All language subtitles for l.t.o.a.s01e02.HDTV.H264-RBB

NARRATOR: An extraordinary discovery
of lost treasure,

revealed for the very first time.

24kg of gold, silver
and precious stones,

one of the most valuable finds
in history.

The number of objects,
the size of the objects,

the state of preservation
of these objects is amazing.

But what does
this exquisite treasure reveal

about the society that made it?

Could it shed new light on the
origins of the Khmer civilisation

that built the great
medieval city of Angkor...

..home of the spectacular temple
of Angkor Wat?

Now, a crack
international team of experts

is using the latest technology

to find out how these
priceless objects were made.

How can I help to
unravel this big mystery?

And to discover
who might once have used them.

Each process of metalworking

leaves a mark on the object,
like a fingerprint.

By LiDAR-scanning
the ancient landscape...

..the team find new targets
for archaeological investigation,

where incredible new discoveries
are unearthed...

..including more gold,

and human remains.

There are human bones.
Maybe it was a king.

Their mission will take them
from the depths of the jungle

and on a gruelling,
once-in-a-lifetime expedition

into the spiritual heartland
of the mighty Khmer warrior-kings

who built the wonders of Angkor Wat.

In the city of Savannakhet

in the Southeast Asian
nation of Laos,

a priceless hoard of ancient treasure
is being moved to a secret location

for scientific
and historical analysis.

One of the most important
archaeological finds ever made

is undergoing intense examination

by an elite team
of international experts.

10 months ago,
the team dated the treasure

to around the 8th century.

Now they're back again,

with new experts
joining the investigation.

Over the next two weeks,

they'll analyse the treasure
in meticulous detail,

using state-of-the-art technology

to find out how it was crafted

and what it might have been used for.

Aha!

Anticipation mounts,

as the new team members
wait to see the treasure

for the very first time.

Finally, before them,

priceless artefacts of
gold and silver

more than 1,000 years old.

MAN: The discovery of the treasure
is major

for the history of not only Laos
but Southeast Asia.

Archaeologist and goldsmith
Barbara Armbruster

is seeing the
treasure for the first time.

She's an expert in
the crafting of metals and alloys.

Ah! OK.
Yeah. You see?

This a base?
Yeah, this is a base.

By concentrating on
what metals were used

and the craftsman's
tools and techniques,

the team hope to gain
an understanding

of how and why
the artefacts were made.

To begin with, there is intense focus

on one of the stars of the find...

..a kendi, or water jug.

It's so delicate.

It's really the most beautiful
object I've seen in this treasure.

To reduce the handling of
such a precious object,

it's being preserved digitally.

Pascal Mora is underway
with the process of photogrammetry.

I use a turntable

to be able to take pictures
on different angles.

He takes hundreds of
overlapping photographs

which can be stitched together
in a computer to create a 3D model.

I have to take pictures
all around the object

to be able to get all the details.

But before
a 3D model can be created,

there's another step in the process.

Laser scanning will capture
details such as surface texture

that photographs can't.

So combining the two techniques,

we are able to produce
the best possible 3D model,

with good geometry and good colour.

The kendi is now digitally preserved
for the future.

The models created by
this new scanning technology

are so incredibly accurate

that the team will use them

as their investigation

into the origins of the treasure
progresses.

The team's hypothesis is that

the original home
of such exquisite artefacts

could have been the area centred
on the ancient Khmer temple site

of Vat Phou.

Vat Phou has always been -

in the Khmer inscriptions,
in the Khmer history -

the most venerated place.

It's a very sacred place.

The Vat Phou Temple
is located in southern Laos,

at the foot of Mt Phu Kao,

6km from the Mekong River.

In the 8th century,

the royal Khmer city of Kurukshetra

was located here on the riverbank,

walking distance from the temple.

Today, a small fishing village
now occupies the site of Kurukshetra.

For the treasure team, this site -

once the administrative centre
of the whole area -

is now of significant interest.

Finding out more about life here

may shed new light on the treasure.

One here, one here.

The team led by Christine

is beginning a major new excavation
on the edge of Kurukshetra.

This ancient city and the temple
of Vat Phou nearby

may have been powerful
and wealthy enough

to have been
where the treasure originated.

Yes. You can put here.

But to find out more, the team
want to know who once lived here.

