All language subtitles for America Unearthed S01E02 Medieval Desert Mystery

The history that we were all taught
growing up is rock.

My name is Scott Wolfer, and I'm a
forensic geologist.

There's a hidden history in this country
that nobody knows about.

There are pyramids here, chambers,
tombs, inscriptions.

They're all over this country.

We're going to investigate these
artifacts and sites, and we're going to

the truth.

Sometimes history isn't what we've been
told.

Dear Scott, my name is Paul, and I live
near Tucson, Arizona.

While hiking in the Mustang Mountains,
my friends and I came across a cave.

There's Native American rock art inside,
but that's not why I'm writing.

There's a stone with a mysterious
inscription outside the cave.

I think it's a message written in runes.
I know you've done a lot of work with

rune stones, and I'd like your help
figuring out how old the stone is and

it says.

Hey, Paul?

Yeah, this is Scott Walter.

Say, I got your letter and I'm looking
at these pictures.

I want to see this stone.

Hey, Scott.

That was a hell of a ride.

How did you guys find this place?

Oh, the story starts with me, I guess. I
was over on the other side of the

valley in Elgin, and there was an old
guy who was a retired rancher, and he

said, you know, over there is the
Mustang Mountains. And he said, when I

kid, they said there was a lost
archaeological site over there that's

been gone missing.

Okay. And that was, what, three, two
years ago? Oh, two years ago.

Well, actually, what we were doing is we
were... We were looking for places to

climb, so we had our climbing gear on.
And just so happened that one day, we

come around over to this wall here.

I said to Paul, well, Paul, let's take
our gear off, and we'll see if there's

any places to climb.

As I was walking in, man, Paul, look at
this.

And Paul was amazed, and he said, man,
this place is great.

Actually, I think he's being polite. He
disappeared in his cave, and all I heard

was, oh, shh.

That was what you said. Yes, I did.

And Paul comes in there and he's
looking. He says, what do you think this

I said, it looks like an archaeology
site to me. I said, look at all these

markings on the wall here. There were
petroglyphs and pictographs, you know,

finger paintings and the carvings on the
wall. But when we looked outside the

cave, there was this about a coffee
table size rock.

And it had looked like runes carved in
it, maybe five or six lines.

And it just didn't look like it matched
what was in the cave.

That's why we're here.

I appreciate your sending me that
letter. I really do.

Now, I just want to let you know what
you're in for tomorrow.

All right. Right off here to my right
here. You see, we're going to go down

this wash.

So we're going right up this way here,
right? That green ribbon.

Okay. It's pretty much of a rock, stone,
screen. So you take one step up and two

back. It's going to be hot tomorrow,
isn't it? Yeah. I thought they were

it's going to be 99 degrees tomorrow.

99. Okay. So I advise early.

So we can start up there, get away from
the heat, and it'll be much more

pleasant to walk.

See you tomorrow, Scott.

You all set, bud? I think I'm ready. I
think I'm ready. Who's your friend?

Steve is the state archaeologist for
Arizona.

Scott Wolfe. Nice to meet you, Steve.
Thanks for coming out. You bet. So have

you been here before?

I was here. Luckily, these guys called
me and told me that they had located

cave. We thought it was important to
come down and take a look and see what

going on. We found out that it was
recorded with an Arizona State Museum

number.

uh in 1984.

well i'm kind of anxious to see it let's
get going all right i'm in let's go all

right let's head for the cave

There it is, Scott.

Right here? Right there.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, look at that.

Wow, those are rooms, all right.

Wow.

That is a Christian -style cross, sir.

And these here look like rooms.

That's an R.

I'm not sure what that is. That looks
like an S.

So I'm not sure. Those don't look like
Scandinavian runes. It might be Anglo

-Saxon, but you know what? I have an
idea.

I know a guy who knows something about
runes. He knows a lot about

runes.

I'll send a picture to Mike.

