- 11 minutes ago
tele: https://t.me/TopFilmUSA1
#film#shows#usa#usashows#hot#filmhot
#film#shows#usa#usashows#hot#filmhot
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:01Excavations at Petra, Jordan's most historical ancient city, reveal a remarkable discovery.
00:07The plaza in front of the treasury was once a flat courtyard, but it's more than that.
00:12It's also the roof of a hidden tomb.
00:15So who were these people and why were they buried here?
00:18A cache of coins is found beneath a 17th century Scottish hunting lodge.
00:23Beneath the hearthstone slab of the fireplace, they found a pot. Inside were 36 coins.
00:30The horde fits Glencoe's plundering past.
00:33Gas workers digging trenches in Lima, Peru, uncover a pair of mysterious tombs.
00:39One contained human remains, still wrapped in a torn bundle. The other was empty.
00:44Who was the individual buried here? Why was the second chamber left empty?
00:47And what did these remains reveal about the coastal societies that flourished long before Lima became Peru's capital?
00:57Below the busy streets of the world's cities exists a hidden realm of wonder.
01:04Sprawling ancient complexes.
01:08Mysterious tombs.
01:11Top secret military bases.
01:14Strange structures.
01:16And lost artifacts.
01:19Buried beneath our feet.
01:21And long forgotten.
01:23Until now.
01:25Underground marbles are exposed to reveal what lies hidden beneath the cities.
01:41In the deserts of modern day Jordan.
01:44South of Amman.
01:47Lies Petra.
01:48A city that once served as the capital of the Nabataean kingdom.
01:53The Nabataeans began as nomads from the Negev desert.
01:57But rose to power by dominating incense routes across a vast network that stretched over 1200 miles.
02:05And connected southern Arabia, Africa and India to the Greco-Roman world.
02:10But their real wealth came from taxation.
02:15One historical account suggests they charged up to 25% on imported goods.
02:21Turning Petra into a hub of both commerce and control.
02:25The Nabataeans carved monumental cities into sandstone cliffs, including Petra, which covers over 100 square miles.
02:35Petra was annexed by Rome in 106 CE and repeated earthquakes, particularly in 363 and again in 551, severely damaged
02:43its infrastructure.
02:44As trade routes shifted, Petra's commercial importance declined.
02:47And by the early Islamic period, it was no longer a major settlement.
02:51When Western explorers arrived in the 1800s, they found a city of monuments, but little evidence of the lives once
02:57lived among them.
02:58In 2024, excavations at Petra's most iconic monument, Al Khazna, referred to as the Treasury in English, reveal a surprise.
03:09The plaza in front of the treasury was once a flat courtyard, maybe decorated with fountains, maybe a pond, but
03:16it's more than that.
03:17It's also the roof of a hidden tomb.
03:20And inside that tomb, 12 intact skeletons have been found alongside bronze, ceramic and iron artifacts.
03:27That is an extraordinary discovery for Petra because there, human remains are rarely found after centuries of looting.
03:37The tomb itself is nine feet tall and measures around 18 by 18 feet.
03:42While Petra's porous sandstone, humidity and seasonal flooding likely caused the loss of delicate materials like fabric,
03:52dating evidence of the tomb points to between the first century BCE and the first century CE, right at the
04:00height of Nebataean power.
04:03Initial indications of a subsurface chamber near the site were documented as early as 2003,
04:10and other tombs were identified a year later.
04:12But it was only recently that new surveys using ground-penetrating radar confirmed structural anomalies under the forecourt,
04:20which ultimately led to the chamber's rediscovery and excavation.
04:24So who were these people and why were they buried here?
04:27And what might this reveal about the Nabataean world?
04:30Certain burial details hint that the space may have held sacred significance.
04:35Little is known of Nabataean religion, but it appears to have been polytheistic and symbolic.
04:41A priestly class, including both men and women, oversaw rituals involving the worship of sun and sky gods.
04:47So if the treasury held spiritual meaning, could the 12 individuals buried here represent a religious order of some kind,
04:54tasked with preserving the sanctity of the site itself?
04:56The treasury's iconography blends figures like Isis Tyche, Castor, Pollux.
05:02It's got these carved obelisks which draw on Egyptian and Hellenistic and Nabataean traditions.
05:09And all that visual language suggests that this monument may have served not only as a tomb,
05:13but as a sacred or cosmological space, a place that reflected the elevated status of the people who were buried
05:22here.
05:22Across the ancient world, the number 12 carried powerful symbolic weight.
05:28It marked time, 12 hours of day, 12 hours of night, and aligned with the months, zodiac signs, and celestial
05:37cycles.
