Original subtitles

[narrator] Deep In the iraqi desert,

Investigators unearth An ancient city Like no other:

Nippur.

Five thousand years ago, This is the center of worship

For half a million people Across mesopotamia.

It's the ancient equivalent Of mecca, jerusalem Or rome.

[narrator] A city-state ruled Not by a mortal, But by a deity.

[abbas al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Today, Investigators have rare access

To use pioneering technology To unlock its secrets.

Why do gods and warring kings Covet this city?

[george heath-whyte] Nippur was unique.

It was never destroyed By any invading people.

[narrator] To solve This mystery,

We digitally reconstruct A lost world hidden By the desert.

We rebuild A spectacular ziggurat,

Uncover a temple Devoted to a goddess of love,

And evidence Of a mysterious fortress...

To unearth the surprising Secrets of this,

The most sacred city In mesopotamia.

[narrator] Nippur, iraq,

100 miles South east of baghdad.

Ruins tower above The hot desert landscape.

Nippur is one of the richest Archaeological sites on earth.

It lies in the center Of a war-torn country.

Decades of conflict have Prevented experts from Fully exploring its story.

Until now.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Today, It is crumbling, And buried in sand.

But thousands of years ago, Nippur is a jewel In the desert,

With a mystery at its heart.

In its prime, the city Spreads across 370 acres,

And is home To an estimated 40,000 people.

A large moat And 45-foot-thick walls,

With seven mighty gates, Run two miles around the city.

A waterway, half a mile long, Divides the ancient city In two.

On elevated ground To the east,

A walled temple complex Surrounds a stepped Structure 80 feet tall,

Called a ziggurat.

But one crucial feature is Missing, a royal palace.

If no king lives here, Who builds this city and why?

For over 40 years,

Invasion, war and terror Has devastated this country.

Only now can Investigators return To this off-limits site,

To unlock the secrets Of nippur.

Our cameras have been given Exclusive access to follow Their work

Exploring this Half-buried ancient city.

Abbas al-husseini leads

Excavations across This region of iraq.

He heads to the heart Of the ruins,

This towering mound.

Today, a building erected By the first american Archeologist

To map this site, sits on top Of the ancient ziggurat.

Beneath it, abbas believes There are clues

To the identity Of the first civilization To build here.

Clues that date back To the dawn of The written word.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Abbas finds Pieces of ancient pottery here

That date to the early 3rd millennium b.C...

Making nippur One of the oldest cities In the world.

But a city without a palace Means that no one rules From nippur.

No king sits on a throne here. So, who builds this city?

Abbas believes that a clue Can be found in the Ancient mud bricks

That are scattered around The site.

Stamped on the side Of some of the bricks Are strange symbols.

Abbas recognizes The inscriptions.

It's cuneiform, an ancient System of block writing

First developed in this area Around 5,000 years ago.

It is the oldest written Language ever discovered.

He reads the ancient script.

[al-husseini Speaking ancient language]

[speaking english]

[narrator] King ur-nammu Is the ruler of this part Of mesopotamia

In around 2100 b.C.

He is one Of the greatest kings Of the ancient sumerians.

Over 4000 years ago,

Many rival kings fight For control of mesopotamia.

Around 2100 b.C.,

Ur-nammu finally unites ur, Babylon, akkad and sumeria,

And founds the third dynasty Of the sumerian empire.

He creates the oldest known Legal system,

The code of ur-nammu,

57 laws that cover Sorcery to murder.

And he undertakes Vast projects,

Building new roads, canals

And ziggurats Across his empire.

One of his greatest Achievements is the Mighty ziggurat of ur,

A 100-foot-high, stacked Superstructure to rival The pyramids of egypt,

An astonishing monument That dominates His capital city, ur.

King ur-nammu also transforms Nippur with the construction

Of its own huge ziggurat And monumental city walls.

Why does he lavish Such resources on a city That is not his ruling base?

Clues could lie in a tiny Statue hidden in the base Of the ziggurat.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Enlil is a mighty And powerful god.

The king orders The construction Of the great ziggurat

As a supreme act of devotion And worship.

