Ancient Unexplained Files (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Secrets of Mayan Murders - full transcript

[narrator] 3d modeling

Reveals the gruesome details
of a maya mass murder...

[men yelling]

[greg] the classic maya way to do this

Would be to wrench the head back

And sever the neck from the front.

[narrator] ...Advanced laser
scanning uncovers the identity

Of a mysterious ancient carving...

I think we have our man.

No one else really comes close.

[narrator] ...And can
a 21st century autopsy



Solve the riddle of a
2,000-year-old cold case?

These wounds would've left him in agony,

But none of them were fatal.

This looks more like torture.

[narrator] in a digital
technology lab of the future

Experts uncover clues
invisible to the naked eye...

I've never seen anything like that before.

[narrator] ...And solve mysteries

That have baffled for centuries.

That, right there,

It's what scientists have been missing.

All the evidence point to
an incredible discovery.

This could be a game changer.

[narrator] state-of-the-art
digital technology



Closes the toughest cases...

This mystery finally makes sense.

[narrator] ...From the
ancient, unexplained files.

The state of campeche, mexico.

Archaeologists from germany

Are excavating an ancient water well,

When they unearth a
bone-chilling discovery.

[alexei] twenty skeletons are found

At the bottom of an ancient well.

They've been torn limb from limb.

Hands and feet in different locations

And skulls all over the place.

[andrew] whoever did this,

Did not just want to kill these people,

They wanted to destroy their bodies.

[narrator] not only were
the skeletons mutilated,

They appear discarded without ceremony.

These bodies have been
stripped of all possessions,

All ornamentation,

There are no offerings to the afterlife.

This is definitely not a normal burial.

[turi] who are these people,

And how did they end
up at the bottom of a well?

[narrator] now, investigators
turn to the latest digital techniques

To solve an ancient case of mass murder.

Spring 2013,

Alongside the mutilated skeletons,

Dr. Nicolaus seefeld
from the university of bonn

Discovers an array of broken pottery.

Analyzing them further

Reveals the shards date
back over 1,000 years,

Placing them within
the ancient city of uxul

In the maya empire.

[alexei] we know the maya buried the dead,

So what's with all these
shattered and destroyed bodies

In one well?

[narrator] the bodies
are forensically examined

In the hope of explaining
the bizarre burials.

The skeletons reveal chilling evidence.

[carla] cut marks were found
on practically every single bone

And they haven't healed.

So, this indicates they've been
made around the time of death.

[narrator] the cut marks could
be evidence of cannibalism.

But something doesn't line up.

The bones are lacking
evidence of cannibalism,

Because there aren't any
teeth marks or no marks

Directly on them.

So that does suggest another reason.

[narrator] further clues
found on the rib cage

Point to a chilling scene.

[carla] the fracture marks on the rib cage

Indicate that this person was eviscerated,

That organs were taken out.

It's like they're almost gutting
these individuals like fish.

[narrator] it's unclear if the
victims were dead or alive

When these wounds were inflicted.

But this carnage is only the start.

The exterior of the bones show
an even more horrifying practice.

[turi] there's a slight
yellowing to the bones.

They've also got a sort of shine to them.

Heat has been applied to these bones.

[sheila] the bones have not
been exposed directly to flame,

Because that would show
up as char on the bones.

However, it does seem that the limbs
have been placed in some sort of oven.

It seemed like they've been cooked.

[narrator] as lead researcher nicolaus
seefeld fits all the pieces together

A dark picture emerges.

[turi] it's very likely that
they would heat the remains.

Um, that allows them then, to
sort of peel off the skin and the fat,

And then you can use little blades

To peel off the flesh.

[narrator] archaeologists now ask

If this grisly scene
could hold further clues

To the identity of these victims.

It's hard to find out
who these people were,

Because they weren't
buried with any possessions.

[narrator] the archaeologists turn again

To the skeletons themselves.

By looking at the skeletal features,

Such as the cranial suture fusion,

The characteristics of the pelvises,

They're mostly around
18 to 40 years of age,

Males and females.

[narrator] there's little to go on,

Until the victims' teeth are examined.

Examining one of the skulls from the well,

Archaeologists found

A tiny jade insert on one of the teeth.

[narrator] incredibly, seven other skulls

Have teeth adorned in this way.

