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00:00Below the bustling streets of Seoul, South Korea,
00:04an incredible discovery is made.
00:06Beneath City Star Mall lies a vast chamber
00:10just above the tracks of Subway Line 2.
00:14How does a space like this get constructed
00:16in the middle of the city,
00:17then stay hidden from public view for so long?
00:20What function was it meant to serve?
00:24Excavations beneath a Polish ice cream shop
00:26reveal a medieval grave site.
00:28The first discovery was a limestone slab
00:31carved with the image of a man in full chainmail armor.
00:35So, who was he?
00:36And what can his burial reveal
00:38about the forces that shaped the city at its beginnings?
00:42A remarkable discovery is made under the rubble
00:45of a demolished church in England.
00:48Three portrait busts made of stone.
00:51This site was like an archaeological nesting doll,
00:54each layer presenting a new mystery.
00:58Who put all these items here?
01:01And what was this place?
01:04Below the busy streets of the world's cities
01:07exists a hidden realm of wonder.
01:11Sprawling ancient complexes,
01:13mysterious tombs,
01:17mysterious tombs,
01:18top secret military bases,
01:20strange structures,
01:22and lost artifacts,
01:25buried beneath our feet and long forgotten until now.
01:31Underground marbles are exposed to reveal what lies hidden beneath the cities.
01:39Less than 40 miles from the Yellow Sea,
01:42the city of Seoul is located in South Korea,
01:45which makes up the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.
01:48The Korean Peninsula stretches over 600 miles from north to south,
01:54bordered by China and Russia, with Japan just across a narrow strait.
01:59A position that has made Korea both a cultural bridge and a focal point for rival powers.
02:06Today, South Korea covers over 38,000 square miles,
02:11with more than 52 million people packed into one of the world's most densely populated nations.
02:18In 1910, Japan seized control of Korea, erasing its sovereignty for the next 35 years.
02:27After Japan's surrender to Allied forces in 1945,
02:31Korea was divided into Soviet and American zones of occupation.
02:35Two rival regimes emerged in 1948,
02:39North Korea with its capital in Pyongyang,
02:41and South Korea with its capital in Seoul.
02:44Two years later, the Korean War erupted,
02:47leaving at least two and a half million people dead.
02:51The armistice of 1953 ended the fighting,
02:54but didn't formally end the war.
02:57And the peninsula remains divided to this day.
03:02Devastated by war,
03:03Seoul was rapidly rebuilt as waves of refugees and workers poured in.
03:07In the decades that followed,
03:09South Korea's rise as one of Asia's four tigers
03:12turned the capital into a metropolis of roughly 10 million.
03:16Today, it anchors the nation's political power, economic strength, and cultural life.
03:22In September of 2023,
03:24a hidden underground space beneath Seoul Plaza opens to the public for the first time in 40 years.
03:33Beneath City Star Mall, Seoul's first underground shopping center,
03:37lies a vast chamber.
03:39It's about 43 feet underground, just above the tracks of Subway Line 2,
03:44stretching between two stations, City Hall and Uljiro Wan Ga.
03:49The tunnel measures nearly 1,100 feet long and just over 30 feet wide.
03:55Altogether, it spans over 34,000 square feet.
04:00Above this chamber, there's a drainage system.
04:03And for decades, water has dripped from the ceiling.
04:06Over time, those steady drips have built a stalagmite,
04:10a mineral column that rises from the floor,
04:13gradually building upward as each drop deposits a thin layer of calcium carbonate.
04:20Despite its massive scale, we don't know exactly why this chamber was built.
04:24So, how does a space like this get constructed in the middle of the city,
04:28then stay hidden from public view for so long?
04:30What function was it meant to serve?
04:32In the 1960s and 70s, Seoul became the engine of South Korea's transformation,
04:39as mayors pursued urban planning with the discipline of a wartime campaign.
04:44But this was also a period of escalating tension with North Korea,
04:48when even everyday spaces could be shaped by the logic of defense.
04:53After incidents like the 1976 murders of two U.S. officers
04:58and the discovery of secret infiltration tunnels from the north,
05:02Seoul began building underground shelters
05:04and even designing some public spaces with emergency use in mind.
05:10So, could the chamber beneath Seoul Plaza have been part of that strategy?
05:14Maybe it was a place to protect its citizens or government officials in the event of an attack?
05:21Seoul's explosive population growth drove rapid urbanization and industrial expansion.
05:27Ex-military mayors pushed sweeping redevelopment.
