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00:00A bizarre skeleton is uncovered in Chile's Atacama Desert.
00:05Is this a human skeleton that's been altered somehow,
00:08or could it be a completely different species?
00:11In the Gobi Desert, researchers discover
00:13a massive structure which had been hidden for centuries.
00:17This was no ordinary wall.
00:19It was one of four ramparts surrounding
00:21the remains of a town or even a small kingdom.
00:25Archaeologists uncover a macabre scene
00:27in Peru's Mochi Valley.
00:29About 1,000 feet from the Pacific,
00:31they spotted human bones.
00:33In total, they recovered 137 complete human skeletons.
00:38Could this be an ancient burial ground?
00:41Ancient lost cities, forgotten treasures,
00:46extraordinary curiosities once lost to the sands of time
00:50are finally exposed.
00:53As new technology uncovers remarkable tales
00:57hidden beneath the deserts of the world,
00:59the secrets in the sand will finally be revealed.
01:14The Atacama Desert dominates northern Chile's landscape,
01:19extending over 600 miles from one end to the other.
01:23The Atacama is one of the driest deserts in the world.
01:26On average, they get less than an inch of rain a year,
01:29and that's partly because of an ocean current in the Pacific
01:33called the Humboldt Current.
01:35That brings up really cold water from the bottom of the ocean,
01:38and that keeps the air above it very, very dry.
01:42So any wind blowing into the desert from the ocean has no water in it.
01:48The desert is also surrounded by the Andes and the Chilean coastal range.
01:52These mountains block moisture from reaching the desert,
01:54creating a kind of death zone for any living plant or animal.
01:58The extreme environment is almost otherworldly.
02:01In fact, soil samples from the region are comparable to samples from Mars.
02:06For decades now, scientists at NASA have used the Atacama Desert
02:11as a testing ground for instruments designed to explore the red planet.
02:16In the heart of the Atacama, long abandoned buildings have created ghost towns.
02:22The people who once lived and worked here move to nearby cities for a more comfortable life.
02:29While walking the empty streets of one of these towns,
02:32an intrepid explorer makes an astonishing discovery.
02:36In one of the town's abandoned buildings, he finds an extraordinary skeleton.
02:42It's incredibly small, measuring only six inches from head to toe.
02:47The tiny skull is especially striking.
02:50It's elongated and has a distinct cone shape.
02:53And while typical human skeletons have 12 pairs of ribs,
02:57this one only has 10.
02:59It's really bizarre and certainly raises a lot of questions.
03:04Is this a human skeleton that's been altered somehow?
03:07Or could it be a completely different species?
03:09The skeleton soon enters the world of rare artifacts,
03:14eventually landing in the hands of a private collector in Spain,
03:17where it sparks intrigue and controversy.
03:21As it so happens, this collector was a UFO enthusiast.
03:24So it wasn't long before this skeleton caused a big stir in the UFO community.
03:30You had all these UFO believers claiming that this body's unique morphology
03:33only had one possible explanation.
03:36It couldn't possibly be human.
03:38It had to be an alien.
03:41Unsurprisingly, these claims attracted a lot of media attention.
03:44A team of scientists caught wind of the story and offered to sequence the skeleton's DNA
03:49to find out once and for all whether the bones belonged to a human
03:52or to some other, maybe unidentified species.
03:58The scientists began a series of tests on the Atacama skeleton,
04:02now nicknamed Ada.
04:04Their results lead to a resounding conclusion.
04:08Using skeletal radiography, computed tomography or CT, and whole genome sequencing,
04:15they prove that Ada is beyond a doubt human.
04:19They even go one step further and identify her as a female.
04:23Looking at the body, you can see that her skeleton was actually mummified.
04:28Was this done deliberately?
04:30Could a burial ritual have resulted in Ada's striking bone abnormalities?
04:35Ada's remarkable preservation may point to a link between this tiny skeleton
04:40and one of the world's oldest mummification rituals.
04:44The Atacama Desert is home to the oldest mummies in the world,
04:48like 2,000 years older than Egyptian mummies.
04:51These astonishing remains belong to the Chinchoro culture.
04:55They're the first marine hunter-gatherers that settled in this desert,
04:59and they settled between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago.
