All language subtitles for D.b.D.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Violent swells eroding
England's coastline

reveal a strange wooden structure.

- The top of it has been chopped
clean through

and all of its bark is trimmed off.

- And it's not just that,
this piece of wood

weighs two and a half tonnes!

So whoever put this here,
really wanted it to be right here.

NARRATOR: A dam in Ukraine
is destroyed,

exposing mysterious artefacts
hidden in the riverbed.

- They pulled out a variety
of interesting things

from the area's history,
like WWII era German helmets

and a 1st-century Roman coin!

NARRATOR: A massive earthquake
in China

buries an entire village alive.

- Shortly after the quake,
tragedy struck.

NARRATOR: All over the world
incredible discoveries

are being revealed
by devastating events...

floods, earthquakes...

droughts...

hurricanes...

volcanic eruptions...

trails of destruction...
expose long lost mysteries.

This is Discovered by Disaster.

- (fast paced music playing)

NARRATOR: The coastline of Norfolk,
England faces one of the most

temperamental bodies of water
on the planet: The North Sea.

Violent swells constantly
batter the shore,

leading to a tremendous
amount of erosion.

- This part of Britain has one
of the fastest eroding coastlines

anywhere in northwestern Europe.

And with climate change
exacerbating the problem,

it is possible that the sea level
here will rise almost four feet

by the end of this century!

This is a disaster
happening in slow motion.

- Even without rising sea levels,

several feet of shoreline can
be gobbled up in a matter of days.

At a place called Happisburgh,

the coastline has changed
immeasurably in just a few years.

NARRATOR: Just a few miles
northwest of Happisburgh ,

at Holme-next-the-Sea, the beaches
are continuously disappearing

into the ocean,
and as the sand is removed,

what lies beneath comes to light.

In 1998, a man out crab fishing
was walking along the beach

when he noticed something green
and metallic at his feet.

- It's pretty obvious what it is,
the shape is unmistakable!

At one end it's narrow and thick

while it's flared towards
the end...

this is an axe head!

NARRATOR: Thinking that the axe head
may have been a firefighting axe

from a well known nearby shipwreck,

the man didn't think too much of it
and continued with his crab fishing.

- The thing is, this shipwreck
isn't very old,

it's from the first half
of the 20th century.

In fact, it's a freighter
that ran aground

with a cargo of ice from Norway!

- But, there are a few things
about this axe

that the man hadn't noticed.

For one, all ships do have
these firefighting axes,

but they almost always have
this long ice-pick like thing

sticking out the back,
for tearing down walls

and stuff like that.

The axe head on the beach
doesn't have that.

- Also, it has no hole
where you would expect to mount

the handle onto the axe head.

Meaning you would have to tie it on!

But most importantly, its greenish
colour gives away an obvious clue,

it's made of bronze.

- People haven't made axes out
of bronze for thousands of years.

There's a reason
we call it "The Bronze Age",

which in Britain means roughly
2000 to 700 BCE.

NARRATOR: Curious if the area
where he discovered the axe

could reveal any other treasures,
the man went down to the beach again

and found that a sufficient
amount of sand had eroded to reveal

a large, upside-down tree trunk.

- It's pretty big,
a little over eight feet tall,

with the top of it chopped
clean through

and all of its bark is trimmed off.

So this, this is the work of humans!

Nature did not place this stump
upside down here!

- And it's not just that,
this piece of wood

weighs two and a half tonnes!

- (dramatic music plays)

- So whoever put this here,
really wanted it to be right here.

And they must have had a good
reason for it...

NARRATOR: Over the next
few days,

the quickly eroding sand
begins revealing several

rounded tree stumps,
aligned in a circle

with a huge tree trunk
in the centre.

- The rounded timbers are arranged
in a circle with a 22 foot diameter.

There are 55 of them in total
and they're all about the same size,

roughly one and a half feet each.

Most of them have been split
in half,

while only a few maintain
their natural round shape.

What is this place?

