All language subtitles for D.b.D.S01E05.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: A series of storms
reveal mysterious objects

off of England's coast.

- He had always seen a bump
on the seafloor there.

But something about it seemed
to have changed after the storms.

ANTHEA: It's a pile of rocks.

But there are also these round
things laying on the seafloor.

What are these?

NARRATOR: A massive earthquake
triggers a tsunami

in ancient Greece.

- A giant wave submerged the city,

covering it up entirely, with likely
only olive trees sticking up

through the water's surface.

DAN: Incredibly, the sonar picks up
ancient port infrastructure,

but also what looks like the remains
of ten shipwrecks

along the shoreline.
So is this the port of Helike?

NARRATOR: An unprecedented drought

in Mexico leads to the discovery
of a strange structure.

- The grey walls of a remarkably
intact ruin of some sort.

And it's a building
of considerable size.

- So what was this place?

NARRATOR: All over the world,

incredible discoveries
are being revealed

by devastating events -

floods, earthquakes,

draughts, hurricanes,

volcanic eruptions.

Trails of destruction expose
long lost mysteries.

This is Discovered By Disaster.

NARRATOR: In March of 2019,
a low-pressure area

over the western Atlantic
was picked up by the jet stream,

a deadly combination
that created Storm Gareth,

which began to roar towards Great
Britain with menacing ferocity.

- When Gareth made landfall
in the UK,

it was gusting at 75 miles per hour.

There were downed trees,
power outages, and flooding.

- Just over a month later, with
the UK barely recovered from Gareth,

another storm -
Storm Hannah - struck.

Similar to Gareth, but with gusts
up to 82 miles per hour.

NARRATOR: Shortly after
the passing of Storm Hannah,

a small boat is on its way to Poole
Harbour in Dorset, England,

when the captain notices
something on the scanner

about a mile offshore.

- He had always seen
a bump on the seafloor there -

it had been marked on navigation
charts since at least 1982.

A pile of rocks, is what everyone
said - covered in silt, of course.

But something about it seemed
to have changed after the storms.

- There were fish hanging around -

that's what was showing up
on the scanner.

And if you've a structure underwater
where fish can hide,

fish will come and hang around
there because they feel safe.

So maybe there was more to this pile
of rocks than meets the eye.

NARRATOR: A team of maritime
archaeologists

from the local university
are summoned to the site,

and hit the water to investigate.

At a depth of only about 32 feet,

the divers find a large bump,
as expected...

and it's no longer covered in silt.

- It's a pile of rocks.

But there are also these round
things laying on the seafloor.

They look like thick stone bowls -

at least 10 of them,
of various sizes, scattered about.

What are these?

JAMES: The divers bring
one of the objects to the surface.

It's awfully thick and heavy
for a bowl.

It's got what looks like
a little pour spout

at one point along the edge,

and a couple of what
might be rudimentary handles.

And it looks as though it had been
in the seawater for some time.

ANTHONY: As soon as I look at that,
I think,

"I've got something like that
in my kitchen."

But it's not a bowl;
what I have is a mortar and pestle,

used for grinding seeds and grains.

NARRATOR: Mortar and pestle sets
are readily available online

and in culinary shops.

Usually made of granite or marble,

they typically have a smooth
edge or handles.

While some may have pour spots.

- But why would a bunch
of mortars be here?

Were they dumped? Or did they fall
overboard while being shipped?

ANTHONY: It's odd that
there aren't any pestles, though -

the part you use to do the grinding.

The only thing we can think of is,
lots of pestles are stone,

but some are wood.
So maybe these were all wooden?

So, if a shipment fell overboard,

after the cardboard would have
gotten soggy and dissolved,

any wooden pestles
would have just floated away.

NARRATOR: The divers return
to examine the other mortars

and in the process
they make another discovery.

- Sticking out from under
the large pile of stones

are long planks of wood.

These are quite large -
roughly about 10 inches wide,

by two inches thick,
and many feet long.

There seem to be around 16 of them,

edge over edge -
their edges overlap,

like the wooden siding
on an old house.