05:38Some traditions saw it as the meeting point of sacred and secular, or the sum of life and fortune.
05:45So in that context, the burial of 12 people may have been a deliberate statement.
05:52One of the skeletons was found clutching the broken top of a ceramic vessel.
05:57It had a curved silhouette, which looked a lot like the way the Holy Grail is depicted in Hollywood movies.
06:03Whether this object was a marker of status, or served in a funeral rite, or maybe symbolized a sacred offering,
06:09we just don't know.
06:10Archaeologists have described it as just a humble jug. So its exact purpose here is a mystery.
06:17Some features of the burial may indicate a decision shaped by disruption, rather than design.
06:23The skeletons include adults and children, possibly of both sexes, all found undisturbed as originally interred.
06:29So was this a rapid, improvised burial carried out in response to some unexpected, potentially catastrophic event?
06:36A lot of Nabataean tombs at Petra were built for long-term commemoration, with vivation channels and even banquet rooms.
06:43In these spaces, the living could engage with the dead through these big ceremonies involving incense and food and light.
06:50But the interior of the treasury is stark. It's this massive cube cut into the rock with three small antechambers.
06:59That simplicity might mean it functioned as an emergency burial site.
07:04Maybe it's a place that was triggered by disaster or disease or even violence.
07:10The treasury likely dates to a time of rapid expansion and encroaching Roman pressure.
07:16While no direct evidence of internal conflict or mass killings have been reported,
07:22the fact that the tomb was so concealed that it avoided centuries of looting raises the possibility that these individuals
07:30were meant to be concealed instead of commemorated.
07:34Other excavations at Northridge have revealed signs of seismic damage, like collapsed masonry.
07:40And all that is likely linked to a huge earthquake that we know happened here in the year 363.
07:47Now there's no direct evidence of a major earthquake during the treasury's construction,
07:51but a similar structural failure nearby could have caused sudden death,
07:56which would have prompted that chamber's use as a burial site.
07:59But not all the evidence supports a crisis scenario.
08:04Research suggests that Pitra's population was relatively healthy.
08:08The skeletons so far show no clear signs of illness or trauma.
08:13And the treasury itself has long been considered part of Pitra's funerary landscape.
08:18Evidence of other voids in the treasury suggests that there may be other unexcavated tombs nearby,
08:25raising the possibility that this wasn't an improvised burial at all.
08:31The strongest evidence of the identities of the interred may lie in the sheer scale of the monument itself.
08:38The Nabataeans placed immense cultural value on protecting and commemorating the dead.
08:45At Pitra, over a thousand tombs are carved into the landscape.
08:49Around 600 of them are marked by monumental facades that publicly signal the identity and stature of those buried within.
08:57In a society where visibility signaled prestige,
09:00could a discovery like this be the final resting place of an elite or even royal family?
09:07Many believe the treasury was likely constructed as a royal mausoleum or crypt during the reign of Aretas IV Philopatris,
09:14who ruled the Nabataean kingdom from around 9 BCE to 40 CE,
09:18a time when monumental construction reinforced dynastic power and political order.
09:23So it is possible the 12 individuals buried here were part of that lineage.
09:28Roughly 300 miles south of Pitra, in Saudi Arabia,
09:31another Nabataean site shows how status was signaled through scale and design.
09:37At what is now the Hegra archaeological site,
09:40the Nabataeans carved 111 monumental tombs into sandstone cliffs,
09:4494 of those with elaborate facades.
09:48Many also included built-in wells,
09:50showing a deliberate blend of hydraulic planning and architectural display.
09:54So these tombs function not only as burial places, but as permanent markers of elite status,
10:02by projecting identity and wealth and prestige out into the desert terrain.
10:07I mean, these are just amazing.
10:10More than 50 tombs at Hegra bear inscriptions,
10:14some protective, some dedicatory.
10:16At Petra, those kinds of inscriptions are less common.
10:19Some say that this may reflect the city's role at the center of Nabataean power,
10:24where proximity to authority may have offered protection that didn't need to be carved in stone.
10:30The tomb beneath the treasury seems to fit that pattern.
10:33No inscriptions and no surviving record of who was buried there.
10:37The treasury is among the most commanding monuments in Petra,
10:40which makes it reasonable to assume the individuals buried beneath it were of considerable status.
10:44But the elements seem to have consumed any fragile clues that the Nabataeans may have left as to their identity.
10:51Whether this was a sacred collective, victims of a crisis, or something we don't yet fully understand,
10:57the findings raised even more questions about the site itself,
11:00and what exactly Nabataean burials entailed.
11:03The Nabataeans left behind few written records, and much of Petra remains unexcavated.
