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00:02A strange tomb is uncovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
00:07But while excavating below the temple, a wooden coffin was discovered, largely intact.
00:13But the most arresting aspect of the mummy was its face.
00:17It was open-mouthed as if screaming.
00:21So who was this person and what happened to her?
00:24A team of archaeologists is studying aerial footage in Iraq when they make a surprising discovery.
00:30The images showed evidence of the subsurface remains of a huge complex that had gone undiscovered up until that point.
00:37But what was this place?
00:38In the vast desert of New Mexico, researchers unearthed an ancient roadway.
00:43But this was no modern road.
00:45Its origins went back roughly a thousand years.
00:49It was assumed the road was somehow connected to the Pueblo's settlements.
00:53But its exact purpose and function was a mystery.
00:59Ancient lost cities.
01:03Forgotten treasures.
01:05Mysterious structures.
01:07As new technology uncovers remarkable tales hidden beneath the deserts of the world.
01:14The secrets in the sand will finally be revealed.
01:29East of Egypt's Nile River, the city of Luxor spreads across a dry flood plain for 150 square miles.
01:37Like most of Egypt, Luxor has a hot desert climate, making it clear and sunny pretty much every day.
01:46It's so dry that a year can pass without a single drop of rain.
01:50And yes, the Nile does provide water for agriculture, but the surrounding geography is as dry as a bone.
01:56We've got desert landscapes, rolling sand dunes, rocky plateaus and mountains.
02:02Today, the city is a thriving center of commerce and industry.
02:08But Luxor is best known as the former city of Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt during the Middle and New
02:16Kingdom eras.
02:17Thebes first rose to prominence in the fourth century BCE after the Peloponnesian War, when it became a major military
02:25force.
02:26And it remained a powerful capital for most of the following 500 years.
02:32Many of the ancient monuments and temples can still be seen dotting the urban landscape of Luxor.
02:38On the west bank is the Theban necropolis, featuring the Valley of the Kings, an ancient burial ground for Egyptian
02:45pharaohs, noblemen and their families from the 18th to the 20th dynasty.
02:50A team of archaeologists is excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings when they make a surprising discovery.
02:57There's a long row of connected mortuary temples in a valley called Deir el-Bahri.
03:03That's an Arabic name for a monastery.
03:05Below the temples is a series of individual tombs, including one temple for the site's architect, Senenmut, along with his
03:13parents.
03:14But while excavating below the temple, a wooden coffin was discovered, largely intact.
03:20The coffin was opened to reveal a mummy, also intact, of an adult female.
03:28It was laying on its back with extended legs, and both arms were angled inward, so the hands were covering
03:35the pelvic area.
03:37But the most arresting aspect of the mummy was its face.
03:41It was open-mouthed as if screaming.
03:45So who was this person, and what happened to her?
03:49The mummy was just over five feet in length from heel to crown.
03:53Its reddish-brown skin was hard and thick and intact.
03:56Its fingernails and toenails were also all accounted for.
04:00And while some of the mummy's teeth were missing, those present were large, white, and strong.
04:06Aside from the open-mouthed scream position, the other notable feature was a large, thick wig braided right into the
04:14mummy's sparse hair on either side of the skull.
04:17The wig was composed of dark human hair falling to the shoulders, as opposed to being bound, as was the
04:23tradition.
04:24So is it possible the mummy's wig could be a clue to her identity and her fate?
04:30The use of wigs and hair extensions is an illustration of the Egyptians' desire to attain physical beauty through lavish
04:37accessories.
04:39Wigs and extensions were frequently used in Egyptian funerary rites, along with other symbols of wealth and power, like precious
04:46amulets and jewelry.
04:48But those were all also worn by living Egyptians, men and women, for the same reasons, to indicate their socioeconomic
04:57status.
04:58Egyptians crafted the wigs from human hair and supplemented them with plant or flax fibers.
05:05It's believed that dark or black hair was preferred as it represented youthful beauty.
05:12And while a lot of effort went into the aesthetics such as styling with curls and braids,
05:18the wigs were also practical as they protected shaven scalps from the sun and maintained hygiene by reducing lice.
