All language subtitles for L.T.o.t.B.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track4_[eng]

[narrator]
In Iraq, a pioneering team

of archeologists unearths new evidence
of the final days of one of the Bible's

infamous "cities of sin," Nineveh.

This is definitely a sign of a huge fire.

[narrator] As they dig
beneath the charred remains

of a monumental gateway,

they make a horrifying discovery.

[Jan Heiler] Along with traces of fire,
we found two sets of human remains

buried under the collapsed building.

[narrator] The merciless
destruction of Nineveh

was foreshadowed in the Bible.

Could these be the remains of its people
who fell victim to the prophecy?

[Ulrike Bürger] They must have been killed
during the conquest of Nineveh...

and it was lying there
until we discovered it

2,300 years later.

[narrator] The stories in the Bible
are famous across the world.

They tell of great battles
between good and evil,

earth-shaking catastrophes,
and heroic characters.

Now, new archeological discoveries

buried in the Middle East
for thousands of years

are shedding light on the real events
that may have given rise to these legends.

The Bible's Book of Jonah

tells of the notorious city of Nineveh,

home to a people so sinful
that God sent them a prophet,

bringing a message of doom:

Nineveh would be destroyed
as a result of its wicked ways.

This season...

[Heiler] Can you clean this surface here?

[narrator] ...international teams
of archeologists are on a mission

to uncover the truth

about the real city of Nineveh.

Our cameras have been given special access

to archeological digs
within recent conflict zones.

They use pioneering technology...

[Bürger] If you zoom in on the skull...

[narrator] ...to unlock the secrets
of this infamous city

and what ultimately caused its downfall.

♪♪

In the heart of the city
of Mosul in Northern Iraq,

German-Iraqi teams of archeologists

hunt for what remains of Nineveh.

With few trees for shade,
temperatures in the area

can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit,

so Stefan Maul and Jan Heiler
start digging at dawn.

[♪ tense music playing]

Nineveh is one of
the oldest cities on Earth,

founded more than 7,000 years ago.

In Biblical times,

it was home to a people
called the Assyrians.

Today, its ruins lie scattered
beneath the streets of Mosul,

Iraq's second-largest city.

Coordinates first.

-[Bürger] Adjust the level.
-[Heiler] 242.

[narrator] Jan and Stefan
are digging in a region

that has seen huge
destruction in recent years.

[Heiler] This area where
we're standing in right now

are the leftovers of the destruction
of the reconstruction of the Nergal Gate,

which was destroyed by the Islamic State
during their occupation of Mosul.

[narrator] The Nergal Gate

was the grandest entrance
to the city of Nineveh.

Its colossal towers were reconstructed

following excavations
in the mid-20th century.

The team has been
working through the rubble

of this modern structure.

[Heiler] What was unexpected
for us, and quite a surprise,

was that we had originally believed that

the whole of the gate
had been excavated in the 1960s,

but when we were starting
to remove the debris,

we realized that this was actually not so,
so this was a big surprise in itself.

[narrator] The team has found
incredible original reliefs

carved 2,700 years ago.

And what's more...

[Heiler] That's nine meters, 63...

[narrator] ...this year,
an entirely new chamber

within the Nergal Gate buried underground.

Jan works carefully with dig
co-supervisor Ulrike Bürger

to record its dimensions.

[Heiler] Eleven meters, 87 centimeters.

[Bürger] Eleven and 87.

[narrator]
At 32 feet long and 19 feet wide,

this enormous chamber

hints at the true scale
of this legendary city.

The Bible describes Nineveh
as a massive metropolis

with a river flowing through its heart.

A vast, imposing palace
is the seat of a fearsome king

who rules over more than 100,000 citizens

renowned for their wickedness.

Protected by a mighty wall,

the holy text says Nineveh is so big,

it can take a person three days
to walk from one side to the other.

So, what was the size
of this historic city?

[Professor Stefan Maul] Okay.

[drone] Take off.

-Waypoint updated.
-[Professor Maul] Perfect.

Perfect. Now, you--

Perhaps you go a little bit
in that direction.

[Heiler] Mm-hm.

[Professor Maul]
Follow a little bit the city wall,

you go, come back.

Go out of the city, and come
into the gate once again.

[narrator] Jan and Stefan
carry out a drone survey

to visualize the true extent
of the fortified city.

[Heiler] The drone allows us
to take a bird's eye view

of the fortifications
and the layout of the city

in a way that is just
not possible from the ground.