11:08Major questions remain about how people lived, what they believed, and what secrets still lie buried in the sand and
11:17stone.
11:28Just over 60 miles northwest of Glasgow, in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, lies Glencoe,
11:35a steep-sided valley with towering peaks and a rich ancient history.
11:40The clan system is central to Scottish heritage and rooted in the Highlands.
11:45A clan is a kinship community formed around a shared surname and ancestry.
11:51The word comes from the Gaelic term clan, meaning children or offspring, evoking the idea of family,
11:57not only through blood, but through shared history, culture, and identity.
12:02At its head stood the chief, regarded as the head of the wider family, with members looking to him for
12:08support and protection.
12:09For nearly 400 years, Clan Donald commanded the West Highlands and Hebrides.
12:16Their chiefs bore the title Lord of the Isles, and their reach was second only to that of the kings
12:21of Scotland and England.
12:23The MacDonalds of Glencoe were a smaller branch of this dynasty, led by Alistair MacDonald, or Maclean.
12:30The MacDonalds had a fearsome reputation, which inevitably led to legal troubles and rivalries with their neighbors, especially the powerful
12:37Campbell clan.
12:38By the late 17th century, they lived under the feudal authority of the Campbell Earls of Argyle, while their loyalty
12:44remained fixed on the Stuart Kings.
12:45It was a volatile mix of politics that made Glencoe a fault line in the Highlands.
12:50In August 2023, during an excavation at a rural 17th century hunting lodge, which had once been the summer house
12:58of the MacDonalds of Glencoe,
13:00a University of Glasgow archaeology student discovers a hidden container in an unlikely place.
13:07Beneath the hearthstone slab of the fireplace, they found a pot with a small round pebble lid.
13:14Inside were 36 coins minted across Europe between the late 1500s and the 1680s.
13:21Since none of them were struck after the 1680s, and the site was in use from 1646 to 1692,
13:29it's likely they were buried sometime before then.
13:32Among the other finds were simple household items.
13:35A spindle whorl for making thread, a dress pin, and a pitchfork.
13:40Reminders of the everyday lives of those who work the land.
13:43They also uncovered a musket and fouling shot, gun flint, and a powder measure pointing to the lodge's use as
13:50a base for hunting.
13:51It's an impressive find for what looked to be an ordinary rural house, but the most striking detail is what
13:57never happened.
13:59You don't stash a pot of coins under the hearth unless you plan on coming back for it.
14:03And that's the real mystery here. Why was it buried in the first place, and why did no one return
14:08to retrieve it?
14:10The strongest clue may lie in the world these clans inhabited.
14:15Raids, reprisals, and ransoms drove the Highland economy.
14:19And the hidden pot of coins may be a trace of those unsettled times.
14:25In the Highlands, cattle were the backbone of wealth.
14:28With little arable land, herds were central to the country's economy and way of life.
14:32And reaving, these were raids to steal cattle, became a dangerous but essential practice.
14:37It allowed clans like the McDonald's to assert power and replenish resources in a precarious landscape.
14:42Lockebur, the region that included Glencoe, was regarded as an epicenter of these raids.
14:48So could the Glencoe horde be the profits of that trade?
14:51From the 14th to the 17th centuries, the Anglo-Scottish border was a true frontier.
14:57Cattle rustling, feuds, arson, murder, intimidation, and pillaging were routine.
15:03Even considered honorable ways to prove valor to your kin.
15:07Raids could be planned like military operations, lasting days with bands of armed men.
15:13Or as simple as a moonlit ride to plunder a single farm before dawn.
15:18The horde fits Glencoe's plundering past.
15:21The coins might have been spoils stolen in a raid, or money to pay out in ransom or protection
15:26if the McDonald's themselves came under pressure from rivals.
15:29They also found fine wares from England, Germany, and the Netherlands,
15:34which could suggest this household traveled or had connections to wider trade as well as raiding.
15:40That combination could have brought different forms of wealth into Glencoe,
15:44and may help explain why a horde of mixed coins was concealed here.
15:48But here's the issue.
15:50Paddle raiding brought wealth, but it was also about stealing crops and animals in order to feed yourself.
15:56Raids were seasonal, often timed in autumn when food stores ran low.
16:01And whatever profits came in would have likely been reinvested into livestock or land,
16:06not hoarded as coins.
16:08That's why a pot of money buried beneath a hearth is really hard to explain as the spoils of reaving.
16:15It doesn't match the way that the economy worked, so there's likely a different reason for concealing it.
16:20Among the mix of currencies, one coin stands out as a piece that may carry meaning beyond its monetary value.
