Original subtitles

Narrator: A team of researchers excavating a tomb in Sweden

make a dark discovery.

Dr. Riskin: There are over 9,800 bone fragments.

Now this is a tomb,

so finding bones isn't really all that shocking,

but the volume of them is surprising.

Anthea Nardi: So what exactly happened here

that resulted in the deaths of so many people?

Narrator: An Italian alpine rescue unit is conducting

a training operation on Mount Etna,

when they come across a disturbing sight.

Dr. Cantor: Deep in the recesses of the cave are human remains,

it appears to be a man.

But the body is in such bad condition,

that it's difficult to say anything else.

So who is this man?

And how did his body end up in a cave on Mount Etna?

Narrator: In New Zealand, a group of scientists

find something unexpected on a beach.

Dr. Riskin: Embedded in this large boulder is this

fossilized jumble of sizable bones.

And it's hard to tell what animal they all belong to.

But whatever it is, it's big.

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.

♪ [show theme music]

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In southwestern Sweden lies Falbygden,

an agricultural region characterized by rolling moors

and breathtaking table mountains.

Anthea Nardi: Winters here can be long and harsh,

with recorded temperatures as low as

minus 7 degrees Fahrenheit

and days, with only 6.5 hours of sunlight.

Dr. Cantor: The main town in the region is Falkirk,

which has a population of just under 20,000.

It's known for its ancient churches,

some of which date all the way back to the 11th century.

Dr. Leonard: Falbygden is one of the oldest settled areas

in Sweden, with evidence of human occupation going back

almost 6,000 years.

There are ancient remains all over the place.

It has one of the largest concentrations of megalithic,

new stone age grave sites in Northern Europe.

And because of this, the region gets a lot of attention

from the archeological community.

Narrator: A team of researchers is excavating a tomb

on the outskirts of Falkoping,

when they discover something that leaves them taken aback.

Dr. Riskin: There are over 9,800 bone fragments.

Now this is a tomb, so finding bones isn't really

all that shocking, but the volume of them is surprising.

Most of them come from humans.

But also, there are over 260 animal bones present.

Dr. Cantor: A high concentration was found in a roughly

40 square foot area, in the center of the chamber.

The bone layer is just under eight inches thick.

The bones in the upper parts and at the southern end

were more fragmented,

while those in the bottom layer and to the north,

were surprisingly well preserved.

Anthea Nardi: It's estimated that the bones represent

78 individuals from between 3100 and 2900 BCE,

which is a pretty short time frame for this number of bodies.

And compared to other Scandinavian burial sites,

the amount of remains is very high.

So what exactly happened here, that resulted in the deaths

of so many people within a small window of time?

Narrator: As part of the site's overall analysis,

the team gathers information

about the tomb's layout and design.

Dr. Riskin: The tomb is rectangular.

It's about 30 feet long, it's about six feet wide,

and it's made of these limestone slabs.

And as you go down that burial chamber passageway,

it's divided up by these thresholds

in at least two places, suggesting

that there were internal doorways.

This whole thing would have been surrounded by this

great big dirt mound, almost 100 feet in diameter.

So if you could go back in time and visit this place,

it would have been very impressive!

Dr. Leonard: This is what's known as a passage grave.

And there are a whopping 255 of them in the Falbygden area.

Two thirds of the total in all of Sweden.

They were popular during the Neolithic age

and generally consist of one or more burial chambers,

covered in earth or rock mounds.

And they have a narrow access passage made of large stones.

Narrator: Continuing the excavation,

the team unearths dozens of various kinds of artifacts,

in and around the tomb.

Dr. Riskin: In the northern part of the chamber,

they find these bone point tools.

They're tube-shaped, with a preserved joint on one end,

and a sharpened point on the other end.

And it's, it's not clear exactly what they were used for,

but it really looks like they were probably used for maybe

sewing clothes, or maybe for repairing fishing nets.

Dr. Cantor: 27 flint artifacts were also found,

all with a white patina,

and some pieces found near the entrance-way were burned.

One of the items turned out to be an arrowhead.

So we have evidence of fire and a weapon.

Is it possible that the people in the tomb,

were victims of a violent conflict?