- Could these be the remains
of an old marina

or a dock or boathouse?

But this is a mile offshore.

And the biggest mystery would be

how would the wall
of a structure like that

end up 32 feet down,

pinned under a pile of rocks?

- Ultimately, we realise
these aren't just planks;

they're strakes
which are hull planks.

This is the wreck of a wooden ship.

- This would explain
that big rockpile.

Those stones could have been ballast

to help balance the ship
and keep it stable.

Modern ships often have water tanks
deep in their holes,

which are used to adjust
the ship's balance

and make up for changes
in cargo loading.

But a lower tech method
is just to use rocks,

which the crew then moves
around by hand as necessary.

- So, a ship sank, broke up,
and most of it floated away.

But part of one side of the hull was
pinned down by the ballast stones,

and that's what we're seeing here.

NARRATOR: Probing the area further,

the maritime archaeologists find
a stempost -

the main piece of timber
that goes up along the middle

of a ship's bow,
and a piece of floor timber.

- Based on the measurements and the
shapes of these elements,

this vessel may have been close
to eighty feet long

and about 24 feet wide.

Quite a big,
substantial ship, really.

It might have carried a crew
of about 20.

NARRATOR: There is no wreck marked

on the navigational charts
at this spot-

only "Obstruction 3g" -
referring to the pile of rocks.

- We know this ship has been here
since at least 1982,

because Obstruction 3g was already
on the charts back then.

But, how long has this wreck
really been here?

NARRATOR: The divers locate a large
stone slab that's unnaturally flat

with straight edges.

When they brush the silt away,
another surprise is revealed.

- There's a Christian cross,
chiselled in relief.

This is a wheel-headed cross.

It's a remarkable piece of
stonework, impeccably handmade.

You can see the chisel marks.

This is a gravestone slab.

- There's also a second slab,
right near the first one.

This one's of a different design,
a splayed-arm cross.

Both slabs are remarkably undamaged.

NARRATOR: The slabs are too large
to bring up safely...

..so instead the divers bring up
more of the mortars.

- There are a number
of designs and shapes,

but all the mortars are stone.

With one of them,
you can clearly see

fossilized fish bones in the rock,

and that tells us
these mortars are made of Purbeck.

JAMES: Purbeck is
a sedimentary limestone rock

that would have formed between
around 140-150 million years ago.

It's essentially fossilized snails

with other vertebrate
and crustacean fossils mixed in.

NARRATOR: The Isle of Purbeck is on
what's known as the Jurassic Coast -

a 95 mile stretch
of English coastline

within the counties
of Dorset and Devon

with an extensive limestone beach

that's been quarried
since the Iron Age.

- So the pile of boulders probably
wasn't just ballast,

it may also have been part of the
ship's cargo.

These boulders were
all Purbeck limestone

and were probably
being shipped somewhere.

NARRATOR: Purbeck marble is
a rare, particularly-hard variant

of Purbeck stone.

It can be brought
to a high, luxurious polish,

which made it valuable
and much sought-after.

- While regular Purbeck limestone
is still being quarried today,

the more rare Purbeck marble was

quarried out in
about the 15th century.

They essentially ran out of it.

So that means the wreck must be
at least around 600 years old.

NARRATOR:
To get a more accurate determination

of the age of the ship,

a dendrochronological analysis
is performed -

a process that can ascertain
how old a piece of wood is

by matching variations in the
thickness of its growth rings

with historical data regarding
seasonal climate changes.

The results are shocking.

- The trees these planks
were cut from

grew between the years
1242 and 1265.

So this ship was built
about 750 years ago!

- This is the oldest
English shipwreck site

with any surviving hull remains.

Before this one, there were no known
wrecks of any seagoing ships

in the UK from between
the 11th and 14th centuries.

So how could the wood have survived
this long under water?

ALISON: Ultimately,
it's probably due to the silt.

When this ship went down, the heavy
Purbeck stones it was carrying

pinned one side of the hull
deep into the silt.

And the local currents likely
covered it all over very soon after.

The silt kept oxygen out,

and a lot of burrowing sea creatures
away as well.