[sheila] to have teeth that have actually
been inset with some of this material

Means that these people
were like the of high status

And maybe even aristocracy or royalty.

[alexei] so how did the
members of an elite class

End up chopped, skinned
and at the bottom of a well?

[narrator] it's a question
scientists believe

May be answered by
using the latest 3d modeling.

In the digital lab, biomedical
expert, greg szulgit,

Begins by analyzing one
of the elite status skulls.

This is the first time that these
remains have been reconstructed

Into a fully interactive digital model,

And this should give us whole new insights

As to what might've happened here.

You can clearly see that the base
and skullcap have been fully detached

And the skullcap interestingly
was found on a stone block

Which suggests something
ritualistic going on.

When the on-site archaeologist dr. Seefeld

Examined the skull, Another clue emerged.

In this image, we can see
that there are fine cut marks

Across the side of the bone.

This is a telltale sign of scalping.

The skin would've been cut and peeled back,

Revealing the bone,

And then something like a flint hatchet

Probably would've been
used to chop the skullcap,

Removing it from the base.

That's not all.

Our 3d digital modeling also shows us

That three vertebrae were
still attached to the skull's base.

This hints a decapitation

Because the third vertebra down

Is where your neck just
becomes visible under your chin.

And other vertebrae recovered
from the site provide more evidence.

If we expand the image,
we see here a large gouge

And smaller cuts below
that, a sure sign of beheading.

The classic maya way to do this

Would be to wrench the head back

And sever the neck from the front.

And our evidence matches this.

The cut marks are also front on.

But decapitation wasn't an easy process.

These bone marks show the executioner

Working his blade,

Looking for the soft tissue
between the vertebrae.

Now, all of this smacks
of ritual sacrifice.

But one mystery remains.

The victims we know were high status,

Possibly even royalty.

Usually, they were the
ones ordering the sacrifices,

Not the ones succumbing to them.

[narrator] now, brand-new
evidence is about to reveal

An unexpected insight into these murders.

This isn't just part of ritual sacrifice.

This is how the maya
dealt with prisoners of war.

[narrator] digital forensics has shown that

High status skeletons discarded down a well

In the ancient maya city of uxul

Were ritually decapitated.

Experts are baffled

As to why local royalty
might be murdered in this way.

Dr. Nicolaus seefeld
from the university of bonn,

Now considers a new possibility.

That these elite victims
were not from uxul,

But were outsiders.

To test this new theory,
they use isotope analysis.

Isotopic tooth analysis
is based on the idea

That we grow up in areas that
have specific chemical properties.

These chemicals actually collect in things

Like our tooth enamel.

[narrator] if the elites are from uxul,

Their chemical signature will
match others found in the city.

Soil and plants are used as a comparison,

But for additional confirmation,

They retrieve a sample
from an unlikely animal donor.

A dog tooth was found in the well

And we know that dogs don't travel very far

From where they're first raised.

[narrator] the results from
the isotope comparison

Confirms the theory.

The strontium results from
these high-status individuals

That have been found in this well

Are actually very different
to that from the dog.

So that's a bit of a startling result.

These individuals were not local to uxul.

[narrator] but if the victims weren't local

Where were they from?

To find out, the samples are now compared

To others from across mesoamerica.

The results are staggering.

Most of the people killed
and placed in the well

Grew up over 90 miles away
in modern day guatemala.

[narrator] they are found to originate

From three cities along the
current mexico-guatemalan border.

Yaxchilan,

Piedras negras,

And bonampak.

The reason for these mutilated bodies

Is becoming clear.

This isn't just part of ritual sacrifice.

This is how the maya
dealt with prisoners of war.

[narrator] these elites
are in fact foreign enemies

Cruelly sacrificed.

[alexei] the sacrifice
would've been a public display.

It would've been the complete
vanquish of their enemies.

[all yelling]

[narrator] dr. Seefeld concludes

The mutilated bodies are in fact evidence

Of a violent conflict
between two maya city states.

We have warfare between the maya cities,

And in this case, an entire city was sacked

And the royal family was
taken away as captives,

Brought back to the victors'
homeland and sacrificed.

[knife slashes]

It appears that these
bodies found in the well

Were high-class victims of the uxul maya,

A show of power over
their enemies to the south.