Dr. Leonard: But the bones don't show any evidence of trauma.

There are no breaks or cuts from pointed weapons,

which are indicators that someone may have died

as a result of violence.

And seeing as the bodies are from a 200 year timespan,

it's impossible that any single event caused their deaths.

Narrator: In the entrance area of the tomb,

the archeologists discover a small pit next to the presumed

outer foundation trench for the passageway.

Dr. Cantor: In the pit, they found a small,

decorated pottery shard.

And it wasn't the only one.

In total, 31 pieces of pottery were discovered,

both in the main chamber and in the mouth area.

Pottery finds tell you a lot about a particular culture.

In this case, the ceramics indicate that these people

were part of the Funnel Beaker culture,

the first Neolithic society in Northern Europe.

Anthea Nardi: It's called the Funnel Beaker culture,

because of a frequently found pottery form,

a handle-less drinking vessel shaped like a funnel.

They're hand crafted from local clay,

with various decoration methods such as stamping,

modeling, impressing and incising.

Dr. Leonard: Starting around 4000 BCE,

the people of northwestern Europe began settling down

into an agricultural society

rather than a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence.

This period saw the first use of the wheel and plow.

The production of wool from sheep and goats.

And the increased use of animals for specific tasks.

Early farmers removed forest cover and cleared their fields

to build house foundations and walled compounds

to keep the animals in.

Dr. Riskin: These small settlements start popping up

all over northern Europe.

And for the first time, you've got these communities,

these interconnected groups of people living in the same area,

engaged in the same agricultural practices together.

And living together has all kinds of benefits,

but it also has a dark side.

Narrator: In 1943, just outside of Falkoping

within the Falbygden region,

a bog excavation by a team of archeologists

unearthed something shocking.

Anthea Nardi: It was the remains of a young woman,

likely between the ages of 15 and 20.

The skull had been well-preserved.

But some of the bones of the skeleton, in particular,

many of those between the skull and the pelvis, were missing.

The contents of her stomach showed that she had eaten

raspberries for her last meal,

and so she was given the nickname Hallonflickan,

meaning Raspberry Girl.

Dr. Cantor: The remains were dated to the early

Neolithic period, sometime during the mid to late

fourth millennium BCE.

What's shocking, is that it appears

that the girl was tied up

and possibly intentionally drowned in shallow water,

so she may have been the victim of human sacrifice.

Dr. Leonard: Other discoveries have shown

that this practice was established around the same time

that the Funnel Beaker culture was developing in Scandinavia

around 4000 BCE, and continued until roughly 3000 BCE,

within the period when some of the people

found in the tomb died.

So was it possible that they were also the victims

of human sacrifice?

Dr. Riskin: Maybe. But these people were laid to rest

in a tomb, and they were put in there with all kinds of goods

like pottery and arrowheads and bone tools.

That is very different from somebody who was sacrificed

and left in a bog.

So, it's possible that they were sacrificed,

but it doesn't seem likely.

Which leads to the question,

if it's not violence and it's not sacrifice,

what happened to these people?

Narrator: In 2018 a team of researchers launched a study

of published data sets from the DNA of the Neolithic remains

discovered in the passage grave at Falbygden,

looking for evidence of pathogens.

The results were astonishing.

Dr. Cantor: Two individuals from that grave,

a 20 year old man and a 20 year old woman,

both dating to around 3000 BCE,

showed evidence of Yersinia pestis,

the bacterium that causes the plague.

Anthea Nardi: The DNA was from their teeth,

which means that the plague bacteria would have been present

at higher levels in the bloodstream

at the time of their deaths.

And would have allowed for pneumonic transmission,

from coughing, spitting and sneezing.

And because people were now living in close proximity

in these early communities,

the transmission rates would have been very high.

Dr. Riskin: Further testing of 47 individuals in the tomb,

revealed that 13 of them had evidence of infection

with the plague. That's 28%, almost a third.

But here's the thing: that might be an underestimate,

because sometimes people get the plague and die from the plague,

but just have really low levels of the bacteria in their systems

so that it's going to come up as a negative result

when you look at the skull hundreds of years later.

So who knows what the actual prevalence of that disease

was in this population.

