Ancient Unexplained Files (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Tomb of the Red Queen - full transcript
In an abandoned Maya city, an archaeologist discovers the tomb of a mysterious red skeleton decorated in jade and pearl treasures; experts use cutting-edge tech to reveal who this person was and why they were buried so.
[narrator] the world's
greatest prehistoric ape
Is traced via revolutionary genealogy.
You can imagine that when it was alive,
This was the kind of thing the legends
Or nightmares might sprout from.
[narrator] the face behind
an eerie red skeleton
Is unveiled through chemical analysis.
This is genuinely creepy
And in all my years as an archeologist,
I have never seen anything quite like it.
[narrator] and can science
Finally crack a millennia
old stonehenge puzzle?
These massive stones have been subject to
Theory after theory,
One of the biggest mysteries
Has been, "where do these
megaliths actually come from?"
[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 is what
scientists have been missing.
All the evidence points 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.
Oxford, England.
Beneath one of the world's
most prestigious universities,
Archaeologists discover a buried ruin.
The excavations at oxford university
Are pretty exciting because they find
This 4,000 year old
neolithic temple complex.
But they also find artifacts
from the middle ages
And so they think, "wow, this is a bonus
We'll do a little more
excavation around here."
As the team continues to
dig, they find broken pottery
And food debris, then
they start to find bones.
Lots and lots of human bones.
[narrator] dozens of individuals are found,
But it's the manner of their
burial that's most disturbing.
These are not bones lovingly laid out
In ceremonial burial,
They've just been tossed
in there like garbage.
There's nothing from the bones themselves
To suggest what period they're dead from.
There are no grave
gifts, there are no coffins.
This is a case of dumping the victims
Of a really traumatic event.
[narrator] it's clear these people
suffered horrendous deaths.
The butchered bones
portray obscene violence.
[carla] twenty-seven skulls
were broken or cracked,
Indicating traumatic head injury.
One skull has evidence
of 10 separate punctures
From heavy weaponry.
This looks like a slaughter.
[narrator] now, can forensic pathology
Make sense of the shattered bones
And reveal what caused this
Ugly stain in tranquil oxford?
This is like the most difficult
Jigsaw puzzle you could possibly imagine.
These people were bloody and brutalized.
Who could have done it and why?
[narrator] this human bone
pit was discovered in 2008.
As other archaeological
finds span thousands of years,
An accurate date for the
bodies needs to be established.
When the bone's already carbon dated,
They're shown to date to the late 10th
Or early 11th century.
This is a period of english history
when the anglo-saxon monarchy
Arrived at the peak of its powers.
[narrator] anglo-saxon England
was divided into several kingdoms,
Each with its own army and war chief
Or king.
By the 10th century,
The wessex dynasty takes control,
Creating one kingdom for the english.
Around the 10th century,
they enjoy a period of calm
Under the rule of king edgar the peaceful.
But it wasn't peaceful for
everyone in the country.
The law of the land is extremely harsh
And public executions become
the norm around the country.
[all yelling]
[narrator] but analysis
of the human remains
Removes any possibility this oxford grave
Is an execution cemetery.
[dr. Allan] bio-archaeological analysis
Tells us that the
individuals here were males.
And they were only in
the age range of 16-25
So this couldn't have
been an execution ground
For criminals because you would
expect a much broader range,
[narrator] isotopic tests are
run on the dead men's bones
To shed more light on their backgrounds.
In childhood, we take up different
elements from the food and water
That we consume. And that leaves
A kind of chemical marker that
reflect our geographic environment.
In this case, what they
find is quite extraordinary.
These people seem
to be eating a lot of fish,
Consistent with origins in scandinavia.
[auerbach] this evidence
suggests the men in this grave
Weren't anglo-saxons at all.
We're probably looking at viking remains.
[narrator] since 793 c.E.,
Vikings have been striking
mortal fear into christian England.
Their great heathen army rampaged
through northern and eastern England.
Ripping apart anglo-saxon kingdoms.
[jarman] by the ninth
century, an area called
The danelaw has been established
Probably hundreds of
thousands scandinavian settlers
Across England
And for the most part, they seem
to be interacting quite peacefully
With the local population.
[narrator] this makes it
all the more mystifying
Why these oxford vikings were targeted
In such a horrific way.
Perhaps the injured bones may offer clues.
When the archaeologists set
about trying to study the bones,
And trying to assign
Different bones to specific individuals,
They realize that it's a
nearly insurmountable task.
Bones are mixed together
and many of their skulls
Are horribly crushed, sometimes
into hundreds of pieces.
[narrator] after months of
piecing together this human jigsaw,
37 individuals are counted.
A selection of injuries are recorded
With ultra-high res photographs.
Then, shared with the forensics tech lab
For bio medic greg szulgit to analyze.
The first thing that strikes me is just the
Scale, the level of the
violence, it's really horrific.
Take this skull for example.
There are at least eight blade wounds
From what looks like swords or axes.
Some of them, really prominent.
This same victim, has two
distinctive puncture wounds
In his vertebrae, here and here.
Zooming in, we see that this diamond shape
Resembles a spear tip.
There are also spear
wounds in another guys pelvis.
The sheer force drove the weapon
clean through this thick bone.
What's more, the same victims forehead
Has severe charring to the bone.
So, not only was this
person stabbed in the back,
They were also set on fire.
Charring is also evident
on many other victims bones.
And if you analyze this
individual's femur bones,
They both displayed deep gouges
Just above back of the knees
This persons hamstrings
would have been severed
Robbing them of the ability to run.
They would have been a sitting duck.
Most of the wounds
are to the legs and back,
It appears that these men were hacked down
While fleeing for their lives.
[narrator] armed with this information,
Investigators scour historical texts.
It leads them towards one of the most
infamous genocides in british history.
-[men yelling] -it's ethnic
cleansing on a massive scale.
That left blood on the
hands of the king himself.
[narrator] in oxford, England,
A mass grave dating to medieval
times has horrified experts.
Forensic lab analysis has exposed
a massacre of unimaginable violence.
Not only was this person
stabbed in the back,
They were also set on fire.
[narrator] using this lab evidence,
Investigators discover a
potential clue in medieval texts.
We actually have some historical evidence
From 1004 that describes how in oxford,
Danish residents were chased into a church.
And the only way to get rid of
them was to set fire to the church.
[dramatic music playing]
The evidence of burning
on some of the bodies,
From the mass grave found in oxford,
May relate to precisely this attack.
[narrator] experts now
believe these persecuted danes
Could be victims of a notorious genocide
Known as the saint brice's day massacre.
It all stemmed from the
king's rampant paranoia.
Right at the beginning of the 11th century,
There's a rumor that a group of danes
Want to assassinate the
anglo-saxon king, ethelred.
[mark schwarts] ethelred
decides to preemptively strike.
The king sends out a decree
Saying that all norsemen
Living in his land should be killed.
[grunting]
It's ethnic cleansing on a massive scale.
[narrator] this oxford grave is
believed to be the first tangible evidence
Of this brutal purge.
It would trigger a chain of events
That fundamentally alters english history.