05:31They expanded Seoul's boundaries, built expressways and large-scale apartment complexes,
05:37and created new towns in the cities south, considered safer from attack.
05:42In this era, urban planning wasn't just about establishing a global presence.
05:48It was intertwined with national security.
05:51Tensions between North and South were already high when a new threat emerged underground,
05:57roughly 30 miles north of Seoul Plaza.
06:00In 1978, authorities uncovered the so-called Third Tunnel of Aggression,
06:06the third such passage discovered beneath the demilitarized zone since 1974.
06:12It extended over 1,400 feet into South Korea and was believed to stretch nearly 4,000 feet back into
06:19North Korea.
06:21Carved nearly 240 feet below ground and measuring about 6.5 feet high and wide,
06:27it was large enough for military vehicles, field guns, even tanks.
06:32Experts estimated as many as 30,000 troops could have passed through every hour.
06:38Adding to the tension was the fact that the tunnel opened toward the Monsan Corridor.
06:42That's the same route used by North Korean forces to reach Seoul in 1950.
06:47Back then, the U.S. called it an act of aggression.
06:50But to South Korea, it was just evidence that the North had never really abandoned its policy of reunification by
06:58war.
06:59The discovery also underscored a sobering reality.
07:03The capital, which lies roughly 25 miles from the demilitarized zone,
07:08was still within easy reach of attack.
07:12In that climate, it made sense for Seoul to look underground for its own defenses.
07:18Perhaps the tunnel under Seoul Plaza was part of that response.
07:24In 2005, construction workers in Yuedo, just three and a half miles from Seoul Plaza,
07:30were building a new bus station when they uncovered what looked like a hollow void.
07:37Further investigation revealed it was actually a deliberately built bunker,
07:42reportedly with no official records to explain its existence.
07:46The bunker's layout consists of two zones, a living quarter of over 700 square feet,
07:52complete with a sofa, shower, and bathroom,
07:56and a sprawling machine room covering over 6,000 square feet.
08:01These features suggest that it was intended for a small number of VIPs.
08:06Its construction appears to date to a period of renewed Cold War tension.
08:10Aerial photos from 1977 reveal what seemed to be its doors,
08:15while none were present in images from 1976.
08:19It sits directly beneath the raised platform from which President Park Chung-hee
08:23would watch military parades staged to project South Korea's strength to the north.
08:29And so many believe the bunker was built for him and his bodyguards
08:33as a secure refuge in the event of an attack.
08:36The location and the general vibe of the bunker at Yauido point very clearly to a government function,
08:43but the Seoul Plaza chamber is different.
08:46It's way bigger, it's way less defined, and it's just harder to explain.
08:50There's no evidence to suggest it was built to protect government officials or even civilians,
08:55so maybe we've been barking up the wrong tree altogether.
08:58But if so, what was it built for?
09:01Not all interpretations center on defense.
09:04Some see the chamber as a reflection of South Korea's own political landscape.
09:11The Korean Central Intelligence Agency was once arguably the most powerful institution in South Korea.
09:19Created in 1961 with American support,
09:23one U.S. official described it as a combination of the Gestapo and the Soviet KGB,
09:30reflecting the scale of its authority and methods.
09:34If the agency could dominate politics, intimidate communities abroad,
09:40and operate with such secrecy,
09:43could a hidden chamber in central Seoul have served as part of its operations?
09:49By the early 1970s, the KCIA's reach was absolute.
09:54It was accused of extorting money from businessmen, abducting dissidents,
09:58torturing students on fabricated espionage charges,
10:02and later even engineering the 1987 bombing of a Korean air flight that killed 115 people.
10:09In that climate, the idea that underground facilities might have been built for intelligence use really isn't far-fetched.
10:17Less than a mile away, at the base of Namsan, a scenic tree-covered peak in the heart of Seoul,
10:25the KCIA's operations in their own facility's basement show how subterranean spaces in Seoul have served far darker purposes.
10:33The KCIA headquarters on Namsan opened in 1973, the same year a Seoul National University law professor died while in
10:41the agency's custody.
10:43Officials claimed he had confessed to being a North Korean spy and jumped from a window.
10:49But in the year 2000, South Korea passed a law to honour and in some cases compensate the people who
10:55took part in the country's democracy movement,
10:57creating a commission to review individual claims.
11:00And that commission later concluded that the allegation was fabricated
11:05and that he had most likely been thrown from the building or even tortured to death beforehand.
11:10Possibly the first victim inside the new headquarters.
11:14Namsan soon became synonymous with state repression.