And LiDAR technology,

which can reveal lost structures
hidden by vegetation,

is helping them open a window
into this forgotten world.

This is the first ever LiDAR map

of the ancient city of Kurukshetra...

..from the largest features,

like the huge boundary canals...

..down to the mounds
where buildings once stood.

This new survey allows the team
to target their excavation.

And one site on the outskirts
of the city stands out.

At ground level, there is
little to see with the naked eye.

But the LiDAR data ensures that

the team can precisely map out
the site for investigation.

16.

The length, width and depth
of the area to be excavated

is carefully plotted.

So this is 4m by 4m.

It is the grid of our excavation.

The reason that the team are so
intrigued by this particular site

is that they've seen
this kind of layout before.

On the middle, a working area -

maybe for the servants.

On the south, a secret area.

So it's compatible with
the palace we know in Angkor.

That the footprint of the dig site

resembles much-later palace sites
in Angkor

is evidence of the strong connections
between this early city

and the great capital
that the Khmer people constructed

in the centuries that followed.

The excavation of
this long-lost palace

may reveal the forgotten secrets
of this ancient world.

Back at the treasure lab,

attention has returned to

one of the most significant pieces
in the treasure -

the Golden Box.

Barbara is searching for clues
as to how it was made

and what it might have been used for.

BARBARA: We are going step by step,
very close to the object.

Each process of metalworking leaves
a print, a mark on the object,

like a fingerprint.

And if you see that,

you can deduce
how the thing was made.

The fingerprint reveals the box
was made by a master craftsman.

The goldsmith uses a gold sheet,

which is hammered by striking
with a hammer and on an anvil.

And starting from that,

he is creating
a three-dimensional shape.

But the longer Barbara
works with the box,

the more she questions
what it's actually made of.

It's the first sight, to me,
to be in gold,

but, having a closer look...

..um, I don't know.

Perhaps the golden box
is not made from gold after all.

After painstakingly combing through

layer after layer of earth
at the dig site,

finally, a breakthrough.

On the floor of the trench,

a clay pot is revealed.

There is a lot of small fragments.

Yeah, and you see,
when we remove the...

Yeah. You take out the...

Yeah. Take out one part of the pot.

This discovery,
after 24 days of digging,

suggests they're on the right track.

And you see the charcoal.
They have charcoal everywhere.
There's a lot of charcoal.

So it means that
people live on this level.

There is a lot of things now.

Before, they found
nothing, nothing, nothing.

And now we have the level
where people live.

With all the charcoal,

it means that
maybe it's a cooking area.

As the team dig down

further into the foundations
of the structure...

Oh! I see something here.

They make a startling discovery,

revealing the wealth
of this ancient site.

Here is yellow, yellow.

Unearthing the clay pot
now pales in importance.

By the middle of the hiding place.

The team's incredible new find

is unlike anything ever seen before

in the history of archaeology
in Southeast Asia.

Beneath the bricks,
they have unearthed

nine exquisitely-crafted
lotus flowers made of gold.

It is unique,

because it is the most earlier
pre-Angkorian period we have.

On all the area of Vat Phou,

is the first time that we found
some kind of thing like this.

It's very, very fragile
because it's very thin.

Gold leaves is very thin.

You see? Less than one millimetre.

We have to keep it very carefully.

Is this is a lotus?
I think it's a lotus flower. Yeah.

In Buddhist symbolism,

the lotus represents purity of
the body, speech and mind.

The discovery of
Buddhist artefacts here

provides an incredible snapshot
of Khmer life in Kurukshetra

in the centuries before they founded
the great Hindu city of Angkor.

So, in that time, it seems
that Buddhism and Hinduism

can be close to each other
without fighting

and without nothing problematic
between the two religions.

The suggestion that Buddhists
and Hindus lived harmoniously

is seen on the Golden Box,

which features iconography
from both religions.

This new find
of golden lotus flowers,

the oldest of its kind,

is yet more evidence that
this ancient region

is where the treasure
could have originated.

But there's much more
to this discovery,

because the team quickly realise

that the lotus flowers are merely
a decorative covering

for what lies beneath...

..cremated human remains.

I am sure that it is cremated bones,

because bones un-cremated
and bones cremated

are totally different.