[narrator] nearly 1,500
years after the event

Scientists discovered an
ancient case of ritual violence,

Revealing how captured elites of a maya war

Paid the ultimate price in defeat.

The maltese archipelago,
the mediterranean sea.

[tribal music playing]

Hidden in the island's ancient ruins,

Is a mystery that has
baffled experts for centuries.

Malta is home to incredible ancient temples

Made from enormous limestone blocks

Some of which are as much as 50 tons.

[peter] these are some of the
oldest prehistoric monuments

In the world.

They predate stonehenge and
the pyramids by several centuries.

[narrator] the advanced people

Who built these massive temples

Thrived here from around 3,600 bce.

But just 1,500 years later

All trace of this society
suddenly disappeared.

These people developed this
incredibly sophisticated civilization

And then, poof, they just vanished.

What happened to wipe
them off the face of the earth?

[narrator] malta and its neighbor gozo

Are the largest islands in
the maltese archipelago.

Here, 5,000 years ago,

An ancient culture left
behind an indelible legacy.

Thirty massive stone temple complexes.

The architecture of these
temples is truly remarkable.

They are shaped around a central arcade

With lobe shapes around them.

[allan] one of the biggest
temples is called ggantija,

Which means roughly
"the place of the giants,"

Because for a long time, people
thought these huge temples

Were actually built by giants.

[narrator] the massive
structures dominate the island,

Leading the civilization to
be named the temple people.

[peter] building just one of these
temples is a massive undertaking.

But malta has dozens of them.

Which suggests, the island must've
been home to a large population.

[narrator] evidence suggests
as many as 10,000 people

Lived on just 120 square miles of land.

The temple people culture sustained
one of the densest populations

Of any community in ancient europe.

[narrator] it's an incredible achievement,

Especially because
here, fresh water is scarce,

And temperatures can
reach 100 degrees fahrenheit.

Against these odds,

The temple culture people
built not just a strong society,

But a thriving society.

[karen] this was a seriously
sophisticated civilization.

And so, their disappearance
is all the more puzzling.

[narrator] for over a century,
it's remained a mystery.

But in 2013,

Archaeologists from queens
university, belfast in northern ireland

Take a new approach.

They collect ground core samples

To piece together what was going on

In the environment at the time.

[sian] one of the more interesting things

That we can find in soil core samples

Is pollen.

And that pollen can tell us

What type of flora and fauna existed

During that time period.

[narrator] the soil samples
reveal something alarming.

[sian] when the early
temple people arrived,

It appears that the tree
pollen drops off dramatically.

This suggests that they
chopped down all the trees.

The problem is, when you cut down the trees

The ground will rapidly
start to deteriorate.

[narrator] could the temple
people's farming practices

Have brought about their own downfall?

Something is clearly going wrong.

[narrator] on the island of malta,

An ancient culture built temples

Rivaling any others on earth.

Then, mysteriously, these people vanished.

Experts suspect that deforestation
may have led to their demise.

Searching for evidence
to prove this theory,

They used mass spectrometry

To measure soil nutrient
levels from 4,000 years ago.

This technique looks at

The molecules in ancient seeds and pollen.

It's almost like looking at the
fingerprint of the soil at the time.

[narrator] the results
reveal a surprising twist.

The temple people compensated
for the loss of the forests

By actively improving the soil.

These people figured out
how to fertilize the land.

So, they kept putting
animal dung back into it

To enrich the soils
which were poor without it.

[narrator] but the soil chemistry shows

They were not only working
to make the earth more fertile,

They were taking great
lengths to preserve water.

[karen] they're mixing their
grain husk waste back into the soil

To help it maintain its humic quality

Or its ability to retain water.

[narrator] they had
good reason for doing so.

The most precious resource on malta by far

Has to be its water.

And it's very limited.

There are no rivers or streams,

Just seasonal springs that dry up.

[narrator] further excavations

Uncovered a wealth of
animal bones across the island,

Evidence of a high
reliance on farming livestock.

Water shortages would
have been devastating.

[allan] the temple culture
people would've needed

To very carefully manage their livestock,

Because livestock consume a lot of water.

[narrator] could an
overdependence on animal farming

Have caused large-scale water shortages?

Further analysis
reveals a striking pattern.

