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00:00In the burning sands of northern Africa, beneath a hot desert sun, a powerful kingdom thrived
00:10for thousands of years.
00:14Strong kings and queens built massive temples and buried their dead in pyramid-shaped tombs.
00:21But this is not Egypt, and the people who made these monuments were not ancient Egyptians.
00:28This is the Sudan, the largest country in Africa and the birthplace of Nubia, a golden
00:36kingdom nourished by the Nile.
00:39At that time, it was the largest country of the whole world.
00:43It was an empire, a real empire.
00:46An empire with a language that scholars still can't read.
00:50Lost in the shadows, the history of ancient Nubia has remained a mystery until now.
01:01You have the chance to find something for the first time.
01:05We're writing the history books right now from the antiquities of this country.
01:10From the ground comes evidence of sacred rituals.
01:19An ancient crime scene.
01:22It looks as if someone has deliberately come and smashed this altar into many, many pieces.
01:32And a ruthless invasion that may have brought down the powerful empire.
01:42Turning detective, these archaeologists will use the tools of their trade to piece together
01:48the final days of a lost city and bring to life a forgotten kingdom, a land called Nubia.
02:04Ancient Nubia began to emerge as a powerful state in what is now Sudan around 2000 BC.
02:11Not long after, the first Egyptian dynasties had forged their own nation farther to the
02:15north.
02:19From the beginning, Nubian rulers and their formidable armies of skilled archers were
02:23perceived by the Egyptians as a force to be reckoned with and a dangerous competitor to
02:29control of the southern reaches of the Nile.
02:32For many years, Egyptian pharaohs held sway over their southern adversaries.
02:39But there came a time when the Nubians turned the tables and conquered Egypt.
02:45Rivals at war, partners in trade, the history of these two nations would be intertwined
02:51for millennia.
02:53Today, it's the Egyptians who bask in the limelight.
02:57But the story of one of their greatest rivals is beginning to emerge from the shadows.
03:05The Nubians were African, sophisticated and artistic.
03:10They flourished independently of Egypt for thousands of years.
03:14Rich veins of gold brought Nubian rulers great wealth.
03:18Artists excelled at fashioning the precious metal into jewelry to adorn their royal patrons.
03:25Ceramics produced by Nubian potters were considered some of the finest in the ancient world.
03:32Nubian architects not only built temples to a unique pantheon of gods, they also revitalized
03:38Egyptian traditions.
03:40Today, Sudan has nearly three times as many pyramids as Egypt.
03:47When I think about all those powerful kings who ruled over the Sudan, I like very much
03:54that those people would have been my ancestors.
03:58Because I feel I am part of them.
04:02In the 1920s, Harvard archaeologist George Reisner excavated Nubia's magnificent tombs
04:08and laid the foundation for a chronology of kings and queens that spans more than a thousand
04:13years.
04:16We have their names, but many of their stories are still lost in the cryptic code of the
04:21Nubian script.
04:23To decipher the language, archaeologists dream of finding a new Rosetta stone, like the one
04:29used to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822.
04:32That would be absolutely fantastic if we were to find such a document.
04:37It's a scholar's dream to find a clue to solve a puzzle like this.
04:44Now a remarkable new site, a lost city in the sand may hold the key to unlocking Nubia's
04:51past.
04:58Archaeologists Julie Anderson and Salah Ahmed must travel 220 miles north of Khartoum.
05:07It takes nine dust-choked hours to reach their destination, the modern village of Dangal.
05:16The site lies hidden beneath mysterious mounds of sand near the center of town.
05:22It's a well-preserved Nubian city, 2,000 years old, and some 24 football fields in size.
05:32European explorers passed through this remote corner of northern Sudan in the 1800s.
05:38They left record of red-brick rubble-strewn mounds.
05:42But it wasn't until Julie and Salah explored the site three years ago that the existence
05:47of an ancient city was finally confirmed.
05:51We started digging, and in the first 20 minutes we found what looked like a floor.
05:57And we started clearing it off, and then we found the edges, and we realized it was a
06:02huge wall we were standing on, it wasn't a floor at all.
