- 9 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:02a strange tomb is uncovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings but while excavating below the temple
00:09a wooden coffin was discovered largely intact but the most arresting aspect of the mummy was
00:16its face it was open-mouthed as if screaming so who was this person and what happened to her a
00:25team of archaeologists is studying aerial footage in Iraq when they make a surprising discovery the
00:31images showed evidence of the subsurface remains of a huge complex that had gone undiscovered up
00:36until that point but what was this place in the vast desert of New Mexico researchers unearthed
00:42an ancient roadway but this was no modern road its origins went back roughly a thousand years it
00:50was assumed the road was somehow connected to the Pueblo settlements but its exact purpose and
00:56function was a mystery ancient lost cities forgotten treasures mysterious structures
01:07as new technology uncovers remarkable tales hidden beneath the deserts of the world the secrets in
01:15the sand will finally be revealed east of Egypt's Nile River the city of Luxor spreads across a dry
01:34floodplain for 150 square miles like most of Egypt Luxor has a hot desert climate making it clear and sunny
01:44pretty much every day it's so dry that a year can pass without a single drop of rain and yes
01:51the
01:51Nile does provide water for agriculture but the surrounding geography is as dry as a bone you've
01:56got desert landscapes rolling sand dunes rocky plateaus and mountains today the city is a thriving
02:05center of commerce and industry but Luxor is best known as the former city of Thebes capital of upper
02:14Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdom eras Thebes first rose to prominence in the fourth century BCE
02:21after the Peloponnesian war when it became a major military force and it remained a powerful capital for
02:30most of the following 500 years many of the ancient monuments and temples can still be seen dotting the urban
02:37landscape of Luxor on the west bank is the Theban necropolis featuring the Valley of the Kings an ancient
02:44burial ground for Egyptian pharaohs noblemen and their families from the 18th to the 20th dynasty a team of
02:51archaeologists is excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings when they make a surprising discovery there's a long
02:58row of connected mortuary temples in a valley called Deir el-Bahri that's an Arabic name for a monastery
03:05below the temples is a series of individual tombs including one temple for the site's architect
03:12Senenmut along with his parents but while excavating below the temple a wooden coffin was discovered
03:19largely intact the coffin was open to reveal a mummy also intact of an adult female it was laying on
03:30its
03:30back with extended legs and both arms were angled inward so the hands were covering the pelvic area but
03:38the most arresting aspect of the mummy was its face it was open-mouthed as if screaming so who was
03:47this
03:47person and what happened to her the mummy was just over five feet in length from heel to crown its
03:53reddish brown skin was hard and thick and intact its fingernails and toenails were also all accounted
03:59for and while some of the mummy's teeth were missing those present were large white and strong aside from
04:07the open-mouthed scream position the other notable feature was a large thick wig braided right into the
04:14mummy's sparse hair on either side of the skull the wig was composed of dark human hair falling to
04:20the shoulders as opposed to being bound as was the tradition so is it possible the mummy's wig could be
04:27a clue to her identity and her fate the use of wigs and hair extensions is an illustration of the
04:34Egyptians desire to attain physical beauty through lavish accessories wigs and extensions were frequently
04:41used in Egyptian funerary rites along with other symbols of wealth and power like precious amulets
04:47and jewelry but those were all also worn by living Egyptians men and women for the same reasons to
04:55indicate their socioeconomic status Egyptians crafted the wigs from human hair and supplemented them with
05:03plant or flax fibers it's believed that dark or black hair was preferred as it represented youthful
05:11beauty and while a lot of effort went into the aesthetics such as styling with curls and braids
05:18the wigs were also practical as they protected shaven scouts from the sun and maintained hygiene by reducing
05:25lice a close examination of the screaming woman's wig leads to a critical connection the mummy's wig was
05:32cleaved in two halves down the center much like a middle part of natural hair and the braids were tapered
05:39slightly at each end it was an arrangement that was very similar to that of another female mummy buried
05:45nearby the mother of the tombs designer and builder Senenmut Senenmut is best known today for being the
05:53architect of the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut a female pharaoh who ruled for more than 20 years
06:00starting in 1479 BCE her temple was a stunning example of ancient Egyptian design with three
