All language subtitles for Discovered.By.Disaster.S01E08.Eruptions.and.Enigmas.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-Dooky_track1_[eng]

One of the largest
volcanic eruptions

in Earth’s history leads
to a stunning discovery.

This is Mount Toba,
the largest volcanic eruption

anywhere on Earth
in the last 25 million years.

600 cubic miles
of material are ejected,

burying huge swathes of Asia.

And many creatures
would have struggled to adapt,

including our ancestors.

Wildfires raging
across mountains

in the American West
reveal a settlement

hundreds of years old.

The highest peaks
are almost 14,000 feet

above sea level,
and some of these fires

reached up to around
11,000 feet.

Interestingly,
each platform

is also ringed by rocks.

What is this place?

Was a 7th century
earthquake responsible

for the destruction
of an ancient civilization?

There are a number
of Urartian palace fortresses

we’re aware of,

and this new site seems
to share the same

architectural fingerprint.

It looks like
a Urartian fortress.

And if it is a fortress,

this immediately raises the
question, could this be Ayanis?

All over the world,

incredible discoveries
are being revealed

by devastating events.

Floods, earthquakes,

droughts, hurricanes,

volcanic eruptions.

Trails of destruction expose
extraordinary history.

This is Discovered by Disaster.

74,000 years ago on what’s now
the island of Sumatra,

a great mountain that had
for half a million years

resisted the mounting
pressure of magma

pressing up from deep below...

explodes.

This is Mount Toba,
believed to be the largest

volcanic eruption
anywhere on Earth

in the last 25 million years.

600 cubic miles of material
are ejected,

burying huge swaths of Asia.

Superheated ash shoots
high into the atmosphere

and is carried around the globe.

Some of it falls in Africa.

In the early 1990s,
scientists theorized

that Mount Toba's
volcanic ash and gases

would have enveloped the Earth,
blocking the sun's heat

and causing global
temperatures to drop

up to nine degrees Fahrenheit.

The resulting volcanic winter
may have lasted 1,000 years.

This is
the Toba catastrophe theory.

It hypothesizes that some dry
areas on Earth would have become

even more dry during that sudden
disruption to the climate,

and many creatures would have
struggled to adapt,

including our ancestors.

As a result,
there may have been only about

1,000 breeding pairs
of humans left.

We were almost completely wiped
out in the Middle Stone Age.

Obviously, we bounced back.

But if this theory is correct,

human beings came perilously
close to extinction.

So you would think
there would be

definitive evidence
of this event.

I mean, it was our
near extinction.

So it should show up
in the geological record.

And a lot of anthropologists
have been very keen

to find that evidence.

South of the city
Metema in northern Ethiopia,

along the Shinfa riverbed,

archaeologists may have found

exactly what they’ve been
searching for.

What's initially
found is tiny stone flakes

mixed into the earth.

We call this microdebitage:

the tiny flakes
a tool-maker chips off

while shaping
a stone blade or tip.

This is a telltale sign
of stone tool production,

and therefore,
of Stone Age humans.

So they follow up
with more careful digging,

and sure enough, they find
completed stone tools

with symmetrical bladed tips.

So these could be speartips
or darts or arrowheads.

And there’s also a wide variety
of animal bone fragments.

Thousands of specimens.

Nearly 16,000 pieces
of chipped stones

are uncovered.

But something about the animal
bones strikes anthropologists.

There is
an impressively broad variety

of faunal remains here.

Among them, the femur of
a small to medium gazelle,

showing marks made by stone
tools; evidence of butchering.

There's a molar
from a warthog,

the humerus of a savanna monkey.

And bones from guinea fowl,
snakes, frogs,

antelope, cattle, and goats.

And quite a variety
of fish bones, as well.

Many of the bones
show tool marks,

strong evidence that they were
either hunted or butchered

by humans, or both.

And they show
partial calcination.

That’s evidence of being
cooked over a fire.

So it’s very clear
this was a valuable site.

Archaeologists name
the site Shinfa-Metema 1,

or SM1, and establish a major
archaeological excavation.

One of the things
you look at in a site

is depositional layers.

Sedimentary layers are
laid down over time,

so you know that fossils or
artifacts found lower down

are older, and higher up,
they’re newer.

In the case of SM1,

due to periodic overflows
of the Shinfa River,

you've got a lot of nice,
distinct depositional layers.