05:04The oldest Chinchoro mummy, known as the Acha Man,
05:07was found near the city of Arika and is estimated to be over 9,000 years old.
05:12Over the course of the last century,
05:14hundreds of these mummies have been uncovered along Peru's desert beaches.
05:18Some of the mummies were preserved naturally,
05:20desiccated by the extreme heat and dry conditions.
05:23But others were mummified artificially, according to a precise ritual.
05:27First, the Chinchoro would remove the skin and soft tissue from the body.
05:32The cavities left behind were then stuffed with leaves, feathers, sticks, and other natural fibers,
05:38before the skin was sewn back on with wreaths.
05:41The last step involved attaching thick black hair to the mummy's head and covering its face with a clay mask
05:48and openings for the eyes and mouth.
05:50These rituals were performed on both children and adults, which begs the question, could Ada be one of these Chinchoro
05:58mummies?
05:59Could the mummification process have altered her skeleton somehow?
06:05To date Ada's remains, the team conducting her skeletal analysis focuses on the DNA fragments.
06:12The Chinchoro mummies are thousands of years old.
06:14And over that length of time, DNA degrades.
06:17You get fragmented samples of low quality.
06:19But that's not what scientists see with Ada at all.
06:24Her DNA looks great.
06:26Ada's DNA fragments averaged around 300 base pairs, remarkably large for a specimen that might be very old.
06:33When they compared this data to established DNA decay models, they determined that Ada couldn't be more than 500 years
06:39old.
06:39So she didn't belong to the Chinchoro culture, and their mummification rituals weren't the cause of her skeletal abnormalities.
06:45So how did her bones form in this peculiar way?
06:49As genetic testing continues on the skeleton, the team analyzing Ada's DNA makes a breakthrough.
06:57They discovered a series of mutations in seven of Ada's genes.
07:02Many of these mutations are known to be associated with bone development abnormalities, including dwarfism, cranial malformations, rib anomalies, and
07:12premature joint fissures.
07:14While these gene mutations have all been documented individually before,
07:17this specific cluster has never been seen anywhere else.
07:21It's unlikely that Ada would have survived her many conditions.
07:24And we now think that she was most likely born prematurely, at only about 15 weeks old.
07:30While this unique series of mutations seems to explain why Ada looks so unusual to untrained eyes, another question remains
07:38unanswered.
07:39Where did she come from?
07:41Where did she come from?
07:41And could her environment have played a role in her unique development?
07:45In the never-ending search for clues about Ada's history, experts returned to the place where she was found, the
07:53ghost towns of the Atacama Desert.
07:56These towns were not ordinary settlements.
07:58They were mining towns.
07:59And they were established to extract one mineral in particular, saltpeter.
08:05Saltpeter, or potassium nitrate, is an essential ingredient for gunpowder and for fertilizer.
08:10And it was once so valuable, it was referred to as white gold.
08:15The Atacama Desert is the world's largest natural deposit of saltpeter.
08:19And these small mining communities thrived for decades.
08:22But life here was extremely tough.
08:24Long hours in the hot sun meant that working conditions were brutal.
08:28And the towns were entirely dependent on the saltpeter industry for survival.
08:32These towns boomed for nearly a century, so much so that saltpeter once accounted for 50% of Chile's total
08:40revenue.
08:41But in the 1930s and 40s, German chemists realized they could synthesize the compound in factories, saving time and money.
08:50Almost overnight, the mining towns of the Atacama lost their lifeline.
08:56Ada was found in the oldest of these communities, a town called Lenoria, that was founded in the 1820s and
09:03abandoned just after the Second World War.
09:05We aren't sure when Ada was born, but we do know that she's less than 500 years old.
09:11Could she have been from Lenoria, where she was found?
09:24The potential link between Ada and Lenoria leads to new intriguing possibilities.
09:30Besides its use in gunpowder and fertilizer, potassium nitrate is a common ingredient in a ton of different foods and
09:38cosmetics.
09:39In small quantities, potassium nitrate is completely safe.
09:42But too much of it can be fatal.
09:44It can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and high enough levels of exposure reduces the blood's ability to
09:49transport oxygen.
09:50This causes a bluish tinge to the skin, could cause trouble breathing, collapse, and even death.
