1
00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:16,200
siempre me he sentido como en casa
en el pasado.

2
00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:23,760
Porque después de todo, ¿qué es el presente?
¿Excepto una cadena interminable de recuerdos?

3
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,320
Algunos de ellos están traducidos.
en piedra.

4
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:34,400
todos somos los herederos
de esos recuerdos,

5
00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,480
y nosotros cuidamos
<font color="

6
00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:49,400
All this so we can pass on
their revelation to the future.

7
00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,640
But every so often
something comes along

8
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,320
to shake them from our grip.

9
00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:16,640
In Mosul, in a matter of hours,

10
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,440
the forces of Isis destroyed
the work of centuries.

11
00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,520
<font color="
the ancient trading city of Palmyra

12
00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:28,440
where the cultures of Greeks,
Romans, Persians, Arabs and Jews

13
00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:30,160
have mixed and merged,

14
00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,440
it was feared
that exactly the same would happen.

15
00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,920
Here in Geneva, a few Palmyrene
<font color="

16
00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,520
stolen before the violence began,

17
00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,080
arrested at customs as
black marketeers tried to sell them.

18
00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:02,760
Like this bust of a priest.

19
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:08,440
His eyes wide open,
he seems not dead at all,

20
00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,800
just translated to a life elsewhere.

21
00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:19,360
<font color="
of the dead looted from their tombs

22
00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,280
ended up in exile,
but safe for posterity.

23
00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:28,280
Saving the art that remained
in Palmyra, however,

24
00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:31,800
could come at a terrible price.

25
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,040
Khaled Al-Asaad,
<font color="

26
00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:37,960
was 81 when Isis took the town.

27
00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:41,600
And when their soldiers demanded
he tell them

28
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:46,240
where the city's artworks
had been hidden, he refused.

29
00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,200
They beheaded him
in the Roman theatre,

30
00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:56,400
suspended his mutilated body
<font color="

31
00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,240
placed his head between his feet...

32
00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:07,000
..and attached a placard identifying
him as director of idolatry.

33
00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,520
Or we might say protector
of what needs to be saved,

34
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:17,480
cherished, passed on
as the work of civilisation.

35
00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:23,960
<font color="
talking about art.

36
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,320
I doubt very many of us are prepared
to lay down our lives for it,

37
00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,440
but for Khaled al-Asaad, the stones
and statues and columns of Palmyra

38
00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,560
were more than simply
an ensemble of antiquity.

39
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,800
<font color="
to tell him

40
00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:48,280
that the significance of Palmyra was
at once both local and universal.

41
00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,160
It's there for believers
and unbelievers, for East and West,

42
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,200
and somehow it had fallen to him

43
00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,360
to be the guardian
<font color="

44
00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:03,200
We can spend a lot of time debating
what civilisation is or isn't,

45
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:09,080
but when it's opposite shows up
in all its brutality and cruelty

46
00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,040
and intolerance
and lust for destruction,

47
00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,440
we know what civilisation is.

48
00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,520
<font color="
of its imminent loss

49
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,880
as a mutilation on the body
of our humanity.

50
00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:35,720
The record of human history
brims over with the rage to destroy.

51
00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:41,720
But it's also imprinted
with the opposite instinct -

52
00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:47,120
<font color="
the demands of food and shelter,

53
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,680
things that make us see the world
and our place in it

54
00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,320
in a different light.

55
00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,720
We are the art-making animal,

56
00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,880
and this is what we have made.

57
00:05:42,840 --> 00:05:45,480
When did it begin,

58
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,400
<font color="

59
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,160
the dawning of human creativity?

60
00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,280
Where did it begin?

61
00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,440
It must have started in Africa

62
00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,960
where Homo sapiens first evolved
about 200,000 years ago.

63
00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:10,120
On South Africa's Cape Coast,

64
00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,680
archaeologists have found evidence
<font color="

65
00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,400
stretching back
around 100,000 years.

66
00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,840
In one of those caves,
this was discovered.

67
00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:27,760
77,000 years old,

68
00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:32,480
a piece of red ochre,
a mineral naturally rich in iron,

69
00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,560
etched in a diamond pattern.

70
00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,800
<font color="
decorative marks ever discovered.

71
00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:43,920
The pattern may have been
a kind of language

72
00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:46,360
or a kind of number scoring,

73
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,000
but it's hard to see them
as serving any functional need

74
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,760
connected with shelter
or sustenance.

75
00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,160
<font color="

76
00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:01,160
and design announces
the beginning of culture.

77
00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:11,640
Another 40,000 years pass
and in northern Spain

78
00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:16,840
within a hill so uncannily conical
it seems man-made

79
00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,880
that mineral, that red ochre,
has become paint.

80
00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:27,400
<font color="

81
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:33,400
rudimentary marks have bloomed
and multiplied, red circles.

82
00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:37,480
There are no brushes,
no sticks to lay on this paint,

83
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,760
they are all applied orally -

84
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:42,520
colour swilled in the mouth
with saliva

85
00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,360
and blown directly onto the rock.

86
00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:52,600
<font color="

87
00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:58,400
an eruption of design not blown
onto the surface, but painted.

88
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,400
Contours, outlines,
flowing streams of dots.

89
00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:10,960
There's a meaning here,
but we don't know what it is.

90
00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,320
The signs of a biological compulsion
to pattern,

91
00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:18,200
<font color="

92
00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:19,960
what we want to do,

93
00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,520
what we can't stop ourselves doing.

94
00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,480
And then you come across this.

