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hidden beneath the cities s01e03
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00:01Beneath Naples, Italy, the occupant of a centuries-old tomb is called into question.
00:07Researchers suggested that one of the graves in the monument's not what it seems.
00:11In the cliffside caves of the Judean desert, an archaeologist makes a grim discovery.
00:18They uncovered Roman cult objects, Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts,
00:22and the skeletal remains of at least 17 individuals.
00:26But who carried these objects into the cliffs?
00:30And why?
00:30A massive limestone cave structure is discovered below the streets of Malta.
00:35What we now call the Halsafliani Hypogeum revealed itself as a sprawling subterranean labyrinth.
00:43But who carved this intricate subterranean labyrinth?
00:46And why?
00:49Below the busy streets of the world's cities exists a hidden realm of wonder.
00:56Sprawling ancient complexes.
01:00Mysterious tombs.
01:02Top-secret military bases.
01:05Strange structures.
01:08And lost artifacts.
01:10Buried beneath our feet and long forgotten.
01:14Until now.
01:17Underground models are exposed to reveal what lies hidden beneath the cities.
01:2523 miles northwest of Italy's iconic Amalfi coast, nestled in the country's Campania region, is the bustling city of Naples.
01:37Naples is a quintessential Italian city.
01:39But interestingly, it was founded by Greek settlers in 600 BCE.
01:44After centuries of rule by a shifting array of leaders, it joined the newly unified kingdom of Italy in 1861.
01:52The city has incredible historic monuments, centuries-old palaces, and because of its Catholic roots, over 450 churches.
02:03It's also a city on top of a city.
02:10It's also a city on top of a city.
02:22One of the most fascinating historical sites in Naples is situated at the center of town, the monumental complex of
02:29Santa Maria Lanova.
02:32It was founded in 1279 as a Franciscan citadel, but it eventually became a cultural hub for the city, collecting
02:39artistic works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
02:43Today, it boasts a museum, a breathtaking church, and cloisters that are lined with the tombs and monuments of nobles.
02:53In 2014, a startling claim from outside the walls of Santa Maria Lanova shakes the spiritual foundation of this historic
03:03landmark.
03:05Researchers suggested that one of the graves in the monument St. Giacomo della Marca cloister is not what it seems.
03:12The marble tomb was sculpted by a renowned Italian artist named Jacopo della Pilla, and has all the hallmarks of
03:20an elaborate Renaissance-era design.
03:22There's a large decorative arch adorned with rosettes and an insignia depicting the Madonna and child.
03:29And a series of remarkable carvings adorn the tomb, including a dragon and a pair of opposing sphinxes.
03:37For hundreds of years, the tomb was always assumed to be that of Matteo Farillo, a powerful nobleman in 15th
03:45century Naples.
03:46But the scholar contends that the tomb is merely a decoy designed to conceal the secret burial site of its
03:53true occupant,
03:54a 15th century prince named Vlad III Draculia, a man who would become the inspiration for none other than Count
04:02Dracula.
04:04It's an astounding proposition.
04:07Prince Vlad dedicated most of his adult life to fighting back the expansion of the Ottoman Empire,
04:12and he became known for his cruel and brutal tactics on the battlefield.
04:18He was particularly famous for executing his victims by impalement, earning him the moniker Tsepeş, which means the impaler.
04:29Reportedly, during a winter battle against the Ottomans in 1476, Vlad was decapitated.
04:35His head was preserved in honey and sent to the sultan in Constantinople, but it's never been clear where his
04:41headless corpse was eventually buried.
04:44In the 15th century, the kingdom of Naples was a military powerhouse and a known ally to those fighting the
04:49Ottoman Empire.
04:51So it's plausible that after his untimely death, Prince Vlad's followers may have fled Romania and brought his corpse to
04:57Naples for burial.
04:59It's also been suggested that the prince wasn't killed in battle.
05:03Instead, he was captured by the Ottomans and ransomed by his daughter, who had previously escaped to the court of
05:09Naples.
05:09It's alleged that Vlad was then brought to the city to live out the rest of his days.
05:15And upon his death, he was secretly entombed at the monumental complex to protect the body from his enemies.
05:23Researchers point to the sculptural details carved into the sarcophagus as clues about its inhabitant.
05:29The dragon carving is interpreted as a key symbol linking the tomb to Vlad Draculia, a reference to his last
05:36name, son of the dragon.
05:38And like his father before him, Prince Vlad was a member of an order of knights called the Order of
05:44the Dragon.
05:45The image of the two sphinxes could also be a coded message representing the Egyptian city of Thebes,
05:50which proponents claim to be phonetically similar to tseppish, the Romanian word for impaler.
