Original subtitles

MONIKA: Do you see this relatively tiny opening?

It leads under the women's bathing rooms.

MAURO: Okay, come on Mario!

NARRATOR: Beneath Pompeii's oldest bathhouse,

cavers are venturing deep into a miraculously preserved space

that remained hidden for nearly 2,000 years.

MONIKA: I'm actually not sure how long they've stayed there.

We'll see how long they've survived.

NARRATOR: They're searching for clues to life and death in the Roman Empire.

MARIO: Ha ha.

(music)

NARRATOR: Pompeii, an ancient city 130 miles south of Rome.

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius, just 6 miles away,

erupted explosively smothering the entire area

beneath millions of tonnes of volcanic ash and rock.

17 centuries later, archaeologists rediscovered a city frozen in time.

But, even after almost 300 years of excavation,

a third of Pompeii's streets remain unearthed.

Today archaeologists from across the world are digging through the debris,

uncovering surprising new evidence for what it was like to live and die

at the height of the Roman Empire.

MARIO: For an archaeologist, to study in Pompeii is a very special moment.

The possibility to touch the real life 2,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: Much of what we know of the Roman world is through the lives

of those at the top: emperors, senators and generals

living in their vast villas and palaces.

But the great majority of those who lived in the Roman world weren't rich at all.

What was Pompeii like lower down the social order

for the middle classes or enslaved people?

We're following a team of archaeologists excavating Pompeii in search

of the real stories of these hidden lives.

NARRATOR: Buried up to 20 feet beneath volcanic debris,

archaeologists have unearthed a bustling metropolis,

homes for some 15,000 people, in a coastal hub of trade and culture.

In the east, archaeologists discover an arena for gladiator fights.

And in the west, they unearth two theatres.

They uncovered temples dedicated to nine different gods and emperors

and a forum, the heart of business and political affairs.

The excavation of perfectly preserved Pompeii reveals Roman life in the raw.

Today an international team of archaeologists is digging at one of the most complete

Roman bath houses in the world, the Stabian baths.

MONIKA: Good morning! Buongiorno.

(foreign dialogue) Everything fine?

Yeah, yesterday...

NARRATOR: German archaeologist, Monika Trümper,

first came to Pompeii aged 15 on a family holiday.

It sparked the fascination of a lifetime.

MONIKA: I always wanted to excavate here.

This has been the dream site to excavate.

I really like digging in the Earth and cleaning things.

I do not like cleaning things at home,

but I like cleaning things on archaeological sites.

NARRATOR: Monika's team is on a mission to explore the hidden world

of the Roman bathhouse. MONIKA: And as always,

we are running out of time, there's still so much to do.

NARRATOR: A visit to the baths was part of the Roman daily routine.

Bathers would first remove their clothing, then smear their skin with olive oil.

The bathing session began with exercise, to work up a healthy sweat.

Romans didn't use soap. Instead, they scraped off the oil,

sweat and dirt with a tool called a strigil.

Then bathed in rooms at different temperatures, heated by a hypocaust,

a marvel of Roman engineering.

Hot air from a furnace circulated under the floor

between the walls to heat rooms up to a 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pompeii's Stabian baths were in use for around 200 years before Vesuvius's eruption

froze them in the state we see today.

The team is digging to solve a mystery: how did a visit to the baths change over time?

MONIKA: We've been studying the Stabian bath because we are interested

in the development of bathing culture in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: Their quest begins behind the scenes.

MONIKA: Visitor! MARCO: Buongiorno.

MONIKA: Right now what you see is a service room.

You see all kinds of installations that serve for the bath.

I'm standing on a channel.

You see another channel behind me.

So these are all installations belonging somehow to particularly

the water management and also the heating system.

It was a room that the bathers were not supposed to ever see or enter,

so it was only for the slaves.

NARRATOR: Monika and joint excavation leader Marco Giglio,

from the University of Naples L'Orientale,

are digging into dirt that predates the eruption of AD 79.

MARCO: We hope to find all sort of things.

Not only beautiful objects, but something useful for the chronology,

for dating this space.

NARRATOR: Dig member Satoshi Higuchi spots a glint of metal in the dirt.

MARCO: Wow! Wow, good. Should be...

MONIKA: I can't see it, what is it?

Ah yeah, I see it now. Oh wow.

What do you think it might be?

MONIKA: Hmm hmm. I guess, yes because it's so thin. -Yes.

The thin needle, something you would stick into your hair. Look at this.

There's more of it?

MARCO: Oh no, it's eh, it's a fibula.

MONIKA: And this is part of the fibula then.

So this is the lower part of the fibula. Wow.

They used to fix clothes. They used this to fix cloth.

And actually, if I remember correctly,

this is the first one we find here at all in the Stabian bath.

NARRATOR: The ornate clothespin is a direct connection to a Pompeiian

living 2,000 years ago.

SATOSHI: It's really exciting and I'm really happy to have found it,

and I hope I can find more interesting things to understand this bath.

MARCO: Very interesting find. Very, very interesting.

Now we will continue to excavate this layer.

NARRATOR: All the evidence the team has found suggests

this was not always a service room,

but was once a public walkway, known as a porticus.

MONIKA: Our hypothesis is that originally it was a porticus, and not a service room,

and only later when you know they, they improved or changed the bath that would have

transformed it into such a service room.

NARRATOR: When did the layout of the baths change and why?

To find out Monika will need to explore deep into an unseen world.

Just outside Pompeii's city walls,

Spanish archaeologist Llorenç Alapont

is leading another pioneering excavation.

NARRATOR: It's estimated 2,000 Pompeiians perished in the eruption.

Their tragic deaths have made Pompeii world-famous.

But the frozen figures reveal almost nothing of these people's life stories.

For greater insight, today Llorenç is excavating the tombs of Pompeiians

who died before the eruption.

His team has removed tons of volcanic debris to reach new and uncharted tombs.

NARRATOR: The size of each freshly unearthed tomb gives a first clue to the occupants.

NARRATOR: Inscriptions can reveal further fascinating information

about the lives of the tomb occupants.

But Llorenç's ultimate goal is to unearth what lies inside the tombs.

NARRATOR: It's difficult to discover forensic detail of the Roman dead,

due to the standard funeral rites of the time.

When a Roman citizen died, relatives put a coin in the deceased's mouth

to pay for safe passage to the underworld.

By law they had to lay the body to rest outside the city limits.

Rich families hired musicians and professional mourners to lead the procession.

At the necropolis, they burned the body on a pyre

and stored the ashes and the coin in an urn,

to keep in the family tomb.

Romans even cremated their emperors.

But they burned Julius Caesar's pyre in public inside Rome's city limits.

The mourners' passions ran so hot they almost burnt down the forum.

Llorenç and his team are hunting for cremation urns.

But finding human ashes among tons of volcanic ashes is no easy task.

They've just unearthed this tomb,

right next to the main gateway into Pompeii built in an eye-catching spot.

NARRATOR: In the southern region of the city

is a residential area known today as Insula 17.

MARIO: Now guys, today we're starting in the 2 areas

to continue the excavation inside in the layers

that we find in the last days.

Okay? Now we go.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist Mario Grimaldi is part of a team

from the University of Bologna that is investigating the lives

of middle-class people at the height of the Roman Empire.

The volcanic blanket over Pompeii preserved its public spaces, its cemeteries,

its baths and its grand buildings.

But it also preserved over a thousand ordinary, private homes.

These rarely survive elsewhere,

so Pompeii offers a unique opportunity for archaeologists.

MARIO: In Pompeii we have the possibility to understand the real life,

the people that were living in these houses, with the material,

the artifacts that these people had in their hand before the eruption.

It's important for us to understand this society,

these people that lived in this area,

like a middle-class people in the society.

NARRATOR: Beneath the street that runs alongside the houses,

the team makes a discovery.

MARIO: We have a water pipe.

Now we're cleaning this water pipe.

It's very interesting for us.

The water pipe is a connection from the aqueduct to the water

for the fresh water.

NARRATOR: Roman plumbing was the envy of the ancient world.

Networks of underground lead pipes channeled water from aqueducts along city streets.

Most residents collected their water from roadside fountains.

But richer homeowners could go one step further.

MARIO: If I want in my private house the fresh water,

I pay with my money the connection to the aqueduct.

If we are lucky, it's possible that we find the stamp of the owner.

NARRATOR: But as the team searches, something extraordinary

begins to appear in the same trench that could give

an even bigger insight into these inhabitants' lives.

NARRATOR: In their quest to investigate the occupant of this large tomb,

Llorenç's team hits the jackpot.

NARRATOR: The size and location of Marcus Venerius Secundio's tomb shows

that by his death he must have been a prominent figure in Pompeii.

But what Llorenç unearthed beside the plaque was a complete surprise.

The tomb was revealed to be a walled family enclosure.

In one corner, Llorenç found a small tombstone.

Beneath it, an urn containing the cremated ashes of a woman.

Then the team spotted a sealed door, leading to a burial chamber,

containing Marcus Venerius Secundio's skeleton,

still sporting hair and part of his left ear.

He was buried, not burnt.

An unparalleled opportunity to discover more about an individual life,

and death, in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: There are even hints Marcus may have been embalmed after death.

Scraps of textile found among the remains may be wrappings

to help preserve his body.

As soon as the remains were photographed, the team rushed them into cold storage.

NARRATOR: Wear on the teeth, alongside other signs of aging on the skeleton

suggest Marcus lived to at least 60 years old.

Llorenç hopes further analysis will reveal more about his origins,

where he grew up and perhaps how he died.

But starting from the plaque on Marcus's tomb, Llorenç wants to piece together

key parts of his life story.

NARRATOR: The inscription and the tomb location reveal that by the time of his death,

Marcus was a prominent citizen in Pompeii.

Next Llorenç wants to find out how Marcus gained his freedom and his wealth

and what his rise says about life in the Roman Empire.

At the Stabian baths, Monika is following in the footsteps of bathers 2,000 years ago.

MONIKA: This is the final room of the women's suite.

It's the caldarium, the hot room.

NARRATOR: And the baths weren't just somewhere for citizens to get clean.

MONIKA: We have ancient literary sources that,

you know, complain about the noises coming from baths.

It's not like one of our, you know, luxury spas where you have quiet, you know,

music and so on.

They must have been really, really, really noisy.

Really loud.

NARRATOR: Archaeological evidence indicates that

the Stabian baths served multiple purposes.

More than simply being a place to get clean, they were a vital social hub,

the main place where Romans caught up with friends or discussed casual business.

Monika wants to identify the technology that was key to this social function.

MONIKA: So this is the immersion pool for the women.

It was heated from below by the floor heating.

It was heated from the back and the sides by the wall heating.

And then it has one additional really intriguing feature.

You really have to kneel down in order to appreciate this.

It's a half circular container made out of bronze,

and it's closed at the back and open here in the front.

And so the water constantly goes in there.

And this thing is right above the hottest part of the fireplace,

so right next to the fire so to speak.

And so therefore, it always heats the cooling water

and then the hot water comes out again.

And so this helps additionally to keep the water warm.

NARRATOR: The hot water container is called a testudo.

It's named for its shape.

Testudo in Latin means tortoise.

MONIKA: They are unfortunately rarely preserved because

the metal is very precious and was usually robbed out in antiquity

or any time later.

So this example here is particularly intriguing

because it's fully preserved.

It is so rare and is so, so exciting.

NARRATOR: This is clever Roman technology,

maintaining the bath water at a constant pleasurable temperature,

so up to half a dozen women could relax and socialize.

MONIKA: It's particularly important to get as much information

as possible of such a well-preserved example from all sides.

NARRATOR: Exploring the testudo in detail may also give insight

into how the baths served as a highly sociable space.

But there is a problem.

MONIKA: I can't kind of crawl inside from the pool,

because the opening is very, very narrow and the channel is narrow.

NARRATOR: To examine the precious testudo properly,

Monika needs a different approach.

NARRATOR: Just outside Pompeii's city walls,

another team is exploring underground.

Archaeologist Luana Toniolo has helped excavate 20 feet of volcanic rock and ash

to reach a small room, part of a much larger villa.

LUANA: This is our really latest discovery.

As you can see, we are still working a bit.

So for us, it's really exciting and every day there's something new.

Over there, you can see the window from where the volcanic ash entered

and covered the objects in this room and actually preserved it.

NARRATOR: Ever since excavations began in Pompeii nearly 300 years ago,

diggers have found skeletons entombed in the volcanic ash.

The flesh of the dead has long since decomposed,

leaving only a body-spaced shape surrounding the bones.

By pouring plaster into the cavity, the archaeologists are able to recreate

the original body shape. LUANA: We are still using the same technique

of more than one century ago because

it's really the best technique.

NARRATOR: This team is using plaster to capture the original shape

of other organic objects.

They wait for the plaster to set,

then very carefully scrape away the surrounding ash.

LUANA: We don't know what we are going to see when we pour the plaster

in the holes and what we found in this case is the bed.

NARRATOR: Not just one, but three beds, complete with blankets,

and an array of bedside furniture and storage containers.

LUANA: We can see three beds made of wood.

These beds are really simple.

You can see that they are made of vertical pieces of wood.

NARRATOR: Three people shared this small room.

The basic furniture, and the single small window,

suggest that they were among the poorest of Pompeii.

LUANA: It was used as a room where to sleep and relax.

But at the same time it's a storage room because there

you can see storage containers that were used in the Roman times

to trade food, wine, olives.

The other very important objects that we can find in this room

is this particular object.

That is the part of the chariot that was used

to link the chariot to the horses.

NARRATOR: Incredibly the plaster cast here reveals a rope lashing.

NARRATOR: The evidence has prompted Pompeii archaeologists

to call this "the room of the slaves".

It is the most complete example of such a room ever discovered

in the Roman Empire. LUANA: This room is very important for us,

for the archaeologists, for historians because we can see actually

how slaves and poor people lived.

NARRATOR: There would have been several hundred rooms like this

in and around Pompeii.

It's exactly the sort of place where Marcus Venerius Secundio

may have started his life.

But as Marcus's life shows, enslavement wasn't necessarily

a life sentence in the Roman Empire.

In Ancient Rome, enslaved people were a commodity,

auctioned at a market.

Those that were unskilled could be worth the annual salaries

of two foot-soldiers.

Some had tags attached to their necks, as proof of ownership in case they fled.

Those that were educated could be put to work as accountants or secretaries.

They had higher status, and so were paid for their duties.

Enslaved people could use their money to buy their freedom,

acquiring Roman citizenship in a formal ceremony.

As a symbol of their liberty, they wore a felt cap called a Pileus.

Marcus's tomb and inscription reveals he became a wealthy man.

Llorenç wants to know how he bought his way out of enslavement.

At the Stabian baths, Monika is venturing deeper into the incredible unseen

Roman world preserved at Pompeii.

MONIKA: This is kind of the heart of the bath.

This is the service section and the heating system.

But what exactly this heating system looked like,

we do not know and we really want to explore.

It's quite narrow to get into, it's quite dangerous.

NARRATOR: Monika works with a team of speleologists, specialist cavers,

to venture where she can't.

MONIKA: Buongiorno! Mauro, Mario.

NARRATOR: Monika hopes the cavers can find evidence

of how and when the baths were modified.

MONIKA: We do not know whether the whole heating system was remodeled,

or belongs to an older period.

So I'm really excited and looking forward to pictures.

NARRATOR: Mauro traces the route the scorching hot air would have taken

into the heating system 2,000 years ago.

He's one of few to venture into this dangerous void

since Pompeii was buried in volcanic rock.

MONIKA: I'm actually not sure how long they stay there.

We'll see how long they survive.

NARRATOR: Llorenç's investigation into the life of Marcus Venerius Secundio

has brought him to the western edge of Pompeii.

Marcus's tomb inscription states he worked as a custodian,

looking after the temple of Venus.

NARRATOR: Romans worshipped many gods and had many temples in their honor

but Venus was the chief deity and protector of Pompeii.

Natural disasters have sadly reduced Pompeii's largest sacred site to rubble.

Llorenç hunts for any remains of the temple's inner sanctum

that would have contained the statue of Venus.

NARRATOR: Only the stones beneath the doorway remain,

but Llorenç suspects Marcus would have guarded this inner sanctum.

NARRATOR: Working in Pompeii's most hallowed temple

would allow Marcus to mingle among Pompeii's elite.

He was likely to have been rewarded for his work

perhaps through tips or donations.

NARRATOR: The wealth and high status that Marcus gained at the temple

may have allowed him to buy his freedom.

Once he'd escaped enslavement,

Marcus's life took on a truly dramatic twist.

Pompeii's latest discoveries are opening up a new window

into everyday life in the Roman Empire.

Pompeii is much more than a city divided into wealthy elites

and their downtrodden servants.

This was a society where you could rise out of enslavement,

and citizens of all classes relaxed in communal baths.

At insula 17, Mario's team has found a buried skull.

NARRATOR: What's intriguing is the skull's location,

just beneath the street level and close to an underground water pipe.

MARIO: For us it's very interesting this find of this skull

because we are in front of a real time

and a real life in this area before the eruption of 79.

NARRATOR: The team is trying to find other clues

that could shed light on their discovery.

MARIO: Yeah, yeah. You find also, other bones around?

BEATRICE: Yeah. Here. MARIO: Yeah. Okay.

NARRATOR: A tantalizing possibility is, this is the skull of an animal

killed as a sacrificial offering to the Gods.

But Mario needs more evidence.

The team hunts for tell-tale ceramic cups that would once contain other offerings.

ANDREA: There are other parts of the skeleton there.

MARIO: Yeah. But you don't find the cups?

ANDREA: No, no ceramics.

MARIO: Now we continue to clean.

We remove the skull, and to understand if there are other parts of the bones,

of the skull, of the animal.

NARRATOR: The team must carefully extract all the compacted soil

before they attempt the delicate task of removing the skull.

The cavers are crawling ever deeper into the under floor heating system.

MAURO: OK, come on Mario!

NARRATOR: They must document every detail of the subterranean world.

NARRATOR: No-one knows what could lurk in this space.

MARIO: Oh look, down there there's a, there's a bat.

So the spaces over there are lower? MAURO: What?

MARIO: The spaces over there are lower.

MAURO: Yeah, it's around 15 centimeters.

NARRATOR: The invention of the hypocaust system revolutionized bath-houses,

allowing bathers to linger longer in pleasantly warm water

before stepping onto a heated floor.

But comfort above ground creates a highly hazardous, cramped space below.

MONIKA: I hear some voices, so they must be working.

But I can't see them anymore.

NARRATOR: Under the women's hot immersion pool,

the cavers find and photograph one of the best preserved testudos

in the Roman world. Built to be both fire-resistant and watertight,

the tank's sloping underside had been carefully engineered

so that the heat from the furnace that was once nearby

created a circulating supply of hot water.

Beneath the floor of the women's caldarium the cavers spot something else

that could help Monika's investigation.

MARIO: Ha ha.

NARRATOR: At the insula 17 housing block,

the dig's chief archaeologist, Antonella Coralini,

is overseeing the delicate retrieval of the animal skull.

NARRATOR: If they don't release all the compacted soil around

the 2,000 year old skull, it could shatter.

(foreign dialogue)

Oh, beautiful, he?

NARRATOR: It's a fascinating find.

The skull of a bull.

MARIO: It's interesting because it's very strange

that we find a skull of a bull.