95
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:43,040
And in an instant,
vast millennia of time just collapse

96
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,480
and you're in the midst
of fellow humans.

97
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:48,320
<font color="

98
00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,760
signalling from a very long way off,

99
00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:56,080
37,000 years distant, in fact.

100
00:08:56,080 --> 00:09:00,960
But this long-distance greeting
somehow makes us bond

101
00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:07,080
with the makers of this
because they establish a presence

102
00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,000
that is palpably alive.

103
00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:18,480
<font color="
like these have been found in caves

104
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:22,960
as far apart as Indonesia
and Patagonia.

105
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:28,560
Wherever we went, it seems the urge
to signal a presence went with us.

106
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,720
And, undeniably,
these hand stencils do

107
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:38,320
what nearly all art
<font color="

108
00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,800
First, they want to be seen
by others,

109
00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,960
and then they want to endure
beyond the life of the maker.

110
00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:51,520
Like the earliest photographs,

111
00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,200
the images here are faded,
indistinct,

112
00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:58,640
but something tantalising is
<font color="

113
00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:03,800
the realisation that we can,
however crudely, represent.

114
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:10,560
In another cave further west
in Asturias,

115
00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:13,360
20 minutes walk away
from any daylight,

116
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:17,240
are images that are anything
but crude.

117
00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:33,920
<font color="
a life copy,

118
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:38,040
and executed with startling
precision of drawing technique.

119
00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:40,640
They even understood modelling,

120
00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:45,640
anatomical features following
the rock wall surface of the cave.

121
00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:47,400
And there were many colours,

122
00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:51,000
<font color="
but violets and blacks.

123
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:55,800
And all those techniques seem to
have been there from the beginning,

124
00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:59,560
tens of thousands of years ago.

125
00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:02,600
When you think about this technique,
your head just spins

126
00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:07,720
because it has to have been,
<font color="

127
00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:13,840
They would have had to fix in
their mind exact anatomical details

128
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:18,520
and then transpose them here
on the surface of the cave.

129
00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,960
And, yet, when all that was done,

130
00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:27,000
they managed to preserve
miraculously this animal vitality.

131
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,760
<font color="
the great marvels

132
00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:34,720
of the suddenly expanded human mind.

133
00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,720
It was in the later years
of the 19th century

134
00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:46,680
that images like these
began to be discovered.

135
00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:49,720
The first, and for many years
the most famous,

136
00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:54,480
<font color="
also in northern Spain.

137
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:03,960
Extraordinary paintings of bison,
herds of them,

138
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:08,960
sleeping, lying, standing.

139
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:18,680
But as the number of painted caves
discovered grew,

140
00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:23,200
it became clear that art and music
<font color="

141
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,920
for musical instruments were found.

142
00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:28,120
BLOWS HORN

143
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:29,920
Animal horns...

144
00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:31,800
FLUTE WHISTLES

145
00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,920
..flutes made from
bones of vultures,

146
00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:40,440
and even more hauntingly,
bullroarers,

147
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,600
<font color="
spun round the head

148
00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:47,880
that makes
this strange whooping sound.

149
00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,480
BULLROARERS WHOOSHES

150
00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,800
Recent experiments with
these instruments have suggested

151
00:12:55,800 --> 00:13:00,960
that the proximity of painting
and music was not accidental,

152
00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:05,400
<font color="
in sacred rituals.

153
00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:11,320
I'm using software to test
the acoustics in the space.

154
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:14,240
So we generate this swept sine wave

155
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,800
and we use that to capture
the acoustic of the cave.

156
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:24,440
And we can look for relationships
<font color="

157
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,400
WHISTLING

158
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,160
So the earliest paintings seem to be
in these small little side areas

159
00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:39,960
where maybe one person might be
there alone.

160
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:45,680
And then the later paintings seem
to be in more grand places,

161
00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:48,080
<font color="
would have gathered,

162
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,760
somewhere more dramatic
that sounds more dramatic.

163
00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:52,920
BULLROARER WHIRS

164
00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:02,480
You can compare these spaces
to a cathedral or a temple.

165
00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:06,760
They're places where people came
for sacred moments

166
00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:14,680
<font color="
and ritual and music.

167
00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:17,280
FLUTE WHISTLES

168
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:24,360
And it's like going into a place
that's kind of underground,

169
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:26,680
where you can stop time,

170
00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:31,960
where you can pause
and have that special moment

171
00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,960
where you're out of time,
<font color="

172
00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:38,680
Painting is the sound.

173
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:40,600
The sound making, the music-making,

174
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,520
whatever was happening
in this sacred ritual,

175
00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:46,120
that is the painting.

176
00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,520
The painting is what's left
of that activity.

177
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:09,560
Anthropologists
<font color="

178
00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,040
that almost all of ice-age painting

179
00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:16,000
had some sort of
otherworldly ritual function,

180
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,840
and that, therefore, it ought not
to be seen as art.

181
00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,600
Though, of course, religion has been
a primary purpose of art

182
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:25,400
<font color="

183
00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:39,560
In Africa, the animals that dominate
European cave paintings

184
00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:41,920
are accompanied by humans.

185
00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:49,120
They appear as
stylised, elongated figures.

186
00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:59,160
Sometimes they're shown while
becoming transformed into beasts.

187
00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,200
<font color="

188
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,680
creatures that could never have been
observed from life,

189
00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:11,120
but which arose from the
trance-struck imagination
of the shamans.

190
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:17,400
In the rock art of Africa,
these hybrids were painted.

