Original subtitles

[Music]

this enigmatic wooden box tells the

story of a war

and battles all the ingredients for a

good story

this strange weapon could

replace gunpowder with steam

what sinister purpose did this

mastered monolith serve

and made

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a

fascinating mysterious objects

long hidden in museums laboratories and

Archives

now we can use the most modern

technology to reveal their secrets

[Music]

disassemble and enlarge

and thus forget

these are the strangest things in the world

[Music]

in a display case at the British Museum in

London there is a 4500 year old

wooden box from the cradle of civilization

this object is unique for almost a

century its purpose was hidden

thanks to modern technology the

antique wooden box now reveals its secrets

this is the standard of clock

almost half a meter long and 22 cm

high there

is a small door on one side

its surface is decorated with

mosaic images polished shells

red limestone and lapis lazuli decorate

a beautiful piece

the pictures seem to tell a story

of action fighting but also of

being charged

but their meaning is just as

mysterious as the standard itself what

is it about what do the

pictures show where does the wooden box come from

[music ]

the mystery begins in southern

Iraq in the ruins of the ancient

Mesopotamian city of Uhr

was one of the oldest cities in the world

the area is considered the cradle of

civilization

its beginning laws the writing of

agriculture like cities and city states of

this region the city brought it through

Trade to great wealth Many

ancient facts were found from the Persian Gulf and the

Arabian Sea from Asia and India

This city was very wealthy and

powerful

In the 1920s, the

renowned archaeologist Zur Lennart excavates a

huge cemetery complex near

the ziggurat from a step temple from

Linz -bricks there were

many corpses they were

often next to each other and were apparently

buried at the same time which

suggests that they were sacrificed

treasure like gold sculptures and

precious stones a sensational

discovery

1920s were a golden

age of archeology Howard Carter

in Egypt and Leonardo both

made sensational finds the

European Adele visited the clock as well as

the writer agat the Christ

discovered something extraordinary in one of the graves

a worker saw something

shimmering and began to remove the earth

a mosaic came to light

it is the standard of Uhr or what was under the clock

after four and a half thousand years

What's left of it is

the standard of the clock was made from wood and

pitch, i.e. from materials that

rot, the pitch was gone as well as the

wood only the shells and semi-precious stones

were left.

Mulli was clever enough

to interrupt the excavation and had it checked whether

the original one was there The shape of the object could

be traced through impressions in the sediment,

although the wood has rotted, the

earth has held the mosaic parts in place

by carefully filling the

resulting cavities with plaster and

wax, and is probably able to restore the

original shape of the artifact

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the reconstruction was a laborious

process

but why is this box of all the

fabulous treasures discovered in the tombs

of Ur by far the most

famous dog

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the ancient artifact is strikingly

precious and elaborately decorated as the

polished shells are the sandstone and

especially the lapis lazuli

Exotic materials from distant

regions

had to be imported from Central Asia, Afghanistan and

even India. These

objects reflected the power and

wealth of the city because they were

able to make such artistic

pieces there. It was not just the

origin of the materials that

amazed the experts: the box

made with extraordinary skill this

is only possible because

a new type of profession emerged in those early cultures

the food surplus that

agriculture brought allowed for a

new professional field the emergence of

handicrafts the artisans

no longer had to go out to

get food for their families they

could do their work

exchanging food you can see how their

skills have constantly developed

the success story such new skills

can be seen especially in one area

the ancient Mesopotamia are

masters of pottery

the history the craftsmen became

the more sought after their products were

archaeological excavations show that

their pots were in the

The whole region became

a huge trading center

and the Mesopotamia not

only mastered the art of pottery,

they were very versatile, they made

furniture, musical instruments, weapons and even

jewelry, which

is the standard a prime example

of its craftsmanship that is one reason

why it becomes the poster child for the

lost advanced culture of Mesopotamia

the other reason is that it

is unique nothing

comparable has ever been found before or since

what the standard is used for in the 100

years since its discovery there have been

a number of theories to explain its purpose it

could have been used to store jewelry

or offerings it has

a small opening into which you

could put money, for example, this suggests

a kind of treasure chest

but this theory has a catch Money

as we know it existed in that time

Larger

objects such as precious metals or

food were not yet considered status symbols, but this small

box was hardly intended for that.

No valuables were

found in it; it was not a treasure chest.

The mosaic images perhaps

indicate the true purpose of the

standard of the clock on one of the long sides

is called the war side

how do you see a battle

chariots and troops going to war

the bottom row shows

people being run over by these chariots

you see the

victorious forces and the

people they kill the top row

shows a ruler there the

victorious king He finds this

sense of war,

he mistakenly assumes that it is

a military standard.