[narrator]
Jan's survey reveals the remnants

of the ancient city walls
that stretch for seven and a half miles.

In their prime, some of these walls
were almost 150 feet wide.

[Professor Maul] We are now on top of
the most important city gate of Nineveh.

The city wall is very long
and has more than 15 gates.

[narrator] The survey confirms that
Nineveh was indeed enormous,

covering more than 1,800 acres,

more than twice the size
of New York's Central Park.

[Heiler] In the Bible,
it says that there lived

120,000 people in Nineveh.

We are not quite sure if that is true,
but we know that Nineveh was definitely

one of the largest cities in its time.

[narrator] These ruins reveal the city
in its golden age, almost 3,000 years ago,

as the capital of the mighty
Assyrian Empire,

filled with palaces, lush public gardens,
and even libraries.

At that time, most people
lived in small villages.

For many, a mega-city of 120,000 people

would have been
an almost unimaginable sight.

But according to the Old Testament,

Nineveh was also a truly wicked place.

[Professor Maul] In the Bible,

the Assyrians and Nineveh
are often mentioned.

There are several very important sources

for the Assyrian history,
one is the Book of Jonah.

[narrator] The Old Testament

tells how God orders the Israelite Jonah
to deliver a terrible prophecy to Nineveh.

The city will be destroyed in 40 days.

Jonah disobeys God's command
and flees by ship,

so God sends a mighty storm to stop him.

♪♪

To placate the Lord,
the sailors cast Jonah overboard

and an enormous whale appears,
which swallows him whole.

Jonah prays for three days
and three nights

until God orders the whale to release him,

so he can deliver his message
to the city of sinners.

What lies behind the Bible's depiction
of such a terrible ancient city?

Half a mile along the perimeter wall

is another of Nineveh's secure
entrances, the Mashki Gate.

American archaeologist

Michael Danti has been
excavating in this region

for over 30 years.

He's on a mission to find out more

about the Assyrians of Nineveh
and how they saw themselves.

Here, underneath the ruins
of this second mighty fortification,

he investigates a remarkable discovery.

[Dr. Michael Danti]
The experience of finding

these reliefs was quite possibly

the greatest moment
in my archeological career.

[narrator]
These huge gypsum slabs

clad the walls of what
may have been a guardroom.

[Dr. Danti]
When we revealed this slab,

my brother, actually, was one of
the first people to notice it.

And at first,
I didn't believe him. [chuckles]

And then as we began to dig
down below the floors...

and we revealed this slab,

we realized that we had seven slabs
with well-preserved relief carving.

[narrator] These reliefs were carved
for the Assyrian King Sennacherib

in the 7th century BCE.

He made Nineveh his home,

transforming it into the greatest city

of the Assyrian Empire
and the ancient world.

And as we dug down through the floors,

we began to realize
we could see the feet of these captives

that were being marched
off into captivity.

[narrator]
The reliefs depict the Assyrians

as mighty conquerors.

Muscular soldiers trek through new lands,
and archers attack cities.

These reliefs show the Assyrians the way
that they wanted to be depicted.

As a powerful military machine

that went on regular campaigns
against foreign peoples,

who are either rebelling
against their rule,

or had not been incorporated
into the empire.

[narrator]
Far from showing wickedness,

these proudly displayed
carvings show the Assyrians

as warlike, even heroic.

It is clear that the stories in the Bible
offer a different perspective.

They are authored by a people
called the ancient Israelites,

who may have suffered
at the hands of the Assyrians.

How much did their experience

reflect the reality
of Nineveh and its empire?

♪♪

[narrator] To investigate the extent
to which the Israelite people

really did suffer under the Assyrians,

Ido Koch has come to Megiddo...

500 miles west of Nineveh
in modern-day Israel.

[Professor Ido Koch] I was born here.
This is my childhood landscape.

And this is where I live.

And this place is also meaningful
for billions of people around the world.

Megiddo was probably one
of the most important centers

of the Kingdom of Israel.

[narrator] Ancient texts
say that in 732 BCE,

the Assyrians successfully conquered
much of the Kingdom of Israel.

[Professor Koch] The Assyrian Empire
mobilized a huge army,

and the locals had almost
no ability to resist.

[narrator] Megiddo was
one of the Israelite cities

that fell to the invading
Assyrian war machine.

[Professor Koch]
The image of the Assyrians

besieging, conquering cities
is well justified.

