All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S08E14.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[William Shatner] A sacred jewel
that dooms

its owners to death.

Mysterious stone heads

that unleash
a frightening Celtic curse.

And pieces of the past
that are said

to bring misfortune

to those who dare
to pocket them.

Is it possible
that a hex, a spell

or a condemnation

can possess an object,

wreak havoc on a place,

or bring harm
to an unsuspecting person?

Even skeptics
of the supernatural

will pause
to consider the possibility

that suffering, misfortune

and even death

might be caused by a curse.

But is this power to punish

the result
of summoning dark forces

or simply believing in

what could be
considered superstition?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

According to the Holy Bible,

this location was chosen by God

as a place for
the ancient Israelites

to perform a ritual

designed to punish
those who disobeyed

the commands of
the Almighty with a curse.

While it's been
a matter of debate,

remarkably, evidence of this
practice was discovered in 1980

when archaeologist Adam Zertal
uncovered a ritual altar

dating back to 1200 BC.

And recent excavations
seem to further corroborate

the biblical story
of this place called

the Mountain of the Curse.

[Scott Stripling] I led a team

in December of 2019

to the site of Mount Ebal,

and what I wanted to do was
to go back and to process

Adam Zertal's dump piles
from the 1980s.

All excavations leave behind
dump piles after they process.

Because my previous experiences
with old dump piles

had been that the archaeologists

missed most of the small finds
that were important.

And so we were able
to relocate the dump piles

from Mount Ebal
and to sift those,

and in that sifting process

we uncovered
this small lead defixio.

And a defixio is a curse tablet,

and this is what made it
so interesting,

is because the Bible defines

Mount Ebal as
the Mountain of the Curse.

Ancient peoples
wrote curses on lead

on the Mount Ebal Tablet.

We could see on the outside that
there were what appeared to be

proto-alphabetic symbols
on there.

Originally, the writing would
have gone all the way across,

but now it's folded
into two halves.

The tablet was never
intended to be opened.

Once the curse is written and
then sealed, it becomes binding.

It's sort of like
it's on record now with God

or with the gods.

[Shatner] This small artifact
provides insight

into a truly fascinating
ancient belief

that the written word could
conjure a supernatural curse

and inflict divine punishment.

But how widespread
was this practice?

[J.W. Ocker] Defixiones
originated in

ancient Greece, ancient Rome,
that-that time period,

and they're just
thin bits of lead

that a curse
has been inscribed on.

We found thousands
of these all over Europe.

They are pretty common as far
as archaeological artifacts go.

Typically, these defixiones were
looking for justice,

or they were
looking for revenge.

Or they were just trying
to cause a competitor to lose,

whatever that competition was,
whether as a rival suitor,

a rival sportsperson,
a rival politician.

They were meant
to cause those competitors

to fail in their quests.

The people would write
a spell or a curse

or the name of somebody
that they really despised

with the idea
that the gods would then

bring this curse to life.

And these are people
who are often

writing about their neighbors.

And even worse than that,

there are figurines
with their hands

tied behind their back,
with their feet bound,

buried as if they were
being laid to rest.

[Shatner] Across
the ancient world,

people believed
that curses could bring

ruin, illness and even death.

But how did this vengeful act

become a regular practice?

A curse is basically
a verbal message,

either written or spoken,
that is intended

to invoke supernatural powers

to cause harm to another person.

In terms of where
they actually come from,

it's one of those things
that I think

curses have always been around.

They were a very practical way

of trying to deal with problems
that might arise in your life,

that you could
invoke supernatural powers

that would act on your behalf.

[Ceri Houlbrook] The term
"curse" probably comes from

Latin "cursus," which refers

to Christian curses or prayers.

And there's a huge variety of
what curses were intended to do.

In ancient Greece, for instance,

they had curses
known as katadesmoi,

and they were binding curses.

So, they could be used for love.

But this wasn't love
in the romantic sense.

They were intended
to make somebody

almost physically dependent
on somebody else.

Unable to sleep, unable to eat,

unable to find pleasure
with anybody else.