05:57But these interpretations of the carvings are fairly tenuous, to say the least.
06:01We see sphinxes and dragons as common motifs in many pieces from the Neapolitan Renaissance.
06:08But there's another clue carved into the marble that confounds even the harshest skeptics of the Naples burial.
06:15Hidden beneath the tomb, there's a strange inscription that doesn't seem to be written in any known language.
06:21When the characters of the epigraph were analyzed, it was estimated that it was likely written in the 16th century,
06:28after the tomb was installed.
06:29So why would someone chisel these letters into the back of a tomb a hundred years later?
06:35The bizarre writing is fuel for proponents of the Naples burial theory, but critics challenge the very premise of Vlad's
06:42arrival here.
06:43We know that Prince Vlad had three sons, but there's no certainty that he had a daughter.
06:48It makes the entire idea that Vlad somehow survived the battle with the Ottomans before being whisked away to Naples
06:53seem highly suspect.
06:55But, if we can assume he was killed in battle, what happened to his body?
07:00For centuries, local folklore in Romania told an altogether different story of Prince Vlad's final days.
07:07It was said that after he was killed on the battlefield and beheaded by the Ottomans, monks recovered his body
07:13to give it a proper Christian burial.
07:16The corpse of Vlad reportedly was transported to the Snagov Monastery, located on an island near Bucharest, where he was
07:24buried in front of the church altar, hidden away from anyone who may have wanted to defile the grave.
07:30So, could this be the final resting place of Vlad the Impaler?
07:36In 1933, archaeologists received permission to excavate the unmarked grave.
07:42Inside the tomb, they found a coffin and a collection of bizarre artifacts, including fragments of prehistoric pottery and horseboats.
07:51A second monastery in Romania may hold a more credible claim to the body of the prince.
07:57In 1461, Vlad founded his own monastery in Comana, Romania.
08:00It was located just south of Bucharest, where the prince would meet his end during that fateful winter battle.
08:06After he was killed, it seems entirely possible that the prince's followers would have transported him to his own monastery.
08:12And here's where it gets interesting.
08:14Sometime in the 1970s, a group of archaeologists supposedly excavated the monastery grounds and discovered a tomb.
08:23However, as enticing as it may be, there's no proof that the tomb found at Comana was Vlad the Impaler.
08:30The excavation was poorly documented, so it's unknown if the remains were ever analyzed or where they're even housed today.
08:38Another problem with the Comana theory is that the original church founded by Vlad was demolished and then rebuilt in
08:45the 16th century.
08:46Even if we can assume that Vlad was buried there, it's highly unlikely the original tomb would have survived the
08:52monastery's demolition.
08:54Ultimately, the real occupant of the tomb may be hidden in plain sight.
08:59There's a clear inscription written in Latin stating the name of the Neapolitan nobleman it was commissioned for, Matteo Farillo.
09:08Lying on top of the sarcophagus is a stone effigy of Farillo himself.
09:13Notably, the facial features of the effigy bear no resemblance to the famous painting of Vlad Draculea, which sits today
09:21in the Ambrass Castle in Austria.
09:23The dragon carved into the marble tomb is actually the official crest of the Farillo family.
09:29And a winged dragon was also a symbol associated with the kings of Aragon, whom Farillo had served.
09:35And there's another important feature to the tomb that makes Vlad's Naples burial problematic.
09:40The tomb itself is dated to 1499.
09:42This flies in the face of the accepted timeline around Vlad's death.
09:46If he had died on the battlefield in the winter of 1476,
09:49why would his headless body have been transported to Naples over 20 years later to be buried in the tomb
09:54of the Farillo family?
09:55In June of 2025, an international team of researchers from Italy, Estonia, and Romania make a startling claim about the
10:05mysterious inscription.
10:06They claim they've managed to decipher the text on the back of the tomb.
10:10Incredibly, they allege it's the epitaph of an individual who is not Matteo Farillo, but that of Vlad the Impaler?
10:19The full text of the epigraph has not been released, nor has it been submitted to a third party for
10:25academic review.
10:26So we have no idea what methodology they're using to decipher the inscription or what it might say.
10:33The decoded text could be a revelation, a gross misinterpretation, or an elaborate hoax.
10:39At this point, we just don't know.
10:42Far from solving the mystery of Dracula's tomb, the translated epigraph has instead created more questions than answers.
10:50For now, the story of Vlad the Impaler's final resting place remains as mythic as the tale of the fictional
10:57vampire he inspired.
11:01About 20 miles south of Qumran, near the modern border of Jordan, the Nahal-Hevar stream winds through the Judean
11:09desert.
