All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] On a rocky outcrop
high above the city of Athens,

engineers race to
stabilize one of the most famous

buildings in history.

[Narrator] They are
on a mission to restore

the iconic Parthenon.

-This is the most nervous
moment because we want

everything to be perfect
and not to have damage.

[Narrator] And reveal the
secrets behind the greatest

wonder of Ancient Greece.

[Narrator] The Parthenon
is a towering symbol

of Ancient Greece,

a civilization
that changed history.

-We all know the perfection
of the Parthenon.

This is the foundations
of Western civilization.

[Narrator] Since its dawn
around 4,000 years ago,

the legacy of Ancient Greece
has shaped the Western world.

Greece was the
birthplace of democracy,

the cradle of classical
art and architecture.

From awe-inspiring inventions
to epic myths and dark legends.

The wonders of
Ancient Greece are amongst

the greatest ever known.

Now our cameras have unique
access to follow teams of

archaeologists as they use
cutting-edge technology to

uncover the secrets behind
this remarkable civilization.

How and why was the
Parthenon built,

and what does it tell us
about the rise of Athens,

a city that came to
dominate Ancient Greece?

The Parthenon towers above
the Greek capital, Athens,

on a rocky plateau
called the Acropolis.

Architect Vasileia Manidaki
works here on an ambitious

engineering program, the
Parthenon Restoration Project.

[Narrator] The
Parthenon Temple is Greece's

most famous building,

but at more
than 2500 years old,

it's in urgent need
of conservation.

Earthquakes, war,

and previous well-intentioned
but misguided interventions

have taken their toll,

key sections are
damaged or missing,

making it structurally unstable.

[Narrator] The restoration
team don't want to rebuild the

Parthenon so it looks
brand new, instead,

their aim is to restore
what is necessary to maintain

the building's stability.

Today, restorers work
to slot new pieces of

marble into existing ones,

creating a patchwork
of old and new that will

preserve the glory of the
site for generations to come.

[Narrator] To create the
new marble supplement,

the team begins by
making a plaster mold

around a broken
original marble piece.

This cast gives them the
exact contours of the surface.

So the new model can be
cut and shaped exactly to fit.

When finished, the two will
fit together like a jigsaw.

The Parthenon was built
more than 2,500 years ago.

At this time,

the Pyramids in Egypt
were nearly 2,000 years old,

and Ancient Rome
was in its infancy.

Greece as we know it
didn't exist in 500 BCE,

it was a collection of
over 1000 city-states,

including Sparta,
Corinth, and Athens.

Greek cities could be
found as far west as Syracuse

in Italy and on the eastern
coast of modern-day Turkey.

Athens began in the
4th millennium BCE as a

small settlement on a
hilltop, the Acropolis.

As the city developed,

the Acropolis remained its
center and religious heart.

In the 5th century BCE,

the Athenians decided
to build a temple on

the Acropolis in honor of
their patron goddess Athena.

Vasileia investigates
traces of this early temple.

[Narrator] Work began on
the temple's foundations,

but disaster struck before
it could be completed.

[Narrator] In 480 BCE,
Greek city-states were invaded

by the mighty Persian Empire,

Athens was attacked
and its buildings on the

Acropolis burnt to the ground.

But just days later,

the Greeks forced
the Persians to retreat,

this paved the way for
the golden age of Athens

and its crowning glory,

the Parthenon.

A clue to this reversal in
fortunes could lie around six

miles from the
Parthenon at Piraeus,

the city's harbor.

Archaeologist and sailor
Nefeli Pirée Iliou investigates

how the rise of Athens is
linked to the development

of another engineering marvel.

She is about to set sail
onboard an extraordinary

reconstructed Athenian
warship from around the time

of the Parthenon.

-Wow, and there she is!

She is stunning,
she is stunning.

[Narrator] This
is the Olympias,

a reconstruction of an
ancient Athenian ship known

as a trireme.