Narrator: In a subsequent study, the researchers were able to

identify and analyze the family lineage

of 38 people from the Falbygden tomb,

across six generations,

spanning roughly 120 years.

Dr. Leonard: 12 people from the sample,

32% were infected with Yersinia pestis.

This tells us their community didn't just

suffer through one devastating epidemic,

but likely endured three separate waves

of an early form of plague.

Dr. Riskin: Other Neolithic samples were tested

all across Scandinavia and they found it everywhere.

As far south as Zealand, Denmark,

as far west as Gothenburg, Sweden,

all over the place. So what you're looking at

is an overwhelming spread of this disease,

probably as the result of the trade routes

that developed over this period.

Dr. Cantor: Around this time there was a rapid population

collapse across northwestern Eurasia over about 400 years,

known as the Neolithic decline.

The inhabitants of Scandinavia and northwestern Europe

virtually vanished entirely,

and were replaced by a people known as the Yamnaya,

who migrated from a region in present day Ukraine.

So did this series of plagues ultimately cause

the Neolithic decline?

Anthea Nardi: It's hard to say with 100% certainty.

There are various theories about what caused

the Neolithic decline,

and it's a subject that historians have hotly debated

over the years.

Some blame an agricultural collapse.

Narrator: Some researchers have theorized

that the Neolithic decline

was caused by a reduction in crop yields

in cereal-based agriculture,

due to worsening climate conditions.

Dr. Cantor: There might have been a shift in climate,

that resulted in less-fertile soil conditions

across northern Europe.

You have to remember that farming was a relatively new

innovation here, so the people may not have had the knowledge

to adapt to bad growing conditions.

Or it could have been that a disease

swept through the crops and destroyed them.

Narrator: Whether or not the plagues that swept through

northwestern Europe were the sole cause

of the Neolithic decline, is up for debate.

One thing is certain, it's the only possibility

that's backed up by recent scientific evidence

and should be seriously considered

as a contributing factor in the disappearance

of the region's people.

♪♪

Narrator: Reaching almost 11,000 feet in elevation,

Mount Etna towers over the east coast

of the Italian island of Sicily.

Dr. Cantor: Etna is Europe's tallest active volcano,

and covers an area of around 600 square miles,

while the base has a circumference of about 93 miles.

James Ellis: Although it's an active volcano

that still erupts occasionally.

[erupting lava]

During the winter months, Etna is almost completely

covered in snow and temperatures can plummet

as low as -12 Fahrenheit, at high altitudes.

Dr. Leonard: There are over 200 caves on the volcano,

formed over the centuries by lava flows.

This process is known as the 'ingrottamento' of the lava.

The external part of the flow cools and becomes solid,

while the inner part retains its heat

and continues to move.

Eventually the lava stops flowing

and leaves behind a solidified floor.

And sometimes spectacular stalactites

hanging on the ceiling.

Narrator: In 2021, an Alpine rescue unit

of the Guardia de Finanza,

a police branch similar to customs officials,

was conducting a training operation on the eastern side

of Mount Etna, when they made a startling discovery.

[dog barking urgently]

Dr. Agbedor: One of the rescue dogs began ignoring commands,

and tried to enter the cave opening.

Clearly alerted to something inside.

A member of the team happened to be an experienced cave explorer,

and decided to venture inside and see

what the fuss is all about.

Dr. Cantor: Deep in the recesses of the cave are human remains.

It appears to be a man,

but the body is in such bad condition

that it's difficult to say anything else

upon initial inspection.

So who is this man? And how did his body end up

in a cave on Mount Etna?

James Ellis: It could be an unfortunate hiker,

or mountain climber, who had an accident of some kind.

Exploring the slopes of Mount Etna

can be a risky undertaking.

Narrator: In 2016, a 64 year old Austrian cyclist

parked his bicycle to visit some caves,

at an elevation of over 5,000 feet

and suffered a serious fall.

Dr. Agbedor: Authorities believe that the man

did not die immediately.

He had a phone in his hand,

which he was presumably trying to use to call for help.

By the time he was found,

unfortunately, it was too late.

So could something similar have happened

to the man discovered in 2021?