The local practice of cremation

and the impact of the region's
hot, humid climate and acidic soils

means that few ancient human remains
are ever found in the area.

These are the oldest bones like this

ever discovered from the Khmer era.

And the golden petals
placed on top of them

suggest WHO this person
might have been.

They want to give
more importance to these bones.

Otherwise they will not put gold
on those bones.

So this is very interesting.

Maybe it was a king.

The suggestion that
the remains are of a king

supports the theory that the dig site
is an ancient royal palace.

If what I think is correct,

that the big building
was the palace,

you have a funerary area.

And it could be the place
where they put the king after dying.

And that's why they put also
gold leaves on the bones,

to never forget that it was
a very important person.

It's an incredible thought -

the remains discovered here could
be one of the first Khmer kings.

Christine believes the find
could date from as early as 450 AD -

the very beginning
of the Khmer Dynasty,

around 2-300 years before
the treasure was likely made,

and about 700 years
before Angkor reached its peak.

The discovery of gold
and the possible remains of a king

suggests that
this ancient palace site

was once a location of
major wealth and power.

Could this be the kind of place

where the treasure
might once have belonged?

There would have been few places
in the ancient Khmer world

capable of crafting the elaborate
objects found in the treasure.

Discovering the exact composition
of the metals used

might help reveal exactly
where the raw materials came from -

a critical clue in piecing together
the origins of the treasure.

Here comes the masterpiece.

David Bourgarit
is an archaeometallurgist,

an expert in ancient
metal-making techniques.

He will examine the box, seeking
an understanding of the metals used.

So you see a very high relief,

which is nearly
three-dimensional here.

This is really something special.

And we find it also on the kendi.

And Barbara
has a new theory to share.

The original assumption was that
the box is made from solid gold,

but Barbara isn't so sure.

In the first look I thought,
this must be plain gold.

But now I'm wondering
if it's made of gilded silver.

And so it would be very good

if you could show us
that this also is gilded,

or the contrary.

Gilding is a technique where

a thin layer of gold is
coated onto another surface,

usually another metal.

David's mission is to find out

what metal or metals
the box is really made of.

So I have the light here,
and I have also a camera

which enables me to focus on
the place I want to be.

The X-ray fluorescence scanner

analyses what elements
are present in an object,

creating an elemental fingerprint.

It doesn't take long to
reveal something surprising.

So, yes, there's a lot of silver,

which shows that
this cannot be gold.

So we have one answer.

But David's X-ray scanner
has limitations.

The apparatus we have
is not able to distinguish

between a massive gold,
a solid gold,

and gilded silver -
a layer of gold on silver.

To help solve the mystery,

the team now turned to
the 3D-scanning.

By precisely measuring
the dimensions of the box,

they can calculate its volume.

This allows them to
estimate what its weight should be

if it was solid gold,

one of the heaviest precious metals
of all.

It quickly becomes clear
that it's not heavy enough.

It seems that Barbara's hunch
is correct.

The box is not 100% gold.

Because of the volume
and the weight,

it can only be made of silver.

Silver with a gilded layer,

but the gold layer is so thin

that it does not impact
the total weight.

So, yes, that's where we arrived to.

So your hypothesis was good.

So it looks like gilded silver.
Well, it's what we expected.

But as the cover is so well gilded,

at the first look,
it seemed to be gold, yeah.

But where might
these metals have come from?

Silver is relatively abundant
throughout Asia,

making it hard
to pinpoint its origins.

But gold is rare,

and can have
distinguishing characteristics.

Could it have come from
the Vat Phou area

where the team think
the treasure could have been made?

Gold comes in a myriad of
varying shades of yellow.

To an experienced eye,

those shades can reveal
where the gold originated.

Pasitsay Syphakdy
is a local goldsmith,

casting his learned eye over the box.

He has astonishing news.

(SPEAKS LAO)

According to his experience,

this gold may belong to Attapeu,

one province in the south of Laos.

Attapeu Province is located
in southern Laos,

about 40km from Vat Phou.

People still pan for gold here
to this day.

The revelation that Attapeu gold
was used on the box

is the strongest evidence yet

that the major artefacts
in the treasure

might have come from
the Vat Phou area.

Could the same source of gold
have been used

for both the box and the kendi?

(BOTH SPEAK LAO)

So he says that the colour...