Unlike sites, such as Lachish,

where the destruction,
the siege of the Assyrians

is evident across the site,

in Megiddo, there is no sign
of a conquest nor destruction.

♪♪

[narrator] Why is there no evidence
of an Assyrian attack here in Megiddo?

[Professor Koch] The largest
buildings that were ever built

in Megiddo are these two palaces

that were built by the Assyrians,
according to Assyrian blueprints.

Here, the Governor and his officials
dominated the city,

monitoring the inhabitants.

[narrator] For the Assyrians,
Megiddo was of huge tactical importance.

[Professor Koch]
The roads connecting Syria,

the Northern Levant to the North,
all the way to Egypt in the south,

were the major reasons

why the Assyrians rebuilt
and settled in Megiddo.

If there is no reason to destroy a town,
the Assyrians did not destroy it,

but modified it to fill
the needs of the empire.

[narrator] They captured
this important city intact,

and preserved its assets.

[Professor Koch] Despite the image we have
of the destructive Assyrian empire,

they had a very smart colonial policy.

Whenever they encountered
a kingdom with an advantage,

they immediately incorporated
it into the empire.

For example, in the case
of the Kingdom of Israel,

it was famous for its chariots.

Soon after the conquest of Israel,

we hear, in Assyrian sources,
about Israelite chariots.

[narrator]
The Assyrians embraced

advantageous new technology
from regions they conquered.

The city of Megiddo
appears to have surrendered

to Assyrian rule without a fight.

How did the Assyrians manage such a feat?

♪♪

In the Mashki Gate in Mosul...

Michael Danti examines digital archives

to investigate an elaborate object
discovered near Nineveh.

[Dr. Danti] I'm looking
at embossed bronze bands.

And the Assyrians are showing,
in these designs,

acts of unspeakable violence.

[narrator] These bronze panels
reinforced a pair

of 22-foot high wooden doors,
the entrance to a nearby temple.

The images recount
the capture of an enemy city

by the Assyrian army.

[Dr. Danti] There are scenes
of Assyrian soldiers

decapitating people, cities in flame,

and foreigners being
dismembered by these soldiers.

[narrator] According to Biblical
and historical texts,

the Assyrians laid brutal siege
to cities that resisted their power,

systematically destroying
their fortifications

and infrastructure.

They displayed the severed heads
of defeated enemies on city walls

to instill fear in those they conquered.

Collective punishment was a common tactic.

Entire villages were
exterminated or enslaved

in retaliation for the rebellion of a few.

The Assyrians carved
these acts of brutality

into monumental reliefs,
celebrating their own ruthlessness.

[Dr. Danti] We wonder, sometimes,
did the Assyrians commit such atrocities?

I think, unfortunately, the answer is yes.

If a city did resist,
this was what was going to happen to you.

[narrator] In places like Megiddo,
the violent reputation of the Assyrians

may have been powerful enough
to cause the town to surrender

at the mere sight
of their approaching forces.

[Dr. Danti] The Assyrians
really earned a reputation

as a highly violent and oppressive empire,

and surrounding kingdoms
were extremely wary

of the Assyrians.

[narrator] With such
a fearsome reputation,

why did the Assyrians feel the need

to fortify Nineveh so strongly?

♪♪

[narrator] At the Nergal Gate dig in Iraq,

Jan and the team explore
the newly exposed gateway ruins.

They're the first
to set eyes on this structure

for thousands of years.

[Heiler] It's amazing.

Professor Maul is gonna be
very happy about it.

[narrator] The survival
of these original structures

beneath ground level
is an archaeologist's dream come true.

It offers an unprecedented
and unexpected opportunity

to explore the city's secrets,
assumed to be lost in the midst of time.

They want to investigate when
the gate was built and why.

The new chamber is a treasure
trove of discoveries.

[Heiler]
What is very interesting about this

is the preservation's very rare.

We have many, many, many inscribed bricks,

and they all bear the same inscription,
and it says, "The palace is Sennacherib.

The King of the World.
The King of the Land of Assur."

[narrator] These mud bricks are inscribed
with the earliest form of writing,

known as cuneiform.

Each one would have been inscribed by hand
using a reed stylus.

[Heiler] We know that this building

was built by Sennacherib,
the Assyrian King,

because he talks about this
in his inscriptions.

He tells how he, uh, built
the whole of the city wall

and all of its gates.

He expanded the city significantly.

