01x02 - Maze of Cryptic Terror

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] cutting-edge photogrammetry

Deciphers haunting cave inscriptions...

The locals really thought that
this cave was a portal to hell.

[narrator] modern gene sequencing
battles mummy destroying gunk...

The mummies look like they're melting.

[narrator] and molecular dung analysis

Solves an epic hannibal mystery.

[darius] hannibals'
crossing the alps in antiquity,

It's just something almost insurmountable.

[narrator] in a digital
technology lab of the future,

Experts uncover clues
invisible to the naked eye...

I've never seen anything like that before.

[narrator] ...A nd solve mysteries
that have baffled for centuries.

That right there is what
scientists have been missing.

All the evidence points
to an incredible discovery.

This could be a game changer.

[narrator] state-of-the-art digital
technology closes the toughest cases...

This mystery finally makes sense.

[narrator] ...From the
ancient, unexplained files.

[narrator] nottinghamshire, England.

Deep in a limestone gorge, a foreboding
cave is riddled with creepy markings.

[allan] the entire surface on a cave wall

Has been etched and scored and incised.

There are tons of these things.

The cave itself is quite eerie.

But then, to have these carvings
with all these little demonic symbols,

It's pretty spooky.

They're layered on top of one
another, so they're all mixed up

As if they've been done
repeatedly over a period of time.

[narrator] now, can
high-powered photogrammetry

Finally decode these confusing scrawls...

It seems to have some specific meaning,

But what it is is anyone's guess.

[narrator] ...And expose a
dark chapter of english history.

It's full of superstition
and rife with blame on evil.

[narrator] 2018. A team of
explorers enter the darkest recesses

Of the creswell crags cave system.

As they were going deeper into the
cave, actually crawling through the cave,

They came to a chamber.

And that's where they
noticed these abstract marks.

So you can imagine walking
into a pitch black space.

As your eyes start to
adjust, all of these markings

Start to come out, and they're everywhere.

[narrator] analysis of the bizarre
shapes, patterns and random lines

Rules out contemporary graffiti.

Generally, in modern
graffiti, it makes sense.

People's names, or sort of a modern symbol.

Whereas these are clearly ancient
symbols and have been deliberately made.

These add to a sort of air of mystery,

As if one's sort of almost
going into the underworld

And sort of a nether region.

[narrator] in the same gorge,

Another cave also contains odd markings.

Archaeologists ponder
whether the two are linked.

[sheila] opposite is a
place called church hole.

We've actually found some
much more subtle engraving.

Some of them just millimeters deep.

[narrator] they carefully trace out

What appear to be drawings of animals.

We find images of bison,
reindeer, some long-necked birds,

And you can make out what appears to be

An animal in profile with horns, an ibex.

[narrator] the discovery deepens
the mystery of these cave systems.

The ibex was never an animal
that was indigenous to britain,

So what this probably means is
that someone who had seen an ibex

Had come from europe to britain,
and etched this on the wall of the cave.

[narrator] unlike the random
symbols, this artwork can be dated,

Using natural geology as a time stamp.

The really cool thing is that over
the designs on the cave walls,

There's been a mineral
accretion known as flowstone.

[mark] so that gives us a moment in time

In which that flow has developed

That we can date scientifically
using uranium series dating,

And that gives us the minimum date.

Because it's flowed
over the top of the art,

The art must therefore be much
older than the stone that's on top of it.

[narrator] the results are astonishing.

[sheila] from this method, we have been
able to determine that many of these images

Date to about 12,800
years ago, which is amazing.

What's really exciting
is it's right at the cusp

Of the old and the new stone age.

In the british isles, at that time,

There's no other known cave art.

[narrator] but to the expert
eye, it's inconceivable

A prehistoric cave artist also
carved the mysterious symbols.

[mark] the context of these marks,

Some of them have very straight edges

Which clearly suggests that
they've been cut with a metal tool,

And some of them appear too well-organized.

The circles are drawn with a compass,

Which is probably beyond the
technology of paleolithic man.

[narrator] with traditional
archaeology failing to shed any light,

The team employs
cutting-edge photogrammetry.