There are very,
very potent curses

that are meant to

upset and destroy
and affect people,

sometimes even to kill them.

People used to mix up things

like little bits
of soil from cemeteries--

it's called grave dust--

or even the nails from coffins,

and they'd grind them
down into a kind

of maleficent potion
and then cast spells on them.

And people really thought
that these things worked.

They thought that if you
curse somebody in that way,

all those terrible things
might really happen to somebody.

[Shatner] The archaeological
record proves

that curses were a common tool

to pass on suffering
in the ancient world.

But incredibly, the practice
of inscribing curses on lead

may be much older
than we imagined,

based on further analysis

of the remarkable tablet
found on Mount Ebal.

[Stripling] Here, we
uncovered a curse tablet

from Mount Ebal,

where the Bible says
that they pronounced

the curses of the covenant.

And that's why it became

such a big story.

The tablet was fragile.

If you tried to open it,

then it would begin
to come apart.

But the main script, I felt,

was going to be on the inside.

Ultimately, I ended up
in Prague, Czechoslovakia,

and they have high-tech
tomographic scanners

that actually
gets through the lead,

and then you can begin to see
what it is that you want to see.

And when I began
to see the first scans,

the letters were indeed
this proto-alphabetic script

which dated all the way
back to the late Bronze Age.

Around 1400 BC,
or maybe 1350, somewhere

in that horizon.

And so, from there,

we began to see
the inscription unfold.

The core of the curse is

"Cursed are you
by the god Yahweh."

Then I was in awe and in shock

because Yahweh
was the Israelite god.

[Roy Fisher] What they allege
to have discovered

is rather shocking.

This ancient tablet

that they date

to about 3,200 years ago

is not a legal text.

It's not a poem.

It's a curse.

If their scholarly
reconstruction is correct,

this would be the oldest
Hebrew inscription

that we possess.

And for that inscription
to be a curse

is also rather shocking.

[Shatner] While the claim
remains controversial,

it's remarkable to think
that the earliest

Hebrew writing ever discovered

could be a curse.

But did these words once possess

real supernatural power?

Well, even today,
the belief in curses

is alive and well.

[French] A recent poll
showed that

around about 30%
of American adults

believe in the power
of curses in modern times.

And in fact,
much higher rates were found

in other parts of the world.

So, clearly, this is not just

something that
ancient peoples believed in.

There are still very, very
many people around the world

who still believe
in the power of curses.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] World-renowned
luxury auction house Christie's

accepts bids on high-carat
gemstones and jewelry.

Among the lots is
one ornate necklace

featuring
an immense black diamond

with a truly
sinister reputation.

It's known as
both the Black Orlov

and the Eye of Brahma.

This diamond has been
incredibly valuable

throughout its known history

for different reasons.
There's the size.

The Eye of Brahma,

or the Black Orlov,
is a 67.4-carat

enormous cushion-cut
black diamond,

which is big.

And it's in a necklace
surrounded by a garland

of laurel leaves
made of diamonds

on a long necklace
of white diamonds.

It's a gorgeous
piece of jewelry,

and it was sold
to a private collector

for I think
somewhere around $350,000.

Because if your
diamond is cursed,

it's worth a lot more money.

[Shatner] According to legend,
this remarkable stone

was nearly three times
its current size,

weighing 195 carats.

It was housed
in an ancient temple

in Pondicherry, India,

and set with reverence
into a sacred statue of Brahma,

the Hindu god of creation.

The Eye of Brahma started life

as part of a statue of Brahma.

And, uh, it is said,
according to legend,

that a Hindu monk stole the eye,

and, for this, was cursed.

Not only was he cursed,
allegedly, he was murdered

shortly after
committing his crime.

But subsequent owners of the gem

also met terrible fates.

[Raden] In 1932,
the diamond was bought by

a famous diamond collector

and gem dealer named J.W. Paris.

A few days later,
he wrote two suicide notes,

went to the top of a very
tall skyscraper in New York

and threw himself off.

Where it turns up next
is in Russia,

with a princess
named Nadia Vygin-Orlov.

Allegedly, she took it with her

when she fled
the Bolshevik Revolution.

