All language subtitles for Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo S01E05 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- Mysteries can be
buried anywhere,

under the earth,

[volcano erupting]

beneath the sea,

or even right
under our own feet.

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes what we find
can change history.

Tonight, Sacred Finds.

From ancient books that might
be missing parts of the Bible.

- As he begins to read,
he sees these words.

These are the secret sayings
that the living Jesus spoke.

- To a strange golden treasure

meant to stop the apocalypse.

- This is the end of the world.

The gods must be angry, so
an offering has to be made.

- [Danny] To a buried
tower with a dark history.

- The archaeologists discover
around 600 more skulls,

at one point in time
it held over 60,000.

- Join us now because
nothing stays hidden forever.

[mysterious music]

In 1945, 2 brothers are
out in the countryside

digging for fertilizer
to use on their farm.

As they work, one brother
hits something unusual.

- You've got two brothers,
Mohammed and Abu,

and they're digging in the
ground with their pickaxes.

Now Abu, as he's
digging with his pickax,

he hits the ground and
he hits something hard.

[pickax clanking]

So Mohammed steps in to see
what it is he discovered.

They pull a red clay
jar out of the ground

and it's about three feet
high and it's sealed.

- This jar fires
Mohammed's imagination.

I mean, there could be a
fortune inside this jar.

Diamonds, rubies, gold, who
knows what could be inside?

And so he shatters the jar,

[clay jar breaking]

but no riches come out.

- [Narrator] All they find

are a dozen leather-
bound papyrus books.

- This is kind of a letdown.

First it's not
treasure, and second,

some other farmers
digging nearby

tell them that they're
written in Coptic,

the language of
Egyptian Christians.

- Mohammed is Muslim
and he is not literate

and he has no particular
use for these old books.

- Mohammed thinks
maybe he can sell them

and make a few bucks.

- The brothers load up their
books along with the fertilizer

and take them home, dumping
them in a pile of straw

next to their outdoor oven.

- [Narrator] But before
they can sell them,

they have more serious
business to deal with.

- A few months earlier,
the brother's father

was killed by a
member of a rival clan

and they want revenge.

- Not long after the discovery,

the brothers track their
father's killer down

and when they do,
they murder him.

[tense music]
[cracking and slashing]

- They chop off the
man's arms and legs

with the very pickaxes they
used to dig up the fertilizer.

And in the ultimate
act of blood revenge,

they cut out his
heart and they eat it.

The brothers know that
they're obvious suspects

and that the authorities

are going to come and
search their house,

so they hide the pickaxes and
the books for safekeeping.

- [Narrator] The brothers
are soon picked up

by the police for questioning.

- Meanwhile, the rest of the
family begins trading the books

to local neighbors for things
like cigarettes and fruit.

- Most of these books end
up on the Cairo black market

while dealers try to kind
of flip them for profit.

- [Narrator] When the
Egyptian government

gets wind of the books,

they track down and
seize most of them.

- Researchers examine
the manuscripts

and realized that they
contained some letters

that were written
by the apostles.

We're talking guys like
James, John and Peter

that date back to the
second century AD.

- [Narrator] But at least
one book escapes authorities

and ends up in the hands
of a religious scholar

named Gilles Quispel.

- As he begins to
read from this text,

he becomes so excited
because he sees these words,

these are the secret sayings
that the living Jesus spoke.

[mysterious music]

- Quispel's head
nearly explodes.

He realizes that he's
reading from a copy

of the Gospel of Thomas.

This is not one of the New
Testament gospels like Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John, it
was left out of the canon

because this is one of
the gnostic gospels.

- The gnostics were
group of early Christians

who didn't believe
in some of the tenets

that we associate
today with Christianity,

such as the
resurrection of Jesus.

- [Narrator] And
the Gospel of Thomas

has even more contrary ideas.

- In the different gospels
in the New Testament,

you can read that the
Kingdom of God is this place

that you'll get to eventually.

In the Gospel of Thomas,

the Kingdom of God, Jesus
says, is within you.

So it's a little bit more
of a kind of a process

of self-discovery.

- And in the Gospel of
Thomas, Jesus ridicules people

who think that the Kingdom
of Heaven is an actual place.

- [Narrator] Eventually,
Quispel and other experts

begin analyzing several
more of the texts.

- Overall, these paint
a very different picture

of who Jesus was.

In one text, He even professes
his love for Mary Magdalene.