[alexei] in a pitch black cave

It's actually very difficult to
study these marks in their entirety.

You're literally groping
around in the dark.

This technology is used in crime scenes,

But in this case, it might actually help
us crack this archaeological mystery.

[narrator] thousands of
ultra high-res photographs

Are taken of the cave walls.

Stitching them together
creates a fully explorable



In the digital forensics lab,

This allows historian, sascha auerbach,

To examine the cave in
ways never achievable before.

This should be a pivotal moment.

Let's head inside.

I can see that there's markings everywhere.

Scrawls, lines and patterns.
There's hundreds of them.

It's incredible.

Thanks to photogrammetry,

They show up like they were freshly carved.

It's the perfect mechanism

For unpacking this complex
combination of patterns.

One of the things that
jumps out immediately...

Look here. You have what looks like ws,

Or possibly two overlapping vs perhaps.

And you also see a lot of pms.

Now I think these are essential,

Because I think I remember
seeing something very similar

On a historic building in
stratford, the home of shakespeare.

Let's call that up.

And there you have it, a great match!

These are called apotropaic marks,

But they're more commonly
known as witch marks.

The double v is latin for virgo
virginum, and the pm, for pace maria.

They're both referring to the virgin mary,

And they're used to ward off evil.

This is the smoking g*n we need
to solve this longstanding mystery.

[alexei] what is extraordinary
is the amount of witch marks

Is far more than anywhere else in the uk.

This is an extraordinary find.

[narrator] these apotropaic etchings,

Reveal themselves as a dark omen,

Signaling a time of vengeful hysteria.

[sheila] the 16th century is full of
superstition and rife with blame on evil.

What this amounts to is the perfect
storm for witchcraft persecution.

[crackling]

[narrator] state-of-the-art tech,

Has decoded a bewildering
patchwork of etchings.

They are witch's marks
carved in an english cave

To ward off evil during the 16th century.

You have to understand
that the 16th century,

Is full of superstition
and rife with disease,

And people are very eager to find
blame for all the ills that are happening.

And you have the
protestants and the catholics

In constant battle with
each other for souls,

Both of them eager to find evil.

What this amounts to
is that the 16th century

Is a perfect storm for
witchcraft persecution.

[narrator] driving this
persecution from the top

Was king james the first.

Convinced witches are targeting his family,

He makes witchcraft punishable by death.

Over 500 people in England

Are burned, hanged or
strangled to stamp out this curse.

There was a massive crackdown on witches.

Individual disputes
between families and so forth,

Were being settled by
witchcraft accusations.

There was a witch-finder general

Who went around on witch hunts.

Of course, witches themselves
often were burnt at the stake.

And it might well be
that it was that hysteria

That led to the carving of
these symbols at creswell crags.

[narrator] but one question remains.

Who carved these marks?

Records reveal the possible culprits.

[sheila] there was a small village

That used to be at the end of this gorge

That would have dated
to around the same time

As these witch marks were appearing.

[alexei] perhaps during the 16th century,

The locals truly thought that
this cave was a portal to hell.

So imagine them going into
this cave with a small lantern,

Carving these symbols in the
hopes that they can prevent evil

From spilling out and
affecting their lands.

[narrator] today, the
discovery of these witch marks

Has lent the cave a bizarre notoriety,

Luring a host of curious visitors.

What's interesting is that this cave
has now become a bit of a focal point

For modern-day witches,
pagans, paranormal psychologists

And even evangelical christians,

Drawn by this spectacular place of evil.

[narrator] tarapaca, northern chile.

Housed in the city's archaeological museum

Are some of the world's oldest mummies.

All are incredibly well-preserved, until...

One by one, the mummies change color

And produce this disgusting black ooze.

The mummies look like they're melting.

Could the black ooze be an unintended
side effect of the mummification process?

[narrator] some believe
this could be a sinister curse

Concocted by the
enigmatic chinchorro people.

There's a lot that's kind of mysterious

About the chinchorro and their culture.

So is this some kind of booby trap?

[narrator] now, science
is being called upon

To solve the black gunk
mystery before it's too late.

What is this weird black slime
and where is it coming from?

