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Expedition Files Season 4 Episode 6
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00:00And the location of his burial remained a mystery, until now.
00:06Then, as the Cold War burns hot, a top-secret U.S. government program attempts to spy on the enemy
00:13using the power of the mind.
00:15But were the abilities of these so-called psychic spies real or just science fiction?
00:22We declassify the jaw-dropping truth.
00:28And, in ancient Rome, Spartacus is a legendary slave-turned-gladiator who sparks a rebellion, bringing the nation to its
00:38knees.
00:39But did he really exist?
00:42New archaeological findings shed light on the man behind the myth.
00:50In the corridors of time
00:54are mysteries that defy explanation.
00:58Now, I'm traveling through history itself
01:04on a search for the truth.
01:08New evidence.
01:11Shocking answers.
01:14I'm Josh Gates.
01:17And these...
01:19are my Expedition Files.
01:25I've been lucky enough to travel to 117 countries.
01:29But some of the best places I've ever been aren't out there.
01:32They're up here.
01:34Arrakis,
01:35The Shire,
01:35Diagon Alley.
01:36All completely fictitious.
01:38All made real by a brilliant book plus our own brilliant imaginations.
01:43But the thing is,
01:44powerful fiction is still inspired by powerful facts.
01:48Whether it was Tolkien's time in the trenches for Lord of the Rings,
01:51or Frank Herbert hitting those magic mushrooms to create Dune.
01:55And tonight,
01:56we search for the facts behind some other equally epic fiction.
02:00Investigating three iconic stories to find the truth behind the tale.
02:05We begin in the year 1462 in the forests of Carpathia.
02:10In time,
02:11this will be part of Romania.
02:13But in this century,
02:14it's known as Transylvania.
02:16And here's the man in charge around here,
02:19Prince Vlad III,
02:20also known as Vlad Tepes and Vlad the Impaler.
02:24He's currently leading a military campaign against the invading Ottoman Empire,
02:28which has resulted in thousands of his enemies dead by...
02:32Well,
02:33you get the idea.
02:33This very real man is said to go on to become the inspiration
02:37for one of fiction's most infamous vampires,
02:40because his other name is Vlad Dracula.
02:43But while the monster becomes iconic,
02:46curiously,
02:47we know very little about the man himself.
02:49We don't know how he died or where he was buried.
02:53But 600 years from now,
02:55new discoveries may allow us to come face to face
02:58with the real Dracula.
03:10Vlad III is born in the winter of 1431 in Sigishwara,
03:15in the region of Transylvania,
03:17then part of the Kingdom of Hungary.
03:19Vlad belongs to a ruling family of Wallachia,
03:22a brutal 15th century borderland caught between Hungary and the expanding Ottoman Empire.
03:28Vlad's father is the ruler of Wallachia and member of the Order of the Dragon,
03:34a Christian brotherhood sworn to keep the Ottomans at bay.
03:37His membership perk?
03:39A fearsome new title,
03:41Dracul,
03:42which makes Vlad III Dracula,
03:45quite literally,
03:46the son of the dragon.
03:48And the rest of Vlad's childhood appropriately reads like the origin story of a monster.
03:56As a boy,
03:57Vlad is hauled off as a hostage by his father's enemy,
04:00the Ottoman Turks.
04:02But while Vlad is a prisoner of the Ottomans,
04:06Wallachia's other great enemy,
04:07the Hungarians,
04:08decide to strike,
04:10assassinating Vlad's father and brother.
04:15With his dad gone,
04:17Vlad assumes the throne of Wallachia in 1448.
04:21But that only lasts for two months before he's forced out in a coup led by rival nobles.
04:28Vlad then spends the next eight years in exile,
04:31sharpening his grudges against the Ottomans,
04:34the Hungarians,
04:35the Wallachians,
04:37frankly,
04:37anyone who will stand in his way.
04:41By 1456,
04:42Vlad is done waiting.
04:44He returns to Wallachia with an army to retake his throne by any means necessary.
04:50He's brutally successful.
05:04Vlad's first order of business is settling scores with those who he feels had betrayed his family.
05:12Accounts say he invites hundreds of local aristocrats to a grand feast,
05:17framing it as a gesture of peace.
05:19Then he has them arrested.
05:22The Lucky are sent to toil as forced laborers.
05:26The Unlucky are executed,
05:28in what becomes Vlad's signature style,
05:31impalement.
05:33A sharpened stake driven through the body,
05:35leaving victims to die slowly.
05:37Their corpses are left skewered,
05:40a forest of warnings to anyone who dares defy him.
05:44The fearsome nickname,
05:46Vlad the Impaler,
05:47spreads throughout the land.
05:50Meanwhile,
05:52Vlad's enemies,
05:52the Ottoman Empire,
05:54push west towards his territory,
05:56spreading their Islamic regime.
05:59In response,
06:00the Pope calls for a new crusade,
06:02to protect Christian territory that includes Vlad's.
