Original subtitles

male narrator: This week on "Ancient Top 10,"

evidence of manned flight in the ancient world.

‐ Of all the mysterious ancient artifacts in the world,

these are the ones that really make you stop

and pause to wonder,

"Did these ancient people know about aircraft?"

narrator: Could there have been electricity

thousands of years ago?

‐ It is really difficult to imagine

what it could have been

if it wasn't some sort of device

for making electricity.

narrator: Was there a power drill more advanced

than anything today?

‐ This core seems to have been drilled out of solid granite

using a rapidly rotating drill.

[water splashes]

narrator: And the world's first computer

from 200 B. C.

‐ One of the greatest treasures of the ancient world.

♪ ♪

narrator: Where will they be ranked

on the only top ten list

thousands of years in the making?

[whooshing]

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

narrator: The mysteries of the ancients are boundless.

So much from ancient times will remain a secret forever.

On this show, we have evidence

of technology more advanced than today's.

How can this be?

‐ Some suggest that this is evidence

for extraterrestrial communication in ancient times.

narrator: Fact or fiction?

You decide.

This week on "Ancient Top 10,"

it's ancient mysteries...

[exciting music]

The most bewildering ancient mysteries

ranked according to how much they tell us

about the secrets of the ancient world.

And we start where else but in ancient Egypt?

Astonishing evidence of ancient flight.

[exciting music]

Soaring in at number ten,

the Saqqara Bird.

‐ It's a wooden carving of a bird, and at first glance,

this Saqqara Bird doesn't appear to be anything special.

It's only when we examine it more closely

that the real mystery is revealed.

narrator: Ancient Egypt,

the greatest civilization of the ancient world.

♪ ♪

The oldest known pyramid in Egypt here at Saqqara,

20 miles south of Cairo.

Over 100 years ago an intriguing object

was recovered from this site.

It's a small carving made of sycamore wood

and over 2,000 years old.

Clearly, it's designed to look like a bird.

Some experts believe that this bird

is evidence the ancient Egyptians

had knowledge of the principles behind gliding.

♪ ♪

Modern gliders date from the 19th century,

but the idea of a glider is nothing new.

♪ ♪

Over 1,000 years ago, in ninth century Córdoba,

southern Spain, one brave inventor,

Abbas ibn Firnas,

threw himself off of a tower

in his own self‐built gliding machine.

♪ ♪

[spectators gasp and scream]

‐ [laughs]

narrator: Accounts say he glided a considerable distance,

and he's gone down in history as the first man to fly.

[wind whipping]

[spectators screaming]

But could the Saqqara Bird really be evidence

of an ancient gliding machine?

‐ It's just a bird, a carving of a bird.

So what makes it so mysterious?

Well, first we have to ask, "Why is it there?"

♪ ♪

narrator: The reason for items being placed in tombs

is very practical.

They're scale models of objects from real life

either to help the dead person in the afterlife

or to help them get there, a means of transport.

‐ A model of a giant bird?

What use would that be?

And there weren't any giant birds in Egypt anyways.

All of the other models were of real,

practical things,

but an aircraft, now, that would be useful.

narrator: The Egyptians believed the dead

lived on in the skies.

To get there, an aircraft would be ideal.

Could the Saqqara Bird

be a scale model of an actual aircraft?

‐ The ancient Egyptians had throwing sticks

similar to boomerangs for hunting birds.

It was a royal pastime.

So given that they understood

some basic principles of aerodynamics,

could it be that the Saqqara Bird,

with its vertical tail fin to act as a stabilizer,

was a kind of glider?

♪ ♪

narrator: A vertical tail fin like this

doesn't occur in nature,

but if this bird was going to fly,

it would also need a horizontal fin

in the back such as modern gliders have.

Without this it would plummet to the ground.

It's because ibn Firnas

didn't have a horizontal tail fin

that he couldn't control his descent.

‐ [screams]

[spectators screaming]

[all clamor]

narrator: There are, in fact, marks on the Saqqara Bird

where exactly such a fin might have been.

This would make it more stable than ibn Firnas' machine,

which was 1,000 years later.

♪ ♪

Thanks to modern technology, it's possible to test

how aerodynamic the model of the bird would be

with a horizontal fin added.