191
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,240
<font color="
far fewer of them,

192
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:22,880
they went three-dimensional.

193
00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,880
In 1939, the fragments
of this lion-man,

194
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:35,320
carved from mammoth ivory,
were found in a German cave.

195
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:38,440
They remained an unsolved puzzle
for 30 years

196
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:43,480
<font color="
that they formed a single figure

197
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:48,040
made between 35,000
and 40,000 years ago.

198
00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:53,680
This may be a shaman
in the middle of a transformation.

199
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,360
It may be the very first
of the beast gods,

200
00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:02,080
around which Pagan religions
<font color="

201
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:07,400
Perhaps the making of such things
was itself a sacred calling.

202
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,400
To see how much work was
needed to make a lion-man,

203
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:17,280
archaeologist Wulf Hein embarked on
an experiment to carve a replica

204
00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,600
using authentic tools and materials.

205
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:22,480
<font color="

206
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,840
he used a piece of legally sourced
elephant ivory.

207
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:30,400
I started working from
the whole tusk

208
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,240
and then I took a big stone
and hammered away this piece,

209
00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:35,080
and I was sweating like hell

210
00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,040
because if I would have ruined it,
<font color="

211
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:41,840
And the most time-consuming part
of the work

212
00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,240
was setting free the arms

213
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,960
because I had to take
a very tiny tool

214
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,040
and make grooves like this
underneath, into the ivory,

215
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,320
and just scratch and scratch
<font color="

216
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:53,600
and working and working.

217
00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,640
I had blisters on my hands,
and every finger was aching.

218
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,120
It was very heavy work.

219
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,720
I started in April

220
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,040
and I stopped working
in the middle of July.

221
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,600
I worked about
<font color="

222
00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,840
In the end, it was about 400 hours,
then I stopped counting.

223
00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:20,480
I guess it was a real artist
who made this.

224
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:24,560
And he was set free by his community
only to do this piece of artwork.

225
00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:27,160
If you do this a whole summer
<font color="

226
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,960
you can't go hunting, you can't
go fishing, you can't do nothing

227
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,440
because you work all day on it.

228
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:36,840
It must have had incredible meaning
for the people who made it.

229
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:44,640
And these must have been charged
with meaning too.

230
00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:49,120
<font color="
the primal life events

231
00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:52,200
of birth and procreation.

232
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,560
Gravid earth mothers
weighty with fertility,

233
00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:01,560
enormous distended breasts
and buttocks.

234
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:05,280
So powerfully elemental
they seemed to speak directly

235
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:09,080
<font color="
when they first saw them.

236
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:12,880
The most self-consciously
modern of them all, Picasso,

237
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:16,560
told a friend that no sculptor
had ever bettered

238
00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:18,760
the Palaeolithic carvers.

239
00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:22,840
He bought a copy of this one,
Venus of Lespugue,

240
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:27,040
<font color="
all his life.

241
00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:32,040
Was he touched
by its archaic spirituality?

242
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,040
No.

243
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,360
He was earthly and worldly,

244
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:43,200
but he felt a deep communion
with the makers of a physical art.

245
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:47,600
And there were traces of that
<font color="

246
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,920
Despite rumours,
there's no direct evidence

247
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:56,920
that Picasso ever visited
the painted caves of Altamira

248
00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:01,080
or saw in person
the extraordinary painted bison

249
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:03,240
that those caves contained.

250
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:07,120
<font color="

251
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:09,080
one animal in particular,

252
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,960
not the bison,
but it's cousin, the bull,

253
00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,600
an animal to which he returned
again and again.

254
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,160
Do we think this is
mere coincidence?

255
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:27,480
He liked to call himself
<font color="

256
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:30,560
and in those images,
glimmering images in the caves,

257
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:33,200
he found, he thought, a fountainhead

258
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:36,320
of everything that was
truly creative

259
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:38,560
about the artistic instinct.

260
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,280
So he paid cave art
the ultimate compliment

261
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,960
<font color="

262
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:46,600
He looked at a bull

263
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:51,680
and then he produced this beautiful,
dashing, impulsive picture of a bull

264
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,240
so close to the original
in Altamira,

265
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,000
it could even have been
a studious copy.

266
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,320
But then he produced
<font color="

267
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,600
bulls drawn from
his own enormous range of styles,

268
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,320
from meaty naturalism

269
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,800
through classical Cubism

270
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:18,120
to a lightly delineated bull
that's really just a pair of horns

271
00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:21,520
and then that other thing
that bulls always need.

272
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:26,720
<font color="
expresses his admiration

273
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,120
for the genius of the cave painters,

274
00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:31,560
his belief that ancient or modern,

275
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:37,600
the hand of the painter, the hand of
the artist, never really changes.

276
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:41,400
And I have to say,
I agree with Picasso.

277
00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,680
<font color="

278
00:21:55,680 --> 00:22:00,520
which preserve the 19th century
style of museum presentation -

279
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:02,720
abundance.

280
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,240
And as we wander
through case after case,

281
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:13,240
not just of minute fashioning tools,
but ivory and bone,

282
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,960
<font color="
of birds and horses,

283
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,720
we can't avoid pushing back
instinctively

284
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,680
against the received wisdom
of the scholars

285
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,800
that none of these things
should ever be thought of as art.

286
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:33,280
For me, the last word
<font color="

287
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:37,480
belongs to one tiny ancient piece
in particular...

288
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,400
..The Lady of Brassempouy.

