All language subtitles for Strangest.Things.S02E09.The.Macabre.Hat.of.Teeth.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_eng

[narrator] What was
this gruesome hat for?

That's just a lot of teeth
and whose teeth are they?

Did this machine reveal
the dark side of humanity?

What does it take
to get an ordinary person
to shock a stranger to death?

And the answer, apparently,
was not very much.

And can this golden weapon
prove the legendary Amazons
were real?

For so long, people thought
that this couldn't even belong
to a woman.

These are the most remarkable
and mysterious objects
on Earth.

Hidden away
in museums, laboratories
and storage rooms.

Now, new research
and technology
can get under their skin

like never before.

We can rebuild them,

pull them apart,

and zoom in to reveal
the unbelievable,

the ancient,

and the truly bizarre.

These are the world's
strangest things.

In a small London museum,
sits a disturbing,
tattered hat

decorated with tiny objects.

It's just such a weird thing,
isn't it?

Now, using the latest
technology,

we're examining
this strange thing

in forensic detail.

Its decoration is bizarre.

Close up, it's clear.
It's covered with teeth.

Looks like something
out of a witch doctor's sack.

But it actually comes
from the back alleys
of Victorian London.

Roughly eight inches
tall and six and a half
inches wide,

it is made of felt,
with a faded velvet
outer layer.

Stitched into it
are 87 fragments of teeth.

Why would anyone make up
such an object?

Why are teeth attached to it?

And whose teeth are they?

Unfortunately,
there's not a lot to go on.

There are no pictures,
no written descriptions,

nothing that really gives us
much context,

just a couple of cryptic notes
written by a collector.

So who does this gruesome hat
belong to?

Why is it covered in teeth?

What is it for?

This macabre object
was donated
to London's Cuming Museum

in 1916, by collector
Edward Lovett.

Lovett is the chief cashier
for a major London bank

in the turn
of the 19th century.

But that's just his day job.

When Lovett isn't
counting checks at the bank,

he can be found combing
the back alleys
and rougher areas of London,

seeking out curios
that he can purchase
from street vendors.

[Dr. Mark Benecke] Charms,
objects of magical power,

anything that is weird
or considered to be strange.

[narrator]
Lovett is part of
a growing obsession

with collecting folklore
across Britain.

This is really a response
to the acceleration
of urbanization,

when you have people
that travel around England

trying to gather up
the stories and artefacts
relating to folklore,

all in an attempt
to sort of protect
these local traditions.

[narrator] But there is no
known folklore in England

that describes a hat
covered with teeth.

Which leaves
a very obvious question.

Why would someone
in Victorian London
want to get a bit of material,

cover it in teeth,
and then wear it
on their head?

What possible purpose
could this serve?

[narrator] Luckily,
this gruesome hat
comes with a clue.

Lovett does leave
a cryptic note

that says it's believed
to have magical properties

and it's certainly true
that throughout history
and in various societies,

teeth have been worn
or used to adorn
decorative objects,

clothing and weapons,
all with reputed
magical powers.

[narrator]
There is another object
in Lovett's collection

that might also be connected
to magic.

A small, silk bag containing
what is believed to be
the tooth of a dog.

[Dr. Andrew Steele]
There was a tradition
of using animal teeth

to try and cure toothache.

And the idea was that
as you wore that tooth,

then the pain,
or whatever was causing
the problem in your tooth,

would be sucked out
and absorbed
by the animal tooth.

[narrator]
The problem is,
these aren't animal teeth.

They're human.

But it turns out
that in 19th century London,

wearing human teeth
is surprisingly in vogue,

thanks to the queen herself.

The death of Prince Albert
in 1861

prompts Victoria to enter
a period of extended mourning

and this practice is soon
imitated by other members
of Victorian society,

women in particular,
who'll wear black
for up to two years

after the death of a loved one

and they'll often adorn
themselves with mementos
of that loved one,

including hair,
and sometimes teeth.

[narrator]
But if this is a memento
for a mourning widow

or widower,
there's a bit of a problem.

Enlarging the hat reveals
tooth fragments,

which combined,
could make at least
60 different teeth.

