- 6 weeks ago
Τα Πιο Παράξενα Αντικείμενα (Strangest Things)
2021 | Επ. 02.08 | HD
Καταχωνιασμένα μέσα σε μουσεία, εργαστήρια και αποθήκες ανά την υφήλιο βρίσκονται τα πιο αξιοσημείωτα και μυστηριώδη αντικείμενα στον κόσμο. Σήμερα, αξιοποιώντας νέες έρευνες και τεχνολογικά μέσα, μπορούμε να τα μελετήσουμε πιο διεξοδικά από ποτέ.
Ποιος ο σκοπός ενός διακοσμημένου κουτιού 3.500 ετών; Μπορεί ένα όπλο ατμού να φέρει την επανάσταση στον πόλεμο; Είναι πράγματι ένα σκαλιστό πέτρινο μνημείο ο θρόνος του πιο διάσημου Αζτέκου βασιλιά;
2021 | Επ. 02.08 | HD
Καταχωνιασμένα μέσα σε μουσεία, εργαστήρια και αποθήκες ανά την υφήλιο βρίσκονται τα πιο αξιοσημείωτα και μυστηριώδη αντικείμενα στον κόσμο. Σήμερα, αξιοποιώντας νέες έρευνες και τεχνολογικά μέσα, μπορούμε να τα μελετήσουμε πιο διεξοδικά από ποτέ.
Ποιος ο σκοπός ενός διακοσμημένου κουτιού 3.500 ετών; Μπορεί ένα όπλο ατμού να φέρει την επανάσταση στον πόλεμο; Είναι πράγματι ένα σκαλιστό πέτρινο μνημείο ο θρόνος του πιο διάσημου Αζτέκου βασιλιά;
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00:06Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:30Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:00Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:31Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:02Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
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02:10Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
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02:15Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:18Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:19Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:20Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:22Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:24Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:34Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:36Μετήρης είναι σημαίνει.
02:38Αραίτης είναι σημαίνει.
02:45Μητήρης αρχητοί στην Ερναίκη,
02:47μια δημιουργία στην Ραναίκη του Ρατουρ.
02:53Ρατουρ είναι ένας από το πόσο πιο καθημερινό πόλευμα.
02:57Ρατουρ είναι αποτέλεσμα από το Συμέρια.
02:59Ήακτονίκο βρούμεν τον κράτλ του Ρατουλίου.
03:02Ήακείο πραγματικά είναι σημαντικά.
03:04Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
03:34In the 1920s, renowned archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley excavates a vast cemetery complex near the Ziggurat, a huge pyramid temple
03:43built from baked mud bricks.
03:45Leonard Woolley finds this group of tombs which were quite distinct because they had many individuals buried in them, often
03:51placed next to each other, and they seem to have been all buried at the same time, which means that
03:55there may have been some form of sacrifice.
03:58The tombs are packed with treasures, gold, sculptures, and precious stones. It's a sensational discovery.
04:06The 1920s were absolutely a golden age for archaeology. We have Howard Carter in Egypt and Sir Leonard Woolley in
04:14Ur, matching the splendor of what was found in Egypt.
04:19European royalty visited Ur, even Agatha Christie.
04:22In one of the tombs, Woolley discovers something extraordinary.
04:27A workman saw a small shimmer and began to clear away the earth to reveal a mosaic.
04:36It is the standard of ore, or what is left of it after four and a half thousand years in
04:43the ground.
04:44The standard of ore was made of bitumen, wood, those kinds of materials that typically decay.
04:50So the bitumen had broken away, as well as the wood.
04:52So all you had left were the shell and the semi-precious stones that were in it.
04:57Woolley was very astute in noticing that they should stop the work and look to see if there's any hollows,
05:02because that would indicate that the shape of the object was preserved in the hollows of the sediment.
05:08Even though the wooden frame has rotted away, the soil has held the mosaic pieces in place.
05:15By painstakingly filling the voids left by the rotted wood with plaster and wax, Woolley is able to secure the
05:22mosaics in their original positions and to retain the shape of this lost artifact.
05:28So what we're seeing now is a reconstruction of a very painstaking process.