[sian] we need to find a way to stop this

Before this irreplaceable
collection is lost forever.

[narrator] around 5,000 bce,

The atacama-based chinchorro
began to honor their dead

Through mummification,

An art they excelled at for a
mind-boggling three millennia.

Two thousand years before the egyptians

Began mummifying pharaohs,

The chinchorro began mummifying
their dead. So that's incredible!

[alexei] the fact that the
mummification process

Was used for such a long time,

Indicates that it was a very
essential part of chinchorro identity.

[allan] there's some debate
as to why the chinchorro people

Created all of these mummies.

Some people think that it was because

The desert environment made it
very easy to preserve the dead,

Others, because there was
a very high mortality rate.

And yet others, that this was very
closely tied to religious ideology.

[narrator] these mummies have
confounded experts worldwide.

Having stood the test
of time for 7,000 years,

Out of the blue, they secrete
a mysterious, putrid substance.

Some of the chinchorro
mummies at the museum

Were discovered at the
turn of the 20th century.

But it's only been about the last 15 years

That this black ooze
has started to come out.

The mummies looked like they're melting.

[narrator] desperate to save
them, scientists are called in.

Initially, they consider if the
chinchorro's unique method of mummification,

Is to blame.

When it comes to mummification,

Most people immediately think egyptians,

But the chinchorro people did
the process a little bit differently.

Their complex process involved
extraction of the brain and the organs.

And then, filling the
body and the skull cavities

With a kind of fiber like straw,
sewing the body back together.

Then the mummy would be given
a wig, and colored with a paste.

[narrator] but any thoughts the strange
gunk derives from chinchorro paste

Are quickly banished.

The black ooze appears
on the natural mummies,

The mummies that haven't
been prepared with colored paste.

So it's safe to say that the method
of preparation isn't the problem.

[narrator] the team switch their
focus to the mummy's ancient flesh.

A close examination gives a promising lead.

The fact that the black
goo is found only on the skin

And not on other parts of the mummy,
could be a clue to what's causing it.

It's more pronounced
when the skin is thicker

Or there are several layers of tissue.

[narrator] a scanning electron microscope

With 10,000 times magnification

Reveals more than anyone bargained for.

There's a whole tiny world
living down there in this goo.

Something has been
feasting on the mummy's flesh.

[narrator] in chile, scientists are racing

To prevent the world's oldest
mummies being eaten to bits.

[greg] the mummies are melting.

To the naked eye,

This is first visible as a
disgusting black ooze.

It's a huge problem.

[narrator] microscopic
analysis of the strange goo,

Reveals it's swarming
with mysterious microbes.

The human body hosts trillions of microbes.

When it comes down to the cell
numbers, we're more microbe than human.

Hopefully, we should be able to identify

The types of microbes
by identifying their genes.

[greg] we can look to the gene
sequence to find specific markers,

And we can use these markers

To compare them with known
microbes that we see today,

To find out what's in there.

[narrator] the results are astonishing.

[chelsea] the mummies are
covered in nine different microbes.

Everything from the
staphylococcus we find on our skins,

To the black mold that grows on fruit.

Human skin contains proteins
like collagen and keratin,

And a lot of these
microbes generate enzymes

That break these proteins
down in order to eat them.

Basically the microbes have
had an all you can eat buffet,

And they've left the
mess for us to clean up.

[narrator] but a major problem remains.

What awoke these hungry microbes?

[greg] most of the time, these
microbes don't cause any harm,

But when conditions change,

They can rapidly multiply
and grow into a huge problem.

[narrator] scientists now
wonder if relocating the mummies

From the atacama the world's driest desert,

To the museum, could be to blame.

These microorganisms are about 70% water.

They rely on getting water out of their
environment in order for them to multiply.

[chelsea] the desert
climate and limited humidity,

Restricted the growth of bacteria,

Making it the perfect conditions
for preserving mummies.

The recent rise in humidity levels

In the museum where the mummies are stored,

Would cause these
microbes to spread like wildfire.

Microbes, humidity and
mummies, are a bad combination.

In just a matter of days,
we have a stinky black mess.

[narrator] the alps, western europe.



A vast army treks across
this hostile mountain range.

