All language subtitles for Secrets.in.the.Ice.S01E03.Curse.of.the.Ice.Princess.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

♪♪

narrator:
A mind-boggling wreck

at the bottom of a frozen lake
in the rocky mountains.

I've never seen anything
like this before.

It's part building,
part machine.

It defies explanation.

Sounds like
science fiction,

but it's 100% true.

An ancient mummy
with strange tattoos

is unearthed from the
siberian permafrost.

They warned
that disturbing

the mummy's frozen tomb

would trigger
an ancient curse,

causing bad luck,
illness, even death.

♪♪

the discovery
of the frozen body

of a 5,300-year-old
stone age man

launches the oldest murder
investigation in history.

Rose:
And this wasn't
just a murder.

This was
a brutal killing.

It's clear
that something

pretty dramatic
went down.

♪♪

these are
the strangest mysteries,

trapped in the coldest places.

Lost relics,

forgotten treasures,

dark secrets,

locked in their icy tombs
for ages.

But now as ice melts
around the world,

their stories
will finally be exposed.

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

[ wind whistling ]

♪♪

high in the altai mountains
of siberia,

on the borders of russia,
mongolia, and china,

lies the ukok plateau.

♪♪

you get the sense that no one
has set foot here

for thousands of years.

There's just nothing here.

But if you look carefully,
you see these large mounds

rising up
out of the grassland.

♪♪

what are they?

♪♪

when you look closer,
you realize

they're actually made of rocks
piled on top of one another.

♪♪

it makes you wonder,
"what's underneath?"

narrator:
Beneath one of these mounds,

a team of russian archeologists
will make a discovery so unique

that it will capture the world's
imagination for decades to come.

♪♪

it was a near perfectly
preserved corpse of a woman,

buried by herself in a tomb,

along with all manner
of fine clothing and riches.

♪♪

it turns out they'd
stumbled across one

of the only tombs left intact

after centuries
of being plundered.

The gold, jewelry,
and secret artifacts

are all in perfect condition.

♪♪

but who on earth
was this woman

and was there
a mysterious reason

this tomb was spared
from looting?

♪♪

narrator:
It's immediately apparent
to archeologists

that this woman held
a significant place

in her society.

And it's not just the treasure
that tells them so.

It's the fact
that she's buried alone.

♪♪

until they know more,

archeologists call her
the ice maiden.

♪♪

the ice maiden was a member
of the scythian pazyryk culture,

iron age nomads
who roamed these lands

between the 6th
and 2nd centuries bce.

The pazyryk were horse people

who traveled to the
ukok plateau in the winter

to graze their cattle,

which they raised
for food and clothes.

They traded goods with the
merchants of china,

india, and persia,

and knew how
to defend themselves.

O'keefe:
You didn't want to mess
with these folks.

Think the dothraki
from "game of thrones."

horses, beards, tattoos,
muscles -- same deal.

♪♪

billson:
The pazyryk were truly nomadic,
living and dying on the move.

They buried their dead in groups

by constructing burial sites
called kurgans.

♪♪

they had to wait until summer
to bury their dead,

when the permafrost
warmed up just enough

to dig 10 feet down
into the earth.

♪♪

narrator:
Women were always buried

with their husbands,
never alone.

So why does this ice maiden have
a whole kurgan all to herself?

What makes her so special?

♪♪

narrator:
Archeologists
examine the tomb,

looking for clues
to her identity.

Behind the northern wall of the
ice maiden's burial vault,

they discover the skeletons
of six horses,

fully bridled and saddled,

laden with ornate wooden
ornaments pressed in gold foil.

Whoever owned these horses
cared for them greatly

and treated them
with the utmost reverence.

Narrator:
But it's not only
the gold and riches

that capture
the researchers' attention.

There's something odd about the
way the horses are arranged.

It appears that the horses were
bound before they were buried.

♪♪

and, if you look
at their skulls,

they all have these
similar-shaped holes in them.

Just about the size
of the sharp end of a pickax,

narrator:
All of it indicates that
these horses were sacrificed,

perhaps to accompany the
ice maiden into the afterlife.

O'keefe:
Were these her horses?

Could she have been
a warrior?

