All language subtitles for Unearthed.2016.S10E06.1080p.WEB.h264-REALiTYTV_track2_[eng]

NARRATOR: Nimrud,
a ruined ancient city

in the Iraqi desert,

once the capital
of a great empire,

Assyria.

After years of conflict here,

our cameras have unique access
to follow archaeologists as

they return to unearth

the buried secrets
of this war-torn land...

Yeah, this is what
we're looking for, right?

...and rescue priceless
ancient artifacts

targeted by terrorists.

NARRATOR:
The city hides tombs

full of unimaginable
discoveries...

It was one of the largest
treasures that were found with

any royal tomb, that includes
with tombs that were found

in Egypt.

...that could help decode
the secrets of the king

who builds this city

and solve the mystery
of why it is destroyed.

SEBASTIEN: The power of
Assyria would be

completely nullified, would be
obliterated from history.

NARRATOR: How does this one city
rule the greatest empire

NARRATOR: How does this one city
rule the greatest empire

of its time, and what gruesome
fate befalls its people?

To solve these mysteries,
we digitally reconstruct

this city to reveal
its secrets,

unearth mysterious rooms,
and decipher ancient texts.

We rebuild
extraordinary palaces

and discover
the long-forgotten

royal tombs buried below

to reveal the hidden secrets
of the Assyrian kings.

Mesopotamia,

the cradle of civilization,

home of the world's
first cities

and the world's
first true empire.

Twenty miles south of
modern-day Mosul in Iraq,

a 3,000-year-old city
emerges from the sand.

a 3,000-year-old city
emerges from the sand.

This was once
the great capital of one

of the most influential
empires in the ancient world.

NARRATOR:
When the ancient Greeks

first discover these ruins,

its people are long forgotten.

Their story is lost in texts
that they cannot decipher.

Clues remain
of the city's former glory,

fragments of elaborately
carved stone reliefs

and grand entrances to
the remains of huge buildings.

This is the city of Nimrud.

In its heyday,
it is a city

like nothing
the world has ever seen.

In 800 BCE,

five miles of walls run
around Nimrud,

towering 42 feet high.

Palaces and gardens
fill the citadel,

and a magnificent ziggurat
temple connects

the citizens
with the gods above.

the citizens
with the gods above.

In the northwest
is the largest and most

luxurious palace ever
constructed to date.

Outside the walls of
the palace citadel lies

the residential quarter, with
enough homes for 75,000 people.

Who builds this incredible
capital city?

Modern conflict has left scars
at this mysterious site.

Modern conflict has left scars
at this mysterious site.

The standing remains of
the city are tragically

destroyed when the site is

taken over by
Islamic extremists,

Daesh, in 2015.

They claim they are removing
false idols that offend Islam,

but the destruction is
a smokescreen to hide

their lucrative trade
in looted ancient artifacts.

Iraqi American Mark Altaweel
returns to the site for

Iraqi American Mark Altaweel
returns to the site for

the first time since
the destruction.

Many parts of the city are
still dangerous to explore.

He is part of a global effort

to recover
what's left of the city.

MARK: The plan for Nimrud
is some form of rehabilitation,

reconstruction -- specifically,
there are large remains of

the reliefs, which can be
brought together, consolidated,

perhaps even fixed to some
extent -- that's probably

the first major step.

The once magnificent gateways
in Nimrud are no more.

And inside, Mark finds only
fragments of huge carved

reliefs that once stand in
the palace throne room.

Some of the restoration work
is being

done here in the museum
at Mosul.

Daesh also target the museum

and loot many of
its ancient treasures,

destroying the rest.

These artifacts reveal
who builds this once great city.

These artifacts reveal
who builds this once great city.

Stefan Maul is an ancient
language expert.

He's attempting to reconstruct
a stone block, or stele, from

the palace throne room, smashed
by Daesh into thousands

of pieces.

