Original subtitles

NARRATOR: A hurricane off the coast of Bermuda

uncovers a mysterious shipwreck.

- They found two huge wheels, what kind of ship uses wheels?

And how did it end up on the ocean floor off the coast of Bermuda?

NARRATOR: Iraq's worst drought on record

uncovers the remains of an ancient civilisation.

- The first urban centres anywhere on Earth

popped up about 6000 years ago, right here!

NARRATOR: A massive storm in northwestern Ireland

unearths a grisly discovery. WOMAN: Who is this person?

And how did their skeleton wind up tangled in this tree's roots?

NARRATOR: All over the world incredible discoveries

are being revealed by devastating events:

floods, earthquakes,

droughts, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions,

trails of destruction

expose long lost mysteries.

This is Discovered By Disaster.

In August of 2009, Hurricane Bill battered the island of Bermuda

with heavy rain, massive waves

and 100-mile-an-hour winds.

The island suffered widespread power outages and flooding,

but no serious injuries or fatalities were reported.

- In the days following the hurricane,

reports began trickling in of large white plumes

coming from a reef offshore

of the southern end of Bermuda's main island,

so curious divers decided to check it out.

They found that the plumes were huge quantities of sand

from the sea bed that had been disturbed by the storm.

- As the divers continued to explore, they discovered something

astonishing: part of an old shipwreck had emerged

from the ocean floor!

The bow was clearly visible,

and they found parts of the vessel's rigging.

CANTOR: The rope that's here is made of hemp

and composed of three strands.

My guess would be that this vessel is from the era before diesel

powered engines, when they relied on sails, so it must be pretty old.

The question is: what ship is this

and how did it end up on the ocean floor off the coast of Bermuda?

NARRATOR: Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory

made up of an archipelago of 181 islands

roughly 600 miles from America's eastern seaboard.

NARDI: It's quite small, covering an area of only about 21 square miles.

But despite its size, historically Bermuda was enormously

important to the British Empire.

It served as a place where merchants could trade,

ships could restock supplies and conduct repairs,

and it also provided a safe haven for the British Navy.

- Bermuda is strategically located between the United Kingdom

and North America, which is why it remains important

and in British hands today.

But its location in the Atlantic also places it right smack

dab in the middle of hurricane alley.

NARRATOR: A few months following Hurricane Bill,

an archaeologist was diving the wreck site

when he made a surprising discovery.

NARDI: In what looked like a secret compartment

at the front of the ship's hull,

he could see a wooden crate with a corked bottle of wine

lying next to it.

Moving in for a closer look, he discovered that the crate

had 12 imprints from 12 different bottles,

meaning that when the ship went down

there was more wine than what we can see here.

- During the 1920s, alcohol was illegal in the United States,

so criminal organisations would often import booze from overseas.

Bermuda's location off the east coast puts it squarely

within rum-running routes,

so maybe this ship was involved in bootlegging

during the American prohibition era?

NARRATOR: Further investigation of the wreck

reveals that the ship had some unusual features.

- They found two huge wheels.

One was still attached to the hull,

whereas the other had completely broken off and lay on its side.

What kind of ship uses wheels?

- Before diesel-powered engines, steam was used.

Some of these vessels were called sidewheelers: they still had sails,

but big paddles on their sides helped drive the ship forward.

So this wreck is an old steamship!

But which one is it?

- The steamship era spanned from the 1830s

until about the second decade of the 20th century

when the combustion engine began to take over,

and oil or gasoline became the main source of energy.

So chances are that this ship is too old to have been involved

in bootlegging.

NARRATOR: As the archaeologists begin to investigate

the foremost part of the bow,

they find wooden decking, panelling and shelves.

NARDI: This area is known as the forepeak,

and only the ship's boatswain had access to it.

The boatswain was and remains an essential crewmember,

as they have the responsibility

for the maintenance of the ship and all of its equipment.

CANTER: The forepeak was where the boatswain would typically throw

any or all of his gear, tools and supplies.

Even things that weren't being used

but may have come in handy one day were thrown in here!