06:06Eager for revenge against his former captors,
06:09the Impaler seizes the moment.
06:13When the Ottomans march into Wallachia,
06:15Vlad strikes back with scorched earth fury,
06:18raiding camps,
06:19poisoning wells,
06:20and yes,
06:21impaling thousands.
06:26The savagery works.
06:28The Ottomans pull back,
06:30and Europe hails Vlad as a defender of the Christian faith,
06:33a hero to some,
06:35a nightmare to others.
06:38Vlad's brutal tactics become the stuff of legend.
06:42One commonly repeated tale claims he dined among the impaled,
06:46dipping his bread in their blood.
06:49Now,
06:49we should be clear,
06:50much of what we know about these stories comes from enemy propaganda,
06:55pamphlets from the late 1400s.
06:57In Romania itself,
06:59Vlad is today considered a national hero,
07:02a brave leader who defended his country from foreign invaders.
07:06So the line between fact and fear-mongering is blurry.
07:11The story of Vlad's death is similarly debatable.
07:15Even the year,
07:161476,
07:17or maybe 1477,
07:19some say he fell in battle.
07:21Others claim he was betrayed by his own men.
07:26Another tale says his severed head was sent to the Ottoman sultan as a trophy.
07:33As for his body,
07:34his final resting place has never been found.
07:38But just as the man becomes lost in the shadows,
07:42the monster takes center stage.
07:44In 1897,
07:45Irish author Bram Stoker writes the novel Dracula,
07:48inspired at least in part by Vlad the Impaler.
07:53While writing the novel,
07:55Stoker dives into Eastern European lore.
07:58In an 1820 history book,
08:00he finds mention of Vlad III as Dracula,
08:04son of the dragon.
08:05The name is exotic,
08:07mysterious,
08:09terrifying.
08:10Stoker scraps his original villain,
08:12Count Vampyr,
08:14and instead christens him
08:15Count Dracula.
08:17From there,
08:18Stoker pulls details from Vlad III's life
08:21to shape Count Dracula's backstory.
08:23His role as a ruthless warlord,
08:26the Transylvanian setting,
08:27and his battles with the Ottoman Turks.
08:31Meanwhile,
08:32the mythical side of Stoker's tale
08:34comes from his deep dive
08:35into centuries-old vampire folklore
08:38in Eastern Europe.
08:40In the Middle Ages,
08:42long before science could explain disease and decay,
08:44villagers sometimes exhumed the dead,
08:48fearing those who lived evil lives
08:50died with unfinished business
08:52and might rise again.
08:54When the graves were opened,
08:56some bodies showed bloated faces,
08:59darkened skin,
09:00and blood at the mouth,
09:01natural signs of decomposition
09:03that villagers misinterpreted
09:05as proof the dead had returned
09:07to feed on the living.
09:09To stop them,
09:10communities resorted to brutal measures.
09:14Archaeologists have since uncovered
09:16anti-vampire burials throughout Europe,
09:19skeletons nailed to the ground with stakes,
09:22others with bricks or metal
09:24forced into their mouths
09:25to prevent biting.
09:28Several years ago,
09:29I explored these practices myself,
09:32working alongside archaeologists
09:34at a dig site in Bulgaria.
09:37Amazing.
09:38So this is the metal.
09:40And what is it exactly?
09:41It's a plowshare,
09:42the tool that local people use
09:44to plow the ground.
09:45So this is something that was done
09:47after the person died,
09:48this was then driven into them?
09:50Definitely it happened after death,
09:51and it shows evidence
09:52that this is a ritual
09:53preventing this person
09:55from becoming a vampire.
09:57These real-world horror stories
10:00gave Stoker's Dracula its fangs.
10:03But not all Dracula legends
10:05are rooted in medieval folklore.
10:08One of the most iconic,
10:10the bat,
10:11is a later invention.
10:13Drawing on reports
10:14of blood-sucking bats in the Americas,
10:16first documented in the 16th century,
10:19Graham Stoker fused this image
10:21with Vlad's fearsome reputation
10:23to create his infamous monster.
10:27Since the late 1800s,
10:29Dracula has sunk his teeth
10:31into popular culture
10:32like almost no other character.
10:34The Count has starred in stage plays,
10:37silent films,
10:38blockbuster movies and TV shows,
10:40comic books,
10:41even breakfast cereal.
10:42But behind the legend
10:44lies an unsettling mystery,
10:46the fate of the real man
10:47who inspired it,
10:49Vlad the Impaler,
10:50For centuries,
10:52historians have disagreed
10:54on how he died
10:55and where he's buried.
10:56Now,
10:57a modern-day search
10:58has uncovered new evidence
10:59that may finally lead
11:01to Vlad's long-lost remains
11:03and the secrets
11:04buried with them.