It is inscribed
with cuneiform,

the writing system
used in the ancient city.

For the moment, we still
are working on the surface

with the inscription
but there are

other parts,
which are un-inscribed

and smashed, as well,
and we have to find

and smashed, as well,
and we have to find

these pieces
and to put them together.

NARRATOR: Stefan faces
an almost impossible task.

To rebuild the block,

he needs to know what
the inscription says.

Complete cuneiform is tough
to translate,

but when it smashed into
pieces, it's tougher still.

STEFAN: The biggest problem
is that we don't have

a photography of the stele
which still was intact.

So it's difficult.

So it's difficult.

NARRATOR: Stefan and the Iraqi
team at the museum are

trying to piece together
the world's most difficult

jigsaw puzzle.

[sing-songy]
Da da da!

Wonderful.
Yes, exactly.

Good.

NARRATOR: The words on the stele
are 3,000 years old,

and Stefan is just
one of a few

experts in the world
who can read them.

experts in the world
who can read them.

They contain clues that
identify the builder of Nimrud.

What is written here is, in
the Babylonian language...

[speaking Babylonian]

...which means
"in the city of Kalhu."

This is the ancient
name of Nimrud.

"The center of
the mighty dominion."

And continues,
"The temple of Enlil

and the temple of
Ninurta.

I founded them
in the midst of the city."

I founded them
in the midst of the city."

NARRATOR: These are
the words of a king,

the creator of the capital
city of Nimrud

and also the ruler of a vast
empire known as Assyria.

This is a stele, which one of
the most famous Assyrian kings

Ashurnasirpal II.

So this stele
basically celebrates

and describes the building
activities of this king.

NARRATOR: King Ashurnasirpal II
carefully plans

the city of Nimrud in
880 BCE.

He boasts about ships loaded
with wood, ivory, and stone

that travel up
the River Tigris

to the city's bustling docks.

Animals from around the world
also arrive on the ships.

Lions, monkeys, and gazelles
are herded

into the botanical gardens
and hunting grounds.

into the botanical gardens
and hunting grounds.

Ashurnasirpal celebrates
the completion

of this new city
with a lavish feast

for 70,000 people
from across the empire.

The Mosul Museum
also partners with

the Louvre Museum in Paris on
this important project.

Daniel Ibled is one of
their master stone restorers

and has the skills to restore

Ashurnasirpal's
finest sculptures.

This sculpture is once
a 9-foot-tall lion

that stands in the sacred
temple of the goddess Ishtar.

Iconic symbols
of the Assyrian Empire,

statues like these are
colossal gateway guardians.

statues like these are
colossal gateway guardians.

Many have the body of
an animal with a human head,

a creature known as a lamassu.

Lamassu statues tower over
every major gateway in Nimrud.

They are there to protect
the city's inhabitants from harm

but are also
designed to intimidate

and impress --
the twin lamassu that

guard the throne room

to Ashurnasirpal's palace
are each made of

eight tons of alabaster
and are vibrantly painted.

eight tons of alabaster
and are vibrantly painted.

In the throne room itself,

the walls are covered
with elaborate reliefs

that depict kings,

gods, and warfare.

What can these reliefs
reveal about Ashurnasirpal

and his new capital
at Nimrud?

Ashurnasirpal gathers
the best craftsmen,

engineers, and architects to
realize his vision.

He is the first
Assyrian king to cover

He is the first
Assyrian king to cover

the interior of his palace in
reliefs of his own exploits,

an artistic style that is copied
by every king that follows.

Sebastien Rey is
the Near Eastern curator

at the British Museum.

Many of the reliefs are
removed from the palace

at Nimrud
in the 19th century

during excavation work
and are now in his care.

SEBASTIEN: Looking at
the reliefs, the sense we have

is that we are indeed in
a man's world.

is that we are indeed in
a man's world.

The themes, the iconographic
themes that we see, are

military scenes,
battle scenes, hunting scenes.