Narrator:
Exploring this theory,

researchers turn
to the mummy itself,

peeking out from beneath one
of her shirtsleeves is a tattoo.

When they pulled the clothing
back to reveal it fully,

these are just
the most beautiful,

elaborate tattoos
of fantastical beasts,

running up the length
of each arm.

♪♪

the pazyryk are known
for having some

of the most sophisticated

and intricate tattoo art
in history.

It's amazing how modern
these tattoos look,

both in terms of design
and execution.

They could've been
inked last week

and you wouldn't know
any different.

Narrator:
But these weren't
just beautiful.

They had a purpose.

Billson:
Tattoos, for the
pazyryk people,

were like an I.D.,
or a passport to the afterlife.

They believed it was the only
way that family members

would recognize them
in the spiritual realm.

Narrator:
Could the ice maiden's tattoos
be a code to her identity?

The animal imagery is
out of this world.

Real animals,
mythical animals,

upside-down animals,
inside-out animals.

Narrator:
On the ice maiden's
left shoulder

is a deer with a griffin's beak
and capricorn's antlers,

both symbols
of courage and boldness.

The mouth of a spotted panther
with a long tail

is seen at the legs of a sheep.

Now, this is
the interesting part.

These annual patterns
mirror the tattoos found

on the body
of a pazyryk warrior chief

dug from the ice
earlier this century.

♪♪

even more interesting is that
the warrior chief himself

was also buried with horses,
just like the ice maiden.

That's most likely
not a coincidence.

She's wearing thigh-high,
felt riding boots

and a wooden breastplate

that looks suspiciously
like it could be armor.

Narrator:
All of it seems to support
the warrior theory,

all except
one glaring omission.

O'keefe:
She wasn't found
with a single weapon.

No ax, no sword.

The pazyryk warriors lived
and died by their weapons.

Surely, if she was a warrior,

she would've been
buried with one.

Narrator:
So, if she wasn't a warrior,

who was she?

Bellinger:
Beside her head is a dish
of coriander seeds,

herbs, and roots.

And cannabis.

♪♪

narrator:
Historically, herbs and roots
have been associated,

throughout many traditions,
with healing practices.

Was the ice maiden some kind
of spiritual healer?

♪♪

what better way to communicate
with the spiritual world

than with the assistance

of a pinch
of medical-grade cannabis?

♪♪

bellinger:
My guess?

She was a shaman,

a high priestess whose visions
provided a direct channel

to the gods and ancestral
spirits of the pazyryk people.

Narrator:
It's a valid theory,
but they can't be sure.

Archeologists decide
to transport her body

to the lab, to find out more.

But when the local
altai mountain people hear

about their plan,
they protest.

They believe she
shouldn't be moved at all.

They warned that disturbing
the mummy's frozen tomb

would trigger an ancient curse,

causing bad luck,
illness, even death.

Narrator:
Researchers dismiss
the warnings

as harmless superstition.

But, before the helicopter
carrying her body tries

to take off the mountain,
something goes terribly wrong.

Did they unwittingly awaken
the curse of the ice maiden?

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
The helicopter carrying
a 2,500-year-old frozen mummy

known as the ice maiden

nearly crashes during the
excavation process

and has to make
an emergency landing.

The accident confirms

the altai mountain people's
worst fears.

The locals cautioned
the archeologists

that disturbing her body

would unleash the fury
of her ancient spirit.

♪♪

in a case of real life
imitating myth,

bad things
did start to happen.

Shortly after she
was removed,

there was a series
of 300 earth tremors,

which is highly unusual
for this region.

♪♪

narrator:
That was just the beginning.

They had hailstorms
raining down

balls of ice
the size of goose eggs.

♪♪

there were forest fires

and an inexplicable rash
of suicides.

The timing of all of this
was eerily coincidental.

Narrator:
Archeologists
were undeterred.

They believed the mummy's
body held secrets

that only science
could reveal.

They performed
a series of tests

to try to uncover
her true identity.

Radiocarbon dating
showed that she was

between 25 and 28 years old
when she died,

but that, in itself,
isn't significant

because the lifespan of a woman
from the iron age

would've been
around 30 years old, anyway.

X-rays show
that she had suffered

some broken bones prior
to her death,

the kind that, say,
would happen

by falling off a horse.