James Ellis: There's no evidence to suggest he fell.

No obvious trauma to the body,

nothing to indicate that he died a violent death.

And the area of the cave where

he was discovered is pretty flat.

Plus, there's no opening above that he could have fallen into.

Narrator: Further examination of the remains reveals

some rather strange contradictions

about the man's attire.

Dr. Leonard: He was wearing a tie and

a thin striped shirt and dark pants.

Almost like he'd stopped off on his way to the office.

It seems strange that someone would wear what looks like

a work outfit, on a mountain hike.

Dr. Cantor: But they also found that he was wearing

hiking boots, a sweater on top of the shirt and tie,

and a green rain jacket with a cape.

So even though the shirt and tie are certainly unusual,

he was somewhat dressed for the elements.

So maybe he was a hiker, who took shelter in the cave.

Dr. Agbedor: But if he entered on his own,

why was he not able to get out?

It seems reasonable to think that if he was able to

get to the position where the body was found,

he should have been able to simply reverse his course

and make his way back out.

[dog barking rapidly]

Dr. Leonard: One explanation could be that the entrance

to the cave was obstructed somehow.

Maybe he got caught in a terrible storm,

and snow and ice accumulated at the mouth of the cave.

Or maybe there was an avalanche.

[crashing avalanche]

They do happen on Mount Etna.

Narrator: On February 3rd, 2021,

a backcountry skier and snowboarder

triggered an avalanche near the summit of Mount Etna.

They were swept violently down the mountain

and only one of them survived.

James Ellis: But the thing about avalanches,

is that they tend to happen during the winter months.

And if you look at the way the man in the cave was dressed,

it doesn't seem like he was bundled up for a winter hike.

He was only wearing a sweater and raincoat.

Dr. Cantor: Also, the avalanche triggered by the two men

happened near the summit of Etna,

where there's more snow and a steeper slope,

both of which are conducive to avalanches.

But the man in the cave was found lower down on the mountain

where avalanches are less likely to occur.

Narrator: Searching for clues as to the man's identity,

investigators perform a thorough search of the body.

Dr. Agbedor: In his pocket, they find several old lira coins.

The euro became Italy's official currency in 2002.

So this means that he had died before then.

And he has been in the cave,

for at least 19 years.

While this narrows the timeframe down a little bit,

it still doesn't tell us when he died,

or how he ended up here.

Narrator: The body is removed from Mount Etna

for further examination.

Dr. Leonard: They're able to determine that the man was

roughly 50 years old when he died.

And there's something not right about his nose and mouth.

There's a deformation of some kind.

Dr. Cantor: And then, after the police released the information

about the face, they were contacted by a woman

named Franca De Mauro, who believed

that the man in the cave could be her father, Mauro De Mauro.

A muckraking journalist, who had made some

very powerful enemies among the Sicilian mafia.

James Ellis: De Mauro also had injuries to his mouth and nose,

which he sustained during World War II,

and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances,

in 1970.

Also, he was roughly the same age when he vanished,

as the man in the cave.

And the clothes found on the body seemed to be of a style

from the 1970s.

So could the remains belong to him?

Narrator: In the night of September 16th, 1970,

Franca De Mauro watched from the window of the family apartment,

as her father parked his car in the street below.

Several men emerged from the shadows,

and engaged De Mauro in conversation.

He then got back into his car and drove off,

never to be seen again.

Dr. Cantor: De Mauro was an investigative reporter,

working for a newspaper called L'Ora

at the time of his disappearance.

He had written extensively about the mafia,

and these guys don't exactly welcome the spotlight.

So it's conceivable that he had angered some prominent members

of the Italian organized crime underworld.

And they may have been more than happy to see him disappear.

James Ellis: In 1962 De Mauro, investigated the death

of Enrico Mattei, the President of Italy's state-owned

oil and gas conglomerate ENI.

One of the most powerful men in the country.

He died in a plane crash that was eventually deemed

to have been likely caused by a bomb on board.

Dr. Leonard: Mattei's death spawned many theories

about who was behind it.

Some believe the mafia had him killed,

because he'd become too powerful,

especially in Sicily.