11:10The Judean desert, located east of Jerusalem, spans about 580 square miles, stretching between the Judean hills and the Dead
11:18Sea.
11:18Its proximity to ancient urban and religious centers like Bethlehem, Hebron, and Arad made it a critical crossroads throughout history.
11:27The caves scattered across the desert have served as refuges since prehistoric times.
11:32Their remote, rugged terrain offered natural concealment, making them ideal shelters for rebels, religious sects, and anyone fleeing conflict or
11:42persecution.
11:45After the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, these caves attracted intense interest from both archaeologists and
11:55looters alike.
11:56The region's extreme aridity helped preserve organic materials exceptionally well, making these caves rare repositories of cultural and historical evidence.
12:07In 1960, an Israeli archaeologist climbs into a hidden cave carved into the cliffs of Nahal-Hevar, on the western
12:16bank of the Dead Sea, bringing to light a trove untouched for nearly 2,000 years.
12:25After crawling nearly 450 feet into the bat-infested cave, they uncovered Roman cult objects, copper vessels, incense shovels, Hebrew
12:35and Aramaic manuscripts, and the skeletal remains of at least 17 individuals.
12:41Most of these artifacts date to a period of intense upheaval and Roman suppression in the 2nd century CE.
12:49The so-called Cave of Letters lies 300 feet below the Judean Desert Plateau and 650 feet above the valley
12:57floor.
12:58Inside, the cave splits into three vaults, each reachable only by squeezing through narrow, rocky gaps.
13:06So far, nearly 1,800 feet of passages have been explored.
13:11Interest in the cave began years earlier, when Bedouins reported fragmentary finds north of Masada.
13:18But when excavators returned in 1961, they found an even larger trove.
13:24Dozens of papyri, legal contracts, and biblical manuscripts.
13:28But they also found everyday items, such as utensils, baskets, textiles, jewelry, clothing,
13:33all of which offers us a glimpse of survival on the desert's edge.
13:37But the deeper purpose of this hidden cave is still a total mystery.
13:43We don't know who carried these objects into the cliffs.
13:45We don't know why.
13:46But the bigger question is, how did they hope to endure in this totally unforgiving place?
13:52And what do these traces reveal about how they balanced resistance, faith, and everyday life?
13:59The Cave of Letters may have served a purpose deeply tied to writing, language, and cultural identity.
14:07Texts from the cave reveal at least four distinct private archives, offering rare insight into daily life,
14:13legal disputes, and social networks in Judea during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE.
14:17So, could the Cave of Letters have been used to safeguard family memory and legal identity?
14:22Among these archives, 35 separate papyrus scrolls belong to a woman named Babatha,
14:28the daughter of a wealthy Jewish landowner.
14:30Born around 104 CE in Mahosa, south of the Dead Sea,
14:35she inherited her father's date orchards and became an independent landowner.
14:40In 106 CE, the region was annexed by Rome,
14:44forcing locals to navigate new legal systems and Roman provincial courts.
14:49Babatha's archive included marriage contracts, property deeds, court petitions, and loan records,
14:56show how she actively defended her rights as a twice-widowed mother,
15:01even confronting Roman-appointed guardians in Petra.
15:05Written in Greek, Nabataean, and Aramaic,
15:08these documents reveal her wealth, her authority,
15:12and underscore how crucial written records were
15:15for protecting property and social standing under Roman rule.
15:19The team also uncovered Babatha's personal belongings,
15:23jewelry, expensive clothing, sandals, a mirror, cosmetics,
15:27all of it carefully stashed in a rock crevice and then covered with a stone.
15:33Now, that suggests she intended to come back.
15:37So, even while fleeing, she prioritized preserving her identity and rights,
15:43and this reinforces the idea that the Cave of Letters functioned as a sanctuary
15:48for safeguarding vital personal and legal records.
15:53Ten miles to the north, evidence at the Wadi Maramba Caves
15:57reveals a strikingly similar pattern.
16:00In 1952, excavations at the site uncovered textiles, baskets, ropes,
16:06and a substantial collection of leather and papyrus fragments
16:09written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
16:12Most date to the early 2nd century CE,
16:15including a Greek marriage contract from 124,
16:18further evidence that families carried legal and personal records
16:22while fleeing Roman forces.
16:24This pattern supports the idea that the Cave of Letters
16:28was chosen as a secure location
16:30to protect important materials during times of crisis.
16:34The last document in Babatha's archive
16:36dates to August 132 CE in Mahosa.
16:39Soon after, she likely fled south as Roman forces advanced,
16:43ultimately seeking shelter in the Cave of Letters.