But it wasn't anything
too serious.

♪♪

bellinger:
It was curious.

Her skull was intact

and there were no marks
on her body

to indicate that she suffered
any sort of fatal injury,

but the state of her
soft tissue suggested

that she had been
severely emaciated.

Had she been ill?

♪♪

it wasn't until scientists
gave the ice maiden an mri

that the answer started
to take shape.

Narrator:
Magnetic resonance
imaging results

revealed a shocking piece
of the puzzle.

They found a tumor
in her right breast.

♪♪

rose:
It appears she had
breast cancer.

♪♪

and it very likely
killed her,

after spreading
to multiple organs

over a number
of excruciating months.

Given her obvious
high rank in society,

there's no other reason she
would've been so emaciated.

Only cancer
would've had that impact.

♪♪

cannabis use was widespread
throughout pazyryk culture,

so, rather than signifying
her role as a shaman,

perhaps this woman was simply
using the cannabis

as a painkiller.

♪♪

rose:
In the museum, they were able
to take a closer look

at what she was wearing.

They discovered that
her long-sleeved golden shirt

was made of silk,
which, back then,

was more prized than gold.

♪♪

she was definitely
a woman of means.

She had gold earrings,
as well as a pouch

that contained a small mirror,

meticulously decorated
with blue beads.

Narrator:
Laying beside her in the tomb

were two wooden tables,

decked out
with meat and drink --

a feast fit for royalty.

Only the most powerful women
in this society

could afford items like these,

like the wives
or daughters of chiefs.

In other words,
she was probably a princess.

♪♪

the locals have been calling
the mummy the altai ice princess

from the moment
she was discovered.

It's possible they've known
exactly who this mummy was,

right from the very beginning.

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
At the bottom of an icy lake
in jasper, alberta,

lies a mystery that may unlock
a top secret world war ii plan.

This is the last thing
you'd expect to see

at the bottom of a lake.

♪♪

somara:
I've never seen anything
like this before.

It's part building,
part machine.

It defies explanation.

♪♪

narrator:
Sitting on the bottom
of the lake,

under 130 feet of icy water,

lies a strange series
of tangled, rusting pipes

and wooden boards.

It's not a boat or a plane,
or any vehicle I've seen.

Maybe it's some kind
of a machine.

Could the pipes be part
of a steam engine?

♪♪

there's no furnace
to generate steam,

no gears to run,
no wheels.

It's definitely
not a steam engine.

♪♪

if it was a water
pumping station,

it should be on the shore,
not in the water,

and there's no place
to pump water to.

♪♪

narrator:
What is this wreckage

and how did it get
to the bottom of a lake

in the middle
of the rocky mountains?

♪♪

and why are so many history
buffs exposing themselves

to freezing waters,
just to get a glimpse of it?

♪♪

if you add up
all the components,

it appears that, originally,

this structure was
about 60 feet in length

and about 30 feet wide,

which is about the size
of an average houseboat.

♪♪

somara:
The pipes, they're unique.

If we could figure out
what was being transported

through the pipes
and where it was going,

it might help us
figure this out.

♪♪

narrator:
Judging from the design
of the pipes,

it looks like
it could be part

of an elaborate
refrigeration system

that runs through the heart
of the structure.

♪♪

somara:
That's interesting.

It looks like the pipes
are there to carry

some sort of fluid or air
around the building,

which would've removed
the heat and kept it cool.

♪♪

irving:
You have the same kind
of thing in your fridge,

but this is
on a much larger scale.

It's more like the kinda
thing you'd expect to see

in a giant commercial
cooling facility.

♪♪

o'keefe:
There are no shelves, no racks,
no place to put anything.

You wouldn't just
pile things on the floor

in the middle of a giant wooden
frame to keep them cold.

Narrator:
What is an intricate
refrigeration system doing

inside a 60-foot
wooden structure

in the middle
of a frozen lake?

Some believe the answer lies
in one of the strangest,

and most ambitious,
ideas of world war ii.

♪♪

narrator:
A mind-boggling wreckage
at the bottom of a lake

deep in the rocky mountains
defies explanation.

♪♪

the entire building
was one big refrigerator.

