Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo - Season 2 Episode 07- Divine Discoveries
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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.
00:25Tonight, divine discoveries from a sacred fortress in the heart of Rome.
00:33The whole place is buttressed like a defensive stronghold.
00:36They have uncovered one of the most important religious institutions in the entire world.
00:43To a stone tablet with a sacred message.
00:46He does his best to read the writing and what he's got astonishes him.
00:52To the oldest temple in the world.
00:56It's so ancient that it predates the construction of Stonehenge and the pyramids at Giza.
01:01And the fact that it survived for over 11,000 years, only to be discovered by chance, makes
01:08that even more extraordinary.
01:10Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:22Sometimes just doing your job results in astonishing finds, especially when that job is construction
01:32in an area rich in biblical history.
01:36It's 1913.
01:38And construction of the Palestine-Egypt railway is moving full steam ahead along the coast
01:44of what is now the modern state of Israel.
01:46But as these railroad workers are clearing out space to lay track, they strike a large stone
01:55that seems out of place.
01:59In this sandy earth, they find a flat piece of marble about two feet tall and two feet wide.
02:05As a few workers start to excavate it from the ground, they notice that there's very faint writing on it.
02:15It's been etched into the marble, and it's in a language that they can't understand.
02:20Intrigued by the find, one worker decides to take the large marble slab home with him.
02:27And when he gets it to his house, he puts it in his courtyard and uses it as a stepping stone.
02:34The inscription is placed face up, and it stays that way for 30 years.
02:41Then, in 1943, he puts the stone up for sale, and it attracts the attention of archaeologist Jacob Kaplan.
02:51Kaplan heads to the house, and when he takes a look at the inscription,
02:55he immediately recognizes the writing.
03:00It's Paleo-Hebrew, which is a style of writing that was used from 1000 B.C. up until about 135 A.D.
03:09So, right off the bat, Kaplan knows that this thing is really, really old.
03:14And although he can identify the script, he can't actually understand it.
03:19Nevertheless, he goes ahead and he buys the slab, and he takes it home
03:22and enlists some of his colleagues to help him to decipher it.
03:27As they start to translate, the first line grabs their attention.
03:31It reads,
03:32I will call you to remember, for goodness forever, God spoke all these words.
03:40Then, further down the stone, they identify other words.
03:44Kaplan has found a fully intact stone of the Ten Commandments
03:57that dates back to the era of the Old Testament.
04:02In the Bible, the Ten Commandments were famously given to Moses by God at the top of Mount Sinai.
04:10But those tablets are smashed by Moses when he sees the Israelites worshiping the golden calf.
04:18God later dictated the commandments back to Moses,
04:20who inscribed them onto a second set of tablets in the 13th century B.C.
04:25And then, according to the Bible, those tablets are stored in the Ark of the Covenant.
04:29But then, later on, the Ark and those tablets go missing.
04:34For a moment, it seems the mystery of the missing tablets may finally be solved.
04:40But as researchers study the stone more closely, they realize something doesn't add up.
04:47Only nine of the Ten Commandments from the Bible are present on this stone.
04:52The Third Commandment is missing.
04:54The Replacement Commandment is an order to build a temple on Mount Gerizim,
05:01which is a sacred site for Samaritans.
05:04Further research discovers that a Samaritan synagogue
05:08was built in the place where this stone tablet was found.
05:14That temple was constructed between 300 and 800 A.D.
05:19So the stone, while old, was likely created hundreds of years after Moses' time.
05:26Dr. Kaplan holds on to the stone for the next 50 years until finally his wife sells it after his death in 1995.
05:36Over the following decades, it changes hands a few times without much fanfare.
05:42Then, in December of 2024, the stone goes up for auction.
05:46The stone's age, its distinct Third Commandment, and the unusual story of its chance discovery ignite interest in the sale.
05:56Bidding starts out high, and then the price just keeps going up and up and up until finally, when the final gavel falls, the selling price is $5 million.
06:06The marble tablet goes to an anonymous buyer, who pledges to donate it to an Israeli institution.
06:13In the end, this humble relic will be preserved and admired for generations.
06:19Next, a different kind of sacred discovery, one frozen in time, high up in the Andes.
06:27On September 18th, 1995, a mountain climber named Johan Reinhardt and his guide are climbing Ampato Mountain in southern Peru.
