All language subtitles for Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo S01E06 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[tense music]

- Mysteries can be
buried anywhere.

Under the Earth,
beneath the sea,

or even right
under our own feet.

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes what we find
can change history.

Tonight, a treasure
trove of killer finds.

From a blood thirsty predator.

- It had lethal teeth,

each serrated like a bread knife

to saw and slice
into their prey.

- [Danny] To an ancient tomb.

- Soon after, another team
member suddenly passes away,

then a third and a fourth die
in the same strange fashion.

- To a literal
ticking time bomb.

- They immediately evacuate
20 homes in the neighborhood

and call the bomb squad.

- Join us now, because
nothing stays hidden forever.

[dramatic music]

It's one of America's most
loved national parks,

but underneath the
beauty lies a killer,

one that gets
discovered from space.

- In 1965, NASA begins a
mission to map the surface

of the Earth from space.

They plan to use
state-of-the-art cameras

mounted on satellites,

but to make sure the images
they are getting are accurate,

NASA decides to make a
control set of pictures

on the ground at Yellowstone.

- They're making this
map of Yellowstone

so that they have a baseline.

And the person in charge,
his name is Bob Christiansen.

- Yellowstone has the
ideal geology to do this

because the park is just
chockfull of geysers

and these natural pools,

all of which can test the real
accuracy of these cameras.

- Because Christiansen
is also a geologist,

the National Park Service also
has him collect rock samples

that are later carbon dated.

- [Narrator] These rock samples
reveal something strange.

- It turns out that most
of the rock in Yellowstone

is made up of something
called rhyolite,

which only occurs when
you have lava flowing

or volcanic explosions.

But there are no active
volcanoes in Yellowstone.

- Still, Christiansen's
data doesn't lie.

The bulk of the park's
geology is the result

of several massive
eruptions over

the last two million years.

- There are hundreds of
unique geological features

across the park.

So, Christiansen's first thought

is that these were the product
of an ancient volcano chain

that has long
since gone dormant.

- [Narrator] But when NASA's
satellite mapping of the park

is finally finished in 1972,

Christensen is shocked by what
the infrared pictures reveal.

- What the images tell him

is that the unique
geological features

of Yellowstone were
not, as he thought,

formed by an ancient
chain of volcanoes,

but by a single super volcano.

- Of the over 1,000 volcanoes
we know of on Earth,

only about 20 are
super volcanoes,

and this is one of the
biggest ever found.

- The biggest of these eruptions

took place two
million years ago.

This eruption launched as
much as 600 cubic miles

of red hot lava and
rocks into the air.

This is an explosion
2,500 times bigger

than the Mount Saint
Helens eruption.

- [Narrator] Then,
Christiansen makes

an even more
startling discovery.

- Even though it
has been dormant

for a half a million years,

lava still flows in this
massive supervolcano

underneath Yellowstone
National Park.

- [Narrator] And in 2022,

scientists uncover even
more alarming news.

- A study published in
the Journal Science shows

that lava chambers under the
park are rapidly filling.

- This combined with the fact

that Yellowstone has over
3,000 earthquakes a year

leads some to speculate

that the super volcano may be
preparing to erupt once again.

- If the next eruption is
anything like the last one,

it would spew enough
debris into the sky

to block out the sun

in the western United
States for decades,

leading to widespread famine
and economic collapse.

- Considering the
Yellowstone supervolcano

has remained dormant for
over a half million years,

let us hope for another
half million, at least.

- Imagine uncovering another
Earth shattering find

from the air.

That's exactly what
happened in 1978.

- A young geophysicist named
Glen Penfield moves to Mexico

to work for an oil company

and he spends his
time flying back

and forth across the
nation using magnetic data

to pinpoint the place
to build new oil wells.

- Within a few months,

he has flown over half
the eastern coastline

with nothing to show for it.

All he finds are flat
magnetic readings.

It all looks kind of
the same, no black gold.

- But one day, Penfield sees
these two magnetic lines

on his screen.

Both of them have a
shallow dip in them,

which tells him that
they're something strange

in the water down there.

So he follows these lines

and he discovers that these
anomalies seem to get stronger

the farther he goes.