Now, that,
in itself, is strange,

but why is it
at the bottom of a lake?

And, even before it
got there,

what was it trying
to keep frozen?

♪♪

narrator:
The answer may lie
thousands of miles away,

in winston churchill's

top secret documents
from world war ii.

♪♪

britain's ability to win
the war against the germans

depended on tons of supplies
sent across the atlantic

in ships manned by civilians,

but there weren't enough
warships to protect them all

and allied ships
were being sunk faster

than they could be replaced.

The aircraft, at the time,
didn't have sufficient range

to provide air cover
for the allied ships,

leaving them at the mercy
of the germans.

Narrator:
More than 650,000 tons
of supplies were sunk

in June of 1942, alone.
[ explosion ]

the allies were desperate
for a solution, any solution.

♪♪

enter geoffrey nathaniel pyke.

♪♪

irving:
Pyke was this wonderfully
eccentric inventor.

He was working
with the british war office

when he came up
with this wild idea.

Basically, what he wanted
to do was drag

a giant piece of ice
from the arctic

to the middle
of the atlantic ocean

and use it to land planes on.

♪♪

narrator:
Pyke called the project
habakkuk,

a hebrew name,
meaning "he that embraces."

that is an outlandish plan,

but the british were willing
to try anything.

So, on December 4, 1942,

winston churchill signed
the most secret memo,

approving project habakkuk,

to make secret
aircraft carriers

out of icebergs.

♪♪

sounds like science fiction,
but it's 100% true.

Narrator:
As crazy as it sounds,
the project had many benefits.

Building materials,
like steel,

were in short supply
during the war.

Ice was cheap and plentiful
and, at the time,

icebergs were thought
to be indestructible.

After the titanic
sunk in 1912,

the international ice patrol
was formed,

to remove the threat to ships.

But the patrol quickly found

that they couldn't actually
destroy any icebergs.

They tried guns, bombs,
even torpedoes.

So what better ship
to take on new boats

than an immense iceberg,
immune to torpedoes?

♪♪

somara:
They even came up
with a new substance

to make the icebergs
even stronger --

a mix of wood chips and ice,

which they called pykrete,
after geoffrey pyke.

They thought it
would be so durable

that it might absorb
a torpedo blast,

making the ice warship
utterly invincible.

♪♪

narrator:
But ice does have one weakness
they knew they had to overcome.

While it might be invincible,

when it comes to bombs
or torpedoes,

it was completely vulnerable
to warm weather.

♪♪

so how do you keep
an iceberg from melting

in the warm southern waters?

A giant
refrigeration system.

♪♪

narrator:
To test the design,
and whether or not

it was possible
to keep ice constantly cold,

scientists and engineers
began constructing

a scaled-down prototype
on the frozen surface

of lake patricia,
in jasper.

The lake in alberta
was close to a railway,

where they could move
supplies to the project.

♪♪

it was also near a large camp
of mennonite and doukhobors,

who were sitting out the war
as conscientious objectors.

These men supplied the labor
for the construction.

♪♪

irving:
The lake was also remote enough
to keep the project top secret.

'cause if you're gonna build
a giant, secret ice warship,

you wanna keep it away
from the eyes of the germans.

♪♪

narrator:
The full design
was 2,000 feet long.

It had multiple buildings
on the surface of the ice,

crew quarters and hangars

dug out in the center
of the iceberg.

♪♪

somara:
2,000 feet is more than twice
as long as the titanic,

and the vessel would've
weighed over two million tons.

It would've had space
for over 300 planes

and the vessel could withstand
waves of over 50 feet high.

♪♪

their design
is completely nuts

and it's also
completely amazing.

So, why didn't they use
these ice ships in the war?

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
The prototype
of a world war ii

aircraft carrier
made entirely of ice

never made it
out of development.

The hms habakkuk
stayed afloat and frozen

through the summer of 1943,

but was abandoned
in the fall,

when churchill called
an end to the project.

♪♪

the allies began using
iceland, and portugal,

as bases to refuel
their planes,

which negated the need
for floating aerodromes.

♪♪

somara:
Newer planes, that could patrol
for longer, were introduced,

and more accurate radar
helped track u-boats.

The war was starting to turn
in favor of the allies.