11:19In South Korea's post-war authoritarian years, going to Namsan meant ending up in KCIA custody,
11:28often for involvement in pro-democracy activities where torture was common.
11:34The KCIA's record leaves little doubt about its capacity for secrecy and abuse.
11:39Its power radiated from the Namsan headquarters, while abroad its agents operated through embassies, consulates and front organizations.
11:49But nothing in the public record suggests that it used the vast hidden chamber beneath Seoul Plaza for its operation,
11:55which opens up other possibilities about its true purpose.
11:59The official explanation is the most straightforward and the least sensational.
12:05When Seoul began building its subway in the early 1970s, construction methods were very different from what we see today.
12:12Could the chamber beneath Seoul Plaza simply be a by-product of that process?
12:16The evidence does line up. The chamber lies right between Ujiro-1 Ga and City Hall stations.
12:22And during the construction of Line 2, when it's believed this underground space was created,
12:26crews were digging down from the surface instead of boring a tunnel in from the side, which is how these
12:31things are done today.
12:32So officials believe that when Ujiro-1 Ga station opened in 1983, this leftover space got sealed off and then
12:41just remained hidden for more than four decades.
12:45Over 6,700 miles across the Pacific in Cincinnati, Ohio, a similar underground void tells its own story about a
12:54subway line that never came to be.
12:57In the early 20th century, Cincinnati set out to build a 16-mile rapid transit loop to serve its booming
13:04population.
13:05By 1923, two miles of the subway tunnels were completed to a spot just north of the Western Hills Viaduct
13:13with a short tunnel running beneath Hopple Street as part of the city's grand plan to modernize its transit system.
13:21But costs spiraled after World War I. Funds dried up and planning was scaled back. By 1929, the project was
13:30abandoned.
13:31Tracks were never laid and crucial links to the system never finished. The tunnels were sealed off and ultimately sidelined
13:38by the Mill Creek Expressway, today's I-75.
13:42Over the years, the abandoned subway was reimagined for everything from fallout shelters to underground wineries.
13:49But in the end, it remained what it had always been, a relic of unfinished planning.
13:56The official explanation in Seoul points to leftover subway construction, and it makes sense.
14:00With more than 65% of the land covered by mountains, tunneling has become unavoidable for railroads, freeways, subways, and
14:07the utility networks buried beneath South Korea's cities.
14:10The chamber under Seoul Plaza may simply be one of them, an ordinary remnant of extraordinary infrastructure.
14:17Hidden for decades, the chamber beneath Seoul Plaza is now in plain view.
14:22A reminder that even the most familiar urban landscapes can contain histories we're only just beginning to uncover.
14:33175 miles northwest of Warsaw, where the Vistula River meets the Baltic Sea, Gdansk has endured for centuries as a
14:42city defined by commerce, conquest, and resilience.
14:46In 1260, Gdansk secured municipal autonomy, granting merchants the freedom to expand their trade.
14:53Its position at the mouth of the Vistula made it Poland's main outlet for grain and timber, tying the city
15:01directly into northern Europe's trade routes.
15:04In 1308, the Teutonic Knights seized Gdansk.
15:07Invited east decades earlier, the German Catholic military order had already carved out a state in Prussia with papal and
15:14imperial backing.
15:15Their conquest of the city shifted the balance of power across the Baltic.
15:19From Gdansk, they ruled more than a century until King Casimir IV reclaimed it in 1466 after a 13-year
15:26war.
15:27Casimir restored broad civic privileges, fueling prosperity.
15:32By the 18th century, Gdansk could become the Baltic's leading port, home to 77,000 people and exporting over 200
15:40,000 tons of grain each year.
15:44But even in modern times, the fortunes of Gdansk rose and fell with conflict.
15:50It was remade as the free city of Danzig after World War I, absorbed into Nazi Germany in 1939, reduced
15:58to ruins in 1945, and later rebuilt.
16:02In July of 2025, excavations beneath the site of a former ice cream shop in the center of Gdansk uncovered
16:10traces of a medieval past long hidden beneath the city.
16:14The first discovery was a limestone slab, thought to be a tombstone about 60 inches long, carved with the image
16:22of a man in full chainmail armor.
16:25He's gripping a sword in his right hand, a shield in his left hand, with boots and leggings encasing his
16:33legs.
16:35Monuments of this kind are exceptionally rare from medieval Poland, where tombstones almost never depicted the deceased in such vivid
16:44detail.
16:47The slab was lifted, and after two more days of excavation, they found a coffin below.
