All language subtitles for Expedition Unknown Series 4 Origins of Stonehenge 720p HDTV MVGroup EN Sub

Day is breaking
over the Salisbury Plain.

We're about 75 miles
west of London.

It's very early,
and it's very cold,

but I for one certainly don't
mind being up because today

I've been given a very rare
permission to hike up here

before anybody else
and to walk among giants.

♪♪

♪♪

Stonehenge,
just the name is iconic.

They're 13 or 14 feet tall.

They're 7 feet wide.

They weigh 25 tons each.

And, you know, whole generations
of people are going to be born

and live and die,

and yet, these stones
will still be here.

They are a monument
to time, and yet,

we still don't fully understand

the mysteries of Stonehenge,

who built them, and why,
but I'm here to find out.

♪♪

Stonehenge, myth and legend have
always surround its origins.

It's been called both
a healing site

and a place of human sacrifice.

Was it a calendar
or a stellar observatory?

Its construction has been
attributed to druids,

the wizard Merlin,
and even aliens.

♪♪

For centuries, historians
have fiercely debated

the site's true purpose,

but now,
for the first time ever,

they're coming close
to solving the enigma.

Cutting-edge technology
is revealing secret markings

etched into the stones.

Nearby, the revelation
of other hidden monuments

is rewriting everything
we thought we knew.

And a stunning discovery
in the most remote reaches

of Great Britain
may finally reveal

where the idea
for Stonehenge came from

and expose the identity of
those who built it.

♪♪

So get ready to join
an expedition

to tackle the ultimate
ancient mystery,

solving the riddle
of Stonehenge.

♪♪

My name is Josh Gates.

Whoa.

With a degree in archaeology
and a passion for exploration,

I have a tendency to end up
in some very strange situations.

It's just straight down.

Unbelievable.

My travels have taken me
to the ends of the Earth...

Oh, God!

...as I investigate
the greatest legends in history.

[ Filtered voice ]
We're good to fly. Let's go.

This is "Expedition Unknown."

♪♪

To kickoff my investigation
into Stonehenge,

I began in the surrounding area
of Wiltshire County, England.

These are some of the most
charming towns

to ever thatch your roof.

And in case the cafés, hotels,
and the bars don't tip you off,

folks around here are in
the Stonehenge business.

One shop,
catering to the crystal

and tree-worshipping set,

appears to have been
built for hobbits.

I'm officially too tall
for this shop.

Here, you can find a small rock
to set any mood.

Red Tiger's Eye said
to be a stimulating stone.

You know what that means?

Hard as a rock.

The new age shop is just
one sign of the...

[ clears throat ]
...eclectic crowd

that the Stonehenge area
seems to attract,

but it seems that everyone
has a different opinion

about where the town's main
tourist attraction came from.

It was, like, a meteorite,
and it just blew up and went.

[ Laughs ]

Like a big massive time clock.

-Yeah.
-Big massive time clock.

Mm.

The people who built Stonehenge
act like a logical analog

of Lewis Carroll's Rabbit
Hole in the mirror.

How did you go through a mirror

when the silvering
is on the back?

Big party out there,
lots of roast hog.

Clue me in.
Who built Stonehenge?

Extraterrestrials that
the ancient Britains

worshipped as gods,
basically.

That settles that.

I'm also admiring
this staff here.

If you hold him like that
on the ground --
You want me to hold this?

I'd love you to if you can.

-Okay.
-How do you feel holding him?

Uncomfortable.

Ooh, dear.

♪♪

GATES:
Though these guys definitely

have some interesting ideas,

I'm eager to hear
what the experts have to say

about why Stonehenge was built.

And to do that,
I'm joining forces

with an all-star team
of scholars

back at the site.

-Hello. Josh.
-Hi, Josh. I'm Mike.

-Mike, nice to meet you.
-Hi, I'm Susan.

-Susan.
-I'm Rupert.

Rupert, pleasure.

Mike Parker Pearson
is a leading expert

in the archaeology
of Stonehenge,

and his recent findings
are the reason I'm here,

but first, I ask him
for a bit of Stonehenge 101.