- [Narrator] So how do these
books end up buried in Egypt?

- When the Roman
emperor Constantine

converts to
Christianity in 312 AD,

the Church becomes
incredibly powerful.

- Church officials hunt
down anyone and anything

they consider to be
blasphemous and heretical.

- [Narrator] Church
leaders destroy any books

that don't fit their version
of the New Testament,

but luckily, some of
these texts survive.

- Some experts think
that it was a monk

from a local monastery who
put these texts together,

tucking it away in a jar

and that Mohammed smashed
open 1,600 years later.

- [Narrator] Today, most of the
books the two brothers found

are in a museum in Cairo.

- But in a final twist of
fate, Mohammed later admits

that his mother used many
of the pages they found

to kindle the family fire.

[flames roaring]

These priceless pages escape
the flames for 1,600 years

only to go up in smoke
on a cold December night.

- [Danny] Finding a lost
sacred text is one thing,

but imagine if your discovery
falls into the wrong hands.

- In Northern Egypt,
in the late 1970s,

a farmer who also deals
in small-time antiquities

checks out a cave outside
the town of Beni Mazar.

- He hears about this
cave from some locals

and he decides to go looking
for jewels or other treasures

because the caves here were
used as tombs for centuries

and people are often buried
with valuable objects.

- In one particular tomb,
is a large stone box.

He pries the lid off it

and all he finds
inside is an old book.

It's really in very bad
shape, it's crumbling,

but he thinks maybe
if he takes it,

he could get something for it.

- [Narrator] The
trader shows the book

to a Cairo antiques dealer
known simply as Hanna.

- The local trader
isn't asking much,

maybe just a few
thousand dollars,

so Hanna scoops it up,
hoping for a big sale.

- In 1980, Hanna shows the
book to a prospective buyer

and then the very next day,

his apartment is robbed

[glass smashing]

and the book is gone.

Something's weird,

Hanna realizes two
things at this point,

the book is valuable
enough to be stolen

and it's caused him a
lot of trouble already.

- [Narrator] Two years later,

Hanna tracks down
that prospective buyer

and gets the stolen book back.

- He wants to sell it,

but this robbery has
made him very paranoid.

- [Narrator] Eventually,
Hanna finds another

potential buyer,

but then he reveals
his asking price.

- Hanna wants $3
million for this book,

so there's no deal.

Over the years, Hanna tries

to find other buyers,
always unsuccessfully,

so he decides the
best thing to do

would be to stash it in
a safety deposit box.

- The documents sit there,

slowly disintegrating
in the humidity

for the next 16 years.

- [Narrator] Finally, in April
of 2000, Hanna finds a buyer.

- She is a Swiss
antiquities dealer

by the name of Frieda
Nussberger-Tchacos,

but she's not willing to
pay that much money for it.

She offers him $300,000,

which is only 10% of his
original asking price,

and he accepts.

- [Narrator] Nussberger-Tchacos

brings the text to
experts at Yale University

to figure out what the
book is once and for all.

- They make an
astounding discovery.

This book is another lost gospel

and it's one they've been
trying to find for centuries,

the Gospel of Judas.

- It's a copy of a text

believed to have been
originally written

in the second century AD.

Until now, scholars had known
that this text had existed,

but they had never seen a
copy of it for themselves.

- It's one of the greatest
biblical finds in history

because it tells a
very different story

of Jesus and his
relationship with Judas.

- Judas is the disciple
in the New Testament

who ultimately betrays Jesus,

he gives him up which
leads to Jesus' arrest

and ultimately, to
his crucifixion.

- Here, Judas is not a traitor,

he's kind of a hero
or an anti-hero,

he's the chosen disciple.

Jesus supposedly reveals
secrets about God,

creation and the
cosmos only to Judas.

- And the biggest
bombshell of all

is that Jesus asks
Judas to betray him

as part of the greater
plan to save humankind.

This completely flips
the traditional story

that so many of us have heard.

- Many scholars think
it was suppressed

by the early church who
tried to destroy every copy.

- But this one survived, barely.

In the two thousands, many
of the pages were separated

and either sold to
private collectors

or turned over to museums.

- But if they hadn't been
rescued from a greedy dealer,

they might have all
rotted away.

- There's beginner's luck,

then there's the
luck our next guy has

when he discovers a
bunch of gold objects

the very first time he
uses a metal detector.

- So it's 2020, and
this guy in Denmark

by the name of Ole
Ginnerup Schytz,

decides he needs a new hobby.

