All language subtitles for L.T.o.t.B.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track4_[eng]

[narrator] In the center
of a crowded capital city,

a team of archaeologists
digs down into the past.

[Dr. Katharina Schmidt]
Okay, get Felix.

[narrator]
Out of the earth appears a face

hidden for 2,000 years...

[Dr. Schmidt] Be very careful.

[narrator]
...an incredible treasure...

[Dr. Schmidt] Oh, wow, wow.

[narrator]
...from a lost biblical kingdom.

[Dr. Schmidt] It's intact!

♪♪

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[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.

[narrator] One of the most
famous names is King Solomon.

In the Old Testament,

Solomon was king of ancient Israel,

a mighty ruler in a golden age,

wise and wealthy
beyond any other king.

In Jerusalem, he built a mighty temple

to house the Ten Commandments
given to Moses.

The Ark of the Covenant

held the central rules
of the early Jewish nation,

marking a promise between
God and his people.

The period in which Solomon
would have lived

is known as the biblical Iron Age.

It lasted from 1200
to just after 600 BCE

and was a time of mystery
and great change.

Excavation of Jerusalem's Temple Mount

is difficult and controversial,

and archaeological evidence
for Solomon's temple,

and even the man himself, are lacking.

[Pearce Paul Creasman]
When most people think about

this region, they think about
the kingdom of Solomon.

But there's a lot of
other things going on.

Multiple kingdoms, multiple kings,

gathered on all sides of the Dead Sea
and the Jordan River.

[narrator]
To the east of Solomon's Israel

lay three other Iron Age kingdoms
that appear in the Bible:

Ammon, Moab, and Edom.

They're all experiencing their own growth,

their own development.

We've only scratched the surface
about what's going on.

[narrator] This season,
archaeologists are leading

new investigations into these kingdoms.

What can they tell us
about the golden age

of the legendary biblical ruler?

It's absolutely exciting, I mean,

this is something you dream of.

[narrator]
Using cutting-edge technology,

they reveal the lost world
of King Solomon.

In the modern city of Amman...

dawn breaks...

as archaeologist
Katharina Schmidt and her team

arrive at their dig site
in the very center

of Jordan's capital.

[Dr. Schmidt] I love Jordan.

I mean, look around you.

It's probably my most favorite place.

Particularly now, starting
the first season here in Jordan.

[narrator]
This year, the team is embarking

on a ground-breaking new project,

hoping to reveal
a lost Iron Age kingdom.

3,000 years ago,
the region around this city

belonged to the ancient
biblical kingdom of Ammon,

one of Israel's neighbors,

and is reflected in Amman's name.

[Dr. Schmidt] Waking up
with the city every morning,

it's just absolutely fabulous.

And being able to work
at that site is a dream really.

[narrator] Four million people

crowd the steep slopes of this city,

but at its center
is a nearly untouched hill

known as the Amman Citadel.

We are right in
the busy capital of Jordan,

and we are lucky because
the citadel of Amman

has not been overbuilt over the years.

[narrator]
Exploratory digs from the 1960s

found evidence of a mysterious
ancient structure

that seemed to be from the Iron Age,

ensuring the land here
remained undeveloped.

Now, Katharina has the chance
to continue that investigation

and discover precisely what it is--

this time,
with all the high-tech tools

of the 21st century archaeologist.

[Dr. Schmidt] We can use
what they have uncovered,

so we don't need to dig down
for, you know, four years

to reach the layers we are
particularly interested in.

We can immediately start
where we want to start,

and apply all these methods.

[narrator] One of the most
useful modern tools

is drone photogrammetry.

[Felix Wolter]
So, I think we can start here

on the top of the site.

-Elevation will be great.
-[drone buzzing]

[narrator]
Imaging specialist Felix Wolter

wants to create a digital map

of the whole area of the citadel.

This will help him find any structures

that were missed first time around.

[Wolter]
The drone obviously gives us

bird's-eye view of the site,
so we are able to see the site

from a completely different perspective

and much more distance,
which will allow us to see

certain structures in a 3D model.

[narrator]
Felix photographs the entire

eastern end of the citadel...

[Wolter]
Hey, perfect landing! [chuckles]

[narrator]
...and heads to the site office

to stitch the high-resolution
images together.

[Wolter] We see here,
this is our excavation

from the bird's-eye view,
and we can zoom out now,

and we see actually all this
eastern part of the citadel.