♪♪

o'keefe:
They just didn't need
the ice warships.

Too bad.

Would've been epic.

Narrator:
The fantastical
aircraft carrier made of ice

never became a reality.

But the fact that
it was developed at all

is a testament to the power
of a great idea,

no matter how impractical
it may seem at the time.

The wreckage continues to draw
divers from across the planet,

eager to explore one
of the most bizarre

secret military projects ever.

♪♪

10,000 feet
above sea level,

in the iconic italian alps,

an ancient murder mystery
lies waiting to be discovered.

You're thousands of feet up
from a picturesque valley

with a stunning view
of the mountains

and there, in the ice,

is something that's
totally out of place.

♪♪

it's pretty shocking to come
across something like that

because it's entirely not
what you're expecting to see.

♪♪

narrator:
When two alpine hikers stumble
across a body in the ice,

they assume it's
an unfortunate mountaineer.

♪♪

but a closer look reveals

that what they found
was far stranger,

and far older.

♪♪

the body turns out to be
a 5,300-year-old mummy

lying face-down over a rock

and preserved perfectly
for all that time.

♪♪

they call the body
otzi the iceman,

after the otztal alps,
where the body was found.

His hair, organs, and skin
are almost entirely intact.

♪♪

incredibly,
through the examination,

it was discovered
that otzi had been shot

in the back by an arrow,

which means, surprisingly,

otzi was murdered.

♪♪

rose:
And this wasn't just
a murder.

This was a brutal killing.

It's clear that something
pretty dramatic went down here.

♪♪

narrator:
This archeological find
just turned

into the oldest murder
investigation in the world.

♪♪

otzi lived at the end
of the stone age,

a time before countries,
before kings,

where most people survived
by hunting and gathering.

But this was a turning point
in human civilization.

People were just
starting to farm.

But, as populations grew,
so did competition

for this land
and the resources on it.

Some were willing
to kill for it.

Who, then, may have wanted
this man dead?

When scientists examine
the arrow wound,

they find the flint arrowhead

still lodged deep
in his left shoulder.

♪♪

irving:
The arrow injury
was the cause of death.

It punctured an artery,
caused massive bleeding,

and ultimately proved fatal,

narrator:
Given how deep the flint
arrowhead was lodged,

they determined that he
was attacked from a distance.

He was shot
from over 100 feet away.

The archer would've been
highly proficient

with a bow,
to make that shot.

Narrator:
Now, they know
how he died,

but not who killed him,

and why.

♪♪

they turn to the ancient
crime scene, looking for clues.

Otzi is still wearing one
of his shoes,

made of grass and skin.

He's carrying a bow

with a quill full
of broken arrows,

and he has a backpack
full of tools.

♪♪

irving:
His clothes were leather,
and extremely well-made.

Plus, his shoes were designed
for walking on the snow.

♪♪

clarke:
For his era, this was
top-of-the-line survival gear.

These would've been
desirable items

essential
for mountain survival.

♪♪

rose:
He also carried flint weapons
and a copper ax.

Otzi would've been one of the
best-equipped for his time.

A tool kit like that means
he had prestige and status.

♪♪

o'keefe:
Copper tools
were extremely rare.

Most people of this era
were still using stone tools,

so a copper ax would've been
considered priceless.

Bellinger:
Looking at the evidence,
you have to wonder

if robbery was a motive
for this murder.

Were this guy's possessions

worth enough to somebody
to kill him?

♪♪

irving:
There's one big problem
with robbery

as a motive for otzi's murder.

If they wanted his stuff,
they could've just taken it.

♪♪

bellinger:
Who would kill someone
for their possessions,

but then leave them all behind?

Particularly that copper ax,

which would've been
incredibly valuable at the time.

Narrator:
So, if it wasn't theft,

what was the motive
for this murder?

♪♪

perhaps his killer came
from a rival tribe,

or, maybe, he had an enemy
within his own tribe.

♪♪

as researchers examine
the body further,

they discover the arrow wound
is not his only injury.

Rose:
Otzi also had a very grievous
wound on his right hand,

a cut between a thumb
and the forefinger.

Billson:
The injuries appear to be
defensive wounds,

so maybe he
fought off his attacker

before fleeing and getting
shot in the back.

