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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,879 --> 00:00:04,719 NARRATOR: The apocalypse... 2 00:00:06,799 --> 00:00:08,599 ..when an entire people... 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:10,640 ..are destroyed. 4 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:13,600 Or destroy themselves. 5 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:16,800 The end of civilisation. 6 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,519 For us today, as we go about our daily lives, 7 00:00:21,519 --> 00:00:24,000 it's barely something we consider. 8 00:00:24,199 --> 00:00:27,320 We're so sure it couldn't happen to us. 9 00:00:29,239 --> 00:00:31,000 But for some civilisations... 10 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,320 ..it already has. 11 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:49,320 Since the dawn of human history... 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,039 ..we have told each other stories about the sea. 13 00:00:54,679 --> 00:00:56,679 About its power over life... 14 00:00:57,920 --> 00:00:59,280 ..and death. 15 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:01,759 In the 'Torah', 16 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:03,399 the 'Qur'an', 17 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:04,680 and the 'Bible' 18 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,280 is the story of the great flood. 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:11,760 When Noah built an ark, 20 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,400 as the sea flooded the land, killing everything in it's path. 21 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,200 Societies all across the world are replete with examples of stories 22 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,920 of lands that have been lost and covered over. 23 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,280 People have done something wrong, and this is God's punishment. 24 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,480 Or the story of the lost city of Atlantis 25 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,200 told by the great Greek philosopher, Plato. 26 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,680 The utopian island that people have devoted their lives to finding 27 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,120 beneath the waves. 28 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:44,760 Right across the world in almost every culture 29 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,400 there is a flood story. 30 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:52,480 A story where water can both cleanse and destroy. 31 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,400 Across our planet are myths and legends 32 00:01:57,519 --> 00:02:01,399 of the sea rising up and wiping out civilisations. 33 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,400 But what if these stories aren't just stories? 34 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,120 Scientists now claim to found a lost world 35 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:14,000 at the bottom of the sea... 36 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:18,000 ..called Doggerland. 37 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,840 It existed about 10,000 years ago, 38 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:23,680 and was a place that was almost perfect 39 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:25,840 for its stone age inhabitants. 40 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,400 It's a rich place, it has wetlands. 41 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,000 Where you had wild fowl in abundance, 42 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,840 where fish in the rivers were migrating, 43 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,400 where you had all the animals and plants that you'd want, 44 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:42,840 and also all the resources. 45 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,560 Flints, and wood, and everything else was out there. 46 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:49,280 Doggerland's temperate climate 47 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,120 would have made this a beautiful and abundant region 48 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,400 for its hunter-gatherer population. 49 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,120 Plants and animals that we recognise today. 50 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,120 Hazel, ash, pine, large game. 51 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,840 Horse, bison, deer, antelope and elk. 52 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,280 Doggerland sounds like paradise. 53 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:21,000 But this world no longer exists, so we must as the question, 54 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,840 what exactly happened to Doggerland? 55 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:38,120 Our search begins in the north sea. 56 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:43,280 This sea was created at the end of the ice age, 57 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:45,840 about 15,000 years ago. 58 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:48,840 As the ice melted and receded, 59 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,120 it created the North Sea between Scandinavia, 60 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:54,560 northern Europe, and the UK. 61 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,680 Its power and hidden depths have captured the human imagination... 62 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:06,479 ..and it has also, for thousands of years, 63 00:04:06,599 --> 00:04:09,239 provided humans with a staple food. 64 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:14,719 Fish. 65 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:30,360 From the east coast of Great Britain, 66 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:34,600 the British have for generations sailed from the ports of Norfolk, 67 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,800 100 miles north east of London, to fish the North Sea. 68 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:46,920 And in September 1931, 69 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:48,920 a vessel was trawling... 70 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,160 ..near the Leeman & Ower Banks. 71 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:59,720 It was captained by pilgrim, E Lockwood. 72 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,360 About 25 miles out he lowers his nets, 73 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,160 and he trawls the ocean for fish. 74 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,160 As he lifted them up into the boat, 75 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:14,600 among the sort of shining fish 76 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,600 is a massive what they call peat log. 77 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,160 It's a big like, boulder, 78 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:24,240 not of rock, but of mud. 79 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:30,240 He and his men start breaking it up with shovels. 80 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:39,160 As he puts his shovel in it goes dink, 81 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,360 and he's like, "That's really weird, that sounds a bit like metal." 82 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,040 So he digs through it, he uncovers a sort of black shape, 83 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:56,040 and on it is a load of ridges cut into it, 84 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,600 so it's sort of almost like a barb, 85 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,360 and it's got little grooves at this end. 86 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:04,240 So presumably this is some sort of like, you know, harpoon, 87 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:05,800 or hook or something. 88 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:14,720 He prised away and found a lovely bone antler harpoon point. 89 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,040 Intrigued, you don't find these everyday in the North Sea, 90 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:19,720 he brought it home. 91 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:23,600 Lockwood had found an implement 92 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,240 made out of the bone from a deer's antler. 93 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,160 About 15cm in length, 94 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:31,720 and with a serrated side 95 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,160 so it could be used to harpoon prey. 96 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,920 But how on earth did it get there? 97 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:42,480 Because it's in a load of mud which has been under the ocean. 98 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:50,800 What was the harpoon doing in the middle of the North Sea? 99 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:55,480 Who made it and when? 100 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,600 Our story now moves to Cambridge University. 101 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,720 Here, in 1932, works a young, ambitious archaeologist 102 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:19,600 called Grahame Clark. 103 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,360 Clark would go on to become one of Europe's 104 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:25,040 greatest archaeologists, 105 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:29,720 seen here winning the Erasmus prize in 1990. 106 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,240 Grahame Clark who's a very tenacious scholar, 107 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:34,360 he wants to make a name for himself 108 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:37,240 and he's decided to study a whole new area 109 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:39,160 that hasn't really been looked in to before, 110 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,480 which is the Mesolithic, the middle stone age. 111 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:46,240 Clark was fascinated by the period 112 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,600 from about 10,000 to 4,000 years from today. 113 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,040 Clark believed the harpoon from Lockwood 114 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:58,040 was similar to those used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers 115 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,920 in Scandinavia known as the Maglemose. 116 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:06,920 But this creates a greater mystery. 117 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,720 Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were known to be able to fish, 118 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:15,240 and had fishing boats. 119 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:19,600 But what were they doing harpooning fish so far out to sea? 120 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:22,319 The first step for Clark 121 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:26,840 was to identify that the harpoon was indeed Mesolithic. 122 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,840 Today, scientists rely on a process called radiocarbon dating. 123 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,240 This involves measuring the decay of the isotope carbon-14... 124 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:47,480 ..and comparing that to levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 125 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,120 But without this complex, modern technique... 126 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:55,240 ..how would Clark date the harpoon? 127 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:02,840 To try and solve this, 128 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 Clark turned to his friends and botanists, 129 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:08,000 Harry and Margaret Godwin. 130 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,480 The Godwins were a husband and wife couple, 131 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,600 and they were from the University of Cambridge, 132 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:19,840 same time as Grahame Clark, and they specialised in palynology, 133 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,720 the study of plants and their remains, 134 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:24,480 things like pollen. 135 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,000 Harry and Margaret Godwin were working on a technique 136 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:34,720 that relied not on the decay of carbon isotopes to date objects, 137 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:37,600 but instead used ancient pollen. 138 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:42,600 The Godwins might not be able to date the harpoon itself... 139 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:47,480 ..but they could date the peat it was found in 140 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:49,360 through pollen analysis. 141 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,000 They specifically went out 142 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:54,480 and trawled up another block of peat, 143 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:57,720 very, very close to where they'd found the harpoon, 144 00:09:57,720 --> 00:09:59,360 and actually analysed it. 145 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:06,360 What the Godwins found 146 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,840 would change the way the seabed of the North Sea is seen forever. 147 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,240 It was showing things that we have today. 148 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:18,840 Pine trees, alder, as well as things like oak. 149 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,720 You know, this wasn't a block of mushy mess 150 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:23,480 that had come from an estuary, 151 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:26,360 this was a part of a landscape that was living and breathing 152 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,600 with all the things that we would expect on dry land today. 153 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:36,480 These were plants which were nowhere near the sea, 154 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:41,360 so what on earth are they doing underneath the North Sea? 155 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:45,720 What the Godwins now had to do was work out what time period 156 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,360 these types of tree and pollen were from. 157 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,720 Working with other scientists in Scandinavia and Germany, 158 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,120 they had built up a list of timezones, or chronozones... 159 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,120 ..based on pollen found in prehistoric peat. 160 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,480 The results are as Clark predicted. 161 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,360 The pollen in the peat near where the harpoon was found 162 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,720 dates to the Mesolithic age. 163 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:21,840 This proves the harpoon is most likely from that period. 164 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,600 But what Clark still can't answer 165 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,360 is how did the harpoon get to the middle of the North Sea? 166 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:36,120 Could the peat, pollen and harpoon 167 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:39,480 really have been washed out that far into the North Sea? 168 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:49,840 Clark created a map showing pollen discoveries across northern Europe. 169 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,120 And he wondered if there wasn't a landmass... 170 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:57,120 ..now hidden under the North Sea... 171 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:01,000 ..that had once linked all of northern Europe. 172 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,360 A land that could have been inhabited... 173 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:09,720 ..by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. 174 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:12,120 As it turned out... 175 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,720 ..Clark wasn't the first to come up with this unusual idea. 176 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:25,480 In the early years of the 20th century... 177 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:28,720 ..the botanist Clement Reid, 178 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:32,000 used to walk the beaches and sand dunes of Norfolk, 179 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:33,360 in England. 180 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:38,840 As a botanist, he was fascinated by the plants and trees of today, 181 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,240 and where they had originally come from. 182 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:48,120 Clement Reid became obsessed with a thing called Noah's Woods. 183 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:51,600 What it is, is when the tide goes out in some locations, 184 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:55,240 you can see tree stumps, which is a bit odd. 185 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,600 Loads of people at the time called this phenomena Noah's Woods, 186 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:01,240 'cause they thought they were leftovers, 187 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:03,480 remnants of Noah's flood. 188 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:05,360 But Clement Reid didn't think that was possible, 189 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:07,840 so Clement Reid got the bit between his teeth 190 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:10,000 and decided to investigate. 191 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:14,480 Reid dug beneath the coastlines, and into the depths of the sea, 192 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:16,000 to see what he could find. 193 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:22,480 He asked the question, "Were there forests and animals 194 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,600 "living in these areas thousands of years ago?" 195 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,720 From his finds, Reid came up with a theory 196 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:33,360 he published in a book called 'Submerged Forests'. 197 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:40,600 It suggested that somewhere under the North Sea was a landmass. 198 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:45,000 A landmass that could support forests and animals. 199 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,480 Reid suggested there was an alluvial plane 200 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:51,840 connecting all of northern Europe, 201 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,360 with its heart at somewhere called Dogger Bank. 202 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,120 Clement Reid writes this amazing book 203 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:00,840 called 'Submerged Forest', 204 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,120 where he theorises a massive landmass 205 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,480 linking the UK to the rest of Europe. 206 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:08,600 He had so little evidence for it though, 207 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:12,600 nevertheless, this was a book that was really groundbreaking. 208 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:15,600 His main issue was that nobody really cared, 209 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:19,600 nobody was really obsessed with this subject as much as he was. 210 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,720 Reid's was a pretty unusual idea, 211 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:26,720 without much evidence to support it at the time 212 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:30,240 and his work was derided by the scientific community. 213 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:37,000 Reid's work was seen as nothing more than science fiction, 214 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,240 and was all but forgotten until 80 years later. 215 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,840 In the 1990s, pioneering British archaeologist, 216 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:58,600 professor Bryony Coles became intrigued about Reid's work. 217 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:03,360 At the time of Professor Coles' work, 218 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:07,240 oil exploration in the North Sea was developing rapidly, 219 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,240 allowing unexpected avenues of research. 220 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:13,840 There was the geological surveys 221 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,360 coming from things like the North Sea oil explorations 222 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:18,360 of that period. 223 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:22,240 I began to draw together the geological 224 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:24,120 and the archaeological evidence 225 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:29,600 that this was a terrain that had its contours, its river systems, 226 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:32,720 that these were things that we were totally unaware of. 227 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:36,720 Professor Coles used numerous maps, 228 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,120 including the ones made by Grahame Clark in the 1930s, 229 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:44,360 to estimate how the ice caps melted after the ice age, 230 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,720 and what land masses that might have created. 231 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:53,360 I realised quite soon that we needed to have maps 232 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,000 showing the changes at intervals, 233 00:15:56,120 --> 00:15:58,480 because things were changing 234 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,720 and it might take thousands of years to change. 235 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:06,600 Coles work suggested that in the region where the harpoon was found 236 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:09,840 there might actually have been dry land. 237 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:13,240 But would anyone accept Professor Coles' idea? 238 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:16,240 When I was doing the mapping 239 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,840 I realised that it would be much easier not to have to say 240 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,360 the land that used to be under the North Sea every time, 241 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:26,720 but to give it a name of its own. 242 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,120 To get across the idea that it had been not just a drowned landscape, 243 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:36,480 but a living, live, dry land landscape. 244 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:42,720 Based on the name of the fishing area, Dogger Bank, 245 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,720 Coles called this new land mass Doggerland. 246 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:48,720 And that's really important, 247 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:51,240 because as soon as somewhere has a name, 248 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:52,480 it becomes a place 249 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:54,399 not just in reality, 250 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,399 but also in the imagination. 251 00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:58,879 And Coles went on. 252 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,639 She posited the theory that not only was Reid correct 253 00:17:02,679 --> 00:17:06,240 about the existence of a lost land mass in the North Sea, 254 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,000 but it meant something even more unexpected. 255 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:16,240 It was a huge area with rivers, with bays and inlets, 256 00:17:16,279 --> 00:17:19,000 with areas of high ground, hills if you will, 257 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,960 and low lying areas that are now entirely submerged, 258 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:26,000 but then would have been absolutely 259 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,000 at the heart of the post-glacial landscape of northern Europe. 260 00:17:32,039 --> 00:17:34,240 So if this was a landscape, 261 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:39,279 was there evidence to suggest that it had one day supported human life? 262 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:55,000 Across the North Sea, in present day Holland, 263 00:17:55,039 --> 00:17:59,480 a few hundred miles for Norfolk, is the beach of Zandmotor. 264 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:05,279 There, beach combers hunt for hidden treasure. 