So what is a henge?
It's not the stones, right?

No. A henge is actually
an earthen enclosure

with a ditch and a bank.

So if these stones weren't here,
this would still be a henge?

It's still a henge
because there is a bank

and ditch outside of it.

GATES:
So that's one mystery solved.

Stonehenge isn't just a name.

It's a description
of a stone circle

inside a henge that
ancient peoples managed to plan

and construct in stages

between 4,000
and 5,000 years ago.

Historian Susan Greaney
has studied

how they might have done it.

The smaller stones you can
see around us here,

these have been brought
from Southwest Wales.

It's about 180 miles away,

and we think they've been
brought by the sea,

by boats and then
over land to Stonehenge.

That's crazy.

Considering the complexity

and the difficult
of the engineering,

do you think there was
some centralized power

conducting this?

I think there has to be.

This is a work of genius.

There is so much thought
that has gone into

every single bit of it.

The evidence we have is
that this may well

have been a moment of cohesion

where people are bringing
autonomous groups

together to all act
in synchrony.

GATES: Mike tells me that
5 millennia ago,

Britain was populated by
disparate groups of people

who were finally making
the transition from hunting

and gathering to farming.

These weren't rouged druids
like Spinal Tap

would have you believe.

Druids didn't even exist
until thousands of years later.

No. These were surprisingly
advanced Stone Age

or Neolithic people

who started working together
on this massive project,

but its biggest mystery remains.

What the hell is it for?

For decades, many focused
on the site's entrance.

It's aligned with the rising sun
on the summer solstice.

So many believe it was intended
as an astronomical worship

or a celebration site,

but recently an investigation
turned up a macabre

find that began to change
the accepted view of Stonehenge.

When we dug here, what we found
was human remains.

That was just a fraction
of the number of people

who were buried here.

This place was full of

the cremated remains of
the dead.

It is basically the largest
cemetery within Britain

for the whole of
the 3rd millennium B.C.

Incredible.

So Stonehenge was much more than
some ancient stargazing site.

It also appears to be
a massive graveyard.

The connection between the two
functions has remained elusive,

but in recent years,
the magic of technology

has helped experts
crack the code.

English Heritage,
which maintains the site,

has been working on
the most detailed scans

of the monument ever conducted.

The team behind the tech
is here today.

-This is Steven and Antonio.
-Hey, Steven.

Hi. Antonio, nice to meet you.

-Josh.
-Hi, Antonio.

How are you?
Pleasure to meet you.

They've been using 3D scanners

that showers the area
with lasers,

mapping and measuring
every detail of the landscape

down to fractions
of a millimeter.

Some are mounted on tripods,
but others,

like the Leica Pegasus Backpack,

are a bit more mobile.

That's a Dalek from
"Doctor Who," correct?

-Correct, yes.
Wearable Dalek.

-What is this thing?
-It's a mobile mapping unit.

-Do you want to have a go?
-Oh, for sure. I'd love to.

Okay.
This is the coolest backpack
I have ever seen.

So if I were to break this,
what is the value of this thing

I'm wearing?
-It's about $200,000.

Wait, it sounded a lot
like you said $200,000.

I did, indeed.

This is literally worth more
than everything that I own.

[ Laughs ]

GATES: I walk through
the monument

with a laser scanner.

Talk about doing work on the go.

This thing has 32 individual
lasers on board

that are capable of capturing

500,000 data points
every second.

And the on-board cameras are
able to see every single time

I take a step, generating
25 MGs of data every meter

that I walk forward.

In other words, this thing is
able to see everything.

In the most recent
rounds of scans,

English Heritage
generated an incredible

850 gigabytes of data,

which has started to settle
long-simmering debates

about the site's
original function.

So the scan showed us that
particularly in this direction

where the sun sets
in midwinter.

Yet along
the solstice alignment,

the stones were shaped
much more carefully

than some of the other stones.

GATES: The scans reveal that
special care

was used in constructing

and refining
a specific viewing alignment,

not just the summer solstice,

but in fact completely
the opposite.

