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This Discovery Just Changed Everything We Know About Stonehenge — Transcript

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0:00There's something absolutely massive and
0:02deeply unsettling hiding right next to
0:05Stonehenge. More than a dozen giant pits
0:08carved into the ground. They're all
0:10spaced with eerie precision and form a
0:12perfect circle more than a mile wide.
0:15For years, nobody [music] could explain
0:17them. They were too big to be animal
0:19traps, too organized to be natural sink
0:21holes, and way too deliberate to be
0:24random. And the [music] biggest question
0:26was who had the power, knowledge, and
0:29reason to reshape the land on this scale
0:324,000 years ago.
0:35So these pits surround a place called
0:37Durington Walls, a huge Neolithic
0:40settlement just a short walk from
0:42Stonehenge. Archaeologists now say
0:44humans dug them around 2500 B.CE. During
0:47the late Neolithic period when people
0:49supposedly lived simple farming lives
0:52without metal tools, written language or
0:54modern math, [music] each pit stretches
0:57about 30 ft across and plunges roughly
1:0015 ft down. And together they form
1:02[music] an almost flawless ring. To
1:05prove the pits weren't natural, [music]
1:07scientists went full detective mode.
1:09They drilled soil cores and tested the
1:12[music] dirt itself, including
1:13microscopic traces of ancient DNA and
1:16something called luminescence dating,
1:18[music] which tells you when the soil
1:20last saw sunlight. Every test pointed to
1:23the same answer. Humans made these pits
1:26on [music] purpose.
1:28Here's where it gets wild. The pits
1:30weren't dug randomly as people moved
1:32along. They were laid out as a single
1:34unified project.
1:37That [music] means Neolithic builders
1:39had to visualize a massive circle,
1:41measure distances across open land and
1:44coordinate teams over a huge area
1:47[music] without any GPS, drones, or even
1:50aerial maps. All they had were people,
1:53ropes, wooden tools, and shared
1:55knowledge.
1:56So why would they invest so much effort
1:59[music] and do this? Archaeologists
2:01think the pits formed part of a ritual
2:04landscape, [music] not a practical one.
2:06Durington Walls already looks like a
2:08place where people gathered for
2:10ceremonies, feasts, [music] and seasonal
2:12events. The pit circle may have marked a
2:15sacred boundary. It could have separated
2:17ordinary land from a spiritually charged
2:20space. Some researchers think the pit
2:23symbolized a border between the world of
2:25the living and the underworld.
2:28The scale of the structure is pretty
2:30impressive. It may be one of the largest
2:32prehistoric [music] monuments ever built
2:34in Britain, even bigger than Stonehenge
2:36itself when you look at the total area.
2:39And unlike Stonehenge's towering rocks,
2:42this monument stayed invisible for
2:44thousands of years, [music] quietly
2:46hiding under the grass. Generations
2:48walked over it without knowing [music]
2:50they were standing inside a gigantic
2:52ancient design. [music] For a long time,
2:56we underestimated ancient people. We
2:58imagine them reacting to nature instead
3:00of shaping it. [music] But discoveries
3:03like this keep proving that wrong. The
3:05builders of Durington Walls didn't just
3:08live in the landscape, but [music]
3:09engineered it. They thought in terms of
3:12geometry, symbolism, and long-term
3:14[music]
3:15meaning.
3:16And this isn't the only case. All over
3:19the world, thanks to new technology,
3:21[music] scientists keep finding proof
3:23that ancient humans worked on massive
3:26scales with shocking precision. [music]
3:28In the Amazon rainforest, researchers
3:30found traces of 2500year-old
3:33cities hiding beneath the jungle canopy.
3:36Scientists spent more than 20 years
3:38exploring the area on foot before
3:40technology finally cracked the case.
3:44The LAR technology, which is like X-ray
3:46vision that surveys a landscape using
3:48lasers to digitally peel away the
3:51jungle, scanned a massive area of over
3:54100 square miles. It helped to spot more
3:56than 6,000 rectangular earthn platforms,
3:59[music] which are likely used as homes
4:01or public buildings. They also found
4:04agricultural terraces, drainage [music]
4:06systems, and carefully shaped farmland.
4:09This wasn't a random settlement. [music]
4:11It was well planned. At least 15
4:14distinct settlements appeared, all
4:16connected by wide, [music] straight
4:18roads that cut cleanly through the
4:20landscape. These roads didn't follow
4:23rivers or slopes as you [music] would
4:24expect. They crossed each other at
4:26perfect right angles, forming a grid.
4:30The researchers believe people [music]
4:31from the Kilamop and Upanu cultures
4:34lived there between about 500 B.CE and
4:37300 [music] to 600 CE. They farmed corn
4:40and sweet potatoes, reshaped the [music]
4:43land, and built a system that lasted for
4:45centuries. Discoveries like this prove
4:48[music] something huge. Far more people
4:50lived in the Amazon than scientists ever
4:53thought. Tens [music] of thousands,
4:55maybe even hundreds of thousands. And
4:57they didn't just survive there. They
5:00engineered the landscape. Just like at
5:02Durington [music] Walls, the real story
5:04hid in plain sight until technology
5:06caught up.
5:09Then [music] there's Peru with one of
5:11archaeology's biggest headaches, the
5:14Nazka lines.
5:16These gigantic designs of animals,
5:18plants, and geometric shapes stretch
5:20across the Earth like an [music] ancient
5:22message so huge that only birds or
5:25satellites can see them properly. For
5:28decades, people have tried to figure out
5:30why the Nazca people made them, how they
5:32did it, and what those massive patterns
5:34mean. And until recently, the mystery
5:37stayed stubbornly unsolved.
5:40Walking the desert or flying over it,
5:42archaeologists would spot lines and
5:44figures [music] and wonder if anything
5:46was missing. But the ones already known
5:49were just the tip of the iceberg.
5:51Traditional fieldwork with people on the
5:53[music] ground slowly mapping things out
5:54by hand took forever. And even then,
5:57dozens of smaller designs were just too
6:00faint for the unassisted eye.
6:03So instead of scanning the desert on
6:05foot, researchers taught artificial
6:07intelligence how to see patterns in
6:09aerial and drone imagery, they fed
6:12terabytes of pictures into trained
6:14models, and AI [music] began flagging
6:17shapes, curves, and ancient outlines
6:19that had been hiding for [music]
6:21centuries.
6:22In just about 6 months, it identified
6:25303 previously unknown geoglyphs in the
6:29Nazka desert. It almost doubled the
6:32number [music] of figures we knew before
6:34and showed entire classes of designs.
6:37Some of these new [music] shapes are
6:38tiny, just a few feet across, but they
6:40sit next to giant ones like the
6:42hummingbird or monkey. Thanks to all the
6:46new finds, scientists [music] can
6:48finally start testing theories they had
6:50about the purpose of the lines. It looks
6:53like the lines weren't just decorations.
6:56Many may have been walkways or roots
6:58used for ceremonial movement. In case
7:01you're worried, AI isn't replacing
7:03archaeologists.
7:05They still check every promising lead on
7:07the ground and interpret everything the
7:09machines find.
7:11Back in Britain, the pit circle also
7:13connects to an even older structure,
7:15[music] an early Neolithic site called
7:17Robin Hood's Ball. Because it stood so
7:20far from the famous stones, [music] it
7:21felt like a side character. But it turns
7:24out Robin Hood's ball is from around
7:263600 B.CE. Which makes [music] it about
7:30500 years older than Stonehenge itself.
7:33It's what archaeologists call a causeway
7:35enclosure, which sounds fancy, but
7:37really means a [music] big circular
7:39earthwork made of ditches and banks.
7:41Instead of one clean trench, [music] the
7:43ditches are broken into short segments
7:45with little gaps in between. And instead
7:48[music] of keeping people out, it
7:50probably brought them together.
7:53Archaeologists think these enclosures
7:55worked as [music] gathering places,
7:56spots for meetings, feasts, rituals, and
7:59social bonding among the first farming
8:01communities. Then came [music] the twist
8:04no one expected. While preparing land at
8:07Lark Hill, a hillside northeast of
8:09Stonehenge [music] for new military
8:11housing, archaeologists found signs of
8:13another causeway enclosure.
8:16This discovery flipped the map upside
8:18down. The landscape wasn't growing
8:20outward from Stonehenge. It was already
8:22alive long before the stones ever went
8:25up. [music] As researchers dug deeper,
8:27they found hundreds of flint tools,
8:30beautifully made leafshaped arrow heads,
8:32chunks of human skull, and pieces of
8:34antler likely used as digging [music]
8:36tools. Then came the pottery. Different
8:40styles showed up in different places.
8:42Some from the enclosure ditches, others
8:44from nearby pits. That matters because
8:47pottery styles often act like cultural
8:49fingerprints. [music] The mix suggests
8:51something big. Different groups of
8:53people were visiting the same place and
8:55brought their [music] own traditions,
8:56tools, and objects with them. All of
9:00this changes how we see Stonehenge. The
9:02stones didn't appear out of nowhere.
9:04They rose in a landscape already loaded
9:06with meaning, memory, and [music]
9:08movement.