NARRATOR: A bull's skull is a rare find in Pompeii.

In ancient Rome, bulls were highly prized and expensive animals.

MARIO: Generally, it was leaved for the Gods, for the ritual sacrifice.

NARRATOR: Romans believed animal sacrifices

could offer insights into the will of the Gods.

Bulls were among the largest and most prestigious animals killed in this way.

An animal that showed no fear before its death was a good omen.

A sign of approval from the Gods.

The animal's internal organs were inspected by a priest called an augur.

If they looked diseased or damaged,

the sacrifice had to be repeated with a new animal.

If the organs were healthy, the Romans offered a portion to the gods

by burning them on the altar

and then feasted on the rest of the animal.

The team carefully cleans the skull, ready for future expert investigation.

Marks left by axe or hammer blows might confirm Mario's suspicion

the bull was killed in a sacrificial ritual.

MARIO: For us now it's important to understand

why this bull was leaved in this area in front of this wall.

It's a possibility for us that we have a ritual time in this area

before the eruption of 79.

NARRATOR: The team suspects that it's no coincidence the skull was found here,

right alongside the freshwater pipe.

Perhaps the bull was sacrificed to commemorate these homes

making their connection to the public water supply.

NARRATOR: Llorenç's investigation into the life of Marcus Venerius Secundio

has brought him to one of Pompeii's most spectacular sights.

NARRATOR: The Odeon was one of two theatres in Pompeii.

(clapping sound)

NARRATOR: The inscription discovered on Marcus's tomb reveals that after

he gained his freedom he became a priest

and paid for a four-day festival of games, plays and music.

NARRATOR: Marcus's festival could also reveal why he was buried and not burnt.

The inscription specifies performances in both Roman Latin, and also Greek.

This was a complete surprise.

NARRATOR: Greek plays, and the Greek-style burial suggest either Marcus had

Greek ancestors, or he was a great fan of Greek culture.

The DNA analysis might resolve the mystery.

Llorenç's discoveries allow him to piece together the rags to riches story

of the best-preserved body ever found in Pompeii.

Marcus Venerius Secundio was enslaved by the city of Pompeii,

a subject of not one, but of all the citizens.

They chose him to guard a temple dedicated to Venus,

the patron goddess of Pompeii.

When Marcus was freed from enslavement, he joined the Augustales,

an elite order of priests devoted to the cult of the emperor.

Like his fellow priests, he became a rich benefactor

and funded a festival of plays, music and games.

His wealth and high status afforded him a monumental tomb,

among the most prominent in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: Under the Stabian baths, cavers Mauro and Mario

discover a rare stamped inscription.

MARIO: M, A. M, A.

I wonder if there's more?

NARRATOR: It's crucial to take a clear photograph,

to get the best possible evidence for Monika.

MONIKA: Are you done? Oh perfect.

Can I see what you've found? What is that?

MAURO: This is testudo.

(foreign dialogue)

MONIKA: Wow, perfect.

Wow, yeah, you can kind of see. Incredible.

NARRATOR: The photos reveal that, from the underside,

the bronze plates of the immersion pool hot water tank

are joined with two neat rows of rivets.

The overlapping plates look like an armored animal shell.

Another compelling reason why the Romans used "testudo",

the Latin word for tortoise, for the tank.

MAURO: Two rows, everywhere the two sheets overlap.

MONIKA: I think this is one of the best preserved ever

and you can also really see it from below

and from above and fully study how it worked.

And this makes it really exciting.

NARRATOR: The discovery of the stamp could help solve the biggest mystery.

How did the layout of the baths change over time?

MARIO: Right over here is where we found the stamp, so we have an "M".

MONIKA: M, R, O or Q, maybe an R. An M again.

And this looks like a P. And this could be an F.

NARRATOR: The stamp is a mark that identifies the tile-maker.

It's a totally unexpected find.

MONIKA: Oh wow, perfect.

This is like the first complete stamp I know of in the Stabian bath.

And, wow, this is really exciting.

NARRATOR: Matching the stamp to others in Pompeii could give an exact time period

for the floor's installation.

MONIKA: Whether this stamp is known in Pompeii,

because it's really, really important.

It might potentially give us a date for the hypocaust system.

So this is really exciting, if it's really a late stamp

we would have a proof that they had to remodel it.

NARRATOR: Further analysis reveals the tile stamp is one of several in Pompeii

that appear to date to after AD 62.

In that year a major earthquake rocked the city and damaged many buildings.

The people of Pompeii took the opportunity to modernize the building,

fitting a brand-new floor above an upgraded heating system.

But the citizens had only a few years to enjoy their majestic

new bath house before Vesuvius's cataclysmic eruption in AD 79.

MONIKA: Everything we excavate that we reveal, I think,

adds to the picture of history of Roman Pompeii in a significant way.

So excavation really has a purpose to help us reconstruct history.

NARRATOR: Pompeii is slowly giving up its secrets,

revealing the everyday lives of its people.

Bathers enjoying the public baths; worshippers making offerings to their gods;

and enslaved people rising to great wealth.

As archaeologists continue to excavate

this extraordinary 2,000-year-old city frozen in time,

their discoveries will shed fresh insights into life

and death at the height of the Roman Empire.

DAVE: Okay, here we go.

Alright, start moving the boat please, about 6 meters 020,

NARRATOR: Off the coast of Sicily, maritime archaeologists

have discovered a mysterious artifact on the sea floor.

DR. CAMPBELL: It's incredibly exciting to be able to see this

sitting here after more than 2,000 years.

NARRATOR: It may reveal clues about a fierce naval battle

that completely changed Ancient Rome's history.

DAVE: We have lift off. DR. CAMPBELL: I'm hoping it comes up in one piece.

(music)

NARRATOR: Rome, the eternal city.

2,000 years ago it was the greatest city of the ancient world

in the heart of a mighty empire that stretched

for almost three million square miles.

Today teams of archaeologists dig Rome and its empire, searching for clues

to understand how this city rose to dominate so much of the ancient world.

DR. SCHEDING: For me as an archaeologist this is a great site because you can see

the growth and rise of the Roman empire.

NARRATOR: How did this one city conquer the entire Italian peninsular,

the Mediterranean world and beyond?

We follow excavators as they investigate how Rome and its people

drove an incredible expansion from city state to imperial power.

In search of answers, Canadian archaeologist, Eve MacDonald,

has come to the heart of the ancient capital.

DR. MACDONALD: Here it is, the Roman Forum, the center of the city of Rome.

The very essence of the city that became a world empire.

NARRATOR: Eve has been studying the Romans for over 20 years.

DR. MACDONALD: I find the Romans absolutely fascinating.

If you don't understand the Romans you really can't understand so much of

Mediterranean history, of world history.

NARRATOR: To see evidence of Rome's early ambitions of conquest,

she's heading to one of the city's oldest structures built in the fourth century BC.

DR. MACDONALD: Here we have a massive defensive wall.

These stones that we look at come from a site outside of Rome itself,

they were quarried from a city called Veii, which isn't very far away.

It's only on a tributary of the Tiber River but it is a symbolic place

because it stands for one of Rome's great early conquests.

NARRATOR: From its earliest times, Rome had a thirst for war and conquest

even before it was a powerful city.

In the fourth century BC, Rome was a vulnerable city state.

It had a track for chariot racing and mass entertainment, the Circus Maximus,

temples for worshipping Gods and for public meetings

and many houses made of mud brick and wood.

It was spread across seven hills an area of 610 acres

and was protected by a huge wall, 32 feet tall,

built in response to repeated attacks.

How did this city begin the conquest that led to its complete control

of the Mediterranean world?

DR. MACDONALD: This wall tells us about two aspects of the Romans.

One is their aggressive conquest of their neighbors

with their taking of the city of Veii

and the other is their incredible resilience in the face of challenge.

It was a zero sum game, conquer or be conquered.

NARRATOR: In Trapani, Sicily, 260 miles south of Rome.

DR. CAMPBELL: I think moving further east to delineate the battle site is a great plan.

NARRATOR: Maritime archaeologist, Peter Campbell,

and his colleagues from the RPM Nautical Foundation

are setting sail on a state of the art research vessel, the Hercules.

They are looking for traces of a brutal naval battle

fought in the third century BC.

DR. CAMPBELL: The battle of the Egadi Islands

is one of the most important ancient naval battles that took place.

This is a point where history changed.

-(Radio dialogue) -Copy that.

NARRATOR: Peter is a specialist in ancient marine warfare,

he hopes the mission will provide clues

to how the Romans mastered the seas to achieve one of their most important conquests.

DR. CAMPBELL: The significance of this battle is that Rome took on

Carthage which was a superpower at the time.

It's really exciting to be part of this project for me

because there's very little evidence for ancient warships that has survived.

NARRATOR: Ancient historical accounts reveal the clash took place

off the western coast of Sicily. To identify the full extent of the battlefield,

the investigators use the very latest search technology,

including side scan sonars, which map the seabed.

DR. CAMPBELL: The search area is 5.5 times larger than Manhattan

and we're sitting on a research vessel 100 meters above the sea floor;

so it's a bit like searching for objects that are less than a meter wide

from sitting on top of the Empire State Building.

NARRATOR: Peter and the team have identified anomalies on the sea floor,

the challenge now is to examine each of these targets at a depth of 260 feet

and find out if they are traces of the battle.

-(Radio dialogue)

The archaeologists head to one of the most promising sites.

CAPTAIN: Copy that. Slowing down 2.7.

4.0 meters to go.

NARRATOR: The team launches a cutting edge remote operated vehicle or ROV.

DR. CAMPBELL: The ROV serves as our eyes on the sea floor.

NARRATOR: Technology like this has revolutionized maritime archaeology,

long lost treasures are now within reach.

This underwater robot houses a high res camera allowing the archaeologists

to study their targets close up.

With the ROV successfully deployed,

Peter and the team can now examine every inch of the sea floor.

DR. CAMPBELL: If you spin left we might have a little flicker of something.

If we can try and see if anything flashes.

-(Radio dialogue)

NARRATOR: The ROV moves carefully from target to target .

DR. CAMPBELL: We've got something there about eight meters away.

I think it's a rock, what do you guys say? DAVE: Rock.

DR. CAMPBELL: Alright, let's keep moving.

If you come back up.

It's a bit like looking for a needle in the world's largest haystack.

So what we're trying to do here is search this area

and hope that something pops out of the abyss.

DAVE: Visual contact.

NARRATOR: Suddenly the image on screen gets everyone excited.

JIM: Stop, large visual contact here.

DR. CAMPBELL: Jonny can you get down? JOHNNY: Looking down.

DAVE: There it is.

DR. CAMPBELL: That's a beauty. JIM: Bingo!

NARRATOR: In Terracina, 50 miles southeast of Rome,

a team of archaeologists is digging at an intriguing site

on top of a mountain.

DR. SCHEDING: This is the central place where all the people

from Terracina are coming together to worship their gods.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists, Paul Scheding and Francesca Diosono

are leading the excavation. DR. SCHEDING: The thing

that I enjoy the most being an archaeologist

is that you can touch history, so you have real objects you can touch.

DR. DIOSONO: We have so much work to do now in a wonderful landscape.

NARRATOR: Terracina is a very ancient settlement,

dating from at least 600 BC and it was one of Rome's neighbors.

Paul and Francesca hope it can yield clues to the early stages of Roman expansion

within the Italian peninsula.

DR. SCHEDING: Hey guys, how are you doing?

Something special?

ARCHAEOLOGIST: Yes, we found an ingot.

DR. SCHEDING: A piece of lead? ARCHAEOLOGIST: Yes.

DR. DIOSONO: With an inscription?

Oh it's very unusual to find, it's very rare. DR. SCHEDING: Yes.

NARRATOR: Inscriptions are valuable clues.

The names and style of lettering can reveal their date.

DR. SCHEDING: This is a V and the A, this has to be maybe an M.

DR. DIOSONO: This is also complete.

DR. SCHEDING: Yes and it's definitely Roman.

So we have something in hand that we can work on.

This is an exciting day actually for us.

NARRATOR: The inscribed ingot shows the presence of the Romans on site

but not when they arrived and took over.

To confirm the date, the archaeologists need much older evidence.

DR. DIOSONO: Hi guys, how's it going? ARCHAEOLOGIST: Fine.

NARRATOR: Francesca checks in with her team in another section of the site.

DR. DIOSONO: How about the material? What did you find?

ARCHAEOLOGIST: We found some pottery, some black clay.

DR. DIOSONO: I think it's a piece of pottery.

Yes, we have to keep it.

NARRATOR: Every tiny shard of pottery they find can provide vital clues.

To the expert eye, minute differences in shape

and decoration can be evidence of place and time of production.

DR. DIOSONO: We found big plates of Roman period, from I think second century BC.

This is a big jar for containing food.

This is pre-Roman pottery but it's very, very small;

this is pre-Roman because it's handmade pottery

so before Rome arriving here.

NARRATOR: The pre-Roman pottery is mostly found in deeper archaeological layers

which points to a date of Roman conquest.

DR. DIOSONO: Terracina's Roman colony started here

at the end of the fourth century BC.

NARRATOR: From its earliest times, Rome started clashing

with its neighbors and was slowly expanding.

In the fourth century BC it kept pushing south to Terracina

and beyond to the bay of Naples.

By the middle of the third century BC,

Rome controlled most of the Italian peninsula.

The excavation is going well for Paul and Francesca

but many mysteries remain unsolved here.

DR. SCHEDING: The temples and the architecture was built in different steps,

so we want to get also a clue how this whole area developed

and to link all the structures to the rise of Rome.

NARRATOR: Off the coast of Sicily.

DR. CAMPBELL: Look at that.

NARRATOR: Peter and the team are trying to work out what the sunken relic is.

DR. CAMPBELL: Oh it's all twisted and covered in fishing line.

Jonny can you get round the back? JOHNNY: Yep.

Yeah, I'll come up and start moving around so you can try and get a good overall view.

NARRATOR: The team hopes this evidence can identify a section of the battle site

where Rome fought for mastery of the Mediterranean.

DR. CAMPBELL: Look at that.

It's a ram. Wow!

It's a bit of a jungle but underneath all of that

it looks like a really impressive robust ram.

NARRATOR: This ram was attached to the front of a ship.

It was designed to strike and sink enemy vessels.

DR. CAMPBELL: This is an incredible discovery.

It extends the battlefield, and it tells us that it covered a huge territory,

much larger than what we expected.

NARRATOR: Now the archaeologists want to lift up the ram

and examine it closely.

They want to find out if it's Roman or Carthaginian.

Team members Jim and Jonny are figuring out

how to do it without damaging the fragile find.

JIM: We're going to have to deal with that ship,

the line that's snarled around it and get some kind of rigging on it,

don't you think Johnny. JOHNNY: Yeah. JIM: To bring it up.

JOHNNY: I think we need divers in the water to try and release that.

NARRATOR: In Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, archaeologist,

Nejib Ben Lazreg is investigating Rome's great rival

in the Battle of the Aegates, the Carthaginians.

PROF LAZREG: I became interested in archaeology after reading

about a discovery done in Egypt.

I knew that Tunisia is full of ancient sites, wherever you dig you find something.

NARRATOR: He heads to the seafront of the modern city looking for ancient remains.

PROF LAZREG: We are in the middle of a military harbor which was round.

In the very middle we have an artificial island because the harbors

were dug in the mainland, they didn't have jetties.

NARRATOR: Carthage's harbor was a masterpiece of ancient engineering.

It could fit up to 220 war ships.

PROF LAZREG: The foundation of the power of Carthage

was due to the control of the sea routes.

NARRATOR: In the third century BC, Carthage was a major power.

Their navy gave them control of territories on the Mediterranean coast.

They had fought the Greeks for over 300 years to conquer western Sicily.

In 264 BC, Carthage seized the Port of Messana on the east coast of the island,

only three miles from Roman territories on the Italian mainland.

Sensing danger, Rome sent troops and ships to Sicily triggering war with Carthage.

PROF LAZREG: Carthage in the third century BC was an important metropolis.

NARRATOR: The Carthaginians were master seafarers,

their ships outnumbered the Romans.

So when the two fleets clashed off the Aegates islands,

it was a crucial test of Rome's maritime ambition.

NARRATOR: 500 miles north of Rome in Gunzenhausen, Germany,

classical historian, Boris Dreyer

is leading a team of experimental archaeologists.

Their innovative project aims to reveal the technology

the Romans used to fight at sea.

They have rebuilt two Roman boats based on wrecks found in the Danube

and the Rhine and want to test their speed and efficiency on water.

PROF DREYER: The best preserved wrecks can be found here in Germany,

not in the Mediterranean.

They were fixed on the bottom of the river so the conditions were airtight

and the ship could survive these 2000 years.

NARRATOR: The wrecks only provide partial evidence.

Boris has had to make some mathematical estimations in important places.

PROF DREYER: This is the ram of the boat.

We don't actually know the length of the ram,

this length is just a guess but we know that there must have been a ram.

NARRATOR: This boat is a quarter of the size of the ones used

in the Battle of the Aegates.

Its ram is made of wood unlike the bigger boats

whose ram was bronze or iron.

Boris thinks the ram reduces the turbulence alongside the hull

and keeps the boat balanced as it cuts through the waves.

PROF DREYER: This kind of design makes the boat more stable in water

because the boat is very shallow.

NARRATOR: The next challenge for Boris and the team is making the boat waterproof.

He wants to try an ancient method using hemp,

one of the earliest plants to be spun into fibre in the ancient world.

PROF DREYER: Hemp is important to make the space between the planks dense.

The planks are pressing to each other so that no water will come into the boat.

NARRATOR: When the wood is wet it expands, compressing the hemp between the planks

and sealing the hull but problems soon emerge.

NARRATOR: Some of the hemp has been pushed in too far

leaving gaps between the planks.

NARRATOR: This can jeopardize the boat's seaworthiness

because the planks will not be locked together.

Boris must make sure all the gaps are filled or his boat could sink.

In Terracina, Paul heads to the center of the modern town.

DR. SCHEDING: Here are some inscriptions left here.

It's the letter I, then V or U and S.

This is the inscription of the man who financed the Forum.

NARRATOR: The full inscription reads Aulus Aemilius,

he was a wealthy Roman citizen.

DR. SCHEDING: This is the ancient Forum and this is the actual ancient floor.

NARRATOR: Wherever Romans like Aulus Aemilius went, they rebuilt Rome.

Their new subjects soon enjoyed the benefits of life under Roman rule.

Right next to Terracina's Forum another ancient structure helps reveal

how the Romans took control of all Italy.

DR. SCHEDING: The most important thing here is the road over there,

you can see coming from the north and going through the south.

NARRATOR: This ancient road, the Via Appia, connects Terracina directly to Rome.

It's evidence of an ingenious tactic of Roman control.

In Rome, 50 miles north of Terracina,

Eve examines traces of the same road leading out of the capital.

DR. MACDONALD: This is this amazing example

of one of the many, many, many thousands of tombs of people

who wanted you to see as you walked into the city

that they were prominent Romans.

NARRATOR: These many tombs of wealthy Romans reveal the importance of this road.

It is the main entrance into the ancient city.

Eve can date the road through these monuments.

DR. MACDONALD: We often date portraits from the Roman period by the hairstyle.