An incredible endeavor.

Key to perhaps the ancient
world's greatest military victory.

Cementing the legend of hannibal.

This is a treacherous journey
of over a thousand miles

That catches the roman
armies totally unaware.

[jordan] the plan is exceptionally
bold. It's almost preposterous.

It was not thought that

An army could make it
through the alps and survive.

[narrator] more audacious,

This feat included a contingent of
elephants suited to the hot tropics.

You have tens of thousands of troops

And almost 40 elephants,

So this is really a shock-and-awe strategy.

[narrator] hannibal's alpine
March now sits in mythology,

But no one has been able
to place his precise route.

[allan] discovering the
actual path that hannibal took,

Could be a game changer
in understanding how

This daunting, daring
mission was undertaken.

[narrator] now, after 2,000 years,

A new scientific investigation
hopes to unlock this epic mystery.

Finally, we might discover how
hannibal did what seems impossible.

[narrator] two millennia ago,

The mediterranean is a w*r zone.

After centuries of battle,

Two superpowers vie for supremacy.

[allan] there is a series of conflicts

Between the nation of carthage
in north africa, and rome,

That included battling for control

Over the territories of Italy
and Spain and north africa.

In the third century, the
carthaginians, led by hannibal,

Are pushed out of sicily and corsica.

This is a strategic disaster.

[narrator] retaliation
by sea will be suicide

Against a formidable roman navy.

So hannibal hatches an outrageous plan.

Hannibal decides to undertake something

That is so bold, so unpredictable,

So unprecedented in military history

That he would take rome by surprise,

Send it reeling and possibly lead
to the collapse of roman civilization.

This mission was essentially payback.

[narrator] almost 50,000 men and beasts

Battle through treacherous mountain passes,

Violent storms and high altitude.

[darius] crossing the alps in antiquity

It's just something almost insurmountable.

[narrator] all without leaving a trace.

Just a few historical scraps offer
any insight into this mythical route.

The historian, polybius, did write
an account of hannibal's expedition,

But it was 70 years after the fact.

And so, a lot of his
accounts are sort of vague.

[narrator] frustratingly, polybius
could refer to any of four different routes

Through high mountain
passes, known as cols.

In 2004, a team of international experts

Launch a scientific investigation

That lasts well over a decade.

They ascertain polybius'
account may hold some truth.

One clue that polybius leaves us, is
the fact that hannibal and his armies

Apparently encountered a large
rockfall, that impeded their progress,

And it took them three
days to find a path around it.

[narrator] a scour of satellite
imagery finds two candidates.

[darius] clapier and traversette
are two routes through the alps

That matched the description.

But only the landslide of traversette

Is big enough

To have created an obstacle
to the army of elephants.

[narrator] to discover if this checks out,

The team uses scientific
analysis on traversette's geology.

[sian] when rocks are
exposed to the elements,

They become discolored
and chemically altered,

And over time, they
develop a thin outer layer.

And we call this weather rind.

[greg] weather rind is like a stopwatch

That starts as soon as the
rock is exposed to the elements.

If it was first exposed to the
elements during a landslide,

We can work out approximately
when that landslide happened.

[narrator] amazingly,
the rock's weather rind

Dates to around hannibal's crossing

In 218 bc.

This is an incredible discovery.

It has scientific evidence that ties
polybius' account of the elephant crossing

To a specific route to traversette.

[greg] this is the closest we've ever come

To solving this 2,200-year-old mystery.

[narrator] but a nagging doubt remains.

What if polybius' account is, in
fact, a huge wild goose chase?

What we really need, is some evidence.

Thousands of animals would also
leave heaps and heaps of dung.

[narrator] investigators are trying
to crack a 2,000-year-old riddle.

What route it hannibal and his vast
army take across the perilous alps?

Hannibal's route is one of the
ancient world's great mysteries.

There is no exact evidence that
indicates which direction he went.

[narrator] geological science
suggests a remote mountain pass,

The col de la traversette, may
hold the key, but proof is needed.

[darius] an army, consisting
of tens of thousands of troops,

Thousands of horses
and scores of elephants,

Needs a number of things.

Running water, big open spaces,

Grass for the animals to forage.