16:45Her carefully deposited archive provides rare archaeological evidence
16:49of how Jewish families fought to preserve their rights and identities
16:52in the face of upheaval.
16:53And it also raises the possibility that the cave's role
16:56extended beyond just simple storage.
16:58Other evidence inside the cave suggests a sudden, organized occupation
17:03tied to a critical moment of resistance and a tragic end.
17:07Inside the cave, archaeologists found 11 to 15 letters from Simon Bar Kokhba.
17:13He's the leader of a fierce Jewish uprising against Rome
17:17during Emperor Hadrian's reign.
17:19So the question is, could this cache indicate that the cave
17:23once functioned as a hidden command post
17:26as Roman forces were closing in?
17:29Seven of these letters were addressed to his deputy commander,
17:32issuing orders for supplies and arrests.
17:35These documents anchor the cave to the revolt's second phase,
17:39around 132 to 135 CE,
17:42when fighters shifted from open battle to guerrilla tactics.
17:46By that time, the rebels had turned to defensive strategies,
17:51creating a network of hidden strongholds in caves
17:54and remote hideouts throughout Judea to stall Roman advances.
17:58This fierce resistance was driven by Emperor Hadrian's severe measures,
18:03including the founding of Elia Capitolina on the ruins of Jerusalem,
18:07with plans to build a temple to Jupiter
18:10over the destroyed Jewish temple,
18:12acts that pushed many to the breaking point.
18:15By 2015, archaeologists had recorded about 350 of these hideouts
18:20across 140 villages.
18:22The Cave of Letters fits within this strategy.
18:26It's a concealed sanctuary reached only when surface positions
18:30are no longer tenable.
18:32Around 25 miles south of Jerusalem,
18:35just west of the Dead Sea,
18:37another cave offers a chilling glimpse
18:40into a community pushed to the edge under siege.
18:44The Cave of Horror, accessible only by descending 200 feet on ropes,
18:48was discovered in the 1950s
18:50and used as a hidden refuge during the Bar Kokhba revolt,
18:53which was a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judea.
18:56Archaeologists have since uncovered 40 human skeletons,
18:59including a child wrapped in cloth.
19:01Roman encampments found directly above the cave suggest that those inside were besieged,
19:07cut off from supplies, and ultimately died of starvation.
19:09Like the Cave of Horror, the Cave of Letters shows a carefully planned attempt at survival,
19:15but evidence inside challenges the idea of a final military fortress.
19:20The presence of women and children, combined with extreme heat and a lack of water,
19:25suggests it wasn't designed for prolonged defense.
19:28The conditions of the remains supports this.
19:32Skulls were separated and gathered in baskets.
19:35Jawbones are missing.
19:37Longbones are wrapped in mats.
19:39These are all signs of crisis-driven makeshift burials.
19:45And the absence of violent trauma also indicates that these individuals
19:50likely died from starvation, not combat.
19:54While the letters from Bar Kokhba point to an organized military presence,
19:58the cave's proximity to Ein Gedi,
20:00a communal settlement and key economic center
20:03from which rebels fled during the revolt's final stages,
20:06suggests that local fighters, possibly joined by families,
20:10used it as an emergency refuge, not a fortified holdout.
20:15Together, these clues point to a short-term shelter
20:18during extreme danger, rather than a permanent military base.
20:22This perspective also opens the possibility
20:25that the cave's use began even earlier,
20:28during an older and equally desperate chapter in Jewish history.
20:33Archaeologists uncovered about 80 new fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls
20:37in the Cave of Horrors, dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
20:42These fragments, including sections of the Book of the 12 Minor Prophets written in Greek,
20:48offer a glimpse into the religious mindset of refugee communities.
20:52Beyond family archives and rebel hideouts,
20:56some interpreted evidence from the Cave of Letters
20:58as holding secrets tied to the fall of Jerusalem's holiest sanctuary.
21:02During the original excavations, archaeologists uncovered bronze objects,
21:07including incense shovels, originally believed to be Roman items,
21:10but possibly plundered by Bar Kokhba's fighters from Ein Gedi.
21:14But decades later, another team proposed a bold reinterpretation.
21:17Could these objects actually date to the 1st century CE,
21:21hidden after the destruction of Jerusalem's 2nd temple in 70 CE?
21:26Excavations in 1999 and 2000 uncovered coins from multiple periods,
21:31including a Nabataean coin from 106 CE,
21:34a Trajan coin from around 113 CE,
21:37a silver coin of Vespasian dated to 70 CE,
21:40and a first revolt coin from 68 CE.
