01x03 - Secrets of Skull Grave

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] digital technology
probes mutilated skulls

From south america

And exposes a sickening reign of terror.

A death this gruesome would freak you out.

Why were these people so
poorly treated, even in death?

[narrator] advanced 3d imagery

Decodes a prehistoric battle in new mexico,

Uncovering a 12,000-year-old mystery.

What kind of an animal could have made

Such large footprints
that appear to just vanish?

[narrator] an optical
luminescence finally unveils

The identity of the cerne giant.

[man] is he a roman god?
Is he an english warrior?

Is he a fertility symbol?
Nobody knows for sure.

[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] ...And 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] ...F rom the
ancient unexplained files.

Iglesia, colorada, Northern chile.

Archaeologists excavating
an historic settlement

Make a chilling discovery.

[dr. Allan maca] we have a bunch
of badly-decomposed human heads,

Most likely the result of decapitation.

But even more disturbing is how

They seem to have been treated.

The fact they've been discarded

With like, household
refuse is really grisly.

[maca] these skulls were found not far

From an actual burial ground.

So it's intriguing that you have,

On the one hand, burials
with a high level of respect

Very near to a garbage pit
with skulls just dumped in.

[narrator] deepening the mystery,

The discarded skulls
share a gruesome feature.

[maca] four of the skulls have
holes punctured through the top.

This appears to be a
deliberate, brutal act.

[narrator] now, can
advances in cranial forensics

Piece together the puzzle to reveal

What really happened to
these butchered victims?

These people have been badly mutilated.

We have to ask, "why were they k*lled

In an act of deliberate humiliation?"

[narrator] archaeologists make
their grisly discovery in 2003

When digging a 500-year-old
indigenous diaguita settlement.

The brutalized skulls remain
a mystery for over a decade.

Then, in 2017, A chilean team investigates.

They start by building a victim profile.

We learn the sex and the age by observing

The characteristics of the skull.

By looking at the cranial suture fusion,

Which is when the bones
of the skull fused together,

They do this in a very specific order,

Depending on the age.

In this case, the skulls belong to women

Who are between the age of 16 to 30.

But there is one which is a juvenile,

A child just 12 years old.

[narrator] next, radiocarbon testing
determines when these victims died.

It's possible to date these
skulls quite accurately,

And a date of the early


So this is a very interesting period

Because it lies at the
height of the inca empire.

[narrator] during this period,
the inca ruled from modern-day

Columbia down to chile,

Encompassing iglesia, colorada.

[horton] now, the inca empire

Was an extraordinary phenomenon.

It was trying to
expand its territory limits

The whole time, but was meeting

Local resistance along its tentacles.

One possibility is that
the skulls are deposited

As a result of conflict

Between the indigenous culture and the inca

Who are trying to
expand their frontier south.

[narrator] but some believe
this isn't inca butchery.

Instead, they suspect
the mysterious skull holes

Are a medical procedure

Designed to save life, Not end it.

The holes in the skulls
were made in a very precise

And almost methodical way.

Could these have been
the result of trepanation?

Trepanation was quite widely employed

In pre-columbian american societies.

There are 2 ways in which
this would be achieved.

The first with a knife
and in this part of america,

They're probably using an obsidian knife,

A very hard volcanic
glass that you can run round

The top of the head
slowly and gradually grind

The bone away.

Alternatively, you could use a drill

And then remove the disc in that way.

It's possible that the inca

Were using trepanation
for medicinal reasons,

To treat head wounds, epilepsy

And possibly even severe headaches.

[narrator] the inca were masters of this

Complex procedure.

It's claimed they achieved

An incredible 80% success rate.

Examples of trepanated skulls
have been found in and around

The ancient inca capital of cuzco.

It's possible that these
surgical techniques

Might have spread to the far reaches,

For example, into chile.

What's quite clear is in the skulls,

These holes, edges are very
rough and rather crudely made.

[narrator] the debate has raged for decades

With no concrete answer found until now.

Cutting-edge digital technology scans

The surviving bone fragments

To recreate an entire 3d skull.

