Original subtitles

[narrator reading]

[narrator] The gruesome parts of a mummified body

are found trapped in a glacier on Europe's tallest mountain.

[Wakefield] The crushing weight of the glacier

may have ripped his body apart.

Who is this mysterious frozen person?

[narrator] An abandoned town in remote Greenland

surrounds the rim of an ominous crater.

[MacFerrin] What is this hole in the ground?

Could it have caused the town to be abandoned?

[narrator] Strange ivory carvings are discovered belonging to an Arctic people

who disappeared without a trace.

Inuit oral histories describe a group of huge people who were taller and stronger.

They seem to have truly vanished.

[narrator] 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.

[narrator] The Caucasus mountains, Russia.

Stretching for hundreds of miles

between the Caspian and the Black seas,

this forbidding mountain range spans the border between Europe and Asia.

In the center, rises the tallest mountain in Europe.

The imposing peak of Mount Elbrus.

[Clarke] At 18,510 feet, it's one of the Seven Summits,

the highest peaks on each continent.

[Wakefield] Mountain storms can cause bitterly cold temperatures,

plunging down to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

And brutally high winds have been clocked in

at 60 miles per hour.

[narrator] In 2013, an expedition on Mount Elbrus

done by members of the Russian Ministry of Defence,

make an unusual discovery.

Deep in a glacial crevasse exposed by melting ice,

they find the scattered remains of a frozen human body.

They find two arms, a hand,

a leg,

and what looks like a mangled torso.

This must have been extremely unnerving to find.

I mean, can you imagine?

And trying to figure out what happened to the body,

it's even harder in a situation like this.

Who could this person be?

[narrator] The Russian military examine the body

and determine that they are the remains of a young man.

Upon closer inspection,

they realize the body is displaying the tell-tale signs of mummification.

[Cantor] Natural mummification is possible at this high elevation

and in these prolonged cold temperatures.

[Wakefield] It's likely that years in the snow have mummified his body.

While the crushing weight and movement of the glacier

may have ripped his body apart.

[narrator] Further inspection of the body deepens the gruesome mystery.

Remnants of the clothes are little more than a coat

and the body has been decapitated.

[Wakefield] There's no evidence of climbing gear near the body.

No crampons, no rope, no cold-weather gear,

You wouldn't last long in these kinds of conditions with only a wool coat.

[narrator] The military widen their search to look for clues and find the missing head.

While part of the military team

scans the crevasse with a metal detector,

another group searches higher up the mountain.

It's surprising how wide a search you sometimes have to do

in order to pull together evidence

to make sense of something that is this out of the ordinary.

Could the frozen body be a hiker who lost their way?

[narrator] In the early 1900s, avid hikers began climbing Mount Elbrus.

A temporary shelter was established to escape frigid

and dangerous conditions on the mountain.

The first climbers to stay there were a group of 11 people.

So they called it Shelter 11.

[Wakefield] The climbing route grew so popular,

that by the 1930s, a famous Russian zeppelin builder

built a unique three-story, luxury accommodation

and scientific research center.

It became one of the highest hotels in Europe, able to accommodate

100 mountaineers and scientists,

heated rooms with electricity and hot showers.

It would have been a luxury to stay there.

[narrator] Could the mysterious body have been

a visitor at this famous hotel?

People often went missing and got into trouble on such a daunting climb.

Even today,

dozens of climbers die each year on this mountain.

The body looks like it's been on the mountain a long time.

So it's possible they disappeared in the early days of Shelter 11.

But they need a way to narrow down the time period.

[narrator] After scanning the area with a metal detector,

the Russians discover more evidence,

a shoulder harness and a handgun holster.

The holster is of an older design.

One used in the late '30s and early '40s during World War II.

If the holster belonged to the person who wore the wool coat,

maybe they were in the military.

[narrator] By the early 1940s, World War II was raging,

and the climbing route up Mount Elbrus was too dangerous to travel.

But Nazi troops were drawn to the symbol of Europe's tallest mountain

as a metaphor for conquering Europe.

[Cantor] In August 1942,

the Nazis' elite 1st Mountain Division was deployed to the area.