Ur-nammu builds His temple complex From thousands of mud bricks.

Forty-foot-high walls Surround temples and shrines.

A mountain house for the gods.

Here, the king builds A temple, a huge ziggurat.

At the top, he adds a shrine Close to the heavens.

This is where the king comes To worship the most important God in the sumerian pantheon,

Enlil, the god of creation.

Ancient kings often portray Themselves as close To powerful gods.

But nippur is 100 miles From the king's palace at ur.

Why does king ur-nammu Build a temple to the All-powerful god enlil,

In the distant city of nippur?

The answer could lie buried In the desert landscape.

Jeff allen works to protect The glories

Of ancient mesopotamia's Long-forgotten past.

He thinks nippur's location Is key to explaining why

King ur-nammu designates The city as the home Of enlil.

[allen] Babylon is here In the north.

Rival cities such as akkad And ur are further south.

Nippur is right in the middle Of mesopotamia.

Nippur is in the middle Of warring city-states

Such as babylon, ur and akkad.

[narrator] The states Of ancient mesopotamia,

Sumer, ur, akkad, babylon,.

Are engaged in a series Of almost never-ending wars.

[allen] Nippur becomes The home of enlil,

Because it is the place

Where enemies take disputes To be resolved.

[narrator] It's neutral territory,

An ancient equivalent To the united nations building In new york city.

[allen] Nippur is also

The ethnic and linguistic Frontier between The different states.

[narrator] Four thousand years ago,

The city of nippur plays A unique role in mesopotamia.

It is the perfect place To establish the cult of enlil

And build A spectacular ziggurat.

Nippur is the only city Where enlil is worshipped,

Confirming the city's place As the religious capital Of ancient mesopotamia.

Pilgrims of enlil's cult Flock here in their thousands.

Nippur is sacred To every mesopotamian.

And throughout history,

There is no record of nippur Ever being destroyed By conquerors.

Unlike great mesopotamian Sites like babylon, Lagash and ur...

This desolated ruin is one Of the only ancient cities Never to be destroyed.

After ur-nammu's death And the demise Of his dynasty,

Mesopotamian rulers continued To worship at nippur.

[allen] Ancient texts say That sumerian kings Don't inherit the thrones.

They must seek The approval of the deities.

[narrator] In return For enlil's divine blessing,

Kings of states Like sumer, ur and akkad,

Lavish gifts of land,

Jewelry, gold And slaves on nippur.

The city's status and power Is derived from enlil, The creation god,

The kingmaker.

Are there other gods hiding Beneath the sands of nippur?

What secrets do they hold

About life in one of the World's oldest civilizations?

[narrator] The ancient city Of nippur in modern-day iraq.

Home to a glorious ziggurat,

Dedicated to enlil, The mesopotamian God of creation.

But that's only a fraction Of this huge city.

What other secrets lie hidden Beneath the desert sands?

To investigate, Abbas al-husseini Takes to the air.

This part of iraq Is a sensitive military zone.

But abbas has been given Exclusive permission

To fly a drone-mounted, High-definition camera

Over the ruins and Their surrounding landscape.

A lost city comes into view.

Traces of monumental walls Peak out from beneath

Centuries of accumulated Sand and debris.

The outlines of many more Structures become clear.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Investigators Uncover more than 100 temples In nippur,

Each dedicated to the dozens Of different gods worshipped

In ancient mesopotamia.

One temple rivals enlil's For its prominence.

In the west of the city,

Archeologists unearth The walls of a temple

That dates To around 3000 b.C.,

1,000 years Before the great ziggurat.

Buried in the corner Of a sanctuary,

They find statues.

Many of them are women.

In another room, A calcite bowl To hold offerings,

Bears the name Of this temple's deity:

The goddess ishtar.

Who is ishtar?

And can she shed light On life in ancient nippur?

Ali hussein is an expert

On the people Of ancient mesopotamia.

He searches for answers here,

Amongst the country's Most prestigious Archaeological discoveries,

The iraq museum in baghdad.

