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Expedition Files Season 4 Episode 9
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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files.
00:04In 1696, Captain Henry Avery is hailed King of the Pirates
00:11when he pulls off an estimated $400 million heist on the high seas.
00:18But after the raid, Avery and his loot disappear.
00:22Now, experts may have finally cracked the code,
00:25revealing the fate of this legendary buccaneer and his vast treasure.
00:31Then, around 1153 B.C., Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III dies under mysterious circumstances.
00:40Ancient records hint at a deadly palace conspiracy led by his own queen.
00:46More than 3,000 years later, modern scientific technology could solve one of history's oldest cold cases.
00:56And since the 8th century B.C., mythological female warriors known as Amazons
01:03have inspired everything from South American rivers to the iconic superhero Wonder Woman.
01:10But did the Amazons really exist?
01:14New evidence suggests these legendary fighters were real.
01:23In the corridors of time
01:27are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:32Now, I'm traveling through history itself
01:37on a search for the truth.
01:42New evidence.
01:43New evidence.
01:45Shocking answers.
01:48I'm Josh Gates.
01:51And these
01:53are my expedition files.
02:00Have you ever met someone who's larger than life?
02:03I'm talking about a person whose charisma could be measured in megawatts,
02:07lighting up every room they walk into.
02:10Well, tonight, you'll need your sunglasses
02:12as we investigate some of the most powerfully captivating characters in history,
02:17squinting to discover the real people
02:19and real mysteries behind their luminous lives.
02:23We begin in 1696, aboard a ship called the Fancy.
02:29But don't let the sweet-sounding name fool you.
02:31It's manned by a crew of killers.
02:34The captain here is Henry Avery, the so-called King of the Pirates.
02:38And right now, he's divvying up the score that earned him that name.
02:42A massive treasure snatched from the Mughal Empire of India.
02:46It will go down as the largest pirate heist in history,
02:51estimated to be worth a staggering $400 million today.
02:55But Captain Avery and all this loot will soon vanish, never to be seen again.
03:00So what happens to these incredible spoils?
03:04The long-buried secrets of Henry Avery are about to be revealed.
03:20Henry Avery is born around 1659 near Plymouth, England,
03:25the same rugged port where the pilgrims had departed from just a few decades earlier.
03:31The ocean is in his blood from the start.
03:34As a young man, Avery goes to sea,
03:38earning his place as he learns the ropes of life aboard a ship.
03:44He begins his career the respectable way,
03:47serving in the Royal Navy.
03:49Then he moves on to privateering,
03:51that is, piracy with a government stamp of approval.
03:54As long as you fly the right flag,
03:57the crown is happy to let you rob its enemies blind.
04:00For a while, Avery plays by those rules.
04:03But rules at sea have a way of slipping.
04:10By 1694, Avery is a hardened sailor
04:14and the chief mate aboard the Charles II,
04:16a sleek, heavily armed vessel
04:18tasked with hunting French ships across the Atlantic.
04:26But before long, the voyage stalls due to bureaucracy.
04:30The ship sails into a Spanish port
04:32to receive important legal documents authorizing their mission.
04:35And there it sits.
04:38The documents fail to arrive,
04:40and the crew is all but trapped,
04:42unpaid, restless, and forbidden from going ashore.
04:45The captain promises that money is coming,
04:48but tensions are on the rise.
04:50Avery has had enough.
04:54One night, he leads a mutiny,
04:57seizing the ship,
04:58renaming her The Fancy,
05:00and cutting all ties to the British crown.
05:03From this moment on,
05:04Henry Avery is no longer a privateer.
05:07He's a pirate.
05:13The Fancy leaves port,
05:15setting course for the richest waters on Earth.
05:19Along the way,
05:21Avery and his crew raid and loot roughly a dozen ships
05:24as they sweep down the West African coast,
05:27round the Cape of Good Hope,
05:29and push into the Indian Ocean,
05:31the vital trading artery of the mighty Mughal Empire.
05:36The Mughals are a powerful Islamic dynasty
05:39that rules across much of what is now India.
05:41And their ruler at this time,
05:44Arangzeb,
05:44is quite possibly the richest man on Earth.
05:48Naturally,
05:49that makes his trade route irresistible
05:51for the eyepatch and cutlass crowd.
05:53But Mughal ships are famously well-armed
05:56and fiercely protected.
05:57And as a vital trading partner
05:59with Avery's former employers,
06:01the British crown,
06:02an attack on a Mughal ship
06:04would make Avery the most wanted pirate on Earth.
06:10September of 1695,
06:13as the Fancy sails toward the Arabian Peninsula,
06:16Captain Avery launches a high-seas heist
06:19so bold it would make the Ocean's 11 crew seasick.
06:23He convinces other nearby pirate captains
06:26to join forces
06:27and attack not just one vessel,
06:29but a whole fleet.
06:3125 Mughal ships.
06:33But Avery and his crew
06:34set their sights on one particular target.
06:37A massive, heavily-armed treasure ship
06:40called the Ganja Sawai.