[karen] study of animal bones
shows that there were two cows

To every ten to twelve sheep on the island.

This actually tallies
with the amount of water

Required by each animal, respectively,

And the amount of water on the island.

[narrator] it's evidence.

Animal numbers were carefully managed.

[jacob] you only can afford
to farm as many animals

As the water supply can sustain.

And the temple people managed
to maintain this delicate equilibrium.

[narrator] far from being
the cause of their downfall

The temple people's
meticulous farming techniques

Allowed them to prosper
for over 1,000 years.

The society was anything but reckless.

And so, it's unlikely that their demise

Was at least solely to their own mistakes,

Or at their own hands.

So, what happened?

[narrator] to crack the mystery

They focused on the
temple people themselves,

By studying bones

Uncovered at the xaghra
stone circle on the island of gozo.

[jacob] within xaghra, there's a
huge underground funerary complex

Or hypogeum.

It is packed with tens of
thousands of human bones.

[narrator] there are a
staggering 220,000 bones

From an estimated 800 individuals.

The remains represent

An incredible 30 generations
of the temple people.

This is a huge breakthrough.

Analysis of such a huge
concentration of intact bones

Offers researchers the
ability to really examine

What caused the demise of these people.

[narrator] the archaeologists
radiocarbon date

The oldest bones first

To figure out the state of
the temple people's health

Back in 3,600 bce.

[jacob] bones from earlier in this society

Show healthy individuals.

They are lean, they
show little signs of arthritis,

And they are eating a balanced
diet of meat and vegetables.

[narrator] but when they study
the bones from 1,500 years later,

A disturbing trend emerges.

[jacob] something is clearly going wrong.

The bones show signs
of heavy wear and tear.

[narrator] by 2,300 bce, the temple people

Were literally working
themselves to the bone.

But what is worse, their
diet had completely changed.

Carbon isotope analysis
of the bone is showing that

They are not eating much meat anymore.

And that suggests that
they simply couldn't support

The livestock at this point.

An important question is, could
there have been other factors

Contributing to this?

-[rumbling] -[narrator] they
turn again to core samples,

Studying the soil record
for this precise period.

Ancient seed and pollen
traces reveal a vital clue.

We can see that malta begins to experience

Dramatic climate change.

Powerful floods, alternating
with harsh droughts.

Water eventually becomes even scarcer

And crops begin to fail.

[narrator] in the maltese archipelago,

An ancient culture known for
constructing massive stone temples

Vanished after suffering the effects
of catastrophic climate change.

The cause is a mystery.

Searching for clues,

Experts study broader
european tree ring data

To gain a picture of any climatic shifts

From 4,000 years ago.

[peter] fossilized trees
are the gold standard

For tracking global climatic events.

In good years, tree growth
rings are fat and healthy,

But in bad years, they're small.

[narrator] the tree
ring record is shocking.

It shows the drought conditions

Coincide exactly with the
demise of the temple people.

[peter] around 2300 bc,

We see the growth rings shrink so small

That you can't see them
with your naked eye.

These trees are under extreme stress.

In a place like malta,
having a drought like that

Would not have been
sustainable for very long.

If the trees are under stress,

You can bet that the temple
people are even worse off.

[narrator] but a question remains.

What caused this devastating climate event?

Some experts put the blame

On a catastrophic volcanic eruption.

But not everyone is convinced.

If a volcanic eruption
wrecked the climate of malta,

We might expect to see
chemical signatures in the soil,

But we haven't found any.

There is no consensus
on the cause of the event,

So we may never know

What tipped the temple
people over the edge.

[narrator] the cause of
the environmental disaster

May still be a mystery,

But its effects are undeniable.

An entire 1,500-year-old
civilization wiped out,

Leaving only their vast temples to survive.

The temple people culture
was incredibly successful

Over a long period of time,

In part due to this sustainable
agricultural management system

That they developed on their own.

But it was nevertheless a tenuous system,

Such that a substantial climate event

Was enough to just throw it off-kilter

And contribute to the fall of civilization.

[narrator] bosham, southern England.

For over two centuries,

A coastal village has been
mystified by a giant boulder

Uncovered in the garden of a local church.

It appears to resemble a head,

But the details are beyond recognition.