-A trireme or in
Ancient Greek a triris,

was an oared warship,

and the reason that
it is called the trireme

is probably because
it had three rows of rowers.

[Narrator] No ancient
trireme has ever been discovered

on land or at sea.

So an international team
used ancient texts and

archaeological finds to
inform the construction

of the Olympias.

This archaeological
experiment can be used to

learn about the ancient world.

-While the Olympias has been
called a floating hypothesis,

it’s also a chance
for us to liven the past

in the present.

[Narrator] The Olympias can
shed light on a critical battle

that would determine
the fate of Athens.

In 480 BCE,

with Greece under attack,

Athens, together
with other Greek cities,

decided to confront
the Persian force at sea.

They made their
stand at Salamis,

in the face of
overwhelming odds.

-The Battle of Salamis
was fought by a collection of

Greek allies who got
together in order to fight

the Persian fleet,
which was much, much larger.

[Narrator] Athenian triremes
made up about half of

the Greek fleet.

[Nefeli] The Olympias,
it’s a chance to test speed

and capabilities,

and would ancient
triremes actually have been

able to do what ancient authors
claim that they could have done.

[Narrator] The first step is
for Nefeli to explore how easy

it is to row a trireme.

She joins the crew
of the Olympias.

This ship is a military vessel
operated by the Greek navy,

its commander is Manos Zorbas.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] Today, he
leads the ship and a crew of

military students
on a training voyage.

-Rowing with
Olympias is very challenging,

it demands, uh, strength,

it demands good performance,

and people have to coordinate.

[speaking in Greek]

People used to train for
a lot of months before

going out to battles.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] There are 170
sailors onboard sitting on

three different levels.

For the ship to move
efficiently through the water,

they must all row in time.

-You try to imagine
what it would have been like

2,000 years ago,

and I don’t think it
necessarily would have been

that different to
what it feels now.

The difference of what it
would have been like if we

were going to the
Battle of Salamis is that

we would all be
very, very anxious.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] Rowing a
trireme demands physical

effort and coordination.

At the first, the
crew’s oars clash,

but it doesn’t take long for
the rowers to find their rhythm.

-There is already
the sense of camaraderie and

the different rowers
on different levels

helping each other.

[Narrator] At Salamis,
Athen’s triremes provided much

of the allied fleet’s strength.

With the face of Greece
hanging in the balance,

they won a decisive victory
against the Persians.

How did the Greek Alliance
manage to defeat the much

larger Persian fleet?

Nefeli’s next step is to find
out what was different about

the Greeks that won the day.

The victory at Salamis
secured Athens’ freedom,

it also set the stage for
the city’s rise to power.

On the ruined Acropolis,
the Athenians built a

new temple directly above the
foundations of the previous one,

a magnificent structure,
the Parthenon.

What is it about the Parthenon,

that sets it apart
from other Greek temples?

[Narrator] At the Acropolis,

restoring the Parthenon
is a formidable challenge.

There are no surviving plans.

To preserve it,

today's architects and stone
masons must take on the role

of archeologists.

Investigating and
decoding the techniques used by

the ancient Greeks.

The Athenians began building
the Parthenon in 447 BCE,

at its heart was a
wooden statue of Athena,

the city's patron goddess.

Around 40 foot tall,

it was wrapped in
over a ton of gold with

skin carved from ivory,
polished to a glow.

Sheltering the goddess
was a sacred chamber known

as the Cella.

On the outer temple,
exquisite sculptures brought

Greek mythology to life.

This was the pinnacle of
Ancient Greek architecture and

a symbol of Greek
victory after Salamis.

At the temporary
workshop in the Cella,

restorers have completed the
carving of the new section and

are ready for the next step.

[Narrator] The team coats
the original marble in clay,

and slots the pieces together,

using the clay markings
on the new marble as

a guide to fine-tune the fit.

This is an enormous project
of experimental archaeology.

[Narrator] The team is
not only joining new marble

sections with the old.