06:42It's a floating fortress
06:44with 62 guns
06:46and 400 guards aboard.
06:48It's armed to the teeth for good reason.
06:51The ship is owned by the Mughal emperor himself,
06:53filled with his vast personal riches.
07:02Fire!
07:04Fire!
07:04Fire!
07:05Fire!
07:06Fire!
07:07Fire!
07:11Fire!
07:12After a volley of Avery's cannonballs
07:14takes out the Indian ship's mast,
07:16the pirates storm the decks.
07:18Fire!
07:20Fire!
07:21Fire!
07:24Fire!
07:24When the battle comes to an end,
07:26Avery's men claim a treasure
07:27estimated to nearly half a billion dollars today.
07:32Fire!
07:33Avery gets the lion's share,
07:35a treasure!
07:35receiving not just hundreds of thousands of gold and silver pieces,
07:39but priceless artifacts, too.
07:41Suffice to say,
07:42Avery is now a very, very rich man.
07:46With this victory,
07:47his reputation grows rapidly,
07:49earning him the nicknames
07:50the Arch Pirate
07:52and the King of the Pirates.
07:57But before we break out the celebratory rum,
08:00it should be mentioned that no treasure is valuable enough to merit what Avery and his men do to claim
08:05it.
08:06The pirates torture and butcher everyone aboard the ship,
08:10allegedly including women and relatives of the royal family.
08:13The Ganja Sawai becomes a bloodbath.
08:20The fallout is swift and worldwide.
08:24Mughal Emperor Aring Zeb is outraged
08:26and mistakenly blames his trading partners in Great Britain for the attack.
08:31He threatens to shut down all trade with the British East India Company,
08:36a move that would spell economic disaster for England.
08:39The Brits promise to pay Aring Zeb what he's owed
08:42and to bring the pirates to justice.
08:46The search for Henry Avery is the first global manhunt in history.
08:51The navies of the British and Mughal empires
08:53independently scour the seas
08:55for any sign of Avery's ship, the Fancy.
08:58But the King of the Pirates somehow escapes them.
09:04Avery sets the Fancy on a course for the Bahamas.
09:07At that time, a sparsely populated, loosely governed British colony.
09:12It's believed that Avery and about a hundred crewmen
09:14arrive in New Providence in April of 1696.
09:27There, Avery allegedly split shares of the treasure between his men.
09:34As for the Fancy, her fate is also unknown.
09:38Some say Avery handed her over to the authorities in New Providence.
09:43Others believe he may have scuttled her.
09:45But either way, Avery and his crew scatter to the winds.
09:52Some stay in the Caribbean.
09:54Some head for the American colonies.
09:56Others head for home in hostile British waters.
10:00Where Avery went, well, that's the mystery.
10:05As many as 24 of the Fancy's crew are arrested within the year.
10:10Five are hanged at London's infamous execution dock.
10:13Avery isn't one of them.
10:16After 1696, the so-called Pirate King appears to simply vanish.
10:22Along with any trace of his stolen fortune.
10:25So what became of history's most successful pirate?
10:28Over the last 300 years, there have been numerous theories.
10:32One of the oldest dates to 1709,
10:35when a printed pamphlet circulates a rumor
10:37that Henry Avery took his riches to Madagascar,
10:41married the daughter of a local ruler,
10:43and established a pirate kingdom.
10:46Another enduring theory,
10:48drawn from the 1724 book A General History of the Pirates,
10:52says Avery returned to England,
10:54only to be cheated by merchants
10:56who refused to pay fair value for his treasure.
10:59Stripped of his riches,
11:01he allegedly dies a beggar.
11:05But there's zero evidence to back up either of these bold theories.
11:09In the centuries since,
11:11the legend of Henry Avery
11:12and his massive undiscovered treasure
11:15has only continued to grow.
11:17He's been the subject of books,
11:19stage plays,
11:20even video games like Uncharted.
11:22And while his myth has heated up,
11:24his trail has remained ice cold.
11:26But now,
11:27an incredible string of discoveries
11:29is quickly changing that.
11:37In 1695,
11:39Henry Avery pulls off
11:41the greatest heist in pirate history
11:43when he steals $400 million worth of treasure.
11:47For the next 300 years,
11:49the fate of the stolen riches remains a mystery.
11:52But then comes a remarkable find.
11:56In 2014,
11:57a metal detectorist scanning an orchard
12:00in Middletown, Rhode Island
12:01discovers something extraordinary.
12:04A silver coin
12:05engraved with Arabic script
12:07and minted in Yemen
12:09in 1693.
12:11Over the next few years,
12:13similar coins turn up across New England
12:15and as far south as North Carolina.
12:17All of them are dated before 1695,
12:21which means they could have been
12:23on the Ganja Sawai
12:24when Avery raided it.
12:26In other words,
12:27this could be part of the lost loot.
12:31The find was compelling,
12:32but it was far from definitive proof
12:34that Avery and his treasure
12:36made it to America.
12:37And meanwhile,
12:38other leads elsewhere in the world
12:40emerged as to where the pirate king
12:42may have ended up.