One of these layers
in particular

alerts anthropologists to
their golden opportunity.

There are tiny,
glass-like particles,

invisible to the naked eye.

These are microscopic tephra--

material ejected by a volcano--

and their chemical signature

matches exactly that
of the Toba eruption.

This is like a gift.

The archaeologists
are excited to have found

the tephra layer at SM1,
but it's the deposit layers

above and below it that
they’re really interested in.

According to what is known

as the Toba catastrophe theory,

there should be a huge
difference between the layers

below the tephra layer
that were laid down

before the volcano went off

and the layers above it
which were deposited after.

Before Toba's
eruption, the layers should show

life as normal, in terms of
the intensity of human activity;

so, tool-making,
hunting and cooking.

But after the eruption, in
the higher depositional layers,

we should see that activity
drop off a cliff,

because that was when
the climate tanked,

and humans almost died out.

This is a chance
to glimpse our own mortality,

to see our near extinction
as a species

recorded in the fossil record.

To find out more,

researchers study
the layers closely.

There was a reduction
in overall flow

to the Shinfa River,
due to less rainfall.

There was a longer dry season

and a shorter wet season
each year.

This is exactly what
we'd expect to see,

based on the Toba
catastrophe theory:

the climate at SM1 became
more arid and less survivable.

Even today,
this part of Africa

is a very tough,
unforgiving environment.

So back then,
after the Toba eruption,

it must have been much worse.

If humans had been struggling to
survive all over the continent,

it definitely would
have been very hard here.

But when
archaeologists compare

the volume of the evidence
of human activity

above and below the tephra
layer, they get a surprise.

There is no
discernible decrease

in overall human activity
at all;

not in stone tool-making and not
in the overall amount of food

hunted, collected or cooked.

You'd expect to see the
intensity of human activity drop

radically above the tephra
layer, but it does not.

So, how come?

The amount of
human activity appears to be

roughly the same,
from layer to layer.

But when archaeologists
catalogue and compare

all the bone fragments
found within each layer,

they come to a realization.

There's about the same
overall amount of food

being hunted
and consumed at SM1.

Their consumption of fish

goes from just 14% of
their total diet up to 52%.

It almost quadruples.

If the river keeps shrinking
with every year's dry season,

how do they end up getting
more fish in their diet?

Archaeologists look
to what happens

to the modern-day Shinfa River
during the annual dry seasons,

and that shifts
their perspective.

During the dry season,

the Shinfa often stops
flowing altogether.

And at what were the deepest
sections of the river,

you get these left-over,
isolated water holes.

The fish there are captive,

until the next rainy season
makes the Shinfa a river again.

Immediately after
the Toba eruption,

when the climate became even
more arid for a period of time,

those water holes
would have been smaller.

Maybe that made the fish
easier to catch.

The other thing is that
during the dry season,

animals still have to drink.

The water holes would have
been perfect spots

for SM1's inhabitants to build
hunting blinds and lie in wait

with their sharp arrows
and darts

for their prey to come to them.

So with smaller
and fewer water holes,

humans may have adapted
their foraging behaviors.

They turned a negative--
the increasingly arid climate--

into a positive, by hunting
by the water holes,

and crucially, by making fish a
much larger part of their diet.

And these humans,
thankfully for us, thrived.

The researchers
believe these revelations

may have even more
far-reaching implications.

SM1 is in
the proximity of two

of the possible routes
by which it's thought

humans may have first
migrated out of Africa,

at around the same time
SM1 was in active use.

Many anthropologists
have long thought

that the only way humans
could have first ventured

off the continent
would have been

via temporary green corridors.

The thinking has been
that in regions like this,

most years were so arid
and unforgiving

that those areas were
basically impassable.

They were just too deadly.

It was only
during periods

of greater than average rainfall
that these dry areas

would temporarily transform and
spring up with lush vegetation.

And while that existed,

they were avenues that could
sustain human life.

Those green corridors
may have been an opportunity

for early humans
to increase their range

and ultimately spread beyond
the African continent.

But this seems
contradictory.

I mean, if this is a time
when those green corridors

are less and less available,
how come that's when humans

are able to use them
to get out of Africa?

It's possible that
SM1 humans became

more and more successful
at emptying these water holes

of fish during the dry seasons.