265 00:18:07,279 --> 00:18:11,240 Coins, bones, a message in a bottle... 266 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:14,240 ..anything unusual gifted by the sea. 267 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,000 (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) 268 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,480 The beach combers coordinate their finds with Dr Luc Amkreutz... 269 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,000 ..a specialist archaeologist from the nearby University of Leiden. 270 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,000 They work with Dr Amkreutz 271 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,519 because Zandmotor beach isn't like any other beach. 272 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,960 I'm sitting here on Zandmotor beach, but it's not an ordinary beach, 273 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,000 it's a beach created by man in 2011, 274 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,279 by spraying a whole lot of sand from the North Sea 275 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:47,960 on this beach plane. 276 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,039 It as constructed out of materials dredged up from the sea floor, 277 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:57,240 11km off shore, and dumped on the existing beach. 278 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:00,480 Material dredged from an area of the sea 279 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,720 close to where Lockwood found the harpoon. 280 00:19:04,759 --> 00:19:06,759 What was so special when they created this beach, 281 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,720 is that all kinds of objects came to the surface. 282 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:11,960 Wow. 283 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:15,519 They would eat bones of animals living in, 284 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:17,279 for instance, the ice ages. 285 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:21,000 Like woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. 286 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:25,039 Most astonishing of all is that it wasn't just the animal remains, 287 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,000 but amongst these there were also 288 00:19:27,039 --> 00:19:29,480 hundreds of artefacts made by humans, 289 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,720 and even by neanderthals, which is of course really strange, 290 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,480 given that they come from the North Sea. 291 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:40,480 Over the years, 292 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,720 beach combers have found more than 500 ancient artefacts, 293 00:19:44,759 --> 00:19:48,480 including tools, bone fish hooks... 294 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:54,240 ..and even human remains that they say are thousands of years old. 295 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:57,720 Zandmotor, and certain other areas, 296 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:03,720 really brought home the enormity of this huge archaeological archive 297 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:05,720 in front of our coast. 298 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,519 We have this whole range of organic artefacts that is preserved, 299 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,240 and is actually basically as if you're looking at a complete 300 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,240 carpenter's tool set. 301 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:16,759 And it really brought home the idea of this is a whole world, 302 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,000 a whole people landscape that was there, which is now lost. 303 00:20:21,039 --> 00:20:22,720 The more touching finds from Doggerland 304 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,720 are not just the artefacts, but the human remains themselves. 305 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:30,720 And one story I find particularly moving, is this lower mandible, 306 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:35,759 this person was about 40 years when he or she died. 307 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,480 You're not just looking at the objects, 308 00:20:37,519 --> 00:20:39,240 or you're not just looking at the foot remains, 309 00:20:39,279 --> 00:20:42,720 but you're looking at the actual people themselves. 310 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,759 And Luc's group are not the only ones finding things on the beach. 311 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,000 Since the 1970s, hundreds of amateur archaeologists 312 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,240 have made findings on the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, 313 00:20:57,240 --> 00:21:01,480 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the UK. 314 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:07,720 Under the North Sea there are signs of an entire living world... 315 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:12,720 ..of not just animals, but also people. 316 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:14,720 But the question remains... 317 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,240 ..who were they and what happened to them? 318 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:31,000 In 2005, a European team of scientists 319 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,720 centred at the University of Bradford in the UK... 320 00:21:34,279 --> 00:21:38,240 ..wanted to see exactly what Doggerland might have looked like. 321 00:21:39,279 --> 00:21:42,240 But they knew it wasn't going to be easy. 322 00:21:42,759 --> 00:21:45,039 The area obviously was very inaccessible. 323 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,240 It's obviously underwater between, 324 00:21:47,279 --> 00:21:49,759 you know, five and 30m in some places, 325 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,240 down to 60, 80 in others. 326 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:56,240 Obviously that water is very cold, so you can't go diving easily in it. 327 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,960 It's very powerful currents in some places. 328 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,000 The other thing, of course, 329 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,720 was the technologies, and the techniques that were used 330 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,480 hadn't been developed in some cases, or were in their early infancy. 331 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,720 There was no way that archaeologists could excavate under the sea bed 332 00:22:11,759 --> 00:22:14,000 in these dangerous waters. 333 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:16,720 It was beyond their technical abilities 334 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,480 and would have cost hundreds of millions of Euros. 335 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:22,240 It looked like Doggerland 336 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,480 would remain forever a subject of speculation and mystery, 337 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,720 unproven by scientific fact. 338 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,240 But at a yearly symposium, one of the PhD students at the time, 339 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:43,480 Simon Fitch, had an unusual idea. 340 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,000 As I was sitting there in the lecture hall, 341 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,480 I realised that actually I'd worked on material, 342 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:50,960 you know, seismic data which came from that area, 343 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,720 and that data possibly could be re-tasked, 344 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,240 it could actually be used to look under the water, 345 00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,240 to see the landscape. 346 00:22:59,759 --> 00:23:01,480 In the early 2000s, 347 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:06,000 the North Sea was going through a renewed oil and gas boom. 348 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,000 Billions of Euros' worth of oil and gas were being discovered 349 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,000 using new technology. 350 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:17,480 If the Bradford team could access the data from that technology, 351 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,519 then maybe they could see under the seabed, 352 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,240 and whether there was evidence that Doggerland did once exist. 353 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,240 The Bradford team approached oil and gas exploration companies 354 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,000 to access their specialist mapping data. 355 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:48,720 Surveyors for oil and gas exploration were going up and down, 356 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,759 surveying the North Sea with a fine-toothed comb, 357 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:58,000 to pull together a series of contour maps of the sea floor. 358 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,240 This was a huge swathe of land, 359 00:24:01,279 --> 00:24:04,000 tens of thousands of square kilometres. 360 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:09,720 What the Bradford team wanted in particular 361 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,720 was the data for 3D seismic maps. 362 00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:17,240 These are created by specialist ships 363 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,240 dragging thousands of listening devices 364 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,000 called hydrophones along the surface of the sea. 365 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:26,240 They listen to sound waves 366 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,519 bouncing off whatever lies beneath the seabed. 367 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,000 The resulting data shows where, hidden under the seabed, 368 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,720 there may be deposits of oil or gas to drill for. 369 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:45,720 Seismic mapping is a really good way to do a quick analysis 370 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,240 of a large amount of submerged landscape. 371 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:53,720 Mapping the sea bed in the same way as we see inside a stomach 372 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:56,720 when we're doing sonograms, for instance, 373 00:24:56,759 --> 00:25:01,000 and you use the sonar pulses, and you get a little echo back, 374 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,000 and you get the shape appearing on the screen. 375 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,480 But would this help the Bradford team? 376 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,240 Could the data help build a picture of a land 377 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,480 now hidden under the sea bed? 378 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,480 Having waited some months 379 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,720 the team finally got the data for the Doggerland area. 380 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,279 They inputted it into a computer... 381 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,240 ..they waited for the first seismic maps. 382 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,240 So we plugged that in, and then put it into the computer, 383 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,000 and up popped this remarkable image. 384 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,519 We could actually see a river which was alive and vibrant 385 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:49,279 when the Mesolithic people were wandering round 386 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,000 on top of Dogger Bank. 387 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,519 It was a phenomenal almost like lunar landing type of moment. 388 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,240 You know, you felt you were seeing something 389 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:57,720 which no one had ever seen before. 390 00:25:57,759 --> 00:25:59,480 I think that was when all the jaws dropped, 391 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,000 and we realised the implications of what we were looking at, 392 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,279 and was providing a doorway into a lost world, 393 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,720 it was just a phenomenal realisation 394 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,480 that all those questions the people had had before us 395 00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:11,240 could be answered. 396 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,279 It was just as Bryony Coles and Clement Reid had suggested. 397 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:24,519 A hidden world of rivers, lagoons, and wetlands. 398 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,720 We could map features in the landscape. 399 00:26:27,759 --> 00:26:32,720 We've seen rivers, we've seen lakes, we've seen little hills, 400 00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:36,480 we've seen everything in a landscape you'd expect in a normal country, 401 00:26:36,519 --> 00:26:39,000 except this is under the sea and it's preserved, 402 00:26:39,039 --> 00:26:42,000 and it's caches of material and archaeology sitting out there 403 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:43,720 waiting for us to go and find it. 404 00:26:45,759 --> 00:26:50,240 The Bradford team had seen Doggerland for the first time... 405 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,720 ..but the mapping still didn't answer the biggest question. 406 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,480 What happened to the peoples who lived there? 407 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:03,960 To understand that scientists had to investigate 408 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,480 how the people might have lived. 409 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,039 Human evolution is heavily influenced 410 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,480 by geography and climate. 411 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:22,480 So the first thing to establish 412 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,519 is roughly what kind of climate Doggerland would have had. 413 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:30,519 This is done by looking at the position of Doggerland 414 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,240 geographically at the time. 415 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,000 We know that immediately after the end of the last ice age 416 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,000 it was frozen, it was like the Siberian tundra, 417 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,720 but then very rapidly started to warm, to thaw out, 418 00:27:45,759 --> 00:27:50,000 and that enabled new species to start to colonise this land. 419 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,240 Doggerland would have grown into a landscape 420 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,279 that we would recognise now. 421 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,720 The winters were shorter and less harsh, 422 00:27:59,759 --> 00:28:02,000 and the summers were longer and warmer. 423 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:07,240 And plants start to colonise this land, trees start to grow. 424 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:09,720 A lot of the species that we're familiar with now, 425 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,480 so hazel, ash, oak, willow. 426 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,720 Animals start to colonise, because they're following the food. 427 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,720 So you get herds of horse, and bison, and elk. 428 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,240 But the question remained, 429 00:28:25,279 --> 00:28:28,039 could Doggerland support human populations? 430 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,000 And if so, what would those people have been like? 431 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,720 A clue comes from Yorkshire in northern England. 432 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,480 In 1948, Grahame Clark, 433 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,720 the archaeologist who had dated the harpoon 434 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:52,000 from the North Sea, 435 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,519 was told of a discovery of flint and bone 436 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,759 at a place called Star Carr. 437 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,720 10,000 years ago it was on the edge of a massive paleolake. 438 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,759 Because of the nature of this landscape, 439 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,720 and the waterlogging in the modern farm land, 440 00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:14,240 it means that there's been an incredible level of preservation 441 00:29:14,279 --> 00:29:15,519 at Star Carr. 442 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,720 For the next three years, Clark led the dig at Star Carr, 443 00:29:20,759 --> 00:29:22,720 and his team uncovered one of the best 444 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,480 Mesolithic settlements in Europe. 445 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,000 So we have organic remains, animal bones. 446 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:34,720 There are harpoon points 447 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,240 beautifully crafted from deer antlers. 448 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,000 By looking at Star Carr today we can build a picture 449 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,039 of what lives the people of Doggerland might have led. 450 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:53,240 The site has been further excavated by Professor Nicky Milner. 451 00:29:54,279 --> 00:29:56,279 I think it's very easy to sometimes look at the past 452 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,480 and think back 11,000 years, 453 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,240 and that people must have lived very basic lives. 454 00:30:01,279 --> 00:30:04,000 But the evidence that we've got from Star Carr 455 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,480 is that they were very good at making things, 456 00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:08,240 at crafting things. 457 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,480 Star Carr shows many tools made from animals, 458 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:14,480 and made to kill animals, 459 00:30:14,519 --> 00:30:17,720 similar to the harpoon Lockwood found in 1931. 460 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:22,519 We have all sorts of animal remains, and plant remains from the site, 461 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:27,480 which shows us the types of animals they're hunting, 462 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:32,720 and their expertise in gathering and living off the land. 463 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:37,240 They're hunter-gatherers, and these are bushcraft experts, 464 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:44,000 they're armed with a whole range of skills and expertise 465 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,759 that means that they can thrive in this landscape. 466 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,720 At Star Carr is also what's known as the oldest house in Britain, 467 00:30:52,759 --> 00:30:56,480 dating from about 9,000 years ago. 468 00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:58,720 So we found a number of houses 469 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,000 which are the earliest known houses in this country, 470 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:03,519 so that told us that people 471 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,240 were able to build structures out of wood. 472 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,720 We understand more about their woodworking skills, 473 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,480 and how sophisticated those must have been, 474 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,480 and that they could make structures, and that involves team work. 475 00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:19,720 Mesolithic people, it appears, were hunter-gatherers, 476 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:21,720 they were highly mobile, 477 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:26,240 but they were also living together and growing together as a community. 478 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,240 If we're now thinking about people 479 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:34,039 who have places that they regularly spend long periods of time at, 480 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,480 that they invest their resources in to build houses, 481 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:42,000 no longer could we write these people off as simple, 482 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:47,240 knuckle-dragging, cave dwellers clad in simple animal skins, 483 00:31:47,279 --> 00:31:51,000 eking away a living at the edges of the ice age. 484 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,960 These were people who shaped their landscape. 485 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,039 One of the most unusual finds at Star Carr 486 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,720 was shaped from the skulls of killed deer. 487 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:08,000 One of the most iconic and remarkable discoveries 488 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,480 from Star Carr are the antler headdresses, 489 00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:15,240 and they've been shaped by human hands over hours, 490 00:32:15,279 --> 00:32:17,240 and hours, and hours of labour. 491 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,039 The head dresses are really mysterious. 492 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:21,960 There are none others known in this country, 493 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,000 and only a few in the rest of Europe. 494 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,759 They're made of red deer skulls with the antler coming out of them. 495 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:29,480 There are two main theories, 496 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,039 one is that they might have been used as disguises 497 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:33,480 in hunting practices, 498 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,240 and the other is that they might have been used by shamans 499 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,519 in some kind of ritual practices. 500 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:43,480 The headdresses offer clear incontrovertible evidence 501 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,720 that these people had a sophisticated culture 502 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:52,240 to create these artefacts that have no functional purpose, 503 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,480 but clearly have a very important spiritual purpose. 504 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,000 Star Carr helps build a picture 505 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,720 of how sophisticated people might have lived on Doggerland. 506 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,240 But who were these people? 507 00:33:08,279 --> 00:33:10,240 What did they look like? 508 00:33:15,039 --> 00:33:18,960 To see what a Mesolithic person might have looked like 509 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,039 we must travel to the south of England... 510 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:23,480 ..and the Cheddar Gorge. 511 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000 It was here that one of Europe's oldest Mesolithic men, 512 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,039 Cheddar Man, was found. 513 00:33:30,759 --> 00:33:33,240 Cheddar Man is one of the really important discoveries 514 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:34,720 in this country. 515 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,480 Cheddar Man was found over 100 years ago in Somerset, 516 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,720 and has been studied a lot ever since 517 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,279 because human remains are incredibly rare, 518 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,480 particularly in this country for the Mesolithic. 519 00:33:48,519 --> 00:33:51,480 Cheddar Man is the oldest British, 520 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,000 most complete human skeleton that we have. 521 00:33:55,039 --> 00:33:58,000 It dates to around 10,000 years old. 522 00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:00,960 And in 2018, 523 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,000 a groundbreaking analysis was made of Cheddar Man's DNA 524 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:10,000 in an attempt for us to meet our ancestors face to face. 525 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:16,480 It gives us an insight into what people looked like, 526 00:34:16,519 --> 00:34:20,480 and what we know from Cheddar Man is he was about five-foot-five, 527 00:34:20,519 --> 00:34:25,360 from the DNA we know he had dark, curly hair, blue eyes, 528 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,159 and darker skin than we imagined, 529 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:32,480 certainly darker than European skin tends to be today. 