06:06It was quite a shock.
06:08We suddenly began to understand that the site was absolutely huge, much, much larger
06:13than we had ever anticipated.
06:21Unearthing the city will take many years, a huge workforce, and the hefting of countless
06:27buckets of sand.
06:32But already, an impressive structure is coming to light.
06:38Beneath one of the central mounds, the team has found the remains of one of the largest
06:43temples in the Sudan.
06:45Julie and Salah don't know exactly when it was built, but they believe it is dedicated
06:50to the supreme god worshipped by both Nubians and Egyptians, the ram-headed Amun.
06:58The foundations to this king of gods have a classic shape, based on the one built by
07:02the Egyptians at Karnak, and the layout of Dangal seems to follow suit.
07:09After several months of hard labor, the workmen have moved over a million pounds of sand,
07:14and exposed one of the finest paved courtyards Salah has ever seen.
07:19I'm actually sitting on the floor of the second courtyard of the temple of Dangal, and as
07:27you see, it is a very beautiful floor, beautifully done, carved in sandstone tiles.
07:37The joints between the tiles are very narrow, and they are really very compact.
07:44It looks fresh, as if it has never been used.
07:53In another part of the temple, Julie has unearthed the remains of a large sandstone
07:58column.
07:59Buried for centuries, carved figures have been protected from the abrasive power of
08:04wind and sand.
08:05He's beautiful.
08:06Got a little belly button.
08:07This is really beautiful.
08:08Yeah.
08:09Very well preserved.
08:10Oh look, he's wearing a little kilt, and he's got a little fat tummy, which is kind
08:17of nice.
08:19And he's got the water jars.
08:21One is here, and the other one's here.
08:23And they're actually pouring water, they're pouring libations, offerings to the god.
08:28Let's clean him off a little bit better there.
08:32In this extreme climate, it's no surprise to find depictions of water offerings in the
08:37temple.
08:41Water is life.
08:43In the heat, particularly in the summer here, when it can be 50 degrees Celsius, water is
08:49an absolutely welcome, welcome offering.
08:54Along with the water-bearing god, Happy, the sandstone column is inscribed with the Nubian's
09:00mysterious text.
09:02The seated man, this is the letter A, and he's got his head here, he's got an arm down,
09:08an arm upraised, and he's sort of crouching, and we know he sounds like ah.
09:15Unfortunately, while we know he starts a lot of words, and we know what he sounds like,
09:22we have no idea what these words mean.
09:25The Nubians devised their new alphabet around 200 BC, when the kingdom was based in the
09:30city of Meroe.
09:32As part of a cultural renaissance, the Meroites, as they are known, replaced Egyptian hieroglyphs
09:38with their own written language.
09:43Until it is deciphered, scholars can only read what other cultures of the time wrote
09:48about the kingdom.
09:50We do have some records about the Meroitic kingdom from outside sources.
09:55There's Greek historians who have written about the kingdom of Meroe, and they had contact
10:00with the Roman Empire and, of course, Egypt.
10:03But we don't have the Meroite's point of view.
10:07If you can read the script, it's the actual people that are talking to you.
10:13They're talking to you about themselves.
10:18What we really need to find is something akin to the Rosetta Stone that was found in Egypt
10:23that helped to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
10:26We need a bilingual text.
10:29The ancient city at Dangale is a likely candidate for having a Rosetta Stone.
10:36Its position on the Nile just south of an area of rapids called the Fifth Cataract ensured
10:41a strategic position at the hub of major trade routes to the African interior.
10:46The Fifth Cataract is rocky and you can't sail through there.
10:49The rocks are so sharp they'll cut the bottom out of your boat.
10:53You have to actually leave the water, go by land, and then rejoin the Nile.
10:57And you rejoin the Nile in the area of Dangale.
11:02Throughout its history, the Nubian kingdom lured traders from afar who coveted goods
11:08like ivory, animal skins, and, of course, gold.
11:15People of many different cultures and languages, Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, all traded
11:22with Nubia.
11:24Many would have passed through Dangale and may have left a bilingual inscription.
11:31But for now, the only avenue to the Nubians' past lies underground.
