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00:00They are among the masterpieces of our past.
00:07But what is genuine?
00:10And what is fake?
00:12I found to my shock that so many pieces that in my opinion were ancient were not ancient.
00:18These works of art were found by ambitious archaeologists.
00:22Arthur Evans excavates the Palace of Knossos.
00:25He makes sensational discoveries and raises money for new excavations.
00:30And he is knighted by King George V.
00:34In contrast, Luigi Pernier excavates at Phaestos and he doesn't find anything really spectacular.
00:42Funding threatens to dry out until he is able to present the Phaestos disc, the oldest written artifact in Europe.
00:51It was an incredible achievement of Pernier, who managed to excavate the entire palace in just a few years.
00:58It was for glory and for cash.
01:00Evans and Pernier have brilliant restorers at their side.
01:05Girion, father and son.
01:08Did this quartet reinvent our past?
01:15In 1900, Arthur Evans starts work on excavating the Palace of Knossos.
01:21The British archaeologist has purchased a piece of land near Heraklion for this purpose.
01:38Evans is clearly interested in more than just archaeology.
01:43Prestige back home is also important to him.
01:48He quickly produces some spectacular finds, evidence of an ancient high culture which had previously only been described in myths and legends.
01:57According to the ancient tales, the labyrinth of Knossos was home to the Minotaur, half man and half bull, who lurked there waiting for human sacrifices.
02:08Evans is thrilled by the discovery, and for him there is no doubt that the ruins of a magnificent culture will now re-emerge on the island of Crete, the empire of King Minos, in ancient times symbolizing luxury and abundance.
02:27Meanwhile, in the south of Crete, Italian archaeologists have rediscovered the Palace of Phaestos.
02:33For them, in this period of nationalism, the reputation of Italian archaeology is at stake.
02:40Just as Arthur Evans did in Knossos, the chief excavator, Luigi Pernier, is determined to find something unique, and Pernier achieves his aim.
03:01Today, in the Cretan capital Heraklion, his disc forms the main attraction for visitors to the National Museum, an icon of Minoan culture comparable to the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin.
03:17However, dissent can be heard to this very day. Some people claim the Phaestos disc is a hoax.
03:23But if that is true, who could have been involved?
03:27The British archaeologist had the experienced restorer Émile Girardin at his side, and the popular image we have today of Minoan life is due to Girardin's work under Evans' supervision.
03:40But was it really like that? Today, experts are critical of Girardin's methods.
03:46Émile Girardin's staggering career begins in 1877, when the Swiss man arrives in Athens.
03:56The city is undergoing an astonishing revival during this decade.
04:00Now that Greece is independent from the Ottoman Empire, wealthy citizens are investing in education and the arts.
04:08In the shadow of the Acropolis, a millionaire who is later to achieve great fame, has a magnificent villa constructed.
04:17Heinrich Schliemann made a fortune trading in golden arms.
04:21Now he plans to make a dream from his youth come true by rediscovering Troy and Mycenae, the cities of Homer's heroes.
04:31The young Émile Girardin hopes to find employment with Schliemann.
04:40Schliemann tests his abilities. At least, this is the story that has come down to us.
04:46The archaeologist presents Girardin with three fragments from a fresco, and demands nothing less than a reconstruction of the entire picture.
04:54At first, Girardin is bewildered. But then Émile produces a sophisticated reconstruction from his own imagination.
05:02He draws a charioteer with a spear. Schliemann is delighted. That's what it must have looked like.
05:08But then Girardin suddenly sketches a temple guard. What's more, this isn't the last draft.
05:15He carries on producing various alternatives until the irritated Schliemann finally hires him.
05:24After Schliemann's death, Arthur Evans has Girardin brought to Crete.
05:32Evans has experienced a stroke of good fortune.
05:35Not long after starting the excavations, he made some significant finds.
05:40Now the fragments need to be reconstructed.
05:43Émile Girardin can carry on in Knossos in the same way that he worked for Schliemann.
05:49His son accompanies him to Crete. The young man is also called Émile.
05:59The island is a paradise for archaeologists. Émile Junior trains his eye on classical structures, which have just been excavated, and on the expressive faces of the locals.