And in particular, this building here,
the Nergal Gate.

[narrator] Now that they are nearing
the ancient ground level,

the team can piece together

the original appearance
of this megastructure.

♪♪

Built from tons of mud bricks
plastered with clay,

the Nergal Gate towered 80 feet tall.

Guarding its entrances and hallways
were huge statues of divine winged bulls.

The newly discovered chamber
the team has excavated

lies deep inside

and was possibly a room
for the city guards

to scrutinize anyone who wished to enter.

The Nergal Gate was
a monumental checkpoint,

one of 15 colossal gates
protecting the city.

This feat of engineering would have made
an imposing entrance to the city.

Jan and Stefan's excavations

show the Nergal Gate was built
as part of King Sennacherib's

huge expansion of the city.

[Heiler] During this time
when Sennacherib built

this new city of Nineveh,

the Assyrian Empire was very prosperous.

[narrator] This immense fortified gateway

is evidence that Nineveh
needed to defend itself,

despite being the capital
of one of the most powerful

and feared empires in the world.

They had created enemies
across the region,

among them Jonah's people, the Israelites.

[Professor Maul]
The Assyrians had suppressed

almost all the people
from Syria, from Palestine,

from Turkey, Babylonians.

[narrator] Released from the whale,

Jonah obeys God's orders
and goes to Nineveh to deliver a warning.

He walks the city,

telling citizens they will be
destroyed in 40 days

as punishment for their wicked ways.

The King of Nineveh,
fearing God's prophecy,

takes off his clothes
and dresses in sackcloth

to show his humility.

His citizens follow suit,

even dressing up
the animals in sackcloth too.

And they pray for forgiveness.

Seeing that their penance was real,
the Lord showed them mercy.

It's a dramatic story,

but could there be a grain
of historical truth in it?

Did the Assyrians really
abandon their warlike ways,

as they did in the Book of Jonah?

♪♪

Back at the Mashki Gate,
Michael Danti thinks a clue

could lie in an ancient Assyrian text,

found just 20 feet
from where he's sitting.

[Dr. Danti] This tablet
has cuneiform script.

This particular tablet
gives us a list of year names

and important events.

What you see is the king
going on military campaign

and conquering foreign people.

[narrator] The Assyrian kings
kept meticulous records

of their military achievements
from the 9th century BCE,

but Michael has noticed
the entries suddenly change.

[Dr. Danti] After the period of 763 BC,

we see over and over that
the Assyrian King stays home.

He's not on these important
military campaigns

conquering new territory.

The Assyrians had earned a reputation

as a highly oppressive
and aggressive empire.

When we see something like this year list,

where the Assyrians are not
going on military campaign,

it really defies expectations.

[narrator] This sudden change

coincides with the time period
of the Bible's Book of Jonah,

in which the prophet visited the city
on a mission to end its wickedness.

The Book of Jonah takes place

probably sometime in the first
half of the 8th century.

We know the kings of Assyria
are not going out on military campaigns.

Were the Assyrians weak during this time?

Or were they just not
interested, for some reason,

in going on military campaigns?

[narrator] One theory
is that the events described

in the story of Jonah
might reflect a period of turmoil

that started with the death
of a powerful Assyrian king

in 824 BCE.

Infighting between
provincial rulers followed...

diverting resources away from conquests
for almost a century.

♪♪

Perhaps it looked as though
the Assyrians had repented,

but the realities of it are, for me,
that it was a period of civil war.

[narrator] If this period did
inspire the story of Jonah,

the Assyrian kings' repentance
didn't last for long.

After a brief hiatus,
they resumed their campaigns

under a new king,

expanding the empire
even further than before.

They were highly successful,

but were the Assyrians any
more brutal than their rivals?

♪♪

[narrator] In Israel,
Ido Koch is traveling

50 miles south of Megiddo
to the town of Tel Hadid.

He wants to find out what life
was like under Assyrian rule.

[Professor Koch]
Hadid was destroyed by the Assyrians

during the late eighth century BCE,

during the conquest
of the Kingdom of Israel,

but shortly after
the destruction of Hadid,

it was rebuilt.

[narrator] Ido has been
Project Director here

for six years,

and this year, his team
is focused on surveying

the strange features dotted
across the ancient town.

So, what is the diameter
of the central hole?

[Ammit Etya] So, the diameter
of the central hole

-is around 20 centimeters.
-Mm-hm.