12:44In 2023,
12:45I joined an expedition to find the treasure,
12:48not in the new world,
12:49but in the old one.
12:51I traveled to Cornwall, England
12:53to meet a team of treasure hunters
12:55following cryptic clues
12:56from an old letter
12:57that may reveal
12:59some of Avery's long-lost fortune.
13:01On his return from India,
13:03either landed or was shipwrecked
13:06near the lizard,
13:07where he buried three chests or boxes
13:10full of treasure
13:11in the sands of the seashore.
13:13We're off to a good start.
13:14We're literally talking about
13:15buried treasure here.
13:16I also explored a sea cave
13:19straight out of the Goonies
13:21and narrowly avoided
13:22a one-way trip
13:23to Davy Jones' locker.
13:27And I dived a shipwreck site
13:29rumored to have ties
13:30to the pirate king's lost fortune.
13:33The results?
13:34We got some in here.
13:36Yeah.
13:38Looks like Arabic!
13:40This is just amazing.
13:42This is Arabic script here, yes?
13:43It is, isn't it? Yeah.
13:44This is definitely Mughal.
13:45There's no two ways about it.
13:47This is a Mughal coin.
13:47That is a Mughal coin.
13:48This is as close to a smoking gun
13:50That is.
13:51as we've seen.
13:54We may have found
13:55some of Avery's treasure,
13:57but if so,
13:58it raises a question.
13:59Could Henry really have returned
14:01to the country
14:02that he'd made his enemy
14:03and be allowed to live there
14:05happily ever after?
14:06Well, a remarkable new theory
14:08developed by Dr. Sean Kingsley
14:10may be able to explain
14:12how the pirate king
14:13managed to make peace.
14:15In December 2020,
14:17I was doing some writing
14:18about pirates.
14:20I hook up with an old friend,
14:21Rex Cowan.
14:22He's a wreck hunter,
14:24an encyclopedia.
14:25So he gets super excited
14:27and gives me this letter
14:29that says,
14:29Avery the pirate,
14:31December 1700.
14:32And I go, hello.
14:34You know,
14:34this is very clearly
14:35four years
14:36since he was last seen
14:37in November 1696.
14:40And it's shocking.
14:41You know,
14:42if this letter is real,
14:43the pirate king
14:44is back from the dead.
14:47The letter is a copy
14:49of an older document
14:50and therefore hard
14:51to authenticate.
14:52But Kingsley suspected
14:54it might be the real deal,
14:56calling it
14:56a once-in-a-lifetime
14:58historical treasure
14:59and one that may
15:00totally rewrite
15:01the final chapter
15:02of Henry Avery.
15:05Henry Avery says
15:06he's just come back
15:07from a journey.
15:08He's incredibly wary.
15:10He's about to go off
15:11on another mission.
15:12He's waiting to receive
15:13his instructions
15:14and he'll report back imminently.
15:16But all these lines
15:18are kind of intercut
15:19with this sort of code
15:20in numbers
15:21and letters.
15:22So it makes it impossible
15:24to actually realize
15:25what the content is about.
15:26In the late 17th century,
15:28codes like this
15:29were only used
15:30by ambassadors,
15:31diplomats, and spies.
15:32I think we can
15:33cut out the possibility
15:35they became an ambassador
15:36or a diplomat,
15:38which really only points
15:39in one specific direction.
15:41Henry Avery,
15:43on His Majesty's
15:44Secret Service,
15:45a spy.
15:47Kingsley is arguing
15:48something remarkable.
15:50He's saying that
15:51Henry Avery,
15:51the pirate
15:52who was England's
15:53enemy number one,
15:54had an about face
15:55and was now part
15:56of a British spy ring
15:58that included,
15:59of all people,
16:00the guy who wrote
16:00Robinson Crusoe,
16:02Daniel Defoe,
16:03and the Archbishop
16:04of Canterbury,
16:05all to protect the country
16:06from a French Catholic invasion.
16:08But if so,
16:10how had Avery managed
16:11to get back
16:12on good terms
16:12with England?
16:13Well, it turns out
16:15everybody's got a price.
16:17I think that Henry Avery
16:18gave a large chunk
16:20of his Mughal
16:21treasure
16:22to pay for his freedom.
16:24Avery's got all this cash,
16:26but there's no way
16:26of spending it.
16:27The authorities
16:28are going to find him
16:29and eventually
16:30hang him by his neck.
16:32He's in his 30s.
16:33He's a young man,
16:34and he's got
16:35this incredible resume
16:36of skills
16:37which are transferable.
16:39What's he going to do?
16:40I imagine that he fixed it
16:41with the King of England,
16:42that he could come
16:44on His Majesty's Secret Service
16:45as a spy
16:47in return
16:48for these incredible
16:49life skills
16:50which he developed
16:51and for a King's Ransom
16:53pile of cash.
16:54There was a big problem,
16:56though.
16:57He couldn't make heads
16:58or tails of the code.
16:59Could it be the location
17:01of Avery's lost treasure?
