All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] In the ruins of
the ancient city of Troy,

archaeologists discover a
series of mysterious skeletons.

[Narrator] As they dig deeper,
they find evidence of weapons.

[Narrator] Their
discoveries shed light

on one of the most famous
conflicts of all time,

the Greek legend
of the Trojan War.

[Narrator] The wonders of
Ancient Greece are among

the greatest ever known.

Greece was the birthplace
of democracy and

the cradle of Western
engineering and architecture.

From inspiring inventions,

to epic heroes and legends,

the legacy of Ancient Greece
still shapes the modern world.

The story of the
Trojan War is one of the

most famous Greek legends.

It recounts a 10-year
conflict between the Greeks

and the city called Troy,
that ends in its destruction.

Today, this epic saga and
its heroes are seen as myth

and legend, but how much
of this tale could be true?

-The Greeks believed this
was an absolutely real story;

many believed that
if the Greeks hadn't got

back from the Trojan War,
their whole nation would

have become extinct.

[Narrator] Now, international
teams of archaeologists dig

through centuries
of earth to hunt for the

truth behind the myth.

-This is the one myth that's
deeply embedded in our culture.

People have been looking
for evidence of the Trojan War

happened for the
past two centuries.

[Narrator] Why did the
Ancient Greeks believe

the Trojan War
really happened,

what might new
discoveries reveal about

the world that
inspired this epic?

The Ancient Greeks
believed that Troy was

a city in what is now Turkey,

on the coast
of the Aegean Sea.

Hisarlik Hill lies a
few miles inland;

its name means
"a place of fortresses."

Today, Hisarlik is
better known as the site

of Ancient Troy.

Archaeologist Rustem Aslan
leads one of the country's

longest-running excavations.

This morning, he's
on his way to begin a

new season of digging.

[Narrator] In the 7th BCE,

Greek settlers
founded a city here.

They called it Ilion,
and believed it stood on

the same spot
as Ancient Troy.

Over the centuries, Ilion's
exact location was lost,

and the legend of its famous
predecessor faded into myth.

[Narrator] All that
changed when a German

archaeologist called
Heinrich Schliemann

visited this hill
in the late 1800s.

He began to dig,

rediscovering
the Greek city of Ilion,

and revealing how
it stood on top of ruins

more than 5,000 years old,

proof he claimed
of Ancient Troy.

Archaeologists divide
the history of Ancient Troy

into 10 periods.

The first settlement was
founded around 3000 BCE,

around 500 years before
the Great Pyramid of Egypt,

during a time known
as the Bronze Age.

This season,
Rustem plans to investigate

the fortifications
of Troy number VI.

This site dates
to the late Bronze Age,

which is when the
Ancient Greeks believed the

Trojan War took place.

[Narrator] The problem
is that this site lies

beneath more than
15 feet of earth.

Today, Rustem's team must
first clear away all the

debris accumulated
since their last season,

before they can even start
to look for this city's secrets.

[Narrator] Rustem suspects
that late Bronze Age Troy

could be the one
from the myth.

So what evidence is
there that the Greeks

were describing this city?

There is no single version
of the Trojan War story.

The most famous
are two epic sagas,

The Iliad and The Odyssey,

composed by a mysterious
poet known as Homer.

But there once existed
other tales now lost over time.

According to Greek myth,
the war begins when Paris,

a prince of Troy, picks
the goddess Aphrodite in

a beauty contest.

In return, she makes Helen,
the wife of the King of Sparta,

elope with him to
the city of Troy.

Some versions say
that Paris abducts her.

Furious, the Spartan
king sails with a massive

Greek fleet to bring her back.

They land in Troy
to find the Trojans

behind their mighty walls,
and an epic siege begins.

Ancient Historian
Emily Hauser is in Troy

to investigate how
the Bronze Age city matches

up to the one in the myth.

[Emily] We're always looking
at a difficult process because

what we are engaging with
is epic, it's poetry,

it's myth, it's legend.

But what we can do is
maybe find sort of kernels

of historical truth
that might have passed

down from generation
to generation.