[mysterious music]

- His father-in-law recently
bought him a metal detector

and he figures he could hunt
around for stuff outside.

- And Schytz takes his
new toy out for a spin,

just wants to test it out,

takes it over to his
friend's property,

just to, see what this
thing is capable of.

Eventually, he gets a hit
on the metal detector.

Okay, found something.

- And he digs in the soil

and he pulls up what
seems to be the lid

to a can of herring, but
this is no canned fish.

- Schytz has struck
gold, literally.

- Soon, he brings
up more gold pieces,

22 separate items in all.

These aren't just coins,

but they're pendants
the size of saucers

inscribed with images and runes,

which are basically ancient
Germanic symbols and letters.

- Schytz snaps some pictures
and sends them to Mads Ravn,

the head researcher
at a local museum.

- Ravn can't believe his eyes

and he writes back to
Schytz, you know what?

Put the metal detector
away, that's it.

You've won, you've peaked.

It's not gonna get
any better than this.

- It turns out these items
are from the sixth century AD

and this mix of treasures

is unlike anything the
world has ever seen.

- It includes the largest
gold pendant ever found,

coins depicting Roman
emperors minted in Greece.

What's interesting, a
number of the pendants

were folded in half,

showing that they
were purposely bent.

- Ravn and his
research team know

that this is a
sign of sacrifice.

- [Narrator] But
what was it for?

- They realize that
this buried treasure

coincides with a very
bad time in Scandinavia.

[volcano erupting]

- Back in 536 AD, a
volcano erupts in Iceland

spewing such large
amounts of ash

that it blocks out the sun.

Temperatures drop for
decades, crops fail

and there is unsurprisingly,

a widespread famine
in the region.

- Those who don't die of hunger

get slammed by a wave
of plague and to many,

they feel that this is it,
this is the end of the world.

The gods must be
angry about something,

so an offering has to be made.

- [Narrator] An important
find in the haul

reveals which gods
they're trying to please.

- It depicts a man on horseback

with long braided hair

flowing out from
underneath his crown.

He stares into the eyes of a
raven, runes surround them.

Across the top,

they spell out the words
for I invite and beer.

- There's also a reference
inscribed on the bottom to

"The High One," that is
usually in reference to Odin,

the king of the Norse gods.

- If so, this could be
the oldest reference

to Odin ever found
and means that

he was worshiped centuries
before previously thought.

- When we think of the Norse
gods, we think of the Vikings,

but this is a few hundred years

before the Viking period starts.

- [Narrator] That means this
discovery isn't just valuable,

it also rewrites
the history books.

- Experts say that the
treasure shows the roots

of beliefs that were later
adopted by the Vikings.

So this treasure haul
isn't just a lot of money

and an amazing find,
but it also shows us

what could be the very
beginnings of an entire religion

and an entire culture.

- Now we turn to Israel

for a discovery that takes
place at the site of Armageddon.

- The word Armageddon

comes from the Hebrew
name, Har Meggido

or Mount Megiddo.

- This place actually exists,

it's not a mountain, but it's
a mound that's been created

by many generations of people

living and rebuilding
in the same place.

- Megiddo has drawn
tourists for ages

who want to come and see
the site that's mentioned

in the New Testament,

but little do
these tourists know

that only a few
hundred yards away,

lies one of the most dangerous

maximum security
prisons in the world.

- Over the years, Megiddo
Prison has housed inmates

that Israel considers some
of the gravest threats

to its national security,

including some defendants
accused of terrorism.

- [Narrator] To
strengthen its defenses,

in 2005, the prison is
getting a much needed upgrade.

- An inmate named Ramil Razilo

is removing rubble to
prepare for some construction

when his shovel strikes
something solid.

He scrapes back some dirt
and discovers a tile inlay.

He brushes a little
more soil aside

and soon discovers that this
is actually just the edge

of an elaborate mosaic.

- A team of archaeologists
is called in

and with the help of
the prisoners,

they uncover the mosaic

and then more and more.

It's a whole complex

with beautiful tile floors
inscribed in ancient Greek.

- The mosaic has Christian
inscriptions inlaid into it

and we know from those

that actually what was
discovered is a Christian church

and it dates back
to around 230 AD.

- [Narrator] That means,

this is the earliest
Christian church ever found.

- It's shocking
because in 230 AD,

Christianity is still
an illegal religion

in the Roman Empire.