♪♪

when scientists investigated
the wounds to otzi's right hand,

they discovered
that the injuries showed

signs of healing.

This would imply that the
injury was somewhere

around 24 to 48 hours old.

Narrator:
When they analyze
the broken arrows,

they find the blood
of two other people on them.

This leads them to think that he
must've killed those people,

otherwise, he wouldn't have been
able to retrieve his arrows.

♪♪

all told, it's clear
that otzi was involved

in multiple attacks
or fights.

This wasn't a one-off ambush.

♪♪

clarke:
Considering the nature
of his injuries,

one has to wonder
what was going on here.

Was this an ongoing battle?

Was this
a singular conflict?

Like what kind of trouble
was otzi in?

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
The discovery
of a 5,300-year-old mummy

high up in the italian alps,

with an arrowhead
lodged in his back,

launches an ancient
murder investigation.

Who killed otzi, and why?

♪♪

after finding additional
defensive wounds on his hand,

which appear to be

from an entirely
different incident,

researchers wonder if otzi was
simply having a very bad day

or if there was something
more sinister going on.

The key question here is,

was this a series of unrelated
violent encounters

and pure coincidence,

or was it a two-day-long
sequence of violence

that led to his murder?

♪♪

if we can piece together his
movements over his final days,

it might shed light
on what led to his death.

Narrator:
How do you figure out

where someone was
over 5,000 years ago?

Irving:
Otzi is a wet mummy,

that means all the
internal organs and body fat

were well-preserved.

Wet mummies are
much more rare to find

and can offer scientists
much more information

than dry mummies.

Narrator:
Scientists autopsy
otzi's body

and make
an intriguing discovery.

Otzi is so well-preserved

that he still has food
in his system.

It's a very rare thing to see
in anything this old.

The speed of human digestion

hasn't changed much
in 5,000 years,

so, if we look at how far along
the food was in his system,

from stomach to colon,

we can tell approximately
when he ate it.

♪♪

the oldest food in his system
was 33 hours old,

so we're able to see everything
he consumed since then.

♪♪

not only can we determine
when otzi ate,

but pollen analysis tells us
where he ate as well.

♪♪

irving:
When otzi ate his meals,

he consumed pollen
at the same time as his food.

We find different kinds
of pollen

at different altitudes
within the mountains.

So, by analyzing the pollen,
we can estimate approximately

how high up he was
when he ate those meals.

♪♪

narrator:
Trees in this area
release their pollen

at various elevations,

the hornbeam releases it
at lower elevations.

Conifers?
Much higher up the mountain.

The background pollen, mixed in
with the food that otzi ate

about 33 hours before his death
came from pine and spruce,

which only grow in the alpine
and subalpine regions.

This suggests that otzi was near
8,000 feet in elevation

when he had that first meal.

♪♪

o'keefe:
From this, we can learn
that he was at a high elevation

when he consumed that meal
33 three hours before his death.

We can tell that otzi's
first violent encounter

occurred around this time,

based on the extent of healing
on his hand wound.

Narrator:
The next layer of pollen
they find is hornbeam,

which tells them that,
shortly after he ate this meal,

otzi rapidly descended

from the mountain peak
to the valley.

But was he running from the
fight where he was injured

or was he chasing someone
to finish them off?

♪♪

irving:
The valley floor would've
had very rough terrain

and lots of good places
to hide,

so a great place
for a game of cat and mouse.

Was he the cat
or was he the mouse?

♪♪

o'keefe:
So he's down at the bottom
of the valley,

nine to 12 hours
prior to his death,

but his body was found back up
to 10,000 feet nine hours later.

To climb 10,000 feet
over the course of a full day

is a huge undertaking.

And to think
that he did that

after already having
come down 8,000 feet.

He must've been
an incredible athlete.

And, not only that,
but very, very motivated.

♪♪

narrator:
But without any witnesses,

researchers still can't
answer these questions.

All they can do is speculate.

We can tell a lot
about his last 33 hours,

but we still don't know if he
was the hunter or the hunted

and we don't know if he
was killed by an enemy

or by somebody
from his own tribe.

♪♪

what we do know
is that he fought

and injured several people
before he died,

he was moving fast
and erratically,

with his weapons
in need of repair

and his hand
seriously injured.