9:09Every new discovery like the ones near
9:12Stonehenge in the Amazon jungle and Peru
9:14[music] forces archaeologists to rewrite
9:17textbooks and the whole world to rethink
9:20the idea of progress. It turns [music]
9:22out that ancient people made up for the
9:24absence of steel and electricity with
9:27observation, creativity, and shared
9:30meaning.
9:33500 years before the first stone of
9:35Stonehenge was ever raised, someone was
9:38already standing in a field watching the
9:40sun rise on the longest day of the year.
9:43And they had built something
9:44specifically to track it. That something
9:47just got pulled out of the ground, and
9:49it might force us to rewrite everything
9:51we thought we knew about how Stonehenge
9:54began.
9:56Many of us treated Stonehenge like it
9:58appeared out of nowhere, as if ancient
10:00Britons simply woke up one day and
10:02decided to drag enormous stones across
10:04the countryside and arrange them into a
10:06circle. But what if that's not how the
10:09story actually starts?
10:12What if Stonehenge wasn't the beginning
10:14at all, but the final chapter of
10:16something that started 5 centuries
10:19earlier?
10:20That's exactly what archaeologists now
10:22believe. And the evidence is strange
10:24enough to make you do a double take.
10:28Just over 3 miles from Stonehenge, near
10:30a small town called Bulford, a team of
10:33researchers uncovered something
10:35deceptively simple. Two suspicious holes
10:38in the ground. Not stone circles, not
10:41towering monoliths, just two pits
10:45spaced about 394 ft apart. Here's where
10:49it gets interesting. Those pits once
10:52held massive wooden poles long since
10:55rotted away, leaving only their outlines
10:57behind. When researchers carefully
11:00mapped out exactly where those poles
11:02would have stood in relation to the sun,
11:04they found something remarkable. The
11:06poles aligned perfectly with the sunrise
11:08on the summer solstice and the [music]
11:10sunset on the winter solstice.
11:13If that alignment sounds familiar, it
11:16should. It's the exact same solar
11:18alignment built into Stonehenge itself
11:20centuries later.
11:23Using radiocarbon dating, a technique
11:25that measures the decay of carbon in
11:27organic material to determine age,
11:30scientists were able to figure out that
11:32the wooden poles were placed into the
11:34ground roughly 5,000 years ago.
11:38About 500 years before the iconic stones
11:41of Stonehenge were ever put in place. In
11:44other words, someone was tracking the
11:46movement of the sun with incredible
11:48precision half a millennium before
11:50Stonehenge as we know it existed.
11:54Researchers involved in the excavation
11:56have called it one of the most important
11:58discoveries of their careers. And not
12:01just because of what was found, but
12:03because of how early it dates.
12:07Until now, our understanding of ancient
12:09solar astronomy in Britain rested almost
12:11entirely on Stonehenge and a small
12:14handful of similar monuments built
12:16around the same era.
12:19This new [music] find pushes that
12:20timeline back substantially, suggesting
12:23the obsession with tracking the sun
12:25started earlier than anyone [music] had
12:26assumed. And it wasn't just poles
12:29sticking out of an empty field.
12:32Around the site, archaeologists
12:34recovered pottery fragments, animal
12:36bones, charcoal, and carefully worked
12:38flint tools. All signs that people
12:41gathered here regularly, likely for
12:43seasonal celebrations tied to the
12:45solstesses.
12:46Among these objects was [music]
12:48something particularly unusual, a rare
12:51discshaped knife. Experts believe it may
12:54have been placed there deliberately,
12:56perhaps as a symbolic standin for the
12:58sun itself.
13:01Think about that for a moment. 5,000
13:03years ago, people were coming together
13:05at this exact spot [music] specifically
13:07to mark the turning of the seasons using
13:10a sun-shaped object as part of what may
13:12have been some kind of ritual.
13:16That's not just early astronomy. That's
13:18early religion, early community, and
13:21early ceremony. All wrapped into a site
13:24that history had completely forgotten
13:26about until [music] now.
13:28Using digital reconstructions of the
13:30ancient sky, landscape, and horizon,
13:33researchers were able to confirm the
13:35alignment wasn't accidental or
13:38coincidental.
13:40According to the team behind the
13:41discovery, this find reframes how we
13:44should think about Stonehenge entirely.
13:47not as a monument that sprang up in
13:49isolation out of nowhere, but as part of
13:52a much longer ongoing relationship
13:54between early communities, the land they
13:56lived on and the sky above them.
14:00To be fair, not everyone has had the
14:02chance to review the full findings yet
14:04since the detailed research hasn't been
14:06formally published in a journal.
14:09Outside experts have called the
14:10discovery intriguing [music]
14:12and exciting while also noting that the
14:14complete picture is still emerging and
14:17more details are needed. So why does any
14:20of this actually matter?
14:23Because it suggests Stonehenge wasn't a
14:25sudden isolated achievement that came
14:27out of nowhere. It may have been the
14:30final version of an idea that ancient
14:32people had already been experimenting
14:34with for generations.
14:36tracking the sun, marking the
14:38solstesses, and building structures to
14:40mark these passages of time. The stone
14:44circle we recognize today might simply
14:46be the polished, monumental upgrade of
14:49something far older, far simpler, and
14:51far less famous.
14:54And as if one mystery wasn't already
14:56enough, scientists have also cracked a
14:58completely different secret hiding
15:00inside Stonehenge itself. one connected
15:04to one of its largest and strangest
15:06stones.
15:08Inside the circle sits something called
15:10the altter stone, a massive slab of
15:13greenish sandstone roughly 16 ft long
15:16and about 3 ft wide, weighing in at
15:18around 6 tons.
15:21It's partially buried today beneath two
15:23other fallen stones.
15:25And for decades, geologists assumed they
15:28knew exactly where it had come from. a
15:31specific region in southeast Wales.
15:35That long-standing assumption had just
15:37been completely blown apart. A team of
15:40scientists analyzed the chemical makeup
15:42of tiny mineral grains found inside
15:44fragments of the altar stone.
15:47By carefully measuring the age of these
15:49microscopic minerals, researchers were
15:52able to create something like a chemical
15:54fingerprint unique to the rock's true
15:56place of origin.
15:59Some of the mineral grains turned out to
16:00be between 1 and 2 billion years old,
16:04while other minerals within the same
16:05stone were a comparatively young 450
16:09million years old. That very specific
16:12combination simply doesn't match Welsh's
16:14bedrock at all.
16:16Instead, it matches rock found in the
16:19Orcadian Basin, way up in northeast
16:22Scotland, roughly 466 miles away from
16:25where Stonehenge now stands.
16:29Let that sink in for a second. A
16:31six-tonon stone somehow transported
16:34nearly 500 m with no engines, no wheels
16:37suited for that kind of cargo, and none
16:39of the infrastructure we'd consider
16:41absolutely necessary today.
16:44And all this happened around 4,600 years
16:47ago.
16:49So, how on earth did it actually get
16:52there?
16:54Researchers think the answer may involve
16:56sailing. Moving a stone that massive
16:58overland across hundreds of miles of
17:00rough, uneven forested terrain would
17:03have been an enormous and exhausting
17:05undertaking.
17:06Arguably far less practical than
17:08transporting it by sea, hugging the
17:10coastline of Britain the whole way.
17:13If that theory holds up, it implies
17:16these Neolithic communities had
17:18functioning trade networks, real
17:19navigation skills, and a level of social
17:22organization far more advanced than most
17:25people ever assumed existed during this
17:27period of prehistory.
17:30But there's an even wilder twist to this
17:32story. Some researchers now believe
17:34humans may not have done all of the
17:36heavy lifting themselves. Quite
17:38literally, glaciers might have helped.
17:42During the last ice age, massive sheets
17:45of slowly moving ice could have carried
17:47fragments of rock, including potentially
17:49the very stone that would eventually
17:51become the alter.
17:54Partway through that long journey, long
17:56before any human being ever touched it.
17:59Nature, in other words, may have done a
18:01chunk of the transport work for free,
18:04with people simply finishing the job
18:05thousands of years later.
18:08So, here's where all of this leaves us.
18:10500 years before Stonehenge stones were
18:13ever raised, [music] people were already
18:15gathering nearby, tracking the sun with
18:17simple wooden poles and leaving behind
18:20sun-shaped tools as offerings.
18:23And the massive stone sitting at the
18:25very heart of Stonehenge itself may have
18:28traveled from the complete opposite end
18:30of Britain, possibly with a little
18:32unexpected help from glacial ice
18:35millions of years before anyone built
18:37anything at all.
18:39Stonehenge has always been treated as a
18:41singular isolated mystery. But the more
18:44researchers dig, quite literally, the
18:47clearer it becomes that it was never
18:49just one single moment frozen in time.
18:52It was the result of centuries upon
18:54centuries of human curiosity about the
18:57sky, the seasons, and the sun. Building
19:00on ideas and traditions that came long
19:02before the stones we instantly recognize
19:04today.
19:06And somewhere out there, buried beneath
19:08fields that look like nothing more than
19:10ordinary, unremarkable English
19:12countryside,
19:14there may be even more clues just
19:16waiting to rewrite this entire story all
19:18over again.
