Original subtitles

Narrator: Archaeologists in Norway unearth

Narrator: Archaeologists in Norway unearth an incredible Viking age discovery.

an incredible Viking age discovery.

Dr. Riskin: This is a ship. And it's not just any ship.

It's a Viking ship!

It's ornamented in a way that certainly looks like

something from the Viking age.

But is it really that old?

James Ellis: Could a Viking actually have been buried

in this ship, under the mound?

Narator: A discovery in an ancient Chinese tomb

sparks a murder mystery.

Dr. Leonard: The distribution of the injuries

on both his front and back indicates

that multiple attackers may have been involved.

James Ellis: It appears that this man was a murder victim.

But who killed him?

Narrator: The remains of a mysterious creature emerge

from the Siberian permafrost.

Dr. Riskin: It looks like an animal bone.

It's long, it's curved,

so maybe the rib of a beached whale.

♪ [show theme music]

Narator: These are the strangest mysteries

trapped in the coldest places.

♪♪

Lost relics.

♪♪

Forgotten treasures.

♪♪

Dark secrets.

♪♪

Locked in their icy tombs for ages.

♪♪

But now, as ice melts around the world,

their stories will finally be exposed.

♪♪

♪♪

Narator: Just over 60 miles southeast

of the capital city of Oslo,

on the western coast of the Oslo Fjord

sits Tunsburg,

one of Norway's oldest towns.

Anthea Nardi: The winters of southeastern Norway

are long, cold and dark.

Temperatures are frequently around 5 degrees Fahrenheit,

and the waters of Oslo Fjord can freeze over

and become as hard as steel.

Dr. Leonard: In this part of Norway,

the months of December and January only provide

about six hours of daylight.

And compared to further north in the country,

that's actually a lot.

The lack of daylight just makes what's already

a tricky climate even tougher.

Narator: In 1903, a farmer by the name of Oskar Rom

purchased a property near Tunsberg.

While inspecting his land,

he came across a fairly large mound rising up

out of the landscape in an area called Oseberg.

♪♪

Knowing that this was a burial method

for Scandinavians, extending back into the Bronze Age,

Rom began to dig.

Not long after, he discovered a wooden fragment

measuring about eight inches.

Dr. Riskin: The wood fragment is beautiful.

It's ornamented in a way that certainly looks like

something from the Viking age. But is it really that old?

And if so, what is it from?

Narator: Not knowing exactly what he had found,

knowing it was of serious archeological and

historical value, Rom contacted an archeologist.

Within days, an entire team descended on the site

and began to excavate.

♪♪

James Ellis: The mound is made up of nearly 180 tons of stone

piled on top of each other.

Because the stones are entirely distinct

from the surrounding soil masses,

it is obvious that they had been transported

for the express purpose of placing them here,

on top of whatever is below.

Anthea Nardi: This method has never been seen.

Even to this day.

Vikings are well known for the practice

of burying their dead in mounds.

But why 180 tons of stone?

You would think that whatever is below

would easily have been crushed by their weight.

Dr. Leonard: With the removal of some of the stones,

what comes to light is a thick wooden pole,

standing horizontally next to a chamber with a triangular roof.

So it almost looks like a little shack,

standing next to a flagpole.

Nothing too exciting.

Narator: But as more and more stones are removed,

a very distinctive shape comes into view.

An oval form that is quite pointed at both ends.

It is made of oak and has elegant

ornamentation at one end.

Dr. Riskin: This is a ship.

It's 70 feet long, 16 feet wide,

and its distinctive prow is oriented straight

toward the south, facing the open ocean.

There are 15 holes on each side, meaning,

30 rowers would have been driving this ship forwards.

James Ellis: These exquisite carvings of different animals

actually start at the keel, below the waterline

and end along the prow, where the craftsmen have carved

the spiral and a snake's head.

So could a Viking actually have been buried

in this ship, under the mound?

Anthea Nardi: There are different forms of burial

in the Viking age, but cremation was perhaps

one of the more common ones.

We're quite familiar with the images of the burial

of Viking chieftains,

where they're laid on their warship with all the tools,

weapons and goods they'll need in the afterlife.

And then sent out into the fjord

before the ship is set ablaze.

Dr. Leonard: But here we have an entire ship

that has been heavily damaged

by tons of stones on top of it.