06:13It becomes apparent that young Émile has inherited from his father not only a talent for drawing, but also entrepreneurial skills.
06:25And a certain unscrupulous attitude when dealing with the truth, as later critics will claim.
06:31Girardin is quite prepared to make his employer a hero, if that's what he wants.
06:46Émile Junior draws incessantly, neatly and with an obsession for detail.
06:51Years later, he will take his father's place in the team that is tirelessly excavating Knossos.
06:58For four decades, father and son Giron dominate the image of ancient Crete that has become known worldwide and is still popular today, despite its discrepancies.
07:10That of a paradise island, in the midst of the wine dark sea, a fair land and a rich be geared with water, as the poet Homer proclaimed.
07:23The French Archaeological Institute in Athens is a meeting point for artists and scientists.
07:32Its director is Alexandre Fanou.
07:35Only a few days ago, the archaeologist gained access to the former private archives of the Girardin family, so he can provide an expert evaluation.
07:48This is the order book of Gillerons Sr.
07:52It's the original form of the catalogue used by the Gillerons to offer copies of the archaeological finds.
08:01This book contains all the important objects discovered during the excavations,
08:07complete with photographs of the restored pieces and explanations.
08:13Here, for example, it says, Vase from Pylos, documented by the former German archaeologist Müller.
08:20Then it states the size of the vase and price.
08:30For a long time, archaeologists were only able to provide reasonably accurate depictions of the original archaeological finds with the help of illustrators,
08:40who sketched them and used watercolours.
08:43So, Gillerons Sr. is in the right place at the right time, and with the right people to develop his talents to the full.
08:55He has to capture the shades of colour and the intensity precisely at the moment of discovery.
09:01The skilful illustrator quickly finds an artistic mode of expression for the style of Bronze Age Crete.
09:13At least, the way his boss, Evans, pictures the empire of King Minos.
09:19This is a drawing by hand made directly from the original of the fresco, with the outlines of the excavated fragments and the additions that Gillerons has suggested in order to recreate the picture.
09:34The Minoan tradition of bull leaping involved acrobats racing straight towards the animal and jumping over it.
09:44This dangerous practice was part of the religious cult rituals and could end in death.
09:50Europe and the USA quickly became gripped by Cretan fever.
09:57The newly discovered works of art inspire artists and fashion designers, although others dismiss it all as merely a kind of archaeological fantasy land.
10:07The Gillerons produced drawings as if on a conveyor belt, which they then embellished with watercolours.
10:17Here is the famous detail from the procession fresco.
10:20It was a kind of exercise in graphics, which was then reproduced and sold everywhere in Europe.
10:26The lily prints is a revealing example of Giron's working method.
10:34Giron simply reinvented the figure.
10:37In the case of the lily prints fresco, we now know precisely that it has in fact been composed from completely different frescoes.
10:49Gillerons did it because that was Evans wanted in order to illustrate the Minoan empire.
10:55And we experts are still impressed by it, even though the background is much better known today.
11:02Arthur Evans continues to excavate.
11:08Utterly convinced that he has a mission to perform, Evans hardly appears bothered by scruples.
11:15Non-Minoan architecture is simply disposed of.
11:19He names rooms at the palace at his sole discretion.
11:23When an alabaster throne is found, Evans immediately declares it to be the throne of King Minos.
11:32Although there is no evidence of the throne's function or even of the existence of King Minos.
11:38He doesn't have to wait long to achieve recognition back home.
11:47King George V knights him.
11:53Luigi Pannier has far greater difficulties to deal with.
11:59In the south of the island where he is excavating, the coastline is bleak and uninviting.
12:05The early archaeologists here have to be good climbers because many of the sites are in remote valleys or on high mountains where access is extremely difficult.
12:15Beyond the mountains lies the Libyan sea.
12:19This ocean connected the Minoans with the developed cultures of the Near East and Egypt.
12:24But it also provided protection against foreign invaders.
12:28Professor Diamantis Panagiotopoulos has been studying the history of Crete in this area for decades.
12:41His arduous expeditions along dusty tracks have proved worthwhile.
12:46Because away from the major palace complexes, there are many cult sites that have still hardly been subject to expert investigation.
12:54The mountains along the coast were always a bulwark.
13:06In the past, they held back invaders intent on attacking Crete.