289
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:45,480
The lady of Brassempouy,

290
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:49,480
found in a cave
in south-west France in 1892.

291
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:55,400
She's between 22,000
and 25,000 years old.

292
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,520
<font color="
female head,

293
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,240
we have, for the first time,

294
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:09,720
something immensely
and movingly momentous.

295
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:14,120
We have the revelation
of the human face.

296
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:20,360
It's a tiny thing, it can just go
in the palm of your hand.

297
00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:22,040
<font color="

298
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:24,920
There are downward strokes
and sideward strokes

299
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:29,040
there is carving and gouging
and polishing and scraping.

300
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:33,640
Every kind of extraordinary craft
is applied

301
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,520
to give this face what we have to
say is its personality.

302
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:43,480
<font color="
below the forehead

303
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,080
to suggest the presence of eyes.

304
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:51,720
Those eyes are hauntingly vivid.

305
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,000
They only become eyes
when a shadow falls

306
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,760
over that passage in the head.

307
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,760
So this little piece would have been
<font color="

308
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,560
and as it was turned into the light,
the shadow would have fallen

309
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:07,640
and suddenly we have eyes as well
as that beautiful nose

310
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,960
and this extraordinary hair
falling down the nape of the neck.

311
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:18,880
Now we are not supposed to say,
<font color="

312
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,320
we're not supposed to
talk about art,

313
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,960
we're not supposed to talk about
things like

314
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,800
the birth of a refined sensibility.

315
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:29,800
I'm going to do that nonetheless.

316
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:32,400
I don't care
how anachronistic it is.

317
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,840
<font color="
from Brassempouy,

318
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:40,240
it seems to me that we have,
right in front of us,

319
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,400
the dawn of the idea of beauty.

320
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,520
But beauty is hard to eat.

321
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:57,080
The slow growth of civilisations
depended, at first,

322
00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:59,120
on practicalities -

323
00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:02,840
<font color="
and cereal crops.

324
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,520
The most ancient wheats
were harvested

325
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:11,200
on sites near the River Jordan
about 10,000 years ago.

326
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,320
Civilisations started small,

327
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:20,120
it depended on the invention
of needful things -

328
00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:24,600
<font color="
eating and storage.

329
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:30,080
Excavations in Iraq
in the 1920s and '30s

330
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:34,120
began to reveal how
intensive irrigation of the planes

331
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:37,360
between the rivers Tigris
and Euphrates had allowed

332
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:40,520
the world's first true cities
<font color="

333
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,000
By about 5,000 years ago,

334
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:49,160
cities with tens of thousands of
inhabitants, such as Ur and Uruk,

335
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:55,080
were producing art that reflected
the self-image of the powerful.

336
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,280
Here is the Standard of Ur

337
00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:59,960
where mosaic inlaid in bitumen

338
00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:03,040
<font color="
that mattered most.

339
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,600
Soldiers march,

340
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,560
war wagons roll,

341
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,600
and on the reverse,
a court convenes

342
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:17,960
with the king depicted larger
than his priests and courtiers,

343
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,520
ranged below the catering classes,
<font color="

344
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,320
It's a complete social world,

345
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,840
and it came with writing.

346
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,680
These scripts usually recorded
administrative matters,

347
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:37,720
but sometimes told the stories
of heroes and deities.

348
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:43,200
And animals continue to provide
<font color="

349
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:51,440
This gorgeous goat, also from Ur,
drew materials from far and wide.

350
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,120
White shells were from the Red Sea,

351
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:58,480
the blue lapis lazuli
from far Afghanistan,

352
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,560
and the gold leaf was
the work of local goldsmiths.

353
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,080
<font color="

354
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,720
in the islands
of the Eastern Mediterranean,

355
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:18,360
migrants from Western Asia seeded
Europe's first great civilisation,

356
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:21,200
the culture of the Minoans.

357
00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:29,280
Its ruins are everywhere on Crete
and on the islands of the Aegean.

358
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,440
<font color="
a fishing village.

359
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,600
You can almost hear the bustle.

360
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,240
Protected by the sea on two sides,
but closely packed.

361
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,280
So even here people will have had to
learn the skills

362
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:48,600
that any fixed settlement requires -

363
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,000
<font color="

364
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,280
But there's more to civilisation
than keeping neighbours happy.

365
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:07,040
On Crete itself,
we find the ruins of large towns

366
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:09,960
where the streets still
thread their way,

367
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,240
opening onto grandiose plazas,

368
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:16,200
<font color="

369
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:18,920
for ritual and for politics.

370
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:27,200
Minoan cultural style spread
across the Aegean Sea

371
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,760
to islands like Santorini.

372
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:38,360
A volcanic eruption destroyed
the port city of Akrotiri

373
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:42,120
in around 1627 BCE,

374
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,480
but the ash preserved
<font color="

375
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,320
in all their vivid realism.

376
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:54,080
They raised the ghost
of a seagoing civilisation,

377
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,880
a clear ancestor of our own

378
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,960
with its clamour and glamour,
its commercial pulse.

379
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,560
These passengers aren't going
to the afterlife,

380
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,040
<font color="
and festive excursions.

381
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,880
And on the land behind them,
there are streets

382
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,160
with multistorey houses,

383
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,200
and in the richer of them,
decorative paintings

384
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:25,280
of the kind consumers would want
for ever after.

385
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:32,040
<font color="
the world had seen.

386
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,400
Here are beautiful youths
duking it out.

387
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,000
Here are saffron gatherers.