[Narrator] The Greeks
believed that Homer's story

was true and
described real events.

The problem is that his
tales are not history as

we know it today.

His famous epic poem
The Iliad is primarily

the story of Greece's
greatest warrior, Achilles,

and takes place over
less than two months in

the 10-year war.

[Emily] There are elements
to the Troy that we find

in Homer that are poetic,
and there are elements

that are looking back to
a real historical city.

Obviously, we
want to be careful,

but there are amazing
correspondences that are

just kind of spine-tingling.

[Narrator] Emily takes a
closer look at Troy VI's walls.

[Emily] You can see this
massive tower here, well,

that ties in incredibly
nicely to the way that

Homer describes the
citadel of Troy as being

ringed by massive
walls and towers,

he calls it eupurgos,
which means "well-towered,"

"well-fortified."

[Narrator] These towers
are not the only aspect of

the city that the much
later Greek poet gets right.

[Emily] We get a lot of
different features of the

city being picked out.

You can also see
the slope of the walls;

it's a really
distinctive angle.

And there's one moment
in the epic where Homer is

describing Patroclus,
Achilles' companion, lover,

closest friend,
and he is attacking Troy.

And we get this
passage three times,

Patroclus tried to scale the
slope or the angle of the wall.

[Narrator] Emily thinks
these architectural

similarities are more
than a coincidence.

-There are memories
encapsulated there of an

ancient city that
Homer couldn't possibly

have known about.

These walls were actually
buried under the ground.

[Narrator] How could
Homer describe a city he

could never have seen?

The answer is that Homer
must have drawn on a rich

tradition of stories about
Troy that went back centuries.

The first people to tell
these tales were oral poets

who preserved
memories of real places.

[Emily] They would have
passed their craft on to

the next generation of bards,
almost like a sort of time

capsule passed from one
generation to the next.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
have discovered that late

Bronze Age Troy was
a rich and powerful city that

controlled the entrance
to the Black Sea.

Mighty stone walls crowned
with imposing towers rose

30 feet above the plain.

They shielded the
heart of the city,

a grand citadel
and palace complex.

Below it stretched a
sprawling lower town,

home to up to 7000 people,

making Troy one of the
largest cities of its day.

Today, many archaeologists
believe that Troy VI

is the city that the
Ancient Greeks had in mind

when they sang songs
about high-towered Troy.

But evidence for an actual
war is still hotly contested.

This season, Rustem
hopes his new dig will

shed light on this mystery,

he wants to find out how
Bronze Age Troy came to an end.

[Narrator] The
team gets to work.

Bronze Age Troy is
buried so deep that it will

take weeks just to reach it.

Why did the Ancient Greeks
believe their ancestors

had traveled here to
fight in an epic war?

[Narrator] The legend of
the Trojan War is set in

a time of kings and heroes.

According to Homer,
Bronze Age Greece was

made up of
rival city-states,

who all sent warriors
to fight in Troy.

Who were the
real Bronze Age Greeks?

How does their world match up
with the one in the myth?

More than 300 miles
south-west of Troy,

a second dig takes
place at Iklaina near

Pylos in Greece.

Archaeologist
Michael Cosmopoulos

from the University
of Missouri-St. Louis

leads the
excavations here.

He's fascinated by the
stories of Homer and

the real world in
which they are set.

[Michael] I grew up loving
The Iliad and The Odyssey,

but what really
fascinates me is the

connection to the present.

What you take out of
the ground has not seen

the light of day for
thousands of years.

[Narrator] At Iklaina,
Michael and his team

investigate a
late Bronze Age city.

This season, they're
digging inside a large

house called a megaron.

[Michael] So what
do you have here?

[Narrator] Very little
remains above ground,

so Michael must piece
together the building's

story from fragments
buried in the earth.

[Michael] We have
two kylikes here,

this is part of a third one.

[Narrator] A kylix is a
type of drinking vessel

that was common
in the late Bronze Age,

it's one of at least
10 discovered in this room.

[Michael] These are
definitely household vases,

drinking vases.

This is fascinating, it's
excellent quality pottery too.

It's palace ware.