The hairstyle of the woman who's on the left is very similar to the hairstyle

that we see on some of the portraits of the first Roman Empress Livia,

that's Augustus Octavian's wife.

So the first century BC would be a good date for the family here.

NARRATOR: The dates of these tombs reveal that by the first century BC,

the Via Appia was already established as one of the most important highways

in the ancient world.

The Romans began building it almost as soon as they started expanding

in the fourth century BC.

The Via Appia led to Terracina to the south,

extended south east through Capua,

ending at Brundisium in 264 BC.

Spanning over 360 miles, it was the first super highway the Romans ever built

and was a vital route for marching armies and military supplies.

This huge paved road, averaging 20 feet in width, allowed Rome

to concentrate its troops rapidly and maintain control of far flung territories.

It was crucial to Rome's military domination of the Italian peninsular.

DR. MACDONALD: Very early on in Rome's history,

it has the ability to create massive infrastructure.

NARRATOR: In Terracina at the dig site, Paul and Francesca are hunting

for artifacts to date the buildings of the temple here

and find new clues about Rome's expansion

but their project might have to come to a halt.

DR. SCHEDING: There are thunderstorms coming from the north to Terracina.

This is quite a difficult situation for us because we are on top of the mountain,

so we are kind of exposed.

NARRATOR: Last year the team sheltered in one of the ancient temples

during a storm and it was hit by lightning.

DR. SCHEDING: Excavating in a thunderstorm is like

the most dangerous thing that you can do.

NARRATOR: Everyone hurries off the site.

(lightning sound)

In Gunzenhausen, Germany, Boris and his team are ready to put

their Roman replica boat on water.

PROF DREYER: Hello. How is it going?

Are we ready to take off?

(simultaneous dialogue)

Hopefully it will not sink. NARRATOR: They want to test its speed and efficiency

to find out if ship building technology

and engineering are the secret to Rome's expansion into the Mediterranean.

First they need to tow the 2.2 tonne vessel out of the hanger.

BUILDER: You may go ahead. You're ready.

NARRATOR: It has been a year in the making.

So they take great care.

NARRATOR: Once out, Boris reverses the boat slowly into the water.

No one knows if the ancient hemp waterproofing technique will work.

There's a real risk it will sink.

BUILDER: Yeah! Bravo! (Applause).

NARRATOR: The boat is finally afloat

but water starts seeping in.

PROF DREYER: We just have to look here. It's not sure.

Water is coming in but it seems to be okay.

So it's the right amount of water.

NARRATOR: The boat can handle about three inches of water inside the hull

but more could become dangerous.

This allows the planks to expand and lock the hemp inside.

NARRATOR: The Roman ship building design is so far proving solid.

NARRATOR: Off the west coast of Sicily,

the divers have cleaned up the ram and wrapped a strap around it.

Peter and the team aboard the Hercules are getting ready to lift it.

DAVE: Okay, we've got the ram. Here we go.

Alright, start moving the boat please, about 6 meters 020.

NARRATOR: The main challenge is to attach the strap to the ship's powerful crane

without damaging the brittle ram.

DAVE: Back deck deploy the crane.

(Copy that, radio dialogue)

NARRATOR: First, the ROV has to pick up the heavy hook of the crane.

DR. CAMPBELL: Dave if you could just keep an eye on the tether on the top left.

DAVE: Right. No, no, no left.

DR. CAMPBELL: We'll go with the left, yeah, yeah.

Hey. Okay.

NARRATOR: Then it needs to pass the tether of the strap through the crane's hook.

DAVE: You have to spin around and come in that way.

Back up, back up, back up. Let it clear.

NARRATOR: Each movement of the ROV kicks up sand

reducing the water visibility, so progress is slow.

DAVE: You've got a straight shot in.

Push right.

DR. CAMPBELL: Alright!

NARRATOR: Eventually, the two are connected.

JIM: Does everybody agree we're clear?

DAVE: We're clear. JIM: Alright, let's lift.

NARRATOR: The ram has been underwater for 2,300 years.

There's a huge risk that lifting it will tear it apart.

Everyone in the control room holds their breath.

DR. CAMPBELL: I'm hoping it comes up in one piece.

JIM: Yeah. Up three meters.

NARRATOR: In Gunzenhausen, Germany, Boris has enlisted the help of 18 students

and volunteers.

PROF DREYER: Loose the ropes. Okay.

Ready at oars.

Put your oars in the water and at the signal go and go and go and go.

NARRATOR: They want to find out how fast a Roman ship is

and how easy it is to maneuver.

It could reveal if engineering gave Rome the edge in naval warfare.

DR. CAMPBELL: It's the wind. We are rowing against the wind.

Very, very, very difficult, rough.

Go!

NARRATOR: The strong winds bring the boat to a standstill.

KORAI: I can't feel my hands actually but we have to continue rowing.

PROF DREYER: Keep to the rhythm.

NARRATOR: The Roman soldiers who rowed into battle needed their energy to fight.

Far from shore in the full blast of the wind, Boris is facing another challenge.

PROF DREYER: There's no modern keel

and we only have the grip with the rudders in the back part of the ship.

NARRATOR: The ancient keel of the boat is flat,

it only extends around 13 inches underwater.

PROF DREYER: The wind is coming from the side and the ship is drifting.

NARRATOR: In windy conditions the flat boat drifts dangerously.

Boris tries to direct his team and stabilize the course.

NARRATOR: In battle, losing control of the boat could be fatal.

NARRATOR: The Roman admirals and mariners must have been extremely well trained

to navigate large ships at sea.

Back on course, the boat quickly starts gaining speed.

PROF DREYER: I think the design is rather good.

It's a fast ship.

NARRATOR: The boat averages four miles per hour

but it can reach up to eight miles per hour during a sprint.

At this speed, plunging into another ship with the ram attached

to the front would cause catastrophic damage.

NARRATOR: After almost two hours in the water,

Boris and his team return to harbor.

LEO: Before starting I thought it would be harder,

I guess the wind is quite exhausting

but once we are at some speed it's much easier

and I think we could do it for some hours.

PROF DREYER: This boat is very easy to maneuver

and one can understand that Roman soldiers were able to control the boat

to find the best position according to the wind.

I think the result is a success.

NARRATOR: With a fleet of hundreds of fast well built ships,

the highly skilled Roman sailors had become a formidable match

for their enemies, the Carthaginians.

NARRATOR: Off the coast of Sicily, the ram is finally coming out of the sea.

JIM: We have lift off.

Strap to the ram.

DAVE: The ram is at 80. Bring it to the surface.

NARRATOR: Everyone has gathered on deck for the big moment

including the Director of underwater cultural heritage, Valeria Li Vigni.

The heavy ram has made it up in one piece.

JIM: Peter look, the force of the damage here.

DR. CAMPBELL: Right. LI VIGNI: Yes.

JIM: Produced a crack all the way up here.

LI VIGNI: And also in the. JIM: Yes, yes, yes.

DR. CAMPBELL: In the keel, yeah. LI VIGNI: Okay.

DR. CAMPBELL: Yeah, damage on every face.

NARRATOR: It's made of cast bronze but still bears traces of the violent clash

that sank the ship it was attached to during the Battle of the Aegates.

The next challenge for Peter and Valeria is to work out

if it's from a Roman or Carthaginian ship.

DR. CAMPBELL: No inscription?

JIM: Carthaginian navy? LI VIGNI: I think.

NARRATOR: The Romans usually decorate and inscribe their rams.

The lack of any inscription suggests this one is Carthaginian

and remarkably the size of the ram itself hints at the dimensions of the ship.

DR. CAMPBELL: On the inside is the wood.

-These three -Yeah.

Three different timbers yeah, and this, this is a big keel.

JIM: We really need to get some samples, can we do that?

-Here you are. -Great.

DR. CAMPBELL: I mean its big timbers that it's covering here,

I mean, this would have been a big ship.

NARRATOR: The ship size might have been a significant drawback,

it made it harder to maneuver;

this might even be the reason, it was rammed and sank.

DR. CAMPBELL: This ship must have run into one that was much better made

and uh, it must have just crushed like a can when it impacted the other vessel.

NARRATOR: For centuries the Carthaginians ruled the Mediterranean.

The rams on their ships were lethal weapons.

In 241 BC at the Battle of the Aegates,

they outnumbered the Romans but were heavy with supplies.

The Roman navy, now a match for their enemies,

took down their masts and rowed at speed into battle.

They outmaneuvered the Carthaginians, ramming and sinking 50 of their ships

and winning a shock victory.

The unexpected naval victory changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean

and opened the door for Rome's conquests overseas.

DR. CAMPBELL: This was an amazing mission that is rewriting what we know

about the Roman navy, the Carthaginian navy and ancient military history.

It really is giving insight into what it was like to be

on board ships in the ancient period.

NARRATOR: Next season, Peter and the team plan to return

and scour the seabed for more artifacts to get a fuller picture

of this defining Roman victory.

In Tunis,

Nejib investigates how the loss of this battle affected Carthage.

He heads to a very special site in the south of the city.

PROF LAZREG: We find several layers of burials.

The earliest layers go back to 750 BC.

NARRATOR: The site is a tophet, a sacred burial place for children.

This special cemetery was established at the same time as the city of Carthage,

around the eighth century BC.

Each of these stelae was placed next to an urn

which held the cremated remains of a child.

Nejib looks for the last burials.

PROF LAZREG: They stopped by the mid-second BC.

NARRATOR: Only 100 years after the Battle of the Aegates,

the Carthaginians abandoned their precious graveyard.

PROF LAZREG: The tophet functioned with the city,

the people who lived here and they buried their babies here.

The use of such a cemetery stopped with the destruction of the city of Carthage.

NARRATOR: Nejib looks for more clues of this devastating event.

In a corner of the site he finds an unexpected ancient construction, a vault.

PROF LAZREG: It was not built by the Carthaginians

because Carthaginians never knew the use of the vault or nor the arch,

so it could be only Roman.

The Romans built this vault and surely many other ones

on top of the remains of Carthage.

NARRATOR: The Romans built over this precious burial site.

It's evidence the Battle of the Aegates wasn't the end of the rivalry.

A few decades after the clash at sea, a Carthaginian warrior rose up, Hannibal.

He crossed the Alps with war elephants and wreaked havoc in Italy for 15 years.

Then in 204 BC, Roman general Scipio landed his army in North Africa,

forcing Hannibal to return home.

They fought an epic battle,

the fast Roman cavalry massacred the Carthaginian infantry.

Carthage signed a truce that lasted just 50 years until Rome invaded

and burned it to the ground and later rebuilt it as their own city in Africa.

In the second century BC, Rome's expansion engulfed the Carthaginian empire

and was pushing even further.

NARRATOR: In Terracina, the storm has passed.

Paul needs to assess its damage on the dig site.

DR. SCHEDING: The storm last night was very terrible.

So, what are we doing?

DR. DIOSONO: Today the soil is very wet.

I think it's a good idea to make a little survey of the area we don't excavate,

so we can find pottery.

NARRATOR: The team can use the setback to its advantage.

The dark waterlogged soil means pale pottery is much more visible.

DR. DIOSONO: We have a lot of finds, more finds than a normal day.

NARRATOR: The temple that once stood here is now in ruins,

its remains scattered on the mountainside.

The archaeologists hope these many pieces of pottery can reveal when the Romans

built it and what it looked like.

Francesca spots something unexpected among the finds.

DR. DIOSONO: This is part of the decoration of the temple, it's a terracotta.

I think it's a flower or something like this.

DR. SCHEDING: Yeah, that's amazing.

Wow, yeah this is an actual part of the, of the architecture?

DR. DIOSONO: Yes, this is the early decoration.

NARRATOR: The Romans used terracotta to help decorate their buildings.

The style of these pieces can help pinpoint the date

of their earliest temple on site.

DR. SCHEDING: This is a Roman tile, you can see by the form.

It was part of the roof.

This must have been part of the second century BC, more or less.

NARRATOR: From the second century BC, the Romans built magnificent temples here.

The largest was likely dedicated to Venus,

their goddess of love, fertility and victory.

They overlooked the commercial harbor of Terracina

and were a visual representation of Rome's power and riches.

DR. SCHEDING: Picture yourself as an ancient Roman standing

in the street of Terracina, looking up the hill

and then the monumentalization of these temples like, growing,

growing and growing as the empire was growing at this very time.

NARRATOR: Paul thinks the temple here is built on even greater spoils of war.

He examines an extraordinary recent discovery.

A terracotta head.

DR. SCHEDING: What we see here is the most amazing piece

we found just a couple of days ago.

NARRATOR: Paul compares its features to an established depiction

of a famous warrior.

DR. SCHEDING: The most recognizable feature is

that he's turning his head and you can see it here.

So it gives you an expression that he is in a dynamic position

and looking through the landscape,

also of the armies he's in control of.

We are quite sure that it's Alexander the Great.

NARRATOR: Alexander the Great built a huge empire in the fourth century BC.

Paul thinks the Romans wanted to follow his example.

DR. SCHEDING: Alexander the Great, he conquered the East until modern India

and now the Romans are starting to conquer this territory which was already

conquered by Alexander the Great.

So this is really a symbol for the power of Rome in the East.

NARRATOR: The Romans conquered Alexander's homeland, Greece,

in the middle of the second century BC, just as they conquered Carthage.

These incredible victories established Rome as the new military powerhouse

of the ancient Mediterranean world.

DR. SCHEDING: You show the man who conquered the world

and now the Romans have conquered the world.

NARRATOR: In Rome,

Eve examines the ancient buildings inside the Forum.

DR. MACDONALD: We see the Colosseum in the distance there,

built on the spoils of conquest and war.

We see triumphal arches to when Roman victorious generals came back

through to the city, cheering crowds would greet them

and they would parade the spoils of conquest through the Forum.

NARRATOR: Rome's unexpected victory in the Battle of the Aegates was a springboard

for many more conquests, monumentalized in this famous capital city.

DR. MACDONALD: They were the first to display their enormous power of potential,

their military might, in such grand terms.

They're there for us to read and they're there for us to try and understand.

NARRATOR: The team's investigations have led to new evidence

of how Rome first expanded into its immediate neighborhood.

It then built imposing structures like temples

and roads to control its growing territories and showcase its power.

The Romans built a mighty fleet that defeated a formidable enemy,

the Carthaginian empire and gave them control of the Mediterranean.

Future excavations will add precious information to how one small city

gained so much power that it dominated the ancient world.

(speaking foreign language)

NARRATOR: In Italy, deep in the countryside,

archaeologists have made the discovery of a lifetime.

A long lost, Roman Amphitheater.

NARRATOR: Their excavation, reveals an opening that was buried deep in the ground,

for over 1,000 years.

NARRATOR: Now, the team dares to enter the tunnel,

in a quest to uncover its hidden secrets.

The Colosseum, in the heart of Rome.

Today, this monumental building is an enduring symbol of the Roman Empire.

Famous for its spectacular gladiator contests, of brutality and death,

its scale, and ambition, was legendary.

Now, an international team of archaeologists is investigating,

how this mega structure, became so crucial, to the Roman Empire.

VALERIE: It was initially, a Roman amphitheater and it becomes the symbol of Rome.

I have to ask the question why.

NARRATOR: The weathered facade of today shows little trace of the marble

that originally adorned this colossus.

Statues of gods, and goddesses, once stood in the arches.

This icon, completed in 80 AD, seated 50,000 spectators.

It was a gift, to the people, from Emperor Vespasian

and his son, Titus.

Romans gathered, alongside the Emperor in his Imperial box,

under a retractable awning, to witness the greatest

and bloodiest entertainment of ancient Rome, the gladiator fights.

VALERIE: It was built to impress and, it still does.

NARRATOR: British archaeologist, Valerie Higgins,

has made the city of Rome her home,

and has a lifelong passion, for its ancient civilization.

She's exploring how the Colosseum an arena of entertainment,

became so central to the very idea of Rome.

Valerie wants to investigate, what went on behind the scenes

of the amphitheater's spectacular shows.

She heads down to the area beneath the arena floor,

once a warren of dark tunnels, to look for clues.

VALERIE: There were lots of these holes, surrounded by white stone,

all over the basement of the Colosseum.

And they're quite intriguing. They must have a purpose,

and that purpose has to be, something that's happening up, on the arena floor.

NARRATOR: Valerie, hunts for more evidence, in the surviving structures.

VALERIE: They've cut a groove here,

you can see that clearly in the rock, so,

there is something that is going up and down at this point.

It looks like, there's been some machinery here.

NARRATOR: Everywhere, there are traces, of the mechanisms

that powered the dazzling shows up above.

VALERIE: These stones, are at a strange angle.

The only reason I can think of, why, they would be there, is,

that this was a ramp, into the arena.

It gives you, a sense, of how the Romans created magic, in the spectacle.

Because, up through the ramp, could come, animals or people,

appearing as if by magic, in the arena.

NARRATOR: Expertly designed pullies

and cages, delivered wild animals into the arena, to astonish the crowds.

The spectacle began with a hunt.

Hundreds of wild animals, from across the Roman Empire,

were released and slaughtered, by trained hunters.

Next, were the gruesome executions.

Many convicted criminals, were mauled to death by wild animals.

And then, the stage was set for the grand finale,

gladiators, fighting head to head.

The Romans, went to extraordinary lengths, to entertain,

the Colosseum's vast crowds.

To explore why, Valerie's going deeper, behind the scenes.

At Volterra, in Tuscany, 130 miles north of Rome,

a team of archaeologists is unearthing an extraordinary discovery.

One that might help solve the puzzle of why,

the Colosseum was so central, to the Roman Empire.

Elena Sorge, is the team leader.

NARRATOR: For over a millennium, no-one knew

what lay hidden here, under the grass.

Until now.

Buried in the ground, is a long lost, look alike, Colosseum.

NARRATOR: Finding a totally unknown, unexcavated amphitheater here,

is one of the discoveries of the century.

PAUL: Well let's go ahead and kick this one off. MARK: Alright.

NARRATOR: This ancient virgin site, untouched by previous excavations,

has attracted an international team.

MARK: It's good to go.

NARRATOR: Shifting thousands of tons of soil, they're unearthing the old arena,

the audience seating, and long lost, hidden treasures.

Archaeologist, Valeria D'Aquino, grew up in the region,

and works alongside Elena.

NARRATOR: And, there's a mystery.

The ancient people of this region, weren't Roman,

they were rivals, called Etruscans.

This was one of the last areas, of the Italian peninsula,

to fall under Roman rule.

Why, was a Roman amphitheater, built here at all?

The team knows, that the best way to find out why it was built,

is to find out when it was built.

Any new discovery, could add a crucial piece, to the puzzle.

The team, has found a vase, deep in the ground.

It has survived in one piece, for at least 1,500 years.

NARRATOR: They call, Eva Pianini, the lead restorer, to examine the find.

NARRATOR: They are looking for any clue that might allow them

to precisely date the pottery.

NARRATOR: Eva, sees something, beneath the mud.

NARRATOR: Valeria, arrives, to take a closer look.

Could it be a special stamp that might help date it?

NARRATOR: The ancient potter, has left their mark.

EVA: (Laughs).

NARRATOR: No stamp, no date, but still a human touch, from across the centuries.

Eva, sends the vase, to a lab, off site, for further analysis.

The hunt for clues, continues.

On another part of the site, there's a sudden commotion.

NARRATOR: The team, uncovers an unexpected opening.