And it's strange, because the ornamentation on this vessel

indicates that its owner was of considerable wealth and means.

So if this actually is a burial,

certainly you'd want to bring this kind of wealth with you

intact into the afterlife.

Dr. Riskin: Ships are an integral part of Viking culture.

They are not just a way to project your military power.

They're also a way to engage in trade with far-off places.

So could this ship have belonged to a Viking leader of some kind?

And are they buried inside it?

Narrator: As the archeologists clear away the wood and debris

on the ship's fore-deck,

they find the skeletons of 15 decapitated horses.

James Ellis: 15 headless horses. And not just that,

there are also the remains of two oxen and four dogs.

The only way to describe this,

is as an intentional offering.

The animals would all have been sacrificed,

in order to accompany the owner into the afterlife.

Anthea Nardi: But we still don't know if there is actually

anyone buried on this ship.

Sure, there were remains of animals here, but

other than that, there isn't any indicator

that some powerful Viking chieftain

was actually laid to rest here.

Narator: The archeologists turn their attention

to the chamber with the triangular roof

located in the center of the ship.

Before they enter, they notice a rather large opening

in its side, along with the remains

of spades and a hand barrel.

Inside the chamber, something more sinister is found.

Dr. Riskin: There are two human skeletons.

One of them is pretty well preserved.

It has a skull, it has its ribs,

it has hips, it has legs.

The other one has only pieces.

An arm, a foot and collarbones as well as teeth.

James Ellis: Both skeletons have their hands chopped off.

Considering the tools and the hole in the chamber,

this is the work of looters

who probably chopped the hands off,

to get any rings of precious metal

that the deceased were wearing.

Anthea Nardi: So the looters must have broken in

not too long after their burial,

because it can't be that hard to remove a ring

from a skeleton's finger, right?

Dr. Leonard: Both sets of bones appear quite small.

So when alive, these individuals stood at about five feet.

Not exactly how you picture a Viking warrior.

Dr. Riskin: If you look closely at the pelvis

of one of the two skeletons,

you can see that it's from an adult female.

So, are the two skeletons lying here,

a royal couple of some kind?

Narator: By analyzing the remains of the

second skeleton in the chamber,

archeologists discover that it too is female.

James Ellis: Two females. This is pretty unprecedented.

We know that Viking males who were chiefs or leaders,

were often buried on the ships together with their slaves,

many of whom were women.

But it's kind of unusual to have two women together,

on such a magnificent ship.

Anthea Nardi: The process of Viking leaders being buried

with their slaves was pretty brutal.

We have a fascinating 10th century account

from an Arab traveler among the Vikings.

His name was Ahmad Ibn Fadlan,

and he tells of how, following the death of a Viking leader,

a slave girl volunteers

to accompany him into the afterlife.

Dr. Leonard: Following a pretty horrific ritual,

she was told to enter the chamber built on the ship.

There she was, strangled and stabbed to death

by a female priestess or witch doctor.

The ship was then torched and the bodies cremated.

♪♪

So is one of these women buried on this ship,

a slave girl buried with her master?

Dr. Riskin: If they were stabbed to death,

like in Ibn Fadlan's account,

you would find unhealed cut marks on the skeletons.

But the entire torso of one of the skeletons is missing.

So you can't tell with that one.

And with the other one, there's no evidence

of stabbing, cuts, or anything like that.

Narator: An examination of one of the women's skulls

reveals that the frontal bone is abnormally thick.

James Ellis: The frontal bone is the forehead,

and when it is thick like this,

it's an indicator of Morgagni-Stewart-Morel syndrome.

A hormonal disorder that usually impacts older women.

Anthea Nardi: MSM causes hormonal changes

that lead to a deeper voice, obesity, a thicker neck

and unusual hair growth.

Dr. Leonard: Although none of her teeth were found,

the skull seams on the top of her cranium

were really close together, meaning

that she was of a pretty advanced age,

perhaps even around 80 years old.

♪♪

Narator: In 2007, archeologists revisited the woman's grave

in Oseberg.

As technology had advanced to a level

where much more could be learned

from the study of their skeletons.

And because people wanted to know more about

their life and times, the bones of the two women

were again exhumed, in order to apply modern,

cutting edge analysis to their skeletons.

The hope was that they could learn not just

how they lived their lives,

but also what may have caused their death.

By knowing this, perhaps they could even establish

what the relationship was between the two of them.