05:32But of all the fabulous treasures found in the royal cemeteries at Ur, why does this odd box become the
05:40most famous by far?
05:45Everything about the decoration of this enigmatic 4,500-year-old object shouts success, because the polished shell, sandstone, and
05:54especially the lapis lazuli are exotic materials from distant lands.
05:59Everything had to be imported from Central Asia and Afghanistan, even India.
06:04So it also gives you the sense that the objects themselves reflect the power and the wealth of the society.
06:09This is a city that's able to accrue this tremendous wealth and make such objects.
06:15It's not just the exotic origins of the box's decoration that astounds experts.
06:20It is crafted with extraordinary skill.
06:23This is only possible because a previously unseen kind of worker appears in the first civilizations.
06:30The food surplus that comes with farming and these settlements creates a new type of role in society, which is
06:38the craftsmen.
06:39And because these artisans don't have to go out and collect food for their families, they can actually trade their
06:45crafts for food.
06:47And you see this increasing skill in everything that they create.
06:52The evolution of these new skills and their importance is clearly visible in something the ancient Mesopotamians excel at, pottery.
07:02The more skilled the artisans became, the more people wanted them.
07:06And we have archaeological evidence of this pottery across the ancient world.
07:11We've got evidence of it in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey.
07:13We've got evidence of it in modern-day Iraq and Pakistan.
07:18And it's incredible, they became just this massive trading center.
07:23And the artisans of Mesopotamia branch out far beyond pottery.
07:29They've become extremely skilled at a full range of objects.
07:34They're making furniture, they're making musical instruments, weaponry and even jewelry.
07:39The Standard is one of the finest examples of this work.
07:42And that is one reason why it becomes the poster child for the lost civilization of Ur.
07:51The other reason is that it's an enigma.
07:55Nothing like it has ever been found before or since.
07:59So just what is it for?
08:03In the hundred years since its discovery, there's been no shortage of big ideas to explain its purpose.
08:10One idea is that maybe it's a storage device, perhaps treasure, perhaps even offerings.
08:15There's a little area where you can open this box and then add and remove funds.
08:19So maybe it's a kind of sort of treasure box essentially.
08:22But something about this idea just doesn't fit.
08:25Because money as we know it has not been invented yet.
08:28Wealth was often assumed to be larger objects, metals or food or grain.
08:32But how are you going to fit these large and bulky items into a very small box?
08:37Of course also it needs to be said that no valuables were discovered inside of it.
08:41This is not a treasure chest.
08:44Could these tiny images hold a clue to its true purpose?
08:51One of the two main panels is known as war.
08:54We see this battle going on, chariots and troops marching off into war.
08:59And then in another register, individuals getting trounced upon, these chariots running them over.
09:04And so both marching into war, but also the people who are defeated being killed and stampeded upon by the
09:10victors.
09:10You also see the king, this large character, also prominently displayed as being victorious in this warfare.
09:18When Woolley finds the box, he suggests it is a military standard and the name sticks.
09:25Standards are often used in warfare in particular as a way of demarcating your side.
09:30The standard is the key symbol which you carry into battle.
09:33So holding the standard is both a signal to your army, but also a propagandistic tool to your enemies that
09:39we're still here, we're still fighting.
09:41And one of the images on the standard looks very familiar.
09:45One of the individuals shown in the standard of war looks like there's something similar to that standard, at least
09:51in shape, under the individual's bodies.
09:54Is this an image of a similar standard?
09:57Unfortunately, there are a few flaws to this idea.
10:00One is the size of the imagery, which would have been almost invisible from more than a few yards away.
10:08Second is the relative fragility of the piece.
10:11And then finally, there's the fact that within its actual construction, there's no obvious point for the insertion of a
10:19pole to mount it on top of a standard.
10:22If it's not Woolley's standard, what is it?
10:29On the opposite side to the war panel is the one called Peace.
10:33The peace sign is showing a kind of banquet, a kind of celebration.
10:39Zooming in on this digital reconstruction reveals a possible clue to its purpose, hidden in plain sight.