06:41They are hoping to get a photo of an active volcano nearby, but as they get close to the volcano,
06:50the sky fills with smoke and ash begins to rain down on them.
06:55The ashfall is melting the snow under their feet, exposing rock that has been covered by ice caps for centuries.
07:03And as they near the peak, there's something bright and red on the ground catching Johan's attention.
07:09As he gets closer, he sees that the red is, in fact, red feathers sticking out from some rocks.
07:18And when he looks, he sees that the feathers seem to be part of a hat.
07:22Johan moves away some of the stones, and he is astonished.
07:30Looking up at him from the rocks is the face of a young girl, no more than 12 or 13 years old.
07:36The body looks very well preserved.
07:39She's wrapped in beautiful, colorful textiles, and she's surrounded by gold and silver figurines and pottery vessels.
07:48It's a breathtaking discovery, but one that's also incredibly fragile.
07:54Johan's worried that the heat from the active volcano will soon destroy this naturally preserved mummy.
08:00He carefully picks up the girl's body and begins with his guide the dangerous descent down the mountain.
08:07It is a perilous journey, a treacherous 45-degree descent.
08:13It takes two full days, and then when he and the guide are down at the bottom, it takes another 13 hours to walk to the nearest village.
08:22Safely recovered, the mummy becomes known as Juanita and is an international sensation hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of the century.
08:32But when researchers begin to study her more closely, they uncover something surprising.
08:38Juanita is sent to John Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she's scammed, and researchers determine that she was likely killed between the ages of 11 and 15.
08:49Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the head.
08:53But the evidence suggests that this was no accident, that Juanita was intentionally killed.
09:00Her death may have been brutal, but the treasures buried with her point to something far more sacred than murder.
09:07Several of the items Johan finds with her remains are fashioned of precious metals.
09:14It's not likely these would have been left accidentally behind by a murderer.
09:18It's much more likely that they were intentionally left behind as a sacrificial offering.
09:23The figures and ceramics feature Incan designs, which suggest that Juanita had been sacrificed to the gods.
09:35Child sacrifice is, of course, abhorrent, but at the time, it was a sacred duty.
09:42And this places her death to some time in the Incan Empire, between 1400 and 1450.
09:47Juanita's sacrifice wasn't just ceremonial.
09:51It may have been a plea to calm a furious natural force.
09:56Historians believe that the nearby Misty and Savancayo volcanoes were really at the point of erupting,
10:03and that Juanita may have been sacrificed in order to placate the gods and maybe make that eruption less catastrophic.
10:10There is something almost poetic, if you think about it, that Juanita may have been sacrificed to stop the eruption,
10:18only to be discovered as the ash melted away and revealed her grave.
10:29Let's say you're a regular guy with a passion for scuba diving.
10:33You love looking at coral reefs and tropical fish.
10:37Then one day, you accidentally spot something surprising under the waves.
10:45To 1998 in Guatemala, a local businessman named Roberto Samayoa is out enjoying one of his favorite pastimes,
10:55scuba diving in Lake Atitlan.
10:58This is a picturesque lake flanked by volcanoes and mountain peaks and charming villages.
11:07Around 50 feet below the surface, in very murky waters, Samayoa sees something out of place.
11:15He sees a shape start to emerge.
11:17Getting closer, he discovers it's a large stone structure.
11:23As he continues to explore, he finds a series of staircases, temples, plazas.
11:29He says, this is not just one structure.
11:32In essence, it looks like some kind of underwater city.
11:40Samayoa reports his findings to local archaeologists, but no one believes him.
11:46Frustrated, he leaves the site untouched until 2007.
11:51Samayoa decides to take matters into his own hands.
11:56He dives upon his find once more, but this time, he comes equipped with an underwater digital camera.
12:05He snaps a few photos, and now everyone is beginning to believe him.
12:11Researchers spend the next five years using sonar to map out this underwater metropolis.
12:18What they uncover is more than ruins.
12:22It's the remains of a 2,500-year-old Mayan city.
12:28Once thought to be just a legend, they name it Samabaj, a blend of Samayoa's name and the Mayan word for stone.
12:38As researchers explore further, it's the religious elements that unlock the mystery of Samabaj.
12:44Within the ruins, they find 16 different religious structures and two saunas, which the Maya would use to cleanse themselves before religious ceremonies.