NARRATOR: The team initially finds what they expected:

ropes, tin cans, and a chip log reel,

an instrument used to measure speed.

But then, wedged against a wooden bulkhead,

they find yet another bottle of wine.

ELLIS: The bottle is sealed and corked,

its precious contents still inside.

This is a bit strange, if the crew wasn't bootlegging,

why is all this wine in a part of the ship that only one man

would have access to?

NARRATOR: Next to the bottle of wine is a smaller, greenish glass bottle.

The archaeologists bring both bottles up to the surface.

- The smaller bottle has a narrower neck than the wine bottle,

and in fact is made of clear glass,

so the greenish colour is actually the liquid inside!

And after brushing off the sand, you can see that it's embossed

with the text "Murray & Lanman, No 69 Water Street, New York,

Florida Water".

ELLIS: Florida water? That's essentially perfume.

What was the boatswain doing with both perfume and wine in his locker?

if he was shipping it, why not put it in the cargo hold,

or somewhere that was less cluttered and more protected?

- Perhaps the whole point was that he didn't want these goods

to be found, and that he was smuggling them.

But they seem pretty harmless or even pointless things to smuggle.

NARRATOR: In the forepeak, the archaeologists also find

several pieces of coal, and discover more scattered around the ship.

NARDI: The coal seems a little different

from what you would expect.

It has an interesting colour and texture,

breaks easily into sharp fragments and almost appears to radiate,

as if it were a precious metal.

Also, when you handle it, your hands aren't stained black.

It's quite "clean" actually!

ELLIS: This is really intriguing!

This ship was burning anthracite coal,

which is another term for smokeless coal!

You might think this is an oxymoron, how can coal be smokeless?

Well this stuff basically is, it burns very clean!

- Smokeless coal is the least plentiful form of coal

on the planet.

So whoever was captaining this ship must have had an especially

good reason for wanting to use it:

likely, they didn't want to draw too much attention to the ship

by belching out plumes of smoke.

NARRATOR: In the forepeak, archaeologists also find

a pair of leather shoes, as well as a wooden shoe last.

LEONARD: A shoe last is what shoemakers used to make shoes

back in the day.

They would stretch the leather over the last and get to work!

NARDI: Given the smokeless coal, as well as the perfume and wine

squirrelled away in the forepeak,

it seems pretty certain they were smuggling.

But then why would they also smuggle an instrument used to make shoes?

Surely shoes weren't such a valuable commodity?

- The only time shoes were a scarce commodity

and valuable in this region was during the American Civil War.

By 1860, the year before the war began,

the production of shoes had become industrialised,

with most of production located in the country's north.

NARRATOR: On the eve of the Civil War,

about 95% of shoes in America were produced in the north,

and the south had to have them shipped in from various factories.

- Obviously once the Union was at war with the Confederates,

they weren't about to keep providing shoes to southern states

in open rebellion!

In fact, the Battle of Gettysburg,

which we now consider the turning point of the War,

was kicked off when a Confederate infantry division

supposedly went looking for a warehouse

that they heard was full of shoes.

Instead, they came face-to-face with an entire union division.

NARRATOR: Whatever supplies the Confederates

couldn't make themselves

had to be brought in by boat from abroad.

As a result, the north employed their Navy to impose

a blockade that stretched from Virginia to Texas.

ELLIS: So the south responded by using blockade runners!

Slick, quick steamships that could evade the Union's bigger,

slower ships and bring in much needed goods to the south.

Like shoes!

LEONARD: But if this vessel is a blockade runner,

why also bring in luxury goods like perfume and wine?

Surely an army doesn't fight better

when it's half drunk and smells good?

CANTER: It's likely the boatswain, or someone on the ship,

was trying to do a little business on the sly.

In times of war, there are always people willing to pay top dollar

for scarce products.

ELLIS: The smuggling of luxury items got so bad that in early 1864,

the Confederate government passed a bill

intended to regulate blockade runners.

It banned the import of certain luxury items

and promised to punish those who attempted to smuggle goods

like perfume or alcohol.