At the entrance porch,

after patching the
columns with new marble,

the team has to
carve them by hand.

Athanasios Psilopoulos is
replicating the work of the

Ancient Athenians by
carving fluting into the new

marble parts of the columns.

[Narrator] Athanasios's
greatest tool is his expert eye.

[Narrator] To shape the marble,

he chisels it and
then sands it until the

fluting looks perfectly even.

This precision
reveals the skill of the

Ancient Greek artisans.

Their principles of aesthetic
harmony and elegance continue

to inspire architects and
builders in Europe and America.

[Narrator] The workmanship
of the Athenians

was exceptional.

How did the Parthenon
compare to other Greek temples

of its day?

A clue lies hundreds of
miles away at the city of

Syracuse in Sicily.

Here, archaeologist
Rodolfo Brancarto investigates

the ruins of another
ancient megastructure,

the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

This building predates the
Parthenon by around 150 years

and could help shed light
on the development of

Ancient Greek temples.

[Narrator] Today,
Syracuse is Italian,

but it began life
as a Greek colony.

It was one of many powerful
city-states founded by Greek

settlers in search of new,
fertile lands and access to

trade routes.

This season, Rodolfo wants
to investigate the architecture

of the structure here.

[Narrator] Understanding
what would have been here

over 2,500 years ago is
an enormous challenge,

little remains of the
ancient structure.

[Narrator] To find out
more about the temple,

Rodolfo and his
team need to carefully

target their excavations.

They explore the bedrock
of the foundation walls.

Scraping through soil,
one of the team finds a clue.

[Narrator] Even the smallest
of fragments can be used

to piece together a
picture of the site.

-No way!

-How old do you think that is?

-And this is the first thing
that I found here so this is

very exciting for me.

[Narrator] Despite
their appearance today,

Greek temples had roofs.

Most were built with
terracotta tiles, but a few,

like the Parthenon,
had tiles of marble.

Building a temple
this way is not just

much more expensive.

Marble is
extraordinarily heavy,

and the Parthenon’s
builders needed around

100,000 tons of it.

How did the Ancient Greeks
move and remove the marble

at the Parthenon?

[Narrator] At the Parthenon,

Vasileia and the
restoration team are now

working on one of
two triangular facades

that bookend the temple.

It is called the west
pediment and is where

exquisite statues
stood in ancient times.

Today’s task is to install a
1.7-ton block of new marble

onto the pediment’s
backing wall.

Architect Kosmas Skaris
oversees the installation.

[Kosmas] This backing wall
has a double row on one hand

holding upright the triangle
which is the background of the

sculptures of the pediment,

and on the other hand
have these special cuttings

for the beams of the roof.

So it was not a visible
part of the monument but very

special one for
its architecture.

[Narrator] To get it
up to the pediment,

the team must hoist this
block of precision-cut marble

around 50 feet into the air.

They begin the lift.

Every movement must be
carefully calibrated to

preserve the fragile marble.

[Kosmas] This is the most
nervous moment when you have

to lift an old or a
new piece in its position,

because we want everything
to be perfect and not to

have even the minute damage.

[Narrator] The block
reaches the pediment,

but now a more
difficult task,

it needs to line up exactly.

[Narrator] Even
for today's team,

fitting new marble
is a challenge.

How did the builders manage
it nearly 3,000 years ago

Ancient texts say how
Athenian stonemasons first cut

huge marble blocks from the
quarries of Mount Pentelicus,

and hauled them to
Athens on ox-drawn carts.

To move the heavy blocks up
the slopes of the Acropolis,

the builders used a
clever mule-powered,

counterbalanced rope lift.

Experts believe that the
Greeks were the first to

use cranes for
construction to lift the

stones into position.

Once finally in place,

the craftsmen shaped the
marble by hand to ensure a

perfect fit without mortar.

The Ancient Greeks were
impressive engineers.

Why did they go to such
extremes of effort?