11:41Here you have to dig, you have to dig dirty, you have to bring things out of the sand to
11:46study them, to draw them, and to make your analysis out of that.
11:55The North African weather doesn't always cooperate.
11:59A few weeks into the dig, a swirling cloud on the horizon means a tough job is about
12:05to get a lot tougher.
12:08The following morning, skies are clear, and with the calm after the storm, comes their
12:14first clue to the origins of the ancient city.
12:18That's great.
12:21Sala.
12:23Yes?
12:25A cartouche.
12:30Only royalty was allowed the privilege of encircling their name with a symbolic oval
12:35shape called a cartouche.
12:37The form of a rope tied together at the end was thought to protect the imperial name from
12:42harm.
12:43And that's what we have here.
12:44We have the bottom of the oval, and this is one of the letters.
12:48Of course, a king's name has many letters, so we just have one tiny clue here.
12:54If we found the name of the king in the sanctuary, that means this is the man who built the temple.
12:59This is a very, very important piece.
13:02Now we need to try and find the rest of the name, and hopefully it'll be here somewhere,
13:06because this piece obviously came off of something.
13:14Though Julie and Sala don't know exactly who built the Amun Temple at Dangal, they suspect
13:19it dates back some 2,000 years to the Meroitic period.
13:24This was Nubia's golden age, when the great kings ruled from Meroe and were buried in
13:30the royal cemetery in tombs with a familiar form.
13:35Influenced by their proximity to Egypt, the Nubians admired the massive tombs at Giza
13:40and began burying their royalty in pyramids of their own.
13:44They adapted the shape, favoring a much steeper-sided pyramid.
13:51Adjoining offering chapels were richly carved with scenes representing the comfortable afterlife
13:56of the king, attended by his many servants.
14:06Not only kings are buried in the pyramids of Meroe.
14:09Early in the 3rd century B.C., a series of strong queens occupied the throne, and may
14:15have been co-regents.
14:18One of the most powerful ruled near the time of Christ, just before the temple at Dangal
14:24was probably constructed.
14:25Amani Sheketa is a really powerful Nubian queen.
14:29She's carrying bows and arrows.
14:31These are traditionally the accoutrements of a man.
14:34She's got prisoners tied up.
14:36There's a good possibility that she actually fought off the Romans.
14:42In 23 B.C., Roman soldiers attacked the Nubian kingdom.
14:47According to their accounts, the Nubian resistance was led by a valiant woman, blind in one eye,
14:54who scholars believe may be Amani Sheketo.
14:57The queen successfully stopped the Romans from overtaking her kingdom, and even brokered
15:05a favorable peace treaty.
15:08Though faint, traces of Amani Sheketo's imposing figure can still be seen on the walls of her
15:14offering chapel.
15:17She's a larger woman, so it shows how powerful she is.
15:20It's also part of the Meroitic impression of beauty.
15:24She's well-fed.
15:26She's wearing a lot of bracelets on her arms, rings on her fingers.
15:32She would have been covered in gold.
15:34She was a very lucky lady to have a lot of this jewelry.
15:38Amani Sheketo's royal cash first came to light in 1834, when an Italian explorer, Giuseppe
15:45Ferlini, traveled to the Sudan, eager, as he claimed, to make some useful contribution
15:51to history.
15:54In fact, he was really searching for gold.
15:59Ferlini hoped to make a fortune selling antiquities back in Europe.
16:03His greed led him to the pyramid fields of Meroe.
16:14According to his diary, Ferlini directed his workmen to dismantle Amani Sheketo's tomb
16:19at nearly a hundred feet high, one of the best preserved in the cemetery.
16:24While his men labored under the punishing rays of the desert sun, Ferlini took it easy
16:29in the shade.
16:33The excitement began when a faithful servant summoned him from the top of the pyramid.
16:40I got up and raced over, my heart filled with hopes of some delightful adventure.
16:48At the summit, Ferlini reported that his men had discovered a chamber hidden beneath the
16:53stones.
16:55From within emerged a bronze bowl filled with objects wrapped in cloths of linen.