06:08levels of terraces all connected by ramps as chief architect Senenmut would have had high status in
06:17Hatshepsut's court and with that he was entitled to such privileges as securing a burial spot for his
06:25parents among the royals and other elites however while Senenmut's own tomb was to be built under Queen
06:34Hatshepsut's courtyard along with his parents it was never completed even more mysterious is the fate of
06:42Senenmut himself he left public life abruptly and we still don't know why and his remains were never
06:48interred in his elaborate but unfinished tomb with so many open questions surrounding Senenmut we can't
06:56conclude with any degree of certainty that the screaming woman was a relative of the architect
07:01professor Sahar Saleem whose forensic and historical analysis of the screaming mummy revealed another clue
07:07all of the vital organs including the brain of the screaming woman were still intact and there was a
07:12complete absence of incisions to the body this was inconsistent with the traditional Egyptian
07:17embalming process for high status individuals in which the body's viscera was removed before burial
07:24it's possible that the people doing the embalming did a sloppy job maybe they were rushed maybe they just
07:30didn't know what they were doing they were incompetent I don't know that feels unlikely to me I think a
07:34better explanation is that the mummy the screaming woman just wasn't a member of the royal family or the
07:41elite class at all that idea is supported by the fact that aside from two scarab rings on her left
07:47hand there were practically no jewels or ornaments or grave goods on the mummy or surrounding the coffin
07:55also her recumbent body position where both arms were inclined toward her groin was inconsistent with other
08:02elite women's burials in the new kingdom female members of the royal family were typically buried with
08:07the left arm flexed across the chest and the right arm to the side so is it possible that the
08:13screaming
08:14woman was some kind of outlier a commoner buried among the elite of Egypt
08:27a team of archaeologists is excavating a tomb in the valley of the kings when they make a surprising
08:33discovery the screaming woman the Egyptians believe that it was critical to preserve the bodies of their pharaohs
08:41and kings in order to ensure their safe passage into the afterlife this involved removing vital organs but also
08:48dehydrating the body with salt and then covering the dried skin with a blend of natural substances oils fats and
08:55resins to
08:56prevent decay samples taken from the skin of the screaming woman revealed she'd been embalmed with juniper and frankincense reds
09:03and the
09:03resin not only were these costly items but they likely had to be imported from neighboring countries hair
09:11fibers from the wig had been dyed red with henna a rare dye prepared with the powdered leaves of the
09:17henna tree
09:18taken together the expensive imported embalming materials plus the well-preserved condition of the screaming
09:25woman's body indicate that her burial was consistent with those of the pharaohs and elites that surrounded
09:33her so maybe she was a member of that elite class after all although rare the screaming woman isn't the
09:40only mummy in Egypt to be discovered with its mouth open wide during the 18th dynasty princess amos maritamon
09:48became the great royal wife of her younger brother the pharaoh amenhotep the first as with the screaming woman
09:55maritamon's remains were discovered in a wooden coffin in the der elbari section of the theban necropolis
10:01her face also an open mouth death mask a ct scan of maritamon's skeleton revealed the young queen had
10:10suffered from sclerosis and arthritis both of which can result in bone curvatures and constrictions of the
10:16body's joints these findings indicate she may have died of a heart attack and her body was not
10:22found before rigor mortis kicked in and maritamon's open mouth was likely due to the natural post-mortem
10:29muscle relaxation so it's possible that the screaming woman's open mouth was a direct result of a serious
10:36health condition or disease if that's the case is that what killed her a ct scan performed on the mummy
10:42leads to a breakthrough the opening and closing of the mouth is controlled by a bunch of muscles
10:47around the temporal mandibular joint ordinarily when those muscles relax like when you're asleep
10:52or after you die the mouth opens a little bit but this extreme gate this wide open mouth suggests that
10:58the muscles were firing so did that happen after death from rigor mortis or is this something that
11:04happened during death to keep the mouth closed for burial egyptian embalmers typically wrapped the
11:12deceased mandible around the skull keeping it shut but the screaming woman's mouth was discovered in an
11:20unnaturally wide position as if she had been crying out in agony when she died and there's a biological
11:28phenomenon that supports this possibility a rare event called a cadaveric spasm which causes muscles
11:34to freeze in the position the person was in at the time of death not unlike rigor mortis cadaveric