13:10While today, they make it difficult for curious travelers to make any progress.
13:15The inhabitants of Crete have always formed a closed community towards strangers.
13:29At the same time, anyone who wants to excavate here could hardly make any progress without local assistance.
13:36The Greek professor from Heidelberg has many friends on the island.
13:40The knowledge they share with him has been passed down from generation to generation.
13:48Countless caves lie hidden in the mountains.
13:50In many cases, the entrances are only known to shepherds.
14:00The Cretans have always regarded caves as sacred places.
14:03Gods were born in them, including the father of all the gods, Zeus.
14:10Archaeologists still come across surprising finds in these sacrificial sites.
14:16Double-sided cult axes made from bronze or gold.
14:20And bare-breasted priestesses in clay are all these representations of goddesses.
14:27They provide fuel for the myth that Crete was a matriarchy, a society governed by women.
14:40Professor Panagiotopoulos' excavation site is at the edge of the mountains above the Misara plain.
14:46Today, many of the locals are leaving the area.
14:50A large number of villages have been abandoned.
14:53However, during the Minoan period, there was a flourishing settlement here on the hilltop.
14:59The remains have been excavated and studied.
15:03What interests us is the question why a certain region was of great importance at some periods in history, while in other periods it was abandoned.
15:18It is not due to the climate.
15:20This has hardly changed on Crete over the last 4,000 years.
15:24And yet, after the decline of the Minoan culture, Crete never again achieved the importance it had enjoyed during its golden age.
15:39Crete is still a puzzle for us archaeologists, even 100 years after the first major discoveries at the beginning of the 20th century.
15:49It is pretty amazing that a developed culture arose here, which could justifiably be compared with the great cultures of the Orient.
16:02For thousands of years, the fertile soil of the Misara plain has been a source of prosperity.
16:09This was the basis of both the cultural development and political power.
16:13Crete is on the crossroads of ancient trading routes.
16:21Since the Cretans had a large fleet of ships, trade with people all around the Mediterranean flourished.
16:28This was how the first major culture of Europe arose, with its population established early on in centers such as Knossos and Phaestos.
16:36And Phaestos is where the greatest puzzle of the Minoan Empire was found, Luigi Pernier's disk.
16:49Italian archaeology on Crete began in a very special historical situation.
16:54Greece had achieved independence from Turkey in the middle of the previous century.
16:59Then Crete was divided into several protectorates, Italian, French and British.
17:05It was due to this environment that archaeologists from Italy were able to work without any obstacles.
17:12These early archaeologists, like Luigi Pernier, had to explore Crete on the back of donkeys.
17:27They had to struggle against malaria and other unimaginable difficulties.
17:31In the year 1900, when Luigi Pernier lands on Crete, the island is still officially ruled by the Ottoman Turks.
17:48At that time, the idea that the first high culture of Europe had once blossomed here appears unbelievable.
17:55And yet Pernier discovers evidence of this past everywhere.
17:59During the Roman period, the Messara plain was ruled from Gortin.
18:05Here is the Great Code, the oldest legal text in Europe.
18:09This was rediscovered by Federico Halper, a leading Italian archaeologist.
18:29Originally, Pernier worked for him.
18:31This find was to make Halper famous.
18:36In Phaistos, Luigi Pernier is at first only the deputy on excavations led by Halper.
18:44Pernier is regarded as extremely ambitious.
18:47He is descended from a family of Roman aristocrats with French roots.
18:51His opportunity arises when Halper becomes involved in a political intrigue.
18:57The affair leaves Pernier the new boss in Phaistos.
19:01He prepared for his mission at the famous Sapienza University in Rome, studying literature and archaeology.
19:09Today, the linguist and archaeologist Alessandro Greco teaches here.
19:17During the period from 1800 to 1700 BC, Crete was a cultural focal point.
19:23This was known as the New Palace period, when the major structures were built whose ruins can still be seen today.
19:29It was in these palaces that archaeologists found clay tablets with what became known as Linear A script.
19:38And despite decades of research, to this day it has not been possible to decipher this written language.
19:46Alessandro Greco is therefore obliged to try a different route.
19:50He is analysing all visual information that has been found so far in order to gain knowledge about the religion, social structure and everyday life of the Minoans.