They climbed Elbrus, and took control of Shelter 11,

easily overpowering a handful of Russian meteorologists.

[narrator] The Nazis planted their flag at the top of Mount Elbrus,

and renamed it Hitler's Peak.

This move was widely publicized by Nazi propogandists,

as a symbol of Germany's dominance.

Could this soldier be a member of the 1st Mountain Division?

[Clarke] The German division that took over Elbrus

was very well trained in alpine combat.

And in the photos of the time, we can see

they had state-of-the-art camouflage equipment

and were well prepared to travel and fight in snowy mountain conditions.

[Wakefield] If he was German, this soldier was not out on a mission or exercise

when he died in this uniform.

It would not have provided enough protection from the elements.

[narrator] As the team continues to scour the glacier,

additional artifacts emerge from the melting snow.

They unearth automatic weapons and ammunition.

Near the body they find a kubar,

a type of pin that would have been worn on a military uniform

to signify a person's rank.

A pin with this specific pattern of lines on it,

indicates that the wearer was a lieutenant in the Soviet Red Army.

This could mean that the soldier was out here doing more

than just going for a hike.

But he doesn't seem prepared for this type of freezing environment.

Something must have gone horribly wrong.

[narrator] A mummified Russian soldier of World War II

has been discovered in the Caucasus Mountains on Europe's highest peak.

Found near a legendary climbing outpost known as Shelter 11,

researchers struggle to identify his remains.

He appears severely underequipped for mountain warfare.

The Russian were furious when they learned the Nazis took Mount Elbrus.

And decided to send a company of men to take back Shelter 11.

Could this body be connected to the mission?

The Red Army was stretched very thin all along the Eastern Front.

They had to hastily assemble a unit for the attack.

It was composed of 102 men, unprepared and untrained for mountain fighting.

They were poorly equipped,

with only light weapons,

coats, leather boots and little chance of success.

[narrator] In September 1942, the Russian unit made the ascent to Shelter 11.

But a fog that was covering their position

close to the shelter, suddenly lifted.

And their position was exposed.

[narrator] The German artillery easily gunned them down.

Only three men survived the ordeal.

It looks like this mummified body could be a lieutenant

from the company of fallen Soviet soldiers.

[Leonard] But without the head,

it's very difficult to match someone to any medical records

that might exist from that time.

[narrator] The researchers look at army records of the mission

and discover three lieutenants served in the unit.

Georgy Belozerov.

Pavel Kiselev.

And Guren Grigoryants,

who was rumored to have been patched up by German doctors.

Researchers believe they have likely found the remains of one of the two missing men.

But which one?

[Clarke] The torso of the mummified remains

is not in recognizable shape.

But other parts are well-preserved.

[Leonard] On one arm, there are a number of tattoos visible on the skin.

Finding tattoos, piercings or other physical markings is always exciting.

They're a really useful way to identify people.

[narrator] The tattoos running along the forearm

appear to be the black outline of a nude woman and a gun.

Could the tattoos provide a clue to the identity of the frozen body?

These tattoos are fascinating.

They're crudely drawn, but highly distinctive.

[Leonard] In the early 20th century,

the imagery of tattoos was usually significant.

They were only normally done if you were a sailor,

part of a gang, or if you'd been to prison.

In which case,

that could be a good indication of someone's criminal career.

In the Soviet Union, tattoos were common in the criminal underworld.

And they were highly symbolic.

A star on a particular location

could mean that the person was a criminal leader.

And the gun was often associated

with having committed a murder.

Whoever the soldier was, it looks like he might have done time behind bars.

[narrator] The investigators scan the records of the men

to see if they can shed any light on their past.

Army personnel details reveal little.

But investigators get a break in the case.

It turns out that one of the three officers

had spent a number of years in prison before joining the army...

Lieutenant Grigoryants,

the man who allegedly survived.

[Leonard] According to his registration card,

prior to the war, he served a jail sentence for the murder of his wife.

[narrator] Experts believe this body is Lieutenant Grigoryants'.

Can you imagine this man, probably knowing his odds of survival are near zero,

yet he still runs into battle to fight to protect this special place.

But he was gunned down and died on this mountain,

where he remained, buried in snow and ice for over 70 years.