‐ This is an amazing experiment.

It will prove whether or not the ancient people

had knowledge of flight,

and if they did, the implications are staggering.

♪ ♪

narrator: All the data can be fed into a computer

and a flight simulator.

Then the bird can be tested in the air.

‐ The million‐dollar question is if a scaled‐up version

of this carved bird would actually fly.

narrator: This high‐tech analysis

provides an unbelievable result.

‐ Amazingly, modern scientific analysis shows

that the Saqqara Bird conforms

to our understanding of aerodynamics.

♪ ♪

narrator: It glides perfectly.

♪ ♪

‐ Modern plans for gliders,

the technological know‐how for gliders

didn't appear until the 19th century.

And those ancient plans actually work better

than some of the earlier versions

of modern gliders.

narrator: Could the ancient Egyptians really have flown?

It can't be proved.

It's still up in the air.

‐ But why have that capability and not use it?

narrator: If they could have,

then they would be more advanced

than we ever imagined.

♪ ♪

As amazing as an ancient glider would be,

our next ancient mystery is even more illuminating‐‐

possible evidence of ancient electricity.

At number nine...

[exciting music]

The Dendera Light.

‐ It's the classic out‐of‐place artifact

which does look bizarrely similar

to a big electric lightbulb.

♪ ♪

narrator: The Dendera Temple Complex near Luxor,

one of the best preserved in Egypt,

and it's here at the Temple of Hathor

that we find a set of mysterious carvings.

They are 4 1/2 thousand years old.

Could some bright spark back then

really have invented electricity?

Amazingly, this image is evidence

for some that they may have.

_ There's a wire connected to a socket at the bottom.

♪ ♪

There's a filament inside

what looks like a giant electric bulb,

and there's even a pillar with features

resembling modern pylons.

narrator: The ancient Egyptians did have primitive glass

which could have been used to make the casing of a bulb.

‐ Of course the ancient Egyptians

didn't have electric lighting,

but it can't be denied that the Dendera Light

does resemble a large lightbulb.

narrator: Some experts believe

that Dendera was not actually a temple,

but that it served another purpose,

possibly as a scientific research lab of some kind

or even an ancient power station.

♪ ♪

It's generally thought that the ancient Egyptians

lit their temples by burning torches.

Surprisingly, there is little evidence of this.

‐ Supporting this theory that the Dendera Light is electrical

is how there's supposedly very little smoke damage

in ancient Egyptian tombs.

So if they weren't using torches

to light their tombs,

what were they using?

narrator: Electricity in ancient Egypt:

this may be a truly illuminating mystery.

♪ ♪

But there's more, even greater evidence

of modern technology in the ancient world.

We're back to flight,

But this time, powered flight.

It could even be evidence of spacecraft.

[rockets thundering]

At number eight...

[exciting music]

The mysterious golden planes of South America.

‐ It looks like we have another airplane on our hands,

only this time not a glider like the Saqqara Bird.

No, this is ultra‐modern.

This looks like a supercharged aircraft.

narrator: These remarkable golden objects

were found in an ancient tomb

deep within the Colombian rainforest

at the end of the 19th century.

They were made by the Quimbaya people

over 1,000 years ago.

They look like small pieces of jewelry

made to commemorate a particular aircraft,

but these golden planes are ancient.

‐ This must be an accurate representation of something,

but the question is of what?

The shape of the wings,

to me, that says modern aircraft,

but not just aircraft.

It sort of screams space shuttle.

[wheels screeching]

narrator: They do look like aircraft.

♪ ♪

Could they actually be models of something

from the natural world?

But like the Saqqara Bird, it has a vertical tail fin.

‐ No flying insect, or bird even,

has vertical fins

or wings attached to the bottom.

This simply doesn't happen in nature.

These are characteristics of an aircraft.

narrator: So did these ancient people in South America

truly have the knowledge of powered flight?

Groundbreaking scientific testing of a recreation

may prove that these golden planes

could actually fly.

We've reached number eight...

And we're in the jungles of South America,

where these remarkable golden objects were found.

They look like miniature space shuttles,

but they were made over 1,000 years ago.