Our digital forensics lab allows bio medic

Greg szulgit to analyze the results.

Okay, so we've got a
brilliant 3d model here,

Which is wonderful.

We can see that there's this hole here,

And it may have been made by trepanation.

Except that, trepanation,

Even back in ancient incan times

Was a very delicate surgery.

Really careful, small cuts had to be made.

But a red flag for me

Are these three distinct fracture lines

That radiate out from the hole.

So something's off.

That's not typical of trepanation.

That implies a violent impact.

So I think it's some kind of pressure blow,

Maybe made with
something like a sharp chisel.

So let's look for some confirmation.

The nice thing about a 3d model is that

We can dive inside of it.

So here we go.

Ah! Yes. Okay, so this tells us something.

There is this inward-sloping
internal beveling right here,

And that is a classic sign
of a hard, violent impact.

Okay, this was definitely not trepanation,

Because these three fracture lines

Coming off of the hole

Indicate that it was not a fatal blow.

There was not much deformation of the bone.

When living bone is struck,
the pieces bend and deform.

So it's difficult to put
them back together.

However, in this case,
there's no deformation.

They fit together just
like a jigsaw puzzle,

So, these were dry and
brittle when they were struck.

So that tells us that this victim

Was already dead for quite some time.

Why would somebody bash holes into these

Young women's skulls after they had died?

If we can answer that,

We will have solved the mystery.

[narrator] investigators
continue to study the evidence

And discover a clue
that exposes the violence

Of an incan practice.

These four victims give a great insight

Into the inca empire
and the lengths at which

They would go to protect their power.

This is the stuff of horror movies.

[narrator] in chile, investigators are

Struggling to figure out

Why four young females
from the inca era had holes

Punched into their skulls after they died.

They turn to their last source of clues.

The victim's teeth.

[valentine] we see lines across the teeth,

Bands of thin enamel from
periods of poor nutrition.

So these women are in pretty bad health.

The victims probably
suffered from malnutrition

And infectious diseases.

Because teeth should
be growing consistently,

If it's a period of malnutrition,

There will be an abrupt line

Across the tooth where growth
has stopped for a short while.

Then, when the growth
continues, that line remains.

It's almost like the
rings inside a tree trunk.

[narrator] malnourished
individuals were more likely

To be deemed expendable by the inca.

And this may have sealed
these young women's fate.

[maca] the most viable theory now is that

These women were m*rder*d

And punctures made in the skulls

So that the skulls could be strung up

As presentations of power and terror.

[hoffman] the community
at iglesia, colorada

Was a site that was rich with copper mines.

And so, in a way, it makes sense

That if you're going to string up victims

To terrorize your populous,

You'd do so with malnourished women,

Rather than waste strong, capable men.

By stringing up these heads of young women,

It could have been deliberate humiliation

By the incas to keep people in line.

[narrator] tales of sporadic uprisings

By the indigenous diaguita

Make this outcome even more compelling.

This was probably an area
at the edge of the inca empire.

What we can say is that these heads

Were probably placed on public display

In order to cow and subjugate

Like, a population to inca rule.

Seeing mutilated heads
hanging in your village

Will make you think twice
about causing trouble.

[narrator] it seems
once these victims' heads

Had served their purpose,

They were just thrown out

With the garbage and left to rot.

[hoffman] modern science has revealed that

These mysterious and gruesome skulls

Fit into a much bigger
picture of the power struggle

And the tactics used to control people

In the incan empire

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] cerne abbas, England.

Standing proud on an english hillside,

A 180-foot-tall chalk giant

Wielding a club and giant phallus.

So cerne abbas giant is
one of the most interesting

And debated archaeological
sites in southern britain.

[narrator] despite being
such a famous landmark,

No one knows who the
naked giant represents.

Southern England has a
lot of other chalk figures.

Kings, there's a horse
that's 3000 years old.

But this is the largest figure
and the most mysterious.

[narrator] now, can 21st century science

Finally unmask this secretive character

And reveal his identity?

Historians have argued
about this for years.

Is he a roman god? Is
he an english warrior?