And then, once
she was safe and sound,

threw herself off a building.

And no one knows why she did it.

The diamond was sold
to another Russian princess,

and shortly thereafter--
if you can believe it--

she went to the top
of a very tall skyscraper

and threw herself off.

And that's a part of
the curse that's so creepy.

[Shatner] Is there
truly a deadly curse

placed upon this black diamond?

While much of its legend
remains impossible to verify,

many believe that stories
surrounding cursed gemstones

such as the Eye of Brahma
are nothing more

than marvelous myths.

There are practical reasons

for claiming that a gem
is cursed.

If you say that a gem is cursed,

it increases the mystique
of the stone.

It increases the publicity
around it.

It increases the sale value
of the gem.

So, there are certainly reasons

to claim that your stone
is cursed,

particularly if you want
to increase the sale value.

There were other
extraordinary gemstones

that were believed
to bring bad luck with them.

Um, one of these
was the Hope Diamond...

...this beautiful blue diamond

that at one point belonged
to the French royal family,

who were then all guillotined.

So, it feels as though
tragedy and drama and death

follows these gems around.

But of course,
the reality is that

only somebody
super powerful, super wealthy,

super rich, super influential,

could ever own
something as precious.

And if you inhabit that sphere

of human life,
then you are likely

to bring trouble
to your own door.

[Tony McMahon] There have been
various cursed gems in history.

The Koh-i-Noor diamond

actually originated in India,

and it was owned by
various rulers in the East

who suffered
terrible misfortune.

But then found
its way into the hands

of the royal family in Britain.

Now, the royal family

have been very careful

in how they've
handled the Koh-i-Noor.

It's not worn
by the king or the queen.

It's worn by the queen consort.

So not the ruler,
and that's how the royal family

have tried
to circumvent the curse.

[Shatner] So, what is
really going on here?

Are the misfortunes
suffered by owners of rare gems

purely coincidental?

Or can precious jewels
become imbued

with dark forces
beyond our understanding?

One interesting factor
with respect to the idea

of a cursed gemstone

is the idea
that crystals of all kinds

can, in some way,

contain and release
subtle energies.

With respect
to a cursed gemstone,

the idea is that there's a kind
of dark energy inside them.

It's still a very,
very popular belief

all around the world,
in lots of different places.

[Ocker] Is it
a psychological phenomenon?

It's the opposite of the power
of positive thinking, right?

Now we're talking about
the power of negative thinking,

which is just as effective.

They call this
the nocebo effect.

Nocebo effects are
the idea that if you believe

that misfortune
is gonna come to you,

if you believe you are
cursed, in essence,

you can actually
make yourself cursed,

either through only focusing on
the bad things happening to you

or actually causing
bad things to happen to you.

[Shatner] Whether people are
manifesting their own misfortune

or becoming attached
to cursed energies

is a matter of continued debate.

But as for the Eye of Brahma,

some believe
its string of bad luck

was broken
in the mid-20th century

when a New York gem dealer

acquired the original
195-carat stone

and cut it into pieces.

[French] In the 1950s,

Charles F. Winson did actually
cut the stone up into three.

And it was said that

that seemed
to destroy the curse,

that all this kind of misfortune

stopped happening
to people after that.

Whether or not this was
the actual main reason

for his action, I can't say.

But the idea
that by cutting up the stone,

it had, in some way,
released that dark energy

so that it was no longer
going to have an effect

is something that
some people do take seriously.

It's reassuring
to think that a hex

might be undone by simply
destroying the Eye of Brahma.

But there are curses that
some believe never go away,

like the terrible misfortune
of those who dare to find

a lost treasure of gold.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] This remote,
840-square-mile wilderness

high in the Eastern Andes
is infamous

for sudden storms,

overgrown, unmarked trails

and dangerous
wildlife like pumas

and venomous snakes.

But it is said
that its greatest danger

lies in its legendary past.

[Hyland] About
20 years ago, I wanted

to see what the Llanganates
Mountains were like,

and so I went to them

and they were
an extraordinary place.