The name remains the same.

Data was used in warfare to

mark one's own side. The standard was the

central symbol that one carried into battle to

hold it up and show it to one's own

army and the enemies that they

stood their ground and continued to fight. One of the

motifs seems familiar to the scientists. One of the

people pictured seems to be

carrying a kind of standard on their body.

This represents a similar standard because

this theory also has a catch.

One is the small pictures

Hard to see even from a few meters away.

Secondly, the construct is relatively

sensitive and thirdly, there is no

visible point where a pole

could have been attached,

but if this is not a standard as

assumed by Samoli, then what is it

against the war side is the

so-called peace side

the peace side shows a banquet a

celebration

with the Lord of the digital reconstruction

a possible clue becomes visible

the top row is the

most interesting here we see a

large figure probably the king

sitting in front of him a row of officials

toasting and next to a musician sitting

on one Lyre plays

a theory states that the standard

of clock could have been the resonator of a lyre

you must the oldest known lyre

dates back to around 3,200

BC and was found in Suma in

southern Mesopotamia these

instruments were invented there

the standard of clock has striking

resemblance to a lyre that was found

in a grave during the same excavation

the other well has

a similar box-shaped

middle part with extensions to which the

sides were attached the cavity in

the box produced a sound when

the sides were struck

this is the answer

The sound box of the royal

lyres

is a tempting thought, but

this theory also has a

weak point - the wooden box was decorated with

pitch gemstones and shells -

this would have severely affected the sound

and made the box

unusable as a sound box - it

remains a final explanation for the

mysterious wooden box for a long time

one assumes that these are purely

symbolic motifs that

represent a balanced society, like

a kind of advertising for the ideal

civilization.

On the one hand, war was necessary

to maintain power and trade relations;

it brought influence and

prosperity; on the other hand,

it could Fruits, the society enjoys

the economic advantages and the

festivals at which people showed their loyalty to the king.

The king in turn

demonstrated his power through such

festivals,

but now experts suspect that the

pictures are historical events.

We see here the story of an

important battle in which the king

was victorious When you won a battle

you celebrated that on one

side the battle is depicted on

the other the banquet with which the

great victory was celebrated

a symbol of victory that fits with the

small dimensions and the filigree

decoration such an artistic object

will hardly be found

have served a practical purpose it was rather put on display

perhaps the mysterious box was

once intended to commemorate the great success of the mighty

King of Ur in an important

battle

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intoxicating festivals and battles all the

ingredients for a good story it

is certain that the standard

of Clock is a unique snapshot

of an ancient advanced culture

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in the Royal Aries Museum in London there is

a strange deadly weapon that is

a weapon of mass destruction from the 19th

century

reconstructed using the latest

3D technology

a 170 year old machine gun that is

powered by steam -

who would have thought that steam

could replace gunpowder

the 120 cm long weapon is made of iron

a wooden crank and a

brass funnel it may look strange

but its effect is devastating

this weapon was designed to

fire hundreds of rounds per minute

even up to 1000

this was completely new it actually

worked and what advantage should

a steam-powered machine gun

bring

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in this time everything was

switched to steam power, it was

easier to walk with steam power,

it was the driving force of the

industrial revolution, before that,

factories and mills were operated with water and

horse power, steamers were much

more efficient,

the possibilities seem endless

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as a source of energy for everything

from pragmatic things like

steam-powered tractors to

crazy inventions.

One of the strangest ideas was a

steam-powered giant metal salad

that would pull a car with passengers.

Steam powered pretty much everything back then

until this strange device appeared

The inventor is the American

engineer Jacob Parkens when Jacob

Perkins came to the UK he

already had an impressive

track record he had

developed a wide range of inventions from devices that

measured ship speed

to the coating of buckles his

first inventions at the age of 15

he was practically a born

inventor

In England, Perkins catches the steam virus

and he comes up with an extraordinary

idea.

As part of his work,

Perkins constructed some high-pressure boilers and

tested the limits of this technology. When

some steam was released, he could observe

small particles

shooting around at great speed and that

gave him an idea.

Perkins begins With the development of

a revolutionary steam-powered

firearm that he

wanted to sell to the British military,

his son continued to optimize the

weapon over the years until he

completed this model in 1851, but the rifle was

not as easy to sell as

expected,

the problem was that firearms were available Yes, it

could already be fired with other means. Gunpowder and propellant charges

have been around

since it was invented over 1000

years ago. Gunpowder powers almost all

firearms.

Gunpowder was invented in China.

It consists of saltpeter, charcoal and

sulfur. Everything is finely painted.