That's just a lot of teeth.
How many dead relatives
did this poor person have?

[narrator] So maybe not
a charm or a memento,

but Lovett does leave
another clue.

Which is a note indicating
that this hat was bought from
another London professional

in 1855 and his profession

was a dentist.

[narrator] Dentistry really
takes off in Europe

after Columbus
discovers the Americas

and refined sugar
begins to arrive
in vast quantities.

The rot sets in across Britain
and no one is prepared.

People did not know
until the 18th century
what really made teeth decay.

The idea was that
there is a tiny worm

that lives
inside of your teeth

and produces the holes
that many people know.

[narrator] And in a time
before antibiotics,

blood poisoning
from tooth decay
is a killer.

Actually, it was the fifth
or sixth leading
cause of death in London

during that period of time.

[Dr. Sascha Auerbach]
And if the infection
didn't kill you,

the pain from the ache itself
might do that.

In 1862, there is a report
of a man in Sussex

who after suffering
for five months of pain
from a rotting tooth,

committed suicide
because the pain was
just so unbearable.

[narrator]
All this decay and despair
leaves a gaping cavity

in the market for dentists.

An assortment
of different people
came forward

from barber surgeons
to street tooth-pullers
to blacksmiths.

And what blacksmiths
might have lacked
in knowledge of dental anatomy

and maybe
subtlety of practice,

they made up for
with the ability
to manufacture tools.

[narrator]
Each one is
more like a torture device

than a dental tool.

But tooth-pullers
are supposed to pull teeth,
not wear them.

So what is this hat about?

There's a painting
by a 17th century Dutch artist
that shows a tooth-puller.

And if you look closely,
you can see that he's wearing
something rather strange.

It's a necklace
made of human teeth.

[narrator] So it's not unknown
for tooth-pullers
to wear teeth.

The question is why.

This strange hat
is said to have belonged
to a dentist.

It comes from an age
when anyone with a tool
and a strong arm

can practice medicine.

Back in the day when barbers
were also doubling
as surgeons,

they used to be bloodletting.

That red streak down the pole
represents the blood
on the bandages

as they removed the blood
from a patient.

In the days
predating that pole,

they used to use literal blood
to advertise their services.

Just leave a bowl of blood
on the street
outside their shop.

[narrator]
Traveling tooth-pullers
go to even greater extremes.

It became
kind of a theatrical event

to draw the attention
of as many people as possible.

There could be juggling,
there could be storytelling,
there could be music.

and of course
there was tooth-pulling.

And if the tooth-puller
seemed to be good
at what he was doing

and was yanking out
those teeth
without causing too much pain,

maybe they'd
put themselves forward
to have their teeth pulled.

[narrator] Some tooth-pullers
were known to wear necklaces
of the teeth they had pulled.

The more teeth they wore,
the more skillful
it made them look.

The most famous
of the tooth-pullers

at the end of the 19th
and the early 20th century

was Edgar Randolph Parker,
otherwise known
as Painless Parker.

And he joins a circus,

where he will offer
his services
as a kind of sideshow

amidst the other
entertainments, you know,
such as clowns, elephants,

the tent of mysteries.

He carried around a bucket
of hundreds of teeth
that he'd yanked out

and also reportedly wore
a necklace of 357 teeth

that he claimed to have pulled
in a single day.

[narrator]
So this hat of teeth
could be an advert

for a tooth-puller's prowess.

There's just one problem
with this explanation.

When we look closer
at the teeth on this hat,

we see something
that's rather wrong

or rather,
not as wrong as it should be,

because a lot of these teeth
show no sign of decay
whatsoever.

They're absolutely pristine.

[narrator]
If this hat was an advert
for tooth-pulling prowess,

why are most of them
so healthy?

It's fair to say that
tooth-pullers weren't always
100 percent honest.

The tooth-pullers occupied
this strange space between
really vital medical service

and yet they also had
their share of scams
going along with that.

Sometimes they'd have
accomplices in the crowd

who'd volunteered
to have their teeth pulled

and when they yanked out
the tooth,

it wouldn't actually be
one of the accomplices teeth,

but a hidden tooth
that they'd got
stuffed in their mouth

exactly for that occasion.