[Narrator] The kylikes
tell Michael that this hall

probably belonged
to a wealthy person,

it was one of several built
by successive generations.

[Michael] What we are
excavating at Iklaina is

a city going back to the
late Bronze Age,

roughly 1600 to 1200 BC.

It's a large city,
we guestimate that it

would have had between
six and 8,000 people.

[Narrator] The megaron
is just one of Iklaina's

many fine buildings.

On the edge of an escarpment
lies a massive wall which

archaeologists initially
thought was part of

Iklaina's defenses,
but in amongst the stones,

they found
something unexpected.

Fresco fragments that,
when restored,

revealed vivid naval
scenes and processions.

These weren't the ruins
of a defensive wall but

the shattered remains
of an enormous megaron,

an imposing multistory
building of fine masonry

and painted plaster that
stood at the same time

as Bronze Age Troy.

Michael thinks Iklaina
was an early microstate.

An urban center
that dominated the

surrounding countryside.

Other Greek cities
like this were much larger,

among them Mycenae.

Mycenae was the greatest of
the Bronze Age Greek cities,

home to over 6,000 people,
crowned by a palace and

encircled by
massive stone walls.

Copper and tin
flowed into the city,

and in Mycenae's forges,

they became exquisite
bronze weapons of war.

Gold filled its
royal shaft graves,

laid over bodies of the
elite with metal mined as

far away as
modern-day Romania.

Even Egyptian faience,
a bright glassy material,

reached Mycenae, proof of a
city trading across empires.

Archaeologists refer
to the Greeks of this

time as Mycenaean,
after Mycenae,

but in Homer's texts,

the Greeks have
a different name.

[Michael] Homer in
The Iliad refers to the

Greeks as Achaeans, and
this is a term that appears

to include the Greek troops
from various parts of Greece.

[Narrator] Homer's
description of Bronze Age

Greece is
broadly accurate.

This was an age
of rival cities.

The problem is that many
of those that supposedly

joined forces against
Troy don't match up with

any modern place names.

How much credence can we
give to Homer's account

of this great alliance?

What evidence is there that
a Trojan war ever took place?

[Narrator] At Troy,
Rustem hunts for evidence

of a siege, the process
is slow and careful;

they must record every step.

[speaking in foreign language]

[Narrator] The end of
Bronze Age Troy is

difficult to untangle;

the city appears to have
suffered extensive earthquake

damage around 1300 BCE
before being rebuilt.

Archaeologists call
this new period Troy VII,

and it was the
final incarnation of

the Bronze Age city.

Previous discoveries
reveal it ended suddenly,

around 1180 BCE,
the mystery is why?

So Rustem plans to
open a second trench

near the south gate.

[Narrator] According to legend,

the south of the city,
facing the plain,

bore the brunt of
the Greek attack.

As the Greek ships draw near,
the Trojans prepare the city

for war and seal
shut its gates.

The Greeks throw
everything they have

at the city, but Troy's
legendary walls hold firm.

So, the Greeks set up
camp on the beach and

prepare for
a lengthy siege.

For 10 years, they
sit beneath the shadow

of the city walls,
unable to break through.

Last season, Rustem
discovered what looked

like burning in
the lower town.

[Narrator] Rustem
wants to discover the

extent of this burning;

the problem is that
this part of Troy lies

underneath the later
Greek city of Ilion

that stood here
until the Middle Ages.

Rustem works with
Co-Director Reyhan Korpe,

he's a specialist
on the later city.

Together, they need to
distinguish the later

levels from
the earlier ones.

[Narrator] The team begins
to remove the first layers.

[Narrator] So what
evidence is there

that this city
ever went to war?

There are no histories from
the Late Bronze Age about Troy.

But there are
written records.

Emily investigates one of them,

a 3300-year-old
tablet now housed at Troy.

It's written by a
people called the Hittites.

[Emily] This tablet is
incredibly exciting,

it's a tablet that records
a treaty made between a city

in northwestern
Anatolia called Wilusa,

and the Hittite Empire.