05:25A close examination of the screaming woman's wig leads to a critical connection.
05:31The mummy's wig was cleaved in two halves down the center, much like a middle part of natural hair.
05:38And the braids were tapered slightly at each end.
05:40It was an arrangement that was very similar to that of another female mummy buried nearby.
05:46The mother of the tomb's designer and builder, Senen Mut.
05:51Senen Mut is best known today for being the architect of the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut,
05:56a female pharaoh who ruled for more than 20 years starting in 1479 BCE.
06:02Her temple was a stunning example of ancient Egyptian design, with three levels of terraces all connected by ramps.
06:11As chief architect, Senen Mut would have had high status in Hatshepsut's court.
06:18And with that, he was entitled to such privileges as securing a burial spot for his parents among the royals
06:27and other elites.
06:29However, while Senen Mut's own tomb was to be built under Queen Hatshepsut's courtyard, along with his parents, it was
06:38never completed.
06:39Even more mysterious is the fate of Senen Mut himself.
06:43He left public life abruptly, and we still don't know why.
06:46And his remains were never interred in his elaborate but unfinished tomb.
06:51With so many open questions surrounding Senen Mut, we can't conclude with any degree of certainty that the screaming woman
06:59was a relative of the architect.
07:01Professor Sahar Saleem, whose forensic and historical analysis of the screaming mummy, revealed another clue.
07:07All of the vital organs, including the brain of the screaming woman, were still intact, and there was a complete
07:13absence of incisions to the body.
07:15This was inconsistent with the traditional Egyptian embalming process for high-status individuals, in which the body's viscera was removed
07:23before burial.
07:24It's possible that the people doing the embalming did a sloppy job.
07:28Maybe they were rushed. Maybe they just didn't know what they were doing. They were incompetent. I don't know.
07:33That feels unlikely to me. I think a better explanation is that the mummy, the screaming woman, just wasn't a
07:39member of the royal family or the elite class at all.
07:41That idea is supported by the fact that, aside from two scarab rings on her left hand, there were practically
07:48no jewels or ornaments or grave goods on the mummy or surrounding the coffin.
07:55Also, her recumbent body position, where both arms were inclined toward her groin, was inconsistent with other elite women's burials
08:03in the New Kingdom.
08:04Female members of the royal family were typically buried with the left arm flexed across the chest and the right
08:10arm to the side.
08:11So, is it possible that the screaming woman was some kind of outlier? A commoner buried among the elite of
08:18Egypt?
08:27A team of archaeologists is excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings when they make a surprising discovery.
08:34The screaming woman.
08:36The Egyptians believe that it was critical to preserve the bodies of their pharaohs and kings in order to ensure
08:42their safe passage into the afterlife.
08:44This involved removing vital organs, but also dehydrating the body with salt and then covering the dried skin with a
08:52blend of natural substances, oils, fats and resins to prevent decay.
08:57Samples taken from the skin of the screaming woman revealed she'd been embalmed with juniper and frankincense resin.
09:04Not only were these costly items, but they likely had to be imported from neighboring countries.
09:09Hair fibers from the wig had been dyed red with henna, a rare dye prepared with the powdered leaves of
09:17the henna tree.
09:18Taken together, the expensive imported embalming materials plus the well-preserved condition of the screaming woman's body indicate that her
09:28burial was consistent with those of the pharaohs and elites that surrounded her.
09:33So maybe she was a member of that elite class after all.
09:38Although rare, the screaming woman isn't the only mummy in Egypt to be discovered with its mouth open wide.
09:44During the 18th dynasty, Princess Amos Meritamun became the great royal wife of her younger brother, the pharaoh Amenhotep I.
09:53As with the screaming woman, Meritamun's remains were discovered in a wooden coffin in the Deir Elbari section of the
10:00Theban necropolis.
10:02Her face also an open mouth death mask.
10:06A CT scan of Meritamun's skeleton revealed the young queen had suffered from sclerosis and arthritis.
10:12Both of which can result in bone curvatures and constrictions of the body's joints.