It's always about the triumph
of the Assyrian king.

Ashurnasirpal etches the same
cuneiform inscription across

every panel
to send the message

that he is
an all-powerful leader.

It's the same text
over and over again,

which always starts
with the title of Ashurnasirpal.

which always starts
with the title of Ashurnasirpal.

Then the inscription goes on
to describe the military

victories of the king

and ends with the building
program of the king, including,

of course, the city of Nimrud

and the Northwest Palace.

NARRATOR: By the time
Ashurnasirpal takes the throne

in 883 BCE,

the Assyrian Empire is
already 100 years old,

but at his new capital
in Nimrud,

but at his new capital
in Nimrud,

he ushers in a fresh age of
artistic expression

and military aggression

with his own image at
the center.

Does an astonishing discovery
under the floor of

the Northwest Palace

show this all-powerful
king doesn't rule

the empire alone?

And how does he govern such
a vast area from a single city?

NARRATOR: Nimrud,

the ancient capital of
the mighty Assyrian Empire.

At its heart,
the ruins of Ashurnasirpal II's

long-lost palace,

once the largest palace
in the world.

This palace,
it was one of the first

great new palaces built by
the new Assyrian empire.

NARRATOR: The palace
conceals secrets about

the rulers of
this vast territory.

Beneath the palace floor,

archaeologists find
a vaulted room.

It's filled with
bronze cups, lamps,

and ceramic jars
and a tablet on display.

A second doorway leads
to a dark chamber, where

the marble floor is littered
with more bronze

and marble objects.

At the back of the room lies
a heavy white sarcophagus.

Inside,

they find hundreds of
precious gold objects,

they find hundreds of
precious gold objects,

including elaborate
jewelry and crowns.

Beneath the cloth
are two women,

one placed on top
of the other.

Who are these people,
and what

do they reveal about
the Assyrian Empire?

An Iraqi team of
archaeologists discovers this

tomb and three more
under the palace floor

in the late 1980s.

Islamic extremists,
Daesh,

destroy the palace structure
in 2015.

But the treasures
recovered from the tombs are

already safe, locked away in
the Iraq Central Bank.

MARK: It was one of the largest
discoveries of treasures

that were found with
any royal tomb,

and that includes with tombs
that were found in Egypt.

NARRATOR: Mark Altaweel
believes the tomb's inhabitants

leave behind clues that
identify them by name.

Fortunately, there were
inscriptions that were found.

You can see so many bricks
are still inscribed.

There's even a curse
tablet that

There's even a curse
tablet that

says you should not
disturb this tomb.

But there's a kind of famous,

almost like mummy's curse,
if you will.

NARRATOR:
The curse tablet found in

the tomb contains
the Assyrian word "segallu."

Its literal translation is
"woman of the palace."

The closest modern-day
interpretation

of this word is "queen."

At least one of the women
buried in the tomb is a queen,

part of the royal court.

One of the tablets in the tomb
reveals her name.

One of the tablets in the tomb
reveals her name.

MARK:
In this curse tablet,

the name of the queen
was given.

So we shouldn't be disturbing
Yaba's tomb, basically --

Yaba being the queen.

NARRATOR: This is the first time
Queen Yaba's name

appears in
the historical record,

and the tomb's other occupant
is also named in inscriptions,

Atalya, another queen

not known before
this discovery.

The cuneiform texts on
other objects in the tomb

also link Queen Yaba to
a powerful known king.

also link Queen Yaba to
a powerful known king.

Yaba's husband is
the king that rules nearly

100 years after Ashurnasirpal,

King Tiglath-Pileser III.

Tiglath-Pileser becomes king
of Assyria around 744 BCE.

To help the declining empire,
he reforms the large

conscript army into
an elite fighting force.

He creates an engineering corps
that builds and repairs

He creates an engineering corps
that builds and repairs

infrastructure
across the empire.