20:02His main problem here is that virtually all authentic images are only available in miniature format.
20:09We don't know who is depicted here. Is it a king or queen? A prince or a god?
20:15And we don't know how their minds worked.
20:18Even the visual language of the rings is still puzzling. The function is known.
20:26They were used by rulers to place their seals on documents and letters.
20:33At Heidelberg University, Professor Diamantis Panagiotopoulos is evaluating his series of excavations.
20:43He occupies the famous chair of classical archaeology here.
20:46The practical work of an archaeologist includes analysing and archiving the finds.
20:58In Heidelberg, a scientific megaproject is being performed, involving 130 experts from 13 countries.
21:11This is the famous corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean seals.
21:15A gigantic collection of data, including hundreds of thousands of photographic negatives and 9,000 prints from clay seals.
21:22It's a collection of the most varied materials, forms and above all patterns in the images on clay seals, which provides us with a wealth of extremely important information about the social structures, ideologies and mentalities of these societies.
21:40Of course, there are a number of signet rings which cannot be guaranteed in terms of authenticity.
21:51We compare these problematic examples with seals from systematic archaeological excavations, objects which have been proven to be authentic.
21:58The work of these experts often resembles the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack.
22:09The collection also contains a ring with an inscription that has not been deciphered.
22:13The spiral shape and script form resembles that of the Phaestus disk.
22:18Does this ring indicate that Pernier's mysterious clay disk is genuine?
22:25One of the problematic examples is the Ring of Minos, which has been suspected for many years of being a forgery.
22:33Arthur Evans bought the gold ring from a priest, although many experts warned him against doing so.
22:38Today, the Ring of Minos is in Heraklion Museum.
22:47If it really is a modern forgery, who might the forger have been?
22:56In this case too, the name of Girion is on the list of main suspects.
23:01Were the Girions engaged in forgery for decades?
23:06Final proof is contained in the Heraklion Museum, but it cannot be accessed.
23:16The British archaeologist and linguist Gareth Owens has made Crete his second home.
23:22The focus of his research is on early scripts from the Minoan period, like the disk.
23:27The Phaestus Palace complex exerts an almost magic attraction over him.
23:39The Minoan civilization of the second millennium BC is based around the palatial economy.
23:46And the palaces like we are here in Phaestus is the center of bureaucracy and religion.
23:51Gareth Owens knows every inch of the ruined palace.
23:55For decades, he has studied each detail here, such as the so-called Queen's throne room.
24:00Pitoy like this were used to store the commercial wealth of the Cretans.
24:10To this day, traditional urns are produced from clay, as they have been for thousands of years.
24:16The craftsmen in the ancient palace workshops became masters of this art.
24:20And their reputation even reached as far as the court of the Egyptian pharaohs, who ordered clay vases and silver bowls from Crete.
24:29The Minoan palaces and the economy of Crete is based very much on agricultural products.
24:43Very excellent olive oil and wine, still very good today indeed.
24:45They were keeping it here in the storerooms.
24:48They were exporting throughout the Mediterranean very widely indeed, travelling throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
24:55Very, very international.
24:57The first palace was very rich, destroyed about 1700 BC, which is probably the date of the Phaestos disc.
25:04And it's no surprise that writing is developed in this southern part of Crete.
25:08This first palace at Phaestos was constructed in 1900 BC.
25:15200 years later, a huge earthquake caused it to collapse.
25:20The doors and ceilings were made of wood, and they were set on fire by the flames from the oil lamps.
25:26It must have been an inferno.
25:31Although the building has been constructed in a special way, it could not withstand the massive earthquake.
25:38The fire spread at incredible speed.
25:41The inhabitants fled in panic.
25:44But nevertheless, many did not survive.
25:47The entire palace complex was ruined.
25:55The Phaestos Disney is part of that destruction horizon.
25:58Importantly, deliberately baked, not accidentally baked, like the destruction level that saved the other linear tablets.
26:04It was actually found with a linear tablet and with really nice Camares-style pottery.
26:09And this part of the palace seems to be for storing valuable objects.
26:14It was found lying together with numerous other artifacts, indicated to Pernier that the disc had fallen from one of the upper stories.