The massacre of viking peoples
on saint brice's day in 1002,
Sets off this 10-year war
Between the anglo-saxons and the vikings.
Which greatly weakens the anglo-saxons
And allows basically the
norman invasion of 1066.
The norman leader, william the conqueror,
Brings in a new form of
government and new cultural practices
That will form the basis
for an entirely new nation.
And that whole process starts with a
brutal massacre on saint brice's day.
[narrator] southeast mexico.
The historic maya ruins of palenque.
In 1994, during routine
maintenance inspections
On temple xiii, archaeologist fanny lopez
Makes a startling discovery.
There are some cracks in
the stairs, and when fanny
Shines her flashlight into them, she sees
A previously unknown passageway
Leading into the bowels of the building.
[narrator] when her team
excavates their way in,
They discover two empty chambers
Flanking a sealed door.
The maya don't seal temples or
rooms or doorways for no reason.
They do it because there's
something important inside.
[narrator] the door is levered open.
Inside, are two skeletons dominated
by an enormous sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus is chiseled
out of a single piece of limestone
And it's covered with a heavy flagstone
When they get this sarcophagus open,
They're greeted with a shocking
sight of these mysterious remains
Coated in this red powder.
[karen bellinger] this is genuinely creepy
And in all my years as an archaeologist,
I have never seen anything quite like it.
[narrator] for over a decade,
These menacing scarlet bones
have been filed as unexplained.
Now, groundbreaking science
Is being called in to
trace who they belong to.
This is the biggest discovery in
mayan archaeology in 40 years.
It's stunning and yet, we don't
know this woman's identity.
[narrator] palenque was
an important maya city,
Which flourished between 600 and 750 c.E.
The temples, ornate
palaces and inscriptions
Have long been a valuable source
of information about the maya.
It makes this red skeleton shock
discovery all the more bewildering.
[rose] this is a lavishly
filled sarcophagus,
One of the richest in the mayan world.
Jade beads and precious malachite
Adorn the skeleton's skull.
The jewels, the powder,
All of this really indicates
that this is a stunning discovery.
[narrator] first, the red
skeleton is studied anatomically
To find out who this high status maya was.
[turi king] so when you look at
the size and the shape of the pelvis,
What this is showing us is that
this is a woman aged about 50 to 60.
The really interesting
thing is that we have
Never seen a woman in mayan
society given such a lavish burial
This is clearly a very important woman.
[narrator] could the red
dust coating her skeleton
Be part of this prestigious
funerary practice?
Its chemical contents are analyzed.
The tests come back and they're conclusive,
The red powder is mercuric oxide,
Better known as cinnabar.
And its presence on this
burial means this woman clearly
Was of high status in her community,
Perhaps even a queen.
[kinkella] she is given the
nickname the red queen.
She is definitely red, but is she a
queen and is she even from palenque?
There are no inscriptions on
the sarcophagus or on the tomb,
So we have to look elsewhere
to find out this woman's identity.
[narrator] experts consider
whether her elaborate burial
Connects the so-called red queen
To the legendary maya
ruler, king pakal the great.
On his death, pakal is buried
Deep inside the temple of the inscriptions
In a sarcophagus that weighed 20 tons.
It's the only other sarcophagus
found in palenque up till today.
This close association we see between
The temple and the sarcophagi
Indicate that king pakal
and the woman in temple xiii,
Must be related in some manner.
[narrator] further examination of the
lavish treasures in the red queen's tomb,
Cements this royal connection.
It turns out that the
artifacts of limestone,
Malachite and obsidian, were not
placed within the tomb separately.
They are part of a
singular, larger artefact.
When we carefully put
the pieces back together,
We realize that this woman
was buried with an incredible,
Ornate funerary mask.
In the maya world,
Funerary face masks are
associated with royal burials.
This is an extraordinary thing.
It is literally the only funerary face mask
Of its kind ever found
associated with a female body.
But who exactly was she?
And what was she to pakal?
[narrator] in palenque, mexico,
A red skeleton is one
of the most significant
And haunting finds of this maya city.
An ornate funerary mask points to royalty.
And a connection with
legendary ruler, pakal the great.
[rose] she's given the nickname
"the red queen of palenque."
Could it be someone close to king pakal?
[narrator] according to
palenque inscriptions,
Pakal had three royal women in his life,
Sak k'uk, his mother,
Tzakbu ajaw, his wife
And yohl ik'nal, the first and
only true queen of palenque.
Radio carbon dating is used to
determine which is the mystery red queen.
The mercuric oxide covering
the red skeleton has contaminated
The bones, making it
impossible to get a good date.
But two skeletons found
outside of sarcophagus
Are not covered in that red dust.
These two companions would have been
Buried at the same time as the red queen
To help her into this
transition in the afterlife
And it also helps us
date her burial as well.
[narrator] the radio carbon
samples from these two skeletons
Date somewhere from 650-660 c.E.
So, the red queen was buried
in the mid-seventh century.
This eliminates yohl ik'nal from contention
Because we know she died in a.D. 604.
This evidence strongly suggests
That the red queen found at palenque,
Is either tzakbu ajaw, pakal's
wife or his mother, sak k'uk.
[narrator] archaeologists
hope isotope analyses,
A chemical indicator of
an individual's background,
Will finally settle which
one is the red queen.
Strontium is an element
that builds up in human teeth
Because it's found
naturally in ground water.
Strontium actually leaches
into the water from rocks.
But each geographical location
is going to have its different
Sort of rock formations
and that's going to affect
The levels of strontium in your teeth.
The results say that the red queen
Wasn't originally from palenque.
She was an outsider, raised
in the surrounding area.
[narrator] critically, only tzakbu ajaw
Grew up in the neighboring region.
Over 1,000 years after the red queen died,
And a quarter century
since she was rediscovered,
Science has put a name
to palenque's red skeleton.
These results suggest that the
red queen married into royalty.
Tzakbu ajaw appears to have been revered
by her husband and the mayan community.
Upon her death, she is given a burial
That is befitting of a true
ruler of the mayan civilization.
[narrator] southern England.
Rising majestically from salisbury plain,
Is the world's most
recognizable neolithic monument,
Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is a site
steeped in myth and legend.
A circle of stones built
over 5,000 years ago.
A stonehenge has
dominated public imagination
For generation after generation.
These massive stones
Have been subject to theory after theory.
One of the biggest mysteries has been,
"where do these megaliths
actually come from?"
[narrator] in 2015, archaeologists
make a crucial breakthrough,
They trace the smaller blocks,
Called bluestone, to preseli in wales,
Around 180 miles away.
But the larger sarsen stones,
some weighing 30 tons,
Remain an enigma.
[auerbach] given that the blue
stones were dragged on wooden sleds
Over 100 miles,
Trying to pinpoint the source of
the sarsens within so wide an area
Is a daunting task indeed.
[narrator] can state-of-the-art
science finally find
The missing pieces to
this giant sarsen puzzle?
These neolithic builders did not just conjure
hundreds of tons of stone out of thin air.
The stones had to come from somewhere.