09:58Animal studies have found that high levels of saltpeter may have devastating effects on pregnancy.
10:04Over the course of several generations, rats fed a diet high in potassium nitrate, began to develop physical malformations, including
10:13cleft palates and deformations of the skull and eyes.
10:16The people who lived in Lenoria would have been exposed to exceptionally high levels of saltpeter during the mining process,
10:23as well as in day-to-day life.
10:26So the environment Ada's parents lived in may have likely contributed to her skeletal anomalies.
10:33Despite years of research, Ada remains an enduring mystery.
10:38Now we don't fully understand whether Ada's malformations are the result of those toxins, or whether they're just random mutations.
10:45And we also don't know a lot of other very basic things about her.
10:49And the main reason for all of that is that she's held in a private collection, and she's not accessible
10:55for further study.
10:56All in all, Ada's this really special situation that has sparked a ton of controversy.
11:02Ever since she entered the spotlight, people around the world have called for Ada to be returned to Chile.
11:08Her genetic analysis suggests that she was likely of Chilean descent, which raises the very real possibility that she may
11:14have descendants still living in the country.
11:16Maybe more genetic testing can be done to find them and bring Ada home.
11:20To this day, Ada's story haunts the Atacama Desert.
11:25As calls for her repatriation continue, she remains a powerful symbol of our responsibility to honor the dead.
11:44The steps and sand dunes of the Gobi Desert stretch for a thousand miles from northern China to southern Mongolia.
11:52It gets its name from the Mongolian word for waterless place.
11:56The Gobi isn't the largest or even the driest desert in the world, but it is the Earth's most northerly
12:05desert.
12:06It's also the least populated and least visited environment outside of the polar caps, no doubt due to its harsh
12:15conditions.
12:15Extreme fluctuations in temperature make it inhospitable, and punishing sandstorms from the West can bury everything in their path.
12:27Despite this, the Gobi Desert boasts a rich human history, from the clashes of ancient Chinese dynasties and the Mongol
12:34Empire,
12:35to the Silk Road trade route that facilitated the exchange of goods, ideas and beliefs between East and West.
12:42To the outside world, the Gobi has largely remained unknown.
12:47While there have been folktales and rumors about lost cities and civilizations buried under the sand,
12:53aside from a handful of European and American explorers, most of the desert secrets have stayed with its inhabitants.
13:01A team of explorers is conducting research in western Inner Mongolia, downstream from the Aegean River,
13:08when they come across something unexpected.
13:11There was an enormous sand dune partially covering a man-made mud brick structure.
13:18As the sand was cleared away, the structure was revealed to be the corner of two large walls.
13:26After the rest of the sand was removed, they discovered the corner wall was 13 feet thick and 30 feet
13:33tall.
13:34So this was no ordinary wall.
13:36It was one of four ramparts surrounding the remains of a town or even a small kingdom.
13:42The massive walls roughly form a rectangle, 1,200 feet across north to south and almost 1,450 feet from
13:51east to west.
13:52There are two openings or gates on the east and west sides.
13:55And inside this rectangle, the crumbled remains of the town are pretty much everywhere.
14:01The buildings to the south are smaller and appear to be former dwellings, while the larger buildings to the north
14:07are more decorated and official looking.
14:11Clearly, this is some kind of settlement that had been occupied for a long time at one point in the
14:16region's long history.
14:17But when? And by whom?
14:20As a team of archaeologists proceeds with an excavation, vital clues about the city's identity are uncovered.
14:28The first structures within the city walls to be cleared were five temple-like buildings to the north.
14:36They resemble pagodas, which indicates a Chinese influence.
14:41But they're actually Tibetan Buddhist temples called stupas.
14:46But it's what was within the stupas that was truly stunning.
14:50Hundreds upon hundreds of artifacts, statues, and painted murals filled with Buddhist iconography and beautifully rendered calligraphy.
14:59Much of it was in shockingly good condition since the desert climate had prevented moisture.
15:05And most of the artifacts were buried and preserved by the sand.
15:09The researchers turned their attention to the city's south end, which leads to more surprises.
15:15Many everyday items were found like bits of broken pottery, coins, tools, and more books and religious artifacts.