10:18These findings indicate she may have died of a heart attack and her body was not found before rigor mortis
10:23kicked in.
10:24And Meritamun's open mouth was likely due to the natural post-mortem muscle relaxation.
10:30So it's possible that the screaming woman's open mouth was a direct result of a serious health condition or disease.
10:37If that's the case, is that what killed her?
10:40A CT scan performed on the mummy leads to a breakthrough.
10:44The opening and closing of the mouth is controlled by a bunch of muscles around the temporal mandibular joint.
10:49Ordinarily, when those muscles relax, like when you're asleep or after you die, the mouth opens a little bit.
10:54But this extreme gait, this wide open mouth suggests that the muscles were firing.
11:00So did that happen after death from rigor mortis or is this something that happened during death?
11:05To keep the mouth closed for burial, Egyptian embalmers typically wrap the deceased mandible around the skull, keeping it shut.
11:16But the screaming woman's mouth was discovered in an unnaturally wide position as if she had been crying out in
11:24agony when she died.
11:26And there's a biological phenomenon that supports this possibility.
11:30A rare event called a cadaveric spasm, which causes muscles to freeze in the position the person was in at
11:37the time of death.
11:38Not unlike rigor mortis.
11:39Cadaveric spasms are usually associated with brutal violent deaths under extreme physical conditions and emotions.
11:48So while the exact cause of death can't be determined for the screaming woman nor for her identity, the expression
11:55on her face certainly aligns with intense suffering and pain.
11:59The screaming mummy remains a fascinating curiosity and its discovery offers a true time capsule for just one of the
12:07human mysteries of ancient Egypt waiting to be solved.
12:25Roughly 185 miles southeast of Baghdad lies Talo, Iraq, a city in the Dakar government.
12:32The region is known as the cradle of civilization because it was home to the Sumerians, the oldest known culture
12:38in Mesopotamia.
12:39They were responsible for a host of human advancements, including the development of cuneiform, one of the earliest known writing
12:46systems that involved engraving pictograms and symbols into clay with a reed stylus.
12:51The Sumerians were also pioneers in math, science, architecture and societal organizations, all of which helped to build the foundations
12:59for future civilizations.
13:02Archaeological evidence tells us that the Sumerians built about a dozen city states in the fourth millennium BCE.
13:08These urban centers are the first known cities in world history.
13:13One of them, known as Girsu, stood where the modern city of Talo in Iraq is located today.
13:19At its peak, around 2500 BCE, Girsu was the heart of the Lagash city-state.
13:25The walled city covered an area around 600 acres and some estimates put the population at between 15,000 and
13:3220,000 people.
13:35Girsu was first discovered in 1877 by a French archaeologist and it was extensively excavated over the next 56 years.
13:44But political instability and armed conflict in the area put a halt to any further exploration in the 1930s and
13:52Girsu was largely forgotten about, but not by everyone.
13:56A team comprised of British and Iraqi archaeologists are analyzing drone footage of Girsu when they notice something unexpected.
14:05The images showed evidence of the subsurface remains of a huge complex that had gone undiscovered up until that point.
14:12So what was this place?
14:15Uniform tablets discovered by the French excavations claim that Girsu was considered a sacred city because it was said to
14:23be home to the sanctuary of Ninjirsu,
14:25the Sumerian god of war, who was revered because he was believed to battle mythical beasts, which ensured the spring
14:33rains would come and provide water for the irrigation-based agricultural systems of the region.
14:39But the French teams were never able to locate this legendary temple dedicated to Ninjirsu, leaving some doubt as to
14:47whether or not it even existed.
14:49So was it possible that the complex detected by the drone images is this elusive structure?
15:01In 2020, archaeologists investigating an area of Girsu known as Yuruku, which means the sacred city, unearthed evidence of ceremonial
15:11practices dedicated to Ninjirsu.
15:15It was a huge find. Over 300 broken ceremonial ceramic cups, bowls, jars, spouted vessels, and many animal bones.
15:24One of the artifacts found was a fragment of a vase with an inscription dedicated to Ninjirsu.