- Now the presence
of those grave slabs

makes a lot more sense, as well.

Both those styles -
the wheel-headed cross

and the splayed-arm cross -

are known to have been in use
in the 13th century,

which fits perfectly with
our estimated age of this wreck.

NARRATOR: Researchers may be able to
learn more about the wreck one day,

when they remove some of the Purbeck
stones and reveal what lies beneath.

For now, they're focusing their
energies on preserving what's there.

- The whole reason it's believed
this wreck has lasted

seven and a half centuries
underwater

is that it was covered up
with silt for most of that time.

Now that Storms Gareth and Hannah
cleared that silt away,

it's very vulnerable to shipworms.

NARRATOR: An important first step
has been taken:

The government has assigned
the wreck

the highest level of protection,

acknowledging its value,
and the importance of preserving it.

If archaeologists can
one day manage to raise it

and place it
and its artifacts into a museum...

who knows how many more centuries
they might last.

In the year 373 BCE,

a powerful earthquake hit
the southwest shore

of the Gulf of Corinth,

devastating Greece's
Peloponnese peninsula.

- On the north shore
of the peninsula,

the residents of the ancient Greek
city of Helike

were sent into a panic.

As they went about
trying to save themselves,

it is believed that
the earthquake triggered a tsunami,

which then went on to hit the city.

- A giant wave submerged the city,
covering it up entirely,

with likely only olive trees
sticking up

through the water's surface.

The ancient Greek historian Strabo
would write

that an emergency task force
of 2,000 men was organised

to help any survivors,
yet none were found.

- The destruction was so complete,
that for over a thousand years

we have not known where
this city was actually located,

despite the fact that
Helike's ruins are mentioned

in several ancient texts.

Nor could we piece together
the puzzle of what really happened

on that horrible day in 373 BCE.

- This is eerily reminiscent
of another mythical tale,

that of the Lost City of Atlantis.

Writing just a few years
after the disaster,

the Greek philosopher Plato
told of an advanced civilisation

that had angered the gods
to such an extent

that they were punished severely.

The gods destroyed
their entire civilisation

with an earthquake
and covered it with the sea.

JAMES: Atlantis was lost,
never to be seen again.

Because the story of the two cities
are so similar,

could the destruction of Helike
have provided inspiration

for the story of Atlantis?

NARRATOR: In the years following
the disaster at Helike,

several ancient scholars would visit
and write about the city.

Strabo wrote that 150 years
after the event,

the scholar Eratosthenes visited
the area

and was informed by local sailors
that submerged in the "poros",

a bronze statue of Poseidon
could still be seen.

- A poros is an ancient Greek word
that we now interpret

as meaning
a "narrow passage of water".

And in the context
of how it was being used by Strabo,

we assume that
the statue of Poseidon

is now lying at the bottom
of the Gulf of Corinth.

- Helike's patron god was,
in fact, Poseidon -

the Greek god of the sea
and, as irony would have it,

also earthquakes.

For this reason,
the collective worship of him

would have been central
to the city's identity.

- It's strange, though,

because although we know
a fair amount about Helike,

no archaeologist
has been able to locate it.

Despite several attempts,

focusing mostly
on the Gulf of Corinth's seabed,

nothing, not one clue,
has ever been found.

So what could be
the reason for this?

NARRATOR: Determined to find out,
a Greek archaeologist uses sonar

to scan the ocean floor
of the Gulf of Corinth.

- Incredibly, the sonar picks up
ancient port infrastructure,

but also what looks like
the remains of ten shipwrecks

along the shoreline.

Now ancient texts
specifically mention

that there were ten Spartan vessels
at anchor

on the day of the disaster,
so is this the port of Helike?

JAMES:
It's certainly an interesting find,

but the possible remnants of a port
doesn't really tell us much at all,

especially when there are
no ruins of a city next to it.

DAN:
Luckily, several ancient writers

were just as fascinated
by Helike as we are.

In the 2nd century CE,

almost 500 years after the disaster,

the Greek writer Pausanias gave
some more specific location details.