Dr. Riskin: Scans reveal a fracture in the lower back

and cancerous tumors on her right hip bone.

The spread of cancer to the skeleton means,

that it was in its final stages

and probably the cause of death.

So it seems that this elderly woman was quite ill

before she passed away

and wasn't stabbed or murdered.

Narator: Archeologists also examined the bones

belonging to the other woman.

James Ellis: There aren't many bones to examine,

but we can see that there is a fracture in her collarbone,

which has only just begun to heal.

This could have been one of many injuries,

in which case it could be that she died

as the result of injuries sustained

in some form of accident.

Narator: Although there weren't a lot of her bones left,

some of her teeth were found,

and analysis of the roots determine

that she was likely around 50 years of age when she died.

Anthea Nardi: The teeth are not short or flat looking,

indicating that they haven't been worn down.

There's also wear marks between her teeth,

a result of using a metal toothpick.

Dr. Leonard: If she was picking out her teeth,

it could be that she often had meat stuck in there

and if she was frequently eating meat,

it probably means that she wasn't a slave.

Dr. Riskin: Meat is often a good indicator

of socio-economic status.

Generally speaking, the more meat a person has access to,

the greater their presumed wealth.

The best way to estimate what somebody was eating

is something called a carbon isotope ratio.

Basically, different foods have different isotopes of carbon.

If you analyse what isotopes of carbon are in the bones,

you can figure out what these two women

were eating when they were alive.

Narrator: Analysis of the woman's bones indicate

that they both ate mostly meat

and not fish from the sea.

James Ellis: So both of them were women of wealth and means.

Neither of them was enslaved. So who were they?

Narator: A full excavation of the entire burial chamber

revealed a whole series of incredible artifacts,

that reflect the highest level of craftsmanship and luxury.

A. Nardi: There's a wagon with incredibly detailed carvings

on the back are a series of cats,

while on the front of the frame features a man

lying on his back and being attacked by snakes.

The cat imagery represented here

might refer to the fertility goddess Freya.

While the front might be a reference to the death

of a man named Gunnar Gjukesson,

who was killed, by being thrown into a pit of snakes.

Dr. Leonard: This imagery and mythology

would have been familiar to the Vikings,

and they certainly would have carried a profound meaning.

But exactly what that is, we can't be sure.

Dr. Riskin: Other than this incredible wagon.

There are also three sleds,

each decorated with heads of dragons

or snakes in the four corners.

And unbelievably intricate ornamentation

all along the entire object.

James Ellis: There were also beautiful textiles

amongst the grave goods, including silks.

These would have been imported from Central Asia.

This is a long way from Norway,

and at the time, it would have been incredibly expensive

to acquire these materials from such a far-off place.

The fact of the matter is that these were all

ostentatious belongings designed to show

how rich and powerful the owner was.

Narator: Dendrochronological analysis of the wood

used to build the burial chamber

reveals that the trees were felled in the year 834 CE.

A. Nardi: This was the time around when

Halfdan the Black came to power.

At the time, Norway wasn't unified,

but ruled by several kings.

According to the sagas, in the mid-ninth century,

Halfdan the Black was king of the region

where the ship was found.

Dr. Leonard: Because Halfdan ruled this area,

the theory is that only someone extremely important to him

and close to the center of power,

would have been afforded such a lavish burial.

For this reason, it's speculated that the older woman

is in fact his mother, Asa Haraldsdottir.

Dr. Riskin: But this is only speculation.

We don't have much to go on other than

the year that this burial took place.

And as for the younger woman, that's an even bigger mystery.

No one knows.

I like to think it's the sister of Halfdan the Black.

Maybe it was his wife. Or maybe neither.

James Ellis: The one thing that is certain,

is that this is the richest Viking burial

that we have had the privilege of discovering.

Nothing else compares to it in terms of the value of the goods

left for them to take into the afterlife,

nor to the value it has to us

in an archeological context.

Anthea Nardi: And as for the reason why 180 tons of stones

were placed upon the ship,

crushing many of the grave goods,

the answer remains, we can speculate,

but we simply just don't know.

Narator: The Oseberg's ship can today be seen

in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

Even more than 1,000 years later,

the brilliance and beauty of the ship's craftsmanship

is clear for all to see.

What's still more difficult to understand, however,

is the identity of these two women.