- [Narrator] Curious there
might be more to these lines,

Penfield studies
them a little closer.

- He convinces a few
of his colleagues

to give him some old
gravity mapping surveys

that date back to the 1940s.

They show anomalies,

just like what he's
seeing in his surveys.

- [Narrator] When Penfield
adds his new findings

to the map, it reveals
something incredible.

- The strange readings fall
in a concentric circle pattern

that creates a bullseye
about 110 miles wide,

half on land and
half over water.

- Then it just hits him.

As a kid, he had been
fascinated with the moon

and its impact craters,
and so he wonders,

could this be a giant impact
crater from a meteor strike?

- Penfield presents his crater
impact theory to his bosses

and then fellow colleagues
at a geophysics conference,

and they all laugh it
off as Glen's sky rock.

- Then, in 1990, 12 years
after his initial discovery,

he gets a call out of the blue

from a grad student
named Alan Hildebrand.

Hildebrand is writing a paper
about the sudden extinction

of the dinosaurs
millions of years ago,

and he thinks there
could be a connection

to Glen's asteroid
impact theory.

- [Narrator] Hildebrand
tracks down a rare core sample

from the possible impact
site in the Gulf of Mexico.

- And lo and behold, when
they analyze the sample,

they discover an unusual form
of rock called shocked quartz.

- [Narrator] Shocked
quartz is formed

by intense pressure due to
large scale impact events.

- That means this rock
could only have been formed

by a massive asteroid.

- [Narrator] Finally,
Penfield is vindicated.

- Penfield, Hildebrand,

and several other scientists
publish their findings

in the Journal Geology.

- [Narrator] They call
it the Chicxulub crater

after the seashore town
where the magnetic anomalies

were first discovered.

- Subsequent testing finds
that the Chicxulub asteroid

struck Earth 66
million years ago,

the same time the
dinosaurs disappeared

from the fossil record.

- Scientists
continue researching

and find that what happened
after this giant space rock hit,

it's pretty terrifying.

- Fires raged across the globe,

a half mile tsunami
crashed into the Americas,

and acid rain showered
down for months on end.

It was truly biblical.

End of times kind of stuff.

- It didn't just kill
all the dinosaurs,

but also 75% of all plant
and animal life on Earth.

- Instead of an oil well,

Glen discovered something
else truly astonishing,

proof that it was his sky rock

that nearly wiped out
all life on Earth.

- Most of our jobs
can be pretty dull,

but for one construction worker,

a routine dig takes an
unexpected turn in 2016.

- Matt Bell and his crew

are doing some routine
excavation work

at a construction site just
outside of Danville, Arkansas.

As they dig, a rock
solid ball rolls out of

the freshly broken
soil into a ditch.

- One of the men examines it

and notices that
it's pretty rusty.

The ball is about six
inches in diameter,

so about the size of
a large grapefruit,

and it's also pretty heavy,
weighs around 30 pounds.

And he notices it's got this
small stub on the side of it.

- It certainly doesn't
look like much,

so the worker grabs
it and tosses it,

and it hits the ground
with a large thump.

But Bell thinks they might have
found some type of artifact.

So, he picks it up
and takes it home.

- And he drives the hour
and a half back to his house

and when he gets back home,

he and his kids actually
pressure wash the object.

- After some research online,

he thinks it might be
a Civil War cannonball.

He puts it back in his car

and drive it a few miles to
the nearby Civil War Museum.

- Bell tracks down
the museum director

and excitedly shares
the story of his find,

but the guy freaks out when
Bell tries to hand him the ball.

- [Narrator] What
has Bell unearthed

that has the museum
director so scared?

- Turns out this is
not a cannonball,

it's a Confederate landmine.

- The director pulls out

some photos and a replica
to show Bell exactly

what he has found.

- Turns out that that
little stub at the bottom

of this round object
that was sticking out,

yeah, that was the pressure
plate that sets off the mine

if someone were to step on it.

And remember,

Bell and his family
pressure washed this object.

Consider them extremely,
extremely lucky.

- [Narrator] They were
also lucky in another way.