[narrator]
The deception could explain
the apparently healthy teeth

on this weird hat.

These tooth-pullers,
they'd sometimes, let's say,

exaggerate the medical
diagnosis and remove teeth
that were perfectly healthy,

just to get a bit of cash.

[narrator] But there's an even
more grizzly possibility,

because a healthy set of teeth
isn't all that hard to come by
in 19th century England.

Thanks, in part, to one of
the most famous battles
in history.

[Dr. Auerbach] Waterloo teeth
comes from the aftermath
of the Battle of Waterloo,

which had an immense number
of casualties.

And what you had was people
roaming the battleground

pulling the teeth
out of corpses.

Thousands of teeth
were collected this way

and they were sold
to the manufacturers
of dentures.

[narrator]
In the 19th century,

the trade in real teeth
becomes so lucrative

that people aren't just
raiding battlefields.

They're turning up graves.

A more extreme form
of tooth collection
came via the resurrectionists,

which is a polite term
for graverobbers.

The origin
of the resurrectionists

really comes from the demand
of medical schools

for fresh cadavers
that can be used to train
students in anatomy.

And the resurrectionists
figured, well,

it's not like
they're going to need to
examine the teeth,

so why not make
a little extra money
on the side.

[narrator]
But if any of these teeth

do come from
the battlegrounds of Waterloo
or the spoils of graverobbing,

they don't come cheap.

[Dr. Steele] Given the highly
competitive market for them
in London at the time

this could have been
quite an expensive hat
to put together.

[narrator] Which might explain
something odd
you can only see in close-up.

[Dr. Steele]
Some of these teeth
are actually sliced in half

to make it look like
there's more of them.

[narrator] But by 1855,
when this strange hat
is sold off,

the tooth-pulling business
is on the way out.

The first dental colleges
were being founded in the US
and the UK

and this was the beginning
of a regulated profession
of dentistry.

[narrator] The days
of the traveling tooth-puller
are over

and one street dentist
appears to quite literally
hang up his hat.

But what about Edward Lovett's
first note

that claimed
this hat has
magical properties?

If you go back to 2013,
when this hat was being stored
in the Cuming Museum,

there was a huge fire.

And that fire destroyed
a load of extremely valuable
and very old artefacts.

[narrator] Incredibly,
the tatty velvet hat
covered in 87 teeth survives,

unscathed.

So maybe not magic,
but certainly
a little charmed.

At the University of Akron
in Ohio
is a harmless-looking box.

It's covered in lights,
switches and dials.

It looks like a prop
from a 1960s
science fiction movie.

But it's not.

This seemingly innocuous
piece of equipment
was actually created

for one of the most
infamous experiments
in the 20th century.

[narrator] Now,
using the latest technology,

we can examine it
in unprecedented detail.

This is the Milgram shock box.

On its control face
is printed
shock generator type ZLB,

because that is exactly
what it is designed to do.

This box was
part of an experiment

where one person was told
to electrocute another person,
literally until they died.

[narrator] And hundreds
of people did deliver
that final, lethal shot.

But what is the test's
real purpose?

Who was behind it?

And how is an experiment
this dangerous ever allowed?

In 1961,
an unusual ad appears
in a Connecticut newspaper.

[Sarah] These advertisements
were looking for participants

to take part in a study
that looked really inoffensive
at Yale University.

Participants would get $4
for their time,
which is about 40 bucks today.

[narrator] Initially,
the experiment seems
straightforward.

[Dr. Keon West] Two people
enter the experiment

who've never
met each other before.

One of them is chosen,
randomly, to be the learner,

and one of them
to be the teacher.

The teacher sees the learner
strapped into a chair.

The learner is strapped down
by their wrists,

so they can't get out
of this chair

and they're hooked up
to something.

[narrator] Electrodes
and wires are attached
to the learner's wrists.

The teacher then
leaves the learner

and is led
into an adjoining room.

They sit down at the controls
of the device
they will be operating.