It remains to be seen whether or not

more discoveries will be made, that can succeed in painting

a fuller picture of who these women were.

Until then, this is one of the most complex

Viking mysteries known to archeology.

♪♪

♪♪

Narator: Located in north-central China,

Haiyuan County is part of the Ningxia region,

known for its cold desert climate

and rich historical background.

Dr. Cantor: With roots as far back as China's

first unified state - The Chin Dynasty.

humans have settled in Ningxia

for 22,000 years.

Since 221 BCE,

these people have experienced everything,

from empires crumbling, to catastrophic earthquakes.

Dr. Leonard: Winters can be rough,

getting as cold as minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit.

The frigid and dry conditions help in the preservation

of organic materials, making Highland County a Ningxia

prime site for substantial archeological finds.

Narator: As archeologists are excavating

the ancient Shanxi Cemetery, they discover 11 tombs,

most of which are from the Han Dynasty,

dating back roughly 2,000 years.

Thinking they had uncovered everything,

they are shocked when they find something very unexpected.

James Ellis: They find a male skeleton, which,

given that this is a cemetery, isn't that unusual.

But what is unusual

is that he's buried only 6.5 feet under the ground.

And unlike the other bodies excavated,

he has no coffin and no burial goods.

Dr. Agbedor: His skeleton is laying in an unnatural position

with his right hand covering his face.

Excavating the surrounding area, they realize,

he's actually in what appears to be

a vertical shaft.

Narator: As the team of archeologists follow the shaft

twenty feet down to the bottom,

they find it opens up into a large space.

Dr. Cantor: The shaft leads into yet another burial chamber,

making this the 12th tomb found at the site.

The chamber itself is extremely large

at 193 square feet.

Dr. Leonard: Inside the tomb are the remains of another man,

a woman and a child.

And strangely, these bones are not fully intact

like the others found at the Shanxi cemetery.

They're actually scattered around the burial chamber.

The size of the tomb suggests this family of three

were high-status individuals.

But who is the other man buried so close to them?

Dr. Agbedor: Bone analysis and carbon dating

proves that the family of three

are from 155 to 135 C.E.

But the fourth body, our mystery man,

is actually from 640 to 680 C.E.

That's 700 years younger

than the other inhabitants of the grave!

Dr. Leonard: 700 years is a long time.

So now we know this guy is definitely not a second cousin

or long lost uncle.

But if he wasn't a family member,

why was he found so close to this burial chamber?

Narator: The archeologists investigate

the burial chamber further,

and it's not what they find that leaves them puzzled.

It's what they don't find.

James Ellis: This is a high- profile tomb of an elite family.

So you would expect to see extravagant grave goods.

But all they find is just a few jade items,

some bronze and iron.

Nothing of significant value.

Dr. Cantor: People in this time filled tombs

with bronze vessels, discs and cylinders made of jade.

And this practice even expanded to include small replicas

of things from their daily lives

such as little buildings, chariots and even servants.

But none of this is found here.

James Ellis: And the scattered bones of the family,

suggest someone may have been in the chamber at some point,

searching for something.

This, and the lack of grave goods,

could only mean one thing - grave robbers!

The shaft isn't part of the burial site,

it was dug by thieves!

Narrator: Chinese archeologists estimate

that between 9 out of 10 tombs

have been plundered and pillaged.

Dr. Leonard: Although strictly prohibited by law,

a tradition of somewhat official grave robbery

existed in China for years.

Cao Cao, a warlord from the Three Kingdoms period,

would order his army to rob graves

to raise money for his army.

Dr. Cantor: Even to this day,

grave robbing in China

is a booming illegal business,

with an estimated 100,000 grave robbers

active across the country.

So to say that China has a long and complicated history

with the looting of graves,

is something of an understatement.

James Ellis: But if our mystery man was in fact a grave robber,

it still doesn't explain how he ended up dead

and buried in a shaft

almost 7 feet under the ground.

Dr. Agbedor: One thing we know about grave looting

is that though it might be very lucrative,

it's always been a very dangerous job,

especially when you imagine how careful you have to be,

to not incite a cave-in.

Due to the fact that the skeleton was found

in the robbery shaft,

I think it could be very likely a cave-in,

or running out of oxygen, was the reason for his death.

Narator: Searching for answers, the team takes a closer look

at the body and its positioning.