19:22Stonehenge took approximately 20 million
19:26man hours to build. For comparison, an
19:28average human doesn't live much over
19:30700,000 hours. This is Jack, one of the
19:34first builders of Stonehenge. Let's say
19:36Jack lived to be 80 years old, which is
19:39extremely [music] improbable, but it
19:41makes it easier for me to crunch the
19:42numbers. Thanks. If Jack had spent his
19:45entire life from age 0 to age 80 working
19:48on the Stonehenge project, it would have
19:50required approximately 28 1/2
19:52generations of people doing the same
19:54thing to complete it. That's next to
19:57impossible. [music] To make it more
19:59plausible, let's multiply that by two.
20:01After all, Jack wouldn't want to
20:03dedicate his entire life to moving
20:05stones, and he didn't live to be that
20:07old. Thus, we arrive at around 57
20:10generations needed to build Stonehenge.
20:11[music]
20:12That's not enough room on the screen for
20:14me to introduce John, Jack's great great
20:17great, [music] you know, you get the
20:18drift, grandson. So, it all began around
20:225,000 years ago with just a simple
20:25circular [music] earthn bank and ditch.
20:27Fast forward to around 26,000 B.CE. And
20:31the builders replaced that initial
20:32[music] structure with a complex
20:34arrangement of wooden posts and brought
20:36in around 80 doerite balloon stones from
20:39whales which were rearranged at least
20:42three times. Then a few hundred years
20:44later they added those massive sarsen
20:47[music] stones each weighing around 25
20:49tons. These enormous sandstone blocks
20:52were transported about 19 miles to
20:55create a continuous outer circle with
20:57five trilathons, two upright [music]
20:59stones topped with a lintil forming a
21:01horseshoe shape inside. It was a
21:04millennium long building process that
21:06demanded years of hard work. [music]
21:08So people must have lived nearby, right?
21:11But how would they have found shelter
21:13back then? Today, we have houses for
21:16builders on site. [music] Small
21:17accommodations that serve as temporary
21:19housing. But structures like this
21:21definitely didn't exist when [music]
21:23Stonehenge was constructed. Did they?
21:26Well, actually, they existed. And some
21:29recent archaeological digs near
21:31Stonehenge prove it. Archaeologists
21:33found this Stone Age eco home, which is
21:36a huge deal since it's [music] one of
21:38the earliest settlements in the area.
21:40This newly uncovered misolithic home
21:42dates back to around the year 4300 BCE.
21:46Let's take a closer look at this house,
21:49shall we? Now, for the walls, people
21:51back then used a large fallen tree, its
21:54trunk to be more precise. These wooden
21:57walls were reinforced with flint, and
21:59they even lined the pit left by the
22:01uprooted tree with cobblestones. To
22:04create the roof, they opted for animal
22:06hides, which sounds like a wise choice.
22:08They must have provided [music]
22:09protection against the unpredictable
22:11weather of the British Isles. Now, you
22:14might be wondering, the weather in
22:15Britain is indeed unpredictable, and it
22:17has been that way since time immemorial.
22:20So, how did the builders manage [music]
22:22throughout most of the year,
22:23particularly during the winter months?
22:26Well, the [music] answer is simple.
22:28There was a hearth on site, which isn't
22:30surprising, but the system they employed
22:32[music] was quite ingenious. A hearth
22:35inside the house would have posed too
22:37great [music] a risk. Yet bringing hot
22:39stones into the dwelling was perfectly
22:40safe. While they were hot, they couldn't
22:43ignite the building. So they used these
22:45stones [music] from the hearth as a heat
22:47storage system to keep warm at night.
22:50And as a final touch, they even
22:52incorporated various stones for
22:53decoration. They didn't exactly [music]
22:55get a Pinterest house, but it added a
22:58touch of elegance for sure. And if you
23:00think this discovery is merely about the
23:03houses, [music] think again. It
23:05significantly changes our understanding
23:07of how people lived during [music] that
23:08time. This discovery places them in an
23:11important prehistoric setting right at
23:14the start of the Neolithic era, [music]
23:16sparking some interesting questions
23:18about whether these early folks could be
23:20related to the people who built
23:21Stonehenge. But [music] there's a big
23:23worry. Experts are concerned that this
23:26significant find along with other buried
23:28archaeological sites could be at risk if
23:31the authorities go ahead with plans to
23:33[music] build a tunnel to reroute the
23:35A303 away from the World Heritage site.
23:38Sure thing the house the scientists
23:40found wasn't in perfect shape and it
23:42lacked [music] some crucial elements
23:43people used for living. Some of them
23:46decayed over time while others were
23:48simply absent. So, the scientists took
23:5020 tons of chalk, 5,000 hazel rods, and
23:543 tons of straw, and used all this to
23:57recreate the 4,500y old design houses.
24:00These new buildings are located [music]
24:02close to Stonehenge, which is incredible
24:04since in this area, planning permission
24:07for even a new cow shed is problematic.
24:10So, what are these houses like? Well,
24:13first off, there are four of them, and
24:14they're ovalshaped. They're built on the
24:17foundation of real houses that stood
24:19there about 4,500 years ago, just around
24:22the time the Stonehenge Eco House was
24:24going up. The houses aren't very big.
24:27They're single room structures. When it
24:29comes to dimensions, [music] it was
24:31straightforward to estimate since we
24:33could gauge the size of the roof and the
24:35height of the walls based on the
24:36foundations. Each side measures about 16
24:39ft. However, the [music] roof structure
24:41remains a bit of a mystery. There were a
24:44few differing thatching techniques back
24:46then, so pinpointing the exact method
24:48used for [music] these dwellings is kind
24:50of a guessing game. For now, we think it
24:53involves knotted or tied straw carefully
24:56secured onto a hazel woven frame. When
24:59fires are lit, the smoke from the hearth
25:01wafts up through the thatched roof. Now,
25:04remember those 20 tons of chalk that was
25:07needed for the floors and walls. [music]
25:09The white chalk walls and floors reflect
25:12sunlight and capture heat from the fire.
25:14But here's the kicker. The builders
25:16encountered a challenge [music] because
25:18the ground was so water logged that some
25:20of the chalk floors took weeks to dry
25:22out. By the time they should have been
25:24bone dry, they were still as sticky as
25:26chewing gum. Now, it's safe to say
25:29people 4,500 years ago faced similar
25:31struggles, and we can really appreciate
25:33what they went through while building
25:35their homes. The final layer of dob was
25:38applied using rags, giving a smooth,
25:41almost shiny finish that looks
25:42surprisingly classy. The interiors are
25:45furnished with wooden and wicker beds
25:47[music] and shelves along with clay pots
25:49and jars, all centered around a cozy
25:52hearth. The spaces feel surprisingly
25:54roomy and are filled with light that
25:56streams in through the thatched roof,
25:58bouncing off those white walls. Plus,
26:01the woven furniture adds a nice touch of
26:03[music] authenticity to the vibe. The
26:05fires have been lit and the first meal,
26:08bread crafted from flour ground on a
26:10stone mill next to the hearth, has been
26:12prepared. Those who tried the bread were
26:14pleasantly [music] surprised by its
26:16flavor, finding it quite tasty. Now,
26:19here comes the bummer. Those who
26:21recreated the houses did cheat a little.
26:24While the materials used were authentic,
26:26the tools weren't. They used cement
26:28mixers [music] to mix the do
26:30wheelbarrows to transport the timber and
26:33logs by the hearth were split with steel
26:35axes instead of stone ones. Still, the
26:38builders aren't professionals. They're
26:40volunteers. So, I think a bit of
26:42cheating is totally cool in this case.
26:45There are other volunteers on site who
26:47are more than happy to chat about the
26:49daily activities of the Stonehenge
26:50builders, from grinding grain with a
26:53kernes. [music]
26:56But these houses and the Eco House
26:58aren't the only remarkable things in the
27:00Stonehenge area. Some years ago,
27:03archaeologists uncovered a burial site
27:05close to Stonehenge that predates the
27:07monument itself. This Neolithic long
27:10barrow dating back approximately [music]
27:1256 to 5700 years likely contains the
27:16remains of some of [music] Britain's
27:18earliest inhabitants. The burial site
27:20was identified through aerial images
27:23that revealed its distinct shape beneath
27:25the crops. Salsbury plane is rich with
27:28ancient sites, [music] including
27:30Stonehenge, various mounds, and
27:32monuments. The area has remained
27:34undisturbed over the centuries, [music]
27:36which is likely why so many ancient
27:39structures are still intact. This
27:41discovery also shows a significant shift
27:44in human lifestyle during that era,
27:46marking a transition from a nomadic
27:48[music] existence to settled farming and
27:51animal husbandry, much like the eco
27:53house itself. The long [music] barrerow
27:56in question measures about 85 ft long
27:58and 65 ft wide, though much of its above
28:01ground structure has been lost to
28:03farming over the years. If this site is
28:06like others in the vicinity, it contains
28:08the remains of 30 to 50 individuals
28:11along with cow skulls which were
28:13significant to those early communities.