Stonehenge seems to instead have
been built to channel the sunset

on the shortest day of the year.

We've all been thinking about
the midsummer sunrise,

but it now looks as though

the most important
direction of sight

is through that gap,
towards the midwinter sunset.

♪♪

GATES: Far from being an alter
to worship the gods

who brought the light
and warmth of summer,

Stonehenge appears
to have been made

for the dark cold
of an English winter.

And that's not all
the data has shown.

One of the things
the laser scanner also shows us

is the detail
of the dressing of the stones.

And when I say dressing,
what we mean is the way

that the stones were worked

and they were shaped
using hammerstone.

You can see here
these mushroom shapes.

So these are all Xs.

Look at that.
That is spectacular.

The amazing detail uncovered
72 never-before-seen symbols

carved into the stones.

-Oh, here.
-That's right.

GATES: Though more recent than
the original construction,

the carvings here serve
as a sort of nail in the coffin

for what Stonehenge
was really for.

We only find carved Xs on slabs
associated with burials.

♪♪

GATES: This, along with
the winter solstice alignment,

supports Mike's theory that
Stonehenge was actually built

as a monument to the ancestors,

a so-called land of the dead.

In and of itself, this is
a bombshell revelation

for a site once thought to be
a simple calendar

or a place of celebrations,
but the question remains.

Why was Stonehenge built
in this particular spot?

What makes this place special?

Mike leads me outside
the stone circle

to reveal another amazing find.

Do you notice anything
weird out here?

Well, you've got this kind
of ditch mound here.

That's it. These banks
are natural landforms.

GATES: The natural formation
that was here

sits in an alignment
with the stars and sun above.

To the builders of Stonehenge,

this made for the perfect spot
to erect their monument.

What they did when they built
Stonehenge was to embellish

this natural feature

that matches the movement
of the heavens.

This may have been the center
of their cosmos.

Does it lead anywhere?

Down to the valley,
over that ridge.

There, we found another henge,

which has come to be
known as Superhenge.

GATES: I'm sorry.
Did he just say Superhenge?

♪♪

GATES:
I'm on a quest to discover

the meaning of Stonehenge,

and I've just learned
that the site was actually

a massive burial area.

Now, archaeologist
Mike Parker Pearson

is leading me away
from the site

along a secret avenue

that points to
another hidden henge.

Josh, this is Superhenge.

Look at that.

It's massive.

Yes. It is the largest henge
in the world.

Incredible.

GATES: Nearly two miles away,
northeast of Stonehenge,

is an enormous bank
and ditch construction.

With walls nearly 10 feet tall

and a diameter
of 1,600 feet across,

it's more than five times

the size of the Earthworks
at Stonehenge.

But what I do not see
are any stones.

Yeah. This is
all about timber.

GATES: Archaeologists here
discovered a timber circle,

then another, then a third.

And then this last year,
we discovered

that the whole thing
was surrounded

by a giant timber circle.

Wow.

1,200 feet in diameter,

probably more than
300 giant posts,

posts the size of totem poles.

That is extraordinary.

The wood posts may be long gone,

but excavations inside
this massive henge

have unearthed proof
that the site wasn't

just for rituals
or burials like Stonehenge.

They were surrounded
by houses.

This is where people were living
in their thousands.

So these are the people that
are constructing Stonehenge?

Yes.

Linking natural landforms
with these great monuments,

but to understand it best,

you've really got to see it
from the air.

From the air?

♪♪

To show me the super side
of Superhenge,

Mike takes me
to a nearby airfield

where a helicopter awaits.

♪♪

Once we get airborne,
we arrive over Superhenge.

The scale of the construction
finally hits home.

From Superhenge,
we fly on to Silbury Hill,

the tallest man-made
mound in Europe.

Finally, we come upon the site
that Mike is most excited

about showing me.

This is the town of Avebury,

which sits inside the longest
stone circle in the world,

16 times bigger than Stonehenge.

It originally had
98 Sarsen slabs

running around the edge.

Stonehenge, a site that we think
of as being without equal,

is actually part of
a much larger network

of circular monuments.