ANTHEA: He wrote that Helike was
four miles east of Aigion

and three miles
from the Cave of Heracles -

a site of worship
for the ancient Greeks.

When you take these distances
and place them on the map,

they line up pretty well with
the port infrastructure and wrecks.

So could it be that Helike was here,
right on the coast?

NARRATOR: The archaeologist revisits
the ancient texts for more clues

and something gives her pause.

- The word "poros" traditionally
had been assumed

to refer to the Gulf of Corinth,

but no other texts cite it
in that manner.

So it's possible that it may have
been referring to an inland lagoon,

or even a lake.

- This seems to be in line
with what Strabo said

about the submersion of Helike.
He wrote...

- Stadia is a unit of measurement
used by the ancient Greeks.

One stade is roughly 600 feet,
meaning that, according to Strabo,

Helike was located a little over
a mile inland from the sea.

- So does this mean that when Strabo
was shown the statue of Poseidon

lying underwater, he was
actually looking at the ruins

of a city submerged
by an inland lagoon?

NARRATOR: There are no inland
lagoons or lakes in the vicinity

of where the archaeologist's sonar
picked up the possible port remains.

- This "poros", or inland lagoon,
definitely existed.

We know that because
the ancient writers talk about it.

But here's the catch - Pausanias
wrote that part of the lagoon

had dried out and covered up
the ruins of Helike.

This area can get hot and dry,

so is it possible that the lagoon
just dried up?

- Although there are no inland lakes
here, there are two rivers:

the Kerynites and Selinous.

And the thing with rivers is they
carry a lot of sediment with them,

and over time, the build up of this
sediment can change the landscape.

- So what probably happened
is that over time,

the annual flooding of the rivers

and the dispersal of silt into
the lagoon eventually covered it up.

This is why some 500 years
after the disaster,

Pausanias described the lagoon as
partially covered up and dried out.

NARRATOR:
Armed with this new information,

the archaeologist begins
to drill boreholes

in the area between the two rivers.

The excavation yields results:

cobbles covered with clay mortar.

- These are the remnants
of old walls.

They are in a sorry state,

but that's to be expected
if they are from Helike,

having experienced
an earthquake and tsunami,

Pausanias mentioned that although
they were heavily eroded,

he could still make out
the city's walls under the water

in the area that wasn't dried out.

Could these be those very walls?

NARRATOR:
As the excavation continues,

the archaeologists hit the jackpot.

- They found coins!

Which are
a wonderful archaeological find

because they can provide
a pretty exact time frame

for when they were in use.

After all, coins are only minted
for a limited amount of time.

DAN: These coins are incredible.

Some of them depict a trident

with two dolphins swimming
on either side,

and then a laurel wreath
tied at the bottom.

And if you flip it over,
on the other side

is the face of a guy with a beard.

- The trident, the dolphins and the
man on the back all give it away.

This is none other than Poseidon,
the patron god of Helike!

These coins are extremely rare,
and would have been minted

sometime in the 4th century BCE.

- So this must be the site
of the ancient city of Helike,

but what about the disaster?

Did it really happen?

NARRATOR: The archaeologists working
at Helike discover

the site's destruction layer.

ALISON: The destruction layer is
a term used in archaeology

to define a particular section
of the excavation area

that contains significant amounts
of a period's material culture,

which means any and all objects
produced or used by humans.

It can also provide evidence
of what the geological

or environmental conditions were
that led to the destructive event.

- For this reason, other than the
deposits from 373 BCE like pottery,

roof tiles and stones
from demolished buildings,

the destruction layer should
also contain sedimentary evidence

of a tsunami having hit.
But there is none.

- Until now we have just assumed,
owing to the ancient texts,

that the destruction of Helike
was due to a tsunami.

But it's worth considering
the possibility that something else

may have destroyed that city.

NARRATOR: At a depth of nine feet
below the ground,

three sedimentary layers catch
the archaeologists attention.

- There are two mudflow deposits

situated above and below
a gravel bed.

A mudflow is a large amount of water
that contains debris,

like rocks,
organic material and silt.