Dr. Leonard: The skeleton is found lying on his back,

with all limbs outstretched or extended outward.

His neck is extended with his head slightly turned right,

while the right hand is covering the right mid-face.

This is actually the posture of someone who was attacked,

not someone who was trapped in a cave in.

Narrator: A CT scan is performed on the skeleton

and reveals shocking evidence of violent trauma.

James Ellis: The skeleton has 13 V-shaped

sharp force marks in total,

with the deepest being on the face.

There are eight injuries on the skull,

four on the rib cage and one on the left arm.

The injuries on the head and face may have caused

severe bleeding, but the laceration to the chest

might have been a fatal blow,

as these strikes may have reached the heart or lungs.

It appears that this man was a murder victim.

But who killed him?

Dr. Leonard: The distribution of the injuries

on both his front and back indicates

that multiple attackers may have been involved.

While the marks on the arms imply

that he was trying to defend himself.

Dr. Cantor: A grave robbing event of this scale

suggests a group effort.

They would need a team to help with all the different aspects

of the operation, like digging, climbing down ropes,

and carting all the treasure away.

If he was part of a team,

they very likely betrayed him and left him for dead.

Dr. Agbedor: Another strong possibility could be

that a rival group of grave robbers

came and murdered the man,

taking all the goods he looted.

The way the body was attacked feels much more personal

than just double-crossing a colleague.

It was a full-on assault.

Narator: As the archeologists look at the looting shaft again,

they make a surprising discovery.

James Ellis: It's a rusted sword about 2.5 feet long

with the handle missing

found just two feet above his body.

A knife or sword could have punctured his vital organs,

leaving him to bleed out.

Could this be the murder weapon?

Dr. Leonard: It's certainly possible,

given the sharp edged trauma to the skeleton,

a sword or knife was likely used to kill this man.

But without concrete proof, it's impossible to say for sure

that this is the weapon that ended his life.

Narator: Taking another look at the original evidence

reveals some very important information

that somehow got overlooked.

James Ellis: The man was actually found

14.7 feet above the entrance to the burial chamber,

meaning, the shaft was already partially filled in

when the body was left there.

This indicates that he couldn't have been part of the team

that built the shaft to rob the grave.

Dr. Cantor: Analysis of the soil filling from the shaft,

indicates that the soil had accumulated

naturally over the centuries.

This suggests, he ended up here

long after the shaft had originally been dug.

Dr. Leonard: The shaft was probably a small hole initially,

but as the soil collapsed after erosion storms and earthquakes,

the shaft got bigger

and different animals got trapped down there, too.

Researchers found the bones of at least nine different animals

that are further down the shaft,

meaning they fell into it long before our mystery man.

So if he wasn't a grave robber, then what exactly happened here?

Narrator: The team concludes

that the most logical explanation

is that the man was killed

and that his body was thrown into the shaft.

Dr. Cantor: This murder would have taken place

during the Tang Dynasty.

At that time, crimes like this would have been met

by capital punishment, by hanging and decapitation,

which means they may have needed to hide the body

to avoid detection.

James Ellis: This case is an example of the age-old strategy,

of hiding a victim's body in existing tombs or graveyards

as a means of disposal.

Known as 'hiding a leaf in the forest.'

Dr. Agbedor: 'Hiding a leaf in the forest' is a practice

that has been used since ancient times.

There are countless examples of it,

like in Northern Ireland, during The Troubles era.

It is believed that many people were abducted,

murdered and secretly buried,

many of them in old cemeteries.

Narrator: Though the mystery of why this man was murdered

may never be solved,

one thing is for certain,

he wasn't a grave robber.

How he ended up in an ancient shaft dug by thieves,

is a secret lost to the centuries.

♪♪

Narrator: Well above the Arctic Circle,

north of Siberia, sits Wrangel Island.

Surrounded by the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean,

this Russian island is one of the most remote

and unforgiving places on Earth.

Riskin: It's long and narrow, only about 78 miles wide,

covers a total area of about 2,800 square miles.

The climate is harsh.

Temperatures sometimes dipping to a bone-chilling

minus 72 Fahrenheit in the winter.

Dr. Cantor: Wrangel Island was discovered,

sort of discovered,

by a Russian-German explorer named

Baron von Franco.

He was mapping the region in the 1820s.

He came within 50 miles of the island's shores,

but he never stepped foot on it.