In Sicily, Rodolfo searches
for evidence of the scale and

layout of the Temple
of Olympian Zeus.

There is so little left at
the site that it's difficult

to know where to
focus their digging.

So the team uses
modern technology,

including ground
penetrating radar,

or GPR for short,

which can detect potential
ruins hidden under the earth.

[Narrator] These surveys,
alongside previous excavations,

reveal the scale of the temple.

[Narrator] This temple was
even larger than the Parthenon.

Now the excavation team is
opening up trenches according

to the maps grid
system to find out what is

buried beneath the dirt.

[Narrator] Rodolfo hopes
that digging at the Cella in

Syracuse will uncover
more about the layout

of this building.

And he thinks that the
entire sanctuary is much

bigger than once thought.

It reflects the
ambitions of Syracuse...

...as the Parthenon
does for Athens,

and suggests this city
once rivaled Athens.

[Narrator] Mega temples
like these required enormous

resources and the
investment of organized,

powerful city-states.

The Parthenon is a
supreme example of this,

magnificent even
by the standards of

Ancient Greek temples.

Some experts believe
that building it cost around

half the city’s
entire annual income.

Athens had not
just grown rich,

by the time it
build the Parthenon,

it was the wealthiest
city-state in Greece.

How did it rise to this point?

The answer could lie at sea.

[Narrator] Close to Athens,
off the coast of Piraeus,

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] Nefeli investigates
what made the Athenian trireme

so effective as
a weapon of war.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] Out on the water,

the crew from the
Hellenic Navy is discovering

how to sail a trireme
like the Ancient Athenians.

[Nefeli] I’ve never rowed this
part of a trireme crew before.

There is a learning curve.

Quite a lot of oars that
I’m hitting, I can feel it,

but I think I’m
getting the hang of it.

[Narrator] A trireme’s
primary weapon was the

bronze ram on its prow,

which could hole an enemy
ship below the water line.

The Olympias’ ram is a
replica of one found off the

coast of Greece.

The first step in using
it requires speed.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] The ship’s
170 rowers are organized

in three tiers.

The vertical rows allowed
the Athenians to pack a large

number of oarsmen
into a relatively light,

narrow hull, perfect for speed.

Their combined power
would likely have accelerated

the ship to around
eight knots per hour.

[Nefeli] A trireme compared
to other oared warships of the

time was a much faster ship,
it had the ability to accelerate

very fast because of
the numbers of rowers,

and that could come in
very handy in battle.

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] The
trireme was fast,

but success or defeat in
battle depended on a trireme

getting into position
first to use its ram.

Nefeli and the crew practice
changing direction at speed.

[Manos] You have to make,
uh, a faster turn,

so we do this with the rudders.

[Narrator] With help
from the rowers,

the ship makes a fast turn.

[speaking in Greek]

[Nefeli] You could imagine
a ship that coming in at

a very fast speed in
a matter of seconds,

running through enemy line,
turning around,

and ramming the stern
of a boat with water,

then rushing in and
disaster following.

[Narrator] The design of the
Athenian trireme prioritized

speed and maneuverability

[speaking in Greek]

[Narrator] And the
experience of the modern crew

demonstrates to Nefeli
how effective they could be.

At Salamis, the Athenians
made the most of their capable

fleet after enticing
the Persian ships into

a narrow strait,

which nullified their
enemies' greater numbers.

But the Athenians
believed they had another

edge over the Persians,
their political system.

-Instead of hiring foreign
mercenaries like the Persians,

they’re using
their own free citizens.

[Narrator] In the
5th century BCE,

Athens is one of the
world’s first democracies.

This democracy was partial
by modern standards.

But every adult male
citizen can vote,

whether they
were rich or poor,

and only citizens were
allowed to join the Navy.

-One of the first lines is
that it is the poor people

who are important,
those who row the boats,

because it is they who impart
the strength of the city.

They have to have the
right to vote because they’re

the ones without
whom there would be no

Athenian navy and
hence no Athenian democracy.