11:11For centuries,
11:12the final resting place
11:13of Vlad the Impaler,
11:15the ruthless ruler
11:16whose reign of terror
11:17helped inspire
11:18the legend of Dracula
11:19has been a mystery.
11:21Now, Dr. Anne DeLong,
11:23professor of British
11:24and Gothic literature
11:25and editor of the
11:26Journal of Dracula Studies,
11:28follows the trail of clues
11:29that may finally lead
11:31to Vlad's lost grave.
11:33The fact that there
11:34is no clear trail
11:36to Vlad's death
11:37or to his burial site
11:39is a bit strange,
11:40particularly considering
11:41his status today
11:44as a hero
11:45of Romanian history.
11:47For many years,
11:48popular tradition
11:49believed that Vlad the Impaler
11:51was buried
11:52in a monastery
11:52in Romania.
11:53One of those
11:54is the Snagov Monastery,
11:56a site that was connected
11:58to Vlad's family.
12:00On a small island
12:02north of Bucharest,
12:03Snagov Monastery
12:04has long been linked
12:06to Vlad the Impaler's fate.
12:0816th century accounts
12:09claimed he died
12:10in battle nearby
12:11and was buried there.
12:12For generations,
12:13locals pointed
12:14to a plain stone slab
12:16inside the church
12:17as his hidden grave,
12:18a humble marker
12:19for a man
12:20with a monster-sized legend.
12:23The monastery
12:24at Snagov
12:25was excavated
12:27in 1933
12:27in order to search
12:29for remains of Vlad.
12:31The tomb turned out
12:32to be completely empty
12:35except for animal bones.
12:37That's led some historians
12:39to look elsewhere,
12:40like Comana Monastery,
12:42a fortress-like church
12:43Vlad founded
12:44during his reign.
12:46The Comana Monastery
12:48is closer to the site
12:49where he is believed
12:50to have died.
12:51It makes more logical sense
12:53that he would have been moved
12:54to a closer monastery.
12:58But excavations at Comana
12:59in the 1970s
13:01discovered no proof of Vlad.
13:03In the end,
13:03no grave site
13:04for the Impaler
13:05has ever been discovered
13:06in Romania,
13:07leading some to the theory
13:08that Vlad was buried
13:09somewhere else.
13:11In 2014,
13:12there's a fascinating
13:13new development.
13:14A team of Italian researchers
13:16identified a curious tomb
13:17at the church
13:18of Santa Maria Lenova
13:20in Naples,
13:21featuring ominous engravings
13:22and what some claim
13:23to be a coded inscription
13:25of letters and symbols.
13:29Some historians believe
13:30that Vlad's remains
13:31ended up in Naples,
13:33which is where his daughter lived,
13:34and some have suggested
13:36that she sent for the body,
13:37then was able to memorialize him
13:40where she lived
13:41and presumably be buried
13:42with him also.
13:43Supporters of the theory
13:44point to details
13:45carved into the tomb's facade,
13:47an ornate dragon
13:48and a knight's helmet,
13:50symbols that could reference
13:51the order of the dragon
13:53to which Vlad's father belonged.
13:55Behind the tomb lies
13:56an epigraph
13:57that has yet to be
13:58fully deciphered,
13:59but two translated words,
14:01Vlad and Balkans,
14:02have fueled speculation
14:04that it may be connected
14:05to Vlad the Impaler,
14:07raising the possibility
14:08that this is his long-lost grave
14:10more than a thousand miles
14:12from the land he once ruled.
14:14Skeptics argue
14:15that the tomb
14:16may simply belong
14:17to a noble Neapolitan family
14:19who adopted similar symbols
14:21to reflect their status
14:22and religious devotion,
14:23but that hasn't stopped
14:25the church from embracing
14:26its newfound celebrity
14:27as the possible resting place
14:29of Dracula.
14:31Researchers have asked
14:32for permission
14:33to investigate the tomb
14:34to find out for sure,
14:36but legal and ethical obstacles
14:38mean it could be years
14:39before we have
14:40a definitive answer.
14:42And Vlad's alleged tomb
14:44in Naples
14:45isn't the only recent
14:46Dracula news
14:47to come out of Italy.
14:48In August of 2023,
14:50Italian scientists examined
14:52centuries-old letters
14:53attributed to Vlad the Impaler.
14:55They detected
14:56microscopic protein traces
14:58that may have been left
14:59on the paper
15:00by his hands.
15:01These proteins are linked
15:02to a rare condition
15:03called hemalacria,
15:05which can cause
15:06a person's tear ducts
15:07to bleed.
15:08If true,
15:09it means the man
15:10who inspired Dracula
15:11may have literally
15:12wept blood.
15:13That doesn't make him
15:14a vampire,
15:16but it's not going to help me
15:17sleep any better
15:18tonight either.
15:23It's 1979.
15:25That's a Soviet military base
15:27somewhere near
15:28the Arctic Circle.
15:29American intelligence
15:30suspects they're building
15:31a new aircraft carrier here,
15:33but can't confirm it
15:34because the CIA
15:35has no agents
15:36on the inside.