NARRATOR: Archaeologists are called
to the site

and realising that what they're
looking at is quite vulnerable

to changing conditions,
immediately start excavating.

They dig a trench inside the circle
and one trench outside of it,

directly to the north.

- An excavation like this
has to happen during low tide,

meaning you have
between two to four hours to work.

You also have to run pumps
every day to get rid of the seawater

which is filling the trenches,
and you even have

to remove sea life.

- But those difficult excavations
have a huge pay off.

Underneath the trunk
they find fragments of rope

that are stuck to the sides
of the tree.

And there are also these two holes
cut, on opposite sides,

through the trunk of the tree.

So now we know that somebody
took this rope,

threaded it through these two holes
and dragged

this two and a half tonne tree
to put it right here

and turn it upside down.

Who did that and why?

NARRATOR: The archaeologists find
no human remains

in or around the circle.

However, they do notice that there
are peat beds to the east and west

of the site and that to the south

there is an entire area
covered in peat.

- There is even some peat
left on a few of the timbers

that made up the circle.

So I think it's pretty safe
to say that this entire area

was covered in peat at some point.

That's probably how this wood
and rope were preserved.

- Peat bogs famously
preserve things very well.

Like the Tollund Man of Denmark...

or the Lindow Man of England.

Two men that lived
around 2,000 years ago

who were killed
and thrown into peat bogs

and when discovered looked as though
they could've been alive yesterday.

- This really drives home how lucky
they were to find this place

when they did.

A peat bog, with its low oxygen
levels and the way

it just sits there
can preserve things for centuries.

But the ocean is a different story.
It has the power to destroy

pretty much anything
it wants to, as fast as it wants to.

So because this place has become
exposed to the ocean,

it is basically one storm away
from being erased forever.

These archaeologists
are racing against time.

NARRATOR: The 55 posts are fitted
very close together.

Towards the southwest end,
there are two posts placed

against the outside of the circle,

directly in front
of a forked timber.

- You can see that the way
one of these posts

has been placed blocks off
the only potential access point

or viewpoint into the circle.

Although there's an opening
created by the forked timber,

it's only a few inches wide.

So because there's
no obvious entryway,

we can discount this being some
sort of home, or even fortification.

Nor would it have been
an animal pen.

- But opposite to that small
opening, at the northeast end,

there is one piece of roundwood
timber...

and the axis of that piece of timber
is pretty much lined up

with the sunrise and sunset,

so it could be some kind
of sundial.

- (metallic swish)

NARRATOR: Prior to Christianity,
the people of Great Britain

worshipped pagan gods,
and among their deities

may have been a form
of sun god.

Paying respect to the sun
was central

to their spiritual understanding
of the world.

- Ancient monuments dedicated
to the worship of the sun

aren't entirely unheard of
in this part of the world.

There's a roughly 5,000 year old
site called Newgrange in Ireland

that consists of a huge mound
of earth surrounded by stones...

and for five days
around the winter solstice,

a beam of sunlight illuminates
a small room inside the mound

for about 17 minutes at dawn.

- And on the Orkney Islands,

off of Scotland's north-eastern
coast there's the Maeshowe tomb,

a 5,000 year old
chambered burial cairn

where the setting sun
shines straight down

the length of a passageway
and hits the back wall

for three weeks before and three
weeks after the winter solstice.

- Of course, Stonehenge is the most
famous

of all of these kinds
of historic sites

and we know that it's aligned
to both

the summer and winter solstice...

so it could be that this wood
monument is something similar.

But was it built around
the same time as Stonehenge?

- Most trees have growth rings,
one for each growing season,

and scientists now have an enormous
database of different rings

that they can use to determine
the age of any given tree.

They can also learn
what the climatic conditions were

during the course
of a tree's lifetime.

If for example,
the rings are close together,

then it was likely a difficult year.

If they're more spaced out,
it was a good year.

NARRATOR: Analysis reveals
that the trees were under stress,

likely owing to difficult
environmental conditions,

and they were cut down in 2049 BCE.