16:56Inside lay the skeleton of a man, surrounded by 23 fieldstones carefully arranged in a rectangle.
17:05Preliminary analysis showed that he was about 40 years old at death, and stood between 5'6 and 5'9,
17:12close to the average stature for men in medieval Gdansk.
17:16The grave lies within a larger excavation zone, spanning nearly 11,000 square feet, which has uncovered traces of the
17:22city's earliest history.
17:24Wooden cottages, a 12th century timber street, and Gdansk's first church, built around 1140 in the form of a Greek
17:31cross.
17:31The slab dates to the late 13th or early 14th century.
17:36And even after centuries underground, the outlines of the armor, sword, and shield remain strikingly well preserved.
17:44A monument to a man of clear status, whose identity is lost.
17:49So, who was he? Why was he buried here?
17:52And what can his burial reveal about the forces that shaped the city at its beginnings?
18:00In a city where wealth once flowed through merchant hands, the tomb may reflect the ambitions of a man who
18:07blurred the line between commerce and chivalry.
18:11After the mid-15th century, Gdansk was dominated by a merchant patriciate.
18:16Families who controlled trade, held civic office, and displayed symbols of elite status.
18:23They worked to secure shipping routes, guard against pirates, and manage commerce, competing directly with English and Dutch rivals.
18:33Could this burial belong to one of them?
18:36The slab itself is a major clue.
18:39It was carved from Gotland limestone, an expensive material that was imported from the Swedish island at the heart of
18:47Baltic exchange.
18:49That kind of stone would have reached Gdansk through trade routes, suggesting that the man in this grave had direct
18:56access to the networks of the ruling merchant class.
19:00Over 800 miles northwest on the Scottish island of Unst, another site shows how merchants marked their presence far from
19:07home.
19:08In the chapel ruins at Lundevik, a weathered imported slab still honors a German merchant who traded there for more
19:14than half a century.
19:16Its inscription lists his name, city, and profession, a grave that doubles as a statement of mercantile identity.
19:22In Gdansk, the pattern is different.
19:25The night's effigy bears no merchant seal, no inscription, no mark of trade, only the imagery of sword, shield, and
19:33armor.
19:34Nearly 115 miles south of Gdansk, in the Kujavia region of north-central Poland, archaeologists uncovered a cemetery of several
19:44dozen chamber graves dating to the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
19:48Four rows of graves contained the remains of 14 men, 21 women, and 14 children.
19:56Each lay within a wooden box reinforced by iron fittings and lined with fabric, with some graves marked by larger
20:04rectangular enclosures that may have been fences or houses of the dead.
20:10Alongside them, richly furnished cenotaphs added further evidence of high status.
20:17These burials were filled with remarkable items.
20:22Weapons, jewelry, coins, and ornaments of high quality.
20:26Women were laid to rest with necklaces of glass beads, gold foil beads, precious stones, and silver.
20:32Two silver amulet containers, one engraved with a bird, stand out as truly spectacular finds.
20:39The discovery of silk fragments, likely brought from as far away as China, shows just how far the community's trade
20:48connections reached.
20:50Weapons in the men's graves, Viking swords, a pickaxe, and single-edged Langsax blades, which were long, straight-edged knives
20:57used in battle and as markers of status, reveal a warrior elite whose funeral rites and equipment marked them as
21:03high-status settlers.
21:06The most striking case is a young man buried with a silver inlaid ceremonial sword, bearing a rurikid tamga, a
21:13symbol of the noble lineage that ruled the land of the Rus, which is evidence of far-reaching ties.
21:18At this site, we see evidence of trade connections, where wealth was displayed through weapons, ornaments, and foreign imports.
21:26But in Gdansk, there are no weapons, no jewelry, no silks, only the carved image of a knight.
21:32That absence makes it less likely he was a wealthy merchant, and instead opens the possibility that his identity was
21:40defined in other ways.
21:42Long before merchants and crusaders left their mark on Gdansk, power rested in the hands of a native dynasty.
21:49The Sobiswa dynasty emerged in Gdansk in the 12th and 13th century, ruling for nearly a century.
21:57Its founder began as a governor, but from 1227, his heirs styled themselves as dukes, princes in their own right.
22:07Could this have been a duke of their dynasty?
22:12Excavations around the slab uncovered layers of early settlement.
22:17Timber cottages, a street built from 18 successive layers of wood, and nearly 300 burials.
22:24Only eight of those graves had stone markers, and the knights was by far the most elaborate.
22:29That distinction suggests an elite rank in a modest cemetery, consistent with a dynastic identity.