28:18Stonehenge wasn't a witchy monument to
28:21travel through time. It was actually
28:23constructed as a hope to build [music] a
28:26different future. Recent research just
28:28found out that the monument was probably
28:31raised as an attempt to reunite the
28:33Britain during a period of big division.
28:36The thread of this story lies [music] on
28:39the altar stone, the monument's most
28:41iconic rock.
28:44For years, scientists believe that the
28:46stones used in Stonehenge, [music]
28:48including the altar stone, came from the
28:50nearby Preselli Hills in Wales.
28:53In this scenario, Stonehenge would have
28:56been built by a local [music] community,
28:58that is Neolithic people who would have
29:00found easy to access materials [music]
29:02to build a ceremonial mound, a sundial
29:05calendar, and a [music] final resting
29:07place allin one. Things changed when
29:11another discovery was made. In 2018,
29:13[music]
29:14leading edge research pointed that the
29:16alter stone actually came from [music]
29:18the river Tay region in northeastern
29:20Scotland, which is located over 400 m
29:23away from Stonehenge.
29:26Scientists found similar rocks as
29:27[music] such in Scottish monuments. You
29:30see, the altar stone is a [music]
29:32recumbent stone laying on its side. Many
29:35of the rocks were found in ceremonial
29:37stone circles in Scotland, and they are
29:39unique to this region.
29:42When this discovery broke through, it
29:44got archaeologists thinking. Maybe
29:46Stonehenge wasn't just a [music] local
29:48project, but a wider collaboration
29:50between different tribes and communities
29:53across Britain. To understand this, we
29:56[music] need to rewind to around 30,000
29:59B.CE.
30:01That's when [music] Britain still wasn't
30:03a unified country, per se. Rather, it
30:05was a patchwork of tribes such as those
30:07coming from southern or eastern Europe,
30:10each with their own customs and beliefs.
30:13As an island, Britain's population
30:15changed many times. Britain was mainly
30:18composed of farmers who descended from
30:20people from the Middle East and arrived
30:22on the land around 6,000 years ago. This
30:25group thrived in the area until 2500
30:28B.CE when another group coming from the
30:31regions of the Netherlands and Germany
30:33started to appear.
30:35These ones, also known as the beaker
30:37people, were responsible for the large
30:39population turnover that Britain
30:41experienced during the Neolithic period
30:43[music] and the years that followed. The
30:46Beakers were called so because of a
30:48specific type of pottery they used to
30:50make and bury their loved ones with
30:52after their passing. It's possible that
30:55the original dwellers of the land didn't
30:57like it that their land was being
30:59repopulated. And what researchers
31:01suggest is that Stonehenge was this
31:03attempt to reunite the original
31:05Neolithic farmer [music] population and
31:08regain some type of identity control
31:10over their land. They would have
31:13invested a [music] lot of time and
31:15energy in bringing the alter all the way
31:17down from Scotland without the help of
31:20wheel technology. For example, you see,
31:23the wheel had already been invented in
31:25lower Mesopotamia, but since there was
31:28no Wi-Fi at the time, the Brits weren't
31:30aware of this technology until much
31:32later on. This whole territorial crisis
31:36could have driven locals to use their
31:38resources to move the altar stone to
31:41Salsbury plane in England in order to
31:43reunify the land. You see, [music]
31:46Stonehenge wasn't built in one go. Its
31:50history dates to around 3000 B.CE.
31:53[music] That's when the monument was
31:55just a circular ditch and bank known as
31:57a henge. Inside, [music] they placed
32:00wooden posts and possibly totemike
32:03carvings. This version of Stonehenge
32:06wasn't about rocks yet. It was more of a
32:08ritualistic [music] place and possibly a
32:11final resting place.
32:13They found several cremation pits from
32:15this period, making it the oldest
32:17resting place in all of Britain. It was
32:21only around 2,600 B.CE that the blue
32:24stones came around. The naming might be
32:27a bit misleading since they're [music]
32:28not literally blue rocks. They have a
32:31bluish tinge to them when they're
32:32freshly broken, hence the name. These
32:36smaller rocks probably came from the
32:38Presley Hills in southwest Wales,
32:40[music] which is about 150 miles away
32:43from Stonehenge.
32:45Some researchers say that the ancient
32:46ones believed that blue stones had
32:48healing qualities.
32:51So, we can maybe guess why they went
32:53through all of the trouble to move them
32:55from Wales to Salisbury Plains. Huh.
32:58A little bit later than that, circa
33:002500.
33:02That's when we start having the
33:03Stonehenge we know. and love today.
33:06That's when the Sarsson stones started
33:08to arrive. The Sars are Stonehenge's
33:11huge [music] stones. I mean, each sarsen
33:14can weigh around 25 tons. That's as much
33:18as three African elephants stacked
33:19[music] together. The Sars make that
33:22iconic outer ring circle. Supposedly,
33:25that's also when the altar stone was
33:27moved from Scotland directly to the
33:29heart of Stonehenge. The altar stone is
33:32the largest of the blue stones used to
33:34build Stonehenge. Today, the altar stone
33:37lies recumbent at the foot of the
33:39[music] largest trilon of the monument.
33:42In case you don't know, the trilithons
33:44are the horizontal stones used to form
33:46those famous arches we see today. And
33:49here's where the story takes a twist.
33:53For nearly a century, [music] scientists
33:56believe that the altar stone came from
33:57the same area as the blue stones, the
34:00Presley Hills in Wales. [music]
34:02It made sense back then. If you're
34:04already hauling stones from Wales, why
34:07not grab a special one to be the
34:09so-called altar? [music]
34:11Except that theory started crumbling in
34:142018 when a team of researchers decided
34:16to dig deeper. They used advanced
34:20[music] geochemical analysis to pinpoint
34:22where the altter's sandstone actually
34:24came from. And it turns out it wasn't
34:28Wales.
34:29Instead, the results pointed [music]
34:31north, specifically to the Orcadian
34:34basin in northeastern Scotland, 400 m
34:37from Stonehenge.
34:39This revelation changed the whole script
34:42of [music] Stonehenge's story.
34:44How would they move the rocks, you may
34:46ask? Well, there's an old theory [music]
34:49known as the ice road that suggests that
34:51the rocks were moved by natural icy
34:53pathways that [music] formed during the
34:55winter. This way, they could slide the
34:58rocks down all the way to Stonehenge.
35:01But hey, if we're talking about a
35:03distance of over a 100 miles, that's not
35:05too realistic.
35:07Anyways, [music]
35:08this theory was debunked because it was
35:10warmer back then than it is today.
35:13There's also [music] the river theory
35:14that suggests that the rocks were
35:16floating along the river from the quarry
35:18to the site. But if we're talking about
35:21[music] Sarsson rocks, they're too heavy
35:23to float. So there goes this theory.
35:26What we're saying is no one knows how
35:29the rocks were moved. Another
35:31interesting info came from all the
35:33research done in [music] Stonehenge. A
35:36recent laser survey of the stones
35:38revealed the different [music] stone
35:40working methods used and has shown that
35:42some parts of the monument were more
35:44carefully finished than others. In
35:47particular, the northeast side and the
35:50inner faces of the central trilathons
35:52were finely dressed. FYI, a trilathon is
35:56one of Stonehenge's most famous shapes.
35:59It's when two huge monoliths receive a
36:02third one on top of them, connecting the
36:04two together.
36:05>> [music]
36:05>> This fancy word is just Greek for having
36:08three stones. But anyway, the bigger
36:11question and maybe why Stonehenge
36:13[music] is so famous is why it was built
36:16in the first place.
36:18You see, Stonehenge's entire layout
36:21seems to have been carefully planned to
36:23align [music] with the movements of the
36:25sun. The monument's architecture is
36:27particularly attuned to the solstesses,
36:30the shortest and longest days of the
36:32year. During the summer solstice, the
36:35sun rises perfectly in line [music] with
36:37the heelstone, casting light straight
36:39into the heart of the stone circle. A
36:42spectacular, [music]
36:44almost magical sight that surely wowed
36:46its ancient audience. But it's the
36:48mid-inter solstice that seems to hold a
36:51special connection to the altar stone.
36:53As the sun sets on that day, its light
36:57aligns with the altar stone at the
36:59center of Stonehenge.
37:01To the builders of Stonehenge, this
37:03alignment may have symbolized more than
37:05just celestial precision. It likely
37:08carried profound ancestral and spiritual
37:10[music] significance. The altar stone,
37:13illuminated by the setting sun, could
37:15have been seen as a bridge between
37:17[music] worlds, connecting the living
37:19with their ancestors, the earth with the
37:22cosmos, and the present with the
37:24eternal.
37:26In a world without calendars, clocks, or
37:28weather apps, the solstice [music] were
37:31everything. They marked the rhythm of
37:33life, guiding agricultural cycles and
37:36spiritual rituals alike. So, Stonehenge
37:39wasn't just about the stones or the
37:42people who built it, but perhaps [music]
37:44a way to honor their ancestral roots in
37:47an everchanging world.
37:50Recently, scientists made an astonishing
37:52discovery that might solve Stonehenge's
37:55mystery. They found something hidden
37:57deep within [music] the DNA of
37:59Stonehenge's Sarsen rods, the huge
38:01monolithic ones, and it might reveal why
38:04our Neolithic ancestors designed and
38:07built this thing in the first place.