- So these 4,000 year old trees
were being hampered in their growth

because of miserable, harsh weather.

And amazingly, the analysis
is also able to pinpoint

when during the year,
these trees were cut down.

In this case - springtime.

- So it could be that this thing
was built in preparation

for the summer solstice,
when the sun

is at its highest point in the year!

- It's hard to know what life
was like here 4,000 years ago.

We do know that there were some
climate changes around that time

that probably had a big influence
on the lives of these people.

So maybe this structure was built
as a way to try to understand

or even fix some of those changes
that the people were experiencing.

NARRATOR: At the time the monument
was constructed,

one of the most severe climate
events of the last 12,000 years

was taking place.

- This was a global megadrought
of cool and dry conditions.

It lasted for 100 years

and is thought to have had a hand
in the collapse

of the Egyptian Old Kingdom,
as well

as the Akkadian Empire
of Mesopotamia.

So it's possible that this monument
was built

as a means to worship the sun
in desperate times.

But is that the only thing
it could be?

- Whoever built it put the tree
trunk on its head for a reason.

We can only speculate,
but symbolically,

it speaks to the life force
returning to the place

from where all life derives,
the earth.

So the upturned trunk in the centre
might have supported a body.

Meaning this also could have
been a burial site.

- The body may have been laid out
on top of the trunk,

and with the help of the weather
as well as insects and animals,

allowed to return
to its natural state.

Or it may have been placed
under the trunk, into the ground.

We simply don't know.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists begin
to examine the marks

that have been left
on the monument's timbers.

- These little marks
are from the tools

that were used to cut the wood
and shape it.

And because every single tool
has a slightly different shape,

each of them
has its own distinct signature.

- To obtain the signature,
we look at the width and depth

of a tool's imprint.

This will correspond
to the width and depth

of the sharp end of the blade,
like an axe.

When we have these two numbers,

they're expressed
as a curvature ratio.

- The wood at the monument
shows very little duplication

of curvature ratios,
meaning that there were probably

a lot of different tools being used.

Which of course, means
that there were a lot of people

doing the chopping!

NARRATOR: The different curvature
ratios logged

in the analysed timbers
indicate that at least 51

different bronze tools were used
to create the monument.

- This is quite a surprise,

because we previously assumed
that bronze tools

were far more scarce at this period
of the Early Bronze Age.

But it seems people were able
to acquire them, exactly how,

we don't know.

- So if 51 different tools
were being used,

it's safe to assume
that at least 51 different people

were working on this.

This means
that this was a community event,

where the act of participating
in the monument's construction

may have been as important
as the monument itself.

- Remember, communities
at this time weren't that big,

so 51 individuals,
likely male adults,

would represent
a significant contribution

from one or several communities.

They all needed to be fed and housed

and the time they spent building
the monument

was time they weren't spending
doing other important things.

- Maybe it was purely
for ceremonial purposes,

or maybe it was a burial site
for a prominent individual,

or maybe it was both of those things
or neither of those things,

we don't know.

But what we're very confident saying
though,

is that this place held huge
significance for the people

of that time.

NARRATOR: The monument
at Holme-next-the-Sea

is now known as Seahenge,

and while it may not be as famous
as Stonehenge,

it still provides a valuable window
into the world

of Early Bronze Age Britons.

- (fast paced music playing)

NARRATOR: The Dnipro River
is one of Europe's main waterways,

flowing through different countries
over a span of 1,400 miles.

Owing to its location and size,
it has been central

to the region's history,
providing transport

for both valuable goods and armed
men for thousands of years.

- Measuring seven miles long
by one and a half miles wide,

the Ukrainian island of Khortytsia
is the largest island

of the Dnipro River.
- (crowd chats indistinctly)

It's a national treasure
and a designated reserve

that protects the floodplain
of bays, canals and forests.

- The island is located
about a 125-mile drive

from the Kakhovka Dam,
an enormous piece of infrastructure

built by the Soviets in 1956
to provide electricity

for the region.