Could they be models of alien spacecraft?

‐ There are many people who believe

that aliens visited Earth a long time ago.

And when you think about it,

it's just as likely that

they would have visited South America,

say, 1,000 years ago,

as it would be for them to visit us today.

narrator: We'll never know for sure

if these models were influenced by something other‐worldly.

It will remain a mystery.

But there is one practical test that can be made,

one that will determine once and for all

whether these planes could actually fly.

In 1997,

German aviation experts made a 16‐to‐1 scale model,

painstakingly constructing it

to mirror exactly a golden plane,

[engine purring]

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

And it flies just like a modern plane.

[engine purring]

♪ ♪

The aerodynamics are perfect.

‐ Of all the mysterious ancient artifacts in the world,

these golden planes are the ones

that really make you stop and be forced to wonder

"Did these ancient people know about aircraft?"

And you can't escape the feeling that in three dimensions,

they look like modern aircraft.

narrator: But the mysteries of ancient aircraft

don't end there.

Coming in at number seven,

an ancient mystery that may show

even more compelling evidence

for high‐tech ancient flying machines...

[exciting music]

The extraordinary Abydos hieroglyphs.

♪ ♪

These mysterious hieroglyphs

are on a temple wall in central Egypt.

They're from the 13th century B. C.,

and some experts believe

that they reveal more about the ancients

than any other carving.

‐ The Abydos hieroglyphs are probably

the most famous Egyptian hieroglyphs in the world.

There's one that looks like a helicopter.

♪ ♪

[helicopter rotors thrumming]

There's one right next to it that looks like a tank.

♪ ♪

[tank chugging]

And there's yet another one that looks like

a modern fighter jet meets a flying saucer.

♪ ♪

[UFO whirring]

‐ Helicopters, tanks, flying saucers.

Now, what's really amazing about this

is that these things aren't just in the same tomb.

They're all next to each other,

which is an incredible coincidence.

‐ Now, one could be coincidence,

but three?

♪ ♪

‐ These hieroglyphs are over 3,000 years old.

That's just ridiculous.

How can that be?

♪ ♪

narrator: The temple complex is dedicated to Osiris,

the Egyptian god of the afterlife.

Could these be craft designed to transport the dead

to their place in the heavens?

Some have even theorized that perhaps these are the craft

of visiting aliens commemorated in stone.

♪ ♪

The stuff of science fiction maybe,

or were these futuristic craft

imagined by some brilliant engineer ahead of his time...

♪ ♪

An ancient da Vinci?

♪ ♪

‐ It took another 3,000 years

before someone thought of the idea of a helicopter,

and that was Leonardo da Vinci,

and we consider him a genius.

And of course, it was many hundreds of years later

when we actually invented the helicopter,

so where does this leave us?

Were the artists at Abydos time travelers?

♪ ♪

‐ It all sounds rather far‐fetched,

and yet there the hieroglyphs are

for all to see.

narrator: The notion of flight in the ancient world

is truly astonishing,

but even more shocking

is evidence of ancient electricity.

And this time, it's not a carving.

It's an actual artifact.

[electricity sizzling]

At number six...

[exciting music]

The Baghdad Battery.

♪ ♪

‐ Looking at this object, it is really difficult to imagine

what it could have been

if it wasn't some sort of device

for making electricity.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is a photograph of the Baghdad Battery.

It's now lost.

But back in the 1930s,

it was in the National Museum of Iraq,

and it's been the cause of huge controversy ever since.

♪ ♪

It was a terra‐cotta pot

dating from around 2,000 years ago.

♪ ♪

And inside was a cylinder made of a rolled copper sheet

with an iron rod precisely held in place

in the middle of it.

Tests on the interior of the jar

have provided a clue

as to what it may have been used for.

‐ Looking inside the Baghdad Battery,

we can see that it contained

some sort of acidic solution,

perhaps lemon juice, wine, or vinegar.

Now, this easily could have been used

to pass an electrical current from the iron to the copper.

narrator: If it wasn't an ancient object,

it would be obvious what it is,

a battery.

‐ I mean, just look at it.

All its components fit

so precisely together.

So if this is true, I mean,

once again the implications are astounding.

narrator: Would a model of the battery actually work?