They're not like
the rest of the Andes.

They're much rainier.

You have vegetation
that lives in constant clouds.

There's something
very mysterious and unearthly

about the Llanganates
Mountains, and in fact,

there are
local Indians who believe

that the mountains
themselves are cursed.

[Shatner] Why would this rugged
terrain be considered cursed?

While some dismiss the idea
as purely superstition,

folklore tells
a compelling story where,

for nearly 500 years,

this untamed wilderness
is said to be the hiding place

for the treasure of Atahualpa,

the last great king
of the Incan Empire.

In 1532, Spanish conquistadors

captured the Inca King
Atahualpa.

And in order to try
to save his own life,

he told them
that he would give them

a huge amount
of gold and silver.

And the Spanish agreed
that if he provided

all this precious metal,

then they would let him live.

[Hyland] Atahualpa's known

as the Last King of the Incas.

He was believed to have
the essence of the divine,

like the other Inca Emperors.

So, for him to be seized
and held for ransom

was just unthinkable
in the Inca Empire.

We think the local people

gave up over
16,000 pounds of gold

and over
30,000 pounds of silver.

We think that the value
of his ransom was probably

up to $5 billion
in today's money.

And yet, the Spanish betray him.

Atahualpa pays the ransom,

and he's still killed
by the Spanish.

Virtually every
Spanish chronicler

tells us the same story.

The largest caravan
of gold and silver

never made it to the Spaniards.

This was a caravan
that was amassed

by Atahualpa's primary general.

His name was Rumiñahui,

and his caravan supposedly had

about 30,000 pounds of gold

and 20,000 pounds of silver.

So, this is an enormous,
enormous amount of wealth.

And when Rumiñahui found out

that Atahualpa was executed,
he turned around.

And this would
have been in Ecuador.

Many, many people believe

that Rumiñahui hid the treasure

in the Llanganates Mountains.

But unfortunately, Rumiñahui
was also killed by the Spanish,

and so no one, we believe,

was able to go back
and get the treasure.

So the treasure became
cursed because it represents

the bloody betrayal
of the Spanish.

At least, that's
what many people believe.

[Shatner] Do
the Llanganates Mountains

in Ecuador hide an Inca treasure

worth billions of dollars?

And if so, could it be
protected by a curse?

Perhaps,

because the Incas believed
that their gold and silver

was much more
than mere currency.

The Inca had
a very different attitude

to gold than the Spanish.

As far as
the Spanish were concerned,

they'd just melt down
anything they found

made of gold into bars

and ship it back
on galleons to Spain.

But for the Inca,

fashioning sacred items,

representations of their gods,

out of gold
made these representations

imbued with power.

[Hyland] Gold was considered
the sweat of the Sun,

and the silver was considered
the tears of the Moon.

It must have left
people heartbroken

to despoil their temples
and their palaces

of their greatest riches
in order to save the life

of their emperor. And so,

the betrayal when
the Spanish killed him anyway

must have been incredible.

[Shatner] Did the Incas cast
a supernatural curse

on anyone who dared to find

the remaining sacred objects
in these mountains?

The rumor was not enough
to stop many

from hunting for
the legendary stash of gold.

In 1860, an English botanist

named Richard Spruce
discovered a mysterious map

while on
an expedition in Ecuador,

and allegedly, it held clues

to the secret location
of the lost treasure.

[Hyland] Spruce eventually
published this map,

and Spruce's publication
is really the main basis

for this treasure hunt.

In the 19th century,
there was an English sailor

who was named Barth Blake.

Spruce sent copies
of the map to Blake.

And according to the story,

Blake brought back
18 pieces of the treasure,

which he was able to take

to the British museum
and get authenticated.

And then,
he decided to raise money

to have a whole expedition
to go back and get the treasure.

But on his return journey,

he mysteriously disappeared

overboard and died.

And a lot of people think
that maybe that was the curse.

[French] There are
numerous expeditions

down the centuries to try

to recover this lost gold.

Although they all claimed
that they had

an idea of where the gold was,

they never actually
found the gold.

And typically, they disappeared.