22:37Most members of the Sobiswa dynasty were buried in a monastery they found at Oliva.
22:43But their original graves were destroyed several times by fire and war.
22:47That loss makes the Gdansk effigy all the more significant.
22:51If it belonged to one of their princes, it could be the earliest authentic ducal monument still tied to the
22:58dynasty.
22:59In 2018, a burial chest was discovered hidden in a storeroom walled up inside St. Stephen's Church
23:06at the Czech city of Olomuz Herodisko Monastery, around 330 miles southwest of Gdansk.
23:13Decorated with elaborate artwork, it held the skeletal remains of seven members of the Shemishly dynasty.
23:20These were princes and princesses who ruled Bohemia and Moravia from the 9th to 14th centuries.
23:25Their identities were confirmed only after DNA and radiocarbon testing.
23:31The Sobiswa princes of Gdansk belonged to the same medieval world,
23:36and both groups' original tombs have been destroyed over time by disaster or conflict.
23:43But in Gdansk, the difficulty is twofold.
23:46The effigy bears no name or inscription, and it lies outside the dynasty's known necropolis of Oliva.
23:56Its stark military imagery may instead hint at another power that would soon dominate the city.
24:03The tombstone may reflect status, but its stark simplicity could connect to Gdansk's most infamous occupiers.
24:12After a campaign of expansion, the Teutonic Order carved out a militarized state in Prussia.
24:18In 1308, the Teutonic Knights seized Gdansk in a brutal massacre, placing the city under their rule.
24:25Could the man in this grave have once belonged to their ranks?
24:29The conquest of 1308 gave the order direct control over eastern Pomerania.
24:33From Gdansk, they expanded deeper into Prussia, building castles, churches, and monasteries.
24:39A high-status burial from this moment of transition would fit within the order's sudden violent presence in the city.
24:45In the early 14th century, Teutonic Knights in Gdansk swore vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
24:52A lone stone tool marked with martial symbolism but devoid of goods is exactly what we might expect of their
24:59burials.
25:02The order also drew guest crusaders from across Europe.
25:06Nobles would join seasonal crusading campaigns known as racing against Poland and Lithuania.
25:14Many would have died on campaign far from their homelands.
25:18With so many foreign knights passing through Gdansk, it is possible that one was buried here.
25:25Less than 30 miles southeast of Gdansk, in Malbork, the Teutonic order built its greatest fortress, Malbork Castle.
25:34Beneath it, the Chapel of St. Anne shows how they buried their most powerful men.
25:39The Chapel of St. Anne was likely built in the 14th century as the burial place for the grand masters
25:45of the Teutonic order.
25:47Dietrich von Altenburg was the first grand master to be interred beneath his floor in 1341.
25:53Ten of his successors were buried here too, making it the order's symbolic necropolis.
26:00Ordinary night burials were very different.
26:03The Teutonic rule banned personal seals, coats of arms, and ostentatious monuments.
26:08Even clothing and equipment were tightly regulated.
26:10Against that discipline, a solitary effigy with only military imagery fits.
26:16Not a grand master celebrated in ritual, but perhaps a single knight remembered in the simplest way.
26:22Researchers are scanning the effigy in 3D and testing the bones through chemical and genetic analysis,
26:29aiming to uncover who this knight was and how he lived.
26:33They even plan a facial reconstruction from the skull, so the so-called Gdansk Lancelot may soon be seen as
26:41he once appeared in life.
26:43Beneath the streets of Gdansk, the carved tomb of the knight carries the weight of a city's beginnings.
26:49A trace of power preserved, but never fully explained.
26:57In southern England, just outside Greater London, is the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire.
27:05This part of Britain has seen centuries of human history.
27:08People have found evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation across Buckinghamshire.
27:16A hill fort at Ivinghoe Beacon was likely occupied long before the Romans ever invaded.
27:22But after that invasion, Rome began construction on Watling Road,
27:27which would ultimately connect this whole region to what would later become London.
27:33Buckinghamshire's more recent history highlights British determination and perseverance.
27:38In World War II, it was here that the Allied codebreakers managed to crack the German Enigma codes,
27:44which helped bring the war to a close much sooner.
27:48But it hasn't always been easy for Buckinghamshire to hang on to its physical history.
27:53One building lost to the past is St. Mary's Church in the village of Stoke Mandeville.
27:59Demolished in 1966, St. Mary's rubble sits undisturbed until 2021,
28:04when the city must make room for a new national high-speed railway.