12:54And then there's a large central square with a stone altar and a sacred pillar at one end.
13:00When the Maya were thriving in this area, around 350 B.C. to 250 A.D., this city sat on an island in the middle of this lake.
13:11For centuries, Samabaj stood as a sacred sanctuary.
13:15So how did this entire ancient city wind up underwater?
13:19One of the volcanoes along the shore of Lake Atitlan erupted.
13:27Lava flowed down toward the lake and plugged up a drainage channel that carried overflow down the mountain.
13:33It's kind of like when you plug up your bathtub while the water's running.
13:36The water just continues to rise and rise and rise.
13:39By the time the water stopped rising, Samabaj was deep under the lake and stayed at a site for 1,700 years until Samayoa found it.
13:50Ironically, the same water that drowned Samabaj helped preserve it.
13:56Because of the island's location deep down in murky waters, the site has not fallen victim to things like looting,
14:02which has caused desecration of other historical sites all throughout Central America.
14:07So thanks to that volcanic eruption, combined with Samayoa's discovery,
14:12Samabaj is probably the most well-preserved site of Mayan culture to this day.
14:20From an ancient city lost below the waves to an even older site buried under the earth,
14:27our next story takes us to a hilltop in Turkey.
14:30Back in 1986, in southeastern Turkey,
14:35a farmer is plowing his property along the foothills of the Taurus Mountains.
14:41He reaches this area, which is called Belly Hill,
14:44a mound of land that stands about 50 feet higher than the surrounding plateaus.
14:49This area is filled with large stones that all poke up through the earth,
14:55threatening to break his equipment.
14:57The farmer's been trying to remove some of these stones.
15:00Most of them are too large to get out of the ground.
15:02But on this day in particular, one of these stones catches his attention.
15:06He takes a closer look and he clears away some of the surrounding dirt.
15:12It's a limestone statue of a human figure with finely carved eyes, nose, and mouth.
15:19Below that, there's not much of a body except for a large phallus.
15:23The statue looks really old,
15:28and so the farmer decides to take this to a museum about 12 miles away.
15:32The director of the museum does not seem very interested in this find,
15:35but when the farmer threatens to throw it away,
15:37they do reach a compromise and decide to place the statue in the museum garden.
15:42The statue sits there until 1992,
15:46when a visiting archaeologist named Klaus Schmidt sees it.
15:49Dr. Schmidt has been doing excavation work nearby
15:53and recognizes this as a Neolithic figure,
15:56at least several thousand years old.
15:58He wants to know more, so he travels to the farm where it was found.
16:01When he sees the large mound of land that rises up above the plateau,
16:06he can tell that it's man-made.
16:08And these large stones that keep getting in the farmer's way
16:11are actually the tops of limestone structures.
16:15Schmidt turns his attention to the mound and begins to dig.
16:19Not very long after these excavations began,
16:25archaeologists find massive limestone megaliths
16:29that are so close to the surface
16:30that some of them have actually been scraped by the farmer's equipment.
16:34Further down, they find 16-foot-tall stone pillars,
16:37each weighing between 7 and 10 tons.
16:40Some of them are carved with detailed reliefs of animals,
16:44like lions, foxes, snakes, and vultures.
16:48There are also enormous megaliths arranged in a circular pattern
16:53over 90 feet in diameter.
16:56Altogether, the site leads archaeologists to believe
16:58that they've uncovered some kind of giant temple.
17:03The site is called Gobekli Tepe,
17:06and carbon dating puts its construction between 9,500 and 9,000 B.C.,
17:13making it the oldest temple ever discovered in the world.
17:18It's so ancient that it predates writing and the invention of the wheel.
17:23It was constructed 6,000 years before Stonehenge or the pyramids at Giza.
17:29Its age is astonishing,
17:31but what's even more surprising is how it was built.
17:34Schmidt estimates it would have taken over 500 people to build Gobekli.
17:42But humans were believed to be hunter-gatherers at this time,
17:47and this site suggests that there was much more intelligence,
17:51cooperation, and planning that went into this
17:54than archaeologists could have possibly thought.
17:56Gobekli Tepe was a truly epic feat of design and construction for its time.
18:03And the fact that it survived for over 11,000 years,
18:07only to be discovered by chance by a farmer,
18:11makes that history even more extraordinary.