NARRATOR: Elena, races, to the scene.

(speaking foreign language)

NARRATOR: Elena, is the first, to enter this tunnel, in over 1,000 years.

NARRATOR: At Richborough, in southern England,

another buried Roman amphitheater, is being excavated.

Tony Wilmott, is the lead archaeologist on the dig.

TONY: It's exciting to excavate because, it's the one building type,

that the Roman's invented themselves,

without pinching it from the Greeks.

NARRATOR: Tony, is the first, to excavate the amphitheater, in 150 years.

TONY: We're here to try and understand the amphitheater,

try and understand everything about it,

the date, the structure, the way it's built.

NARRATOR: Most of the huge, ancient structure,

remains hidden, under this vast mound.

Over the years, debris and earth, have collapsed into the arena,

filling it nine feet deep.

After weeks of digging, the team succeeds in exposing the arena wall.

On examination, it's clear, that it's made from chalk block.

This is unlike other Roman walls in the area,

which were made from more durable stone.

Historian, Paul Pattison, is responsible for the work at Richborough.

He has come to examine the arena wall.

PAUL: It's something of a surprise, the materials that they've used.

You can see it was very clearly constructed of chalk blocks,

quarried locally.

Materials that were easily available, ready to hand,

rather than having to go some great distance,

might indicate that the construction is quite early.

NARRATOR: It was here at Richborough, that the Romans invaded Britain, in 43 AD.

It now seems likely that the amphitheater may have been built, not long after.

It's a major discovery for the dig.

But like the Romans before them, the team must content with the English weather.

It's raining hard.

If the soil's wet, the team risks damaging fragments of history underfoot.

There's no choice, but to stop, and take cover.

TONY: The rain has now seeped through and we're flooded, basically,

in the deeper areas, down in the arena, which means that we have to bail it out.

We'll get there.

This is the romance of archaeology in action.

NARRATOR: In Rome, Valerie continues her investigation,

in a strange structure discovered alongside the Colosseum.

VALERIE: This is, I would say, residential quarters for the gladiators.

NARRATOR: There's something here that catches Valerie's eye.

The remains of a semicircular wall.

VALERIE: It looks like a curved arena,

which is the same shape as the arena in the Colosseum.

NARRATOR: The shape, is a clue to the function, of this large space.

VALERIE: It's a mini Colosseum.

This must've been where they were training and preparing for these very complex games.

What this arena here shows us, is,

these were not just games that were thrown together

where you get two guys to come out and fight.

These were games that took a lot of choreography and a lot of preparation.

NARRATOR: Gladiator fights, began in the fourth century BC.

They were performed at funerals, to honor the dead.

In the first century BC, Julius Caesar super-sized the ritual,

with games of hundreds of fighters and wild animals, to commemorate his relatives.

The games later developed into a state funded industry,

with special schools to train the gladiators,

and amphitheaters for audiences in their tens of thousands.

The Colosseum, the biggest ever ancient amphitheater,

was built by order of Emperor Vespasian, in the first century AD.

Why did he want this colossus, and its games?

Valerie, continues her search, into the streets of Rome.

North of Rome, in Volterra.

(speaking foreign language)

NARRATOR: Elena, emerges from her first exploration of the tunnel,

at the newly discovered amphitheater.

NARRATOR: On another part of the same site,

American architectural technologists, Paul Aubin and Mark Dietrick,

are capturing the ancient structure with a state of the art laser scanner.

PAUL: That was all filled in.

MARK: It was all filled in. PAUL: Up to that height.

NARRATOR: Their laser, bounces off every inch of this ancient structure,

to create a digital map of the site.

This means the team can study it, in forensic detail.

MARK: You can't describe, the feeling of being really inside

of a monument that has just been discovered

and is just literally emerging out of the ground.

NARRATOR: The team, hopes to find clues, to unlock the mysteries of this site.

When, and why, it was built.

PAUL: Perfect.

NARRATOR: Their scans, help to recreate the structure in its prime.

Volterra's ruins today, form a section of an oval shaped amphitheater.

Sandstone arches, once supported the seating,

for 10,000 spectators, around a central arena.

The team believes, that the builders cut part of the structure

into the bedrock of a hill,

and dug vaulted galleries connecting the arena to stairs, around the outside.

As the pieces of the puzzle come together, a whole amphitheater is emerging,

with each new discovery, adding to the picture of a mini Colosseum.

MARK: Finally get to go into this tunnel.

PAUL: Yeah, really anxious to see what it looks like in there.

NARRATOR: Mark and Paul, are keen to scan the tunnel, first entered by Elena.

MARK: Alright, watch your footing here.

NARRATOR: The entrance is now cleared and ready for their investigations.

PAUL: So this hasn't seen the light of day in a long time.

Look at that. MARK: Wow.

NARRATOR: Their high tech, high precision equipment,

measures up to two million data points per second.

PAUL: I just can't believe this. It's spectacular.

Wow.

Look how tight the joints are in those arches.

MARK: That's, that's incredible.

Definitely try and get in there too.

What do you think Paul?

Maybe if we lower the scanner all the way, we can still get a nice shot in there.

Let's do it.

PAUL: Let's see what the scanner saw. Oh. Wow.

MARK: Wow, there's another arch over there.

PAUL: I didn't know that other arch was back there.

MARK: I'm just wondering how many other passages must be back there.

PAUL: That is remarkable.

NARRATOR: The scans, reveal a network of unknown, hidden passageways,

that could help the team decipher when, and why, this amphitheater was built.

NARRATOR: In Rome, Valerie is working with local pilot,

Marco Giordano, to launch a drone,

mounted with a high definition camera.

She hopes a fresh perspective will help her investigation.

She wants to identify the site of the Theatre of Pompey,

built 100 years before the Colosseum.

VALERIE: I can see the buildings today,

are following the same shape, as the Theatre of Pompey.

NARRATOR: The theatre, no longer exists,

but it was originally built in the form of a semi-circle.

Spotting the tell-tale curve, in the streets below,

Valerie sets out to find the location.

VALERIE: Well I can see from the shape of this building that this must be,

on the seating of the Theatre of Pompey.

You can see this from the way that it's curved and also,

from the way that everything is sloping backwards.

So, underneath our feet here, there would've been steps going up that

would have been the Roman seating for the stage,

which was over on this site.

NARRATOR: The ancient theatre, was built by the Roman politician

and general, Pompey, in 55 BC.

It was the first permanent theatre in Rome, built, not in wood, but in stone.

A vehicle, for Pompey's political ambition, he used it, to win popular support.

VALERIE: The Theatre of Pompey really demonstrates to us, just how connected,

politics and entertainment is.

It's not just about, going to theatre performances,

this is about political power.

NARRATOR: Valerie, thinks the Colosseum, a theatre for gladiatorial games,

was also built, to win popular support.

VALERIE: This is a really interesting super imposition of the Theatre of Pompey,

on the modern street plan of Rome.

If you put it close to, a plan of the Colosseum,

these are quite similar dimensions.

NARRATOR: The theatre and amphitheater, are both huge, but different, shapes.

One is a semi-circle, the other, a near full circle.

VALERIE: The amphitheater, is a little bit like two theatres put together.

NARRATOR: Doubling the size of their Colosseum,

suggests Emperors Vespasian and Titus,

wanted a huge audience, for their games.

Valerie's investigations, are closing in, on the true purpose,

of the giant amphitheater.

In Richborough, England, now the rainstorm has passed, Tony and Paul,

are checking progress at the newly exposed wall.

PAUL: It's really, really come up.

TONY: Oh it's really come up, yeah.

Yeah, I mean it hasn't been damaged by the weather either, happily.

NARRATOR: They can make out, traces, of ancient paint, on plastered walls.

TONY: We've got blues and, red and yellow.

The sort of curls of that red over there, I mean,

I wouldn't be surprised if that was just the last vestiges of, of a figure.

PAUL: This is a real surprise to me.

TONY: Oh yeah, yeah. PAUL: You know.

But to find it plastered and painted.

TONY: Yeah, if you'd asked me whether it was likely, you know, before we started,

I'd say, you know, never in a million years.

NARRATOR: They believe, they've uncovered a fresco,

where the paint has been applied to wet plaster.

PAUL: Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of that.

TONY: Nor me, nor me.

NARRATOR: An amphitheater with a fresco like this, is a rare find.

TONY: There's none in Britain.

PAUL: No, there's none in Britain.

A pattern decorative on an arena wall, it is of international importance.

NARRATOR: Walls, in the Colosseum itself, were painted too.

Brilliant reds, blues and greens.

The painted arena wall, reveals how much care the Romans lavished,

on the Richborough amphitheater.

It's new evidence of how important this amphitheater was,

to the Romans who built it.

But within hours, it starts raining, again.

They must act fast to protect the newly exposed fresco.

TONY: Well once again, we've had to cover the walls, cover the chalk walls

and the wall painting so we're under blue tarps again.

NARRATOR: For the second time, the weather, forces the team,

to down tools.

NARRATOR: Valerie returns to the Colosseum,

to continue her investigation into why it became so important, to Rome.

VALERIE: You're always kind of following the curve around.

NARRATOR: The amphitheater was built, as an oval mega structure,

measuring a third of a mile, in circumference.

Spectators, could enter, via 80 archways.

VALERIE: I can see numbers, written in Roman numerals.

This one is XXXII, 32 and then, going along, XXXIV, 34.

What this is indicating, I think,

has to be the number that was on the ticket that you got,

in order to enter the arena.

NARRATOR: As a spectator, you'd be just one of thousands.

Unlike the half circle of the old Roman Theatre of Pompey, this was a full,

wrap around arena.

Audience capacity more than doubled, from 20,000 to 50,000.

VALERIE: Once inside, you would be directed to your section of seating but,

you didn't get to choose what it was.

As you go further up to the top of the amphitheater, it gets steeper.

You go along dark corridors and you come out, into a section of seating,

which has been assigned, to you.

NARRATOR: Seats, were allocated according to social status.

The place with the worst view, was right at the top.

VALERIE: It may well have been standing room only and, people who stood there,

were the slaves and the women.

NARRATOR: Those with the greatest status, sat closest to the Emperor,

in his Imperial box.

First, were the elite senators, sitting in the marble rows above them,

were a noble rank of Roman knights, known as the equites.

Above them, were groups of soldiers, adolescent boys with tutors and married men,

with other, ordinary citizens of Rome.

In the highest levels, were Rome's lower classes,

enslaved people and poorer citizens,

along with women and children.

VALERIE: When you went to the games at the amphitheater,

you really were, in a very literal sense, put in your place.

NARRATOR: The massive wrap around theatre, had another hidden function.

Engineering a 360 degree space, put everyone in full view of everyone else.

It's not just the gladiators who were put on show,

it was the audience, too.

VALERIE: It was a very socially reinforcing act, to go to the amphitheater

because, you really understood your place in society.

NARRATOR: It was a social performance, one that reinforced the hierarchy,

of Roman society.

The Colosseum wasn't built simply to entertain the people,

it was built, to keep them under control.

In Volterra, Mark and Paul, review their laser scans in 3D.

PAUL: You can really start to see, the overall shape.

MARK: I mean, look at that, this was all just a big grass field.

NARRATOR: The 3D imaging, allows them to identify the underlying engineering.

Not just the tunnels, but the whole amphitheater.

MARK: We're really getting a nice hint of the elliptical shape now.

PAUL: Yeah, that's really neat.

MARK: We've got it so much more clearer now,

the geometry of this amazing monument.

NARRATOR: The digital data, reveals patterns, not obvious, to the naked eye.

The hope, is that the hidden geometry will hold the key to understanding when,

and why, this amphitheater was built.

But Mark and Paul's investigations, don't stop here.

PAUL: Oh this scan position is absolutely perfect,

it's going to allow us to the get the tops of these walls over here.

NARRATOR: This, is the ancient theatre, at Volterra,

not far from the newly discovered amphitheater.

It was built at the end of the 1st Century BC.

The scans, of this building, can be compared with the scans of the amphitheater.

Analysis of the theatre's seating, and the amphitheater's arena,

suggests they may have been built by the same architect,

for the Caecinas, a local clan, not of Roman, but Etruscan origin.

In the 1st Century BC, with Volterra, under Roman rule, Aulus Caecina,

wrote a tirade against Caesar, and was banished.

But over the next 100 years, Caecinas became renowned senators in Rome.

In Volterra, Caecinas displayed their grand ambitions,

with lavish Roman buildings, the theatre,

and now it seems, the amphitheater too.

Finally, with the help of the 3D scans,

the team is solving the mystery of when and why,

this ancient structure was built.

The evidence suggests that it was constructed around the same time,

and for the same reason, as the theatre, as a testimony,

to Roman power, in the reign of Emperor Augustus.

NARRATOR: The amphitheater, was more than just a spectacular building,

an arena for gladiatorial games,

it was a symbol, of Rome, and Romaness.

Not only in Italy, but in places like Richborough,

on the outer reaches of the Empire.

NARRATOR: In Richborough, England, Tony and his team, are investigating

why this amphitheater was built, 800 miles, from Rome.

Battling the weather, the team is working on the plastered

and painted arena wall, when they begin to uncover

a puzzling structure alongside it.

Once it's fully dug out, Tony finds a clue, to its function.

TONY: What we have, is a slight stain here,

a nice straight line against the mortar floor.

This is probably the base of a timber frame door, of this entrance.

NARRATOR: Evidence of a door onto the arena,

leads Tony to an exciting conclusion.

TONY: What this is, is a carcer.

It's a place where animals or people, waiting to go into the arena,

would be incarcerated, where we get that word from.

It's a chamber, off the back of the arena wall.

This is really the waiting room, for anything that's going to die in the arena.

This would be a very, very grim place.

This is where, you know, the fear would click in, before that door rose and,

you went to meet whatever it was in front of you in the arena.

NARRATOR: This significant find, reveals how even many hundreds of miles from Rome,

spectacle, is still key.

PAUL: We have got people coming and going from the rest of the Roman Empire,

and this is what they might expect.

These are people who are soldiers, they are traders,

they are imperial officials and they would want to have, you know,

those aspects of Roman culture that they could get anywhere else in the Empire.

NARRATOR: This amphitheater, built soon after the invasion of Britain

in 43 AD, is the vanguard of Empire,

not just for the conquerors, but for the vanquished too.

PAUL: It's about spreading the idea, of the Roman way.

And the way they do that, is that they try and convince the conquered populations,

that this new way of life, is a better way of life.

The amphitheater, and the things that went on in an amphitheater,

is one way of doing that.

We see this all over the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: 230 amphitheaters, mini Colosseums,

have been discovered across the Empire.

Built between the 1st Century BC and the 4th Century AD,

they stretch from England, to Africa.

Some of them, still stand.

At Pompeii and Verrona, in Italy,

at Arles, in France,

Italica, in Spain,

El Djem in Tunisia

and Pula, in Croatia.

Their forms of entertainment were always the same, a way for the Roman rulers,

to spread their Roman values.

Enemies of Rome, faced public execution.

They were crucified, burnt at the steak, or mauled by wild animals.

Gladiators wore armor, inspired by ancient enemies,

and mythical Roman characters.

They fought with different weapons and armor,

to show off Roman values of courage and valor.

Even facing certain death, a gladiator would be expected to die, bravely.

The amphitheater, Romanized its conquered peoples.

But Rome, needed Romanizing too.

And this would be the task of the greatest amphitheater of them all,

the Colosseum.

NARRATOR: All paths, lead back to the Colosseum, and Valerie,

is at the crux of her investigation.

VALERIE: Rome was the center of a huge empire.

And like all huge empires, it has a lot of migration to its center.

So, most of the people who are sitting around this arena,

probably originated somewhere else.

But the one thing that kind of made them Roman,

that actually created a feeling of Romaness,

is, that they sat and watched this spectacle.

NARRATOR: At the Colosseum, the Emperor made sure he personified Rome.

He had his grand entrance, the Imperial Gate, and he sat, in his Imperial Box,

for all to see.

VALERIE: This is the best view in the arena, and it's not only the best view,

it's the best place to be viewed.

We should be in no doubt, that, it was putting on games like this,

that was really crucial to the Emperor keeping power.

NARRATOR: The genius, of Emperor Vespasian and his son, builders of the Colosseum,

was to harness the gladiatorial games, to the power of the Emperor.

But it wouldn't, last forever.

In Volterra,

as the team pieces together the story of the once buried amphitheater,

Valeria uncovers a mysterious structure.

NARRATOR: This clear line between the original, and new stone,

shows the window has been bricked up.

It points to a radical shift in the amphitheater's history.

NARRATOR: The beginning of the 5th Century AD,

is around the time the gladiator games were banned,

throughout the Roman Empire.

Was this blocked up window, the beginning of the end, for the amphitheater?

In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine, outlawed the persecution of Christians,

and his reforms began to the change the games.

He banned crucifixion for convicted criminals,

but allowed gladiator fights to persist.

In 404 AD, a Christian monk, tried to stop a gladiatorial contest,

but was stoned to death, by the crowd.

It's said that the sight turned the heart, of the Christian Emperor, Honorius,

who then banned the games altogether.

In a new Christian era, the Colosseum came to be seen in a different light.

VALERIE: This inscription, commemorates the Christians, who were killed,

under the Roman Empire.

This became, a place that symbolized all of the Christian martyrs, who died.

It symbolizes the inhumanity, of what was happening, in the arena,

when people were being executed in this horrific way.

NARRATOR: The Roman Empire, was the most powerful on Earth.

And this amphitheater, the magnificent Colosseum, was its monument.

Archaeologists are discovering,

that an amphitheater symbolized Rome, wherever it was built.

From the provinces, to the outer corners of Empire,

their excavations are revealing how amphitheaters came to stand,

for the might of Rome, for social order,

military valor and imperial power.

Symbolism, so powerful, that amphitheaters represent the Roman Empire,

to this day.

(knocking sound)

NARRATOR: On the outskirts of Rome

archaeologists are breaking into a secret underground chamber.

NARRATOR: It could reveal clues to the disappearance of an ancient palace.

NARRATOR: Emperor Nero's legendary Golden House.

NARRATOR: Rome, the eternal city.

Its monumental wonders still stand proud after two millennia of history.

And one of its most fascinating ancient structures lies buried here,

beneath the city.

The Domus Aurea, the Golden House, a vast palace built in the first century AD.

It was the most extravagant construction in the history of Rome.

Why was the Golden House buried?

And what can its fate reveal about its builder,

Rome's most notorious emperor, Nero.

Today, teams of experts are launching investigations across Italy

that could offer new clues.

NARRATOR: Beneath the Colle Oppio Park in the center of Rome,

a team of conservation specialists is fighting to preserve

the surviving remains of the Domus Aurea,

an underground maze of painted rooms and corridors.

Rome native Maria Bartoli is the head of conservation.

NARRATOR: The surviving sections of the Domus Aurea

are buried up to 13 feet deep.

Until excavation in the 18th century,

almost all of the rooms were back-filled with soil

and rubble too.

The Golden House is in fragile condition.

NARRATOR: The earth above weighs more than 700 pounds per square foot.

The 2000 year old structure wasn't built to bear this vast load,

so it's in danger of collapsing.

NARRATOR: Water is infiltrating from above,

and the once highly decorated walls are coated in dirt.

NARRATOR: The team must carefully clear the wall.