At that time, the sea ice was much thicker

and he was forced to retreat.

Anthea Nardi: In 1914, survivors of a sunken Canadian ship

claimed the island for Canada.

There is no authorization for this,

which caused an international incident

in the early 1920s.

The Soviet Union annexed the island

and it became permanently Russian in 1926.

Narator: A visitor to Wrangel Island is taking a stroll

along the rugged coast.

When they notice something strange

washed up on the shoreline.

Dr. Riskin: It looks like an animal bone.

It's long, it's curved,

so maybe the rib of a beached whale?

The waters around Wrangell are important

summer feeding grounds and migration areas

for a bunch of whale species,

including gray whales and belugas.

A. Nardi: But it doesn't really look like a bone up close.

Bones are porous.

Small dots or holes cover the surface,

whereas this seems to be marked with lines,

which indicates that it's made of ivory.

This has to be a tusk of some kind.

And there are narwhals in the water here,

but it's too big and curved to be from a narwhal.

♪♪

Dr. Riskin: It wasn't all that long ago

that there were other animals here with tusks.

Woolly mammoths!

Narator: Known for their 15 foot long tusks

and robust furry coat,

woolly mammoths roamed the earth

for about 5 million years.

Dr. Agbedor: Woolly mammoths were similar in size

to African elephants,

about 13 feet tall.

They could grow to the height

of a double decker bus.

They had two layers of fur.

The shaggy outer layer was as long as 20 inches,

helping them to stay warm in frigid temperatures.

Anthea Nardi: They also had a lump on their back,

which likely held fat stores that provided energy

when food was scarce.

Sort of like a camel's hump.

These animals were not only able to adapt to their environment,

but thrived in it.

Narator: Roughly 300,000 years ago,

the mammoth population started to decline,

until they ultimately went extinct.

Dr. Riskin: Here's where it gets interesting.

Research has shown that the woolly mammoths

on Wrangel Island survived

until about 4,000 years ago.

But all the evidence indicates that mammoths everywhere else

on the mainland died off 10,000 years ago.

So how is that possible?

Dr. Cantor: That coincides with the end of the Ice Age.

Glaciers were melting

One small herd of mammoths,

made up of fewer than 10 individuals,

happened to be on Wrangel Island

when it was severed from the mainland.

Anthea Nardi: The island became a kind of refuge

for these mammoths.

A sanctuary, cut off from the rest of the world

by rising seas.

But what eventually caused their extinction?

Narator: In order to learn how the Wrangel Island mammoths

became extinct, researchers have turned to studies

of the general mainland population.

Dr. Cantor: How the woolly mammoth went extinct,

has been the subject of debate among scientists for years.

Recent DNA testing of plant and animal remains,

points to precipitation as the key factor.

Dr. Riskin: Theory goes like this:

Over geological time, the cold and dry environment shifted

to become warmer and wetter.

And that changed the kinds of plants

that could grow where the mammoths were grazing.

They couldn't adapt fast enough,

so the majority of them died out.

Dr. Agbedor: Except for those on Wrangel Island.

Here the food source was more diverse.

It offered different flora with peat and sedges,

rather than grasslands that characterised the mainland.

So these lucky creatures did not starve to death

like the rest of their unfortunate species.

Anthea Nardi: We know that humans hunted woolly mammoths

for their ivory, as well as their meat, skins and bones.

So did humans play a part in the Wrangel Island extinction?

♪♪

Dr. Riskin: Not likely.

Human visitors to Wrangell Island appeared

about 400 years after

the mammoths became extinct.

Also, the island didn't have any other predators

that might have been killing them off.

So what else could it have been?

Narator: Using DNA from two mammoth specimens,

45,000 year old soft tissue remains

taken from the Siberian mainland,

and a 4,300 year old tooth from Wrangel Island,

scientists have been able to map woolly mammoth genomes.

Anthea Nardi: The genetic information indicates

that the parents of the Wrangel Island specimen

are very closely related,

so inbreeding may have played a role.

The samples indicate a loss of genetic diversity,

perhaps making them more susceptible to disease.

Dr. Cantor: The 4,300 year old specimen was found to have

20% less genetic diversity than the older mammoth,

and was the product of a much higher degree of inbreeding.

Dr. Agbedor: Without genetic diversity,

a population cannot evolve in response

to changing environmental conditions.