15:24Many of the items were from Eurasia and further afield, which strongly suggests a once vibrant hub of busy trade
15:33and cultural exchange.
15:35Historical records have indicated the presence of a legendary lost city called Karakoto, somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
15:42But its location has never been known.
15:45So is it possible that this is Karakoto?
15:49Also known as the Black City, Karakoto was an enclosed settlement built in 1032 CE by the Tangut, a distinct
15:58ethnic group of northwestern China.
16:00Despite the harsh desert conditions, the city grew into an important mercantile trade hub and became a key stop along
16:08the Silk Road.
16:09The Silk Road was a network of trade routes that connected China to the western Mediterranean world and even beyond.
16:16It didn't only spread goods and spices, but also cultures, languages, and beliefs across continents.
16:23Karakoto became a bustling commercial and cultural epicenter because, according to records, it was strategically located, the only stop in
16:31the desert for hundreds of miles.
16:34Tradesmen making long treks across the sand for weeks would stop to do business, but also to rest and get
16:40supplies like food and water.
16:41But there's a shroud of darkness surrounding the city.
16:45After flourishing for hundreds of years, by the late 14th century, Karakoto had vanished without a trace.
17:00As the researchers begin to delve into the treasure trove of relics collected from Karakoto, they come across a significant
17:07clue.
17:09In addition to the religious artifacts, there were stacks and stacks of manuscripts, written texts, and scriptures in the temples.
17:17But they weren't just Tibetan.
17:19These manuscripts were also written in other languages, including Chinese and, most tellingly, the rare Tangut script.
17:27This definitely tracks with the year 1032, when Karakoto was said to be a Tangut stronghold of the Tibeto-Burman
17:36tribal union.
17:37Taken in total, all signs point to the conclusion that this is the mysterious dark city of Karakoto after all.
17:46But one question remains, how did such a thriving center just disappear?
17:52Karakoto wasn't the first ancient city on the Silk Road that suddenly ceased to exist.
17:58One of the most famous stops along the trade route was the walled city and kingdom of Laolan, located in
18:04western China's Xinjiang region.
18:07Laolan was referred to as an oasis state, due to its proximity to the lake waters of the Lopner.
18:13However, at some point between the third and the seventh century, the city vanished, and its whereabouts remained a mystery
18:20until the early 1900s, when a Swedish explorer discovered it below the desert sand.
18:28It was initially believed Laolan's demise was a result of climate change.
18:32As the lake waters of Lopner dried up over the years, Laolan was abandoned since the survival of the city
18:39depended on a water supply.
18:41But more recent studies have shown that the environmental crisis was partially man-made.
18:46Irrigation practices of the time also contributed to the draining of the lake.
18:51Could this have happened at Karakoto, too?
18:55Karakoto was located next to a water source, the Aegean River.
19:00And while the Aegean did eventually suffer from a reduction in water flow,
19:05there's no proof it was the cause of Karakoto's demise, with or without human intervention.
19:12A closer look at the region's history may prove it was human activity that brought Karakoto to its premature end.
19:20The human act of war.
19:24Although Karakoto was established in 1032 and continued to thrive under the rule of the Tengut-led Western Shia dynasty,
19:32the city functioned as a peaceful sanctuary for several different cultures and religions.
19:38But just to be safe, the exterior walls and ramparts were built to defend against potential invasions,
19:44which may have allowed the city to thrive where other settlements fell to enemy attack.
19:51However, Karakoto wasn't going to stay immune forever.
19:55After a series of punishing attacks from the Mongols, a nomadic tribe from Central Asia led by Genghis Khan,
20:02Karakoto was captured in 1226, and a year later, the Tenguts surrendered.
20:09If the Mongols didn't have any use for the Silk Road, then Karakoto's reason for being would have no longer
20:15existed.
20:16It's possible, as one of the rumors suggested, that the city fell into ruin shortly after the Mongols seized it.
20:24But the aftermath of the Mongol invasion tells a different story.
20:28The reality was that Karakoto not only continued to prosper after the Mongol conquest,
20:35but the Mongolian Empire was instrumental in growing the Silk Road even further.
20:40This would have resulted in more traders passing through the city.
20:43The Mongols held on for another 150 years, until the Wan Dynasty was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty,
20:51and the Mongols were expelled from China, with one exception.