[narrator] After this disastrous defeat,

the Russians did not immediately make another attempt at Mount Elbrus.

When the frontline situation changed in 1943,

the Russians took back control of Mount Elbrus,

replacing the flag at the top of the mountain.

[Leonard] Grigoryants' remains are finally returned to his descendants.

But what happened to Shelter 11?

Was it destroyed in the battle?

Or did the Nazis destroy it when they left?

[narrator] After the war, the shelter was abandoned.

But over the years, tourists and climbers slowly started to come back.

Shelter 11 was modernized.

And became an important stop for any climber who was ascending Mount Elbrus.

Shelter 11 survived Nazi occupation,

but accidentally burned down in 1998.

Rumor has it that a confused climber

put a pot of gasoline on the stove, thinking that it was water.

[narrator] Despite solving the mystery of the mummified soldier,

Shelter 11 continues to stand as a testament

to the many hidden bodies of fallen soldiers

still trapped inside its haunting glaciers.

[narrator] Greenland's coast is a vast maze of inlets, fjords and peninsulas.

In the southwest, the Arsuk Fjord

is accessible only by air or by sea.

[MacFerrin] Southwest Greenland is a unique glacial area

of strategic importance for superpowers vying for world dominance.

[narrator] Upon closer inspection, the Arsuk Fjord is also home

to a mysterious cluster of small buildings.

[Morgan] There are houses, townhalls, storefronts,

some dating as far back as 100 years.

All abandoned.

It's called Ivittuut and it's a ghost town

that's been clearly ditched for decades.

[narrator] Stranger still, the buildings

are perched dangerously close to the edge of a huge crater.

An imperfect circle, 750 feet long and 650 feet wide.

This crater really shouldn't be there. It looks completely out of place.

What is this hole in the ground?

Could it have caused the town to be abandoned?

[Leonard] This crater is right on the edge of the coast.

Separated from the deep fjord by a tiny sliver of land about the width of a footpath.

It almost looks extraterrestrial.

This crater, it's full of water that freezes every winter.

And it's so black, it's like staring into the abyss.

[Morgan] Its cliff-like walls rise 20 to 30 feet above the water

which is pretty unusual because there is no geological formation

anything like it anywhere else in Greenland.

[Leonard] Our planet's surface is pockmarked with thousands of meteor strikes.

The biggest ones have left giant, jagged holes

and wreaked havoc on Earth's ecosystem.

[narrator] In Mexico,

the Yucatan Peninsula bears the scar of a meteorite as big as Manhattan

that crashed to Earth 66 million years ago.

It left a crater roughly 100 miles in diameter.

And wiped out more than half of life on Earth.

[Leonard] When a meteorite slams into the ground,

there's a massive displacement of earth

that causes what's called an impact rim.

But the Ivittuut crater doesn't have a rim.

It just has cliffs.

[MacFerrin] Plus, the Arsuk Fjord

looks to be shaped by slow glacial activity,

not by a giant impact from outer space.

I really don't think this is a meteor crater.

[narrator] Researchers then wonder if it was created from the ground beneath.

Sinkholes are known to form in the Arctic region.

And when they do, they can just suddenly appear.

They're one of the planet's great unexplained natural phenomena.

[Morgan] Since 2014, in Siberia's Yamal Peninsula,

at least 16 sinkholes have been discovered.

And what's strange is, we're not 100% sure why they're happening.

[narrator] The leading theory is

a buildup of methane gas under the permafrost,

pushes the ground up like a bubble.

That creates a void underneath.

When the expanding ground bursts, it sinks deep into the Earth.

Sinkholes that appear in populated areas

have been known to swallow cars and houses.

[Leonard] But the Siberian sinkholes are inland,

on relatively soft permafrost.

Coastal Greenland is more or less solid rock.

And much less likely to release methane gas.

The Ivittuut crater doesn't quite fit the definition of a sinkhole.

So, what is it?

[narrator] As researchers explore the town,

they find a memorial for the American troop ship, the SS Dorchester.

In 1943, the Dorchester was in a convoy heading for

a newly-built US Army base near Ivittuut.

When the convoy was attacked,

the Dorchester was sunk by a German U-boat,

about 135 miles south of Greenland.