10:46The upper register is the most interesting.
10:49Here we see a large figure.
10:51We assume that this is the king.
10:53Before him are arrayed a group of sitting officials, raising glasses with the king.
10:59And beside them, there is a musician playing a lyre.
11:05The theory is that the standard of ore is actually a sound box for a lyre.
11:12The most ancient lyre that we know of is about 3200 BC, found in the same region, in ancient Sumer,
11:17which is southern Mesthemia.
11:18So this is the region where such a musical instrument was, in fact, invented.
11:23The similarities between the standard of ore and a lyre found in a tomb at the same excavation are striking.
11:30It's possible that this is lyre because both of them have a box-like middle with extensions where the strings
11:35would be.
11:36And the hollow inside the box could make a musical sound when it's strummed up with strings.
11:44So is that the answer? Is this the sound box of the king's lyre?
11:49This is an attractive notion, but there's one big problem with it.
11:55If this is a sound box, it has been coated with bitumen and with stone and shell,
12:01which would have had a considerable damping effect, effectively rendering it useless as a sound box for a stringed instrument.
12:10There is one final explanation for this strange box.
12:15For years, the assumption has been that these are symbolic images representing a well-balanced society,
12:21an advertisement, in effect, for how civilization should run.
12:25One is the warlike aspect that's necessary to maintain power and the trade connections that war would have had.
12:31So war is a necessary component of that in asserting power.
12:34But at the same time, a society enjoys its fruits, its economic benefits, and the partying and the feasting that
12:40you would have as a way to affirm the loyalties you would have to the king.
12:43And the king's also power as someone who gives his people these great feasts.
12:48But experts now suspect the events depicted could be a real historical event.
12:53What we're seeing is a story where there's a prominent battle during the time of the king, and he was
12:58ultimately victorious.
12:59And when you win in battle, what you do is you celebrate.
13:02You're showing the actual battle happening one side, and then on the other side you show the feasting that would
13:07occur after the battle, that you're celebrating your great victory.
13:10An advertisement of victory fits with the small size and the intricate, delicate decoration.
13:17It's unlikely that such an elaborate object would have been truly functional.
13:23It would have been largely for display.
13:27So perhaps this strange box once sat on display in one of the first cities on Earth, purely to remind
13:34people of a great success in battle of Ur's powerful king.
13:39It's both a party and battles.
13:42So what more do you want in terms of the story?
13:44The one thing we are certain of is that the Standard of Ur is a unique and beautiful snapshot of
13:51an ancient lost civilization.
13:59At London's Royal Armory Museum is an unknown and very deadly gun.
14:04What we're looking at here is the 19th century version of a weapon of mass destruction.
14:11Now brought out of the shadows and painstakingly reconstructed,
14:18this is a 170-year-old machine gun powered by steam.
14:25Who would have thought that steam could challenge gunpowder?
14:29More than 120 centimeters long, it is made of iron with a wooden crank handle and a bizarre brass funnel.
14:37It might look odd, but it is one of the most devastating weapons of its time.
14:42This gun was designed to fire hundreds of rounds a minute, some say even up to a thousand.
14:49And that was unheard of.
14:50But did it actually work?
14:54How did it work?
14:55And why would anyone want a machine gun powered by steam?
15:05This was an era when everything was being converted to steam power.
15:09It just seemed like steam was this panacea that you could use to make any task easier.
15:14It was the driver behind the Industrial Revolution.
15:17Factories and mills which used to be powered by water and horsepower were now powered much more efficiently by steam.
15:25The possibilities seem endless.
15:27Steam had so much potential that everyone was turning to it as a new source of power.
15:32From pragmatic things like steam powered tractors through to really quite crackpot inventions.
15:38One of the oddest is the idea of a sort of steam powered automaton like a giant metal soldier that
15:45would pull along a cart of people.
15:49Steam powers everything except guns.
15:55Until this strange thing is created.
16:00The man who dreams it up is prolific American engineer Jacob Perkins.
16:06By the time Jacob Perkins arrives on British shores, he already has a seriously impressive track record.