So, this has obviously
reinforced the idea

that the gold was cursed
in the first place.

[Shatner] No one
can say for sure

whether the treasure
of Atahualpa is hiding

in the mountains of Ecuador,

but perhaps it's best
to respect the power

of the Llanganates Mountains
and its legendary curse.

When I'm
in a village in the Andes,

living with local people,

and when they bring out one
of their sacred objects to me

that they believe has power,

I believe
what they're telling me.

And I wouldn't
want to be someone

who is disrespecting that,

because I don't know what would
happen to me if I did that.

If the lost treasure of
the last sovereign Incan Emperor

is still hiding in
the mountains of Ecuador,

protected for eternity
by a deadly curse,

then perhaps it's best
to leave it alone.

But there's
another type of spell,

one that can
drive a man to madness

by simply using

words.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] This historic
settlement dates back

an estimated 4,000 years.

But most famously, it was once

the ancient
Roman city of Carrhae.

Here, in 53 BC, Roman general

Marcus Licinius Crassus

readied 40,000 soldiers

to march against
the Parthian Empire,

Rome's greatest
rival to the east.

But before
the battle would begin,

some believe the army's fate
was already sealed

by a deadly curse.

The ancient Romans took
curses very, very seriously.

There was a Roman tribune
called Gaius Ateius Capito.

And he was well known for

really strongly
opposing the Parthian war.

This campaign was
being headed by Marcus Crassus.

So openly, formally,
in public, at the city gates,

as Crassus was
rallying his troops

and getting ready to march,

Ateius stood by the city gates

and called on the gods
of the underworld,

called on
the destruction of Crassus.

So, he was calling a curse

on Crassus to prevent
the war from going ahead.

Crassus' soldiers
begged Crassus to reconsider.

Such was the power
of the belief in the curse.

But Crassus ignored them,

went ahead, marched for Parthia,

and lost
at the Battle of Carrhae.

And in the aftermath,
Crassus lost his life.

[McMahon] Those few
survivors who returned

beleaguered, trudging back

through the gates
of Rome in disgrace,

believed that their misfortune

had been caused by
this curse levied on them.

So the curse
comes true big-time.

[Shatner] The Battle of Carrhae
is widely considered

one of the most
crushing military losses

in Roman history.

But was a spoken curse

really the cause
of this devastating defeat?

[Picknett] It's believed
that the curse spoken

has a very special power,

especially if you know
the name of somebody

or the name of something.

You're naming the person.

You're focusing on them.

You're getting all
the unseen forces behind you

to focus on that person,
and it won't be good for them.

[Shatner] Throughout history,

spoken curses have been feared

not simply as insults
or threats, but as weapons.

In ancient Egypt,
sacred words were believed

to protect the dead.

In medieval Europe,

legends speak of condemned men

cursing kings
and popes to their death.

And in Central Australia,

deadly spoken curses
were carried out

by a ritual executioner

known as the Kurdaitcha man.

[Houlbrook] So, in Aboriginal
cultures of Central Australia,

the Kurdaitcha man was
a ritual enforcer of sacred law,

and he would target anybody
who transgressed, so anybody

who broke the moral code.

And he would do this
by pointing a sharpened bone

at whoever had broken the law

and invoking curses
that could cause the death

of whoever it was aimed at.

[Picknett] And the bone pointing

and the verbal cursing
has an astonishing effect.

The person will sicken and die,

often really quickly,
within days.

And they haven't been
touched by a weapon.

All they've had is
somebody chanting at them

and pointing a sharpened bone.

[McMahon] The bone pointing
curse was given recognition

by both the legal
and medical authorities

in the early 20th century
in Australia,

and the reason for that was that
the curse did appear to work.

People actually died
with no logical reason.

[Shatner] Australian
newspapers suggest bone pointing

was still in practice in 1935.

And authorities tried to stop
these deadly ritual curses

because they truly believed
they had the power to kill.

So, what was really going on?

In the early 20th century,

there's an anthropologist,
a medical doctor in Australia

called Dr. Herbert Basedow,

and he investigates
the bone pointing curse

to try and get to grips
with what's going on here.