Confederate landmines
are incredibly rare

and this is the
first one ever found

west of the Mississippi.

- Regardless, the museum's
director has no interest

in adding a potentially live
landmine to their collection.

- So, Bell slowly puts the
landmine back into his truck

and buckles it tightly in place.

It takes him nearly an hour

to make the normally 10 minute
drive home from the museum,

white knuckling it through
every bump and sharp turn.

- Once he's back in his
house, he calls the police.

They immediately evacuate
20 homes in the neighborhood

and call the bomb squad.

- The bomb squad confirms

that this is a potentially
deadly situation

and the only way to solve it
is a controlled detonation.

Given the size of a landmine,

a safe detonation
requires a space

of about nine football fields.

- They locate a suitable
space at a nearby landfill,

and with a little C4,

the mine is safely
detonated and destroyed.

- [Narrator] But not
everyone is happy

about this explosive ending.

Local historians and
archeologists are upset

because they believe a
150-year-old, rare item

from the Civil War era
should have been preserved

and maintained
for further study.

- Next, an even bigger
blast from the past.

This one on a beach in Israel.

- In 1973, Marcel Mazliah
starts working at a power plant

in northwest Israel
right on the coast

of the Mediterranean Sea.

- He loves the beach,

so every day he walks to and
from his job along the shore

and he picks up glass and
seashells along the way.

- But on his walk on
the beach one day,

Mazliah sees something
a little bit unusual

from what he normally sees.

He sees an object that seems
to just have been washed ashore

and water is still
glistening on its surface.

- It's roughly the
size of a baseball.

It's shaped like an
acorn or a pomegranate,

and it's got a little
cap on the top.

- There are deep grooves and
carvings all around the object.

It's heavy and he believes
it might be made of metal

or perhaps some kind of clay,

but he thinks it's
very, very old.

- But he can't figure
out how to open it

and he's not sure what
it is, so he just

tucks it in his pocket and
continues on his walk.

After work that evening,

he puts the trinket
in his collection

with other things he's picked
up on the beach over the years.

- [Narrator] The mysterious
object stays hidden

in Mazliah's collection
for 40 years.

Then, in 2016, he passes away

and his family comes
to clean out the house.

- When the family arrives,

they find this puzzling
seed-like container

that's just been tucked away
among Mazliah's possessions.

And just like Mazliah

when he first came
across this item,

his family has no idea
what this object is.

They know that it looks old,

but they really have no
idea what to do with it,

so they call the Israel
Antiquities Authority

to get a closer look.

- [Narrator] What the
experts reveal is shocking.

- It's actually a
clay hand grenade

that dates back to the
crusades between the 11th

and 13th centuries.

So, unknowingly,

their father, for the
past 40 years has housed

this dangerous piece
of medieval artillery.

- [Narrator] Though hand
grenades may seem modern,

this kind of weapon
has been around since

the eighth century.

- These grenades were more akin

to a modern day
Molotov cocktail.

The soldier would fill it

with this sticky liquid
called Greek fire,

which is similar to napalm.

Would close it up, light a fuse,

and then toss this
object at the enemy.

- The exact recipe of Greek
fire is still a mystery today,

but many researchers believe

that it was a highly
flammable mixture

of pine resin, naphtha,
quicklime, and sulfur.

Historical accounts indicate

that Greek fire was basically
impossible to extinguish,

it even burned under water.

- [Narrator] Since this
grenade could still be active,

it's moved very carefully
to a research facility.

- Fortunately, the researchers
only find trace amounts

of the explosive in
Mazliah's device.

Today, the grenade
is held safely

in the Israel Antiquities
Authority's collection,

and it also serves
to us as a reminder

of the dangers of war,
and also beach going.

- You know the saying,
"Curiosity killed the cat."

Well, one curious diver
completely ignores the warning

when he comes across a
strange, underwater hole.

- It's 1985 and a man
named Henri Cosquer

is exploring the waters of Cape
Morgiou south of Marseille.

Around 100 feet down,

he sees a hole in a
cliffside just big enough

for him to swim into.

- He swims into the hole and
he sees that it curves upwards

into the darkness,

and he realizes that
the hole is the entrance

to an underground tunnel
that's over 200 feet long.