Um, and the larger one
is around 45 centimeters.

Okay, and so the next step
will be to... clean around.

And then we can take a 3D model.

[narrator]
These holes are evidence

of an ancient olive oil
processing facility.

Ido and his team collect data

to estimate the scale of this
specialized industry here.

This is one of the major

olive oil extraction
installations in Tel Hadid.

Olive oil was one of the most important
agricultural product of the region.

[narrator] This olive press
is an ingenious piece

of ancient engineering,
unique to this region.

♪♪

They placed sacks full of olives
into the rock-cut basins

and used weighted beams
to squeeze out the oil,

a highly efficient method.

There were over 25
oil presses at Tel Hadid,

an operation on an industrial scale.

[Professor Koch] Our measurements,
including basins and the depth,

the size of the niche,

the length of the beam,
allow us to estimate

that the village of Hadid
has produced over 5,000 liters

of olive oil per year.

This is far beyond the consumption
of the inhabitants of the village.

[narrator] The oil was
a valuable commodity

which would have been
used across the empire.

This flourishing industry
of olive oil production in Hadid

during the time of the Assyrian rule

means that the Assyrians
were not only about

conquest and destruction.

They invested in the local economy,

economy that would have provide
the needs of the empire.

[narrator]
Ido scours ancient texts

to find out how the Assyrians
ran this lucrative industry

after their takeover.

These are two clay tablets
found during the excavations of the houses

of the inhabitants of Hadid
during the 7th century.

They are inscribed in cuneiform
in the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian,

the language of the empire
during this time,

and they document economic transactions
between the inhabitants of the place.

More importantly, the names of the people
involved in the deals are mentioned,

and they are mostly Akkadian, Aramaic,

and only one might be an Israelite name.

[narrator]
The names in the documents

are from other regions
conquered by the Assyrians

and assimilated into the empire.

Ido believes these names
expose a cruel Assyrian tactic.

The Assyrians had a colonial
policy of forced migration.

The residents of captured cities
were deported to distant lands,

marching hundreds of miles,

taking only the possessions
they could carry.

They were sent where their skills
were of most use to the empire,

like the olive oil factory in Tel Hadid.

[Professor Koch] Now imagine that,
the Assyrians deported people

from the other side of the empire,

forced them to march
for thousands of kilometers,

and they found themselves here,
in the middle of nowhere.

They had different climate,
different landscape,

different language to understand.

And this is exactly what the Assyrians
wanted to achieve,

that the deportees will feel uprooted,

will feel foreigners in their new homes,

and by that, they'll be able
to control them even better.

[narrator] Ido thinks
many occupants of Tel Hadid

suffered a similar fate

to make way for the new arrivals.

[Professor Koch] The Israelites
that survived the war

were deported and were sent to
different parts of the empire.

Most of them found their ways
to the Assyrian heartland,

but few of them were sent even
further to the Iranian Plateau

to supply the needs of the Assyrian army
that was based there facing

the enemies of Assyria to the east.

[narrator]
This callous policy of deportation

was vital for controlling
Assyria's vast empire.

[Professor Koch] The deportation
conducted by the Assyrians

in every place broke down any resistance.

Indeed, in almost all territories
that were conquered by the Assyrians

and that their populations were deported,

there was no resistance.

[narrator] With such a foolproof method
of quelling rebellion,

how did mighty Assyria fall?

♪♪

Back in the Assyrian's
capital city of Nineveh,

the dig team makes
a startling new discovery.

It could reveal a turning point
for this ancient superpower.

[Professor Maul]
Excavation is always exciting

because you find traces
of an ancient culture,

and you find evidence for things
which you had not known before.

When we started the season,
we started more or less

at the top level of the stone slabs.

And then, when we started,
relatively quickly,

we reached a layer that had
a lot of evidence of destruction.

We had all of this charcoal...

[Professor Maul]
You can still see it here.

[Heiler] Yes. You can also still see
the burn damage on the stones themselves.

So, we have a lot of evidence
of destruction in this area.

[Professor Maul]
And definitely in this gate

one sees traces of the very
last days of this city,

which had completely
destroyed and burnt down.

[narrator] Archeologists have found
a similar blackened layer

in multiple sites across Nineveh.

It suggests that the entire city
was destroyed in one catastrophic event.

And when the team digs underneath it,

it makes a chilling discovery...

♪♪

bone.

[narrator] The newly discovered
bones at Nineveh

lie in the southern corner
of the Nergal Gate.