It's persecuted, which
means that in many cases,

its worship has to
be done in secret.

- It's still another
a hundred years

before the Roman
Emperor Constantine

legalizes Christianity
across the empire

and in fact becomes
a Christian himself.

- But as archaeologists
discover more of the site,

they learn that this place of
worship wasn't hidden at all.

- In fact, it's located
right up against

a Roman military barracks site

and in fact, the inscription
says that this site

was built thanks to the
donations of a Roman centurion.

- It seems Christians here in
the Holy Land were accepted

much earlier than
previously thought.

- [Narrator] It's an
incredible discovery,

but there's something
even more surprising.

- An inscription in this mosaic

says that this place is a
memorial to God Jesus Christ.

- Nowhere else is
Jesus described as God

this early in history
outside of the Bible.

Not just prophet and
teacher, but God.

For centuries, some
historians argue

that Jesus never
claimed to be God

and wasn't understood to
be God until much later.

- But what this discovery
proves is that very early on,

some Christians were
thinking of Jesus as divine.

- Eventually the
Megiddo prison is moved

so that the mosaic can be left
in place and not disturbed.

There's been some talk of
transferring it to a museum,

but so far, it's still
there near Mount Megiddo

where it has been
for 1,800 years.

- There are a lot of things
we hope for on a vacation,

R&R, maybe a few
really good meals,

but I'm guessing one of
the things we don't expect

is finding treasure on the
bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

[water splashing and bubbling]

- In October,
2021, Shlomi Katsin

who lives along the coast
is out for a weekend dive.

He's not looking for
anything in particular,

he just enjoys being
in the water to relax.

- [Narrator] 500
feet from shore,

he spots something
strange on the sea floor.

- It looks sort of like a rock,

but it's shaped like a cross.

- Whatever this thing is,
it's encrusted with barnacles,

seashells and other marine life

and it seems like it's
been there for ages.

- Katsin brushes some sand away

and realizes it's much
longer than he thought,

at least four feet.

Then he goes to lift
it, it's very heavy.

- He realizes that this
isn't a cross at all,

it's a sword.

- Katsin turns it over to the
Israel Antiquities Authority

and he learns that it's
about 900 years old.

- [Narrator] It
turns out this sword

was used in the Crusades.

- It is extremely rare

to find a sword from
these holy wars.

Most of them were melted
down to reuse the metal.

- The Israeli authorities
think it was buried

deep in the sand but was
jarred loose by a storm

about four months earlier.

- [Narrator] Authorities
begin to study the sword

more closely, but as they
remove the barnacles,

the blade shatters.

- Instead, they x-ray the sword.

They determine that
it's made of iron

and because the blade is
straight and not curved,

they can also tell
that it likely belonged

to a Christian soldier,
not a Muslim one.

- It's possible the sword
was just dropped overboard,

but because of the x-rays,

they can see that the
sword is slightly bent

and the handle's been
whacked out of alignment.

So perhaps, this
was lost in battle.

- Some historians think that
this sword could have been used

as part of King Richard
the Lionheart's campaign

at the end of the 1100s
as he battled along

the coast of what is now
Israel in the Third Crusade.

[waves roaring]

- [Narrator]
Whatever its journey,

the sword ended up in
the perfect location.

- According to experts,

the very specific
conditions of these waters

helped preserve the sword.

Not only did the barnacles

and other growth provide
a protective layer,

but the fact that the
waters in this area stay

roughly the same temperature
year round also helped save it.

- And with so many
people scuba diving

in this particular area,

who knows what other amazing
thing will be discovered next?

- Imagine finding
an amazing treasure

while you are playing
with school friends.

That's just what happened to
some kids in Cambodia in 2012.

- In August of 2012,
a bunch of kids

are bathing in a newly dug pond

about 50 miles north of the
capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

- This pond was built
to help people cool down

from the tropical temperatures
of Southeast Asia.

- The children begin
digging on the muddy banks

and one of them hits
a piece of stone.

- But they quickly discover
it's actually a small statue.

The other kids begin digging,

they find statues, all Buddhist
figures about a foot tall,

six of them in all.

- Some of these statues are
more than a thousand years old.

The oldest of them date
back to the ninth century.

- Cambodians believe
religious statues

are sacred deities or gods.

They even believe these relics

hold the souls of
their ancestors.

So this find is incredibly
meaningful to the community.