26:22But attempting to reconstruct the catastrophe scenario raises new problems.
26:31How could a fragile clay disc survive a fall of several meters and crash down onto a hard stone floor without any apparent damage?
26:44A crucial question that neither Luigi Pernier nor his successor in Phaestos were ever able to answer satisfactorily.
26:53In New York, Jerome Eisenberg deals in ancient artifacts.
27:03This internationally renowned specialist has spent decades studying items to establish whether they are genuine or forgeries.
27:10It's been fired very thoroughly, very evenly, and the only time ancient tablets were fired was during a fire, and they'd be unevenly fired.
27:21The edges are very, very sharp, and you wouldn't have any ancient tablet, anything made out of clay with sharp edges that could easily be damaged.
27:29It had too many things wrong with it. If you have two or three things that don't make sense, I can accept it.
27:40But when you have eight or nine different things that are wrong with the piece, then I certainly would condemn it as a forgery.
27:48If Heisenberg's suspicions are correct, it would mean that Luigi Pernier falsified the exploration record.
27:54However, it is also conceivable that he himself was tricked.
28:00To this day, it has not been established exactly who was present at the excavation when the object was found.
28:12Alessandro Greco thinks it inconceivable that Pernier himself faked the object.
28:18It was an incredible achievement of Luigi Pernier's to excavate and even evaluate the entire palace within the space of just a few years.
28:28In addition to his excavation activities, Luigi Pernier was also employed in Florence as an antiques inspector.
28:35His jurisdiction included the city's archaeological museum.
28:44Finds from the Etruscan period have pride of place in the collection here.
28:50The Etruscans were among the most powerful people around the Mediterranean.
28:53Paolo Rendini is a specialist in Etruscan script.
28:57In the magazine, Dr Rendini and the museum director study one of the most valuable items, the Magliano disc.
29:13It represents one of the most important examples of Etruscan script.
29:18Today, the 70 words can be read, while in the days of Luigi Pernier, this was not possible.
29:25At eight centimeters in diameter, it is half the size of the Feistos disc.
29:34The words and sentence sections are separated by dots, while on the Feistos disc, vertical lines are used.
29:41It was found at the end of the 19th century in 1882.
29:49The Archaeological Museum in Florence bought it in 1888.
29:53It's an extraordinary object, because the disc is made of lead.
29:57It measures eight by seven centimeters.
30:00This isn't very large, but it contains one of the oldest examples of Etruscan writing known to us.
30:05Near the location where this was found, an Etruscan cemetery was discovered with even older graves, from the late 7th and early 6th century BC.
30:20This cult object originated a thousand years after the palace fire in Feistos.
30:26Cultural exchange between Etruscans and Minoans would appear extremely unlikely.
30:30Consequently, the great similarity between the two discs is inexplicable.
30:39However, while he was working in Florence, Luigi Pernier could have studied the Magliano disc extensively, before he discovered the Feistos disc in Crete.
30:51As far as Jerome Eisenberg is concerned, this is a crucial clue.
30:55It has many unique characteristics. It has nothing to do with any other work of ancient art.
31:02Physically, it's the only large disc that's found in the Near East, or in the Mediterranean area.
31:10Nobody can decide what it is and where it came from.
31:13One of Pernier's successors at the Italian excavation site in Feistos also finds the disc extremely puzzling.
31:20The disc is a unique object with a unique inscription, for Crete and the entire Eastern Mediterranean.
31:27It's a script that features open syllables.
31:30It's a syllabary. It's a syllabary. It's a syllabary of a type of aperto.
31:37Like kake kikoku, or tate titotu.
31:41It probably originated in Crete, because all other Cretan scripts, such as Linear A and B, are also the open-syllable type.
31:48In the Heraklian Museum, the disc is the main attraction.
31:56It is 3600 years old, according to the museum.
32:01The inscription is said to be a prayer, a record of battles or an archive register.
32:05What is known for certain is that the disc has a diameter of 16 centimetres,
32:18and is stamped with 45 different symbols arranged in a spiral from the outer rim to the centre,
32:25forming a total of 242 stamped impressions.
32:29Too many signs for an alphabet, too few signs for a system like Chinese or Egyptian.