388
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,080
Here are swallows.

389
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:47,160
A perpetual springtime
brought into the living room.

390
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:57,200
One contact sport dominated
<font color="

391
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:02,360
Young men, possibly women too,
back flipping over charging bulls.

392
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,920
It's long been argued
that this was too dangerous

393
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:08,640
to have actually happened,

394
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,840
that the art captures a myth,
a fantasy.

395
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,840
<font color="

396
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:17,680
there's a little bronze sculpture

397
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:23,760
that's pulsing with a natural energy
that feels absolutely true to life.

398
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:32,000
What strikes me
as being physically real

399
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,160
is the fact that this is not
a stylised piece of work at all.

400
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:37,840
<font color="

401
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,680
Even though our jumper
has lost his legs,

402
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,440
his back is braced,
his head is flung back.

403
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:49,240
And the bull, the bull is
indeed a bull in full charge -

404
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,880
front and back legs tensed.

405
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:56,240
The eyes, and you can actually see
<font color="

406
00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:00,400
and the muzzle is snorting
with dangerous foam.

407
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,800
Around the 15th century BCE,

408
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:13,040
Minoan culture was producing
myriad tiny masterpieces.

409
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,040
Seal stones
to be pressed into soft wax

410
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,720
or worn as micro art.

411
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:25,640
<font color="
with goddesses or their priestesses,

412
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:30,360
bare-breasted, wasp-waisted
with flaring skirts.

413
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:36,920
Minoan art was irresistibly
attractive to a raw rising power

414
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:38,560
on the Greek mainland.

415
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,320
Here was a culture that wanted
<font color="

416
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:49,200
in sophistication that would play
a vital role in European history -

417
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,240
the Mycenaeans.

418
00:31:55,200 --> 00:32:00,880
In 2015, American archaeologists
were digging in western Greece,

419
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:05,920
and here, far from Crete, they made
the most significant discovery

420
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,560
<font color="
for many, many years.

421
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:17,280
They found the grave of a warrior
buried around the year 1450 BCE.

422
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:25,080
Here we are in the grave
to look at our body today.

423
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,560
It was the body of a Mycenaean.

424
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:35,680
Pretty amazing.

425
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:41,320
<font color="
with the body were clearly Minoan.

426
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,840
This is our third gold ring.

427
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:52,280
Four solid gold rings were
eventually found in the grave.

428
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:57,760
They're just exquisite, actually.

429
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:01,560
The craftsmanship on all of them
is stunning.

430
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:03,560
<font color="
to tell.

431
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,920
They're very much like
the iconography

432
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:07,440
that you find in Minoan Crete.

433
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,000
I think that's a really important
lesson to learn

434
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,680
about how civilisations evolve.
Yeah.

435
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:19,200
<font color="
borrowing and receiving inspirations

436
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,040
from their predecessors

437
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:25,840
and from those that surround them
as they evolve.

438
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:31,080
In total, the grave contained
over 1,500 separate objects.

439
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,880
There was a corroded bronze mirror
<font color="

440
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,120
Vanity was part of
the warrior's job description.

441
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,360
Hair was ritually combed
before battle.

442
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,440
And, of course, there were swords.

443
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,440
The grave of the Griffin Warrior has
all of the artefacts

444
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:56,120
that you would expect a warrior
<font color="

445
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,240
And this is the first time
that we can really understand

446
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,600
what the complete warrior kit
looked like.

447
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:04,840
One of the objects found
in the grave -

448
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,120
tiny, not quite 1.5 inches long -

449
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,520
<font color="

450
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,280
Once cleaned, it forces us
to rethink everything

451
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,840
we thought we knew
about this moment in history.

452
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:26,720
High resolution photographs show
the extraordinary achievement.

453
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:37,840
We see the long hair flowing free

454
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,080
<font color="
before battle.

455
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,000
We see a sword lying on the ground

456
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,280
exactly like the swords discovered
in the grave.

457
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:51,960
But that is just the beginning.

458
00:34:54,240 --> 00:35:00,400
This is the first fight scene
in all of European art,

459
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,080
<font color="

460
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:06,200
Yes, there are occasional moments of
combat and battle in other cultures,

461
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,440
but they're flat,
they're very stylised,

462
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:14,000
they don't feel like
the smash of bone and bronze

463
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,840
and metal and the spout of blood,
<font color="

464
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:24,480
This goes straight from 1450 BC
to action movies.

465
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,760
Look at those rippling biceps.

466
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:28,400
Look at those muscles.

467
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:29,920
Look at those tense bodies.

468
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:33,160
This cross
of locked-together fighters.

469
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,760
A spear that's about to try
<font color="

470
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,320
before it's too late.

471
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,200
The sword that's about to
plunge down.

472
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:44,640
It's 3-D, folks.
It's coming at you.

473
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:49,200
And, inevitably, there is
already a dead body,

474
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,400
perfectly modelled,
<font color="

475
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:55,400
Homer speaks of such bodies

476
00:35:55,400 --> 00:36:00,320
with a hand or a face
writhing in the dust.

477
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:08,200
But, people, Homer is
700 years later.

478
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:14,480
700 years later,
the time between Chaucer and us.

479
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:20,160
Somebody out there with incredible
<font color="

480
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,960
a body of combat literature

481
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,640
that goes all the way down to those
beautiful Homeric inventions.

482
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,560
It sets something running
in European culture.

483
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:35,600
This Mycenaean love of guts
and glory

484
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,800
<font color="
along with the Minoans,

485
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:40,880
will pass into history.