- Cambodia has a large
series of archaeological sites

and religious artifacts
thanks to its history

as both a Buddhist
and Hindu land.

- [Narrator] Unfortunately,
not many relics stay local.

- Religious artifacts can fetch

thousands of dollars from
foreigners in the black market.

And in a country like Cambodia

where the average monthly
salary is barely $200,

selling treasures like these

can feed a family
for several months,

- But rather than selling them,

these children
and their families

decide to donate the artifacts
to a local Cambodian museum.

They choose to preserve
and share their history,

and that's something
that's truly sacred.

- Discovering a long lost
relic can be really exciting,

it can also reveal
something disturbing.

- One morning in 1978,

electrical workers are digging
in an area of Mexico City

to install an underground
power transformer,

but work comes to a stop

when they hit what
appears to be a boulder.

- They start digging
around this thing

and they realize very quickly
that this is no ordinary rock.

- [Narrator] It's a
10 foot circular stone

with very detailed carvings.

- It depicts a female figure.

However, scattered
around it are body parts

all cut into pieces.

Archaeologists are called in

and they immediately identify
the figure as an Aztec god.

- The image is actually the
ancient Aztec female deity

known as Coyolxuhqui

- And it's believed the stone
once stood at the entrance

to the Aztecs' primary
temple, the Templo Mayor.

However, it's been
missing for centuries.

- [Narrator] From
the early 1300s,

the Aztecs were a powerful
empire for 200 years,

centered in modern-day Mexico.

This stone gives us more
insight into their culture.

- In the Aztec belief,

this deity shown on the
front of this temple,

dismembered and disfigured is
meant to serve as a warning

for anybody that would
try to enter the temple.

Basically, if you mess with us,

this is what's going
to happen to you.

- And they're not joking
around because the Aztecs

regularly and persistently

sacrificed people on the pyramid

which she sits at the base of.

- [Narrator] These human
sacrifices were huge spectacles

with large crowds.

- According to firsthand
accounts in the 1500s,

many of the victims
are decapitated.

- Other times, they were stabbed

and had their hearts
removed from their body.

The heart would be held up

in front of the crowd
while it was still beating

and the lifeless body

would be tossed down
the temple stairs.

At one point, it's even
said the Aztecs sacrificed

4,000 of their enemies
at the same time.

[dark tense music]

- [Narrator] But in
1519, the Spanish arrive

and weaken the Aztecs
with a one-two punch

of guns and disease.

- The Spanish then proceed to

wipe out the Aztec
native religion

and force Catholicism
upon the populace.

- [Narrator] As the
Aztec religion is erased,

a majority of its most
important artifacts and relics

are lost or destroyed.

But the discovery of this
circular stone leads researchers

to take a closer look
at the surrounding area

where they make an even more
disturbing find in 2015.

- A building is being renovated

very close to where
they found the stone.

Workers dig under the structure

when they find a chamber
made of volcanic rock walls

with a flagstone floor.

- And when they look
inside the chamber,

what they see is just chilling.

It's a wall made up
entirely of human skulls.

[mysterious music]

- Over the next two years,
archaeologists discover

that this wall of skulls is
actually a giant skull tower

called a Tzompantli.

Spanish accounts
say that the Aztecs

built a variety of
these structures,

utilizing the skulls
of their enemies.

- These skull racks were used
primarily for intimidation.

Just imagine what it felt like

to look at a huge
wall of human skulls.

- [Narrator] The legend
of this skull tower

goes back centuries,

but this discovery makes
the myth very real.

- Over the next couple years,

the archaeologists
continue to excavate

and discover around
600 more skulls,

but they do believe that
at one point in time,

it held over 60,000.

- [Narrator] Two years later,

there's another shocking twist.

- Some of these skulls
are actually the skulls

of women and children.

Before this discovery,

most historians
believe the skull racks

only displayed the
skulls of enemy warriors.

- But this discovery
has the experts

rethinking the purpose
of these towers.

Were women and children
serving as warriors?

Were they sacrificed
as enemy populations

or could it have
been something else?

- Historians are working
to put answers together,

but it seems likely
that there are many more

sacred secrets of the Aztecs
hiding under Mexico City.

- Let's say you're a chemist
on vacation in Italy.

You go for a scuba dive

and see something truly
alarming on the sea floor.

That's exactly what happened
to one guy in August of 1972.

- Stefano Mariottini is
vacationing in the town of Riace

off the coast of the Ionian Sea.