The construction flooded
a very large area but luckily,

Khortytsia was somehow spared
and wasn't too heavily impacted

by the change in water level.

- The environmental impact
when the Soviets built the dam

in 1956 was significant,
and the same could be said

when the Russians allegedly
blew it up in 2023,

following the invasion
and occupation of parts of Ukraine.

While it's unclear how the dam
was destroyed,

the result was catastrophic...

both agricultural land
and villages were flooded,

and drinking water was poisoned,

leading to the evacuation
of thousands of people.

NARRATOR: The waters surrounding
the island of Khortytsia receded,

exposing artefacts once hidden
on the riverbed.

- They pulled out a variety
of interesting things

from the area's history,
like World War II era German helmets

and a 1st-century Roman coin!

So this place has seen
its fair share of activity

over the centuries.

- A few weeks after the destruction
of the dam,

a man walking along the beach
noticed a large object

protruding from the sand.

It looks like a long smooth,
rounded piece of wood,

with a rectangular-looking shape
towards one end,

obviously not naturally occurring.

- If you look at the shape
and the right angles

that have been made towards the end,

it leads me to think that this may
have been part

of some sort of vessel.

I mean it was found at the bottom
of a river after all!

But what vessel is it?

NARRATOR: The region
of the Dnipro River

has seen an incredible amount
of human activity

over the course of thousands
of years.

Owing to its location it was
and remains a key strategic location

to trade, farm and go to war.

- This area is one
of the cradles of history.

The vast steppe landscape
to the river's east

leads to the Russian heartland,
Central Asia and onwards to China.

The soil here is rich
and great for agriculture,

and the Black Sea offers ports
that lead into the Mediterranean

and out into the wider world.

For these reasons,

the region has seen
an endless amount

of human activity
and conflict.

NARRATOR: Owing to the area's
history, and to the different people

and cultures that have been
through here,

the options for what kind of vessel
it could be

and when it could be from
are extensive.

- The wood is very dense and heavy.

It's also straight-grained.

This means that the pattern
of the wood's fibres

that created as the tree grows
is straight.

That identifies it as oak!

- But what's interesting
is how the wood

has been shaped towards the one end.

It's slightly curved

and then flares out
into this rectangular piece

acting somewhat like a mantelpiece

presiding over the rest
of the vessel.

- Maybe it's obvious,

but the first thing that comes
to my mind is Viking ships!

The bows of Viking ships
were famously prominent,

sometimes quite ornate,
sometimes less so.

Viking ships are also famous
for having been constructed

from oak. So could this be
the remnants of a Viking ship?

NARRATOR: The Vikings were a lot
more

than their reputation
would suggest.

They weren't just fearsome warriors,
they were sophisticated seamen

who used their navigational skills

and advanced shipbuilding
technology

to sail to and to engage in trade
with far off people and places.

- It's well known that the Vikings
who resided in what is now Norway

sailed west,
colonising Iceland and Greenland

and parts of Britain,
but what is less known

is that the Vikings from Sweden
sailed east,

and down into the river systems
of central and eastern Europe.

NARRATOR: This was known
as the Varangian route.

Using the Dnipro as the main artery,
the Vikings entered

the freshwater system in the Baltic
and exited at the Black Sea.

Some of them ended up putting
down roots in the areas surrounding

the Dnipro River,

and over time became assimilated
into the local language and culture.

These people ultimately became
known as the Varangians.

Their descendants eventually seized
the city of Kyiv in the 9th century,

establishing a new kingdom
in the process.

- They were able to travel
this route

because they developed
a specific type of ship

that was excellent for navigating
both the stormy seas

as well as the shallow freshwater
systems of continental Europe.

- The ships had a shallow draft
and no deep lying keel

in the way a traditional sailing
boat does,

which allowed them to sail
into shallower waters.

To compensate for their lack of
a modern keel they were quite wide,

keeping them stable
even in the roughest of seas.