17:01Ferlini had hit the jackpot.
17:05As it became evening, I brought the discovered objects to my tent, and after all the servants
17:11had given over to sleep, I pulled out the precious objects and studied them with my
17:15soul filled with joy.
17:20I admired the gold, and on seeing the quantity of it, I realized it had to exceed greatly
17:26all that which I knew was free through the museums of Europe.
17:32Ferlini had discovered a dazzling hoard of jewels.
17:36Today, much of this cash is housed in Munich's Egyptian Museum.
17:41Gold bracelets covered with decorative bands of fused glass, ornamental pendants bearing
17:49images of the gods, and dozens of heavy gold rings, some incised with the figure of Amun.
18:00This is one of the greatest treasures ever found in Nubia, and it gives us a very good
18:04idea of what the kings and the queens would have been wearing at the time.
18:10Though Ferlini's raid did bring the incredible cash to light, a price was paid for the discovery.
18:17The explorer's ruthless quest for gold destroyed Amaneseketo's pyramid.
18:24In the outer courtyard of the Amun Temple at Dangal, another story of destruction may
18:29be unfolding.
18:31These ruins, too, may be the product of something more than just the ravages of time.
18:37This temple seems to have been abandoned for some reason, and we're not quite sure why.
18:41From beneath the ground comes evidence of a catastrophic moment in Dangal's history.
18:46It's part of a roof beam.
18:48It's a long piece of palm wood, but it's been incredibly badly burned.
18:54You can see this is charcoal, and you can see actually little bits of the palm beam
18:58breaking up as it's disintegrating.
19:01We're actually finding the real part of the roof beam that fell in after a big, big fire
19:05in this forecourt.
19:06It must have been a terrible, terrible fire because the burning is so extensive.
19:15You can see traces of this fire on the columns, on the floor, and we actually have a piece
19:21of it preserved.
19:23Finding an extensive layer of burning does give us a good clue as to why people left
19:30the area.
19:31Maybe it was a big war.
19:33Maybe the temple accidentally caught fire.
19:36However it started, the fire must have been fierce enough to cause the evacuation of the
19:40temple and maybe the entire city.
19:44What may have been a disaster for the Meroites has proven to be a blessing for Julian Sala.
19:50Everything underneath the layer of the fire that was on the floor surface has been completely
19:54sealed.
19:55This creates a time capsule.
19:58We have a specific moment in time preserved for us that we can see.
20:06If Julian Sala's theory is correct, that moment in time may correspond with the final days
20:11of the Nubian Empire.
20:13Scholars know little about this period, but excavations at Dan Gale could help explain
20:18how and why the powerful kingdom came to an end.
20:24To learn how the empire first began, we must look to monuments farther north.
20:31Just beyond the fourth cataract of the Nile lies the most sacred place in all of Nubia,
20:37Jebel Barkal, the Pure Mountain.
20:41At the base of this landmark sits the largest and what may be the oldest Amun temple in
20:46the country.
20:48It overlooks a fertile stretch of the Nile that has nurtured life for more than three
20:52thousand years.
20:54Temples and tombs have much to tell about the Nubian kingdom's earliest years.
21:00Sala takes a break from the excavation to make an annual pilgrimage to Jebel Barkal.
21:06I just take my car and take it for three or four days and I am refreshed, I am a new
21:11man.
21:12First, he must cross the Nile.
21:15In this part of the country, there are few bridges, so pontooned boats carry traffic
21:20from one side of the river to the other.
21:24Sala soon trades the green, lush valley of the Nile for the inhospitable terrain of the
21:29Bayura Desert.
21:32The journey will take him 110 miles to the northwest, along a route steeped in history.
21:38He follows the same path the great kings and queens of Nubia would have traveled to reach
21:42the temples at Jebel Barkal.
21:46It is very hard, very rough, very difficult to drive, but I like it very much.
21:55At the end of the road lies Karima, the town where he was born, nestled at the base of
22:01Jebel Barkal.
22:03The mountain itself has a great volume when you see it with the rest of the plain around
22:10it.
22:11And all of a sudden you have a mountain rising up 100 meters high, so it is very impressive.