15:30The items were in or near a ritual pit, known as a favisa, that was around 8 feet deep.
15:37The vessels found were probably used in a ceremonial banquet before being ritually thrown into the pit, while the bones
15:45were likely the remains of animals that were either eaten or killed during sacrifices.
15:50The area also had a thick layer of ash, believed to be the remnants of large ritual fires.
15:57The ceremonial ceramics, the evidence of fire, and a favisa indicate that this is where religious gatherings took place, and
16:06where the people of Girsu gathered to feast and pay respects to their gods.
16:10In 2024, researchers discovered a cuneiform tablet from the 15th century BCE at the Alalakh archaeological site in Rehanli, a
16:20southern Turkish city near the border with Syria.
16:24At the time the tablet was inscribed, Alalakh was the capital of the kingdom of Mukesh and the largest city
16:30in the region.
16:31It was occupied by the Amorites, a culture from western Mesopotamia.
16:37The tablet itself is tiny, measuring only 1.6 by 0.6 inches, and weighing just 28 grams.
16:45It's written in Akkadian, one of the oldest known Semitic languages, and it's one that's no longer spoken anywhere in
16:52the world.
16:52Akkadian's cuneiform script was made up of around 600 signs, some of which represented full words, while some were just
17:01single syllables.
17:03When they translated the tablet, it was discovered that it details the purchase of chairs, tables, and stools by an
17:11unknown buyer, basically an ancient receipt or bill of sale for furniture.
17:16While it may seem like kind of a mundane item, it actually offers insights into the economic systems of the
17:23region during the late Bronze Age.
17:26So maybe the tablets discovered at Yersu tell a similar story, and the complex isn't a temple, but rather a
17:33marketplace for business transactions.
17:36Sure enough, they unearthed the mud brick walls that make up the mystery complex, and the scope of it is
17:42staggering.
17:43This was no simple structure. There are what looks to be the remains of different buildings and multiple rooms and
17:50chambers.
17:51But that still doesn't tell us exactly what it was and what purpose it served.
17:56The cuneiform tablets are analyzed in the hopes that they will provide some answers, and the researchers are stunned by
18:03the results.
18:03The tablets are essentially the government's administrative archives of Yersu from when the city was under the control of the
18:11Akkad dynasty from 2300 to 2150 BCE.
18:15This is an incredible find. It's the oldest physical evidence of the first empire in recorded history.
18:22Gersu was one of the Sumerian cities conquered by the Mesopotamian king Sargon around 2300 BCE.
18:31Sargon developed a new form of government by vanquishing all the Sumerian settlements and creating what many call the first
18:39empire in the world.
18:40Until the discovery of the tablets, information on this empire was scarce.
18:46Only documented records were fragments of royal inscriptions or copies of unreliable Akkadian inscriptions recorded much later.
18:55The tablets could be called the spreadsheets of the empire.
18:59And they reveal a complicated bureaucracy.
19:02Deliveries and expenditures on everything from textiles and precious stones, to fish and domesticated animals, to flour and barley.
19:11Some of the tablets even have maps of canals, architectural layouts of buildings, and other plans.
19:16Believed to have been built around 4,500 years ago, the lord palace of the kings was the centerpiece of
19:24the grand city of Gersu.
19:26But it had been lost for centuries.
19:28The palace complex would have been a central part of Sumerian city life, with the king and his court residing
19:34there.
19:35It was also an administrative center, a hub for governing the city and its surrounding territories.
19:41Incredibly, other excavations at Gersu finally uncovered the main temple dedicated to Ninjersu, called Inunu, also known as the Temple
19:51of the White Thunderbird.
19:53It was located near the palace complex, showing just how intertwined religious and imperial life were during the Sumerian period.
20:03Before these excavations, the existence of the palace and temple was only known because of passing references made to them.
20:10They were discovered by the early French excavation.
20:13The lord palace of the king's discovery sheds light on the history, culture and governance of the ancient Sumerian civilization.
20:20And offers valuable insight into the daily life of one of the oldest cities on the planet.
20:37The northwestern region of Arabia extends tens of thousands of miles between modern day Jordan and into the ecoregion of
20:44Iraq.