18:13When we think of papal palaces,
18:21we usually think of the Vatican.
18:23But the popes actually had an earlier home,
18:26one lost to time until very recently.
18:32It's the summer of 2024,
18:34and the city of Rome in Italy is gearing up for Jubilee 2025.
18:38It's a massive Catholic celebration,
18:42and it's expected to draw roughly 30 million pilgrims to the city.
18:48To prepare for the influx of tourists,
18:51the city undergoes a lot of upgrades.
18:53One major project is renovating and repaving the public square
18:57in front of Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano,
19:01the oldest public Catholic church in Rome,
19:04which was founded in 324.
19:06The plan is to add new landscaping,
19:11lighting, even a fountain.
19:12But not long after shovels hit the ground,
19:15workers strike something
19:17that appears to be an ancient wall.
19:23Then another.
19:25Then another.
19:27It seems they've stumbled on some kind of structure.
19:31They call in a team of archaeologists largely led by Daniella Porro.
19:37She's the special superintendent of archaeology in Rome.
19:41She analyzes these walls and sees that they're made of tuff,
19:45basically an amalgam of stone from volcanic ash buttressed by wood.
19:51She's able to realize through her analysis
19:54that these walls date back to the 9th century,
19:57which means they have found something incredibly special.
20:03These are the fortification walls
20:05that protected the original palace of the pope.
20:09Before the pope and the Catholic church
20:13were based in nearby Vatican City,
20:15the head of the church resided
20:17in an elaborate papal palace in the heart of Rome.
20:21It was built around 312 AD
20:23during the reign of the emperor Constantine the Great.
20:26The palace would undergo several expansions and upgrades
20:30over the next 500 years as the church grew in power.
20:33As the church expanded,
20:36the papal palace became a target
20:38for Arab anti-Catholic invaders
20:42and even Roman aristocratic infighting right at its doorstep.
20:47In fact, the violence and the conflict got so bad
20:50that in 1309, the papacy left the basilica
20:55and actually relocated the seat of the pope to Avignon, France.
21:00Abandoned and empty, the palace falls into neglect.
21:03And ultimately is decimated by fire.
21:08In 1377, the papacy finally made its way back to Italy,
21:12this time to Vatican City.
21:15A few hundred years later,
21:16Pope Sixtus V decided to tear down
21:19most of what remained of the original palace complex.
21:23When construction crews rediscovered the palace ruins
21:27500 years later,
21:29archaeologists turned their attention to preserving the site.
21:33Antiquity experts and archaeologists feel
21:36it may take years to fully grasp
21:38the enormity of what is in this structure.
21:42What they do know
21:43is that they have uncovered
21:45an incredibly well-preserved time capsule
21:47of one of the most important religious institutions
21:50and religious titles in the entire world.
21:56Next, a casual walk in the woods
21:59leads to finding another piece of papal history,
22:03one that dates back hundreds of years.
22:06It's January 2024.
22:10Jacek Kukowski is walking along railroad tracks
22:15in northwest Poland near the German border.
22:18This area was used as a Nazi escape route
22:21at the end of World War II.
22:24So people sometimes find remnants of the past here.
22:27Helmets, firearms, or other military artifacts.
22:30As he's walking,
22:32his eye catches something half-buried
22:34under the base of a tree.
22:38He realizes it's a wedge-shaped object.
22:41It's made of metal.
22:42But upon closer inspection,
22:44he sees this is not a Nazi war relic.
22:46In fact, he doesn't even think
22:48it's from the modern era.
22:50It's nothing like he's ever seen before.
22:54Jacek Kukowski brings his discovery
22:56to a local museum,
22:57hoping their experts can shed some light on this find.
23:01There, archaeologist Jagor Shkirka
23:03identifies that the object is made of lead.
23:06He examines it,
23:08and on one side,
23:09he sees letters and some Roman numerals,
23:11which captures his attention.
23:13Shkirka has seen an artifact like this before.
23:16It's a lead papal bull seal, or bulla,
23:20used to authenticate papal decrees.
23:23Kukka is now all in,
23:25and he wants to find out
23:26which pope this actually belonged to.
23:29Every pope's bulla has, on one side,
23:32an image of Saints Peter and Paul,
23:35but the other side is always unique.