15:38Or do they?
15:42Nearly 5,000 miles away
15:44in a windowless room
15:45at Fort Meade, Maryland.
15:47A new kind of operative
15:48is at work.
15:49The psychic spy.
15:51Agents who claim
15:52they can see anywhere
15:53on Earth at any time,
15:55using nothing
15:55but their minds.
15:57The U.S. government
15:58will pour millions
15:59into Project Stargate
16:00until,
16:01after decades of operation,
16:03it's labeled a failure
16:04and shuttered.
16:05But 50 years
16:07after its inception,
16:08former members
16:09of this top-secret initiative
16:10will speak out
16:11and declassified documents
16:13will emerge.
16:14What they reveal
16:15is nothing short
16:16of mind-blowing.
16:26The story of Project Stargate
16:28may sound like science fiction,
16:30but according to Joe McMoneagle,
16:32it's all too real.
16:35In 1978,
16:36he's a 32-year-old officer
16:38in the Army's
16:39Signal Intelligence Program.
16:43He says he's invited
16:44to interview for a position
16:45with physicist Hal Puthoff,
16:47head of a new
16:48top-secret military operation.
16:52You served in Vietnam, correct?
16:54Yes, sir.
16:56Midway through the meeting,
16:57McMoneagle gets a question
16:59he never expected.
17:00Have you ever experienced
17:02anything called
17:02a paranormal event?
17:05He hesitates,
17:07but then decides
17:07to answer truthfully.
17:09Well, actually...
17:13He tells Puthoff
17:15about a night at a bar
17:16with his wife and a friend
17:17when he suddenly feels sick.
17:24Stepping outside for air,
17:26he collapses
17:27and stops breathing.
17:32They rush him
17:33to the hospital
17:34where he remains unresponsive.
17:36McMoneagle is unconscious,
17:38but will later claim
17:39he sees everything
17:40that is happening to him,
17:42watching the doctors
17:43work on his body
17:44from somewhere above it.
17:48When he finally wakes
17:49after being revived,
17:51he's back in his own body.
17:58McMoneagle figures
17:59Puthoff must think
17:59he's crazy
18:00after hearing
18:01such a wild story.
18:02But instead of being
18:03dragged out of the office
18:04in a straitjacket,
18:05he's offered a job
18:06in a top-secret
18:08psychic espionage program.
18:10McMoneagle will help
18:11found the program,
18:13tasked with harnessing
18:14his supposed
18:14supersensory abilities
18:16to see and hear things
18:17across the world,
18:19all without ever
18:20leaving his office.
18:22He's allegedly
18:23even given a codename,
18:24Remote Viewer 001.
18:26And in a time
18:28of global tension,
18:29his mind may become
18:30one of the government's
18:31most unconventional weapons.
18:41In 1978,
18:43Army officer
18:44Joe McMoneagle
18:45allegedly joins
18:46a top-secret program
18:47called Project Stargate
18:49and trains
18:50to become a psychic spy.
18:52Now, if you're wondering
18:53how one trains
18:54to become a psychic,
18:55you're not alone.
18:57The project stems
18:59from the work
19:00of physicist Russell Targ
19:01and Stargate director
19:03Harold Puthoff
19:03at the Stanford Research Institute
19:05in the 1970s.
19:07Convinced psychic abilities
19:09can be taught,
19:10they spend years
19:11testing the limits
19:12of remote viewing,
19:13a kind of mental teleportation
19:15where the mind's eye
19:16reaches across time
19:18and space
19:18to perceive
19:19distant locations
19:20and events.
19:22Their experiments
19:23soon catch the attention
19:24of the U.S. Army's
19:26Intelligence Command,
19:27especially with reports
19:29that the Soviets
19:29are researching
19:30similar techniques.
19:32The unit stays small,
19:34just 15 to 20 people
19:36working in secrecy
19:37in an old,
19:38leaky wooden barracks.
19:41In 1979,
19:43McMoneagle claims
19:44he starts getting
19:45real assignments.
19:47A U.S. spy satellite
19:48has captured images
19:49of a massive industrial complex
19:52at a Soviet naval base
19:53650 miles north of Moscow.
19:57Ground operatives
19:58can't get close,
19:59leaving American intelligence
20:01completely in the dark
20:02about what's happening inside.
20:04McMoneagle says
20:06he isn't told any of this.
20:08Instead,
20:09he's given the coordinates.
20:11Meanwhile,
20:12a satellite photograph
20:13of the target
20:13is sealed in an envelope.
20:15So what do you make of this?
20:16He's asked
20:17to view the contents
20:18not with his eyes,
20:19but with his mind.
20:28McMoneagle says
20:29he begins to sketch
20:30a series of boxes,
20:31like an aerial view
20:32of buildings.
20:33Then he reports
20:34what he believes
20:35is inside.