How would ancient people put this power to use?

We're at number six,

and it's the Baghdad Battery found in the desert of Iraq.

[exciting music]

This is a replica of the battery.

With a copper tube, a steel or iron rod,

and vinegar as an electrolyte solution,

we can put the mystery surrounding this object

to the test.

♪ ♪

Incredibly, electricity is produced,

about one volt.

This is astonishing.

But if it was a battery,

the mystery is what it would have been used for.

‐ Now, even though the Baghdad Batteries

weren't powerful enough to produce electric lighting,

experiments with replicas of them connected up

have found that they could produce enough current

to electroplate small objects.

narrator: Electroplating is when an electric current

is passed through a liquid solution

like this gold solution,

making its metal atoms deposit themselves

on something acting as an electrode.

By electroplating, a piece of jewelry or a coin

could be coated with gold or silver.

‐ Imagine that.

How incredible would it be

for someone in ancient times

to be able to electroplate metals?

♪ ♪

If this is a battery,

then the biggest question of all

is where did that knowledge come from?

You know, this is evidence

for many that there was

a great ancient civilization, perhaps many of them,

whose knowledge we have now forgotten.

‐ Electricity in the ancient world,

even the concept sounds ridiculous.

You would have thought we'd have had some

sort of a written record of it.

Yet the Baghdad Battery exists.

narrator: Technology thousands of years

ahead of its time.

If true, the implications are beyond belief.

♪ ♪

But for our next mystery,

the evidence is rock‐solid.

It's there for us all to see.

Coming in at number five,

impossible engineering

from the ancient Roman Empire...

[exciting music]

The Baalbek Blocks.

♪ ♪

Baalbek, Lebanon,

the Temple of Jupiter here was the largest temple

in the whole of the Roman Empire,

standing at 300 feet high

and completed about 60 A. D.

It covers the same area as nearly nine football fields.

♪ ♪

It's intimidating and imposing,

and that's just how it was meant to be.

‐ Baalbek is a massive temple,

and the Romans built places like this

in part to show the locals what they could do.

Not only did they want to prove that

they had mastery over the natural world,

they also wanted to intimidate their enemies.

It's a demonstration of absolute power.

♪ ♪

narrator: But the most incredible thing

about this temple isn't its overall size.

♪ ♪

It's these three massive blocks of stone

at the base of the temple.

Each one is 12 feet high and 65 feet long.

That's bigger than the biggest Egyptian obelisk.

Amazingly, these three stone blocks

are the largest building blocks

ever used by any human beings anywhere in the world,

weighing in at around 800 tons each.

‐ And they're lined up absolutely perfectly.

Now, we know that the Romans had technology

which allowed them to raise 100 tons or so,

so how on earth did these things get up there?

They're one of those ancient mysteries

that at the moment are just leaving us

with a great big question mark.

narrator: There are no marks on the stone

to give us any clue as to how they were moved,

but we do know that they came from a quarry nearby,

hacked out of the hillside in single giant pieces,

because there is one left in place.

♪ ♪

Today, to lift anything so heavy

we would use a mega crane like this.

It's the Liebherr 11200, one of the most advanced,

most powerful cranes around.

But the Romans had nothing like this.

Their cranes relied on muscle power.

They were super advanced for their time,

and this example, called polyspastos,

could lift 6 tons.

‐ This crane allowed each person

using it to shift 60 times

as much as they would otherwise.

narrator: With these cranes,

the Romans could build enormous structures

such as six‐story apartment buildings,

huge temples,

and the Colosseum,

but they were built using small blocks.

These blocks at Baalbek were 800 tons,

and even once lifted,

somehow they would need transporting.

‐ We know that the ancients used barges

to float huge stones

down to certain building sites...

♪ ♪

But Baalbek is nowhere near a river.

So we might have some good guesses,

but to be honest, we don't really know

how they moved those huge stones.

It is and will probably forever remain a mystery.

narrator: Why use such big blocks in the first place?

Nobody knows.

The answer is lost to history.

♪ ♪

Flying high at number ten

was the intriguing Saqqara Bird.

Number nine was the lightbulb carving

at the Dendera Temple.