He increases production
of iron

to manufacture masses of
arrowheads, knives,

chains, and swords.

And he expands his empire
outside of Mesopotamia,

perhaps with a queen
by his side.

Amy Gansell is
a Near Eastern art expert.

She analyzes the tomb's
contents for further

She analyzes the tomb's
contents for further

clues about the appearance
of these women.

Her work might reveal how
powerful the queens really are.

Queens are rarely depicted
in Assyrian art.

Amy turns to one palace
relief that could reveal

how the queens wear
the treasures found in the tomb.

I have this blown-up version
of the queen so

that we can look at her
in a bit more detail.

We've been trying
to crack the code of

We've been trying
to crack the code of

what this would have
looked like

in 3D, in 360 degrees.

NARRATOR: Among the objects
in the Nimrud tombs,

archaeologists unearthed
hundreds of tiny pieces of

mysterious gold foil.

AMY: Right away,

you notice the garment has
these circles all over it.

Those are probably referring
to gold medallions.

So this would have been
a very shimmery, shiny dress,

reflecting light, so radiance
was equality of royalty.

reflecting light, so radiance
was equality of royalty.

NARRATOR: The queen is dressed
in gold from head to toe.

She wears other objects that
could give clues to her power.

AMY: Each of these queens
had a different crown,

and it has a row of winged

fantastical figures,
divine women.

So this is a blessing
and protecting the head,

protecting the presence of
the queen, and maybe also

imparting divine power on her.

NARRATOR:
The lower layers on the crowns

NARRATOR:
The lower layers on the crowns

are rosettes and pomegranates,

symbols of fertility and life.

They suggest the queen has
the ultimate responsibility

to secure the king's dynasty
by producing an heir.

Amy believes
that the queen's

physical appearance
has a political function.

AMY: If you have these exotic
precious stones,

things like agate and
carnelian that are coming from

the reaches of the empire.

What this is all about,
though, is

the wealth of the empire being
embodied by the queen.

the wealth of the empire being
embodied by the queen.

NARRATOR: The queen appears
to her subjects as

the embodiment of the power of
the empire.

AMY:
Much of Assyrian history

has been focused
on Assyrian kings.

Now we can see queens
as powerful

and having a significant role
in royal power.

The queen is the core of
that empire.

She's also the womb of
the empire.

She's the reproductive center
of it.

NARRATOR:
From the physical appearance

NARRATOR:
From the physical appearance

of its rulers to
the imposing architecture,

the royal court at Nimrud is
designed to inspire

awe and fear.

Is this the key to
the empire's success?

Or does the Northwest Palace
have more secrets to

reveal about how
the Assyrian rulers

control this vast empire?

NARRATOR: Nimrud, an ancient
city in the Iraqi desert

built by the Assyrian king,
Ashurnasirpal II.

His impressive palace in
the northwest corner of

the city has been reduced to
rubble by Daesh terrorists.

But excavation work before
the destruction uncovers some

extraordinary clues to how
the king rules his empire.

Among the ruins of
the Northwest Palace,

archaeologists discover
what looks like

an ancient waste dump.

Over 300 clay tablets
lie in one room,

some broken
and some intact.

Each is covered in
cuneiform writing.

Beneath the tablets, lining
the walls of the room, is

a long brick bench, and against
it, two rows of brick boxes.

a long brick bench, and against
it, two rows of brick boxes.

It's an ancient filing system
for important documents.

Some of these tablets
are stored here for decades.

What does this room
reveal about how

the empire is controlled
from a single city?

Mark Altaweel
investigates the impact

the city of Nimrud has
on the world around it.

He uses satellite
technology to

study the Assyrian Empire
from above.

MARK: Some of the work I've been
doing includes looking

MARK: Some of the work I've been
doing includes looking

at spy satellite imagery,
specifically in the late 1960s.

Um, and this is a period before
major agricultural

development occurred,
as well as urbanization

at a large scale.