[narrator] from 3,000 b.C.E.,
Stonehenge evolved
from a simple timber edifice
To the evocative monument
known the world over.
Given the rudimentary tools
and technologies available,
Its construction is
nothing short of a miracle.
Stonehenge is just epic in scale.
Thirty upright columns
capped by curved stone lintels
Forming a complete circle.
Inside is a horseshoe shape
composed of five trilithons,
Columns and their lintels.
The engineering on this is just incredible.
However, there's no source of
stone from the immediate area
That could have possibly
produced these giant sarsen stones.
[narrator] so far, efforts
to trace their origins
Have floundered on an immovable obstacle.
Preservation.
The laws protecting
stonehenge are very strict.
It's a scheduled ancient historical site.
It's also a unesco
protected world heritage site.
Because of the immense
cultural importance of stonehenge,
We cannot just go cutting up
stones and zapping them with lasers
To try and understand
the origins of the stones.
[narrator] but in 2018,
a chink of light emerges.
Geochemist dr. Jake ciborowski
Is given permission to
analyze all 52 sarsen stones
Via the latest non-invasive technology.
One tool that we now have in our
arsenal is something called x.R.F.
X-ray fluorescence.
A small handheld tool
that shoots out an x-ray,
Exciting the material that's there,
And allowing us to
collect information on what
That material's actually composed of.
[narrator] but even x.R.F. Fails
to produce a satisfactory result.
The x-ray fluorescing procedure
allows us to determine that the sarsens
Are all related to one another.
But in order to get
more specific information
About where they actually came from,
We would have to employ
destructive techniques.
The protection order
that's placed on stonehenge
Means we'll never be
able to solve this mystery.
[narrator] but just when
everyone begins to despair,
The most unexpected
assistance arrives from america.
Out of the blue, a pair of brothers
announce that they have a rock sample
Taken from stonehenge in the 1950s.
Could this be the key piece to
finishing the stonehenge puzzle?
[narrator] stonehenge, England's
celebrated neolithic monument.
One enduring mystery is where
its giant sarsen stones came from.
This sacred site permits
only limited testing.
Nothing so far has solved this conundrum.
Then, in 2019, a pair of foreign
visitors bring renewed hope.
A pair of brothers arrive from america
carrying a long, thick rod of stone.
And it's immediately apparent that
this stone comes from one of the sarsens.
[kinkella] the brothers confirm
that the stone core was extracted
While their father was
working at the site in the 1950s.
This guy had held on to
this core for over 60 years,
Taking it with him
when he retired to florida.
Now, at age 90, he gives it
back in the name of science.
[narrator] this 3-foot
stick of rock was extracted
During authorized restoration
work on a cracked megalith.
For this sarsen mystery,
it's worth its weight in gold.
This core sample is the
thing that's going to give us
That unique fingerprint of
where the stones are from.
[narrator] the core is ground into
fine dust for geochemical analysis.
Then, a process called atomic
emission and mass spectrometry,
Detects the chemical composition
down to nanogram levels.
Around 99.7% of the stone is silica,
It's almost pure quartz with
tiny traces of other compounds.
It's these trace elements that
could lead us to our source.
Armed with this chemical profile,
the team can now scour the uk
Looking for other stones that match.
[narrator] twenty sarsen quarry
sites are identified as having potential.
Scientists extract three samples from each
To see if there's a copy
with the 1950s core sample.
The silica content in all
the samples is so high
That they fit together very well.
But there's one that stands out
and fits the chemical profile perfectly.
It's in the west woods
near marlborough downs.
[narrator] west woods is 15
miles north of stonehenge.
It was once densely
concentrated with sarsen.
But the site had been overlooked
As most stones had been
quarried out by the mid-19th century.
For neolithic builders, the
site held a key advantage.
West woods sits on a high plateau,
This might offer an easier
downhill route to stonehenge.
Dragging 30-ton stones over 15 miles
Is tough enough without
adding inclines to the equation.
It would take possibly about
100 people roughly two days
To move one of these stones
from the source to stonehenge.
[narrator] incredibly, after a
century's worth of struggle,
A key intervention from the u.S.A. All
but solves stonehenge's sarsens mystery.
There are still two sarsen stones that
don't appear to be from the same source.
And there are another 28 stones that
used to be part of the stonehenge circle
That have more or less
completely disappeared.
[auerbach] where did they
go? What were they used for?
There's still lots of mysteries
that need to be solved here.
[narrator] guangxi autonomous
region, southern china.
In the 1950s, archaeologists discover
an immense partial jawbone inside a cave.
We have a jawbone and a few teeth.
The jawbone looks vaguely humanish,
But way too large to be a human.
The fact that it's fossilized
Means we're looking at something
from the long and distant past.
So what is this?
[narrator] some 50 years later in 2006,
92 teeth associated with this mystery
creature are also found in a nearby cave.
Judging from the size of the
teeth, whatever this is, it's big.
It could be something that's
standing about 10 feet tall.
You can imagine in real life, this
would have been a fearsome being.
The kind of thing that legends
or nightmares might sprout from.
[narrator] despite best efforts,
Experts haven't been able to track
down what this gargantuan being is.
We have very limited evidence, so this
is going to be a tough mystery to unravel.
[narrator] can brand new digital
techniques tease out hidden clues
And identify this ancient goliath?
This could be some long lost
species or something yet undiscovered.
It's really fascinating.
It could change our
understanding of ancient beings.
[narrator] from the outset, age proves
a major obstacle to cracking this case.
In many samples, we can use ancient dna
To determine what sort
of species it belonged to.
In excellent conditions,
dna would only be preserved
Up to a maximum of,
say, a million years or so.
In this case, dna analysis was impossible.
[narrator] scientists hope the secondary
find of 92 teeth will bring more luck.
They employ electron-spin resonance dating,
Which measures their exposure to radiation.
The dating comes in at a
whopping 1.9 million years old.
That's truly astounding.
This is within the time
of early human evolution.
It's also a time period where
you had lots of crazy stuff going on.
You had 1-ton rodents
terrorizing south america.
[narrator] to track down which
supersized pre-historic creature
Left this cave jawbone,
Our digital lab reconstructs the entire jaw
For the very first time.
Will it reveal what this colossus is?
Our suspect is a herbivore, and huge.
[narrator] in china, a jawbone
belonging to a mysterious ancient giant,
Has stumped experts
for over half a century.
Now the hope is that technology
can make a breakthrough.
The jaw is transformed
into an interactive 3d model,
Allowing digital lab
pathologist carla valentine
To examine it in entirely new ways.
Now, to help narrow down the species,
We have, for the first time, reconstructed
this entire lower jaw or mandible.
The mandible is the largest and
strongest bone in the human face.
But when we compare our mandible
to this mystery one, it's rather puny.
It's less than half the size.
For me, this smacks
of some sort of primate.
But a digital comparison
will help clear this up.
This is a gorilla's mandible.
And you can see that
the shapes are similar.
But overall, the mystery jawbone
is bigger, thicker, much more robust.
This must belong to an
extremely powerful creature.
But there's something else.
If you look closely, you'll
see that the molars differ.