The shock generator, type ZLB,

the machine
at the heart
of this experiment.

[Dr. West] There's a lot of
different switches
running along the bottom,

from 15 volts
all the way up to 450 volts.

It allows you
to shock someone,

to give them shocks
of increasing magnitude
and severity

as you flip each switch
from slight shock,
to moderate shock,

to higher levels of shock,
to even a danger XXX.

[narrator]
The machine is connected
to the learner,

but the teacher is told that
despite the alarming warnings,

the machine poses no threat
to the learner's health.

But that's hard to believe.

The teachers were given
a small shock,

just a taste of what
they would be administering.

So they were given
a 45 volt shock.

That's not going to kill you.

It's enough to give them
a sense of what was
going to happen

when they pressed
these levers and switches.

[narrator]
The experiment begins.

The learner is given
a series of memory tests.

The teacher is instructed
to give a shock

to the learner, whenever they
give an incorrect answer

and then, subsequently,
to raise the voltage
one notch.

As the voltage went higher,

the teacher would begin
to hear the learner react,
through the dividing wall.

[learner screams]

The learner becomes
increasingly agitated,

pleading that
the experiment stop.

The learners would
scream and shout.

Sometimes they would
bang on the wall.

On occasion, they would go
completely silent

and refuse to answer
the questions.

The teacher was instructed
that any refusal to answer

counts as
an incorrect response

and therefore they should
administer a further shock.

[screams]

[narrator] If the learner
keeps getting it wrong,

the teacher will eventually
reach the maximum
lethal switch.

Four hundred fifty volts.

What's going on?

Will this machine really
deliver a fatal shock
to a learner

who just can't get it right?

Using state-of-the-art
graphics,

we can get under the skin
of the remarkable
shock generator type ZLB.

You open up the box
and it does look a bit fishy.

[Dr. Auerbach] The whole thing
is held together
by ordinary shelving brackets.

[narrator]
And the chaotic interior
seems totally at odds

with its professional
exterior.

It's just a rat's nest.

It's a mess of wires.
It's not really clear
what's connected to anything.

[narrator]
The switches and lights
are wired to come on together

and there are buzzers
that activate
with each switch press.

But something vital is absent.

What is missing from it
is the crucial element.

A high-voltage transformer

that would create
the kind of voltages
that allegedly it's producing.

That means
the shock generator type ZLB
is technically incapable

of generating a lethal shock.

[Dr. West]
And that's the funny thing
about the box.

The learner is never actually
being shocked.

The box is a fake.

Is the whole experiment
some gruesome practical joke?

[Sarah] This experiment
was conducted

by the eminent
Yale psychologist,
Stanley Milgram.

But the secret is that it was
all smoke and mirrors.

[narrator] Everything about
Milgram's experiment
is rigged from the start.

The learners
are never the subject
of this experiment.

[Dr. Auerbach]
The so-called learners
are all in on it.

The only real volunteers
and the true subjects
of the experiment

are the teachers.

The screams and the cries
were actually a recording.

And they were a key part
of what was being tested.

Would the teachers continue
to raise the voltage

if they were told to do so
by someone in authority.

[Dr. West]
The whole thing was designed
to get the participants,

the teachers, into a situation
where they believe

that they are going to
shock the person to death

if they comply and flip
all of those little switches.

[narrator] And if the teacher
refuses to initiate a shock
to the learner,

the scientist monitoring
the experiment responds
in one of four ways.

The first response was
please continue.

The second response was
the experiment requires you
to continue.

If they still refuse,
the response is

it is absolutely essential
that you continue.

And the final response was

you have no other choice.
You must go on.

[narrator] Will the teachers
ultimately do
what they're told

even though the markings
on the box clearly suggest
it could be lethal?

[Dr. West] Milgram designed
this experiment to test
the limits of human morality

and human response
to authority.

Essentially, it was to answer
the question

what does it take
to get an ordinary person
to shock a stranger to death?

And the answer, apparently,
was not very much.

[screams]

People were horrified.

[narrator] The teachers
are ordinary people.

Without any threat
to themselves,

the majority sacrificed
their moral compass

for $4.