And he comes up with the
concept of psychogenic death,

which is that,
as a result of the curse,

there's a kind of
total organ failure,

total collapse of the body,

but for no observable reason.

There's no disease,
there's no attack.

The individual
who has been cursed

simply gives up
the will to live.

[Shatner] Can profound belief
in a deadly curse

result in one's death?

While it's still open to debate,

many believe that the mind alone

does have the power to kill.

There are documented cases of
people dying having been cursed,

and this probably is related to

the effects of
the belief in the Kurdaitcha.

It only works
if the person who is cursed

believes in the curse.

Now, in that situation, that is
obviously incredibly stressful.

We know from lots of
psychological research

that when animals and people

are in situations
of great stress,

it can cause them
to lose their appetite,

it can cause heart problems,
and ultimately,

it appears that it maybe
can actually really kill people.

Can words...

really be the instrument
of an executioner?

In the case
of the Kurdaitcha man,

some believe the answer is yes.

But there's another curse

that plagued residents
of a small town

and left many wondering
if what they were experiencing

was a trick of the mind

or something truly supernatural.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] This quiet, pastoral
town in the far north of England

originally dates back to 674 AD.

But about 50 years ago,

a pair of eerie,
allegedly cursed artifacts

were discovered in
this charming community.

They are known
as the Hexham Heads.

In 1971, we get
a very strange story

where Colin and Leslie Robson

claimed to have found
these strange heads

in their garden
in the town of Hexham.

And they also claimed
that, in the house,

those two little heads unleashed
poltergeist-related activity.

And this became a major tabloid
newspaper story at the time.

[Fisher] The people
living in the house

begin to report nightmares,

vague shapes, shadows,

movements in the house.

This then escalated to more

physical manifestations of

chaos and disturbance.

Unexplained fires.

Objects moving around the house.

Violent mood swings.

As they thought about this

progression of

strange, troubling behavior,

the only thing
they could connect it to

was the unearthing
of these heads.

[Ocker] The heads were
eventually given to a researcher

named Anne Ross,

and while she had
the heads in her possession,

she started seeing werewolves.

And then her daughter
started seeing werewolves.

Once these weird things started
happening at their house,

the media got wind of it,

and so the media showed up
and started doing articles.

All because of
these two little stone heads.

[Shatner] According
to some experts,

the eerie stone figures
found in the Robsons' yard

appeared to be what's
known as "Guardian Heads"

in Celtic folklore.

They date back as far as 500 BC,

and were often
positioned on buildings

and wells or thresholds

as a form of protection.

But if the heads were
indeed ancient Celtic objects,

why would the family
that unearthed them

be the receivers
of a terrible curse?

[Houlbrook] The ancient
Celtic religion

revered the human head

as a symbol of divinity
and as a seat of the soul.

But there's also the belief

that objects that are
associated with people

can also take on the qualities,
the attributes of that person.

So if an object was
associated with a strong person,

that object
takes on that strength.

But also, same with evil.

So if a person is evil,
then that object

becomes evil through their
association with that person.

[Fisher] Across cultures,
to bury something

is to create a boundary
and to seal it.

So there's some thought
that you could bury heads,

like the Hexham Heads,

as a way of sealing off

the power of that evil presence

from everyday life.

[Shatner] Is it possible
that these stone totems

released some kind
of evil presence

after they were discovered?

To this day,
many are questioning

if the ruckus was merely a hoax

or are the Hexham Heads
genuinely cursed objects?

What the Hexham Heads are,
to this day, we don't know.

And unfortunately, we may never
know, because at some point,

they disappeared. Nobody knows

where the Hexham
Heads are today.

But they are interesting because

all that weird
phenomenon that happened

didn't happen
until they were found.

[Fisher] The question is,
when you excavate

or remove things
from their proper place,

does this have
unintended consequences?

Does this
unleash power in the world

in the form of curses,
malevolent powers

that would have been best

left locked away and buried?

What happens
when we disturb things

from their resting place?

[McMahon] The thing
about the Hexham Heads

is that this is
the kind of curse story

that has mass appeal

because it could happen
to any of us.