Is he a fertility symbol?
Nobody knows for sure.

[narrator] these are
questions some of the best

Academic minds have
wrestled with for centuries.

For some, the sheer scale of the man

And his manhood points to one conclusion.

[horton] the cerne abbas
giant is very graphic.

So this has led people to suggest

That this is representative
of some fertility god

Because of the sheer size of the p*nis.

The name cerne actually derives

From cernunnos who is a celtic god

Of masculinity and fertility,

Which seems an appropriate name

For someone who is this well-endowed.

Typically, the deity cernunnos
is depicted with antlers.

The chalk giant has no antlers,

But that might not always be the case.

[narrator] archaeologists
have long wondered

If hidden clues to the giant's identity

Lie abandoned under the grass.

Over centuries, the turf
has been continually re-cut

To stop nature reclaiming him.

This even led to an
involuntary enhancement.

[horton] originally, the
p*nis was a little shorter

And between 1900-1910,

When it was re-cut, it was re-cut in error.

To slightly increase the
size of the offending member.

And so, we don't know
exactly what we see today is

What was originally cut into the hillside

[narrator] to check if
any identifying features

Have been buried over time,

The team employs a technique

Known as electrical resistivity.

Metal probes send electrical currents

Underground to detect disturbances.

Sheer physics suggests
that under his left arm,

We have remains of a feature

Which looks like a cloth or skin

Hanging down

And that's led people to
suggest that this is a figure

Of hercules

Brandishing a club and over his arm,

The skin of the nemean lion

Which he k*lled in greek mythology.

[narrator] if this is a depiction
of the legendary hercules,

It would be an insult.

This fabled son of jupiter

Is a roman god, an all-time hero.

[horton] but it does present problems,

Because why would you represent hercules

In this very caricature
fashion with a gigantic p*nis?

[narrator] advanced science
is trying to uncover the identity

Of one of british history's
most puzzling figures.

The cerne abbas giant.

Tests indicate it may be the
legendary figure of hercules.

With the arrival of the romans in britain,

The god hercules is very popular.

And it's a figure that is very present

And visible as a naked warrior with a club.

[narrator] but further proof is needed.

So investigators turned to
an ingenious dating technique

Called optically stimulated luminescence.

[horton] osl works out when a sediment

Was last exposed to the air,

And you can measure the
luminescence of the soil,

And that gives you a very accurate date

Of when it was buried.

[narrator] but sourcing
original chalk for dating

Presents an unexpected problem.

[horton] the figure has been renewed

Over the centuries,

Which involved ramming
in new layers of chalk

As older layers are washed away

[narrator] as the ground
teams scour the figure

For traces of original chalk,

They spot a strange anomaly.

The chalk around the elbow and the feet

Is thicker than the rest of the body.

Rainwater has continually
flushed through the site,

So it's pushed the original
chalk to the extremities,

And that's the best place
to find the original chalk.

[narrator] this could be the
crucial breakthrough needed.

The team excavate and
make a startling discovery.

[arya] in the debris,
they find snail shells,

And that's not that unusual
for southern England.

But what's really weird
is that it's of a species

That's non-native to England.

[narrator] a series of tests
confirm these alien snails

Are cernuella virgata or vineyard snails.

Crucially, they offer a
chance to narrow down

The age of the chalk giant.

They're believed to have been accidentally

Introduced to the british isles

In the 12th or 13th century

In packing materials like straw.

So what this tells us
is that this cerne giant

Can't predate the arrival of these snails.

[narrator] this new evidence
stuns the archaeological community.

The cerne giant is now
likely to be medieval.

Centuries younger than
anyone thought possible.

Armed with this new information,

Investigators scour local records

After the 12th century.

There is not a single
reference of the giant

Until the late 17th century.

And indeed, there is a very detailed map

Which dates to 1617,

That omits any mention
of this hill figure at all.

So taking those two bits of evidence,

The giant must have been created

During that gap between 1694 and 1617.

[narrator] this suggests the
cerne giant was first carved

During the english civil w*r.

Then, a power struggle raged

Between supporters of the monarchy

And those favoring parliament.

