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00:03The Ten Plagues of Egypt, one of the most famous and terrifying episodes recounted in the Bible.
00:11Within the early chapters of the book of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible,
00:16lies the description of the onslaught of curses that assailed the kingdom of Egypt.
00:24Over time, the story of the Ten Plagues and its conclusion with the Red Sea Crossing
00:29has become one of the most studied accounts in the history of religion
00:33and the subject of countless investigations and controversies.
00:40Is this a legend, a purely allegorical tale,
00:43or could these events have their origins in a series of actual natural disasters?
00:51What's fascinating about the description of the plagues of Egypt
00:54is that they can be compared to observable, natural phenomena.
01:02We'll dive deep into one of the most sensational and mysterious episodes recounted in the Bible.
01:08The Ten Plagues of Egypt.
01:16The Ten Plagues, among the most spectacular events described in the Bible,
01:21are a series of devastating punishments that befell the kingdom of Egypt over 3,500 years ago.
01:28Men covered in ulcers,
01:32the death of livestock,
01:35and even the slaughter of all the kingdoms first born.
01:39The list is chilling,
01:41so it's not surprising that popular culture has long been intrigued by them.
01:52The Ten Plagues of Egypt is the story of the Ten Plagues.
01:54The Ten Plagues of Egypt is the story of the Ten Plagues.
01:56It's a fascinating story of a people oppressed by a tyrannic sovereign who will finally be able to liberate themselves.
02:03The events recounted in the episode of the Ten Plagues are supposed to have taken place in Egypt.
02:13This story appears for the first time in the Hebrew Bible,
02:17the part of the Bible that the Christians will be designated later,
02:20under the name of the Old Testament.
02:24Some consider the stories told in these books as a series of myths or allegories.
02:32But many believers,
02:33they, they,
02:34they,
02:44The story of the Ten Plagues is told in the book of Exodus,
02:48the second book of the Bible.
02:53In the beginning,
02:54it is written that sometime after arriving in Egypt,
02:57the Israelites find themselves enslaved by a tyrannical pharaoh.
03:03Their situation grows even more dire when,
03:06to reduce the number of Hebrews who rivaled the population of Egyptians,
03:10the Pharaoh orders the death of all male Hebrew children.
03:15Look, he said to his people,
03:18the Israelites have become far too numerous for us.
03:22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people,
03:25Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile.
03:30To save their son, a family from the tribe of Levi,
03:34one of the twelve tribes of Israel,
03:36places their newborn son in a wooden basket near one of the banks of the Nile.
03:41He was found by the Pharaoh's daughter,
03:44who decides to raise the newborn as her own son.
03:48She called the child Moses.
03:55Moses is raised at Pharaoh's court,
03:57but he discovers his true heritage
04:00and begins to understand the misery of his people,
04:03shackled in slavery.
04:06When he observes a slave being beaten by a foreman,
04:09he kills him in a fit of suppressed rage.
04:15But of fear that this story doesn't come back to the Pharaoh's ears,
04:18he takes the fall and finds refuge in the country of Madian,
04:22where he is a family.
04:24One day, when he kept his bêtes,
04:26God would appear to him by the means of a fiery witch,
04:30and he would have given him as mission to liberate his people of slavery.
04:40At the age of 80, Moses returns to Egypt to ask Pharaoh to free his people.
04:46But Pharaoh refuses.
04:51First and foremost is the question of whether the facts are true.
04:57There are those who don't believe they are, and those who do,
05:00but who seek to rationally explain these events.
05:04Opinions differ even among the believers.
05:07One area of contention is the dating of the ten plagues
05:11and of the Exodus itself.
05:17The problem is that despite numerous excavations throughout the region
05:21stretching from Egypt to present-day Syria,
05:23no archaeological evidence has ever indicated the presence of the Hebrews in Egypt
05:27or any kind of Exodus into the desert.
05:32The lack of historical evidence extends beyond the Exodus to the plagues themselves.
05:38The ancient Egyptians covered their temples and monuments with hieroglyphics
05:43the recorded important events.
05:45And ten horrific and deadly plagues would certainly qualify.
05:50But no mention of them had ever been found,
05:53at least not until 2014.
05:59Karnak Temple in Luxor was the largest religious complex in ancient Egypt.
06:05The temple's remains, with their hieroglyphic-covered walls,
06:09tell the story of 2,000 years of human history.