38:10Over the years, scientists have been
38:12scratching their heads trying to figure
38:14out where the [music] huge Sarsen rocks
38:16came from. For years, they believe they
38:18came from a quarry [music] just 15 miles
38:21away from the site known as Marlboro
38:23Downs. At this site, they found similar
38:26minerals to the ones that make up the
38:28Sarsen [music] Rocks. But it turned out
38:31there was more to this story than they
38:32thought. The understanding of how
38:35Stonehenge [music] was built is always
38:37changing. Scientists need to really
38:40travel back in time to uncover its
38:42[music] mysteries. Where did the rocks
38:44come from? How were they carried? Why
38:47was the site [music] built? You see, the
38:50stone hidden site located at Salisbury
38:52plane in England is made up of two main
38:55types of stone. There are the super
38:57heavy sars and the lighter and smaller
39:00blue stones. The sars each weigh about
39:0325 tons. That's as much as three African
39:06elephants stacked [music] together. The
39:08heaviest sarsen stone, called the heel
39:11stone, weighs 30 tons all by itself.
39:14Together, the Sars make that iconic
39:17outer ring circle. [music]
39:19Inside that circle, that's where you'll
39:21find the blue stones. The naming might
39:24seem a [music] bit misleading since
39:25they're not really blue. They have a
39:27bluish tinge to them when they are
39:29freshly broken, hence the name. These
39:32smaller rocks [music] probably came from
39:34the Priscili Hills in southwest Wales,
39:37which is about 150 mi away from
39:39Stonehenge. They're [music] a bit
39:41lighter than the Sars, but still pretty
39:43heavy. The alter stone, which is
39:46classified as a [music] blue stone, is
39:48the heaviest one, weighing around six
39:50tons. Its original location [music]
39:52still isn't known for sure.
39:56To figure out where a rock came from,
39:58[music] scientists first have to study
40:00their composition. This is like checking
40:02the rock's [music] DNA. Then they cross
40:05reference the structure of the rock with
40:07minerals in the soil to see if it's a
40:09match. Most of the [music] sars we see
40:12around southern England are actually
40:14made of a type of sandstone known as
40:17silcrete. Think of silkree as sand
40:19that's been hardened by underground
40:21water processes [music]
40:22over millions of years. This process
40:25mostly happened during a period called
40:27the paleo [music] gene about 65 to 23
40:30million years ago. These sarsson [music]
40:33rocks didn't form in one big slab, but
40:36in patches like nature, leaving little
40:38rock gardens [music] all over the place.
40:41Scientists reason the sarsson spread out
40:43randomly, forming in isolated pockets.
40:47Over time, many were buried under layers
40:50of clay and chalk, [music] which helped
40:52preserve them. When ancient builders
40:54were on the lookout for materials, these
40:56sars [music] must have looked perfect
40:58for something impressive like
40:59Stonehenge. Actually, sars have been
41:02used in everything from Roman [music]
41:04villas to medieval churches and even in
41:07things like road curbs and old field
41:09walls. One could [music] say these rocks
41:12were the it material for ancient
41:14builders and continued to be popular
41:16[music] even into more modern times.
41:20This fact made scientists start [music]
41:22wondering that maybe not all Sarsson
41:24stones that were used to build
41:25Stonehenge came from the same place.
41:29They've identified Sarsson [music] sites
41:31all over the UK in places such as
41:34Oxfordshire and Kent. After hundreds of
41:37years of studying the Sars, [music]
41:39geologists finally had the right type of
41:41technology to determine the origin of
41:43the stones. Now, I wish I could [music]
41:46tell you that it was some undisclosed
41:48location very far away from the site,
41:51but as it turned out, the Sars [music]
41:53were originally from Westwoods, the
41:56forest near Stonehenge.
41:59A new factor came into play when
42:02excavations [music]
42:02uncovered empty stone holes showing that
42:05at least six blue stone pillars were
42:07removed from a Presley Hills site called
42:10Juan Mine in prehistory. They had a
42:13stone circle over there. [music] And
42:15it's believed that some of Stonehenge's
42:17rocks were recycled rocks from this more
42:20ancient circle. If this is [music] true,
42:22it might be that Stonehenge is part of a
42:25much larger landscape of ancient sites.
42:28If this is the case, then Stonehenge is
42:31just [music] the cherry on top of a much
42:33larger scale project. Think of it as the
42:36sacred [music] centerpiece of an entire
42:38landscape of monuments, mounds, stone
42:41circles, and things.
42:43This is why scientists want to find out
42:45where the [music] rocks came from so
42:47badly. It could lead to why and how
42:50Stonehenge [music] was built. Now,
42:52Stonehenge didn't just pop up overnight.
42:55It was built in [music] several stages
42:57over hundreds of years. It's likely that
43:00it wasn't a single unified vision, but
43:03more [music] like a big community
43:04project that evolved over time. With
43:07each generation, the builders brought in
43:09their own ideas, creating a [music]
43:12stone structure that would last for
43:13ages.
43:16The first stage was around 3,100 [music]
43:19B.CE. That's when people dug out a
43:21circular ditch and [music] likely set up
43:23some blue stones as sort of a starter
43:26ring. Later they added the Sars [music]
43:28and even top some of them with
43:30horizontal stones to form those famous
43:33arches you see today, also known as
43:35[music] the trilathons.
43:37These ancient builders had some
43:39challenges on their hands. How would
43:41they move the rocks? There's an old
43:44theory known as the ice road that
43:46suggests that the rocks were moved by
43:48natural icy pathways that [music] form
43:50during the winter. This way they could
43:53slide the rocks down all the way to
43:55Stonehenge. But hey, if we're talking
43:58about a distance of over 100 miles,
44:00[music] that's not too realistic.
44:02Anyways, this theory was debunked
44:04because it was warmer [music] back then
44:06than it is today. There's also the river
44:09theory which suggests that the rocks
44:11were floated along the river from the
44:13quarry to the site. But if we're talking
44:16about Sarsson rocks, they're too heavy
44:18[music] to float. So there goes that
44:21theory. What we're saying is no one
44:23knows how the rocks were moved.
44:28Another interesting science tidbit came
44:30from all the research done [music] in
44:32Stonehenge. A recent laser survey of the
44:35stones revealed the different stone
44:37working methods [music] used and has
44:39shown that some of the parts of the
44:41monument were more carefully finished
44:43than others. In particular, [music] the
44:46northeast side and the inner faces of
44:48the central trilathons were finely
44:50dressed. FYI, a trilathon is one [music]
44:54of Stonehenge's most famous shapes. It's
44:56when two huge monoliths receive a third
44:59one on top of them, connecting the two
45:01[music] together. This fancy word is
45:04simply Greek for having three stones.
45:08But anyways, the bigger question and the
45:11reason Stonehenge is [music] so famous
45:13is why it was built in the first place.
45:16Theories are all over the place and some
45:19sound like they're straight out of a
45:20sci-fi show. [music] So, here's a
45:22rundown of the most popular ideas.
45:26There's, of course, the solar calendar
45:28theory.
45:29>> [music]
45:29>> This one supposes that the stones are
45:31aligned with the movements of the sun,
45:33especially during the summer and winter
45:35solstesses. [music] During the summer
45:37solstice, the sun rises to the left of
45:40the heel stone. That's the [music] lone
45:42stone outside the main circle, lighting
45:45up the entire monument. Some say it's
45:47the ancient version of a calendar
45:49marking the year's longest and shortest
45:52days.
45:53Some archaeologists think Stonehenge
45:56might have been an ancient healing
45:57center. Pieces of blue stone have been
46:00found chipped away, possibly by people
46:02who believe they had healing powers.
46:05[music] The theory goes that people
46:07traveled from all over to come to
46:09Stonehenge in hopes of a cure for
46:11whatever was ailing them.
46:14There's also some speculation that
46:16Stonehenge was the place to be. Think of
46:19it as an ancient gathering spot. Some
46:22evidence suggests that communities from
46:24distant areas traveled to Stonehenge for
46:27gatherings, feasts, and ceremonies.
46:29[music]
46:30Studies of bones found near the site
46:33show they came from all over Britain,
46:35making it a sort of prehistoric meetup
46:38location.
46:41Hey, if you think Stonehenge is one of
46:43the oldest stone monuments ever, well,
46:46let me introduce you to Gobeckley Tam.
46:49Buckle up, we got to travel to Turkey to
46:51meet this really old guy. Yeah, he's too
46:54old to travel.
46:56Jokes aside, Gobeci, an archaeological
47:00site located in southeastern Turkey that
47:02dates back to the Neolithic period
47:05around 10,000 B.CE. It's considered to
47:08be one of the oldest and most
47:10significant archaeological discoveries
47:12in recent times.
47:14The site consists of a series of
47:16circular and rectangular structures made
47:18of stone pillars. Yeah, it does look
47:21like its younger brother, Stonehenge.