23:37It has the pope's name.
23:40Unfortunately, this seal is cracked,
23:42but he's able to decipher
23:44certain things that give him clues
23:46as to which pope this might be from.
23:49He's able to see the letters E and U-S.
23:53And based on these clues,
23:55he's able to deduce that this was the papal bull seal
23:58of one of four possible popes.
24:02Benedict XI, Clement V,
24:06Benedict XII, or Clement VI,
24:10all of which will date the seal
24:11between 1303 and 1352.
24:15Unfortunately, the document the seal was attached to
24:18decayed long ago.
24:21So we may never know exactly
24:23which pope this bull belonged to.
24:25In any case, the seal survived
24:28in that spot for centuries,
24:30but the mystriate will likely survive
24:32for many, many more.
24:38Imagine finding an unusual stone
24:40in a pile of rubble
24:42and learning it's covered in writing,
24:44dating back thousands of years.
24:46What happens next is an adventure story
24:49straight out of the movies.
24:50In 1868, a French missionary is traveling
24:55in what is now modern-day Jordan,
24:58delivering aid and spreading Christianity
25:00in the region.
25:01His work takes him to a small abandoned area
25:04near the village of Dubon,
25:06where something catches his eye.
25:09In a pile of rubble in ruins,
25:12there's one stone that looks out of place.
25:18It's about four feet tall.
25:20It's black,
25:21and it's covered in strange characters.
25:25He can't read the writing on it,
25:27but he does his best to copy out
25:30some of the script with a quick sketch.
25:34Later, he returns to Jerusalem
25:37and shows it to a friend,
25:38who thinks that the writing looks like Phoenician,
25:42an ancient script that was the foundation
25:44of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets.
25:46Soon, news of the Phoenician stone
25:50catches the ear of Charles Clermont Gannot,
25:53a French translator and amateur archaeologist
25:57based in Jerusalem.
25:58Charles is intrigued,
25:59and so he dispatches a friend called Yacoub Karavaga
26:03to go make what's called a squeeze.
26:06A squeeze is a paper impression
26:08when the paper is wet,
26:10pressed in the inscription,
26:11and then pulled away,
26:13sort of like when you rub a tombstone
26:15to get the inscription off the front of it.
26:17But before the impression can set,
26:20rising tensions between nearby tribes
26:23take a dangerous turn.
26:26Yacoub and the stone are surrounded
26:29by two Bedouin tribes,
26:31and it seems that the locals have understood
26:33that there's something significant
26:34about this monument,
26:35and they're now fighting over it.
26:39In the melee,
26:41the paper impression is torn up,
26:43and then suddenly,
26:45Yacoub gets stabbed in the leg.
26:50Yacoub narrowly escapes on horseback
26:53and brings the torn inscription fragments
26:55to Charles.
26:57Slowly, one by one,
26:59Charles begins to piece
27:01these pieces of paper together,
27:03and what he's got in the end
27:05is something that astonishes him.
27:08It's 34 lines of texts
27:10written in first person
27:12by somebody called King Mesha.
27:15According to the Bible,
27:17back in the 9th century B.C.,
27:20Mesha rebelled against the kingdom of Israel
27:22and ruled Moab,
27:24an ancient territory
27:26located in modern-day Jordan.
27:29The writing is mostly a recounting
27:32of Mesha's military victories
27:34and other history of the region.
27:37But what really gets Charles excited
27:39is that the text contains
27:41historical references
27:42to Israel,
27:44the house of David,
27:45biblical events.
27:46It even gives the Hebrew name for God.
27:49These are some of the earliest references
27:51to events in the Bible
27:52in the historical record.
27:54Basically, this rock could be evidence
27:57that the events of the Bible
27:59are based in real history.
28:01They call it the Moabite stone.
28:06But as word spreads,
28:08the locals fear
28:09the stone will be plundered
28:11by Westerners.
28:12So they decide to destroy it.
28:15So they pour water on the stone
28:19and then they light a fire underneath it.
28:22When the water gets hot,
28:24it turns to steam
28:25and the steam expands
28:28and effectively blows the stone to pieces.
28:34The Moabite stone fragments
28:36are then hidden among the members
28:38of the local tribe.
28:39And Charles spends three years
28:42trying to find them.