So allows us to look at
sort of

archaeological features
that are preserved on

this landscape.

NARRATOR: Mark can identify
Assyrian towns and cities

by matching the satellite
imagery with known archaeology.

So here, we can see the ancient
city of Nimrud, for instance.

You can see the massive walls
around the city, the citadel.

You can see the massive walls
around the city, the citadel.

NARRATOR: He discovers that
as the empire reaches

its peak in the first
millennium BCE,

it leaves a distinct imprint
on the landscape.

MARK:
In the ninth century,

but really continuing into
the 8th and 7th centuries,

the Assyrians really start
a major program of settlements.

NARRATOR:
Assyria's major cities grow

to an unprecedented size,
and remote,

rural settlements
are abandoned.

Mark can even see how
the cities begin to

link together.

link together.

Here, you can see some
remnants of ancient roads going,

uh, from -- coming from the west
and going to the east.

Some of these roads, we've been
able to trace for really

hundreds of kilometers --
across into Syria, for instance.

NARRATOR:
The roads reveal

the purpose of the stored
documents in Nimrud.

MARK: They have a system
similar to the Pony Express,

in many ways, in the 19th
century in the United States,

or even the sort of
highway system

created by Eisenhower in
the 1950s -- they were kind of

created by Eisenhower in
the 1950s -- they were kind of

meant to be a military
communication network.

NARRATOR: The documents
that the archaeologists

find in
the Northwest Palace

are the personal
correspondence

of the royal household.

The roads are the missing
piece of the puzzle.

They are how the messages
travel across the empire.

The roads also reveal
that the location of

Ashurnasirpal's new capital
is no accident.

It is ideally placed to gather
up the spoils of war.

Looting and the removal of
objects of conquered cities was

Looting and the removal of
objects of conquered cities was

a typical part of warfare
in these periods.

That was one way
to pay your soldiers.

Another way
to enrich the empire.

NARRATOR: The Assyrians gather
all the valuables of anywhere

they conquer --
ivories,

precious stones,
and fine pottery --

and take them back
to Nimrud.

People are also
a valuable commodity

and are forced
from their homeland

to relocate across
the empire.

And whole populations are
transformed as a result.

And whole populations are
transformed as a result.

MARK: They can potentially
rebel against you

if you conquer them,

so moving them around
prevents them,

at least, from rebelling
against you.

NARRATOR: Ashurnasirpal sets
the precedent for Assyria's

main weapon of war --
terror.

Inscriptions
written by the king himself

proudly celebrate his cruelty.

He subjects his prisoners
to horrible mutilation.

Hands, ears,
and feet are cut off.

Others are decapitated,
their heads displayed as

trophies on the walls
of conquered cities.

Ashurnasirpal
boasts of how he

forces other cities
to pay tribute to him,

a tax that enriches him
and Nimrud.

The king transforms the ancient
world when he builds the city.

MARK: What the Assyrians were
effectively doing was changing

the social fabric of the Near
East -- by moving people around,

they transformed identities
in the region.

They transformed loyalties.

They transformed loyalties.

They even transformed language,
and that had long-term

repercussions that really
influences even current

circumstances
in the Middle East.

NARRATOR: As the might of
the Assyrian army grows,

the empire's borders
continue to expand.

Can the king still keep control
of the empire from the city?

Or do new discoveries
show that Nimrud's days

as the greatest city
on earth are numbered?

NARRATOR:
Nimrud in Northern Iraq.

Transformed into the capital
of the ancient empire of

Assyria by King Ashurnasirpal
in 883 BCE.

But more mysterious ruins
35 miles to the north

may reveal a sudden change
in the fortunes of Nimrud.

This is the ancient Assyrian
city of Nineveh.

This bustling city is enclosed
by seven miles of walls.

A large moat wraps around it
as an extra layer of protection.

The water is channeled
to lush gardens that

surround the palaces
and houses.

Green oases
dotted throughout Nineveh.