I can see that there's also
some other structures,

possible Iron Age city-wall structures.

And if I zoom in, I see actually
rows of stone put together.

[narrator]
A wall surrounding the hill

suggests the structure
within was important.

Katharina walks down into the building

to try to discover its purpose.

[Dr. Schmidt]
What is very, very useful

is to get structures in situ,

having a wall and a floor together,

in order to really define a building.

[narrator] The sheer scale and layout
of this building

indicates to Katharina that this
is not an ordinary dwelling.

Right in the south, in the far back,

we have a set of rooms.

We have a huge courtyard

which comes
right after that set of rooms.

And we have a set of rooms here,
right next to me,

where sort of a storage area
must have been.

This is already really large,
but we haven't even reached

the boundaries of that--
of that entire building yet.

[narrator]
The thick walls and vast spaces,

and the discovery of a stone
toilet seat in one room...

are evidence this was a royal building.

Multiple stories high and
covered with fine plaster...

it would have sprawled
across the hilltop...

with a huge wall
around its perimeter.

Could this be a palace
from the age of Solomon?

[speaking native language]

[narrator]
Archaeologist Zeidan Kafafi

is co-director of the project.

He's been excavating sites
across Jordan for 40 years.

[Zeidan Kafafi]
Archaeology, for me,

started as a study,

then as a career, then as a life.

[narrator] Zeidan's expertise
lies in pottery,

a crucial tool for dating
this ancient megastructure.

He examines the sherds found
at this site for their size,

material, and appearance.

[Kafafi] Each period of time,
it has its own pottery

which bears the characteristics
for that period.

[narrator] He believes
the design on this pottery

identifies the century when
this palace was occupied.

When I look at this,
I see the decoration,

which we call it

typical Ammonite period decoration.

This means this could be
8th, 7th century B.C.

[narrator] This evidence
puts the palace's occupation

close to the age of Solomon.

We believe that we are
actually dealing here

with the residence, the palace,
of the Ammonite king.

[narrator] Katharina and the team

could find precious clues here,

to what life was like
in this neighboring kingdom.

And it's not the only site
that could shed light on this period.

Thirty miles south of Amman

is the ancient site of Tell Dhiban.

Archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman

is here to explore what other
peoples and settlements

dotted this landscape
in the age of Solomon.

Beginning of the Iron Age,
sometime around 1000 B.C.,

is a bit of a messy period.

There's no one giant society
that is kind of guiding

and overpowering all the others.

It gives an opportunity
for different entities

to come into existence
in their own way.

And here, we have a great
example of one of those,

the kingdom of Moab.

[narrator]
Dhiban is associated with Dibon,

a place in Moab
referred to in the Bible.

The layers of history preserved here

could provide an insight
into the power of ancient Moab

and potentially its neighbor,
Solomon's Israel.

For thousands of years,
people have been occupying

this specific place.

And no one knows what's at the bottom yet.

We just haven't gotten there.

[narrator] The accumulation
of building material

and rubbish repeated
over the centuries

creates a man-made mound
known as a Tell.

At the base of Tell Dhiban,

Pearce Paul assesses
the construction method

of the ruins to work out
what period they're from.

What we can see here
is at least the Iron Age,

so something like 900 or 800 BC.

This is a retaining wall
from the Iron Age wall above it.

This helps make sure
that all of this stuff

stays tucked up and safe.

It'd take you the better part of an hour

to walk all the way around it,
so Tell Dhiban is a big tell.

[narrator] The physical scale
of the Moabite defenses

suggests this city was
not only large, but important.

If all of that was enclosed
in a huge wall,

this wall was two, three meters high

and two or three meters thick.

That's a lot of effort to build
that to protect the city.

That means there's things
worth protecting inside of it.

[narrator]
Pearce Paul heads up on to the tell

to search for what lies at the heart

of this biblical Iron Age city.

[narrator] At the Amman Citadel,

Katharina believes this palace
was occupied by the Ammonite king

during the biblical Iron Age,
the age of Solomon.

Now, the team needs to find evidence

of what life was like then.

Gradually, more pieces
of the palace emerge.

[Dr. Schmidt]
That's part of a floor.

It's quite a, you know,
thick layer of floor.

[narrator] The team
is piecing together a puzzle

with the smallest of clues,

such as pottery sherds
and fragments of plaster.