Number eight:

the enigmatic golden planes of South America.

At number seven, the mysterious hieroglyphs at Abydos.

Number six: the shocking Baghdad Battery.

And number five was the mystery

of the massive stones at Baalbek.

Next in our countdown is, for some,

the most convincing evidence yet of extraterrestrials.

At number four...

[exciting music]

The Nazca Lines.

♪ ♪

‐ The Nazca Lines are a mystery

that make the complete works of Agatha Christie

look like the puzzle on the back of a cereal box.

narrator: These mysterious lines and shapes

are in the desert in southern Peru:

a giant hummingbird,

a spider,

mysterious diagrams,

shapes,

and straight lines.

‐ The Nazca Lines are astonishing,

intricate geometrical designs and mathematical figures.

I mean, the longest one is 1,000 feet.

That's over three football fields.

♪ ♪

narrator: These mysterious lines

are between 4 and 12 inches deep.

They're made just by pushing away

the surface stones and earth

and exposing the lighter ground underneath,

and because the area is so dry and windless,

they've lasted.

Some of these lines date back to 500 B. C.

‐ There are over 800 straight lines,

300 geometric patterns,

and over 70 animal/plant figures

over an incredible 200 square miles.

♪ ♪

‐ From the ground, they're pretty much invisible,

but looking down from the sky,

the Nazca Lines come to life.

[exciting music]

It's absolutely incredible to imagine these ancient people

laying out these patterns

that they can't even see from the ground.

How they did it is a mystery.

narrator: But as big a mystery as how they did it

is why they did it.

♪ ♪

‐ There are a lot of theories about the Nazca Lines.

One of the central groups of theories

has to do with the possibility

that they can be studied using astronomy

so that these things might be calendars,

or they might represent constellations

or be mapping the movement of the Sun.

♪ ♪

Another theory that I happen to agree with

is that these animals represented by the Nazca Lines

were actually parts of ritual circuits

that you could actually walk,

like in a procession,

through the actual body and being of these creatures

as if you were experiencing the divine essence viscerally.

I think that overall we have to conclude

that the Nazca Lines are still a great mystery.

♪ ♪

narrator: And then there's this.

He's known as the space man.

Is he a depiction of an extraterrestrial waving to us?

Or is he a human waving hello

or good‐bye to something in the heavens?

‐ There are many who believe that the lines

are commemorative, that is,

they represent a past visit of extraterrestrials,

and it's a message to them to say,

"Hey, we're still here.

Come back."

♪ ♪

‐ The Nazca Lines have become world‐famous

with a whole host of mysteries to explain what they mean,

from rituals to produce more rain

in the desert to messages

for alien visitors coming down from outer space.

One thing is certain, though.

This is a mystery that will remain.

♪ ♪

narrator: But next in our countdown,

evidence of something seemingly impossible,

ancient technology way more advanced

than even our own.

At number three...

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

It's Core 7.

♪ ♪

‐ It's a bit of rubble, but it might just be

the most mysterious bit of rubble in all of history.

narrator: This strange, 4,500‐year‐old piece of rock

known as Core 7 is ancient Egyptian.

It was found near the Great Pyramids

at the end of the 19th century by this man,

the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie.

It's kept here in London in the Petrie Museum.

[traffic whooshes]

It's an exact cylinder

and has strange lines scored into it

which are perfectly spaced.

In fact, it's one continuous line

like the grooves of a record.

What is it?

It's the core that would be thrown away

when a hole is drilled,

in this case the hole of a door pivot,

but this rock is granite.

How could the ancient Egyptians drill into solid granite?

‐ The strongest metal tools the Egyptians had were copper,

and copper is quite soft.

So it's mind‐boggling to think that that

is what they used to penetrate granite.

The only material really strong enough

to penetrate granite,

well, that's diamond.

And if the ancient Egyptians

had diamond cutting technology,

well, then history would have to be rewritten.

♪ ♪

narrator: The shape of the groove is further evidence

of impossibly advanced technology.

‐ It's the grooves in Petrie's Core 7

that are the real mystery.

As far as we know, the ancient Egyptians

only had bow drills,

which move back and forth.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is a reconstruction

of an ancient Egyptian bow drill.