A busy dock and waterfront
sits along the River Tigris

And at the center of it all,

an 80-room mega structure
described in inscriptions as

an 80-room mega structure
described in inscriptions as

a palace without rival.

What does this new city
mean for Nimrud,

the greatest city on earth?

This palace lies beneath
the foundations of a sacred

Ottoman mosque for over
a millennium and cannot

be investigated.

But Islamic extremists
target both

the ancient city
and the mosque for destruction.

The mosque is one of
20 the Daesh

The mosque is one of
20 the Daesh

blow up during their
occupation of northern Iraq.

And they raze Nineveh's
monumental gateways

to the ground.

Today, our cameras
have access to follow

a team of archaeologists from
the University of Heidelberg.

They're running
the first excavation project

here since
Daesh were driven out.

Site director Peter Miglus
is mapping

the site and has made
incredible new discoveries.

[speaking indistinctly]

NARRATOR:
Beneath the mosque,

the Daesh terrorists dig
a network of tunnels

to smuggle looted artifacts
out of the site.

NARRATOR:
The lamassu is the iconic

NARRATOR:
The lamassu is the iconic

protective deity of
the Assyrian people.

Statues of them are placed at

the doorways of the city's
most spectacular buildings.

Peter maps the tunnels
and realizes they run

right through never-before-seen
parts of the palace.

His investigations reveal
the true scale of the largest

room ever found
in any Assyrian building.

NARRATOR: This room is nearly
200 feet long and 60 feet wide.

Every wall is once decorated
with stone reliefs,

just like
the Northwest Palace at Nimrud.

NARRATOR: Some inscriptions have
survived in this room,

buried beneath
the mosque's foundations.

They reveal
the names of kings.

They suggest a date
for the building of this

palace and what it means
for the capital at Nimrud.

NARRATOR: King Sennacherib
takes the throne of the empire

in 705 BCE,
180 years after Ashurbanipal.

He inscribes his name all over
the buildings in Nineveh,

and the team believes it
reveals one

of the reasons he creates
this new city.

STEFAN: We find here, for
example, hundreds and hundreds

of inscribed bricks giving
the name of the king.

And you see, 2,500 years after
the destruction of the palace,

And you see, 2,500 years after
the destruction of the palace,

we still find these documents.

So -- so the idea of the king
being kept in mind

of the people for hundreds
and hundreds of years,

this worked perfectly.

NARRATOR:
Peter and his team are still

mapping the full extent of
the palace.

But contemporary inscriptions
suggest it is twice

the size of the palace
at Nimrud.

Sennacherib moves the capital
of the Assyrian Empire

from Nimrud
here to Nineveh,

and to outshine the kings
that rule before him,

he builds his palace
without rival

to ensure Nimrud is no longer
the greatest city on earth.

Stefan believes
the move from Nimrud to Nineveh

might also be strategic.

STEFAN: A capital which is more
in the north, from such

a capital could reach much
easier Syria and Palestine.

So for practical
and strategical reasons,

this would make sense.

this would make sense.

NARRATOR: Sennacherib rules
the Assyrian Empire

at the very height of
its power.

Its army is unmatched

and expands the empire's
borders even further.

When he dies in 681 BCE,

the empire extends from
modern-day Iraq to

Syria, Turkey,

Israel, and Lebanon.

But 65 years later,
evidence at both Nineveh

and Nimrud suggests
catastrophe strikes in

and Nimrud suggests
catastrophe strikes in

both cities.

Assyria is the most
powerful empire

in the known world
for 200 years.

So what triggers
its downfall?

NARRATOR: The ancient
city of Nimrud,

one of the most important
cities in the world

for 200 years,
since Ashurnasirpal II

declares that his capital in
883 BCE.

When Alexander the Great's
Greek army arrives here over

500 years later,
the city is deserted.

Clues to the fate of Nimrud
lie undiscovered

for a further two millennia.