32:39So what we decided to do was to try to progress with systematic epigraphic work.
32:46So if a sign is the same in different scripts, it has the same sound value.
32:51And those 45 signs, the sound values, can be found amongst the 90 sound values of Linear B,
33:00which is a script of roughly the same time, from the same place, which has been deciphered.
33:06While the linguistics expert believes there may soon be a breakthrough,
33:11Jerome Eisenberg sees examples of suspicious errors.
33:15This inscription basically goes from right to left, as an Egyptian hieroglyphs.
33:19On the other hand, Minoan script, Linear A and Linear B are read from left to right.
33:25These are all too highly realistic to be in an ancient script.
33:29This is an interesting symbol. This is a gloved hand, or a castus in Latin,
33:35which only occurs in the Roman period, which is about 1500 years later.
33:40They just don't make sense together.
33:41If Jerome Eisenberg is right, how could the forger have achieved this?
33:49It must have been somebody familiar with classical script types.
33:58Obtaining the raw material for the clay disc wouldn't have been a problem.
34:01There are potters close to Faestus. If the price were high enough, they would have remained silent.
34:09Luigi Pernier had access to the excavation records and might have desired the fame for himself, and for Italy.
34:19Whether he had the necessary handicraft skills to produce the forgery himself is doubtful.
34:30While the spiral pattern almost looks as though it was produced by a child,
34:38the symbols were printed with seals moulded in a sophisticated process.
34:42Jerome Eisenberg believes Pernier commissioned the work at most.
34:49It was said that Guilleron was present at the time the disc was discovered,
34:55and that Pernier was not, that he was probably taking a nap.
35:03The exact circumstances when the Faestus disc was found can't be established definitively.
35:08No archaeologist was a direct witness.
35:14It may be significant that the Guillerons are once again directly implied in archaeological forgery.
35:24Did their greed overpower their moral scruples?
35:27Evidence of the Gilleron's salesmanship can be found in the Humboldt University, Berlin.
35:43The archaeologist Nadine Becker is researching the purchase of artifacts by the University during the pre-war period.
35:49The Winkelmann Institute is proud of its lavishly made copies from the Gilleron workshops.
35:57They are objects of study for experts and students.
36:01All in original sizes, like the throne of King Minos.
36:08These exclusive replicas came at a price.
36:10Catalogues, purchase orders and correspondence with the Gillerons have been preserved to this day in the archives.
36:19Original invoices and customs documentation indicate the astonishing sums the Gillerons demanded,
36:26which were paid by the buyers.
36:28Using a process which was technically revolutionary at the time,
36:33the metal copies were produced by a galvanoplastic method in the Württemberg metalware factory WMF.
36:43The Gillerons sold the exclusive items to their international customers for outrageous prices.
36:49But the Gillerons did not only place replicas on the market.
37:04Experts at the renowned museums of Boston and Toronto have also found indications of criminal activities.
37:14The museum purchased her in 1931.
37:17She's a beautiful piece of work, isn't she?
37:21Sir Arthur Evans called her Our Lady of Sports.
37:24You know, another interesting thing here is the fact that she's wearing this gold codpiece.
37:32Now, that codpiece, in fact, is a penis sheath.
37:37Oh, that's not quite appropriate.
37:40Not entirely appropriate.
37:41And it's also interesting that the majority of the ivories that turned up, you know, early in the 20th century AD are female figures.
37:52And this is because Sir Arthur Evans was very much looking for representations of a prominent female deity.
38:00His mother goddess, and that's probably why he called her Our Lady of Sports, because it's a direct reference to the Virgin Mary.
38:09The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
38:16Here, too, an ivory figure from the Minoan period was part of the collection.
38:21Until recently.
38:22It has now been banished to the archives.
38:26Quite a come down for the snake goddess.
38:34So what made you suspicious?
38:35Especially strange is the damage to her face.
38:39The proper left side, you can see, has kind of sheared away.
38:44And ivory flakes, this is what ivory does.
38:47But the features that survive there are centered on what survives.
38:52But if that damage took place after the carving rather than before the carving, what survives should be asymmetrical or damaged.
38:58The scientific analyses are quite interesting, and I was really surprised when they came back.
39:05If the statuette is ancient, the ivory should date to about 1450 BC.