[Narrator] This citizen
navy cemented Athens's naval

supremacy, and in the
mid-5th century BCE,

when the Parthenon was built,
Athens used this military

muscle to cement its power
and influence in Greece.

Two years after the
Battle of Salamis,

some Greek city-states formed
an alliance against Persia.

They cast metal into the sea
as a symbol of their alliance,

and vowed it would endure
until the metal rose again.

Athens came to dominate the
alliance and eventually seize

control of its treasury.

It used the money to
finance the building of the

Parthenon and
continued to demand

tribute from its former allies.

The Parthenon was a
symbol not just of victory

over the Persians
but of imperial might.

[Narrator] At the Acropolis,
restorers are part way through

fitting the 1.7 ton new
block on the Parthenon.

[Narrator] Now the marble
is roughly positioned,

the team removes the ropes...

[overlapping chatter]

...and uses an enormous
clamp to pick it up.

They take away the wooden wedges
underneath the block

and clear the gap of debris.

The block must be lowered
into its final position

exactly level, any
tilt to it when it hits the

pediment could damage
one of the corners or edges.

[Narrator] Finally,
the new marble block is

lowered into place.

[Narrator] The old
and new marble fit flush

against each other.

[Kosmos] Precision
is very important,

we all know the perfection
of the Parthenon,

and we want to have the same
level of quality and perfection.

[Narrator] The Parthenon
took just under

ten years to build.

When it was finished,

it was a symbol
of Athenian power.

Colossal marble statues
on its outer walls displayed

scenes from Greek
mythology and celebrated

the Goddess Athena.

Tucked away high on the
outer wall of the Cella is

an unusual feature...

...a marble frieze not of gods,

but ordinary Athenians
during a festival.

No other Greek temple
has anything like this.

What does it reveal about
why Athenians thought their

city had risen to greatness?

A clue could lie far below
the Acropolis in the political

and cultural
centre of Athens,

it was known as the Agora.

Archaeologist John Papadopoulos
from the

American School of
Classical Studies is at the

start of a new
excavation season here.

One of his goals is to
discover more about the

Ancient Athenians who
built the Parthenon.

[John] We're going through
every little bit of dust.

This place has the potential
to give voice a little to the

people that inhabited
these places.

[Narrator] The Agora was
a hub of Ancient Athens,

a marketplace buzzing
with merchants,

philosophers, and politicians.

Beside it stood an
assembly chamber where

citizens debated laws.

Thousands marched through
the Agora to take part in a

festival of sport and
song in honor of the

city’s patron goddess.

The procession ended
at the Acropolis with

sacred offerings to Athena.

The challenge with
investigating the lives of the

past Athenians is that
most of Athens is covered

with modern buildings.

So this season,

John digs in a spot that has
never been fully investigated.

-Sarah.

Can we get that leg
closest to the umbrella?

Can you move it a little bit?

[John] Archaeology is
a little like fishing.

-Alright.

[John] We are
working our way down.

How far I will get,
I have no idea.

[Narrator] Discoveries made
over the past decades have

pieced together fragments of
evidence that reveal that this

area was originally a
covered walkway adorned

with painted panels.

It’s likely this part
of the Agora was known as

the Painted Stoa.

[John] The importance of the
Painted Stoa is immeasurable,

it’s the world’s
first shopping mall,

it’s where the Stoic
philosophers like to hang out

in the 4th century BC,
so much was happening here.

[Narrator] Today, John’s
team is digging at the

western corner of the site.

[John] Gabriel, what
have you got today?

Good man.

Look at this black glaze,

that is a fragment from
a handle or a part of a

classical period pot.

This has to be sixth
or fifth century, uh, BC.

Um, so it's in these
modern levels, in these levels,

you sometimes get residual
material that's earlier,

and this is a really
good example of that.

[Narrator] This evidence
of classical remains points

to a time of
transformation in Athens.