06:13It was here, between 1947 and 1951,
06:18that French archaeologists discovered several fragments of a 1.8-meter-high steel,
06:24a particularly imposing size.
06:29The upper part of the stele helped date the monument to the time of Amos I, founder of the 18th
06:36dynasty.
06:39It's estimated that he ruled around 3,500 years ago.
06:45Achnos I was a very important pharaoh.
06:52He reunited Upper and Lower Egypt by driving out the Hyksos,
06:57invaders who had seized the Nile Delta several decades prior.
07:01This reconquest laid the foundations for the New Kingdom,
07:06when Egyptian power reached its peak.
07:12Scholars disagree on the exact dates of his reign,
07:16except that he ruled sometime in the 16th century BCE.
07:20Precisely dating events is very complicated in Egyptology.
07:25In the late 1960s, Belgian Egyptologist Claude van der Slyen,
07:30a specialist in the Amos dynasty, proposed a translation.
07:35For the Belgian researcher, there could be no doubt that this record
07:39referred to a very violent climatic event,
07:42a subject that had never before been found inscribed on a steel.
07:46But not everyone was convinced by van der Slyen's interpretation.
07:55Karnak Temple in Luxor was the largest religious complex in ancient Egypt.
08:01Between 1947 and 1951,
08:05French archaeologists discovered several fragments of a 1.8-meter-high steel.
08:12In the late 1960s, Belgian Egyptologist Claude van der Slyen proposed a translation.
08:19This record referred to a very violent climatic event,
08:24a subject that had never before been found inscribed on a steel.
08:29No pharaoh before him had ever deemed a meteorological event worthy of record.
08:35Why?
08:36Because no pharaoh would ever consider himself to be at the whim of the gods
08:41who caused the storm in the first place.
08:45Documenting such an event so publicly would be seen as an admission of weakness.
08:55Other Egyptologists subscribe to a more conventional interpretation,
08:59seeing the text as a metaphorical tale of war against invaders,
09:03probably the hyksos, a much more common subject at the time.
09:08Without a compelling or conclusive case,
09:11the controversial steel soon became yesterday's news.
09:15But in 2014, two researchers from the University of Chicago,
09:20Nadine Moeller and Robert Rittner,
09:22decided to reopen the investigation.
09:25And their discovery lent renewed credibility
09:28to Claude van der Slyen's stormy interpretation.
09:32On line 7 of the front of the steel,
09:34an initial indication caught the eye of the two researchers.
09:38It clearly states that the sky is raging.
09:45But the smoking gun is in the middle of line 8 on the steel,
09:49which according to Moeller and Rittner,
09:51refers to a heavy rainstorm.
09:56Hieroglyphics are extremely challenging to translate,
09:59even for experts.
10:01The meaning of the symbols varies,
10:03according to the context,
10:04and their association with each other.
10:08Complicating matters further
10:09is the fact that the Egyptians' meteorological vocabulary
10:13mirrors the vocabulary of human actions.
10:17For example, the word used for rain is strike,
10:21which must then be associated
10:23with a hieroglyph symbolizing water.
10:25In this case,
10:27we're no longer talking about a clash between two armies,
10:31for example,
10:32but rather about rain hitting the ground.
10:36The rest of the steel continues to support the case
10:40and refers to darkness, rain, and winds
10:43so strong that, quote,
10:45torches could not be lit anywhere.
10:52The entire lower part of the steel, meanwhile,
10:56offers a detailed list of the damage, destruction,
11:00and necessary reconstruction in the kingdom.
11:05Nadine Moeller and Robert Rittner
11:08find this list far too precise
11:10to be considered purely metaphorical.
11:13It therefore appears to recount a very real event.
11:21Far more remarkable than the storm,
11:23the tempest steel may well be
11:25the first weather report in history,
11:27the extraordinary account of an unprecedented event,
11:30and consistent with two of the ten plagues
11:33mentioned in the Bible,
11:35the hailstorm and the darkness.
11:38But this provocative evidence
11:40is just one data point.
11:42Wouldn't such a historic storm
11:44deserve a mention in other records of the time,
11:47that's where the rind papyrus comes in.
11:55The papyrus rind
11:56se presentait à l'origine
11:58sous la forme d'un rouleau
11:59de 14 feuilles
12:00soigneusement assemblées entre elles.