486
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,320
But this doesn't pass into history,

487
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,360
it passes into poetry.

488
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,800
It passes for ever into the world.

489
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:58,920
Sometimes there are discoveries
that radically transform

490
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:01,200
<font color="

491
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,320
But then there are other discoveries

492
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:08,760
that reveal a culture so far outside
the river of history

493
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:11,360
that we may never
truly understand them.

494
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,840
As Mycenae rose
about 3,000 years ago,

495
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,600
an extraordinary culture grew
<font color="

496
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,560
Sanxingdui.

497
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:31,160
Its remains were unearthed in 1986
on a building site.

498
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:39,080
The revealed pits contained
hundreds of elephant tusks,

499
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,840
the remains of sacrificed animals,

500
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:48,160
and a vast and startling abundance
of masks.

501
00:38:03,240 --> 00:38:05,640
<font color="

502
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:07,280
There were giant masks

503
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,320
which probably stood
in some sort of temple.

504
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,320
There were little itty-bitty masks,

505
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,680
There were masks that were
user-friendly,

506
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,400
that almost certainly could be worn
on the face.

507
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:21,920
<font color="

508
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,600
This one, you can still see
a few traces of black paint.

509
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,640
They were painted black.

510
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:29,880
Dashing eyebrows.

511
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:32,200
Diamond-shaped eyes.

512
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:36,480
Nothing in the rest of ancient China
has ever been discovered

513
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,400
remotely like these faces,
<font color="

514
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:45,240
The bronze is the same,
the figures and faces are not.

515
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,080
Nothing that can tell us anything
about the people

516
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:55,200
who made these objects has survived.

517
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,920
There are no writings, no other
histories to tell us who they were.

518
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,280
<font color="
that some of the masks

519
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:08,840
might have been used in rituals
by impersonators of the dead -

520
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:12,640
those enormous eyes
which see beyond the world,

521
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,200
the ears which might hear
what the departed say.

522
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,720
But this is all pure speculation.

523
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:26,240
<font color="
it flourished,

524
00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:29,160
and then it disappeared
off the face of the earth.

525
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:41,520
But civilisation is
always a balancing act.

526
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:43,840
There may be enemies at the gates,

527
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:47,600
there may be enemies
within the walls,

528
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,520
<font color="
the very landscape and climate

529
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,600
in which a culture grows
must be conquered.

530
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,400
It may be too rocky, too arid,

531
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:07,760
but here canyons and gullies became
the streets and thoroughfares

532
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:10,760
for one of the most
spectacular civilisations

533
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,040
<font color="

534
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:44,960
This is Petra where the sheer
improbability of its location

535
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:49,120
was also the secret
of its spectacular flourishing.

536
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:56,240
The reason why this tomb endured
and survived armies and earthquakes

537
00:40:56,240 --> 00:40:58,720
is that the Nabateans who built it

538
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:02,440
<font color="
surface of the mountain,

539
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:07,000
rather than build some freestanding
marble monument.

540
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:10,600
The mountains shook
with earthquakes,

541
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,920
but these buildings stood intact.

542
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,240
The Nabateans had
what you might call

543
00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:19,280
<font color="

544
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:23,400
They worked with the rock
of their desert home.

545
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:25,680
The columns are graceful.

546
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,160
The capitals are heavily decorated.

547
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,520
It's all part of an international
Hellenistic style,

548
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,800
and, yet, it seems to me
<font color="

549
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,480
untransferable.

550
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:42,240
This is Petra and only Petra,

551
00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:45,720
these great palatial buildings
seem to say.

552
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:59,840
More amazing still, this place was
built by people who were nomads

553
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:04,120
when they first arrived here
<font color="

554
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:14,040
The Nabataeans were goat herders,
camel riders, dwellers in tents.

555
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:20,600
But flocks and herds
weren't going to produce this.

556
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:29,040
Petra was built on trade in incense.

557
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:34,120
2,000 years ago,

558
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:38,000
aromatic frankincense and myrrh
<font color="

559
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,720
for the ceremonies and rituals
which punctuated daily life.

560
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:48,880
The nondescript little chunks
and granules of dried tree resin

561
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:53,080
produced these clouds
of fragrant incense smoke,

562
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:57,800
and they became the hottest trade
<font color="

563
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:01,080
And here's the thing,
the trees that produce the resin

564
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:03,320
only grow in a particular part
of Arabia,

565
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,120
and who knew that desert
mile by stony mile,

566
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,480
oasis by oasis,
better than the Nabataeans?

567
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:11,720
<font color="

568
00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:16,600
So the Nabataeans started as
navigators and pilots, if you like,

569
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:18,640
for this precious cargo,

570
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:20,640
went on to be
full-service providers,

571
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:24,400
and then thought, "Well, why don't
we trade it ourselves directly?"

572
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,640
Pretty soon they were monopolists
<font color="

573
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,240
the emperors of aromatics.

574
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:39,440
But a civilisation here
was inconceivable

575
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,080
without the one thing more precious
than frankincense -

576
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:44,960
water.

577
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:50,240
The Nabataeans engineered systems to
trap the rains which came in winter

578
00:43:50,240 --> 00:43:54,920
<font color="
this place not so much rose red,

579
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:57,440
as bright green.

580
00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,880
A garden city of fountains,
swimming pools,

581
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,280
groves and orchards.

582
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:10,920
And the water which made
all that possible

583
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:16,080
also made it possible to feed
<font color="

584
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:18,920
many of whom were immigrants
from all over the region.