11:41spasms are usually associated with brutal violent deaths under extreme physical conditions and emotions
11:48so while the exact cause of death can't be determined for the screaming woman nor her identity
11:54the expression on her face certainly aligns with intense suffering and pain the screaming mummy remains
12:01a fascinating curiosity and its discovery offers a true time capsule for just one of the human
12:08mysteries of ancient egypt waiting to be solved
12:30the region is known as the cradle of civilization because it was home to the sumerians the oldest
12:37known culture in mesopotamia they were responsible for a host of human advancements including the
12:43development of cuneiform one of the earliest known writing systems that involved engraving pictograms and
12:49symbols into clay with a reed stylus the sumerians were also pioneers in math science architecture and
12:56societal organizations all of which helped to build the foundations for future civilizations
13:02archaeological evidence tells us that the sumerians built about a dozen city-states in the fourth
13:07millennium bce these urban centers are the first known cities in world history one of them known as
13:14girsu stood where the modern city of tello in iraq is located today at its peak around 2500 bce
13:23girsu was the heart of the lagash city-state the walled city covered an area around 600 acres and some
13:29estimates put the population at between 15 and 20 000 people girsu was first discovered in 1877 by a
13:38french archaeologist and it was extensively excavated over the next 56 years but political instability
13:45and armed conflict in the area put a halt to any further exploration in the 1930s and girsu was largely
13:53forgotten about but not by everyone a team comprised of british and iraqi archaeologists are analyzing drone
14:01footage of girsu when they notice something unexpected the images showed evidence of the subsurface
14:08remains of a huge complex that had gone undiscovered up until that point so what was this place
14:15cuneiform tablets discovered by the french excavations claimed that girsu was considered a sacred city
14:22because it was said to be home to the sanctuary of ninjirsu the sumerian god of war who was revered
14:29because he was believed to battle mythical beasts which ensured the spring rains would come and provide
14:35water for the irrigation based agricultural systems of the region but the french teams were never able
14:42to locate this legendary temple dedicated to ninjirsu leaving some doubt as to whether or not it even
14:48existed so was it possible that the complex detected by the drone images is this elusive structure
15:01in 2020 archaeologists investigating an area of girsu known as yuruku which means the sacred city
15:09unearthed evidence of ceremonial practices dedicated to nigirsu it was a huge find over 300 broken ceremonial
15:19ceramic cups bowls jars spouted vessels and many animal bones one of the artifacts found was a fragment
15:27of a vase with an inscription dedicated to ningirsu the items were in or near a ritual pit known as
15:34a
15:34favisa that was around eight feet deep the vessels found were probably used in a ceremonial banquet
15:41before being ritually thrown into the pit while the bones were likely the remains of animals that were
15:48either eaten or killed during sacrifices the area also had a thick layer of ash believed to be the
15:55remnants of large ritual fires the ceremonial ceramics the evidence of fire and of havisa indicate that
16:03this is where religious gatherings took place and where the people of girsu gathered to feast and pay
16:08respects to their gods in 2024 researchers discovered a cuneiform tablet from the 15th century bce
16:16at the alalaq archaeological site in rayhanli a southern turkish city near the border with syria
16:24at the time the tablet was inscribed alalaq was the capital of the kingdom of mukesh and the largest
16:30city in the region it was occupied by the amorites a culture from western mesopotamia
16:37the tablet itself is tiny measuring only 1.6 by 0.6 inches and weighing just 28 grams it's written
16:46in
16:47akkadian one of the oldest known semitic languages and it's one that's no longer spoken anywhere in the
16:52world akkadian's cuneiform script was made up of around 600 signs some of which represented full words
16:59while some were just single syllables when they translated the tablet it was discovered that it
17:06details the purchase of chairs tables and stools by an unknown buyer basically an ancient receipt or
17:14bill of sale for furniture while it may seem like kind of a mundane item it actually offers insights into
17:22the economic systems of the region during the late bronze age so maybe the tablets discovered at
17:28yersu tell a similar story and the complex isn't a temple but rather a marketplace for business
17:35transactions sure enough they unearthed the mud brick walls that make up the mystery complex and the scope
17:42of it is staggering this was no simple structure there are what looks to be the remains of different
17:48buildings and multiple rooms and chambers but that still doesn't tell us exactly what it was and
17:55what purpose it served the cuneiform tablets are analyzed in the hopes that they will provide some