20:55A large holdout army fled to Karakoto to plan a counterattack.
21:00When the Chinese learned of this, they sent thousands of soldiers,
21:04and in 1372, defeated the last Mongols within the city walls.
21:09It's just one of the many stories and possible explanations for an ancient city that continues to inspire speculation even
21:17after its discovery.
21:18While it's generally accepted that Karakoto fell into decline at some point after the Chinese reclaimed it from the Mongols,
21:26we may never know the exact reason for its disappearance.
21:30The discovery of Karakoto revealed a compelling blend of the rich cultural, political, and religious life of ancient China and
21:39Mongolia.
21:40A testament to human resilience and the transient nature of empires.
21:45The city continues to beckon explorers and historians eager to uncover more of its secrets.
22:00The Mochi Valley stretches along Peru's northern coastline, spreading out from the Mochi River into the La Libertad region.
22:09Despite the fact that it's so close to the Pacific Ocean, Peru's northern coastline is remarkably dry.
22:15That region gets almost no precipitation at all, less than one inch of rain per year.
22:23The dry climate is partly due to the Andes Mountains.
22:26As the winds blow from east to west across Peru, they carry moisture from the Amazon rainforest.
22:33The Andes act as a barrier, trapping the moisture on their eastern slopes, leaving the land to the west much
22:39drier.
22:41You might think that agriculture would be impossible in a place this arid.
22:45But actually, people have been cultivating this land since the pre-Columbian era.
22:49The Mochi people, whom this valley is named after, flourished between 100 and 700 CE by building sophisticated canals around
22:58the river.
22:58People have lived here and farmed this land ever since, relying on irrigation technology for survival.
23:06On the outskirts of Trujillo, the region's capital, at a site known as Huanchiquito Las Lamas, residents noticed strange objects
23:16protruding from nearby sand dunes.
23:18About 1,000 feet from the Pacific, they spotted what looked like human bones, still mostly buried beneath the sand.
23:25An archeological team is summoned and begins to excavate, and it isn't long before they're greeted with an unsettling scene.
23:44An archeological team is summoned and begins to excavate at a site known as Huanchiquito Las Lamas, and it isn't
23:52long before they're greeted with an unsettling scene.
23:56There are hundreds of bodies buried here. In total, they recovered 137 complete human skeletons in the sand.
24:05So, considering the sheer number of bodies, could this be an ancient burial ground?
24:10Maybe built by one of the pre-Columbian civilizations that lived here?
24:14Using radiocarbon dating techniques, the team successfully dates dozens of the Huanchiquito Las Lamas skeletons.
24:21The results showed that the bones are over 600 years old.
24:25The burials date back to the middle of the 15th century, when this land was home to the ancient Chimu
24:31civilization, the culture that rose from the ashes of the moche.
24:37The Chimu had enormous influence, ruling over 800 miles of what's today coastal Peru.
24:43Thanks to their advanced irrigation techniques, they transformed the desert valleys into farmland fertile enough to support entire cities.
24:51The Chimu capital, Chan Chan, was the largest city in pre-Columbian America, and it stood just a 15-minute
24:58walk from Huanchiquito Las Llamas.
25:00Today, the ruins of the city cover 14 square miles.
25:04For over five centuries, the Chimu kingdom was the dominant civilization in Peru, until an unexpected threat loomed.
25:14In 1470, the Chimu came face to face with the infamous Incan Empire.
25:19The Inca had controlled their own separate kingdom for more than 200 years, until King Tupac Inca Yupanqui set his
25:26sights on Chimu land.
25:27The Incan expansion was very strategic. To minimize the risk of revolution, they forcibly resettled huge populations, scattering distinct ethnic
25:38groups and absorbing their major cities.
25:41Using this system, the Incas eventually managed to increase their empire to a population of 12 million people.
25:50Given that the skeletons found at Huanchiquito Las Llamas date back to the time of the Incan expansion, maybe they
25:58could be linked to some sort of massacre.
26:00Could these people have been murdered by invading Incan armies as a brutal show of power?
26:06A violent massacre would likely have left behind a chaotic mass burial, with the bodies discarded without ceremony or dignity.