NARRATOR: The work is painstaking.

It takes hours to reveal and preserve every inch of the ancient decoration.

And with every passing day, the risk of losing this precious art grows greater.

NARRATOR: Large swathes of the ancient walls have already been eaten away

by harmful algae that thrive in the humid climate here.

Maria must clean all of the walls to prevent another biological attack.

In the vast underground maze, she has a gargantuan task ahead of her.

American archaeologist Darius Arya is investigating

why Nero's magnificent palace ended up rotting underground.

22 years ago, Darius traded his home in the United States

for Italy's capital to follow his childhood fascination

with Roman history.

DR. ARYA: Nero is a very interesting character.

I mean this person looms in the history books larger than life.

He was a showman.

He's still fascinating and those anecdotes that are applied to him,

whether or not they're true, just adds those layers of understanding

the nuanced character of Nero.

NARRATOR: The fate of the Domus Aurea may be connected to Nero's own story.

Nero became Emperor at just 16 after his stepfather Claudius died in 54 AD.

Some say Claudius was poisoned by his wife, Agrippina,

to make way for her son.

Ancient writers described Nero as a cold-blooded ruler,

reporting he poisoned his step-brother out of jealousy,

and had his domineering mother assassinated.

They claimed his taste for violence was limitless.

Roaming the streets at night in disguise, he would stab victims at random

and throw them into the sewers.

Darius wants to explore how much of Nero's reputation is true,

and if it is connected to the fate of the Domus Aurea.

A few feet into the complex he spots a first clue:

an un-excavated room.

DR. ARYA: This room is filled with debris, it's filled with fragments of brick,

pottery fragments of tuff.

This is all building material.

I see some decoration,

little bits and pieces of marble here and there, and porphyry.

But this is an intentional fill.

This is a massive project to fill in this entire space in a very orderly fashion.

NARRATOR: It is clear evidence someone deliberately buried the Domus Aurea.

DR. ARYA: Wow, look at this.

NARRATOR: Strange shapes on the floor in one of the rooms could shed some more light.

DR. ARYA: You can see a pattern in the cement

and literally it's showing you where there were panels of cut marble

that made a decorative pattern.

They've been removed.

So all we have just the imprint of what they once were

and how beautifully this floor would have been.

NARRATOR: Decorative marble was an unmistakable mark of luxury in the Roman world.

DR. ARYA: We can still see that you have this beautiful ceiling

with all kinds of decorative features and shapes,

elements framing them with the stucco work.

And there are traces of gilding in the ceiling.

NARRATOR: Darius can still make out remains of unimaginable splendor.

It's clear that when Nero built the Domus Aurea he spared no expense.

Rooms were decorated with brilliant marble walls

and frescoes to impress his guests.

Ancient sources describe Nero's hunger for opulence:

they say he owned a golden fishing net;

a golden box in which he kept deadly poisons.

Even his chamber pot was made of gold.

He plundered the gold for his palace from all the corners of his vast empire.

DR. ARYA: It was a place for entertainment and leisure more than anything else.

This is not here the residence of the emperor.

This is a place for accommodating guests and putting on a great show.

NARRATOR: The clues suggest that Nero's taste for luxury might be a factor

in the fate of his Golden House.

In Tivoli, just outside Rome, at the Villa Adriana.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists Benedetta Adembri and Marco Fabbri

are excavating the palace of the Emperor Hadrian

who came just 49 years after Nero.

NARRATOR: Discoveries here may help reveal

if Nero's Domus Aurea was uniquely extravagant,

or if other Emperors indulged in similar extreme luxury.

Today the team is investigating an intriguing room

inside Hadrian's gymnasium.

NARRATOR: It was re-used in later times, and new floors were added.

Benedetta and Marco have discovered a void below them.

It's possible that a forgotten part of the original room

might be hidden beneath.

NARRATOR: But they can't just break up the floor without knowing what lies beneath.

It could cave in, risking their safety, and damage to ancient remains.

NARRATOR: The team lowers a camera down into the hole to inspect the void.

It reveals the walls continue below the floor,

but almost the entire space is filled with rubble.

NARRATOR: Now Marco can break up the floor.

The challenge is to remove the right tiles.

One mistake and the floor could collapse over the void.

NARRATOR: Now Marco can see the walls below.

But it's hard to make out any details.

NARRATOR: Marco decides to venture into the cavity.

(foreign dialogue)

Even with 40 years of experience,

this is one of most challenging excavations in his career.

NARRATOR: On the Palatine, one of Rome's seven hills,

archaeologist Maria Teresa D'Alessio is investigating an intriguing site.

NARRATOR: A structure contemporary to Nero's Domus Aurea.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We are in front of the Arch of Constantine

and the square of the Colosseum.

It's one of the most wonderful places in Rome for an archaeologist,

but it's also a little scary. A big responsibility.

NARRATOR: The site is less than 500 yards

from the buried remains of Nero's Golden House.

Maria Teresa believes they could be connected.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: Probably they were in the project of the structures related

to the Domus Aurea.

We know this from the orientation of the structure, from the building techniques.

NARRATOR: This structure was originally just beyond

the boundary of Nero's Golden House.

It shows just how vast the whole palace was.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: The Domus Aurea occupied a very big part of the city.

NARRATOR: Ancient writers describe 300 rooms, lavishly decorated with gold,

gems and mother-of-pearl.

The palace grounds spread between Rome's Oppian Hill

and Palatine Hill covering an area more than 20 times larger than the Colosseum.

In the middle Nero built a private lake for boating.

Around the palace he grew lavish gardens, vineyards, and forests.

And at the entrance, he placed a colossal

120 foot tall bronze statue of himself.

The Domus Aurea was a gigantic construction.

Maria Teresa's team is on a mission to unearth the structures here.

They could shed new light on who destroyed the Domus Aurea, and why.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We started from the high part of the level

and we, nothing were visible before we worked here

and now we are going down through times, through the history.

It's like assembling a puzzle.

NARRATOR: Maria Teresa is checking the team's progress

when one of her excavators discovers what could be a clue.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: 110 miles south, at Baiae.

NARRATOR: A team of underwater archaeologists is investigating

an extraordinary Roman city.

Seismic activity in the 4th century AD plunged Baiae into the sea.

300 years earlier, in Nero's time, it was a fashionable seaside resort,

famed for its thermal springs and bath houses.

Vast villas and estates filled the coastline, only to slip into the sea.

DR. DAVIDDE: We have around 177 hectares of Roman rooms underwater.

NARRATOR: Barbara Davidde spearheads the project to map and restore

the sunken villas that belonged to Nero,

his family, and Rome's political elite.

Barbara and her dive team head out on the boat,

to where the ruins of an imperial property are submerged.

DR. DAVIDDE: It's always exciting to start an activity underwater.

NARRATOR: Some 16 feet below the surface, beautiful statues come into view,

grouped around a long room.

DR. DAVIDDE: We can see first the mother of Claudius, of the Emperor Claudius,

as Venus and the statues of probably one of the daughter of Claudius,

or one of the daughter of the imperial family.

NARRATOR: The statues depict members of Nero's family:

the first imperial dynasty to rule Rome.

They're evidence of the presence of the emperor here,

and show how important Baiae was for his whole ruling family.

Nero's ancestor Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC,

sparking a civil war that ended the Republic,

and led to a long line of emperors.

First was Caesar's great nephew, Augustus, who ruled for 40 peaceful years

and was declared a god after he died.

Tiberius came next in 14 AD.

He conquered parts of Germany, but was a reclusive emperor back home.

His successor Caligula was known for his cruelty.

He enjoyed watching tortures during his feasts.

His uncle Claudius followed in 41 AD.

He started the conquest of Britain, and named Nero as his successor.

The Julio-Claudian family made Baiae their seaside home

and built an opulent villa at this spot.

NARRATOR: The Villa was passed down through the generations to Nero.

Ancient writers said he hosted incredible feasts here.

Barbara wants to preserve the site,

and detail all the ruins before the sea claims them.

DR. DAVIDDE: Underwater is a harsh environment.

So archaeological remains are at risk.

It's a big fight against the marine organisms and against the waves,

the change of the sea level and so on.

NARRATOR: South west of Nero's villa, the divers spot something on the seafloor.

As they brush away the silt, an incredible mosaic emerges.

NARRATOR: In Tivoli, just outside Rome.

NARRATOR: Marco descends into the underground chamber.

He hopes to find a lost part of Hadrian's villa below the new floor.

It could help reveal if other emperors' palaces were as luxurious

as Nero's Golden House.

NARRATOR: It looks like an entire room that was carelessly back-filled

when the new floor was built.

Suddenly, mixed in with the rubble, Marco spots pieces of painted plaster.

NARRATOR: Back above ground, Marco and his colleague Benedetta

analyze the frescoes.

NARRATOR: The incredible fresco fragments probably date to Hadrian,

and the back-filled room forms a long lost part of his vast palace.

NARRATOR: Now Marco and the team want to excavate the entire space.

They will have to be extremely careful.

The evidence so far suggests that there will be masses of ancient relics

mixed in with the rubble.

At the sunken city of Baiae, in the bay of Naples,

Barbara's divers investigate the mosaic they found on the sea floor.

The strong current has lifted many of its delicate pieces.

The divers carefully identify missing tesserae among the sand.

Then they use special underwater mortar to reconstruct the 2000 year

old mosaic: a black and white fish made from pure marble pieces.

It was likely the floor of a lavish villa belonging to one of the political elite.

NARRATOR: On the boat, Barbara analyses a larger piece of marble

recovered from the sea floor.

DR. DAVIDDE: We have marble from Africa, from Asia, from Greece, and also from Italy.

These structures was decorated with the luxury marble

coming from all the Roman world.

NARRATOR: Discoveries like these reveal the lavish lifestyle of Baiae's rich.

In the 1st century AD, this spa haven was renowned

for overindulgence and debauchery.

It was Rome's sin city, and Nero's favorite playground.

DR. DAVIDDE: He loved Baiae.

That's why when they decided to build the Domus Aurea in Rome

he had the inspiration of the landscape of Baiae.

NARRATOR: When Nero built his Golden House with a massive artificial lake,

he brought Baiae and its excesses to Rome for all to witness.

Nero's notoriety and the downfall of his Domus Aurea may have begun at Baiae.

The underwater team continues their investigation east-wards.

Soon a massive structure comes into view,

with columned walls nearly 330 feet long and 200 feet wide,

right next to Nero's villa.

NARRATOR: In Tivoli, Marco and his team painstakingly remove the rubble

from the underground room at Hadrian's villa.

He identifies a structure emerging from the debris.

NARRATOR: As they remove the rubble, the features of the ancient room come into view.

NARRATOR: It's not long until more fragments of the precious frescoes emerge.

NARRATOR: Digging deeper Marco uncovers more and more fragments,

incredibly preserved.

NARRATOR: The team continues to pull up precious fragments from the room.

NARRATOR: Only a few traces of wall paintings

have ever been recovered from Hadrian's villa.

But here, sealed under the floor,

they have remained hidden from the elements and the eyes of robbers,

giving Marco a unique insight.

NARRATOR: The hidden room shows Hadrian too

lived in an elaborately decorated palace.

So the opulence of Nero's Domus Aurea can't be the only reason it was buried.

NARRATOR: Darius has also come to Tivoli

and the Villa Adriana to look for more clues.

There could be more to be found.

Not from underground, but from above.

He sends up a high-definition drone

to see the size of the Villa Adriana.

DR. ARYA: Really getting a grand view of the entire complex here.

This is just gorgeous!

There's a maritime theatre over there, the so-called Greek and Latin libraries.

The hospitalia all the way over to basically the core of the Imperial residence.

So there's just so much.

All just popping out amidst, you know, over 200 acres.

NARRATOR: Darius continues his investigation on foot.

DR. ARYA: I'm underneath now an entirely manmade construction.

What we have here are cells, one after the other, always the same.

This was what we'd call the slave corridor, the slave rooms.

NARRATOR: Inside the cells, Darius spots a curious feature.

DR. ARYA: There are brackets inserted on the walls for a wooden floor,

so actually it was subdivided into mini floors, little mezzanine floors.

So we know they're packing in as many people as possible.

And in fact, it's known as the Cento Camerelle,

the hundred rooms for thousands of slaves that must have worked here,

that lived here, that slept here, making the villa work.

NARRATOR: With its over 200 acres and thousands of enslaved people,

the Villa Adriana was as lavishly decorated as Nero's Domus Aurea,

and twice as big.

DR. ARYA: It is expansive and it is massive,

bigger than most cities in the Roman world,

but it's outside the city of Rome.

And if we take a look at the Domus Aurea,

you're taking this kind of concept of Hadrian's Villa

but you're putting it into the city.

NARRATOR: The location of the Domus Aurea could explain why it's now buried

with Nero's reputation rotting with it.

Nero built his palace in the center of Rome,

claiming a huge area of prime real estate

and flaunting his luxurious lifestyle for every Roman to see.

DR. ARYA: This was just something that had never been seen before,

and it was really something over the top.

NARRATOR: In central Rome, near the edge of the Domus Aurea,

Maria Teresa is examining the strange find made by one of her team.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: And this is the left over material from the production of something,

probably metal because it's very heavy.

NARRATOR: The discovery comes from a layer just above Nero's building here,

dating to the time after the destruction of the palace.

It is evidence of a change in the way the area was used after Nero.

In Nero's day the Palatine was where the rich and powerful lived.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: On the top of the Palatine

there was the houses of emperors because Romulus,

the founder, was the first one who lived on the top of the hill.

And that's why Augustus and other emperors wanted to live there.

NARRATOR: This area in the vibrant heart of Rome was in demand and changed use

repeatedly over the centuries.

In the dig headquarters, Maria Teresa studies excavation records,

to explore how Nero managed to build his 125 acre palace complex

on this coveted land.

She examines a curious layer discovered below his building.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We can see these beautiful stairway, marble stairs,

with black traces on the walls, and also pottery with ashes.

NARRATOR: The traces of black charring and ashes point to one thing:

a ferocious fire.

In 64 AD, ten years into Nero's reign,

a fire started near a chariot racing arena,

and raged across the city for six days.

Ancient writers claimed emperor Nero callously played his lyre

as he watched the event unfold.

Cramped streets helped the inferno spread, destroying over half the city,

and clearing enough space for Nero to build his Domus Aurea.

Nero accused Christians of starting the fire, and gruesomely executed them,

allegedly burning some as torches at his garden parties.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We know that slope of the Palatine burned with the other structures

within the fire of 64 and then was the new construction of the Domus Aurea.

NARRATOR: Some ancient historians claimed Nero had started

and spread the fire deliberately.

Modern investigations have since cast doubt on his guilt.

Rome was a cramped tinderbox ready to ignite with any careless spark

from countless open fires.

Nero even opened public buildings and his own estates as shelters,

and housed those made homeless.

But the rumors of his involvement were fanned

by Nero's enemies in the immediate aftermath,

incensed by excess spending and taxation,

and now outraged by the building of the Domus Aurea.

Nero and his palace were now in peril.

NARRATOR: In the bay of Naples, at the sunken city of Baiae,

Barbara and her team are continuing their investigation

of the structure next to Nero's palace.

It's a massive villa.

On board the dive boat, she analyses an inscribed lead pipe

previously recovered from the complex.

DR. DAVIDDE: This object is very important for us because thanks to this object,

we can know the name of the owners of this very important villa.

NARRATOR: The inscription on the pipe reads L Pisonis.

DR. DAVIDDE: The Pisoni family was a very important family

during the reign of Nero.

NARRATOR: Gaius Calpurnius Piso was a high-ranking senator,

one of Rome's richest and most powerful men.

From his villa at Baiae he watched Nero's excesses for 11 years,

until the building of the Domus Aurea on the scorched ruins of Rome

drove him into action.

One year after the fire, Piso organized a plot to kill Nero at Baiae.

One of the conspirators instructed a former servant to sharpen a knife

for the assassination,

but the suspicious man reported his former master to Nero's secretary,

foiling the plot and revealing the 41 conspirators.

A vengeful Nero ordered Piso to commit suicide, a noble death in Roman eyes.

The others were executed, or forced into exile.

DR. DAVIDDE: Nero, discovered them, kill them

and took all the properties of the Pisoni family.

NARRATOR: Barbara's investigation at Baiae helps show

how Nero lost favor with the political elite

who despised his indulgent palace.

He escaped Piso's plot but it marked the beginning of the end for Nero,

his reputation, and his extravagant Domus Aurea.

In central Rome, on the Palatine Hill,

Maria Teresa has found more clues that could shed light

on the ultimate fate of the emperor's hated building.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We are quite sure that there is a basin

because we have waterproof mortar

inside the basin and we have lots of scrap materials like metals and glasses.

So it's probably functioned for the production of these materials.

NARRATOR: Finding the scrap metal and basin suggests an industrial use

for the area, probably a metal working shop.

It's a huge change for a site once next to an imperial palace.

In a different part of the site, the team make another discovery.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: We have found these incredible stairways

that was built later during the imperial age.

We have different levels inside the building,

the bottom level and another floor upstairs.

And it connects the lower part of this square

and this street with the upper level of the Palatine probably.

We are the first archaeologists who found these stairways.

So we are very excited about this.

NARRATOR: Maria Teresa recognizes this type of construction.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: Something similar was excavated near here

in another part of the Palatine.

And it was like a great market built under Hadrian.

NARRATOR: A change in use of this space, from an imperial building to a public market

could be an important clue to the demise of the Domus Aurea.

PROF. D'ALESSIO: It is very interesting that it could be an old market because

Nero wants all this area for himself, for his private, own palace.

Later emperors destroyed this project of Nero's

and they built other structures here, probably with a public function,

just to give the Roman citizens what Nero took for himself.

NARRATOR: Maria Teresa's work helps prove the Domus Aurea was deliberately buried

by later Emperors.

Her search for more evidence continues.

Inside the underground remains of the Domus Aurea.

Maria is checking on the progress the conservation team is making.

NARRATOR: After days of painstaking work,

they have managed to recover delicate paintings

of human figures and ornate columns.

The team still has a lot of work ahead of them.

In the humid microclimate inside the Domus Aurea,

the fight against its deterioration will continue.

But the team's efforts have been successful so far,

bringing new sections of Nero's buried palace

back into view for the first time in 2000 years.

NARRATOR: Darius's investigation into Nero's notoriety

and the fate of the Domus Aurea finally brings him

to Rome's most famous landmark: the Colosseum.

He spots a clue abandoned, in a corner of the Colosseum square.

DR. ARYA: So over here you have an inscription, it's a modern inscription,

and it says that this outline here is for the base

of where the colossal Statue of Nero once stood.

NARRATOR: This colossal 125 feet tall statue originally stood at the entrance

of the Domus Aurea, but was moved to this new location after Nero's death.

According to ancient writers, by 68 AD,

Nero was so reviled his Praetorian Guard deserted him.

Fearing for his life, he fled Rome with just four attendants

to take refuge in a suburban villa.

The senate declared Nero a public enemy, and sentenced him to be beaten to death.

When guards finally came to arrest him,

Nero begged his private secretary, Epaphroditus,

to help him commit suicide.

Nero was dead but his Domus Aurea remained.

Darius finds more traces of the old palace around the Colosseum.

DR. ARYA: So we have right here a bunch of shaved down walls,

and we can tell this is Neronian by the building typology,

by the kind of bricks.