22:20For the young Sala growing up at the foot of the sacred mountain, Jebel Barkal and the
22:24ruins around it were a constant presence.
22:28I liked this mountain when I was a child.
22:30I used to come here every Friday, and it was fun for me and my friends.
22:42At the same time, for me, these ruins were a mystery.
22:46I was very curious to know what was it about, the mystery of the mountain.
22:58The mystery dates back 3,500 years to some of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt, Nubia's
23:03northern rival.
23:06In the shape of Jebel Barkal's pinnacle, they saw the most powerful sign of kingship, the
23:11cobra, or Uraeus.
23:13You will see really the silhouette of a crown with the symbol of kingship in front of this
23:19crown.
23:21Since it was Amun, the god of gods, who granted kingship, the Egyptians built a temple here
23:27in his honor.
23:29Expanded over the years by Nubian kings, the temple is the largest in the Sudan, but time
23:35has taken its toll.
23:38Carved columns like those Julie and Sala have uncovered at Dangale no longer exist, worn
23:43away by centuries of exposure.
23:47Weather conditions are very harsh, so now the temple and the whole site is really in
23:53ruins.
23:55But when the temple shone like a jewel at the base of the sacred mountain, the mighty
23:59Egyptian pharaohs would have traveled hundreds of miles to be crowned here by the high priests
24:04of Amun.
24:05This was the holiest place in the Nile Valley.
24:08They were thinking from long ago that Amun was dwelling here.
24:13Inside the base of the pinnacle lies a temple to the goddess Mut, wife of the god Amun.
24:22Sala can read the mythology of the mountain, carved on the temple walls.
24:27You can see clearly the silhouette of the mountain, a high outcrop with a flat top like
24:40that, and in front you can see the snake and the sun disk, which is a symbol of kingship.
24:49And inside the mountain we can see Amun seated on his throne.
24:53This was the ancient belief that Amun was dwelling inside the mountain of Jebel Barkal.
25:00In the 8th century BC, the once powerful Egypt had grown weak and lost its hold on the sacred
25:06mountain.
25:07The Nubians assumed control of Jebel Barkal, calling themselves the true sons of Amun,
25:13and eventually became so powerful they marched on Egypt.
25:18They conquered their northern rival and founded the 25th dynasty.
25:23Everybody thinks that the Egyptians were the masters of the Nile Valley, but it was not
25:28the case all the time.
25:30For a period of more than 100 years, the Nubians were the masters of Africa.
25:36King Taharqo was the most prominent in this powerful lineage of Nubian pharaohs who came
25:42to rule over the land of the pyramids.
25:45Their kingdom now incorporated all the wealth and splendor that had defined the Egyptian
25:50civilization.
25:51For almost a century, the Nubians controlled a territory that today would stretch from
25:56Khartoum all the way to Palestine.
25:58Maybe at that time it was the largest country of the whole world.
26:04It was an empire, a real empire.
26:07Though the Nubians ultimately lost control of Egypt to an invasion of Assyrians, this
26:12didn't put an end to their kingdom or their loyalty to the great god Amun.
26:18They regrouped in the south and would flourish for another thousand years, building temples
26:24to the god of gods all over their realm.
26:27It is Salah's mission to restore the legacy of his ancestors.
26:32Now it is part of my life to go out of home to excavate.
26:38I have to dig something, I have to discover something for the history of Sudan.
26:50Back at Dangal, Salah has returned to the temple and a new challenge.
26:56He'll be searching for his ancestors in their graves.
27:04On the edge of town, within a stone's throw of Dangal's modern cemetery, workers on an
27:10irrigation project have uncovered an ancient burial ground.
27:16So the machine which has dug the canal just came across the graves.
27:21This is bad.
27:22Yeah, destroyed at least nine or ten graves, but on the other hand, it was the reason after
27:30the discovery of the cemetery.
27:31So it is bad and good.
27:35Salah believes that the people buried in this cemetery are the very ones who worshipped
27:39in the temple.
27:41So it is really fantastic to have the life and the dead at the same time.
27:48So you can complete the story of the whole, of a whole population.