It made parliament's
leader, oliver cromwell,

A hugely divisive and hated figure.

[horton] so, to me, the
most likely explanation

Is the whole thing is a massive
parody on oliver cromwell.

We know that the cerne abbas land owner

Was a man called
denzil holles. Lord holles.

Now, he rapidly fell
out with oliver cromwell,

Who he believed to be a tyrant.

Cromwell was known as the new hercules.

And so, holles,

In this remote bit of dorset,
in order to parody cromwell,

Put this figure up of a
naked oliver cromwell

Shown as hercules with a very large p*nis.

The whole thing is a
massive 17th-century joke.

[narrator] white sands
national monument, new mexico.

The sight of a truly baffling phenomenon.

[maca] in white sands,
there are these strange lines

Of sort of footprints

That appear and then seem to vanish.

[dr. Andrew kinkella] there's
been all kinds of wild speculation.

They are a series of depressions

About the size of a trash can lid.

This really boggles the mind.

What they point to is
something quite large.

[narrator] incredibly,
the prints appear to come

From two different mystery giants.

[maca] the others footprints
have an unusual shape

Of a kind of indented oval.

But they're also really
large, like two feet long.

[kinkella] they also have hook marks,

And they all point in the same direction.

[narrator] no animal roaming
the united states today

Comes close to matching
these enormous tracks.

And more bizarre is human
footprints are also present.

The pattern of the human
footprints are really interesting.

A couple feet apart

And what this means is this
was probably contemporary.

It all happened at around same time.

[narrator] now, scientists hope
the latest digital scanning technology

Can finally unearth,

What exactly is going on at white sands.

[maca] this creates so many questions.

What secrets are hidden
in this haunting wilderness?

[narrator] at white sands
national monument,

Two colossal sets of tracks

Have left experts thoroughly bemused.

These prints were first spotted in
the 1930's by a government tracker.

In the decades since,

Their fleeting appearances
only added to their intrigue.

[maca] depending on the time of year

And the amount of moisture in the air,

Which would or would not draw salt

To the surface of the ground,

These footprints vanish and appear,

And that's also why
they're called ghost tracks.

[vranich] they seem to defy explanation.

To understand more, we need to record them

Before they completely vanish.

[narrator] in 2017, the prints
make another rare appearance.

Scientists rushed to the scene
with photogrammetry technology.

Taking hundreds of photographs,

They comprehensively
map one of the circular prints.

[vranich] using this technology in making

These photo-realistic models

Gives us a much greater
idea of what we're looking at.

It's become a very important
tool for archaeologists.

[narrator] photogrammetry is used to create

A 3d model of the print.

The digital lab enables
archaeologist karen bellinger

To study it for clues.

What we're looking at
here is a print in the mud,

And it acts like a cast

With a load of useful information.

Taking this down to ground level,

You can see this ridge here
where the front of the foot

Pressed into the mud, and it was

Obviously something pretty hefty,

Because the mud squashed
outward, creating a crater.

That is much larger than
the actual print inside.

It's oval in shape, and if I
apply my measuring tool,

We see it's 28 inches across.

What it looks like to me is an elephant,

Specifically a mature bull elephant.

We can actually make a print comparison

By taking a radar image of mud compression

Beneath our mystery print and comparing it

To pressure data from a modern elephant.

If we look here, the red
highest pressure areas

Are both concentrated forward
and to the side of the prints.

We know elephants never
roamed north america,

But this evidence shows
us that a close relative did.

The columbian mammoth.

But there's one thing that's
been bugging me throughout.

It's this weird anomaly in the 3d image.

So if we can angle it a bit,

And I can bump the contrast
and up the resolution...

That's extraordinary!

A human footprint
overlaying a mammoth print.

I have certainly never seen
anything like this before.

It's clear proof of early
humans and mammoths

Sharing the same
territory at the same time.

[mammoth bellows]

[narrator] at 14 feet tall and eight tons,

The columbian mammoth is

The woolly mammoth's less hairy cousin.

But it's equally formidable.

The forensics lab revelation
raises an intriguing question.