It sounds like a fairly typical
diplomatic correspondence,

but what's interesting
about it is that Wilusa

has a secret
hidden within it,

because that W later
drops out of language

and it becomes
in Greek Ilios,

which is Homer's
name for Troy.

[Narrator] This tablet
reveals that Wilusa was

probably what the
Trojans called their city,

a name adopted
by the later Greeks.

[Emily] We don't just
get the name of the city,

we, in fact get the
name of the ruler and

he is given as Alaksandu.

Now that is incredibly
exciting because the name

of one of the Trojan
heroes is Alexandros,

you might know him
better as Paris.

Alexandros is given
as his alternative name,

and it seems that
that memory of that word

Alexandros might be harkening
back to Alaksandu of Wilusa,

Alexandros of Troy.

[Narrator] The tablet
dates to the 13th century BCE,

the same
time as Troy VII.

Other tablets tell how
Wilusa was once caught up

in a conflict between
the Hittite Empire and

the king of a mysterious
people called the Ahhiyawans.

[Emily] Linguists have
suggested that there is a

close connection
between Ahhiyawa,

in the Hittite texts,

and the word that Homer
uses for the Greeks,

which is Achaeans,
Akhaioi in Greek.

And it is possible
that they are describing

a joint conflict
that they had over the

city of Wilusa,
Wilios, Troy.

[Narrator] Some historians
suspect that the story of

the Trojan War might
reflect one or more of

these conflicts,
perhaps involving a real Paris,

not a prince but
a king of Troy.

How might this match up
with the archaeology?

What role, if any, did the
Greeks play in Troy's downfall?

[Narrator] The Iliad goes
into extraordinary detail

about the Greek army
that fights at Troy.

It names dozens of bronze-clad
heroes like Achilles,

all united under
the banner of Agamemnon,

the King of Mycenae.

How believable is this
story of a united Greek army?

At Iklaina in Greece,
Michael and the team now

want to find
out more about the

city's relationship
with its neighbors.

As they dig beneath
the house with the

broken drinking cups,

they find an upturned vessel.

-It's unique to us in that
it's upside down because

the soil within
it is intact.

[Narrator] The contents
of the vessel could contain

crucial clues to
who left it here.

Paulina removes
it with great care.

[Michael] There is
burnt stuff inside, okay.

[Narrator] The discovery
of burnt material inside

the pot implies
that it came from an earlier

building that
burned to the ground;

it matches a similar
pattern across the site.

-This is one of the
most exciting finds we've had,

just because we are
looking for destruction layers.

[Narrator] Michael
believes that Iklaina

was the victim of a hostile
takeover by its neighbor, Pylos.

-Iklaina is destroyed
violently around the middle of

the 13th century BC,

let's say 1250 or so.

So, the question is,
was the entire city

destroyed at the same time?

[Narrator] Ancient tablets
discovered at Pylos name

Iklaina as one of the nine
centers in its western province.

[Michael] We think that
the Mycenaean name for

Iklaina was a-pu2.

We know that a-pu2 was
located to the south;

it was not on the coast,
and the only site that fits

this description
is this one here.

It seems like in the
early Mycenaean period,

at least here,
there was a number of tiny,

small microstates
in the rural area,

and then eventually
they were absorbed,

possibly violently,
creating the kingdom of Pylos.

[Narrator] Iklaina's
inclusion in this list

is intriguing.

According to Homer,
King Nestor of Pylos sent

90 ships to Troy, and
ruled a group of nine cities,

one of which
was called Aipy,

though to be
a version of a-pu2,

Iklaina's original name.

-What is truly fascinating
is that in The Iliad,

we have hints of a
similar organization of the

kingdom of Nestor with the
legendary King of Pylos.

It's by no means
an historical record,

but at least preserves
some kind of memory of

the organization
of Mycenaean states.

[Narrator] The Iliad's
description of the Greek army

might reflect
these early kingdoms,

what did Mycenaean
warriors look like?

Homer paints a vivid
picture of battle;

his Greeks wield
expensive bronze swords,

long spears, and ride
into battle on chariots,

just like the
earlier Mycenaeans.