It makes a very distinctive back‐and‐forth line

as it drills.

One continuous line such as that of Core 7

is the mark of a modern power drill.

‐ This core seems to have been drilled out of solid granite

using a rapidly rotating drill.

We've reached number three,

and it's a remarkable piece of granite

from ancient Egypt known as Core 7.

♪ ♪

Incredibly, the perfect line around the cylinder

appears to be the line

made by a super‐advanced power drill.

♪ ♪

[button beeps]

A modern diamond‐tipped machine like this

powered by electricity makes a core

just like the ancient Egyptian one.

♪ ♪

This machine turns at 1,600 revolutions per minute.

How on Earth could the Egyptians drill like this?

Nobody knows.

It's clearly impossible,

and yet they did it.

The evidence is carved in stone,

but even this isn't the end of our mystery.

From looking at the space between each revolution,

it's possible to work out the force of the drill.

The wider the space between the groove,

the greater the force.

‐ Amazingly, research shows that the core was made

by a drilling process

with greater strength

than our modern power drill.

What does this tell us?

There are no tools of that caliber that we know of.

Is this evidence for a even far greater civilization

that had those tools that we have no historical record of?

narrator: It remains an unexplained mystery,

and it's one of the greatest.

♪ ♪

But next in our countdown

of incredible ancient mysteries is one of the most immense,

extraordinary discoveries of all time.

At number two, it's an entire army...

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

The Terra‐cotta Army.

♪ ♪

‐ This was one of the most amazing

archaeological finds ever.

♪ ♪

narrator: In the 1970s,

Chinese farmers were digging a well,

and they stumbled across these giant pits.

The biggest was 750 feet long

and filled with these amazing figures.

♪ ♪

They became known as the Terra‐cotta Army,

and more just kept coming.

‐ Terra‐cotta figures 2,000 years old,

and not a few; thousands of them,

and 520 horses,

130 chariots,

musicians, acrobats.

♪ ♪

Each one is unique.

Every single one is different.

It's as if they were sculpted from real people.

It's as if you were there 2,000 years ago.

It's absolutely eerie.

♪ ♪

narrator: 8,000 individually sculpted pieces.

What were they,

and why were they created?

♪ ♪

A clue is in the location.

It was inside the huge mausoleum complex

built for the Emperor Qin,

the first emperor of China.

♪ ♪

Spread over 56 square miles,

it took more than 720,000 people

37 years to construct it.

[workers shouting indistinctly]

The tomb itself lies within

one of the largest burial mounds in the world.

It remains unexcavated.

It is thought to be booby‐trapped

to stop anyone breaking in.

♪ ♪

[arrows thwacking loudly]

And it is said to be surrounded by a lake of mercury.

But why was this army of clay

buried with this great emperor?

For the answer, we have to look to his lifetime.

Qin was responsible for the deaths of thousands.

[men shouting indistinctly]

‐ The one problem with being a violent tyrant

who comes to power by slaying everybody

who stands in your way is you make a few enemies.

When you're alive, it's not a problem.

You've got bodyguards.

You can keep them out of the way.

But when you're dead,

they're waiting for you in the afterlife,

and they carry a serious grudge.

[men grunting]

‐ 8,000 soldiers, chariots, and horses

all there for one purpose:

to protect him in the afterlife.

narrator: As well as being protected,

Emperor Qin wanted to hold on to power.

He meant to rule forever.

But the mystery doesn't stop there.

‐ After his death, Qin's entire court was buried with him:

hundreds of slaves, servants,

concubines, wives, musicians,

even his favorite horse and chariot,

buried alive.

♪ ♪

narrator: So wouldn't the obvious thing be

to bury his elite troops alive?

In a way, the mystery is why they are made of clay

rather than being the skeletons of real troops.

Perhaps forcing the living troops into the pit

was a step too far even for the mighty Qin.

And it gives us one of the greatest archaeological

finds of all time.

At number ten was the high‐flying Saqqara Bird.

At number nine, shining a light on the secrets

of ancient Egypt, the Dendera Light.

Number eight was the mysterious golden planes

of South America.

And at number seven,

the intriguing hieroglyphs at Abydos.