Here these truncated walls were part of pavilion spaces

that then lined the lake that was part of the Domus Aurea complex.

NARRATOR: Shortly after Nero's death the new Emperor, Vespasian,

ordered the lake to be drained.

He wanted to make way for a new construction:

the Colosseum.

DR. ARYA: That's a bold political statement.

It's a powerful political message.

Placing that very public amphitheater in a place that had previously been occupied

by this exaggerated residential complex of Nero, the Domus Aurea.

NARRATOR: Vespasian and successive Roman Emperors were careful not to flaunt

their spectacular wealth.

Building by building they buried Nero's Golden House,

and gave central Rome back to the Roman people.

The magnificent palace was buried,

leaving its golden rooms and precious frescoes to rot,

alongside Nero's reputation.

DR. ARYA: It's really hard nowadays to rehabilitate the character

and the reign of Nero.

He did obviously bear the brunt of people's anger

and displeasure when he created his massive Domus Aurea.

He ends up dying alone.

Doesn't have much of a great legacy.

NARRATOR: Though there is some evidence Nero was popular

with the common people of Rome,

his reputation was forged by historians writing

in the reign of his immediate successors.

They may have tried to curry their favor with negative depictions of him.

DR. ARYA: I almost feel sorry for Nero. Almost.

Ultimately, I think the history books do judge him fairly,

because his way of running the government

and so forth weren't really taking Rome in the direction of stability

and continued success.

But we're still kind of enamored with this larger than life persona.

NARRATOR: This season, our archaeologists have unearthed new evidence

about Rome's most notorious emperor,

and the fate of his infamous palace.

Their combined downfall was due to Nero's taste for immeasurable luxury,

the sheer scale of his golden palace,

and his land grab of the smoldering ruins of burned down Rome.

Their work will continue, and their discoveries will shed more light

on Rome's most reviled emperor.

NARRATOR: In the shadow of Hadrian's Wall in the north of Britain archaeologists

are digging through the ruined rubble of a massive Roman mystery.

FRANK: This building, was it built for something special?

Totally unexpected. Really excited.

NARRATOR: They're uncovering buried ancient treasures

that haven't seen the light of day for nearly 2,000 years.

FRANK: Is that an edge?

Because if it's not wall, what is it?

This is just bizarre, isn't it?

NARRATOR: Unlocking the secrets of a forgotten world on Rome's wildest

and most northern frontier.

MALE: Dog's came along and placed its paw on there.

It's absolutely amazing. That's phenomenal.

That's, that's just a moment in time.

NARRATOR: Hadrian's Wall, the biggest structure the Romans ever built.

Constructed in 122 AD it defined the most northern edge of the greatest empire

the world had ever seen.

This was the final frontier where Rome's Empire ended

and barbarian territory began.

ROB: Hadrian's Wall is fascinating.

When you look at a Roman frontier it's not just about big walls creating a border.

It's actually about a dynamic culture, dynamic landscape.

NARRATOR: Over a thousand miles away in Rome,

spectacular monuments are lasting testament to the glory

of this ancient civilization.

But now, teams of archaeologists are investigating the margins

of Rome's mighty empire to unlock the secrets of their most distant outposts.

ANDREW: The majority of information is yet to come

and that's extremely exciting.

NARRATOR: They're on a mission to find out how the Romans maintained

their far flung borders and discovered what life was like for those

at the very wildest edges of the empire.

ANDREAS: Just by getting their remains you really can get in touch with the people

which were living thousands of years ago.

It's like diving into history and it's really great.

NARRATOR: On a search for answers, archaeologist Andrew Birley has enlisted

an army of volunteers to excavate a massive frontier fort.

Known as Vindolanda it lies just one mile south of Hadrian's Wall.

ANDREW: Oh hang on a second.

PAUL: There we go. ANDREW: Very crumbly.

What you've got there is probably a little silver denarius, a Roman coin.

That's going to be really helpful to date the fill

that you're working in right now.

NARRATOR: Andrew is leading the excavation and has lived and breathed

this incredible site for his entire life.

ANDREW: I'm the third generation of archaeologists

on this site and my family's been involved

with Vindolanda, one way or another, since 1929.

NARRATOR: Through nearly 100 years of digging this fort,

Andrew and his ancestors have made it their mission

to pick this site apart stone by stone.

ANDREW: When you look at stones like this around about me,

they look like dusty old Roman ruins.

But you've got to remember they're populated and built and inhabited by real people.

NARRATOR: Vindolanda Fort is the perfect place

to unlock the secrets of life in this wild frontier.

It was built by Roman soldiers sent to conquer this region

50 years before Hadrian's Wall.

As the Romans drove north across Britain following their invasion,

they'd face battles every step of the way.

In 60 AD a southern tribal leader, Boudica, rebelled against the Roman invasion.

She burnt down their cities but finally the Roman army prevailed.

Further north, another fierce female leader, Cartimandua,

also resisted but eventually surrendered,

handing over rebels in exchange for wealth and protection.

But the tribes furthest north would not yield to the invaders.

They constantly raided Roman camps and posed a terrifying threat.

The Romans needed a solution to the problem.

Vindolanda, a huge power base was the Roman's attempt to quell the barbarian north.

It was garrison for over 300 years until the end of the Roman Empire.

ANDREW: Vindolanda is an incredible time capsule preserved in this landscape.

It was the home of thousands and thousands of people.

An excavation like this can give us a lot more detail

about how those people lived their lives

and it's an opportunity that we just can't miss.

N ARRATOR: Every stone they lift may reveal another clue

to the story of those people who lived on this frontier.

Andrew and his team of volunteers are now focused

on the southwest corner of the site.

ANDREW: Right, let's just lift that out

and see if there's anything surviving in that mud. It may or may not.

I think what you've got there is the copper alloy disease,

the bronze disease and the artifact

has basically rotted its way into the soil.

That's so frustrating. So, you've got a tiny little bit of a broach

and the rest of it's gone. But it's a good start.

I'll go and get a bag for that.

NARRATOR: Under Andrew's watchful eye the volunteers

are beginning to reveal floors and walls across the site.

ANDREW: Can I just have a little peek over here.

I don't know, that just sort of. FEMALE: Tinny.

ANDREW: Tinny sound, yeah. I think you're very close to it there.

That's really tight. That's as good as a surface

you were working on over there.

NARRATOR: The emerging walls are evidence of substantial buildings.

ANDREW: That's a beast isn't it?

NARRATOR: More and more walls begin to appear.

ANDREW: Because that wall definitely goes underneath where your hand shovel is.

And you've got no sign of the wall where you're kneeling have you? No.

Pop those out and see if you've got an edge of a corner.

NARRATOR: This looks like a complete maze of overlapping walls,

but to Andrew's expert eye it reveals different layers of occupation.

ANDREW: We're dealing with hundreds of years of people living on this site.

Building after building popped on top of one another.

New demolition, new construction.

NARRATOR: The evidence of Vindolanda suggests that throughout their occupation

of this frontier, even before Hadrian's Wall was built,

the Roman's constantly had to react and adapt to new challenges.

The massive scale of one building is especially intriguing.

ANDREW: Where I'm standing, I'm in quite an exciting space.

I'm inside an Army Barrack in one of the rooms and all of this rubble

is the collapsed walls fallen inside the rooms.

NARRATOR: The presence of cavalry shows the strength

of the forces stationed here.

The Roman army was made up of legions of foot soldiers.

But its cavalry regiments were its most powerful fighting force.

The most elite horsemen were highly trained soldiers called the alae.

Posted to Britain's frontier, it's clear that Rome had deployed

its toughest troops against the northern tribes.

Some of the best riders from across the whole empire were selected

to join this elite unit.

With a daily range of up to 50 miles, they could offer rapid response

wherever and whenever a threat arose in Rome's wild frontiers.

Andrew's excavations at Vindolanda reveal the true level of military force

that the Roman's needed to gain and then maintain its most northern frontier.

ROB: Roman frontiers are some of the most exciting spaces in history.

It's a contact zone where anything can happen.

NARRATOR: Originally from New York State,

archaeologist Rob Collins has made Rome's northern frontier

his home and his passion for the last 20 years.

Rob is now investigating the terrain around Vindolanda for more evidence

of how the Romans protected themselves at the edge of empire.

ROB: Looking at this groove through the ground, this is not natural.

This is man-made. There's a real stark

V shape cut to it, and it runs east and west.

NARRATOR: This ditch stretches into the distance

and runs in exactly the same direction as Hadrian's Wall.

Its V shape suggests it's military and there are other signs it could be defensive.

ROB: This is incredible.

You can see these lumps and bumps,

turfs of cut grass that have been taken from the surrounding landscape,

that have been stacked up and actually build a nice big mound behind that ditch.

NARRATOR: The mound is evidence that this was once a massive turf wall.

ROB: The fact that they chose to build here in turf might suggest

that there was a need for speed for the Romans.

Everything they need to build the turf wall is right here in the local landscape.

NARRATOR: This was a quick-fix solution to create a border defense.

The mighty forces at Vindolanda fort

were clearly not enough to hold back the enemy.

ROB: This is a danger zone.

There is warfare, there is raiding.

The Romans are in an active landscape that they are securing.

NARRATOR: This turf wall and ditch were a crucial step

in the Romans' struggle to gain this frontier.

It was the start of the greatest construction project in Roman history.

The Romans built Hadrian's Wall after 40 years of intense hostility.

It was 73 miles long, up to 15 feet high and 10 feet thick.

It was heavily guarded with small forts at regular intervals

and watch towers in between manned by soldiers day and night.

Running parallel to the wall along its north side, they dug a defensive ditch.

And on the south side strategically placed

garrisons held hundreds of soldiers.

It's clear that this wild territory was so dangerous it could only be won

with a massive war and a huge military presence.

It would take some 15,000 men six years to build.

Nearly 2,000 years later its survival is testament

to the quality of their workmanship.

Rob heads along the wall scrutinizing every inch of its surface.

ROB: This is a fairly normal facing stone for Hadrian's Wall.

But what the soldier that carved the stone also did

was carve this phallus in relief.

It's fascinating.

In the Roman period, the phallus is a symbol

which is used for good luck, for protection.

It's the sort of thing that can ward off the evil eye.

And so, the inclusion of a phallic symbol is a way

to activate that sense of protection.

NARRATOR: It's a rare glimpse into the Roman mind set

and a very human reminder of the fear felt by the soldiers

as they built the wall and tried to conquer this wild frontier.

460 miles away in Kalkriese in Germany on another of Rome's remote frontiers.

NARRATOR: A team of archaeologists is also hunting for clues

to life on the front line.

The Romans marched through this wilderness intent on conquest.

Archaeologist Stefan Burmeister is on a quest

to find out exactly what happened.

STEFAN: We want to find out what we actually have on this site.

Could it have been a Roman camp site?

And we hope to find out this summer.

NARRATOR: This site covers around 60 acres

and finding a camp is like finding a needle in a haystack.

MALE: Nothing (Laughs).

STEFAN: The problem of identifying a Roman campsite is

that it just is a very short event in time.

Just installation for one night perhaps.

It's not a very strong installation.

Just very quickly built and not really big, firm walls.

And this is difficult to detect after about 2,000 years.

NARRATOR: Centuries of forest growth makes uncovering

a lost marching camp a huge challenge.

But scanning the ground, it's clear that clues are still buried

within the soil and the team is determined to uncover them.

NARRATOR: In the forests of northern Germany.

ASTON: It's a metal object.

NARRATOR: The team of archaeologists is beginning to find

what they hope might be the first tantalizing clues of a lost Roman camp.

STEFAN: We have here this brownish soil going down here in this V shaped bottom

and fits very well into the idea of a Roman campsite.

NARRATOR: The V shaped ditch is a fast and effective defense.

Marking it out with poles, Stefan and his team have followed

the line of the ditch and it seems to surround the area where they are digging.

They believe it's strong evidence of a marching camp.

In their on-site lab, they analyze hundreds more small metal fragments

discovered in the soil.

REBEKKA: There are a lot of bronze fittings,

little attachments like copper alloy buckles.

It's a little bit like a big puzzle.

We have at least 300 fragments that we need to put together.

NARRATOR: Conservator Rebekka Kuiter painstakingly cleans

every single fragment by hand.

REBEKKA: I'm just selectively under the microscope

cleaning bit by bit.

That's quite time consuming but it's necessary to not damage

the objects any further.

NARRATOR: As Rebekka removes 2,000 years of dirt and corrosion,

the fragments begin to reveal their secrets.

REBEKKA: We have a breast plate here and it has some small decorations

like a decorative washer, which is worked into a decorative shape.

This is the oldest plate armor that is found in such a complete fashion.

NARRATOR: The breast plate is an incredibly rare find.

Once Rebekka has cleaned the armor up, it promises an equally rare glimpse

into the life and death of a soldier on Rome's wild frontiers.

Just one mile south of Hadrian's Wall, at Vindolanda fort.

ANDREW: That's similar if not the same.

Yeah, I think it's the same vessel, I think you're right.

Oh you've got a good sort of mix of stuff coming through.

NARRATOR: Andrew and his team continue to strip away the rubble,

searching for valuable clues about the life of Romans who established themselves

on Britain's wild frontier.

ANDREW: Can I just give you that, there we go. Good stuff.

FEMALE: How sweet. ANDREW: It's a good start.

Right, we'll get that logged in Amy. Thank you very much.

NARRATOR: Marta Alberti is second in command of the dig.

MARTA: One of our volunteers has just found this really nice kitchen knife.

It's quite exciting. It's in really lovely condition.

It's really nice to go back in time

and think about everyday life of these people

and how they sat down to have their dinner or, you know, lie down as Romans do.

NARRATOR: Soon another surprising find reveals more of every day Roman life

on this frontier.

MARTA: Gorgeous example.

This is a lovely neck of a bottle.

You can see the rim right there.

The body would have perhaps been globular or kind of a slight pear shape

and this could have been used for either pouring

very fancy drinks or, more likely, as a kind of container of perfumes

and other beauty products. Happy times.

NARRATOR: It's an intriguing find.

Perfume was worn by men and women, but probably not by soldiers

while battling to defend the border.

The team hunts for further evidence that could reveal

why such a luxury item was left here in the frontline fort.

Back at the Kalkriese dig site, the team is carefully

excavating a new find in their Roman marching camp.

MARC: We found here parts of an animal.

We can see these tooth and they looked like horse.

Out of this context and the rest of the photographic profiles

I can say it's 90 percent Roman.

NARRATOR: This jaw bone is evidence of an animal that could have carried supplies,

or even a cavalry officer.

With a dead horse buried here and Roman armor lying not far away,

the story of this marching camp is becoming increasingly intriguing.

Stefan joins Rebekka in the lab to analyze the armor in more detail.

REBEKKA: And this one is very bent.

STEFAN: Any idea why it's so sharply bent?

REBEKKA: This one is the one which is bent like down.

STEFAN: So, it must have been a blow or something like that?

REBEKKA: Yeah.

NARRATOR: The wearer of this armor had clearly been in battle

and recent chemical analysis reveals another more sinister clue to his fate.

STEFAN: We had some phosphate analysis and they clearly give us the evidence

that there must have been a body inside.

NARRATOR: The forest soil is acidic.

So, over 2,000 years the flesh and skeleton rotted away

leaving only chemical traces.

It's proof that the soldier who wore this armor died in it

and was still wearing it when he was buried in the ground.

The team believes there is even more to this macabre story.

REBEKKA: Right next to the armor we also found a pair of handcuffs,

the one that shackles your hands and your neck.

And that's very interesting that we find it in direct neighborhood to the armor.

And we think that a soldier might have been shackled there.

STEFAN: This gives us the impression that we have here a shackled legionary

in his body armor and displayed by the victors.

NARRATOR: The shocking find suggests that a Roman soldier

in full battle armor was shackled, killed and left to rot in the ground.

It's not the image of the invincible Roman soldier that we are used to.

But it does align with ancient written accounts of a catastrophic event

that happened here 2,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: In nine AD a German chief and former Roman soldier, Arminius,

rose up against the Romans.

He spread a rumor of a revolt in the forested north

and tricked the Romans into sending three legions to suppress it.

Arminius knew the Roman legions needed open spaces to organize

into battle formation.

So, he lured them into the Teutoburg forest where they had to march single file.

Arminius' men attacked and massacred 20,000 Romans.

One of the biggest military disasters in Roman history.

STEFAN: If the Romans wouldn't have lost this battle here in Kalkriese

we could suggest that history would have taken a completely different course.

NARRATOR: Success or failure in Rome's frontiers was clearly key

to the empire's fortunes.

STEFAN: The Romans aimed to conquer the whole world.

After the battle, in the end they stopped their expansion over the next generations.

NARRATOR: The Romans were forced to retreat

and draw up their German borders further south.

NARRATOR: In Mogglingen in southern Germany,

a team of archaeologists is investigating another Roman frontier site,

over 200 miles south of the catastrophic defeat of Teutoburg,

this became the Romans new Germanic frontier.

NARRATOR: The dig is led by Andreas Schaflitzl.

ANDREAS: I'm most interested in the way the people are living here

far away from Rome.

The living, which is not mentioned in the text everybody learnt at school.

That's something which is really, really interesting to see and to get it.

Show me your rubbish and I can tell you who you are.

NARRATOR: The team is finding lots of Roman stone work beneath the fields.

It looks like a mass of buried rubble,

but for expert Andrea's one section has the very distinctive form

of a defensive ditch. Just like the one in Kalkriese.

ANDREAS: We have this typical V shape.

Let's look how deep it is.

So, we have 1 meter 40 and we are seeing erosion takes around half a meter.

So, we think we will have a ditch deep up to two meters in Roman times.

That's pretty impressive.

A two meters ditch is for fortification and defense.

So, it's very likely that it would be in some kind of military use.

NARRATOR: A 6 and a half foot ditch could be evidence

of a previously unknown Roman fort.

And a sign that the Romans had to put up heavy defenses

in the years following their catastrophic defeat.

Andreas heads into the surrounding forest to find out

how far the Roman frontier defenses stretched.

ANDREAS: Here these are stones between the roots.

Here is what we are searching for.

These are the stones are lying in one line.

It is the outside of the wall which directs here

next to this tree and comes under this pathway.

NARRATOR: To Andreas' expert eye,

a leafy covered bank is evidence of a buried ruined structure.

ANDREAS: Here on the slope we have overgrown section of a very good preserved

remains of the wall.

If we count the slopes here and the debris

and count them together how high we would get,

it was a wall, it was approximately three meters high.

NARRATOR: To investigate the true scale of the wall,

Andreas examines high tech digital surveys of the region.

ANDREAS: If you go up in the air

and using the LIDAR technique then you can scan the terrain.

Removing all the trees and then you will see

how this wall is straight going through the forest.

NARRATOR: It's clear that this once formed part of a massive frontier defense,

just like Hadrian's Wall in Britain.

Known as the Limes Germanicus the Romans built this massive border defense

in the century fallowing their defeat

at the Teutoburg Forest in nine AD.

It would eventually stretch 350 miles includes 60 forts and over 900 watch towers.

The Limes Germanicus suggests the beginnings of a new imperial policy.

The Romans realized that before they could expand their empire,

they first needed to consolidate and defend their borders.

100 years later, Hadrian's Wall became the ultimate symbol of this strategy.