16:29The McDonald's of Glencoe were staunch Jacobites, supporters of King James VII of Scotland.
16:34Loyalty to the Stuart kings could sometimes be expressed through objects like coins and metals bearing their image.
16:41One coin in the hoard was also pierced, perhaps to be worn as a token of allegiance.
16:45Is it possible this hoard was a hidden pledge to the Jacobite cause?
16:49King James was the second son of Charles I, who was executed after the English Civil Wars.
16:56Raised Protestant, James converted to Catholicism in 1668 or 69.
17:01A choice that reshaped his politics and made him suspect to many of his subjects.
17:07As tensions mounted, James fled to France.
17:10In 1689, Parliament declared the throne vacant and crowned William of Orange and his wife, James' daughter Mary, as co
17:17-monarchs.
17:18But within months, James' supporters rose in rebellion to restore him to the throne.
17:23In July, Highland Jacobites under Viscount Dung Dee, among them Clan MacDonald, met the king's army at Killie Crankie.
17:31Their charge breaking the lines and killing over a thousand troops in a stunning victory.
17:37In the context of the 1689 uprising, the Glencoe coin hoard may take on a different meaning.
17:43Among the coins were pieces from France and the Papal States, predominantly Catholic realms, suggesting the hoard may have been
17:51kept as a token of Stuart allegiance, a loyalty viewed with hostility by the new crown.
17:57In 2020, on the shores of L'Arc-Nan-Ouve, roughly 30 miles northwest of Glencoe, another Jacobite hoard came
18:06to light.
18:06This one tied directly to the final uprising.
18:10Using metal detectors around a ruined agricultural settlement and house, an amateur archaeology team discovered a cache of more than
18:17200 musket balls, together with gold and silver coins and gilt buttons.
18:22The find is believed to be part of an arms shipment from France that reached Lockerburg just two weeks after
18:27the Battle of Culloden in April 1746.
18:31The Battle of Culloden near Inverness was the final clash of the Jacobite cause.
18:36In less than an hour, around 1,500 Jacobites were killed, ending any serious Stuart challenge to the throne.
18:44The cache at L'Arc-Nan-Ouve was uncovered at a dwelling once home to a Gaelic poet who had
18:50tutored the prince and later fought in the uprising.
18:52The musket balls also matched the caliber of French supplied weapons used in battle, establishing a clear link to the
18:59Jacobite cause.
19:00But the stash at Glencoe is different.
19:03The coins were found at a known hunting lodge alongside everyday items.
19:07It looks more like a domestic mix rather than a straightforward military stockpile.
19:12Interpreting the hoard as a Jacobite pledge might explain the pierced coin and some of the foreign pieces, but it
19:18also raises questions.
19:20Why bury them so soon after the 1689 rising, and why were they never retrieved?
19:26In February 1692, soldiers accepted as guests in MacDonald homes turned on their hosts.
19:34The betrayal, remembered as the massacre of Glencoe, is one of the darkest chapters in Scottish history.
19:41And the hoard may be its last surviving witness.
19:44The MacDonalds and the Campbells had a long, tangled history.
19:48By the late 17th century, their rivalry was bound up in politics and in the wider fight for the throne.
19:53The MacDonalds held to the deposed King James, while the Campbells aligned with William III.
19:59Determined to secure loyalty in the Highlands, the government ordered all chiefs to swear allegiance to William III by January
20:061st, 1692.
20:08Money, land, and indemnity were offered as incentives, but refusal meant punishment under the full weight of the law.
20:16News reached Glencoe only on December 28th.
20:20Three days later, Chief McClain set out to swear the oath that would protect his clan.
20:25Only to be told it must be witnessed by a sheriff 60 miles away in Inverary, the Campbell stronghold.
20:31Delayed by Campbell troops, he arrived late, pleaded for acceptance, and left believing his oath would stand.
20:38In early February, about 120 men from the Earl of Argyles Regiment, led by Campbell, arrived in Glencoe, claiming Fort
20:46William was full.
20:48True to Highland hospitality, the MacDonalds took them in, feeding and sheltering them for nearly two weeks.
20:54But in the pre-dawn hours of February 13th, as a blizzard swept through Glencoe, the mask of friendship fell.
21:02Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlion had received orders to turn on his hosts and kill every MacDonald under the age
21:10of 70.
21:10Early that morning, the slaughter began.
21:13It was believed Chief McClain was shot as he tried to rise from his bed.
21:16His wife froze to death in the snow.
21:18Some 38 MacDonald men, women, and children were killed, though many who fled into the Glen later died from exposure.
21:24That urgency may explain why the hoard was concealed, but the coins themselves could also have served a more ordinary
21:31purpose.