So, Haitham is digging down
towards the edge of the wall,

and then we can also remove
the stones on top of it

to have a look.

-We can-- we can move it.
-Come on.

No way.

[narrator] But as Katharina
monitors the work...

[Dr. Schmidt]
No way. You know what that is.

[narrator]
...excavator Haitham Al-Adwan

uncovers a mysterious piece of
carved stone inside this wall.

It looks different to
the other blocks around it.

That's really nice.

-Be very careful.
-[indistinct]

[narrator] Katharina thinks she
recognizes what this could be.

It's absolutely--
I mean, it's-- I don't know,

I can't, you know, I can't describe it.

It's-- it's basically the top part

of a double-faced female head.

You're looking at the top bit of the head.

So, it's basically the hairline,
the midline of the hair

and, uh, the side locks.

So, it's exactly that part.

[narrator]
This Iron Age carved stone head

has been reused in a later century

as a mere building block.

If the team can get it out in one piece,

it will be a monumental discovery...

offering invaluable insight
into the people

of the biblical Iron Age kingdoms.

Iron Age sculpture,
stone sculpture are really rare.

And so, this is, um, yeah,
something you dream of

before you start an excavation.
[laughing]

Congratulations.

-[laughing]
-Yeah.

Congratulations.

[narrator] Local team member
Amany Al Dabouki

excavates the soil around the head

one brushstroke at a time.

I just need to clean it to see the edges
so I will not harm it.

That why I'm doing it so carefully.

We need to remove all the soil
and stones from around it.

Then, we will pull it out.

[narrator]
Once enough soil is removed,

the team gathers round to reveal the head.

Let's see, let's see!

Oh, wow, wow.

Oh, it's intact!

It's perfectly preserved.

[gasps]
Look at her. She's staring at you.

[laughing]

[narrator] The pristine expression

of an Ammonite stone sculpture
peers up at the team.

This lady sees sunlight for the first time

of, like, 2,700 years.

[narrator] There is
an incredible level of detail

on the delicately carved stone features.

See the eye, the left eye?

And you see there's still
the remains of the white inlay

the eye was made of.
So, this is interesting

that there's obviously
something left over.

[narrator] This is the largest
and best-preserved object

the team has found all season.

Traces of paint or inlays could
even remain on the sculpture.

[Dr. Schmidt] We can take them
to the lab and see

if they were colorful or not,
but I-- I guess they were.

But scientifically,
we need to test that.

[narrator] One of the team
fetches a supersized sample box.

And when the head is fully clear...

[Dr. Schmidt] Okay, be careful.

[narrator]
...they carefully lift the lady

from her millennia-long slumber.

[Dr. Schmidt] Take your time.

[sighing] Okay.

[worker] Good.

[Katharina exhales sharply]

Well done! So, let's take it home.

[narrator] Back at the site office

and out of the blinding sunlight,

Katharina can take a closer look.

[Dr. Schmidt]
Yeah, some small traces of red.

Tiny.

[narrator] The first task is to make

a 3D computer model of the head.

[Dr. Schmidt] Amani's our specialist.

She's scanned a lot of Iron Age statues

in the museum on the Amman Citadel.

And we are lucky that
she's part of our team,

and she's also scanning the new lady.

[narrator] Amani needs to
do this as soon as possible

to ensure the object
is still precisely as it was

when she dug it up.

[Dr. Schmidt]
Unfortunately, when you take things

out of the ground, the decay starts.

And, um, by-- by scanning it,

you really also document the object,

in the best possible state.

[narrator]
The bright lamps and powerful camera

can achieve incredible definition

and perfectly capture
the richness of the sculpture.

Katharina's next step is to take this
to a national laboratory

and use the latest scanning technology

to gather all the clues
this sculpture holds.

[narrator]
The Bible tells of King Solomon's

incredible wealth--
riches of gold and silver.

Clues to what might have
inspired these stories

could lie south of ancient Israel.

The valley of Wadi Faynan

lies in the Iron Age kingdom of Edom.

That's the site, you see
the rocky mountain there.

[narrator]
Archaeologist Mohammad Najjar

is on the hunt for the source

of this biblical kingdom's wealth.

He's worked across
the Middle East for 45 years,

and shows no sign of slowing down.

We don't stop. I mean, you cannot retire

from archaeology.

Whenever chance is happening,
you just go there and doing things.

[narrator]
Mohammad is following a trail of clues

visible in satellite imagery--

dark patches scattered
through the valleys.