NARRATOR: Historical records indicate that only one ship was lost

in Bermuda during the Civil War:

the Mary Celestia, which ran aground

in September 1864

while carrying an official cargo of bacon and "other merchandise".

- So when the Mary Celestia went down, the shipping of luxury items

on blockade runners was definitely illegal,

so someone here really was trying to score a little extra on the voyage.

NARRATOR: Newspaper accounts later revealed that as the Mary Celestia

was sinking, the cook ran back into the ship

to retrieve something and was never seen again.

He was the only casualty of the incident, so whether or not

he was the smuggler is a secret he took to a watery grave.

In 2018, Iraq endured its driest year on record.

The rice and wheat fields lay barren

and farmers were rendered destitute as the waterways dried up.

- The Tigris is one of the region's great, historic rivers.

When it floods it allows farmers to pump water across their fields

and irrigate the land.

But this drought forced them to use wells

which then became salty

due to the severely low water levels.

- When an area is below sea level it makes rivers run dry like that,

the groundwater often gets infiltrated by sea water.

So the groundwater is salinated.

That means there's nothing but salt water to irrigate your crops

and that's not gonna work.

Iraqi farmers really had no choice but to abandon their land

and seek other opportunities in the cities.

- Not just that, but in some provinces, 90% of the population

lost access to clean drinking water.

So this meant waterborne diseases were spreading at the same time

many had to flee their homes.

It was a disaster in the true sense of the word.

ELLIS: In the north of the country is Mosul Lake, a body of water

created in the 1980s when Saddam Hussein built a dam on the Tigris.

The dam is an essential piece of infrastructure

as it provides hydroelectric power for Iraq.

But in order to build it, he had to flood an enormous area,

which included farms and villages.

NARRATOR: During this horrible drought,

the water levels of the lake were critically reduced.

The shoreline retreated,

exposing terrain that hadn't seen the light of day for decades.

On the eastern side of the lake,

an elevated terrace emerged from the retreating waters.

Pottery shards were now visible on the parched land,

lying scattered along the shore.

- These pottery shards date from around 3000 BCE

until the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE,

which translates to roughly 4,000 years of history!

But this shouldn't be a surprise,

the Tigris is known as the cradle of civilisation.

we refer to this region as Mesopotamia,

and it's where humans first began developing agriculture

some 12,000 years ago.

RISKIN: Along with cultivating crops and domesticating animals,

people were eventually able to settle down

and form permanent residences,

which of course eventually led to the creation of cities.

Now the best evidence we have suggests that the first

urban centres anywhere on Earth popped up about 6000 years ago,

right here, along and around the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.

NARRATOR: Curious about the newly exposed area, archaeologists use

aerial imagery to get a better perspective on the site

and are shocked at what the pictures reveal.

ELLIS: The images show large structures located high on a mound,

overlooking the river Tigris! Because of their colour,

they kind of blend into the rest of the landscape.

There are several rectangular spaces built out of mudbrick

that are lined up in a row, separated by thick walls.

They're obviously quite old, but what are these things?

NARRATOR: The archaeologists begin to assess the discovery.

To better understand the architecture of the structure

as well as what deposits could be lying under the surface,

they start by digging 12 trenches in the rectangular areas.

- Just beneath the surface are more mudbricks.

They're laid out in relatively narrow, rectangular shapes

and are lined with stone slabs.

- They're all oriented in the same direction of north-south.

My guess here is that we're looking at several graves

that make up a cemetery!

But this is a little strange, because no other cemeteries

in this area look like this, with these big rectangular holes

dug deep into the earth!

- The mudbricks that cover some of the burials

measure about 14 inches long by about 4 inches high,

which is interesting because many of the other bricks that have been used

to build this surrounding structure are the same size!

- It looks like people used the bricks to cover the graves

of their loved ones,

so it's likely that this structure predates those graves

and that people in more modern times just repurposed the bricks

that were already there for those burials.

ELLIS: The region wasn't flooded until the 1980s,

and thanks to old maps

we know that in this area there was a village called Kemune.