When you light it, it burns immediately

creates immense pressure that

drives the gun or cannonball.

Gunpowder is a recipe for success, so why do you

want to park juice and switch to steam?

When Perkins arrived in Great Britain in 1819,

the most recent wars have

shown that gunpowder also

has its pitfalls.

A few years before Perkins' invention,

Great Britain was embroiled in the Napoleon Wars

They wanted to prevent

Napoleon from expanding his empire across the entire

continent.

Napoleon's tactics proved to be highly

effective against the British firepower.

Napoleon relied on

speed, dynamism and mobility.

While the British lined up their soldiers in

long battle lines,

Napoleon used the so-called

column tactics in this compact

battle formation favored the

forward movement, the French were

quick, their opponents' rifles were

not.

As a British soldier, you

most likely carried a musket,

probably a so-called brown-best.

This weapon used paper cartridges that

contained round balls. It was

a laborious process with several

work steps

to get a shot

Refill the gunpowder and stuff it with the

ramrod.

The bullet was inserted separately with a shot of

plaster.

If you didn't do this properly you

could get the bullet out then you had to

[ __ ] the mask to fire it.

Then the whole thing started again.

Reloading and firing can

take 20 seconds and the

probability of missing your target

is high because muskets are

not only slow but also inaccurate. If the

bullets were loaded through the barrel, they had a smaller caliber so that

they could be inserted easily, so

they had a lot of play in the barrel and

could come out at different angles

Perkins is convinced that his

steam weapon is not only faster but

also more precise,

but he is not the first before him. He

has already developed many bizarre weapons

to solve these problems,

most of which were four shots

like this gun with several barrels,

how can Content do it You

fire several shots at the same time,

but that didn't solve the problem because

you still couldn't

aim precisely and reloading took even

longer because you had to fill each barrel individually.

Other weapons use a quick-loading

mechanism.

Before Christ, the Chinese developed

a repeating crossbow with ten bolts

could fire in 20 seconds

but with gunpowder weapons a

rapid fire mechanism is much

more complicated

when using gunpowder

there is one main problem when you

fire one shot after the other

you burn every time gunpowder

sorry the gun gradually gets

hotter and hotter until the metal

finally burns becomes soft and the weapon

deforms.

S is convinced that

gunpowder should be abolished entirely and

replaced with steam, but he is not

the first to come up with this idea

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in the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci

sketched out a number of inventions before their time. Among them was He also takes a picture of

a steam-powered cannon,

which comes from the Greek

scientist and universal scholar

Archimedes, who lived in the third century

BC. The idea

of ​​a steam cannon could be over 2000 years old.

In Davinci's design, a

coal fire was supposed to heat the cannon

Perkins, on the other hand, used his then

state-of-the-art boiler to generate the steam, which worked at high pressure.

The steam in it powered his

first gun. The

smooth barrel of the prototype was almost

two meters long. At one end there was

a magazine into which the bullets

fall by gravity

when opened of the valve, the steam drove

the bullet through the barrel and muzzle at high pressure.

Parkinson's engine improved the

original design and gave

it more precise control.

In JP Perkins'

model, the bullets fell

into the barrel by gravity. His son

developed a mechanism that

was easier to control

By turning a crank

you operated two bolts that let each bullet

fall into the barrel one at a time. At the same time,

the crank opened a valve, the

steam pressure shot into the barrel and

celebrated the bullet. This cycle

was repeated as quickly as you

could crank

the thousand-year supremacy of

gunpowder finish

after five years of work the time has come In

1824 Jake Perkins introduces

his first steam gun to the British military

Franken Center he presented it to none

other than the Duke of Wellington he

was then responsible for the evaluation and

procurement of new army weapons

under Wellington's strict gaze come

speed The power and accuracy

of Perkins' apparatus was put to the test

when looking for a rapid-fire weapon.

Reports varied

greatly, but there was talk of at

least 250 rounds per minute. Some

even say a thousand rounds per

minute.

A musket could be fired a maximum of four times

per minute This made

Perkin's weapon 60 to 250 times faster

and also more accurate.

A big advantage of steam is that it is

very clean. You only have H2O and

no residues like those with

gunpowder. That's why

a steam rifle promised a higher draw

accuracy. It shot more precisely than the

muskets of the time

the temperature of the steam is only one

or 200 degrees above the boiling temperature

of water

the gun doesn't get any hotter so you can

fire again and again without

overheating the gun steam protected also enough

impact power

Perkins brought the boiler to 62 bar

and demonstrated that he had a hole in it

was able to shoot a board 12 inches thick 30 meters away

[Music]

Perkins protected proves that steam can

power a fast and precise weapon

It has the potential

to be a huge success but things do

n't go according to plan

even after years of testing and

improvements by Perkins' son Angie

is simply not interested in the British armed forces,

they refuse to

buy the weapon, so it becomes a

museum piece, which is why

this idiosyncratic but

effective weapon fails, on the one hand, because

of a military that is

stuck in tradition.