17:03The only way to find out
17:04would be to crack it.
17:05Easier said than done.
17:07I contacted academics,
17:09mathematician,
17:10even an advisor
17:11to the FBI,
17:12and they all told me
17:13one thing,
17:14that there are ciphers
17:16and there are codes.
17:17Ciphers,
17:17you can actually hope
17:19to read them
17:21because there's
17:21an internal logic
17:23within the rhythm
17:24of a letter,
17:24and if there is
17:25enough repetition
17:26of words and letters
17:27and sequences,
17:28you can crack the cipher.
17:30But this was not a cipher,
17:32it was a code.
17:33And to be able to crack that,
17:34you had to have a code book,
17:36and you'd have your book
17:37and you'd go down it
17:38and you'd look at a number
17:40and it would revert
17:41to a word.
17:42For instance,
17:44131 might mean
17:45the French king,
17:47249 might mean
17:48secret service.
17:49Those are real examples.
17:50So you've got to be
17:51really lucky
17:52to actually find
17:53one of the original
17:54keys to the code.
17:56The way these codes work
17:57is that the author
17:58would reference
17:59a standalone code book
18:01to disguise sensitive messages
18:03in the correspondence.
18:04The recipient
18:05would have been
18:06issued an identical code book
18:07so the secret message
18:09could be deciphered.
18:10That way,
18:11if the document
18:12fell into the wrong hands,
18:13it would be impossible
18:14to understand.
18:16The largest collections
18:18of these code books
18:19exist in the British
18:20Library in London.
18:21And I spent many days
18:22and weeks
18:23stuck in the archives
18:25going through
18:25these volumes,
18:27hoping to discover
18:28the Holy Grail,
18:30but without luck.
18:31The hunt
18:32for the elusive code book
18:34continues.
18:35Unless it turns up,
18:36the letter's strangest passages
18:38will remain secret.
18:39My personal favorite?
18:41Quote,
18:41I'm not the least concerned
18:43for Tank 2-9
18:44of B-2-6
18:45being out of the T-9211597.
18:49Whatever the hell
18:50that means.
18:50One thing we do know
18:52is that if the letter
18:53is authentic,
18:54it rewrites Avery
18:55as less Jack Sparrow
18:57and more James Bond.
18:59Kingsley believes
19:00more clues
19:00could be buried
19:01in archives across Europe
19:03and he's still on the trail
19:04of the world's
19:05most wanted pirate.
19:06So watch this space
19:08because who knows,
19:09maybe the next treasure
19:10isn't sunk beneath the waves,
19:12but locked away
19:13in a forgotten filing cabinet
19:14just waiting
19:15to be plundered.
19:21It's around 1153 B.C.
19:24The place?
19:25Ancient Egypt.
19:26And the pharaoh,
19:27Ramses III,
19:28has held his empire together
19:30for three decades
19:32with an iron fist.
19:33But tonight,
19:34this warrior king's grip
19:36is slipping.
19:37Before the sun rises,
19:39Ramses will be dead.
19:40How does he die?
19:41And was it,
19:42as many will argue,
19:43murder?
19:44Well, that will become
19:45the foundation
19:46of history's oldest cold case.
19:48But 3,000 years on,
19:51modern science
19:51will help explain
19:52the death
19:53of the last great pharaoh.
20:05Ramses III grows up
20:07during one of the most
20:07dangerous moments
20:08in Egypt's history.
20:10His father,
20:11Setnacht,
20:12seizes the throne
20:13around 1186 B.C.,
20:15at a moment
20:16when Egypt
20:17is coming apart.
20:19Foreign rulers
20:20are chipping away
20:21at its borders.
20:22Vital trade routes
20:23are under attack.
20:24The kingdom
20:25is in chaos.
20:28While his father
20:30struggles to restore order,
20:31the young prince Ramses
20:33is sent to govern
20:34the Sinai Peninsula,
20:35Egypt's volatile frontier.
20:37There, he learns
20:39how to command troops,
20:40protect trade routes,
20:42and defend the fragile empire
20:43he may one day inherit.
20:45It's a harsh training ground,
20:47but Ramses proves himself
20:49a strong leader
20:50and fierce warrior.
20:57His father saves the kingdom,
20:59but his reign is brief,
21:01just three years.
21:02And when he dies
21:03around 1184 B.C.,
21:06Ramses III,
21:07as he'll come to be known,
21:08assumes the throne.
21:10He inherits a kingdom
21:11restored by force,
21:13but surrounded by enemies
21:14on every side.
21:17The young pharaoh
21:18now carries the responsibility
21:20of holding Egypt together.
21:22And almost immediately,
21:24he is tested.
21:25Libyan tribes
21:26invade from the west.
21:27Then,
21:28an even greater threat
21:29arrives from the sea.
21:32Mysterious maritime raiders
21:33known as the Sea Peoples,
21:35whose attacks are helping
21:37to topple civilizations
21:38across the ancient world.
21:40Ramses fights back.
21:43Against overwhelming odds,
21:45his armies defeat the invaders
21:47in one of the most decisive
21:48battles of the age.