Modern-day archaeologists
unearth a series of wells

at Nimrud.

In a room in
the Northwest Palace,

they find one
over 80 feet deep

and make the dangerous
descent to investigate.

At the bottom, they make
a gruesome discovery --

180 skeletons stacked
on top of each other.

Some have their wrists
and ankles shackled, signs

they may have been thrown
into this well alive.

Forensic analysis reveals
they are all males.

Forensic analysis reveals
they are all males.

What happens to these men?

And what do they reveal
about the downfall

of Nimrud and the last days
of the empire?

Mark Altaweel is on
a mission to find out.

But first, he has to uncover
the skeletons once again.

MARK: The remains were
moved from this well

into a storage house
near this well.

And as ISIS approached
the area of Nimrud,

the responsible excavators of

the responsible excavators of

the site put them in a pit,
effectively,

next to the storage house.

So the remains were buried,

effectively, to protect them
from ISIS.

NARRATOR:
Mark is one of the few

people trusted with
their secret location.

His team has just
one day to find

and recover the bones.

So they were not
labeled separately.

Sounds like there is nothing

really organized about
it whatsoever.

-Yeah. Skeleton in a box.
-Basically.

NARRATOR: The bones were buried
in a hurry, so the team

has no idea if
they've survived in the ground.

I am worried that these
skulls have fallen apart.

NARRATOR:
After two hours of digging,

the excavation team finds
what they're searching for.

-WOMAN: Oh, there's a jar.
-It's a jar.

Yeah, this is what
we're looking for, right?

Yeah? The teeth, right?

So at least some teeth survived.
That's a good thing.

You can sample one of
those teeth -- that's good.

You can sample one of
those teeth -- that's good.

NARRATOR: This is
an extraordinary discovery.

In total,
the team finds at least

90 intact skulls
buried on the site.

They can now examine them
for vital clues

about the last days of
the city of Nimrud.

The team transports
the skeletons to a sterile lab.

The team transports
the skeletons to a sterile lab.

Here, they prepare samples to
test for diseases and DNA.

The archaeologists
who originally unearth

the skeletons
believe that these are

the remains of soldiers from
the Assyrian army, taken

prisoner after Nimrud
is ransacked.

Mark inspects the bones

and begins to doubt
the archaeologists' theory.

MARK: Funny how a lot of them
are just quite young.

I didn't expect that.

I guess they weren't Assyrian
soldiers after all.

I guess they weren't Assyrian
soldiers after all.

Or maybe they were
child soldiers, or I suppose

they could have been
just normal people.

NARRATOR: Mark's team uncovers
injuries that also suggest

these men are unfit
for the Assyrian army.

MARK: We do have, actually,
some evidence.

There are some pathologies
and injuries,

in fact, on the bones.

For instance, one of the bones
seems to show evidence

of spina bifida, a kind of
debilitating disease to

the spinal area.

NARRATOR: The team's
examination reveals what

happens at the downfall
of Nimrud.

The city is ransacked by
its enemies, and they are as

brutal and as merciless as
the Assyrians had been to them.

No one is spared,
not even the young

or the disabled --

shackled and drowned
in the palace wells,

a harrowing death.

One set of inscriptions
known as the Babylonian

Chronicles reveals the identity
of Assyria's brutal enemy.

Chronicles reveals the identity
of Assyria's brutal enemy.

In 631 BCE,

the last great king of
Assyria dies

and political disputes
leave the empire weakened,

with rebellions
across the kingdom.

In 614 BCE,
two neighboring people,

the Medes
and the Babylonians, attack

and conquer the major Assyrian
cities one by one.

These allies combined
their men into a single

force large enough to confront
the empire's massive army.

They overwhelm and destroy
Nineveh and Nimrud,

and the mighty empire falls.

At the British Museum,
curator Sebastien Rey

finds evidence
that the rebels ransacked

the throne room of
the Northwest Palace

and find its elaborate
wall decorations.

and find its elaborate
wall decorations.