21:43Together, these finds suggest that the cave may have been occupied
21:47even before the Bar Kokhba uprising,
21:50perhaps during the earlier first Jewish revolt.
21:54About 100 miles north in Migdal,
21:56on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee,
21:59another discovery may shed light on the movement of sacred objects
22:03and practices beyond Jerusalem.
22:06Archaeologists uncovered a delicately crafted bronze incense shovel and jug
22:11in a 2,000-year-old Jewish settlement.
22:14Magdala was once a bustling port,
22:16and later a military base for Jewish rebels against Rome.
22:19Han held a large synagogue dating to the early 1st century CE.
22:24The shovel was from the 2nd temple period
22:26and was likely used to rake coals during ritual incense offerings,
22:30though it might have also served practical daily purposes.
22:33The Magdala shovel closely resembles the incense shovel found at the Cave of Letters,
22:39and that parallel suggests that implements originally tied to temple rituals in Jerusalem
22:46were present across distant communities,
22:49possibly carried by the people who lived there,
22:52seeking to protect their sacred practices and objects from Roman pressure.
22:58In the end, no definitive evidence confirms that the Cave of Letters
23:02was occupied during the 1st century CE.
23:05And whether it served as a temporary refuge,
23:07a secure archive, or a secret treasury for temple relics,
23:11that's all still up for debate.
23:13The cave's full story is yet to be unfolded.
23:17The Cave of Letters holds a stratified record of refuge, resistance,
23:21and the effort to safeguard identity under Roman rule.
23:25Each artifact on Earth not only expands our understanding,
23:29but also deepens the questions surrounding the cave's shifting roles across time.
23:37Two miles south of Letters,
23:40perched on a low limestone ridge above Malta's Grand Harbor,
23:44sits the modern town of Paola.
23:47Paola lies at the center of Malta's urban sprawl,
23:50just beyond the capital.
23:52Building the 17th century to ease overcrowding in Valletta,
23:55it became a home for dock workers and laborers tied to the booming harbor.
23:59More than 9,000 people live here in less than one square mile.
24:06Malta is a crossroads, an island just 60 miles south of Sicily.
24:11Its central position in the Mediterranean
24:13made it a hub for trade and cultural exchange for millennia.
24:20Malta's story begins long before recorded history.
24:24By about 5200 BCE, Neolithic settlers had arrived from Sicily,
24:29mainly fishermen, hunters, and farmers who lived in caves.
24:34But by 3600 BCE, they were constructing megalithic temples,
24:39vast stone complexes that predate both Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.
24:46In 1902, during the construction of a housing subdivision on Hal Cephaliani Street,
24:52a stonemason falls through a roof and stumbles into something strange.
24:58There was a hollow chamber beneath the soft limestone.
25:02Initially, the discovery was suppressed to avoid disrupting construction,
25:06but in 1903, once most of the homes had already been built,
25:11it was formally reported.
25:12The Vallada Museum assigns a Jesuit priest to lead the first official excavation.
25:17What he uncovers is unlike anything Malta had seen.
25:24What we now call the Hal Cephaliani Hypogeum revealed itself as a sprawling subterranean labyrinth.
25:33The oldest chamber was likely a natural cave that was gradually transformed
25:38into a complex of over 30 rooms across three levels.
25:42It descends to a depth of nearly 35 feet
25:46and stretches across almost 5,400 square feet beneath the modern city.
25:51There are no straight lines, just fluid organic curves.
25:55And all of it was carved by hand, using nothing but stone, horn, and antler.
26:00The complex is dated at over 6,000 years old,
26:03making it one of the most extensive and best-preserved Neolithic environments ever found.
26:08But who carved this intricate subterranean labyrinth?
26:12And why?
26:14Another archaeologist takes over the excavation of the Hal Cephaliani Hypogeum
26:19and discovers something unexpected.
26:21The chambers, especially those on the lower level and near the entrance,
26:26were packed with dense red earth around three feet deep in places.
26:31Embedded in it were bones, Neolithic pottery, tools, and beads.
26:36They also found burial chambers in the upper level.
26:39Given the density and placement of these remains,
26:43it seems like it may have been used as a burial site.
26:47It was first believed that the hypogeum may have functioned as a vast secondary ossuary.
26:53Bodies would have been defleshed elsewhere and only the bones brought here.
26:58Some estimates suggest that based on the site's scale, layout, and depth,
27:03it was estimated that it could have held the remains of up to 7,000 individuals accumulated over centuries.
27:11When some of the skulls were re-examined in the 1980s, surprising clues jumped out.
27:17One skull had clear signs of sun exposure, suggesting that it had been left to dry before burial.