12:03Il s'agit de l'un des deux seuls traités
12:04de mathématiques de l'Egypte antique
12:06qui soit parvenu jusqu'Ã nous,
12:07se dire son importance.
12:10Sur son recto,
12:11il y a 85 problèmes
12:13de géométrie et d'algèbre
12:14qui ont été listés,
12:16par exemple pour aider
12:17Ã la quantification du grain
12:19ou à la répartition égale du pain
12:21parmi les hommes.
12:23Au vu de la qualité du document
12:25et du peu d'erreurs relevées dans le texte,
12:27il s'agissait probablement
12:29d'un manuel de haut niveau
12:30utilisé pour enseigner
12:31dans les écoles de scribe.
12:35On the face of it,
12:36the subject of the scholarly papyrus
12:38has absolutely nothing to do
12:40with the weather.
12:41But turn it over
12:42and there is some interesting text
12:44added after the main manuscript
12:46had been written
12:47that stands out from the rest.
12:50The first column reads,
13:06The text relates to the progression
13:08of a southern king
13:09into the Hyksos kingdom.
13:11Now, the king who reunited
13:13the two Egypts
13:14by regaining ground
13:15in the Hyksos-occupied Nile Delta
13:17was Atmos,
13:19the pharaoh who had
13:20the tempest stele engraved.
13:24The last two columns
13:26offer further details.
13:28Year 11,
13:29first month of the inundation season,
13:31third day.
13:34Birth of Set,
13:35the majesty of this god
13:36caused his voice to be heard.
13:40Birth of Isis,
13:42the heavens reigned.
13:47This information
13:49leads us to believe
13:50that we are dealing
13:51with a storm.
13:53The god Set
13:54is the god of storms.
13:55So the fact that
13:56his voice is heard
13:57could indicate
13:58a very strong blast
14:00or particularly powerful thunder.
14:04And the rain
14:05on the day of Isis' birth
14:07would indicate
14:08a violent storm
14:09or torrential downpour.
14:15As with the tempest stele,
14:17the fact that
14:18weather phenomena
14:19are mentioned
14:20is a strong indication
14:21of the exceptional nature
14:23of these upheavals.
14:25But in this particular case,
14:28we're undoubtedly talking
14:30about a storm
14:31of uncommon duration
14:32or violence.
14:36The inscriptions
14:37on the papyrus
14:38and the stele
14:39were both made
14:40during the reign
14:41of Pharaoh Amos I.
14:43The argument
14:44that these are references
14:46to the great plagues
14:47becomes ever more compelling.
14:52The tempest stele
14:53and the rind papyrus
14:55seem to provide
14:56solid evidence
14:57between a dramatic
14:59weather event
14:59and some biblical plagues.
15:04such a cataclysmic
15:05weather event
15:06wouldn't have been
15:07confined solely
15:08to Egypt.
15:09If it truly happened,
15:11it would have happened
15:12someplace else as well.
15:13And something
15:14must have triggered it.
15:18As early as 1967,
15:21when a translation
15:22of the tempest stele
15:23was published,
15:24Greek seismologist
15:26Angelo Galinopoulos
15:27raised the possibility
15:29of a link
15:30between the torrential rains
15:31described in the steel
15:32and the ferocious eruption
15:34of Thera
15:35over 3,500 years ago.
15:40With an explosivity score
15:41of almost 7
15:42on a scale of 8,
15:43the super-colossal eruption
15:45of ancient Thera,
15:46a volcano
15:47on the island of Santorini,
15:48is one of the most devastating
15:49in human history.
15:55The mountain
15:56literally explodes,
15:56ejecting a column
15:58of volcanic material
15:5935 kilometers
16:01into the stratosphere.
16:05After that
16:06came a bombardment
16:07of burning pumice stones
16:08falling from the plume,
16:09accompanied by fiery clouds,
16:12avalanches of gas
16:13and incandescent ash
16:15racing from the mountain flanks
16:16at nearly 150 kilometers per hour.
16:20Gigantic fractures
16:21ripped open the magma chamber.
16:23Seawater rushed in
16:25and flooded the chamber,
16:26triggering further explosions
16:28that pulverized the rocks.
16:30The Thera volcano
16:31released energy
16:32equal to 600 megatons
16:34of TNT.
16:35That's 40 atomic bombs.
16:38In two days,
16:39it's 27 times more
16:41than the eruption
16:41of Vesuvius
16:42that buried Pompeii
16:43in 79 CE.