- But if you look closely
at this massive carved piece of wood

found on the beach, it's missing
something important.

Viking ships were clinker-built,

meaning that they were
constructed by riveting

overlapping pieces of wood
called strakes,

and this piece of wood
is lacking these rivets...

So if this isn't the remnants
of a Viking ship, what could it be?

AMMA: This flared bow, if it
indeed is the bow, is interesting.

It's somewhat like the famous
vessel that was built by another

storied group of people,
the Cossacks!

- (battle cries)

NARRATOR: Like the Vikings before
them, the Cossacks were known

as fearsome warriors dedicated
to their semi-nomadic way of life.

Originating from the steppe
surrounding the Black

and Caspian Seas,
they maintained their independence

through their militaristic culture
and excellent horsemanship.

- (tense music plays)

- Because of their fighting prowess,
they were granted a lot of autonomy

from the powers that be
in exchange for military service.

Essentially, they served Ukrainian
and Russian rulers as mercenaries.

NARRATOR: Historically, the Cossacks
have an outsize importance.

They fought in several wars

and had a hand in the shaping
of the power dynamics of the region.

- The island of Khortytsia
served as an important base

for the Ukrainian Cossacks
between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Some even say that it was
their first headquarters,

and they're said to have built
a "sich" here,

which was their military
administrative centre.

NARRATOR: From the 16th to the 19th
century,

the Cossacks fought alongside
the Russian Empire

for control of the Black Sea
and surrounding areas.

- The Cossacks who lived
on Khortytsia sailed in longships

known as chaikas which were manned
by dozens of sailors.

So could this vessel found on
Khortytsia be part of an old chaika?

- If you look at the texture
of the wood,

you can tell that it's scalloped,

meaning the vessel
was made by hollowing out

one big piece of wood
using a special tool,

like a chisel or a gouge of sorts.

- But chaikas were kind of like
Viking ships in their design...

long and wide
and using a clinker structure.

Because this piece appears
to have been hollowed out,

maybe it wasn't part of a vessel
but rather the entire vessel.

- Perhaps it's as simple
as being a dugout canoe,

but this would place us in a time
before the Cossacks...

in fact, it would place us
into time immemorial!

NARRATOR: Dugout canoes are one
of the oldest, if not the oldest,

forms of waterborne transportation
that exists on the planet.

They have been designed, built,

and used by humans
for thousands of years.

- To give you an idea, the oldest
dugout canoe on record

was discovered in Pesse, Holland.

At 9 to 10,000 years old,
it predates the Egyptian Pyramids.

- In 2015, a dugout canoe
was found on the Styr River

in Ukraine's Lutsk region.

Radiocarbon dating revealed
that it was more than 500 years old,

which compared to the Pesse dugouts,
is modern-day.

- These dugouts can be said to be
ancestors of the Cossack chaika.

Although they were quite basic,
they would have been used

for a variety of purposes,
ranging from mundane everyday tasks

to military campaigns.

They were cheap and reliable
and served their owners well

until they were replaced
by more sophisticated vessels.

NARRATOR: The dugout canoe
is a reminder of the importance

the Dnipro River has played
and continues to play

in the history of this region.

(fast music playing)

NARRATOR: Almost 4,000 years ago,

an enormous earthquake shook
central China's Huangtu Plateau.

The seismic tremors tore open
the earth,

creating fissures in the dusty,
dry ground.

- The earthquake measured
around a magnitude of seven,

powerful enough
to cause damage to well-built,

modern structures, and certainly to
those built thousands of years ago.

- (rocks falling)

- A small village along
the Yellow River

built on unstable ground
bore the burden of the disaster.

If the earthquake wasn't bad enough,

the movement of the earth's plates
destabilised the already loose rock

that made up
the surrounding hillsides.

- Shortly after the quake,
tragedy struck.

Tons and tons of earth, moving very
quickly, hit the ancient village,

known today by the name of Lajia,
destroying it completely.

The mudslide flooded
the entire village,

drowning the homes in red mud.