20:36I see...
20:37an object.
20:41I see water.
20:43It's a shark.
20:45The shark is important,
20:46but the fins...
20:48No.
20:48It has fins.
20:49Elongated fins.
20:55It's a submarine.
21:01McMoneagle is told
21:03that his sketch
21:03eerily matches
21:04an overhead view
21:05of what the photo captures,
21:07a secret Soviet base.
21:09And if McMoneagle is right,
21:12then that base
21:13hides a submarine.
21:15McMoneagle says
21:16Army intelligence
21:17reports his findings
21:18up the chain
21:19to the National Security Council.
21:21But the council dismisses it,
21:24saying it's not plausible.
21:25Still,
21:27McMoneagle believes
21:28his so-called
21:28psychic instincts
21:30were eventually
21:30proven correct.
21:33Just four months later,
21:35new satellite photos
21:36reveal a massive submarine
21:38docked at the same
21:39Soviet base,
21:40exactly as
21:41McMoneagle described.
21:45To the Americans,
21:46this type of sub
21:47becomes known
21:48as typhoon,
21:49later made famous
21:51by Tom Clancy's
21:52The Hunt for Red October.
21:53But it's what the Soviets
21:55call the sub
21:56that really gets
21:57heads spinning.
21:58They call it
21:59shark,
22:00just like McMoneagle
22:02first declared
22:02when he was attempting
22:03to remotely view the site.
22:05It's a shark.
22:08You'd think
22:09a success like this
22:10would cause
22:10the military
22:11to double down.
22:12But apparently,
22:13not everyone's convinced.
22:15The CIA argues
22:17that Project Stargate
22:18is wasteful
22:19and its results
22:20are inconsistent
22:21and hard to verify
22:22in real time.
22:24In 1984,
22:25a National Academy
22:26of Sciences report
22:27backs them up,
22:28concluding remote viewing
22:30relies on poor methodology
22:31and cherry-picked data.
22:33The U.S. Army
22:34shuts down the program
22:35as a result.
22:38But just a year later,
22:40in late 1985,
22:42the Defense Intelligence Agency
22:44steps in
22:44to continue funding the work.
22:46That's too late
22:47for Joe McMoneagle,
22:48who had already retired
22:50in 1984.
22:51By the end of his service,
22:53McMoneagle says
22:54he was involved
22:55in hundreds
22:55of remote viewing missions.
22:57Though it's worth noting,
22:58the results of his work
22:59remain classified,
23:01with no public paper trail
23:02to independently verify
23:04them.
23:05Still, McMoneagle
23:06would not be
23:06the last remote viewer
23:07to claim the program
23:09produced real results.
23:15On May 15, 1987,
23:18remote viewer Paul Smith,
23:19a one-time co-worker
23:21of McMoneagle,
23:22claims to see something
23:23terrible during a session.
23:26An American ship
23:27under fire from missiles
23:29launched by an enemy aircraft
23:30from a desert region.
23:33It's the height of the
23:34Iran-Iraq war,
23:35and tensions in the Gulf
23:36are at an all-time high.
23:38Smith says his warning
23:40is passed up the chain of command,
23:42but officials see nothing
23:44they can act on.
23:46Two days later,
23:48news breaks.
23:49The USS Stark,
23:50a U.S. Navy destroyer,
23:52is struck by two missiles
23:54from an Iraqi jet.
23:5637 sailors are killed.
23:59Remote-viewing skeptics
24:01chalk it up to coincidence.
24:04The program also suffers
24:06some clear failures.
24:07In 1988,
24:08the DIA reportedly turns
24:10to Project Stargate
24:11to help locate
24:12William Higgins,
24:13a Marine colonel
24:14taken hostage in Lebanon.
24:16A remote viewer
24:18supposedly claimed to vision
24:19that he was alive
24:20and being held
24:21at an underground location.
24:23But the information
24:24doesn't lead to his rescue,
24:25and Higgins is eventually
24:27found dead.
24:30With a much-disputed
24:32record of success,
24:33Project Stargate
24:34comes to an abrupt end
24:35once again in 1995,
24:38after a U.S. government review
24:39conducted for the CIA
24:41concludes that remote viewing
24:42fails to produce
24:44reliable, actionable intelligence.
24:46Most of the documents
24:48relating to program operations
24:50remained classified,
24:52fueling decades of rumor
24:53and speculation
24:54about what the government
24:55might still be hiding.
24:56For more than 20 years,
24:58those files sit buried
24:59in archives,
25:01sealed away from public view.
25:02But then, in 2017,
25:04everything changes.
25:06The CIA quietly uploads
25:08millions of declassified documents
25:10to its online Crest archive,
25:13and hidden among them
25:14are the long-lost records
25:15of Project Stargate,
25:17and what they reveal
25:18is staggering.
25:23After years of secrecy,
25:26classified files
25:27tied to the government's experiments
25:29in psychic intelligence
25:30are finally declassified.