16:49After the eruption,
16:51the chaos continues.
16:56The magma chamber,
16:58completely emptied,
16:59collapses in on itself.
17:02The sea rushes in
17:04to fill the massive crater,
17:05generating a series
17:07of tsunamis,
17:08estimated between
17:0930 and 150 meters high.
17:13Traces of these tsunamis
17:15have been found
17:15in archaeological sites
17:16along the shores
17:17of the eastern Mediterranean,
17:19all the way
17:19to the Black Sea.
17:20That's how monumental it was.
17:29At the end of the cataclysm,
17:31all that remains
17:32of a 900-meter-high volcano
17:34is a gaping caldera,
17:36or crater,
17:378 kilometers in diameter.
17:39The present-day islands
17:40of Therasia,
17:41Aspenese,
17:43Paliakameni,
17:44Neakameni,
17:45and Fira,
17:46better known as Santorini,
17:48are what remains.
17:51The island and its people
17:53simply ceased to exist.
17:55For centuries,
17:56it was completely forgotten
17:58that Santorini
17:58had ever been populated,
18:00until excavations
18:02begun in 1967
18:03unearthed the remains
18:05of Akrotiri,
18:06one of the island's
18:07once flourishing cities,
18:09beneath thick layers
18:10of ash
18:11and pumice stone.
18:14The explosion itself
18:15went far beyond
18:17the borders of Santorini.
18:19In 2010,
18:20the eruption
18:21of the Icelandic volcano,
18:22Ejavshala Jokul,
18:24demonstrated the vast distances
18:26covered by the airborne ash.
18:28It reached Great Britain,
18:30more than 1,000 kilometers
18:32from the Icelandic cloud,
18:34despite being
18:35a relatively modest eruption.
18:37Yet Egypt is only
18:38700 kilometers
18:40southeast of Santorini
18:41and would have felt
18:42the impacts
18:43of such a massive
18:44geological event.
18:53Before long,
18:54the ashes reached
18:54the Nile Delta
18:55and thus darkened the skies
18:57for several years.
18:58It cooled the climate,
18:59not only in the wider region,
19:01but across the globe.
19:02The rainstorms
19:03that plagued
19:04the pharaoh's land
19:04could well have been triggered
19:05by this natural disaster.
19:09Could this event
19:10have altered the climate
19:12and led to the catastrophes
19:13described in the Bible?
19:15And plunged
19:17the greatest civilization
19:18of antiquity
19:19into chaos?
19:23As early as 1967,
19:26Greek seismologist
19:28Angelo Galanopoulos
19:29raised the possibility
19:31of a link
19:31between the torrential rains
19:33described in the Tempest Steel
19:35and the ferocious eruption
19:36of Thira
19:37over 3,500 years ago.
19:41Once again,
19:42the idea wasn't taken
19:43seriously at first.
19:53As early as 1971,
19:56the German geologist
19:57Reinhard Willem van Bemmelen
19:58proposed that the eruption
19:59of the Thira volcano
20:00could explain
20:01the entire biblical story.
20:03But his thesis
20:04failed to attract attention.
20:09One scientist confirmed
20:11that the ash
20:12from the eruption
20:13had piled up in the Nile,
20:15researchers
20:16dusted off
20:17van Bemmelen's thesis.
20:21In the Old Testament,
20:22it is written,
20:24this is what the Lord says,
20:26with the staff
20:27that is in my hand,
20:28I will strike
20:29the water of the Nile
20:30and it will be changed
20:31into blood.
20:32The fish in the Nile
20:34will die
20:34and the river will stink.
20:36The Egyptians
20:37will not be able
20:38to drink its water.
20:41One hypothesis
20:43is that sulfuric acid
20:44in the volcanic ash
20:45may have oxidized
20:47the ferrous rocks
20:47in the riverbed,
20:48giving the water
20:49a rusty tint.
20:50The chemical reaction
20:52then encouraged
20:53the growth
20:53of cyanobacteria,
20:54potentially harmful
20:55to humans and animals.
20:58The same thing happened
20:59after the eruption
21:00of Mount Hudson
21:00in Chile
21:01in 1991,
21:02so it's entirely possible.
21:06Another theory
21:07is that a change
21:08in the climate
21:09triggered a massive bloom
21:11of red algae.