As a result, they may face an increased risk of extinction.

Narator: Further analysis of the Wrangel Island mammoth's DNA

indicates that genetic reasons alone

did not cause the extinction.

So it's possible that something sudden could have happened

that resulted in their demise.

Dan Riskin: The research shows that however harmful

the mutations from inbreeding might have been,

they weren't killing them off.

The population grew to the size of 300

within 20 generations of getting there,

and it stayed at about 300 from then on.

It really looks like it was a sudden event

that caused the population's extinction.

Dr. Cantor: Perhaps a fire, or the outbreak of disease,

or even limited availability of food led to their demise.

It's even been suggested that a migratory bird

brought a variety of influenza to Wrangel Island,

which then spread to the mammoths and wiped them out.

Narator: The mystery of what caused the Wrangel Island

mammoths' extinction continues to confound scientists.

Perhaps the answer is still out there,

waiting to be found among the island's icy, rugged landscape,

where these majestic beasts roamed,

thousands of years ago.

♪♪

♪♪

Narator: On the Eastern Coast of Canada

sits the desolate area known

as the Labrador Peninsula.

Just over 540,000 square miles,

it accounts for about 14%

of Canada's total land mass.

James Ellis: Forming part of a subarctic region,

the area is geographically quite diverse,

featuring both intensely mountainous terrain,

as well as long expanses of flat ground.

It is sparsely populated, mostly by indigenous people,

many of whom are of the Inuit nation.

Anthea Nardi: The winters are bleak,

characterized by lots of ice and snow

and severely cold temperatures

that can easily drop to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the powerful winds blasting in from the North Atlantic,

don't exactly make it feel any warmer.

Narator: A Canadian geomorphologist is mapping

the coast when he stumbles on something

drastically out of place.

Dr. Riskin: He's shocked to find this large,

rusted structure,

with radio and scientific equipment inside,

partially buried under the ice.

It's almost a triangle configuration,

with 8 barrel-shaped boxes all around it,

wires, that should be connecting everything are just discarded.

It almost looks like something straight out of

1940's science fiction.

So, what is this thing?

James Ellis: Some of the barrel shaped electronic containers

look like they've been deliberately knocked over,

with batteries and radio parts all over the place.

And there's a few random

cigarette packages strewn around.

And on one of the barrels it says:

Canadian Meteor Service.

Leonard: Though the equipment looks old and banged up,

it does have a lot of technological elements to it.

So it could have been used for detecting something,

possibly space debris and meteorites.

Anthea Nardi: A network of cameras in western Canada

indicates that a meteorite of at least 3.5 ounces

falls somewhere in Canada daily.

But most are never recovered.

Narator: Canada is known for its significant contributions

to radar and meteor observations,

particularly in the area of meteorite research

and space science.

Dr. Leonard: One of the ways meteors are detected

is through radio waves,

as they can reflect off ionized trails left behind

as meteoroids vaporize in the atmosphere.

So this could possibly be an older system

for detecting meteors through radio waves.

James Ellis: Though it doesn't have a giant satellite on it,

it does look like it has transmitters

and other technology that could have served this purpose.

Anthea Nardi: Over the past 50 years,

Canada has experienced numerous notable meteorite falls.

So maybe the structure detected

some of the earliest ones recorded.

Narator: Looking for answers,

the geomorphologist does a little digging

and makes a surprising discovery

about The Canadian Meteor Service.

Dr. Leonard: It doesn't exist and it never did.

Meteors in Canada are studied by various institutions

and organizations, like the Global Media Network,

the Canadian Space Agency and several schools.

But none are called the Canadian Meteor Service.

James Ellis: If the Canadian Meteor Service

isn't a real organization,

then why is it written on the side of this equipment?

Narator: Further investigation of the site

leads to the discovery of a piece of evidence,

that may help shed some light on the situation.

Anthea Nardi: The cigarette packs found littering the area

are American made and quite old from the 1940s,

which now gives us a date as to when the structure was set up.

Narator: For most of the 1940s,

Labrador was actually not part of Canada.

It was actually under British rule until 1949.

Chances are, this was set up before that.

So why would someone set up fake Canadian equipment

in a place technically British,

and leave American cigarettes littering the area?

Dr. Leonard: It seems that whoever did set this up

was trying to deceive anyone who might have stumbled upon it.