28:09But prior to its removal, researchers conducting a routine archaeological survey of the site
28:15discover much more than they bargained for.
28:18Beneath the foundation of the church, another structure emerged from the earth and rock.
28:23There were the foundations of a smaller, square-shaped building, possibly a tower of some kind.
28:31When the surrounding ditch was excavated, some incredible artifacts were unearthed.
28:37Three portrait busts made of stone.
28:41This site was like an archaeological nesting doll, each layer presenting a new mystery.
28:48The busts depict an adult male, an adult female, and an additional head that seems to be that of a
28:54young child.
28:55But what's weird is that the adult busts appear to have been decapitated before they were buried.
29:02There are clean breaks at the necks.
29:05And there's something else.
29:07The remnants of a hexagonal jug made of glass.
29:12Who put all these items here, and what was this place?
29:18The St. Mary's site is a multi-layered discovery,
29:22with each stratum offering its own piece of British history.
29:26We know that St. Mary's was built in 1080 CE, shortly after the Norman Conquest.
29:33But the style of the busts are indicative of early Roman sculpture,
29:37dating them sometime between the 1st and 5th century.
29:41During this time, the region was dotted with large Roman farming estates.
29:46Agriculture was a major driver of the economy.
29:48The nearby Roman town of Maggiovinium may have been the location of a garrison and a Roman fort.
29:56Maggiovinium also shows evidence of multiple cemeteries.
29:59People likely came here to bury their dead.
30:02But the shards of the hexagonal glass jug complicate the historical picture.
30:07Jugs like this were often used as funerary vessels for flasks of holy oil.
30:12So, what's it doing here?
30:14Why was this vessel buried in a ditch alongside these Roman sculptures?
30:19Approximately 50 miles from the St. Mary's site in Kent, near the town of Einsford,
30:25is the Lullingstone Villa residence,
30:27where similar high-quality portrait sculptures were discovered in 1949 by GW Meads and others.
30:34The Lullingstone residence had two busts made of marble, possibly depicting a man and his father,
30:40and they were found in the building's so-called cult room.
30:44So, maybe the sculptures under St. Mary's had a similar spiritual meaning.
30:49The stone busts were likely commissioned by someone of great wealth and influence,
30:53which further supports the notion that many Roman inhabitants from this area were from an affluent class.
31:00These are families that could afford a statue carved by skilled artisans,
31:04like the ones found under St. Mary's.
31:07But why would a private residence be built on top of this natural mound of dirt?
31:13So far, nothing has tied these busts or the glass vessel directly to a neighboring villa.
31:18The remnants of plaster and the roof tiles suggest
31:21that the busts and the glass were likely buried during a demolition.
31:25But a demolition of what?
31:29The building's location may be the key to understanding its purpose.
31:34Natural mounds were the go-to locations for ancient peoples
31:38when it came to choosing a burial site or ceremonial center.
31:42The circular ditch surrounding the site is also a common trait of an Iron Age Temenos,
31:48an enclosure that was designed to separate the outside world from a sacred location.
31:54It's not hard to imagine this site being repurposed under Roman authority as a temple for pagan rituals.
32:02The busts in this context could be deities or they could be family portraits of the temple's wealthy patrons.
32:10As Christianity spread, the temple may have been destroyed along with the statues and the glass vessel.
32:15That could explain the seemingly ritualistic severing of the stone heads
32:20that may have been a way to neutralize a symbol of power.
32:24In 1979, about 65 miles away from the dig at St. Mary's,
32:29in the village of Uli in Gloucester,
32:31a cult statue from the second century was pulled from the ruins of a temple built to honor the Roman
32:37god Mercury.
32:38The limestone bust, which was a portrait of Mercury, had its nose and lips damaged in antiquity,
32:45but the head itself was found deliberately buried,
32:48which could have happened once the temple had been shuttered or demolished.
32:52This ritual burial of artifacts is called a structured deposition.
32:56It was common for Christian churches to be built on top of former temples,
33:01a signal to all that a new faith had taken root in the community and supplanted the old one.
33:06In the case of the St. Mary's site, the Norman church was built directly on top of the Roman rubble,
33:12with no intervening soil in between.
33:15Demolition of the Roman structure appears to have been followed almost immediately
33:19by the construction of the church.
33:22The surrounding ditch does strongly suggest this was a sacred site for the Romans.
33:28But the realistic style of portraiture that we see in these three busts
33:32is more characteristic of a commemorative statue than a spiritual idol.
33:38So yes, this was likely a sacred space, but for what?