21:33Mixed European pieces like these were sometimes used as gaming tokens.
21:37And gambling is well recorded in Gaelic poetry and tradition.
21:41It's a reminder that, even in times of turmoil, people held on to the rituals of daily life.
21:47The Glencoe Horde preserves a fleeting moment when a familiar world was shattered by betrayal.
21:54Its survival is a buried testament to the violence that transformed the Highlands.
21:59And to the fragile traces of life that history nearly erased.
22:16Just eight miles inland from the Pacific, central Lima rises on the south bank of the Rimac River, known as
22:23El Pulpo, the octopus.
22:26Its influence spreads into every corner of Peru.
22:29Between around 200 and 700 CE, the Lima culture flourished along Peru's central coast.
22:36Its rulers are thought to have been the most elite warriors among them.
22:41And those rulers built adobe pyramids.
22:43They built irrigation canals.
22:45They razed fortified towns.
22:47And they established these great centers like Ichma, later known as Pachacamac.
22:53The city's landscape is defined by extremes.
22:56It lies within Peru's coastal desert, which has almost no native plant or animal life,
23:01and receives less than half an inch of rainfall each year.
23:04This is among the lowest for any major city in the world.
23:09Today, Lima is a metropolis of more than 11 million people.
23:13Nearly a third of Peru's population living within 27 square miles.
23:18It serves as both a major port and the nation's financial and industrial hub.
23:23Powering economic growth with industries that range from fish processing and cement to furniture, meat and metal goods.
23:30In late July of 2025, utility workers digging trenches to expand a gas network in Lima's Puente Piedra district uncover
23:40something beneath the street.
23:42Just over six and a half feet from the front gate of a house, they broke into the ground and
23:48found two tombs.
23:49One contained human remains still wrapped in a torn bundle and placed in a seated position, knees drawn to the
23:56chest.
23:57The other was empty.
24:00Beside the body were four clay vessels and three carved pumpkins or gourds.
24:07Their bold red, white and black designs are characteristic of the pre-Incan Chiang Kai culture, which thrived on Peru's
24:16central coast between a thousand and over 1400 years ago.
24:19The tombs may appear simple. They're just unlined pits cut into the earth, but their meaning is anything but straightforward.
24:26Who was the individual buried here? Why was the second chamber left empty?
24:30And what do these remains reveal about the coastal societies that flourished long before Lima became Peru's capital?
24:36Across Peru, ancient cemeteries have faced centuries of intrusion, scientific and otherwise.
24:43Leading some to wonder if Lima's empty grave wasn't by design.
24:48The torn bundle could point to a disturbance by grave robbers, known in Peru as huaqueros.
24:55They were notorious for the destructive way they tore into burials to strip them of valuables.
25:00Could the damaged bundle and the empty tomb beside it be the work of looters?
25:05In Peru, the practice of looting graves for ceramics or metal objects is widespread.
25:11It's been documented since at least the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
25:16Despite heritage laws, plundering has remained a constant issue, which is why you often have to wonder whether a damaged
25:24burial reflects ancient ritual or robbery.
25:28Chiang Kai burials in particular, like this one, have been prime targets.
25:32And it's no wonder they're known for their well-preserved textiles, pottery and figurines, which fetch huge prices on the
25:39international market.
25:40So it's very possible that the empty grave once held offerings that were just taken away long ago.
25:46Nearly 400 miles northwest of Lima, at Huaca Rejada, one site demonstrates the vulnerability of Peru's ancient burials.
25:56The stakes involved in their protection and how narrowly some histories survive.
26:01In the late 1980s, Huaca Rejada's tunneled nearly 20 feet down, coming within just three feet of a royal burial
26:08chamber.
26:08They worked around the clock with guards, stripping treasures as they went.
26:12Rival looters, angered at being left out, tipped off the authorities.
26:15And a police raid that ended in deadly gunfire finally secured the site.
26:19Only then could archaeologists enter the chamber.
26:23That's when they discovered the great lord of Sipan, a warrior priest in his mid-30s, interred about 1,500
26:30years ago.
26:32The chamber held a two-foot-wide solid gold crown, dozens of pieces of gold and turquoise jewelry, and more
26:39than 1,200 painted ceramic vessels.
26:42At the time, it was described as the most valuable ancient tomb ever found in the Western Hemisphere.
26:49The site was eventually enclosed with barbed wire and guarded by police.
26:54Even so, artifacts linked to Sipan continued to surface on the black market, with pieces seized as far away as
27:01Los Angeles.
27:02Illicit trade in antiquities earns hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars each year.