In America's worst-ever troop ship disaster,

675 lives were lost in the icy waters.

During World War II, Greenland had huge strategic value

and if the Germans were to gain a foothold in Greenland,

it would theoretically put North America within bombing range

of the German Air Force.

[MacFerrin] This American troop ship had been sunk by Germans in Ivittuut.

Could this crater have been formed by a German bomb attack?

[narrator] A strange crater sits perched on the edge

of an abandoned town in remote southwest Greenland.

Could it be evidence from a World War II

German bomb attack on Allied forces?

[Morgan] The crater is almost 200 feet deep.

A bomb that size would have flattened the town.

Ivittuut is run-down, but not blown up.

And the hole is just too close to the edge of the fjord

for it not to have collapsed into the water.

This was a deliberate, man-made crater, not an explosion.

[narrator] When researchers inspect the perimeter,

they find it scattered with unusual debris.

It looks like strange chunks of muddied ice left behind by some weird glacial phenomenon.

It's an amazing semi-translucent rock that almost looks like ice.

But it's not.

[narrator] The rock is a rare mineral called cryolite,

which is a Greek word meaning "ice stone."

Finding such a rare mineral means the strange crater might have been a quarry.

That could explain why there are different types of buildings

built around its edges.

[narrator] Could the US Navy have been secretly mining cryolite?

And if so, why?

By 1940, conflict spread across Europe and the Pacific.

Britain, America, Germany and Japan

all embraced a new kind of war.

Battles once fought on the ground,

would now be won or lost in the sky.

[Cantor] The massive increase in warplane production

demanded huge quantities of aluminum.

[Leonard] Aluminum is valued for its strength, durability and lightness.

It's the perfect material for planes.

[Morgan] The increased demand for aluminum

also fueled an increased demand for cryolite.

[Leonard] Cryolite was critical to the production of aluminum.

Because it helped reduce the melting temperature

of bauxite ore from which it was extracted.

[Cantor] In 1940, Ivittuut had the world's largest deposit of cryolite.

One of only a handful on the planet.

As German forces swept across Europe,

the Americans wasted no time in protecting the remote, but highly valuable quarry.

[narrator] In June 1941, six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor,

American troops were sent to Ivittuut with anti-aircraft guns.

In 1942, hundreds more troops built a base three miles up the fjord,

complete with a naval port.

Their mission was to keep cryolite out of German hands.

At its peak in 1942, 85,000 tons of cryolite

were shipped to smelters across North America.

[Cantor] Without all that cryolite,

the Allies might not have been able to accelerate airplane production

which gave them air superiority in World War II.

But if Ivittuut was so important, why did it become a ghost town?

[narrator] After the war, demand for aluminum radically dropped.

The mining operation continued for another 40 years in a limited capacity,

But in 1987, the cryolite quarry was declared empty.

Cryolite is now considered to be the only mineral

to have ever been mined into commercial extinction.

[MacFerrin] One by one, the miners left the town until there was nobody left.

And now the secrets of this place are really only known

to a small population of Greenlanders who live in the area.

[Cantor] It's absolutely incredible that in this forgotten place

at the edge of the Arctic lies a secret central

to the Allied victory in World War II.

[narrator] At the head of Antarctica's Weddell Sea,

floats an ice shelf the size of California.

On its surface stretches endless ice a mile thick.

In January 2020,

a team of geologists begin drilling down into the desolate frozen shelf.

This camp is about 160 miles from the edge of the ice shelf.

There's no shelter from fierce polar storms.

Even in 24-hour summer sun, it's a bleak place to work.

[narrator] Conditions below the crushing ice shelf

are not believed to support life.

And the open ocean only reaches the coastal edge.

But hidden below its monumental area,

scientists are not so sure what lies beneath.

Their goal is to go where few have gone before.

Where the ocean floor is a barren wasteland

that has been entombed by an endless roof of ice for thousands of years.

[Leonard] They're hunting for samples in the seabed

to find out what used to be trapped in this Antarctic ice.

[narrator] What can be down there that can shed new light

on how these massive ice sheets affect the Earth?

After 20 painstaking hours, the team bores through more than half a mile of ice.