Having done so
in one water hole,

they could have made
the relatively short journey

along the dried-up riverbed
to the next water hole

to get fish from there.

This would have led to
a natural, unintended migration

during the dry seasons,
from water hole to water hole,

eventually to expand
their range beyond Africa

by blue highways, which were
these strings of waterholes.

This new hypothesis
challenges the conventional,

previously accepted narratives

about Middle Stone Age
human dispersal.

As we make more discoveries,
we can test this hypothesis

and get closer to finding out

how our ancestors spread
throughout our world.

Some volcanologists
hypothesize,

due to the chemical makeup
of the Mount Toba eruption,

it may not have had as strong
or long-lasting an effect

on the planet’s climate
as originally surmised.

The Toba catastrophe
may just have been

more mild than we thought.

I mean, if you can call
an eruption on that scale mild.

It was the biggest volcano
in 25 million years.

But the data suggests
that the Earth's climate

may have bounced back
within a decade.

Were a super-eruption
like Toba to occur today,

the effects on the climate,
the food chain,

and the course
of human civilization

would at best be
difficult to predict.

In the summer of 2006,

wildfires raged across
the American West.

In western Wyoming, tens of
thousands of acres burnt up

as the state struggled
to battle the flames.

The fires reached the mountains
of the Wind River Range

and its alpine forests,
lakes and valleys.

The Wind River
Range stretches some 100 miles

across northwestern Wyoming.

The highest peaks are almost
14,000 feet above sea level,

and some of these fires reached
up to around 11,000 feet.

Shortly after
the fires had stopped,

an archaeologist working
on the sides of a steep slope

that had recently burned saw a
piece of curiously shaped rock

lying on the ground among
massive granite boulders.

It has a rough,
granular texture,

and if you look closely,
you can see the rock

consists of tiny
individual grains of sand,

which is what identifies it
as sandstone.

Strangely, one side is smooth
and heavily polished,

as though it had been used
as a grinding tool.

New technologies
and expanded interested

in the field have led
to improvements

in high-altitude archaeology.

This site is about
11,000 feet above sea level,

which is roughly where
the tree line comes to an end.

The area is interspersed with
stands of white bark pine

and alpine tundra,

but doesn’t seem like much else
can be found here.

So, what is this grindstone
doing up here?

With their curiosity
piqued, archaeologists continue

to inspect the area and
come upon a flat platform

cut into the slope
of the mountain.

On the ground are many
little pieces of stone

with smooth, angular faces.

Although
it's obviously stone,

its texture is really, really
smooth to the touch.

And the angular faces on the
rocks show that it's been struck

multiple times against
other rocks to shape it.

This is what we call chert.

It's a stone used by ancient
cultures around the world

to make their weapons sharp.

In the same location,

archaeologists find
a projectile point

as well as what looks like
small stone walls

that have been erected
on the platform.

This is all clear
evidence of human activity.

So people have been living here,
which is pretty unexpected.

At 11,000 feet,

conditions aren’t exactly
comfortable for humans.

Generally for
every 1,000 feet you climb,

there is a reduction of about
3% of the oxygen available

for you to breathe.

This means that by the time
you hit 11,000 feet,

you're only breathing
70% of the oxygen

available to you at sea level.

So you can imagine how difficult

it would be hiking through here,
let alone living here.

But the sheer amount
of chert flakes present

at the site indicates
that there were likely

a lot of people living here.

And judging by the wear
on grinding stone,

they must have been living here
for quite some time.

So who were they?

Archaeologists expand
their search across the area.

Because the fires have
burnt the place bare,

features that were previously
obscured by brush and trees

are now clearly visible
to the naked eye.

Over 60 stone platforms
can now be seen.

They have all been cut
into the mountainside.

This is pretty impressive,

because at an angle
of 23 degrees,

this slope is pretty steep.

So it couldn’t have
been easy to do so.

Interestingly, each platform
is also ringed by rocks.

What is this place?

This part of Wyoming is
in the traditional lands

of the Shoshone people.

And prior to colonization, there
was also a band that lived

in these mountains called
the Mountain Shoshone.

Unlike those Shoshone
groups who adopted the horse

and moved out into the prairie,

the Mountain Shoshone
remained in the mountains

and used the dog as
their beast of burden.