16:12He'd invented just a whole range of different inventions from devices to measure the speed of ships to a technique
16:17for plating buckles.
16:19That was his first invention at the age of 15.
16:21He really was born to be an inventor.
16:25While in England, Perkins catches the steam bug and hits on an extraordinary idea.
16:31As part of his work, Perkins designed some really high pressure boilers pushing the technology to its limits.
16:38And one of the things that he sees is that when he releases the pressure a bit, he can observe
16:45little particles fired at great speed.
16:48And that gives him an idea.
16:54Perkins begins to design a revolutionary steam powered gun, hoping to sell it to the British military.
17:01Over the years, his son Angier develops and improves it, culminating in 1851 in this.
17:10But this extraordinary contraption won't be an easy sell.
17:13The problem with selling his invention is that they already know how to fire a gun.
17:19I mean, gunpowder and propellants already exist.
17:23Since its invention over a thousand years ago, nearly all firearms are powered by gunpowder.
17:28It was invented in China and it's just saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, very, very finely ground.
17:36And the thing is that when you ignite it, it burns incredibly fast.
17:43It produces huge amounts of gas.
17:48And so what you've got is a pulse of gas that can really push a bullet or a cannonball.
17:56Gunpowder is a winning formula.
17:58So why does Perkins want to swap it for steam?
18:06By the time Perkins arrives on British shores in 1819, recent conflicts had shown that even gunpowder has its problems.
18:13In the decade before Perkins invented the steam gun, Britain was heavily involved in the Napoleonic War to try and
18:21prevent Napoleon from advancing his empire across the whole continent.
18:26Napoleon's tactics proved brutally effective against British firepower.
18:32Napoleon's strategy relied on speed, momentum and mobility.
18:36Whereas the British favor a large number of soldiers spread out in a relatively thin line to all fire in
18:42one direction.
18:43Napoleon opts for the column formation, narrower but deeper, and this favors forward movement.
18:50The French are fast. The guns facing them are anything but.
18:56If you're fighting on the British side, you're most likely carrying a musket, and that musket probably would have been
19:01one called the Brown Bess.
19:02These muskets use a ball and a paper cartridge filled with gunpowder.
19:08Reloading one of these muskets is a quite laborious process because every part of what you're doing is separate.
19:15You have the gunpowder. You have the tamping between the powder and the ball.
19:21You have the ball itself, which has to be loaded in separate.
19:25You've got to be careful because it's a ball and it can roll back out again if you handle it
19:28poorly.
19:29And then to fire the musket, you have to cock it.
19:34And then you've got to start the whole process all over again.
19:39Reloading and firing just once can take 20 seconds.
19:43And even when you fire, chances are you miss.
19:47Muskets aren't just slow. They're hopelessly inaccurate.
19:53Because the musket was loaded from the front, the balls were made intentionally slightly smaller than the barrel to allow
19:58them to be easily passed inside.
20:00But that means they can jiggle around inside the barrel and come out all kinds of different angles.
20:08Perkins is convinced that his steampunk invention is not only faster, but more accurate.
20:15His problem is that history is already littered with strange weapons trying to solve the same issues.
20:22And mostly failing.
20:25Some add more barrels to the gun so they can be fired all at once.
20:29You can concentrate your fire in a single shot, but ultimately it doesn't solve the problem.
20:34First off, they're still just as inaccurate as the individual barrels that they're made of.
20:37And secondly, although you can fire lots of shots at once, they then take even longer to reload.
20:42Obviously as many times longer as you have barrels.
20:45Other weapons try a rapid loading mechanism.
20:48Back in the second century BCE, the Chinese developed a repeating fire crossbow that used a little magazine that could
20:54drop 10 bolts into position to fire in 20 seconds.
20:58But a rapid firing mechanism in a gunpowder weapon is altogether more complex.
21:04One of the problems with using gunpowder, especially if you're trying to fire again and again and again, is that
21:13the gunpowder burns hot.
21:15And so your gun will gradually get hotter and hotter and hotter until eventually the metal will actually soften and
21:24the gun itself will deform.