Others have posited that Americans,

either the CIA or the US based mafia,

gave the order, because his dealmaking was a thorn

in the side of American oil companies.

Narrator: Shortly before he vanished in 1970,

De Mauro was looking into the case once again.

This time, working with a prominent Italian director

on an upcoming movie project,

that explored Mattei's mysterious death.

Dr. Agbedor: It's possible that he had uncovered information

about the mafia's involvement in Mattei's death,

and they wanted him silenced.

There were also rumors that he had found out

about an upcoming mafia backed coup

against Italy's government.

Whatever the case, it's clear that the mob

had reason to make him go away.

So did they have him killed and deposit his body

in the cave on Mount Etna,

where they thought it would never be found?

James Ellis: But why would they go to all the trouble

of hauling his body up to a remote cave,

when they could just dispose of him in other ways?

I'm pretty certain that the mafia know much simpler methods

for getting rid of their victims.

It seems a bit extravagant.

Narrator: With visual identification impossible,

due to the deterioration of the remains,

the authorities ask Franca De Mauro to look at the clothes

found on the corpse, in an attempt to verify

that it is her father.

Dr. Cantor: She doesn't recognize any of the

items that he's wearing.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that this isn't her father.

If he had been abducted by the mafia,

they could have held him captive for some time

before killing him, and they could have

changed his clothes before disposing of the body

to make him that much harder to identify.

Narrator: Further examination of the remains reveals

several details that lead investigators to believe

that the remains don't belong to Mauro De Mauro.

Dr. Agbedor: Along with the facial deformity,

they found that the man's hip also had an abnormality,

that in all likelihood,

would have caused him to walk with a limp,

while De Mauro walked normally.

And the facial deformity was probably a birth defect,

not an injury like the one DeMauro suffered in the war.

Dr. Leonard: And the dates don't add up.

In the cave near the body, they found a newspaper from 1978.

De Mauro disappeared in 1970.

So where would he have been for eight years?

Narrator: DNA testing confirms

that the body is not Mauro De Mauro.

But that's all the information the investigators

are able to glean from the results.

Dr. Agbedor: They still have no idea who this man is

or how he ended up in the cave.

There are no missing persons reports that match

his description from the time that they think he died.

And any other leads have gone cold.

Narrator: The mystery of the man on Mount Etna lives on.

The answers to his fate,

hidden away in the dark recesses of the cave,

in which he perished.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Known for its spectacular scenery,

Hampden, New Zealand is located in the Otago region,

only about 135 miles away from the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers

on the west coast of the South Island.

Dr. Leonard: Though the region itself has

lush vegetation and beautiful weather,

there have been periods of extreme cold,

with temperatures getting as low as -14 Fahrenheit,

creating a bit of chaos throughout the district.

Anthea Nardi: The soil surrounding the area rests

on a limestone formation and is highly prized

for its agricultural productivity.

While Hampden Beach proper is of great interest to those

who are curious about fossils.

Narrator: A group of ornithologists and scientists

are surveying the beach, on a routine expedition

and stumble on something huge.

Dr. Riskin: Embedded in this large boulder

is this fossilized jumble of sizable bones.

And it's hard to tell what animal they all belong to.

But whatever it is, it's big.

So, what is it?

James Ellis: For bones this large,

one of the first creatures that comes to mind are turtles.

Though turtle fossils can be rare in New Zealand,

there have been some examples, like the Archelon,

which is an extinct genus of sea turtles

that lived in the late Cretaceous period,

roughly 30 million years ago.

Narrator: About 150 miles away from Hampden Beach,

in central Christchurch,

a Baptist church received quite a shock,

after an earthquake almost destroyed the structure.

Inside one of the limestone pillars,

a sculptor found something that looked like a fossil.

Anthea Nardi: When the sculptor brought it to the museum,

they discovered it was actually from a

35 million year old turtle.

Dr. Riskin: It's believed this was one of the biggest turtles

ever, measuring between six and a half and almost ten feet.

That's a big turtle!

Narrator: The team gets to work on extracting

the large bones from the rock.

A very delicate task.

James Ellis: The rock is dated back to between

55.5 and 59.5 million years ago.