21:50The victory is immortalized
21:53on temple walls,
21:54showing the pharaoh
21:55as Egypt's defender,
21:57standing between his civilization
21:59and destruction.
22:00But decades of war
22:02takes its toll.
22:03The treasury is drained.
22:05Workers go unpaid.
22:08Nearly 30 years
22:10into his reign,
22:11laborers building
22:12the royal tombs
22:13lay down their tools
22:14in protest.
22:15It is the first recorded
22:17labor strike in history.
22:19The empire Ramses
22:20fought so hard to defend
22:22is beginning to weaken.
22:24And inside the royal palace,
22:26an even more dangerous threat
22:29begins to emerge.
22:31The pharaoh has designated
22:33his eldest son,
22:34Ramses IV,
22:35as his successor.
22:36But that plan
22:37doesn't sit well
22:38with some of the royal family,
22:40particularly with one
22:41of Ramses' three wives.
22:43A betrayal is brewing.
22:48Queen Tia believes
22:50her own son,
22:51Prince Pentower,
22:52should take the throne instead.
22:54But Tia is only
22:55a secondary wife
22:56with far less power
22:58at court.
22:59She does not hold
23:00the prestigious title
23:01of Great Royal Wife,
23:03the rank reserved
23:03for a pharaoh's
23:04principal queens,
23:06whose sons typically
23:07had the strongest
23:08claim to rule.
23:10Born a commoner,
23:11Queen Tia lacks royal blood,
23:13and her lower status
23:14leaves her son
23:15far down the line
23:16of succession.
23:17But that doesn't stop her
23:19from trying to seize power.
23:22According to surviving
23:23papyrus records,
23:25Tia begins secretly
23:26organizing a plot
23:27to assassinate Ramses III
23:29and place Prince Pentower
23:34on the throne.
23:35If she can gather
23:37enough support,
23:38she could overturn
23:39the royal line
23:40of succession.
23:45Tia and Pentower
23:46recruit several
23:47of Ramses' inner circle
23:48to aid their plot,
23:50including a chef,
23:52a butler,
23:53and an overseer
23:54of his harem,
23:55exploiting growing
23:56dissatisfaction
23:57with the pharaoh
23:58from within
23:58his own household.
24:00History will remember
24:02this as the harem
24:03conspiracy.
24:05Some loyal officials
24:06may have tried
24:07to warn the king,
24:10but if they did,
24:12the warning came
24:13too late.
24:16Not long after,
24:18Ramses III,
24:19the warrior pharaoh
24:20who spent his life
24:21defending Egypt,
24:22is found dead.
24:30whispers of betrayal
24:31spread through the palace
24:32had the king
24:34been murdered
24:34by his own family.
24:41His body is embalmed
24:42and wrapped
24:43in layers of linen,
24:45then buried
24:45in a tomb
24:46in the Valley
24:47of the Kings.
24:48For more than
24:493,000 years,
24:50the truth about
24:51what happened
24:52to Ramses III
24:53remains buried
24:54with him.
24:55Thanks to modern science,
24:57we now have the answers.
24:58All will be revealed.
25:08Egyptian pharaoh
25:09Ramses III
25:10is dead,
25:11but was it murder?
25:12And if so,
25:13was his plotting wife,
25:14Queen Tia,
25:15responsible?
25:16Well, there is
25:17a fascinating document
25:18that's key
25:19to understanding
25:20the truth.
25:21Writings
25:21known as
25:22the Judicial Papyrus
25:23of Turin,
25:24which described
25:25the trial
25:25of assassins
25:26of Ramses
25:27in the so-called
25:28harem conspiracy,
25:30but it is
25:31frustratingly vague
25:32on the details.
25:33Here's what
25:33we do know.
25:35The trial
25:36consists of
25:3712 judges
25:37and is overseen
25:39by 21-year-old
25:40Ramses IV,
25:41the late pharaoh's
25:43designated heir.
25:44The fact
25:45that he presides
25:46and not Pentower
25:47tells us
25:48that although
25:49Queen Tia
25:49may have succeeded
25:50in arranging
25:51Ramses' death,
25:52her plot
25:53to install
25:54Pentower as ruler
25:55failed.
25:57The new pharaoh,
25:59Ramses IV,
26:00shows little mercy,
26:02in exacting revenge
26:03on those
26:04who are seemingly
26:04implicated
26:05in his father's death.
26:07The papyrus lists
26:09an astounding
26:0928 people
26:11who were executed
26:12for their roles
26:13in the conspiracy.
26:19As for Tia
26:20and Pentower
26:21themselves,
26:22the papyrus
26:22states Pentower
26:23is allowed
26:24to take his own life.
26:26Though the method
26:27of execution
26:28isn't mentioned,
26:30scholars believe
26:31he most likely
26:32hanged himself.
26:34But the papyrus
26:35tells us nothing
26:36about what happened
26:37to Queen Tia,
26:38the apparent
26:39instigator
26:40of the harem
26:40conspiracy.