25:33For the first time,
25:34the public can access
25:35over 12,000 Stargate documents
25:38from CIA headquarters
25:39in Langley.
25:40Even the former remote viewers
25:42themselves stepped forward,
25:43eager to prove
25:44their incredible stories.
25:46Paul Smith,
25:47who claims he predicted
25:48the missile attack
25:49on the USS Stark,
25:50is at the front of the line.
25:51One of the things
25:52I found exciting
25:53about the archives
25:55becoming public,
25:56finally,
25:56was that it allowed me
25:57to get back into them
25:58and find my session
26:01against the ship
26:02that was attacked
26:03by the Iraqi jet,
26:04the USS Stark.
26:06And I found the type script
26:08of that session.
26:09But what was maybe
26:11even more exciting
26:13was that I found
26:14the documentation
26:16for the Typhoon Submarine project
26:20that Joe McMoneagle
26:21is famous for
26:22with the sketches,
26:24the descriptions,
26:25everything,
26:26and it absolutely matched
26:27the story
26:27that had been passed down to us.
26:29So this is documentation
26:30that proved
26:31that it really happened.
26:32Not only that,
26:34the CIA files reveal
26:35that plenty of government officials
26:37believed the program
26:38was getting results.
26:40For the first time,
26:41we can show
26:42McMoneagle's sketch
26:43of the Soviet base
26:44supposedly attained
26:45through remote viewing.
26:47We can also show
26:48that it eerily matches
26:49the actual satellite images
26:51of the site.
26:53Some even go so far
26:54as to say
26:55that the data gathered
26:56through remote viewing
26:56was generally consistent
26:58with later intelligence
26:59and assessments.
27:02We were doing things,
27:03of course,
27:03that humans aren't supposed
27:04to be able to do,
27:05and yet here we were doing them,
27:07and if this was impossible
27:09and wasn't real,
27:10we shouldn't get it right ever.
27:12And yet,
27:13we actually have the evidence
27:15that we have gotten it right
27:17many, many, many times.
27:20While believers like Paul Smith
27:22argue Project Stargate
27:23proved the mind can reach
27:25beyond the limits
27:26of space and time,
27:27it should be noted
27:28that a number
27:29of the declassified CIA files
27:31tell a different story,
27:32one of lucky guesses
27:34and vague details stretched
27:36to fit facts
27:37that developed
27:37at a later date.
27:38The divide endures,
27:40yet the accounts
27:41of these former
27:42remote viewers
27:43remain fascinating,
27:45leaving many to wonder,
27:46were they really
27:47on the verge
27:47of an extraordinary breakthrough
27:49in mental espionage?
27:51To answer that question,
27:52well,
27:53you'd need to be psychic.
28:00The year is 71 BC
28:02on the banks
28:03of the Solarius River
28:04in southern Italy.
28:05An army has just been
28:07defeated in battle,
28:08valiantly led
28:09by this dying man.
28:11He is a former slave
28:12turned gladiator
28:13turned general.
28:15No,
28:15it's not Russell Crowe's
28:16fictional character
28:17from the movie Gladiator.
28:18This is a real person,
28:20or at least,
28:21he might be.
28:22His name is Spartacus.
28:24Legend says that
28:25for the last two years,
28:27he's led nearly
28:28120,000 slaves
28:30in a rebel uprising
28:31against the Roman Republic,
28:33until it ends
28:34with his death.
28:36Did this one man
28:37really fight his way
28:39out of slavery
28:39and nearly take down
28:41the mighty Romans?
28:42Or is all of this
28:43just a myth?
28:45For 2,000 years,
28:46there will be
28:47no definitive proof
28:48that Spartacus
28:49existed at all,
28:50but a remarkable
28:51archaeological discovery
28:53may change all that.
29:02If you know
29:03the name Spartacus,
29:04it's probably thanks
29:05to Kirk Douglas'
29:06iconic on-screen portrayal
29:08in Stanley Kubrick's
29:091960 film,
29:11or perhaps
29:12through the more
29:13recent TV series.
29:15But as for the
29:16real story
29:17of Spartacus,
29:18curiously,
29:19we know almost
29:20nothing firsthand.
29:21No written eyewitness
29:22accounts,
29:23no definitive
29:24archaeological evidence.
29:25Instead,
29:26almost everything
29:27we think we know
29:28is written over
29:29a century
29:29after his death
29:30by the two ancient
29:31historians behind me,
29:33Plutarch and Appian.
29:34They wrote their accounts
29:35separately,
29:36decades apart,
29:37but the story
29:38they tell
29:38is quite the tale.
29:42According to
29:43ancient historians,
29:44Spartacus was born
29:45around 103 BC
29:47in Thrace,
29:48then a province
29:49of Rome,
29:50but what today
29:51is an area
29:52of Bulgaria,
29:53Greece,
29:53and Turkey.