26:12These burials were anything but. The bodies had been carefully arranged, with many buried in groups of three.
26:18Traces of cotton left on the remains tell us that they were likely wrapped in shrouds before being placed in
26:23the ground.
26:25As the archaeologists carefully excavate the vast gravesite, they come to a grim realization.
26:31Looking at the remains, this one really chilling detail stands out right away.
26:36These skeletons are small. In fact, all but three of them belong to children.
26:42Most of them seem to be between the ages of about eight and 14, but some of them are as
26:47young as five.
26:49Strangely, among the children's skeletons, it was determined that the remains likely belong to roughly 200 llamas.
26:58Typically, when we find humans and animals buried together, there's a reason for it.
27:02For instance, elite burials might feature pet or livestock sacrifices designed to sustain the dead and accompany them in the
27:10afterlife.
27:11But even if that's the case here, how do you explain the fact that the vast majority of these remains
27:16are children?
27:19The research team analyzes the skeletons for any clues that might reveal just how these children died.
27:26And it leads to a disturbing discovery.
27:29A lot of the skeletons show evidence of clean cut marks across the sternum and signs of broken or missing
27:37ribs.
27:38That suggests that the rib cage was forced open to retrieve vital organs, most likely the heart.
27:45And that really only leads to one possible explanation.
27:48These are the remnants of a massive human sacrifice.
27:54A sacrifice of this scale would have come at an enormous cost to the Chimu, who prized their children's lives
28:01above all else.
28:02Not only did children represent the future of Chimu communities, but they also embodied a high level of spiritual purity.
28:10Llamas were also extremely valuable, essential for travel, trade, clothing production, and food.
28:17So what could have warranted a sacrifice of this magnitude?
28:21One theory suggests that the Chimu may have inherited the practice of human sacrifice from their moche ancestors, who lived
28:28in the area hundreds of years earlier.
28:31The moche frequently depicted these rituals in their artwork, often decorating ceramic vessels with an image known as the presentation
28:38scene.
28:40A few miles from the Chimu's sacrifices stands the Huaca de la Luna, a sacred moche monument.
28:48Archeological digs here have revealed the bodies of roughly 70 sacrifice victims.
28:53Cut marks on the skeletons indicate that the bodies were mutilated and dismembered before being swept into large pits and
29:01abandoned.
29:03Based on the bone and tooth analysis of the remains at Huaca de la Luna, it seems unlikely that the
29:09Chimu child sacrifices were connected to these moche rituals.
29:14There's one glaring difference. The moche victims were mostly fully grown men. Many of them were in their 30s and
29:2040s.
29:21So these were likely warriors who had been captured during territorial battles.
29:26New theories point away from moche culture to the Chimu's own myths and legends.
29:32The Chimu left no written records of their spiritual beliefs, but we do know that they worshipped a legendary character
29:38known as Taikanimo.
29:40According to myth, he was the founder of the Chimu people who emerged from the sea after hatching from a
29:46golden egg.
29:48Stories tell of Taikanimo protecting his people from the sea by calming storms and teaching them advanced agricultural technology.
29:54In light of this mythical story, the orientation of the sacrifice victims starts to make sense.
30:00Almost all of those children are posed facing the same direction, and that direction is west toward the sea.
30:07So could it be that these children were sacrificed in the name of Taikanimo?
30:22In an effort to learn more at Juanchiquito Las Llamas, the researchers begin to investigate the burial grounds, taking samples
30:30from the earth surrounding the skeletons.
30:32This leads to a startling revelation.
30:36The burials were dug through a layer of mud so thick that it actually preserved the footprints of the people
30:42traveling through the area.
30:44Footprints leading back to the ruins of the Chimu capital, Chan Chan, can clearly be seen.
30:49This may well be the evidence of a macabre procession, where the children would have walked to their deaths from
30:56the city.
30:59Beneath the layer of mud, there's loose sand, indicating that the mud was most likely linked to an isolated weather
31:05event.
31:05It would have required a huge amount of water, either rainwater or coastal flooding, to produce this mud.
31:12To the Chimu, who relied on dry weather and their sophisticated irrigation systems for food, this event would have had
31:19profound significance.
31:22Every few years, the northern coast of Peru is battered by a phenomenon known as El Nino.