18:00answers and the researchers are stunned by the results the tablets are essentially the government's
18:07administrative archives of girsu from when the city was under the control of the akkad dynasty from 2300 to
18:132150 bce this is an incredible find it's the oldest physical evidence of the first empire in recorded
18:22history girsu was one of the sumerian cities conquered by the mesopotamian king sargon around 2300 bce
18:31sargon developed a new form of government by vanquishing all the sumerian settlements and creating what
18:38many called the first empire in the world until the discovery of the tablets information on this
18:44empire was scarce only documented records were fragments of royal inscriptions or copies of
18:52unreliable akkadian inscriptions recorded much later the tablets could be called the spreadsheets of the
18:59empire and they reveal a complicated bureaucracy deliveries and expenditures on everything from
19:05textiles and precious stones to fish and domesticated animals to flour and barley some of the tablets
19:12even have maps of canals architectural layouts of buildings and other plans believed to have been
19:18built around 4 500 years ago the lord palace of the kings was the centerpiece of the grand city of
19:25girsu but it had been lost for centuries the palace complex would have been a central part of sumerian
19:32city life with the king and his court residing there it was also an administrative center a hub for
19:38governing the city and its surrounding territories incredibly other excavations at girsu finally uncovered
19:45the main temple dedicated to ninjirsu called enanu also known as the temple of the white thunderbird
19:52it was located near the palace complex showing just how intertwined religious and imperial life were
20:00during the sumerian period before these excavations the existence of the palace and temple was only
20:08known because of passing references made to them that were discovered by the early french excavation the
20:13lord palace of the king's discovery sheds light on the history culture and governance of the ancient
20:19sumerian civilization and offers valuable insight into the daily life of one of the oldest cities on the
20:26planet
20:37the northwestern region of arabia extends tens of thousands of miles between modern-day jordan and
20:43into the ecoregion of iraq this is a vast incredibly arid ecoregion with annual rainfall generally between
20:52just two and eight inches there are also extreme temperature variations with lows of just 35 degrees
20:59in winter and highs reaching up above 100 degrees in summer plants like small shrubs and certain hardy
21:07desert flowers do actually grow here and the animal species in the area include predators like foxes
21:14caracals and honey badgers as well as herds of ibexes and antelopes
21:21these animals graze alongside domesticated herds of cattle sheep and goats who belong to the nomadic
21:28pastoralists who lived throughout the desert in fact despite the inhospitable climate the region has a rich
21:35history of human presence dating back thousands of years in saudi arabia a team working at the al-natah
21:43archaeological site notice an unusual structure rising out of the desert landscape the outer reaches
21:50of the site are marked by the remains of an enormous wall in some places there are only a few
21:56piles of brick
21:57to tell us where it stood and other parts are covered in piles of rubble still based on the existing
22:03evidence it's estimated to have once been over nine miles long the southern reaches of the site show
22:10us how formidable this wall really was here the ruins are up to 19 feet thick and two large towers
22:17were added
22:17a fortification this huge with defensive features like these was likely built for protection the question
22:31is from what excavations in the central area of the al-natah site yield another discovery that raises more questions
22:40there's a group of tall circular towers with high stepped walls the overall look of these monuments is somewhat
22:47reminiscent of the monumental stepped tombs found in ancient egypt when the team entered the towers they
22:53discovered that they contained burial chambers just like the pyramids these stepped tombs have been
23:00deliberately built in groups to form an impressive ancient necropolis a term that comes from the greek
23:06nekros meaning dead person and polis meaning city
23:11in both ancient greece and later in ancient rome necropolises would often line the roads leading in
23:17and out of major cities dividing the living and the dead we can see the same trend in ancient egypt
23:24where huge necropolises sit along the banks of the nile directly across from the cities they were associated
23:30with the al-natah necropolis was built during the third millennium bce most greek and egyptian necropolises
23:37built around the same time are associated with large cities that were home to thousands of permanent
23:43residents but things were totally different on the arabian peninsula unlike ancient rome greece or egypt
23:51this region was dominated by nomadic pastoralists who would travel across the peninsula with herds of