Weathering is key, obviously, and that's
what I'm trying to get a sense of.

You know, they look kind of fresh to me.
I mean, this spalling here, I don't see

any weathering of that.

If this was exposed for a long time and
the calcite was deposited on this open

surface, you know, that process should
continue and you'd probably see it

What I do know is this area was recorded
as an archaeological site in 1984.

Okay. And even though they recorded a
lot of the petroglyphs and pictographs

that is in this cave here, they didn't
say anything about this boulder out in

front of the cave that had these ruin
writings on it. Okay. So my guess is it

may not have existed prior to 1984.

So the true mystery really is, you know,
who put it in here and why, and what

does it really say?

Is it possible they just didn't record
it? No, because usually when they record

an art site, whether there's prehistoric
artifacts or historic artifacts or even

if they find any paleontological stuff,
they will record everything there

because it's all part of the site.

This is my handy portable microscope.

Here's your lens.

See how light that is? That's where the
chisel hit the rod.

And that's where it spalled off.

Well, that's cool, but let's see what
else.

Do you guys, do you see this?

Steve,

do you see this here?

Right here?

It's over on the other side, too. Look
at this.

see these rock fragments here and the
water was running down here and it was

dissolving out the limestone and it
looks like it's cemented these rock

fragments here and it connects over
there there was material

here it does look like this has been dug
out and that boulder Didn't move.

Maybe that's why in 1984 they didn't see
it. This was still covered up, and then

somebody dug it out since then. It was
uncovered. That could explain why

no weather.

Excuse me.

One sec. The phone vibrated here. I
think maybe it's Mike here. Let me

He thinks it might be a memorial stone.

Huh.

He's got to do some more work on the
translation, but a gravestone.

A grave stone.

Everything about it, including its
placement outside the mouth of the cave,

reminds me of the stones throughout
Europe used to memorialize the dead.

That's interesting.

That's interesting, isn't it? It is,
yeah.

There could potentially be something in
that inscription that identifies a

family, a clan, a person. Right,
exactly. Something.

You know, if this is a grave marker, we
could have a body.

Right here.

He says it looks like a memorial stone.

A gravestone.

A gravestone.

Well, that makes some sense.

And it's got that Christian cross. It
does have the cross on there. That's

perfect for a gravestone.

That's absolutely for, would be on a
memorial stone.

He's probably right. Makes a lot of
sense.

He says he'll get back with more on the
inscription.

The material that's welded on the side
of the cave tells us clearly that a lot

of material's been moved or dug out.

Maybe we had a body there.

We may have if somebody had been buried
up here and then somebody wrote the

inscription. But as you can see, a lot
of it's been removed.

But we still have some material here.

This looks like somebody has actually
dug it out, you're right, and piled

everything on that side. And that's a
typical example of vandalism.

People come out and they find
archaeological sites and the first thing

to do is start digging.

You know, if they start at the front of
a structure like this, they think they

might find something, and a lot of times
they don't find anything. The only

thing that we know of that is here are
some very interesting picture glass and

petroglyphs.

There's spirals here.

These are really interesting. You know
what this strikes me as? Because I've

seen these spirals before. It reminds me
of a stomach.

I saw them down in Georgia, and I've
seen them in other places.

Yeah, good.

Archaeoastronomy, that's a big field
these days.

I know that spirals often mimic
something that the ancients felt very

about, and that's the secret geometry.

And, you know, we see it all over the
place. Most people don't realize it.

It's how a plant grows.

It's how a shell grows. And it's really
a mathematical equation.

It's how our faces grow.

We know that there are cultures all
around the world that did similar

And so it begs the question, at least to
me, was this all done independently? I

mean, obviously, they're all looking at
stars.

But was there also maybe some exchange?

of information i don't know well depends
on how far back you go if you're going

back you know eight ten twelve thousand
years as people migrated through uh they

brought that knowledge with them so
either they migrated down from the north

they you know came across the oceans and
migrated from the south i mean there's

both those theories out there sure and
if there is contact whenever it happened

this would be something they would have
in common

Look at that hole back there. That cave
keeps going. Yeah.