20:46This is a vast, incredibly arid ecoregion, with annual rainfall generally between just two and eight inches.
20:54There are also extreme temperature variations, with lows of just 35 degrees in winter and highs reaching up above 100
21:01degrees in summer.
21:04Plants like small shrubs and certain hardy desert flowers do actually grow here.
21:10And the animal species in the area include predators like foxes, caracals and honey badgers, as well as herds of
21:18ibexes and antelopes.
21:21These animals graze alongside domesticated herds of cattle, sheep and goats, who belong to the nomadic pastoralists who lived throughout
21:30the desert.
21:31In fact, despite the inhospitable climate, the region has a rich history of human presence, dating back thousands of years.
21:39In Saudi Arabia, a team working at the Al-Natar archaeological site noticed an unusual structure rising out of the
21:47desert landscape.
21:48The outer reaches of the site are marked by the remains of an enormous wall.
21:54In some places, there are only a few piles of brick to tell us where it stood, and other parts
21:59are covered in piles of rubble.
22:02Still, based on the existing evidence, it's estimated to have once been over nine miles long.
22:08The southern reaches of the site show us how formidable this wall really was.
22:12Here, the ruins are up to 19 feet thick, and two large towers were added.
22:17A fortification this huge, with defensive features like these, was likely built for protection.
22:23The question is, from what?
22:33Excavations in the central area of the Al-Natar site yield another discovery that raises more questions.
22:40There's a group of tall circular towers with high stepped walls.
22:44The overall look of these monuments is somewhat reminiscent of the monumental stepped tombs found in ancient Egypt.
22:51When the team entered the towers, they discovered that they contained burial chambers, just like the pyramids.
22:58These stepped tombs have been deliberately built in groups to form an impressive ancient necropolis.
23:04A term that comes from the Greek nekros meaning dead person and polis meaning city.
23:11In both ancient Greece and later in ancient Rome, necropolises would often line the roads leading in and out of
23:18major cities, dividing the living and the dead.
23:22We can see the same trend in ancient Egypt, where huge necropolises sit along the banks of the Nile, directly
23:28across from the cities they were associated with.
23:30The Al-Natar necropolis was built during the third millennium BCE.
23:35Most Greek and Egyptian necropolises built around the same time are associated with large cities that were home to thousands
23:42of permanent residents.
23:43But things were totally different on the Arabian Peninsula.
23:48Unlike ancient Rome, Greece or Egypt, this region was dominated by nomadic pastoralists who would travel across the peninsula with
23:57herds of grazing animals.
24:00Thousands of years ago, these groups developed their own unique burial traditions, constructing elaborate funerary avenues where their dead would
24:09be laid to rest under mounds of stones called cairns.
24:12But the monumental tombs at Al-Natar aren't anything like these graves.
24:19The enormous wall and elaborate necropolis at Al-Natar aren't at all consistent with nomadic traditions.
24:27Instead, both of these features point to a sedentary population, raising the possibility that a permanent settlement once existed here.
24:36Excavations in the eastern part of Al-Natar turned up thousands of pottery shards.
24:41Most of them were from simple bowls and chars, some of which were once used to store food.
24:46There were grinding stones too, all of which would have been crucial for cooking during the Bronze Age.
24:51The pottery was associated with the remains of ancient buildings.
24:56Up to 70 of them once stood here, lining narrow streets that would have measured only six feet across.
25:03The amount of domestic kitchenware found tells us that these buildings were likely homes that made up a residential quarter.
25:10The existence of this extraordinary walled settlement tells us that there were two competing ways of life being established here.
25:19A nomadic culture that traveled through the desert.
25:22And a sedentary population that decided to lay down permanent roots.
25:27History is filled with examples of clashes between sedentary and nomadic peoples.
25:32Like during the Ming Dynasty, when the Great Wall of China was massively expanded to keep northern steppe nomads from
25:39moving south.
25:40Based on the level of fortification at Al-Natar, it could be that the town also came into conflict with
25:46the surrounding nomads.
25:48But what could have caused these tensions between the nomadic and the settled way of life in the first place?