27:23That tells us that there may have been a secondary burial practice.
27:27Some of the skulls are removed for examination, and the results are rather surprising.
27:33They have an elongated cranial shape known as dolicocephaly,
27:37and later tests showed evidence of thalassemia intermedia,
27:41a blood disorder that can lead to bone abnormalities.
27:45In antiquity, physical traits like elongated skulls or even extra digits
27:50were often interpreted as signs of semi-divine status or ancestry.
27:56And interestingly, similar cranial features appear in depictions of New Kingdom pharaohs.
28:01It raises the possibility that this wasn't just a communal burial site,
28:06but a sacred resting place for individuals believed to hold special status.
28:11But the burials here don't fit a ceremonial pattern.
28:16One skeleton at House Cephaliani was found twisted on its right side,
28:21frozen in a contorted position consistent with cadaveric spasm.
28:25That's the kind of muscular rigidity that occurs in sudden traumatic deaths, like drowning.
28:31That stands in sharp contrast to ritual burials at nearby sites like Bermagez,
28:38where individuals with similar elongated skulls were carefully placed in a uniform left-facing pose.
28:46And in one chamber, over 120 skeletons were crammed into a space that could barely fit a dozen bodies.
28:53The remains were so mixed up and disturbed that artifacts were found inside skulls.
28:59Whatever happened here, it wasn't a structured burial.
29:03Just half a mile away, at Santa Lucia, researchers discovered a site with noticeable parallels to the hypogeum.
29:11They found a subterranean chamber filled with red soil, disarticulated bones, and a chaotic scattering of pottery and tools,
29:19as if the contents had been dumped in there from the surface.
29:23Given the site's proximity to the hypogeum, could the same kind of event have unfolded there?
29:29One theory points to the alluvial nature of the deposit, suggesting a catastrophic flood swept through the original entrance,
29:38carrying centuries of artifacts, human remains, and ochre-stained soil into the open chambers below.
29:45Similar material found near the original entrance supports this idea.
29:50But as the chambers deepen, so does the complexity.
29:53And some features seem designed not for the dead, but for the living.
29:59Red ochre spirals, checkerboards, and honeycomb patterns cover the walls and ceilings, Malta's only surviving prehistoric paintings.
30:10Figurines of birds and animals, some small enough to be worn as pendants, appear carefully placed.
30:17And at the heart of it all, the so-called Sleeping Lady, which is a ceramic figure of a reclining
30:23woman,
30:24was found in the main hall, which is the largest room.
30:28There's also an interesting parallel at Tarshan.
30:31Figures representing diseased body parts were found there.
30:35They displayed exaggerated abdominal swelling,
30:38hollowed iliac regions, and a chythotic spine,
30:41which could reflect health issues such as abdominal tumors.
30:45It suggests that those temples may have served a votive or healing function,
30:50where people left offerings in the hope of divine intervention.
30:54So maybe that's what was happening at the hypogeum, too.
30:59At the core of the hypogeum, one team discovers the so-called Holy of Holies,
31:05a chamber that closely mirrors the design of Malta's above-ground temples.
31:09Just in front of it, they found a set of carved floor holes,
31:14likely used for pouring libations or securing ritual offerings.
31:17These same features appear on other above-ground sites in Malta, like Gigantia.
31:23It suggests a shared ceremonial language between the worlds above and below.
31:29That continuity runs deeper.
31:32Beveled cornices, pitted stone surfaces,
31:34even trilithon-style doorways,
31:37all echo what we see at other Maltese sites.
31:41And a carved plate featuring horned bulls was found,
31:44which mirrors the motifs found at Tarshan,
31:48a nearby archaeological complex.
31:50Near the entrance of one of the decorated rooms,
31:54there's a carved hand,
31:56eight inches long,
31:57with six fingers instead of five.
32:00It's far larger than any normal human hand.
32:04In many ancient cultures,
32:06polydactyly was seen as a sign of divinity,
32:10and it's been tied to cult ceremonies.
32:13On the second level,
32:15archaeologists uncover one of the most mysterious features in the entire structure,
32:19and the clues shift from the visual to the acoustic.
32:23Inside the so-called oracle room,
32:26there's a two-foot-wide hemispherical niche,
32:29about the height of a man's mouth,
32:31carved directly into the stone.
32:33When someone speaks or hums at that exact spot,
32:36the effect is astonishing.
32:38Low tones are amplified a hundredfold,
32:41and carry throughout the entire complex.
32:44You could be in a completely different chamber,
32:47and still hear every word.
32:50There's also a carved projection behind the oracle niche
32:54that functions almost like a sounding board.