21:15In the Gulf of Mexico
21:17in 1978,
21:18an algae bloom
21:19of Karenia brevis
21:21reddened the water,
21:23making it toxic
21:24to both humans and fish.
21:30The algae bloom
21:31could then trigger
21:32a chain reaction.
21:33As the water
21:34grows acidic,
21:35it poisons the fish,
21:37which float to the surface
21:38and wash up
21:39on the Nile's banks
21:40and create the conditions
21:42for the second
21:43biblical plague.
21:46The frogs died
21:47in the houses,
21:48in the courtyards
21:49and in the fields.
21:52They were piled
21:53into heaps
21:54and the land
21:55reeked of them.
21:58On assist
21:59to a redoutable
22:00effet domino.
22:01Les grenouilles
22:02fuient le Nile
22:02devenu inhospitalier
22:04et envahissent
22:05le voisinage
22:06où elles meurent
22:07en masse
22:07de déshydratation.
22:11Évidemment,
22:12un tel amas
22:13de chair morte
22:13attire tout un tas
22:14de parasites
22:15et d'insectes
22:16qui vont y pondre
22:17leurs larves.
22:20Et comme les grenouilles
22:21étaient leurs plus
22:22grands prédateurs,
22:23les insectes
22:24pullulent librement
22:25leur absence.
22:55Leviticus
22:56Leviticus
22:56all the livestock of the Egyptians died.
23:07The sudden proliferation of insect pests
23:10can certainly decimate livestock.
23:14John Maher and Curtis Malloy,
23:17two epidemiologists at the New York Department of Public Health,
23:21studied a midge of the genus Colicoides.
23:26It carries two viral diseases,
23:30African horse sickness, which attacks horses,
23:33and blue-tongue disease, which mainly affects cattle.
23:39Add to this the grass, contaminated by volcanic ash
23:43and the polluted drinking water of the Nile,
23:45and it's easy to see why the animals are dying off one after the other.
23:55In the Bible, it is written,
23:59Then the Lord said,
24:01Take handfuls of soot from a furnace
24:03and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh.
24:08It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt,
24:12and festering boils will break out on people and animals throughout the land.
24:22Some researchers believe that these pustules are a product of myasis,
24:27a skin infection created by the larva of certain fly species.
24:33These develop under the skin, resulting in boil-like lesions.
24:42Insects can also transmit parasitic diseases,
24:45such as cutaneous leishmaniasis,
24:48which cause severe skin lesions.
24:56There is another theory, which implicates Thera even more directly.
25:04Microbiologist Ciro Trevisanato found a plausible explanation for the pustules
25:09in a remarkable papyrus he recovered from the archives of the British Museum in London.
25:14The London Medical Papyrus is one of the earliest,
25:18if not the earliest, medical documents in history.
25:23It was completed around 1350 BCE,
25:27but its contents are much older than that.
25:30The surviving part lists 61 treatments
25:33and provides us with invaluable information
25:36about the Egyptians' knowledge of medicine and biology,
25:39as well as the remedies they used.
25:42Of these 61 treatments,
25:45one caught the biologist's attention.
25:49The papyrus refers to white lesions
25:52that appear on contact with red water.
25:55This red water could refer to the first plague of Egypt,
25:58and these lesions would be the ulcers or boils spoken of in the Bible.
26:03The document doesn't mention anything about the cause of these lesions,
26:07but the treatment provides a compelling clue.
26:13To heal these boils,
26:15a special ointment must be applied to the skin,
26:19made from alkaline ingredients such as soda, okra, and animal fat.
26:24If the remedy is alkaline, there's only one conclusion.
26:28The active agent is acidic.
26:31These white legions would therefore be acid burns
26:34caused by contact with the red water.
26:38And Trevor Sanato speculates
26:40that the Egyptians could only have been exposed
26:42to one acidic compound,
26:44sulfuric acid from the ashes of the Thera volcano.
26:58One way or another,
27:00the epic volcanic eruption on Thera
27:02seems to be the culprit behind the first six biblical plagues.
27:06But what does science say about the next three?
27:10Hail, locusts, and darkness.
27:17The epic volcanic eruption on Thera
27:20seems to be the culprit behind the first six biblical plagues.
27:26But what does science say about hail, locusts, and darkness?
27:35At this time tomorrow,
27:37I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt
27:40from the day it was founded till now.
27:44It's a fact.