28:43Initially, he's able to find 38 pieces
28:48and then eventually another 19
28:51are either recovered or donated.
28:53And then utilizing the squeeze as reference,
28:56he begins to painstakingly reassemble
28:59the shattered stone.
29:00In 1873,
29:04it makes its debut at the Louvre.
29:08It's an absolute sensation.
29:11People flock to get a personal look
29:13at this real-world piece
29:15of biblical history.
29:17And the story
29:18of how it was discovered,
29:21destroyed,
29:22and pieced back together again
29:23that only adds
29:24to the mystique
29:25of this relic.
29:29Over 2,000 miles away,
29:32another hidden box
29:33holds proof
29:34of a different kind
29:35of worshiped figure.
29:39In 1827,
29:41an English soldier
29:42named James Lewis
29:44is posted with the army
29:45in Agra, India.
29:47He fakes his own death
29:49and deserts the army.
29:52A crime, by the way,
29:53which is punishable by death.
29:54He then changes his name
29:56to Charles Masson
29:56and for the next few years
29:58goes adventuring
29:59and seeks fame and fortune
30:01in places like India
30:02and the Middle East.
30:04Charles, as he's known,
30:05is quite the character.
30:07During his travels,
30:08he assumes several identities.
30:11He poses as a monk,
30:13as a Frenchman,
30:14as a Haji,
30:15as a healer,
30:16all the while developing
30:17a keen eye
30:19for ancient artifacts.
30:21In 1833,
30:23the British East India Company
30:25hires him
30:26to explore and document
30:28ancient sites
30:29in what's now Afghanistan.
30:32Charles arrives
30:33in the Gandhara Valley
30:34and he sees there
30:36a series of ruined,
30:39domed buildings.
30:40And he goes to explore them.
30:43He is hoping to find
30:45some ancient coins
30:47that might have some value,
30:48but instead he finds
30:50a round soapstone box
30:53with a lid.
30:55Charles opens the container
30:56and discovers pearls
30:57and coral
30:58and sapphire beads,
31:00all burnt.
31:02And at the center
31:03of the container,
31:03he finds an intricate gold cylinder
31:06adorned with carvings
31:08and rubies.
31:09The gold cylinder
31:10is a reliquary
31:12or casket
31:13which would traditionally
31:14hold sacred offerings
31:16and physical remains
31:18of a holy person.
31:20This reliquary
31:21doesn't contain
31:22any human remains.
31:24Instead,
31:25it's carved
31:25with a series
31:26of eight human figures
31:28and Charles recognizes
31:30one of them
31:31as the Buddha.
31:32We typically associate
31:34Afghanistan with Islam,
31:36but early trade routes
31:38actually brought Buddhism
31:39to the area
31:40around the 4th century B.C.,
31:42about 1,000 years
31:43before the arrival of Islam.
31:45While Charles thinks
31:46he's uncovered a treasure
31:47nearly 2,000 years old,
31:49it takes another 50 years
31:51before the true significance
31:53of his discovery
31:54is fully understood.
31:55In the late 19th century,
31:58Western scholars
31:59start to take
32:00more of an interest
32:01in Buddhism
32:01and its teachings
32:02in Gandhara.
32:04They soon realized
32:05that the image of Buddha
32:06that Charles saw
32:07on the casket
32:08was the earliest depiction
32:10of Buddha
32:11ever found.
32:13Today,
32:14statues and images
32:15of the human figure
32:16of the Buddha
32:17are common.
32:18But before the 1st century A.D.,
32:20the Buddha was typically
32:22depicted with symbolic images
32:24like footprints,
32:25lotus flower,
32:27or an empty throne.
32:29On this reliquary,
32:30the Buddha is clothed
32:31in a robe
32:32and holds up his hand
32:34in a mudra position.
32:37The amazing find
32:39becomes known
32:40as the Bimmeran casket,
32:42and it goes on display
32:43at the British Museum
32:44in 1900.
32:46Yet the story behind it
32:48and the man
32:49who brought it to light
32:50is almost as extraordinary
32:52as the relic itself.
32:53While there's no doubt
32:55that Charles was
32:56a colorful character
32:57and a skillful liar,
32:59it's undeniable
33:00that he's also responsible
33:01for one of the most
33:02important Buddhist discoveries
33:04of all time.