26:41Many believe
26:42she was executed,
26:44perhaps by burning,
26:45erased from royal memory.
26:50The papyrus
26:51was discovered
26:52in the 1820s
26:53by Italian diplomat
26:54and antiquities collector
26:56Bernadino Dreveti,
26:57who shipped
26:58the documents
26:59and crates
27:00of Egyptian treasures
27:01to the Turin Museum.
27:02The papyrus
27:03sat there
27:04for decades
27:04until Egyptologist
27:06Adolf Erman
27:07finally translated it
27:08around the turn
27:09of the century.
27:10And while the details
27:11it revealed
27:12gave us a revolutionary
27:13look into the harem
27:15conspiracy,
27:16some key questions
27:17remain a mystery,
27:19namely,
27:20how Ramses III
27:21died
27:21and who killed him.
27:23But then,
27:24in 2012,
27:25a team of researchers
27:26led by Dr. Zahi Hawass
27:28decides to take
27:29another look
27:30at the pharaoh's remains
27:31using modern
27:32forensic techniques.
27:33When archaeologist
27:35Nicholas Brown
27:35saw the results,
27:37he was stunned.
27:40The findings that
27:41Dr. Zahi Hawass
27:42and his team made
27:43broke open
27:44this whole mystery.
27:46They actually used
27:47modern technologies
27:48like CT scanning
27:49to virtually unwrap
27:50the mummy
27:51of Ramses III.
27:52Underneath the bandages,
27:54the king's throat
27:54had actually been slit
27:56with a knife.
27:57This wasn't just
27:57a surface wound
27:58that the king
27:59had experienced.
28:00This cut had run deep
28:01and actually severed
28:02his windpipe
28:03and several arteries.
28:05Nearly 3,200 years
28:07after the brutal deed,
28:09we finally know
28:10how the pharaoh died.
28:14This new forensic evidence
28:16now proves
28:17the pharaoh
28:18was assassinated
28:19just as Queen Tia
28:20had planned.
28:21But one question remains.
28:24Who could have
28:25gotten close enough
28:26to Egypt's
28:27most protected man
28:28to slit his throat?
28:29The ancient Egyptians'
28:31access to the king
28:32would have been
28:32really limited
28:33and restricted,
28:34which means
28:35it must have been
28:35somebody close
28:36to the king,
28:37either in his court
28:38or even his harem,
28:40who was able
28:40to accomplish
28:41something like
28:42an assassination plot.
28:43Dr. Hawass' team
28:44believed they may
28:45have found the murderer
28:46by examining
28:47another mummy
28:48discovered near Ramses
28:50in the pharaoh's tomb.
28:51At first,
28:52this mummy
28:53appeared to be
28:54an anonymous young man
28:55who had been mummified
28:56without the usual care
28:58and respect
28:59afforded to royalty.
29:00But then,
29:02DNA analysis
29:02showed he was
29:04far from unknown.
29:06The DNA analysis
29:07that Zahi
29:08performed
29:09on this unknown mummy
29:10and the mummy
29:12of Ramses III
29:13found that the two
29:14were very closely related.
29:16It's possible
29:17that this mummy
29:18could in fact
29:19be Pentawar,
29:20the son of Ramses III
29:22and Queen Tia.
29:23Some Egyptologists
29:25have suggested
29:25that the way
29:26this mummy looks,
29:27right,
29:28with its mouth
29:28wide open
29:30and it looks like
29:30he's screaming
29:31in pain
29:32that perhaps
29:33this indicates
29:34that he was
29:35killed by hanging.
29:3838 people
29:39are accused
29:39as being involved
29:40with the assassination
29:41attempt against
29:42Ramses III.
29:44It's really unlikely
29:45that all 38
29:46of those individuals
29:48actually had direct
29:49access to Ramses
29:50and therefore
29:51would have been
29:52the one to kill him.
30:08access to the king
30:09would have been
30:09really limited
30:10and restricted.
30:11It's more likely
30:12that as the son
30:13of Ramses III,
30:15Pentawar would have
30:15had closer access
30:17to the king
30:18than most other people
30:19in the court
30:20and could have been
30:21the one who actually
30:21assassinated him.
30:27modern forensics
30:28has unwrapped
30:29the millennia-old mystery
30:30of the death
30:31of Ramses III.
30:33We now know
30:34that his throat
30:34was slit.
30:35There's even
30:36circumstantial evidence
30:37suggesting Ramses' own son
30:39carried out the deed.
30:40Not bad analysis
30:42for a 3,000-plus
30:43year-old crime scene.
30:45Today,
30:46visitors to Ramses' temple
30:47can still see
30:48the magnificent reliefs
30:50showing him
30:50as a triumphant
30:51warrior king.
30:52But it now seems
30:54this famed pharaoh's
30:55greatest battle
30:56wasn't against
30:57foreign armies,
30:58but with his very own family
31:00who thirsted
31:01for the throne.
31:11Welcome to the ancient world
31:12and a place made famous
31:14by the Greeks.
31:15We're not in Greece, though.
31:17We're in a place
31:17beyond its borders,
31:19a place where women rule.