21:29Perkins believes the answer to all these problems is to do away with gunpowder altogether.
21:35And replace it with steam.
21:40But he isn't the first to dream up this idea.
21:43Back in the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci, who seems to have invented basically everything in his sketchbooks, had drawn
21:49an unusual picture of what looks like a steam-powered gun.
21:53He calls it the Architonaire.
21:55And actually, da Vinci attributes this idea to the ancient Greek scientist and polymath Archimedes, who lived in the third
22:02century BCE.
22:03Which means the idea of a steam gun could date back over 2,000 years.
22:07The Architonaire uses a coal fire to generate steam by heating the gun itself.
22:14Perkins uses his own state-of-the-art boiler, operating at extremely high pressure.
22:20And his original machine is designed to take full advantage of it.
22:24There's a six-foot or two-meter long smoothbore barrel.
22:28And at one end, there's a magazine which, just using gravity, feeds balls into it.
22:33The gun is connected to a high-pressure steam boiler.
22:37By opening the valve, you can allow the pressurized steam into that barrel, which fires those balls out the end
22:42of the gun.
22:44Perkins' son, Angier, improves on the original 1824 design, giving it more precise control.
22:51In Jacob Perkins' original design, the balls were just falling into the gun under the force of gravity.
22:56Whereas his son, Angier, extended it and made it a slightly more controllable design.
23:01What that meant was that by turning a handle, you are cranking two pins, which would allow each ball to
23:06fall into the barrel individually.
23:07And then, as the crank continued to turn, it would open a valve, which would blast that steam pressure through
23:12and fire the thing at the end of the gun.
23:14And then that cycle would repeat as fast as you could crank it, it would carry on firing.
23:19Is steam about to trump a thousand years of gunpowder supremacy?
23:27In 1824, after five years of work, Jacob Perkins is ready to demonstrate his original steam gun to the top
23:34brass of the British military.
23:37Front and center is none other than the Duke of Wellington himself, who is now Master General of Ordnance, responsible
23:44for evaluating and procuring new weapons for the entire army.
23:48Under Wellington's gaze, Perkins' bizarre contraption is subjected to rigorous tests of speed, power and accuracy.
23:56If Wellington was looking for a fast firing weapon, this steam gun delivered.
24:00Reports differ quite widely, but at the lowest end of the estimates, it was said to fire 250 rounds a
24:06minute.
24:06And up at the top end, people claimed a thousand rounds a minute.
24:10So if you think about the comparison with a musket, which was firing just four times a minute, this is
24:14anywhere from 60 to 250 times faster.
24:19The steam gun is not only fast, it's deadly accurate.
24:24One of the things about using steam is that it's incredibly clean.
24:29All you've got is H2O, and you'll not be left with any of the residues that you might get with
24:36gunpowder.
24:36So you can design your steam gun to much higher tolerances, and you'll get better accuracy than you can with
24:45just a conventional musket.
24:46And unlike a gunpowder firearm, there is no risk of the barrel deforming.
24:51When you generate the steam, it's going to be only one or 200 degrees above the boiling temperature of water.
24:59And that's going to be as hot as your gun will ever get.
25:04And so you can fire over and over again, and you're never going to overheat.
25:10But can Perkins' steam gun pack enough punch?
25:14Perkins cranked up the boiler to full pressure, 900 PSI.
25:18And he demonstrated that over a range of 100 feet, he could smash a hole in 11 one-inch planks.
25:29Perkins' strange contraption proves that steam can power a weapon of extraordinary speed and accuracy.
25:37It should be an unmitigated success, but things don't quite go to plan.
25:45Even after years of tests and refinement by Perkins' son, Angia, the British forces just aren't interested in it.
25:53They refuse to purchase his device, and it ends up being just kind of a demonstration piece.
25:59So what goes wrong for this bizarre gun?
26:04The first obstacle is a military bogged down by tradition.
26:08The British Army at that time were not considered to be early adopters.
26:13So improving on traditional techniques, yes, that was accepted.
26:17But the idea of moving from gunpowder to steam, that was just too radical.