[water bubbling]

- He's diving about
600 feet from shore

when suddenly, 20 feet down,

he sees something that
stops his heart cold,

an arm sticking out of
the bottom of the ocean.

- He works up the
courage to swim down

and immediately he realizes,
oh, I didn't find a body,

what this actually is is
a life-size bronze statue.

- And ancient bronze statues
are extremely hard to come by

because generally speaking,

they were often melted
down for the metal

because it was needed for
weaponry or engineering,

but this statue
survived that fate

by being buried underwater.

- Mariottini alerts
Italian authorities

and he joins a salvage team
to bring up that statue

along with a second one
that's discovered nearby.

- These things are
made of solid bronze,

six and a half feet tall and
roughly 900 pounds a piece.

So raising them

is going to be a massive,
massive undertaking.

- The team works in shifts

to dislodge the
statues from the bottom

and then they raise
them to the surface

using what we call lift bags,

which are big bags
filled with air,

and the air slowly expands as
it gets closer to the surface,

so it helps you lift
very heavy objects.

- [Narrator] When
researchers clean them up,

they discover these statues
are from ancient Greece.

- [Ashley] And they are
2,500 years old.

They become known as
the Riace Bronzes.

- At first, they're thought
to be Greek warriors.

Then later research determines

that one of them
may be Eumolpus,

the son of Poseidon,
a Greek demigod.

- [Narrator] While
the original purpose

of these statues is unknown,

researchers wonder how
such valuable artifacts

ended up at the
bottom of the sea.

- Some people believe

they may have fallen off
of a ship in transport

or they were in the cargo
hold of a ship that sunk.

- Others say that the statues
might be part of a temple

that's now submerged
due to rising sea level.

- [Narrator] Incredibly,
these are two of only 30

intact Greek bronze
statues ever found

from this time period.

- Investigators have returned
to excavate parts of the site.

They're hoping to find out

how these amazing relics
could have ended up lost

at the bottom of the Ionian
Sea in the first place.

- 73 years before those
statues are found,

another underwater discovery

scares the hell out of
an unsuspecting diver.

- In 1900, a crew of
Greek sponge divers

is sailing to Tunisia,
but due to rough seas,

they decide to shelter on the
Greek island of Antikythera.

- These divers go out looking
for sponges off the coast.

A diver named Elias Stadiatis

was the first to
get in the water.

- He's barely down a minute

before he starts
tugging on the line.

Suddenly, they know
he's in distress,

they bring him up as
quickly as they can

and he is white as a sheet.

They ask him what's wrong

and he says, "The floor
of the ocean is covered

with the bodies of
dead, naked people."

- [Narrator] He's
discovered one of the oldest

and most important
shipwrecks ever found,

a Roman cargo vessel that
sank in the first century BC.

- It's the first shipwreck

to really be investigated
by archaeologists

because its cargo has
so many artifacts.

Inside the ship, there are
three life-size marble horses,

hundreds of works of
art, jewelry and coins.

- You might have heard about
the wreck's most famous find,

the Antikythera Mechanism,

a sort of manual astronomical
calculator that's raised

all sorts of questions
about ancient technology.

- [Narrator] But that's
not the only puzzling thing

discovered that day.

- Those dead naked bodies
Stadiatis reported,

are actually statues

and none more mysterious

than what's become known
as the Antikythera Ephebe.

- This is a life-size
bronze statue depicting

a young muscular Greek man,

and it comes from
the fourth century BC

and is arguably considered to be

one of the best preserved
Greek statues from that period.

- An Ephebe is a
term that's used

to describe a young man
in military training.

That was just a generic name

given to the statue
in the early 1900s,

for lack of a better term.

- But experts have
come to believe

the statue depicts
someone specific.

- [Narrator] Many scholars
think it might even be

a divine figure from
Greek mythology.

- Some think it could be Apollo,

some think it could be
Hercules, the son of Zeus.

This would obviously be his
younger self, before the beard.

- The Ephebe was
apparently sculpted

holding some sort of
object in his hand.

That part was already missing
by the time of the discovery

and for over a century now,

scholars have been trying to
figure out what that thing was.

- Some believe it might be the
Greek mythological character

Paris, and he was
holding an apple

given to the goddess, Aphrodite.

- Another school
of thought believes

he's the legendary
mythological warrior, Perseus,

and what's missing from his hand

is the severed head
of the gorgon Medusa.