33:05The Old City of Jerusalem
33:11is known for its rich
33:12religious history.
33:14One small stone box
33:15found there
33:16contains a stunning link
33:18to the past,
33:19one dating back
33:20to the time of Jesus.
33:23It's early 1976
33:24in the Old City of Jerusalem.
33:27A 25-year-old engineer
33:29named Oded Gola
33:31is looking through items
33:33in an antiquities market
33:34when his eye is drawn
33:36to a limestone box.
33:39The dealer tells him
33:40that it comes
33:41from a nearby neighborhood
33:42called Silouat,
33:43but he doesn't know
33:44anything else about it
33:45other than the fact
33:46that it is an ossuary
33:47or a bone box.
33:52Ossuaries were very common
33:54in the first century AD.
33:56People would be buried
33:57for about a year
33:58and then their bodies
33:59would be exhumed
34:00and their bones
34:00would be placed
34:01in a limestone box.
34:03It was a way of dealing
34:04with space issues
34:06if you didn't have
34:07enough room for burials.
34:08They were often
34:09elaborately decorated.
34:11Sometimes the name
34:12of the person
34:13or a phrase
34:14was inscribed on the side.
34:16The box that Golan discovers
34:18is relatively unremarkable,
34:21but on the front of it
34:21there is some script
34:22in a language
34:23that he doesn't recognize.
34:25He likes collecting antiques,
34:26because the dealer
34:27isn't asking very much.
34:28So he buys the box
34:29for about $200
34:30and puts it on a shelf
34:32in his parents' house.
34:33The box sits untouched
34:35for 26 years.
34:37Then, in 2001,
34:40Golan meets
34:40an ancient language expert
34:42named Andre Lemaire
34:44at a dinner party
34:45and asks for help
34:46deciphering the inscription
34:48on the box.
34:50Lemaire is amazed.
34:52It's written in Aramaic
34:54and it says on it,
34:55James,
34:57son of Joseph,
34:59brother of Jesus.
35:03Names like Jesus
35:04and Joseph
35:06were common at the time,
35:07as was James.
35:08On the other hand,
35:09ossuaries don't normally
35:10list the names
35:12of siblings
35:13of the deceased,
35:13so it may be
35:15that this Jesus
35:16had to have been
35:16pretty important
35:17to be name-checked
35:19on his brother's bone box.
35:20That name drop
35:21raises eyebrows,
35:23along with questions
35:24about Jesus'
35:25family ties.
35:27In the Bible,
35:28we do know
35:29there was a figure
35:30named James the Just
35:31who was said
35:32to be Jesus' brother
35:34and he was a leader
35:35after Jesus' death
35:36of the first generation
35:38of Jesus' followers.
35:39We also know
35:41James the Just
35:42was martyred.
35:43He was stoned
35:43to death very violently
35:44around the year 62 A.D.
35:47If authentic,
35:48this would make
35:49the James ossuary
35:50the earliest written reference
35:52and very first
35:53physical piece of evidence
35:55connected to Jesus
35:56ever found in Jerusalem.
36:00Golan allows Lemaire
36:02to borrow the box
36:03to check its authenticity.
36:05Lemaire first examines
36:07the style of the script,
36:08which he dates
36:10to around 60 or 70 A.D.
36:13This just happens
36:13to correlate historically
36:15with when James
36:16actually died.
36:18Then he takes
36:20bits of limestone flecks
36:22from the surface
36:22of the box
36:23and he has them
36:24sent away
36:25to the Geological Survey
36:26of Israel
36:27in order to get tested.
36:30They determine
36:32that the script
36:33could not have been
36:34carved with modern tools
36:35and they also say
36:37that the aged patina
36:38of the stone
36:39could not have been forged.
36:41Lemaire publishes
36:42his findings
36:43and then begins
36:43a press tour
36:44to publicize
36:46this amazing discovery.
36:48Even with all
36:49the evidence,
36:49there's no definitive proof
36:51of whose remains
36:52the box once held,
36:54leading the Israel
36:55Antiquities Authority
36:56and others
36:57to question
36:58its authenticity.
37:01Today, Golan
37:02loans it
37:03to museums
37:04around the world
37:05where visitors
37:05can get an up-close look
37:07at what might be
37:08an artifact
37:10of Jesus' life.