If we can work out where
hannibal's army camped,

We have a better chance of
finding direct evidence of their route.

[narrator] scouring traversette,

Reveals a potential
site on the french side,

An open, boggy area or mire.

The scientists cut deep into the peat

Below the french mire,

Pulling out core samples that
should give us a view through history.

There's suddenly a layer
that's massively churned up.

How could this layer have
become so churned up?

Possibly an earthquake or a landslide,

But also possibly hannibal's army.

[narrator] radiocarbon dating
puts this mulched peat layer

At around 2,200 years old,

Right in the ballpark for
hannibal's alpine crossing.

And it's not the only
mess his army left behind.

Thousands of animals would also
leave heaps and heaps of dung,

Or mass deposition to
give it its scientific name.

When the scientists analyze the soil,

They find loads of dna
from the bacteria clostridia.

Clostridia usually only
makes up a very small fraction,

Two or three percent of
the microbes in peat soil.

However, it's a major fraction,

Up to 70% of the microbes
found in the gut of horses.

This is direct evidence that thousands
of animals have passed through this area.

[narrator] after millennia of speculation,

Animal feces finally pegs

Hannibal's long lost route
to the traversette pass.

But this presents one last question.

The traversette route

Was one of the most
treacherous paths over the alps.

So why would hannibal have
chosen this particular route,

Instead of one that's easier?

Hannibal was one of the great
strategists of the ancient world.

He definitely wanted a
route that would have insured

That what he did was a true sneak attack.

His achievement of crossing
the alps, echoes through the ages,

And we'll never forget hannibal

And his incredible elephant army.

[narrator] houtaomuga, northeast china.

Dozens of skeletons are
excavated from an ancient burial site.

Bizarrely, around half have regular skulls.

The rest, defy belief.

You can only imagine the
shock of the archaeologist.

All of a sudden, these
horrifyingly deformed skulls

Emerge from the ground.

[kiki] eleven out of the 25 skulls

Appear extremely elongated,

With the back of the skull
looking stretched several inches.

[narrator] some of these skulls
measure a fifth larger than normal.

They seem a freak of nature.

Skulls are such an
essential part of our anatomy,

They're where our minds reside.

So to see something so strangely
deformed is... it's just upsetting.

[narrator] can new
investigative digital analysis

Finally decipher these cone-shaped heads?

Thinking about how these skulls
came to exist gives me the shivers.

How did they become so deformed?

[narrator] investigators
first try to establish

When this mysterious culture
with elongated craniums existed.

Radiocarbon dating tells us these skeletons

Are between 5,000 and 12,000 years old.

Along with these skeletons, we
found a wealth of material objects,

Grave goods, decorative pieces.

[narrator] these few artifacts hint at
this enigmatic culture being pioneers.

So these individuals in
ancient chinese society

Appear to be rather special.

From what we can tell,
they were hunter gatherers,

They had a decent diet,

And they made unique,
technically sophisticated pottery,

All suggesting that they
were an advanced culture.

[narrator] but these
neolithic people left no clues

Why some of their heads
became so bizarrely misshapen.

The length of these heads
is clearly out of the ordinary,

But one of the things
that could explain this,

Is a chronic bone condition,
like osteoporosis or arthritis.

But one that can actually
cause reshaping of the skull

Is called paget's disease.

[narrator] but osteo
pathologists are not convinced,

Believing severe skull elongation

Is beyond paget's capabilities.

Paget's disease usually causes a thickening

Or a widening of the bones
rather than a lengthening.

When we look at the ct scans, we
can see that there was no bone disease.

They're absolutely healthy bones.

So there must be another explanation.

What's happened here?

[narrator] an ancient
burial site in northeast china

Has yielded 11 bizarrely deformed skulls.

To find more clues
why, scientists go digital,

Building a 3d model from
one of the cone skulls' data.

In the forensics lab,

This allows archaeologist karen bellinger

To explore the skull in a
way never achieved before.

[karen] I'm looking at
one of the cone skulls.

This one is a female, 35 years of age.

When compared to a regular human skull,

You can really see how
much more egg shaped it is.