27:55At the temple, Julie and the excavation team continue the battle against heat and sandstorms,
28:01hoping to unlock more of the mystery of the Amun temple.
28:06The removal of another three feet of fill reveals more of the sandstone columns and
28:10a now familiar figure, the Nile god the ancient Nubians called Happy.
28:18The water bearer is making multiple appearances in the inner courtyard.
28:26In this column, we have eight figures of Happy and on all of the other columns, we
28:31have eight figures.
28:32So by the time we're done, we're going to have drawn 32 Happy figures.
28:37Happy is the god of the Nile and he's carrying jars that are pouring water.
28:42He brings the fertility of the Nile to the people who live along its banks.
28:48That's why Happy is so important to the people who lived here.
28:52Without the Nile and the river and the water, they'd die.
28:59Water was so important to the ancient Nubians that it played a central role in the daily
29:04life of this temple.
29:21The priests would have offered libations to the gods, particularly here it would have
29:27been the god Amun.
29:30So this would involve pouring water or possibly milk on the altar and giving it to the god.
29:42The priests of Amun would have carried out this ritual in the most sacred part of the
29:47temple, the innermost sanctuary.
29:50Normally only the priests would have entered this room.
29:53It's the main sanctuary, the holy of holies.
29:58Julie and Sala have been waiting to excavate this sacred chamber.
30:02They expect to find an altar or statue here, something to correlate with the ancient rituals
30:07they know took place deep inside the temple.
30:11These are huge blocks.
30:13You can see they're larger than my hand in thickness.
30:18They held something really, really heavy here.
30:20It could be an altar, it could be a statue.
30:23This is where the priests would have made their offerings to Amun.
30:27But where the altar should stand, there is now disturbing evidence of desecration.
30:35It looks like somebody dug a huge hole in the floor of the main sanctuary of the temple.
30:40The sacred shrine is missing.
30:43Either they took it with them or they pushed it over and took it somewhere else and maybe
30:46smashed it.
30:48So in terms of committing sacrilege, this is a terrible, terrible offense.
30:54With evidence of foul play mounting, the fire discovered earlier in the forecourt is beginning
30:59to look like no accident.
31:02The identity of the marauders is a mystery.
31:05But what they did with the altar soon becomes perfectly clear when Julie re-examines a heap
31:10of stone fragments excavated earlier in the season.
31:15And this is kind of heavy.
31:21This is the top corner of an altar.
31:26It's also, as I said, quite heavy.
31:27So it took a lot of muscle to break this piece into the numerous pieces that you see here.
31:34Luckily, though the altar was destroyed, a crucial piece remains intact.
31:41We turned up this piece.
31:43It's the missing part of the cartouche Julie and Sala have been searching for.
31:48Now they can decipher the name of the ruler who built this temple.
31:52And is not a king.
31:53The royal name is Marie Karl Ra.
31:56And that's one of the names of Queen Amanitore.
32:01The temple is no longer anonymous.
32:03Now it has a ruler and an age.
32:07Amanitore is another powerful Nubian queen who ruled during the first century A.D.
32:14We actually know what the queen looked like.
32:17This is her crown right here.
32:19The crown, the front of the crown has a double uraeus.
32:22That's two snakes with a little sun disk at the top of each head.
32:28And then this is her nose coming down in her profile.
32:31And she has an ear and a little earring right on this side.
32:36She's got a big chubby cheek here.
32:39Her weight signifies that she has beauty, fertility.
32:44She has enough to eat.
32:45And she can produce children.
32:50Queen Amanitore and her co-regent King Natakamani reigned over Nubia during the time of Christ.
32:57Together, this powerful couple honored the gods by building more temples than almost
33:02any other Nubian rulers.
33:05The temple, complex at the site of Naga, 125 miles to the south, is an impressive testament
33:11to their devotion.
33:15An avenue of ram statues leading up to the temple pays homage to Amun and hints at what
33:21the sands of Dangal may still be hiding.
33:27Like all Nubian rulers, King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore would have been officially
33:32crowned first at Jebel Barkal.