47:23Some of those pillars are decorated with
47:25intricate carvings of animals and other
47:28symbols. Now, you may be wondering, hey,
47:30why on earth did they make such a
47:32fascinating building? What was its
47:34purpose? Sorry, I got no answer for
47:37that. The purpose of the site is still
47:39unknown, but it is believed to have been
47:41a ceremonial center for the ancient
47:43people who lived in the area. The
47:46discovery of Gobecleta has challenged
47:49longheld beliefs about the development
47:51of human civilization as it suggests
47:54that complex societies may have emerged
47:56much earlier than previously thought.
48:00Okay, pack your stuff. Our travels just
48:03started. Next destination, Msada. It's
48:06an ancient fortress located in Israel on
48:08a plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. Hey,
48:12look at that view. Spectacular, huh? It
48:15was built by King Herod the Great in the
48:17first century B.CE. And it was very
48:20smartly built. Within the fortress,
48:22there were various facilities such as
48:24storehouses, barracks, a palace, and a
48:27set of sistns capable of holding
48:29approximately 40,000 cubic meters of
48:32rainwater.
48:34People living there believe that the
48:36collected runoff from a single day's
48:38rainfall could provide sustenance for
48:40over a thousand individuals for a period
48:43of two to three years. Access to the
48:45fortress was limited to three steep and
48:48winding paths leading up to fortified
48:50gates. Still, at one point, the fortress
48:53was occupied by people who had fled
48:55Jerusalem after the city was captured by
48:58the Romans. They held out against the
49:00invaders for several months, but
49:02eventually they were defeated. But these
49:05guys didn't surrender. The story of
49:07Msada has become a symbol of resistance
49:10and bravery. Today, Msada is a popular
49:13tourist attraction and a UNESCO World
49:16Heritage site.
49:20The next flight is going to be short.
49:22We're popping over to Egypt to see the
49:24Carne Temple Complex. It's a vast
49:27ancient Egyptian temple complex located
49:29in the city of Luxor, Egypt. It was
49:32built over a period of 2,000 years and
49:35covers an area of more than 200 acres.
49:38The complex is dedicated to the worship
49:41of the deity Alman Roa. Wait a minute,
49:43that should be Alman Rah. And it was one
49:46of the most important religious centers
49:47in ancient Egypt. The Carneak Temple
49:50consists of several temples, chapels and
49:52other buildings, including the great
49:54temple of Ammon, the temple of Kansu and
49:57the temple of Pata Pata. The great
50:01temple of Ammon is the largest and most
50:03impressive temple in the complex with
50:05massive columns, statues, and other
50:07decorations. One of the most famous
50:10features of the Carneak Temple complex
50:12is the Avenue of Sphinxes, which is a
50:15long avenue lined with Sphinx statues
50:17that leads from the entrance of the
50:19complex to the great temple of Ammon.
50:23Another notable feature is the Hypoyle
50:26Hall, which is a massive hall with 134
50:29columns that are over 70 ft high. The
50:32Carnac Temple Complex is a popular
50:34tourist attraction and a UNESCO World
50:36Heritage site. It's considered one of
50:39the most important archaeological sites
50:41in Egypt and provides a fascinating
50:43glimpse into the religion and culture of
50:46ancient Egypt.
50:49Hey, we can't hop on the next flight and
50:51leave Egypt until we see the pyramid of
50:54Doure. It has another name, by the way.
50:57It's also known as the step pyramid.
50:59This ancient Egyptian site is located in
51:02Sakara. It was built during the 27th
51:05century B.C.E. for the pharaoh doer by
51:08his architect Mhotep who is considered
51:11one of the most important figures in
51:13Egyptian history.
51:15People believe this pyramid is the first
51:18monumental structure built entirely of
51:20stone and is an important example of
51:22early Egyptian architecture. The pyramid
51:25originally stood at 203 ft tall and was
51:28surrounded by a complex of buildings and
51:30courtyards. It was constructed in six
51:33layers, each smaller than the one below
51:35it, giving it the distinctive step-like
51:38appearance.
51:40The pyramid was used as a burial place
51:42for Pharaoh Doure and was surrounded by
51:45a vast necropolis that contained the
51:47tombs of many other important officials.
51:50H the Grateful Dead. The pyramid of
51:53Doure has several renovations and
51:55additions over the centuries, including
51:57the addition of a limestone casing that
52:00covered the original step structure.
52:02However, much of the pyramid was
52:04destroyed over time, and today only the
52:07central core remains. Despite this, it
52:10remains an important archaeological site
52:12and a popular tourist attraction in
52:14Egypt.
52:16All righty, we're ready to move on.
52:19There's one more pretty recent discovery
52:21we got to see today. The Tower of
52:24Jericho was only discovered during
52:26excavations in the 1950s and60s. It's an
52:29ancient stone tower located in the city
52:32of Jericho in the West Bank. Just like
52:34Gobeclaya, this one is believed to be
52:38one of the oldest stone structures in
52:40the world, dating back to approximately
52:428,000 B.CE. The tower stands at over 28
52:46ft tall. It's made up of two main
52:48sections, an inner tower and an outer
52:51tower, which are connected by a series
52:53of stairs.
52:55The purpose of the Tower of Jericho is
52:57not entirely clear, but it is believed
53:00to have served as a defensive structure
53:02or a watchtowwer. It may have also had
53:05religious significance as it was located
53:07near a sacred spring. The Tower of
53:10Jericho is a significant archaeological
53:12site and has provided valuable insights
53:15into the early history of human
53:17civilization. It's open to visitors and
53:19is a popular destination for tourists
53:22interested in ancient history. Now, this
53:24ancient site even got attention from
53:27Netflix and they made a movie where the
53:29action takes place in Mohen Daro. This
53:32site was a major center of the Indus
53:34Valley civilization in present day
53:37Pakistan.
53:38Mohenjodaro was one of the largest
53:40cities of the ancient world with a
53:42population estimated to have been around
53:4540,000 in its peak. Trust me, that must
53:48have been a crazy megalopouloolis back
53:50then. The city was notable for its
53:52advanced urban planning with
53:54sophisticated drainage and sanitation
53:56systems and its impressive architecture
53:59including the great bath and the
54:01greenery. Moenjjo Daro was abandoned
54:03around 1900 B.CE E and its ruins were
54:07only rediscovered in the 1920s. Today,
54:10it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and
54:13an important archaeological site for the
54:15study of ancient South Asian
54:16civilization.
54:20We're heading to a teeny tiny country
54:23that has quite an impressive history.
54:25Welcome to Malta. The Zigansia Temples
54:28are a Neolithic site located on the
54:31Mediterranean island of Goo. They're
54:34probably one of the oldest freestanding
54:36structures in the world, dating back to
54:38around 3600 to 3200 B.CE. The temples
54:43consists of two megalithic structures,
54:45each with multiple rooms and altars. The
54:48name Ziggantia means giant tower in
54:51Maltese as people believe that only
54:53giants could have built such massive
54:55structures. The temples are believed to
54:58have been used for religious purposes
55:00and are considered to be an important
55:01example of prehistoric architecture.
55:04They were added to the UNESCO World
55:06Heritage list in 1980.
55:09Well, you must be pretty tired, but
55:11there's one more place we got to visit
55:13today. Our plane is already landing in
55:16Armenia, and we're here to see the
55:18Temple of Garnney. Look, this one is
55:20well preserved. This temple dates back
55:22to the 1st century CE. It was built by
55:25King Pterodatus I as a dedication to the
55:28sun deity Mir. Sadly, the temple was
55:31destroyed in the 17th century during an
55:34earthquake, which is quite a common
55:36thing for this area, but it was later
55:38reconstructed in the 20th century.
55:40Today, it's a popular tourist attraction
55:42and is also listed as a UNESCO World
55:45Heritage site.
55:50Hey, you've heard of Stonehenge? Of
55:52course you have. Big rocks mysteriously
55:55mounted in circles on a plane in England
55:57by, you know, somebody.
56:00But what if England Stonehenge is only a
56:03replica of another monument and its
56:05builders just crossed the Atlantic and
56:08copied what someone had already done
56:10elsewhere? Well, it turns out
56:12researchers found another Stonehenge
56:15underneath the waters of Lake Michigan.
56:19This lake is a hot spot for woo woo
56:21unexplained things. A bunch of
56:23disappearances,
56:25plane crashes, and now this. An ancient
56:28underwater monument that looks,
56:29strangely enough, like Stonehenge. We
56:32couldn't help ourselves and needed to
56:34dive deep into the story.
56:38A ring of massive [music] stones
56:40arranged in a way that felt all too
56:42familiar. They saw two circles, an outer
56:46one and an inner one sitting 40 ft below
56:49the surface. But this wasn't just a
56:52random pile of rocks. These stones had
56:55been placed there purposefully by human
56:58hands.
56:59And by doing some further research, they
57:02discovered that they were staring at a
57:03structure that's over 9,000 years old.
57:06Think about it. This Stonehenge beneath
57:09Lake Michigan predates the pyramids.
57:12It predates Stonehenge itself by about
57:154,000 years.
57:18All of this information was enough to
57:19startle scientists at Northwestern
57:22Michigan University. But that was before
57:25they found this out. One of the stones
57:28had a carving, a faint but clear
57:30petroglyph of a mastadon.