The mystery beast's are bigger and flatter,
And they're more suitable to grinding
tough, fibrous plants like bamboo.
Whereas gorillas have
these short, sharp crests
To cut through tough leaves and stems.
Our suspect is a herbivore, and huge.
Significantly larger than any
primate that walks the earth today.
Or perhaps ever.
[narrator] then in 2019, over 60
years after the giant jawbone discovery,
Next-generation paleoproteomics
offers a breakthrough
In identifying this mystery primate.
Paleoproteomics is the study of protein.
And it's particularly useful
when dna analysis is impossible.
It's a gamechanger for
unlocking our earliest history.
[narrator] more importantly,
Proteins can survive in ancient remains
For over a million years longer than dna.
Although protein sequencing isn't
as detailed as you get from dna,
If you get enough of it, it can be enough
to make a comparison between species.
And we can reconstruct
their evolutionary history.
[narrator] tooth enamel offers the best
possibility of harvesting multiple proteins,
Broadening the range of analysis.
Luckily, enamel is one of
the few things we can study
From this mysterious chinese giant.
[narrator] samples are sent for sequencing
By evolutionary geneticists at
the university of copenhagen.
[king] so what scientists do is
they crush the enamel to a powder.
And they dissolve it in acid.
And what that means is that the peptides,
The little portions of proteins
are suspended in the liquid.
[narrator] they then use mass spectrometry
To identify the proteins
by their amino acids.
The results are compared against
a database of known proteins
From the animal kingdom
To see where they might fit in.
With the china cave
tooth, they hit the jackpot.
They found that more than
500 of the peptide sequences
Matched proteins that we
know from the orangutans.
[jarman] tracing back the
lineage of the orangutan
Shows that about 12 million years ago,
It split from a species called
the gigantopithecus blacki
And that is our mystery giant.
[narrator] also known as g. Blacki,
This was the largest ape
ever to have set foot on earth.
Weighing a hefty 1,000
pounds, and 10 feet tall.
But apparently, it was a
rather gentle plant-eating giant.
G. Blacki looked similar to
the present-day orangutan.
However, it spent most of it's time
on the ground, rather than in trees.
We think that g. Blacki roamed south
east asia for a period of a million years,
And went extinct around 100,000 years ago.
[bey] some paleontologists
believe that g. Blacki's extinction
Was related to the environment.
That as the forest receded
and turned to savannah,
There simply wasn't enough
food available to support g. Blacki.
Every species has an upper
limit to which it can grow in size.
And it looks like g. Blacki just, sort of,
toppled off the edge of that precipice.
It just grew too large for its environment.
[narrator] northwest florida...
Archaeologists surveying a
string of islands off the coast
Spot a curious landform.
On one of the uninhabited islands,
There's a series of large
raised circles clustered together.
There's dozens of them
hidden amongst the thick foliage.
These circles are too well-organized
to be a natural phenomenon.
But if these are human structures,
what could they possibly be?
[narrator] in all, it's estimated
there are around three dozen
Of these strange ring structures.
The u.S. Is one of the most
surveyed countries in the world.
So finding something
like this is incredibly rare.
This warrants more investigation.
[narrator] now,
archaeologists are unleashing
Aerial technology and cutting-edge science
To try and get to the
bottom of this mystery.
It's incredible that they've
been hidden for so long.
They were definitely built
for a purpose of some sort.
But what is that purpose?
[narrator] rayleigh island, florida.
Clusters of man-made ring structures
Have caught the attention of archaeologists
from the university of florida.
They're so curious, a
team is sent to investigate.
[man] okay, here we are on rayleigh island,
Coming up the west slope a little bit
As I proceed down towards the center.
This is down-and-dirty archaeology.
This is bush-whacking at its finest.
This is where we really
get into the nitty-gritty.
[man] moving upslope back
north through a spider web.
That's nice.
This is a real indiana jones-type moment.
Anything can be lurking in there.
[narrator] the dense foliage makes getting a
perspective on these raised rings impossible.
So the team send up a lidar drone.
This laser-scanning technology can penetrate
the thick tree canopy and map the structures.
Lidar is really cool
technology where you can
Actually create a 3d map of the object.
[narrator] for the first time,
lidar reveals the immense scale
Of these mysterious shapes.
The rings are just staggering.
There's no less than 37,
And they're grouped into four main groups.
There seems to be a center ring
With other smaller
rings clustered around it.
Kind of like a clover shape.
[narrator] the simplicity and
circular nature could suggest
Some type of ancient settlement.
It spurs the team to begin
a full-scale excavation.
Here on top of the ridge, facing northeast,
To east, looking down on
excavation of test unit two.
[narrator] as they begin
to dig, they quickly realize
These are no ordinary structures.
These aren't just dirt mounds. They're
made up of millions of oyster shells.
[narrator] some densely-packed shell
ridges soar to over 13 feet in height.
We are clearly talking about
people who love their shellfish.
I mean, we are talking about
crazy levels of consumption.
This must have been a major feasting site.
[narrator] but digging deeper
indicates there is more to this site
Than an orgy of seafood.
The archaeologists find evidence of
overlapping pits and post-holes and pottery,
All consistent with a busy habitation site.
We also find a diverse
collection of stone tools.
Microliths, which are used
for drilling and engraving.
And the larger tools that
were used to make them.
It's clear evidence that there was
major manufacturing going on here.
Is it possible that the rayleigh
rings are some kind of factory?
But what would they be making?
[narrator] one particular seashell with
a striking swirl pattern offers a clue.
The site is littered with
fragments of lightning whelk shells,
A large sea-snail that
grows about 16 inches long.
Fragments are found in a range of sizes,
Getting smaller and smaller
until they form these tiny beads.
A little bit smaller than a dime,
and with a hole in the middle.
All the rings on raleigh island
had evidence of shell manufacture.
So this must have been a major enterprise.
All this effort to manufacture
these shell beads
Is deeply mystifying.
[narrator] archaeologists try to glean more
information by radio-carbon-dating sediments.
This should determine when this
ancient bead factory was in operation.
The site appears to have been
active between 900 and 1,200 c.E.
This is an incredible find.
[narrator] the settlement dates
to when native american culture
Was thriving in this
part of the united states.
As many as 300 people may have
lived and manufactured shell beads here.
The lightning whelk shell
has a dramatic spiral pattern.
Spirals have great spiritual
importance for native americans.
And it was from this part of the shell
that the beads were manufactured from.
Spirals were thought to represent
the cosmos, as a microcosm.
And also represent the
changing of the seasons.
These beads would have been made
into jewelry and sewn onto clothing.
They're high-value prestige items
That would've been associated with
the most powerful members of society,
Like high priests.
[narrator] but there is one glaring
anomaly with the raleigh beads' discovery.
We find lots of evidence
of shell-bead manufacturing
But limited amount of shell beads.
They must have been made
here, but transported elsewhere.
[narrator] some experts now believe
This remarkable site was at the
heart of a native american economy
That stretched across the south east.
It's possible that whelk beads
were an early form of currency
That helped to facilitate the
growth and success of trade
For north america's
largest pre-columbian cities.