27:46A volcanic eruption can significantly disrupt the weather.
27:50It's happened in modern times.
27:53On June 15, 1991,
27:56the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines
27:58erupted after 500 years of inactivity.
28:04Il s'agit de l'une des pires éruptions de l'histoire.
28:08Elle a également eu des conséquences très importantes
28:11à l'échelle planétaire,
28:13notamment sur le climat mondial,
28:15en entraînant une baisse de la température moyenne globale,
28:18temporaire, certes,
28:19mais importante,
28:21parce qu'elle était de plusieurs degrés.
28:23A volcano's ability to change the weather
28:26lies in the composition of the volcanic cloud.
28:29Besides tons of ash,
28:31it contains a high quantity of sulfur dioxide,
28:34a gas that remains in the atmosphere
28:36long after the ash has fallen.
28:39In the atmosphere,
28:40when sulfur dioxide mixes with water vapor,
28:43it slowly transforms into sulfuric acid.
28:46The tiny droplets remain suspended
28:48in the upper atmosphere.
28:51Floating around the atmosphere,
28:53the droplets surround the Earth.
28:54When the sun's rays hit them,
28:56they act like a mirror,
28:58reflecting part of the light back into space
29:00and absorbing the rest.
29:04As a result,
29:06the stratosphere warms
29:07while the ground temperature falls.
29:13When the ground is cold
29:15and the atmosphere is hot,
29:16the air mass changes
29:17and storms are formed.
29:20The eruption of the Thera volcano
29:22was as much as 10 times bigger
29:24than Pina Tubos,
29:26so it only stands to reason
29:27that it would impact the global climate
29:30in addition to creating havoc locally.
29:34In Egypt,
29:35it could also lead to unusual events,
29:37such as heavy rain or hailstorms.
29:41Hail in particular
29:42can be caused
29:43by the accumulation of ice
29:45around suspended volcanic particles.
29:52And this litany of bad weather
29:54in a usually warm and stable climate
29:57sets the stage
29:58for plague number eight.
30:02By morning,
30:03the wind had brought the locusts.
30:06They devoured all
30:07that was left after the hail,
30:09everything growing in the fields
30:11and the fruit on the trees.
30:13Nothing green remained
30:15on tree or plant
30:16in all the land of Egypt.
30:18Never before
30:19had there been
30:20such a plague of locusts,
30:22nor will there ever be again.
30:25Far from never happening again,
30:27locust invasions
30:28are actually a well-known phenomenon
30:30in East Africa.
30:32In January 2020, for example,
30:35Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia
30:37experienced heavy rains.
30:39While rain is generally welcomed
30:41in these drought-prone areas,
30:43in this case,
30:44the relief quickly faded
30:46at the arrival
30:47of billions of locusts
30:48that invaded the Horn of Africa.
30:51In a single day,
30:52a small swarm
30:53can devour enough crops
30:55to feed 2,500 people,
30:57threatening the food security
30:59of the countries
31:00they pass through.
31:02The biblical locusts
31:04may have been disturbed
31:05by atmospheric changes
31:07from the eruption.
31:10Humidity encourages locusts
31:12to reproduce,
31:13so it's not hard to imagine
31:15their numbers multiplying
31:16and reaching Egypt,
31:18a country located
31:19very close to Sudan,
31:21one of their main breeding grounds.
31:24Some scholars believe
31:26that this 8th plague of locusts
31:28caused the ensuing 9th plague
31:30and total darkness
31:31covered all Egypt
31:32for three days.
31:34Others suggest
31:35that the darkness
31:35could also be a result
31:37of the dust ejected
31:38from the eruption
31:39of the Thera volcano.
31:41We can tell
31:42what they must have experienced
31:43in Egypt
31:44from a more recent
31:44supereruption.
31:47In 1815,
31:49the Tambora volcano
31:49in Indonesia
31:50triggered a worldwide
31:51volcanic winter,
31:52which was followed
31:53by the year without summer.
31:58To build dramatic intensity,
32:01the authors of this episode
32:02from the Bible
32:02may have rearranged
32:04the chronology of events.
32:06If darkness,
32:07the penultimate plague,
32:09invaded the region,
32:10it would have happened
32:11in the early days
32:12of the eruption
32:13when the dust cloud
32:14may have obscured
32:15the sky for days.
32:17Or perhaps,
32:19given the power
32:20of the eruption,
32:20there could have been
32:21a second ash cloud
32:22that came later.