27:09So if anything was once inside Lima's empty tomb, it may have already passed into those same black market channels.
27:15Roughly 75 miles north of central Lima, in the Huara Valley, excavations at Rontoi have uncovered a Chiang Kai tomb
27:24that highlights the ongoing risk of looting.
27:27In 2007, archaeologists opened a small test pit at Rontoi, beside three niches in an adobe wall that had been
27:34exposed by looters.
27:36Beneath the fill of wall fragments and plastered floors, they uncovered this large, layered textile.
27:42More like a mummy bundle than an offering.
27:45They were worried that looters were going to come back, so the team expanded the trench, they removed it quickly,
27:51and they took it straight to the lab.
27:53When the team returned, they found fresh looters' pits scarring the platform.
27:57The would-be thieves had missed the tomb by only about three feet, but damaged nearby architecture.
28:02Later excavations revealed a much larger chamber, its floor scattered with corn stalks, pottery and textiles.
28:08Looters tend to move fast and usually leave signs, like holes, debris or damage.
28:15But in Lima, there were no indications of looting.
28:18The second chamber, though empty, was sealed and undisturbed.
28:22This suggests its emptiness stems from something else.
28:26Across the ancient world, commemoration took many forms.
28:30Some structures are meant to honor the dead without ever holding their remains.
28:35One possibility is that this was a cenotaph, or a symbolic grave for someone whose remains were never recovered.
28:42The Chankai culture included communities of fishermen, and the Pacific could easily claim lives.
28:48Families may have needed a place to mourn and make offerings.
28:51Could this sealed vacant chamber have served that role?
28:55Placing an empty grave beside an occupied one may have been a way of symbolically reuniting loved ones in the
29:02afterlife
29:02after one of them had maybe disappeared at sea or something like that.
29:06In Chankai burials, the dead were often accompanied by textiles, pottery and figurines that seem to represent ritual attendance or
29:14offerings.
29:15The exact meaning of all those artifacts really isn't very well understood.
29:19So it's possible that even an empty chamber had a cultural significance that we just don't fully understand.
29:25More than 7,500 miles from Lima, on the Black Sea coast near Varna, Bulgaria, archaeologists discovered a copper age
29:34cemetery where absence itself seemed part of the burial design.
29:39Excavations uncovered nearly 300 burials dating between 4600 and 4200 BCE.
29:45Some contained skeletons laid out with gold diadems, scepters, copper weapons, and Mediterranean shell ornaments.
29:52But others held no bodies at all, only offerings of gold and copper, sometimes richer than the graves that did
29:58contain the dead.
29:59The symbolic graves sometimes even featured life-size clay masks placed where a head should have been.
30:06They may have honored ancestors or individuals who died far away, providing a place for families to mourn and perform
30:12rituals in the absence of a body.
30:14But here's the difference.
30:16At Varna, the cenotaph still contained offerings and objects standing in for the absent dead.
30:22At Puente Piedra in Lima, the second tomb was empty.
30:26That points to a different and perhaps more straightforward interpretation of the evidence.
30:32One explanation is that nothing about the Puente Piedra discovery is unusual at all.
30:38The Chiang Kai were a coastal people, renowned for their fishing, for their ceramics, but above all for their weaving.
30:45And so their dead were laid in these beautiful funerary bundles built up layer by layer with textiles and with
30:52other offerings enclosing the body.
30:55At Puente Piedra, one chamber held a bundle while the second was empty.
31:00People who have looked at these things carefully have noted that Chiang Kai cemeteries are complex and they vary a
31:05ton from one to the other.
31:07So the pair here may have been very special or they may not be special at all.
31:14Across the Andes, bundle burials show striking diversity.
31:17Some are layered with elaborate textiles and ornaments.
31:20Others are more modest.
31:21In some cases, bodies were laid beneath textiles rather than enclosed by a bundle.
31:27Colonial records describe bundle making as a public event and the number and quality of wrappings and ornaments may have
31:32reflected the status a person held in society.
31:35The second chamber may have been left unfinished or the body once inside could have been removed during the Chiang
31:42Kai period itself.
31:43In some cases, textiles were even added to bundles long after burial.
31:49That ongoing interaction with the dead means it's possible the torn cloth and the empty grave could be traces of
31:56that same practice.
31:57Just over 480 miles down the coast at Cerro, Colorado, a Chiang Kai burial shows the complexity of these bundles
32:06and burials and the stories they can tell when preserved.
32:09At the site, archaeologists identified more than 10 techniques of textile preparation and decoration from standard woven fabrics and tapestries
32:19to head nets and gauzes crafted in both cotton and camel and wool.