- The farther he swims, the
narrower the passage gets.

It's also full of stalagmites,

so one wrong move and
he could end up trapped,

and so he has to
abandon his exploration.

- [Narrator] Over
the next few years,

Cosquer keeps the
tunnel a secret,

but eventually he realizes if
he's going to explore deeper,

there's safety in numbers.

- In 1991, he returns
with a few fellow divers.

Cosquer leads them through
the tunnel until they end up

in a large cave,

and that is when he notices
a painting on the wall,

and then another, and another,

and the walls are
covered in them.

- Many of the images appear to
be animals, including horses,

penguins, and even a jellyfish.

- [Narrator] Then Cosquer finds
something truly astonishing.

- He spots a hand print,

it looks like it's been
stenciled into the cave wall,

only one of the
fingers is missing.

- As they look closer,

they begin to see loads of
these mutilated hand images

on the walls of the cave.

So they take a bunch of photos
and head for the surface,

- But before Cosquer
can share his discovery,

four other divers find the cave.

- These divers are
totally under equipped

for such a dangerous dive.

They have no spare tanks,
no extra regulator,

and no safety line, and they
quickly run into trouble.

- Their flippers begin
to stir up some silt,

which completely
obscures their vision.

They can't see each other

and they lose all
sense of direction.

- [Narrator] Tragically,
three of the divers drown,

so a spooked Cosquer hands
over his photos of the cave

to French authorities.

- And they send a team
of their navy divers

to now go and explore this cave.

They begin to catalog
the paintings on the wall

and they count a total of over
500 different cave paintings.

- Carbon dating reveals

that the oldest of the images
dates back 27,000 years

and that people return to
the cave over and over again,

adding to this art
for over 14,000 years.

- [Narrator] But it's
the images of hands

that get the most attention.

- Scientists first thought is
that the hands were mutilated,

but after the discovery

of similar hand stencils
in caves nearby,

they postulate that it might be

a type of visual
code communication

or some kind of very
ornate picture language.

- [Narrator] It turns out to
be the oldest known example

of written language ever found,

by over 20,000 years.

- Incredibly,
researchers believe

that the cave once held four
or five times as many images

as it does today,

that is before rising sea
levels washed them all away.

Sadly, it's estimated that
the imagery that still remains

may be washed away
within 14 years.

- Now, a team of artists
and scientists are working

to recreate all of this art
in a museum in Marseille

in an attempt to preserve these
amazing unearthed mysteries

before they are lost forever.

- Henri Cosquer
isn't the only person

to make a killer
find in the water.

Check out our next
story of a fisherman

who reels in something
even more shocking.

- In 1991, Captain
Skeets Frank pulls up

to his favorite fishing
spot about 60 miles off

the New Jersey coast
for some fishing.

On this particular day,
it's a bit foggy out,

so he fires up the sonar

to see where the fish might
potentially be underwater.

- So, instead of seeing
lots of little dots of tuna

on his sonar, he
sees one green blob.

It's about 190 feet long
and very deep in the water,

and he has no clue
what it might be.

- Captain Frank
heads back to shore

and he tells some local divers
when he gets back to land

about his discovery.

And these guys,

they don't need any excuse
for any underwater exploring.

So, on September 2nd,

they load up a boat
and head to the spot.

- They take a
six-hour boat ride out

to the secret fishing spot.

When they arrive, John
Chatterton, the lead diver,

jumps into the icy water.

- Chatterton slowly
descends about 240 feet.

It's about the limit
for scuba gear.

And out of the darkness,
a shape begins to emerge.

- As he gets closer,

he realizes he's looking
at a jumbled mess

of metal and wires.

Eventually, he sees
what looks like a hatch.

He slowly spins the
wheel, opens it up,

and pops his head in.

And then he sees a
dark cigar-like shape

that he realizes is a torpedo.

- [Narrator] Chatterton's
discovered the wreckage

of a very unusual submarine.

- As he continues exploring,

he finds bowls marked
with swastikas.

This isn't just any submarine,

it's a German U-boat.