- [Narrator] As researchers
continue to explore the wreck,

in 2023, they finally find new
evidence, human skeletons.

- Scientists are
hoping to extract DNA

from the remains that were
found on the shipwreck

so they can learn more about
the people that were on board.

- The more they learn
about this wreck,

the better chance they have

of solving all of
its many puzzles.

- Sometimes, sacred objects
are destroyed in war,

but in 2014, an
attack on a holy site

reveals something
completely unexpected.

- In June 2014, the
Islamic state of Iraq,

also known as Isis or ISIL,

are seizing parts
of the country.

[gunfire]

- As part of their mission,

they're intent on destroying
cultural heritage sites

that don't conform to
their version of Islam.

- One site that they
decide to destroy

is the mosque of
Nabi Yunus in Mosul.

This place is most
famous for housing a tomb

that's believed to be the
final resting place of Yunus,

a figure you may probably
know better as Jonah,

the biblical prophet that
gets swallowed by a whale.

- Jonah isn't just important

in the Christian and
Jewish scriptures,

he's also mentioned
in the Quran.

But Isis decides regardless

to destroy the mosque
which contains the tomb.

[explosion]

- [Narrator] The dynamite
blast is caught on camera

and seen around the world.

It seems like the end of the
story for this sacred site.

- But in 2017, Iraqi defense
forces liberate the area

and they find
something surprising

where the mosque once was.

The destruction
unintentionally revealed

an ancient palace
built by the Assyrians.

- The Assyrians were an ancient
kingdom in the Middle East

dating back to the
21st century BC.

Their palaces were famous

for their intricate art,
architecture and wall carvings,

and sure enough, that's just
what's unearthed in the rubble.

- The underground
passages still have

colossal statues in place
and they have also carvings

of religious inscriptions

that date back to
the sixth century BC.

- [Narrator] When researchers
study the discoveries,

one artifact stands out.

[dramatic music]

- It's a set of wall reliefs
that depicts rows of women.

Some speculate that the
women are goddesses.

Others say they're
Assyrian women

carrying offerings to the gods.

- Up until this point,

the Assyrian artifacts
that have been found

usually depict men.

The women, when they are shown,

are depicted as spoils
of war, captives.

- This is a little bit different

in that it shows three
women facing the front,

not being led off anywhere,

not in profile as
you usually find.

So what does this mean?

This relief indicates
that Assyrian women

probably played a bigger
role in religious activities

than we had understood
before this discovery.

- So the terror group
destroys something

that they felt was sacrilegious,

but ironically, what
they end up doing

is shedding light on
women and religion

and one of the earliest
cultures known to man.

- [Narrator] Explosives
aren't the only way

to reveal ancient artifacts.

Sometimes, a big find can
be hiding in plain sight.

- In 2015, Alba Fedeli
is a PhD student

at the University of
Birmingham in England,

working in the library.

- As she's reading

ancient Middle Eastern
manuscripts for her thesis,

she comes across a very
early copy of the Quran.

- Thumbing through
it, Fedeli realizes

that two leaves of the document

seem different
from all the rest.

- She studied dozens of
early Quranic manuscripts,

and even though there
are similarities

when it comes to the
handwriting on these leaves,

there are also some
specific differences.

- [Narrator] Fedeli decides
to have the pages carbon-dated

and the results are astonishing.

- Not only are these pages old,

they may, in fact, be the
oldest pieces of the Quran

that we have in existence.

- The carbon dating says that

the parchment was
created somewhere between

568 and 645 AD.

- This dating indicates
that these pages

may even have been written

at the time when the prophet
Mohammed was still alive.

- Mohammed dies in 632 AD

so even if these documents
date to just a little later,

there's a real chance
that whoever wrote them

heard his teachings firsthand.

- Whatever the case,
the text on these pages

very closely resembles
the modern-day Quran,

which shows us that not much
has changed over the centuries.

- It's not known whether

other pages of the Birmingham
document are still out there

or if they've been destroyed.

- What we do know is that

this is one of the
most amazing finds

in the history of Islam,
and what's amazing

is that it was hiding in
plain sight on a bookshelf

for nearly a hundred years.

- Imagine unearthing the lost
words of Jesus in a buried jar

or finding a tower
of human skulls.

One thing is certain, there
are many more sacred finds

out there just waiting
to be discovered.

I'm Danny Trejo, thanks for
watching Mysteries Unearthed.