530 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,159 So although he looks quite striking to us, 531 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,840 he would have looked quite normal then. 532 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:42,000 Now we could finally see the faces of the sort of people 533 00:34:42,079 --> 00:34:45,639 that would have lived at Star Carr and Doggerland. 534 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,599 Despite living thousands of years ago, 535 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:51,079 it helps us understand who lived here... 536 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,000 ..but it still doesn't answer the big question, 537 00:34:55,039 --> 00:34:59,480 how did people who made Doggerland their home come to disappear? 538 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,400 To understand better what might have happened, 539 00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:16,480 the Bradford team decided to actually dig into Doggerland. 540 00:35:17,599 --> 00:35:21,000 They did this by taking core samples. 541 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:25,480 If you take a giant pipe, you ram it into the seabed, 542 00:35:25,519 --> 00:35:27,960 and then you pull it out, 543 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:33,920 the column of mud that you pull out, that's a core. 544 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,039 So when you look at a core, 545 00:35:36,119 --> 00:35:39,639 what you're effectively looking at are slices of time, 546 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,880 it's like a diary of the deep past. 547 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:45,119 They are hugely important for our understanding 548 00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:47,000 of how our climate has changed, 549 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,360 and environmental conditions have changed, 550 00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:52,480 and they're also crucial to our understanding of the archaeology 551 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,440 of Doggerland and what happened to the people. 552 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,039 What the Bradford team saw is how. 553 00:36:00,119 --> 00:36:01,480 With the end of the Ice Age 554 00:36:01,519 --> 00:36:06,519 the sea level was rising at over a metre every 100 years. 555 00:36:07,639 --> 00:36:14,480 Those sediments preserve in them a record of how sea level changes. 556 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:16,599 So at one particular site 557 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:18,600 it will show the history of going from dry land 558 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:20,920 through to the era becoming waterlogged, 559 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:22,559 and eventually being submerged. 560 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,440 But the team noticed that in one particular time period 561 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,960 the sea levels seemed to rise significantly. 562 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,480 If you look at the cores taken from Doggerland, 563 00:36:34,519 --> 00:36:38,639 when you get to 8,000 years ago there's a huge change. 564 00:36:40,039 --> 00:36:42,559 But what caused this huge change? 565 00:36:42,639 --> 00:36:46,079 And what effect did it have on Doggerland? 566 00:36:50,559 --> 00:36:55,840 Around 8,000 years ago there is what is called the 8.2-kilo year event, 567 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,880 meaning 8,200 years from today, 568 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,920 or roughly 6,250 BCE... 569 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,000 ..scientists noticed that the planet's sea levels 570 00:37:08,079 --> 00:37:10,000 rose dramatically. 571 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:14,480 One explanation for this change is with the warming of the planet 572 00:37:14,519 --> 00:37:15,840 after the ice age... 573 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,480 ..came the collapse of a colossal ice sheet into the Atlantic Ocean. 574 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:23,639 The Laurentide Ice Sheet, 575 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,559 in what is present day North America. 576 00:37:26,639 --> 00:37:30,559 At its peak, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of Canada, 577 00:37:30,639 --> 00:37:34,119 and a fair proportion of the top of the United States. 578 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:39,120 Ice was over what is now New York, and Chicago, and St Louie. 579 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:44,480 This was millions, and millions, and millions of tons of water, 580 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:46,440 locked up in ice. 581 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:48,400 This was the biggest release of fresh water 582 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:52,039 into the North Atlantic for 100,000 years. 583 00:37:52,119 --> 00:37:56,000 So profound was this change that it dropped the sea temperatures 584 00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:01,519 by a degree almost overnight, and that changed the gulf stream, 585 00:38:01,599 --> 00:38:03,920 which changed the air temperatures 586 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:09,480 by up to 1.5 degrees centigrade in a generation. 587 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:13,400 As the melt water filled the oceans, 588 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:18,480 global sea levels rose by as much as half a meter in a few months, 589 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,639 threatening lowlands like Doggerland. 590 00:38:23,079 --> 00:38:25,480 All the reasons that made Doggerland 591 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,159 a fantastic place to live as a hunter-gatherer 592 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:32,559 also made it particularly vulnerable to sea level change. 593 00:38:32,639 --> 00:38:37,000 It was low lying, it was cut through with rivers, and streams, 594 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,599 and marshy areas, which was fantastic for fishing, 595 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,640 and fowling, and gathering those wild resources, 596 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,480 but it also meant that if the sea levels rose, 597 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:51,440 it would be inundated, and inundated very rapidly. 598 00:38:53,559 --> 00:38:55,840 The sea level rise was so pronounced 599 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,000 that it turned Doggerland into islands. 600 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,000 Doggerland would now have been cut off 601 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,360 from continental Europe and the UK. 602 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,639 So what did this mean for the people on Doggerland? 603 00:39:10,519 --> 00:39:14,480 After the 8.2 event the sea levels rose so significantly 604 00:39:14,519 --> 00:39:17,159 that it was easily within generations, 605 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,639 easily within peoples' lifetimes. 606 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,079 They could easily see the effects of sea level rise. 607 00:39:23,159 --> 00:39:24,599 These people had an intimate knowledge 608 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,480 of the landscape around them, 609 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:29,559 and for that to start changing 610 00:39:29,639 --> 00:39:34,839 must have been extraordinarily disorientating and confusing. 611 00:39:35,519 --> 00:39:37,880 What would have been fertile river valleys 612 00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:40,920 suddenly became flood valleys. 613 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,480 Huge swathes of low lying land 614 00:39:42,559 --> 00:39:45,000 would have been lost almost immediately, 615 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,559 and that destroys the animals you're relying on, 616 00:39:47,639 --> 00:39:50,000 that destroys the plants you're relying on. 617 00:39:50,559 --> 00:39:52,000 And so when all this changes, 618 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,159 this puts huge pressure on the people living there, 619 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:57,519 and it would have been scary for them. 620 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:00,920 The hunter-gatherer paradise of Doggerland 621 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,639 was slowly sinking beneath the waves. 622 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,559 So what could Mesolithic people do? 623 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:10,480 If you're a Mesolithic person 624 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:12,519 and your land gets flooded where do you go? 625 00:40:12,599 --> 00:40:15,000 Well you obviously, you know, follow the animals, 626 00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:17,960 follow the herds, that's you know, where you food source goes, 627 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:18,960 so you're going to do that. 628 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:20,599 'Cause some of them would have gone to Britain, 629 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,400 and what is now mainland Europe. 630 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:24,599 Some of the people would have relocated 631 00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,000 into other parts of today's Europe, 632 00:40:27,039 --> 00:40:31,480 like Germany and Netherlands, and others to Great Britain. 633 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:33,920 From the archaeological evidence 634 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,840 we have a number of Mesolithic boats. 635 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:40,079 It's exactly at this point, as the sea levels are rising, 636 00:40:40,159 --> 00:40:42,480 that we start to get this really good evidence 637 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:47,079 for the use of dug out canoes in Britain and northwest Europe. 638 00:40:47,159 --> 00:40:50,399 Hunter-gatherers are fantastic at being flexible, 639 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,119 and maybe even people started adapting 640 00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:56,400 to being much more sea dwelling. 641 00:40:57,519 --> 00:40:59,039 But the question remained... 642 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,920 ..what happened to the people who stayed on Doggerland? 643 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,840 As the Bradford team looked further into the core samples 644 00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,480 they found something that would have been terrifying. 645 00:41:20,159 --> 00:41:24,480 They found what might be the key to the apocalypse of Doggerland. 646 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000 In a time period around 6000 BCE 647 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:34,000 the core samples looked more mixed up than expected. 648 00:41:35,119 --> 00:41:37,480 It was a series of sand, shell, 649 00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:42,079 jumbled up with sequences within which looked so unusual, 650 00:41:42,159 --> 00:41:44,559 so different to everything else we'd seen in our careers, 651 00:41:44,639 --> 00:41:48,159 except for the few samples we've seen published in literature, 652 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:50,000 which were tsunami samples. 653 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,639 This mixing up of sediment suggested huge force. 654 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:57,840 A great wave of power... 655 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:00,400 ..a tsunami. 656 00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:04,039 But what could have caused such a wave? 657 00:42:06,559 --> 00:42:09,000 The team connects the unusual core samples 658 00:42:09,079 --> 00:42:12,119 to an event called the Storegga Slide, 659 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:17,880 when vast areas of the Norwegian continental shelf slid into the sea. 660 00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:21,000 The Storegga Slide was a huge submarine landslide 661 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,639 that occurred off the coast of Norway. 662 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:25,440 The slide itself is made up of sediments 663 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:27,880 deposited from the glacial era, 664 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,000 so it's a lot of fine muds and sands, 665 00:42:30,039 --> 00:42:32,480 and within it there are lots of weak layers, 666 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,000 this are layers that can't really hold all that sediment together, 667 00:42:35,039 --> 00:42:37,000 so they're very prone to slipping. 668 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,440 So any trigger, like an earthquake, 669 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:43,599 is enough to set this sediment in motion and move down the slope. 670 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:45,600 And as it does so, it will generate a wave, 671 00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,480 'cause it will disturb the surface of the water. 672 00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,159 A tsunami would have been terrifying, 673 00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:56,840 and is something that our modern society has witnessed 674 00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,400 in both 2011 in Japan... 675 00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,039 ..and across Asia in 2004. 676 00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:11,360 You can see here how the 2004 tsunami spread across 677 00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:14,079 almost the entire globe. 678 00:43:14,159 --> 00:43:17,480 So what effect would the Storegga Slide tsunami 679 00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:19,480 have had on Doggerland? 680 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:25,920 Dr Jon Hill of the University of York 681 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,639 recreated how the tsunami might have hit northern Europe 682 00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:32,000 in a series of computer simulations. 683 00:43:33,119 --> 00:43:37,000 The Storegga Slide involved 3,000 cubic kilometres of sediment, 684 00:43:37,039 --> 00:43:39,880 and it probably moved in one go very quickly. 685 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:41,000 So this huge slide, 686 00:43:41,079 --> 00:43:43,559 which is probably one of the biggest landslides 687 00:43:43,639 --> 00:43:44,839 in the history of the Earth, 688 00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,079 generated a huge tsunami 689 00:43:47,159 --> 00:43:49,559 which then travelled across the North Atlantic to Greenland, 690 00:43:49,639 --> 00:43:54,559 and then down the North Sea with a tsunami of ten to six metres 691 00:43:54,639 --> 00:43:57,440 impacting the coast of the UK. 692 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,159 In this scientifically accurate simulation, 693 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,000 the remaining islands of Doggerland 694 00:44:03,039 --> 00:44:07,519 are repeatedly washed over by the elevated red waves. 695 00:44:10,559 --> 00:44:14,000 The core samples also suggested that the timing of the wave 696 00:44:14,079 --> 00:44:17,440 was critical for people on Doggerland. 697 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:19,480 So one of the things I find surprising 698 00:44:19,519 --> 00:44:23,360 is our ability to pinpoint the time of year that Storegga occurred. 699 00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:25,039 So we do this by looking at the sediments 700 00:44:25,119 --> 00:44:26,079 that have been deposited, 701 00:44:26,159 --> 00:44:28,000 and in them we find bits of vegetation 702 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:29,920 like mosses and cherry stones, 703 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,119 where we know that they would have occurred in the autumn, 704 00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:34,000 and hence we can find out 705 00:44:34,079 --> 00:44:36,960 that the Storegga Slide actually happened in the autumn. 706 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:40,480 It is believed that Mesolithic people in the summer 707 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,480 went inland to hunt deer, 708 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,960 but in the autumn, with fewer deer to eat, 709 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,440 they returned to the shoreline. 710 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,360 The tsunami from the Storegga Slide would have hit the Mesolithic people 711 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,000 when they were at their most vulnerable. 712 00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:02,840 Doggerland would have been particularly effected by this 713 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:04,000 because it is so low lying. 714 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,119 Even though it was about 130km across, 715 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,360 and perhaps 80km north to south, 716 00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:11,440 the average height was probably on the order of metres 717 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:13,920 rather than tens of metres. 718 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,639 So if you have a wave that is 5m high, 719 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,599 it is obviously going to inundate a large proportion of that land. 720 00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,360 And if we look to modern events like the Japanese 2011 tsunami, 721 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,639 the average height there is around 5m. 722 00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:30,440 The wave inundated up to 4km in land, 723 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,360 so if you think of that kind of scale, 724 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:37,000 you would have seen something similar happening at Doggerland. 725 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:42,960 The coastline is exactly where we would have seen 726 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,360 the majority of people. 727 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:51,880 The tsunami would have laid waste to homes, fish traps going, 728 00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:54,480 hunting grounds disappearing. 729 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,400 Whole societies were perhaps wiped out 730 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:00,159 in the space of a few hours. 731 00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,480 For Doggerland, it could have been cataclysmic, 732 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:07,559 covering most of the land in its fast moving water. 733 00:46:09,159 --> 00:46:11,480 Many of those Doggerland people could have been washed away 734 00:46:11,559 --> 00:46:14,079 along with their homes. 735 00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:20,039 From the archaeological record, we do get a sense that actually 736 00:46:20,119 --> 00:46:23,000 the tsunami is the beginning of the end, 737 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,159 if not the end of Doggerland. 738 00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:27,360 And large swathes of it already underwater, 739 00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:31,039 and what remains would have been quite significantly devastated 740 00:46:31,119 --> 00:46:32,920 for some time. 741 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:38,559 Death as a great wave swept through Doggerland. 742 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,599 Doggerland still occasionally gives up its human evidence 743 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:53,519 from beneath the sea bed. 744 00:46:55,639 --> 00:46:59,039 In 2019, a hammer stone was dredged up 745 00:46:59,119 --> 00:47:01,000 from the drowned land. 746 00:47:02,039 --> 00:47:05,360 But the Bradford team concluded that with rising sea levels, 747 00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:09,559 Doggerland, the land that connected all of northern Europe, 748 00:47:09,639 --> 00:47:11,480 would have sunk under the sea... 749 00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,000 ..ending all human life. 750 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,480 The Storegga tsunami was a difficult period for the Mesolithic people, 751 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,480 but the land did recover. 752 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:26,880 However, after that period, sea level continues to rise, 753 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:29,519 the landscape continued to shrink and break up into different islands, 754 00:47:29,599 --> 00:47:31,480 so the challenges increased for people. 755 00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:35,000 And so really it's part of the beginning of the end. 756 00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:36,559 Eventually people would have found it 757 00:47:36,639 --> 00:47:39,480 perhaps too difficult to live in certain places and moved. 758 00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:40,920 As of today, 759 00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:43,480 scientists are yet to find any artefact 760 00:47:43,559 --> 00:47:47,519 from the Doggerland area that dates after the tsunami. 761 00:47:47,599 --> 00:47:52,480 We don't find any human artefacts after this wave, 762 00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:54,000 so there is absolutely nothing 763 00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,599 that dates from younger than 6,100 BC, 764 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:02,000 which just shows the devastation this wave probably caused. 765 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,000 The tsunami's devastation seems total. 766 00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:15,480 Doggerland... 767 00:48:16,639 --> 00:48:21,119 ..a Mesolithic paradise that supported human populations, 768 00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:23,640 animals, forests, 769 00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:25,480 and wetlands. 770 00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:28,440 A land that at one point 771 00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:31,920 is estimated to have stretched from what today is northern Europe, 772 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:33,480 to Scandinavia 773 00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:34,880 and the UK, 774 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:38,079 covering almost 50,000 square kilometres. 775 00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:41,519 Hunter-gatherers of the time 776 00:48:41,599 --> 00:48:44,039 could have walked from present day Berlin... 777 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:46,000 ..to Oslo... 778 00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:48,160 ..to London... 779 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:50,639 ..to Paris. 780 00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:59,480 A region that in the space of possible only a few hundred years 781 00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,159 was completely swallowed by the sea, 782 00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:05,160 drowning everything that lived on it. 783 00:49:10,519 --> 00:49:15,480 An ancient apocalypse which echoes through human history, 784 00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:18,440 through the myths and legends of great floods... 785 00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:22,440 ..and still touches us today. 786 00:49:29,599 --> 00:49:31,279 The Bible. 787 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:36,280 It's one of the most influential texts ever written. 788 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:41,240 For millennia, it's shaped the lives of billions of people. 789 00:49:41,360 --> 00:49:44,880 It holds stories of great civilisations. 790 00:49:46,079 --> 00:49:48,599 Miraculous events. 791 00:49:49,239 --> 00:49:51,159 The word of God. 792 00:49:53,079 --> 00:49:57,159 Many people see them as parables for how to live their lives. 793 00:49:57,239 --> 00:50:01,799 But for some, these stories are historical truth. 794 00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:04,440 Of all the events the Bible details, 795 00:50:04,519 --> 00:50:07,440 one remains shocking even today 796 00:50:07,519 --> 00:50:10,519 - the destruction of Sodom. 797 00:50:10,639 --> 00:50:11,799 According to the Bible, 798 00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:14,240 Sodom was one of the five cities of the plain. 799 00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:18,079 It was remarkable for its wickedness. 800 00:50:18,159 --> 00:50:22,519 The tradition is that the sin of Sodom 801 00:50:22,639 --> 00:50:26,359 was what the Bible described to be sexual perversity. 802 00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:29,240 Specifically homosexuality. 803 00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:32,159 But is this really true? 804 00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,639 In the Bible story, God appeared before Abraham 805 00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:39,000 and told him his plan to destroy Sodom 806 00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,519 and the cities of the plain. 807 00:50:40,639 --> 00:50:44,759 For Abraham, it's a shocking revelation. 