Seeing as this was the 1940s in a time of serious conflict

and geopolitical tension,

could this be some sort of secret surveillance equipment?

Dr. Riskin: When you think of spies in Canada in the 1940s,

you can't help but think of the Cold War

and everything that encompassed it.

This was a time when paranoia was at an all time high.

Narator: Starting at the conclusion of World War Two,

the Cold War was a long period

of geopolitical and military tension

between the Western capitalist nations

and the communist Soviet Union.

Dr. Leonard: In 1945, a Russian named Igor Gouzenko

walked into a Canadian newsroom and announced

that he had proof of a widespread

Soviet spy operation in Canada,

sending shockwaves across the country and the world.

Anthea Nardi: Known as the man who started the Cold War,

Gouzenko was trained as an intelligence officer.

He came to Canada with his pregnant wife

and was stunned to see that life in Canada

was much better than in the Soviet Union.

Dr. Riskin: Stationed at the Soviet Union's Ottawa Embassy,

his job was to encrypt and decrypt

messages to and from Moscow.

Just weeks after the end of the war,

when he was ordered to return home,

Gouzenko defected to the Canadian government with proof,

that his country had been spying

on Canada, and Britain, and the United States.

Narator: The 109 documents

Gouzenko snuck out of the Soviet Embassy,

changed the face of history forever,

launching the era of paranoia across North America.

James Ellis: If there were Soviet spies in Canada,

who were experts in radar and code breaking,

I don't think it's a stretch to think

that they could have built something like this structure

in a remote area, and use this technology

to spy or as an early warning system

for the Soviet Union.

Dr. Riskin: If you wanted to send radio signals

from Canada to the Soviet Union,

what's the best place to do that from?

The Labrador Peninsula.

The distance between that structure and Moscow

is only about 4,700 miles.

You wouldn't want to walk that far, but for radio waves,

that is a doable distance, for sure.

Anthea Nardi: Considering the time period,

and all the rather poor attempts at the sea,

it definitely appears, that this equipment on the Labrador coast

was used as some sort of surveillance equipment.

But if it was the Soviets who put it there,

how did they manage to do it?

Narator: An historian writing a book on German activity

in the Arctic during the Second World War,

stumbles on logs from a U-boat

that tell the tale of a secret mission,

to install a Nazi weather station

on the Labrador Peninsula.

Dr. Riskin: I didn't see this coming. Nazis?!

And this, by the way, is the first time

we've ever heard of Nazis doing

anything like this in North America.

Anthea Nardi: Because weather can both help and hinder

the movement of ships, planes and soldiers,

you need to have a very good understanding

of weather patterns so that you can decide

exactly when to conduct a military operation.

The problem for the Germans was that they didn't have

easy access to that information,

whereas the allies did.

Narator: Weather systems in the northern hemisphere

generally move from west to east.

So when the Germans were trying to plan an attack in Europe,

knowing the weather in North America was vital

to their decision of when to do so.

One such instance was at the height of the war,

when the Nazis believed they could successfully

invade Britain by sea and air.

They started massive preparations for the invasion,

giving it the codename: Operation Sea Lion.

However, several issues came up for Germany,

including harsh and unpredictable weather conditions

that would delay the entire operation.

If the Germans had knowledge of the weather patterns,

the invasion of Britain could have been a reality.

Thankfully, the Germans did not invade Britain,

and Operation Sea Lion never came to fruition.

But that doesn't mean the Nazis didn't try to find ways

to get themselves vital weather information.

Dr. Riskin: They did put weather stations in parts of Greenland

and they also had weather aircraft

and they had U-boats with instruments on them.

But those were always easy to destroy

or capture for the allies.

Dr. Leonard: The Nazis sent U-537

to deliver the codenamed Kurt Station

to eastern Canada in 1943.

The ship was actually badly damaged on the journey,

but still landed at Martin Bay in northern Labrador

on October 22nd.

James Ellis: Kurt Station didn't do much

to help the Germans execute offensive operations

during the Second World War.

It was only operational for a few weeks

before it stopped working.

So in the end, this attempt to feed information

from a weather station in Labrador

back to Berlin, proved pretty futile.

♪♪

Narator: The Kurt weather station now sits

in the Canadian War Museum.

A stark reminder of the only time

that German forces set foot in North America,

during the Second World War.

♪♪

♪♪