Andreas and his team continue their dig to hunt for evidence

of what life was like after the Romans heavily defended this border.

South of the Romans' wall across Britain, at Vindolanda Fort.

PAUL: I think I've found a coin Marta.

NARRATOR: The finds keep on coming.

MARTA: Oh there you go. PAUL: Ah, you can actually see the silver on it,

can't you? MARTA: That's lovely.

He's got a beard.

Almost resembles Paul. PAUL: (Laughs) Thank you.

MARTA: Turn around, give me a profile.

PAUL: No, no, no, it's the Roman nose. MARTA: Perfect.

NARRATOR: The treasures the team is unearthing

at Vindolanda are not just military artifacts.

They suggest that this fort has a more complex story.

MARTA: We have the largest collection of leather objects

anywhere in the Roman Empire.

And that equates to 7,000 leather artifacts, of which 5,000 are shoes.

NARRATOR: Organic material like clothing normally decays

and is lost to the archaeological record.

But these items are incredibly well preserved.

MARTA: Things have been buried so far down

and covered with so much debris and so much clay

that oxygen from the outside world does not penetrate those deeper layers.

This means that objects made of leather survive really well.

NARRATOR: These objects offer fascinating insights

into the lives of the fort's inhabitants.

MARTA: This is a very elaborate gentleman shoe

and it's got lovely cut out leather uppers.

If we turn this shoe around we can see a pattern of hob nails.

Hob nails are very useful in muddy places like Vindolanda

because they allow for a better grip.

NARRATOR: This is an amazing glimpse of a shoe actually worn

by one of Rome's frontline soldiers.

But it's not the only type of footwear here.

MARTA: So, if we look at this shoe, it's much smaller.

And we think it's a lady's shoe.

If this is indeed a lady's shoe,

then we've got contemporary occupation of the fort

by both soldiers and women.

NARRATOR: And the collection reveals something even more extraordinary.

MARTA: We've got interesting evidence right here of children's shoes.

Very, very nicely decorated upper, some nice lattice work.

The reason why shoes are so exciting to me

is that they bring you really close to the wearer.

You can imagine a child running around in this rather sophisticated footwear.

Or maybe it's raining and you want to put on a more closed boot like this one.

NARRATOR: Finds like these help archaeologists piece together what life was like

for those living at the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire.

When Roman soldiers arrived here in about 85 AD,

they rapidly built a fort of earth and grassed turf.

Along the top they added a wooden parapet and watch towers.

Under constant threat from the locals they had to strengthen its defenses,

finally opting for a stone rampart.

This formed a defensive wall completely surrounding Vindolanda.

And the finds prove it wasn't just a massive fighting force stationed here.

The soldiers' families lived here too, in a settlement alongside the fort.

As Andrew and his team dig deeper, they discover more surprising evidence

about these communities.

ANDREW: This here is a semicircular curve coming through.

Probably for a wattle and daub building.

NARRATOR: The curved shape means that this is no ordinary Roman house.

ANDREW: So, we've got local architecture coming in here, which is fantastic to see.

But what on earth is it doing inside a Roman fort?

NARRATOR: In Mogglingen, southern Germany, Andreas

and his team are uncovering more evidence of the Romans

who lived by the Limes Germanicus, the massive border wall.

ANDREAS: You see here mortar on the stones.

NARRATOR: As more of the buried evidence is unearthed,

Andreas discovers some unusual stone work.

ANDREAS: Here we have a structure.

You can see here some stones which were standing upside.

It could be a foundation for a statue.

NARRATOR: Statue bases like this are not usually found in military forts.

So, Andreas now suspects this is evidence of a very different building here.

ANDREAS: With the other evidences we have found now,

it could be part of a sanctuary or of sacrifice space taking place here.

NARRATOR: Sanctuaries were built throughout the empire

for citizens to worship emperors and gods.

Finds like this add to our understanding of life at the fringes of empire.

They show these weren't just militarized zones.

Roman civilization and culture also took root

behind the protection of these border walls.

In Carlisle, on the western wing of Hadrian's Wall.

FRANK: Is that an edge? Because if it's not wall, what is it?

This is just bizarre isn't it?

NARRATOR: Archaeologist Frank Giecco is leading an excavation to discover

the extent of the Roman presence here.

FRANK: Oh, it's an incredible opportunity.

Carlisle has always had a strategic location.

It controls the crossing point between basically

present day England and Scotland.

It's always been a key place.

NARRATOR: Carlisle was once the site of the biggest fort on Hadrian's Wall.

But its Roman heritage is almost completely buried beneath the modern city.

FRANK: If we've seen two percent I'd be amazed.

Probably we've still got, you know, 98 percent of Roman Carlisle to find.

So, plenty more secrets I'm sure to be revealed on this site.

NARRATOR: After painstakingly removing the top soil,

the team is rewarded with some tantalizing glimpses of life 2,000 years ago.

FRANK: That's got to be a dog hasn't it?

That must be not quite set

and a dog has come along and placed its paw on there.

It is absolutely amazing.

NARRATOR: These clay tiles were made locally

and clearly left out in the open air to dry.

FRANK: I've just noticed this.

The prints of a deer that walked on it when it was laid out

to dry before it was fired.

So, that's a little moment in time captured forever.

NARRATOR: As the team excavates, it's finding lots of these clay tiles.

Many are neatly stacked in columns exactly as the Romans left them.

Frank thinks it's a sure fire indication of the structure they've discovered.

FRANK: These clay pillars would have supported the under floor heating

for the bath house complex.

So, we've got fragments of floor, the walls, the ceiling,

this just massive jumble of material.

But it's incredible for us archaeologists

because it's just a snapshot in time that it's preserved there.

NARRATOR: Communal bath houses were a staple of Roman life.

Grand examples survive in Rome and Pompeii.

Soldiers also enjoyed this luxury in smaller versions inside their forts.

But a bath house of this scale in a garrison town

on Britain's frontier is surprising.

FRANK: This building is probably four times

the size of a standard military bath house.

Was it built for something special?

Totally unexpected.

Really excited.

NARRATOR: As the team digs, a group of strangely shaped

objects are another unexpected discovery.

KEVIN: These formed a curved roof.

The way they worked is it has a small nozzle and that slots into there

and so you can adjust the angle of your curve on the roof.

So, these ceramic tubes are thought to have come over

from North Africa in the early third century.

And they were an African method of making a lightweight roof.

FRANK: Just an amazing bit of the site isn't it?

NARRATOR: The more the team digs, the more enticing this bath house becomes.

It is far bigger than expected in military territory

and there are African influences.

The team continues to hunt for more clues to find out what it can reveal

about Rome's wild frontier.

NARRATOR: At Vindolanda, Andrew and his team dig deeper

around the mysterious round shaped buildings

that they've uncovered in the Roman fort.

ANDREW: Okay. We've got a black stain curving around

in the soil here and it's circular,

so it's got to be a roundhouse.

You can just about make out the curve just beyond it there of a stone wall

coming through and that's the stone version of the timber version

we're looking at here where we've just got the stains.

NARRATOR: The two round houses are not expected in a Roman fort.

ANDREW: The Romans don't built round houses.

The native Britains do, but the Romans don't.

NARRATOR: As the team continues to dig across the site,

more evidence of these mysterious round houses emerges.

ANDREW: There's a curve there, isn't there? Oooo.

It's possible we have another circular hut coming through.

NARRATOR: The site is covered with a whole village of British round houses.

They seem to be contemporary with the fort.

Andrew and the team dig inside them to find out what's going on.

ANDREW: That is absolutely gorgeous. Beautifully made.

NARRATOR: And finally uncover a clue.

ANDREW: It just shows you the sort of preservation as part of the site.

Wow. What a lovely thing.

That's definitely Roman rather than British.

It's a sort of a traditional military style quern stone.

A really nice one.

NARRATOR: Quern stones are tools that the Romans used to grind cereals into flour.

It's startling evidence that Romans and conquered Britains were living side by side.

In Carlisle, 25 miles west along Hadrian's Wall,

archaeologists investigating the massive lost bath house

analyze their finds in the dig's lab.

REBEKKA: Yeah, I know that's nice isn't it. It's even got his head on.

This could be an antler.

It's like a little pick and mix.

FRANK: That's beautiful isn't it?

NARRATOR: They hope to find clues to why such an enormous bath house was built here.

They meticulously sieve and scrutinize every bucket of earth from the excavation

to make sure they don't miss any tiny treasures.

REBEKKA: It looks like two, yeah two halves of plenty.

FEMALE: Is it a figure though?

REBEKKA: Yeah, it is a figure. It's a person with a hat on.

NARRATOR: Objects like this small jewel probably

fell out of a ring or broach while its owner was bathing.

Its good evidence that this was not a military bath house

and its bathers were a little more genteel.

Frank and the team think that clues on the tiles

hold the key to why such a grand bath house was built here.

REBEKKA: So, we've got these the stamp I M P.

So, we've got the I, we've got the M and we've got the P for imperator.

NARRATOR: In ancient Latin imperator means Emperor.

These tiles have the Emperor's personal stamp.

FRANK: Just the word imperator.

It's not a legionary tile or an auxiliary tile.

This is the imperial court and that's, that's the thing

that makes this building, you know,

other than the size and where they've come from, this little stamp here it's.

FEMALE: It's what makes it so special.

REBEKKA: It makes it special.

NARRATOR: The inscription suggests this bath house

may have been an imperial building,

built as a personal gift to the city from an emperor.

It's an incredibly discovery and suggests that the emperor himself

was taking a keen interest in this frontier.

Frank believes further clues reveal the identity of this emperor.

FRANK: We've got the inscription that's likely to be his wife,

you know, Septimus Julia Domna.

NARRATOR: Julia Domna was the wife of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.

Suddenly, the presence of a massive bath house

with African tiles is beginning to make sense.

In the early third century, African born emperor Septimius Severus

came to Britain to rule the Roman empire from York.

He strengthened Hadrian's Wall and its forts and built granaries to supply campaigns

even further to the north.

The garrisons alongside the wall were transforming

from military bases to communities and villages.

And so the emperor constructed Carlisle's spectacular bath house

as a bold statement that this far flung frontier garrison

was now an established fully Roman town.

FRANK: By the third century, Carlisle isn't just a frontier garrison town.

It's not the Wild West.

It was part of the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: On Hadrian's Wall, Rob is heading to one of the 80 small forts

which the Romans built at regular intervals along its length.

He's on the hunt to understand more about the relationship

between the Romans and the locals.

Sitting directly on the wall, these installations

would have provided one of the first points of contact

between soldiers and barbarians.

ROB: These are very nicely prepared in cut stone blocks.

You can see how they, how they join together,

how they sit on top of each other very neatly.

You can see that here and, and also here on the other side,

which has been laid to create a gate.

NARRATOR: This gate was clearly the main entrance for the small platoon

of soldiers stationed here.

Venturing further towards the far side of the mile castle,

Rob spots something intriguing.

ROB: Now, these blocks are really interesting.

They're very large, they're heavy blocks.

These blocks are evidence of another gate.

NARRATOR: The position of this second gate is a surprise

because it forms a break in the wall.

ROB: What this tells us is not only that mile castles

could allow soldiers in from the south,

but also there's a gate which allowed access north into barbarian lands.

If there are 80-mile castles, if there are 80 gates through Hadrian's Wall

that can be found every mile along its length,

that raises questions about just how closed a barrier the wall is intended to be.

NARRATOR: This evidence suggests that the Romans didn't close off the frontier

completely and Hadrian's Wall wasn't an impervious barrier.

With fortified breaks in the wall, they could control

who was coming into their territory and also had easy access

points to expand their frontiers further.

At the dig site in Carlisle, Frank and the team have expanded

their excavation alongside the bath house

and are unearthing a curious structure.

They've uncovered a beautifully preserved cobble surface

which they believe is a Roman road.

FRANK: We're quite excited about this little stretch of road.

It's heading towards Hadrian's Wall and the mile castle.

NARRATOR: Soldiers stationed in the mile castles would have needed supplies

but this road side is producing a surprising wealth of finds.

FRANK: So, this is just some of the stuff we've found today from this area,

which is a really nice little assembly.

So, we've got animal bone, coarse pottery, fine pottery that's been imported

from France, nails from the timber buildings and bits of amphora from southern Spain.

So, this has just given us an idea of what was going on in this area.

So, basically people are preparing food, eating food.

So we've got cooking.

These are basically just fast food restaurants.

NARRATOR: The cosmopolitan finds reveal that diners here

could enjoy all the trappings of fine Roman living from around the empire.

This is more like a bustling high street than a military highway.

And with gateways in the mile castles, it's possible

that this road didn't just head to the wall, it went through it.

FRANK: This could have been quite a busy road

with people coming north and south beyond the wall.

Could they have been coming here just to have something to eat?

It would have been probably the first place south of Hadrian's Wall

where you could have got a glass of wine.

NARRATOR: This latest discovery shines new light on life on both sides

of Hadrian's Wall.

It is startling evidence that it changed dramatically

in the 300 years that the wall was in use.

These new investigations are transforming

our understanding of Hadrian's Wall

and life in Rome's wildest frontiers.

These territories were once so dangerous that they not only required

a huge military presence but monumental border walls to control them.

In the shadow of these mighty defenses, Rome began to tame the wilderness.

Families grew up alongside the soldiers garrisoned in their forts,

their civilization began to flourish with sumptuous bath houses and sanctuaries

and people from both sides of the wall may have enjoyed the luxuries of Roman life.

ROB: It would be very easy to dismiss frontiers as the edge of empire,

not something that's really important to an emperor sitting in Rome.

But actually, it's exactly the opposite.

Frontiers are about securing the peace of the Roman Empire.

Without the Roman frontiers,

we would not have the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: In Herculaneum, Italy, archaeologists make a shocking discovery.

At the edge of the ancient town, a skeleton emerges from the dirt.

FRANCESCO: We will study his DNA because we know that his DNA tell us something.

NARRATOR: It's the first new body discovered here in over 25 years.

This skeleton could provide tantalizing clues to this town's final moments

and the apocalyptic event that sealed its fate.

In 79 AD the Roman world experienced

one of the greatest catastrophes in known history:

the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

It devastated the surrounding towns and villages,

burying them beneath layers of volcanic pumice and ash.

Pompeii, on the volcano's southern slope, was destroyed

and is famous for its crushed homes and bodies frozen in time.

But nearby, on Vesuvius's western slope, lies a lesser-known town:

Herculaneum.

Buried four times deeper than Pompeii, it has survived in extraordinary condition.

Today, a team of archaeologists, geologists

and forensic anthropologists search for clues

to uncover what happened to Herculaneum and its thousands of residents.

To piece together the final deadly 24 hours of the eruption.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: There is something just so special about this site;

it's a little jewel.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill,

first visited this ancient town as a teenager.

He was so fascinated by it that he has spent most of his career working

to preserve the site and its treasures.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: We've only excavated something like a quarter

of the site of Herculaneum.

There is still stuff to excavate.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists have discovered some of the best preserved buildings

in the Roman world here.

Andrew searches the site, looking for evidence

of the ways in which Herculaneum's fate differed from Pompeii's.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: Isn't this place absolutely stunning?

Up above us, you can see that there's a second floor.

This is something you get in Herculaneum.

Pompeii is kind of decapitated by the eruption.

You've just got the ground floor, and now we can see, ah,

there's a whole life going on up above us, rooms above here and above there.

NARRATOR: Dozens of houses in Herculaneum

have beautifully preserved walls and upper floors.

And there's more.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: Over here, we've got what has to be a bedroom.

You know it's a bedroom because, for once, you've got a bed in it.

In Pompeii, you don't find beds; they disappeared, they were made of wood.

In Herculaneum the wood is preserved.

NARRATOR: Artifacts like this are exceptionally rare,

making this town an ancient treasure trove.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: Over here, we have this glorious wooden screen,

which enabled you then to close off this room.

Obviously, this is cased in glass and metal,

but in there is the original wood of the screen, stunningly preserved.

NARRATOR: The wooden bed and screen are blackened by the eruptions but, remarkably,

they are still intact.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: They probably had wooden screens in Pompeii too,

but pfft, gone.

Here were many wooden details that get preserved; beams, shutters, all sorts of stuff.

NARRATOR: At Pompeii, just over 8 miles away the eruption incinerated wooden objects.

This stark difference suggests that the volcanic eruption

hit Herculaneum in a very different way.

To uncover how these wooden objects have survived,

the team needs to continue their investigation of the town

and find out what happened on the day Vesuvius erupted.

14 miles west of Herculaneum, across the Bay of Naples,

Jasmine Elmer explores the location of the former Roman town of Misenum.

Jasmine wants to investigate two ancient letters written by someone

who claims to have witnessed the volcanic eruption of 79 AD from here.

JASMINE: It's such an amazing treat to have letters like this that survived.

We have so few eyewitness accounts from the ancient world,

let alone of something so catastrophic.

NARRATOR: These letters are just two of hundreds written by a Roman

known as Pliny the Younger.

JASMINE: In Pliny's letters, we have an account of what he calls a cladde,

a catastrophe, a disaster, that happens

and seeing what he calls an unusual cloud of size and appearance.

NARRATOR: The letters recount that 17-year-old Pliny was in Misenum

with his mother and his uncle, a Naval Commander,

also called Pliny, when they noticed a dark cloud to the east.

Pliny the Elder, a natural philosopher at heart,

climbed to higher ground to get a better view

of the peculiar phenomenon, and saw the cloud was arising from a mountain.

He ordered a light vessel from his fleet to be readied

for him to sail across the bay to take a closer look.

But, before he set sail, Pliny the Elder received a message from his friend,

Rectina, in distress near Mount Vesuvius, pleading for his help.

He turned his crossing into a rescue mission.

Pliny the Younger's letters, written in Latin,

were penned decades after the catastrophic eruption.

leading experts to question the accuracy of his account.

JASMINE: These letters were written to the Roman historian Tacitus,

about 25 years after the event.

Now, some people might say that makes them slightly unreliable

and how accurate is Pliny's memory of the events that occurred?

NARRATOR: Jasmine wants to investigate the letters to explore

how reliable Pliny's account of the eruption is.

If his story stands up to modern scrutiny,

it could help explain what happened to towns

like Herculaneum during the eruption.

Jasmine plans to follow in the footsteps of Pliny the Elder,

to see if it would have been possible to launch

a Naval rescue mission from these waters.

JASMINE: Here in the Latin, we see that Pliny the Elder goes "in periculum"

into the danger zone.

Where others are fleeing, he is going.

Now, is this true of what happened, or is Pliny

the Younger trying to embellish the bravery of his uncle?

NARRATOR: Today, the ruins of Herculaneum lie just inland,

but due to land movement and sea level changes over two millennia,

in 79 AD Herculaneum was right on the coast.

Several bodies have been discovered along the town's ancient beach.

At his lab at Chieti University, Luigi Capasso investigates the remains

of a skeleton previously excavated here.

NARRATOR: For more than two decades, Luigi has been working alongside

archaeologists to study the bones of people found here in Herculaneum.

He wants to unravel the stories of those who died in the eruption.

Their remains could help reveal what happened in this town's final hours.

LUIGI: Okay, this is the last, finished.

We have a near complete skeleton of a man, probably 40-45 age.

This skeleton show many traces of trauma that occurred before death.