The human skull is made
of eight cranial bones.

The three largest are the
frontal, parietal and occipital.

Looking at our cone skull,
you can see clear areas

That are flattened in the
frontal, here, and occipital, here.

This Fl*ttening is so extreme,
it points to just one thing.

Intentional cranial modification.

The dead giveaway is that the
flattened bones are roughly parallel,

Suggesting that external
pressure was applied,

Squashing the skull from top to bottom.

What we're seeing here can only happen

In the first few years of childhood,

When the cranial bones
are soft and malleable.

This is a model of a child's skull.

One of the most popular methods

Was to bind planks with a piece of cloth.

This was continuously
tightened like a crude vice,

Compressing the skull into
this unnatural, elongated shape.

Given one of these skulls
dates back 12,000 years,

It's among the oldest evidence we have

For intentional cranial modification.

That's amazing.

[narrator] forcibly reshaping human skulls

Has been recorded in a
surprising array of ancient cultures.

[sascha] the mayans
practiced it, the incas practice it.

Some south pacific
island cultures practiced it.

In europe, the practice, it was most common

Where you had people that
had migrated from central asia.

[kiki] for some native
american tribes, like the chinook,

A purposefully flattened
forehead was a sign of freedom.

[narrator] but precious little was known

About neolithic cranial
manipulation in china.

Until this astonishing
houtaomuga discovery.

This could be ground zero for
cranial manipulation across the region.

It may have started
here, and then spread out

Over hundreds and thousands of years.

[sascha] but we're still
left with the question,

Why were these ancient chinese
people modifying their skulls?

What was the goal here?

[narrator] a clue lies in the artifacts

Accompanying the cone-skulled individuals.

The owners of these skulls

Were buried with lavish grave goods.

And when we see, as archaeologists,

Lavish grave goods
and cranial modification,

This points to elite status.

In this moment of the neolithic world,

Class and status are
becoming evermore important.

Village leaders want to set themselves
apart from the rest of the pack.

[narrator] not only could
the houtaomuga elite

Be the oldest cranial modifiers,

They're also the longest,

Practicing this curious custom
for a staggering 7,000 years.

Longer than any other culture.

I, for one, am happy

This practice has not
caught on in modern society.

I kind of like my head
the way it is right now.

[narrator] southern iraq.

Salvaged from the
remains of an ancient city,

A clay tablet filled with bewildering text.

[sheila] this small clay tablet

Is only about five-and-a-half
by three inches,

So it's like a postcard size.

But on it are all sorts of markings.

It looks like mystical writing and
pictures that are almost indecipherable.

[narrator] the only clue
is this tablet is babylonian,

A relic from this sophisticated
bronze age society.

This clay block has defied
explanation for almost a century.

It is such an unfathomable mystery

That many people have given
up even trying to find the truth.

[narrator] ninety percent of cuneiform
text like this have never been translated,

Their secrets locked
away for over 3,000 years.

[sascha] if we can understand its contents,

This tablet could change the way we see

One of the most important
of all the ancient civilizations.

[narrator] now, after
centuries of fruitless analysis,

A chance encounter finally unravels
its groundbreaking significance.

This was the discovery that
shook the mathematical world,

An invention so far ahead of its
time, that it could barely be true.

[narrator] archaeologists are puzzling
over a 3,800-year-old clay tablet.

It's true meaning proving elusive
since it was first discovered.

In 1920, the tablet came to the attention

Of the irrepressible american
archaeologist, edgar j. Banks.

[karen] banks isn't just an archaeologist,

He's a bit of an adventurer.

He's the real life inspiration

For indiana jones, for goodness sakes.

[sheila] banks turned his
attention to the middle east,

Which, at the time, was
controlled by the ottoman empire,

And they had very little interest

In trying to control the antiquities trade

Such as it was,

Which was good news for banks.

[narrator] banks
acquires a pile of tablets.

One is partially destroyed and
crammed with bizarre markings.

Banks immediately recognizes
that these markings on the tablet

Are babylonian numerals.

The babylonians were avid record keepers

About their assets and business dealings,

Legal dealings, you name it.

So when banks first looks at it,

He thinks it's just a
simple ledger of numbers.