♪♪

rose:
He was shot in the back
from a distance.

Either someone didn't
wanna get too close

to this heavily armed killer,

or he was running for his life
from a deadly enemy.

♪♪

bellinger:
It's possible that otzi
came out on the wrong end

of a tussle
with a neighboring tribe.

Equally, he could've had
a deadly confrontation

with members
of his own tribe.

Narrator:
The coldest case in the world
will have to remain on ice,

at least,
for the time being.

♪♪

otzi's body and equipment
continues to be studied

and, perhaps, with time,
may reveal further clues.

♪♪

♪♪

on the banks of an icy stream

running through the heart
of the siberian permafrost

lies a secret never
before seen on the planet.

This is a little stream
feeding a small river

in the middle
of the wilderness.

Irving:
The only way to reach this site
would be by boat or on foot.

It's hundreds of miles
from any town.

It's not just remote.

It's nearly inaccessible.

♪♪

narrator:
While on a hunting trip
in search of reindeer,

two russian businessmen
spot something on the bank

that they think might be
a telltale sign of their prey.

These hunters spot
a small patch of fur

sticking out
of the ice and mud.

They think it might
lead them to game,

but what they find
is astonishing.

♪♪

narrator:
The fur is attached
to the frozen remains

of a baby wooly rhino.

Scientists nickname
the rhino sasha,

after one of the hunters
who made the discovery.

A find like this
has never been seen before,

anywhere on the planet.

This is the first
and, so far, the only one.

♪♪

scientists and archeologists
spend their entire careers

actively searching for a find
of this magnitude.

Irving:
Wooly rhinos were actually
common in the plasticine era.

Many adult wooly rhino remains

have been unearthed
at other sites,

but baby rhino remains,
like this,

have never been found before.

♪♪

rose:
The truth is
young rhino remains

are almost completely absent
from the historical record.

It's one of these things
that really makes you

scratch your head and wonder.

Narrator:
We have the remains of other
infant mammals from the era.

So why are wooly rhino
infants so rare?

The wooly rhino first
appeared on the planet

around 350,000 years ago.

Like their modern-day
counterparts,

wooly rhinos were herbivores

and lived alone or in very
small family groups.

Little else is known
about them,

mainly because very few fossils
like this have ever been found.

Maybe sasha's cause of death
can help us understand

why the remains
of only one baby rhino

have ever been found
on the planet.

Narrator:
Scientists excavate sasha
from the ice

and relocate the body
to the lab,

to find out what might've caused
the baby rhino's untimely death.

They clean
and examine the body

and that's when they make
a surprising discovery.

What they thought was
gray fur covering sasha

turns out to be
strawberry-blond hair.

The hair color's
a really extraordinary detail

that we could've never taken
from fossil evidence, alone,

and what sasha is telling us
is that the wooly rhino

appeared very different
from the rhinos of today.

♪♪

rose:
And there's more
than just hair.

Sasha's skin, and several
other organs, are also intact.

This provides us
with lots of evidence

as to what happened to sasha

and gives us a lot
of information about an animal

that is at least
10,000 years old.

♪♪

narrator:
Sasha's lungs and airways
are also intact,

allowing scientists to make
an interesting revelation.

Irving:
There's sediment in both
of sasha's airways.

The left nasal airway
is completely blocked.

That suggests that the rhino

could've become trapped
in a mud hole.

Narrator:
This makes scientists wonder
if sasha drowned.

Rose:
Sasha was found frozen
on a riverbank.

Perhaps there was
some kind of an accident

that caused sasha to end up
in the water and mud and drown.

♪♪

narrator:
But some parts of the story
just don't add up.

♪♪

if drowning is the cause
of death,

we'd expect to see some serious
injury or damage to the lungs.

That finding would help
confirm the cause of death.

Narrator:
Scientists continue
their examination,

in search of more evidence that
could confirm sasha's drowning.

But what they find
takes the investigation

in an entirely new direction.

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
The remains of an infant
wooly rhino

found in the siberian
permafrost

raises questions
about how it died.

Scientists hope the answer
will reveal more

about why so few
baby rhino fossils exist.

Sasha's remains show signs
of serious injuries.