25:54A look back at ancient climate patterns may shed light on the origins of these extraordinary settlements.
26:00Humans have inhabited the Arabian desert for thousands of years.
26:04For a long time, the climate was relatively mild, and savannah-like grasslands spread over huge areas.
26:10But roughly 6,000 years ago, things changed dramatically.
26:15Around 4000 BCE, a phenomenon known as rapid climate change caused a massive decrease in precipitation across the peninsula.
26:25The environment transformed and left humans to figure out how best to adapt.
26:29Many continued to live nomadically, but over time, others chose to settle.
26:35During the Bronze Age, this region would have been greener than other areas of the desert,
26:41and would have seemed a natural place to build a permanent town.
26:45And it wasn't alone.
26:49Across northwestern Arabia, several other oases reveal intriguing similarities to the settlement at Al-Natar.
26:57Kuraya is a huge archaeological site, stretching over 750 acres.
27:03The area is marked by a massive brick wall, which once surrounded the entire oasis.
27:08Over time, a residential area also grew here, just like the one at Al-Natar.
27:15During the Bronze and Iron Ages, these settlements appeared around oases across northwestern Arabia.
27:22Many of them were designed similarly, with internal ramparts dividing the various sections of the town,
27:27which were big enough to accommodate hundreds of permanent residents.
27:31The people who lived inside these walled oases built wells and intricate channels to collect surface water.
27:37They used the water to grow crops, orchards and olive trees, as well as to support local craft production.
27:43These fortified towns flourished in large part due to their strategic location.
27:48Each town functioned as one node in an entire network, right at the intersection of the major powers of Egypt,
27:56the Levant and southern Arabia.
27:58A comparison of the walled oases to other Bronze Age settlements shows an intriguing trend.
28:05The oases settlements are thought to have supported a population of a few hundred people, which makes them much smaller
28:12than some of the cities growing around the same time.
28:15Like the Egyptian capital, Memphis, which would have been home to thousands of residents.
28:21Despite being relatively small compared to major cities, these settlements represent a huge shift in the history of the Arabian
28:28Peninsula.
28:28When slow urbanism radically changed the desert landscape over the course of hundreds of years.
28:35The settlement at Al-Nata seems to have persisted for roughly a millennium before the town was more or less
28:40abandoned.
28:41The reason why is still a mystery.
28:45Today, Al-Nata provides us with an invaluable glimpse into the past.
28:50Where these extraordinary walled oases formed a bridge between the region's nomadic past and its increasingly urban future.
29:09Nestled in a remote corner of northwestern New Mexico, the Chaco Canyon carves its way through 10 miles of ancient
29:17sandstone.
29:18With an elevation of 6,200 feet, during the summer, Chaco Canyon is a sun-scorched desert with temperatures frequently
29:28reaching the mid-90s Fahrenheit.
29:32The winters are long and can get bitterly cold.
29:35And on top of that, the canyon only gets about 2 to 5 inches of rain per month.
29:40Despite the harsh conditions, there's evidence of human activity in the area going back as early as 2900 BCE.
29:48These groups were largely nomadic until around 200 AD, when the first farmers settled and built small pit houses.
29:57Then, around 850 CE, the Pueblo peoples began to build permanent homes and ceremonial structures in the area.
30:05And that changed the entire landscape.
30:08The Pueblo, who were the native ancestors of the Hopi and Akoma of today, among others, constructed massive stone and
30:15mortar buildings called Great Houses, which stored to 4 or 5 stories and contained hundreds of rooms.
30:22Construction on the Great Houses continued for 300 years, until about 1150, when the area was abruptly abandoned.
30:29Today, the Chaco Canyon is one of the most researched sites of the ancient Americas.
30:34The whole area is rich with cultural artifacts from early Pueblo settlers, and the walls of the canyon itself are
30:41embedded with fossils going back thousands of years before that.
30:4650 miles south of the canyon, a New Mexico gas company is collecting data for a future pipeline, working in
30:54tandem with a team of archaeologists, when they make an unusual discovery.