- [Narrator] During
World War II,

German U-boats sunk
around 2,700 allied ships

and merchant vessels.

But what was this one
doing in New Jersey?

- Researchers soon discover
that in February of 1945,

this sub, U-869,

was in the Atlantic
attacking shipping lanes

off the coast of New Jersey.

It was ordered to
go to Gibraltar

but somehow never
got the message.

Its final destination
would be the ocean floor.

- [Narrator] And it
wasn't the only one.

- During World War II,

the allies sunk
over 700 U-boats.

That represents 75% of
the entire German fleet,

dropping their crews
to a watery grave.

This gave the U-boats
the name "iron coffins."

- [Narrator] Unfortunately,
this iron coffin continues

to pose a risk to this day.

- With the vessels still
holding live torpedoes,

raising the wreck
would be a costly

and potentially even
more deadly endeavor.

So, for now, the US
Coast Guard has elected

to let U-869 lie
on the ocean floor

where hopefully it won't
claim any more souls.

- Imagine taking a
walk by the water.

You might expect to
find a shell or two.

What you probably don't expect
is unearthing a monster.

- Christmas time, 2008,

Sandra and John De Groot

are walking along the
Bow River near their farm

in Hays, Alberta,

and they notice something
piercing through the ice.

- When they get closer,

they realize that it
is some kind of fossil

and they brought some
hot water to make tea,

so they use that to free it up
and get it up out of the ice.

- When they finally get it out,

it looks like a piece of
jaw with several long teeth.

They also find several other
pieces of bone in the ice,

so they grab all the bones
they can and they take it home.

- [Narrator] For
the next two years,

the De Groots display the
fossils in a glass table.

- In 2010, paleontologist,
Donald Henderson,

pays a visit to Sandra
De Groot's school.

She mentions that she

and her husband might have
some items of interest,

invites him over.

He comes to take a look.

- What he sees on the
coffee table stuns him.

Not only are they
actually dinosaur fossils,

but the jawbones
are of a specimen

he's completely unfamiliar with.

- [Narrator] Henderson
persuades the De Groots

to donate the jaw fossils
to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

- At the museum, Don and
his colleagues are able

to examine the
fossils even further.

They believe the fossils
belong to the daspletosaurus,

a type of tyrannosaurus that
existed in the northern parts

of North America roughly
70 million years before.

- The discovery's cool,
but it's not that uncommon.

The museum already has several
daspletosaurus specimens

in its collection,

so the De Groot's
specimen is wrapped up,

shelved into a collection, and
pretty much forgotten about.

- Then in 2018, a graduate
student, Jared Voris,

he's working on his
thesis on the tyrannosaur.

He's snooping around the museum

and he comes across the De
Groots' fossilized jawbone.

- He notices two details
that others have missed,

unusual vertical ridges
along the upper jaw

and a distinctive
oval-shaped cheekbone.

What the De Groots found
is no daspletosaurus jaw.

- He discovers that these
fossils actually come from

a completely unknown
species of tyrannosaurus.

This particular fossil
is from a dinosaur

that lived 79 million years
ago, and that makes it

the oldest tyrannosaur
fossil ever discovered.

- [Narrator] Scientists named

the new species
thanatotheristes,

Greek for "the reaper of death."

And this ancestor of
the infamous T. rex

was just as deadly as its
more famous relative.

- This dinosaur was a true
killer, an apex predator,

about three tons and
and over 30 feet long.

- It had lethal, massive teeth,

grew up three inches in length,

each serrated like
a bread knife to saw

and slice into their prey.

- It's thought
that this dinosaur

would've hunted plant
eating dinosaurs,

eating up to about half
a ton of meat a week.

Its jaws were so long and wide,

this thing could eat a human
in about a bite and a half.

- Ultimately, the De
Groots do receive something

for their discovery
of this new species.

The full name given
to the dinosaur

is thanatotheristes degrootorum

as a tribute to John and Sandra.

- [Narrator] 4,700 miles away,

another couple uncovers
something even more disturbing

on a hike.

- On September 19th, 1991,

German couple, Erika
and Helmut Simon

are on a much needed
vacation in Austria.