We can see strange markings

in the lower half
of sasha's body,

indicating that it was ripped up
or damaged in some way.

♪♪

these aren't the sort of
injuries you get from drowning,

so, what else
might've caused them?

♪♪

billson:
Could these injuries have
occurred in a natural disaster?

Maybe sasha was crushed
in a rockslide or avalanche.

♪♪

irving:
There are no wounds
to be found

on the head and shoulders
of the remains.

It would be extremely unlikely
for one part of the body

to be affected in a rockslide
or an avalanche,

but not the rest.

You'd expect to see injuries
all over the body,

including the head
and shoulders,

so this doesn't appear to have
been a natural disaster.

Narrator:
Archeologists take a closer look
at the strange markings

on the lower part
of sasha's body.

Rose:
Some of the wounds
look like puncture wounds

that were made
by a sharp object.

So could humans have hunted
and killed sasha?

Narrator:
Evidence shows that humans
moved into the area

about 40,000 years ago.

The wooly rhino remains

are between 10,000
and 34,000 years old.

Narrator:
So, sasha would've been living

side-by-side
with ancient humans.

Rhinos are big animals
that travel in family groups.

Would humans of that time period
have been able to overpower

and bring down
even a small rhino?

♪♪

irving:
Remains from elsewhere
in siberia suggest

that humans were hunting
and killing

adult wooly mammoths.

Now, mammoths are much
larger than rhinos,

so, in theory, these rhinos

shouldn't have been too big
for the prehistoric hunters.

Narrator:
But closer examination
of the injuries

doesn't support this theory.

♪♪

irving:
The injuries on sasha's body
appear to be too uniform,

too even, to be
from multiple spear strikes.

There appears to be tearing
around the wound

that wouldn't be characteristic
of a spear attack,

which you'd expect to make
a much cleaner puncture wound.

It's unlikely these were
caused by spear points.

Narrator:
If sasha wasn't killed
by humans,

who killed her?

♪♪

the wounds on the body
have a distinctive pattern,

that repeats itself.

From the way
they're arranged,

they look a lot
like teeth marks.

From the size and the shape
of the puncture wounds

and the way they're arranged,
it suggests sasha was attacked

and partially consumed
by a large predator.

♪♪

narrator:
Scientists determine
that the injuries on the body

are bite marks,
consistent with a large cat.

One of the large
predator cats

that would've hunted
the wooly rhinos

during the pleistocene era
was the cave lion.

We haven't seen the remains
of other baby rhinos

killed this way.

If cave lions were
slaughtering baby rhinos,

why aren't we finding
more remains like sasha?

♪♪

narrator:
Scientists still have lots
of unanswered questions.

From the x-rays, we can see
that sasha had bursitis,

which would've
seriously inflamed

the rhino's knee joints.

This would've slowed it down,
maybe prevented it from running,

and that could've made sasha
more vulnerable to the lions.

So it's possible that sasha ran
from a cave lion attack,

but the bursitis
might have meant

that the little rhino
wasn't fast enough to escape.

♪♪

bellinger:
One thing is strange.

Lions usually consume most
of the flesh of their prey,

but sasha was only
partially consumed.

Why didn't the lions
finish their meal this time?

♪♪

billson:
It's possible that,
after the attack,

sasha's mother fended off
the cave lions.

A full-size angry rhino

would've been
an intimidating sight.

♪♪

that might be why

we have so much
of sasha's remains preserved,

but it still doesn't answer

why we don't see more remains
of baby wooly rhinos elsewhere.

One theory as to why we don't
see so many baby wooly rhinos

is that the number of rhinos
was so much smaller,

in comparison
to other megafauna,

such as the wooly mammoth.

♪♪

irving:
Scientists believe that wooly
rhinos bred incredibly slowly.

Low birth rates meant
that mother rhinos needed

to be fiercely protective
of their young,

from predators
and other dangers,

in order for the species
to survive.

The bursitis might explain why
sasha succumbed to the lions,

but it doesn't really explain

why we haven't found
any other baby wooly rhino.

Narrator:
There's still a lot
we don't know

about why sasha
is such a rare find,

but, perhaps, with time,
the ice may reveal

more secrets
about the wooly rhino.