32:23But this theory
32:24is less plausible.
32:29Either way,
32:31the plague of darkness
32:32does find support
32:33from the provocative
32:34tempest steel
32:35found at Karnak,
32:36which describes
32:37a cloud of sudden darkness
32:39that swallowed Egypt,
32:41which is consistent
32:42with the effects
32:42of a volcanic cloud.
32:46That leaves one final plague,
32:49the cruelest
32:50and by far
32:51the most difficult
32:52to explain
32:52in terms of a volcanic eruption,
32:55the death
32:56of the firstborn.
33:01The merciless
33:03and personal final plague
33:04is the one
33:05that will make
33:06Pharaoh capitulate.
33:10According to the Bible,
33:11all the firstborn
33:12of the Egyptian families
33:14are killed
33:14in a single night.
33:19Every firstborn son
33:20in Egypt will die,
33:22from the firstborn son
33:24of Pharaoh
33:24who sits on the throne,
33:26to the firstborn son
33:28of the female slave
33:29who is at her hand mill
33:31and all the firstborn
33:32of the cattle as well.
33:35For a long time,
33:36researchers have been
33:37at a loss
33:38to rationally explain this,
33:40especially given
33:41that death
33:42reportedly spread
33:43in a single night
33:44and how the plague
33:46affected only
33:46the eldest members
33:48of the family.
33:51For some,
33:52the culprit lay
33:53in the Egyptian's diet.
33:56According to this theory,
33:58the persistent humidity
33:59resulting from the explosion
34:00could have caused
34:01their grain to spoil,
34:03either by a bacterium
34:05such as ergot
34:05or more likely
34:06by a fungus.
34:29But contaminated grain
34:31doesn't explain
34:32why only the firstborn
34:34in each household
34:35was affected.
34:39The reason is societal.
34:44In ancient Egypt,
34:45it was customary
34:46for elders
34:47to be the first
34:48to eat at mealtimes.
34:51So, it's plausible
34:52that they're
34:53the main victims.
34:54The first to eat,
34:56so, the first
34:57to be poisoned.
35:00We shouldn't necessarily
35:02take this literally.
35:03Trauma and memory
35:04can alter historical fact
35:06as it's passed down
35:06through communities.
35:09Poisoning may not
35:09have killed
35:10all of the firstborn,
35:11but it's the most horrific
35:12and shocking version
35:13of what could have happened.
35:15And those versions
35:16tend to take
35:17the firmest hold
35:18of our collective imagination.
35:21Whatever theory we follow,
35:23the result is the same.
35:24The last plague of Egypt
35:26could also have
35:27an explanation grounded
35:28in the historical reality,
35:29however many steps removed,
35:31of the Thera eruption.
35:37History can be
35:38a slippery thing,
35:39with dates in particular
35:40being a constant source
35:42of speculation.
35:43Scholars all agree
35:45that the volcano
35:45on Thera erupted
35:47cataclysmically,
35:48but they can't agree
35:49on exactly when.
35:52In 2002,
35:54a team of geologists
35:55led by Dane Walter Friedrich,
35:56made an extraordinary find.
36:00An olive branch
36:01perfectly preserved
36:02under ash
36:03at the eruption site.
36:09An olive branch
36:10usually symbolizes peace,
36:12but this one
36:13stirred up controversy.
36:18Scientists used
36:19two techniques
36:20to date the sample.
36:24Carbon-14
36:25is a radioactive element
36:27present in all living organisms.
36:29Once the organism dies,
36:31its carbon-14 content
36:33decreases at a regular rate.
36:35Scientists can use it
36:37as a chronometer
36:37to estimate the age
36:39of once-living objects,
36:40such as wood or bone.
36:42The other technique
36:44is slightly more recent
36:45and increasingly popular.
36:47Dendrochronology,
36:48or the study
36:49of tree rings.
36:55Trees grow
36:56in a seasonal cycle.
36:58In spring,
37:00they produce a lot of wood.
37:01Then growth slows down
37:02in summer
37:03before coming to a complete halt
37:05in autumn and winter.
37:07This annual cycle
37:08creates rings
37:09in the trunk,
37:10which can be seen
37:11when the tree is cut.
37:13Counting these rings
37:14allows to determine
37:15the age of the tree,
37:17but also to see
37:18the climatic conditions
37:19of a particular year.