31:0650 miles south of the Chaco Canyon, a New Mexico gas company is collecting data for a future pipeline, working
31:13in tandem with a team of archaeologists, when they make an unusual discovery.
31:19They identified a long segment of road extending from southeast to northwest in a perfectly straight line.
31:27The road was excavated directly into the sandstone bedrock for roughly 250 feet, at which point it entered the valley
31:36flats below, where all visible traces of it disappeared.
31:40But this was no modern road. Its origins went back roughly a thousand years.
31:48Based on a nearby archaeological site featuring several Pueblo communities to the southeast,
31:53it was assumed the road was somehow connected to the Pueblo settlements.
31:58But its exact purpose and function was a mystery.
32:03Given that the great houses required large amounts of heavy raw materials to build them,
32:07is it possible the ancient road was a former transport route for the construction of Pueblo settlements?
32:12The design principle behind the great houses was a unique blend of form and function.
32:18They were geometric constructions made with careful craftsmanship, with walls of stone and adobe plaster covered with timber roofs.
32:28Now, those wooden roofs are long gone now, but the walls have done surprisingly well through the passage of time.
32:34The houses were feats of brilliant engineering, often including water collection systems, storage units and sight lines that allowed for
32:44rapid communication.
32:47Entrances were generally south or southeast facing, which provided shade from the summer sun and warmth from the winter sun.
32:55At the center of most complexes, there was an open plaza, which was believed to serve as a gathering space
33:02for communal and religious purposes.
33:05One of the best known great houses was also the largest, located at the Pueblo Benito site, also within the
33:14Chaco Canyon.
33:14It was built in stages between 850 and 1150 CE, with stone wall materials that had to be transported from
33:24off site,
33:25and timber that came from a wooded area of ponderosa pines surrounding the settlement.
33:31In addition to the building foundations, archaeologists at Pueblo Benito found traces of Mexican cacao and pottery shards,
33:38imported from Central America over 1,200 miles away, likely intended as offerings for rituals and ceremonies.
33:46So it's possible the newly discovered road was used both as a pathway for building materials and as a trade
33:52route.
33:53But further examination of the ancient road presents a bigger puzzle.
33:57It was lined on the north side by a raised strip of land called a berm, created from fist-sized
34:03clumps of sandstone and earth.
34:05It was determined that the digging of the road into the sandstone, along with the creation of the elevated berms,
34:11would have required over 6,600 cubic feet of bedrock to be removed.
34:18This would have demanded a massive amount of labor, which indicated the road's importance.
34:24But the most baffling aspect of the road was its width.
34:28At over 20 feet across, it exceeded all practical necessity for a society with no-wheeled vehicles and no-packed
34:38animals.
34:39Put simply, this road was much bigger than it needed to be,
34:43especially if its only purpose was the transportation of goods.
34:47So, is it possible it served another purpose?
34:51A deeper dive into the spiritual traditions of the Pueblo peoples reveals a compelling explanation.
34:58Pueblo Native Americans practiced the Kachina religion,
35:01a belief system that featured hundreds of divine beings,
35:04acting as intermediaries between the human world, the gods, and the celestial world of astronomy.
35:12The religion was also at the center of civic life, as Pueblo villages were governed by Kachina religious councils.
35:19Spiritual practices didn't just impact daily life.
35:22Many Pueblo buildings and structures are believed to have been built with archaeoastronomy in mind,
35:29which means they were built specifically to align with solar and lunar cycles.
35:33Entire villages were specifically planned with consideration of celestial alignments like the sun's path during a solstice or during an
35:43equinox.
35:44One of the most famous examples is the Sun Dagger,
35:48a Chaco Canyon discovery that was originally created to focus the sunlight onto an elaborate rock carving.
35:55Three large stone slabs were set against the cliff to channel the sun's rays onto two spiral petroglyphs,
36:04marking the solstices, equinoxes, and the lunar standstills of the 18.6-year cycle of the moon.
36:15It's believed these events formed the basis of important Pueblo rituals and ceremonies.
36:21Is it possible the ancient road was created for a similar celestial purpose?