31:26The surface waters of the Pacific become abnormally warm, leading to increased evaporation and massive amounts of rain and flooding.
31:34These sacrifices were likely performed in a desperate attempt to stop torrential rains from destroying the Chimu's precious crops.
31:41Until the discovery at Juanchiquito Las Llamas, there was little evidence that Chimu practiced human sacrifice at all.
31:48But new discoveries at the nearby Pampa La Cruz archaeological site proved that this was far from a one-time
31:56ritual.
31:57To date, they've found over 300 child sacrifices at Pampa La Cruz.
32:02But unlike the sacrifices at Las Llamas, these children weren't all killed at the same time.
32:08They were spread out over the course of several centuries, with the earliest remains dating back to 1100 CE, and
32:14the most recent dating to about 1500 CE.
32:17So all of this is really strong evidence that child sacrifices were very much a part of Chimu culture.
32:24These children undoubtedly gave their lives in order to ensure the survival of a much larger community, maybe even the
32:33entire empire.
32:35As researchers continue to dig at both the Juanchiquito Las Llamas and Pampa La Cruz sites,
32:42the remains of these child sacrifices stand as a stark reminder of a lost people's struggle for survival in one
32:49of the world's driest climates.
33:02Located on the western delta of the Nile River, just 50 miles southeast of Alexandria, the Egyptian city of Hash
33:10-Isa stands alone in the district of Al-Bihara.
33:14Al-Bihara is extremely arid and sandy, despite being so close to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the Nile
33:20River tributaries.
33:20It's also hot. In the summer, the temperatures can regularly get to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and it only receives an
33:27average of 1 16th of an inch of rainfall per month.
33:31Now today, it's mostly rural and poor, but this area has a rich history going back more than 4,000
33:38years.
33:38It's home to some of the first Coptic Christian monasteries, a royal palace, and several ancient fortresses.
33:47Not surprisingly, Bahara is also home to a number of archaeological sites.
33:51It has a long history of ancient discoveries. The most famous find was the Rosetta Stone in 1799.
33:58This was a slab that was inscribed with three different and distinct scripts.
34:03This led to the translation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing for the first time.
34:09The group of archaeologists is excavating a section of Hash-Isa when they make a surprising discovery.
34:16They were digging into a wide, flat area of sand when they unearthed what looked like the corner of a
34:24mud brick structure.
34:25As the surrounding debris was brushed away, what at first appeared to be just a couple of densely packed bricks
34:32turned out to be the foundation of a building with several rooms and chambers.
34:39So what is this place?
34:41Other mud brick structures like this one have been discovered and identified across the western Nile Delta of Bahara,
34:47including archaeological sites containing evidence of the Roman occupation of Egypt, which lasted about 700 years starting around 30 BCE.
34:58West of the Rosetta Nile tributary, a large survey project with 14 dig sites found examples of a distinctly Roman
35:06cultural practice.
35:07Two of the sites, Com Alamar and Com Wasit, were discovered to have walls of mud and red brick buried
35:14below the desert surface.
35:15When the walls were cleared and cleaned, the unmistakable form of an ancient Roman bath complex called a tholos was
35:22revealed.
35:24Smaller artifacts were also retrieved from the bath's immediate surroundings, including shards of pottery, brick fragments, and several coins with
35:34dates consistent with the Roman occupation.
35:37So maybe the structure at Hos-Isa is also from the Roman era.
35:43Further exploration of the dig site tells a different story.
35:47When they analyzed the samples taken at Hos-Isa, they figured out that this mud brick composite predates the Roman
35:53Empire by at least a thousand years.
35:56They figured out that this structure had to be between 3,000 and 3,200 years old.
36:01That corresponds to an era known as the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom.
36:07That goes from about 1290 to 1190 BCE.
36:12The 19th Dynasty was a tremendously important time in Egypt's history.
36:16It was a period of massive expansion of the empire.
36:19And this was only achieved by centuries of aggressive military conquest combined with the ability to repel attacks from enemy
36:27forces.
36:28As the excavation continues, several intriguing artifacts are uncovered within the building's many rooms and chambers.
36:37Some of the rooms had pottery containers and storage vessels filled with fish bones, animal remains, and other food provisions.