They're avid hikers
and they are excited

for a challenging adventure
in the Otzal Alps,

a region of the Italian
and Austrian border,

- After a long day's hike, the
couple begins their descent,

so they make their
way through the gully

and Helmut spots
something strange

jutting out from the ice.

- At first, they think
maybe it's a backpack,

pieces of camping
gear, but it's not.

It's something
far more gruesome.

It turns out to be a human body

that's half buried in the ice.

- The corpse lies face
down with his arms extended

as if it's reaching
for something

and the Simons believe
they've come across the victim

of an accident,

a climber or mountaineer
who had recently fallen.

- However, when
they look closer,

they notice some strange
marks on the body

that look a bit suspicious.

This may be no accident.

The couple has a camera with
them and just one photo left,

so they use their last
picture to capture

what appears to
be a crime scene.

- [Narrator] The Simons
head straight to the cops

to report it.

- The following day,

the police make their long hike
up the glacier back to where

the body was found.

Their main goal is to
free the body from the ice

to perform an autopsy.

- The ice is frozen solid
and it will not budge.

It takes three days
for the authorities

to excavate the
body from the ice.

Once the remains
are finally freed,

they're sent to Innsbruck,
Austria for examination.

- News of the discovery
spreads quickly.

A camera crew rushes to the
glacier to film the crime scene.

A local journalist
dubs the remains Otzi,

after the local mountain,
range and the name sticks.

- When investigators carbon
date material from Otzi,

it turned out he died
over 5,000 years ago.

- [Narrator] That
makes Otzi the oldest

and most well-preserved natural
mummy ever found in Europe.

- He's so well preserved

that his last meal is still in
his stomach, wild goat meat.

- While Otzi may not have
been a recent victim,

it turns out he may
well have been murdered.

Strange marks upon his
body could be arrow wounds.

- And it seems Otzi
froze in his condition

as he was running for his life,

which basically closes
the book on what may be

the coldest case of all time.

- Our next killer find happened
somewhere even more remote,

the Arctic Ocean.

- On August 5th, 1930,

a Norwegian seal hunting
ship anchors off the coast

of White Island in
the North Atlantic.

And from the ship, hunters pour
out in search of their game.

- [Narrator] After
a long day's hunt,

two members of the team
pause to take a water break

by a small stream.

That's when they see
something strange.

- They notice something
shimmering in the distance.

So, the men decide
to investigate.

When they get closer,
they see it's a boat,

an entire boat that's
hidden underneath the snow.

- Searching the
surrounding area,

the hunters find the
remains of a campsite

and a dilapidated shelter.

Inside the shelter, they
find a kerosene stove, an ax,

Swedish flag, a diary,

and a 15 pound camera

containing 200
undeveloped photographs.

- And that's when the men
make one last discovery,

two human skeletons
picked to the bone,

still wearing their arctic furs.

- [Narrator] On a boat hook,

the hunters find an
engraving that reads,

"Andree's polar
expedition, 1896."

- The crew returns all of
the materials they can find

to the ship.

Once back in Norway,

the diaries are examined and
the photographs are developed.

Together, they reveal
the harrowing final days

of a dramatic polar
expedition launched

over 30 years earlier.

- [Narrator] In the 1800s,

brave explorers looking
for fame and fortune headed

into the Arctic to
attempt to be the first

to reach the North Pole.

One of them is a famous
Swedish hot air balloonist

named Salomon August Andree.

- In 1895, he ultimately
announced it is possible,

plausible, and feasible
for a balloon to travel

to the North Pole.

Now, it sounded like insanity.

People had tried and failed,
but not in a balloon.

- On July 11th, 1897,

the Andree Polar expedition
launches from Stockholm

on a wave of patriotism
and hot air.

- The expedition makes
headlines all over the world

and everyone is poised
for their return.

However, the global
audience never hears from

nor sees Andree ever again.

And everyone assumes
that this mission,

like all the others before
it, has ended in failure.

- [Narrator] So what
did happen to Andree

and his hot air balloon?

According to the diary, the
trouble starts on day three.

- Ice begins to
form on the balloon,

forcing it to come
plummeting down to Earth.