Let me take a look there.

Well, I'm not going to fit in there.

I can't get in here. Is there anybody
else?

Okay, Jimmy can try.

Jim, you up for it?

Jim's up for it. Just be careful in
there. Yeah, be careful. Do you have a

flashlight or something?

Yeah, I got a flashlight, but I'm going
to have to... If you hear anything

rattling, make sure you stop and come
back out real fast. That's nice and cool

in there.

We might have our body after all, right?
Any ghostly sounds.

Yeah, hold it.

If there's any rattling noises, stop and
look and move back.

Jim, it was nice knowing you.

Oh, yeah.

There's bees in here.

I don't know what's in there, but
there's bees in here.

Wow.

That's a whole white house.

Damn. There's bees in it, bud.

Are they all right there? Yeah, I'm all
right.

Man, taking one for the team.

So, Jim, would a body fit in there?

Yes, it would. It would? Okay.

How high was it? I'd say about eight
feet.

Okay. And it goes up on a slant like
this. Okay. And then it goes up and then

kind of stops just like this right here
with holes all over the place.

You didn't see any bones or anything in
there? No bones. Okay.

I mean, there's a couple thoughts. One
is, could there be some other

archaeological remains that might tell
us something?

And would it be worthwhile going through
that material that we're assuming, I'm

assuming, maybe you are, that they moved
that material out there? Would it be

worth going through that?

Is there any chance we could do a date
here?

There's always a chance you can do a
dig, but it's a very lengthy permitting

process. Really? So you have to get a
permit, an Antiquities Act permit.

And you have to have a qualified
archaeologist actually be on the permit.

And then you have to hire the crew.

There's always that possibility, but it
does take some time to get all the

permits in order. Let's say we did a dig
here and we found something that

indicated a European presence, pre
-Columbia.

I think you would agree that would be a
historic discovery.

I think it would be very historic
because especially with the inscription

to find some human remains that are
associated with these would be very

significant. We have multiple lines of
evidence. We've got evidence of digging.

Clearly there was material here.

The lack of weathering that bothered me
at first could be explained by the fact

that it was simply buried. It could have
been.

We've got a dry climate here.

You know, we've got enough here that if
we were to find something from a dig, it

would be potentially a big deal.

Somebody carved that into this rock
because they really cared for the person

enough to do something like that. They
didn't just bury him out in the desert

someplace and walk away.

Another thought. In the testing
business, which is what I do for a

ground penetrating radar on...

uh concrete all the time and would that
work here and could we do that well a

ground penetrating radar isn't really
ground disturbance um it's just moving

some piece of machinery electronic
machinery across the surface to see if

can pick up any kind of anomaly so i
don't see a problem with that i mean you

know maybe it's worth going through the
process i mean we've got a lot of things

here that are adding up to something
that might be worthwhile

Mike, you've got a name?

So you're telling me we might really
have a dead Englishman from the 12th

century buried up in the Mustang
Mountain?

We thought the last time we were here
there might be a body.

Guys, I have something to tell you.

I've been sitting on this all morning.

I got a translation from Mike.

And I wanted to wait until I got up here
so I could see it and read it and so we

could do this together.

I'm going to read this to you, but the
other thing that he did say, as we know

for sure, that it's 12th century
English.

So we've got that for sure.

But here we go.

Line one.

The body, in parentheses, he has in
contrast with the soul, fits, lays,

Ruff Herrick here.

He enjoyed, in parentheses,
entertainment, joy, merriment, maybe

life. The secret's stolen at the end of
this line.

Ruff Herrick's body, fame and glory.

Dust beyond Eden, Eden's temple.

There's a name here.

This sounds like a memorial.

This is absolutely a memorial.

And then, of course, we have the
Christian cross here.