At that time, the British army was not exactly considered a

pioneer in terms of technology

Improvements to existing techniques were

accepted but the idea of

switching from gunpowder to steam was

just too radical

the second problem is literally

huge,

in order to fire this weapon

you would need a 5 ton

steam boiler that you

would have to carry around on the

battlefield that would be extremely risky

because This steam boiler is practically

a bomb

version is ready, the

gunpowder technology has already

developed further,

the paper cartridges were

replaced by brass cartridges which already

contained the interest rate, the bullets became

pointed and therefore much more adynamic,

so they flew faster and

more accurately,

i.e. the disadvantages of

gunpowder weapons were off the table and

Although completely without steam with improved

gunpowder technology

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Cartridge also leads to innovations in

weapons technology

[Music]

Weapons, a new technology came onto the

market,

multi-barreled hand-operated guns that

finally over later models could

fire 100 rounds per minute, but

they were still easy to move They

weighed just under 80 kilos, making them

almost unprecedented compared to Perkins's design.

The destruction caused by this new weapon

is unprecedented.

He said that his invention would reduce the number of

soldiers needed for a war

and therefore the number

of potential casualties,

but that was absolute not the case

instead this became a weapon that

caused extraordinary losses

the new machines cannons are

lighter and faster and the

explosive power of the gunpowder far exceeds

the steam gun

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Perkins invention has no chance

the end of the steam powered weapon is

not quite

around 100 years later the

British Army finally found an

application for Perkin's revolutionary

ideas. In the 1940s the

British moved their anti-aircraft guns almost

entirely to warships so that many

merchant ships were no longer

protected from air attack

as gunpowder was only

available in limited quantities and they turned to a source of

energy on ships There

was plenty available

then

that is the birth of the Holmen projector

steam boiler of the ship was connected

then you put a grenade in the

barrel which shot out with the help of the steam pressure

this design served as an

anti-aircraft cannon it had an ear

so you could use all sorts of things

if you didn't have any grenades

you can shoot cabbages cans or

most popular potatoes

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anti-aircraft potato protected in the world

and as deadly as Perkins

predicted A sailor on

the merchant ship Highlander shot down a

German plane with a projector,

although it is not known whether he

shot potatoes

Steam gun is finally

used, although it was only 120 years after

Jacob Perkins had the idea for it that there

is an impressive

monolith in the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology. It comes from a

vanished empire and has a

dark past. The advanced culture that

created this object was literally

wiped out.

Now everyone comes Detail of this

amazing artifact brought to light

this is the Theo Kali monolith it was

carved from volcanic rock is

about one meter 20 high one meter

wide and one meter long

it looks like a miniature temple

on its entire surface there are

disturbing images carved with gruesome

figures with skull-like figures

faces strange animals plants and

monsters they indicate a cruel

history

there was a holy war to

take prisoners who were sacrificed to the sun

is this an ancient sacrificial altar

they opened the chest removed the

heart and made a fire in the chest

or are we misunderstanding its story

There are so many different clues

that can be interpreted in different ways,

you have to look closely to

understand what it's about,

what happened to the legendary ruler

for whom this monolith was created.

There is actually blood from

human sacrifices on the stone. In

1926 Mexico City was built from the foundations

of the national palace a

mysterious object was recovered

one already knew about the object but

it was only excavated in 1926 and

examined

the strange shapes on the back of

the monolith white to its creators

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one recognizes an eagle sitting with

spread wings on a cactus

he pooped it

Most people in Mexico know the symbol because it

is on the country's flag.

The motif originated from a legend from the

13th century. A group of nomads

wander through the valley of Mexico. They

are looking for a place to settle.

A prophecy said that their

capital should arise where a

Eagle on a cactus sat in the middle of

a lake

this lake is the text kokosi in

today's Mexico City

created by

the Aztecs where Mexico City

is today their huge capital

of the northern city was once

built exactly where the palace of the

previous rulers stood,

therefore this monolith belonged to the

Found in the foundation of the national palace

was probably an important

personality who had lived in the old palace.

Who was this person?

The gruesome pictures at the

top contain a clue

and the sun god

on the right is the

gotta. He was the god of the night

but was also associated with warriors and Kings are

associated, but the symbols contain

more than Aztec deities.

They could also depict historical events

and personalities. The

figure on the right could be

a ruler at the time.