32:23One case is that of a fisherman who in his life had endured severe dental problems and spinal problems.
32:31He was even deaf in his final years, but at death, he was treated with extraordinary care.
32:36His body was wrapped in 25 layers of cotton textiles and tapestries, including a rare alpaca or llama wool garment
32:46decorated with serpent-like figures.
32:48Now, maybe those figures represent creatures from the sea.
32:50We don't know.
32:52But the labor invested in his burial suggests that he held very special status.
32:57Maybe for his skills as a leader in the community.
33:00Maybe he was a great fisherman in his younger years.
33:03Maybe he was just an elder that was very beloved.
33:07What makes this case striking is that the grave showed no signs of reopening beyond damage by modern looters.
33:13In many Chiang Kai tombs, burials were revisited over time with new layers added.
33:18The fisherman's tomb, by contrast, was sealed once and left untouched.
33:22A reminder of just how varied Chiang Kai funerary practice could be.
33:26At Puente Piedra, they also found traces of reed roofing and wooden posts within adobe matrices.
33:33But the textile bundle was badly deteriorated.
33:37And overall, the evidence is thin.
33:39Nearby finds suggest this was once part of a much larger cemetery.
33:43But we're left with few clues about how to interpret the sealed empty grave
33:48or how it may have been conceived alongside the one that was occupied.
33:52The pre-Incan tombs beneath the streets of Lima hold traces of history still emerging from the earth
33:58and remind us of how much the Chiang Kai story remains untold.
34:15Situated near the eastern coastline of England's Lincolnshire County,
34:20about 66 miles from the city of Leeds, is the tiny village of Tetney.
34:25Tetney is a cozy maritime community of just over 1,700 people, surrounded by incredible natural beauty.
34:33East of the village are the Tetney Marshes, containing 1,500 hectares of mudflats, salt marshes and dunes,
34:40much of which is now protected land.
34:44This area has a long and at times disturbing history.
34:48There's a terrifying story from the 9th century when Vikings attacked the town and burned down the church.
34:53Reportedly, there were no survivors.
34:57Centuries later, at the end of the First World War, Tetney would become an early telecommunications hub.
35:04In 1927, it was the site of a Marconi beam station, part of a state-of-the-art network that
35:10connected Britain,
35:11India and many other countries throughout the British Empire, all by using a long-range radio telegraphy system.
35:19In July of 2018, the owner of the Tetney Golf Course is expanding a pond on the property,
35:25when an excavator strikes something solid in the mud.
35:29A team of archaeologists from the University of Sheffield just happens to be conducting a research excavation nearby,
35:36and agrees to investigate.
35:37What they find is astonishing.
35:41There was a large wooden sarcophagus encased in the earth that had been carved out of a trunk of a
35:48massive oak tree
35:49and measured approximately eight feet long and three feet wide.
35:53Rather than hollowing out the entire log, the carvers split the log in two, hollowing out the larger half,
36:01then using the thinner second half as a lid.
36:04Inside, they found human remains belonging to a male who was likely in his late 30s or early 40s when
36:11he died.
36:12He would have stood about five feet nine inches, which was pretty tall for the time.
36:17And his bones showed marks from a degenerative joint disease called osteoarthritis,
36:22which suggested that he had engaged in strenuous, repetitive labor for years.
36:27So who was this mysterious man?
36:30By combining radiocarbon dating with an analysis of the coffin and its artifacts,
36:35researchers can place the burial within the early Bronze Age, approximately 4000 years ago.
36:42This region in Britain has been rich with discoveries from prehistory.
36:46Over 350 Bronze Age barrels had been found here, along with a number of Neolithic barrels.
36:53You can imagine that the dense forests and the proximity to water would have been highly attractive to hunter-gatherer
36:59communities from this era.
37:01At this time in history, there was a sea change in the culture of early man, brought about by the
37:07arrival of new people from continental Europe.
37:10These humans were genetically different from the earlier tribes that had settled in the region,
37:15and they brought new practices and inventions with them, including metalworking and a style of pottery known as beakers.
37:23Over the next several centuries, these beaker people quickly became the dominant cultural force in Britain,
37:30replacing over 90% of the region's existing gene pool.
37:34A social hierarchy emerged with leadership centered around chieftains, warrior kings and heads of families.
37:43Importantly, these tribes had a fresh worldview on death and the afterlife, and burials became much more elaborate.
37:52So could the man in the coffin have been an important member of the community that lived here 4,000
37:58years ago?
37:59As the archaeologists continue to investigate the coffin, they make a surprising discovery underneath the human remains.
38:08The body had been laid on a bed of plants, which included moss, sprigs or leaves from yew or juniper
38:14trees, and a scattering of hazelnuts.