33:35From there, they would have visited many of the most important temples in their kingdom,
33:39like Dangal, to be crowned ceremonially by Amun.
33:44Amanitore and Natakamani approached the temple, Dangal, by boat, sailing up the Nile.
33:52And then they would have headed towards the main sanctuary.
33:59The Amun temple complex would have appeared like a mirage on the horizon.
34:06And then as you approached the temple, there would have been two massive doors blocking
34:12your entrance, hiding the secrets inside.
34:16Led by the high priests, Queen Amanitore and King Natakamani would enter the temple, followed
34:22by their courtiers, and proceed to the inner sanctuary.
34:28They would lift incense up, so the place would be smoky and smelling of frankincense.
34:35They would have made offerings to the god Amun.
34:44And then the priests of Amun, speaking for the god Amun, would have indicated who the
34:50successor, who the next king was going to be.
34:54And then the crowning would take place.
34:57The king is officially crowned by Amun.
35:00So presumably that would be by his representative, the high priest of Amun.
35:17Though access to the inner sanctuaries was restricted to priests and royalty, other parts
35:22of the temple were open to pilgrims from more humble backgrounds.
35:27We found a footprint inscribed in the paving stones of the first court.
35:32It's graffiti that's been left by a pilgrim who came to visit the temple.
35:36This would show the god and other pilgrims that this person had come to visit the temple.
35:44It's a very human thing.
35:45It's something that somebody actually came and did as an act of personal piety, as an
35:51act of faith.
35:55With the discovery of the nearby cemetery, Julie and Sala have an even more direct link
36:00to the past.
36:02Inside these ancient graves, they may actually come face to face with the very people who
36:07worshipped in the temple nearly 2,000 years ago.
36:10Sala begins the excavation of a new tomb, untouched by the drainage canal.
36:15By simple brushing like this, I can discover or notice any ancient activity on this surface.
36:29Here I have to be very careful because I have to follow exactly the limits of the original
36:35shaft.
36:37After several days of digging, Sala is now well into the burial shaft.
36:43At the entrance of the tomb, he has found a perfectly intact pot within the fill.
37:02It is a beautiful one.
37:04I like it.
37:05I like very much the form.
37:06See, the form is really very beautiful.
37:09The color is also very nice.
37:11I think it is a very beautiful museum piece.
37:16The pot probably held incense, burned as a ritual by the family of the deceased.
37:21As a final sign of grief, vessels like this one were placed upside down just outside the
37:27grave.
37:28The shaft would be sealed for what the Meroites believed would be eternity.
37:35Some of the families may have looked for solace in the temple, praying for the sick, mourning
37:39the dead.
37:41Others may have come to thank the gods for a new birth or a bountiful harvest.
37:47Those who wished to enter the temple complex passed first through a towering pylon gateway.
37:54Halfway down a paved avenue lined with rams, they would have enjoyed a brief respite from
37:59the sun beneath a shady kiosk.
38:03Inside lay the great wooden doors of the temple.
38:07The whole temple would have been painted.
38:09The columns would have been painted.
38:11The walls would have been painted.
38:12There would be color everywhere.
38:15The base of the walls and columns in the outer sanctuary were encircled with figures of water-bearing
38:21happy gods, while images of the king and queen making offerings to Amun adorned the upper
38:26reaches of the chamber.
38:30Even statues of the gods would have been enlivened by color.
38:34Each day, the priests of Amun would attend to his countenance, applying a rim of black
38:40coal to enhance the ram's red-painted eyes.
38:46So far, the team has found no trace of these Amun statues they know should be somewhere
38:51inside the temple complex.
38:54But what they find in a new trench outside the main doorway leads Julie to believe the
39:00missing figures could have suffered the same fate as the altar from the inner sanctuary.
39:06We have large clumps of broken, shattered statue here, but the statues have been smashed
39:13into many, many pieces.
39:17There's literally thousands and thousands of fragments here, many of which are completely
39:24undistinguishable.
39:30After hours of digging, finally, a piece they recognize.
39:39It's the red-painted eye of a ram.
39:47The eyes of the ram did look like this, so this does tell us that they were ram statues.