57:33Mastadons kind of look like the
57:35ancestors to our modern-day elephants,
57:37but they have been extinct on planet
57:39Earth since 10,000 years ago. So,
57:42whoever [music] built this underwater
57:44Stonehenge needed to be alive at the
57:46same time these creatures roamed our
57:48planet.
57:50This discovery raised many questions
57:52among scientists. I mean, why on earth
57:54would they go through all this trouble
57:56[music] to lay rocks at the bottom of a
57:58lake? Well, first things first,
58:01scientists believe that Lake Michigan
58:03had much less water back then than it
58:05does now. Second, it could have
58:07something to do with ancestral practices
58:10of First Nation people. There's one
58:12theory from a professor of the
58:14University of Michigan. He suggested
58:16that the stones formed a kind of
58:19prehistoric hunting trap. He believes
58:21that early hunters used the circular
58:23formation as a drive lane to herd large
58:26animals like the mastadons from the rock
58:29carvings we were just talking about.
58:31Once they got these huge animals into a
58:33tighter circle, they could be more
58:35easily hunted. But not everyone's
58:38convinced by this theory. Some believe
58:40the circle probably had a deeper
58:42spiritual purpose. According to local
58:45Native American tribes, like the
58:47Haneshiab, stones are more than just
58:50rocks. They're living beings. They hold
58:53spiritual energy and represent a
58:55connection to the earth and all living
58:57creatures.
58:58An elder from the Hanosinabi community
59:01even suggested that these stones are
59:03sacred placed there by their ancestors
59:06to honor the land and its creatures.
59:09Scientists are trying to study the stone
59:11formation in depth like about 40 ft. But
59:15that's the problem actually. The fact
59:17that it's underwater makes it super
59:19difficult since they don't have the best
59:21technology.
59:23Traditional archaeological tools don't
59:25work as well when everything is
59:27submerged. But promising new
59:29[clears throat] technologies like
59:30stereop photoggramometry,
59:32which literally means making 3D models
59:35of a site, are helping scientists study
59:37the stone circle more closely.
59:40Still, research is slow and expensive,
59:43so it's hard to know when this mystery
59:45will come to a close.
59:48As we said, Lake Michigan is a hot spot
59:51for unexplained phenomenon. Its lake bed
59:53is filled with shipwrecks such as the
59:56Thomas Hume, a sturdy American schooner.
59:59It also collects debris from airplanes
1:00:02that have suddenly gone missing while
1:00:03flying the area, such as Northwest
1:00:06Airlines Flight 25501 that disappeared
1:00:09in the 1950s.
1:00:11Some people even call the area the Lake
1:00:14Michigan Triangle, suggesting paranormal
1:00:17activities like what happens in the
1:00:19Bermuda Triangle might be going on. The
1:00:22lake spans over 22,000 square miles,
1:00:25[music] which means it's almost 23 the
1:00:27size of the country of Ireland.
1:00:30In 2024, scientists were able to access
1:00:33another one of Lake Michigan's
1:00:35mysteries, the wreck of the Margaret A.
1:00:37[music] Mure schooner. This 130 foot
1:00:41long sailing ship sank over 130 years
1:00:44ago.
1:00:46The discovery was announced just
1:00:47recently by the Wisconsin Underwater
1:00:50Archaeological Association, the WUAA,
1:00:53whose team found the shipwreck sitting
1:00:5650 [music] ft below the surface just off
1:00:58the shores of Alg.
1:01:00Built in 1872, the Margar Mure was a
1:01:04threemasted schooner built to carry
1:01:06heavy cargo across the Great Lakes. Her
1:01:09final voyage started out as a routine
1:01:11trip. Loaded with bulk salt, the ship
1:01:14left Bay City, Michigan, heading for
1:01:16South Chicago, Illinois. But on
1:01:19September 30th, 1893,
1:01:22things took a bad turn. Just as the Muer
1:01:25approached the town of Anappi, now known
1:01:27as Al, a sudden storm hit. The ship
1:01:31began taking on water fast. The captain
1:01:34of the boat ordered his crew to abandon
1:01:36ship and thankfully they all made it to
1:01:38shore safely.
1:01:40For more than [music] a century, the
1:01:42wreck sat undisturbed on the lake bed,
1:01:45its location a mystery. But thanks to a
1:01:47combination of historical research and
1:01:50highresolution sonar, WUAA searchers
1:01:53finally found her in May of last year.
1:01:57The [music] wreck is remarkably well
1:01:58preserved with parts of the deck and
1:02:00gear still visible.
1:02:03Well, just a few lakes over to the left,
1:02:05researchers uncovered another impressive
1:02:07thing. At the bottom of Lake Mandota
1:02:10near [music] Madison, Wisconsin,
1:02:11researchers found 11 ancient canoes.
1:02:14They believe the oldest of the canoes
1:02:16dates all the way back to 2500
1:02:20BCE.
1:02:22[music] Now, if you don't get why that's
1:02:23important, it's because you're thinking
1:02:25with today's head. If in a classic
1:02:28Midwest highway you see a bunch of
1:02:30pickups, then back in the ancient days
1:02:33you see only canoes. They were the main
1:02:35mode of transportation for indigenous
1:02:38cultures. They were used to fish in deep
1:02:40waters, trade goods, and travel long
1:02:43distances.
1:02:44The reason why scientists were so
1:02:46[music] excited with this discovery is
1:02:48because they had never found any proof
1:02:50of what canoes were being used for in
1:02:52this region back then. And to understand
1:02:56the local cultures that inhabited the
1:02:58area during this time period, they
1:03:00needed to have some information on that.
1:03:03This exciting discovery was announced by
1:03:05the Wisconsin Historical Society in May
1:03:082024. The first canoe, which they
1:03:11believe is around 1,200 years old, was
1:03:14pulled from the lake in 2021. Then a
1:03:17second one was dug up in 2022.
1:03:20And now divers have found at least 11
1:03:22more [music] canoes along what would
1:03:24have been an ancient shoreline long
1:03:26since submerged. One theory [music] is
1:03:29that these canoes were intentionally
1:03:31sunk to keep them from freezing or
1:03:33warping [music] in winter. It's possible
1:03:35people stored them in the same spot for
1:03:37generations. Or maybe this is just a
1:03:40small part of a much bigger settlement.
1:03:43Historians [music] do believe there
1:03:44could be an ancient village hidden under
1:03:47the water of the lake. Divers have
1:03:49already found stone tools [music] like
1:03:51net sinkers used for fishing, but the
1:03:54village itself hasn't been located yet.
1:03:56[music]
1:03:57Truth is, while the Great Lakes often
1:03:59steal all the thunder, scientists point
1:04:02out that smaller lakes like Mandota have
1:04:04stories, too. The Wisconsin Historical
1:04:06[music]
1:04:07Society is working closely with native
1:04:09nations to piece together more about the
1:04:12[music] lakes's history.
1:04:14You'll need to believe me when I say
1:04:16there is a third Stonehenge all the way
1:04:19under the waters of Lake Constant,
1:04:21Switzerland. I mean, think of it like
1:04:24Stonehenge's cousin. Archaeologists
1:04:27[music] began to discover this back in
1:04:292015 when they found a line of 170
1:04:32man-made stone [music] cars under the
1:04:34lake. Scientists say this was most
1:04:37likely the work of several villages and
1:04:40that the Kairen site [music] was
1:04:41probably used for some collective
1:04:43purpose because well the formations
1:04:46[music] are huge. Some of them are
1:04:48several dozen ft wide and they can build
1:04:50up to 6 ft. The most [music] amazing
1:04:53discovery so far is that the site dates
1:04:56back to around 5,500 [music] years ago.
1:05:00So around the time the original
1:05:02Stonehenge was being built. Some of the
1:05:04facts that link them together [music]
1:05:06are their construction dates as well as
1:05:08the distinct characteristic of stone
1:05:10monuments built in a circular format.
1:05:14Scientists [music] don't know much about
1:05:15this site yet, but hey, I see a pattern
1:05:18manifested all over the world. [music]
1:05:21Don't you?
1:05:24Stonehenge is famous, but it isn't the
1:05:26oldest UK monument of its kind in
1:05:29England. That title belongs to
1:05:31Flagstones, a site that predates
1:05:33Stonehenge by about 200 years. In fact,
1:05:36it's possible that whoever built
1:05:38Stonehenge might have been copycats or
1:05:42perhaps, as some prefer, inspired by
1:05:45[music] Flagstones.
1:05:48Let's start unraveling the mystery of
1:05:50flag stones by looking at its exact age.
1:05:53To crack this ancient [music] puzzle,
1:05:55scientists turned to a powerful
1:05:57technique, radiocarbon dating.
1:05:59prehistoric monuments.
1:06:01This method works on organic materials
1:06:03like wood, bone, or charcoal that
1:06:06[music] are up to about 60,000 years
1:06:08old. Each of these materials contains
1:06:10something called carbon [music] 14.
1:06:14When an organism passes away, its carbon
1:06:1614 starts to break down at a predictable
1:06:18rate. By measuring how much is left,
1:06:21scientists [music] can estimate the age
1:06:23of these ancient objects. The method is
1:06:25really impressive. So, it doesn't come
1:06:27as a surprise that the inventor of this
1:06:29method was awarded the Nobel Prize.