After their victory at Salamis,

the Athenians launched a
colossal building program

that included the Painted Stoa
and the Parthenon.

-Civic architecture was
all-important to the Athenians.

When we look at the
Athenian Acropolis,

there was bragging rights,

we beat the Persians
on our own home turf and

virtually singlehandedly.

For the Athenian
democracy to have existed,

it had to beat the might of
the Persian military machine.

[Narrator] The Athenians
were so proud of their

city and democracy,

that they celebrated
themselves on the walls

of the Parthenon.

Athens seemed unstoppable,

but the tides of fortune
were about to turn.

[Narrator] In the gulf
off the coast of Piraeus,

Nefeli's time as part of
the crew of the trireme has

revealed the skill of the
Ancient Athenian navy.

-It was through its
navy that Athens became a power

way beyond Athens,

its navy
was how it ran its empire.

[Narrator] The Athenian
navy was second to none

in open water,

but it had a weakness.

In 415 BCE,

Athens sent 130
warships and 5,000 soldiers

to invade Syracuse
and extend its empire.

They seized the high
ground and fortified the

Temple of Olympian Zeus,

using it as a base
to launch their attack.

Syracuse was a rival
regional power and allied

with other
dominant city-states,

Sparta and Corinth,

in a strategic alliance
which did not include Athens.

At Syracuse, the
Athenian navy found itself

trapped and outsmarted.

Syracuse called on their
Spartan allies to help defeat

the Athenian attack, and
in a final sea battle,

the Syracusans bottled up
the entire Athenian fleet

in their great harbor,

destroying the
trireme navy and killing and

capturing tens of thousands.

Unable to make use of
their tactics of ramming

and maneuvering in
an enclosed harbor,

the Athenian
fleet was doomed.

This was one of the
greatest naval defeats

in ancient history.

[Nefeli] The defeat at Syracuse
was incredibly devastating

because the Athenians lost
200 triremes and thousands

of men as a result, uh,

which was the
majority of their navy.

[Narrator] Athens relied
on its navy to enforce its

power and procure
resources and tribute

from its empire.

The loss of so many
ships heralded the end of

Athens’s golden age.

By 404 BCE, Athens was
defeated by rival city-state

Sparta and occupied.

But though the power
of Athens was at an end,

the fame and legacy
of this city lived on.

At the Athenian Agora,

John and his team have
discovered the floor of

a house dating to between
the 10th to 12th centuries,

common era.

[John] We take samples
just to see what’s going on

in the room,

what they’re doing,
what sort of activity.

[Narrator] Over
the centuries,

the Agora was used and reused
by generations of inhabitants.

Later civilizations
held the city's 5th-century BCE

achievements in high regard.

When the Romans
conquered Greece,

they drew inspiration from the
classical buildings of Athens,

like the Parthenon.

[John] The Romans were very
much in awe of the Greeks.

The Roman legal system,
for example,

was very much built on the
basis of the earlier Greek,

and it’s on the basis
of what happened here

at the Athenian Agora.

[Narrator] On the Acropolis,

with the new block
of marble in place,

work on the
backing wall of the

west pediment is finished.

It’s a testament to
the skill of the ancient

and modern engineers.

[Kosmas] I think we have the,

the best result for the day.

I’m quite moved to
finish this special project.

[Narrator] Another part
of the ancient Parthenon

is restored.

[Kosmas] This is the foundations
of Western civilization,

it’s our society
that is based on these values,

so we feel this opportunity
to have this special monument

conserved and, uh, a
symbol of our civilization.

[Narrator] 2,500 years after
the Parthenon was built,

experts are still uncovering
the secrets of its builders as

they race to preserve
Greece’s most famous building.

Investigators across the
ancient world reveal how this

structure was a symbol of
the ambition of Ancient Athens.

The result of its
rise to become the most

powerful city in Greece.

Even as its star faded,

the achievements
of Athens lived on,

a legacy treasured
from the Romans to

the modern day.