Were mammoths a danger to humans,

Or vice versa?

We know from a lot of
archaeological evidence

That humans were using mammoth meat

And also their bones.

But were human scavenging or hunting?

[roaring]

[narrator] investigators
use ground-penetrating radar

To locate the second set of tracks

With hook marks found at white sands.

[maca] so these footprints
have an unusual kidney shape.

They're also really large

And really far apart.

What could this have been?

Well, looking at the
pleistocene megafauna record,

There's a really good candidate,

And that's the giant ground sloth.

Their unusual walking style

Is what gives us these
kidney-shaped footprints.

[narrator] unlike today's
slow-moving sloths,

The 12-foot-high ice age giant sloth

Is a terrifying predator

With long, razor-sharp claws.

Archaeologists map out
the sloth and human imprints.

Remarkably, there are human footprints

Set inside those of the giant sloth.

It is as if the human is stalking it.

As the humans approach,

The sloth seems to change direction.

The curved slash marks being made

Only when humans are near.

It's strong evidence

That there's a group of humans

Hunting and attacking giant sloths.

[maca] if we can fairly
conclude that humans were

Hunting giant ground sloths,

We can extrapolate and say

They were probably hunting
the columbian mammoth as well.

[kinkella] this white
sands site is amazing.

What we have here are
humans, sloths and mammoths,

All in the same vicinity

In what appears to be a battle royale.

-[men shouting] -[roaring]

[narrator] but 12,000 years ago,

Only one of these species
was hunting in packs

With fire and stone-tipped spears.

Amid the fierce megafauna,

Humans were becoming the apex predator.

One of the great mysteries

In the archaeology of human prehistory

Is what happened to the
great pleistocene megafauna

That appeared to just vanish.

The extinction event does
not happen all at once.

It begins in africa and
then bleeds into europe

And out into the americas.

Across the globe, thousands
of species are wiped out.

In north america, half of all
large mammal species vanished,

Including the giant sloth
and the woolly mammoth.

[maca] one of the leading theories

Is the so-called overkill hypothesis.

That these megafauna died off

As a direct result of
the arrival of humans.

[mammoth bellowing]

[maca] while it seems a stretch

To say that the extinction
was due entirely to humans,

The evidence we're now
seeing from the footprints

At the white sands national monument

Gives us a pretty strong indication

That humans did play a part.

-[men shouting] -[roaring]

[narrator] mount vesuvius, Italy.



Of the roman town herculaneum,

Obliterated by the famous

Volcanic eruption of 79 ce.

In a crumbling, ornate villa,

They come across something startling.

[valentine] the skeleton is scorched

And covered by black shiny material.

This weird, glassy substance.

The chest bones are coated

In a strange, solidified, porous mask.

It bamboozles everyone.

Nothing like this has been seen

With any other victim of the eruption.

[ruben] it's just like some alien substance

That's somehow been deposited there.

It's hard to tell if they're natural

Or some kind of manmade item.

[narrator] a dding further intrigue

Is how the man was discovered.

[yeomans] the body
was found in a small room

Off of a great hall.

One of the mysterious things is that

He's found face down on a bed.

It would appear that
he didn't try to escape.

[narrator] now, cutting-edge
science attempts

To decipher 2000-year-old clues...

The glass substance is
not just around the head,

But it's inside it,
coating the inner skull.

[narrator] ...And resolve what this shiny

Black material consists of.

[dr. Sian proctor] studies
have shown that vesuvius

Didn't directly deposit this
glassy material along with the ash,

So it must have come from somewhere else.

[narrator] archaeologists are
investigating a strange, glassy substance

Found on a victim from
vesuvius' 17 ce eruption.

You'd think it was volcanic
glass from the blast,

But it's only specific
to this one small area.

[narrator] initially, they wonder whether

A smashed ornament explains these shards.

Herculaneum was actually
quite a wealthy, important town

From the quality of the architecture.

Also, things like statues and vessels

And other sort of special objects.

[narrator] many artworks
are created from obsidian,

A volcanic black glass
that closely resembles

The mysterious substance.