33:43There was another discovery within the Roman rubble that suggests this mysterious building had a special purpose.
33:50Within all the dust and debris, the excavation unearthed a bunch of Roman cremation urns.
33:57Those items suggest that the Roman church was built on top of a Roman mausoleum.
34:04Again, the severing of the heads on these busts is very symbolic.
34:08Within the context of the mausoleum, these decapitations could tell a story of a family undone by the fall of
34:15Roman Britain.
34:16While there's no evidence of any formal inhumations present at the site,
34:21the urns suggest that cremation was the primary funerary ritual here.
34:26And the family depicted in the stone portraits were likely the occupants of the tomb.
34:32There are still questions.
34:34Who were this man, woman and child?
34:37If they represent a family, we can infer a lot about their wealth and social status.
34:42But we still don't know their identities.
34:45Without any inscription, they remain anonymous.
34:49The incoming high-speed railway is but the latest chapter in the ongoing story of the multi-layered historical site
34:57beneath St. Mary's Church.
34:59One that may still contain hidden secrets from the past.
35:05In the eastern end of Los Angeles, California, about seven miles southeast of Hollywood, is the historic neighborhood of Lincoln
35:13Heights.
35:14Lincoln Heights is the oldest suburb of Los Angeles.
35:18In the late 1800s, one of the city's first horse-drawn streetcars ran through its streets.
35:24Due to the neighborhood's proximity to downtown, early residents here were primarily commuters.
35:29But Lincoln Heights quickly grew into a community of its own, attracting manufacturing companies and establishing both a nearby hospital
35:37and a library.
35:39In the early 20th century, Lincoln Heights had numerous attractions that made it a destination for Angelenos.
35:45Families could visit Lincoln Park, one of the oldest parks in the city, and other amusements like a merry-go
35:51-round and miniature railroad.
35:54Animal exhibits were definitely a major draw here.
35:57The Selig Zoo near the park preceded the Los Angeles Zoo by 50 years.
36:03Lincoln Heights also featured the California Alligator Farm and even something called the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm.
36:09In 1931, planning is underway for an orchard on Lincoln Heights' flat top hill.
36:16And a plumber at the site discovers something unusual while digging a trench for the irrigation system.
36:22It looked like a vertebra from some kind of very big creature.
36:27So, a team from the Natural History Museum was brought in to investigate.
36:32They found a significant number of bones buried under the ground.
36:36The remains included a large skull and lower jaw, a left shoulder blade, and a series of 22 vertebrae.
36:43What was this thing?
36:443,000 pounds of bones and sediment are removed from the pit for further study.
36:51And using a process called relative dating, the rock layers in which the skeleton was entombed are used to determine
36:58the age of the fossil.
37:00This area was part of what's called the Modelo Formation, which dates to the middle to late Miocene epoch, between
37:078 and 16 million years ago.
37:10Cross-referencing this data with other fossils from California, it was determined this animal arrived at its final resting place
37:18over 10 million years ago.
37:19This era was defined by cooler global temperatures after the warmer early Miocene.
37:26It was a volatile period in the planet's history, with dramatic geological changes caused by shifting tectonic plates.
37:33Tropical forests declined while grasslands expanded.
37:38Geological studies of the Modelo Formation show that it was submerged in the ocean during this period at a depth
37:44of about 3,200 feet.
37:47The fossilized remains are sent for laboratory analysis, and the results leave researchers stunned.
37:54They're from a previously undiscovered species of whale.
37:57This incredible specimen is what's called a holotype, meaning it's the only one of its kind anywhere in the world.
38:04It was given the name Myxocesus Elysius, which was a reference to the creature's whale-like features and the geological
38:10layer it was found in, the Elysian Park sandstone.
38:13Based on the measurements of the skull and vertebrae, it's estimated this whale was approximately 32 feet long.
38:21During this period, it would have been one of the largest in the world.
38:24So its discovery raised a couple of key questions.
38:27How did an animal of this size end up under the slopes of Flat Top Hill in Lincoln Heights?
38:33And how did this creature die?
38:36One of the most terrifying sea monsters from prehistoric times was a giant shark known as Megalodon.
38:42Sometimes 60 feet in length and weighing as much as 50 tons, the Megalodon was the largest shark that ever
38:49lived.
38:51It dominated the ocean as the apex predator of its era.
38:56So, could the Lincoln whale have been a victim of a Megalodon attack?
39:01Other whale fossil discoveries suggest this could be a possibility.