It's incredible to think that the
small community of rayleigh island
Had such a reach to touch so
many lives during this period.
greatest prehistoric ape
Is traced via revolutionary genealogy.
You can imagine that when it was alive,
This was the kind of thing the legends
Or nightmares might sprout from.
[narrator] the face behind
an eerie red skeleton
Is unveiled through chemical analysis.
This is genuinely creepy
And in all my years as an archeologist,
I have never seen anything quite like it.
[narrator] and can science
Finally crack a millennia
old stonehenge puzzle?
These massive stones have been subject to
Theory after theory,
One of the biggest mysteries
Has been, "where do these
megaliths actually come from?"
[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 is what
scientists have been missing.
All the evidence points 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.
Oxford, England.
Beneath one of the world's
most prestigious universities,
Archaeologists discover a buried ruin.
The excavations at oxford university
Are pretty exciting because they find
This 4,000 year old
neolithic temple complex.
But they also find artifacts
from the middle ages
And so they think, "wow, this is a bonus
We'll do a little more
excavation around here."
As the team continues to
dig, they find broken pottery
And food debris, then
they start to find bones.
Lots and lots of human bones.
[narrator] dozens of individuals are found,
But it's the manner of their
burial that's most disturbing.
These are not bones lovingly laid out
In ceremonial burial,
They've just been tossed
in there like garbage.
There's nothing from the bones themselves
To suggest what period they're dead from.
There are no grave
gifts, there are no coffins.
This is a case of dumping the victims
Of a really traumatic event.
[narrator] it's clear these people
suffered horrendous deaths.
The butchered bones
portray obscene violence.
[carla] twenty-seven skulls
were broken or cracked,
Indicating traumatic head injury.
One skull has evidence
of 10 separate punctures
From heavy weaponry.
This looks like a slaughter.
[narrator] now, can forensic pathology
Make sense of the shattered bones
And reveal what caused this
Ugly stain in tranquil oxford?
This is like the most difficult
Jigsaw puzzle you could possibly imagine.
These people were bloody and brutalized.
Who could have done it and why?
[narrator] this human bone
pit was discovered in 2008.
As other archaeological
finds span thousands of years,
An accurate date for the
bodies needs to be established.
When the bone's already carbon dated,
They're shown to date to the late 10th
Or early 11th century.
This is a period of english history
when the anglo-saxon monarchy
Arrived at the peak of its powers.
[narrator] anglo-saxon England
was divided into several kingdoms,
Each with its own army and war chief
Or king.
By the 10th century,
The wessex dynasty takes control,
Creating one kingdom for the english.
Around the 10th century,
they enjoy a period of calm
Under the rule of king edgar the peaceful.
But it wasn't peaceful for
everyone in the country.
The law of the land is extremely harsh
And public executions become
the norm around the country.
[all yelling]
[narrator] but analysis
of the human remains
Removes any possibility this oxford grave
Is an execution cemetery.
[dr. Allan] bio-archaeological analysis
Tells us that the
individuals here were males.
And they were only in
the age range of 16-25
So this couldn't have
been an execution ground
For criminals because you would
expect a much broader range,
[narrator] isotopic tests are
run on the dead men's bones
To shed more light on their backgrounds.
In childhood, we take up different
elements from the food and water
That we consume. And that leaves
A kind of chemical marker that
reflect our geographic environment.
In this case, what they
find is quite extraordinary.
These people seem
to be eating a lot of fish,
Consistent with origins in scandinavia.
[auerbach] this evidence
suggests the men in this grave
Weren't anglo-saxons at all.
We're probably looking at viking remains.
[narrator] since 793 c.E.,
Vikings have been striking
mortal fear into christian England.
Their great heathen army rampaged
through northern and eastern England.
Ripping apart anglo-saxon kingdoms.
[jarman] by the ninth
century, an area called
The danelaw has been established
Probably hundreds of
thousands scandinavian settlers
Across England
And for the most part, they seem
to be interacting quite peacefully
With the local population.
[narrator] this makes it
all the more mystifying
Why these oxford vikings were targeted
In such a horrific way.
Perhaps the injured bones may offer clues.
When the archaeologists set
about trying to study the bones,
And trying to assign
Different bones to specific individuals,
They realize that it's a
nearly insurmountable task.
Bones are mixed together
and many of their skulls
Are horribly crushed, sometimes
into hundreds of pieces.
[narrator] after months of
piecing together this human jigsaw,
37 individuals are counted.
A selection of injuries are recorded
With ultra-high res photographs.
Then, shared with the forensics tech lab
For bio medic greg szulgit to analyze.
The first thing that strikes me is just the
Scale, the level of the
violence, it's really horrific.
Take this skull for example.
There are at least eight blade wounds
From what looks like swords or axes.
Some of them, really prominent.
This same victim, has two
distinctive puncture wounds
In his vertebrae, here and here.
Zooming in, we see that this diamond shape
Resembles a spear tip.
There are also spear
wounds in another guys pelvis.
The sheer force drove the weapon
clean through this thick bone.
What's more, the same victims forehead
Has severe charring to the bone.
So, not only was this
person stabbed in the back,
They were also set on fire.
Charring is also evident
on many other victims bones.
And if you analyze this
individual's femur bones,
They both displayed deep gouges
Just above back of the knees
This persons hamstrings
would have been severed
Robbing them of the ability to run.
They would have been a sitting duck.
Most of the wounds
are to the legs and back,
It appears that these men were hacked down
While fleeing for their lives.
[narrator] armed with this information,
Investigators scour historical texts.
It leads them towards one of the most
infamous genocides in british history.
-[men yelling] -it's ethnic
cleansing on a massive scale.
That left blood on the
hands of the king himself.
[narrator] in oxford, England,
A mass grave dating to medieval
times has horrified experts.
Forensic lab analysis has exposed
a massacre of unimaginable violence.
Not only was this person
stabbed in the back,
They were also set on fire.
[narrator] using this lab evidence,
Investigators discover a
potential clue in medieval texts.
We actually have some historical evidence
From 1004 that describes how in oxford,
Danish residents were chased into a church.
And the only way to get rid of
them was to set fire to the church.
[dramatic music playing]
The evidence of burning
on some of the bodies,
From the mass grave found in oxford,
May relate to precisely this attack.
[narrator] experts now
believe these persecuted danes
Could be victims of a notorious genocide
Known as the saint brice's day massacre.
It all stemmed from the
king's rampant paranoia.
Right at the beginning of the 11th century,
There's a rumor that a group of danes
Want to assassinate the
anglo-saxon king, ethelred.
[mark schwarts] ethelred
decides to preemptively strike.
The king sends out a decree
Saying that all norsemen
Living in his land should be killed.
[grunting]
It's ethnic cleansing on a massive scale.
[narrator] this oxford grave is
believed to be the first tangible evidence
Of this brutal purge.
It would trigger a chain of events
That fundamentally alters english history.
The massacre of viking peoples
on saint brice's day in 1002,
Sets off this 10-year war
Between the anglo-saxons and the vikings.