36:34A survey of the surrounding area leads to a critical clue into the spiritual traditions of the Pueblo peoples.
36:41A large crescent-shaped wall of stacked stone was discovered on a flat section of earth adjacent to the road.
36:47Measuring 35 feet east to west, and 46 feet across, south to north,
36:53the round structure was created from fist-sized chunks of sandstone, connecting directly to the ancient road.
37:00The structure was identified as an erradura, that means horseshoe, and we've seen those before.
37:06They're essentially roadside shrines for the Pueblo, typically identified as such by their shape
37:11and by the shards of pottery and ceramics that are found in the vicinity.
37:16These are artifacts widely interpreted as offerings to the gods.
37:21The discovery of the erradura roadside shrine definitely suggested the road was connected to some kind of ritual,
37:29and that the landscape itself played an integral role in that ritual.
37:34However, up to that point, all the research was based on data collected at ground level,
37:39so any available evidence was limited to the road's physical properties and dimensions,
37:44what could only be seen by the naked eye.
37:47But the use of cutting-edge technology leads to a breakthrough.
37:52When the size and scale of the investigation increased to include entire landscapes,
37:56a decision was made to use an imaging process called LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging.
38:03It's a remote sensing tech that creates digital 3D models of environments
38:07by measuring the relative distance of objects to the earth with pulsing laser light.
38:13For the road south of Chaco Canyon, a filter was applied to the images that made it look like light
38:19was coming from different angles and altitudes.
38:22And what emerges from that is this 3D picture of the landscape that exaggerates anomalies,
38:28making things visible to the human eye that normally would not be.
38:32The LIDAR images deliver not one, but two surprising revelations.
38:38First, the data showed that the ancient road extended for at least another three and a half miles.
38:46It continued in a straight line, regardless of where the road led,
38:51over earthen ramps, descending into valleys, even incorporating man-made staircases cut right into the rock.
38:59Even more shocking, the LIDAR revealed the presence of a second straight road,
39:06parallel to the first one and about 115 feet directly southwest.
39:11The second road also displayed evidence of an Eridura roadside shrine,
39:16and it too was uncharacteristically wide, measuring almost 20 feet across.
39:23Initially, the two roads appeared to run perfectly parallel to each other.
39:27However, a closer look revealed they slowly came together to a point in the distance.
39:35At the near end, the wisest space between the two roads was roughly 120 feet.
39:40From that point, the road seemed to converge, measuring just 50 feet across at its most narrow.
39:46An enormous amount of effort went into the planning and building of both roads.
39:52So, given the Pueblo emphasis on sacred topography, plus the significance of celestial events in their calendar,
40:00is it possible that these two roads were pointing towards an important spiritual landmark on the horizon?
40:09A survey of the surrounding area provides the answer.
40:13From the perspective of the first Eridura Shrine, as well as various points along the second road,
40:21both roads form a clear visual trajectory towards a single landmass directly southeast, Mount Taylor.
40:31And Mount Taylor is an eminently sacred mountain among contemporary Pueblo and Diné living in northwestern New Mexico.
40:40The survey also indicated that both roads ran at an azimuth of approximately 120 degrees,
40:46and that the second road corresponded with the position of the winter solstice at the original Gasco site.
40:51As the shortest day of the year and the longest night,
40:55winter solstice marks the point at which the sun reaches the most southerly position in the sky over the course
41:02of its entire annual cycle.
41:04Suspecting the sun would rise over Mount Taylor in alignment with both roads during the winter solstice,
41:10researchers returned to the site on the morning of December 21st.
41:13As anticipated and as if on cue, the sun rose dramatically over the mountain in perfect alignment with the two
41:22road corridors
41:23when viewed from the center of the roadbed.
41:27For the Pueblo peoples, the awe-inspiring view of the sun rising over Mount Taylor
41:32likely symbolized the powerful relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds
41:38and exemplifies the role the celestial calendar played in guiding religious life.
41:45The ancient roads of the Chaco Canyon reveal the Pueblo to have been masters at imbuing urban planning
41:52with a deep connection to the sacred and a keen understanding of cosmology.
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