And the bones that were found, are shoulder bones, leg bones,

breast bones, some vertebra and most interesting, a wing bone,

meaning this skeleton belongs to a primitive avian

and not a turtle at all.

Dr. Leonard: The largest of the bones is a femur,

which is almost 6.5 inches long.

And based on that, it would have been one giant bird,

weighing about 220 pounds.

So what kind of bird has bones this big?

Narrator: New Zealand is known for ancient birds,

that have been discovered through fossilized remains.

One of the most famous would be the ancestor of the Moa,

that roamed the earth 80 million years ago

until its extinction in the late 17th century.

James Ellis: Though there were several species of Moa,

the largest and best known is the Dinornis Robustus,

which has fossilized remains found

on the South Island of New Zealand,

which is exactly where this new fossil has been found.

Dr. Leonard: These large, flightless birds,

which are similar to modern day ostriches,

could get as big as 12 feet tall

and weigh as much as 550 pounds.

Known for being plant eaters,

they could eat trees and shrubs

that were inaccessible to other creatures at that time,

surviving for millions of years.

They only went extinct because of hunting by man.

Narrator: The ornithologists look closer at the bones

and with more detailed analysis,

they realize this creature might actually share characteristics

with a different, flightless bird.

Dr. Riskin: The similarities that stick out are

the way the bones taper off, as you move down the arm.

The shape of the forearm.

The shape of the shoulder.

All of those are exactly like a penguin!

So these must be the fossilized remains,

of some species of previously undiscovered,

giant penguin!

Dr. Leonard: Judging by the size of the bones,

this bird would have been about one and a half times

the size of the Emperor Penguin,

standing at roughly 5 feet, 4 inches.

Anthea Nardi: Rather than the usual tuxedo,

black and white coloring we're used to with penguins,

this ancient species was most likely brownish,

with a longer beak for spearing fish.

Even though it's quite large,

it's slimmer than other giant penguins

that were also found in New Zealand at this time,

and could weigh up to 330 pounds.

Narrator: Two species of mega-penguins were roaming

New Zealand about 59 million years ago.

But they weren't the first penguins in New Zealand.

And that is raising some new questions about evolution.

J. Ellis: The Kupoupou Stilwelli were a species of penguin

that lived here 60 to 62 million years ago,

which is right after the dinosaurs went extinct,

and right before our two mega-penguin species existed.

Unlike the giant penguins, these are relatively small,

about 3 feet tall,

closer to the size of modern day penguins.

Anthea Nardi: What this all means is that we had

little penguins, then in just

a very short amount of evolutionary time,

they grew to be enormous.

Dr. Riskin: Gigantism is a recurring theme in evolution.

It happens for different reasons in different places.

But in this case, it's been theorized that

since the penguins don't fly,

there's no constraint keeping them lightweight.

And because they're hunting in the water,

you know that whole thing about big fish eat the little ones?

Well, big fish also eat little penguins.

And so the penguins have an evolutionary incentive

to get big.

And those two things together

drove the gigantism of this penguins.

Narrator: There are also other attributes

for the larger penguins, that might have contributed

to them thriving for millions of years.

Anthea Nardi: Once the penguins were no longer

expending energy to become airborne,

their weight increased and they continued to grow larger.

As their size expands,

they face fewer threats from predators.

They can outcompete rivals for food and territory,

and they're likely harder for predators to kill.

New Zealand in general was also nearly predator-free

at the time, giving the penguins time to evolve.

James Ellis: Large penguins were likely better at retaining heat

and could absorb more oxygen,

which allowed them to dive for longer periods.

It's believed that while smaller penguins fish near the shore,

large groups of giant penguins ventured far out to sea,

foraging along the continental shelf.

Dr. Riskin: Clearly they were a successful evolutionary lineage.

They were around for a really long time.

So, why aren't they here now?

What was it, that made them disappear?

Narrator: Researchers believe that the newly named

Kumimanu biceae, which translates to Monster Bird,

may have diminished due to the rise of marine mammals,

like seals and toothed whales.

As these predators became more prevalent in the fossil records,

the big-boned ocean birds began to decline.

Dr. Leonard: Competing for food and territory could have

contributed to the disappearance of these creatures.