..the composition of this kendi,

it's exactly the same as the box.

So this is a type of gold
from Attapeu region?

Yes, according to his expertise.

Confirmation that the gold
in the treasure's main artefacts

originated near Vat Phou

further supports the team's theory

that these objects
could have been made locally

for use in the Vat Phou temple.

But why might Vat Phou have been
worthy of such precious treasure?

Inscriptions reveal that
the temple here

remains significant
to the Khmer kings

long after the decline of
nearby royal Kurukshetra

and the foundation of a new capital
in Angkor to the south.

Why was Vat Phou so important
to the Angkor kings?

Christophe and David
are heading into the countryside,

searching for evidence
of a lost highway

from Angkor to Vat Phou,

mentioned in ancient inscriptions.

Understanding the connections
between these great sites

could explain why Khmer kings
valued this area so highly,

and may shed new light
on the treasure itself.

So, here we go on the on the left.

They use satellite signals
to match their current location

with the LiDAR map
of the historic landscape.

I switch from satellite to LiDAR.

We have 3...400m to go.

We are more or less on it.

Leaving the car behind,

they take to footpaths
across the fields.

At ground level,
there's nothing to suggest that

this might have been a significant
location in the distant past.

But mapping the LiDAR data
onto the modern landscape

for the very first time...

provides an astonishingly
different view.

Christophe and David's footpath
is no ordinary footpath.

From Vat Phou, it stretches away
to the southwest...

..and continues on for 280km...

..a vast highway
leading all the way to Angkor.

It is strange how this road
looks amazing on the LiDAR itself,

but, on the ground,
it looks like nothing.

This ancient highway was once
a major trade route,

with raw gold from Attapeu being
transported from Vat Phou to Angkor,

with vast quantities used
to adorn the city's great temples.

The road was linking settlements,
was linking cities

and also other types of shrines,
settlements, probably hamlets

built along the road.

The original road surface
is long gone,

but evidence of
this vibrant, lost world

can sometimes be found
in what is now just farmland.

Wait, ceramics.

Good, good, good.

The antefix on the on the edge
of the roof,

with lotus petal
with different flames around.

So, that was making the rim
of the roof quite beautiful.

The lotus leaf design on the tiles

suggests it could date from
the time that Angkor was flourishing.

But this was much more than
just a bustling trade route.

The LiDAR scans reveal that
the highway was 10m wide,

far bigger and grander

than would have been needed
for simply moving goods.

This was a royal highway,
made for kings.

And by using the LiDAR map

to position themselves
looking towards Vat Phou,

Christophe and David
can see the reason

why the kings travelled on this
carefully-planned ancient road.

If we just take a some steps aside,

we can really see this alignment.

There, framed ahead,

greeting any traveller from Angkor
on this last section of the highway

and towering over Vat Phou

is the sacred mountain of Phou Kao.

Gold would have been travelling
from Vat Phou to Angkor,

but heading the other way
on this grand highway

were Angkor's great Hindu kings.

And this mountain
was the reason they came.

It is no accident that
the Hindu temple site of Vat Phou

was constructed over many centuries
at the foot of Mt Phou Kao.

Hinduism and Buddhism had long
coexisted throughout the region.

But Hinduism was the main religion,

with the god Shiva
considered the supreme being,

as seen on the temple's walls,

Devotees worshipped
phallic-shaped objects called lingas,

earthly representations
of Shiva himself.

But the most sacred lingas
weren't manmade.

They occurred naturally
in the landscape,

and Mt Phou Kao,

topped with a natural
18m sandstone pinnacle,

was the most sacred linga of all...

..the home of Shiva.

The temple of Vat Phou

and the neighbouring city
of Kurukshetra

were built in its sacred shadow.

From the ninth century onwards,
the Khmer Empire expanded...

..reaching its zenith with
the construction of Angkor Wat

in the city of Angkor.

Inscriptions reveal that
the kings of Angkor

often travelled the highway
to the Vat Phou temple,

despite the neighbouring city
of Kurukshetra's eventual decline.

Such a royal procession
must have been a stunning sight.

Depicted on one beautiful
bas relief in Angkor Wat,

we see actually cavalries,
you see generals, the troops,

the priests, musicians,

the king, his guards,

his courtesans and the princes
and all the rest.

And so it's a very long procession.