23:58grazing animals thousands of years ago these groups developed their own unique burial traditions
24:05constructing elaborate funerary avenues where their dead would be laid to rest under mounds of stones
24:11called cairns but the monumental tombs at al-natah aren't anything like these graves
24:19the enormous wall and elaborate necropolis at al-natah aren't at all consistent with nomadic traditions
24:26instead both of these features point to a sedentary population raising the possibility that a permanent
24:34settlement once existed here excavations in the eastern part of al-natah turned up thousands of
24:40pottery shards most of them were from simple bowls and jars some of which were once used to store food
24:46there were grinding stones too all of which would have been crucial for cooking during the bronze age
24:52the pottery was associated with the remains of ancient buildings up to 70 of them once stood here
24:59lining narrow streets that would have measured only six feet across the amount of domestic kitchenware
25:05found tells us that these buildings were likely homes that made up a residential quarter the existence of
25:12this extraordinary walled settlement tells us there were two competing ways of life being established here
25:18a nomadic culture that traveled through the desert and a sedentary population that decided to lay down
25:25permanent roots history is filled with examples of clashes between sedentary and nomadic peoples
25:32like during the ming dynasty when the great wall of china was massively expanded to keep northern steppe
25:38nomads from moving south based on the level of fortification at al-natah it could be that the town also
25:45came into conflict with the surrounding nomads but what could have caused these tensions between
25:50the nomadic and the settled way of life in the first place a look back at ancient climate patterns
25:57may shed light on the origins of these extraordinary settlements humans have inhabited the arabian desert for
26:03thousands of years for a long time the climate was relatively mild and savannah-like grasslands spread
26:09over huge areas but roughly 6 000 years ago things changed dramatically around 4 000 bce a phenomenon known
26:19as rapid climate change caused a massive decrease in precipitation across the peninsula the environment
26:26transformed and left humans to figure out how best to adapt many continued to live nomadically but over
26:32time others chose to settle during the bronze age this region would have been greener than other areas of
26:40the desert and would have seemed a natural place to build a permanent town and it wasn't alone across
26:49northwestern arabia several other oases reveal intriguing similarities to the settlement at al-natah
26:57korea is a huge archaeological site stretching over 750 acres the area is marked by a massive brick wall
27:06which once surrounded the entire oasis over time a residential area also grew here just like the one
27:13at al-natah during the bronze and iron ages these settlements appeared around oases across northwestern
27:20arabia many of them were designed similarly with internal ramparts dividing the various sections of
27:26the town which were big enough to accommodate hundreds of permanent residents the people who
27:32lived inside these walled oases built wells and intricate channels to collect surface water they used
27:38the water to grow crops orchards and olive trees as well as to support local craft production these
27:44fortified towns flourished in large part due to their strategic location each town functioned as
27:50one node in an entire network right at the intersection of the major powers of egypt the levant and
27:57southern arabia a comparison of the walled oasis to other bronze age settlements shows an intriguing trend
28:05the oasis settlements are thought to have supported a population of a few hundred people which makes
28:11them much smaller than some of the cities growing around the same time like the egyptian capital memphis
28:17which would have been home to thousands of residents despite being relatively small compared to
28:23major cities these settlements represent a huge shift in the history of the arabian peninsula
28:28when slow urbanism radically changed the desert landscape over the course of hundreds of years
28:35the settlement at al-natah seems to have persisted for roughly millennium before the town was more or
28:40less abandoned the reason why is still a mystery today al-natah provides us with an invaluable glimpse into
28:49the past where these extraordinary walled oases formed a bridge between the region's nomadic past
28:55and its increasingly urban future
29:10nestled in a remote corner of northwestern new mexico the chaco canyon carves its way through 10 miles of
29:17ancient sandstone with an elevation of 6 200 feet during the summer chaco canyon is a sun scorched desert with
29:27temperatures frequently reaching the mid-90s fahrenheit the winters are long and can get bitterly cold
29:35and on top of that the canyon only gets about two to five inches of rain per month despite the
29:41harsh conditions
29:42there's evidence of human activity in the area going back as early as 2900 bce these groups were largely