32:56A voice projected from that spot
32:58could create the illusion of sound coming from all around,
33:01and with echoes lasting 78 seconds,
33:05amplifying even a single phrase.
33:07All this suggests the Hippogium was designed as a ritual performance base,
33:12long before places like Delphi.
33:17Archaeologists noticed that even the ceiling appears to have been shaped like a waveguide,
33:22carefully contoured to help direct and amplify sound.
33:27Inside the oracle room,
33:29it was discovered that when a male voice hits certain tones,
33:33the entire chamber resonates.
33:35Studies have shown that frequencies in this range can alter brain activity,
33:41much like we've found inside megalithic chambers in the UK.
33:45It's likely the space was deliberately engineered for chanting or incantation
33:50to induce hypnotic, trance-like states of consciousness.
33:55Recent 3D wave simulations suggest those resonant peaks weren't accidental.
34:02To produce them, the builders would have needed to calibrate
34:06six to eight non-adjacent walls across multiple chambers,
34:12each within only four to ten inches of precision.
34:17That level of geometric coordination across separate spaces is no coincidence.
34:24The Hippogium is one of the oldest known examples of engineered resonance in human history.
34:32Between 3600 and 2500 BCE,
34:36Maltus' prehistoric builders constructed more than 30 megalithic temples,
34:41an architectural legacy unparalleled in Neolithic Europe.
34:47What makes these temples remarkable isn't just their age,
34:51it's their sophistication.
34:53Each site is uniquely engineered, but most follow a recognizable pattern.
34:57A concave facade, a central passage,
35:00and a series of semicircular chambers, or apses, arranged symmetrically.
35:06The scale is staggering.
35:09Builders quarried, transported, and raised limestone blocks weighing up to 20 tons
35:14to heights of nearly 20 feet.
35:16This kind of construction demanded coordinated labor,
35:20shared engineering knowledge,
35:22and long-term planning across generations.
35:27It's the only known subterranean labyrinth of its kind in Neolithic Europe,
35:35from 4000 to 2500 BCE.
35:40In many ways, it feels like an intentional attempt to surpass everything above ground.
35:48Artifacts dating to the 1700s, such as a coin from the Knights of St. John and a French cannonball,
35:56hint that the hypogeum may have been exposed, or at least partially known,
36:02long before its official rediscovery in the 20th century.
36:06But, if anyone understood what it was, we have no record of it.
36:12Today, the Halsephliani hypogeum stands as a testament to the ingenuity and imagination
36:18of a society at the dawn of agriculture.
36:23But for all we've uncovered, its artistry, acoustics, and architecture,
36:28much of its meaning remains sealed in stone, buried under the city.
36:34On Kenya's southeastern coast lies Kalifi County,
36:38a region renowned for its dazzling beaches,
36:42spectacular landscapes, and rich biodiversity.
36:46Unlike a lot of northern Kenya, which is quite dry,
36:49this part of the country is humid and tropical,
36:51with lush forests that are home to a wide variety of plant species and wildlife.
36:57It's an ecotourism hotspot.
37:00The coastal areas near the Indian Ocean have sweeping mangrove forests,
37:05important breeding grounds for mollusks, crustaceans, and many species of fish.
37:09They also help protect the coastline from growing sea levels and damaging storms,
37:13and they play a vital part in capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
37:16Just under 10 miles inland are the Ditsoni Uplands,
37:22a series of limestone hills almost two miles wide,
37:26situated in an ecotone, which is a transitional area between two biomes.
37:31In this case, the intersection of grassland savanna and tropical forest.
37:37The hills are packed with natural rock shelters and extensive cave complexes.
37:44One of these complexes is known as Punga Yasaidi,
37:48a multi-chambered cave system that extends over half a mile,
37:52with a cavernous main chamber that reaches 1,100 square feet at its widest.
37:57It's partially unroofed, and the limestone walls tower almost 100 feet above the cave floor in some spots.
38:06In 2010, a team of international researchers arrives at Punga Yasaidi
38:11to investigate the history of Indian Ocean trade along East Africa's coast,
38:16only to discover much more than they bargained for.
38:19They quickly realized after the initial surveys
38:22that the site may be far more scientifically important than they'd initially thought,
38:26and so began a decade-long series of excavations
38:29that may upend long-held beliefs about human evolution in Africa.
38:35They discovered 19 unique stratigraphic layers
38:39showing evidence of human presence going back about 78,000 years.
38:44That is the longest uninterrupted archaeological sequence in East Africa.
38:48That stretches from the Middle Stone Age all the way to about 500 years ago.
38:54One school of thought was that modern human behavior in Africa
38:58began during a somewhat short and sudden burst around 50,000 years ago.