We knew that they called
this place home,

but we didn't know
where exactly they held

their annual
or semi-annual camps.

Could this have been
one of them?

Scattered across the
platforms are tens of thousands

of chert flakes, butchering
tools, projectile points,

ceramic vessels, and bowls.

Given the volume
of artifacts and the fact

that this is traditional
Mountain Shoshone territory,

I think it's safe to assume
that these are the remains

of an alpine village,
likely a seasonal one.

It would have been
quite a sight.

The settlement's lowest point is
300 feet below its highest,

which is equivalent
to a 30-story building.

The platforms
were probably lodge pads

where teepees or wikiups
would have been erected.

Further excavations
revealed that a total of 52

of the platforms

also contain a grinding stone.

What these grindstones
tell us is a little bit about

why they chose this
location to settle.

The archaeologists
believe that they were used

for processing bitterroot
and biscuitroot,

which were highly valued
for their medicinal

and nutritional properties.

They were
an important component

of the Mountain Shoshones' diet.

To further cement
their theory

that the high alpine
was targeted

for the harvesting of roots,

the archaeologists use
satellite, terrain,

and environmental information
to create a digital model

to predict where the best sites
to set up camp would be.

The model predicted
things correctly,

and 14 more were discovered.

Of course, we need a computer
simulation to figure this out,

whereas the Mountain Shoshone
would have simply known

intuitively by
observing the sites.

Archaeologists also
notice that some lodges

had higher concentrations
of specific tools than others.

In one lodge, for
example, there were tools used

for making projectile points,

whereas in another, there were
only artifacts associated

with butchering of meat
and the cleaning of hides.

So, there appears to have been

some form of division
of labor here,

or it could be that
they designated sites

for specific kinds of work.

Observing the area in full,

the researchers surmised
that the environment

would have provided
more than enough resources

for the Mountain Shoshone
to thrive.

There's a mountain
spring at the northwest corner

of the site,
so in the peak of summer,

when water in the lowlands
is scarce,

they had everything
they needed up here.

Also, animals would move
farther up into the mountains

in search of water.

So there were plenty of
bighorn sheep and deer and elk

for the Shoshone to hunt.

But when were they living here?

From the lodges,
archaeologists take

several samples of charcoal
found in the hearths

and radiocarbon date them
in the lab.

The oldest sample is almost
3,000 years old.

While the most recent
sample is from around 1850.

This latter date makes sense

considering the history
of the region.

It was around this time
when more and more

European and American settlers
began to populate the territory,

while the United States
government continued

to violently expel
the Indigenous groups

already living on it.

To think that
this place saw occupation

for four millennia, if not more,
is really incredible.

It shows us that the Shoshone
had and continue to have

a special relationship
with the land,

allowing them to hunt
and harvest food

in this relatively
fragile environment.

The village was
the first and largest

of at least 19 settlements
that have been located

across the Wind River range.

These sites continue to provide
new insight into the culture

and lives of the people

Indigenous to the American West.

Eastern Anatolia
has historically been

seismically active, even dating
back to the Kingdom of Urartu

in the 7th century.

The Urartu civilization
dominated this region

for about 250 years.

At its peak,
the kingdom spanned

part of present-day Armenia,

western Iran,
and eastern Turkey.

King Rusa II had erected five
fortresses in the region,

the last of which was
known as Ayanis.

This was where the king
had planned to live out

the rest of a long
and secure reign.

Then, in 1989,
archaeologists begin digging

on a site 22 miles north
of the city of Van.

The site is on a hill

above the eastern shores
of Lake Van.

Remnants of large stone and
mud brick walls are visible.

What kind of structure was this?

As archaeologists
uncover more walls,

things start to look
familiar to them.

There are a number
of Urartian palace fortresses

we're aware of:
Karmir-Blur, Bastam,

Kef Kalesi, Toprakkale.

And this new site seems to share

the same architectural
fingerprint.

A base of large,
precisely cut stone blocks

with walls of mud brick blocks
built on top of them.

It looks like
a Urartian fortress.

And if it is
a fortress,

then given its location,
overlooking the lake

with a view of Suphan Mountain
on the other side of it,

this immediately raises
the question,

could this be Ayanis
or whatever’s left of it?

Adjacent to
the fortress' main walls

are the remains
of smaller structures.