808 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:48,039 His nephew Lot lived in Sodom. 809 00:50:48,079 --> 00:50:49,799 According to the Bible, 810 00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:53,960 Lot and his family were different than the other people 811 00:50:54,079 --> 00:50:55,360 living in Sodom. 812 00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:57,800 They would be considered righteous people. 813 00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:02,519 Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy 814 00:51:02,639 --> 00:51:06,079 the innocent and guilty without distinction. 815 00:51:06,079 --> 00:51:09,079 God assured Abraham that he would spare the city 816 00:51:09,079 --> 00:51:12,239 if just 10 decent people could be found there. 817 00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:17,079 And devised a test of Sodom's hospitality to strangers. 818 00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:20,519 The Bible says specifically 819 00:51:20,519 --> 00:51:26,079 that the sin of Sodom was arrogance, gluttony and apathy. 820 00:51:26,079 --> 00:51:29,639 And specifically that they were not kind 821 00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:31,800 to the poor and the needy. 822 00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,240 That it was inhospitality, 823 00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:38,800 this general unkindness towards other people 824 00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,240 that made Sodom an evil city. 825 00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:47,960 God sends two angels disguised as travellers to meet with Lot 826 00:51:48,079 --> 00:51:50,639 who takes them in and treats them well. 827 00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:54,360 Lot passes God's hospitality test. 828 00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:56,960 But when the news of the foreigners arrival 829 00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:58,079 spreads through Sodom, 830 00:51:58,079 --> 00:52:00,360 the city descends on Lot's house 831 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,640 and demands he hands them over. 832 00:52:04,079 --> 00:52:07,079 Immediately all the neighbours are banging on the door 833 00:52:07,079 --> 00:52:09,960 saying, "Send out these two men so that we may know them." 834 00:52:10,079 --> 00:52:12,239 And in biblical terms, 835 00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:14,519 that usually means to sleep with them. 836 00:52:14,519 --> 00:52:17,079 Lot says, "Absolutely not, you can have my daughters instead. 837 00:52:17,079 --> 00:52:19,360 "They're virgins, you can do whatever you want with them. 838 00:52:19,519 --> 00:52:21,360 "But you cannot have my guests." 839 00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:22,960 At that point, God steps in 840 00:52:23,079 --> 00:52:25,079 and says, "No, the test has failed." 841 00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:26,799 It's damning. 842 00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:30,639 The angels allow Lot and his family to leave, 843 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:31,800 but when they are gone, 844 00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:37,079 God levels the city with the remaining inhabitants inside. 845 00:52:37,079 --> 00:52:39,519 It would've been positively terrifying. 846 00:52:40,519 --> 00:52:43,800 WOMAN: God destroyed them in a shower of fire and brimstone 847 00:52:43,960 --> 00:52:48,800 so terrible that no man could live in this land. 848 00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:51,320 The destruction was so complete 849 00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:54,760 that the city was abandoned for 700 years. 850 00:52:54,880 --> 00:53:00,559 It's a profound punishment for the city's perceived sins. 851 00:53:00,559 --> 00:53:03,320 God sends these two angels down 852 00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:05,760 to Sodom and the cities of the plain 853 00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:07,200 to test their hospitality, 854 00:53:07,199 --> 00:53:08,879 to see 'would they be welcomed?' 855 00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:10,679 and they failed that test. 856 00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:13,000 So it's less a story about sexuality 857 00:53:13,119 --> 00:53:15,759 and it's more a story about hospitality. 858 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:19,320 Hospitality was so important in the ancient world. 859 00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:22,119 Only after the rise of Christianity 860 00:53:22,199 --> 00:53:24,759 in the first few centuries CE, 861 00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,559 did its interpretation change. 862 00:53:27,559 --> 00:53:30,440 Early Christian theologians 863 00:53:30,559 --> 00:53:34,559 shifted the story's focus away from offering hospitality 864 00:53:34,679 --> 00:53:39,199 to create a morality tale condemning homosexuality. 865 00:53:39,199 --> 00:53:44,319 But does the story of destruction hold any truth? 866 00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,679 We ask the question did the city of Sodom actually exist 867 00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:53,000 and could it be possible to locate its ruins? 868 00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:03,680 According to the ancient writings of the Bible, 869 00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:06,120 the Koran, and the Torah, 870 00:54:06,119 --> 00:54:07,880 Sodom was supposedly part 871 00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,320 of what's known as the five cities of the plain. 872 00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:14,760 They were situated in southern Canaan 873 00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:18,200 a large region covering modern-day Jordan, 874 00:54:18,320 --> 00:54:20,559 Lebanon, Syria and Israel. 875 00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,000 Of the five cities, Sodom was the largest 876 00:54:24,119 --> 00:54:27,000 and thus, the epicentre of the plain. 877 00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:31,559 For centuries, archaeologists have tried to locate it. 878 00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:36,200 I think everybody loves a good lost city story, 879 00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:38,559 whether it's Atlantis or Sodom, 880 00:54:38,679 --> 00:54:41,759 there's this treasure-hunter aspect to it. 881 00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:44,200 There's a confirming mythology, 882 00:54:44,199 --> 00:54:48,319 a way of confirming the historicity of oral tradition. 883 00:54:49,559 --> 00:54:52,759 But if the story of Sodom is more than just a myth 884 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,200 like some believe, 885 00:54:54,199 --> 00:54:56,119 where did it take place? 886 00:54:56,119 --> 00:54:59,440 And how could archaeologists locate it? 887 00:55:05,119 --> 00:55:07,319 Renowned biblical archaeologists 888 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:09,559 Dr Thomas Schaub and Walter Rast 889 00:55:09,559 --> 00:55:13,119 carry out surveys of Bab edh-Dra. 890 00:55:13,199 --> 00:55:17,759 It is an ancient site south-east of the Dead Sea. 891 00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:21,320 Thomas Schaub and Walter Rast 892 00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:24,680 were actually very well-respected archaeologists 893 00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:27,000 and academics in the field. 894 00:55:27,119 --> 00:55:30,000 Both had a keen interest in biblical archaeology, 895 00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:32,199 and historical geography. 896 00:55:32,199 --> 00:55:34,199 Schaub was actually a priest 897 00:55:34,199 --> 00:55:39,119 and Walter Rast led many expeditions to the Dead Sea. 898 00:55:39,199 --> 00:55:42,319 As the two break ground, they discover 899 00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:44,680 four more sites nearby. 900 00:55:44,760 --> 00:55:49,200 Numeira, Safi, Feihfeh, and Khanazir. 901 00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,440 For Schaub and Rast, the number of sites 902 00:55:52,559 --> 00:55:57,440 could be a crucial indicator for whether Bab edh-Dra is Sodom. 903 00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:01,000 The Bible says that Sodom 904 00:56:01,119 --> 00:56:04,119 was one of five cities of the plain. 905 00:56:04,559 --> 00:56:09,000 And if four other cities were discovered near Bab edh-Dra 906 00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:12,320 it increases the likelihood that Bab edh-Dra 907 00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:14,679 is the city of Sodom. 908 00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:17,880 The discovery of these five ancient sites 909 00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:21,679 in close proximity to each other is key. 910 00:56:21,760 --> 00:56:25,560 And through excavations of Bab edh-Dra, 911 00:56:25,679 --> 00:56:31,199 the archaeologists date the site to around 3300 BCE. 912 00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:34,680 This is significant because some people think 913 00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:37,120 this is when the city of Sodom existed too. 914 00:56:37,119 --> 00:56:41,119 And during excavations, the team unearth evidence 915 00:56:41,119 --> 00:56:45,440 that not only was Bab edh-Dra the largest of the five sites, 916 00:56:45,559 --> 00:56:47,119 but it was also once 917 00:56:47,199 --> 00:56:50,439 the location of a thriving community. 918 00:56:50,559 --> 00:56:53,320 There were fortification walls around the town. 919 00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:56,320 Archaeologists were able to identify people's houses. 920 00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:01,200 Workshops. It would've been a place of some significance. 921 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:05,200 For Schaub and Rast, it's looking more and more likely 922 00:57:05,199 --> 00:57:08,159 that Bab edh-Dra is Sodom. 923 00:57:08,199 --> 00:57:12,039 And when the archaeologists examine the site more closely, 924 00:57:12,159 --> 00:57:14,799 they make a crucial discovery. 925 00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:18,800 There is evidence of widespread destruction. 926 00:57:20,199 --> 00:57:24,199 The archaeologists discovered piles of collapsed mud bricks 927 00:57:24,320 --> 00:57:27,200 and also large piles of ash and charcoal. 928 00:57:27,199 --> 00:57:30,559 And the town walls had been destroyed by fire. 929 00:57:31,960 --> 00:57:35,440 At the second site, Numeira, 930 00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:37,679 Schaub and Rast make similar findings. 931 00:57:37,679 --> 00:57:39,679 But most astonishingly, 932 00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:44,080 archaeologists find the skeletons several people. 933 00:57:44,199 --> 00:57:49,319 The bodies were buried under all of this burnt debris. 934 00:57:49,440 --> 00:57:51,559 So these were people who had died and been crushed 935 00:57:51,679 --> 00:57:54,559 while they were still either fresh corpses 936 00:57:54,679 --> 00:57:56,799 or while they were still alive. 937 00:57:56,960 --> 00:58:00,960 Some experts believe that Schaub and Rast's findings 938 00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:04,559 match the biblical description of the destruction of Sodom. 939 00:58:04,679 --> 00:58:07,679 Through fire and brimstone. 940 00:58:07,679 --> 00:58:11,679 There is one camp who think that Bab edh-Dra and Numeira 941 00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:14,960 are evidence of destruction from an earthquake 942 00:58:15,079 --> 00:58:16,679 and catastrophic fires. 943 00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:19,200 That we've found our target. 944 00:58:20,199 --> 00:58:23,679 The claim, that the southern site of Bab edh-Dra 945 00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:26,320 could be the former city of Sodom 946 00:58:26,679 --> 00:58:29,679 becomes known as the Southern Theory. 947 00:58:31,559 --> 00:58:36,799 But had biblical Sodom finally been uncovered? 948 00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:42,800 Over the years, new evidence has emerged 949 00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:45,559 which casts doubt on the theory. 950 00:58:45,559 --> 00:58:47,679 When excavations were carried out 951 00:58:47,800 --> 00:58:48,960 at the other three sites, 952 00:58:49,079 --> 00:58:50,559 archaeologists found 953 00:58:50,679 --> 00:58:53,799 that there were no occupational structures. 954 00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:57,960 What they had found was a bunch of cemeteries. 955 00:58:58,079 --> 00:59:01,079 This is a place where people buried their dead. 956 00:59:01,199 --> 00:59:05,439 And radiocarbon dating of the two largest sites, 957 00:59:05,440 --> 00:59:07,960 Bab edh-Dra and Numeira 958 00:59:08,079 --> 00:59:11,440 Cast further doubt on the Southern Theory. 959 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,679 These two cities were destroyed 960 00:59:13,679 --> 00:59:18,440 2.5 centuries apart from one another. 961 00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:20,679 That's 250 years in between 962 00:59:20,679 --> 00:59:25,440 the destruction of Bab edh-Dra and Numeira. 963 00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:28,200 To match the biblical description, 964 00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:32,559 these sites should all have been destroyed at the same time. 965 00:59:32,559 --> 00:59:36,079 They don't fit the time 966 00:59:36,199 --> 00:59:38,319 so yeah, to me, it's two strikes and you're out. 967 00:59:38,440 --> 00:59:39,960 You don't need a third strike. 968 00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:44,679 The Southern Theory just does not hold water. 969 00:59:45,559 --> 00:59:47,960 Did Sodom ever exist? 970 00:59:48,079 --> 00:59:52,440 If so, was it at all possible to find? 971 00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:00,440 In 1996, archaeologist Dr Steven Collins 972 01:00:00,559 --> 01:00:03,079 takes up the challenge. 973 01:00:03,559 --> 01:00:05,799 Having grown up in a Christian household, 974 01:00:05,960 --> 01:00:08,320 he has long been fascinated with the relationship 975 01:00:08,679 --> 01:00:11,799 between the Bible and scientific evidence. 976 01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:16,800 I had sort of worlds in collision going on in my head. 977 01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:18,960 And it was hard to justify 978 01:00:19,079 --> 01:00:22,679 science and faith and belief together. 979 01:00:22,679 --> 01:00:25,799 Joining Dr Collins in the search for Sodom 980 01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,199 is Dr Philip Silvia. 981 01:00:28,199 --> 01:00:30,199 An electrical engineer by trade, 982 01:00:30,199 --> 01:00:31,439 in more recent years, 983 01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:36,440 he's turned his focus to the Bible and archaeology. 984 01:00:36,559 --> 01:00:39,799 I think Sodom is the epitome in Scripture 985 01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:43,440 of God's judgment against sin in the world. 986 01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:45,960 It's the engineer in me. 987 01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:48,199 And the theologian in me 988 01:00:48,440 --> 01:00:51,559 understands there must be a discoverable trail 989 01:00:51,559 --> 01:00:56,199 of physical evidence showing us what he did and how he did it, 990 01:00:56,199 --> 01:00:58,439 and that's what drives me. 991 01:00:58,559 --> 01:01:02,440 The more Dr Collins studied, the more convinced he became 992 01:01:02,559 --> 01:01:06,440 that the Bible could provide clues to the location of Sodom. 993 01:01:09,559 --> 01:01:11,320 And so when I look at the historical record, 994 01:01:11,440 --> 01:01:13,440 when I look at the biblical record, 995 01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:16,079 and it squares with reality, it's worse with science, 996 01:01:16,199 --> 01:01:17,679 it squares with archaeology, 997 01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:20,320 and I can't find any way to overturn it, 998 01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:22,200 then what are supposed to do? 999 01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:24,800 For Dr Collins, the realisation that Sodom 1000 01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:26,320 and the cities of the plain 1001 01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:28,679 may not be south of the Dead Sea 1002 01:01:28,800 --> 01:01:32,800 came about by accident in 1996. 1003 01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:37,559 That summer, he is leading a tour of the holy land sites. 1004 01:01:37,679 --> 01:01:39,679 While planning an expedition to Bab edh-Dra 1005 01:01:39,679 --> 01:01:44,079 and Numeira, he rereads the story of Sodom - 1006 01:01:44,199 --> 01:01:45,960 something is amiss. 1007 01:01:46,079 --> 01:01:49,679 In the Bible, before Lot moves to Sodom, 1008 01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:54,200 he and his uncle Abraham bid farewell to each other. 1009 01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:58,320 At this time, the Bible places them somewhere between 1010 01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:00,960 the settlements of Bethel and Ai. 1011 01:02:01,079 --> 01:02:03,440 North-west of the Dead Sea. 1012 01:02:03,559 --> 01:02:07,320 From there, they can see the whole plain of Jordan. 1013 01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:10,079 The Bible says, "Lot looked over, 1014 01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:12,799 "saw the well water play into the Jordan 1015 01:02:12,800 --> 01:02:15,200 "and went eastward and pitched his tent as far as Sodom." 1016 01:02:15,320 --> 01:02:18,440 According to the Southern Theory, 1017 01:02:18,559 --> 01:02:20,799 Sodom is south-east of the Dead Sea. 1018 01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:23,800 80km from Bethel and Ai. 1019 01:02:24,440 --> 01:02:26,800 But if Abraham and Lot were in the North 1020 01:02:26,960 --> 01:02:31,440 at Bethel and Ai, they wouldn't have been able to see that far. 1021 01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:34,679 I got to the end of it and I thought to myself, 1022 01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:36,440 "I don't see anything in there 1023 01:02:36,440 --> 01:02:38,800 "that would locate Sodom towards the south 1024 01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:40,320 "but everything would locate it 1025 01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:41,800 "north and east of the Dead Sea." 1026 01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:45,560 How in the world could serious scholars 1027 01:02:45,679 --> 01:02:48,559 be putting Sodom towards the south end of the Dead Sea 1028 01:02:48,559 --> 01:02:51,679 because if they're reading the same text I'm reading, 1029 01:02:51,679 --> 01:02:54,440 what aren't we seeing the same things? 1030 01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:01,079 Collins digs deeper into the ancient text. 1031 01:03:01,199 --> 01:03:03,079 His focus turns to identifying 1032 01:03:03,199 --> 01:03:06,960 the correct location for the plain of Jordan. 1033 01:03:07,079 --> 01:03:10,079 Genesis 13:10 says that 1034 01:03:10,199 --> 01:03:14,079 Lot saw the plain of Jordan 1035 01:03:14,199 --> 01:03:18,439 and that it was well watered like the garden of the Lord. 1036 01:03:19,199 --> 01:03:24,199 So if you can find the plain of Jordan, you can find Sodom. 1037 01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:29,440 After meticulous study, Collins finds a clue to the whereabouts 1038 01:03:29,559 --> 01:03:31,079 of the plain of Jordan. 1039 01:03:31,199 --> 01:03:35,559 In the Hebrew language, the word for 'plain' is 'kikkar' 1040 01:03:35,679 --> 01:03:37,960 which means 'round'. 1041 01:03:38,679 --> 01:03:42,799 In the case of land, it would be a round, flat area 1042 01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:44,679 of arable land. 1043 01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:46,960 That is where we should be looking 1044 01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:49,320 for Sodom and the cities of the plain. 1045 01:03:51,079 --> 01:03:54,440 Some archaeologists believe that the only area in Jordan 1046 01:03:54,440 --> 01:03:56,800 that has a flat, circular plain 1047 01:03:56,800 --> 01:03:59,960 and is well watered is north of the Dead Sea. 1048 01:04:00,079 --> 01:04:03,679 If you are looking at a very good topographical map, 1049 01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:07,440 you'll see a circular area, a kikkar, 1050 01:04:07,559 --> 01:04:09,799 north of the Dead Sea. 1051 01:04:10,960 --> 01:04:12,960 But for some, using the Bible 1052 01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:16,960 as a geographical source should be approached with caution. 1053 01:04:17,079 --> 01:04:20,440 We need to be cautious with how we use the Bible texts. 1054 01:04:20,440 --> 01:04:23,679 We have to keep in mind that if this event happened, 1055 01:04:23,800 --> 01:04:27,800 it was another thousand years before it was written down. 1056 01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:29,800 And then since being written down, 1057 01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:33,200 it's passed through five, six, seven different languages 1058 01:04:33,320 --> 01:04:34,440 before it comes to us. 1059 01:04:34,559 --> 01:04:39,559 So to put too much weight on one word is a bit hazardous. 1060 01:04:39,679 --> 01:04:42,559 If we treat Sodom and the cities of the plain 1061 01:04:42,559 --> 01:04:45,960 as a crime scene, then the Bible is one source. 1062 01:04:46,079 --> 01:04:49,319 We also have archaeological evidence, we have ancient maps, 1063 01:04:49,440 --> 01:04:52,079 so we have to actually look at the whole thing like a puzzle. 1064 01:04:52,079 --> 01:04:54,199 And each piece has to be put together 1065 01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:56,960 to really grasp what happened there. 1066 01:04:57,079 --> 01:05:00,319 Proponents of this new northern theory 1067 01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:03,320 are convinced somewhere in this circular plain 1068 01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:06,440 could lie the biblical city of Sodom. 1069 01:05:11,800 --> 01:05:13,560 Further evidence may lie 1070 01:05:13,679 --> 01:05:17,199 in the oldest surviving map of biblical sites, 1071 01:05:17,199 --> 01:05:18,960 the Madaba Map. 1072 01:05:19,079 --> 01:05:21,799 It dates from the sixth century CE 1073 01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:25,560 and is located in the Byzantine church of St. George 1074 01:05:25,679 --> 01:05:27,440 and Madaba, Jordan. 1075 01:05:28,440 --> 01:05:31,200 We have to understand that the Byzantine period 1076 01:05:31,199 --> 01:05:34,199 was the biggest holy land tourist industry 1077 01:05:34,320 --> 01:05:35,320 ever in history 1078 01:05:35,320 --> 01:05:38,320 and so this map was on the floor of this church 1079 01:05:38,440 --> 01:05:42,440 for the singular purpose of showing people where to go. 1080 01:05:42,440 --> 01:05:44,960 The map is incomplete 1081 01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:49,960 but crucially, it features a key name, Zoar. 1082 01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:51,960 Along with Sodom, the Bible 1083 01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:55,720 lists it as one of the five cities of the plain. 1084 01:05:55,960 --> 01:05:58,960 Zoar is significant because it was 1085 01:05:58,960 --> 01:06:02,960 the only city of the plain that wasn't destroyed 1086 01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:06,440 and it wasn't destroyed according to the Bible 1087 01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:08,440 because it was the city 1088 01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:12,480 to where Lot and his family escaped. 1089 01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:15,960 The map doesn't feature Sodom 1090 01:06:15,960 --> 01:06:20,000 but it does feature something else north of the Dead Sea. 1091 01:06:20,199 --> 01:06:24,439 Partially intact depictions of two cities. 1092 01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:28,679 For Dr Collins, they're key geographical markers. 1093 01:06:28,719 --> 01:06:31,439 I have a sneaking suspicion 1094 01:06:31,440 --> 01:06:34,240 that those two representations of cities 1095 01:06:34,440 --> 01:06:38,440 on the north end of the Dead Sea are Sodom and Gomorrah. 1096 01:06:39,679 --> 01:06:42,199 But if the missing piece of the map is Sodom, 1097 01:06:42,199 --> 01:06:44,480 where exactly is it? 1098 01:06:44,679 --> 01:06:49,440 In 2005, Collins and his colleagues head Jordan 1099 01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:51,679 in search of hard evidence. 1100 01:06:54,960 --> 01:06:57,440 And that was a little bit scary at first 1101 01:06:57,480 --> 01:07:01,440 because I couldn't find any map of archaeological sites 1102 01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:04,240 done by anyone in America or Europe or Israel 1103 01:07:04,440 --> 01:07:06,440 and it really bothered me. 1104 01:07:06,440 --> 01:07:08,720 I said, "What I might gonna find when I get over there?" 1105 01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:13,199 But then, at the American Center of Oriental Research, 1106 01:07:13,199 --> 01:07:15,439 a breakthrough. 1107 01:07:15,679 --> 01:07:18,679 As the team pore over maps and surveys, 1108 01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:20,480 they come across a book, 1109 01:07:20,679 --> 01:07:23,919 'The Antiquities of the Jordan Rift Valley'. 1110 01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:27,440 In it is a map showing ancient sites 1111 01:07:27,440 --> 01:07:29,679 in the Kikaar region of Jordan 1112 01:07:29,679 --> 01:07:32,199 north-east of the Dead Sea. 1113 01:07:33,199 --> 01:07:35,000 The team put boots on the ground 1114 01:07:35,199 --> 01:07:37,439 and begin a process of elimination, 1115 01:07:37,679 --> 01:07:42,000 hoping to identify the most likely site for Sodom. 1116 01:07:44,199 --> 01:07:47,480 And what did we find? 14 major archaeological sites. 1117 01:07:47,679 --> 01:07:48,960 Well, here was the problem. 1118 01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:53,679 I was only looking for four or five sites. Now I had 14. 1119 01:07:55,719 --> 01:07:58,199 Some seem to be too small, too insignificant 1120 01:07:58,679 --> 01:07:59,960 or the wrong period. 