29:50nomadic until around 200 a.d when the first farmers settled and built small pit houses then around 850 c
29:59.e
30:00the pueblo peoples began to build permanent homes and ceremonial structures in the area and that changed the
30:07entire landscape the pueblo who were the native ancestors of the hopi and a coma of today among others
30:14constructed massive stone and mortar buildings called great houses which stored to four or five stories
30:19and contained hundreds of rooms construction on the great houses continued for 300 years
30:25until about 1150 when the area was abruptly abandoned today the chaco canyon is one of the most
30:32most research sites of the ancient americas the whole area is rich with cultural artifacts from early pueblo settlers
30:39and the walls of the canyon itself are embedded with fossils going back thousands of years before that
30:4750 miles south of the canyon a new mexico gas company is collecting data for a future pipeline
30:53working in tandem with a team of archaeologists 50 miles south of the chaco canyon a new mexico gas company
31:11is
31:11collecting data for a future pipeline working in tandem with a team of archaeologists when they make an unusual
31:17discovery they identified a long segment of road extending from southeast to northwest in a perfectly
31:26straight line the road was excavated directly into the sandstone bedrock for roughly 250 feet at which
31:35point it entered the valley flats below where all visible traces of it disappeared but this was no modern road
31:43its origins went back roughly a thousand years based on a nearby archaeological site featuring several pueblo
31:52communities to the southeast it was assumed the road was somehow connected to the pueblo settlements
31:59but its exact purpose and function was a mystery given that the great houses required large amounts of heavy raw
32:06materials to build them
32:07is it possible the ancient road was a former transport route for the construction of pueblo settlements
32:13the design principle behind the great houses was a unique blend of form and function they were
32:19geometric constructions made with careful craftsmanship with walls of stone and adobe plaster covered
32:26with timber roofs now those wooden roofs are long gone now but the walls have done surprisingly well
32:32through the passage of time the houses were feats of brilliant engineering often including water collection
32:40systems storage units and site lines that allowed for rapid communication
32:47entrances were generally south or southeast facing which provided shade from the summer sun
32:53and warmth from the winter sun at the center of most complexes there was an open plaza
32:59which was believed to serve as a gathering space for communal and religious purposes
33:06one of the best known great houses was also the largest located at the pueblo benito site also within the
33:14chaco canyon
33:15it was built in stages between 850 and 1150 ce with stone wall materials that had to be transported from
33:24off-site and timber that came from a wooded area of ponderosa pines surrounding the settlement
33:31in addition to the building foundations archaeologists at pueblo benito found traces of mexican cacao and
33:38pottery shards imported from central america over 1200 miles away likely intended as offerings for rituals and ceremonies
33:46so it's possible the newly discovered road was used both as a pathway for building materials and as a trade
33:52route
33:53but further examination of the ancient road presents a bigger puzzle it was lined on the north side by a
34:00raised strip of land called a berm created from fist-sized clumps of sandstone and earth it was determined
34:06that the digging of the road into the sandstone along with the creation of the elevated berms would have
34:12required over 6 600 cubic feet of bedrock to be removed this would have demanded a massive amount of labor
34:21which
34:21indicated the road's importance but the most baffling aspect of the road was its width at over 20 feet
34:30across it exceeded all practical necessity for a society with no wheeled vehicles and no pack animals put
34:40simply this road was much bigger than it needed to be especially if its only purpose was the
34:46transportation of goods so is it possible it served another purpose a deeper dive into the spiritual
34:54traditions of the pueblo peoples reveals a compelling explanation pueblo native americans practiced the
35:00kachina religion a belief system that featured hundreds of divine beings acting as intermediaries between
35:06the human world the gods and the celestial world of astronomy the religion was also at the center of
35:14civic life as pueblo villages were governed by kachina religious councils spiritual practices didn't
35:21just impact daily life many pueblo buildings and structures are believed to have been built with
35:27archaeoastronomy in mind which means they were built specifically to align with solar and lunar cycles
35:34entire villages were specifically planned with consideration of celestial alignments like the sun's path during a
35:42solstice or during an equinox one of the most famous examples is the sun dagger a chaco canyon