I don't know what else it could be.
Well, yeah, 12th century. Why would

carve something like this that's got
12th century...

uh letters and everything when we don't
have any any history of anybody else

other than native americans being here
up until you know 15 16 1700.

so your initial reaction is this is not
800 years old i probably not okay

probably not okay well that's fine
that's fair i uh i hope we can prove you

wrong you know you really have two uh
working hypotheses here you've got

somebody messing around relatively
recently or we've got something here

absolutely changes history in a profound
way if there were europeans out here in

the 12th century it does change history
profoundly i like this i'm getting

intrigued an interesting story i like
the story i mean i'm always open -minded

about different things and especially
something that's absolutely new like

that would really change you know some
of the history

Brad, we brought you here for a reason.
What can we do here today?

We'll definitely try to scan out in
front of the memorial here, and then

going to do a couple scans back into the
cave, looking for any kind of

disturbances in the soil. If there's
anything left, Brad, you're the man.

You're fired up. Looks like it's
running. Just explain to me how this

Basically, what we're going to do is
we're going to scan over an area.

Basically, the radar is going to shoot
down at 45 -degree angles, okay?

As we move along, basically, it's going
to keep shooting those 45 -degree angles

down. As we pass over, anything that may
be in the ground is going to show up on

our screen here.

Okay. Okay?

Can you tell by looking at this whether
it's metal, whether it's rock, whether

it's plastic?

If it's metal, it's going to show a
bright white on the screen.

If it's plastic or any other material,
it's going to show up as a very faint

line on the screen.

All right. Do your thing.

Explain to me, it looks like we have a
linear feature here.

Is that a surface?

That's the depth that we're actually
getting with the radar. Okay, what is

little dip in the middle here?

That's just rock.

So if I can cut to the chase you're
telling me, I didn't really see

did you? Not on the first pass. We have
to do multiple passes.

Anytime you scan anything with GPR, you
definitely want to do multiple passes.

All right. So we're going to back it up.
We're going to do it again.

Right in this area, we go from here on
back is where we're seeing that density

change. Right here, right? That light
area?

Yeah. So basically from here back is
where we're going to find that area

we have the density change. Okay. So
what you're saying is that could be

something. It could be because there's
definitely a density change that we've

picked up on every pass that we've had.

Well, I like that. And we've made, what,
three passes and we got that same

anomaly here. So do we need to do more
passes or do we want to try out?

On the berm there? Let's try scanning
out here and see what we get out there.

Okay.

So there's something here.

Yeah. Well, it's consistent. It kept
hitting in the same spot.

Goes at least to here, right? Right.
Okay. All right.

Hey, Steve, do you have a sec?

What'd you find?

Well, Brad, you thought, I mean, I saw
the density change, and it's at the

same spot, so it's going across here,
right?

Yeah, there's definitely an anomaly in
the surface.

Okay, so it's going in a linear fashion.

You know, we've all been to a cemetery,
right?

And the headstone is at the head end,
typically.

Okay? They lay the body.

Perpendicular to the stone, right?

That's good.

How far down?

Three to four feet. Three to four feet.

Okay. And it goes out to about two foot?

About where your foot is, right? About
two and a half, three feet, yeah. Okay.

Obviously, we're not going to dig with
the shovel. But, I mean, we've got a

legitimate, legitimate chance of
something really.

I think we can certainly move forward in
looking for future investigations and

seeing what else is here. Because this
is a very interesting site out here. We

also have something that could be, I
don't want to say modern, but it could

some almost prehistoric Anglo -American
that might have been out here.

Possibly pre -Columbian. Pre -Columbian.
Right, right.

Just a second there.

Guys, I got an email from Mike.

Guess what?

Keurig's surname, he found it in
England.

How about that?

Wow.

I guess I'm going to the UK.

There is one more thing. Mike says I
need to go to the Gila Cliff Gullings in

New Mexico. I wonder what's there.