At number six, the Baghdad Battery,

and at number five was the mystery

of the massive stones at Baalbek.

In at number four,

the famous Nazca Lines of Peru.

Number three was the mysterious piece of granite

known as Core 7.

♪ ♪

Our number two, the unique,

enigmatic Terra‐cotta Army.

♪ ♪

Clearly there was more to the ancients

than is found in recorded history.

But now we've reached the top of our countdown,

and prepare to be astounded.

At number one...

[exciting music]

The Antikythera mechanism,

an ancient computer.

‐ The most incredible and mysterious device,

one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world.

narrator: The story begins just over 100 years ago

near the Greek island of Antikythera.

‐ A group of Greek sponge divers were underwater

looking for sponges

when actually what they stumbled across

was a shipwreck full of treasures.

narrator: There were beautiful statues

and all kinds of precious artifacts.

♪ ♪

And then there was this,

a corroded lump of bronze.

What could it be?

‐ It was taken back

to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens,

and there one of the bronzes broke open

to show gear wheels and inscriptions.

Now, gear wheels were not known from the classical era,

so this was something quite extraordinary.

narrator: What was this mysterious,

seemingly out‐of‐time artifact?

Debate has raged in the scientific community

since its discovery,

but it was only when it was radiographed in the 1970s

that the total number of gears could be seen

and its complexity was revealed.

‐ When it was built, it undoubtedly had more,

maybe 45 gear wheels,

and then it wasn't until 2005, 2006,

the application of 3‐D X‐ray‐computed tomography,

a sort of body scanner

to look at the structure of the thing,

allowed us to work out

what mechanism was really inside

and just how technologically sophisticated

that was.

[gears clicking]

narrator: This is a reconstruction of what

the highly‐advanced mechanism may have looked like,

but what was it for?

‐ On the front of the Antikythera mechanism

was a representation of the universe,

solar system, with the Earth in the center,

and around it went the Moon, the Sun,

and the planets that they knew about at that time.

♪ ♪

On the back of the mechanism there was a spiral at the top

that was the cycle of the Moon,

235 months over 19 years,

and at the bottom,

a dial which allowed you to predict

whether it was likely there would be an eclipse

of the Sun or the Moon,

a sort of wonderful encapsulation

of what they knew about astronomy at that time.

♪ ♪

‐ The Antikythera mechanism predicted

and modeled aspects of the known sky.

In a very real sense, it was a handheld model

of the Greek universe.

♪ ♪

‐ The Antikythera mechanism allowed you

to input data and get a result.

So you'd find a date, and then it would show you

where the Sun, the Moon,

and the stars would be in the sky on that date.

‐ So what we've got here

is a computing calendar.

Genius.

♪ ♪

narrator: Input data, get a result:

a computer.

In fact, the technology is remarkably similar

to what is traditionally thought of

as the first computer,

invented by Charles Babbage in the 19th century.

♪ ♪

[file scraping]

Imagine the knowledge and skill needed

to create such a thing thousands of years ago.

Where did that knowledge come from?

That is the biggest mystery of all.

‐ This mind‐blowing mechanism represents not just

a phenomenal technical achievement

but the culmination of research reaching back

who knows how many centuries?

[gears ticking]

‐ The mechanical sophistication

of the Antikythera mechanism

reminds us that the Greeks

were just as intelligent as we are.

The difference is the much greater

knowledge base we have these days.

What's changing is our view of their world.

narrator: The Antikythera mechanism is our number one,

as it reveals the ancients were far more advanced

than we ever previously thought.

We still don't know who made it or why.

It's our ultimate mystery.

‐ Without the Antikythera mechanism,

it would be difficult to realize

how sophisticated the design technology had become,

and it makes you wonder what else we're missing

or misinterpreting in the ancient world.

narrator: This remarkable object tells us more

than any other discovery

that there is so much about the ancients

that we don't know.

[triumphant music]

♪ ♪

There are mysteries so deep that it seems

they'll never be solved,

super‐advanced technology thousands of years ago.

One thing we can be sure of,

the ancient world will continue to surprise and astonish us.

It will always be a world

of the most extraordinary secrets

and mysteries.