1121 01:07:59,960 --> 01:08:02,000 So we eliminated them. 1122 01:08:02,199 --> 01:08:07,199 After a week of surveying, only one candidate remained. 1123 01:08:07,199 --> 01:08:08,719 Tall el-Hammam. 1124 01:08:08,960 --> 01:08:12,960 It's situated 13km northeast of the Dead Sea. 1125 01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:15,480 The Bible had told me that Sodom should be 1126 01:08:15,679 --> 01:08:17,439 the biggest Bronze Age city 1127 01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:19,960 on the north-east side of the Dead Sea. 1128 01:08:20,199 --> 01:08:23,439 Guess what? It was just absolutely huge. 1129 01:08:23,439 --> 01:08:26,199 How in the world had people not put this on their radar? 1130 01:08:26,199 --> 01:08:27,479 Why was it not on any map? 1131 01:08:27,680 --> 01:08:32,240 After almost a decade of research, Tall el-Hammam 1132 01:08:32,439 --> 01:08:35,960 is Collins' prime suspect for Sodom. 1133 01:08:36,439 --> 01:08:39,439 I was walking down on the top of Tall el-Hammam 1134 01:08:39,439 --> 01:08:41,960 and I grabbed a handful of that sand 1135 01:08:42,000 --> 01:08:45,439 and sort of let it run down through my fingers. 1136 01:08:45,479 --> 01:08:50,959 And I said, "Someday you're gonna tell me what you know." 1137 01:08:51,960 --> 01:08:55,199 But to reveal the truth behind this ancient site, 1138 01:08:55,199 --> 01:08:57,439 he needs to start digging. 1139 01:09:01,920 --> 01:09:07,440 On December 27, 2005, the team begin the excavation. 1140 01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:10,960 Initial findings reveal a colossal site 1141 01:09:11,199 --> 01:09:16,199 spanning an area of approximately 150 acres. 1142 01:09:16,199 --> 01:09:21,239 It's much larger than any other Bronze Age site in the region. 1143 01:09:22,439 --> 01:09:24,199 I was surprised - 1144 01:09:24,199 --> 01:09:28,439 I think mostly the sheer size of the site. 1145 01:09:28,439 --> 01:09:32,439 To me it was just an 'oh, wow' moment. 1146 01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:36,199 With the site larger than anyone had anticipated, 1147 01:09:36,199 --> 01:09:40,479 Collins recruits world-renowned archaeological architect 1148 01:09:40,680 --> 01:09:43,000 Dr Leen Ritmeyer to map the site. 1149 01:09:44,960 --> 01:09:47,480 I got a phone call from Dr Steve Collins 1150 01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,720 and he said, "Would you like to come to Jordan 1151 01:09:50,960 --> 01:09:53,680 "and see my new excavation site? 1152 01:09:53,680 --> 01:09:54,960 "I believe I found Sodom." 1153 01:09:54,960 --> 01:09:58,680 I said, "Sodom? You must be daft. It's quite impossible." 1154 01:09:58,720 --> 01:10:03,199 He said, "Just come and have a look." I said, "OK, I'll come." 1155 01:10:03,199 --> 01:10:05,439 This is site and the architecture 1156 01:10:05,680 --> 01:10:07,200 impressed me very much. 1157 01:10:07,199 --> 01:10:09,199 And so I was really interested 1158 01:10:09,239 --> 01:10:11,679 in the site from an archaeological point of view. 1159 01:10:11,680 --> 01:10:15,680 During the first few seasons of the excavations, 1160 01:10:15,680 --> 01:10:19,440 the team unearth fortified walls 5m thick. 1161 01:10:19,439 --> 01:10:22,199 And up to 12m high. 1162 01:10:22,199 --> 01:10:24,960 They also found a palace, a temple, 1163 01:10:24,960 --> 01:10:29,680 and at least two plazas and dozens of houses and streets. 1164 01:10:29,720 --> 01:10:32,680 All dating to the middle Bronze Age period 1165 01:10:32,720 --> 01:10:36,199 when Sodom is believed to have existed. 1166 01:10:36,199 --> 01:10:37,679 The middle Bronze Age 1167 01:10:37,680 --> 01:10:39,440 fortifications were stunning to me. 1168 01:10:39,439 --> 01:10:42,439 We estimate the rampart system itself 1169 01:10:42,439 --> 01:10:45,960 took somewhere between 40 and 60 million mud bricks to make. 1170 01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:49,960 It was obviously a highly centralised government 1171 01:10:49,960 --> 01:10:53,680 who could put such a project together and complete it. 1172 01:10:53,720 --> 01:10:58,199 I've worked on many archaeological excavations. 1173 01:10:58,199 --> 01:10:59,960 To have never seen 1174 01:10:59,960 --> 01:11:03,680 such a huge site as Tall el-Hammam... 1175 01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:07,200 About six times as big as the old city of Jerusalem. 1176 01:11:07,199 --> 01:11:12,199 Crucially, the team discover layers of ash throughout. 1177 01:11:12,199 --> 01:11:16,439 Ranging from half a metre to 2m thick. 1178 01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:20,239 Evidence that Tall el-Hammam was destroyed. 1179 01:11:20,439 --> 01:11:23,679 And they're convinced it was destroyed 1180 01:11:23,680 --> 01:11:25,680 in the middle Bronze Age. 1181 01:11:25,920 --> 01:11:29,440 Mixed in with that ash are pieces of pottery 1182 01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:33,239 that we can identify with that middle Bronze Age date. 1183 01:11:34,439 --> 01:11:40,239 The evidence indicates the site was burned in 1700 BCE. 1184 01:11:41,239 --> 01:11:43,960 And as Dr Silvia sifts through the ash layer, 1185 01:11:44,439 --> 01:11:47,919 a picture of a great destructive event emerges. 1186 01:11:49,199 --> 01:11:54,439 Among the ruins, they felt find a large 180kg saddle quern 1187 01:11:54,479 --> 01:11:57,679 that workers used to grind grain. 1188 01:11:57,680 --> 01:11:58,960 It's called a saddle quern 1189 01:11:59,000 --> 01:12:01,199 because you would basically would straddle it 1190 01:12:01,199 --> 01:12:03,199 like you were riding a horse and then you would 1191 01:12:03,199 --> 01:12:06,439 run your grinder back and forth like this to grind the grain. 1192 01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:10,960 But for Dr Silvia, the position of the saddle quern 1193 01:12:11,199 --> 01:12:12,439 doesn't make any sense. 1194 01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:16,200 It was literally blown off of its dirt pedestal 1195 01:12:16,199 --> 01:12:18,439 onto its side on the ground 1196 01:12:18,439 --> 01:12:21,199 in a north-easterly direction. 1197 01:12:21,439 --> 01:12:25,439 The team are intrigued by how such a large, heavy object 1198 01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:28,000 could have been blown over. 1199 01:12:28,199 --> 01:12:30,439 And it's not the only object. 1200 01:12:30,479 --> 01:12:33,679 Across the site they uncover artifacts and structures 1201 01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:36,199 that landed in the same direction, 1202 01:12:36,439 --> 01:12:40,679 seemingly pushed by some catastrophic force. 1203 01:12:40,920 --> 01:12:42,960 You find bits and pieces of pottery. 1204 01:12:42,960 --> 01:12:44,439 Everything you can imagine 1205 01:12:44,439 --> 01:12:46,199 strewn for six, seven, eight metres 1206 01:12:46,239 --> 01:12:49,439 across the floor to the northeast. 1207 01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:53,200 So everything has this directionality to it. 1208 01:12:53,239 --> 01:12:57,679 Everything inside there is churned up and full of ash 1209 01:12:57,680 --> 01:13:00,440 and pottery and broken mud bricks. 1210 01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:06,480 And everything about it is catastrophic. 1211 01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:11,680 The team has uncovered evidence of a great destructive event 1212 01:13:11,680 --> 01:13:14,440 hitting Tall el-Hammam. 1213 01:13:14,680 --> 01:13:20,200 Dr Collins calls it the Middle Bronze Destruction Event. 1214 01:13:20,199 --> 01:13:22,960 What could've caused it? 1215 01:13:27,199 --> 01:13:31,479 In 2011, the team make a chilling find. 1216 01:13:31,680 --> 01:13:33,440 We start finding human bones, 1217 01:13:33,439 --> 01:13:36,439 piece of a pelvis, piece of a kneebone. 1218 01:13:36,439 --> 01:13:37,439 Piece of a femur. 1219 01:13:37,439 --> 01:13:42,199 One of them was only existing from the mid-femur down. 1220 01:13:42,199 --> 01:13:43,679 Everything else is missing. 1221 01:13:43,680 --> 01:13:47,680 And the place where the separation occurred 1222 01:13:47,680 --> 01:13:49,440 is severely burned, 1223 01:13:49,680 --> 01:13:51,480 it's almost like they were burned off. 1224 01:13:52,960 --> 01:13:56,199 They appear to have been bodily slammed up against 1225 01:13:56,199 --> 01:13:57,960 one of the very thick walls 1226 01:13:57,960 --> 01:14:00,199 and then fell to the ground 1227 01:14:00,239 --> 01:14:03,199 and were covered in ash and in material there. 1228 01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:07,480 These were not lovingly placed burials. 1229 01:14:07,680 --> 01:14:10,920 These were people who wound up in these positions 1230 01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:16,439 by some sort of violent event. 1231 01:14:16,439 --> 01:14:20,679 In another section, they find further evidence 1232 01:14:20,680 --> 01:14:24,960 that the inhabitants were killed by an intense force. 1233 01:14:25,199 --> 01:14:28,199 In the Middle Bronze Palace area, two skulls emerged. 1234 01:14:28,439 --> 01:14:32,199 We have no lower jaw bones on either one. 1235 01:14:32,199 --> 01:14:36,679 One we have the entire skull and it is smashed down. 1236 01:14:38,199 --> 01:14:40,439 One has a piece of pelvis right here 1237 01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:43,199 next to the fragments of the skull. 1238 01:14:44,960 --> 01:14:48,439 They are literally blown to bits. 1239 01:14:49,439 --> 01:14:54,960 For Collins, the location of the skulls is key. 1240 01:14:54,960 --> 01:14:57,680 We are 8m down and a meter deep 1241 01:14:57,720 --> 01:14:59,680 in the destruction matrix. 1242 01:14:59,720 --> 01:15:01,680 There is no doubt, zero doubt 1243 01:15:01,920 --> 01:15:03,680 that these two individuals, 1244 01:15:03,720 --> 01:15:05,680 these two skulls' fragments 1245 01:15:05,680 --> 01:15:09,440 belong to the Middle Bronze Destruction Event itself. 1246 01:15:11,479 --> 01:15:13,679 The body is just not designed 1247 01:15:13,680 --> 01:15:15,200 to stand up to that kind of force 1248 01:15:15,199 --> 01:15:18,920 and it's both shocking, it's both traumatising 1249 01:15:18,960 --> 01:15:21,439 but on the other hand, as an engineer, 1250 01:15:21,680 --> 01:15:25,680 as a scientist, it's absolutely fascinating. 1251 01:15:28,680 --> 01:15:31,240 The team believes they are getting closer to discovering 1252 01:15:31,439 --> 01:15:32,679 what destroyed this city. 1253 01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:35,480 But so far, nothing conclusive 1254 01:15:35,680 --> 01:15:38,680 which tells them this might be biblical Sodom. 1255 01:15:40,199 --> 01:15:43,000 But the more they excavate, the clearer it becomes 1256 01:15:43,199 --> 01:15:46,960 that they are dealing with a monumental site. 1257 01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:48,960 Along the outside of the city, 1258 01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:52,439 they uncover the foundations of a much larger structure. 1259 01:15:52,479 --> 01:15:55,439 A 3m-thick wall. 1260 01:15:56,960 --> 01:16:00,960 We asked them to dig a bit to the further to the east 1261 01:16:00,960 --> 01:16:05,680 and I found the beginning of another wall coming out, 1262 01:16:05,680 --> 01:16:07,440 same type of bricks. 1263 01:16:07,439 --> 01:16:11,199 And as the other one was 3m wide, I kind of paced it out. 1264 01:16:11,199 --> 01:16:15,199 But then it clicked to me, we've got here a massive tower 1265 01:16:15,199 --> 01:16:17,960 extending out from the city wall. 1266 01:16:18,199 --> 01:16:22,199 Dr Ritmeyer and the team have just come across the ruins 1267 01:16:22,239 --> 01:16:25,199 of a colossal gateway complex. 1268 01:16:25,439 --> 01:16:29,199 21m wide, and 14m high 1269 01:16:29,199 --> 01:16:33,439 with towers on either side and up to six chambers. 1270 01:16:33,680 --> 01:16:36,680 The Tall el-Hammam Team 1271 01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:40,440 are gradually unearthing the secrets of a vast metropolis 1272 01:16:40,439 --> 01:16:44,919 spanning an area approximately 150 acres 1273 01:16:44,960 --> 01:16:50,480 with an estimated population of up to 65,000 inhabitants. 1274 01:16:53,199 --> 01:16:57,199 It had all the features of a major, major city centre. 1275 01:16:57,199 --> 01:17:03,199 With its palaces, its temples, its residential areas, 1276 01:17:03,239 --> 01:17:08,199 its streets, its massive fortifications, 1277 01:17:08,199 --> 01:17:12,679 its satellite towns, its massive agricultural areas 1278 01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:14,960 that it could take advantage of. 1279 01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:19,680 It had everything to make it great. 1280 01:17:19,680 --> 01:17:21,960 And this is what the Bible describes 1281 01:17:21,960 --> 01:17:24,199 and this is what the archaeology confirms. 1282 01:17:26,199 --> 01:17:29,960 If fits the geographical clues in terms of location, 1283 01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:34,439 it fits the timeframe in terms of its occupation history. 1284 01:17:34,439 --> 01:17:38,719 To me, I don't see what other conclusion you can come to. 1285 01:17:38,960 --> 01:17:41,680 But if they want to convince the wider community 1286 01:17:41,720 --> 01:17:44,960 that Tall el-Hammam is biblical Sodom, 1287 01:17:45,000 --> 01:17:48,000 then their work is far from over. 1288 01:17:48,199 --> 01:17:51,439 I have to say the site is really interesting. 1289 01:17:51,479 --> 01:17:55,679 It's the interpretation of the site that I find problematic. 1290 01:17:55,680 --> 01:17:57,440 So much more work needs to be done 1291 01:17:57,439 --> 01:17:59,960 before we can understand the site. 1292 01:18:00,199 --> 01:18:02,439 The site in context and its importance. 1293 01:18:02,479 --> 01:18:05,199 But also, what destroyed it. 1294 01:18:07,680 --> 01:18:12,720 Whether or not Tall el-Hammam is Sodom remains to be seen 1295 01:18:12,960 --> 01:18:15,439 but what's clear from the team's findings 1296 01:18:15,439 --> 01:18:18,439 is there once existed a large and thriving civilisation 1297 01:18:18,439 --> 01:18:20,199 in this area. 1298 01:18:20,199 --> 01:18:21,199 In Tall el-Hammam, 1299 01:18:21,239 --> 01:18:23,960 we got a very definite layout of the city. 1300 01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:26,680 Then you got the lower city and upper city. 1301 01:18:26,920 --> 01:18:28,440 The lower city where the common people, 1302 01:18:28,479 --> 01:18:29,959 and you had the upper city 1303 01:18:29,960 --> 01:18:32,439 which had its own separate defence system. 1304 01:18:32,439 --> 01:18:34,679 It was a totally secluded area 1305 01:18:34,680 --> 01:18:38,200 used by the King to have his palace and his royal officials. 1306 01:18:38,199 --> 01:18:42,199 Artifacts found throughout Tall el-Hammam have 1307 01:18:42,199 --> 01:18:46,679 helped the team decipher how people lived during this time. 1308 01:18:46,680 --> 01:18:49,440 Most of the houses are mudbrick houses. 1309 01:18:49,439 --> 01:18:54,679 And the houses themselves are often multigenerational houses. 1310 01:18:54,680 --> 01:18:55,960 You've got quite a few rooms 1311 01:18:56,199 --> 01:18:57,439 built around a central courtyard. 1312 01:18:59,439 --> 01:19:05,199 They had an awning overhead and that's where they baked bread, 1313 01:19:05,199 --> 01:19:07,720 where they roasted or chickens or whatever they were eating, 1314 01:19:07,960 --> 01:19:11,199 and the women used to grind the flour. 1315 01:19:11,199 --> 01:19:13,239 All that took place in the courtyard. 1316 01:19:13,439 --> 01:19:16,719 That was the kind of the life of the house. 1317 01:19:17,439 --> 01:19:22,679 We have a city that lasts for 3000 years without a hiccup. 1318 01:19:22,680 --> 01:19:24,200 Things are pretty much operating 1319 01:19:24,199 --> 01:19:25,439 like a well-oiled machine. 1320 01:19:27,199 --> 01:19:30,000 But then, according to the evidence, 1321 01:19:30,199 --> 01:19:32,199 somewhere around 1700 BCE, 1322 01:19:32,239 --> 01:19:34,679 during the Middle Bronze Age, 1323 01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:38,920 the city of Tall el-Hammam was violently destroyed. 1324 01:19:38,960 --> 01:19:44,199 What was behind its catastrophic demise? 1325 01:19:44,199 --> 01:19:46,679 Could the answer provide a clue 1326 01:19:46,680 --> 01:19:50,200 as to whether this is the original city of sin? 1327 01:19:54,439 --> 01:19:57,000 At the site, archaeologists have found evidence 1328 01:19:57,199 --> 01:20:01,679 of scorched walls and floors buried beneath piles of ash. 1329 01:20:01,920 --> 01:20:05,440 Burned pottery shards, as well as charred human remains 1330 01:20:05,439 --> 01:20:09,199 they believe were blown around by some concussive force. 1331 01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:14,440 For them, the evidence matches the biblical account 1332 01:20:14,439 --> 01:20:17,439 of fire and brimstone destroying Sodom. 1333 01:20:17,479 --> 01:20:20,199 But what could cause this? 1334 01:20:20,239 --> 01:20:23,439 If you're looking at evidence from Tall el-Hammam 1335 01:20:23,680 --> 01:20:25,200 it's reasonable to wonder 1336 01:20:25,239 --> 01:20:29,439 whether this is a consequence of a huge volcanic event. 1337 01:20:29,680 --> 01:20:34,960 Was Tall el-Hammam destroyed by a volcano? 1338 01:20:35,199 --> 01:20:37,439 In recent decades, experts have found evidence 1339 01:20:37,439 --> 01:20:40,919 of a volcanic flow of ancient lava 1340 01:20:40,960 --> 01:20:43,920 in the hills northeast of the Dead Sea. 1341 01:20:43,960 --> 01:20:48,439 Whilst 1/6th of Jordan is covered in hardened lava, 1342 01:20:48,439 --> 01:20:49,960 known as basalt. 1343 01:20:50,680 --> 01:20:52,960 MAN: There's lots and lots of basalt rock 1344 01:20:52,960 --> 01:20:54,439 in that part of the Dead Sea. 1345 01:20:54,479 --> 01:20:57,439 That's because that area is very geologically active. 1346 01:20:57,439 --> 01:20:59,960 Its had volcanism throughout much of its history. 1347 01:21:00,199 --> 01:21:03,199 But there is a problem with the theory. 1348 01:21:03,199 --> 01:21:07,439 There's no volcano close to the site of Tall el-Hammam. 1349 01:21:08,479 --> 01:21:11,199 To get volcanic activity, you don't need to have 1350 01:21:11,199 --> 01:21:14,439 a triangular volcanic mountain spewing out lots of lava 1351 01:21:14,439 --> 01:21:15,919 or even a dormant volcano, 1352 01:21:15,960 --> 01:21:19,680 what you need is a heat source underneath the surface 1353 01:21:19,920 --> 01:21:20,960 with molten rock 1354 01:21:21,199 --> 01:21:22,960 and you need pathways to the surface 1355 01:21:22,960 --> 01:21:24,680 by which that heat can get out, 1356 01:21:24,720 --> 01:21:26,960 and that's what we call a volcanic system. 1357 01:21:27,199 --> 01:21:29,960 So you can have a volcanic systems that are not invisible 1358 01:21:30,000 --> 01:21:31,960 but they're pretty hard to detect. 1359 01:21:31,960 --> 01:21:36,439 Despite evidence of ancient lava-flow in this region, 1360 01:21:36,680 --> 01:21:39,200 many reject the idea that this is responsible 1361 01:21:39,439 --> 01:21:41,960 for the destruction of the site. 1362 01:21:43,680 --> 01:21:46,680 There's just not enough of the material, you know? 1363 01:21:46,720 --> 01:21:49,960 You'd need a really significant amount of ash 1364 01:21:50,199 --> 01:21:53,199 to really cause the abandonment of a city. 1365 01:21:54,960 --> 01:21:58,199 And from what we can see, there doesn't seem to be enough. 1366 01:21:58,199 --> 01:22:02,720 But there is another natural event that could be to blame. 1367 01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:04,480 Now, if somebody told me 1368 01:22:04,680 --> 01:22:05,960 "OK, I've got the city ruins 1369 01:22:06,439 --> 01:22:07,919 "and they've been collapsed, 1370 01:22:07,960 --> 01:22:09,960 "obviously the buildings have toppled down 1371 01:22:09,960 --> 01:22:12,680 "and there's lots of evidence of fire happening." 1372 01:22:12,920 --> 01:22:13,960 I'd have probably gone, 1373 01:22:13,960 --> 01:22:17,199 "That sounds to me like it's probably an earthquake." 1374 01:22:18,199 --> 01:22:20,720 So what happens to tectonic plates during an earthquake 1375 01:22:20,960 --> 01:22:23,680 is that you got these two plates and they're moving 1376 01:22:23,680 --> 01:22:25,680 but at the boundary between the two of them, 1377 01:22:25,680 --> 01:22:27,200 they're stuck, they're snagged, 1378 01:22:27,199 --> 01:22:29,239 there's friction and the stress builds up. 1379 01:22:29,439 --> 01:22:30,960 It builds up and builds up 1380 01:22:30,960 --> 01:22:32,920 until at some point, it can't take it any longer, 1381 01:22:32,960 --> 01:22:35,199 and it just moves, it displaces. 1382 01:22:35,439 --> 01:22:37,199 And that generates a whole lot of energy, 1383 01:22:37,439 --> 01:22:39,199 a whole lot of friction or heat and noise. 1384 01:22:39,239 --> 01:22:41,960 That's the seismic waves that grow 1385 01:22:41,960 --> 01:22:45,239 and that essentially is the earthquake. 1386 01:22:45,239 --> 01:22:49,239 Could an earthquake have made the ground drastically shift 1387 01:22:49,239 --> 01:22:52,000 and caused the collapse of Tall el-Hammam? 1388 01:22:53,960 --> 01:22:56,520 So when the fault line moves, it can move vertically 1389 01:22:56,600 --> 01:22:57,880 or it can move horizontally, 1390 01:22:57,960 --> 01:22:59,439 or it can move a combination of the two. 1391 01:22:59,439 --> 01:23:01,439 And in the Dead Sea rift zone, 1392 01:23:01,439 --> 01:23:03,479 it tends to be a combination of the two. 1393 01:23:03,560 --> 01:23:05,440 That's what shook the buildings, 1394 01:23:05,439 --> 01:23:06,799 caused them to collapse 1395 01:23:06,880 --> 01:23:08,800 and maybe set off a chain reaction of fire, 1396 01:23:08,880 --> 01:23:09,960 maybe a kiln was on, 1397 01:23:09,960 --> 01:23:11,800 the rest of the roofs in the city burned, 1398 01:23:11,880 --> 01:23:13,400 and that's what had happened. 1399 01:23:13,439 --> 01:23:15,960 But for the Tall el-Hammam team, 1400 01:23:16,000 --> 01:23:18,840 the evidence they found at the site 1401 01:23:18,920 --> 01:23:21,880 suggests an earthquake can't be to blame. 1402 01:23:21,960 --> 01:23:26,439 When you got earthquake, the ground moves back and forth. 1403 01:23:26,439 --> 01:23:29,439 We are in a north/south strike slip zone 1404 01:23:29,479 --> 01:23:31,959 in the region around Tall el-Hammam 1405 01:23:32,039 --> 01:23:34,439 so when you have earthquakes there, 1406 01:23:34,439 --> 01:23:36,839 things tend to move north and south. 1407 01:23:36,920 --> 01:23:39,840 And so walls tend to fall in both directions 1408 01:23:39,920 --> 01:23:42,520 but all of the material evidence we're finding 1409 01:23:42,600 --> 01:23:44,560 is pushed to the north-east. 1410 01:23:44,800 --> 01:23:46,440 And only to the north-east. 1411 01:23:46,439 --> 01:23:48,439 It's very mono-directional. 1412 01:23:48,439 --> 01:23:51,479 Crucially, the team make another discovery 1413 01:23:51,560 --> 01:23:56,039 which suggests that the site remained unoccupied 1414 01:23:56,119 --> 01:23:58,960 for approximately 700 years 1415 01:23:58,960 --> 01:24:01,039 during the late Bronze Age period. 1416 01:24:01,119 --> 01:24:04,439 In that region, one of our primary means of telling time 1417 01:24:04,439 --> 01:24:05,960 is through pottery evidence. 1418 01:24:06,000 --> 01:24:09,319 We just do not have pottery in the region 1419 01:24:09,399 --> 01:24:12,920 that covers the entire late Bronze period. 1420 01:24:12,960 --> 01:24:14,000 There's virtually none. 1421 01:24:14,079 --> 01:24:17,439 And the second thing that you would look for is 1422 01:24:17,479 --> 01:24:19,439 is there any architecture? 1423 01:24:19,479 --> 01:24:23,559 There was a brief single building that we believe 1424 01:24:24,039 --> 01:24:27,319 was a toll house or a waystation 1425 01:24:27,399 --> 01:24:28,519 during that period 1426 01:24:28,600 --> 01:24:30,960 that lasted maybe a decade or two. 1427 01:24:31,000 --> 01:24:33,439 So between the pottery, between the architecture, 1428 01:24:33,520 --> 01:24:34,440 nobody was home. 1429 01:24:34,520 --> 01:24:37,480 They just migrated through. 1430 01:24:37,560 --> 01:24:39,880 The team have uncovered evidence 1431 01:24:39,960 --> 01:24:42,399 of a thriving middle Bronze Age city, 1432 01:24:42,439 --> 01:24:44,879 destroyed by a violent event, 1433 01:24:44,960 --> 01:24:47,439 followed by a 700-year period 1434 01:24:47,439 --> 01:24:50,439 where the site remained largely abandoned. 1435 01:24:50,520 --> 01:24:54,120 For them, the location of Tall el-Hammam 1436 01:24:54,359 --> 01:24:58,039 and its scale indicates it could be Sodom. 1437 01:24:58,119 --> 01:25:00,479 But they are no closer to explaining 1438 01:25:00,560 --> 01:25:03,520 the cause for its catastrophic demise. 1439 01:25:05,479 --> 01:25:08,439 Then, in 2011 1440 01:25:08,439 --> 01:25:11,879 whilst excavating a section of the upper city, 1441 01:25:11,960 --> 01:25:16,960 Dr Collins' team make an extraordinary discovery. 1442 01:25:17,000 --> 01:25:19,560 When the excavators of that square called me over, 1443 01:25:19,800 --> 01:25:21,920 they said, "You have to come and look at this." 1444 01:25:21,960 --> 01:25:26,600 They found a piece of pottery in the middle Bronze Age layer. 1445 01:25:26,840 --> 01:25:30,840 Thousands are scattered throughout the site. 1446 01:25:30,920 --> 01:25:33,319 But this piece is different. 1447 01:25:33,800 --> 01:25:38,560 On one side, the fragment looks like regular Bronze Age pottery, 1448 01:25:38,800 --> 01:25:43,079 but on the other, the surface is green and glasslike. 1449 01:25:43,319 --> 01:25:48,599 It looks like one side of it is superficially melted, 1450 01:25:48,840 --> 01:25:50,960 it's just lapping over the edge ever so slightly. 1451 01:25:51,039 --> 01:25:56,840 For Dr Collins, it looks like a piece of glazed Islamic pottery. 1452 01:25:56,920 --> 01:25:59,520 But this form of pottery wasn't produced until 1453 01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:04,039 thousands of years after the destruction of Tall el-Hammam. 1454 01:26:04,119 --> 01:26:07,399 Collins is intrigued by the find. 1455 01:26:07,439 --> 01:26:09,599 The fragment looks as though 1456 01:26:09,840 --> 01:26:12,039 it's time-travelled from a later era. 1457 01:26:12,119 --> 01:26:16,519 What in the world is a piece of glazed pottery 1458 01:26:16,600 --> 01:26:19,440 doing down here this deep? 1459 01:26:19,520 --> 01:26:21,440 Could it offer any clues 1460 01:26:21,479 --> 01:26:25,879 for the cause of Tall el-Hammam's destruction? 1461 01:26:28,960 --> 01:26:32,319 Collins takes the strange-looking piece of pottery 1462 01:26:32,399 --> 01:26:36,359 for analysis at the US Geological Survey Laboratory 1463 01:26:36,439 --> 01:26:38,039 in New Mexico. 1464 01:26:38,119 --> 01:26:40,519 When the results come back, 1465 01:26:40,600 --> 01:26:44,440 they are quite literally out of this world. 1466 01:26:44,479 --> 01:26:46,959 We know that now from the tests 1467 01:26:47,000 --> 01:26:51,960 everything about this melted surface of pottery shard 1468 01:26:52,000 --> 01:26:55,920 is physically identical to trinitite. 