31:21This young fighter
31:22is training to join
31:23an all-female army
31:25in a society
31:26said to be so powerful
31:27its name will echo
31:29through time,
31:29inspiring everything
31:31from the name
31:32of a mighty river
31:33to our most iconic
31:34superheroine,
31:36Wonder Woman,
31:36because this warrior
31:38is an Amazon.
31:39Now, in time,
31:41scholars will say
31:42these fearsome females
31:43are simply
31:44the stuff of myth.
31:45That is,
31:46until new evidence
31:47suggests something
31:48incredible,
31:49that the Amazons
31:50might just be real.
32:08The Amazons are first
32:10mentioned by name
32:11in the Iliad,
32:12written in the 8th century B.C.
32:15In Homer's famous epic,
32:17King Priam of Troy
32:18mentions that he,
32:19quote,
32:20once fought alongside
32:21the Amazons,
32:23women the equal of men.
32:25It's barely more
32:26than a name drop,
32:27but their mystique
32:28is firmly established.
32:33Over the next few centuries,
32:35Greek storytellers
32:36return to the stories
32:37of the Amazons.
32:40They write about
32:41a tribe of fierce warriors
32:43existing in a female-only society
32:46beyond the borders of Greece,
32:47in the area of the Black Sea.
32:50They procreate with men
32:52from neighboring communities,
32:53then raise only the daughters,
32:55sending male children
32:57back to their fathers.
32:59According to legend,
33:00Amazon women are,
33:01almost from birth,
33:03trained in hand-to-hand combat,
33:05as well as horseback riding
33:06and archery.
33:08They also expertly wield
33:11battle axes and spears.
33:13Their strength is beyond compare.
33:15Warriors so fierce,
33:17they blur the line
33:18between mortal and mythic.
33:22Ultimately,
33:23the Amazons are said
33:25to go head-to-head
33:26with the greatest heroes
33:27of Greek mythology.
33:29And I promise you,
33:30this is a fight
33:31you don't want to miss.
33:37Legends of female fighters
33:39known as Amazon warriors
33:41have endured
33:42for thousands of years,
33:43stemming from stories
33:45left by the ancient Greeks.
33:47Known for their lethal skills
33:48as archers,
33:50some stories even describe
33:51them cutting off
33:52one of their breasts
33:53to better steady their bows
33:54or hurl deadly javelins.
33:57They're nearly unstoppable.
33:58That is,
33:59unless they're swearing off
34:01against mythical Greek heroes.
34:05In tales recorded
34:06in the 8th century BC,
34:08Queen Penticillia
34:10of the Amazons
34:10faces off alone
34:12against the Greeks
34:13and the greatest warrior
34:15in Greek mythology,
34:16Achilles.
34:19They engage in a savage battle.
34:23And while she's
34:25a nearly even match
34:26for Achilles,
34:28he ultimately slays her.
34:31Afterward,
34:32he's struck by
34:33Penticillia's valor
34:34and beauty,
34:35ironically falling in love
34:37with the very foe
34:38he kills.
34:39In another famous story,
34:41the Queen of the Amazons,
34:43Hippolyta,
34:44sister of the slain
34:45Queen Penticillia,
34:46is about to come
34:47face to face
34:48with the one man
34:49in Greek mythology
34:50you don't want
34:51to pick a fight with
34:52because sailing
34:53into the harbor
34:54is Hercules.
35:04As the half-mortal,
35:05half-divine son of Zeus,
35:08Herc is on a roll
35:09tackling 12 lethal labors,
35:12including the slaying
35:13of a giant lion,
35:15a pesky hydra,
35:16and the infamous minotaur.
35:19It's the ninth
35:20of these deadly missions
35:21which pits him
35:22toe-to-toe,
35:23or sandal-to-sandal,
35:24against the Amazons.
35:26Hercules is tasked
35:28with claiming
35:28the Queen's golden war belt,
35:30the symbol of her power.
35:32To his surprise,
35:34Hippolyta doesn't resist.
35:35She meets him peacefully
35:37and even offers the belt
35:38as a gift
35:39and a show of mutual respect
35:41between warrior equals.
35:46believing it too good
35:47to be true,
35:48Hercules turns on the Queen
35:50and strikes her down,
35:52dead.
35:55He escapes with the belt
35:57and his life.
35:59Notice a pattern?
36:00In myth after myth,
36:02an Amazon queen
36:03dies by the hand
36:04of a Greek male hero.
36:10It is no coincidence
36:12that the stories
36:12of Amazon warriors
36:14being defeated
36:15by Greek heroes
36:16were written
36:16by Greek men,
36:18men with a patriarchal
36:20worldview to defend.
36:21So,
36:22were the Amazons
36:23just a myth
36:24shaped by male imagination?
36:26Or,
36:27is there any truth
36:28to the stories
36:29of these proud warrior women?
36:31Well,
36:31there's at least
36:32one historical source
36:33which suggests
36:34they may have actually existed.