What motivates Stanley Milgram
to construct
such a dark experiment?

[narrator] What motivates
psychologist Stanley Milgram
to build a machine

that makes people think
they are delivering
a lethal shock to someone?

[Dr. Auerbach] Milgram is born
in New York City in 1933

and he's the son
of Jewish immigrant parents.

And for quite obvious reasons,
the whole family is deeply
affected by the Holocaust.

[narrator]
Between 1941 and 1945,

Nazi Germany and its allies
systematically murder
over six million Jews.

[Dr. Auerbach]
The burning question
in Milgram's mind

is why would ordinary Germans,

people who had never
killed anyone or tortured
anyone their whole lives,

why would they carry out
these horrendous acts?

[narrator]
This shock box is the result

of Milgram following through
on that question.

[Dr. West] Milgram's study
was a study of obedience.

What Milgram wanted to know is

can you get good people
to do really bad things

if you ask them
to obey someone in authority?

That was the central question.

[narrator] Milgram suspects
the answer lies
in something more universal

than extremist Nazi ideology.

Milgram is convinced
that the uniform

conveys a very powerful
element of authority,

so he makes sure
that the people

who are instructing
his teachers

are dressed in lab coats
and identify themselves
as Yale psychologists.

[narrator] To Milgram,
this proves beyond doubt

that it is the uniform
that makes people obey.

So what made the shock box
so essential to the success
of the experiment?

Although this box is actually
completely harmless,

what was crucial
to the experiment

is that it looked like
it wasn't

and in order to really
persuade people of that,

it seemed to be crucial

to get it to look like
a proper, designed,
commercial instrument.

[narrator] Milgram's box
taps into the visual grammar
of groundbreaking new ideas

surrounding product design
and ergonomics.

[Sarah] There was a new way
of thinking about the design
of machines

called human systems
engineering.

This brought psychology
and engineering together

to think about the way
that machines should be
visually organized.

[narrator]
Designers of everything
from telephones to spaceships

were evolving controls
to make them as intuitive
as possible.

And Milgram takes
the same approach.

[Dr. West] Milgram tried
different versions.

Like buttoned versions
and some switch versions
for example,

and he found that people
understood the switches.

[narrator] But there is more
to Milgram's final shock box,
the ZLB,

than just it's
functional appearance.

It's also designed to leave
no room for confusion

about the consequences
of the teachers' actions.

[Dr. West] The little line
underneath that said,

"Slight Shock,"
or "XXX" extreme shock,

that helped people
figure out what
they were doing.

They knew that over here
was a slight shock
and that over here was death.

They had to know what
the consequences
of the flips were.

[narrator]
But is Milgram right?

Does all this carefully
staged psychological theatre

that humans can
be manipulated

to follow almost any order?

[Dr. West] As a psychologist,
looking at just
the first experiment,

I would say you have
no idea why they shocked
that person,

it's really difficult to tell.

Too much is going on.

[narrator] Milgram is aware
of this and carries out
follow up experiments.

In order to test his theory,

Milgram will sometimes replace
the instructor in a lab coat

with an instructor
in plain clothes.

And the results
are dramatic.

The number of teachers

willing to administer
a lethal shock

drops from 65% to 25%.

So it's exactly the kind
of thing,

switching it out
from a lab coat

to plain clothes and then
watching the compliance drop.

That tells us
it's the lab coat.

Changing the institution
that Milgram is supposed
to be attached to from Yale

to somewhere a lot less fancy
and seeing if the compliance
goes down.

That's how you tell
what's driving
the behaviors.

[narrator]
The more symbols of authority
Milgram eliminates,

from the white coat to
the prestigious institution,

the less teachers comply.

[Dr. West] The original
experiment is just the start.

It's the eye-catching
headline,

but it's the later experiments
that tell you why it worked.

That's the important part.

[narrator] Sixty years on,
some dispute
Milgram's results.

And it's a dispute that's
unlikely to be resolved

because his groundbreaking
study would not
be allowed today.

In the old days,

psychologists didn't really
have standards

for how to treat people
or how not to hurt them,

and unfortunately,
that meant quite a lot
of people got hurt,

which is why we have
the standards today.