NARRATOR: In the year 2000,

Chinese archaeologists began
excavating the site.

Among the collapsed homes
buried in red clay,

they begin finding victims
of the disaster.

Skeletal remains, twisted in agony,
appeared before their very eyes.

- The mud is what killed
those people

but it is also what preserved
their skeletons,

and because of that,
their bodies are preserved

in exactly the positions they were
in at the moment of death.

That one victim
is in this crouching position,

with a child in their arms,
looking upwards,

that horrifying last
moment of their lives,

preserved for thousands of years.

- Others are cowering in the corner,

probably trying to escape
the crushing power

of the landslide...

seeking comfort or cover
amongst each other.

Even though four millennia
have passed since this event,

it doesn't make it
any less disturbing.

You can see the panic here.

- They acted like anyone would do
today.

You can't help but imagine
if this happened to you today,

you would do the exact same things.

You would be preserved in the same
kinds of postures.

You can almost imagine being one
of these people.

So who were they?

NARRATOR: The house where some
of the victims are found

is more like a cave,

a semi-subterranean dwelling.

It's square with the door
pointing to the south.

- These people took advantage
of the looser earth

and carved out caves to live in.

They're ingenious residences,
well insulated

by the surrounding earth,
meaning they're cool in the summers

and warm in the winters.

And since they face south.
they're well lit!

- Even today, it's estimated
that about 27 million people

in Central China still live
in this type of house!

Now these people are year-round
occupants,

but were they 4,000 years ago?

Or did these homes belong
to semi-nomadic people?

NARRATOR: As the excavations
expand across an area

measuring roughly 27,000
square feet,

the archaeologists discover
that the hamlet

was situated around a central plaza.

In the centre of the plaza,

a slightly raised portion
draws the attention of the team.

- Oftentimes when you see
a raised platform,

or slight bulge in what is otherwise
a pretty flat area,

it can be hinting at the presence
of a burial or a grave of some sort.

- Sure enough, in the middle
of the plaza,

under this bulge, they discover
a beautiful jade knife

as well as the jaw of a pig.

Its location relative to the rest
of the hamlet

indicates it was a central gathering
point for the whole community,

so this raised portion
was probably a form of altar

where they would pray
and even sacrifice animals

like pigs.

- We're aware that ritual sacrifice
of pigs was relatively common

in Neolithic China,

which defines the period preceding
the Early Bronze Age.

So this find also helps us
understand

that pigs had an important
or even sacred position

for the people of Early Bronze Age
Central China.

But the question still remains:

were they moving around
with these pigs

or did they stay in the same place?

NARRATOR: Located at the southeast
end of the plaza is a dwelling

that captures
the archaeologists' attention.

- There's all sorts of stuff
lying all over the floor;

you've got tools
made from stone and from bone,

you've got lacquered objects,
you've got pottery.

But, there is something
really neat in here.

It's kind of camouflaged
by the brownish-yellow earth.

There's this one bowl
lying upside down,

and underneath that bowl
there are these dried up

string like things in the sediment.

- What we're looking at here
is an ancient bowl of noodles!

In fact, if you were to just throw
them back into the bowl,

they don't even look that old.

That's how well
they have been preserved!

NARRATOR: Chemical analysis
of the noodles

indicates that they were made
of a mixture of broomcorn

and foxtail millet.

- Broomcorn and foxtail millet
are both cereals.

A cereal is any species of grass
that is harvested for its seeds.

So today we eat things like corn,
rice, wheat, oats

and a bunch of other kinds
of cereals

and together they make up
about half of all the calories

that humans eat on earth everyday.

This finding of broomcorn
and foxtail millet

shows that cereals were important
in this society too.

- This tells us that the people
living here

were occupying this hamlet
full time!

Cultivating and processing these
crops requires year round work,

so these people
were definitely farmers,

and not semi-nomadic at all.

- Outside several homes
there's also evidence

of ash remains,
meaning that this is likely

where they cooked these noodles,
at least on a seasonal basis.