39:11When the results came back, they were really surprising because they did come back at 1450.
39:17But AD, not BC.
39:20So the ivory that was tested, if not a corrupt sample, is far too recent to be ancient Minoan ivory.
39:28So who do you think made her?
39:31Well, it would have to be someone who is very familiar with the archaeological material.
39:37I believe that the father-son team, the Giro, who worked for Evans and had a very profitable business in making replicas,
39:47were well-positioned to create porteries like this.
39:50Jerome Eisenberg feels this investigation confirms his views.
39:54I attended an exhibition of ancient art in Boston and Cambridge, and I was shocked at how many pieces, in my opinion, were forgeries.
40:04Between 1958 and 1965, I bought some 40,000 pieces.
40:08And of those, some 22,000 came out of Egypt, and I became rather expert on detecting the forgeries.
40:15Are visitors to the museum in Heraklion admiring a sophisticated forgery, as Jerome Eisenberg claims?
40:25However, recent archaeological discoveries could indicate that the disc is genuine.
40:31A bronze axe is also kept in Heraklion.
40:39On the head of the double axe, there are three lines with overlapping signs engraved upon them.
40:44Linguistic experts like Gareth Owens see a parallel here with the stamped symbols on the disc.
40:55Gareth Owens and his colleagues have withdrawn to within sight of ancient Phaestus in order to resolve the last mystery of the oldest script in Europe.
41:04Now he believes he has finally achieved the breakthrough.
41:09He considers that the texts on the disc can be deciphered and read.
41:13What we have here is definitely a Minoan prayer, because we found these words elsewhere on Minoan Crete as well.
41:28We have a Minoan prayer for a goddess.
41:30My suspicion is that it could be the Minoan astati.
41:34And ique curia, which is the key word on the Phaestus, could well mean pregnant goddess.
41:39Ique is known from Linear B to be the word for goddess, and curia, curia, could be the word for pregnant.
41:46This wouldn't be surprising when we think that the words on the Phaestus disc were also found on the top of mountains,
41:54where Minoan people were making dedications, tamata, to the goddess on the top of the mountains.
42:00Another attribute of Astati, she is the queen of the mountain.
42:04Mount Euctus towers over Knossos.
42:06The mountain is a magical place.
42:10It is said that the father of the gods, Zeus, is buried here.
42:14For thousands of years, people have been attracted to the mountain peak, which, from a distance, resembles a sleeping man.
42:22Gareth Owens also returns to this place repeatedly.
42:29On one side of the mountain, an orthodox chapel with three knaves was constructed.
42:34Archaeologists then discovered that a sacred edifice with three knaves stood on the same site during the Minoan period, almost 4,000 years ago.
42:53It's fascinating to look at the offerings and think that what the Greek Orthodox people are doing today is similar to what the Minoans were doing 36 centuries ago.
43:09People don't change. They worry about the same thing. There's continuity. People are worried about their health and they're asking a higher power for help.
43:19And some of the words that have been found on the Minoan inscription on the same holy mountain, on a very small libation offering that they were doing then, and they were dedicating with parts of the body.
43:30But at that time, made from clay, not just from silver, have also been found on the B side of the Festus disc.
43:38Not long ago, an apparently insignificant sacrificial bowl was discovered.
43:45Linguistic symbols that had not been encountered previously are engraved on it.
43:50And they are almost identical to those on the disc.
43:53A forger, a hundred years ago, could not possibly have known these signs. Does this mean the disc is now accepted as genuine?
44:05The Festus disc is, um, a problem.
44:11The clay is not the same clay as found on Crete. We don't know where the clay came from because we don't have analysis of it.
44:16And the museum will not allow us to take any tests on the disc or even to handle it.
44:27Berlin, the Egyptian museum.
44:31Rumors have begun to circulate that the bust of the beautiful Nefertiti is a forgery.
44:36A scientific investigation will provide a definitive answer, despite the high risk of moving the precious object.
44:47With great care and with extensive security measures in place, the highlight of the museum is taken to the Charité Hospital in Berlin.
44:56Here, the bust of the woman, reputed to be the most beautiful of all, is subjected to computer tomography.
45:13The proof that is so important for the museum island of Berlin is now forthcoming.