There's evidence of a medieval
Englishman buried in Arizona way before

was ever here.

I'm finding answers.

Pretty impressive, aren't they?

Amazing.

Scott Wolter. Scott, Steve Riley,
superintendent for the monument. How are

today? Nice to meet you. Good to meet
you. Doing great.

What you're looking at is three of the
five cliff goings.

They date back to about 1284, 1285 when
they first started construction.

And they were abandoned by about 1320 to
1330. Okay. So one generation or a

little more occupied.

Well, this may seem a little strange,
but I just came from a site.

In Arizona, in the Mustang Mountains, it
was up at the top of a large bluff.

There was a cave there, and there's some
talk about a body possibly being there

of somebody who could have come from
Europe, from the British Isles, back

this same time, believe it or not.

And a friend of mine suggested I come
here.

Wondering, do you have any thoughts?
Well, we have not found any relics here

that period of European settlement.

Everything that came out of here has
been dated back to the Native American.

Okay.

Scott, how are you doing, man?

I'm doing great. How are you?

How's Jenna?

She's doing great. How about Kate? Oh,
she's absolutely fine.

You're looking awful skinny, pal. Oh,
yes, yes. I'm wasting away, you know.

look great.

So let me ask you this.

What have you learned about our friend,
Mr. Ruff Hurek? I've been doing some

investigation at the county records
office.

And I've found some information out
about a Peter Hurek.

There's more information to come.

Lady at the office said she'd get back
to me by far this afternoon.

You know, Alan, it's incredible.

We've got this name, Herrick, on a
boulder, in a cave, in Arizona, in the U

and it brings us back here to the U .K.

It's amazing.

It's amazing, but not as amazing as what
I'm going to show you now.

Just come with me. Let me grab my
backpack. We'll head out.

Still using the backpack?

I got my whole life in here. You know
that.

On the inscription it says, Roth
Schurich, but you said Peter Schurich.

yeah, I thought about that, actually.
And it occurred to me, you know, in

days, it was quite common for people not
to be known by their real Christian

name, but often by a nickname. So I
think the word Roth is probably an

adjective. I mean, think where they
were, out in those mountains. Oh, yeah,

yeah. This guy was probably a bit of a
bruiser.

Maybe this was the guy that personally
rattled the buffaloes to the ground.

And at that time, especially in Britain,
nicknames were very, very common. In

fact, they were much more common than
proper names, and often even used on

documents. Really?

Yes, it was quite a common thing.

Ah,

sandstone. Yes, I wonder if it just
starts to look somehow slightly

So there you are, Scott. What about
that?

Wow.

Now I see why you and Mike wanted me to
see this. This is reminiscent of what we

saw at the Gila Cliff drawings in New
Mexico.

Incredible. Yeah. I mean, look at how
it's carved out. Beautiful. These rooms.

You know, we know we have Ruff Herrick,
or Peter Herrick, if that's who it is,

carved on a stone in New Mexico.

Dates to about the 1200s. This goes back
at least that far, or do we know for

sure? We think at least 1500, but it's
quite likely that there were people here

before that.

Well, okay, so now what I'm thinking is
this architecture, it looks so much like

what we saw in New Mexico.

Did Herrick...

bring it over there and educate the
natives, or did somebody come back, he's

still there, and, you know, bring it
here? I guess we'll never know, but the

thing we can be sure about is the
contemporary nature, you know, of the

It's hardly likely to be a coincidence.

No, no, there's too many coincidences
for this to be a coincidence.

I'll do something else interesting about
these, of course, as well. This is

reputed to be the place that J .R .R.
Tolkien used.

when he devised these hobbit houses.

Ah, okay, so these are the hobbit
houses. Absolutely. Why not?

I've got one more surprise for you. I
know from the county records office

exactly where Peter Hullick lived.

Around here, and it's still here, and
it's only five minutes away.

There's a runestone outside a cave in
the middle of the Arizona desert.