36:43There were also large granaries and pottery ovens, which had clearly been used for cooking and baking.
36:48In other rooms, they found items that were a little bit more personal.
36:51Things like beaded pendants and amulets with these intricate carvings of scarab beetles.
36:57Now, those were really popular throughout Egypt at this time.
37:02The scarab beetle was associated with the sun god Kepri, and that meant that it had protective powers for whoever
37:08wore it.
37:10Taken as a whole, the site's inventory included domestic items for cooking, jewelry, and other adornments for personal wear,
37:17as well as more practical items like tools and swords.
37:20In other words, this was an extremely wide variety of objects found within a concentrated and contained space.
37:26So could these recovered artifacts be proof of some lost or forgotten city?
37:39A group of archaeologists is excavating a section of Hashisa when they make a surprising discovery.
37:47It wouldn't be the first time a contemporary archaeological dig led to the discovery of an ancient Egyptian civilization.
37:55Close to the historic city of Thebes, known today as Luxor, a team of archaeologists were looking for the undiscovered
38:03mortuary temple of King Tut when they found something just as remarkable.
38:09They unearthed the remains of a 3,000-year-old city so sprawling it invited comparisons to Pompeii.
38:16The city was called Atain, or Dazzling Atain, after yet another Egyptian sun god.
38:21There were sections of mud brick walls that fan out in all directions.
38:27When it was finally cleared, the site revealed completed rooms filled with items from daily life, similar to the Hoshisa
38:36site.
38:37With most of the excavation work at Hoshisa completed, the layout of the emerging structure shocked the team of archaeologists.
38:47This was no city like Atain with individual buildings spread over a large area.
38:52The structure at Hoshisa appeared to be one single building.
38:56But given the sheer size and scale of its foundation, plus the number of rooms, it must have served a
39:02great civic purpose.
39:03Or could it have been some kind of grand house or palace?
39:07The layout and design of the building was unique.
39:10In fact, it was made up of two large buildings connected by a single narrow passageway.
39:17The two separate structures were identical in size and shape.
39:21But that's where the similarities ended.
39:25As the excavation continued, it was revealed to have been used as a storehouse for food and provisions.
39:30This was where the granaries and animal remains were found.
39:32But more significantly, the first building also stored a large cache of weapons.
39:37Much more than was needed for any one household.
39:40More like an army.
39:42And it was the second building that ultimately revealed its true purpose.
39:46There were rows and rows of mud brick soldiers' barracks carved out of the sand.
39:52This building was a military fort.
39:55And it was totally unlike any fort that had ever been discovered before.
40:00For one thing, the fort was a standalone structure.
40:03It wasn't connected to any other buildings or storage units or infrastructure, nothing.
40:07So why was such an isolated fortress built here?
40:12A closer look at Egypt's military history during the 19th dynasty offers some clues.
40:19Throughout the 19th dynasty, Egypt was under the constant threat of attack from two main adversaries.
40:25One of them was tribes from Libya, who first attempted to invade the Nile Delta from the west in 1208
40:32BCE.
40:32The second threat was a collective force known as the Sea Peoples, a coalition made up of tribes of the
40:41Shardana, Shakalish, Akawasha, Luka, and Tersha.
40:48Together, the Sea Peoples terrorized the northern coast of Africa for almost a century with brutal naval attacks from the
40:56Mediterranean Sea.
40:58In response, Egypt doubled down on its defense by building impenetrable forts along a line of strategic outposts.
41:05The fort at Hoshisa was built on a military route called Western War Road for the sole task of defending
41:10Egypt's northern and western border.
41:12And given its well-preserved remains, it appeared to have succeeded in that task.
41:16This fort was standalone because it contained all the necessary supplies and infrastructure within its fortress walls.
41:25The picture that emerges is a self-sufficient military complex filled with enough food and equipment to outlast any enemy.
41:34That's a brilliant strategy, and it worked.
41:36The Sea Peoples were eventually wiped out by the Egyptians.
41:41Having successfully served its purpose, the remarkable fort at Hoshisa was likely abandoned and then lost to time.
41:49Until now.
41:51As experts continue to dig into its past, more clues will likely be revealed about the lives of the soldiers
41:58who lived and fought there.
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