1469 01:26:55,960 --> 01:27:00,039 The word 'trinitite' comes from the codename 1470 01:27:00,119 --> 01:27:03,840 'Trinity' using the first ever detonation of a nuclear bomb. 1471 01:27:05,079 --> 01:27:07,559 The test took place on 16 July, 1945 1472 01:27:07,800 --> 01:27:12,440 in the Jornada del Muerto Desert, New Mexico. 1473 01:27:13,319 --> 01:27:15,119 When the Trinity bomb was detonated, 1474 01:27:15,359 --> 01:27:20,599 it released the equivalent of 21,000 tonnes of TNT. 1475 01:27:20,840 --> 01:27:22,960 That's actually slightly more than 1476 01:27:22,960 --> 01:27:26,600 the nuclear bomb they dropped in Hiroshima in WWII. 1477 01:27:28,960 --> 01:27:31,359 In the aftermath of the explosion, 1478 01:27:31,439 --> 01:27:33,599 scientists noticed a strange substance 1479 01:27:33,840 --> 01:27:35,960 all across the surface of the desert. 1480 01:27:36,960 --> 01:27:41,600 When the bomb exploded, it sent out a big fireball 1481 01:27:41,840 --> 01:27:43,400 and that creates a huge mushroom cloud, 1482 01:27:43,439 --> 01:27:44,960 a big up-rush 1483 01:27:44,960 --> 01:27:47,439 and it took a whole load of the sand up in there 1484 01:27:47,479 --> 01:27:48,959 and that basically melted 1485 01:27:49,000 --> 01:27:50,920 because of the immense heat, 1486 01:27:50,960 --> 01:27:54,439 and then rained back down onto the desert 1487 01:27:54,439 --> 01:27:56,319 which cooled really quickly 1488 01:27:56,399 --> 01:27:58,960 and then formed this glassy trinitite. 1489 01:28:00,399 --> 01:28:02,479 The melted glasslike surface of the sand 1490 01:28:02,560 --> 01:28:07,440 is similar to that found on the pottery shard at Tall el-Hammam. 1491 01:28:07,479 --> 01:28:12,439 When it's analyzed further, experts discover something else. 1492 01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:14,920 Zircon. 1493 01:28:15,840 --> 01:28:17,960 Zircon is a naturally occurring mineral 1494 01:28:18,000 --> 01:28:20,880 that you can find in rocks pretty much all over the world. 1495 01:28:20,960 --> 01:28:23,319 Looking at zircon under a microscope, 1496 01:28:23,399 --> 01:28:26,439 what you'll see is a crystal-like structure 1497 01:28:26,439 --> 01:28:31,439 and very regular with very sharp, jagged edges, basically. 1498 01:28:31,439 --> 01:28:36,439 But the zircon inside this piece of pottery is different. 1499 01:28:36,479 --> 01:28:41,439 This zircon was actually a lot smoother, more like a teardrop. 1500 01:28:41,520 --> 01:28:45,000 Experts conclude that the zircon in this fragment 1501 01:28:45,079 --> 01:28:47,920 must've undergone an extreme process 1502 01:28:47,960 --> 01:28:50,920 to create such a strange shape. 1503 01:28:50,960 --> 01:28:53,319 It suggests that this zircon 1504 01:28:53,399 --> 01:28:55,599 had been heated up to a really high temperature 1505 01:28:55,840 --> 01:29:00,440 such that it even melted and then it cooled very quickly, 1506 01:29:00,439 --> 01:29:05,000 because otherwise you get the more regular-looking zircon 1507 01:29:05,079 --> 01:29:08,600 that usually takes thousands of years to cool down. 1508 01:29:08,840 --> 01:29:12,960 The fragment must have been subjected to extreme heat 1509 01:29:12,960 --> 01:29:15,439 for it to have melted this way. 1510 01:29:15,439 --> 01:29:20,439 A normal fire will burn at somewhere between 602,000°C. 1511 01:29:20,439 --> 01:29:22,319 For zircon to melt, though, 1512 01:29:22,399 --> 01:29:25,960 you're talking at least 4000°C there. 1513 01:29:26,000 --> 01:29:29,960 That's over double the hottest fires. 1514 01:29:30,000 --> 01:29:34,439 Now, the surface of the sun is about 4000°. 1515 01:29:34,439 --> 01:29:37,319 So you're talking about temperatures 1516 01:29:37,399 --> 01:29:39,559 equal to the surface of the sun. 1517 01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:42,360 And as the excavation continues, 1518 01:29:42,439 --> 01:29:45,039 the team unearth more and more pieces 1519 01:29:45,119 --> 01:29:47,039 of extreme heat-blasted pottery. 1520 01:29:47,119 --> 01:29:50,800 Every place we've excavated across the site, 1521 01:29:50,880 --> 01:29:52,920 we have found indicators of these high-heat events. 1522 01:29:53,479 --> 01:29:56,000 Every place we find bits and pieces. 1523 01:29:56,079 --> 01:29:58,439 What kind of thing could do that? 1524 01:30:01,399 --> 01:30:03,000 From the evidence at this ancient site, 1525 01:30:03,079 --> 01:30:05,479 we know there must have been incredible temperatures, 1526 01:30:05,560 --> 01:30:07,360 much hotter than a regular fire. 1527 01:30:07,439 --> 01:30:11,039 And it created a substance very similar to trinitite, 1528 01:30:11,119 --> 01:30:14,079 but of course there weren't nuclear bombs back then 1529 01:30:14,319 --> 01:30:15,840 so what could've caused this? 1530 01:30:15,920 --> 01:30:19,440 Well, one possible option is a meteor. 1531 01:30:19,439 --> 01:30:23,519 Now, at our site, there is no crater on the ground 1532 01:30:23,600 --> 01:30:25,960 for us to point to and look at and say. "Ah-ha! 1533 01:30:26,039 --> 01:30:28,439 "Here's the conclusive evidence that we had 1534 01:30:28,479 --> 01:30:31,959 "some kind of astral body coming in and hitting us." 1535 01:30:31,960 --> 01:30:33,000 We don't have that. 1536 01:30:33,079 --> 01:30:35,880 But meteors don't need to make impact 1537 01:30:35,960 --> 01:30:39,079 to unleash their destructive power on earth. 1538 01:30:39,319 --> 01:30:42,559 An incredible concussive force 1539 01:30:42,800 --> 01:30:44,960 and a blast of high-intensity heat 1540 01:30:44,960 --> 01:30:47,359 can result from a rare cosmic phenomenon 1541 01:30:47,439 --> 01:30:50,000 known as a meteor airburst. 1542 01:30:50,079 --> 01:30:52,079 An airburst can be 1543 01:30:52,319 --> 01:30:56,880 when a meteor in the Earth's atmosphere 1544 01:30:56,960 --> 01:30:59,960 explodes in the air before it's hit the ground. 1545 01:31:00,800 --> 01:31:03,920 The damage on the ground from the explosion 1546 01:31:03,960 --> 01:31:05,439 can be devastating. 1547 01:31:05,439 --> 01:31:07,960 Firstly, you've got this really hot rock, 1548 01:31:07,960 --> 01:31:09,399 the meteor, in the air, 1549 01:31:09,439 --> 01:31:10,960 that's radiating heat 1550 01:31:10,960 --> 01:31:12,960 that can set things ablaze. 1551 01:31:13,439 --> 01:31:15,479 Now, when it explodes, you've got the big shockwave, 1552 01:31:15,560 --> 01:31:17,920 and that can also take temperature with it, 1553 01:31:17,960 --> 01:31:19,439 so you can feel a heat rush. 1554 01:31:19,439 --> 01:31:21,799 The amount of devastation you're going to see 1555 01:31:21,880 --> 01:31:25,000 really depends on the size of the rock. 1556 01:31:25,079 --> 01:31:28,000 Bigger meteor, more destruction. 1557 01:31:29,800 --> 01:31:31,920 Meteor airbursts are rare 1558 01:31:31,960 --> 01:31:35,359 but they have occurred in recent history. 1559 01:31:35,439 --> 01:31:40,439 In 1908, in a remote, uninhabited region of Siberia, 1560 01:31:40,520 --> 01:31:44,440 and airburst is believed to have wiped out an area 1561 01:31:44,479 --> 01:31:46,359 larger than Los Angeles. 1562 01:31:46,439 --> 01:31:51,000 An eyewitness described the sky appearing to split into, 1563 01:31:51,079 --> 01:31:53,439 and being covered with fire. 1564 01:31:53,439 --> 01:31:57,960 It destroyed about 80 million trees. 1565 01:31:59,119 --> 01:32:01,359 In the nearest town, about 60km away 1566 01:32:01,439 --> 01:32:04,319 residents could feel the heat of the blast, 1567 01:32:04,399 --> 01:32:06,119 windows smashed and the buildings 1568 01:32:06,359 --> 01:32:08,960 and some people were even knocked off their feet 1569 01:32:08,960 --> 01:32:11,439 because of the force of the airburst strike. 1570 01:32:11,439 --> 01:32:14,479 It would have felt like the end of days. 1571 01:32:14,560 --> 01:32:19,920 More recently, in 2013, cameras caught the moment an airburst 1572 01:32:19,960 --> 01:32:23,960 exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in southern Russia. 1573 01:32:23,960 --> 01:32:27,960 1500 people suffered injuries 1574 01:32:27,960 --> 01:32:30,439 and thousands of buildings were damaged. 1575 01:32:30,439 --> 01:32:32,000 The team at Tall el-Hammam 1576 01:32:32,079 --> 01:32:36,119 believe that the evidence they found points to an airburst 1577 01:32:36,359 --> 01:32:40,039 which left a path of destruction in its wake. 1578 01:32:40,119 --> 01:32:44,079 What we're looking at is a very large site 1579 01:32:44,319 --> 01:32:45,439 that was literally 1580 01:32:45,479 --> 01:32:50,359 the buildings blown off of their foundations. 1581 01:32:50,439 --> 01:32:55,359 Artefacts, the pottery, the tools that they were using 1582 01:32:55,439 --> 01:32:58,439 are shattered and this basically 1583 01:32:58,439 --> 01:33:01,960 vaporises and incinerates everything in its path. 1584 01:33:02,000 --> 01:33:05,359 And what we see is that all of that ash 1585 01:33:05,439 --> 01:33:06,839 and all of that material is blown 1586 01:33:06,920 --> 01:33:08,440 into a north-easterly direction. 1587 01:33:08,479 --> 01:33:12,959 The only known source of the kind of concussive profile 1588 01:33:13,000 --> 01:33:14,840 that we're seen in the evidence 1589 01:33:14,920 --> 01:33:16,119 of the kind of thermal profile 1590 01:33:16,359 --> 01:33:20,439 that we're seeing is a meteoritic airburst. 1591 01:33:37,800 --> 01:33:42,520 As for the 700-year gap in habitation at Tall el-Hammam, 1592 01:33:42,600 --> 01:33:46,880 Dr Silvia leaves this is the direct result of the airburst 1593 01:33:46,960 --> 01:33:51,840 as it explodes over the Dead Sea, just 13km away. 1594 01:33:51,920 --> 01:33:54,800 If you have an airburst event over water, 1595 01:33:54,880 --> 01:33:58,440 it will actually produce a tsunami effect 1596 01:33:58,439 --> 01:34:01,079 where a wave will be pushed across the landscape. 1597 01:34:01,319 --> 01:34:05,799 You have a very high volume of now superheated brine spray 1598 01:34:05,880 --> 01:34:06,960 of Dead Sea water 1599 01:34:07,000 --> 01:34:09,960 that's travelling with the blast front, 1600 01:34:10,359 --> 01:34:15,319 well, that 700-year gap I believe is best explained 1601 01:34:15,399 --> 01:34:17,960 by the poisoning of the soil with Dead Sea water 1602 01:34:17,960 --> 01:34:20,600 that left behind a very high salt concentration. 1603 01:34:20,840 --> 01:34:24,440 It's possible the high salt content of the Dead Sea water 1604 01:34:24,439 --> 01:34:26,919 would've rendered the land infertile 1605 01:34:26,960 --> 01:34:28,119 for a number of centuries. 1606 01:34:29,479 --> 01:34:34,039 It was impossible to grow any cereal grains, 1607 01:34:34,119 --> 01:34:35,960 and if you can't grow cereal grains, 1608 01:34:35,960 --> 01:34:39,039 you can't support cattle, you can't support people, 1609 01:34:39,119 --> 01:34:41,439 you just cannot support a civilisation 1610 01:34:41,439 --> 01:34:43,479 moving back into the area. 1611 01:34:44,840 --> 01:34:48,079 The science is clear, the analysis is clear. 1612 01:34:48,319 --> 01:34:51,359 And the evidence is mounting. 1613 01:34:51,439 --> 01:34:52,359 I'm not saying 1614 01:34:52,439 --> 01:34:53,960 that we absolutely have it nailed down yet, 1615 01:34:54,000 --> 01:34:58,960 but we know that all the indicators that we have 1616 01:34:58,960 --> 01:35:02,439 are consistent with and airburst. 1617 01:35:02,479 --> 01:35:05,439 For the archaeologists, the destruction of Tall el-Hammam 1618 01:35:05,479 --> 01:35:07,399 by meteor airburst 1619 01:35:07,439 --> 01:35:09,319 provides a striking match 1620 01:35:09,399 --> 01:35:11,960 to the biblical destruction of Sodom. 1621 01:35:11,960 --> 01:35:15,520 Fire and brimstone rained from above, 1622 01:35:15,600 --> 01:35:17,480 destroying the city and its people, 1623 01:35:17,560 --> 01:35:20,560 leaving the surrounding region uninhabitable. 1624 01:35:20,800 --> 01:35:24,520 But not everyone is convinced. 1625 01:35:24,600 --> 01:35:28,800 A meteoritic event is very rare. 1626 01:35:28,880 --> 01:35:30,440 They do happen but they're very rare. 1627 01:35:30,439 --> 01:35:33,359 I think before you can jump to conclusions 1628 01:35:33,439 --> 01:35:36,119 and people can start suggesting that, 1629 01:35:36,359 --> 01:35:38,399 you need more evidence, 1630 01:35:38,439 --> 01:35:40,839 and I think, actually, an event like that would 1631 01:35:40,920 --> 01:35:44,840 have a signature much wider and in the environmental record, 1632 01:35:44,920 --> 01:35:46,440 so we need to look there. 1633 01:35:50,840 --> 01:35:53,840 Since 2005, Dr Collins and his team 1634 01:35:53,920 --> 01:35:56,920 have excavated at Tall el-Hammam. 1635 01:35:56,960 --> 01:35:59,880 They've made a truly astonishing find, 1636 01:35:59,960 --> 01:36:03,039 the remains of a thriving, vast metropolis 1637 01:36:03,119 --> 01:36:05,399 north-east of the Dead Sea, 1638 01:36:05,439 --> 01:36:10,479 which they believe matches the biblical description of Sodom. 1639 01:36:10,560 --> 01:36:14,400 Crucially, for Collins, the discovery and analysis 1640 01:36:14,439 --> 01:36:16,799 of Tall el-Hammam's destruction 1641 01:36:16,880 --> 01:36:19,079 provides a close match to the biblical account 1642 01:36:19,319 --> 01:36:21,960 of the destruction of Sodom. 1643 01:36:22,039 --> 01:36:23,800 People often ask me how certain I am 1644 01:36:23,880 --> 01:36:25,960 that Tall el-Hamman is Sodom. 1645 01:36:25,960 --> 01:36:28,319 It's become very certain to me 1646 01:36:28,399 --> 01:36:29,879 that there is no other possibility. 1647 01:36:29,960 --> 01:36:33,960 It's in the right place, it is in exactly the right timeframe, 1648 01:36:33,960 --> 01:36:37,119 it has the right stuff, it has the right destruction event. 1649 01:36:37,359 --> 01:36:40,960 When Steve Collins first asked me to come to the dig 1650 01:36:40,960 --> 01:36:45,439 and he said that he thought that this may be Sodom, 1651 01:36:45,439 --> 01:36:47,319 I was very sceptical. 1652 01:36:47,399 --> 01:36:50,439 I believe the Bible, I think that that's serious. 1653 01:36:50,520 --> 01:36:55,000 But I don't dig with the Bible in my hand, as it were. 1654 01:36:55,079 --> 01:36:58,960 The size, the location, the way Sodom was destroyed, 1655 01:36:58,960 --> 01:37:02,560 and my own reading again, the original text, 1656 01:37:02,800 --> 01:37:08,480 made me now convinced that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom. 1657 01:37:09,560 --> 01:37:12,440 But the team still face scrutiny 1658 01:37:12,439 --> 01:37:15,519 from the wider archaeological community. 1659 01:37:15,600 --> 01:37:18,480 We know that meteorites strike the earth 1660 01:37:18,560 --> 01:37:21,960 so is this possible? Sure. 1661 01:37:22,039 --> 01:37:28,039 Is this is also a pretty speculative reaching 1662 01:37:28,439 --> 01:37:30,519 for a possible explanation 1663 01:37:30,600 --> 01:37:34,000 that kind of matches the story in the Bible 1664 01:37:34,079 --> 01:37:38,039 to explain the destruction of what you want to be Sodom? 1665 01:37:38,119 --> 01:37:40,840 Yeah, it looks like that as well. 1666 01:37:41,359 --> 01:37:44,000 Cynics want to suggest that the airburst theory 1667 01:37:44,079 --> 01:37:46,439 for the destruction of Tall el-Hammam 1668 01:37:46,479 --> 01:37:50,439 is just too spectacular, too kind of space-age. 1669 01:37:50,520 --> 01:37:52,960 But just because it's a one-in-a-million chance 1670 01:37:52,960 --> 01:37:55,439 doesn't mean that it didn't happen. 1671 01:37:56,439 --> 01:38:00,319 The team continues to dig for evidence. 1672 01:38:00,399 --> 01:38:03,119 To answer the question beyond doubt, 1673 01:38:03,359 --> 01:38:07,839 of whether Tall el-Hammam 1674 01:38:07,920 --> 01:38:12,600 really is the city of Sodom. 1675 01:38:18,960 --> 01:38:20,359 Ancient Greece. 1676 01:38:21,600 --> 01:38:22,920 From the 8th century, 1677 01:38:22,960 --> 01:38:25,039 until the 4th century BCE, 1678 01:38:25,279 --> 01:38:28,359 ancient Greek civilisation flourished. 1679 01:38:30,960 --> 01:38:33,079 It gave the world democracy, 1680 01:38:34,359 --> 01:38:35,439 philosophy, 1681 01:38:35,600 --> 01:38:37,520 and art and architecture 1682 01:38:37,600 --> 01:38:40,000 that still dominate our lives today. 1683 01:38:41,359 --> 01:38:42,639 At its height, 1684 01:38:42,720 --> 01:38:44,520 the ancient Greek colonies 1685 01:38:44,640 --> 01:38:46,800 reached from modern day Spain in the west, 1686 01:38:46,880 --> 01:38:52,000 through to Russia in the north and Egypt in the south. 1687 01:38:54,359 --> 01:38:57,359 It was made up of many competing city states, 1688 01:38:57,439 --> 01:39:01,359 with their own systems of rule and patron gods. 1689 01:39:03,000 --> 01:39:05,239 In the heartland of this civilisation, 1690 01:39:06,159 --> 01:39:08,639 lay the thriving city of Helike. 1691 01:39:11,239 --> 01:39:14,359 Helike was a prominent trading pulpit. 1692 01:39:14,439 --> 01:39:16,359 But the ancient city was best known 1693 01:39:16,439 --> 01:39:19,359 for the role it played in the worship, 1694 01:39:19,439 --> 01:39:21,239 of the almighty Poseidon, 1695 01:39:22,239 --> 01:39:24,639 the god of the Sea. 1696 01:39:28,079 --> 01:39:30,239 Poseidon's moody, he is miserable. 1697 01:39:30,359 --> 01:39:32,079 He's grumpy. 1698 01:39:32,199 --> 01:39:33,800 And I find that really interesting 1699 01:39:33,920 --> 01:39:35,239 because he is the god of the Sea. 1700 01:39:35,359 --> 01:39:37,519 And the sea is obviously important for trade, 1701 01:39:37,640 --> 01:39:39,039 important for transportation, 1702 01:39:39,079 --> 01:39:41,800 but it can turn on you like that. 1703 01:39:41,800 --> 01:39:43,239 And can take lives. 1704 01:39:44,960 --> 01:39:47,960 It's something Helike would discover all too well. 1705 01:39:48,960 --> 01:39:51,359 In 373 BCE, 1706 01:39:51,520 --> 01:39:53,080 the city vanishes. 1707 01:39:55,239 --> 01:39:57,519 According to writers across the ancient world, 1708 01:39:57,640 --> 01:40:00,800 the entire city disappears beneath the waves. 1709 01:40:00,960 --> 01:40:05,640 Its location is lost to the passage of time. 1710 01:40:05,640 --> 01:40:08,240 The location of Helike is a complete mystery. 1711 01:40:08,239 --> 01:40:12,239 And it's one of the resounding mysteries of classical archaeology. 1712 01:40:12,359 --> 01:40:15,519 It's hauntingly similar to the myth 1713 01:40:15,520 --> 01:40:19,080 of another ancient civilisation lost beneath the waves - 1714 01:40:20,079 --> 01:40:21,239 Atlantis. 1715 01:40:21,800 --> 01:40:23,360 We asked the question, 1716 01:40:23,520 --> 01:40:27,240 what could cause the total destruction of Helike? 1717 01:40:28,239 --> 01:40:30,800 And is Helike, Atlantis? 1718 01:40:37,079 --> 01:40:39,519 The Lost City of Atlantis. 1719 01:40:39,640 --> 01:40:42,640 It's a myth that has enthralled us for millennia. 1720 01:40:44,079 --> 01:40:46,079 We all know the famous story of Atlantis. 1721 01:40:46,239 --> 01:40:48,519 But it goes all the way back to Plato, 1722 01:40:48,640 --> 01:40:51,520 who tells us about Atlantis 1723 01:40:51,520 --> 01:40:53,960 as a great city with an advanced civilisation, 1724 01:40:54,079 --> 01:40:57,640 which ruled over an empire that spanned continents. 1725 01:40:59,079 --> 01:41:00,800 According to Plato's myth, 1726 01:41:00,960 --> 01:41:05,079 the Atlanteans created a civilisation to rival the mighty Greeks. 1727 01:41:05,079 --> 01:41:07,800 But they did not use their power wisely, 1728 01:41:07,800 --> 01:41:09,960 and this angered the gods. 1729 01:41:12,359 --> 01:41:14,519 The Atlanteans grew cruel, they grew harsh, 1730 01:41:14,520 --> 01:41:15,800 they grew hubristic. 1731 01:41:15,800 --> 01:41:18,640 And for this, they were punished by the gods. 1732 01:41:18,640 --> 01:41:21,360 The city was destroyed and submerged, 1733 01:41:21,520 --> 01:41:22,960 and lost beneath the waves. 1734 01:41:24,359 --> 01:41:27,639 For centuries, it's driven explorers to search the seafloor. 1735 01:41:29,239 --> 01:41:32,359 Uncovering shipwrecks, lost treasure. 1736 01:41:33,079 --> 01:41:36,519 But none have found the fabled lost city. 1737 01:41:37,640 --> 01:41:41,200 It's even eluded famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, 1738 01:41:41,319 --> 01:41:46,759 who led underwater expeditions in search of Atlantis in 1975. 1739 01:41:47,680 --> 01:41:49,560 But there is another lost city 1740 01:41:49,680 --> 01:41:52,119 mentioned by classical Greek historians 1741 01:41:52,199 --> 01:41:55,679 that may offer clues - Helike. 1742 01:41:57,560 --> 01:41:59,200 Just like Plato's myth of Atlantis, 1743 01:41:59,319 --> 01:42:03,559 these authors record how Helike was submerged beneath the waves. 1744 01:42:04,680 --> 01:42:06,119 If we look at the story, 1745 01:42:06,199 --> 01:42:07,760 Helike and Atlantis, 1746 01:42:07,880 --> 01:42:09,319 both were disappeared 1747 01:42:09,319 --> 01:42:11,759 from the face of the Earth. 1748 01:42:13,439 --> 01:42:16,559 They both disappeared into waters. 1749 01:42:17,560 --> 01:42:20,120 Helike and Atlantis also share 1750 01:42:20,199 --> 01:42:24,119 the same patron god, Poseidon. 1751 01:42:25,560 --> 01:42:29,880 And Plato wrote the story of Atlantis around 360 BCE, 1752 01:42:31,319 --> 01:42:33,199 just after Helike was destroyed. 1753 01:42:35,119 --> 01:42:37,319 Could Helike actually be Atlantis? 1754 01:42:38,760 --> 01:42:40,760 The only way to know for certain, 1755 01:42:40,760 --> 01:42:43,000 is for archaeologists to locate 1756 01:42:43,119 --> 01:42:45,319 the lost city of Helike. 1757 01:42:49,680 --> 01:42:51,440 In the 4th century BCE, 1758 01:42:51,560 --> 01:42:54,560 a period of time known as The Classical Period, 1759 01:42:54,680 --> 01:42:57,200 the ancient Greek city state of Helike 1760 01:42:57,199 --> 01:43:00,679 thrived on the shores of the Corinthian Gulf. 1761 01:43:01,760 --> 01:43:04,000 It's a city with a rich history. 1762 01:43:04,760 --> 01:43:07,119 The first time we ever hear about Helike, 1763 01:43:07,119 --> 01:43:09,319 it's in Homer's 'Iliad'. 1764 01:43:10,199 --> 01:43:12,559 The classic Greek myth, 'The Iliad', 1765 01:43:12,560 --> 01:43:14,440 tells how Helen, the Queen of Sparta, 1766 01:43:14,560 --> 01:43:16,560 was abducted by Paris of Troy. 1767 01:43:17,680 --> 01:43:20,320 Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, 1768 01:43:20,439 --> 01:43:23,439 commanded the united Greek armed forces 1769 01:43:23,560 --> 01:43:26,200 and set sail to bring Helen home. 1770 01:43:27,760 --> 01:43:30,320 Helike's listed amongst the many cities 1771 01:43:30,439 --> 01:43:31,879 of the Peloponnese 1772 01:43:32,000 --> 01:43:33,439 which send troops 1773 01:43:33,560 --> 01:43:36,000 for Agamemnon's army to campaign in the Trojan War. 1774 01:43:37,680 --> 01:43:41,200 Agamemnon's forces besieged Troy for ten long years. 1775 01:43:41,319 --> 01:43:42,559 When this failed, 1776 01:43:42,680 --> 01:43:45,680 they unleashed their secret weapon, the Trojan Horse. 1777 01:43:49,000 --> 01:43:51,680 This giant wooden horse was left as a gift for Troy. 1778 01:43:51,680 --> 01:43:53,119 They accepted it 1779 01:43:53,199 --> 01:43:55,199 and brought it inside the city walls. 1780 01:43:56,000 --> 01:43:57,760 With the people of Troy asleep, 1781 01:43:57,760 --> 01:44:00,119 Greece's finest soldiers 1782 01:44:00,199 --> 01:44:04,000 emerged from inside the horse and opened their gates. 1783 01:44:05,760 --> 01:44:08,680 Agamemnon's forces could finally breach the city's walls, 1784 01:44:08,760 --> 01:44:10,320 and Troy fell. 1785 01:44:11,319 --> 01:44:13,439 Homer's 'Iliad', is a myth. 1786 01:44:13,560 --> 01:44:16,200 But Helike's role in ancient Greek history 1787 01:44:16,199 --> 01:44:17,760 is well documented. 1788 01:44:19,680 --> 01:44:22,680 Helike was the leader of the Archaean League, 1789 01:44:22,760 --> 01:44:25,000 a democratic confederation of 12 city states 1790 01:44:25,000 --> 01:44:28,119 in the Archaea region of Greece. 1791 01:44:29,119 --> 01:44:32,680 Helike established colonies at Priene in Asia Minor, 1792 01:44:32,760 --> 01:44:35,119 and Sybaris in southern Italy. 1793 01:44:36,000 --> 01:44:40,119 Trade from these created a period of great prosperity. 1794 01:44:42,000 --> 01:44:44,000 The people of Helike believed their city 1795 01:44:44,000 --> 01:44:47,319 was watched over by their patron god, Poseidon. 1796 01:44:48,880 --> 01:44:50,760 Their temple dedicated to him 1797 01:44:50,760 --> 01:44:54,880 brought pilgrims to the city from across Classical Greece. 1798 01:44:56,560 --> 01:44:57,560 Helike was a power house 1799 01:44:57,680 --> 01:45:00,000 in the ancient Hellenistic Greek world. 1800 01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:02,439 It was a major religious hub, a pilgrimage spot. 1801 01:45:02,560 --> 01:45:04,120 It was a political seat. 1802 01:45:05,119 --> 01:45:07,559 It was a pretty significant city state. 1803 01:45:08,760 --> 01:45:12,680 The temple to Poseidon gave Helike influence in the Greek world, 1804 01:45:13,439 --> 01:45:16,199 and they benefited economically from this pilgrimage. 1805 01:45:17,199 --> 01:45:18,880 As war engulfed the region, 1806 01:45:19,000 --> 01:45:21,880 it placed Helike in a unique position. 1807 01:45:22,880 --> 01:45:27,119 Between 492 and 479 BCE, 1808 01:45:27,199 --> 01:45:30,880 the Persian Empire launched a series of invasions, 1809 01:45:31,000 --> 01:45:34,319 with the aim of conquering all of Greece. 1810 01:45:35,319 --> 01:45:39,880 The allied efforts of the Greek city states repulsed the Persians, 1811 01:45:40,000 --> 01:45:43,760 but the Greek world was now on a collision course with itself. 1812 01:45:45,000 --> 01:45:47,439 In 431 BCE, 1813 01:45:47,560 --> 01:45:51,000 Greece erupted in war between Athens and Sparta. 1814 01:45:52,880 --> 01:45:56,159 By 404 BCE, Sparta was victorious. 1815 01:45:57,199 --> 01:46:00,039 But the economic cost across the region was dire. 1816 01:46:01,319 --> 01:46:03,439 Poverty soon became widespread. 1817 01:46:05,319 --> 01:46:06,960 But the people of Helike realised 1818 01:46:06,960 --> 01:46:08,560 just how economically important 1819 01:46:08,680 --> 01:46:12,079 the Temple of Poseidon was to their survival. 1820 01:46:13,680 --> 01:46:16,680 They remained largely uninvolved throughout this period of turmoil, 1821 01:46:16,800 --> 01:46:19,440 for fear of alienating either side. 1822 01:46:20,439 --> 01:46:22,319 This decision served them well. 1823 01:46:23,439 --> 01:46:25,079 As the dust settled, 1824 01:46:25,199 --> 01:46:27,319 Helike and its colonies survived, 1825 01:46:28,560 --> 01:46:30,200 along with the Temple of Poseidon 1826 01:46:30,199 --> 01:46:32,439 and the income this brought them. 1827 01:46:33,199 --> 01:46:36,319 And for a city state that relied heavily on maritime trade, 1828 01:46:36,319 --> 01:46:39,319 it made sense that their patron god, 1829 01:46:39,960 --> 01:46:40,800 was the god of the Sea. 1830 01:46:42,199 --> 01:46:44,559 Poseidon is the god of the trade networks. 1831 01:46:44,560 --> 01:46:45,440 He's the god who the sailors 1832 01:46:46,560 --> 01:46:48,080 would be praying to 1833 01:46:48,079 --> 01:46:49,319 before they set out 1834 01:46:49,439 --> 01:46:51,960 on their long voyages across the Mediterranean. 1835 01:46:52,079 --> 01:46:53,559 He's the god who would guarantee you safe passage 1836 01:46:54,439 --> 01:46:56,679 and bring you back home safely as well. 1837 01:46:58,560 --> 01:47:01,960 But Poseidon didn't keep the people of Helike safe. 1838 01:47:03,199 --> 01:47:04,559 According to the legend, 1839 01:47:04,680 --> 01:47:08,960 the people of Helike closely guarded the temple, venerating Poseidon. 