There are all kinds
of earthenware jars,

grinding stones and casks
for fermenting beer,

even baskets and remains
of barley

and white millet have survived.

There are also sewing needles,
iron axes, shovels, and knives,

and even metal tweezers
for personal grooming.

So these buildings
appear to have been

storage and living spaces.

The domestic area,
where the fortress'

non-administrative support staff
would have lived.

The fortress seems
to have had all the amenities

for a luxurious existence,

but it’s situated
in an unlikely location.

This part of
the country has long, cold,

snowy winters, and
the growing season is short,

so it’s not an ideal place
to support a civilization.

Also, Lake Van is a rock basin.

It doesn't have any rivers
or streams as an outlet,

so the water is brackish.

That makes it too salty
for irrigation.

It’ll kill your crops.

So, is it just a bad location

that contributed
to Urartu’s demise?

The terrain and climate
would have required

a complex
water management system

for any large population
to survive.

So what the Urartians did
was construct reservoirs

to collect freshwater
from the winter melt.

And there's also evidence
of dams and irrigation canals,

which they drew water from
through terracotta pipes.

Elsewhere in the kingdom,

in order to get water from the
Hrazdan River to their fields,

they cut a 900-foot tunnel
through the rock.

They not only irrigated fields
of essential crops,

but vineyards and orchards.

The Urartians were
brilliant engineers.

That's how they could
survive and thrive

in such an inhospitable
environment.

As the excavation of
the fortress site progresses,

the outline of a large,

distinctive, square
building emerges.

The building's shape
is square,

and is characteristic
of a Urartian temple.

Inside the temple ruins
is a podium

of mud brick and alabaster.

And this thing is ornate.

You can see carvings of winged
lions within a mesh of trees

which look like they might
represent the tree of life.

In the main temple space
and adjoining storage chambers,

there are hundreds of objects,
vessels for holy wine,

a great number
of bronze shields,

lances, helmets, and swords.

Archaeologists also
found cuneiform inscriptions

on tablets and pottery
at the site.

We think it was
during this period

that cuneiform first spread
to this part of the world,

which was an ancient
writing system that involved

making wedge-shaped marks
in a soft surface like clay.

The Urartians
were also renowned

for their skills in metallurgy.

Their iron tools helped them
push the boundaries

of stone masonry and
the chiseling of rocks,

and their metalwork
was exceptional.

Belt buckles have been found

engraved with depictions
of everyday life.

Art was apparently an important
part of the culture.

Structural timber
remains of the fortress

are located, and the
dendrochronological analysis

of the growth rings
produces a date range

between 677 and 673 BCE.

If that's the earliest
date the timbers were felled,

this fortress must have been
built around 673 or 672 BCE.

And given that the inscribed
artifacts found in the temple

were offerings from
King Rusa II to Haldi,

I think we can safely conclude
that this fortress

must be the remains
of the legendary Ayanis.

What's a bit puzzling
is that the condition

and locations of all the finds

indicate Ayanis was
abandoned in a hurry,

but apparently with
little to no loss of life.

So, what could have caused this?

As the excavation expands,

a large number
of crafted weapons,

helmets, and shields are found.

This suggests
a preoccupation with war.

Inscribed dedications
on some of the items

asked Haldi for protection
against attack.

Were these dedications driven
by the fear of a known threat?

The five fortresses
built by Rusa II

were for protection
against attack

from Urartu's neighboring
Cimmerian and Scythian kingdoms.

But if Ayanis had
fallen to attack,

you would expect to find bones
with evidence of injury.

You'd also expect to see
a lot of armor or swords

with similar damage.

But we don’t find that here.

Further examination
of the stone blocks

that make up the rampart walls

may just provide some clarity
on what happened to Ayanis.

There are deep cracks
and fissures in the stone,

and at the base
of the southern ramparts,

there’s clear separation
of some of the basalt blocks.

This looks like
earthquake damage.

But If Ayanis was
destroyed by a quake,

that shouldn't necessarily
have led to the failure

of the entire kingdom,

especially if the residents
of the palace survived.

Three of the temple's
pillars show signs

of having been displaced,
north or northwest

from their original positions.

That kind of
displacement is typical

of earthquake damage.

There's also evidence that one
of the temple's mud brick walls,

was repaired sometime
in antiquity.

So did Ayanis suffer but survive

a series of earthquakes
during its existence?