But their huge tower
shields are too early

for the period;
real Mycenaeans carried

rounded ones, and
Homer describes the armor

of his own time,
rather than the protection

the Mycenaeans
would have worn.

The Mycenaeans were
certainly capable warriors,

but The Iliad blends
fact with fiction.

So what evidence is
there that the Greeks

were responsible for
Troy's destruction?

At Troy in Turkey, after
nearly six weeks of digging,

the team has uncovered
a paved surface,

it looks like a street
running next to the palace.

[Narrator] The street
tells them that they

have reached the
Late Bronze Age levels.

They can also make out signs
of a catastrophic event

that hit the city
around 1300 BCE.

[Narrator] The earthquake
forced Troy's residents to

rebuild their city.

And sitting on top
of the new defensive wall

in front of the palace,

the team uncovers
a forgotten arsenal.

[Narrator] Why were
the Trojans stockpiling

weapons here?

The answer could
help solve the mystery

of the Trojan War.

[Narrator] At Troy,
Rustem and Reyhan take

a closer look at
the Late Bronze Age

sling shots in the lab.

They want to find out if
they could be Greek or Trojan.

[Narrator] The first
step is to date them.

They do this by looking
at fragments of pottery

found among the sling stones.

[Narrator] The bone
arrowhead is a light weapon

designed to pierce flesh.

For Reyhan, it
brings to mind a passage

in the Greek story
of the Trojan War.

[Narrator] All these
weapons appear to be Trojan,

not Greek and date to the
very end of the Bronze Age.

They look like a
defender's stockpile and

hint at a time of trouble.

Around 1200 BCE,

dozens of cities fell across
the eastern Mediterranean,

among them powerful
centers like Ugarit

in Syria and
Megiddo in Israel.

So, could there
be a connection with

the fate of Troy?

A clue might lie across
the sea at Luxor in Egypt.

Egyptologist
Arto Belekdanian investigates

the temple of Karnak.

This enormous sanctuary
existed at the same time

as Bronze Age
Greece and Troy.

[Arto] The Great Temple of
Amun in Karnak is a huge site.

The oldest evidence for
it goes back to the 2100s BC.

This sprawling complex
that we're in is the

result of over two millennia
of construction and additions.

This place was still
growing all throughout the

entire Mycenaean periods.

[Narrator] Many pharaohs have
left their mark on Karnak,

but Arto is intrigued by
one inscription in particular.

-This inscription
records the great victory

of King Merneptah in the
fifth year of his reign against

the Sea Peoples.

Now the Sea Peoples are
this loose coalition of

separate peoples that
came together in the very

Late Bronze Age and
began attacking all kinds

of places throughout the
eastern Mediterranean area.

[Narrator] The
inscription says the

Sea Peoples attack
Egypt around 1207 BCE,

about 25 years before
Troy VII's destruction.

Some historians blame
them for the devastation

of the Late Bronze Age.

Exactly who they were
and where they came from

is a mystery, but the
name of one group is familiar.

[Arto] One of the peoples
that King Merenptah defeated

in the process is a group
that he names as the Ekwesh.

Many archaeologists
believe that the Ekwesh

are none other than
the Achaeans of the

Trojan War, the Greeks.

[Narrator] The name
Ekwesh sounds like the

Egyptian word for Achaean,
so what might Greeks have been

doing among
these raiders?

At Iklaina in
Southern Greece,

Michael's excavations have
revealed that Pylos's conquest

of Iklaina was short-lived.

Both cities were
destroyed around 1200 BCE.

-It appears that the
fate of Iklaina was linked

to what happened
to the wider region.

At the same time, we
had wave of destructions

throughout Greece, there
seems to be major upheaval.

[Narrator] The civilization
of Mycenaean Greece

collapsed at around the
same time as those in the east.

Michael suspects that the
survivors fought for resources.

-It looks like
there is some kernel of

truth in the Trojan War
and Mycenaean uh,

army may have attacked
Troy in an effort to capture

and plunder a rich city,
and at the same time gain

control of the straits
to the Black Sea.

But that war appears
to have been exhaustive,

and the Mycenaeans
eventually did not survive

much longer after that.