1840 01:47:09,800 --> 01:47:13,320 When they refused to share secret items with other cities, 1841 01:47:13,439 --> 01:47:14,679 he was angered. 1842 01:47:15,800 --> 01:47:18,440 They had treated extremely badly a sacred delegation 1843 01:47:18,560 --> 01:47:20,320 who had come from Ionia 1844 01:47:20,439 --> 01:47:22,079 requesting copies of the Altar 1845 01:47:22,199 --> 01:47:23,679 and some other sacred items. 1846 01:47:23,800 --> 01:47:27,440 They had dragged these sacred ambassadors from the sanctuary, 1847 01:47:27,439 --> 01:47:29,679 and some stories say they actually killed them. 1848 01:47:30,680 --> 01:47:33,079 In 373 BCE, 1849 01:47:33,199 --> 01:47:35,319 Poseidon destroyed the city. 1850 01:47:36,560 --> 01:47:38,320 The destruction was so complete 1851 01:47:38,319 --> 01:47:41,559 that it sent shock waves around the ancient world. 1852 01:47:43,439 --> 01:47:44,960 The story of Helike's demise 1853 01:47:45,079 --> 01:47:47,680 very quickly enters into the popular conscience. 1854 01:47:47,800 --> 01:47:49,960 We first get it in the writings of Ephesus, 1855 01:47:50,079 --> 01:47:52,079 we find it in Strabo, we find it in Ovid, 1856 01:47:52,199 --> 01:47:54,800 we find it in Pausanias and Diodoris and Polybius, 1857 01:47:54,800 --> 01:47:56,079 it's everywhere. 1858 01:47:59,199 --> 01:48:02,559 The story starts in 373 BCE, 1859 01:48:02,680 --> 01:48:04,800 and we hear that Poseidon 1860 01:48:04,960 --> 01:48:08,079 is angry with the inhabitants of Helike. 1861 01:48:09,319 --> 01:48:11,960 And what he does is he uses his trident, 1862 01:48:12,079 --> 01:48:13,800 he causes a terrible earthquake. 1863 01:48:18,800 --> 01:48:20,960 A tidal wave rolls in from the sea 1864 01:48:21,079 --> 01:48:23,439 and completely submerges the city. 1865 01:48:30,439 --> 01:48:33,439 The entire population of Helike was wiped out in this catastrophe 1866 01:48:33,439 --> 01:48:34,679 in one fell swoop. 1867 01:48:34,800 --> 01:48:36,199 And not only that, 1868 01:48:36,199 --> 01:48:39,439 but there were ten Spartan warships which were anchored in the bay, 1869 01:48:39,439 --> 01:48:42,799 and they were also dragged down to the bottom of the sea. 1870 01:48:45,199 --> 01:48:47,439 So this was total wipe out. 1871 01:48:48,960 --> 01:48:50,960 Helike's destruction was so severe 1872 01:48:51,079 --> 01:48:53,079 that the only way the ancient Greek writers 1873 01:48:53,199 --> 01:48:54,679 could come to terms with it, 1874 01:48:55,319 --> 01:48:57,319 was to blame it on the supernatural - 1875 01:48:58,079 --> 01:48:59,199 Poseidon, 1876 01:48:59,319 --> 01:49:00,960 the god of the Sea, 1877 01:49:00,960 --> 01:49:03,800 caused the city to vanish beneath the waves. 1878 01:49:06,960 --> 01:49:08,199 In the years that follow, 1879 01:49:08,319 --> 01:49:09,799 its location is forgotten, 1880 01:49:09,960 --> 01:49:13,439 and the story of Helike becomes Greek legend. 1881 01:49:14,439 --> 01:49:16,439 The parallels between the myth of Atlantis 1882 01:49:17,199 --> 01:49:19,559 and Helike's destruction are striking. 1883 01:49:20,800 --> 01:49:22,560 But what actually happened? 1884 01:49:23,199 --> 01:49:25,079 And could Helike be Atlantis? 1885 01:49:25,960 --> 01:49:28,960 The only way to know is to find Helike. 1886 01:49:31,560 --> 01:49:34,680 For archaeologists to have any hope of locating the lost city 1887 01:49:35,439 --> 01:49:37,559 and determining what caused its destruction, 1888 01:49:38,439 --> 01:49:39,679 they need to discern 1889 01:49:39,800 --> 01:49:42,560 what is fact and what is fiction. 1890 01:49:44,680 --> 01:49:46,440 Was there any physical proof 1891 01:49:46,560 --> 01:49:49,680 that Helike had actually existed? 1892 01:49:56,680 --> 01:49:59,079 Two of Germany's leading archaeologists, 1893 01:49:59,199 --> 01:50:02,319 Adolf Michaelis and Alexander Conze, 1894 01:50:02,319 --> 01:50:05,439 explore the shores surrounding the Gulf of Corinth. 1895 01:50:06,960 --> 01:50:08,439 While resting in the village, 1896 01:50:08,439 --> 01:50:10,799 they are sold an ancient artefact, 1897 01:50:10,960 --> 01:50:12,800 a bronze coin. 1898 01:50:13,680 --> 01:50:15,960 Poseidon is depicted 1899 01:50:16,079 --> 01:50:20,199 in a very fine representation of his head, 1900 01:50:20,319 --> 01:50:23,079 which is a very beautiful, classical actually, 1901 01:50:23,199 --> 01:50:24,559 depiction of Poseidon. 1902 01:50:25,439 --> 01:50:29,199 And on the reverse we have the main attributes of Poseidon, 1903 01:50:29,319 --> 01:50:31,319 that is his trident 1904 01:50:31,439 --> 01:50:34,679 and the two dolphins swimming upwards, 1905 01:50:34,680 --> 01:50:38,200 all included in a wreath, within a wreath. 1906 01:50:39,960 --> 01:50:42,960 But as Michaelis and Conze examine the coin more closely, 1907 01:50:43,079 --> 01:50:45,319 they make a startling discovery. 1908 01:50:46,560 --> 01:50:49,560 The coin bears the letters, 'ELIK', 1909 01:50:49,560 --> 01:50:52,960 which is an abbreviation of, 'Elike', 'Helike'. 1910 01:50:52,960 --> 01:50:55,439 This was the first tangible piece of evidence 1911 01:50:55,439 --> 01:50:57,960 that the city of Helike actually existed. 1912 01:50:57,960 --> 01:50:59,439 Up until this point, 1913 01:50:59,560 --> 01:51:01,560 all we had was the testimony 1914 01:51:01,560 --> 01:51:05,200 of various authors and the story of Helike's destruction, 1915 01:51:05,319 --> 01:51:07,439 but this was an actual piece of evidence. 1916 01:51:08,960 --> 01:51:10,960 Michaelis and Conze have identified 1917 01:51:11,079 --> 01:51:12,439 the first piece of archaeological evidence 1918 01:51:13,439 --> 01:51:16,319 that Helike actually existed. 1919 01:51:18,079 --> 01:51:19,960 It marks an incredible turning point. 1920 01:51:21,079 --> 01:51:24,559 Was the lost city of Helike more than just a legend? 1921 01:51:25,960 --> 01:51:29,319 Could there be some truth behind its destruction? 1922 01:51:29,439 --> 01:51:32,199 And could it help solve the mystery of Atlantis? 1923 01:51:33,439 --> 01:51:35,559 Archaeologists need to re-examine 1924 01:51:35,680 --> 01:51:39,440 the ancient texts describing Helike's destruction. 1925 01:51:40,560 --> 01:51:42,680 Could they find anything else written here 1926 01:51:42,680 --> 01:51:45,680 that might help them sort fact from the legend? 1927 01:51:51,680 --> 01:51:54,320 A key text recounting the disappearance of Helike 1928 01:51:54,319 --> 01:51:56,559 was written in the second century CE 1929 01:51:56,680 --> 01:51:59,680 by the renowned Roman author, Aelian. 1930 01:52:01,439 --> 01:52:02,799 Buried in his account, 1931 01:52:02,960 --> 01:52:05,319 is a detail that may lend voracity 1932 01:52:05,439 --> 01:52:07,439 to the written destruction event, 1933 01:52:07,560 --> 01:52:11,080 a tsunami caused by an earthquake. 1934 01:52:12,319 --> 01:52:13,679 There's a Roman author 1935 01:52:13,680 --> 01:52:15,560 who talks about the destruction of Helike, 1936 01:52:15,680 --> 01:52:18,440 and he mentions that five days before the event, 1937 01:52:18,560 --> 01:52:20,200 all the animals, all the rats, 1938 01:52:20,319 --> 01:52:23,199 all the insects, went scurrying away from the site. 1939 01:52:23,199 --> 01:52:24,960 And the people should have taken that as warning 1940 01:52:25,079 --> 01:52:26,559 something bad was about to happen. 1941 01:52:28,439 --> 01:52:30,319 It's an intriguing detail. 1942 01:52:30,439 --> 01:52:32,960 But is there any truth to the phenomenon? 1943 01:52:34,199 --> 01:52:38,559 Geologist Ian Stewart has heard similar stories before, 1944 01:52:38,560 --> 01:52:42,800 an animal exodus right before a major earthquake. 1945 01:52:44,960 --> 01:52:46,960 In 1995 I was in northern Greece, 1946 01:52:47,079 --> 01:52:48,800 and we were starting to get reports 1947 01:52:48,960 --> 01:52:52,319 that there had been this earthquake down in the Aigion area. 1948 01:52:52,319 --> 01:52:53,679 I spoke to fisherman, 1949 01:52:53,680 --> 01:52:56,200 who talked about catching 1950 01:52:56,319 --> 01:52:59,439 the equivalent of their whole yearly catch 1951 01:52:59,439 --> 01:53:01,960 in the night before the earthquake struck. 1952 01:53:02,079 --> 01:53:03,439 And also in their catch, 1953 01:53:03,439 --> 01:53:05,199 strange fish that they hadn't seen, 1954 01:53:05,199 --> 01:53:08,319 deep water squid and things that were very rare. 1955 01:53:09,439 --> 01:53:10,559 And one of the things that we know 1956 01:53:10,680 --> 01:53:13,560 is the Earth's crust gets prepared for earthquakes. 1957 01:53:13,680 --> 01:53:14,800 The stress gets pent up 1958 01:53:14,960 --> 01:53:17,319 and there's fluids and lots of things change. 1959 01:53:18,319 --> 01:53:20,199 So the only slight thing 1960 01:53:20,199 --> 01:53:21,559 is whether animals, 1961 01:53:21,560 --> 01:53:23,440 particularly ground dwelling animals, 1962 01:53:23,560 --> 01:53:25,560 could be sensitive to that. 1963 01:53:25,560 --> 01:53:28,200 And that seems to be not that far from reality. 1964 01:53:30,079 --> 01:53:31,680 The story of animals fleeing Helike 1965 01:53:31,800 --> 01:53:33,960 in the lead up to its destruction 1966 01:53:34,079 --> 01:53:35,319 might just be true. 1967 01:53:36,560 --> 01:53:38,560 And according to the ancient writers, 1968 01:53:38,680 --> 01:53:41,200 the tsunami that submerged Helike 1969 01:53:42,319 --> 01:53:44,199 was triggered by an earthquake. 1970 01:53:45,560 --> 01:53:49,680 But would a tsunami account for its total eradication? 1971 01:53:50,680 --> 01:53:54,440 To know for certain, archaeologists need to locate Helike. 1972 01:53:55,439 --> 01:53:57,799 Only then, can they begin to understand 1973 01:53:58,680 --> 01:54:00,200 the cause of its destruction. 1974 01:54:00,319 --> 01:54:04,439 The hunt is on for The lost city of Helike. 1975 01:54:07,560 --> 01:54:10,200 They turn again to the ancient texts. 1976 01:54:11,319 --> 01:54:13,679 It's believed that the remains of Helike 1977 01:54:13,680 --> 01:54:15,200 were visible for hundreds of years 1978 01:54:15,319 --> 01:54:17,079 after it was destroyed, 1979 01:54:17,079 --> 01:54:21,079 and many ancient writers give descriptions of its location. 1980 01:54:22,079 --> 01:54:24,559 But over time its ruins disappeared, 1981 01:54:24,680 --> 01:54:28,119 and these descriptions lost their meaning. 1982 01:54:28,960 --> 01:54:31,359 The archaeologists searching for Helike 1983 01:54:31,359 --> 01:54:34,880 are forced to start from scratch, almost. 1984 01:54:35,880 --> 01:54:37,960 Pouring over the ancient texts, 1985 01:54:38,000 --> 01:54:39,680 they find a clue. 1986 01:54:40,680 --> 01:54:43,000 The ancient Greek geographer, Strabo, 1987 01:54:43,199 --> 01:54:45,439 recorded that Helike had been submerged 1988 01:54:45,479 --> 01:54:48,719 in what he describes as a 'poros'. 1989 01:54:48,960 --> 01:54:52,199 But what exactly is a 'poros'? 1990 01:54:53,000 --> 01:54:55,680 'Poros', in ancient Greece, 1991 01:54:55,680 --> 01:54:59,440 means a narrow passage of water. 1992 01:54:59,439 --> 01:55:01,960 Archaeologists interpreted this 1993 01:55:01,960 --> 01:55:03,439 as the Corinthian Gulf. 1994 01:55:03,439 --> 01:55:04,679 It was a solid lead 1995 01:55:04,920 --> 01:55:06,960 for the archaeological investigators. 1996 01:55:08,000 --> 01:55:12,199 The ruins of Helike had to be somewhere in the Corinthian Gulf. 1997 01:55:12,960 --> 01:55:17,239 The problem is, the Gulf encompasses a colossal area, 1998 01:55:17,439 --> 01:55:20,199 2,500 square kilometres. 1999 01:55:21,479 --> 01:55:23,199 And according to the ancient texts, 2000 01:55:23,199 --> 01:55:25,199 just like the myth of Atlantis, 2001 01:55:25,199 --> 01:55:27,720 the ruins should be underwater. 2002 01:55:29,680 --> 01:55:31,720 The expectation was that Helike lay 2003 01:55:31,960 --> 01:55:34,439 somewhere on the sea bed in the Gulf of Corinth. 2004 01:55:35,239 --> 01:55:36,679 And so over the generations, 2005 01:55:36,680 --> 01:55:39,960 it becomes this holy grail of underwater archaeology, 2006 01:55:40,199 --> 01:55:42,679 to find where Helike was. 2007 01:55:44,000 --> 01:55:48,239 Archaeologists now have a rough geographic area for Helike. 2008 01:55:48,439 --> 01:55:50,679 It's clear to them that it must lay submerged 2009 01:55:50,920 --> 01:55:53,199 at the bottom of the Gulf of Corinth. 2010 01:55:54,199 --> 01:55:57,439 But how can you locate a lost city on the seafloor? 2011 01:55:58,439 --> 01:56:02,199 It would require an entirely new form of archaeology, 2012 01:56:02,239 --> 01:56:05,679 and a new breed of archaeologist. 2013 01:56:13,439 --> 01:56:15,439 The hunt for the lost city of Helike 2014 01:56:15,680 --> 01:56:18,960 is taken up by one of Greece's most famous sons, 2015 01:56:19,199 --> 01:56:22,960 celebrity archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos. 2016 01:56:24,479 --> 01:56:26,679 In 1967, 2017 01:56:26,680 --> 01:56:28,960 Marinatos became a Greek national hero 2018 01:56:28,960 --> 01:56:33,439 when he uncovered the prehistoric city of Akrotiri, 2019 01:56:33,479 --> 01:56:35,959 on the island of Santorini. 2020 01:56:37,680 --> 01:56:40,440 For some, the civilisation on Akrotiri 2021 01:56:40,439 --> 01:56:44,199 was a strong contender for the lost city of Atlantis. 2022 01:56:45,439 --> 01:56:47,679 But Marinatos found no evidence 2023 01:56:47,680 --> 01:56:49,440 to back up this theory. 2024 01:56:49,479 --> 01:56:53,199 And his ultimate dream was to find Helike. 2025 01:56:54,960 --> 01:56:57,439 If the lost city could ever be located, 2026 01:56:57,439 --> 01:57:01,439 Marinatos had particularly high hopes 2027 01:57:01,439 --> 01:57:03,439 for what it might contain. 2028 01:57:03,439 --> 01:57:06,679 He believed that Helike 2029 01:57:06,680 --> 01:57:12,200 would be a kind of a Greek classical Pompeii. 2030 01:57:12,199 --> 01:57:15,199 That is, everything you would find 2031 01:57:15,439 --> 01:57:18,439 in Helike would be there, 2032 01:57:18,439 --> 01:57:21,439 exactly as it was 2033 01:57:21,439 --> 01:57:24,439 at the moment it was destroyed. 2034 01:57:26,199 --> 01:57:27,479 If he could find the city, 2035 01:57:27,680 --> 01:57:30,960 maybe he could solve the mystery of its destruction. 2036 01:57:30,960 --> 01:57:34,960 Could he also solve the mystery of Atlantis? 2037 01:57:35,680 --> 01:57:39,240 Marinatos needs a way of peering beneath the waves 2038 01:57:39,439 --> 01:57:43,679 to identify any human made structures on the sea bed. 2039 01:57:44,439 --> 01:57:46,679 He turns to a cutting edge piece of technology, 2040 01:57:46,680 --> 01:57:48,440 sonar imaging. 2041 01:57:49,920 --> 01:57:51,440 In 1973, 2042 01:57:51,439 --> 01:57:53,439 oceanographer Paul Kronfield 2043 01:57:53,439 --> 01:57:56,439 was brought on to Marinatos' team. 2044 01:57:56,439 --> 01:57:59,439 He is tasked with scanning the seafloor. 2045 01:58:00,199 --> 01:58:03,199 He remembers his time with Marinatos well. 2046 01:58:03,199 --> 01:58:06,439 Professor Marinatos was very excited about Helike. 2047 01:58:06,439 --> 01:58:10,439 He said 'cause it's a undisturbed, classical city 2048 01:58:10,439 --> 01:58:13,199 that's basically been buried under the ocean 2049 01:58:13,199 --> 01:58:14,439 and undisturbed 2050 01:58:14,439 --> 01:58:15,960 for thousands of years. 2051 01:58:15,960 --> 01:58:18,439 With all the artefacts totally undisturbed. 2052 01:58:19,960 --> 01:58:23,439 For this grand expedition, no expense was spared. 2053 01:58:25,720 --> 01:58:28,199 Marinatos commandeered a Greek Navy landing craft 2054 01:58:28,439 --> 01:58:31,199 and outfitted it with a drilling rig. 2055 01:58:32,479 --> 01:58:35,479 If the sonar scanners identified any structures, 2056 01:58:35,680 --> 01:58:38,680 the team would drill an exploratory core sample 2057 01:58:38,680 --> 01:58:41,680 to see if they held any ancient remains. 2058 01:58:42,960 --> 01:58:45,199 The drilling ship was anchored offshore. 2059 01:58:45,199 --> 01:58:47,679 And it would come in out of the mist 2060 01:58:47,680 --> 01:58:49,240 and drop the ramp on the beach. 2061 01:58:49,439 --> 01:58:51,199 And all the scientists and engineers 2062 01:58:51,199 --> 01:58:53,199 would come charging down the ramp 2063 01:58:53,199 --> 01:58:55,960 like invading the beaches of Normandy or something, 2064 01:58:56,000 --> 01:58:59,960 except we were invading our local tavernas, for lunch. 2065 01:59:01,439 --> 01:59:03,199 At that time of year, 2066 01:59:03,199 --> 01:59:05,960 the night-blooming jasmine is booming, 2067 01:59:05,960 --> 01:59:08,199 and the fragrance is in the air, 2068 01:59:08,239 --> 01:59:10,439 and we'd be sitting there listening to Greek music 2069 01:59:10,439 --> 01:59:11,960 looking up at the stars. 2070 01:59:12,000 --> 01:59:15,680 "You know this is exactly how this was 2,000 years ago 2071 01:59:15,680 --> 01:59:18,480 "when the people of ancient Helike were having their dinner." 2072 01:59:18,680 --> 01:59:20,960 And it was a very magic time. 2073 01:59:22,000 --> 01:59:25,199 Back at sea, Marinatos's team scan the seafloor 2074 01:59:25,199 --> 01:59:26,960 hunting for any anomalies 2075 01:59:26,960 --> 01:59:28,960 or signs of structures. 2076 01:59:29,720 --> 01:59:32,240 It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. 2077 01:59:33,239 --> 01:59:36,199 But incredibly, they identified something. 2078 01:59:36,960 --> 01:59:39,680 We picked up pockmarks on the seafloor. 2079 01:59:39,920 --> 01:59:42,440 And they were very intriguing, in straight lines. 2080 01:59:42,479 --> 01:59:44,919 God generally doesn't draw straight lines. 2081 01:59:44,960 --> 01:59:47,680 So, this could mean it might be man made. 2082 01:59:47,680 --> 01:59:49,000 It could be a road 2083 01:59:49,199 --> 01:59:50,720 or, it could be a wall, 2084 01:59:50,960 --> 01:59:52,439 we didn't know. 2085 01:59:54,680 --> 01:59:56,960 With the possibility of ancient Helike 2086 01:59:56,960 --> 01:59:59,000 lying in the depths beneath their ship, 2087 01:59:59,199 --> 02:00:01,479 the team deployed the drilling rig 2088 02:00:01,680 --> 02:00:03,920 to retrieve core sample. 2089 02:00:05,199 --> 02:00:08,199 Had they finally found the lost city? 2090 02:00:13,199 --> 02:00:16,199 There was so much excitement each time we retrieved the core. 2091 02:00:16,439 --> 02:00:18,199 You know, sleep was impossible, 2092 02:00:18,439 --> 02:00:19,439 we had to be there 2093 02:00:19,439 --> 02:00:20,919 'cause everyone expected 2094 02:00:20,960 --> 02:00:23,199 to see some artefacts or something in there, 2095 02:00:23,199 --> 02:00:25,199 that would indicate a discovery. 2096 02:00:25,960 --> 02:00:28,960 It just kept everybody very much electrified. 2097 02:00:30,199 --> 02:00:32,679 But all they found was mud and gravel. 2098 02:00:33,960 --> 02:00:36,199 After having spent all that time drilling 2099 02:00:36,199 --> 02:00:37,960 and sub-bottomprofiling, 2100 02:00:37,960 --> 02:00:40,199 and then to find nothing, 2101 02:00:40,439 --> 02:00:43,679 it was very disappointing. 2102 02:00:44,680 --> 02:00:47,200 Despite working through the night for days on end, 2103 02:00:47,239 --> 02:00:50,199 there was absolutely no sign of Helike. 2104 02:00:51,439 --> 02:00:53,439 And with the excavating season ended, 2105 02:00:53,479 --> 02:00:58,439 another chapter in the hunt for Helike came to a close. 2106 02:00:59,199 --> 02:01:01,439 For Spyridon Marinatos, 2107 02:01:01,439 --> 02:01:03,960 he would never get the chance to search again. 2108 02:01:05,239 --> 02:01:07,679 The following year, in 1974, 2109 02:01:07,920 --> 02:01:11,440 he died of a stroke while excavating on Santorini. 2110 02:01:12,199 --> 02:01:13,960 He is buried at the site. 2111 02:01:14,960 --> 02:01:17,199 The location of the lost city of Helike 2112 02:01:17,199 --> 02:01:20,199 remained a mystery, for now. 2113 02:01:28,960 --> 02:01:31,920 Archaeologist Professor Dora Katsonopoulou 2114 02:01:31,960 --> 02:01:34,439 grew up on the shores of the Corinthian Gulf, 2115 02:01:34,439 --> 02:01:37,679 close to where Helike was said to be located. 2116 02:01:38,479 --> 02:01:40,919 She is well acquainted with the legend 2117 02:01:40,960 --> 02:01:42,960 of the ancient city's destruction. 2118 02:01:43,960 --> 02:01:45,960 People who were raised in the region, 2119 02:01:46,199 --> 02:01:48,679 they all hear about this story 2120 02:01:48,680 --> 02:01:50,680 because Helike was the most 2121 02:01:50,680 --> 02:01:52,440 important city in the region. 2122 02:01:53,439 --> 02:01:54,679 When I was a child, 2123 02:01:54,680 --> 02:01:59,440 I was always dreaming of becoming an archaeologist someday, 2124 02:01:59,439 --> 02:02:04,960 in order to try and find this famous lost site. 2125 02:02:05,960 --> 02:02:08,720 So it was a childhood dream, I would say. 2126 02:02:10,199 --> 02:02:13,679 In 1988, Katsonopoulou assembles a team 2127 02:02:13,680 --> 02:02:17,000 and begins turning her dream into a reality. 2128 02:02:18,239 --> 02:02:20,679 She picks up where Marinatos left off, 2129 02:02:20,680 --> 02:02:22,440 using sonar scanners 2130 02:02:22,439 --> 02:02:25,439 to map the bottom of the Gulf of Corinth. 2131 02:02:26,479 --> 02:02:30,199 Soon, the sonar picks up something intriguing. 2132 02:02:31,439 --> 02:02:33,000 In one location, 2133 02:02:33,199 --> 02:02:37,439 we found remains of something 2134 02:02:37,439 --> 02:02:41,679 that looks like been man made. 2135 02:02:41,680 --> 02:02:43,200 It's something that has to do 2136 02:02:43,199 --> 02:02:45,439 with installations of a port. 2137 02:02:46,680 --> 02:02:48,680 And in another location, in a greater depth, 2138 02:02:48,680 --> 02:02:55,000 we may have remains of some wrecks of ships. 2139 02:02:56,199 --> 02:02:58,199 Analysing the sonar read out 2140 02:02:58,199 --> 02:03:00,679 was a man now familiar with the region, 2141 02:03:00,680 --> 02:03:03,440 oceanographer Paul Kronfield. 2142 02:03:05,439 --> 02:03:06,960 We saw ten of these features, 2143 02:03:07,199 --> 02:03:08,960 ten parabolic type features 2144 02:03:09,000 --> 02:03:10,680 under the sea Paul Kronfield bed. 2145 02:03:10,680 --> 02:03:12,480 It was very exciting. 2146 02:03:13,439 --> 02:03:16,439 According to Aelian, the Roman writer, 2147 02:03:16,439 --> 02:03:18,960 the night that Helike was destroyed, 2148 02:03:18,960 --> 02:03:21,920 there were ten Spartan ships 2149 02:03:21,960 --> 02:03:24,199 at anchor in Helike's port. 2150 02:03:25,439 --> 02:03:26,960 For Katsonopoulou, 2151 02:03:26,960 --> 02:03:28,239 it was starting to look like 2152 02:03:28,439 --> 02:03:30,719 they'd uncovered an ancient port. 2153 02:03:31,680 --> 02:03:33,960 If they could identify the ten shapes 2154 02:03:33,960 --> 02:03:35,680 shown on the sonar scans 2155 02:03:35,920 --> 02:03:38,199 as the ten sunken Spartan warships 2156 02:03:38,239 --> 02:03:40,199 told in the Helike legend, 2157 02:03:40,439 --> 02:03:45,199 then surely they'd have finally located the lost city? 2158 02:03:47,199 --> 02:03:49,679 But sonar scans alone aren't proof. 2159 02:03:49,720 --> 02:03:51,680 To be sure the team needs to dive 2160 02:03:51,680 --> 02:03:53,440 and examine the structures. 2161 02:03:54,920 --> 02:03:57,480 But here, they run into a problem. 2162 02:04:00,720 --> 02:04:03,920 The Corinthian Gulf, particularly in this area, 2163 02:04:03,960 --> 02:04:05,439 is very muddy. 2164 02:04:05,680 --> 02:04:08,440 And when divers go down, 2165 02:04:08,439 --> 02:04:11,960 as soon as they move toward the target, 2166 02:04:12,199 --> 02:04:14,960 it's, you know, a real cloud of mud 2167 02:04:14,960 --> 02:04:17,199 that is raised in front of them, 2168 02:04:17,439 --> 02:04:18,919 so they cannot really see. 2169 02:04:18,960 --> 02:04:20,680 It's a very difficult sea to explore. 2170 02:04:22,680 --> 02:04:24,440 The muddy conditions on the sea bed 2171 02:04:24,680 --> 02:04:27,960 make it impossible to identify these structures for certain. 2172 02:04:28,960 --> 02:04:31,720 Still, Katsonopoulou has a hunch 2173 02:04:31,960 --> 02:04:36,439 these underwater features represent the ancient port of Helike. 2174 02:04:37,000 --> 02:04:38,199 But how to be sure? 2175 02:04:39,000 --> 02:04:42,239 She needs a way of narrowing down the search area. 2176 02:04:42,439 --> 02:04:45,439 Were there any clues that located Helike 2177 02:04:45,680 --> 02:04:47,440 near these sonar hits? 2178 02:04:55,479 --> 02:04:59,199 Katsonopoulou returns to the ancient texts. 2179 02:05:00,439 --> 02:05:04,679 Reading the work of the ancient Greek geographer Pausanius, 2180 02:05:04,680 --> 02:05:06,200 she comes across something - 2181 02:05:06,199 --> 02:05:08,000 a description of Helike 2182 02:05:08,199 --> 02:05:11,960 in relation to the neighbouring town, Aigion. 2183 02:05:12,960 --> 02:05:15,720 Crucially, it mentions the distance. 2184 02:05:16,960 --> 02:05:22,439 One says that Helike is 40 stades, 2185 02:05:22,479 --> 02:05:25,199 that is 7km, 2186 02:05:25,439 --> 02:05:27,719 east of the city of Aigion. 2187 02:05:27,960 --> 02:05:30,199 Going further east, 2188 02:05:30,199 --> 02:05:33,960 he also comes to another monument 2189 02:05:33,960 --> 02:05:36,920 in the area, which is known as 2190 02:05:36,960 --> 02:05:41,199 the Cave of Heracles Vouraikos. 2191 02:05:41,439 --> 02:05:45,000 And he gives us a distance of Helike 2192 02:05:45,199 --> 02:05:49,439 from the cave of about 5.5km. 2193 02:05:50,680 --> 02:05:52,960 It's said that the people of Helike came there 2194 02:05:52,960 --> 02:05:55,920 to leave offerings to the demigod Heracles. 2195 02:05:56,960 --> 02:06:00,199 The location of the cave is still known today. 2196 02:06:01,960 --> 02:06:05,439 It's a key clue for Professor Katsonopoulou. 2197 02:06:05,439 --> 02:06:08,919 If Helike is within 7km of the town of Aigion, 2198 02:06:08,960 --> 02:06:12,960 and 5.5km of the Cave of Heracles, 2199 02:06:13,199 --> 02:06:16,679 then the lost city must lie in the area 2200 02:06:16,680 --> 02:06:19,440 where these measurements cross over. 2201 02:06:20,000 --> 02:06:22,960 The port features that Katsonopoulou uncovered 2202 02:06:23,000 --> 02:06:24,680 are well within this region. 2203 02:06:25,920 --> 02:06:30,000 They match the location of the ancient geographical texts. 2204 02:06:30,960 --> 02:06:33,000 But despite repeated sonar scanning, 2205 02:06:33,199 --> 02:06:34,679 all they could find 2206 02:06:34,680 --> 02:06:37,440 was evidence of a port. 2207 02:06:38,680 --> 02:06:41,960 Why wasn't the rest of the city visible on the sonar scans? 2208 02:06:46,199 --> 02:06:47,960 Katsonopoulou looks again 2209 02:06:47,960 --> 02:06:51,199 to the ancient descriptions of Helike's destruction. 2210 02:06:51,199 --> 02:06:54,960 These texts have been studied again and again 2211 02:06:55,000 --> 02:06:57,439 by archaeologists before her. 2212 02:06:58,439 --> 02:07:00,439 But Katsonopoulou has an advantage, 2213 02:07:00,479 --> 02:07:04,199 she can read these works in ancient Greek, 2214 02:07:04,199 --> 02:07:05,679 as they were written. 2215 02:07:06,720 --> 02:07:10,000 Had any clues been lost in translation? 