Which greatly weakens the anglo-saxons
And allows basically the
norman invasion of 1066.
The norman leader, william the conqueror,
Brings in a new form of
government and new cultural practices
That will form the basis
for an entirely new nation.
And that whole process starts with a
brutal massacre on saint brice's day.
[narrator] southeast mexico.
The historic maya ruins of palenque.
In 1994, during routine
maintenance inspections
On temple xiii, archaeologist fanny lopez
Makes a startling discovery.
There are some cracks in
the stairs, and when fanny
Shines her flashlight into them, she sees
A previously unknown passageway
Leading into the bowels of the building.
[narrator] when her team
excavates their way in,
They discover two empty chambers
Flanking a sealed door.
The maya don't seal temples or
rooms or doorways for no reason.
They do it because there's
something important inside.
[narrator] the door is levered open.
Inside, are two skeletons dominated
by an enormous sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus is chiseled
out of a single piece of limestone
And it's covered with a heavy flagstone
When they get this sarcophagus open,
They're greeted with a shocking
sight of these mysterious remains
Coated in this red powder.
[karen bellinger] this is genuinely creepy
And in all my years as an archaeologist,
I have never seen anything quite like it.
[narrator] for over a decade,
These menacing scarlet bones
have been filed as unexplained.
Now, groundbreaking science
Is being called in to
trace who they belong to.
This is the biggest discovery in
mayan archaeology in 40 years.
It's stunning and yet, we don't
know this woman's identity.
[narrator] palenque was
an important maya city,
Which flourished between 600 and 750 c.E.
The temples, ornate
palaces and inscriptions
Have long been a valuable source
of information about the maya.
It makes this red skeleton shock
discovery all the more bewildering.
[rose] this is a lavishly
filled sarcophagus,
One of the richest in the mayan world.
Jade beads and precious malachite
Adorn the skeleton's skull.
The jewels, the powder,
All of this really indicates
that this is a stunning discovery.
[narrator] first, the red
skeleton is studied anatomically
To find out who this high status maya was.
[turi king] so when you look at
the size and the shape of the pelvis,
What this is showing us is that
this is a woman aged about 50 to 60.
The really interesting
thing is that we have
Never seen a woman in mayan
society given such a lavish burial
This is clearly a very important woman.
[narrator] could the red
dust coating her skeleton
Be part of this prestigious
funerary practice?
Its chemical contents are analyzed.
The tests come back and they're conclusive,
The red powder is mercuric oxide,
Better known as cinnabar.
And its presence on this
burial means this woman clearly
Was of high status in her community,
Perhaps even a queen.
[kinkella] she is given the
nickname the red queen.
She is definitely red, but is she a
queen and is she even from palenque?
There are no inscriptions on
the sarcophagus or on the tomb,
So we have to look elsewhere
to find out this woman's identity.
[narrator] experts consider
whether her elaborate burial
Connects the so-called red queen
To the legendary maya
ruler, king pakal the great.
On his death, pakal is buried
Deep inside the temple of the inscriptions
In a sarcophagus that weighed 20 tons.
It's the only other sarcophagus
found in palenque up till today.
This close association we see between
The temple and the sarcophagi
Indicate that king pakal
and the woman in temple xiii,
Must be related in some manner.
[narrator] further examination of the
lavish treasures in the red queen's tomb,
Cements this royal connection.
It turns out that the
artifacts of limestone,
Malachite and obsidian, were not
placed within the tomb separately.
They are part of a
singular, larger artefact.
When we carefully put
the pieces back together,
We realize that this woman
was buried with an incredible,
Ornate funerary mask.
In the maya world,
Funerary face masks are
associated with royal burials.
This is an extraordinary thing.
It is literally the only funerary face mask
Of its kind ever found
associated with a female body.
But who exactly was she?
And what was she to pakal?
[narrator] in palenque, mexico,
A red skeleton is one
of the most significant
And haunting finds of this maya city.
An ornate funerary mask points to royalty.
And a connection with
legendary ruler, pakal the great.
[rose] she's given the nickname
"the red queen of palenque."
Could it be someone close to king pakal?
[narrator] according to
palenque inscriptions,
Pakal had three royal women in his life,
Sak k'uk, his mother,
Tzakbu ajaw, his wife
And yohl ik'nal, the first and
only true queen of palenque.
Radio carbon dating is used to
determine which is the mystery red queen.
The mercuric oxide covering
the red skeleton has contaminated
The bones, making it
impossible to get a good date.
But two skeletons found
outside of sarcophagus
Are not covered in that red dust.
These two companions would have been
Buried at the same time as the red queen
To help her into this
transition in the afterlife
And it also helps us
date her burial as well.
[narrator] the radio carbon
samples from these two skeletons
Date somewhere from 650-660 c.E.
So, the red queen was buried
in the mid-seventh century.
This eliminates yohl ik'nal from contention
Because we know she died in a.D. 604.
This evidence strongly suggests
That the red queen found at palenque,
Is either tzakbu ajaw, pakal's
wife or his mother, sak k'uk.
[narrator] archaeologists
hope isotope analyses,
A chemical indicator of
an individual's background,
Will finally settle which
one is the red queen.
Strontium is an element
that builds up in human teeth
Because it's found
naturally in ground water.
Strontium actually leaches
into the water from rocks.
But each geographical location
is going to have its different
Sort of rock formations
and that's going to affect
The levels of strontium in your teeth.
The results say that the red queen
Wasn't originally from palenque.
She was an outsider, raised
in the surrounding area.
[narrator] critically, only tzakbu ajaw
Grew up in the neighboring region.
Over 1,000 years after the red queen died,
And a quarter century
since she was rediscovered,
Science has put a name
to palenque's red skeleton.
These results suggest that the
red queen married into royalty.
Tzakbu ajaw appears to have been revered
by her husband and the mayan community.
Upon her death, she is given a burial
That is befitting of a true
ruler of the mayan civilization.
[narrator] southern England.
Rising majestically from salisbury plain,
Is the world's most
recognizable neolithic monument,
Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is a site
steeped in myth and legend.
A circle of stones built
over 5,000 years ago.
A stonehenge has
dominated public imagination
For generation after generation.
These massive stones
Have been subject to theory after theory.
One of the biggest mysteries has been,
"where do these megaliths
actually come from?"
[narrator] in 2015, archaeologists
make a crucial breakthrough,
They trace the smaller blocks,
Called bluestone, to preseli in wales,
Around 180 miles away.
But the larger sarsen stones,
some weighing 30 tons,
Remain an enigma.
[auerbach] given that the blue
stones were dragged on wooden sleds
Over 100 miles,
Trying to pinpoint the source of
the sarsens within so wide an area
Is a daunting task indeed.
[narrator] can state-of-the-art
science finally find
The missing pieces to
this giant sarsen puzzle?
These neolithic builders did not just conjure
hundreds of tons of stone out of thin air.
The stones had to come from somewhere.
[narrator] from 3,000 b.C.E.,
Stonehenge evolved
from a simple timber edifice
To the evocative monument
known the world over.