26:25The second problem is a whopper.
26:27In order to fire this thing, you needed a five-ton steam boiler to be lugged around with it at
26:32all times.
26:32This is an incredibly risky device to be dragging around the battlefield.
26:36You've got this enormous pressurized steam boiler.
26:39It's basically a bomb.
26:43The final problem is by the time Angier perfects his father's steam gun, gunpowder technology has moved on.
26:51They got rid of paper cartridges and managed to come up with brass cartridges to store the gunpowder on the
26:55back of the bullet.
26:56And bullets were also becoming pointed, which means they were much more aerodynamic.
26:59That meant much, much higher speeds, much longer range, and critically, much greater accuracy.
27:05And that means the problems that the steam guns were hoping to address were being solved and better with gunpowder
27:11-based technology.
27:14The brass cartridge also sparks lethal innovations in the guns themselves.
27:20A new technology comes onto the scene in the form of the Gatling gun, which is a multi-barreled, hand
27:27-cranked device.
27:29The final versions of the Gatling gun could fire hundreds of rounds a minute.
27:34And yet, they were relatively portable, coming in at nearly 170 pounds, which is positively nimble compared to the five
27:42tons of Perkins steam gun.
27:44But the destruction this new technology wreaks is unparalleled.
27:49Gatling famously said that his invention would reduce the number of people necessary to fight a war and thus reduce
27:58the number of men exposed to the damage it would do.
28:01But the truth was far from the case.
28:04Instead, it becomes a weapon capable of inflicting extraordinary casualties.
28:09The new machine guns are lighter and faster, and the explosive power of gunpowder is greater than anything the steam
28:16gun can produce.
28:22Perkins' creation doesn't stand a chance.
28:25So, is that the end of the steam-powered gun?
28:29Not quite.
28:34More than a hundred years later, the British Army finally finds a home for Perkins' revolutionary ideas.
28:41In the 1940s, anti-aircraft guns were sometimes redeployed from merchant ships onto British warships, leaving the former quite unprotected
28:51from aircraft attack.
28:52With gunpowder in somewhat limited supply, the Department of Miscellaneous Weapon Development turned to a resource that was readily available
29:01on ships.
29:04Steam.
29:06Enter the Holman Projector.
29:08The Holman Projector worked by connecting pipes to the ship's steam boiler.
29:14Then a grenade was dropped down the barrel, and the pressure from the steam would shoot the grenade out.
29:21And this effectively functioned as an anti-aircraft weapon.
29:24It was an unrifled gun, and that meant that you could throw anything down there.
29:29So if you didn't have a grenade, you had the option of a cabbage, a can, or apparently the biggest
29:34favourite was a potato.
29:35Making it the world's first anti-aircraft spud gun.
29:40And just as Perkins predicted, it is lethal.
29:44There are reports that one sailor on a merchant ship called the Highlander successfully downed a German aircraft using a
29:53Holman Projector.
29:54It's not clear from the reports whether or not he fired a potato at it.
30:00Finally, the steam gun has its day, albeit almost 120 years after Jacob Perkins has the idea.
30:12In Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology is a strange monolith from a lost world with a violent past.
30:20The civilization that created this object was almost wiped from history.
30:26Now we're bringing every detail of this astonishing artifact out into the light.
30:34This is the Teokali stone.
30:37Cut from volcanic rock, it stands roughly 120 centimeters tall, almost a meter wide and a meter deep.
30:44It effectively looks like a model version of a temple.
30:48But carved into every surface are disturbing images, eerie figures with skull-like faces, weird animals, plants and monsters.
31:00They all hint at a gruesome and violent past.
31:05Waging sacred war in order to half the human sacrifices to offer the sun.
31:12Is this a sacrificial altar?
31:16They would open the chest, extract the heart and make a fire within the chest.
31:24Or are we simply misreading its purpose?
31:27Just so many different clues that can be read in different ways and you have to really read closely and
31:32piece them together to figure out what it's all about.
31:38What becomes of the legendary leader it is created for?
31:41And could it really have anything to do with human sacrifice?