It would have been
quite spectacular.

A royal pilgrimage like this,

covering 280km,

was a major enterprise...

..evidence of the ongoing importance
of Vat Phou to the Khmer kings.

Further proof of
the enduring connection

between Angkor and Vat Phou

is seen in the buildings themselves.

Some of the most impressive
structures at Vat Phou

were commissioned by the king
who constructed Angkor Wat

in the 12th century.

And earlier Khmer kings
also made significant donations.

Pre-Angkorian structures
can be found across the site,

dating right back to the time
that the treasure was made.

And the team's analysis
of the treasure itself

reveals how lavish and varied
royal gifts to a temple could be.

So, Dominique, I will show you
something very interesting for you,

and beautiful, and one of
the major pieces of the treasure.

Look.

As you can see,
it is the shape of a boat.

And you see there
is a beautiful inscription.

Dominique Soutif is an expert
in ancient inscriptions.

To decipher the words
on the fragile bowl,

he makes a mould of the inscription

by easing damp rice paper into
the delicate relief of the text.

Actually, it's a bit like
when you're a kid

and you put some pencil on a coin.

Adding ink onto the damp paper

creates a highly accurate copy
of the inscription.

Do you want another piece?

Let's see if it works or not.

It's a long and delicate process.

But finally, the meaning
of the inscription is revealed.

The silver vessel mentions
the large donation

of vases, lands

and everything
you need for the temple.

The detail is astounding.

Gardens,

male and female slaves,

fields and shapely lambs

and dishes
for the daily worship of Shiva.

It is a list of objects
which were given to this god.

It's a big royal donation
made by a king.

This donation
was incredibly generous.

The discovery that the silver bowl
lists royal gifts to a temple

is of enormous significance.

The team now believe that
the other objects in the treasure

once served a sacred purpose.

Because the inscription proves that
they are directly dedicated to God,

we can be sure that
all the objects of the treasure

were coming from sacred temples.

But if the treasure collection itself
was a royal donation to a temple,

what might it have been used for?

Dominique's expert knowledge

of the rituals
performed in ancient Khmer temples

provides a clue.

The daily ritual of a god

is comparable to
the service of a king.

You are offering to the god

exactly what you would offer
to the King in his palace.

And you have to wake him up,

to bath him,

to offer him food, incense,

and to sing for him,
to dance for him, and so on.

The god, represented by a linga

housed in the central sanctuary
of the temple,

would have been tended to
by high priests.

The treasure could have played
a key role in these sacred rituals.

With the treasures
that have been discovered,

there are at least four objects
which were offered to gods.

The boxes were probably used
to store incense.

The plates were dedicated
to serve food.

The kendi, probably for the bath.

Bathing the god
in the central sanctuary

would have been one of

the most deeply significant parts
of the ritual...

..one which required
the most exquisite of artefacts.

So kendi is a very rare discovery
in gold.

I think the only one
which has ever been discovered

for the pre-Angkorian period.

This is quite exceptional, actually.

It was probably used to pour water,

especially if it's
for the bath of the god.

In Khmer mythology, water was sacred,

and rainwater falling
on the natural linga on Mt Phou Kao

was considered
the most sacred of all.

It flowed down the mountainside
to a holy spring

where the Vat Phou temple complex
was constructed.

Christine is exploring the site

to see how these sacred waters

were channelled
right through the temple itself.

Come through here.

I would like to show you
the main place of the sanctuary.

It was on this brick area
that the main linga, the Shiva, was.

From the sacred spring
coming from the top of the mountain,

the water was coming by some channel
in sandstone,

from the spring until here,

and going...
Through this?

..through the wall on this way,

to bath Shiva permanently,

by the holy water of the spring.

The exquisite golden kendi

could have been used
for these sacred ceremonies...

..possibly in the presence
of the king himself.

But having worshipped at the temple,

would the Khmer king's journey
have ended here?

Or might they have ascended
the sacred mountain

to worship the holiest linga of all?

Ancient writings suggest
that the kings of Kurukshetra

might have done this
long before Angkor was founded.

A Chinese text
from around the 6th century

tells of a temple to Shiva

guarded by 1,000 soldiers
at the summit...

..where human sacrifices
were made in the presence of a king.