It is home To a spectacular collection Of over 100,000 artifacts

From the world's Oldest civilizations.

Ali believes That tantalizing evidence Of ishtar's importance

Can be seen On a unique discovery

Found 60 miles south Of nippur.

[speaking foreign language]

[narrator] Ali examines The inscriptions on the vase.

[hussein speaking Foreign language]

[narrator] The reed bundles On the highest level Are symbols of ishtar,

Goddess of fertility And plenty.

The vase reveals An order of nature In mesopotamian belief,

From crops, up to animals,

Up to humans, With ishtar at the top.

A queen of the heavens,

She is one Of the most revered deities In the mesopotamian pantheon.

Her importance and popularity Are due to the part she plays

In the mesopotamian story

Of the beginning Of human civilization.

In the ancient myth,

Ishtar feasts With her father enki,

The god of wisdom.

Enki gets drunk And reveals to ishtar

A set of secret divine rules For civilization

That the sumerians Call "Me's."

When a sober enki Realizes his mistake...

He sends his giants To capture ishtar.

Ishtar flees On her boat of heaven

To deliver the me's To the people,

Spreading wisdom from the gods To humanity.

Ishtar is loved and worshipped Throughout mesopotamia.

And ali believes A remarkable discovery In nippur

Shows that ishtar's standing Amongst the gods

Reflects a surprising feature Of sumerian society.

[hussein speaking Foreign language]

[narrator] The sculpture seems To present the couple As equals.

Ali thinks that With equality among male And female gods

Comes equality among Sumerian men and women.

[speaking foreign language]

[narrator] Sumerian women Can also own property,

Become scribes, physicians, And even act as judges.

We tend to think Of modern civilization As the most progressive.

Yet, this 4000-year-old Culture boasts

Female empowerment And gender equality

That many modern societies Have only achieved In the last century.

Under ishtar And enlil's protection,

Nippur grows steadily Around the temples And great ziggurat.

How does this huge city thrive In this desert landscape?

And can a discovery In the sand

Reveal how The city's greatest asset

Becomes its downfall?

[narrator] Nippur, In ancient mesopotamia.

At its height, 40,000 people live And work here,

Maintaining the temples Of enlil, ishtar, And hundreds of others.

Today, the temperatures Can soar to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer.

How can the city survive here,

And thrive in such An unforgiving environment?

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] There's no sign Of water here today.

Was this landscape so arid Thousands of years ago,

When nippur Was a thriving city?

Abbas al-husseini And his team launch

A drone-mounted High-definition camera To hunt for clues.

The bird's-eye view reveals The outline of a ditch Cutting across the landscape.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] The shatt en-nil Is an offshoot Of the euphrates river,

One of two giant waterways That flank mesopotamia.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] In 2100 b.C.,

The shatt en-nil Channels water From the euphrates to nippur.

It's over 50 yards wide In some parts,

Big enough for boats To navigate In both directions.

The sumerians build nippur On its banks,

And it provides freshwater All year round to sustain The ever-growing city.

It irrigates a vast garden In the west of nippur,

And barley fields Outside its walls.

But this great waterway Could also serve Another purpose.

Clues may be found 45 miles to the north,

In the most famous Mesopotamian city of all,

Babylon.

A city that covers An astonishing 3.5 square miles,

And is once home To over 200,000 people.

In nippur, many of the ruins Are still buried Beneath the dirt.

But excavations at babylon Could reveal a similar layout,

And shed light on the purpose Of the city center waterway.

Jeff allen investigates.

[allen] About 85% of babylon Is still to be excavated.

It's hard to see,

But around me Are bricks dating from around The 6th century b.C.

[narrator] Jeff believes That these bricks provide

A tantalizing glimpse Into the distant past.

The bricks support piers Upon which a bridge rests Over the river euphrates.

[narrator] The river euphrates Divides babylon in two.

A succession Of ancient bridges Links the city together.

This engineering feat Allows babylon to thrive Around the river,

Just like nippur thrives Around the shatt en-nil Waterway.