Beside one of these dark patches,

he discovers a bizarre-looking well
that runs deep into the ground.

We have this circular hole,

and there are three holes inside,

and this is manmade.

You can see this bigger hole
is provided with steps

where people can move.

So, the hole here indicates
that we are dealing with a mine.

[narrator] These mineshafts
originally descended

for more than 120 feet underground.

And Mohammad believes they're the source

of the nearby heaps
of black stone and dust.

The dark heaps around
are coming from deeper level.

So, this is waste.
These heaps here are tailings.

They are very helpful

when you are doing
the investigations here,

because you can see these tailings from

even a satellite picture,
or from aerial picture.

And these are always indicators

that there should be a mine there.

[narrator] Ancient mines were
a source of valuable metals.

Rulers not only used
these metals for currency,

but also to decorate their palaces

and show off their wealth.

Mohammad heads
down the hill to investigate

which metal these miners
were extracting.

At a laboratory just outside Amman,

Katharina wants to find more clues
from the Ammonite head sculpture.

She's brought it to a facility
that can detect chemical elements

without the need for destructive testing.

-Good to see you.
-Nice to see you.

-We have one.
-Really?

[laughing]

It's one of the double-faced heads.

-It's fresh-- is it fresh one?
-It's fresh from the field.

[narrator]
Finding ancient traces of paint

could help Katharina
understand how elaborate

the Ammonite palace was,
and how wealthy its king.

Measuring the eye and the whites
around the eye

would be, of course, fantastic.

And possibly we see in the light
inside some of the red traces,

and we can, um, we can try that.

[narrator] The SESAME laboratory

is able to detect the presence
of different metals

used as bases for
different colors of paint.

To do this, they use a circular
particle accelerator,

known as a synchrotron.

Magnets arranged in a 140-foot-wide loop

speed up subatomic particles
to almost the speed of light.

Then, they're fired down this barrel

straight at the object being tested.

I wonder if we should put her
upside down-- poor her--

to give her a bit more stability?

[narrator]
Senior scientist Messaoud Harfouche

helps to place the stone head
in the crosshairs.

[Dr. Schmidt] Usually, they have
really small samples

that would fit into the beam
line without any problem.

But moving the lady
in between the beam line

is a bit more complicated.

[narrator]
Messaoud and Katharina

carefully tie it into place.

[Dr. Schmidt] It's a bit odd,
because she was just buried

2,500 years, and now she's in
this high technological lab!

What we really want to know is the colors.

We really want to know
how she would stare at us.

Do we have different colors of the pupil,

of the surrounding part of the eye?

[narrator] Messaoud places
the fluorescence detector

into position.

The way in which the photons
bounce off the stone head

will identify specific elements.

A camera trained
on the head shows them

precisely where
the particle beam will scan.

The beam line fires up,

and photons traveling at about
600 million miles per hour

interact with the ancient head

but leave its stone surface
completely intact.

Readings begin to come through.

Each peak in the graph
identifies a particular element.

So, all calcium, the iron.

That's copper. That's zinc.

-[Dr. Schmidt] So, that's copper?
-[Messaoud Harfouche] This is copper, yes.

[narrator] The stone itself
is made up of many elements,

so Katharina and Messaoud expect to see
a number of these metals.

But crucially, this test reveals

different concentrations
on different parts of the face.

This bit has higher copper elevations,

-or levels, than...
-Than the... the body.

...than the white-ish surrounding.

[narrator] These could be
the first tell-tale signs

of what colors decorated
the grand palaces and temples

of these ancient biblical kingdoms.

[Dr. Schmidt] From the analysis,
we have different elements

and most likely also have
different colors or color tones.

[narrator]
The machine identifies metals

including lead, zinc, and copper

that could be used to make
black, white, and red paint.

This statue was likely richly painted,

and the resources put into its decoration

suggest it was commissioned
by a wealthy ruler.

Where did the metals to make
these colors come from?

[narrator] In the arid valleys
of southern Jordan,

Mohammad searches for the metals
that were a source of wealth

for the ancient biblical kingdom of Edom.

In a dried-up riverbed
where water has worn a channel

right through an Iron Age mine,
he hits pay dirt.

Okay, we have here one of the galleries.

Probably the shaft was somewhere
here and is gone by erosion.

This gallery goes
for about 25 meters deep.