39:03It's known as the Human Revolution Theory,
39:06a time when early Homo sapiens showed a major cognitive leap,
39:10possibly because of a genetic mutation or a change in brain function
39:15resulting in more complex language and abstract thought.
39:19But the archaeological record at Punga Yasaidi
39:23seems to fly in the face of the Human Revolution Theory,
39:27showing evidence of prolonged gradual change
39:31much different from other early human archaeological sites in Africa.
39:36Throughout the excavations,
39:37the researchers discover earths, ash layers,
39:40and man-made features like pits and hollows.
39:43They also found over 30,000 stone artifacts,
39:46which provide this great record of how tool technologies evolve over time.
39:53If you go back to the earliest inhabitants of the cave,
39:56in the Middle Stone Age, like 78,000 to 73,000 years ago,
40:00you see tools that are characterized by these large flakes.
40:04Those people were using variations of what's called the levallois technique,
40:08where you take a big stone and you chip off fragments of it,
40:11and you make sort of a rounded top and a flat bottom,
40:14almost like a turtle shell.
40:17Artifacts at the site from the later Stone Age,
40:19around 67,000 years ago,
40:20show a shift to smaller tools
40:22and a change of material from limestone
40:24to finer-grained quartz or chert.
40:26But what's interesting is that the new tool technologies
40:29did not simply replace the old ones.
40:31Instead, they appear in the same stratigraphic layers,
40:34one dating to roughly between 51,000 and 48,000 years ago,
40:38and again much later, at around 14,000 to 1,000 years ago.
40:42This tells us that the people who inhabited Pangayasayedi
40:46may have been an isolated conservative group
40:50resistant to change,
40:51and that the area was not a focal point of innovation.
40:55So while changes may have been occurring in other parts of Africa,
41:00the people living here were content with their way of life and customs
41:04and saw no need to be influenced
41:06by what was happening in other communities.
41:09But this begs the question,
41:11what was it about Pangayasayedi
41:14that made it such a comfortable refuge?
41:17Analysis of ancient biological material from the site
41:21may just provide some insights.
41:23They found animal teeth and remains
41:25and microscopic traces of plants.
41:28When the data was examined,
41:30it showed that the region around the cave,
41:33the transitional area between grassland savanna
41:36and tropical forest,
41:37remained largely unchanged over the millennia,
41:40which provided the people with a stable supply of resources,
41:44even at times when other areas of Africa
41:47would have been too hostile to sustain life.
41:50One long-held theory holds that innovation in early humans
41:53was mainly caused by having to adapt
41:55to changing climates and environmental conditions.
41:57But that doesn't match the evidence at Pangayasayedi,
42:00because despite not facing stresses induced by their surroundings,
42:03the people here still progressed and evolved,
42:05but didn't do so out of critical necessity.
42:07They did it out of choice.
42:09One of the discoveries that the research team makes
42:12becomes the most important and surprising.
42:15Under the overhang of the cave, roughly 10 feet deep,
42:18they discovered the remains of a child
42:20between 2 1⁄2 and 3 1⁄2 years old.
42:22The body was in a flexed position lying on its right side
42:25with knees drawn towards the chest,
42:28suggesting a shrouded burial.
42:30The position of the head showed signs of collapse,
42:32indicating that a support, possibly a pillow,
42:35may have been there at the time of burial.
42:36The remains are dated to the earliest occupation layer of the site,
42:41roughly 78,000 years ago,
42:44making it the oldest known deliberate human burial in Africa.
42:49It represents not just an early example of funerary practice,
42:53but an important indicator of abstract thought,
42:57cultural nuance, and community care.
43:00And it took place thousands of years
43:04before the proposed human revolution theory
43:06supposedly gripped Africa.
43:10Overall, the discoveries at Pangayasayedi
43:13show that some early humans
43:14engaged in prolonged, gradual technological and social change.
43:19Maybe the people of Pangayasayedi
43:21existed in an isolated, comfortable environment
43:24that allowed them to evolve organically
43:27over a longer period of time.
43:29The picture that emerges
43:30is that at the time of early humans,
43:33Africa was maybe more of a mishmash of distinct cultures,
43:35living in vastly different environments,
43:38not a uniform group of people.
43:40Each culture adapted, innovated, and evolved in unique ways,
43:43but they all contributed to the overall origins
43:46of the human species as we know it today.
43:48Like many significant archaeological discoveries,
43:52Pangayasayedi answers a lot of questions,
43:55but arguably raises even more.
43:57Future excavations may just continue
44:00to further our understanding
44:02of humankind's journey through the millennia.
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