[hassett] we know that
vessels made of obsidian,

Were prestigious and
very popular in this period.

However, the actual context

Wherein the individual was found

Doesn't seem as prestigious

And high status as the rest of the villas.

So, it's not incredibly likely

That a high-status vessel like that

Would be found with this person.

[narrator] still baffled,
investigators examine

The body more closely.

This not only reveals horrific charring,

But a jagged three-inch fracture

Along the back of the skull.

It appears that the roof collapsed

And it caused volcanic ash to
flood in and smother them out.

The fracture can be explained

By the falling masonry from the ceiling,

But the glassy substance is a real puzzle.

It doesn't seem to be
connected to the roof collapse.

[narrator] as all visual
clues hit dead ends,

The team turns to the
latest cutting-edge science.

First, they use a new technique,

Gas chromatography mass spectrometry,

To test the weird, spongy material

Found on the man's chest.

It's an incredibly powerful technique.

The gas chromatography separates
out the c*ck of molecules

So they can be individually analyzed.

The mass spectrometry tells us

What these different molecules are.

[narrator] the results confirm the presence

Of biological molecules
in the porous substance.

[ruben] it contains a
mixture of different fatty acids,

And these are substances
often found in animal cells.

This tells you that it might have come

From the man's tissues,
possibly his heart or lungs.

[narrator] these biological
traces are evidence

The mysterious, spongy substance

Is in fact, his internal organs.

They must have been obliterated

By the intense heat of the eruption.

It's as if this man was
put into a blast furnace.

His flesh and blood
literally burnt to a crisp.

It's clear that extreme heat can transform

A human body in horrific ways.

The black, glassy material

Could be just another example of this.

[narrator] scientists perform
more mass spectrometry

And protein tests on the strange,

Glassy shards in the skull.

The results are even more jaw-dropping,

[ruben] just like the substance
found around the chest,

The glassy substance in
the head contains fatty acids,

But some proteins that are
specific to the human brain.

The conclusion is this must
be a vitrified human brain

That is almost 2000 years old.

[valentine] finding brain
matter that has been

Vitrified into glass is almost unheard of.

[narrator] a search of
medical science records

Reveals a similar phenomenon did occur

With b*mb casualties in world w*r ii.

So the burn characteristics of this body

In herculaneum can be compared

To accounts of the victims

Of the firebombing of dresden and hamburg.

[narrator] in 1945,

Allied bombers dropped 3,800 tons of bombs

On dresden, germany.

The subsequent firestorm
reached an estimated



And k*lled 25,000 people.

[yeomans] allied soldiers
described chambers

In which they found, not exactly bodies,

But more of a collection of
bone and scorched material

Held together by this sort of hardened,

Jelly-type substance.

[narrator] to determine if the heat

From vesuvius' volcanic blast

Could have vitrified this man's brains,

Scientists need to know the
temperature his room reached.

They use a process known
as charcoal reflectance analysis

On burnt wood surrounding the body

[proctor] wood exposed to
heat will actually transform

Into charcoal by carbonization

When there's no air.

[narrator] the higher the
heat the wood is exposed to,

The more reflective the
resulting charcoal becomes.

A microscope is used to fire a light beam

At a polished charcoal
sample from herculaneum.

And then we compare how reflective it is

Against controlled samples.

From this test, we can see
that the wood was exposed

To almost 1,000 degrees fahrenheit.

That is hot enough to
create this glassy substance.

[narrator] can this strange material

Really be an ancient, vitrified brain?

It seems to stretch
the realm of possibility.

[ruben] the whole series
of events is like something

Out of a twisted hollywood movie.

It's not a pleasant way to go.

[narrator] did a superheated blast
from vesuvius' infamous eruption

Cook a man's brain
into fragile black glass?



Has proved it's a distinct possibility.

The whole series of
events is like something

Out of a twisted hollywood movie.

The fatty acids in his tissues ignited

And his body melted.

And then, sudden cooling causes the brain

To crystallize in the
form that we see it now.

It's not a pleasant way to go.

The man with a glass
brain is truly remarkable.

A world first

And another addition to
vesuvius' litany of horrors.