For example, the left femur shows a previous injury that caused new bone formation.

We have the traces on the face.

This trauma is due to a violent impact with a very hard object.

NARRATOR: This evidence suggests the man lead a violent life.

Further clues uncovered alongside him shed more light on his story.

When the skeleton was excavated, archaeologists discovered a bag containing

a blade characteristic of an ancient Roman woodworking tool.

By his side, the remains of a sword with an ivory handle.

He carried 14 coins of silver and gold; a sign he was a wealthy man.

Next to his body, archaeologists discovered

the charred remains of an upturned boat.

Who was this man and what was he doing on the ancient beach that day?

Examining the skeleton, an intriguing piece of evidence catches Luigi's eye.

LUIGI: So, can be very interesting

to see the detail of this part under the microscope.

This very strange combination, a total co-penetration

between the metal to the bone.

NARRATOR: The microscope analysis reveals a piece of metal has fused

to the man's hip bone.

To try to understand how this happened, Luigi examines an image

of the objects found alongside the skeleton.

LUIGI: These two swords was found in connection with the body and probably

one of the piece of metal that is lost in this object, fused with the bone.

NARRATOR: Luigi believes the heat produced during

the volcanic eruption fused part of the sword to the man's hip.

This evidence offers Luigi a clue to the man's identity.

LUIGI: The archaeological evidence, such as the sword,

fit with the evidence of previous injuries

so we can conclude that this man was a soldier.

NARRATOR: The elaborate design of the sword, and an ornate belt,

suggest he wasn't a regular soldier.

He was likely a high-ranking Praetorian Guard.

The Praetorian Guard was an elite military unit that protected the Emperor.

Only the bravest Roman soldiers who had proved their worth in battle,

were chosen to join the unit.

They weren't just skilled fighters.

The Praetorian Guard included specialist soldiers,

such as naval engineers, known as the Faber Navalis.

They served for shorter terms than ordinary soldiers,

but were paid up to three and a half times their salaries.

There is no evidence of a military base at Herculaneum.

The closest was in Misenum across the bay.

This elite naval engineer may have been part of a rescue mission.

He could be evidence to support Pliny's account.

Analysis of the boat discovered next to him could yield more clues.

NARRATOR: East of Herculaneum, Volcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo

ascends the slope of the infamous volcano, Mount Vesuvius.

He's looking for evidence that could help shed light on the sequence

of volcanic events that took place during the 79 AD eruption.

GIUSEPPE: Okay now, I can see the hot spot.

NARRATOR: Mount Vesuvius lies just five miles from Herculaneum

and is still an active volcano.

Normally, visitors to this iconic spot can't go further than the outer rim.

But Giuseppe has studied Vesuvius for over 30 years

and has been granted permission to descend into the crater.

GIUSEPPE: This is a monitoring station used for monitoring the CO2

which is emitted from the ground.

NARRATOR: Monitoring stations are dotted around the crater.

They detect any sign the volcano is heating up.

GIUSEPPE: Beneath here, there is a very wide magma chamber,

and we must detect any change which can be a possible indicator.

NARRATOR: Giuseppe uses a digital thermometer to check today's surface temperature.

GIUSEPPE: Okay, it is relatively low.

Well, the temperature in this area is less than 30 degrees Celsius,

which is normal in this period.

There have been no change.

You are safe here, today.

NARRATOR: Safe to proceed with his investigation of the volcano,

Giuseppe continues along the crater's edge.

GIUSEPPE: In 79 AD, this area was completely different, so there was not this crater,

which has been formed in the last centuries.

But the eruption started from some place around here.

NARRATOR: During the eruption, some 12 million tons of volcanic ash

and rock was propelled into the atmosphere every minute.

GIUSEPPE: During this phase, the first eruptive column was formed.

This column is an increasing column of gas

and particles which can reach the elevation of about 35 km

three times the maximum elevation of an aircraft.

NARRATOR: This giant column of ash aligns with Piny

the Younger's account of seeing an unusual cloud arising from the mountain.

On the ground, Giuseppe spots a clue to what happened next

at the nearby town of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

GIUSEPPE: These rocks are about the size of the pumice that fell in Pompeii.

The particles were blown by the wind to the east, toward Pompeii,

and so a fallout of particles occurred and lasted for hours, for hours and hours.

NARRATOR: Expert analysis of pumice

and ash deposits has revealed a north-westerly wind

blew the cloud of volcanic debris away from Herculaneum and over Pompeii.

The burning hot rocks and thick ash rained down on Pompeii,

causing roofs to collapse, crushing and killing those sheltering in their homes.

Herculaneum, located to the west of the volcano,

and its population of more than 4,000 people,

were initially spared from this rocky fallout.

GIUSEPPE: The people in Herculaneum observed this giant column.

I think they were terrified.

NARRATOR: The north-westerly wind saved Herculaneum

from the bombardment that hit Pompeii,

allowing time for escape, and for Pliny the Elder to launch a rescue mission.

To uncover what happened next to Herculaneum and its remaining residents,

Giuseppe needs to investigate the layers of volcanic debris inside the town.

Off the coast of the ancient town of Misenum, Jasmine continues her hunt.

She is searching for evidence to corroborate Pliny the Younger's account

of his uncle's rescue mission.

JASMINE: Pliny the Elder orders some quadriremes, some Romany military ships,

to cross the Bay of Naples with him at the helm.

NARRATOR: Pliny the Elder's fleet sets off from Misenum

and heads towards the base of Vesuvius.

If Pliny had ships at his disposal to launch a rescue mission,

there must have been a harbor somewhere nearby.

Jasmine searches the bay for any evidence of one.

Rounding the coast, she spots something intriguing.

JASMINE: You can just see over there one pilae that reaches out above the sea.

It's quite amazing that we can see that.

Pilae have a few functions: one is to mark the edge of the harbor,

but also to provide protection from the waves coming in

from the Bay of Naples.

NARRATOR: The upper part of this structure is modern,

but it sits on a characteristically Roman base.

Using satellite imagery, remnants of other pilae are visible beneath the surface.

They are unmistakable proof of two Roman breakwaters here marking the entrance

to a vast military port that housed a unit of Praetorian Guards.

JASMINE: You can see how large it is, and it gives us a great understanding

of how important this harbor truly was.

It's all the more evidence that Pliny had some 6,000 men at his disposal.

NARRATOR: The evidence of the harbor suggests Pliny the Younger's account of events

during the early stages of the eruption is so far accurate.

Pliny the Elder could have launched his rescue ships from here.

To continue to explore the truth behind the letters,

Jasmine next intends to retrace the fleet's route across the bay,

towards Herculaneum.

JASMINE: You can imagine the chaos that Pliny the Elder was facing,

rushing around and launching his rescue mission to rescue

those people at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

NARRATOR: At Herculaneum, Andrew wants to examine the fragile remains

of the wooden boat discovered next to the Praetorian Guard on the ancient beach.

It could help determine if he was one of Pliny's men.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: So here, we've got this extraordinary thing.

At Herculaneum, wood survives, wood is preserved, and that meant that this is the only

example of a boat found in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

NARRATOR: The high-tech support cradle gives Andrew

the chance to study the boat up close.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: If you look carefully, you see that there is no room for a mast.

So that means it's got to be rowed.

This is a big boat.

NARRATOR: Some think this rowing boat is a simple fishing vessel.

But it's big enough to hold at least eight people

and Andrew believes its size is a clue.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: If Admiral Pliny has said,

"Right, we're going to rescue the people of Herculaneum,"

it makes sense to send out a boat of this size.

So, I would like to think that this is part of the rescue mission.

NARRATOR: The discovery of the Praetorian Guard's skeleton,

next to the large boat, is strong evidence that Pliny did launch a rescue mission,

as his nephew later claimed.

This Praetorian made it onto the beach, but didn't make it out alive.

He died a horrific death, in heat so powerful it melded his sword to his bones.

To uncover exactly what happened here,

the team must continue the search for more evidence.

Pier Paolo Petrone has spent most of his career studying

the bones found at Herculaneum.

NARRATOR: He's keen to uncover as much as he can about the fate

of the people here.

NARRATOR: At the edge of the archaeological site, on what was once the town's beach,

engineers building a wall make a shocking discovery.

Pier Paolo was immediately called to the scene,

as they have just uncovered a skeleton buried in layers of volcanic debris,

close to where the Praetorian Guard was found.

NARRATOR: This is the first new body found at Herculaneum for more than two decades.

Pier Paolo uses a low-pressure water jet to carefully wash away surrounding debris

and expose the bones for an initial examination.

The discovery is so significant the Park's director

oversees the excavation.

FRANCESCO: From the first study, anthropological study,

we know that it was a man aged between 40-45,

and we will study his DNA because we know the DNA

from all these victims tell us something.

NARRATOR: Pier Paolo's team carefully removes more debris

and uncovers wooden beams lying across the body.

NARRATOR: The wooden beams are evidence that something sudden

and catastrophic happened here, with a force strong enough

to propel roofs across the town, and onto the beach.

Analysis of the beam's position on top of the body

could reveal if these were the cause of death.

NARRATOR: The team use a hand-held 3D scanner

to digitally record the position of the skeleton in-situ,

before they remove the remains for further study.

NARRATOR: This new discovery could provide more tantalizing clues

to Herculaneum's final moments.

The victim's location on the ancient beach adds

to the team's understanding of what happened here.

And this man was not alone on the shoreline.

Years earlier, when archaeologists were exploring buried stone

arches outside the town, they discovered over 300 skeletons.

In front of one arch, they found a middle-aged woman with her jewelry.

Precious rings still hanging off her fingers.

Leaning against a wall, a young woman.

Next to her, they found tiny bones.

She was seven months pregnant.

2,000 years ago, these arches were entrance to boathouses.

Analysis of how these victims died could reveal what happened in Herculaneum's

deadly final moments.

Fewer than 50 bodies have been discovered inside the town itself.

Most of the population must have fled when neighboring Pompeii

was being battered by falling volcanic rocks.

NARRATOR: The size and solidity of the boathouses offers Pier Paolo a clue

to why these people didn't flee.

NARRATOR: Earthquakes often occur before volcanic eruptions.

In 79 Ad, those who chose not to flee the town likely

came to these sturdy boathouses for shelter.

Not knowing they wouldn't be safe this time.

Examining the positions of the skeletons, Pier Paolo notices something strange.

NARRATOR: People at Herculaneum were not found contorted

and twisted, like those at Pompeii.

The evidence suggests they suffered a very different death.

Analyzing these skeletons could uncover vital clues to Herculaneum's final hours,

and how the aftermath of the deadly eruption unfolded.

NARRATOR: On a boat in the Bay of Naples,

Jasmine is tracing Pliny the Elder's reported route

from the ancient harbor, towards Vesuvius.

JASMINE: We're now going to cross the Bay of Naples,

as Pliny the Elder did with his fleet to rescue

those people at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

NARRATOR: According to the ancient accounts,

the rescue ships headed towards Herculaneum,

straight into the danger zone, with Pliny the Elder aboard observing the eruption.

But as they approached the base of Vesuvius,

giant boulders propelled out of the volcano covered the shoreline,

blocking large vessels from landing.

So, Pliny diverted his ships further south to Stabiae,

where he was greeted by a close friend,

Pomponianus, and planned his return to the base of the volcano the next morning.

Jasmine reaches the modern shore of Castellammare Di Stabia,

the location of ancient Stabiae.

JASMINE: After an unsuccessful attempt to land at Herculaneum,

Pliny the Elder lands here at Stabiae, where the conditions are much more favorable.

He immediately consoles his friend, Pomponianus,

who seems terrified by the events that are happening.

However, at this time, it's still possible that those stranded around

the foothills of Vesuvius had a chance of survival.

NARRATOR: Pliny's account holds up so far.

So there was still hope for those at Herculaneum.

Praetorian Guards on smaller boats could get through the volcanic debris

and make it ashore.

But with the volcanic stones raining down, the danger was growing.

In his lab in Naples, Pier Paolo continues his investigation

of how the people in Herculaneum's boathouses were killed.

NARRATOR: Examining the shattered skull, he notices some unusual markings.

NARRATOR: The clean fractures and charred edges reveal this skull wasn't broken

by an external force, like falling rocks or a collapsing roof.

The evidence leads Pier Paolo to a much more extraordinary conclusion.

NARRATOR: The cause of death is swift and gruesome

and it's not the only shocking evidence he finds.

Analysis of a jaw also reveals a strange discoloration on the bones.

NARRATOR: There's only one thing that could cause skulls to explode

and blood to vaporize.

NARRATOR: Temperatures of nearly 500 degrees Celsius, 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit,

could finally explain Herculaneum's victims' poses

and the melded skeleton of the Praetorian Guard.

NARRATOR: Pier Paolo's investigation reveals that the people in the boathouses,

and the soldier, weren't crushed by falling objects,

then covered with ash in which their bodies

slowly contorted after death, like many at Pompeii.

Death here was swift, caused by an extreme heat that vaporized flesh

and boiled brains, in an instant.

What caused the extreme temperature that devastated Herculaneum but not Pompeii?

Looking for an answer, Pier Paolo examines another shocking discovery.

NARRATOR: At Herculaneum, Andrew is investigating an incredibly preserved

structure in the center of town.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: This is an amazing building.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists made an incredible discovery here.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: So, in here we've got a little side room and, ah, ha, ha,

this was one of the big, big surprises of this excavation because, on the whole,

we don't find skeletons here.

But here was one astonishing skeleton.

NARRATOR: Very few bodies have been found in Herculaneum,

other than those at the boathouse.

The man discovered here had his flesh vaporized, just like them.

Today, his remains are preserved beneath plastic for protection from the elements.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: One thing you can notice is that this is a proper bed place.

You see, there's wood going around all the sides, so this is an official bedroom.

But why is he still here?

There's an enormous eruption going on, why hasn't he fled like everyone else?

NARRATOR: Andrew explores the rest of the building,

clues to this man's identify could explain his gruesome death.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: It's always great when you've got an inscription

it gives you a clue and it starts with words, sacred to Augustus.

And then, there's this wonderful detail that, at the opening of the building,

Canem Dedarum, they gave a dinner and who is the dinner for?

This is the crucial clue.

Decurionbus et Augustabilibus, for the Decurions and the Augustales.

So, these are the two most important groups of people in town,

and this must be the College of the Augustales.

NARRATOR: The College of the Augustales was a place for a cult-like worship

of dead emperors, an important practice in Roman culture at this time.

This association could explain the identity of the victim discovered in the bed.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: Here, we've got this major public building

and it's at the heart of the town.

So, it matters looking after the building properly,

and that's why you've got a guardian permanently there with his own bed place.

NARRATOR: As a custodian, this man may have been forbidden from leaving the building

while on duty, even in emergencies.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: So maybe they told him, "You stay here.

Vesuvius may erupt, you stay." Yes, boss.

NARRATOR: As archaeologists worked to excavate the custodian's remains,

they discovered strange black fragments surrounding his skull.

Pier Paolo was part of the team.

Intrigued, he took them back to his laboratory to find out more.

NARRATOR: Pier Paolo needs a special microscope to examine the strange fragments.

NARRATOR: Using this high powered stereo-microscope,

Pier Paolo can view the surface of the fragments in incredible detail.

NARRATOR: The biochemical and microscopic analysis reveals

this main's brain was turned into glass.

It's evidence a strange phenomenon hit the town.

NARRATOR: The custodian of the College of the Augustales was killed by extreme heat

which vaporized his flesh and melted his brain.

Rapid cooling then turned his molten brain to glass.

Analysis of the volcanic debris at Herculaneum

could finally explain what caused this extreme and deadly heat.

Ten miles south of Herculaneum, in Castellammare Di Stabia,

Jasmine's continuing her investigation of Pliny the Younger's account.

According to his letters, this coastline is where Pliny the Elder

took shelter for the night.

JASMINE: It's during this sleep that things really take a turn for worse at Vesuvius.

Pliny tells us that there is cinere, ashes.

Mixtis pumicabus, which means mixed with pumice.

Vastisquer tremore, it means very, very big tremors are happening at this stage.

So now, we're entering a violent stage of the eruption.

NARRATOR: Fearing for their lives, Pliny the Elder, and his friends,

fled Stabiae with pillows strapped to their heads,

to protect them from the falling stones and cinders.

They headed down to the shore to see if they could escape by boat,

but found the sea too violent to set sail.

According to Pliny the Younger, his uncle, out of options,

lay down on a sail and suffocated to death from toxic volcanic fumes.

JASMINE: The drama of the letters here is really clear.

We simply are told 'corpus inventum,'

that his corpus was found the next day on the beach.

NARRATOR: Modern science has proven volcanoes release gases such as Sulphur Dioxide

and Carbon Dioxide, which can be harmful to humans.

Inhalation of these noxious gases could have played

a role in Pliny the Elder's death at Stabiae.

Jasmine's investigation reveals that Pliny the Younger's account of events,

following the eruption, appear accurate.

JASMINE: As a piece of literary evidence, these letters are amazing.

His accounts are really very accurate, if we connect them to the archaeology.

But we also learn about what happened

to these individuals in intense and graphic detail.

NARRATOR: At Herculaneum, Giuseppe heads to the edge of the ancient site,

to a tunnel excavated in the solidified volcanic debris, known as tuff.

GIUSEPPE: So now we are inside this tuff.

NARRATOR: He's hunting for the conclusive evidence

of what deadly phenomenon struck this town.

Locked within the tuff, Giuseppe spots the clue to what happened here.

GIUSEPPE: As you can see here, we have a wood carbonized wood,

and this indicates that there was no air, no oxygen.

NARRATOR: The natural phenomenon that struck Herculaneum

consumed all the oxygen in the air.

Without oxygen, wooden objects couldn't burn.

Instead, they were turned into carbon.

This explains the remarkable preservation of the wooden screen and bed.

Giuseppe heads outside to continue his investigation.

GIUSEPPE: You can see these tiles and bricks transported,

engulfed, and moved as a cloud,

NARRATOR: Giuseppe's investigation shows that the deadly phenomenon

that destroyed Herculaneum was a giant cloud of searing hot gas and ash

that came crashing down the volcano's slopes.

It's known as a pyroclastic surge.

Around noon, Mount Vesuvius erupted, hurling ash, pumice,

and toxic gases more than 20 miles into the atmosphere.

The following day, the cloud of gas and ash collapsed

and barreled down the sides of the volcano.

The 1,000 degree Fahrenheit wave hit Herculaneum in less than five minutes,

and blasted the flesh off people's bones.

Those left at the town were killed in an instant.

After several waves of pyroclastic surges,

Herculaneum was buried under 82 ft. of debris.

PROF. WALLACE-HADRILL: It's unbelievably gruesome the moment of destruction.

But what is catastrophe for them is wonderful for us

because it's that destruction that preserves for us very, very vivid traces

of what life was like just then.

NARRATOR: Herculaneum's final moments are slowly being uncovered.

The evidence discovered by archaeologists reveals that hundreds of citizens fled

to the beach, where brave soldiers attempted a rescue mission.

Blood-stained bones and fused metal weapons reveal an intense heat

that killed these unsuspecting victims.

And, miraculously, preserved wooden objects are proof of the rare

pyroclastic flow that buried this town for two millennia.

As experts continue to investigate this preserved ancient wonder,

their discoveries will shed new light

onto one of history's deadliest eruptions.

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