(METALLIC CLANGING)

Legends of human sacrifice
on Mt Phou Kao might just be a myth,

but they hint that kings
might indeed have made it to the top.

There is no doubt people went there
for worshipping in ancient times.

To find out more,

the team are preparing
an ascent of their own.

On their journey to the summit,

they will be searching for
evidence of religious ceremonies

from the pre-Angkorian era,

when the treasure was made.

The climb will take them two days.

Even today, the holy mountain
is considered sacred.

Access is restricted,
with strict rules in place.

Bad thoughts are
not to be taken on the ascent.

Over time, landslides and erosion

have buried sections
of the ancient track.

But this climb
would never have been easy.

Inscriptions from the time

decree that no-one could be
carried up the mountain.

That means everybody
had to walk the same way we did.

Kings, commoners -
whoever actually had to come

and worship the god on top of
the mountain had to go that way.

So, uh... No, it's good to
share that feeling anyway.

After a whole day of hard climbing
through the jungle,

the team have covered less than 8km.

But their ascent has brought them to
just 200m below the summit,

within striking distance

of the holiest site
in the ancient Khmer world.

DAVID: Maybe we will understand
more tomorrow

about why the king
needed to come here.

At first light, the team leave camp.

The sacred summit looms high above.

It's really beautiful, but...

..it's going to be really steep
at the end.

A final scramble
takes them to the foot

of the huge natural linga
crowning the mountain.

Finally, evidence of those
who have gone before them.

The style of that linga
suggests it's a pre-Angkorian one.

Clearly, people have been
worshipping here -

priests, pilgrims.

And so, why not the kings?

If they even made the climb too.
Why not?

Being in that sacred forest,
that sacred mountains is...

..it's something very touching.

On the sandstone wall
of the linga itself,

the team spots something
that ties in with the treasure.

Evidence of Buddhism
on this sacred Hindu mountain.

You see the wheel here?

It's a very common Buddhist symbol,

which has been long found,

for thousands of years
in Buddhist shrines.

But what is really interesting

is to see how this place remained
sacred through different religions,

by different pilgrims,
worshipping different gods.

Evidence of Buddhist and Hindu
worship on the mountain

corresponds with the treasure,

which displays iconography
from both religions.

Perhaps sacred artefacts
from the treasure

were used in ceremonies
here at the foot of the linga.

But might any of the treasure
have made it to the very top?

Only 18m remain,

but these are the hardest of all.

MAN: Now you've got to take
all that slack through.

No, just stop climbing.

That's it. Get your knee on
up there. You're doing great.

Oh, wow!

Can we see Vat Phou? Right there?

That's amazing.

DAVID: They can clearly understand
the feeling of the people

to be on the top of the top,
to make a link with the god.

I can feel this.

Any king that made it up here

would have looked out across
the vast expanse of his empire.

The ancient road is
quite visible from the city here.

Going down,
down and lost in the haze,

for over 200km going to Angkor.

But there's far more here
than just the epic view.

I'm surprised actually. There was
a kind of a pedestal of some sort.

Probably another very small linga.

But only these small fragments
are the witnesses

of all the ceremonies
which would have taken place here.

Christophe had no idea
that these relics were here

and thinks that they predate Angkor.

Who would have come here?

Kings. Priests? Commoners?
We don't really know.

But clearly, people who may have
come here full of devotion.

Whether objects from the treasure
made it up here with them

will never be known.

But it's possible that they did.

Performing a ritual here,

you would need various objects -
candles or incense sticks.

The golden kendi
is a perfect example

of the kind of object which
could have been brought in

to be used for the rituals
to worship.

You are really on the top,
the closest to the god,

where are your prayers
and the rituals you will perform

will be the strongest.

This mountain and
the sacred landscape in its shadow

could well be the place
where the treasure truly belonged.

This was where some of
the first Khmer kings

constructed their earliest temples.

And, over successive generations,

even after the capital city
had moved to Angkor,

Khmer kings returned here
on their great highway

to the cradle of their civilisation,

so they could venerate the god
who gave them the power to rule.

By opening a new window into the rise
of this great civilisation,

the investigation into the treasure

highlights how the epic story
of the mighty Khmer Empire

didn't begin in Angkor.

Long before Angkor,

Khmer society was already flourishing
around this sacred mountain

at the time the treasure was made.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2024