39:05In 2022, fossilized whale vertebrae recovered along the Maryland shores of the Chesapeake Bay showed evidence of a massive compression
39:15fracture.
39:16The fossils were estimated to be about 15 million years old.
39:21And evidence showed that the whale's backbone had been forcibly bent into a tight curve that caused one of the
39:28vertebrae to smash into another one.
39:31That might actually be a predation injury.
39:35And what might have caused that?
39:36Well, helpfully, the tooth of a Megalodon was found with the remains.
39:41In fact, it was touching one of the vertebrae.
39:44So, is that what killed our whale?
39:47Sharks use a variety of techniques to disable their prey.
39:50So, if a Megalodon had chosen the Lincoln Heights whale as its prey, it could have used one of several
39:55methods,
39:56including ramming it from below or biting off its tail flukes or pectoral fins,
40:00neither of which were found with the fossil.
40:03The skull of the Lincoln Heights whale did show some trauma near the jawbone.
40:08But a 2024 report from the Natural History Museum stated there was no evidence of any Megalodon teeth in the
40:16whale's skull, vertebrae, or shoulder bones.
40:19Yes, a Megalodon could have overcome the whale without biting it,
40:23but there's simply no concrete proof that the Lincoln Heights whale encountered a giant shark.
40:29If the whale wasn't annihilated by a vicious predator, it may have been the victim of a silent killer.
40:35Some of the most insidious and lethal life forms on the California coast are harmful algae blooms, or HAB.
40:43The single-celled algae, pseudonychia, produce a deadly toxin that can attack the central nervous system of marine mammals.
40:50Those who ingest the algae can experience seizures, disorientation, fatigue, and ultimately death from neurological damage or drowning.
40:59The Cerro Balena fossil site in Chile's Atacama Desert is a strong point of comparison.
41:05About 40 fossilized prehistoric whale skeletons from the late Miocene lay among remains from seals and other marine vertebrates.
41:12The four distinct layers of fossils were attributed to recurring mass die-offs, resulting from the presence of large-scale
41:19harmful algae blooms.
41:21Studying an area like Cerro Balena, with multiple fossils deposited over many millions of years,
41:27allows for a much more robust theory to develop around a mass death.
41:31But evidence of one whale carcass is much less conclusive.
41:35Ultimately, it may be next to impossible to uncover physical or chemical evidence on the Lincoln Heights fossil that proves
41:42it had ingested toxic algae.
41:44The greatest threat to the whale may have been the volatile habitat along the California coast.
41:51During the middle to late Miocene period, the tectonic plates under California were undergoing an incredible transformation.
41:59The Los Angeles basin was especially active, making catastrophic submarine landslides a frequent occurrence.
42:07Paleontologists believe that after the whale perished, it was buried in a violent underwater landslide,
42:12which would have immediately concealed the carcass from large scavengers and helped preserve it for millennia.
42:19In 1976, a baleen whale fossil from the Miocene period, excavated in Poland, was reported to have been found in
42:27a similar state of preservation.
42:30Its death was attributed to rapid burial by quickly accumulating sediment.
42:34This supports the theory that the Lincoln Heights whale could have died from a turbulent undersea event.
42:39The Modelo Formation, in which the whale fossil was found, is largely made up of sediments deposited by currents in
42:45the deep sea environment.
42:47Over the subsequent 11 million years, great shifts in tectonic pressure along the California coast raised the seabed by 500
42:55feet,
42:56pushing it 20 miles inland to form the hills of Los Angeles, where the Lincoln Heights whale would eventually be
43:03found.
43:05California's shifting geological forces may help explain the whale's death and unusual burial, but many unanswered questions remain.
43:14While it's possible the Lincoln Heights whale was subsumed by a geological event, the true cause of death remains a
43:21mystery.
43:22Old age, disease or starvation may have played a factor in its demise.
43:28More discoveries of any fossil from the Modelo Formation is going to help paint a clearer picture of what life
43:35was like before this whale ever died.
43:37One of the biggest unknowns is why this whale fossil remains the only specimen of its species ever discovered.
43:43With future excavations, additional discoveries will hopefully help us better study the animal, its habitat, and its history during the
43:50Miocene.
43:51For now, Mixocetus Elysius is one of one, a single piece of a larger historical puzzle that has yet to
44:00be fully understood.
44:01Procedure is one of one, a single piece of a major and a half- compartmentalized soul memTIVE,
44:01That's what nature means to be found in the world.
44:01The world is completely full- từ true.
44:01In high- bends and some places that are about the earth to be found alive.
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