The river Is an ancient superhighway

That connects nippur With babylon

And all the other major cities In mesopotamia.

It makes it simple To travel to nippur,

To worship The god of creation, enlil.

This enables the city To establish itself

As the center of cult worship In ancient mesopotamia.

But could this waterway That helps the city rise To greatness

Also be the city's downfall?

We know that the euphrates Shifts course On several occasions.

And that will have an impact Upstream, too, in nippur.

[narrator] If the euphrates shifts,

The shatt en-nil waterway Could dry up.

Nippur's people could be Starved of water.

The citizens leave.

It probably explains Why we don't have

Any archaeological evidence For the period.

When the course Of the river changes, The people move to follow it.

[narrator] Nippur's temples Are abandoned.

It's no longer a home For the gods.

The ziggurat, The temple to enlil,

Is neglected, And falls into disrepair.

[allen] Perhaps Nippur's decline

Is caused by the gods Angry at enlil's dethronement.

[narrator] After two millennia

As the heart Of mesopotamian civilization,

Nippur is a ghost city.

But discoveries unearthed here Reveal clues of the surprising Resurrection of nippur.

How does nippur miraculously Retake its role at the center Of cult worship?

[narrator] In the deserts Of southern iraq,

Archaeologists reveal the rise And fall of nippur.

By 1750 b.C., It is a ghost town.

But this sacred city Is not abandoned forever.

At the base of the ziggurat,

Excavators discover More recent stamped bricks.

They reveal the name Of a great assyrian king, Ashurbanipal.

This mighty new ruler Takes nippur as his own,

And gives it A new lease on life.

[heath-whyte] Ashurbanipal successfully Restored nippur

To its former glory.

As a hub of trade And commerce,

Crowds of people would have Flocked into nippur

To see the recently rebuilt Temple complex, And to visit the god enlil.

[narrator] Ashurbanipal Fully restores the ziggurat In 650 b.C.,

Complete with a shrine To the god enlil at the top.

Why does he restore What was lost Hundreds of years before?

George heath-whyte Is an expert

On the ancient peoples Of mesopotamia and assyria.

He thinks inscriptions On bricks from nippur

Offer clues to the motivations Of king ashurbanipal.

He recreates The cuneiform text

So he can analyze it More closely.

[heath-whyte] I'll read out In the language It was written in.

[speaking ancient language]

Which means "Enlil, King of the lands."

What's so interesting About this brick Is that the king who wrote it

Is using signs from hundreds And hundreds of years,

Even 1,500 years Before his own time.

If you lived in nippur At the time of ashurbanipal,

You wouldn't be able To understand

What was being Written on these bricks.

[narrator] George compares This text to another inscribed Brick also found at nippur,

To explore What this language is.

We have here a photo Of a much older brick,

Of over 1,000 years Before ashurbanipal's reign.

And it's actually incredibly Similar to this brick Of ashurbanipal's.

And you can see it, The layout is very similar.

We've got this big box Ruled out by lines, Written onto a brick.

[narrator] Why is ashurbanipal returning To ancient traditions,

Going back to a writing style From over 1000 years Before his reign?

[heath-whyte] It's like If you were to build A building today

And put a latin inscription On the top of it.

Not many people would be able To understand it, but you Might be able to recognize

That the builder was trying To hark back to a much Older period of time.

[narrator] George thinks A clue is hidden In its translation.

Written here so far is, "Enlil, king of the lands.

His king." That "His" is just talking About ashurbanipal.

Ashurbanipal is the king Of a mighty empire,

But he's describing This god enlil as his king.

[narrator] The translation Reveals that ashurbanipal

Wants to win favor With the supreme deity enlil.

He uses sumerian language And cuneiform To deliberately echo the past.

He restores the city As the cult center for enlil.

[heath-whyte] For a long time, Before ashurbanipal Came along,

Nippur had been neglected,

And its temples Had fallen into ruins.

He's looking Back to the period

When nippur was At the height of its glory,

When nippur was The center of the world, Almost.

And he's trying to say, "Nippur, you can be Like this again."