[narrator] babylonia's
mastery of accounting

Enables legendary rulers like hammurabi

To turn babylon into a dazzling
jewel of the ancient world.

Babylon was an
extraordinarily sophisticated city.

There were massive tiled
palaces and walls around the city,

Ziggurats so tall, that
they even give rise to tales,

Like the tower of babel that
reached so high into the heavens,

That god himself was angry.

[narrator] stories circulate about
babylon's mythical structures,

Like the tower of babel
and the hanging gardens.

But banks is not enchanted
by his damaged tablet

And what secrets it might contain.

One of the problems with the tablet is that

It's actually missing the
upper left hand corner.

Because this piece was missing,

Banks sells it on to a us collector

Alongside five other tablets

For the grand total of $10.

[narrator] the broken tablet
gathers dust for two decades.

Then, post world w*r ii,

A renowned mathematician
and a serologist team up

And make an astounding discovery.

By examining the 60 inscribed
numerals on the clay tablet,

They determined that those figures

Have very specific
mathematical significance.

They are pythagorean triples.

[narrator] pythagorean triples
are sets of whole numbers

That fulfill the formula
for a right angled triangle.

They fit the kind of equation a squared
plus b squared equals c squared.

[narrator] today, it's eighth grade math,


groundbreaking calculator.

What's remarkable is that the
invention of pythagorean triples

Is usually attributed to
pythagoras, hence the name.

But this tablet predates
pythagoras, by about 1,000 years.

[sascha] what the tablet suggests

Is that the babylonians had
advanced mathematical knowledge,

Centuries before that
knowledge was formally introduced

And spread around the world.

[narrator] it reveals
the ancient babylonians

Were geniuses of geometry,

Light years ahead of their time.

It's always an exciting discovery

When we find evidence

Of an advanced technology much earlier

Than we thought existed.

This babylonian tablet, the
math on it is so advanced,

It's like finding an accurate
compass on a viking ship.

[narrator] but one curious issue remains.

Beyond accurately calculating triangles,

What was the complex
math on this tablet used for?

Nobody could figure this out.

Then, in 2017,

Almost a century after the
tablet was first discovered,

An australian mathematician
takes up the challenge.

[karen] daniel mansfield
comes across the tablet,

He's been scouting around, looking for
a subject for his mathematical studies.

Immediately gripped, mansfield
begins to study babylonian mathematics,

And reads up all he can
on the past interpretations.

[sascha] mansfield is really amazed

Because when he looks at this tablet,

It's a perfect trigonometric
tool for engineers

For surveying or architectural purposes.

You can use it to create
very accurate right angles,

Which are perfect for measuring
height from a fixed point.

It's a great little design tool,

Allowing the babylonians to take control

Of the physical world around them.

[narrator] today, academics
are divided over the true potency

Of this humble tablet.

Some believe it was a
tool to enrich the kingdom.

Up until now, we know
that the ancient babylonians

Were known for having accurate
measurements of parcels of land.

Now we know how they
were able to calculate those.

This is something no civilization
could have done before,

And it changes the way the
civilization is laid out and controlled

And, most importantly, for the king, taxed.

[narrator] others believe it
had a more exalted purpose,

Turning impossible dreams into reality.

For centuries, the babylonians
have been almost synonymous

With mythical tower of babel.

But we've doubted whether it'd be possible

For them to actually
build the soaring tower.

The architecture and the
mathematical precision

Needed to create such a structure

Would seem to be beyond
the babylonians' ability,

But this tablet might actually
change that view forever.

I mean, maybe it wasn't just
a legend. Maybe it was real

Now that we've found this tool

And we know that they could
create these accurate right triangles,

This would have allowed them

To build much greater structures

Than was possible for any other
ancient civilization that we know about.

[narrator] the babylonian legacy

Is now considered so far-reaching,

It's thought tablets like this

Help the world build bigger and bolder.

So what starts with this humble clay tablet

Ends with the soaring
concrete canyons of manhattan,

The graceful arches of
the golden gate bridge.

It all comes down to
these tools of trigonometry,

And if we ever reach the stars,

It's going to be trigonometry
that gets us there.