We don't have to be
in an ancient temple

or a pyramid or
some kind of historical site.

We can just be at home
and find a cursed item

that's been left there
by people in the past.

♪ ♪

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

[Shatner] Almost
2,000 years ago,

this Roman city fell victim

to one of the most traumatic
natural disasters in history...

...when the eruption
of nearby Mount Vesuvius

blasted the area
with toxic gases...

...and entombed the citizens
in a thick blanket of ash,

leaving all eerily frozen

at the moment of their deaths.

[French] Vesuvius
erupted in 79 AD,

and it appears that
it probably took less than

20 minutes for
all the inhabitants

of Pompeii to be wiped out.

It wasn't the lava
that wiped them out,

it was the dust and gas cloud

that was
a consequence of the eruption

that basically suffocated them.

But what the volcanic
debris did do,

it preserved a lot of the people

and the objects
that were around,

so that we can still
go and see them today.

[Shatner] Each year, millions of

tourists from around the world
arrive in Pompeii to get

an up-close look at this
archaeological time capsule.

While it's a marvel to walk in
the ruins of ancient Pompeii,

some visitors take
more than memories

home with them when they depart.

Pompeii is one of
the most vivid examples

of sudden chaos and destruction

in human history.

Yet, for decades,

visitors who come to the park

secretly take mementos
home with them.

Bits of fresco,

rock, small things
that they can grab,

they haul off.

Here's where the story
gets even more fascinating.

Interestingly enough,

something that we see happening

on a regular basis

is people mailing the things
that they have stolen

back to Pompeii.

[Houlbrook] Pompeii receives
many, many parcels in the post

of objects that people
genuinely believe are cursed.

"We're sorry for taking them.

Please take them back
so that the curse is broken."

One Latin American tourist
sent just a stone back,

saying that his family had known

"nothing but
trauma after trauma"--

that's a quote-- "since
taking that stone from Pompeii.

So here, have it back."

There are hundreds and
hundreds of examples of this.

[Shatner] Is there
any real harm hidden

in a small piece of
the ruins of Pompeii?

If it's true that these
otherwise ordinary artifacts

have the power
to curse those that take them,

the question is why?

[Houlbrook] Pompeii itself

isn't just
an archaeological site.

It is, essentially, a mass grave

that witnessed
a terrible, violent tragedy

where so many people,

thousands of people,
lost their lives suddenly,

and then didn't experience
the real kind of burial rituals

that were supposed
to be enacted at that time.

[Ocker] Ancient Romans believed
that disturbing the dead

would cause
these spirits, called "Manes,"

to inflict bad fortune

on whoever did that disturbing.

So, what could be happening here

is that people
who take things from Pompeii

are literally
disturbing the dead

and inviting that, you know,
bad fortune into their life.

[French] Certainly,
people might feel some guilt

for what they've done

when they'd kind of
reflected on it later.

If you believe
that your life is cursed,

you tend to focus
only on the bad stuff.

[Shatner] So, what do we think?

Are ancient curses real,

or are they simply misfortunes

suffered by those
who believe in them?

[Ocker] Do ancient curses
really have power,

and that power just
continues throughout history, or

are they kept alive through
our stories about the artifacts?

And those ideas,
those narratives,

are what gives them
power in modern day?

[Houlbrook] There is
a desire to understand

when things feel chaotic,
when we can't know a reason

for why we're suffering.

We want to
be able to rationalize.

And if we can rationalize it,

perhaps we can control it.

So, I think as long
as there are humans

who want to understand why
things are happening to them,

there will be belief in curses.

Can an object or a place

be imbued with dark energy

that causes harm or afflictions?

Or are we psychologically swayed

to believe in evil invocations

based on fear and superstitions?

The fact that hexes have
haunted the human imagination

for thousands of years
is a testament

to their enduring power.

And while stories
of cursed jewels,

damned lost treasures
and deadly legends

continue to captivate us,

the question of
what is truly supernatural,

or merely our minds
playing tricks on us,

may forever remain unexplained.

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