2216 02:07:11,199 --> 02:07:13,960 As she pores over the ancient writings of Strabo, 2217 02:07:13,960 --> 02:07:17,960 she realises incredibly this might be the case. 2218 02:07:19,199 --> 02:07:22,679 It all hinged on the meaning of the word, 'poros', 2219 02:07:22,680 --> 02:07:24,680 the body of water 2220 02:07:24,680 --> 02:07:27,480 that Helike was said to have been submerged in. 2221 02:07:29,000 --> 02:07:31,199 Poros, in ancient Greek, 2222 02:07:31,239 --> 02:07:35,199 means a narrow passage of water. 2223 02:07:36,199 --> 02:07:38,000 But most archaeologists 2224 02:07:38,199 --> 02:07:41,199 had interpreted this as the Corinthian Gulf. 2225 02:07:41,439 --> 02:07:43,199 Which was absolutely wrong, 2226 02:07:43,199 --> 02:07:45,679 because the ancient sources 2227 02:07:45,920 --> 02:07:48,440 knew the Corinthian Gulf by name. 2228 02:07:48,680 --> 02:07:50,960 So they could mention the Corinthian Gulf, 2229 02:07:51,000 --> 02:07:54,000 they didn't have a reason to say, 'poros'. 2230 02:07:55,680 --> 02:07:57,680 Now what poros would mean 2231 02:07:57,720 --> 02:07:59,680 in my interpretation 2232 02:07:59,680 --> 02:08:03,680 was an inland lagoon or lake. 2233 02:08:05,720 --> 02:08:08,440 According to Professor Katsonopoulou's research, 2234 02:08:08,439 --> 02:08:10,199 the lost city of Helike 2235 02:08:10,199 --> 02:08:13,199 wasn't at the bottom of the Gulf of Corinth after all, 2236 02:08:13,439 --> 02:08:16,960 but had been submerged in an inland lagoon. 2237 02:08:19,960 --> 02:08:22,960 It's a blow for those hoping Helike is Atlantis. 2238 02:08:23,720 --> 02:08:25,199 Plato's mythological city 2239 02:08:25,199 --> 02:08:27,679 had been submerged and lost to the seafloor, 2240 02:08:27,680 --> 02:08:30,000 not a lagoon. 2241 02:08:31,199 --> 02:08:34,199 But still, in the search for Helike, 2242 02:08:34,199 --> 02:08:35,960 it's an incredible breakthrough. 2243 02:08:37,239 --> 02:08:39,199 It was beginning to make sense 2244 02:08:39,199 --> 02:08:42,960 why Katsanopoulou's sonar scans only showed a port, 2245 02:08:42,960 --> 02:08:44,960 not the rest of the city. 2246 02:08:47,720 --> 02:08:49,199 There was only one problem, 2247 02:08:49,199 --> 02:08:50,960 if you're thinking about this as a lagoon, 2248 02:08:50,960 --> 02:08:52,199 there isn't a lagoon there now, 2249 02:08:52,199 --> 02:08:53,679 there's just solid land. 2250 02:08:53,680 --> 02:08:56,200 So, where was the poros? 2251 02:08:59,479 --> 02:09:01,919 OK. Then I thought, 2252 02:09:01,960 --> 02:09:03,960 "Since we have a poros, 2253 02:09:03,960 --> 02:09:05,960 "that is an inland lagoon, 2254 02:09:05,960 --> 02:09:08,000 "then the ruins of the city 2255 02:09:08,199 --> 02:09:10,679 "should lie under this lagoon, 2256 02:09:10,680 --> 02:09:12,200 "because this lagoon 2257 02:09:12,199 --> 02:09:14,199 "covered up 2258 02:09:14,199 --> 02:09:16,960 "actually the destroyed city." 2259 02:09:18,680 --> 02:09:19,960 But at the point where 2260 02:09:19,960 --> 02:09:22,680 the sonar scans had identified a port, 2261 02:09:22,720 --> 02:09:26,199 there was no lagoon, only dry land. 2262 02:09:26,960 --> 02:09:31,199 But all of Katsonopoulou's evidence pointed to Helike being here. 2263 02:09:31,960 --> 02:09:35,439 Was it possible that the lagoon had dried up? 2264 02:09:36,920 --> 02:09:38,440 The fact that you have a feature 2265 02:09:38,479 --> 02:09:41,439 close to the shore that may belong to a port, 2266 02:09:41,479 --> 02:09:43,719 that shows to you that the city is on land. 2267 02:09:43,960 --> 02:09:45,439 So we said, 2268 02:09:45,439 --> 02:09:47,679 "OK, we checked it out, it's nothing in the sea, 2269 02:09:47,680 --> 02:09:49,440 "we have now to prepare 2270 02:09:49,680 --> 02:09:51,000 "for starting on land." 2271 02:09:52,199 --> 02:09:53,679 Katsonopoulou steps ashore. 2272 02:09:53,920 --> 02:09:58,440 Was there any evidence that this area had once been underwater? 2273 02:09:59,680 --> 02:10:00,960 If she could find any, 2274 02:10:01,000 --> 02:10:02,720 then she would be one step closer 2275 02:10:02,960 --> 02:10:05,720 to locating the lost city of Helike. 2276 02:10:09,439 --> 02:10:11,199 Among the trees on a farm, 2277 02:10:11,439 --> 02:10:13,679 just outside the town of Rizomylos, 2278 02:10:13,680 --> 02:10:16,960 Katsonopoulou notices something unusual - 2279 02:10:16,960 --> 02:10:19,439 a bridge but no river. 2280 02:10:20,439 --> 02:10:22,960 Examining the geology of the surrounding area, 2281 02:10:22,960 --> 02:10:27,680 it becomes clear this bridge wasn't always over dry land. 2282 02:10:28,960 --> 02:10:30,199 Over millions of years, 2283 02:10:30,439 --> 02:10:32,439 the craggy mountains further inland 2284 02:10:32,680 --> 02:10:36,680 have been eaten away by rivers coursing through them. 2285 02:10:37,479 --> 02:10:39,439 As the rivers make their way to the coast, 2286 02:10:39,439 --> 02:10:43,479 they carry with them the huge amount of rocks and debris. 2287 02:10:44,439 --> 02:10:46,199 One of the things that really impressed me 2288 02:10:46,199 --> 02:10:47,679 was the sheer amount of material 2289 02:10:47,680 --> 02:10:49,200 that was coming from the mountain side. 2290 02:10:49,199 --> 02:10:50,960 Those rivers that were coming through 2291 02:10:50,960 --> 02:10:52,960 were bringing huge amounts of debris down 2292 02:10:53,000 --> 02:10:54,960 and spreading it across the coastline. 2293 02:10:54,960 --> 02:10:57,199 So this was one of the most dynamic landscapes 2294 02:10:57,239 --> 02:10:58,679 I'd ever encountered. 2295 02:10:59,479 --> 02:11:00,719 Each winter, 2296 02:11:00,960 --> 02:11:02,680 the rivers break their banks 2297 02:11:02,680 --> 02:11:05,680 and deposit sediment across the entire plain. 2298 02:11:06,960 --> 02:11:10,680 It explains why the bridge is now over dry land. 2299 02:11:11,680 --> 02:11:13,720 That bridge was at one point over a river. 2300 02:11:13,960 --> 02:11:15,680 And it's no longer over a river, 2301 02:11:15,680 --> 02:11:17,960 the river's about 500m away. 2302 02:11:17,960 --> 02:11:19,439 So that tells us that the rivers 2303 02:11:19,439 --> 02:11:21,679 have changed since the classical time. 2304 02:11:23,199 --> 02:11:25,679 As the sediment builds year after year, 2305 02:11:25,920 --> 02:11:27,960 the rivers gradually become silted up 2306 02:11:27,960 --> 02:11:30,680 and the water changes course. 2307 02:11:31,720 --> 02:11:34,960 The bridge is a feature 2308 02:11:34,960 --> 02:11:36,439 that has to do 2309 02:11:36,439 --> 02:11:42,039 with the geomorphological changes of the plain. 2310 02:11:42,119 --> 02:11:45,920 Actually the bridge is evidence 2311 02:11:45,960 --> 02:11:48,480 for the shift of the river. 2312 02:11:50,600 --> 02:11:53,440 For Katsonopoulou, it's a profound realisation. 2313 02:11:53,439 --> 02:11:56,960 The lost city of Helike was submerged in a lagoon. 2314 02:11:57,039 --> 02:12:01,600 But all her evidence pointed to the location being on dry land. 2315 02:12:03,359 --> 02:12:04,599 Katsonopoulous suspects 2316 02:12:04,840 --> 02:12:06,480 a lagoon was once here, 2317 02:12:06,560 --> 02:12:09,440 but had silted up over time. 2318 02:12:10,439 --> 02:12:14,519 The lagoon had completely been silted 2319 02:12:14,600 --> 02:12:19,000 over by the sediments brought down by the rivers. 2320 02:12:19,079 --> 02:12:23,960 And that's why today you do not see any lagoon in the area. 2321 02:12:26,039 --> 02:12:29,960 The lagoon, of course, it is buried under the dry land today. 2322 02:12:31,960 --> 02:12:34,439 The ancient texts, the sonar scans, 2323 02:12:34,439 --> 02:12:36,479 the existence of a lagoon, 2324 02:12:36,560 --> 02:12:39,960 all pointed to Helike being under this plain. 2325 02:12:41,359 --> 02:12:42,519 But to know for certain, 2326 02:12:42,600 --> 02:12:45,440 her team will need to break ground. 2327 02:12:51,560 --> 02:12:53,360 Katsonopoulou and her team 2328 02:12:53,439 --> 02:12:56,119 conduct a series of extensive surface surveys 2329 02:12:56,359 --> 02:12:58,439 along the coastal plain. 2330 02:12:59,439 --> 02:13:02,439 They drill boreholes down to a depth of 15m 2331 02:13:02,439 --> 02:13:04,359 and examine the samples 2332 02:13:04,439 --> 02:13:06,319 for any signs of ancient life. 2333 02:13:07,560 --> 02:13:09,840 In 1993, they find some. 2334 02:13:10,840 --> 02:13:11,960 Pieces of pottery. 2335 02:13:13,079 --> 02:13:15,439 Inside these soils samples 2336 02:13:15,479 --> 02:13:19,959 were found the first pottery fragments. 2337 02:13:19,960 --> 02:13:21,439 Until then, 2338 02:13:21,439 --> 02:13:24,559 nothing was known from this area. 2339 02:13:24,800 --> 02:13:27,360 Even to find some first 2340 02:13:27,439 --> 02:13:29,439 small pottery fragments, 2341 02:13:29,479 --> 02:13:33,319 it was something to rejoice at. 2342 02:13:35,920 --> 02:13:37,079 For Katsonopoulou, 2343 02:13:37,319 --> 02:13:39,799 these finds indicated an ancient settlement 2344 02:13:39,880 --> 02:13:42,440 that's likely to exist beneath their feet. 2345 02:13:43,600 --> 02:13:46,880 Could these be the ruins of Helike? 2346 02:13:47,560 --> 02:13:49,960 The team prepares to excavate. 2347 02:13:54,880 --> 02:13:57,440 But before the archaeologists can start, 2348 02:13:57,439 --> 02:13:59,000 they are woken in the night 2349 02:13:59,079 --> 02:14:01,079 by a horrific noise. 2350 02:14:02,399 --> 02:14:05,439 We were conducting our first excavation in the area 2351 02:14:05,520 --> 02:14:08,440 when this earthquake happened, 2352 02:14:08,439 --> 02:14:11,439 the Aigion earthquake of 1995. 2353 02:14:13,079 --> 02:14:16,119 We were very much alarmed because, you know, 2354 02:14:16,359 --> 02:14:18,439 that happened early in the morning. 2355 02:14:18,439 --> 02:14:20,960 Of course living through 2356 02:14:20,960 --> 02:14:22,960 an earthquake event, 2357 02:14:23,000 --> 02:14:25,439 it's something dramatic 2358 02:14:25,520 --> 02:14:26,960 and terrifying. 2359 02:14:29,439 --> 02:14:31,519 When the dust from the earthquake settles, 2360 02:14:31,600 --> 02:14:34,880 Katsonopoulou's team finally break ground. 2361 02:14:35,479 --> 02:14:38,919 Here they uncover the remains of an ancient building. 2362 02:14:40,479 --> 02:14:44,039 Helike was destroyed in 373 BCE, 2363 02:14:44,119 --> 02:14:46,039 during the Classical Period. 2364 02:14:48,439 --> 02:14:51,960 But frustratingly, the remains uncovered are Roman. 2365 02:14:51,960 --> 02:14:55,600 They date from a far later period in history. 2366 02:14:56,520 --> 02:15:00,560 But for Katsonopoulou, it proves they're on the right track. 2367 02:15:01,439 --> 02:15:03,919 For me, it was very important. 2368 02:15:03,960 --> 02:15:07,600 Because that proved for good 2369 02:15:07,840 --> 02:15:14,440 that there is ancient occupation in this plain. 2370 02:15:14,439 --> 02:15:18,439 And you have the real evidence in front of your eyes. 2371 02:15:18,439 --> 02:15:19,960 You have a building. 2372 02:15:21,000 --> 02:15:22,960 As more excavations are conducted, 2373 02:15:22,960 --> 02:15:27,960 it becomes clear that the site held a very long occupation history. 2374 02:15:27,960 --> 02:15:29,880 It's promising news. 2375 02:15:29,960 --> 02:15:33,439 But to edge closer to proving this is Helike, 2376 02:15:33,439 --> 02:15:35,079 Katsonopoulou's team 2377 02:15:35,319 --> 02:15:36,960 need to uncover evidence 2378 02:15:37,000 --> 02:15:39,439 that this site was inhabited 2379 02:15:39,520 --> 02:15:41,880 during the Classical Period. 2380 02:15:42,880 --> 02:15:46,440 In the foundation trench of this building, 2381 02:15:46,439 --> 02:15:49,119 we discovered a nice group 2382 02:15:49,359 --> 02:15:52,799 of pottery fragments from earlier periods, 2383 02:15:52,880 --> 02:15:57,440 like Classical and even earlier, 2384 02:15:57,439 --> 02:16:00,079 going back to the 8th century BC. 2385 02:16:00,319 --> 02:16:05,439 That showed to us that we were in the right track, 2386 02:16:05,439 --> 02:16:07,519 we were in the right area. 2387 02:16:08,560 --> 02:16:12,520 The wealth of finds uncovered indicate that a significant, 2388 02:16:12,600 --> 02:16:16,400 prosperous, ancient city once existed here. 2389 02:16:16,439 --> 02:16:18,439 But although the team have found traces 2390 02:16:18,439 --> 02:16:20,519 of settlements from the Roman, 2391 02:16:20,600 --> 02:16:23,960 the early Bronze Age and Helladic periods, 2392 02:16:24,039 --> 02:16:26,079 they haven't found any structures 2393 02:16:26,319 --> 02:16:28,439 from the Classical Period, 2394 02:16:28,439 --> 02:16:31,879 the era that Helike existed in. 2395 02:16:38,799 --> 02:16:43,439 Until Professor Katsonopoulou's team make a discovery in 2001. 2396 02:16:44,959 --> 02:16:46,319 Beneath an olive grove, 2397 02:16:46,399 --> 02:16:47,600 they uncover a series 2398 02:16:47,840 --> 02:16:50,920 of structures teaming with artefacts. 2399 02:16:51,840 --> 02:16:52,960 When they date them, 2400 02:16:52,959 --> 02:16:56,079 it becomes clear they've hit the jackpot. 2401 02:16:56,959 --> 02:16:59,399 We can date these buildings as Classical 2402 02:16:59,440 --> 02:17:00,960 because of the finds 2403 02:17:01,040 --> 02:17:03,440 that is pottery, coins and other, 2404 02:17:03,479 --> 02:17:07,000 that date to the 4th century BC. 2405 02:17:08,879 --> 02:17:10,839 The artefacts fit the time frame 2406 02:17:10,920 --> 02:17:13,360 for the story of Helike's destruction. 2407 02:17:14,120 --> 02:17:17,000 And as Katsonopoulou sifts through the remains, 2408 02:17:17,079 --> 02:17:19,959 she comes across a timely remainder 2409 02:17:19,959 --> 02:17:22,359 that people once lived here, 2410 02:17:22,440 --> 02:17:26,120 an object which appears to be a family heirloom. 2411 02:17:27,040 --> 02:17:28,920 One of the more special finds 2412 02:17:28,959 --> 02:17:33,879 is the terracotta painted head of female idol, 2413 02:17:33,959 --> 02:17:39,959 which actually chronologically is not Classical, 2414 02:17:40,000 --> 02:17:42,120 is earlier than Classical. 2415 02:17:42,360 --> 02:17:46,920 Because this is a 6th century BC find, 2416 02:17:46,959 --> 02:17:50,959 and obviously this belonged 2417 02:17:51,040 --> 02:17:54,360 to the people who own this building. 2418 02:17:54,440 --> 02:17:56,520 And this was something like 2419 02:17:56,600 --> 02:17:58,840 they had inherited 2420 02:17:58,920 --> 02:18:02,040 from one generation to the other, 2421 02:18:02,120 --> 02:18:06,440 and was still remaining in this building in 373 BC. 2422 02:18:09,879 --> 02:18:13,359 Finally, Professor Katsonopoulou has proof 2423 02:18:13,440 --> 02:18:18,399 that a large city existed here in 373 BCE, 2424 02:18:19,440 --> 02:18:20,960 the year that Helike is said 2425 02:18:20,959 --> 02:18:23,839 to have been destroyed by a tsunami. 2426 02:18:24,920 --> 02:18:28,319 Had Katsonopoulou finally uncovered the lost city? 2427 02:18:28,959 --> 02:18:31,359 The ancient ruins her team have uncovered 2428 02:18:31,440 --> 02:18:33,399 match the historical 2429 02:18:33,440 --> 02:18:35,960 and geographical descriptions perfectly. 2430 02:18:36,959 --> 02:18:38,959 But a key question remains unanswered - 2431 02:18:39,040 --> 02:18:40,520 was there any proof 2432 02:18:40,600 --> 02:18:42,520 that this site had been destroyed 2433 02:18:42,600 --> 02:18:46,559 by a tsunami and submerged in a lagoon? 2434 02:18:47,440 --> 02:18:50,960 Without this, it's impossible to know for certain 2435 02:18:51,040 --> 02:18:53,800 whether the lost city of Helike 2436 02:18:53,879 --> 02:18:56,399 had finally been found. 2437 02:19:01,600 --> 02:19:04,479 If these ruins had once lay underwater, 2438 02:19:04,559 --> 02:19:08,479 then the remains of aquatic life might still be present. 2439 02:19:09,920 --> 02:19:12,120 Katsonopoulou's team re-examine the soil 2440 02:19:12,360 --> 02:19:15,480 brought up by bore hole drillings across the region. 2441 02:19:16,440 --> 02:19:18,440 When they analyse the sediment samples, 2442 02:19:18,520 --> 02:19:21,440 they make an important discovery, 2443 02:19:21,520 --> 02:19:23,960 evidence of microscopic organisms 2444 02:19:24,040 --> 02:19:27,320 usually found in a marine environment. 2445 02:19:27,399 --> 02:19:30,440 You have organisms in this soil sample 2446 02:19:30,520 --> 02:19:33,520 that show that the environment 2447 02:19:33,600 --> 02:19:35,399 in which they are found 2448 02:19:35,440 --> 02:19:39,399 is definitely a lagoonal environment. 2449 02:19:40,120 --> 02:19:43,440 These ruins were once submerged in a lagoon, 2450 02:19:43,440 --> 02:19:44,960 just as the ancient accounts 2451 02:19:45,000 --> 02:19:47,120 of the destruction of Helike described. 2452 02:19:48,120 --> 02:19:49,840 For Katsonopoulou, 2453 02:19:49,920 --> 02:19:52,120 she has proof that these ruins 2454 02:19:52,360 --> 02:19:55,360 are the lost city of Helike. 2455 02:19:56,000 --> 02:19:57,799 It's an incredible moment. 2456 02:19:58,600 --> 02:20:01,000 Finding something that, 2457 02:20:01,079 --> 02:20:03,000 for over a century, 2458 02:20:03,079 --> 02:20:07,120 was an unresolved problem for archaeology, 2459 02:20:07,360 --> 02:20:09,880 was a major moment. 2460 02:20:10,959 --> 02:20:12,439 It's an amazing feeling, 2461 02:20:12,479 --> 02:20:14,439 that it is difficult to describe. 2462 02:20:14,440 --> 02:20:16,960 It is a life's work for me. 2463 02:20:18,520 --> 02:20:21,040 Could these ruins finally reveal the truth 2464 02:20:21,120 --> 02:20:24,480 behind one of the Ancient World's greatest mysteries, 2465 02:20:24,559 --> 02:20:28,959 what actually caused the destruction of Helike. 2466 02:20:34,399 --> 02:20:36,039 According to the ancient texts, 2467 02:20:36,120 --> 02:20:39,360 Poseidon was angry with the inhabitants of Helike 2468 02:20:39,440 --> 02:20:41,360 and caused an earthquake, 2469 02:20:41,440 --> 02:20:43,440 which triggered a tsunami 2470 02:20:43,440 --> 02:20:46,440 that overwhelmed and submerged the city. 2471 02:20:46,440 --> 02:20:50,360 But was a tsunami actually responsible 2472 02:20:50,440 --> 02:20:52,480 for the eradication of Helike? 2473 02:20:53,399 --> 02:20:56,039 As Katsonopoulou's team examined the ruins, 2474 02:20:56,120 --> 02:20:57,960 they found clear evidence 2475 02:20:58,000 --> 02:21:00,559 that the structures had been destroyed, 2476 02:21:00,799 --> 02:21:02,959 and crucially, the destruction pattern 2477 02:21:02,959 --> 02:21:05,439 pointed to a great wave. 2478 02:21:06,920 --> 02:21:08,440 In two different locations 2479 02:21:08,440 --> 02:21:11,440 have been found Classical remains 2480 02:21:11,440 --> 02:21:14,600 of buildings destroyed, 2481 02:21:14,840 --> 02:21:17,319 and the interesting thing 2482 02:21:17,399 --> 02:21:19,440 is that in one case, 2483 02:21:19,520 --> 02:21:23,000 the way one of the walls is fallen, 2484 02:21:23,079 --> 02:21:26,559 shows that it was perhaps 2485 02:21:26,799 --> 02:21:30,439 the result of a backwash of a tsunami. 2486 02:21:32,440 --> 02:21:35,440 It was looking like the ancient texts were correct. 2487 02:21:36,479 --> 02:21:38,959 A tsunami had engulfed Helike. 2488 02:21:39,920 --> 02:21:42,000 But a closer analysis of the destruction layers 2489 02:21:42,079 --> 02:21:43,959 shows something else, 2490 02:21:44,879 --> 02:21:47,959 Helike had suffered wide scale destruction 2491 02:21:48,000 --> 02:21:50,959 before the tsunami hit, 2492 02:21:50,959 --> 02:21:53,959 almost as if the city was swallowed by the ground 2493 02:21:54,000 --> 02:21:56,959 prior to being engulfed. 2494 02:21:56,959 --> 02:21:59,079 What could have caused this? 2495 02:22:01,959 --> 02:22:04,439 The Gulf of Corinth is a really interesting area, 2496 02:22:04,440 --> 02:22:08,319 because it's the most seismically active part of Greece, 2497 02:22:08,399 --> 02:22:11,440 and Greece is the most seismically active part of Europe. 2498 02:22:11,479 --> 02:22:13,439 Geologist Iain Stewart 2499 02:22:13,479 --> 02:22:15,520 was investigating another earthquake 2500 02:22:15,600 --> 02:22:18,360 that had occurred in 1861 2501 02:22:18,440 --> 02:22:21,440 when his path crossed with Katsonopoulou. 2502 02:22:22,440 --> 02:22:24,960 What he discovered offered an answer. 2503 02:22:25,559 --> 02:22:27,959 I was doing what was called paleoseismology. 2504 02:22:28,040 --> 02:22:31,120 So, you kind of excavate along the fault line, 2505 02:22:31,360 --> 02:22:33,079 and you get some evidence 2506 02:22:33,319 --> 02:22:34,879 of when that fault last moved 2507 02:22:34,959 --> 02:22:36,439 during an earthquake. 2508 02:22:36,440 --> 02:22:40,000 I knew there was an earthquake that had happened in December 1861, 2509 02:22:40,079 --> 02:22:42,559 so my question was, was the fault that I was looking at 2510 02:22:42,799 --> 02:22:43,959 the one that also moved 2511 02:22:44,040 --> 02:22:47,040 in the earlier earthquake of 373 BC? 2512 02:22:48,440 --> 02:22:49,960 Stewart's geological analysis 2513 02:22:50,000 --> 02:22:51,959 highlighted many similarities 2514 02:22:51,959 --> 02:22:54,439 between the earthquake of 1861 2515 02:22:54,440 --> 02:22:59,560 and the earthquake that triggered the tsunami of 373 BCE. 2516 02:23:01,920 --> 02:23:04,879 His findings match the destruction seen at Helike. 2517 02:23:05,920 --> 02:23:08,079 There was large scale coastal submergence, 2518 02:23:08,319 --> 02:23:09,520 large areas of flooding, 2519 02:23:09,600 --> 02:23:11,559 there was lots of mud and water 2520 02:23:11,799 --> 02:23:13,079 that had erupted out. 2521 02:23:13,319 --> 02:23:14,959 There was fissuring of the landscape. 2522 02:23:16,399 --> 02:23:19,479 373 BC was a really big earthquake. 2523 02:23:19,559 --> 02:23:22,439 The plain dropped, maybe 3m. 2524 02:23:22,479 --> 02:23:24,439 The tops of the olive trees 2525 02:23:24,440 --> 02:23:26,040 were just sticking out of the water. 2526 02:23:26,120 --> 02:23:29,960 This would have been the most intense jolt 2527 02:23:29,959 --> 02:23:31,359 of this whole landscape. 2528 02:23:31,440 --> 02:23:32,960 The whole area would have been shaking. 2529 02:23:33,040 --> 02:23:34,840 And then, you just get the feeling of it 2530 02:23:34,920 --> 02:23:35,960 kind of collapsing down 2531 02:23:35,959 --> 02:23:37,319 into the sea. 2532 02:23:37,399 --> 02:23:38,399 It would have been 2533 02:23:38,440 --> 02:23:41,399 the most extraordinary event to have lived through. 2534 02:23:41,440 --> 02:23:42,480 Terrifying. 2535 02:23:43,959 --> 02:23:45,439 For Stewart, it seemed likely 2536 02:23:45,440 --> 02:23:48,600 the earthquake of 373 BCE 2537 02:23:48,840 --> 02:23:50,960 didn't just cause a tsunami, 2538 02:23:50,959 --> 02:23:52,919 but shook the ground so violently 2539 02:23:52,959 --> 02:23:56,439 that Helike was engulfed by water from below. 2540 02:23:57,479 --> 02:24:00,000 It's a process known as liquefaction. 2541 02:24:01,799 --> 02:24:03,959 It occurs when wet, loosely packed soil 2542 02:24:03,959 --> 02:24:05,519 is shaken by an earthquake. 2543 02:24:06,440 --> 02:24:08,520 It causes the soil particles to break contact 2544 02:24:09,520 --> 02:24:11,479 and the moisture rises to the surface. 2545 02:24:12,440 --> 02:24:16,040 Solid ground takes on the consistency of a liquid. 2546 02:24:17,440 --> 02:24:20,440 The main effects of liquefaction in 373 BC 2547 02:24:20,479 --> 02:24:23,079 are dramatic outpourings of water, 2548 02:24:23,319 --> 02:24:25,440 in some case kind of bursting and flooding out, 2549 02:24:25,479 --> 02:24:26,959 but in some cases fountains. 2550 02:24:26,959 --> 02:24:28,839 Like, almost like volcanic eruptions, 2551 02:24:28,920 --> 02:24:31,960 exploding out under great pressure. 2552 02:24:31,959 --> 02:24:33,439 Changing, transforming the whole 2553 02:24:33,440 --> 02:24:34,960 physical kind of landscape, 2554 02:24:34,959 --> 02:24:36,319 burying buildings, 2555 02:24:36,399 --> 02:24:37,559 burying people perhaps. 2556 02:24:38,799 --> 02:24:42,039 It seems that in 373 BCE, 2557 02:24:42,120 --> 02:24:43,960 the ancient city of Helike 2558 02:24:43,959 --> 02:24:46,439 was hit by a cataclysmic earthquake. 2559 02:24:47,799 --> 02:24:49,399 As the earth opened up, 2560 02:24:49,440 --> 02:24:50,960 the city and its inhabitants 2561 02:24:51,000 --> 02:24:54,440 were flooded by water bursting up from beneath their feet. 2562 02:24:55,799 --> 02:24:57,119 With the city all but destroyed, 2563 02:24:57,360 --> 02:24:59,920 the tsunami triggered by the earthquake 2564 02:24:59,959 --> 02:25:02,959 engulfed all that remained of Helike. 2565 02:25:03,959 --> 02:25:06,599 The city was lost beneath the waves. 2566 02:25:10,840 --> 02:25:13,440 While Helike is giving up its secrets, 2567 02:25:13,440 --> 02:25:16,079 the myth of the lost city of Atlantis 2568 02:25:16,319 --> 02:25:19,559 remains as big a mystery as it's ever been. 2569 02:25:21,319 --> 02:25:25,440 But as archaeologists continue to examine the evidence at Helike, 2570 02:25:25,440 --> 02:25:27,880 similarities between the city's demise 2571 02:25:27,959 --> 02:25:31,919 and Plato's tale of Atlantis become clear. 2572 02:25:32,959 --> 02:25:36,439 Could Helike's destruction be its inspiration? 2573 02:25:37,520 --> 02:25:39,960 Poseidon was the patron 2574 02:25:39,959 --> 02:25:42,399 and most important god of Helike. 2575 02:25:42,440 --> 02:25:43,960 As god of Earthquakes, 2576 02:25:44,040 --> 02:25:47,440 Poseidon was the most important god for Atlantis. 2577 02:25:47,440 --> 02:25:50,000 But there is another reason 2578 02:25:50,079 --> 02:25:54,440 that Plato would be interested in Helike's destruction, 2579 02:25:54,440 --> 02:25:56,079 he was in Athens, 2580 02:25:56,319 --> 02:25:58,440 Helike was not very far from Athens. 2581 02:25:58,440 --> 02:26:01,480 The phenomenon that destroyed Helike 2582 02:26:01,559 --> 02:26:04,439 impressed very much the ancients, 2583 02:26:04,440 --> 02:26:07,120 so Plato heard about it, 2584 02:26:07,360 --> 02:26:09,440 there is no doubt that he heard 2585 02:26:09,520 --> 02:26:11,120 and he knew about it. 2586 02:26:12,360 --> 02:26:13,520 In Plato's tale, 2587 02:26:13,600 --> 02:26:15,920 the citizens of Atlantis angered the gods, 2588 02:26:15,959 --> 02:26:17,879 who then sent an earthquake 2589 02:26:17,959 --> 02:26:20,919 that made Atlantis sink into the sea. 2590 02:26:21,959 --> 02:26:25,319 The Helike legend offers up a direct parallel. 2591 02:26:25,399 --> 02:26:27,959 Poseidon is said to have destroyed the city 2592 02:26:28,040 --> 02:26:29,840 in a fit of wrath 2593 02:26:29,920 --> 02:26:31,559 with the way the people of Helike 2594 02:26:31,799 --> 02:26:33,920 had behaved towards some visitors 2595 02:26:33,959 --> 02:26:36,439 wishing to venerate him. 2596 02:26:37,840 --> 02:26:39,440 If you look at the period in Greek history 2597 02:26:39,479 --> 02:26:41,000 that Plato lived through, 2598 02:26:41,079 --> 02:26:42,840 is there were lots of big earthquakes. 2599 02:26:42,920 --> 02:26:46,440 Ones like Helike, where you had cities destroyed overnight. 2600 02:26:46,440 --> 02:26:47,960 So to my mind, 2601 02:26:47,959 --> 02:26:49,359 it's perfectly reasonable 2602 02:26:49,440 --> 02:26:51,000 what Plato did was he took reality 2603 02:26:51,079 --> 02:26:52,959 that he was seeing unfolding around him, 2604 02:26:52,959 --> 02:26:55,519 and he transposed that into a story of a civilisation 2605 02:26:55,600 --> 02:26:57,559 that happened way in the past. 2606 02:26:57,799 --> 02:27:00,000 So it's one of those factional accounts really, 2607 02:27:00,079 --> 02:27:01,959 where there's a bit of fact in there 2608 02:27:02,000 --> 02:27:03,959 but there's also a little bit of fiction. 208223

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