[narrator] Ashurbanipal Stamps his message

Onto thousands of bricks,

And rebuilds The temple complex

As it was Over a millennium before.

He's sending out A clear message.

[heath-whyte] Ashurbanipal, He's trying to show

That he's not just a king From a foreign land,

Coming in And trying to rule them

And steal their grain Or whatever,

That he is their king, And he's gonna support them,

And rebuild their city.

[narrator] Is ashurbanipal A benevolent king,

Winning loyalty Simply by reviving Nippur's lost wonders?

[narrator] Ashurbanipal's empire

Stretches from egypt To the persian gulf,

But some factions Rise up against him,

Including one Led by his own brother In babylon.

Ashurbanipal shows His ruthlessness

By cutting off His enemies' heads

And displaying them In his garden.

[narrator] He's a cruel king,

But also a religious scholar,

And builds the world's First library of sacred texts In nineveh.

Ashurbanipal restores Nippur's temples

To win the support Of the gods and the people,

A clever ploy To suppress uprising.

By rebuilding nippur,

Ashurbanipal reignites The god enlil's role As kingmaker,

Cleverly strengthening His position

As the ruler enlil has chosen.

Nippur returns to its status As the preeminent place

Of cult worship In mesopotamia,

An untouchable Neutral territory,

A place respected by all.

[heath-whyte] Nippur was almost like An ancient equivalent

Of the vatican city today.

No matter where Political power was held,

Nippur was where Religious power was held.

[narrator] Despite over 1,000 years

Separating the reigns Of ur-nammu and ashurbanipal,

The city of nippur Remains crucial

To the fortunes Of mesopotamian rulers.

Can an astonishing find Of ancient clay tablets In nippur

Show how successful Ashurbanipal is

At reviving the fortunes Of the city?

And can these texts Reveal the origins

Of one of the most Famous stories in the bible?

[narrator] Nippur...

By the 7th century b.C.,

The city is thriving For the second time,

Under the rule of the mighty King ashurbanipal.

He restores enlil's temple To its former glory.

Nippur is once again The center of worship

For the ancient mesopotamian God of creation.

Now investigators believe That an astonishing find

May unlock the secrets Of life in nippur

After its surprising revival.

[allen] What we found At nippur

Revolutionized Our understanding Of these peoples

And their world.

[narrator] Five hundred yards From the ziggurat,

In the western half Of the city,

Archaeologists uncover a house

From the 5th century b.C.

Scattered across the floor,

They find hundreds Of clay tablets.

They document The financial transactions

Of a banking family Called morashu.

What can this Astonishing treasure trove

Tell us about Why nippur is thriving?

George heath-whyte Pieces together This ancient puzzle,

Revealing a picture Of the morashu family

As one of the leading Business families in nippur.

The morashu family Made a lot of money

In banking.

They would Lend money to people,

They would buy and sell land,

And when people couldn't pay Their debts to them,

They would take that land Off them.

And they became very wealthy

Over the course Of the 5th century b.C.

[narrator] These astonishing documents

Show that 2,500 years ago,

The morashu family Runs a highly sophisticated Financial powerhouse.

As well as land, They'd trade grain and fruit,

Funding huge developments

And other Profit-making ventures.

[heath-whyte] We know That this family was Very successful,

Because we have records Of their business

For over three generations.

[narrator] The tablets Are undisputable evidence

That nippur is not only A religious center,

But a thriving business And trading hub.

George believes The sheer volume of tablets

Found in the morashu house And in other excavations,

Make nippur An astonishing Window on life

In ancient mesopotamia 2,500 years ago.

[heath-whyte] Archaeologists Have found in nippur

Around 30,000 texts

That reveal everything About what life was like In nippur.

[narrator] Tablets discovered At nippur

Date back as far as the middle Of the 3rd millennium, b.C.

One tablet dates back To the 17th century, b.C.,

And contains part Of an early version

Of the oldest written story Ever discovered,

The epic of gilgamesh.

In the gilgamesh epic,

The god enki tells a man Called utnapishtim,

That other gods Plan to destroy mankind

With a great flood.