1:06:32Radiocarbon dating has revealed that
1:06:35people built flag stones [music] around
1:06:363,200 B.CE, making it older than even
1:06:40the earliest parts of Stonehenge. But
1:06:43the mystery of flag stones is just
1:06:45beginning to unfold.
1:06:47Flagstones is located in Dorset [music]
1:06:49in southwest England about 37 mi away
1:06:52from Stonehenge. It [music] was
1:06:54discovered in the 1980s when workers
1:06:57were building a new road. Archaeologists
1:07:00dug up a huge circular ditch about 330
1:07:03ft wide made with overlapping pits.
1:07:06Inside the pits, [music] they found the
1:07:08remains of at least seven people, a
1:07:10cremated adult, three young individuals,
1:07:13[music] and three other adults whose
1:07:15bodies were partly cremated. This shows
1:07:18that people could have used the site as
1:07:20an ancient cremation burial site.
1:07:23Flagstones is basically a big ancient
1:07:26circle that popped up [music] right
1:07:27where early farming communities were
1:07:29spending their time. If you went there
1:07:31today, you wouldn't see any obvious
1:07:34walls or banks. But if you look inside
1:07:36the pits that [music] make up the
1:07:37circle, you'll find chalk rubble from
1:07:40both sides. That's a clue that when
1:07:42people dug these pits, they use the dirt
1:07:45and chalk [music] they took out to build
1:07:47up banks both inside and outside the
1:07:50circle.
1:07:52This special spot sits right in the
1:07:54middle of a whole bunch of other really
1:07:56old monuments and sites which were built
1:07:59over thousands of years during the
1:08:00Neolithic and Bronze [music] Ages.
1:08:04Experts have figured out the ages of
1:08:05some of these nearby places really well.
1:08:08[music] For example, the ditch at Maiden
1:08:10Castle dates back to around 3,600 B.CE.
1:08:15And the Big Henge at Mount Pleasant was
1:08:18built around 2,600 B.CE. CE. Today, half
1:08:23of Flagstones is under that road and the
1:08:25other half is under an old historic
1:08:28house looked after by the National
1:08:30Trust. You can find objects from the
1:08:33site at the Dorset Museum. Because
1:08:35flagstones and early Stonehenge look so
1:08:38similar with round enclosures, pits,
1:08:40[music] and cremated burials, scientists
1:08:43used to think they appeared at the same
1:08:45time. But thanks to radiocarbon dating,
1:08:48we now know flag stones. This ancient
1:08:51cremation burial site is the earliest
1:08:53big circular monument [music] ever found
1:08:55in Britain. To figure out how old the
1:08:58site really is, researchers tested
1:09:01things like human bones, red deer
1:09:03antlers, and charcoal found there. One
1:09:06of the most puzzling discoveries was a
1:09:08young man who was buried under a huge
1:09:10sarsen stone in the middle of the
1:09:12circle. Someone left him there about
1:09:141,000 years after people used the site
1:09:17for the first time. This find just added
1:09:19[music] to the mystery of flag stones.
1:09:23You're probably wondering about the
1:09:24flagstones versus Stonehenge comparison.
1:09:27Well, the latter is a mystery on its
1:09:29own. A big old circle of giant stones in
1:09:32the south of England. Those who made
1:09:34[music] it didn't write anything down,
1:09:36so we don't know exactly what they were
1:09:38thinking. One old tale says that King
1:09:41Arthur's wizard, Merlin, used magic to
1:09:44move the stones from Ireland, where
1:09:46giants had put them together. Another
1:09:48story says that people [music] from
1:09:50Denmark built it. Today, some people
1:09:53think extraterrestrial visitors made it.
1:09:57A man named John Aubrey started studying
1:09:59Stonehenge [music] in the 1660s. He
1:10:02thought the Kelt had built it for their
1:10:04priests called Druids, but that turned
1:10:06out to be wrong. Radiocarbon dating of
1:10:09this prehistoric monument shows that
1:10:11[music] its constructors built it in
1:10:12phases over several centuries. The
1:10:15construction started around 3,100 B.CE
1:10:19and continued [music] till around 1,600
1:10:21B.CE. First about 5,000 years ago,
1:10:24[music] it was just a round ditch in the
1:10:26ground. Then people added wooden posts.
1:10:29Around 2,600 B.CE, they brought big blue
1:10:33stones from Wales. Later they added
1:10:36sars, even bigger stones, each weighing
1:10:39as much as five elephants. They move
1:10:42those stones from 19 m away and place
1:10:45them in a big circle with five tall
1:10:47stone arches shaped like a horseshoe.
1:10:51Experts think building Stonehenge took
1:10:54more than 20 million hours of hard work.
1:10:57And that's a lot of teamwork, strength,
1:11:00and [music] planning for people who
1:11:01didn't even have machines.
1:11:04These days, there are a few different
1:11:06ideas about what Stonehenge was really
1:11:09used for. Some experts think it was a
1:11:12sacred place where people gathered for
1:11:13religious ceremonies. Others believe it
1:11:16was an early kind of science center used
1:11:18to study the sky and track time. Both
1:11:22groups noticed that the stones at
1:11:23Stonehenge are lined up with the sun and
1:11:26moon. So, people may have used the site
1:11:28to mark the changing seasons, especially
1:11:30during the summer and winter solstesses.
1:11:34Some think it worked like a giant
1:11:36calendar, helping people figure out
1:11:38dates or predict things like solar
1:11:40eclipses. [music] Stonehenge was an
1:11:43ancient cremation burial site, too, at
1:11:45least for some time.
1:11:48Anyway, if we continue with the Flag
1:11:50Stones versus Stonehenge comparison, we
1:11:53can't but dwell more on the age of these
1:11:55monuments. Flagstones is older than
1:11:58Stonehenge. In fact, it's one of the
1:12:00oldest UK monuments. It's really special
1:12:03because it's the most ancient big round
1:12:06enclosure ever found in Britain.
1:12:09According to the newest studies, its age
1:12:11is about 5,200
1:12:13years old.
1:12:15After it was built, more and more round
1:12:18monuments started popping up in other
1:12:20places, too. Before its construction,
1:12:23most ancient monuments were long and
1:12:25straight like rectangular barrerows or
1:12:27burial mounds or long ditches called
1:12:30cursus monuments. Some had even more
1:12:33random shapes, but the flag stu shows a
1:12:36big change. People were starting to
1:12:39build in circles instead. Some experts
1:12:42think this idea of circular monuments
1:12:44might have come from Ireland, where
1:12:46people were already burying cremated
1:12:48bodies in round [music] tombs.
1:12:51On the other hand, even though
1:12:53Flagstones has turned out to be older
1:12:55than Stonehenge, the new findings
1:12:57suggest that Stonehenge might need to be
1:12:59redated.
1:13:01Some of the objects found at Stonehenge,
1:13:03like animal bones, are actually older
1:13:05than the main structure [music] itself.
1:13:07For example, near the entrances to
1:13:09Stonehenge, archaeologists found deer
1:13:12bones and cattle skulls that date to
1:13:14around 3,200 B.CE. [music]
1:13:17Experts used to think that people kept
1:13:19those bones for a long time before
1:13:21burying them. But it's possible there
1:13:23was an early version of Stonehenge made
1:13:26from overlapping pits that existed
1:13:28before the big circular ditch was built
1:13:30around 2,900 B.CE.
1:13:35Now, could flag stones and Stonehenge
1:13:37have been part of a bigger shared
1:13:39tradition? Could there have been other
1:13:40ancient cremation burial sites in the
1:13:42UK? After all, these constructions
1:13:45aren't the only round prehistoric
1:13:47monuments in Britain. In Wales, [music]
1:13:50there's a similar site called
1:13:51Handigaihen,
1:13:53which also looks like a circular burial
1:13:55place. Such a way of burying the
1:13:58deceased might have been a common custom
1:13:59across the UK because you can see
1:14:02similar structures in Eastern Ireland.
1:14:04In the Buoen Valley, for example, there
1:14:07are ancient places like the Mound of the
1:14:09Hostages that people used in the same
1:14:12way. Now, researchers want to do more
1:14:15digging in Ireland to see if some of
1:14:16those monuments were [music] built
1:14:18before 3,200
1:14:20B.CE.
1:14:22If they're even older than flagstones,
1:14:24they might help explain where the idea
1:14:26of building round burial sites started
1:14:29and why people across Britain and
1:14:31Ireland were building them. The more we
1:14:33learn, [music] the better we'll
1:14:34understand what these sites were really
1:14:36for and how the people back then might
1:14:38have shared beliefs and traditions
1:14:40across the sea.
1:14:42Hopefully one [music] day we'll figure
1:14:44out the mystery of Flagstones, one of
1:14:46the oldest monuments in the UK. That's
1:14:49it for today. So hey, if you pacified
1:14:51your curiosity, then give the video a
1:14:53like and share it with your friends. Or
1:14:55if you want more, just click on these
1:14:57videos and stay on the bright

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