[MacFerrin] Places where the ice is this thick,

it's hard to get to the seafloor.

The total amount of area they've explored under there,

is probably the size of a tennis court.

[Tait] To collect the sediment, they need to lower

the sample collection kit on a rope through a hole in the ice

and all the way to the ocean floor,

[narrator] But at the bottom, they hit something unexpected

that will shatter their understanding of this secret world.

[MacFerrin] The camera hits a boulder.

It's the only large rock within at least 20 feet.

What are the odds?

So they've drilled all the way through the ice

right over the one spot where they can't get through to the seafloor.

[narrator] After a few tense moments,

they free the kit from the rock.

And the camera swings around the boulder.

[Leonard] Clinging to the boulder are tiny tentacle-like things

that look like enoki mushrooms.

On the other side are what look like sponge-type organisms.

And covering parts of the rock is a thin layer of bacteria known as a microbial mat.

It's life.

[narrator] The existence of life at this spot,

so far from the coast, stuns experts.

How can sea creatures be living in such an uninhabitable place?

[narrator] After sending a camera down 4,600 feet

to the bottom of an ice shelf,

Antarctic experts are shocked to find sea creatures

living where they thought no life exists.

And recognize the larger creatures

as types of marine sponge.

Beneath other ice shelfs,

researchers have found rare mobile creatures.

But the creatures on this rock can't move.

For this reason, they were previously thought

to be the first type of organisms to disappear under an ice shelf.

What could they possibly feed on?

These sponges and bacteria, they're filter feeders.

The rely on phytoplankton, and the creatures that eat phytoplankton for food.

[narrator] Filter feeders eat these microscopic pieces of food

suspended in the water by filtering them through gills

or a specialized diffusion system in their cells.

[Tait] The phytoplankton are microscopic plants that need light for energy.

And this boulder is 160 miles from any trace of light.

[Leonard] Phytoplankton can't survive here.

This severely limits marine ecosystems' chances of survival.

So you have to wonder, what is keeping the creatures on this boulder alive?

[narrator] At the edge of the ice shelf, where the water is shallow,

an alien world of sea spiders sea stars and urchins carpet the seafloor.

But sunlight more easily penetrates this environment

feeding an entire ecosystem of plants and algae.

This in turn feeds larger wildlife

like fish, penguin, whales and seals.

[Tait] As you travel further under the ice shelf, there's less and less light.

And consequently, less and less life.

But life in the pitch-black isn't totally impossible.

[narrator] Deep into the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench,

26,000 feet below sea level, there is absolutely no light.

And water pressure is so intense,

human bones would literally implode.

And yet, Mariana snailfish still eke out an existence.

Very little can survive

and the ecosystem is very limited at this depth.

So what do snailfish eat?

[narrator] Many marine creatures that live on the seafloor

get their nutrients from something called marine snow.

When marine creatures die, they sink to the bottom.

Along the way, they're eaten by other creatures.

Bodies are torn apart and they get broken into smaller and smaller pieces.

Eventually they fall down to the ocean floor,

becoming food for other creatures thousands of feet below.

So, those snailfish at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

are eating marine snow that could have fallen as far as seven miles.

The fish, urchins and sea stars,

they can move around and find their food.

But the sponges on this rock, they're stuck there. They're immobile.

Their food has to find them.

And scientists have seen nothing capable of creating marine snow

under the ice shelf.

How do they survive there?

[narrator] If nutrients aren't falling from above, where are they coming from?

Hoping to shed light on the creatures' uncanny survival,

they share the video footage with colleagues

at the British Antarctic Survey.

[MacFerrin] So sometimes as a scientist, you have to

flip your whole perspective to uncover the truth.

So then they have to wonder

if the marine snow isn't falling on the boulder vertically,

could it be drifting in horizontally?

[narrator] The researchers consult maps,

and pinpoint ocean currents in the Ross Sea

capable of carrying marine snow deep under the ice shelf.

But some currents are a staggering 930 miles away.

In some cases a single microscopic piece of plankton

could take years to travel the distance.

That means the sponges and bacteria on this boulder are being nourished

by materials that potentially travelled up to 1,000 miles.

It's astonishing.