Given the rudimentary tools
and technologies available,
Its construction is
nothing short of a miracle.
Stonehenge is just epic in scale.
Thirty upright columns
capped by curved stone lintels
Forming a complete circle.
Inside is a horseshoe shape
composed of five trilithons,
Columns and their lintels.
The engineering on this is just incredible.
However, there's no source of
stone from the immediate area
That could have possibly
produced these giant sarsen stones.
[narrator] so far, efforts
to trace their origins
Have floundered on an immovable obstacle.
Preservation.
The laws protecting
stonehenge are very strict.
It's a scheduled ancient historical site.
It's also a unesco
protected world heritage site.
Because of the immense
cultural importance of stonehenge,
We cannot just go cutting up
stones and zapping them with lasers
To try and understand
the origins of the stones.
[narrator] but in 2018,
a chink of light emerges.
Geochemist dr. Jake ciborowski
Is given permission to
analyze all 52 sarsen stones
Via the latest non-invasive technology.
One tool that we now have in our
arsenal is something called x.R.F.
X-ray fluorescence.
A small handheld tool
that shoots out an x-ray,
Exciting the material that's there,
And allowing us to
collect information on what
That material's actually composed of.
[narrator] but even x.R.F. Fails
to produce a satisfactory result.
The x-ray fluorescing procedure
allows us to determine that the sarsens
Are all related to one another.
But in order to get
more specific information
About where they actually came from,
We would have to employ
destructive techniques.
The protection order
that's placed on stonehenge
Means we'll never be
able to solve this mystery.
[narrator] but just when
everyone begins to despair,
The most unexpected
assistance arrives from america.
Out of the blue, a pair of brothers
announce that they have a rock sample
Taken from stonehenge in the 1950s.
Could this be the key piece to
finishing the stonehenge puzzle?
[narrator] stonehenge, England's
celebrated neolithic monument.
One enduring mystery is where
its giant sarsen stones came from.
This sacred site permits
only limited testing.
Nothing so far has solved this conundrum.
Then, in 2019, a pair of foreign
visitors bring renewed hope.
A pair of brothers arrive from america
carrying a long, thick rod of stone.
And it's immediately apparent that
this stone comes from one of the sarsens.
[kinkella] the brothers confirm
that the stone core was extracted
While their father was
working at the site in the 1950s.
This guy had held on to
this core for over 60 years,
Taking it with him
when he retired to florida.
Now, at age 90, he gives it
back in the name of science.
[narrator] this 3-foot
stick of rock was extracted
During authorized restoration
work on a cracked megalith.
For this sarsen mystery,
it's worth its weight in gold.
This core sample is the
thing that's going to give us
That unique fingerprint of
where the stones are from.
[narrator] the core is ground into
fine dust for geochemical analysis.
Then, a process called atomic
emission and mass spectrometry,
Detects the chemical composition
down to nanogram levels.
Around 99.7% of the stone is silica,
It's almost pure quartz with
tiny traces of other compounds.
It's these trace elements that
could lead us to our source.
Armed with this chemical profile,
the team can now scour the uk
Looking for other stones that match.
[narrator] twenty sarsen quarry
sites are identified as having potential.
Scientists extract three samples from each
To see if there's a copy
with the 1950s core sample.
The silica content in all
the samples is so high
That they fit together very well.
But there's one that stands out
and fits the chemical profile perfectly.
It's in the west woods
near marlborough downs.
[narrator] west woods is 15
miles north of stonehenge.
It was once densely
concentrated with sarsen.
But the site had been overlooked
As most stones had been
quarried out by the mid-19th century.
For neolithic builders, the
site held a key advantage.
West woods sits on a high plateau,
This might offer an easier
downhill route to stonehenge.
Dragging 30-ton stones over 15 miles
Is tough enough without
adding inclines to the equation.
It would take possibly about
100 people roughly two days
To move one of these stones
from the source to stonehenge.
[narrator] incredibly, after a
century's worth of struggle,
A key intervention from the u.S.A. All
but solves stonehenge's sarsens mystery.
There are still two sarsen stones that
don't appear to be from the same source.
And there are another 28 stones that
used to be part of the stonehenge circle
That have more or less
completely disappeared.
[auerbach] where did they
go? What were they used for?
There's still lots of mysteries
that need to be solved here.
[narrator] guangxi autonomous
region, southern china.
In the 1950s, archaeologists discover
an immense partial jawbone inside a cave.
We have a jawbone and a few teeth.
The jawbone looks vaguely humanish,
But way too large to be a human.
The fact that it's fossilized
Means we're looking at something
from the long and distant past.
So what is this?
[narrator] some 50 years later in 2006,
92 teeth associated with this mystery
creature are also found in a nearby cave.
Judging from the size of the
teeth, whatever this is, it's big.
It could be something that's
standing about 10 feet tall.
You can imagine in real life, this
would have been a fearsome being.
The kind of thing that legends
or nightmares might sprout from.
[narrator] despite best efforts,
Experts haven't been able to track
down what this gargantuan being is.
We have very limited evidence, so this
is going to be a tough mystery to unravel.
[narrator] can brand new digital
techniques tease out hidden clues
And identify this ancient goliath?
This could be some long lost
species or something yet undiscovered.
It's really fascinating.
It could change our
understanding of ancient beings.
[narrator] from the outset, age proves
a major obstacle to cracking this case.
In many samples, we can use ancient dna
To determine what sort
of species it belonged to.
In excellent conditions,
dna would only be preserved
Up to a maximum of,
say, a million years or so.
In this case, dna analysis was impossible.
[narrator] scientists hope the secondary
find of 92 teeth will bring more luck.
They employ electron-spin resonance dating,
Which measures their exposure to radiation.
The dating comes in at a
whopping 1.9 million years old.
That's truly astounding.
This is within the time
of early human evolution.
It's also a time period where
you had lots of crazy stuff going on.
You had 1-ton rodents
terrorizing south america.
[narrator] to track down which
supersized pre-historic creature
Left this cave jawbone,
Our digital lab reconstructs the entire jaw
For the very first time.
Will it reveal what this colossus is?
Our suspect is a herbivore, and huge.
[narrator] in china, a jawbone
belonging to a mysterious ancient giant,
Has stumped experts
for over half a century.
Now the hope is that technology
can make a breakthrough.
The jaw is transformed
into an interactive 3d model,
Allowing digital lab
pathologist carla valentine
To examine it in entirely new ways.
Now, to help narrow down the species,
We have, for the first time, reconstructed
this entire lower jaw or mandible.
The mandible is the largest and
strongest bone in the human face.
But when we compare our mandible
to this mystery one, it's rather puny.
It's less than half the size.
For me, this smacks
of some sort of primate.
But a digital comparison
will help clear this up.
This is a gorilla's mandible.
And you can see that
the shapes are similar.
But overall, the mystery jawbone
is bigger, thicker, much more robust.
This must belong to an
extremely powerful creature.
But there's something else.
If you look closely, you'll
see that the molars differ.
The mystery beast's are bigger and flatter,
And they're more suitable to grinding
tough, fibrous plants like bamboo.