The depiction provides clues to the

identity of this ruler. It

shows a small crown and a

nose ring were symbols of power

of the Aztecs, according to experts, experts know this to be

the most legendary and

unscrupulous

ruler

in other image sources, these

attributes are often associated with mockte to the

second

he is the most important ruler of the

Aztecs

Montezuma the second reigned under him from 1502

to 1520

the Aztec Empire was

at the height of its power, 5 million

subjects lived in an area of

200,000 square kilometers

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a legend he had a huge zoo

and lived in luxury, supposedly

he had several wives and around 100

children

not only had enormous power but

also did everything that

to show the outside

a monolith of extraordinary

craftsmanship made for one of the

greatest rulers on the American

continent what is the purpose of the

theokanni

its shape is remarkable

the lines symbolize steps

from that time compares it looks like

a miniature temple

models of temples are at the Aztecs

are not unusual but this model

has something strange about it.

We have found many temple models.

Such miniature temples usually only measure

a few centimeters. None of them were that

big. The

monolith, which is over a meter tall, is

huge in comparison. Some experts are

convinced that there is a good reason for

it There is size

on some miniature temples,

a throne of Theo Calli is

not just a temple but

the throne for a god

[music] of

Suma the second known

but with this theory there is a

problem. At the

time drones were mostly made of reeds

did not sit on a chair

but on a magnificent reed mat

it is unlikely that suma

actually sat on the stone

in front some scientists consider the

Theo Kali to be a symbolic throne

a sign of power

but other symbols reveal

another disturbing explanation

experts consider this circle to be the

Top of the monolith for a

sun disk a calendar depicting the

52 year cycle of life and death

in which the Aztecs believed,

according to legend, the sun had

already been devoured four times

during the reign of Sumer

it was supposed to be devoured a fifth time

to ensure that When the sun

rose again after each night, you had to

appease it with blood sacrifices. That's what

this symbolism was about. You had to

wage a holy war to

capture someone who could sacrifice to the sun.

This theory gives the monoliths a

second name

as the renowned Mexican

archaeologist Alfons

some of the Mysterious symbols

make it possible to narrow down the time of its

production

and on the front you can see two

date symbols, a rabbit

and reeds. They stand for 1506 and

1507 according to today's calendar.

These dates point to the most important

event in the Aztec calendar.

The new fire ceremony

has only one goal to prevent the end of the world

through human sacrifice

the priests gathered in a

temple to sacrifice a person

they opened the chest removed the

heart and then lit a fire in the

chest the ritual was supposed to symbolize the

lighting of the new fire in the new

era

if the fire burned everything would

end well if it didn't burn, there was a threat of

the end of the world.

The Aztecs believed at that time that

human sacrifice was necessary to preserve their own

lives.

This was not seen as a punishment or act of revenge.

Rather, the gods demanded these

blood sacrifices;

the ruler had the duty to

make human sacrifices in order to

survive to ensure his people's

new fire ceremony or did he

possibly play a bloody role in it?

In our imagination, altars are large

tables but the Aztec

sacrificial calli because during the ceremony

four priests usually pulled the arms and legs

of the victim down in order to

stretch the chest and remove the heart from

the chest cavity, although

no traces of blood were found in the stone, there is

something to be said for a sacrificial altar. Is

this monolith the last

thing people see before their

heart is torn out or is

this the throne of a victim? legendary

ruler,

his true story remains

a secret for the time being, but one thing is certain, no matter how

the new fire ceremony

and the morning suma the second

goes out, the end of their world is near for the Aztecs in

1519, a good ten years later, the

Spanish conquistadors arrive

Fernando ca

n't meet surrendered and resisted

so gortes overran the city and

destroyed several buildings

it was a massacre

the life of magdezuma the second

ends tragically as well as the empire of the

aztec

empire was practically wiped out with the arrival of the spaniards

both through

warfare when the spaniards had

horses gunpowder and firearms as

well as introduced

pathogens to which the

locals were not immune.

Ten years after the Spanish invasion,

around 90% of the Aztecs had

fallen victim to violence or disease.

The Christian invaders write the

history of the Aztecs around them, creating

a highly exaggerated, bloodthirsty Spanish Spanish

myth

justified their

conquest with human sacrifices,

such rituals are so alien to us that

we sometimes only see the Aztecs from

this violent aspect as a

bloodthirsty culture,

but in fact they believed that the

world would end if they did

not offer sacrifices to the gods -

the true story of the Aztec

rituals is overlaid by the myths of the conquerors

as well as the mysterious

monolith dedicated to your mighty king that

lay hidden for centuries beneath the foundations of Mexico City

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