If you examine
the design of Ayanis

and the methods of construction,

it appears that Urartian
engineers understood

the seismological risks
they faced quite well,

and that they had built
protections against damage

into their structures.

These were early attempts
at quake proofing.

During an earthquake,

the soft ground
will vibrate more,

especially as
its magnitude increases.

In order to minimize a quake's
destructive effects,

it’s necessary to build
on firm, resistant ground.

The Urartian architects
clearly understood this

and built their fortresses,
including Ayanis,

on natural hills,
embedding their foundations

in the bedrock.

If you look at the
base of the fortress' walls,

you can tell its builders
used iron tools

to create keystones
in the bedrock.

This locks in the blocks
in place to prevent them

from sliding during a quake.

They even put basalt rock powder
between the blocks

to increase friction and
to better lock them together.

So these aren’t afterthoughts.

It shows they were building
earthquake-proof buildings

from the ground up.

The archaeologists'
hypotheses

about Urartian know-how
are put to the test

in the worst possible way.

On October 23, 2011,

even as excavation
of the site continues,

a magnitude 7.2 earthquake
strikes the Lake Van region.

This quake was felt
as far away as Jordan

and even parts of Russia,

and it was a movement that's
called an oblique thrust

where the earth comes up and
to the side at the same time.

Well over 500 people
were killed.

Thousands of structures in
several towns were destroyed.

Ayanis' pillars drifted
again during the 2011 event

and in the same direction.

The mud brick wall that was
repaired in antiquity

was damaged again
by the 2011 quake.

Most significantly,

the direction of violent
movement produced by both quakes

matched the direction
of movement

that the ancient Urartians
had built to protect against.

A study of
the fortress' lower levels

reveals that a row of walls
collapsed like dominoes

as a result
of an ancient earthquake.

Surprisingly, only two
human skeletons

were found at the site.

We can only guess
that tremors

preceded the main earthquake,
alerting the inhabitants,

which gave them time to escape.

And once they had escaped,

there was nothing left for them
to come back to.

Ayanis Fortress
was never again occupied.

Rusa II's reign ended
soon after the quake,

between 645 and 655 BCE.

And the kingdom may well
have begun its decline

after his rule.

Seeing what that quake
did to the fortress,

it's easy to imagine that
it could have done

horrendous damage
to crucial infrastructure

throughout the kingdom.

That would have made
Urartu vulnerable to attack

from competing nations.

And maybe that’s what finally
finished them off: an attack.

Maybe it was the Scythians.

Maybe it was the Cimmerians.

Even after more than
three decades of excavations,

a kingdom's last magnificent
fortress is still teaching us

about its lost
great civilization.

Ayanis was destroyed
by an earthquake

but managed to protect
and preserve

Urartian achievements
and culture, after all.

In the winter
of 2021, an enormous storm

lashed Greece’s southern
Peloponnese region

near the ancient site
of Olympia.

The rains added to a long list
of floods and severe weather

that impacted the country.

For an entire year,
landslides were wreaking havoc

across the nation.

Layers of topsoil
were washed away,

putting the ancient
Temple of Zeus in danger.

Luckily, it withstood
the intense weather.

But what the rains did do

was some of the work
for archaeologists.

So you can call it
a mixed blessing.

Following the storm,
an archaeologist surveying

the damage in and around
the Temple of Zeus

spotted a blue, horn-shaped
piece of metal

sticking up out of the soil.

This was one
of the most sacred sites

for the ancient Greeks.

So anything unearthed from
in and around the temple

would be of immediate
archaeological interest.

Once you dust the soil off,

you can see that it's
a small sculpture of a bull

with two horns that's only

about two inches long.

But why would a bull be here

at the Temple of Zeus?

To the ancient Greeks,

Zeus was the father
of both gods and men.

From his home on Mount Olympus,
he ruled the heavens

and sent thunder, lightning,
rain, and winds

out into the world.

And where this bull was buried

is where the Greeks would
come to worship him.

The Temple of Zeus is
the largest temple

in the Peloponnese region.

Although it has
since collapsed,

its ruins show us that
over 1,500 years ago

it was magnificent.

Its columns measured
over 34 feet tall

and they were over
seven feet wide.

At the far end
of the temple

was a 40-foot ivory and gold
statue of the god himself.