37:21The rings will be narrower,
37:23for example,
37:24if the tree
37:24has experienced
37:25a drought
37:26or a very cold spell.
37:34So this method
37:35was employed
37:36for the Thera eruption
37:37since it still works
37:38for trees
37:39over 5,000 years old.
37:42The data suggested
37:44that the eruption
37:44would have taken place
37:45between 1681
37:47and 1542 BCE,
37:51except that this date,
37:53rather than creating consensus,
37:55threw gasoline on the fire.
37:59The first reason
38:00is that this date
38:01contradicts the findings
38:02of archaeologists,
38:04who through the study
38:05of ceramics on site,
38:06determined that the eruption
38:08occurred several decades earlier,
38:10between 1570
38:11to 1544 BCE.
38:15Several researchers
38:16found the dating
38:17of the olive branch
38:18problematic.
38:23Dendrochronology
38:24is most effective
38:25with oaks,
38:26furs,
38:26or pines.
38:27With olive trees,
38:29it's more complicated,
38:30because their tree rings
38:31are much harder to read
38:33due to the arid climate.
38:35Unfortunately,
38:37carbon-14 dating
38:37can also be affected
38:39by atmospheric
38:39and other factors.
38:43A new twist
38:44came in 2018
38:45when an international team
38:47of researchers
38:48led by Charlotte Pearson
38:49believed they had developed
38:51a new method
38:52for reducing inaccuracies
38:53when reading tree rings.
38:55This time,
38:56they studied the growth rings
38:58of bristlecone pines,
39:00North American trees
39:01that can live as long
39:02as 5,000 years,
39:04as well as the rings
39:05of very old Irish oaks.
39:08Both these tree species
39:09grow thousands of kilometers
39:11from Santorini.
39:15Unlike the olive branch
39:17found at Santorini,
39:19dendocrinologists
39:19considered these pine
39:21and oak species
39:22reliable.
39:23By proving
39:24that they had cooled
39:25at around the estimated
39:26time of the Thera eruption,
39:28scientists could propose
39:29a more accurate date.
39:32The pines and oaks study
39:34did, in fact,
39:35show signs
39:35of experiencing
39:36cooler seasons
39:37in the form
39:38of narrower rings.
39:40That observation
39:41helped provide
39:41a more accurate estimate
39:43of the date
39:44of Santorini's eruption.
39:45It would have occurred
39:46between 1600
39:47and 1525 BCE,
39:50a period overlapping
39:52the 1570 to 1500 BCE dates
39:55estimated from the ceramics.
39:57Above all,
39:58these dates could coincide
40:00with the reign
40:01of King Amos,
40:02the pharaoh
40:03who witnessed
40:03the raging storm
40:04described in the tempest steel.
40:07Still,
40:07not everyone agrees.
40:11It's worth remembering
40:12that the Hebrew Bible,
40:13also known by Christians
40:15as the Old Testament,
40:16is said to have been written
40:18around the 7th century BCE,
40:20at least nine centuries
40:22after the presumed date
40:24of the eruption
40:24of the Thera volcano,
40:26and probably by several authors.
40:31When you're a historian,
40:33you have to be very careful
40:35when you work on the Bible.
40:37Of course,
40:38you know that
40:39some stories
40:39which are mentioned
40:40have at least
40:41a part of the historical
40:42but others
40:43relate to a form
40:44of mythes,
40:45of symbolics,
40:46like the parables,
40:47for example.
40:51by mastering the natural elements,
40:54Yahweh strips the Egyptian deities
40:56of their power.
40:58One by one,
41:00he discredits them
41:01by demonstrating their weakness
41:03in the face of the plagues.
41:06And by demonstrating
41:08his superiority,
41:10he's legitimizing those
41:11who choose to follow him.
41:15And the story of Moses
41:17certainly succeeded
41:19in that task.
41:22He is featured
41:24in the texts of Judaism,
41:25but also in the later texts
41:27of Christianity and Islam,
41:29all of which have inspired
41:31millions of people
41:32around the world.
41:38A sequence of natural events
41:40triggered by a natural disaster
41:42or a metaphorical tale
41:44that has captivated
41:45our imaginations
41:46and inspired
41:47three world religions?
41:49It's up to each of us
41:51to decide
41:51according to our own beliefs.
41:53But the mystery
41:54remains unresolved.
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