38:16Among the plant bedding were tiny leaf buds, which means the burial had very likely taken place in the spring,
38:23a time of renewal and rebirth.
38:25The symbolism of a spring burial could have connoted deep spiritual meaning that would have been fitting for a shamanistic
38:31character, a spiritual leader in the community.
38:34As a shaman for his tribe, he would have had incredible power and influence, providing insight and connection to the
38:41community's ancestors, deities and rituals.
38:46The same year, archaeologists in southwestern Siberia at Novosibirsk Ust-Tardis site unearthed two Bronze Age burials that, like the
38:55Tetni site, appear to be imbued with spiritual symbolism.
39:02These burials were determined to be from the Odinov culture about 5,000 years ago.
39:07One of the remains was accompanied by a stunning set of artifacts.
39:11Inside the grave, archaeologists found the skulls of birds, along with several bird beaks.
39:17The beaks were grouped into a single object behind the deceased individual's skull.
39:22It appeared to be the remnants of a ceremonial headdress or garment meant for performing rituals of some kind.
39:28The nearby grave was even more astonishing.
39:33It featured two levels.
39:35The top tier held the remains of two children who would have been approximately five and ten years old when
39:42they died.
39:42The lower tier featured an adult male.
39:45And like the bird man's grave, he was buried with a number of fascinating artifacts, one of which appeared to
39:54be the remnants of a bronze mask.
39:56Archaeologists also found polished stones near his body, all of which suggested this man and the male with the bird
40:06beaks were involved in rituals for their Bronze Age community.
40:12By contrast, the tetany site lacks definitive signifiers associated with the spiritual leader.
40:18There's no doubt that this grave shows evidence of unique funerary traditions and cultural beliefs, such as the bed of
40:25plants and even the log coffin itself.
40:27But there's no clear evidence that this was a shaman's burial.
40:31But the tall man's coffin has another surprise for researchers, an incredibly unique object buried alongside the deceased.
40:41Inside the sarcophagus, a perfectly preserved axe laid with the remains.
40:46Its stone head was still fastened to its wooden handle, which measured just over a foot long.
40:52The head was not fashioned from flint, as might be expected.
40:56Rather, it had been carved out of limestone that contained the fossilized inference of ancient coral.
41:02It's beautiful.
41:04This object strongly suggests the man was a leader within his community.
41:10But the inclusion of a weapon inside a grave could also be indicative that this man was a protector.
41:16Could he have been a revered warrior?
41:18Almost two centuries before the discovery of the tetany man, in July of 1834, an amateur archaeologist named William Beswick
41:28in North Yorkshire's Gristhorpe village excavated a similar barrel on his own land.
41:35Beswick and his small team unearthed a massive oak log that measured over six feet long and more than three
41:42feet in diameter.
41:43Much like the tetany discovery, it had been preserved in waterlogged land.
41:48And this log was also soon discovered to contain human remains, a Bronze Age male known today as the Gristhorpe
41:56man.
41:57There was an abundance of intriguing artifacts laid inside this log coffin.
42:01A vessel carved out of bark, which had once contained milk, and a wicker basket which showed evidence of food
42:08residue.
42:08There was also tools made of flint, and tellingly, a dagger.
42:14Just like the tetany man, the Gristhorpe man was above average height for his time, about six feet tall.
42:21Which again would have given him some degree of status in his community.
42:25But there was something else about Gristhorpe man's remains that provided a clue to his identity.
42:30His bones displayed a number of healed fractures, which indicated that the man was likely a warrior.
42:37Now, the axe tetany man was buried with was likely symbolic, as it does not appear to be a functional
42:46instrument of war.
42:48And it's extremely rare.
42:50There have only been 12 like it found in Britain.
42:54Its size and decorative details suggest it was probably used in a more ritualistic manner like a king's scepter.
43:02He might have had something akin to royal status within his community.
43:08While the tetany man's exact lineage remains elusive, the evidence found at his burial site overwhelmingly points to his importance
43:16within the tribe.
43:18This burial was clearly a communal effort, one almost certainly brought about by a deep respect for the deceased.
43:26The log sarcophagus, the gathering of the plants for the bedding, all of this would have taken coordination by the
43:33community.
43:34And the choice of oak for the coffin was almost certainly significant.
43:37In many cultures, oak has long been a symbol of longevity and strength.
43:42As such, this coffin was not just a vessel for the body, but a statement of the man's authority.
43:49To date, there have been approximately 65 early Bronze Age log coffins found across Britain.
43:56And there may be many more of these mysterious barrows that have yet to be discovered.
Comments