31:521926, Mexico City.
31:54A mysterious object is unearthed from the foundations of the National Palace.
31:59They knew about this object before, but it was only in 1926 that they dug it up and it was
32:06able to be examined fully for the first time.
32:08The strange shapes on the back of this monolith point archaeologists toward its legendary creators.
32:14You see these carvings with an eagle with its wings widespread on top of a cactus and that's an image
32:25that most people in Mexico would recognize today as it's on the Mexican flag.
32:32It is a 13th century legend.
32:35A group of migrants are traveling through the valley of Mexico.
32:39They are about to transform Central America.
32:43There was a prophecy that said that the capital would be created when an eagle was seen standing on a
32:53cactus in the middle of a lake and this would end up being Lake Texcoco in what is now Mexico
33:00City.
33:01Archaeologists know exactly whose legend this is.
33:04Without any doubt, this monolith was created by the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan.
33:11The Mexica have a more familiar name for many, the Aztecs.
33:17Mexico City is built on the site of their vast capital, Tenochtitlan.
33:24The modern national palace in Mexico was actually built on top of where the palace of the ancient rulers would
33:33have been located.
33:34Therefore, this monolith found in the foundations of the national palace probably belonged to an important figure that lived in
33:45that palace.
33:46Who is this figure?
33:48Can the eerie images at the top identify him?
33:54On the left is the god Huitzilopochtli, which is a god that is associated with kingship.
34:01And on the right is the god Tezcatlipoca, who was the god of night, but also a god that was
34:07associated with warriors and with kings.
34:11But these strange carvings reveal more than Aztec gods.
34:15They could also narrate historical events and represent real historical figures.
34:21So the figure on the right might also be a real ruler.
34:29This image holds clues to the identity of that ruler.
34:32It shows a diadem, a little crown and a nose plug.
34:36And those are symbols of rule in Aztec culture.
34:39Experts believe this all points to one person, the most legendary and ruthless of all Aztec leaders.
34:46In other pictographic sources, those symbols are often associated with Moctezuma II.
34:54And they don't come bigger than Moctezuma II.
34:59He rules from 1502 to 1520, taking the Aztec empire to the height of its power.
35:08Ruling over five million people across 200,000 square kilometers.
35:15Moctezuma II is this almost mythical figure.
35:18He has this enormous zoo and there is evidence for this.
35:22He has great luxury that he lives in.
35:25Supposedly he has hundreds of wives and children.
35:28He's a figure that not only has enormous power, but goes to great lengths to promote himself as a figure
35:37of power and authority.
35:39An object of extraordinary craftsmanship.
35:42Made for the greatest leader of one of the most remarkable civilizations of the Americans.
35:47What is the purpose of this strange thing?
35:54The shape of it, the lines representing steps.
35:59It's unmistakable when you compare it to known temples of the period.
36:06It effectively looks like a model version of a temple.
36:11Scale models of temples are not unusual in Mexica society.
36:16But there is something strange about this one.
36:18Across the empire, we have been able to find smaller models.
36:23These scale models are usually just a few centimeters tall.
36:27None of them are as large as this one.
36:30Over a meter tall, the Teokali is a giant in comparison.
36:36Some experts think there's a very good reason for its oversized proportions.
36:41On top of some of these models are gods sitting on them as if they were sitting on thrones.
36:47So the Teokali is not just a representation of a temple, but the throne for a god.
36:59The Teokali is now known by another name.
37:02The throne of Moctezuma II.
37:06But there is a problem with this idea.
37:09In this period, thrones were most usually made of reeds.
37:13It's not a chair society.
37:15You sat on a fabulous reed mat.
37:18I think it's unlikely that Moctezuma actually sat on it.
37:22Some scholars believe it could be a symbolic throne, a token of power, rather than a real one.
37:28But close examination of the other bizarre symbols reveals a much more disturbing explanation for this strange thing.
37:39Experts believe this circle at the top of the monolith is a solar disk.
37:44A calendar that charts the 52-year Mexica cycle of life and death.