[narrator] at a mountain
range outside tel aviv, israel.

A highway construction team

Accidentally break
through into a hidden cave.

[dr. Sascha auerbach]
in the cave, they find

Flint tools and blades,

Which are evidence of inhabitation

By late stone age humans.

[narrator] among a host of
standard stone age artifacts,

Is something that astounds
local archaeologists.

Twenty-nine almost
perfectly spherical stone ba*ls.

[woman] these stone ba*ls

Are roughly the size of a baseball.

You can see that they've
been carved and shaped.

What makes these stone
ba*ls particularly baffling

Is that there doesn't appear to be

Any rational use for them.

Are they decorative sculptures
or an extension of cave art?

Did these cave dwellers

Engage in some kind of
ancient game or something?

[narrator] now, half a million years later,

A new scientific investigation

Attempts to unravel this mystery.

There must be something seriously special

About these old stone ba*ls.

What is their purpose?

Could the mystery help us understand

Our ancient ancestors better?

[narrator] i@

These odd stone spheres

Prove an extremely tough case to crack.

Scientists can't date these old stone ba*ls

Because they're made of stone.

Radiocarbon dating won't work.

None of the common methods were working.

[narrator] investigators
look to the cave itself

For clues to when these stone ba*ls

Might have been in use.

[auerbach] they find remains
of a herbivorous animal,

Possibly something eaten
by the cave's inhabitants.

And this is a real game changer.

Because now, we can use science

To accurately date the age

In which the cave was inhabited,

And therefore to date the items

That we find in the cave.

This reveals that the cave was inhabited

Between 420,000 years ago

To 200,000 years ago.

[narrator] further geological
analysis of the ba*ls

Has another secret to reveal.

[proctor] archaeologists
focus on the ball's patina,

A film that builds on the surface

Of the object through age.

Analyzing under a microscope,

Show that the patina
on the ba*ls is very thick,

Whereas the patina on the
cave's limestone walls is thin.

This indicates that these ba*ls

Predate the occupation of this cave

And were brought here from somewhere else.

[jacob wright] the
likely assumption is that

They were collected from
older stone age settlements

Abandoned thousands of years prior.

These ba*ls must have been highly-prized

By the ancient cave dwellers.

[narrator] as these ba*ls
grow ever more mysterious,

A leading investigative lab in rome, Italy,

Scours them for microscopic clues.

The forensic team finds something of note.

Traces of wear.

Tiny spots of polish
at different orientation,

Which shows that these stones

Were being used to beat
something repeatedly.

[narrator] the latest
digital imaging microscope

Gives 500 times zoom

With unexpected results.

These cutting-edge microscopes

Reveal minute traces of residues

On the angular ridges

From when these stone ba*ls were carved.

Tests reveal that these
residues are spongy bone,

Animal fatty matters and collagen.

Collagen is a protein that
helps to strengthen bones.

[narrator] this astonishing revelation

Suggests stone age people

Were smashing animal bones

To access their marrow.

To prove this beyond doubt,

Lab technicians set up a primitive

Bone bludgeoning test.

The team decide to
create replica stone ba*ls

And then smashed sheep
and cow bones to bits.

[woman] yes! [laughs]

Crucially, the tests show
that the replica stones

Collected residue on the same areas

As the original stone ba*ls.

[narrator] the evidence is overwhelming.

[woman] you can see the marrow.

[narrator] the cave dwellers
were using these carved stones

To extract nutritionally-rich bone marrow,

Vital in their desperate
battle for survival.

These hunter-gatherers would have lived

A hand to mouth existence.

After a long day hunting,

This marrow would have
provided a vital energy source

Just like the bone
broth people drink today.

[proctor] you can picture
these stone age humans

Sitting around the fire,

Sucking out that marrow
and smacking their lips.

[auerbach] their use of these stone ba*ls

For the extraction of marrow
is a real game changer

In terms of the development
of our ancient ancestors.

Better nourished hunter-gatherers

Can spend less time chasing their next meal

And more time chasing
their next development

In the process of progress
and eventual evolution.