The fact that there are two mudflow
deposits here indicate

that a massive wave of sediment and
water overwhelmed the city of Helike

- not a massive ocean born wave.

- This is interesting, because it is
well known that rivers in this area

are prone to natural damming.

That's when a landslide blocks
a river,

prevents it from flowing normally
and, as a result,

when the banks flood,
water goes everywhere.

ANTHEA: But of course,
it's not just water,

it's tons of and tons of debris
and who knows what else.

So what could have happened
in 373 BCE

is that the earthquake triggered
some massive landslides

in the mountains above Helike,

dammed the two rivers flowing
on either side of it,

and then when these dams burst,
catastrophe struck.

- An already heavily damaged Helike
would have been hit by a flood

of mud and debris that would
not only would have proved fatal

to many of the earthquake survivors,

but would also have inundated
and drowned the city.

NARRATOR:
For the next thousand years,

people from far and wide marvel
at Poseidon's submerged city...

..the Greek god of water
and earthquakes,

reminding everyone of his power.

NARRATOR: Chiapas is
Mexico's southernmost state,

and an area that has endured

a seemingly endless string
of disasters

going back centuries.

Ancient quakes and plagues
killed thousands;

floods, droughts,
and locusts destroyed crops

bringing poverty and famine.

- But the mid-20th century
promised relief

from the cycle
of droughts and flooding

with the construction
of The Malpaso Hydroelectric Dam...

..whose Nezahualcoyotl Reservoir

would ensure a stable and lasting
supply of power and water.

- From the start, this dam claimed
some heavy sacrifices.

The reservoir submerged
vast amounts of rainforest;...

entire towns and a number
of priceless archaeological sites.

- Mexico currently on gets
only 40% of the rainfall it got

when construction
of the Malpaso Dam began in 1958.

And right now, the water level
at the Nezahualcoyotl Reservoir

is down to about a hundred feet
below its normal capacity

and still dropping.

It's a dire situation

and a significant problem
for the local tilapia fishery.

NARRATOR: In March of 2023,

those who went out on the reservoir
looking for fish

would have seen
something remarkable.

- The grey walls of a remarkably
intact ruin of some sort.

And it's a building
of considerable size -

the walls are about 30 feet high,

it's 183 feet long,
and 42 feet wide.

- The facade is entirely
of red brick,

which means they were
likely made by hand from clay

and baked in a high-temperature oven
called a kiln.

The rest of it is masonry -

boulders of various sizes

that we can presume
were collected from the river

whenever this thing was built.

So what was this place?

NARRATOR: Features of the building
bear a notable similarity

with other old buildings
found in Mexico...

..including some notable courthouses

built during
the Spanish colonial era.

- There's a portico, a large
porch-like area at the front of it,

which is a common feature
of old courthouses

and other public buildings.

On the walls inside
are the remains of stone corbels,

which are features that would have
held wooden beams

to support the ceiling
of this structure.

- There are palaces that share some
of these architectural features too,

lots of different buildings might.

We also see what appears to be
the remains of some kind of tower,

but again, lots of building
types have towers.

- But finally there's something
definitive.

On the sides of that arch,

there are two niches,
flanked by small columns.

And there are faint relief images
in the mortar.

One of them looks female.

And then on the inside of the tower
is inscribed A. MARIA.

Like Ave Maria, the Virgin Mary.

So could this have been
a Catholic church?

NARRATOR: Careful investigation
of the rest of the building

reveals the remains
of a small architectural feature

that's only present
on one side of the interior.

DAN: Toward the back
of the building, on the left side,

there are these two enclosed spaces
side by side.

One of them is about three feet
wide,

the other one is
just over two feet wide,

so each one is
about the size of a person.

And there's a small opening
in between them.

It looks like a confessional,

which would mean this temple is
a Catholic church.

NARRATOR: Searches of the site using
metal detectors yield coins -

one dated all the way back to 1828.

- So we know the church is likely
at least that old, about 200 years,

but when, exactly, was it built?