[narrator] This lack
of ethical standards

could have potentially
fatal consequences.

[Dr. Auerbach] Harvard
psychologist, Henry Murray,

decides to study the effects

of psychological attacks
on people's core beliefs,

and he subjects volunteers

to weekly sessions
of vicious verbal abuse.

In 1959,

a 17-year-old math prodigy
joined the study,

and over the course
of the next few years,

he's subjected to some
200 hours of verbal abuse.

[narrator]
Nearly 20 years later

that math prodigy begins
a 17-year bombing
campaign in the US.

He kills three people
and injures 23.

His name
is Theodore Kaczynski.

The press call him
the Unabomber.

It's been suggested that
the psychological damage
inflicted by the experiment

helped send him off the rails.

[Dr. West] I do think it is
our responsibility,

if we're conducting
experiments on human beings

to treat these human
beings well.

To think about not only
what can be learned
from the experiment,

but also what are we doing
to the people who take part,

to respect them as much
as we'd like to be respected.

[narrator] Milgram was aware
his shock box apparently
killing someone

might have been traumatic
for the teachers.

To look after them,
he debriefed some participants

before they returned
to their normal lives.

There's no evidence
that any of the teachers

suffered long term issues
from their experience.

-[shock box buzzes]
-[narrator] Milgram's
shock box study

remains one of the most
significant experiments

ever conducted in psychology.

The implications
of this are that what
happened under Nazism

could happen to any of us,
anywhere, at any time.

[narrator] Milgram's shock box
changed our understanding
of who we are.

In the archeological museum
at Vergina in Greece

is a mysterious
2,300-year-old relic.

This strange thing holds
a remarkable secret

about an ancient myth.

[Dr. Abigail Graham] It might
allow us to connect

a real life individual

with the mythic legends
of the past.

[narrator] Now, using
the latest technology,

we're bring this incredible
object into the light.

This is the golden quiver.

About the size
of a briefcase,

it is an exceptional piece
of ancient craftsmanship.

The golden surface
skillfully embossed

with finely wrought
details of lifelike scenes,

but this isn't an ornament.

It's a weapon.

A quiver is container
that an archer uses
to hold their arrows.

[narrator] And where
it is found is startling.

The quiver was found in
the tomb of a Macedonian king.

[narrator] But this style
of quiver isn't Macedonian.

It comes from hundreds
of miles to the north,

in Scythia, home to a mythical
warrior race.

[Dr. Graham] The deadly
warrior Scythian women

were said to be legends

that descended
from the Amazons.

[narrator] And that's why
the quiver matters.

Because the king isn't
the only body in the tomb.

There are also
the remains of a woman.

The question is,
does she have anything
to do with the quiver?

[narrator] What is
the Scythian quiver doing
in a Macedonian tomb?

Does it belong to the woman?

Could she be
a real life descendant

of the legendary Amazon?

[narrator] This golden quiver
is part of a spectacular find

made in 1977

by archeologist
Manolis Andronikos.

The excavations occurred
in the Macedonian city
of Agia

which was an important city,
really, in the Macedonian
kingdom.

[narrator] Andronikos uncovers
a complete and untouched

Macedonian tomb.

Nothing like it has ever
been found before.

They uncovered this
incredible building

with the vaulted room
and two chambers.

And within them,
they actually found a cache

of really incredible objects.

[narrator] In the tomb
is a gold ossuary

containing the remains
of a Macedonian ruler.

The tombs dating spans
the reigns of Macedonia's

two most famous
and ambitious kings,

Philip II,

and his son,
Alexander the Great.

These men transformed
the ancient world.

Philip II expands
Macedonia into
a Mediterranean powerhouse,

Alexander turbocharges this,

creating a vast empire
that stretches
over 3,000 miles.

But there are the remains
of a second body in the tomb,

the partially cremated
bones of a woman.

Beside her lie the tools
of a warrior,

spearheads, shin guards
and the golden quiver.

What is it doing there?

Where does it comes from?

This design of quiver
is known as a gorytos.