They ultimately make a crash
landing on an ice floe.

Luckily, every member of the
expedition survives the crash.

- The balloon is now
completely unusable

and the men have no
idea where they are.

And after making camp for
a week on the ice sheet,

they realize that they have
to find warmer land soon

for any hopes of survival.

- They build a boat
out of balloon scraps,

stow their gear on board,

and set out using
makeshift paddles and oars.

They drift for five long days

before ultimately
landing on White Island.

- They actually end up
surviving for several months

until at one point, all the
men succumb to stomach cramps,

intestinal problems, diarrhea,
and shortly thereafter,

all three men are dead.

- The final entries in Andree's
diary are indecipherable.

No one knows for sure

how the men met
their chilling end.

Theories include parasitic
worms to eating bad meat,

to carbon monoxide poisoning
from the camp stove.

- The seal hunter's discovery
brings some measure of closure

to the story of one
of the most dangerous

to the story of one
of the most dangerous

and daring expeditions
in human history.

- Today, the idea
of ancient curses

may seem like pure superstition,

but one discovery
accidentally revealed

the real life science
behind a killer curse.

- In 1973, Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla,

Archbishop of Krakow,

commissions polish researchers
to restore the tomb

of King Casimir IV and his
queen, Elizabeth Austria.

In turn, in 1492 and 1505,

this restoration will
be the first disturbance

of the royal couple in
nearly five centuries.

- A 12-man team begins
to work on April 13th,

prying open the tomb

and pulling out the
rotting wood from inside.

The event is big news in Poland

where people become obsessed
with the medieval king,

just like the opening

of Tutankhamun's tomb
half a century earlier.

- [Narrator] After King
Tut's tomb was opened in 1922,

nine members of the
team went on to die

under mysterious circumstances,

including George Herbert,

the Earl of Carnarvon who
sponsored the excavation,

and a radiologist who,
after X-raying the mummy,

passes away three days later.

- One of the Polish
researchers even notes

the striking similarity between
the restoration of this tomb

and the opening
of King Tut's tomb

and jokes about
a possible curse.

- [Narrator] Soon, however,

the Polish team's jokes of a
curse are no laughing matter.

- A few days after
the tomb is opened,

one of the researchers
starts to get sick.

He's wheezing, he has a
cough and some chest pain,

and he has a fever.

[researcher coughing]

When he suddenly passes away,

the doctors are scrambling to
diagnose the cause of death,

but they can't figure
out what it is.

- Soon after,
another team member

develops the same symptoms
and suddenly passes away.

The doctors think it
may have been a stroke,

but then a third
and a fourth die

in the same strange fashion.

As panic rises,

the doctor thinks
instead of a stroke,

it may have been an infection.

- [Narrator] Dr. Boleslaw
Smyk, a microbiologist,

has a different idea.

He takes culture samples
inside of the tomb

and is shocked to discover
deadly fungal spores

known as aspergillus flavus.

- Aspergillus flavus
is a highly toxic

and carcinogenic fungus
that attacks the liver

and presents symptoms
similar to asthma,

which explains the chest pains

and the coughing the
researchers suffered

before their sudden deaths.

- Scientists wonder if this
discovery could be the reason

for all of those
other strange deaths

that have been attributed
to cursed burial sites.

So, in 1999, a
German microbiologist

analyzes 40 mummies

and finds aspergillus
flavus on many of them.

- Most spores are able to
survive for thousands of years.

So, when a tomb is opened,

the researchers
inhale these spores,

and once they're in the body,
they begin to wreak havoc.

So, it's a plausible explanation

of why there are sudden
deaths associated

with certain tomb excavations
like King Casimir IV

and like King Tut.

- But this story may never
have made it out of Poland

and into the
international press,

except for one
interesting detail.

The Archbishop Karol Wojtyla,

who commissioned
the conservationists

to unseal King
Casimir IV's tomb,

soon bursts onto the world
stage as Pope John Paul II.

- From a deadly supervolcano
to a Civil War landmine,

killer finds can be anywhere,

just waiting to be discovered.

I'm Danny Trejo.

Thanks for watching
Mysteries Unearthed.