There is the bank and ditch
in nearby Superhenge

and a larger stone
circle at Avebury.

So the question is, where did
the idea for these henges

and stone circles originate?

Answering this question
will mean

taking a journey back in time.

To get there, I'm riding in my
own piece of English history.

♪♪

To learn more about
the mysteries of Stonehenge

as well as the people
who built it,

I'm traveling to
meet archaeologists

working in a much lesser known,

but equally mysterious site
known as Bryn Celli Ddu.

And to reach them,
I'm traveling about 5 hours west

out of England and into Wales.

♪♪

From majestic castles
to quaint village streets,

it's easy to see why
this region is said

to have inspired Lewis Carroll

to dream up
"Alice in Wonderland."

It's littered with
beautiful sights and signs,

both short and really long.

It might even push
the Mad Hatter over the edge.

What do you think the Welsh
National Spelling Bee

looks like?

♪♪

Soon after crossing
onto the island

of Anglesey in North Wales,

I finally reach the site
I'm looking for.

♪♪

The ancient passage tomb
of Bryn Celli Ddu

and archaeologist
Seren Griffiths.

-Hello. I'm Josh.
-Nice to meet you.

How are you doing?
Nice to meet you, too.
I'm doing great.

This, I'm assuming,
is the site.

This is the site.
This is Bryn Celli Ddu.

It's really beautiful.
It's obviously a tomb.

-Uh-huh.
-Yeah.

And so what are you
investigating here?

What are you trying
to figure out?

Prior to the passage tomb, there
was a stone circle within it.

And the big research
question is,

whether the earliest phase of it
composes a henge monument.

And if it is a henge,
why is that significant?

Because that would have been
about 500 years

earlier than Stonehenge.

Incredible.

If this is a henge, it will be
much older than Stonehenge

and offer potential insight

into the origins
of the world famous landmark,

but to unlock the secrets
of Bryn Celli Ddu,

Seren tells me we need
a different point of view.

Mythic entrance.

♪♪

This is awesome.

-So on the solstice --
-Mm-hmm.

...the sun would have come
right through here

and shined on this back wall.
-Yeah.

That's outstanding.

And so to your mind,
what went on in this room?

So we know that the cremated
remains of a group of people

were deposited
within the chamber.

Behind this chamber,
we have a range of very weird

and wonderful things,

a human ear bone
and a bit of frog --

-Wow.
-...a witch's broom.

Yeah. So this was
a place of magic?
Yes.

This was "Macbeth" stuff.
Yeah. Right.

Absolutely. That kind of
ritual and ceremony.

Yeah.

There are so many dots here
that connect to Stonehenge,

a resting place of the dead,

arranged with
the solstice alignment

and used for arcane
magic rituals.

There's even a ditch
around the tomb.

To find out if there's
an adjacent bank

hidden underneath,

which would make
this place a henge,

Seren has enlisted
the support of her partner,

archaeologist Ben Edwards.

-Hi.
-Hi.

Josh, nice to meet you.

This looks crazy.

It's not too crazy.

-What is this?
-This is a resistivity meter.

-Oh, of course.
-Yeah.

That's what I was going to say,
a resistivity meter.

You know, for those
who don't know exactly

what a resistivity meter is,
how does it work?

All it does is
measure resistance.
Got it.

So you got a current
into the ground,

and it measures the resistance
to that current.

So the bank of our henge,
if there's one underneath,

that will be higher resistance.
-Got it.

You can have a go
if you'd like.
Yeah?

-Yeah.
-Oh, I would love to. Okay.

So all you have to do
is press start.

It takes a reading.
Lift it up.

-Okay.
-That's it.

Put it in by the meter mark
on the tape.

-There's your next reading.
-Great.

-Do it again.
-Okay.

So just every meter. Okay.

That's it. It's done.
You've done the line.

So know we go have a pint.

-No.
-No.

Do the rest of
the square first.
We go back the other way.

We do.
Wait. Are we doing
the whole field?

Yeah.
Oh, this suddenly got
a lot less fun.