Large penguins would require substantial resources,

and they might have struggled to compete with the growing number

of marine predators and other animals.

Anthea Nardi: Evolution could also have been a factor.

The environment they were living in, could have favored

smaller creatures instead of larger ones,

and needing to be smaller or more agile to evade predators,

might have been what ultimately killed them off.

Narrator: Based on its age and physiology,

researchers conclude that Kumimanu Biceae,

is among the earliest penguin species to have evolved,

and is the oldest-known giant penguin.

The discovery provides insights into the early evolution

of the Penguin family, and serves as a crucial link

between ancient and contemporary species.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The Amnya River flows northward

through western Siberia's remote Taiga.

Part of the subarctic boreal forest that covers

over 4.5 million square miles across northern Russia.

A. Nardi: To put the size of the Russian Taiga in perspective,

it's almost double the total area of the Amazon rainforest,

and it's a major part of the largest land biome on Earth,

the boreal forest that stretches across northern Eurasia

and North America.

James Ellis: The Taiga includes some of the coldest areas

on Earth, excluding Antarctica,

with recorded temperatures as low as -50° Fahrenheit.

But despite these harsh conditions,

evergreen trees such as pine, spruces and firs are abundant.

Having adapted to withstand the cold climates

and poor soil conditions.

Dr. Agbedor: This part of Siberia is also teeming

with wildlife. Species like the gray wolf, lynx,

and brown bear call this region home.

In addition, a variety of birds migrate here each year,

because of the ample insect population.

Dr. Cantor: The Taiga has been inhabited by

indigenous people for centuries.

As such, it's a place of keen archeological interest,

and has seen its fair share of important discoveries.

Narrator: A team of archeologists are conducting

a dig on a terrace roughly 25 feet high,

overlooking a bend in the Amnya River,

when they make a surprising discovery.

Dr. Agbedor: There's a cluster of ten pit depressions,

some as deep as almost six feet.

They form what looks like a series of rectangles,

ranging in size from roughly 140 to 440 square feet,

possibly forming a series of structures.

But what are they exactly?

James Ellis: The simplest explanation would be

that they're just old houses,

forming a community of sorts,

maybe built by local indigenous populations.

Narrator: The Nenet people form the largest indigenous group

in northwestern Siberia,

inhabiting an area of taiga and tundra,

that stretches from the White Sea in the west,

to the Yenisey River in the east.

Dr. Cantor: The Nenets are thought to have inhabited

this part of the world for around 2,000 years.

As reindeer herders, hunters and fishers.

Ethnographers generally categorize them in two groups:

the tundra Nenets who live further north,

and the forests Nenets who occupy the taiga.

So could the structures be an old settlement

of the forest Nenets?

Anthea Nardi: That's not likely.

The Nenets are nomadic, and migrate by season,

spending summers in the northern reaches of their territory,

and traveling south for the winter.

Some groups are even known to travel

over 600 miles on foot, every year.

James Ellis: They live in temporary shelters called chum,

which are like teepees,

wooden poles covered in sewn- together reindeer fur in winter,

and birch bark during the warmer months.

During the migration, the wooden poles supporting the chum

are taken apart and put on sleds

to be hauled to the next destination,

where new shelters are built.

So given this nomadic lifestyle, it's safe to assume

that the settlement found near Amnya river

was not built by the Nenets.

Narrator: As the excavations near the Amnya River proceed,

the archeologists unearth more surprises.

Dr. Agbedor: Fragments of roughly 45 pottery vessels

are found. There are two main types.

The first kind are closed,

flat bottom and round bottomed jars

decorated using the incised and pricked technique,

which is where designs are carved into the surface

of semi-hard clay,

using a variety of tools.

James Ellis: The second type are medium sized semi-ovoid vessels,

with rounded bottoms,

frequently decorated using the stamping technique

where preexisting designs are pressed

into the surface of the clay.

Dr. Cantor: What's also interesting, is that

some of what we assume were dwellings,

had large central hearts for fires.

This tells us that people may have lived here year round,

even during the harsh Siberian winters.

And the presence of pottery supports that idea,

because the vessels would have been used for food storage.