[darius] it's encrusted,
it's dirty, it's kind of blobby,

But you can really make out

There's actually somebody in there.

If you take a look at the scale,

Automatically, you're thinking,

This is not your average individual.

This is somebody of some importance,

But the question is, who?

[narrator] now, after 200 years of mystery,

Can 21st century laser scanning

Finally reveal the name behind the face?

In the 1,700s, a boulder
weighing over 370 pounds

Is unearthed in the
grounds of the parish church.

It appears to be an ancient
carving of a human head,

But the face is almost entirely worn away.

You can see the indent for the eyes

And traces of the nose and mouth and hair.

But beyond that, it's impossible
to recognize who this is.

[narrator] archaeologists
can't even put a date

On when the head may have been carved.

Because it's a battered stone,

Um, it's impossible to radiocarbon date it,

Because there's no carbon in it.

Having no means of dating,

Makes the job of cracking
this case that much harder.

[narrator] with little to go on,

The mineral composition of the rock

Is used as potential evidence.

[karen] looking at the surface
of this rock under a microscope,

We see some really
distinct crystalline structures.

And combined with the
sugary texture of its appearance

We can conclude it's marble.

[narrator] for centuries

Marble has been a
prized material for carving.

[chelsea] some of the most
famous sculptures in history

Are carved in marble.

Think of the parthenon marbles

Or michelangelo's david.

[narrator] the origins
of this distinctive stone

Can now offer a clue

To the identity of the mysterious head.

There's no marble in
britain, so it's an import.

Where is marble, white marble coming from?

It's coming from greece,

It's coming from western turkey,

It's coming from Italy.

[narrator] searching for
who might have imported

The vast stone to britain,

Archaeologists study
the history of the church.

The head came from the garden of a church

That's one of the oldest in sussex.

Legend has it that this
church was constructed

Over the remains of a roman basilica.

[narrator] the romans ruled
britain from 43 ce to 410 ce

Leaving countless archaeological
remains all over England.

This area of sussex

Is absolutely full of roman material

Very close to where this statue was found.

[karen] so, if we gather up all the
crumbs of evidence we've come up with,

This head clearly seems
to be somehow related

To Italy and the romans.

[narrator] for 200 years,

The face has been too
disfigured to be identified.

Now, can modern 3d scanning
reveal what's hidden in the rock?

This is the real clue.

Only the deified get portrayed
on such a grand scale.

[narrator] the identity
of an ancient stone head

Found buried in an english village

Has baffled experts for over 200 years.

Now, 21st century laser scanning

Could uncover details never seen before.

During this 3d scanning,

A laser is projecting a beam
of light down on to this object

And cameras are recording data

And creating what's called a point cloud,

Capturing millions of points of data.

[narrator] the 3d image could
unlock details of the head

Not seen since the marble was carved.

But it needs careful interpretation

If it's to prove this head is roman.

Historian, sascha
auerbach, is in the tech lab

To take a closer look.

What's brilliant about the digital model

Is I can give it a shiny surface like this,

Enhancing their many facial features.

The hair really comes out

And it looks like we've got
some type of ancient bowl cut.

Not the height of fashion today,

But back in the first
and second centuries ce,

This was the go-to haircut
for an aristocratic roman.

While there's a good thatch up top

There's a distinct lack of facial hair

And this is more
revealing than you'd think.

We know when emperor
hadrian came back into power

In 117 ce,

Beards came back into fashion again.

So I'd say that our subject
predates the hadrian era

And he is almost certainly roman.

But the big clue to me, is
literally the big size of the head.

It's over double life-size.

This is the real clue.

Only the deified get portrayed
on such a grand scale,

And particularly roman emperors.

Crucially, only six emperors

Had this particular honor
bestowed upon them

Prior to 117 ce.

Now we are down to just a
half-dozen possible candidates.

Vespasian is out,
obviously, because he's bald.

Let's compare a few others.

Titus... Too curly.

Augustus... Hmm, his face is too thin.

Trajan... Oh, look, the
haircut's very similar.

There's something else.

If we zoom in,

There's a deeply scored line
running from nose to corner of mouth.

That's also an important similarity.

I think we have our man.

No one else really comes close.

Our digital technology

Has turned a nearly featureless stone block

Into the emperor trajan.