37:51According to Mexica traditions, the sun had already been swallowed up four times prior and during Moctezuma's reign, this was
38:00the fifth sun.
38:01And in order to ensure that the sun always comes back up after night, you have to appease it with
38:08blood sacrifice.
38:09And that's what the symbolism there is about.
38:11Waging sacred war in order to have the human sacrifices to offer the sun.
38:18This idea has given the monolith a second name.
38:23When renowned Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Caso first sees the monolith, he names it the Tali de la Guerra Sagrada, which
38:32in English means Temple of the Sacred War.
38:35And other mysterious symbols carved on the monolith can narrow down exactly when this strange relic is made and exactly
38:42what it is for.
38:43On the front of the monolith are two date clips, one rabbit and two reed.
38:53And those symbolize 1506 and 1507 in our modern day calendar.
38:59These dates point to the most critical event in the whole 52-year Mexica calendar.
39:05The new fire ceremony.
39:07It has just one goal.
39:11Preventing the end of the world.
39:16Through human sacrifice.
39:19The priest would congregate on a temple and sacrifice a victim.
39:26They would open the chest, extract the heart and make a fire within the chest of this victim
39:34that would symbolize the creation of the new fire of the new era.
39:39If the fire worked, that indicated that everything was going to go well.
39:44If it didn't work, then it was the end of the world.
39:52To the people who made this strange object, human sacrifice is actually about preserving life.
39:59It wasn't seen as a punishment or as a vengeful action.
40:05In fact, the gods demanded this blood sacrifice and the ruler had a responsibility to provide human sacrifice in order
40:14to ensure the survival of your people.
40:20But rather than simply commemorating Moctezuma's new fire ceremony, could this bizarre stone monolith have played a vital and bloody
40:29part in it?
40:30We think of altars as being big tables.
40:32But Aztec sacrificial altar is actually quite pointed, similar to the top of the Teokali.
40:39Because the way that sacrifice is most often conducted is that four priests hold the arms and legs of the
40:45person
40:45and pull them back to stretch the chest up so that they can easily remove the heart from the chest
40:50cavity.
40:51There isn't any residue of blood as far as I know, but it's not impossible it was a sacrificial altar.
40:58Is this extraordinary object the last thing victims see before their hearts are torn out?
41:04Or is it simply a throne for a legendary leader?
41:08For now, its true purpose remains a mystery.
41:13One thing we do know is that whatever the outcome of Moctezuma's new fire ceremony,
41:19it does turn out to be the end of the world.
41:28In 1519, barely a decade after Moctezuma's new fire ceremony, the Spanish conquistadors arrive.
41:36Hernando Cortes besieges Tenochtitlan.
41:39And what happens then is the most incredible destruction because the Mexica refused to surrender.
41:46So Cortes ends up having to advance through the city, destroying buildings as he goes.
41:52It's an absolute massacre.
41:56Moctezuma II's life ends in tragedy.
42:00And so does the Mexica Empire.
42:04The empire was effectively decimated by the arrival of the Spanish, either by warfare.
42:09The Spaniards had horses, they had gunpowder and fire weapons.
42:16But they also brought with them diseases that the local population didn't have natural immunity for.
42:25Ten years after the Spanish invasion, something like 90% of the Aztec Mexica people are dead either through violence
42:34or disease.
42:36It's the most astonishing decimation of populations.
42:43And the Christian invaders rewrite Mexica history to create a highly exaggerated bloodthirsty legend.
42:52Because the Spanish are so obsessed with human sacrifice as a justification for the conquest, and because it seems so
42:57alien to us now, we often see the Aztecs through this narrow lens of sacrificial violence.
43:03We see them as this bloodthirsty culture.
43:06But the reality is that they believe if they don't sacrifice humans to the gods, the world will come to
43:12an end.
43:14The truth behind Mexica ritual is buried in the conquistadors' obsession with sacrifice.
43:20Just like this mysterious monolith, tribute to a godlike king, which ends up lost beneath the foundations of Mexico City.
43:35The Finley of the Caribbean
43:35The Mariners
43:41The Mariners
43:42The Mariners
43:54Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
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