[ Laughter ]

GATES:
Ben has marked out the test path

with a measuring tape

so I don't take this resistivity
meter too far astray.

Though, I'm not sure
how much trouble

I can get into
looking like an old man

with a tricked-out walker.

Okay. So moment of truth.

Lighter gray, high resistance.

So if we've got
a light gray area,

that should be the henge bank.
-Got it.

GATES: The results are in,
and they are typically Welsh.

In other words, hard for me
to read, but to Seren and Ben,

this pixelated image
is as clear as day.

What's that?

That in there is
a lighter gray area

right where the henge
bank should be.

Is that a henge?

♪♪

GATES: I'm at a Stone Age tomb
in Northern Wales

using state of the art
geophysics technology

to determine if this monument
was once surrounded by a henge.

That in there is large gray area

right where the henge
bank should be.

-Is that a henge?
-Yeah.

Yeah. That's a henge.

Doesn't look like much,
but it is.

10 gray pixels.

That looks like it's
confirming your theory.

-Yeah.
-Wait. That's a huge deal.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

GATES: Then Ben shows me another
visual reading of the same spot,

and there it is.

That is as clear as day.

-That looks like a henge.
-Yeah.

So that makes it really old.

Yeah. Significantly old.

This is maybe 500 years
older than Stonehenge.

That's incredible.
So could it be the oldest henge?

There is one other
significant contender for that.

-And where is that?
-That's in Orkney.

An Orkney is...

-Very far north.
-North.

An island of the north, north,
north of the coast of Scotland.

Okay.

The builders of Bryn Celli Ddu

appear to have brought their
influence down to Stonehenge.

The stone circle incorporated
surrounding landforms,

advanced engineering,
and ritual burials,

but further north could be
an even older henge

and evidence of the people
that started it all.

The next morning,
I hop back into my Brit mobile

and embark on a 10-hour
road trip toward Orkney.

3 1/2 hours in,

I cross the border
into Bonnie Scotland.

I always think of Scotland
as England's

slighlty-edgy older brother.

A bit rowdier, a bit drunker,
been to jail a few times,

but a lot of fun.

My first mandatory pit stop
is Urquhart Castle,

which dates back to
the 13th Century.

As castles go, this one
is a little rundown,

but since it's perched
over Loch Ness,

I'm more interested in it
as the best viewing spot

for the world's
most famous monster.

Sorry, Bigfoot.

It says here there is
a $1 million reward,

Brian, if you capture
evidence of Nessie.

So pretty much the episode
took a hard turn.

We're just gonna be
staying here now.

-But don't we have to --
-We're staying here, Brian.

It's $1 million.

You keep looking
through that camera.

Earn yourself a sweet $10,000.

10 grand?

15 grand, maybe.
We can talk about it, Brian.

The point is, keep your eye
on that lens.

Here, Nessie, Nessie,
Nessie, Nessie.

You can't stay
underwater forever.

♪♪

And from there, it's onward up
the North Coast 500

AKA Scotland's Route 66.

The scenery is
a quintessentially Scottish mix

of very old buildings,

medieval cathedrals,
and quirky roadside attractions.

Oh, my god. There it is.

Yard hedge.

Very rare, unless you have
a subscription to

an English Skymall catalog.

♪♪

With the sun starting to set,

I finally arrive
at the end of the road.

Literally, there is
no more land.

This is the very
tiny village of John O' Groats,

population about 300.

We're at the very northeastern
tip of Great Britain here.

This place has
the unfortunate honor

of being named the most
dismal town in Scotland.

Sure. It seems a little bit
lonely, but what do you want?

We're at the end of the world.

♪♪

What's not to like here?

From stunning seaside cliffs

to a damn fine fish
and chips stand.

That's it. Oh, man.
Is that good.

John O' Groats
is my kind of dismal.

They even have a charming inn
at land's end that looks like

it was plucked out of
a Wes Anderson film,

and it affords me a cozy room
to spend the night.

♪♪

The next morning,
I hop aboard a ferry

to the remote
archipelago of Orkney.

Thank you.