It showed him on a throne,
holding a sceptre in one hand,

and Nike, the goddess of victory
in the other.

So the bull could have been
an offering to Zeus,

but for what exactly?

The temple is located
at Olympia,

which as its name suggests

is where the Olympics
of ancient Greece were held.

This was a five-day event
that saw athletes competing

against each other in a variety
of different competitions.

The ancient Greek
Olympics were a far cry

from the games we know today.

Back then, only men were
allowed to compete,

and they had to do so
in the nude.

If they made, say,
a false start,

they could expect to face
corporal punishment.

Men boxed and wrestled
covered in oil,

and the fights were
no holds barred.

Basically, anything other than
biting and gouging was allowed.

Sometimes people died as
a result of the brutality.

But what does a bull have to do
with the Olympic Games?

The Olympic Games
of ancient Greece were held

in the honor of the most
powerful god of all, Zeus.

Victorious athletes would be
crowned with olive wreaths

in front of the temple
dedicated to him.

It's important to
understand that the Olympics

were steeped in religion,
tradition and sanctity.

The entire five days
were dedicated to Zeus,

and so as a result,
many offerings,

both in blood and bronze
may have been offered.

They were pagans after all,

and these festivities
tended to be pretty intense.

The archaeologists
discover that the soil

where the bronze bull was found
shows evidence of fire.

During the ritual
sacrifice of an animal,

the Greeks would burn
the inedible part.

So it would make sense that
someone, maybe an Olympian,

would bury the bull here, during
or after a sacrificial ceremony

held to gain the favor of Zeus.

After all, bulls were symbols
of both strength and fertility.

Not far from
the temple grounds,

archaeologists have discovered
thousands of animal figurines,

including bulls, buried
underneath the surface.

So this shows you
how dedicated

the people at this time
were to their gods.

But this temple was in use
for 1,000 years or more.

So were they all offering
these bronze bulls

for the same reason: to bring
them good luck in the Olympics?

Maybe not all of them.

Because the bull was
a symbol of fertility,

it could be that your
average Greek landowner

laid these bulls down, asking
Zeus for a plentiful harvest.

The thing is, many of
these sacrificial bronze bulls

have a peculiar shape.

Their pose is slightly
tilted forwards,

and their horns
are turned inwards,

and the angle formed by
the skull's axis in the horns

is less than 60 degrees.

The horns are also much bigger
than those of your normal bull.

So maybe they aren’t
typical bulls after all.

Just to the south
of the Peloponnese peninsula

lies the island of Kythira.

Recently, archaeologists
analyzed the skeleton

of a bovine that
roamed the Earth

tens of thousands of years ago.

If you look
at its skeleton,

you can see that it has
the same horns,

and the same
forward leaning posture

that can be seen on this
bronze statue of a bull.

This statue is
by no means your typical bull,

or at least not one we’re
very familiar with today.

It's actually a representation
of the Bos primigenius,

which is the Latin term
for the auroch.

Why would they have made
a statue of the cow’s ancestor?

Today's cows are
descended from the auroch,

which went extinct
in the early 1600s.

During the time
of the ancient Greeks,

the auroch, standing over
six feet at the shoulder,

and weighing over 2,000 pounds,
was a prime target for hunters.

The land around
the Temple of Zeus

is hilly and forested, but is
also characterized by marshes,

which is exactly
the kind of environment

the aurochs liked
hanging out in.

So could these offerings be
not for luck in competition

or farming, but rather
to succeed during the hunt?

It’s definitely possible.

It must have been
a popular animal to hunt.

By the 5th century BCE,

the auroch had gone extinct
from all of ancient Greece.

So these bronze
offerings must be from

before the time of Herodotus.

We also have palace reliefs
from the Assyrian Empire,

which came to an end
around the 7th century BCE,

depicting nobles
hunting the auroch.

Our understanding is
that the hunting of the auroch

was an activity reserved
for the aristocracy

throughout the ancient world.

But they must have
hunted them with gusto,

because their numbers
plummeted as a result.

The bronze bulls
found here at Olympia

may be from some desperate
aristocratic hunters,

hoping that their offering would
see them succeed in the hunt.

Whether offered by
hunters, athletes or farmers

desperate for a good yield,

it's fitting that this
little bull was found

as a result of a storm
that was brought on by Zeus,

the god of weather.