So the villagers used this site as a burial ground!

But if a village was here, why put a cemetery inside this old structure?

NARRATOR: The archaeologists eventually excavate a total

of eight different spaces, as well as the structure's walls.

AGBEDOR: These walls are pretty huge: 23 feet high!

And these eight spaces have to be separate rooms.

Given the height of the walls,

this was no ordinary building,

and it probably wasn't a place to bury

and pay respects to the dead.

NARRATOR: On the western side of the excavated rooms,

there is a wall that extends for over 80 feet

in a north-south direction.

The archaeologists decide to investigate.

- Yet again, we're dealing with quite impressive dimensions here.

This wall is not just long, it's 40 feet thick!

NARDI: It could be a fortification, but this wall is terraced,

which usually isn't how you'd build one if you want to keep enemies out.

So this building probably wasn't a fortress.

NARRATOR: Continuing the investigation,

archaeologists discover more mud bricks

scattered across the floor of several rooms.

- These bricks used to make up the room's walls.

But the walls are completely destroyed

and that suggests that they probably collapsed

in some kind of catastrophic event.

ELLIS: There's no ash or other burnt debris under the collapsed walls.

So whatever disaster befell this place

it wasn't because of a fire. Maybe it was an earthquake?

AGBEDOR: It's definitely possible.

This part of Iraq sits right next to the convergence of the Eurasian

and Arabian tectonic plates,

meaning it gets an intense amount of earthquake activity.

So this place was probably abandoned

after an earthquake destroyed a large part of it!

NARRATOR: After dusting off and fully assessing

the collapsed mud bricks,

the archaeologists discover that they are all covered

in a variety of brilliant colours.

- The bricks have been painted in blue, red, black and white.

So you can imagine that before the earthquake,

some of these walls were beautifully decorated.

- I think it's so funny how we see these old ruins

and we look at their drab clay colours and we think,

"Oh, in the past everything looked so boring," but it didn't!

They had paint but the paints have all faded since then.

So if you consider the colourful walls here,

maybe someone really important lived here,

or this was a significant common area

that a bunch of people would have used at the same time.

But when was it occupied?

Surely we're talking thousands of years ago!

NARRATOR: In one of the largest rooms of the building,

archaeologists find two clay tablets.

One is perfectly intact, whereas the other is partially destroyed.

Etched into their surface are many little lines and wedges.

- This is a cuneiform tablet!

Cuneiform is a system of writing that emerged towards the end

of the 4th millennium BCE

and remained in use for the next 3,000 years.

- You wrote by pressing a sharp tool into wet clay

to create these beautiful symbols.

Cuneiform, like Chinese for example, is logographic,

meaning that it uses characters, and not letters,

to communicate a word.

NARDI: And these specific cuneiform tablets are written in Akkadian,

one of the main languages spoken in Mesopotamia

between the third and first millennia BCE.

In fact, it was the lingua franca of its time,

meaning that it was used by many different people and cultures

to communicate with each other.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists decipher the cuneiform, and it translates to:

- So this was a palace!

That makes total sense considering how big it is

and how high the ceilings are!

And what we also know now is the name of this ancient place, Zakhiku.

But then, considering that cuneiform and Akkadian were both used

for thousands of years, doesn't really tell us who lived here

or when exactly.

- One of Zakhiku's rooms has walls that are covered in a layer

of black paint on what would have been their lower half.

On their upper half, they seem to have been covered in a motif

consisting of red triangles on a blue background,

with parallel bands in red and grey.

AGBEDOR: So on the walls you'd have these multicoloured

geometric paintings on top of a layer of black.

It's similar to what we see in the palace at Nuzi,

which is south of here.

NARRATOR: Nuzi was an ancient Mesopotamian city

that lay to the south of Zakhiku,

near the eastern banks of the Tigris River.

It is famous for being a Mitanni city.

- We don't know a lot about them, but Mitanni refers to an ancient

Mesopotamian kingdom that stretched across parts of modern-day Iraq,

Syria and Turkey.

