39:19He contacts some fellow archaeologists and soon they're combing all over the fire zone.
39:26What they uncover is staggering.
39:28Thousands of artifacts from bone knives to metal tools.
39:35They find a tri-notched projectile point once used for a spear.
39:41And the remains of indigenous lodges.
39:44Now what's really extraordinary about this is that these objects weren't just placed there anew.
39:51What has happened is that the fire has burned all of the underbrush.
39:56And what it did is reveal centuries old artifacts that have been lying there the entire time.
40:03This accidental discovery is just the beginning.
40:08With each wildfire season, more artifacts emerge.
40:12Some date to just after the last ice age.
40:15Even more surprising, metal artifacts were found at the site.
40:19This means once Europeans came on the scene, locals were trading with them much earlier and more widely than previously thought.
40:28In all, over 600 previously unknown sites have been revealed.
40:33Leading to the discovery of more than 160,000 artifacts.
40:38The finds are remarkable.
40:40But once uncovered, these relics face a new challenge.
40:45Staying intact.
40:47They can be washed away by rain, trampled by wildlife, and stolen by looters looking to make a buck.
40:53So it's ironic that these destructive wildfires have revealed these lost artifacts.
41:00But now researchers are in a race against man and nature to catalog them as quickly as they can.
41:06Before they are lost once more.
41:08Whether it's an explosive asteroid from the heavens or a fiery eruption that covers an ancient city.
41:18These blasts from the past left an unforgettable mark.
41:22I'm Danny Trejo.
41:24Thanks for watching Mysteries Unearthed.
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