An arrow case worn
on the archer's hip.

The whole point is to enable
rapid fire,

so you can quickly get
your arrows, shoot at
your enemies,

um, as fast as you can.

Often speed was the decisive
factor who was going to win
the combat.

The gorytos is unique
to an ancient warrior race

that flourishes between
900 and 200 BCE.

The Scythians.

[Dr. Graham] The Scythians are
a group of nomadic people

who lived on the steppe,

and travelled across
broad areas,

from modern China and Russia,

all the way over
to the Black Sea,

and they're known
as a warrior people.

[narrator] And this quiver
does depict a bloody
battle scene.

Finding a Scythian quiver
buried with a woman
could be momentous.

Because according to legend,

the most deadly Scythians
were mounted female archers,

said to be descendants
of the greatest mythical
female warriors of all,

the Amazons.

[Dr. Mark Altaweel]
The Amazons derived
from Greek legend.

They were female warriors

who would only selectively
mate just to produce
more warriors,

would get rid of the males
usually, and just only
keep the women,

and raise the women
as effectively warriors.

[narrator] The problem
with Ancient Greece

is that it's packed
with mythical stories.

A lot of them are clearly
works of fiction.

Like Pegasus,
the flying horse.

Or Medusa, the woman
with snakes for hair.

[Dr. Graham]
Some of these
are utterly fantastical

as opposed to actual things.

That doesn't necessarily
mean that all of them are.

Um, but we want
to tread carefully.

[narrator] Perhaps
the stories of women
warriors are just that,

stories.

Maybe the quiver simply
belongs to the man
buried in the tomb.

So who exactly is buried here?

The tomb is dated between
350 and 325 BCE.

A time that spans
the reigns of Philip II,

Alexander the Great,

and Alexander's half-brother,
Philip III.

We know that
Alexander the Great

was buried in Egypt
in Alexandria,

the city that bears his name.

[narrator]
So it's not Alexander.

Could it be his father
or his half-brother,

buried with their wives?

[Plummer Sires] So both
Philip II and Philip III

fit the profile of the bones
that were found within
the tomb.

So each of them could
have been contenders

for the identity of the bones.

[narrator] For 30 years,
arguments raged

over whether the bodies
could belong to Philip II

and his seventh wife,
Cleopatra Eurydice,

or Philip the III
and his teen bride Adea.

Then in 2013,

osteoarcheologists
make a detailed study

of the remains
of the women's pelvis.

[Dr. Steele]
The pelvis is actually
a really useful part

to allow you to work out how
old the skeleton owner was

when they died.

That's because of the part
when the pelvis meets
the lower part of the spine,

and it's texture changes quite
significantly during life.

By the earlier thirties,
the surface becomes rougher.

[narrator] The analysis
of the bone's textures

suggest that the woman

was between 30 and 34
years old when she died.

It changes everything.

[Plummer Sires]
This rules out

Adea, Philip III's wife,
because she would've
been much too young.

[narrator] Historical texts
reveal that Philip III
was buried with Adea.

So if the body isn't Adea,

then the man
isn't Philip III.

It has to be his father
Philip II.

He is a legendary warrior.

So is the quiver his

rather than some mythical
Amazonian warrior's?

[narrator] Many scholars
believe this golden quiver,

and other armor
discovered in a royal
Macedonian tomb,

must belong to the man
found there

rather than the woman.

We had these sort of
associations of weaponry

that are often more
linked with male warriors
or kings even.

[narrator] That certainly
fits with the battle scene
on the quiver,

depicting an attack
on a city.

All the warriors
appear to be men.

There are women shown,
but they seem to be
running for their lives.

[Dr. Graham] For so long
people have thought these

couldn't even belong
to a woman.

So much so that in the museum,
there was a plaque included

that said, "jewelry's for
women, weaponry's for men."

[narrator] But in 2013,
the legs are literally
kicked out

from under that idea by
analysis of the woman's bones.

[Plummer Sires]
They discovered that there
was a very severe fracture

to her left tibia,
her shin bone.

This could well be the kind
of traumatic injury

that you find in the skeleton
of a warrior.