Passage from mainland Scotland
to Orkney's port of Stromness

is just 24 miles
as the crow flies,

but this stretch of sea
has bested

even the world's
most seasoned sea seafarers.

This is known
as the Pentland Firth.

The Viking Sagas talk about
this sea consuming their ships.

And just a couple of years ago,
it swallowed a cargo freighter

that's even larger
than this ferry.

♪♪

Whoo-hoo.
This is gonna be pukey.

♪♪

It's beautiful out here!

This beautiful
North Sea weather.

♪♪

GATES: My search for the hidden
origin of Stonehenge

has brought me
from a tomb in Wales

to a treacherous ferry crossing.

We're sailing from
the northern tip of Scotland

to the remote islands of Orkney,

that is if the waves
don't get us first.

Whoo.

The key is just keep your eye
on the horizon.

♪♪

Once inside the breakwaters
of Orkney, the sea is calm.

And we dock at the charming,
if isolated, town of Stromness.

♪♪

From here,
I am crossing the island

to meet with archaeologist
Caroline Wickham-Jones,

who has been studying
Stone Age structures in the far

northern edge of Britain.

She's revealing to me
a little known,

but jaw-dropping site
called Skara Brae.

This is the best preserved
Stone Age village in Europe.

This is insane.

♪♪

This is like "Hobbit"
Middle Earth stuff.

You're seeing a house as it was
left by by Stone Age villagers.

♪♪

GATES: Caroline has secured
special permission for us

to get inside for a closer look.

This is not gonna be
the most glamorous entrance.

There have definitely been
advances in doorframe technology

since the Stone Age.

After a quick crawl through
a prehistoric portal...

Wow.

...we emerge in
a Stone Age domicile.

This is awesome.

Literally, we're
in someone's home.
Yes.

-Are these beds?
-Yes.

Furniture made of stone.

And this awesome
storage area here.

We think that they probably
used them to keep things fresh

as a sort of Stone Age fridge.

You can rent this place
in Manhattan tomorrow.
[ Laughs ]

You'd get a lot of money for it.

This homey one-bedroom isn't
just a fixer-upper with a view.

It's also the key to learning
about how the people here

ended up influencing
the building of Stonehenge.

One of the things
that we find here

is highly-decorated pottery.

The very earliest states for
this pottery are here in Orkney.

So it's being developed
by the people who are living

in these sort of communities.

We also find pieces of this
pottery down at Stonehenge.

Really?

What it shows is that
there must be people

traveling from the north
to the south.

That's a proof-positive
linkage.

Absolutely. Yes.

GATES:
As we've seen in Wales,

the people migrating south
to present-day England

didn't just bring pottery.

They brought ideas,
advanced engineering know-how

and their sacred rituals,

but what about stone circles
and henges?

It turns out,
those are here, too.

Caroline brings me a few miles
up the road to a stone circle

that may be the oldest
henge in the U.K.,

the Stones of Stenness.

Everything out here
is so "Game of Thrones."

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Look at these stones.

I mean, they're enormous.

♪♪

This site is 3,200 B.C.

So more than 5,000 years old.

We may have finally zeroed in
on the earliest-known henge,

centuries older than Stonehenge

and older even than
Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales,

but even if we found
the part of the world

where these stone
circles originated,

there's still one
big question in my mind.

Even if this is
the earliest henge,

where did that idea come from?

Why put anything
in a circular form?

We think we may have
the answer to that.

♪♪

GATES: Caroline has been part of
a research project

that may have turned up a site
that predates all of these

and that could be the henge
that started it all.

And when she introduces me
to her research partner,

I know getting there
will be interesting.

Josh, I think you know Richard.

-Dr. Bates, how are you, man.
-Josh, great to see you again.

-Good to see you again.
-Good to see you. How you been?

-Not too bad. Yourself?
-I've been well.

Good old Dickie Bates.

The renowned geophysicist
and I have shared

some amazing adventures

searching for a lost
mythical city in India

and hunting for a chest
of World War I gold in Namibia.

And now, we meet at yet another
remote corner of the world.

This time, on his home
turf of Scotland.

I'm told there is a special site
that I need to look at.