Utnapishtim builds A large boat called Preserver of life,

And embarks on it With silver, gold,

And all living beings.

The violent flood Lasts for six days,

But cannot sink utnapishtim And his boat.

On the seventh day, Utnapishtim finds land,

And the god enlil Rewards him with immortality.

Jeff allen thinks There may be a link

Between the flood story Found at nippur

And its better known Counterpart

Recorded in genesis,

The first book of the bible, The story of noah's ark.

[allen] There is similarity Between the story Of noah's ark

And the flood myth In the gilgamesh epic.

Did the jews know Of gilgamesh,

And it influenced The writings of genesis?

[narrator] Many jews Are taken in captivity To babylon

After the capture Of jerusalem,

By the babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, in 587 b.C.

In exile, jewish scholars Compile and write

The genesis story of creation.

They may draw on gilgamesh And other sources.

Did both, Genesis and gilgamesh,

Draw their material

From a common tradition About the great flood?

[narrator] The thousands of tablets Found here

Reveal astonishing Detail of life

In 5th century b.C., nippur.

They paint a complex portrait Of a tolerant,

Progressive society,

A thriving city,

Home to business and the arts.

Nippur goes From strength to strength

In the centuries After it is restored.

But can clues Found near the ziggurat

Identify a new war-like people That take over nippur,

And reveal A strange new purpose

For this giant monument?

[narrator] For 2,000 years, The city of nippur flourishes

As the center of cult worship In ancient mesopotamia.

Pilgrims flock To its over 100 temples,

And the city grows Along the riverbanks,

Into a thriving center Of trade.

Towering over it all Is the huge ziggurat,

The temple of enlil.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] But after The grandeur

Of the sumerian And assyrian periods,

Some strange modifications To the ziggurat

Reveal that nippur Is taken over

By yet another civilization.

They encase The ziggurat in brick,

And turn it into A cross-shaped monument

That resembles a watchtower.

Around it, They build living quarters For a garrison,

All enclosed By strong brick walls

With circular buttresses,

And an outer Fortification wall

Up to 30 feet thick.

What is the ziggurat Transformed into

An impenetrable fortress?

Excavators in the early 1900s

Dig up so much of the earth Around the ziggurat,

That much of the evidence Is lost.

[al-husseini speaking]

[narrator] Abbas al-husseini thinks

This last remaining Unexcavated column of earth

Holds vital clues In its untouched layers.

[narrator] Investigators discover The layer of mud bricks

Laid down When the fort is built,

They carbon date Organic material In the mud bricks.

It reveals the fort is built In the 1st century ad.

The date, Coupled with the design Of the fortification,

Identifies it as parthian,

A war-like people From what is now iran.

But there's a mystery,

The mud bricks are filled With older shards of pottery.

Why is there Older sumerian pottery

Set into the newer Parthian mud bricks?

[narrator] The parthians Smashed statues

Sacred to Past civilizations...

And used them As building materials.

Mixed into fresh mud bricks,

They vastly increased The bricks' strength.

The parthians, at war With the roman empire,

Transformed nippur Into a garrison town,

And the ziggurat into a fort,

Building it from Pottery-reinforced bricks For extra strength.

The parthians Fall to the romans

By the end of The 2nd century ad.

But excavations show That nippur isn't destroyed By the roman conquest.

It's still inhabited As late as the 9th century ad,

But only In the city's outskirts.

The religious center Is largely abandoned.

This region is no longer Devoted to the god enlil.

Nippur doesn't end In violence,

It simply fades away.

As investigators Piece together the clues,

A surprising history Emerges at nippur,

Of a city coveted By different empires

Across thousands of years.

It is one of the most Remarkable cities Through history,

And it's through this place

That great Civilizations marched.

[narrator] This city Rises from the sands.

The spiritual center Of mesopotamia,

Nippur draws people Of different cultures,

And different beliefs.

And at its heart, The great ziggurat,

First built to honor The sumerian god of creation.

Nippur is reborn With each new civilization,

Surviving as Neighboring cities Are destroyed,

To last for 6,000 years.