Whereas gorillas have
these short, sharp crests
To cut through tough leaves and stems.
Our suspect is a herbivore, and huge.
Significantly larger than any
primate that walks the earth today.
Or perhaps ever.
[narrator] then in 2019, over 60
years after the giant jawbone discovery,
Next-generation paleoproteomics
offers a breakthrough
In identifying this mystery primate.
Paleoproteomics is the study of protein.
And it's particularly useful
when dna analysis is impossible.
It's a gamechanger for
unlocking our earliest history.
[narrator] more importantly,
Proteins can survive in ancient remains
For over a million years longer than dna.
Although protein sequencing isn't
as detailed as you get from dna,
If you get enough of it, it can be enough
to make a comparison between species.
And we can reconstruct
their evolutionary history.
[narrator] tooth enamel offers the best
possibility of harvesting multiple proteins,
Broadening the range of analysis.
Luckily, enamel is one of
the few things we can study
From this mysterious chinese giant.
[narrator] samples are sent for sequencing
By evolutionary geneticists at
the university of copenhagen.
[king] so what scientists do is
they crush the enamel to a powder.
And they dissolve it in acid.
And what that means is that the peptides,
The little portions of proteins
are suspended in the liquid.
[narrator] they then use mass spectrometry
To identify the proteins
by their amino acids.
The results are compared against
a database of known proteins
From the animal kingdom
To see where they might fit in.
With the china cave
tooth, they hit the jackpot.
They found that more than
500 of the peptide sequences
Matched proteins that we
know from the orangutans.
[jarman] tracing back the
lineage of the orangutan
Shows that about 12 million years ago,
It split from a species called
the gigantopithecus blacki
And that is our mystery giant.
[narrator] also known as g. Blacki,
This was the largest ape
ever to have set foot on earth.
Weighing a hefty 1,000
pounds, and 10 feet tall.
But apparently, it was a
rather gentle plant-eating giant.
G. Blacki looked similar to
the present-day orangutan.
However, it spent most of it's time
on the ground, rather than in trees.
We think that g. Blacki roamed south
east asia for a period of a million years,
And went extinct around 100,000 years ago.
[bey] some paleontologists
believe that g. Blacki's extinction
Was related to the environment.
That as the forest receded
and turned to savannah,
There simply wasn't enough
food available to support g. Blacki.
Every species has an upper
limit to which it can grow in size.
And it looks like g. Blacki just, sort of,
toppled off the edge of that precipice.
It just grew too large for its environment.
[narrator] northwest florida...
Archaeologists surveying a
string of islands off the coast
Spot a curious landform.
On one of the uninhabited islands,
There's a series of large
raised circles clustered together.
There's dozens of them
hidden amongst the thick foliage.
These circles are too well-organized
to be a natural phenomenon.
But if these are human structures,
what could they possibly be?
[narrator] in all, it's estimated
there are around three dozen
Of these strange ring structures.
The u.S. Is one of the most
surveyed countries in the world.
So finding something
like this is incredibly rare.
This warrants more investigation.
[narrator] now,
archaeologists are unleashing
Aerial technology and cutting-edge science
To try and get to the
bottom of this mystery.
It's incredible that they've
been hidden for so long.
They were definitely built
for a purpose of some sort.
But what is that purpose?
[narrator] rayleigh island, florida.
Clusters of man-made ring structures
Have caught the attention of archaeologists
from the university of florida.
They're so curious, a
team is sent to investigate.
[man] okay, here we are on rayleigh island,
Coming up the west slope a little bit
As I proceed down towards the center.
This is down-and-dirty archaeology.
This is bush-whacking at its finest.
This is where we really
get into the nitty-gritty.
[man] moving upslope back
north through a spider web.
That's nice.
This is a real indiana jones-type moment.
Anything can be lurking in there.
[narrator] the dense foliage makes getting a
perspective on these raised rings impossible.
So the team send up a lidar drone.
This laser-scanning technology can penetrate
the thick tree canopy and map the structures.
Lidar is really cool
technology where you can
Actually create a 3d map of the object.
[narrator] for the first time,
lidar reveals the immense scale
Of these mysterious shapes.
The rings are just staggering.
There's no less than 37,
And they're grouped into four main groups.
There seems to be a center ring
With other smaller
rings clustered around it.
Kind of like a clover shape.
[narrator] the simplicity and
circular nature could suggest
Some type of ancient settlement.
It spurs the team to begin
a full-scale excavation.
Here on top of the ridge, facing northeast,
To east, looking down on
excavation of test unit two.
[narrator] as they begin
to dig, they quickly realize
These are no ordinary structures.
These aren't just dirt mounds. They're
made up of millions of oyster shells.
[narrator] some densely-packed shell
ridges soar to over 13 feet in height.
We are clearly talking about
people who love their shellfish.
I mean, we are talking about
crazy levels of consumption.
This must have been a major feasting site.
[narrator] but digging deeper
indicates there is more to this site
Than an orgy of seafood.
The archaeologists find evidence of
overlapping pits and post-holes and pottery,
All consistent with a busy habitation site.
We also find a diverse
collection of stone tools.
Microliths, which are used
for drilling and engraving.
And the larger tools that
were used to make them.
It's clear evidence that there was
major manufacturing going on here.
Is it possible that the rayleigh
rings are some kind of factory?
But what would they be making?
[narrator] one particular seashell with
a striking swirl pattern offers a clue.
The site is littered with
fragments of lightning whelk shells,
A large sea-snail that
grows about 16 inches long.
Fragments are found in a range of sizes,
Getting smaller and smaller
until they form these tiny beads.
A little bit smaller than a dime,
and with a hole in the middle.
All the rings on raleigh island
had evidence of shell manufacture.
So this must have been a major enterprise.
All this effort to manufacture
these shell beads
Is deeply mystifying.
[narrator] archaeologists try to glean more
information by radio-carbon-dating sediments.
This should determine when this
ancient bead factory was in operation.
The site appears to have been
active between 900 and 1,200 c.E.
This is an incredible find.
[narrator] the settlement dates
to when native american culture
Was thriving in this
part of the united states.
As many as 300 people may have
lived and manufactured shell beads here.
The lightning whelk shell
has a dramatic spiral pattern.
Spirals have great spiritual
importance for native americans.
And it was from this part of the shell
that the beads were manufactured from.
Spirals were thought to represent
the cosmos, as a microcosm.
And also represent the
changing of the seasons.
These beads would have been made
into jewelry and sewn onto clothing.
They're high-value prestige items
That would've been associated with
the most powerful members of society,
Like high priests.
[narrator] but there is one glaring
anomaly with the raleigh beads' discovery.
We find lots of evidence
of shell-bead manufacturing
But limited amount of shell beads.
They must have been made
here, but transported elsewhere.
[narrator] some experts now believe
This remarkable site was at the
heart of a native american economy
That stretched across the south east.
It's possible that whelk beads
were an early form of currency
That helped to facilitate the
growth and success of trade
For north america's
largest pre-columbian cities.
It's incredible to think that the
small community of rayleigh island
Had such a reach to touch so
many lives during this period.