29:55He was likely
29:56raised as a free
29:57tribesman
29:57before serving
29:58in the Roman army,
29:59probably as an
30:00auxiliary soldier,
30:01which means
30:02he fought for Rome,
30:03but without the full
30:04protections of a Roman
30:05citizen.
30:07But before long,
30:08Spartacus is no longer
30:10an ally of the Roman army.
30:11He ends up on the run
30:13after abandoning his post,
30:15and under Roman law,
30:16desertion is punishable
30:18by death.
30:20But because of Spartacus'
30:22size and strength,
30:24he isn't executed.
30:25Instead,
30:25he becomes a Roman slave
30:27and sent to become
30:28a gladiator
30:29in southern Italy.
30:32Here,
30:33Spartacus has one
30:34simple, brutal job,
30:36fight to the death.
30:38While some gladiators
30:40were free men
30:41who fought by choice,
30:43most were enslaved men
30:45like Spartacus.
30:47They had few rights.
30:49Their only chance
30:50to ever earn their freedom
30:51was through deadly combat.
30:54For Spartacus,
30:55if he is to die,
30:57he believes it should be
30:58on his own terms.
31:00At this time,
31:01much of Rome's power
31:02depends on slave labor,
31:04with more than
31:05a million people
31:06in servitude.
31:07With so many in bondage,
31:09revolts are a huge threat.
31:11And according to Appian
31:12and Plutarch,
31:13in 73 BC,
31:15Spartacus hatches
31:16an escape plan,
31:17organizing a band
31:18of about 70 other gladiators,
31:21ready to fight
31:21for their freedom.
31:24Under cover of darkness,
31:26they manage to overthrow
31:27the guards.
31:30They then retreat
31:31to a hideout
31:32near Mount Vesuvius.
31:34Twice,
31:34the Romans
31:35send a small band
31:36of soldiers after them,
31:37but Spartacus
31:38and the other gladiators
31:39easily beat them back,
31:42even overwhelming
31:43their forces
31:44to steal proper
31:45military equipment.
31:47The histories record
31:48that for months,
31:49Rome treats Spartacus' revolt
31:51like a mosquito bite,
31:52more an annoyance
31:53than a military threat.
31:56This underestimation
31:57allows Spartacus
31:58to spend time
31:59gathering more
32:00and more rebels
32:01to his cause.
32:02His army
32:03is growing fast.
32:10By the spring
32:11of 72 BC,
32:13legend says
32:14that Spartacus' forces
32:15swell to 120,000,
32:19an almost
32:20unbelievable number.
32:21What will become known
32:23as the Third Servile War
32:24is about to begin?
32:27Rome finally wakes up
32:28and they send
32:29two legions,
32:30about 10,000 soldiers,
32:32to fight him.
32:33Initially,
32:34they are successful,
32:35cutting down
32:35about 30,000
32:37of Spartacus' men.
32:38But despite
32:39the Roman army's
32:40superior training,
32:42Spartacus' overwhelming
32:43numbers prevail
32:44on the battlefields.
32:48It's a crushing blow
32:50for the mighty Republic.
32:52It is an extraordinary
32:54legend that has been
32:55told for centuries.
32:56But is it true?
32:58Is the uprising
32:59as epic as history claims?
33:01Furthermore,
33:02did Spartacus
33:03really exist?
33:04Now,
33:05a discovery hidden
33:06in the forests
33:07of modern-day Italy
33:08may finally offer
33:09answers.
33:14In 71 B.C.,
33:16following a humiliating
33:18defeat after a slave
33:19uprising,
33:20Rome prepares
33:21to finish off
33:21their leader,
33:22Spartacus,
33:23once and for all.
33:24The Republic sends
33:25nearly 50,000
33:27elite soldiers
33:28to hunt him down
33:29in southern Italy,
33:30led by one of its
33:31most powerful
33:32and ambitious generals,
33:33Marcus Licinius Crassus.
33:35He has a single mission,
33:37kill Spartacus.
33:40As Roman pressure
33:41mounts,
33:42Spartacus and his army
33:43are pushed toward
33:44the narrow toe
33:45of southern Italy.
33:47To the south
33:48lies the Mediterranean Sea,
33:49but Spartacus
33:50has no navy,
33:51no escape route,
33:52and nowhere left
33:53to run.
33:55Crassus sees
33:56his opportunity.
33:57According to Plutarch,
33:59Crassus orders
33:59the rapid construction
34:00of a massive wall
34:02nearly 40 miles long,
34:04stretching from sea
34:05to sea
34:05across the peninsula,
34:06effectively sealing in
34:08Spartacus and his forces.
34:10The wall will also
34:12become a turning point
34:13that will shape
34:14the final chapter
34:15of this epic rebellion.
34:17Once construction
34:19of the wall
34:19is complete,
34:20Crassus then attacks,
34:22knowing that Spartacus
34:23has nowhere to hide.