So in the summer months,
they cooked outside

and during the winter, inside.

- This is interesting
because this type of cooking system

is very similar to what was seen
at the famous archaeological site

of Banpo, lying east of here.

Could these people at Lajia have
been associated with that village?

NARRATOR: The Banpo site
is one of the most important

archaeological sites
of ancient China.

Located roughly 500 miles
to the east of Lajia,

it has provided immense insight
into the cultural practices

and livelihoods of the people
of the Yangshao culture.

- The Yangshao culture possessed
a lot of similarities

with what we see here at Lajia.

They domesticated animals,
they were farmers

whose primary crop was millet

and they also used stone
and bone tools!

- There's a big "but" here.

The Yangshao culture existed
roughly between 5000 and 3000 BCE,

coming to an end about 1,000 years
before this hamlet of Lajia

was destroyed.

So although there are obvious
similarities,

the people of Lajia
weren't of this ancient culture.

NARRATOR: As the excavation
of the Lajia continues,

the team discovers plenty
of ceramics at the site.

Broken pottery shards,
as well as intact vessels,

are found across the entire area.

- For an archaeologist,
examining the style of pottery,

as well as its production techniques
can be a very helpful way

to not just identify
a particular culture,

but also to learn
about its practices.

If you take a look at the
pottery styles of different peoples

and civilisations, you'll see
how vastly different they can be

whether it's in their design
or adornment.

- A lot of the pottery at Lajia
has flat bottoms and is unpainted.

Some of them exhibit a coarse,
reddish-brown ware,

and they're mostly handmade,
which you can tell

because some of the edges
aren't exactly perfect,

they're a little uneven.

Many of them are also either one
or two-handled large-mouthed jars,

with the broad arched handles
flaring out from the sides.

- These vases look an awful lot
like something we've seen

from ancient Greece
called an amphora,

but that's a design that's not found
in China at all,

except for in one specific group -
the Qija!

- Settling along the upper
Yellow River and its tributaries,

the Qija occupied parts of Central
China from around 2300 to 1500 BCE.

They weren't just known
for their pottery but also for being

one of the earliest people in China
to smelt bronze.

For this reason,
they played an important role

in the transition from the Stone
to the Bronze Age.

NARRATOR: The Yellow River
is known

as the cradle
of Chinese civilisation.

For thousands of years,
the villages that dotted its banks

were the lifeblood of technological
and cultural development

and the Qija people
of the Lajia village

undoubtedly played
a significant part in the process.

(fast music playing)

NARRATOR: Just over 20 miles east
of Las Vegas, Nevada is Lake Mead.

The biggest reservoir
in the United States,

it supplies water and energy
to 25 million people

across the American Southwest.

- The lake straddles the border
between Arizona and Nevada

and is pretty huge, roughly 10 times
bigger than the island of Manhattan,

which is kind of ironic given that
it's found in a desert ecosystem.

- Lake Mead was created in the 1930s

when the Federal government decided
to build the Hoover Dam nearby.

Water in the reservoir mostly
comes from the Colorado River,

but despite having one of America's
mightiest rivers as its source,

the lake has been under duress,

as the entire region
has been plagued by drought.

- In 2022, things reached
a crisis point,

the lack of water
in the Colorado River

caused Lake Mead
to shrink dramatically.

- (dramatic music playing)

- It was down to 30 %
of its capacity,

the water level had dropped
170 feet.

It was the lowest it had been
since the dam was built.

NARRATOR: In the early days
of summer,

two sisters were out
paddleboarding on the lake

near Callville Bay when
they come across a disturbing sight.

- There were bones sticking out
from a recently exposed sandbar!

They hadn't seen the light of day
in years...

and at first glance, they seemed to
be in the form of an animal,

like a bighorn sheep.

But on more careful inspection,
the girls recognised ribs, a femur,

and the unmistakable shape
of a human cranium.

Teeth could also be seen in the sand
near the remains.