One shaft probably
has more than one gallery.

So, galleries were spreading out
in different directions.

[narrator]
The target of all this digging

still glimmers from the exposed rock face.

The green color here everywhere
indicates that we are dealing

with copper ores here.

So, this is copper.

[narrator] The Iron Age takes its name

from the innovation in iron production,

a far more plentiful metal.

But copper was still a precious material,

important for coins and jewelry.

The Edomites turned the dirty
business of copper mining

into a highly profitable industry.

They became expert smelters,

whose furnaces reached
2,400 degrees Fahrenheit

to melt the ore
and extract the pure metal.

Each settlement produced
tons of copper every year,

and shipped it all over the ancient world.

The metal was in high demand
in the age of Solomon.

The Bible describes his fabled temple

as having columns covered in pure copper.

Mohammad walks the ruins
of the Edomite town of Faynan

and finds that signs of
smelting cover the landscape.

If we look around us, we can see
heaps of slags everywhere.

It means that production here
was at industrial scale.

It was a big industry.

[narrator]
Slag is melted rock and ore

that has run out of
the furnace and solidified.

Thousands of years later,

this waste material is vital evidence

of when in the Iron Age
this mining town was active.

Pieces of charcoal trapped inside the slag

can be used for carbon dating.

This particular site was dated

to about 11th to 10th century BC.

[narrator] This places a thriving

Edomite copper industry
at the same time as Solomon

and the tales of his elaborate temple.

All that remains of the mining boom here

is the melted waste
of the copper furnaces.

Does evidence of the grand
projects they fed

still exist elsewhere
in the three kingdoms?

At Tell Dhiban in the ancient
kingdom of Moab...

Pearce Paul continues
his exploration of the mound

to find out how grand this city was,

and what made it worth defending.

The team clears a structure
at the center of the tell.

It lies deep down in one
of the city's earliest periods

of occupation.

[Creasman] If you look at the
walls that look a bit whiter

than all the others, those are pretty old.

Those are probably
the early part of the Iron Age.

[narrator] Excavators have only exposed

part of the structure so far,

but it's still enough for
Pearce Paul to get a sense

of how impressive this would have been.

I can walk most of this room,

this chamber in about 10 seconds.

To us today, that wouldn't
feel like a massive structure.

But 3,000 years ago,
our priorities are different.

Our technologies are different.

Having a room and a structure like this

doesn't serve
your basic functions of life.

This is something more.

[narrator]
The construction of this building

at the heart of the city would
have been a huge investment

of energy and resources
for an Iron Age people.

[Creasman] All of these things
put together-- the location,

the size, the scale, and the age of it

tell us this belonged
to the most important person,

or served the most important
function of this time and place.

Usually, that's palaces, temples,

administrative structures.

[narrator]
In the case of Tell Dhiban,

archaeologists have been able
to attach a name

to this structure.

This particular building in the past

has been dubbed Mesha's Palace.

Now, that has to do with a find, not here,

but here in Dibon,
just over on the other hill.

♪♪

[narrator] Two-hundred feet
from the walls of the palace...

a Bedouin tribe uncovered a huge slab
of polished basalt rock...

bearing the longest Moabite
inscription ever found.

It refers to Mesha,
a leader of the Moabites,

who the Bible describes as mortal enemies
of the Israelites.

The inscription is the single
biggest source of text

to come direct from that age,

and is full of detail of Mesha's deeds.

[Creasman]
It reads, "To add to Dhiban,

"I built the walls of its parks,

"the walls of the citadel.

"I built its gates,
its towers, a royal palace.

I made the retaining walls
of the water reservoir within."

There are other lines that talk about

how he's vanquishing his enemies,

how he's taking
the spoils of war from them

and bringing them back here.

[narrator]
It's clear to Pearce Paul

that this list of great feats,

and the language used in the inscription,

are intended as nothing less
than the boasts of a king.

[Creasman] This is part
of Mesha's greatest hits.

He says, "I'm King Mesha
the king of Moab, of this place,

"and these are the things
that I have been able to do

with and for my people."

[narrator] This stele was written

only a century after
Solomon might have lived.

The wording indicates that Moab

was more than a spread-out clan or tribe.

It was a fully-fledged nation.

There is another key feature
mentioned throughout--

a Moabite god.

In all these feats,
he is attributing the success

and the previous inability
to do so, to the primary deity.

The foremost god, the one
above them all is Chemosh.