34:26The rebel supposedly
34:28recognizes he has
34:29no way out
34:30and asks for a truce.
34:32But Crassus wants blood,
34:34denying the request
34:35and forcing Spartacus
34:37into a fight
34:38for his life.
34:39What is said to follow
34:41is a brutal battle,
34:42with both sides
34:43losing tens of thousands
34:45of men.
34:46Remarkably,
34:47Spartacus breaks through
34:48the Romans' barricade,
34:49but it costs him
34:51a huge portion
34:52of his army.
34:53It isn't long
34:54before Crassus' legions
34:55catch what's left
34:56of the rebels,
34:57forcing Spartacus
34:58into his final stand
34:59near the Solarius River,
35:01where the slave-turned-rebel general
35:03is wounded
35:04by a spear
35:05to the thigh.
35:11Spartacus' forces
35:13are decimated,
35:15and with that,
35:16the man himself
35:17finally succumbs
35:18to the might of Rome,
35:20or so we're told.
35:23The fact is,
35:24archaeologists
35:25have never found
35:26any evidence
35:27of Spartacus.
35:28No grave,
35:28no first-hand accounts.
35:30The historians
35:31who recorded his story
35:32were writing
35:32hundreds of years
35:33after his death.
35:34But that lack of evidence
35:36would seemingly change
35:37in 2024,
35:39when Paolo Visona,
35:40a classical archaeologist
35:41at the University of Kentucky,
35:43was on an expedition
35:44in southern Italy.
35:46In 2024,
35:47we were in southern Italy,
35:49and I was accosted
35:51by a group
35:51of local environmentalists
35:54who had wanted
35:55to show me some photos
35:56on their cell phones.
35:57And this is when
35:59I saw the first images
36:00of this wall.
36:02In my 30-plus year career
36:05doing fieldwork,
36:07I had never seen
36:08anything like it.
36:09So I needed to see it.
36:11When Visona
36:12and his team
36:13arrived at the site,
36:14it became clear
36:15that the small photo
36:16shown to him
36:17on that cell phone
36:18was only the beginning
36:19of something much,
36:20much bigger.
36:21Their investigation
36:22would soon blow
36:23the archaeological community
36:25away.
36:25We walked the wall
36:26with a GPS receiver
36:28so that we could plot
36:30the root of the wall.
36:32And the wall turned out
36:33to be almost 2 kilometers
36:35in length
36:36from east to west.
36:39What would the wall
36:40that long be doing
36:41in such a remote area
36:44on a mountaintop
36:45in the middle of a forest?
36:47And then we deployed
36:48the magnetometer,
36:49and sure enough,
36:50we found presence
36:52of the gully
36:53on one side of the wall,
36:55and only on one side,
36:57the southern side
36:58of the wall,
36:59all the way to the end.
37:02And they corroborated
37:04Plutarch's description
37:05of the fortification
37:07consisting of a ditch
37:09and a wall,
37:10so that made it possible
37:13that this could be
37:14Crassus' wall.
37:15But the metal detector
37:16was a clincher
37:17because the metal detector
37:19produced a number
37:20of objects,
37:20some of which
37:21were believed
37:22to be Roman.
37:25And these objects
37:26included fragments
37:28of weapons.
37:29They could fit
37:31a very narrow time period
37:33between 75 and 50 BCE,
37:39which is the time period
37:40within which we have
37:41the Spartacus War.
37:44Vissona believed
37:45he had found the wall
37:46that the Romans used
37:47to defeat Spartacus.
37:48If it's true,
37:49this would confirm
37:51the legend,
37:51the first physical evidence
37:53of Spartacus' stunning life.
37:55This was a planned operation
37:57that implied military strategy
38:01and also a large labor force,
38:04all of which would tend
38:05to support Plutarch's account.
38:08But it is clear
38:09that this system
38:10did not extend
38:10from sea to shining sea,
38:13like Plutarch's description.
38:15In other words,
38:16the archaeology
38:18that we have done
38:18both proves and disproves
38:21the veracity
38:23of Plutarch's account.
38:25It reminds us
38:26that we can never take
38:28ancient literary sources
38:29at face value.
38:31But in any case,
38:32I believe with confidence
38:34that this most likely
38:36was the fortification system
38:39built by Crassus.
38:41So did Spartacus
38:42truly rise up from nothing
38:44to nearly overthrow
38:45the Roman Republic?
38:46It seems more possible
38:48than ever,
38:48thanks to the evidence
38:50uncovered by Dr. Vissona's team.
38:52To this day,
38:53Italian researchers
38:54continue to investigate the site,
38:56and with any luck,
38:57more evidence
38:58will be discovered.
38:59Enough, perhaps,
39:00to finally free Spartacus
39:02from the chains of rumor.
39:03The freedom fighter
39:04enslave no more.
39:06I'm Spartacus.
39:07No, wait, I'm Josh Gates.
39:09And I'll see you
39:09on the next expedition.
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