[Narrator] The grand
Greek army that Homer says

fought for honor may have
been pirates or raiders.

Did the memory
of this violent age,

when the entire Bronze Age
world fell apart,

persist as myth and legend?

But Troy's walls made
it one of the strongest cities

in the eastern
Mediterranean,

so how did it fall?

As the team continues to dig,

they come across a disturbing
find at the south gate,

human skeletons.

[Narrator] At Troy,
the team investigates

the recently discovered
skeletons at the south gate,

one appears to be
that of a young man.

The team carefully
brushes away the soil.

[Narrator] Reyhan takes
a closer look at the

skeleton's bones.

[Narrator] DNA analysis might
reveal when this person died.

But this individual is
not buried deep enough to

be a victim
of the Trojan War.

[Narrator] The Byzantines
were the Medieval rulers of

large parts of
modern-day Turkey.

The discovery paints
a remarkable picture

of Troy's longevity.

The Bronze Age
destruction layers remain

out of reach for now.

So, how did the Greeks
believe Troy came to an end?

The fall of Troy is
perhaps the most famous

chapter of the tale.

After 10 years of war,
the Greeks devise a new plan;

they build a huge wooden horse
and leave it at Troy's gates,

then sail away as
if abandoning the fight.

The Trojans believe the
horse is a gift to the gods;

they drag it into
the city and celebrate

their supposed victory.

That night, Greek
warriors hidden inside

climb out and open the gates
to let the Greek army in.

While the Greeks
set fire to Troy,

King Menelaus finds
Helen and claims her back.

What might lie behind
such a dramatic ending?

Emily investigates the
western wall where Troy

is said to have fallen.

-This is a part
of the citadel that,

in Homer in the epic
The Iliad has an incredibly

resonant part to play,
we see it cropping up

time and time
again in the epic.

[Narrator] According
to The Iliad,

this is where Prince Hector
of Troy meets his wife

Andromache and
predicts the city's end.

[Emily] Hector knows
that this is a war that

he is going to lose;

this is a war that will end
in the destruction of Troy.

And Andromache responds
to him and says Hector,

you need to
defend the wall,

it is not
about attacking it;

it is about defending,
and she points to the

western circuits of the wall,
and she says there is a

place where there is
a weakness at the wall.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
have discovered that the

stonework here is unusual.

After the earthquake
in 1300 BCE,

the Trojans appear to
have blocked up the west gate.

[Emily] This is one
of those moments where

archaeology and literature,

epic and myth
really kind of collide.

This is a place where
we are seeing a significant

defensive weakening.

[Narrator] Rustem thinks
that this part of the city

was viewed as a
potential weak spot.

[Narrator] War chariots
were expensive and

terrifying weapons,
but they had fallen out

of use by Homer's day.

Rustem thinks the memory
of heroes climbing onboard

these prestigious
military vehicles might

have influenced the
myth of the Trojan horse.

[Narrator] The story of
the Trojan horse is just one

of many fantastical
tales inspired by this

ancient metropolis.

The team at Troy will continue
to hunt for more clues

about this city's downfall,
and perhaps uncover that

elusive piece of
evidence that might confirm

if the Greeks were
here at the time of

the city's destruction.

[Narrator] Troy, like its
counterparts in Greece,

was a real city, one
so powerful that its

soaring towers and mighty
walls became the setting for

a series of mythological
tales that still have the

power to move us today.

-People think
that myths are fairytales,

and they're not.

Myths and legends are the
product of human experience,

the wisdom of
people over the centuries.

One of the basic core
truths that we learn from

The Iliad and the story
of the Trojan War is how war

and violence
affect humanity.

[Emily] The Greeks
didn't see it as we do,

as myths disassociated
from history.

We've got to remember that
the word that we get myth

from in Greek,
it's mythos, it's word.

So, it's a way of
transmitting information,

and for them, this
was an absolutely real story.

[Narrator] The epics of
Homer and the stories of

the Trojan War are
among the greatest works of

literature ever composed.

An attempt by the Greeks
to understand who they were

and where they came from,
a window into a lost age,

an age of heroes.