45:18The world-famous bust is not a fake from modern times. The risk and the expense have been worthwhile.
45:29The museum Halle is also posed with a problem.
45:33The museum houses what it believes is a sensational object.
45:38The Nebra Sky Disc.
45:40A bronze disc adorned with representations of the heavenly bodies in gold.
45:44This incredible find was brought to light by grave robbers.
45:49And now, there are claims that the disc could be a forgery.
45:53An analysis using scientific techniques will resolve the matter.
46:01The extensive technical study is performed in the Bessie particle accelerator in Berlin.
46:06By employing high-intensity X-rays, the composition of the gold plating can be determined without damaging it.
46:15In this way, conclusive proof is obtained.
46:18The Sky Disc is the oldest known calendar of mankind.
46:21What about the disc, which is the main attraction in Heraklion?
46:31On the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the disc, 1908 to 2008, I wrote again to the director of the museum.
46:39And he said that since it's a national treasure, it can't be touched or moved.
46:43And if that turned out to be a forgery, it would be a disaster for tourism, even.
46:50Year after year, millions of tourists come to the island of Crete.
46:55Tourism is the most important commercial activity, securing half the entire income of the island.
47:00Knossos, Phaestos, and the museum in Heraklion are huge public attractions, important features of this mega-business.
47:13Critical questions?
47:15They are not welcome.
47:17Thus it is that an air of suspicion continues to hang over the collection in the National Museum.
47:23Is the beautiful world of the Minoans depicted here a mere invention, thought up by Arthur Evans and Luigi Pernier, put into practice by the Girones?
47:36At one point, the Girones created the saffron gatherer fresco from a few fragments.
47:42Further finds prove, however, that the figure depicted here was in fact a monkey.
47:48Jerome Eisenberg has no doubt at all about it.
47:55The Phaestos disc is a fake, and Luigi Pernier is a con man.
48:01It was in need of funds for excavation.
48:04Also he wanted the glory of having discovered a famous piece.
48:07So it was for glory and for cash.
48:10Arthur Evans also complained that he always needed funds and that his discoveries on Knossos aided him to have rich people contribute money.
48:21Arthur Evans was able to make his dream come true.
48:24For four decades, his very personal vision of the palace of King Minos grew on Crete.
48:32He was working also for the fame of the British Empire.
48:36By the end of his life, he was able to call himself Sir Arthur Evans.
48:40Even if critics dismiss Knossos as Disneyland.
48:48Each year, millions of visitors stroll around the structures made of plaster and concrete.
48:55Today, however, some archaeologists advocate to dismantle Evans' Knossos.
49:01Today, the palace of Knossos is the way it is.
49:06And that's the way people imagined the Minoan world in the year 1900.
49:10The reputation of the Gillerons deserves to be restored.
49:13Because our way of judging the history of art from a modern perspective, as if in a courtroom, and condemning it, is unfair.
49:20When it comes to any sort of scientific work, you always have to take into account the time of its creation.
49:25The fact that the finds of Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans met with such resonance is partly due to the work of the Gillerons.
49:37They too have had a crucial influence on our image of Europe's first high culture.
49:43The idea that King Minos' Crete was a paradise on earth, and his subjects were peaceful art lovers.
49:51Like his father, Emile Giron Jr. was never accused of any art forgery.
50:00He started a business in Athens.
50:03This family company produced successful copies of antique objects, right up to modern times.
50:10In Faistus, Gareth Owens has almost achieved his goal, after decades of working on the mysterious disk.
50:20As far as he is concerned, the disk is one of the most important examples of ancient scripts.
50:27We like to think that we are offering a reading that is more secure than has been offered in the past, and we hope people will take advantage of that to move on to the next stage, which is trying to understand.
50:43Jerome Eisenberg refuses to be distracted by Gareth Owens' success.
50:47I still believe that it's 100% of forgery. There's no question in my mind.
50:53The suspicions attached over the decades about the authenticity of his disk didn't appear to damage Pannier's career as an archaeologist.
51:04For 30 years, he performed research in Faistus, ignoring all the doubts, and all the doubters.
51:11And all the doubters.
51:12And all the doubters.
51:13.
51:15.
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51:20.
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51:41you
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