585
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:23,560
There were Egyptians and Syrians
and Judeans and Greeks and Romans,

586
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,440
and they were all coming to Petra

587
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:30,360
to enjoy what the Persians called
a pairi daiza,

588
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:34,360
<font color="
a little bit of heaven on Earth.

589
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:45,760
And they all brought a flourish of
their own cultural styles with them.

590
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:49,280
Most of the art discovered
here has been taken to museums,

591
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:54,000
but what survives tells the story
of a cosmopolitan playground.

592
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:58,480
<font color="
representations

593
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,360
of a Nabataean goddess...

594
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:08,240
..carved heads from the wine soaked
Hellenistic cult of Dionysus.

595
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:15,960
Recent excavations have brought
to light ritzy villas

596
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,400
carved into the living rock.

597
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:23,000
Inside them,
<font color="

598
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,800
from that same Dionysian cult,

599
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:29,560
cherubs, vine leaves,

600
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:33,040
the inevitable bunches of grapes.

601
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:39,200
And from the later years
of Petra's life, Byzantine mosaics

602
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:43,800
found beneath the sand and rubble
of a ruined church.

603
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:55,240
<font color="
its centuries, and then it ended.

604
00:45:55,240 --> 00:45:57,240
Not because of conquest,

605
00:45:57,240 --> 00:46:02,840
but because new trade routes simply
made Petra commercially irrelevant.

606
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,520
And without
that commercial lifeblood,

607
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:10,280
there was no longer any reason
<font color="

608
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:14,240
The people left,

609
00:46:14,240 --> 00:46:18,480
the systems for capturing water
fell into disrepair,

610
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,240
and the desert reclaimed the city.

611
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,360
BIRDS SING

612
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:44,160
On the other side of the world
in Central America,

613
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:47,960
another culture would face a set of
<font color="

614
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,640
that seemed far more hospitable.

615
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:57,320
The Mayans lived amidst
tropical forests.

616
00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,640
It looks almost absurdly fertile.

617
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:06,080
And these great ruins are proof
that when the delicate balance

618
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:10,960
between prospering habitat
<font color="

619
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,560
civilisations can bind rulers
and the ruled,

620
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:21,040
and a culture can burst
into riotously prolific bloom.

621
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:27,280
If you take away
all this magnificent vegetation

622
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:29,680
that's sprung up naturally
from the space,

623
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,720
<font color="
an extraordinary plaza,

624
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:34,920
it's the centre of a city.

625
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:38,440
Wherever you look, there are
these huge stone staircases,

626
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:40,560
some temples, some tombs,

627
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,800
all the more amazing because
there are no draft animals,

628
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:45,400
there are no wheels,

629
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:50,040
<font color="
for these great things.

630
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,560
This is a spectacular space.

631
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:57,560
The kind of space you would really
expect to see in Rome or Greece,

632
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:01,440
these great pyramids
with platforms for performances

633
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:05,680
because this, as much as anywhere
<font color="

634
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:08,520
is essentially an urban theatre.

635
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:17,040
It's a theatre of political
and religious power.

636
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:21,840
A structure like this looks down
upon the citizens

637
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,080
and forces them to look back up.

638
00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:28,920
And what they looked up to
<font color="

639
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:32,040
the mass sacrifice of captives.

640
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,160
And one God in particular
had a special thirst...

641
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,440
..the rain god, Chaac.

642
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:48,480
The power of the Mayan kings
rested on the promise

643
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,400
that every year they would persuade
<font color="

644
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,000
on which all life depended.

645
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:58,200
Mayan art and architecture
was a prayer

646
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:00,640
and appealed to the weather -

647
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:04,720
"Let us live,
let every year be fruitful."

648
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:10,920
Only the most damaged of the art

649
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:14,600
that used to adorn Calakmul
<font color="

650
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:18,880
In Mexico's anthropology museum,

651
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:23,400
we can see some of that art
and how Mayan society worked.

652
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:26,520
There were kings
made of flesh and blood

653
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:29,440
and kings made of stone,

654
00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:32,760
and you had to obey both kinds.

655
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:41,360
<font color="
and formal, far from it.

656
00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:43,360
It was hugely varied.

657
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:46,880
One of the most spectacular
flourishings of creativity

658
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:48,320
in human history.

659
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:53,360
Every human type got
his or her figurine,

660
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:58,080
like action characters and heroes
<font color="

661
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:07,760
There were ceramic vessels
and there were murals too.

662
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,000
And out of the Mayan delight
in making pictures

663
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:14,680
developed a fully-fledged script.

664
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:24,520
Writing made up of glyphs
or word pictures.

665
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:30,720
They were brushed onto paper
<font color="

666
00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:33,160
painted onto
beautiful ceramic pottery

667
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:37,280
or, like this one,
carved into limestone.

668
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:39,520
They were everywhere
in Maya city states.

669
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:43,400
The Maya were the wordiest
of all ancient cultures.

670
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:45,080
<font color="

671
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:48,280
which looks like something purely
decorative, ornamental,

672
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:49,880
a bestiary with all these animals,

673
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,920
there's a monkey,

674
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:55,320
there's a magnificently
complacent frog,

675
00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:59,120
there in the middle is
an extremely scary killer rabbit,

676
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:03,080
<font color="
which make a text.

677
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:07,480
Each glyph is not a single word,
but it's a syllable, in fact,

678
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:12,320
and you put them together and
you have a sentence, a paragraph.