I think so.

And one that, you know, very few
people have ever even heard of,

yet alone seen.
-And where is it?

It's out there.

-In the bay?
-In the bay.

There's water there today,

but if you go further enough
back in time, that was land.

You could have walked here.

And we think it could relate
to a lot of the early monuments.

Well, let's go look at it.
How do we get out there?

Well, we got to find
ourselves a boat.

Oh, boy. Have you been in boats
with Richard before?

-All right. Come on. Let's go.
-Let's go.

Let see what you got
for us now.

I never would have expected
that my quest

to find the origins
of Stonehenge

would take me below
the surface of the frigid

North Sea, but here we are.

And if my past work with
Bates is any indication,

this investigation
will be one wild ride.

♪♪

GATES: At the Bay of Firth in
the remote Scottish archipelago

of Orkney,

I've joined geophysicist
Richard Bates

and archaeologist
Caroline Wickham-Jones

on a potentially groundbreaking

diving expedition to explore
an ancient underwater feature

that may be
the original inspiration

for sites like Stonehenge...

The boat is just down here
on the left, Josh.

Yeah.

...but at the moment,
there is one thing

that's dampening my excitement.

I feel as though I need to
point out that it is snowing.

-Yeah.
-Perfect diving weather.

♪♪

Today, Caroline and Richard
have enlisted

the help
of Teledyne BlueView,

a company that's developed

pioneering underwater
sonar technology

often used on
deep sea shipwrecks.

I'm hoping our boat
isn't their next project.

♪♪

After gearing up,
we venture out to sea,

and Richard tells me we've got
a bit of a ride ahead of us.

About an half an hour out to it.

We're gonna get out
into the bay.

It's a little bit rough

'cause the Northernlies
will row in.
How rough?

-You know...
-Scottish rough.

-Scottish rough.
-All right.

Hang onto something, boys.

♪♪

♪♪

Beautiful out here, Richard.

Where else would you want
to be on a day like today?

Oh, I don't know, indoors,
in dry clothes, at the movies.

♪♪

GATES: The further out we get,

the more
the weather starts to clear.

And Caroline gives me
the lay of the land

as it was over 5,000 years ago,

when the receding glaciers
of the last Ice Age

would have given the North Sea
a much different look.

What you have to do is
strip the water away,

get your mind's eye back
5,000, 6,000 years.

Would have been gentle valley.

The sea would have been
somewhere in that direction.

This would have been dry?

This would have been dry.

GATES: Richard tells me that
over the years,

divers have explored
these waters.

Just a few years ago,
one finding in particular

really grabbed his
and Caroline's attention

for reasons
I'm about to understand.

Hey, Josh.

We're coming up on the site now
in the middle of the bay here.

Gonna get a high-resolution
sonar image

of what's on the bottom.

All right. Great.
Let's see it.

Okay. Off you go.

GATES: Our first move
is to break out

Teledyne's boat-mounted
sonar imaging scanner

to get an initial
overview of the site.

Some assembly is required, but
once we've got it all rigged up,

it's an impressive piece of kit.

The sonar generates
high-resolution

3D points clouds.

So we're hoping to get
some very good details

of the area of interest.

We should see
individual stones.
Awesome.

The scanner is able to stitch
together 3D sonar scans

in real time,

creating an image
of the site from above,

but, first, we'll need
generate the data

by taking the boat back
and forth...Zamboni-style.

We are following
where we are actually

sending these sonar signals
onto the seafloor.
Right.

So each little dot on there

is a real refraction
from the seafloor.

Got it.

As we navigate back
and forth over the site,

the computer begins
stitching together the data.

Before long, something
unusual starts to take shape.

So no question there's
a feature down there.

There's a definite step
in the landscape here.

That's fabulous.
It's really clear.

Look at that.
Look at the curve there.

-It's circular.
-That's not ordinary.

So am I to understand
that this is a monument?

Is this a henge?

Well, that's
the $1 million question.

GATES: If Caroline and Richard
can prove that people made

or even modified this site,

it would mean that this is
the earliest man-made henge

and stone circle
monument ever found.