In the 1400s and 1300s BCE,

it was a regional superpower and a direct rival to ancient Egypt.

- Its capital lay at a place called Wassukkani,

which we think was located on the upper Khabur River,

in what is now northeastern Syria.

So if you look you can see that Zakhiku was located

quite far east in the empire.

NARRATOR: As the archaeologists continue to explore

the palace grounds, they come across more clay tablets.

ELLIS: This time around they aren't cuneiform texts,

they depict animals rather than words.

This is what's called a seal impression.

In ancient Mesopotamia, they created these tablets

for two reasons:

to act as stamps that would identify the person who had authored

specific texts, or they were stamped on lids of jars or across doorways,

which would protect them against unauthorised openings.

- There is one that is absolutely beautiful,

it's a light brown colour with two horizontal rows of fish,

oriented in opposite directions.

A band, which likely symbolises water, separates the two rows.

NARRATOR: There is a river crossing just a few miles away from Zakhiku

at a place called Abu Wagnam.

It's likely that it was used for the same purpose

even during the Mitanni period,

making it a chokepoint for people and goods

moving from the east into the region.

- All things considered, this building must have been

a big administrative palace of sorts.

Given its location, Zakhiku would have played

an important economic role

by overseeing what was moving into and through the region.

NARRATOR: The Mitanni kingdom finally came to an end

around 1250 BCE,

when it was attacked and defeated by a regional rival.

Today, Zakhiku is providing valuable information

about this little-known ancient empire.

NARRATOR: In 2015,

a fierce storm with winds estimated at more than 60 mph

tore across County Sligo in Northwestern Ireland.

The gales damaged buildings and tore up trees,

causing misery for the local population.

- To put this into perspective, the Beaufort scale is used

to estimate wind strength.

0 on the scale indicates no wind, 12 indicates a full on hurricane.

The storm that hit County Sligo was categorised as a 10

on the Beaufort Scale.

So you would not want to be out in that!

NARRATOR: Sometime after the storm, villagers from nearby Collooney

went out to assess the damage.

Tangled among the roots of an enormous, uprooted beech tree

they came across a startling sight.

CANTOR: Two-thirds of a human skeleton was found embedded

in the tree's root system!

You can make out a spine and parts of other bones poking out

throught the roots and rubble.

The tree's roots must have grown into the skeleton

because when the storm uprooted the tree,

it cut the skeleton off at the thighs.

AGBEDOR: There's no grave marker, no sign of any kind

that someone was buried here.

So who is this person and how did their skeleton wind up

tangled in this tree's roots?

NARRATOR: County Sligo was the site of the historic Battle of Collooney

during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

LEONARD: Inspired by the American and French Revolutions,

Ireland launched a revolt against British rule,

but it didn't last long.

In only five months the rebellion was crushed,

leaving over 30,000 Irish dead.

ELLIS: The Battle of Collooney was one of only a few Irish victories

during the uprising.

A combined force of French and Irish troops

defeated British forces,

resulting in over 60 casualties for the British,

with minimal loss of life for the rebels.

So maybe the skeleton in the tree

is a fallen soldier from the Irish Rebellion.

AGBEDOR: It's possible.

Judging by the girth of the tree's trunk,

it's probably a little over 200 years old.

And seeing as the roots grew into the skeleton,

it must've been here before the tree.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists are called to the scene

and meticulously untangle the skeleton from the tree's roots

to examine it.

- The pelvis cavity is kind of heart-shaped,

which means that this is the body of a male.

Were it female, the cavity would have a more circular shape.

- And in order to figure out his age at time of death,

we look at his growth plates.

This is a layer of cartilage that is present in longer bones,

like the femur, when the body is still growing.

- So if this layer of cartilage is present, it means that

the individual is relatively young.

But if the cartilage has started to disappear,

then we can conclude that the person is a young adult.

- And that's the case here, the rate of fusion of cartilage

is at a stage where it's safe to say that he was around 17-20 years old

at the time of death.

Quite young, so how did he die?