It seems to be an epitaph for an
Englishman from 1200 A .D.

Could he have made a voyage to America
hundreds of years before Columbus?

I've traced his roots here, to
Staffordshire, England.

It's a pub?

Yeah! The lady at the county office told
me it was a manor house right back to

the 1200s. And that's where Peter de
Hoerich lived.

So this is Herrick's house, I guess.

Absolutely, and it's a pub, and that's
why he was rough Peter de Hoerich.

Perfect.

Ellen, those cave dwellings were
amazing.

And you know what I think?

probably happened there i mean you've
got these beautiful sandstone bluffs

were there at one time and when people
first came they probably were hollowed

out a little bit and they just took
advantage and and dug them out even more

the architecture is very similar to what
i saw at the gila dwellings but the one

thing that's troubling me here is you
know they talk about at least 1500s for

this site they have to be older than
that I don't think Scotland, there's any

doubt about it whatsoever.

And I would be scummed if those rock
dwellings were not much older.

Oh, I'm certain that they are.

OK. We've got a text coming in.

I wonder if it's... Oh, yes, it's from
the Staffordshire Records Office.

Hi, Alan.

I'm afraid I couldn't find any records
for the Herrick family after around

After 1200.

Actually not finding that name in the
records supports what we saw in Arizona.

He would be the one to carry on the
name, but if he never came back, which

appears to be the case based on the
memorial, that's why the name died out.

name disappears.

That's consistent with our story. That
makes sense that this actually did

happen. Yes, because it would have died
where he died, and of course it would

never have appeared in the records
again.

You know, this brings the question that
has been burning in my brain is why

would he come all this way to the desert
region of the southwest of what is now.

the united states um to me what makes
sense we know down um in that area we

uh lead mines we have silver mines we
have copper mines uh perhaps it was

mineral maybe it was wealth and maybe it
was adventure i mean i've always

believed ever since i've been
researching this situation that every

dog from england knew that america was
there the fishermen for example from

bristol which is not too far from here
they to fish on the Grand Banks off

Newfoundland. They must have known that
America was there and lots of other

people besides.

But of course, you don't kill a goose
that's laying a golden egg if you know

that there are big opportunities over
the pond and resources.

You're not going to run around the
country telling anybody else that

there. We certainly have the motivation,
plenty of motivation.

It would have been done in secret.

And this boulder with his name is really
the only evidence that we have that he

made this trip.

Okay, well, let's take a look at what we
have here. We've got a surname.

both carved on a boulder in Arizona and
here. And we've got a runic inscription

carved in Anglo -Saxon ruins in a cave
down there. And certainly this is where

they were used at this time.

I mean, it seems to me we have a very
compelling case that's coming together

here. This man came over to America
prior to Christopher Columbus.

And this would just be another example
of the many examples that I'm aware of,

of cultures coming to North America.

prior to 1492.

And I have to say, as a historian,
having looked at this closely, for my

on a balance of probabilities, I think
we're talking about the man who came

here, who probably sat in this very
manor house we're sitting in now, and

ended up all those miles away.

And for that reason alone, I think we
ought to propose a toast to Peter.

To Peter.

My investigation into a mysterious
runestone in the Mustang Mountains has

up evidence that a 12th century
Englishman could be buried in the

desert. An archaeological dig could
reveal even more.

If there's a man buried there, I wonder
what his journey to America must have

been like. What he came here for so long
ago.

I think he was just one of many people
who came to America long before 1492.

Columbus wasn't the first European to
discover America.

He was just the first to get credit for
it. And that's what I'm trying to

change.

Next time on America on Earth. Whoever
was here mining thousands of years ago

took a lot of copper. Your symbols in
the bottom of the lake and the Newberry

tablet are all connected by ancient
copper miners?

Yes. And that would change history in a
profound way.

If you have a mysterious artifact or
site I need to see, I want to know about

it. Go to history .com slash unearthed.