They are incredibly fragile,

so the archeologists must work carefully.

They use photogrammetry
to record the exact position of the bones.

[Bürger] The first thing that showed up
was this left mandible.

[narrator] Ulrike slowly
scrapes away the Earth

to reveal two skeletons.

[Bürger] When we tried to uncover them,
we, uh, realized that these were humans.

[narrator] The discovery is both
horrifying and intriguing.

It could shed light
on a poorly understood chapter

in Nineveh's long history,

its almost total destruction in 612 BCE.

They must have been killed
during the conquest of Nineveh,

but we think that the fire
started after the bodies

were already lying on the ground.

[Professor Maul]
It is exciting because we

somehow witnessed
the last days of Nineveh.

This gives us detailed information
about the end of this city.

[narrator] Who were these people?
And how did they die?

This layer could hold more secrets
to how the city of Nineveh fell.

♪♪

In Israel's Tel Aviv University,

Ido Koch analyzes objects
found in the town of Tel Hadid.

These finds could shed light

on how the Assyrians treated
those who they defeated

and deported to distant lands.

[Professor Koch] While we
don't know their names,

while we don't exactly
know how their life was,

this gives us some information.

So, by that, we get
a bit closer to their story

that otherwise will be unknown
in the, the historical records.

[narrator] There is one item in particular
which Ido wants to examine more closely...

a tiny stamp seal.

Yuval, Israa, Seji...

come and have a look.

This is the seal found in area A5,
at the same place as the ceramics.

This is probably one of the most
unique finds we have from Hadid.

It is a stamp seal
made of mother of pearl.

The incised scene
on the base of the stamp seal

is representation
of the moon God of Harran.

[narrator] The mother of pearl
this seal is made from

can only have come from the Persian Gulf
or the Red Sea,

which leads to a startling conclusion.

[Professor Koch] What we
have here might have been

the belonging of one of the deportees.

This might have been
what they held in hand

during this long walk from Babylonia
all the way to Hadid.

So, this is indeed
a precious item we have.

[narrator]
This precious amulet carried from afar

was found in a rubbish pit,
alongside cooking pots and jugs.

Why were these personal objects discarded?

We do not know how
this garbage was created

because you do not throw away
complete vessels,

so something broke them apart,

everything was shoved
into the repository pit,

and then, we found it 2,700 years later.

[narrator] There are no records to explain
why the inhabitants of Tel Hadid

suddenly discarded
all of their belongings...

but it hints at the speed
of the Assyrian Empire's collapse.

What became of the deported people here
after the empire fell remains a mystery.

[Professor Koch] There is no information
what happened to them at the end.

Did they leave? Did they stay?
Did they join other communities?

We have no indications
of the destiny of these people,

but they were left alone with no
empire to protect them anymore.

[narrator] Rather than succumbing
to the wrath of God,

as the Book of Jonah suggests,

the archeological evidence
both in Tel Hadid

and across the empire
points to a different conclusion.

The empire was brought down
by a coalition of Assyria's enemies,

seeking revenge for years of oppression.

Could the grisly discoveries
at the Nergal Gate

help piece together Nineveh's final days?

[Heiler] Along with
the traces of the big fire,

uh, we uncovered two sets
of human remains...

♪♪

that were not intentional burials.

♪♪

[narrator] In the dig house
at the Nergal Gate,

Ulrike Bürger uses 3D scans
to examine the two skeletons.

She wants to find out
who these people were

and how they died.

You can see that it's lying,
like, directly on this burnt mud floor.

[Bürger] Yes.

[Heiler] So, must have died
before the chamber collapsed.

[Bürger] Yes.

And then all the burnt debris fell on top

and covered it until we excavated it.

[Heiler] Mm-hm.

[narrator] The two people
appear to have suffered violent deaths

shortly before the Gate
was burned to the ground.

The next step is
to establish their identity.

A pair of earrings found
on one of the skeletons

provides a clue.

If you zoom in on the skull...

-Mm-hm.
-...you can see where we found

the earrings that came
with the individual.

It must have been on the left ear.

-[Heiler] Mm-hm.
-And the second one

was found... down here
in the neck or shoulder area,

it must have fallen from the right ear.

These were the only two objects
that came with this individual.

[narrator]
The lack of armor or weapons

suggests these people were not soldiers.

From their bones,
Ulrike can tell they suffered

head injuries and broken limbs.