[Tait] That's hundreds of times further than most marine snow travels.

Even in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean.

How does food travel that kind of distance?

[narrator] As the far away currents bring warmer seawater further under the ice shelf,

the water cools and sinks to the bottom,

displacing the seawater that was there before.

And that creates a suction of sorts,

that moves a slow current that can drag nutrients hundreds of miles,

to the sponges on this rock.

[Tait] So this accidental discovery is an unexpected reminder that life on Earth

can thrive in extremely nutrient-deprived environments.

[narrator] What other creatures could be hidden

beneath the ice shelf of the Weddell Sea?

Living in an otherworldly place

that was previously thought unable to support life.

[narrator] Around 700 miles from the North Pole,

along Greenland's northwestern coastline,

ice floes collide into a long desolate fjord called Foulke.

On the northern shore of the Foulke fjord,

sits a remote windblown area known as Etah.

In the winter, Greenland is a place

only for those who know what they're doing.

When the wind blows across a barren landscape like that,

it can feel like a harsh and alien world.

[narrator] In 2005, researchers noticed something unusual

on a stretch of coast usually hidden by snow.

They spot a dark out of place pattern on the barren shore.

Once on the ground,

researchers find the eerie remnants of an ancient people.

The oval foundations and tools they unearth,

belong to the ancient Thule,

who were ancestors of today's Inuit.

They began to arrive in Greenland around 1100 AD.

Like the Inuit, the Thule hunted and raised families

in the harshest of Arctic conditions.

[Clarke] Almost everything they had was repurposed from large animals they hunted

like polar bear, the walrus, the seal.

They used the bones for tools, the skin for clothes and boats,

and walrus oil for lamps.

[Leonard] They built dogsleds,

and had a simple drill technology for making holes.

[narrator] But as researchers dig down further on the desolate Thule settlement,

they uncover something unexpected.

A cluster of four, strange ivory carvings beside a pair of harpoons.

Experts think the four carvings are of a sculpin fish,

a polar bear, and two abstract-looking harpoons points.

But they are found at a depth that predates the age of the Thule in this area.

[Elliott] They find them just below the Thule settlement level.

This puts them at a time before it became an established Thule site.

[narrator] Experts are at a loss to explain their existence.

Who could have buried these out of place carvings?

[narrator] While digging on the settlement

of an ancient Arctic people known as the Thule,

experts find a rare set of carvings below the dig site

that they are unable to identify.

[Clarke] Thule-carved objects are almost exclusively female figurines, or objects

pertaining to their daily tasks in a hunter-gatherer society.

[Leonard] But these carvings use more traditionally male themes.

Harpoons and fish and bears would have been within the male domain of hunting.

[narrator] Researchers decide to continue their dig

in the hopes of finding more clues.

[Leonard] Finding four carvings close together is very rare.

It's almost like they've been placed there as a group on purpose.

Not just dropped by accident.

[narrator] At the same level as the strange carvings,

researchers find the telltale sign of an even more mysterious people.

They discover unmistakable tools and objects,

belonging to a legendary group of Arctic inhabitants

known as the Late Dorset.

Inuit oral histories describe a group of huge people

who were taller and stronger than the Thule and wanted no contact.

It would be eerie and unsettling to be in such a barren and harsh place

and to come across somebody and they just want to keep to themselves?

Who are these people?

[narrator] The Late Dorset people first arrived in Greenland around 800 AD,

before the Thule.

But over 400 years later, all traces of them vanish.

The weird thing is, scientists still don't know

if the Thule and the Dorset ever coexisted,

even though their settlement dates do seem to overlap.

It's very strange.

Some believe the Thule assimilated the Dorset into their culture.

While others believe the two groups never encountered each other.

The Late Dorset people vanish around the same time that the Thule people appear.

So it's suspicious.

But there must be something special about this place

that makes both peoples want to live in this location.

[narrator] Researchers scour the area for clues

and realize that for a people living off the land,

the location of Etah could have been an oasis.

Etah sits near a polynya,

a place that has open water year-round, but is surrounded by sea ice.

Polynyas attract a variety of wildlife.

Not just sea mammals, but land mammals and birds, like the little auk.