[narrator] The injury
has left the woman

with one leg almost
an inch and a half shorter
than the other.

And when the team
measure the shin guards
from the tomb,

the left one is shorter
than the right.

It's an exact match
for the woman's injuries.

The conclusion from
this is that quiver

and the associated armor
and weaponry

belong to the woman
and not the man.

[narrator] So who is this
mysterious warrior woman

with the Scythian quiver?

Is she connected
to the legendary Amazons?

The obvious choice
for the quiver's owner

is Philip II's seventh
and last wife,

Cleopatra Eurydice.

We know they died
at around the same time

But the dating
of the pelvis is a problem.

[Plummer Sires]
It rules out
Cleopatra Eurydice,

Philip II's wife because
she was also much too young.

[narrator] Does that mean
the woman is Scythian?

There is one other
Macedonian candidate

Alexander the Great's
half-sister, Cynane.

Her mother is Illyrian,

a society where women
fight in battle.

And Cynane is raised
as a warrior princess.

[Dr. Altaweel]
She was famed for being
trained in the arts of war,

she's even famed to have
killed a queen in battle.

So, it does potentially
suggest that she is a likely

or a potential individual
who's buried in this grave.

[narrator]
Cynane is killed at 34.

It fits the age
of the pelvis.

So is it Cynane
laid to rest next
to her father?

One intriguing bit of evidence
supports this possibility.

[Dr. Altaweel]
When they excavate
the tombs, they realize

it's actually the chambers
that were found

were not exactly
the same level,

there seems to be
an elapsed period of time

between the main chamber
and the other chamber
that was found.

So it indicates that
the individuals buried,

um, did not die
at the same time.

This fits with Cynane

because she dies 13 years
after her father, Philip II.

Cynane is a good match
for the quiver's owner.

It can't belong one
of the legendary Scythian
women warriors

because they are just myths.

Or are they?

Throughout the 20th century,
archeologists investigate

ancient Scythian burial
mounds known as kurgans.

[Dr. Altaweel] And they found
many bodies.

In addition to the skeletons,

a number of weapons
were found.

Bows, knives,
swords, shields.

So these clearly
are warrior burials.

[narrator] They also find four
gorytos with the bodies.

For over a century,

these battle scarred skeletons
are believed to be male

until recent DNA analysis.

[Dr. Altaweel] About a third
of the skeletons
appear to be female.

This actually corroborates
Herodotus and the other
Greek writers

who talked about
the Scythian female warrior.

This race of Amazons

is not entirely mythical.

There was probably a class
of female warriors.

[narrator] The warrior women
of Scythia are no myth.

They are real
battle-hardened fighters.

So does the quiver
belong to Alexander
the Great's half-sister,

Cynane?

Or to a Scythian warrior?

According to ancient texts,

Philip II's son, Alexander,
actually encounters

these warrior women.

[Dr. Graham] There was
apparently a famous
Amazon queen

who approached Alexander
and apparently spent

13 nights with him.

[narrator] So it's possible
these warrior women

are also known to his father,
Philip II.

And if the woman
in the tomb is Scythian

it explains the presence
of a Scythian quiver.

But there is another
possibility.

The quiver could be an artful
copy of the Scythian style.

Macedonians would've
understood how to make

intricate, elaborate
metalwork.

They certainly had
the skills to make
very beautiful objects.

Making something like
the gorytos that was found
in the Macedonian tomb

would not have been
above their skillset.

[narrator] Which would explain
where Cynane might
have got her hands on one.

Perhaps the quiver
was a way for Cynane
to connect herself

to the myth
of Amazonian warriors.

It would certainly explain
the graphic depictions
of battle on the quiver.

[Dr. Graham] If it is Cynane
who is buried inside the tomb,

what would we have
is a female figure

who isn't a mythic
legendary creature

like an Amazon,
but a real woman,

a real empowered
warrior figure.

[narrator] Scythian
or Macedonian,

this quiver was the weapon
of a powerful female warrior.

One who could trace
her story back

to the most feared
and powerful women
in all of mythology,

the legendary Amazons.