[narrator] trajan ruled the roman empire

From 98 ce until his death in 117 ce.

At the time, he's the first
emperor who's chosen

Who's not even from Italy.

And he's actually a successor

Because he is successful as a general.

[chelsea] after trajan rises to power,

He prioritizes expanding the roman empire.

He extends rome's reach
south from scotland to north africa

And east to iraq.

When he dies, he
receives all kinds of honors.

He is deified, he gets temples,

And people are erecting statues to him

All over the empire.

[narrator] this could explain

Why a vast carving of trajan's head

Ended up in the tiny
seaside settlement of bosham.

[chelsea] near to bosham
is the city of chichester,

A naval port that played a
critical role in the roman invasion.

A very convincing
explanation for this head,

Is it formed part of a colossal statue

That was erected at the
head of chichester harbor,

Which we know from the roman period,

It was one of the main principal
gateways into roman britain.

[narrator] cutting-edge 3d laser scans

Have revealed that this
lump of misshapen rock

Found in an english village

Is in fact the 2,000-year-old face

Of one of rome's greatest emperors.

County offaly, ireland.

Workers repairing a water drain

In an industrial peat bog
make a grim discovery.

The mutilated remains of a man.

It's a gruesome sight.

It's just the torso with no head.

And the skin is dark
and tanned and leathery.

Seriously, it is something
straight out of a horror movie.

What could explain such a macabre death?

[narrator] now,
cutting-edge forensic science

May finally uncover the
identity of the body in the bog,

And reveal the shocking
truth about his gruesome death.

The head and the lower
half of the body are missing,

But the skin appears
in near perfect condition.

On-site workers wonder if they've
just discovered a modern murder.

The police are called

And they try to identify this victim.

Of course, without a head they
don't have any dental records.

[narrator] they search the body
for clues to the man's identity.

Their attention is drawn
to his remarkable hands.

The hands are in very good condition.

The fingers are incredibly detailed

And you can even see the
whorl patterns on the fingerprints.

[narrator] the pristine hands suggest

The man may have died recently,

But the state of the
skeleton is very different.

The soft tissue is
incredibly well-preserved,

But what happened to the bones?

It's like they've been squashed flat.

Now, what could do this?

[narrator] to explain the
strange state of the bones,

They consider whether the
bog itself could be responsible.

[kiki] bog moss produces a
compound called sphagnum,

Which actually leaches
the calcium out of the bones.

The process makes them
bendy and kind of squishy,

And then the weight of the
bog can bend them out of shape.

[narrator] the leaching process

Explains why the man's
torso has been pressed flat.

It also rules out one
line of investigation.

The process of demineralization
takes hundreds of years.

So, this body isn't a recent murder victim.

[narrator] to find out exactly
how old the body really is,

They send a tissue sample
for radiocarbon dating

And get an astonishing result.

[allan] radiocarbon dating of these remains

Puts the body earlier than 2,000 years ago,

Which would've been at about
the height of the celtic iron age.

[narrator] the iron age victim
is named old croghan man

After the location of the
bog where he was buried.

The bog also appears responsible

For his remarkable preservation

After two millennia.

The cold, acidic, oxygen-free
environment of the bog

Is actually perfect for preventing decay

And will mummify the human flesh.

[narrator] but how did old croghan
man die over 2,000 years ago?

A 21st century autopsy
reveals ancient evidence.

[carla] there's a wound
on the upper left arm,

Which could be a defense wound.

And they tend to occur when
somebody's trying to defend themselves

Against a weapon like this.

[man yelling]

[narrator] the arm injury

Could be from a blow sustained in battle.

But other bizarre clues

Suggest something more unsettling.

His nipples have been sliced open.

They've been mutilated.

Holes were cut in his upper arms

Through which hazel ropes were passed,

Probably in order to restrain him.

All of these wounds would've left
them in agony and they were brutal

But none of them were fatal.

This looks more like torture.

[narrator] a 2,000-year-old body

Unearthed in an irish peat
bog is revealing grisly injuries

That are clear evidence of torture.

Now, experts believe

They've found what finally killed the man.

[carla] there's a deep
stab wound to the chest,

Probably caused by a sword or a dagger.

And it's this which is the fatal blow.

[narrator] the facts are now clear.