[narrator]
Throughout human history,

the worship of many gods
has been the norm.

Pearce Paul thinks this begins to change

in the age of Solomon.

[Creasman] During this time,
there's something

different happening
culturally, spiritually,

socially around this part of the world,

and you start to see societies
leaning more heavily on one God.

So, it wouldn't be a stretch
to think that these practices

that we see in this one
very detailed record,

might be repeated
in these other societies.

[narrator] How different were
these nations in their beliefs?

As work continues to reveal
more of the Moabite palace,

Pearce Paul searches for further links

between these kingdoms and
the biblical age of Solomon.

[narrator]
At the dig site in Amman...

the team continues to search for clues
to how the Ammonites lived.

In the spot where they found
the carved head...

lightning strikes twice.

Guess what? We actually--
we found a second one.

[narrator] Katharina's team has uncovered
another stone head.

This one is similar in appearance,
but crucially not identical.

[Dr. Schmidt] The beauty of these heads
is that they are all individual.

[narrator]
Katharina believes it shows

they weren't representing
one specific person or god.

These heads next to each other

adoring the person
who would enter the palace,

that's how you have
to imagine these heads.

These female heads were really
the good spirit of the building.

They are supernatural beings,
in between humans and gods.

They symbolize beauty
and surplus of everything.

Good spirits.

And it's beautiful. You feel it!
[chuckles]

[narrator]
These heads were intricately carved

and richly decorated...

with inlaid eyebrows,
eyes, and necklace beads.

Dozens of these heads, each one unique

and brightly painted...

would have slotted
between two stone dowels...

and formed a striking
decoration for a royal palace.

These sculptures were
for decoration, not worship.

However, there is evidence
of an Ammonite deity

elsewhere on the citadel.

[Dr. Schmidt] If you want to look
for the gods,

or at least the major god,

you would have to go
to that side of the citadel.

[narrator] Nine-hundred feet
from the dig site

stand the columns of a Roman temple.

Beneath the Roman ruins,
archaeologists discovered

a much earlier monumental
Iron Age structure.

[Dr. Schmidt]
This is, in fact, the highest place

on the Amman Citadel.

So, you either expect there
to be a temple,

or a palatial structure.

Since the palatial structure
was actually here,

the only other building
that could sit there

is the major temple
of the kingdom of Ammon,

which would be the temple
for the major deity, Milcom.

[narrator]
The Ammonites built large stone statues

to the god Milcom, and worshipped him

much like other kingdoms did
with their state deities.

But biblical texts accuse them

of sacrificing children to Milcom,

burning them in fires,

accompanied by drumbeats
to drown out the screams.

Why does the Old Testament
depict the Ammonite religion

in such a diabolical light?

In ancient Moab, at Tell Dhiban...

Pearce Paul examines the rest of the mound

to learn more about the real relationship

between the different kingdoms
of the Bible.

A thick stone wall surrounds
a bowl-shaped depression

on the side of this tell.

[Creasman]
There's an interesting feature

on the inside of this wall.
It's a thick plaster.

And if this is down here
with the bowl here,

this could be a kind of waterproofing

to help retain anything
coming off the tell.

This is almost certainly a reservoir

for that Iron Age settlement on the top.

[narrator]
This enormous reservoir

would've been
a huge infrastructure project

for an Iron Age city.

[Creasman]
On the Mesha Inscription,

the king brags about
being able to develop cisterns

and prepare his people
and save more water.

[narrator]
The pool itself could also reflect

a reference from the Bible.

[Creasman]
Another settlement here in Jordan

is ancient Heshbon.
And so, the pools of Heshbon

are mentioned in
historic scriptures and texts.

And this is the kind of thing
that could inspire that.

[narrator]
The biblical poem Song of Songs,

supposedly written by Solomon,
compares his lover's eyes

to Moab's famous pools of Heshbon.

Solomon took wives
from all the kingdoms around.

He had a child with an Ammonite princess,

and another with the Queen of Sheba.

He even built temples in Jerusalem

for his wives to worship their gods,

and angered his own god as a result.

[thunder rumbling]

These accounts paint a picture
of a cosmopolitan king of Israel,

an attitude also seen
in daily life in this region.

[Creasman]
People are bumping into each other.

You're trading with each other,
there's intermarrying.

There's all kinds of social engagements.

So much of it is incidental
and unrecorded.