NARRATOR: Nine miles northeast
of the church

is the Convent of Santo Domingo
de Guzman, in Tecpatan.

- This convent has
a temple attached to it.

That temple, and the church
that appeared in the reservoir,

are both masonry buildings,
so constructed of stone,

and both were built
in the Renaissance style,

that is using classical
design elements:

A symmetrical facade;
Roman or Greek columns;

semi-circular arches
over windows and entrances.

- In fact, the temple in Tecpatan
and this newly-appeared church

share so many features

it looks like they might have been
designed by the same architect.

Right down
to a bunch of the finer details.

NARRATOR:
The frame of the confessional

and the passage to the sacristy,
or vestry,

at the back
of this newly-found church

are of the same design
as the one in Tecpatan.

- And both of them use ribs,

which are arches of masonry
that form a supporting frame.

They are used in the vaults
and recesses under the arches,

over the doors,
or the back of the main altar.

- The town of Tecpatan itself
has existed continuously

since the time
the convent was built,

so the convent's
and its connected temple's history

has been well-documented.

It was established in 1564.

Could the church that just
rose up out of the reservoir

also be
four and a half centuries old?

- Well, about four decades before
the temple in Tecpatan was built,

a world-changing event occurred.

The Spanish conquistadors arrived
in 1519 and conquered Mexico.

So in the eyes of the Spanish,

all of the land -
and all of the people on the land -

were under Spain's dominion.

And they took careful inventory
of what they found there.

- The Spanish were aware of a town
at this site called Quechula,

and the inhabitants of Quechula
were the Zoque people.

NARRATOR: The indigenous Zoque
people have lived throughout Chiapas

and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec -

and some of the State of Tabasco,
since about 3,800 BCE.

- But now, subjugated
by the new Spanish settlers,

the Zoque people
suffered oppression,

abuse, disease and famine,

and after years of that, their
numbers started to decline severely.

- The Spanish monarchy could see
this situation wasn't sustainable,

and they weren't motivated
by being kind to those people.

They were motivated by the fact
that the Zoque

were their principal workforce
in the area

and they wanted to maintain them.

So they wanted to do anything
they could to avoid a rebellion.

And that is why, ironically,
Spain was trying to curb the abuse

of the indigenous people so they
could take better advantage of them.

But the thing is,
the Spanish colonists on the ground

weren't gonna implement
all these changes.

They needed someone else who could.

ANTHONY: The temple at Tecpatan is
a Dominican church.

In 1545, Dominican friars were
sent from Spain to Chiapas

to watch over the Zoque
and protect them from mistreatment,

but also to make sure
that they stayed in line.

NARRATOR: The Dominicans are
a religious Order

of the Catholic Church,

founded in the early 1200s.

They were named
after their founder, St Dominic,

but their name is also
a play on words -

the Latin "Domini canes"
means "dogs of the Lord".

- In Tecpatan, at that time,
the Dominicans' purpose was

to try and protect the Zoque people

from the worst abuses
of the Spanish settlers,

and to convert the Zoque
to Christianity, at the same time.

NARRATOR:
Immediately upon their arrival,

the Dominicans worked
to establish centres

where this conversion
to Catholicism could be carried out.

And that required
the rapid building of churches

in Tecpatan, and elsewhere.

- So the construction of the church
at Quechula

would have been overseen
by the Dominicans,

and likely also
by some Spanish soldiers,

but the Zoque people would have been
the ones tasked

with doing all of the hard labour
to build it,

stone by stone, and brick by brick.

ALISON: The Catholic church
had grand plans for this region.

They imagined it might become
a major population centre,

which is why they felt it was so
important to build this temple here.

NARRATOR: But the Dominicans'
own records suggest

that vision never came to fruition.

This Church may never even have had
its own priest;

it had to rely on occasional visits
by the priests from Tecpatan.

- And the Church has no records
of any activities after the 1770s.

So as far as we can tell, the temple
was abandoned around that time.

The question is why?

DAN: In the first two centuries
after the Spanish conquest,

life for the Zoque people
did not get appreciably better.