This man was tortured and then murdered.

But it didn't end there.

After he died,

He was decapitated and then cut in half.

[narrator] this extraordinary
level of violence

Is far more than necessary to kill a man.

The team now suspect

That this is not simply a
case of ancient murder.

We need to draw a distinction
here within the evidence,

Because while this torture would
have been agonizing and brutal,

It doesn't seem to be mindless.

The intent is to inflict pain

And something that would be
much more ritualistic or ceremonial.

It's pretty clear that old croghan man

Was ritualistically murdered.

[narrator] the question is, why?

The key to cracking the mystery

Could be determining who
old croghan man really was.

The proportions of the torso tell us that

He was a young man, around 25 years of age,

And the size, tells us he
was quite powerfully built,

And about 5'11".

[sheila] iron age ireland

Was essentially rural and agricultural.

So we might consider, for example,

Was this powerfully-built
young man a farmer?

[narrator] an examination of his hands

Casts doubt on the theory.

[carla] because the hands
are so well preserved,

We can see that the nails
are relatively well-manicured,

And there's no calluses.

[kiki] his hands had not
seen a day's hard work

And that would've been really
unusual in iron age society.

[narrator] could his diet
shed light on his identity?

To find out, isotopic analysis
is used on his fingernails.

Based on the nitrogen
levels in the analysis,

We can say that he had a meat-rich diet

For at least four months before he died.

[sheila] meat is essentially
a luxury item even back then.

This indicates that this man likely
had high wealth or high status.

[narrator] but another find

Suggests he was even more important.

[allan] he was wearing a
leather band on his upper arm,

And there is a design on the
band that represented the sun.

And this is a symbol
that in the celtic iron age

Was very closely associated with kingship.

[kiki] the well-manicured nails,

The callus-free hands,

The meat-rich diet,

And now, kingly jewelry?

All adds up to old croghan
man being irish royalty,

Maybe even a king.

[narrator] it's a compelling theory

Made stronger by the evidence of
old croghan man's lacerated nipples.

[sheila] in ireland, during the iron age

The king's chest and his nipples included,

Were a symbol of his power and his prowess.

Slicing off or cutting the nipples

Would be a devastating loss of power.

It would mean that you were no longer king.

[narrator] but what
could the king have done

To deserve such a terrible fate?

[allan] iron age celtic culture

Were effectively chiefly societies,

Which means that the chief
or the king were responsible

For the maintenance and
sustenance of the community.

If something goes wrong,
the king is held responsible.

[narrator] and kings were severely punished

When things didn't go to plan.

[allan] if a society or community

Is suffering tremendously at this time,

It's very possible that they
might ritualistically murder the king

And remove him permanently from office.

[narrator] the evidence
points to old croghan man

Being ritually murdered
for failing his tribe.

Now, scientists hope to
explain the nature of his failure,

And ask whether clues might
be hidden in the bog itself.

Peat accumulates in easy-to-read layers.

Within a layer, the variety of
fossilized plants and organisms

Is like a record of our
environment over time.

[narrator] they analyzed the
deep layers of organic material

And discovered evidence of
a catastrophic climate event.

Incredibly, it dates back to the era

In which old croghan man was killed.

During the early iron age,
there was this dramatic shift

To a wetter, colder environment

Where rainfall increased
and the weather cooled.

For iron age people,
it was likely a disaster,

Leaving the harvest in ruins

And potentially starving the people.

[narrator] for the king,
this natural disaster

Would've spelled the end of his reign.

Old croghan man may have
been seen to have failed as a king

Because the climate destroyed the harvest.

[narrator] his people had no choice

But to sacrifice their failed king

In order to appease the
gods and anoint a new leader.

The inauguration of a new king

Would have been seen
like a wedding celebration,

The king being wedded
to the goddess of the earth.

And so, the burial of the former king,

The one who had been sacrificed,

Would've been seen as almost an offering

To the blessings of this new union.

[narrator] modern forensic science

Has solved a 2,000-year-old mystery

To show how climate catastrophe

May have driven an iron age tribe

To ritually murder their king,

Then ceremoniously place him in the bog.

What initially appeared to
just be a body thrown in a bog

Turns out to very likely
have been an irish king

Who paid the ultimate price

By not being able to sustain his society.