35:49discovery that was originally created to focus the sunlight onto an elaborate rock carving three large stone slabs
35:59were set against the cliff to channel the sun's rays onto two spiral petroglyphs marking the solstices
36:06equinoxes and the lunar standstills of the 18.6 year cycle of the moon
36:15it's believed these events formed the basis of important pueblo rituals and ceremonies
36:21is it possible the ancient road was created for a similar celestial purpose
36:34a survey of the surrounding area leads to a critical clue into the spiritual traditions of the pueblo peoples
36:41a large crescent shaped wall of stacked stone was discovered on a flat section of earth adjacent to
36:46the road measuring 35 feet east to west and 46 feet across south to north the round structure was created
36:54from
36:55fist-sized chunks of sandstone connecting directly to the ancient road the structure was identified as an
37:03eridura that means horseshoe and we've seen those before they're essentially roadside shrines for the pueblo
37:09and by the shards of pottery and ceramics that are found in the vicinity
37:16these are artifacts widely interpreted as offerings to the gods
37:21the discovery of the eridura roadside shrine definitely suggested the road was connected
37:27to some kind of ritual and that the landscape itself played an integral role in that ritual however up to
37:35that point all the research was based on data collected at ground level so any available evidence was
37:41limited to the road's physical properties and dimensions what could only be seen by the naked eye
37:48but the use of cutting-edge technology leads to a breakthrough
37:52when the size and scale of the investigation increased to include entire landscapes
37:56a decision was made to use an imaging process called lidar which stands for light detection and ranging
38:03it's a remote sensing tech that creates digital 3d models of environments by measuring the relative
38:09distance of objects to the earth with pulsing laser light for the road south of chaco canyon a filter was
38:16applied to the images that made it look like light was coming from different angles and altitudes and
38:22what emerges from that is this 3d picture of the landscape that exaggerates anomalies making things
38:29visible to the human eye that normally would not be the lidar images deliver not one but two surprising revelations
38:38first the data showed that the ancient road extended for at least another three and a half miles
38:46it continued in a straight line regardless of where the road led over earthen ramps descending into valleys
38:54even incorporating man-made staircases cut right into the rock even more shocking the lidar revealed the
39:03presence of a second straight road parallel to the first one and about 115 feet directly southwest
39:12the second road also displayed evidence of an eridura roadside shrine and it too was
39:18uncharacteristically wide measuring almost 20 feet across initially the two roads appeared to run
39:26perfectly parallel to each other however a closer look revealed they slowly came together to a point in
39:33the distance at the near end the wisest space between the two roads was roughly 120 feet from that point
39:41the road seemed to converge measuring just 50 feet across at its most narrow an enormous amount of effort
39:49went into the planning and building of both roads so given the pueblo emphasis on sacred topography
39:56plus the significance of celestial events in their calendar is it possible that these two roads were
40:03pointing towards an important spiritual landmark on the horizon
40:09a survey of the surrounding area provides the answer from the perspective of the first
40:15heridura shrine as well as various points along the second road both roads form a clear visual
40:24trajectory towards a single landmass directly southeast mount taylor and mount taylor is an eminently
40:34sacred mountain among contemporary pueblo and dene living in northwestern new mexico the survey also
40:41indicated that both roads ran at an azimuth of approximately 120 degrees and that the second road
40:47corresponded with the position of the winter solstice at the original gasco site as the shortest day of
40:53the year and the longest night winter solstice marks the point at which the sun reaches the most
40:59southerly position in the sky over the course of its entire annual cycle suspecting the sun would rise
41:06over mount taylor in alignment with both roads during the winter solstice researchers returned to the site
41:12on the morning of december 21st as anticipated and as if on cue the sun rose dramatically over the mountain
41:20in
41:21perfect alignment with the two road corridors when viewed from the center of the road bed
41:27for the pueblo peoples the awe-inspiring view of the sun rising over mount taylor likely symbolized
41:34the powerful relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds and exemplifies the role the
41:41celestial calendar played in guiding religious life
41:45the ancient roads of the chaco canyon reveal the pueblo to have been masters at imbuing urban planning
41:53with a deep connection to the sacred and a keen understanding of cosmology
Comments