They had to pay extremely high
tribute to their colonisers,

and thar kept them in a cycle
of poverty and forced labour.

- By the 1770s,
all this came to a head.

Throughout that decade,

we find records describing repeated
infestations of locusts

that would have decimated
maize and bean crops

and caused widespread famine.

NARRATOR: The Zoque people,
subjugated and abused,

had been living a miserable
and precarious existence

up to this point.

This unprecedented
string of disasters

drove their numbers
further downward.

- So that would explain the decrease

in the size of this church's
congregation.

But sometimes people
hold more tightly

to religion when times get tough.

So why at that time would
this church have been abandoned?

NARRATOR:
A team of archaeologists summoned

to the newly discovered church
are doing excavations

when they discover
something shocking.

- They find two pits
full of human bones!

In the first, a layer of mixed,
fragmented bones

and in the second, layers of remains
over two feet deep.

AMMA: No evidence of cuts or stabs
wounds or unnatural breakages

were found on any of the bones.

So these people
didn't suffer violent death,

as you might see
in a battle or rebellion.

- This was a relatively
small parish,

so it's kind of weird to have such
a large number of human remains

because you don't have
that many people in a congregation

or community to begin with.

NARRATOR: Records show
that between 1773 and 1776,

a series of plagues
swept through Chiapas,

which would have decimated
the population.

- This is an ossuary.

Victims of a plague would have been
buried hurriedly upon death,

and later, when it was deemed safe,

their bones would
have been collected

and laid to rest here
in these ossuary pits.

So, these plagues may well
have been the reason

this church
was ultimately abandoned.

- Over the next nearly 200 years,

from the 1770s to the late 1950s
when the reservoir swallowed it up,

there was plenty of time for this
once-magnificent building to decay,

left to the elements and forgotten.

NARRATOR: The temple's history may
be one of subjugation and suffering,

but many now simply see it
as an impressive piece

of ancient architecture that's hung
on for four and a half centuries,

only to make
a miraculous reappearance

due to the drought
that ravaged Mexico in 2023.

Kerman Province in the south-east
of Iran is square along the path

of the planet's dust belt and prone
to frequent and severe sandstorms.

In March of 2017,

just at the very start
of peak sandstorm season,

a massive storm takes the region
by surprise,

leaving many with no choice
but to take cover.

- A big sandstorm can change
the landscape.

Sand dunes that might fill
dozens of dump-trucks

are basically lifted up
into the air,

layer by layer,
and redistributed elsewhere.

NARRATOR: After the storm
has passed, a person travelling

near the small town of Fahraj
on the eastern edge of the province,

notices something unusual
in the sand.

- There's a large number

of earthenware pottery shards
scattered in the sand.

Now, it should be noted
that they've been making

pottery in this part of the world
for thousands of years,

and they're still making
pottery here,

including in the old,
traditional styles.

So a find like this could be
very, very old

or it could be relatively recent
and just litter in the sand.

NARRATOR: According to established
government protocol,

experts are dispatched to the site.

By the time they get there,
something else,

much bigger, has been found.

- Poking up through the sand is
the top of an archway.

This site may have been
an habitat of some sort,

like a residence, or a palace;
it may have been a facility.

It may also be
a part of something much larger.

NARRATOR:
Iran's authorities take no chances.

Military personnel are assigned
to guard the site,

and keep watch for looters.

- The heavy security is due
to something that happened

a couple of decades earlier
with the discovery of another site,

south of the city Jiroft.

So, about 80 miles
southwest of Fahraj.

- In 2001, a large number
of beautiful artifacts just started

turning up in the antiquities
market with no explanation.

Fine ceramics, drinking vessels,
distinctive jewellery,

game boards, even weapons.

Often the provenance was
just given as 'from Central Asia'.

NARRATOR: The police were notified,
and by late 2002,

had arrested a number of traffickers

who then led them
to the looted site.

- The site initially appeared
to have been an ancient necropolis -

an elaborate ancient burial site.

But when archaeologists made
a proper excavation of the area

they discovered structures the
looters had been unaware of:

an enormous brick wall
surrounding a citadel.