NARRATOR: By examining the entirety of the skeleton,

down to the most minute detail,

archaeologists can learn a lot about the deceased's life,

and sometimes even death.

LONARD: When all laid out, his bones show he was around 5 ft 9",

which is fairly tall, definitely not short.

But what's interesting is that there are very faint markings

on his left hand.

Specifically, to the bones that connect the wrist to the index

and the middle finger.

CANTER: The marking on the middle finger forms a distinct "V" shape

only a fifth of an inch long

and a little more an eighth of an inch deep.

This shape is the tell-tale sign of sharp force trauma.

In other words, we're looking at a stab wound.

NARRATOR: The trauma to the bone is clean with sharp edges,

indicating that it didn't have any time to heal,

and must have happened shortly before or at the time of death.

- These are what we call defence wounds.

So this poor guy was raising his left hand to defend himself

against an attacker armed with a blade of some sort.

LEONARD: Also, one of his uppermost ribs on the right side shows

an almost half-inch-long injury to the bone.

It's also a stab wound and was delivered between the right

shoulder and breastbone, deep into the chest.

ELLIS: There's a slight nick on the top edge of another rib

but oriented more toward the inside of the bone.

This could mean he was kneeling when the blow came, suggesting

that this was the final coup de grace.

So this poor fellow was murdered. But when? And why?

NARRATOR: When the storm tore the tree from the earth

and lifted its root system,

much of the skeleton's lower half remained in the ground.

CANTOR: There isn't any remaining evidence of the grave

but it must have existed.

He was laid to rest in an east-west orientation,

a fairly normal Christian and pagan practice.

So this doesn't really help us nail down the timeline.

AGBEDOR: But the burial does show that he wasn't a soldier left out

on a battlefield. He was buried here intentionally.

So chances are he lost his life somewhere else.

- Since he was quite tall, we can assume that he was well-fed

and not from an impoverished background.

So his bones would show no Harris lines,

which are layers of stunted bone growth

that appear as a result of malnourishment.

ELLIS: Towards the middle section of his spine there are these little

depressions in the vertebrae that occur as a result of a small

rupture occurring in the intervertebral discs,

usually a result of intense pressure.

Basically, lifting heavy loads.

So he wasn't so well off that he wasn't working!

NARRATOR: Thorough excavation and a full sifting of all the soil

reveal no artifacts of any sort

that could date the bones to a specific time.

So they're sent off for radiocarbon dating.

CANTER: The results show that this skeleton is over 1,000 years old!

He lived sometime between 1028 and 1206,

at which time this was a very different place.

NARRATOR: It wasn't until the first years of the 11th century CE

that one king ruled all of Ireland.

He was surrounded by several loyal aristocrats

whose wealth was defined by their cattle and their property.

ELLIS: While the king and his consorts probably enjoyed

the finer things in life,

for most people this wasn't an easy time to be alive.

Violence was part of life in a way that we would find very hard

to understand or accept.

To give you an idea, about 13% of excavated cemeteries from this time

contain victims of violence.

- Of course, some of this violence would have occurred in battle,

but many were the victims of interpersonal conflict,

or maybe even crime.

- One military graveyard in County Dublin was found to contain

numerous military-age males,

all showing evidence of sharp and blunt force trauma.

What's interesting is that they all were all of similar stature

to the skeleton found in the tree,

leading to speculation that they all belonged to a warrior class.

LEONARD: The average male would've only been around 5 ft 5"

at this time, so our skeleton was probably big and strong

compared to everyone else.

It is possible that he belonged to a warrior class,

but the safest assumption is that he was from a local, possibly prominent

Gaelic family and met his match in an interpersonal conflict.

NARRATOR: The discovery of the burial near Collooney

tells the story of a young man whose short life came to a violent end.

It sheds light on his life and times

and the hardship he and his contemporaries endured.

NARRATOR: In February of 1970, a violent storm

tore across Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

Gale force winds tossed the sea and rain pummelling the coastline.