39:52And we were looking specifically for rams because that is the animal of the god Amun.
40:00Unlike the ram statues at the Amun temple at Naga, which are still intact after all
40:04these years, their counterparts at Dangal have suffered a much harsher fate.
40:10It looks like people basically went down the avenue purposefully, step by step, and went
40:16to each statue, pushed it over, smashed it, and then moved on to the next one.
40:21Hard work, but the perpetrators didn't show up empty-handed.
40:26Right within the temple, at the scene of the crime, we found this.
40:32And I had no idea what it was at first.
40:35It's burned on one side, it's a very heavy rock, and it fits nicely in my hand.
40:42And then we started looking at it a little bit more and realized that the striking surface
40:46is right here.
40:48It's a hammer stone.
40:49So we had this hypothesis that a rock such as this could have been easily used to break
40:56these pieces, the ram and the altar, into many, many small pieces.
41:02With a similar tool, not an artifact, Julie will put her theory to the test on a large
41:08chunk of sandstone.
41:10This is a type of sandstone that's like that used in the rams in front of the temple.
41:14So let's pretend that this is a ram that I've just pushed over.
41:30The pieces of rock are fragmenting into very sharp, small pieces.
41:35They look very similar to the pieces that we're getting from the altar.
41:40I'm pretty happy with this demonstration, in fact.
41:44It looks very much like these stone tools could have done the job.
41:49We have a crime on our hands here.
41:51It all adds up to an invasion.
41:56Ruthless and determined, some powerful force swept through Dandale and laid waste to the
42:02sacred temple.
42:05The invaders ransacked the sanctuary, obliterated reference to the Nubian rulers, and destroyed
42:12the symbols of their gods.
42:17They looted everything of value, and then, as a final gesture, burned the temple to the
42:33ground.
42:36Had they come to overthrow the Nubian Empire?
42:40The Meroites had formidable enemies at the end of their reign, raiding nomads from the
42:45desert and a rival kingdom in what is now Ethiopia.
42:51The decline of the Nubian kingdom in the third century A.D. may have prompted the attack
42:56of Dandale.
43:02One thing is sure, the ancient city never recovered from the blow.
43:07Once it was destroyed, the people of Dandale abandoned the temple and their homes.
43:13We've managed to find these answers, and that's really exciting.
43:17Now we're looking for some of the details, but we have the answers to the big questions,
43:22and that's incredible.
43:24It's a tremendous payoff for their first seasons of excavation, but Sala is still hard at work
43:30in the cemetery.
43:32He has finally reached the inside of the tomb.
43:36A massive offering pot is found within.
43:42It is very, very beautiful.
43:56I like very much the form of this ceramics.
44:00Ceramics are used for liquids, they are found normally at the entrance of the graves, protecting
44:07the dead.
44:10Here in the grave, it is really a moment of history.
44:16You have a complete moment of history sealed in this grave.
44:21It is very exciting to go to the bones, to find the body, complete and in situ.
44:26But at the same time, you are treating a human body, a human being, because doing agriculture
44:33or herding animals, they were depending completely maybe on the Nile, living as we are doing
44:44today, the same activities, I think.
44:52These were the worshippers of the Amun Temple of Dandale, those who suffered the greatest
44:56loss when their city was ransacked.
45:00So it is really very interesting for an ecologist to find bones, to find the life and the afterlife.
45:07And you can really tell a whole story of the people, how do they live, how do they die.
45:14But the story is still unfolding.
45:17There's an awful lot of work to be done at Dandale.
45:22There are mounds and mounds and buildings that are obviously well-preserved here.
45:26Sala and I could be here for twenty, thirty years easily, and still not even scratch the
45:32surface of the entire site.
45:36Waiting somewhere beneath the sands may still be the coveted Rosetta Stone, the secret to
45:41deciphering the Nubians' mysterious script.
45:45And many of the structures in the massive city of Dandale are still hidden.
45:51It is the work of a whole generation, I think.
45:54So what we can do, we can just do a part of it, and maybe our sons will do the rest to
46:01complete the story.
46:21♪♪♪