679
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,760
But in this case,
it makes up a date.

680
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:18,000
<font color="

681
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:22,640
This is the 11th of February, 526.

682
00:51:27,720 --> 00:51:32,520
In 526, Mayan civilisation
was at its height.

683
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:34,880
It's art and culture flourished

684
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:38,960
and many believe that the finest
Mayan art of all is to be found

685
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:40,880
in the city of Copan.

686
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:48,880
<font color="

687
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:52,200
that lasted from the fifth
to the ninth centuries,

688
00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:55,600
16 successive kings ruled here.

689
00:51:57,880 --> 00:52:01,520
An archaeological team,
led by Bill and Barbara Fash,

690
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:04,360
have been studying Copan
for over 30 years.

691
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:08,560
And they've found
<font color="

692
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:13,000
the art of Copan is elegant,
refined, astonishing.

693
00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:19,720
Single carved steles announce
the accession of new kings.

694
00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:27,360
It's the work of a society
where that balance between habitat

695
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:30,120
and ambition is still in good order.

696
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:37,640
<font color="
a more vivid realisation

697
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:41,200
of the rain god Chaac than this.

698
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:46,480
Complete with the bubbling streams
of water that his blessings brought.

699
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:52,840
In the seventh century,
the 12th ruler of Copan

700
00:52:52,840 --> 00:52:56,200
commissioned a new grand structure.

701
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:02,200
<font color="
stairway of Copan.

702
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:05,760
It was built, originally,
in honour of ruler 12

703
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:07,560
who is portrayed here,

704
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:10,960
and then was finished by ruler 15

705
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:14,360
who added on
the uppermost section of it.

706
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:18,080
And it has 64 steps in total

707
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:20,800
<font color="
the dynasty

708
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,600
and the succession
of the different rulers.

709
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:28,480
The stairway itself is
a monumental statement.

710
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:33,320
Certainly ruler 15 was trying to
impress the population

711
00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:37,160
so he was really trying to
<font color="

712
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:40,680
what the history of Copan was
and what the dynasty was

713
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,080
and to make sure that it stayed
for the future.

714
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:50,800
The hieroglyphic stairway sought
to impress the people

715
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:53,960
and to persuade the gods
to continue to bring rain.

716
00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:03,840
<font color="
the archaeologists have discovered

717
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:07,680
that this grand structure was,
in fact, badly built.

718
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:13,200
You can see all these gaps
in the fill itself

719
00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:15,640
indicate that it was
just loose rubble.

720
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:18,120
This is a terrible way
<font color="

721
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:21,400
What this tells us is that,
at this point in time,

722
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,800
people were no longer
as enthusiastic

723
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:25,760
about supporting the rulers.

724
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:31,240
Even though a gorgeous and
very explicit hieroglyphic stairway
was built here,

725
00:54:31,240 --> 00:54:33,280
<font color="

726
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:35,360
so it was a castle built on sand,

727
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,160
and with time, eventually,
it did decay

728
00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:43,360
and the stairway itself collapsed in
a heap at the bottom of the pyramid.

729
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:52,160
The stairway we see today
has been reconstructed,

730
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:56,760
<font color="
of the collapse.

731
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:03,360
The stairway was built as
the Mayans were suffering a drought

732
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:04,960
that would last decades,

733
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:09,120
and the promise of rain had been
a central plank of royal authority.

734
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:18,440
Shortly afterwards, the kingdom of
<font color="

735
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:20,680
All across the Mayan territories,

736
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:25,240
art and authority were out of step
with reality.

737
00:55:25,240 --> 00:55:29,600
There was nothing grand or stately
about starvation.

738
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:34,960
And the ordinary people of the Maya
saw that their civilisation

739
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:38,520
<font color="
and walked away,

740
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:41,680
left kings and cities
and art behind.

741
00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:46,080
They went back to simpler lives
in the surrounding forest.

742
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:51,360
And their descendants are
still very much alive.

743
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:56,320
IN SPANISH:

744
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:33,280
<font color="

745
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:37,200
but far away from the stone
monuments of their ancestors.

746
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:42,360
All that remained to say
that beneath the forest canopy

747
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:44,360
there was the civilisation,

748
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,040
were the summits
of the platform pyramids,

749
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,760
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750
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:53,400
and the howler monkeys
scrambling to the tops of trees

751
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:55,200
would have seen that.

752
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:02,720
All civilisations want
what they can't have -

753
00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:05,360
the conquest of time.

754
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:09,840
They build higher and grander
to escape mortality.

755
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:11,680
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756
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:14,280
There's always an ending.

757
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,840
Cities with their markets,
temples, palaces and tombs

758
00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:19,880
are simply abandoned

759
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:23,840
and that great leveller,
Mother Nature, closes in,

760
00:57:23,840 --> 00:57:27,320
strangling the place
with vegetation,

761
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:30,400
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762
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:36,440
It might seem, then, that it's
all for nothing,

763
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:40,000
but that's entirely wrong.

764
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:44,120
All these ruins,
all these remains are monuments

765
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:47,640
to human creativity,

766
00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:50,160
human ambitions,

767
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:51,760
human hopes.

768
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:59,680
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and shaping minds.

769
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:06,440
Monuments to humanity itself.

770
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:15,360
The Open University has produced
a free poster

771
00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:18,320
that explores the history of
different civilisations

772
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:19,920
through artefacts.

773
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:23,080
To order your free copy,
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774
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:27,920
Or go to the address on-screen

775
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:30,480
and follow the links
for the Open University.