36:38In the 5th century,
36:39the historian Herodotus
36:41documented an account
36:42of Amazon warriors
36:43captured by the Greeks
36:44who later escaped
36:46by seizing their captors' ships
36:48and settling among the Scythians
36:50in what is now
36:51Ukraine and Russia.
36:53For millennia,
36:55Herodotus' account
36:56is written off
36:57by scholars
36:57as imaginative storytelling,
36:59not credible history.
37:01But now,
37:02there's extraordinary
37:03new evidence
37:04that the Amazons
37:05may have been
37:06so much more
37:07than myth.
37:13For centuries,
37:14historians have debated,
37:16were the Amazon warriors
37:18of Greek legend
37:19real or fantasy?
37:20In the 5th century,
37:22Herodotus claimed
37:23they hailed
37:24from the ancient region
37:25of Scythia,
37:26a vast swath
37:27of territory
37:27stretching from Ukraine
37:29to Turkey
37:29around the edge
37:30of the Black Sea.
37:32Professor of Anthropology,
37:34Marin Palloud,
37:34reveals that recent discoveries
37:36about the Scythians
37:37may help solve
37:39the mystery
37:39of the Amazons.
37:43So, some 30 years ago,
37:45some interesting discoveries
37:46were found
37:46in the Caspian-Pontic
37:47Steppe region.
37:48They found that
37:49around 19 mounds
37:51that were large burial tombs,
37:53and in 2019,
37:55in one mound,
37:57they found the remains
37:57of four female skeletons.
38:00And it's dated
38:02to around 2,500 years ago.
38:05This date of about 2,500 years
38:07is important
38:08because it places
38:09the culture in the area.
38:11So we know that
38:12around that time,
38:13the Scythians were
38:14in this region,
38:15and we know the Scythians
38:16to be a group
38:18that had women warriors
38:21that predominantly
38:21traveled around
38:22via horseback.
38:26Within this mound,
38:27with the skeletons
38:28of these four women,
38:30were multiple
38:31iron arrowheads,
38:33spears,
38:35artifacts associated
38:36with horse riding
38:37and knives.
38:39The oldest woman
38:41also had a golden headdress
38:43around her head.
38:44It was intricate
38:46and could have also
38:47suggested something
38:49about her position
38:49in society.
38:50Not only was she
38:51the oldest individual,
38:53but also had
38:54the most elaborate
38:56grave goods with her
38:57with the golden headdress.
38:58These were things
38:59that were placed there
39:00to honor the dead
39:01amongst the living.
39:03The women who were
39:04buried in these mounds
39:05would have held
39:06an elevated place
39:07in society.
39:10Just like the Amazons
39:11of legend,
39:12these women
39:13from the late
39:134th century B.C.
39:15were apparently part
39:16of a family dynasty,
39:18buried with the honor
39:19one would expect
39:20for revered warriors.
39:23In fact,
39:24there is some
39:25skeletal analysis
39:26of other Scythian remains
39:28that suggests
39:29that there could be
39:30battle wounds
39:30on women
39:31that's very similar
39:32to men.
39:33Based on some of these
39:35recent archaeological findings,
39:37we can see
39:38that it was quite normal
39:39for women to engage
39:40in warfare activities
39:41amongst the Scythians.
39:43As a nomadic tribe,
39:44they would need to
39:45at times defend
39:47their areas.
39:50Trained from youth
39:52in horseback riding
39:53and mounted combat,
39:54much like the Amazons
39:55of legend,
39:57Scythian women
39:57were adorned
39:58with animal tattoos,
39:59meant to imbue them
40:01with magical protection
40:02and strength in battle.
40:04These tattoos mimicked
40:06the striking gold
40:07and bronze animal art
40:08also found
40:09in their graves.
40:12This find adds
40:14to growing evidence
40:15that women
40:16had strong roles
40:18in the past.
40:20This is a notion
40:21that we have
40:22been at times
40:23reluctant to embrace
40:24based on our own
40:26sort of conceptions
40:26of gendered roles
40:27in the present.
40:28And so we infer
40:29those onto the past.
40:30But there's
40:31such a growing
40:33body of evidence
40:34to suggest
40:35that women
40:35were in fact engaged
40:36in all levels
40:37of society,
40:38including warfare.
40:41And with discoveries
40:43like this one
40:44in 2019
40:44of women buried
40:46with grave goods
40:47indicative of being
40:49a warrior,
40:49it seems highly probable
40:51that the Scythian warrior
40:53women were the inspiration
40:55for the Amazon women
40:56that the Greeks wrote about.
41:02The archaeological findings
41:04are revealing
41:05that the Amazons
41:06may be a legendary echo
41:08of historic female fighters.
41:10The very name,
41:11Amazon,
41:12is now attributed
41:13to the old Persian word
41:14Hamazan,
41:16meaning equal warrior.
41:18After all,
41:18who needs Wonder Woman
41:19when you've got
41:20the real-life action heroines
41:22of the Scythians?
41:23I'm Josh Gates,
41:24and I'll see you
41:25on the next expedition.
41:27We'll see you
41:31on the next expedition.
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