[narrator]
The kingdoms next door to ancient Israel

provide clues to what Solomon's
own realm might have been like.

Just as the Mesha stele
describes the Moabites' reward

for honoring their god,

the Bible describes Israelites
suffering for Solomon

insulting Yahweh, the god of Israel.

[Creasman] With every story
that people write about,

where they came from,
and how they came into existence,

they talk about
the trials and tribulations

that they have encountered.

And they paint anyone
who's not them as the other.

These other groups,
these other societies--

the Moabites, the Edomites,
and the Ammonites--

are the other in the biblical histories.

But just because those documents
reflect them as other,

doesn't mean that's how they were.

[narrator]
When the Bible texts were written,

many centuries after Solomon,

they berate him for his
outward-looking approach.

Why do these later texts
look so harshly on Israel's neighbors?

Instead of taking the much-later
biblical literature

and scriptures as a writ
of how these things happened,

the responsible thing to do
is to take them

as a piece of evidence,

try and evaluate them
against what we can prove

through the physical record.

[narrator]
What separated these biblical kingdoms

at the end of the age of Solomon?

How did their paths diverge?

♪♪

[narrator] At the Amman Citadel,

the dig team continues its investigations.

Katharina examines how this period

of flourishing independent kingdoms
came to an end.

[Dr. Schmidt]
The excavation here is so exciting,

because we hope on the long run

that we can say a little bit more

about what happens here in Amman.

We hope to find different layers

where we can say a little bit
more about this transition--

if there is a continuity,
if there's a pause,

if there's a destruction, question mark.

[narrator]
Discoveries from around the citadel

could also hold clues to what came next.

Among the ancient riches
of the Archaeological Museum of Jordan,

museum director Taher Gonmin

tracks down a very small object

that could tell a much bigger story.

This is the seal we found
in the Ammonite kingdom

in the southern slope in Amman citadel

across from the Roman theater.

[narrator] Stamp seals
are common ancient objects.

They were used to make
a unique impression in wax

as a way to seal official documents.

This particular stamp seal
has a curious design.

This seal, we can see it's very pure.

Very pure Assyrian influence.

[narrator]
The Assyrians were a mighty empire

that dominated the region to the north.

This seal could indicate
their presence here in Ammon.

This inscription is Ammonite language.

[narrator]
This is an Ammonite stamp seal,

but in the Assyrian style.

A symbol in miniature of the period

when Ammon had become part
of the Assyrian empire.

Faced with the brute force
of the Assyrians,

the Ammonites chose to submit
rather than face annihilation.

The Assyrian overlords allowed
local rulers to stay in power,

provided they remain loyal
and paid their dues.

In the ancient kingdom of Israel,
Solomon's heirs

-refused to bow to Assyria...
-[horses whinnying]

...and its cities were raided
and destroyed.

Many Israelites
were deported and scattered,

marking the end of a golden age.

[Dr. Schmidt]
The Iron Age was a period,

this entire region was split up

into these independent kingdoms,

and it's something
very special in that period.

I think it's also important,
however, to see that,

especially with the example
of the kingdom of Ammon,

there's always a certain way
to react towards these empires.

[narrator] For a while, at least,

it seems Ammon made the right choice.

It was peace and prosperity,
like, Ammon was blossoming.

And it was a period of a peaceful
and good life, probably.

[narrator] The same cannot be said
for the ancient kingdom of Israel.

Crucially, these events
of the late Iron Age

were close to the time
when many scholars think

parts of the Old Testament were written.

By then, Solomon was
a legend centuries-old,

but the destruction and turmoil
of invading empires

was all too real.

The contrasting fates of Israel
and its neighbors across the Jordan River

spurred the writers of the Bible
to create an image of Solomon's kingdom

standing mighty and alone
in a golden age of its own making.

The biblical texts
and scriptures for any religion

are trying to tell us
a specific version of events,

the version of events that are
most important to the people

when they wrote them down.

That's useful information
because it gives us a perspective,

but it is not the perspective.

What we do is weave
all of the data together,

and come to what actually happened.

[narrator] Evidence found today
by archaeologists

across the region

is shedding light on a lost age,

a time of evolving religions...

of great industry and trade...

and a landscape of competing kingdoms...

that culminated in grand palaces,

decorated with incredible finery.

Each new discovery uncovers
the reality behind the legend

to reveal the truth about
the lost world of King Solomon.

♪♪