Narrator: Samples of the site's walls are sent

for radiocarbon analysis,

and the results leave the researchers stunned.

James Ellis: This place was built around

6000 BCE, over 8,000 years ago!

This is really surprising, because if we assume

that it was a permanent year-round settlement,

it would fly in the face of what historians have long believed

about Neolithic people who inhabited the region back then.

Anthea Nardi: The prevailing theory has always been

that around this time, the people of Siberia

were nomadic hunter-gatherers,

similar to the lifestyle that some indigenous cultures,

like the Nenets, still practice.

It was generally thought that permanent communities

didn't arise until the dawn of agriculture,

which happened thousands of years later.

Dr. Agbedor: Stone tools and weapons, including chisels,

knives and arrowheads, were also discovered at the site,

along with bone fragments of elk, reindeer and beaver.

This further indicates that this community may have been

something of an outlier.

Hunter gatherers who built permanent settlements.

Narrator: As the team broadens the excavation

to the areas surrounding the dwellings,

they unearth something completely unexpected.

Dr. Cantor: Encircling the settlement

is a system of deep ditches.

The inner ditch is roughly 11 feet wide,

three feet deep and over 80 feet long,

while the outer ditch is about 180 feet long,

similar in width, and a couple of feet deeper.

Anthea Nardi: There are also the remains of earthen walls

several feet high, topped with wooden palisades,

which are defensive barriers designed to keep invaders out.

So given the ditches and palisades,

not only was this a settlement, it was a fort,

one of the oldest fortified habitation sites in the world,

and the oldest promontory fort ever discovered.

Dr. Agbedor: Promontory forts were defensive structures

located on high ground near water, usually a seaside cliff,

sometimes connected to the mainland,

by only a small neck of land.

The seaward side of the fort were naturally defended

by sea cliffs,

and the inland facing side was protected by stone ramparts.

They're most commonly found in England,

Ireland and northwestern France.

Narrator: Sediment samples collected from the marshland

near the Amnya site, indicate that at the time it was built,

there was a lake on the south side of the settlement,

and a river on its northern side.

Dr. Cantor: It's built on high ground

and the surrounding water would have provided

a natural defense against attackers.

The question is, what attackers?

Who were they defending themselves against?

Narrator: Stratigraphic evidence from the house pits reveals

that the settlement was repeatedly destroyed

by fire over the centuries,

a possible sign of violent conflict.

Dr. Agbedor: They also uncovered arrowheads

in the settlements outer ditch.

Another indication of violence.

May be what happened was that different communities

lived in this area and the increasing population

intensified the competition among groups,

leading to conflict.

Narrator: Just under two miles southeast

of the Amnya riverside,

lies another ancient settlement

known as Kirip-Vis-Yugan-2.

Dr. Cantor: This site is thought to have existed

at the same time as the Amnya community.

Similar pottery was discovered here, and sunken pit dwellings,

with similar layouts were also unearth.

So maybe this group was the source of the conflict.

J. Ellis: It's possible. But what's interesting to note,

is that no fortifications were found at Kirip-Vis-Yugan-2.

So they weren't trying to defend their settlement,

like the inhabitants of the Amnya site.

I think the more likely explanation,

is that they were possibly associated in some way,

rather than enemies.

Narrator: As the excavations at the Amnya site continue,

the archeologists unearth ten more pit house depressions,

less than 170 feet away from the fortified settlement.

Anthea Nardi: Interestingly, similar to Kirip-Vis-Yugan-2,

this site also lacks defensive fortifications.

But why would that be?

Dr. Agbedor: One explanation could be that this is

an indication of social stratification.

The more important people in this community,

lived within the fortified settlement,

and those of lower standing, lived outside of it.

If that's the case, it tells us that these hunter-gatherers,

had far more sophisticated societal structures

than previously believed.

Dr. Cantor: Overall, the discoveries at the Amnya River

contradict the long-held belief,

that Stone Age hunter-gatherers were simple people,

who lacked the capacity to construct fortified settlements,

and organized themselves into hierarchical societies.

Narrator: Long before the rise of agriculture

resulted in permanent communities,

the people of the Siberian Taiga

proved that they were centuries ahead of their time.