LEONARD: This area gets 104 inches of rain annually,

which is a significant amount

if you compare it to the national average of 29 inches.

So although a lot of rain isn't abnormal, this storm was

particularly vicious:

high tides combined with the heavy rainfall

ate up the shore,

leaving the terrain unstable and vulnerable to collapse.

NARRATOR: When the weather cleared, a lone hiker was walking

along the beaches of the Ozette Indian Reservation

when she came upon a puzzling sight.

- The storm had triggered this massive landslide

that exposed these strange planks and timbers

that had been underneath the mud.

Now that wood was clearly worked by human hands, but whose?

this area is very remote, there aren't any know villages

or parks at this location.

- This is the traditional territory of the Makah,

a people indigenous to the land

who have been living here since time immemorial.

So the hiker got in touch with them to inform them of the discovery.

NARRATOR: A team of archaeologists collaborating with the Makah tribe

began sifting through a 10-foot thick layer of mud

covering the planks and timbers.

- When you excavate sites like this

you have to be as careful as possible.

In this case, it means you use large hoses to spray off the mud or clay

that's covering the objects, and then a finer, less powerful hose

to clean and remove them from the earth.

NARRATOR: The archaeologists unearth some leafy branches

that seemed to have been torn down

during the storm and buried by the ensuing mudslide.

- The leaves are green, they have serrated edges and are kinda shaped

like the head of a tennis racket.

which means they're alder leaves

and if they're green, they can't be very old, right?

- But then something truly incredible happens.

As more mud is washed away

and the leaves are exposed to the air, they turn black.

How does that happen?

- So at first glance you're thinking these leaves are fresh,

they were probably torn down by the storm.

But what if they're not fresh?

What if those leaves actually got torn down a long time ago

but they got buried under the mud right away.

That way they've been in this environment with no oxygen

and there's been no way for them to decompose.

Then they get taken out of the mud,

they get exposed to the air, and boom, they instantly decompose.

that could happen,

but if that is the case, then how old are they?

NARRATOR: The archaeologists' initial excavations also reveal

more than just wooden planks and timbers;

several other large wooden objects also emerge from the mud.

- The wood is largely western red cedar

and in some cases has been left in its round shape,

and in other cases split into planks.

The rounded wood has notches in it,

which I'm guessing would be for supporting rafters

that would lie perpendicular

across what would be these round columns.

The rafters would likely have supported a roof

and the planks were probably used as walls,

so what we're looking at here are the remains of a house.

LEONARD: Western red cedar is a central resource

to the Makah people,

they make tools, canoes and clothes out of it, to name but a few things.

So could this have been part of a Makah hunting camp?

- The Ozette Indian reservation lies right on the westernmost point

of the contiguous US,

so it is perfectly located along the route of migrating

fur seals and whales.

So from here, the Makah used to launch their large cedar canoes

into the ocean for hunting.

CANTER: There are a lot of whale bones buried amongst the debris

from the landslide.

One piece of vertebra even has a very deep cut made into it.

This is probably where a hunter's harpoon struck,

embedding itself in the whale's back.

NARRATOR: The archaeologists find the remains

of a mussel shell harpoon,

a weapon both strong and sharp enough to cut through bone.

LEONARD: There's also a beautifully ornate piece of wood

that's fashioned into the image of a seal.

It's big and heavy, so it's likely a club,

used to kill the seals once they had been harpooned

and dragged in close enough to the canoe.

- So hunters were obviously living here, which shouldn't be

much of a surprise,

considering that the Makah have been living and hunting here

for thousands of years.

But was this just a hunting camp or was there more going on here?

NARRATOR: Extracted from the wet, muddy earth

are six pairs of more or less identical wooden posts,

and another six pairs of posts with three holes carved into them.

- When separated from each other, it's difficult to imagine

what these could be, but when you connect the dots

and fit them together,

you're left with an instrument that has been used

by a variety of cultures for 7000 years!

A loom!

RISKIN: A loom is a tool that's used for weaving cloth.

Over the years, and around the world there have been all kinds of

different versions of them, but they all basically do the same

thing: they make clothes and they make textiles.