Perhaps, the inspiration
for all others that followed.

The only way for us
to continue studying

that is to get in the water.
-[ Laughs ]

Boy, you better have some
seriously warm gear

on this boat.

So against my better judgement,

and open-ocean dive
in near Arctic waters is on.

Jon's brought another
scanning set up to document

the site in even richer detail,

but first, we'll need
to squeeze into specialty

diving suits capable of keeping
us alive in freezing water.

I feel like I look like
the Michelin Man

and Richard looks
like James Bond.

♪♪

We drop the anchor in to mark
the spot and then bombs away.

♪♪

The feature is only
about 15 feet deep,

but it feels like
we're on another planet.

We swim closer to the center,

and the ground beneath us
starts to rise.

♪♪

GATES: I'm in Scotland's frigid
Bay of Firth below the surface

and getting up
close and personal

with a strange formation

that we hope is the inspiration
for all henge monuments.

We have the surface team

lower the sonar unit
to the ocean floor,

and we prepare for

a hyperdetailed scan of
the site.

Okay. We're starting the scan.

It's not recommended,
but it is safe.

GATES: Richard and I swim
out of the way

to let the scanner do its job.

So as the sonar scans around,

it will build up the 3D point
cloud of that area.

GATES: It only takes minutes
for the machine

to collect millions
of data points,

rendering an image in real time.

So the scan is completed now.

Okay. Okay.

That's amazing, guys.

There is fabulous detail
just even so quickly.

That's just incredible.

GATES: After hours
in near-freezing water,

we're eager to make
our way topside,

thaw out, and examine the scan.

♪♪

What do we got?

How cool is that?

Hey, it worked.

GATES: The combined scans
from above and below

have come through crystal clear,

giving Caroline and Richard
the most accurate model

yet of the mysterious
underwater feature.

And you can really see
the pattern, really.

Yeah. Absolutely.

It's a very distinct
outer part of the circle.

The oldest henges,
they occur in Orkney.

Well, they have to be
inspired by something.

Our work here tells us
that they would've seen this

on a land surface.

GATES:
The formation we saw underwater

so reminiscent of the banks
and ditches of Stonehenge

and Stenness may in fact

have been the reason
for their existence,

as the people migrating south
sought to emulate the site here.

It's impossible to ignore
how similar it is

in some ways to these henges we
see on Orkney and other places.

Do you think this is
a part of that story?

The henges mimic it so closely.

It's got the platform,
the ditch.

It's the same sort of size,
but natural.

Yeah.

Is it a coincidence that
we get something like this

where these sites are developed?

It could be a mother henge.

It turns everything on its head.

You wouldn't think that
it would be the genesis

of something
as magnificent as Stonehenge.

GATES: In search of
Stonehenge's origins,

I've gone all around
the United Kingdom,

traveling through time
in the process.

♪♪

I've seen how technology is
settling long-simmering debates

about the site's purpose.

While Stonehenge is
a place of ritual,

it wasn't just used
for celebrations.

This appears to be a cemetery,

a land of the dead,

but it's also a part
of a much larger story.

It's connected to superhenges

and to monuments
in Wales and in Orkney

that are older than
we once thought possible.

And in cold Scottish waters,

the origins of
all henge monuments

might finally be
coming into view.

All of it tells a tale far
richer than the popular myths

and legends led on of a restless
and inventive people

whose perseverance,
ingenuity, and creativity

would pave the way
for the Britain

that so many love
and cherish today.

Stonehenge will be here
long after we're gone.

And as the sun continues to rise

and set across these
mysterious stones,

I'm left marveling,
not just at the monuments,

but at the people who lived,
died, and endured here.

♪♪

On the next
"Expedition Unknown"...

192.

We're getting rich today.

If you look here,
there's a windmill.

That's the Chicago Water Tower.

My dad thought that he would
find it very quickly.

If you look here, you can see
the state of Florida.

She's the lion.

Nobody has figured
that out before.

It's buried under a lion.

-Something.
-Hold on.

-Oh, come on.
-Wait. Is that it?

♪♪