- Some of them have
silver fillings,

but it's impossible to know if they
were knocked out at the time

of death or if they fell out
while the body's been lying here.

So who was this person,

and how did they end up
at the bottom of Lake Mead?

NARRATOR: As the drought continues
to reduce the amount of water

in the lake,
a strange, rectangular shape,

half buried in the newly exposed
sand comes to light.

- It's kind of drab grey.
It's lying on its side.

It's 36 feet long.
It's 11 feet across

and it has a flat bottom,

which is weird
because this is definitely a vessel

of some kind, but not a lot of boats
have that shape!

- It's made of plywood that has half
an inch of steel armour covering it.

This tells us that this
is likely a naval vessel.

So my guess is that the vessel's
shallow draft would allow it

to sail through water
that isn't very deep

and deposit goods on shore
by lowering its ramp,

reminiscent of the famous
Higgins boat!

- During WWII, Higgins boats
were built to transport

Allied soldiers from troop carriers
to beaches.

They could manoeuvre in just
10 inches of water

and proved vital to the war effort.

But why would there be a Higgins
boat at the bottom of Lake Mead?

Was there some sort of military
exercise here?

Could the skeleton have been
an unlucky soldier

who lost his life during training?

- Maybe. But the boat and the body
weren't found in the same place

and besides, Lake Mead
has the unfortunate distinction

of having the highest number of
deaths per year of any national park

in the United States.

On average, every year, 25 people
lose their lives here.

So there's a very, very good
chance that this body

has nothing to do
with that Higgins boat.

Chances are this skeleton
is the victim

of some unrelated event.

NARRATOR: That same summer,
a couple out boating for the day

were passing near Hemenway Harbour
when they suddenly heard a scream.

- (screaming)

NARRATOR: Heading to the shore
to investigate,

they were met
with a frightening sight.

- A 50-gallon oil drum
was lying on its side on a sandbar

that had emerged
because of the drought.

It was rusted through in parts,
and inside,

the scrunched-up body of a man
could be seen...

bones poking through
the faded clothing.

- Finding a corpse in an oil drum
that has been lying on the bottom

of a lake for god knows how long
definitely brings to mind

certain people or organisations...

- Lake Mead is only around 20 miles
from Las Vegas, AKA Sin City.

During the 70s and 80s the mob
notoriously ran that town.

They were ruthless.

- An inspection of the body
reveals a neat,

circular hole
in the victim's cranium.

He appears to have been executed.

At this point, I don't think we need
any more evidence

to conclude that this was a mob hit!

In 1976, handsome Johnny Roselli,
a well-known Las Vegas mobster,

was found deceased and floating
in a 55-gallon steel drum

off the coast of Miami.

- Clearly, this technique of trying
to dispose of mob-related

murder victims isn't original.
But here's the thing...

the victim in the barrel
wasn't dressed to the nines

like a mobster would be.

He was wearing cheap clothes.
He had a pair of blue sneakers on

that were eventually identified
as size 11, Trax tennis shoes.

Trax are not high end.

Those were literally available
at K-Mart in the 70s and 80s.

- Aside from the fact that he wore
unfashionable clothing,

nothing was found
that identifies the man,

so we can't rule out the possibility
that his murder

is connected to the original
skeleton found by the two sisters

near Callville Bay.

Maybe forensic analysis will give us
some answers.

NARRATOR: DNA samples of the remains
discovered by the sisters,

identify the body as a man who
died in a drowning accident in 2002.

His tragic fate was entirely
unrelated to any mafia activity.

- Law enforcement does have
several theories

as to who the man in the barrel
could be.

But at the moment
that's all they are, theories.

No conclusive proof
has emerged... yet.

For all we know,

we'll need another megadrought to
bring more evidence to the surface.

NARRATOR: Since 2022, the water
level in Lake Mead has risen,

although it remains far below
full capacity.

Droughts and overuse of water
are expected in the future,

which will perhaps
lead to more discoveries

and solve the mystery
of the man in the barrel.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services