- The presence of six looms indicates that this wasn't a site

reserved only for hunting.

On a hunt you wouldn't drag such a massive tool with you,

and weaving was traditionally a woman's job.

So several different activities were happening here at the same time

and each loom probably belonged to one household.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists also find a magnificent carving of a whale fin

made out of red cedar that is inlaid with around 700 otter teeth.

It's the only one of its kind ever discovered.

- We don't know exactly what this was used for.

We have seen it before in an etching made when Captain Cook

visited Nootka, just north of Ozette in 1778.

The etching depicts a scene inside a longhouse,

and in the background you can see

an almost identical carving of a whale fin.

It likely played an important ceremonial role related to hunting.

AGBEDOR: So this is the site of several longhouses

that must have been destroyed and covered by mud

in a disaster similar to what eventually uncovered them.

That's pretty ironic, but when did this disaster happen?

NARRATOR: To properly excavate the area,

the archaeological team digs two 230-foot trenches

from the beach and up into the forest.

- At first, the trenches reveal some red herrings, things like

rusty rifles or Japanese coins.

But soon the team hit the jackpot.

They find a garbage dump!

LEONARD: The technical term for these garbage dumps is middens,

a true treasure trove for archaeologists.

Midden's can reveal a community's diet, what tools they used,

times of famine or plenty as well as their general cultural habits.

In the middens found here, there are mussel and clam shells,

whale bones, charcoal and even rocks that have been cracked

by the intense heat of a fire.

- Radiocarbon dating reveals that some of the material dates

from as far back as 4000 years ago,

whereas other refuse/ garbage is "only" about 800 years old.

So what we're looking at here is a site that has seen thousands

of years of continuous occupation.

NARRATOR: The oral history of the Makah tells of a long-ago

"great slide" that ended up

burying part of a village located near the beach.

- So maybe this site is what remains of that village.

Today Ozette is uninhabited,

but historically speaking, it was anything but.

According to historical records, three shipwrecked Japanese sailors

reported that 16 houses stood at this site

when they drifted ashore here in 1834.

- And a little over 50 years later a sailor said that he had sailed

his ship close to the shore at Ozette

and observed over 20 longhouses.

Now If you consider the fact that each longhouse could hold anywhere

from 20 to 40 people, that's a pretty good-sized community.

However, by the early 1920s, the US Federal government had begun

mandating that all children had to attend school.

So families living in Ozette moved a few miles north, to Neah Bay,

where there was a school and where many Makah still live today.

NARRATOR: By the late 1700s, both direct and indirect contact with

Europeans had an enormous impact on the Makah people.

Epidemics decimated their communities

and their way of life was under severe threat.

AGBEDOR: All the artifacts the archaeologists found here

are of a indigenous origin,

so this village must predate contact with Europeans.

With sustained contact first occurring in the late 18th

and early 19th centuries, it must mean that these artifacts

and longhouses are from before then.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists begin analysing the sediments

surrounding the disaster site,

paying especially close attention to the middens.

- It goes without saying that the deeper you delve into the

trash heap, the further back in time you go.

But what might not be immediately obvious is that the middens

may also contain environmental evidence reflecting the

conditions of the time.

RISKIN: What's neat here is you have evidence of a bunch

of separate mudslides!

There is a layer of mud in between the cultural layers.

So if you look at the whole big picture

you can see there was a mudslide around the mid-16th century

and then another one right at the year 1700,

and that's amazing because we know

from other evidence that there was a huge earthquake in this place

exactly that year, it's called the Cascadia earthquake,

and its estimated to have been a magnitude 9.

- So it appears that one or two mudslides,

triggered by an earthquake,

devastated this village and its people,

freezing the moment for hundreds of years in a flood of mud.

NARRATOR: The excavation at Ozette has revealed over 55,000

individual artifacts, most of them so well preserved

that the village has become known as the American Pompeii.

The discoveries give us profound insight into the daily lives

of the Makah and other indigenous groups of the Pacific Northwest.

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