This was an entire ancient city!

NARRATOR: Further excavations
unearthed intricate carvings

made of semi-precious materials
like chlorite and obsidian.

Tools, sacred objects and decorative
pieces were also discovered.

- There were also clay tablets
with writing systems

we had never seen before.

Think of what that means:

A system of writing that no living
expert is familiar with.

JAMES: Dating of the Jiroft site

showed it was established
5,000 years ago.

This was a distinct ancient culture

that scholars
had never been aware of

and never previously found
any evidence of.

- This is probably why the
authorities were taking no chances

with this new site at Fahraj.

Because with it being less than
a hundred miles from Jiroft,

you have to wonder:
are the two sites connected?

NARRATOR:
Under military-grade security,

excavations at Fahraj continue

and take a surprising turn
with an unexpected discovery.

- They find bone fragments!

Now, it's quite common for human
remains to be confused

with those of animals - particularly
if they're fragmentary and very old.

So the question is -
are they human bones?

NARRATOR: When the inside of a bone
is observed closely,

structural units
known as osteons are evident.

In humans, osteons tend to be
scattered and evenly spaced,

whereas in animals
they tend to be arranged in rows,

or rectangular structures.

When all that's available
is bone fragments,

sometimes this is the best way
to make a determination.

- Whether the attending
archaeologists were looking at

osteons or at structure,
when examining the fragments,

they determined
these are human remains.

So we've got human bone fragments
alongside pottery artifacts.

Could this have been a necropolis,

contemporaneous
with the one at Jiroft -

active and in use
around the same time?

- The short answer is no.

Dating of the pottery and bones
found at Fahraj

put them possibly from somewhere
during the Islamic Middle Ages,

which were between 661 and 1508, CE.

So, If these results are correct

then this site isn't nearly
as old as Jiroft.

NARRATOR: As the excavation
at Fahraj expands in scope,

the archaeologists
make several surprising finds.

- They unearth tiles and
ancient brick walls.

But what's really interesting
is that they discover

long cylindrical tubes made out
of earthenware.

They're flared at one end, so they
fit into one another, end-to-end.

And they've been laid almost
horizontally on a slight incline.

What are these?

- Something similar was discovered
at an archaeological site

in Badreh County in the west of Iran

and it was determined that
they were 5,000 year old pipes

for carrying water.

- Water pipes tell you two things:

One, the people at the Fahraj site

had the technology
to move water that way,

and two, they had the need
to move large amounts of water.

Meaning a large population.

- The pipes would have to have been
linked to a source

capable of supplying a continuous
flow of fresh water -

almost certainly a kariz.

NARRATOR: Kariz are an ingenious
piece of ancient engineering

that can transport water
underground for miles.

It's believed they were invented
in Iran about 3,000 years ago.

- They're a remarkable example
of the ancients' understanding

of engineering and geology.

With a kariz, a well is dug high up
in an alluvial fan,

which is a geological formation
that contains groundwater.

It has to be where the highest point
of the water table

is higher than where you want
to get the water to.

That becomes the mother well.

The builders then chart a course

back to where they want
to access the water,

which might be up 30 miles away.

They dig a series of wells,
strictly as access points.

And along the bottom of them all,

they dig a gently sloping tunnel
called a koshkan

which is what carries the water.

And just like that - where your
tunnel emerges from the ground,

it's like a natural,
free-flowing spring.

JAMES: In Fahraj, it's likely that
water from a kariz was distributed

by the earthenware pipes,
supplying clean water for hundreds,

or even thousands of people.

So it's entirely possible
that there's an ancient city

under the desert
waiting to be discovered.

- Iran's cultural heritage
organisation

is keeping an tight lid
on their excavations.

But one statement
that's intriguing is that they said

there's no precise data
on the site's age and history,

because it's the first time
that such ruins have emerged.

NARRATOR: Whether or not there's
a lost ancient city at Fahraj,

and just how old it might be
remains a mystery.

But one thing is certain -
there's something there,

hidden for centuries
and finally exposed

by the shifting
of the desert's sands.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services