37:15They say history
37:16can be stranger
37:17than fiction,
37:19which is the case
37:19with what one young fisherman
37:21pulled from the sea
37:23in 2013.
37:26August 16, 2013.
37:28A young Palestinian fisherman
37:30named Judah Gorab
37:31takes his small boat
37:32out into the waters
37:33off the coast of Gaza.
37:34He's looking
37:35in the shallow waters
37:35for fish.
37:37As he's looking down
37:39from his boat,
37:40he sees a dark figure
37:42maybe 15 feet down.
37:47It looks like a man.
37:50So he's startled at first,
37:52but then curiosity
37:53gets the better of him.
37:55And he jumps out
37:56of his boat
37:57and dives down.
37:58And what he finds
38:00is there's
38:01a large statue
38:02down there,
38:03half buried
38:06in the sand.
38:09It's dark metal
38:10with hints
38:11of green and gold.
38:13And Judah wonders
38:14if he's found
38:14something valuable.
38:16But it's too heavy
38:18for him to lift
38:18by himself.
38:20Judah heads
38:21back to land,
38:23gathers up
38:23some friends and family,
38:24and they head
38:25back out.
38:26And they try
38:27to bring the statue
38:28to the surface
38:29by tying around it
38:30a clothesline.
38:32For four arduous hours,
38:35they take turns
38:36diving down
38:37to the bottom,
38:38yanking on the clothesline,
38:40dragging the statue
38:42across the seafloor
38:44until they finally
38:45reach the shore.
38:48They're able
38:49to heave the statue
38:50onto a donkey cart
38:52and take it
38:53to Judah's house
38:54for closer inspection.
38:56The statue
38:56is a six-foot-tall
38:58naked man
38:59with dark curly hair.
39:02Judah thinks
39:03it's made of gold
39:04and that he's hit pay dirt.
39:07And then,
39:08about a month later,
39:09the statue
39:10makes a surprise
39:11appearance
39:11on eBay.
39:14It includes
39:15a few blurry photos
39:16of the statue
39:17laying on a bed
39:20in a child's bedroom
39:21with Smurf sheets.
39:23Even by eBay standards,
39:25this is a strange listing.
39:27Bidding opens
39:28at a mere $500,000.
39:31The post and asking price
39:33gets the attention
39:34of Gaza archaeologist
39:36Fadel Alitol,
39:38who identifies the statue
39:39as an incredibly
39:40well-preserved bronze
39:42of the Greco-Roman god
39:44Apollo.
39:44One of the 12 Olympians,
39:47Apollo is
39:48a son of Zeus
39:49and he's the god
39:51of archery,
39:52music,
39:52truth,
39:53and healing.
39:54He's also considered
39:55to be one of the most
39:56beautiful gods
39:57and this statue
39:58does him justice.
40:00Alitol is amazed
40:02by how beautifully
40:04well-preserved
40:05this statue is.
40:06He estimates
40:07it weighs
40:07more than half a ton.
40:09Given its purported size,
40:12condition,
40:12and rarity,
40:13this Apollo of Gaza
40:15could fetch anywhere
40:16between $20 and $45 million.
40:20Unfortunately,
40:21before Alitol
40:22can examine
40:24the statue in person,
40:25the Gaza authorities
40:26swoop in.
40:28Immediately,
40:29police arrive
40:30to the statue's location
40:31and haul it away.
40:35Soon after,
40:36in 2023,
40:38war breaks out
40:39in the region
40:40and news about
40:41the Apollo statue
40:43all but disappears.
40:46Whatever the fate
40:47of this particular statue,
40:48there is still the hope
40:50of other very similar discoveries
40:52because we know
40:53that this statue
40:54was actually
40:55made from a cast.
40:57And so maybe
40:58there were other copies
40:58that were made
40:59at the same time.
41:01Maybe they're still out there,
41:02whether under the water
41:04or on land
41:05or on land
41:05just waiting
41:06to be discovered.
41:10A long-lost papal palace,
41:12a statue of a Greek god,
41:14fragments of a priceless text.
41:16These are just
41:17some of the divine discoveries
41:19that give us
41:20new insight
41:21into the past.
41:22I'm Danny Trejo.
41:24Thanks for watching
41:25Mysteries Unearthed.
41:27I want to get you
41:44here.
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