[Bürger] I think the individual
was pretty young

because the teeth were
quite well preserved,

they were not too much destroyed.

-[Heiler] Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
-Very little holes, abrasions.

And then, also if you go to the pelvis...

You can see that this edge

hasn't grown together
with the rest of the pelvis

and this happens at about 20 years.

[Heiler] Mm-hm.

So, it must have been a young adult.

[Heiler] Yeah.

[narrator]
Ulrike puts all the clues together

to reconstruct a shocking story.

I think that this is,
um, a citizen of Nineveh

who tried to maybe hide
in the Gate during the siege

or tried to escape while
the fighting was going on,

but this person didn't make it
and was killed.

[Heiler] We think
the individual was killed

before the destruction of the building.

Yeah. It must have gone hand in hand.

[narrator] This wasn't a battle.

These were teenagers
fleeing a besieged city.

They were left unburied
and the Gate was burnt to the ground

shortly after they died.

[Bürger] We think that the soldiers
had left their guard posts to fight

because, um, there was
no evidence of soldiers.

They must have left
to fight against the enemy

either in front of the Gate
or maybe already inside of the Gate.

When you discover the skeleton
of someone who died in violence,

it makes you think about
the fate of this person.

It lets you think about, like,
all the victims of the, the wars

and the, the conflicts that are
going on, even now at our days.

[narrator] It seems the inhabitants
of the city of Nineveh

suffered the same fate
as so many under their rule.

These discoveries show
it wasn't just the Assyrians

who used ruthless tactics in warfare.

Their enemies matched their brutality.

Who was responsible

for finally bringing Nineveh down?

[Professor Maul]
In 612 BC, the city of Nineveh

was besieged by a coalition
of the Babylonians,

and the Medes, and other people

who had been suppressed
by Assyria for centuries.

[narrator] In the Book of Jonah,
God shows Nineveh mercy,

but ultimately, its historical
enemies did not.

The kingdoms brutalized by the Assyrians,
the Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians,

formed an alliance and attacked the city.

They breached Nineveh's defenses
and went on a revenge-fueled rampage.

The attackers were ruthless,
slaughtering civilians in their path...

including the fleeing teenagers
whose remains the team has found.

After three months of fierce fighting,
the mighty city of Nineveh,

the powerhouse of the Assyrian Empire,
was no more.

A coalition of the city's enemies
successfully ended Nineveh's reign.

[Professor Maul] They did with the city
that what the Assyrians did for centuries.

They entered into the city,

they destroyed the city,
they burnt it down.

They killed the population
of the city of Nineveh,

and the rest was driven out of the city
and deported to other countries,

as the Assyrian had done

with all the other people
surrounding them.

[narrator] The villains
of the Old Testament

had finally got their comeuppance.

[Dr. Danti]
The Bible has quite a bit to say

about the destruction of Nineveh
and the downfall of the Assyrian Empire.

Since the Assyrians
had been so oppressive,

it was seen as divine justice
when their empire came to an end.

And it was a very thorough end.

Its cities were largely abandoned
and its countryside laid waste.

[narrator] For many people of faith,
the stories of the Old Testament

are literal, historical truth.

Others believe the stories
of the Old Testament

draw on real events
to deliver a moral lesson.

The Book of Jonah
is essentially a parable,

a story to teach forgiveness
of those who repent.

[Dr. Danti] Books of the Bible
that deal with the Assyrians

were probably written several centuries
after the events of 612 BC,

and there's a bit
of a mixing of traditions

where we can see the writers
are bringing in information

about Babylon that is
from a later time period.

But there is a core
of truth to it as well,

a historical reality.

What archeology brings to it

is the ability to refine that
understanding from the texts.

♪♪

[narrator] This season's
pioneering excavations

at Nineveh

have unearthed
previously unimagined secrets.

The miraculous survival
of rooms and reliefs

after waves of destruction,

has shed light on Nineveh's
Assyrian warlords

and their fortified capital city.

The remains of Israelite towns

give glimpses of the fates
of conquered peoples,

and the chance discovery of two skeletons
reveals the human cost of the uprising

that toppled one of the most
powerful empires

the world had ever seen.

The Bible provides a valuable perspective
of this empire

from the viewpoint of those it oppressed.

The Assyrians' wicked reputation
in the Book of Jonah

draws on historical realities
and folk memories

to create a parable of forgiveness
that survives to this day.

♪♪