SEBASTIEN: And so they targeted
the image of the king,

the symbol of his power.

And if you look closely,
you will see that he has been

blinded in an important
and symbolic way

to make sure that the symbol
of the power of Assyria would

be completely nullified, would
be obliterated from history.

NARRATOR:
Nimrud lies in ruins,

and the legacy that
the mighty Assyrian kings try

so hard to preserve in
inscriptions and sculpture is

so hard to preserve in
inscriptions and sculpture is

lost to the desert sands.

But do the creators of
the world's first true

empire leave behind
a surprising invention

that will benefit every empire
builder that follows?

NARRATOR:
The ancient city of Nimrud,

once the most spectacular city
on Earth.

But in 612 BCE,

it meets a sudden
and unexpected end,

destruction by the enemies of
the Assyrian Empire.

It lies forgotten
for over 2,000 years.

When investigators rediscover
the city in the 19th century,

language experts

work for decades to translate
the writing tablets

work for decades to translate
the writing tablets

uncovered at the site.

They realize that many of
the tablets are letters

and that they reveal
a sophisticated system that

the Assyrians use to run
their successful

global enterprise.

Stephanie Dalley and Lara
Bampfield are some of the few

people in the world
that can read Akkadian,

the ancient language of
the Assyrian people.

The Nimrud letters

are correspondence that
involve the king.

They are correspondence
that involve elites.

They are correspondence
that involve elites.

NARRATOR: The letters show how
the empire functions

as a whole unit.

There were messengers
coming and going all

the time with orders
directly from the king.

A lot of the letters are from
the provincial governors,

for example --
it's quite extraordinary

how far the reach goes.

NARRATOR: The letters reveal
that there is a large

number of high-ranking
officials beneath the king,

number of high-ranking
officials beneath the king,

the king's most
trusted bureaucrats.

Ancient scribes use wooden
writing tools to press shapes

into the wet clay, writing
messages on their behalf.

They entrust messengers
to transport these clay

tablets from city to city
over enormous distances.

One letter comes from the city
of Tyre in modern-day Lebanon,

500 miles from Nimrud.

The letters also show
the softer side of the kings,

very different to how
they portray themselves

very different to how
they portray themselves

in their palace reliefs.

One letter
describes a group of

prisoners taken from
a conquered city.

They say things like,
"Please make

"sure there's enough
for them to eat,

"and if anybody is ill
among the deportees,

"take him out of the group
and look after him

until he's well again."

Another tiny object,
found in large numbers

in excavations across

the empire, reveals how
administrators can trust that

the empire, reveals how
administrators can trust that

the letters are genuine.

So here,
we have the impression

from a stamp seal
of the king,

which shows the king on
the left-hand side in combat

with a rearing beast.

The seals are important,
because they are a signature.

They mark it

as being overseen and condoned
by the owner of the seal.

NARRATOR:
This strict bureaucracy

may seem obvious today,

but in
the first millennium BCE,

it is revolutionary.

Every empire that follows,
from the Romans to

the Persians, adopts it to
control their own territories.

This administration system is
Assyria's greatest legacy,

an invention that survives
even after

its once great cities
are forgotten.

The Assyrian king,
Ashurnasirpal,

builds the spectacular capital
city of Nimrud.

The jewel in the city's
crown is

the impressive
Northwest Palace, decorated with

distinctive wall reliefs

and giant wing statutes
that become

the iconic symbols of
the world's first true empire.

For 200 years,
the city flourishes and grows

wealthy before its citizens
meet their terrible fate

wealthy before its citizens
meet their terrible fate

when Assyria's enemies rebel.

Assyria's true legacy,

their efficient administration,

their harsh management
of the people

they conquer, and their
professional standing army

sets the standard for every
empire that follows,

and the city of Nimrud changes

the landscape of
the Near East forever.