If you live here, it gives you a fighting chance to survive year-round,

when existence elsewhere could be pretty grim.

It could easily be that this place had a ton of food so it's worth fighting for.

[narrator] Could there have been a conflict

between the Thule and the Dorset for nearby resources?

There was a lot of evidence of toolmaking at the site

from both the Dorset and the Thule.

So we know that they both spent time in the area in both temporary and stone shelters.

But researchers have found no evidence at Etah of a battle.

No weapons of war, no piles of bodies, no violently broken bones.

[narrator] They haven't found evidence of Late Dorset battles anywhere in Greenland.

But if it wasn't a battle, how else could the population collapse so quickly?

[narrator] Experts are unable to explain

how a mysterious Arctic people known as the Late Dorset,

just disappeared after living in the area for 400 years.

Sometimes, when an ancient people just vanish from an area like this,

the explanation can be as simple as disease.

[Leonard] The Vikings were known to be in Greenland at that time.

Could they have contracted a disease to which they had little immunity?

It's possible.

[Elliott] But there's no proof.

Almost no Dorset DNA has been found anywhere.

There are no bodies to study.

Which leads researchers to think the Dorset did not

follow the custom of burying their dead.

[Leonard] They seem to have truly vanished.

And the archeological record just doesn't provide enough clues.

[narrator] Faced with scant evidence,

researchers turn to the mysterious cluster of four carvings

to help shed light on why the Dorset vanished.

[Clarke] Maybe the two carved harpoon points found in the cluster

can give us a clue as to their hunting techniques.

In some senses the Dorset lived quite differently

from other Arctic hunters that came before or after them.

Researchers are baffled that they didn't use bow and arrow technology.

[Clarke] Instead of using bows, they would hunt primarily with harpoons.

So a lot like polar bears, they would hunt in ice holes,

looking for prey like seals and walrus.

As opposed to the Thule, they didn't develop drilling technology,

build boats or dogsleds.

[narrator] Maybe their lack of boat technology limited their harvesting of animals

they otherwise could have hunted.

When you're an Arctic hunter living essentially hand-to-mouth,

if you have a month of bad luck,

things can quickly get desperate.

[narrator] The carvings may hint at something more sinister.

Despite living in an area teeming with wildlife,

could the Late Dorset have died from starvation?

In the summer months, sea ice is often inaccessible,

or too thin to be reliable.

So maybe hunting sea mammals became too difficult.

[Elliott] For whatever reason, boats and bows and arrows

are innovations that the Dorset just didn't adopt.

And that could have contributed to their inability to find enough food.

[narrator] But when researchers compare

the mysterious set of carvings to another find,

they are stunned.

The four Etah carvings,

along with the harpoons recovered beside the cluster,

parallel another cluster of carvings

and harpoon found on at site on Canada's Little Cornwallis Island,

about 400 miles south.

Even though they're found so far apart, they look practically identical.

How can this be?

[narrator] On close inspection, experts establish

they were not made by the same person.

When they look at the carvings under magnification,

they can tell from the marks and the tools used

that different artists made them.

But stylistically,

the carvings are almost identical in practically every detail.

They're even similar in size. It's incredible.

[Morgan] The carvings could be some kind of standardized religious objects.

Or could they be relics used during sacred rituals to ensure good hunts?

The bear carving might actually represent the stalking pose

that polar bears use when hunting seals on the ice.

They often lie flat in order to hide themselves

so that when a seal pops up for air or for a rest,

they can pounce.

Maybe this technique was revered and standardized.

Then it was passed on to other Dorset communities

by shamans during rituals to ensure success.

For the Dorset, these objects may have been

a very powerful way to summon supernatural forces.

[Elliott] That might seem far-fetched.

But if you look around, all cultures have ways

that they try to influence the future.

Or the real meanings of the carvings could be staring at us right in the face.

Saying, "This is who we are.

We hunt like bears, but with harpoons."

The disappearance of the Dorset people is a real mystery

that perhaps might never be understood.

[narrator] The finds of the Late Dorset carvings in Etah,

give tantalizing clues of an isolated people

surviving and thriving in the harshest elements the world has to offer.

But what happened to them

still remains a secret in the ice.