Lost Roman Treasure

GBH 44 Nova is made possible on gph by the financial support of members like you in partnership with dana-farber partners Cancer Care an adult oncology collaboration among Massachusetts General Hospital Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital three hospitals one goal working together to fight cancer with Biogen Idec creating new standards of care in oncology and immunology with passion purpose and partnerships they transform scientific discoveries into advances in human healthcare Biogen Idec your global partner in science and healthcare and with emc corporation dedicated to providing automated networked storage solutions to organizations around the globe EMC where information lives this program is described for blind and visually impaired viewers a production of WGBH Boston in this tiny village in Turkey as layers of soil are removed the past comes alive [Music] thousands of years ago there was a city that was the crossroads of the ancient Roman Empire a civilization where culture and prosperity went hand in hand where wealthy citizens built grand villas filled with precious art but the city medic catastrophic and mysterious end today its remains lie buried in this ancient River Valley and a team of French and Turkish scientists have been working for four years sifting through the sands of time inch by inch painstakingly separating treasures from prints these are the remnants of a lost world the ruins of fabulous villas the remains of ancient art clues about the families who lived here their stories and their names carefully decoded letter by letter they hint at more spectacular finds waiting to be uncovered but time is running out [Music] for this lost city will soon be buried under the flood waters of a new death [Music] with only days remaining the archaeologists will risk everything to find the greatest prize this ancient world can offer up next on Nova Lost Roman treasure [Music] major funding for Nova is provided by the park foundation dedicated to education and quality television science it's given us the framework to help make wireless communications clear Sprint is proud to support Nova we see an inventor at Microsoft your potential inspires us to create software that helps you reach it your potential our passion and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you [Music] [Music] the Euphrates River is the cradle of civilization today many people here live much as they did thousands of years ago 2,000 years ago as this great river flowed across the plains of eastern Turkey a handful of ancient cities of the Greek and Roman Empire's flourished [Music] buried somewhere in this remote valley is one of the most spectacular of those cities a treasure of ancient Rome the city of Zeugma but this ancient world is about to come up against the forces of modern technology [Music] this is the bureau check down part of an ambitious program by the Turkish government to encourage economic development the dam will generate electricity and irrigate farmland [Music] it's almost finished but its benefits will come with a cost this entire valley will be flooded the local villages will disappear underwater and more than 30,000 people will lose their homes what will also be lost are the hidden treasures of the ancient city of Zeugma they will be drowned under the waters of the Euphrates unless archeologists can get to them first an international team is here to try to rescue Zeugma archaeologists geophysicists experts in mapping and excavation have all joined forces to find the treasures of the ancient city they've been digging in this area for several years but now their work takes on a new urgency Pierre Laurie SH is heading the team they have only six weeks to dig before the dam goes into operation this is their last chance to save whatever they can of the buried city before it's too late Nishi so the banks typically don't mean here we are on Duncan overlooking the site of Zeugma and the Euphrates it could set off the tragedy unfolding here is that this remarkable area will soon disappear beneath the waters of the dam which is not close to completion the water will completely flood the left bank and the ancient site on that side of the Euphrates will disappear as well a large section of what lies below us it's a catastrophe in ancient times Sigma was a thriving City the center of trade routes that span the Roman Empire it stood at the intersection of roads that carried spices slaves and riches from Persia to the west and India in the south the only bridge across the entire Euphrates River was it signal info he the bridge connected the Euphrates River Valley to Central Asia and the Orient this was critical to the development of the Great Silk Road and trade brought clarity to the city [Music] zhuge ma was originally settled by the Greeks in 300 BC but entered its golden age many centuries later when the Romans took over it then became a vital center of Commerce art and culture an army of 6,000 soldiers guarded the bridge across the Euphrates to protect the crucial trade routes [Music] it was a fabulously wealthy place a jewel in the crown of the Roman Empire previous exploration has revealed important clues about ancient life in Zeugma under this flattened mound is the foundation of an ancient temple nearby the grassy Terrace of a stadium where Roman citizens would gather for theatrical and sporting events [Music] the city had an educated elite population the most prominent ancient Romans lived in extravagant richly decorated villas over the centuries a few priceless mosaics have been looted from the area around Zeugma they offer a tantalizing glimpse of the riches that might still lie buried in the valley now vicious bear may the wealth of the ancient population allowed them to build magnificent villas on the same scale as most of the cities of the Eastern Roman Empire such as Antioch centuries ago the hills surrounding Zeugma were likely to have looked like this dotted with lavish houses and grand public buildings rich with statues and fabulous artwork over the years the excavation has failed to find anything of real value yet the archeologists believe many ancient treasures still exist now they have just six weeks to find them it is very important for us to work as fast as possible to save what we can as there are some areas that will be lost to research forever day one begins the scientists split into two teams to map the site on both sides of the river with such a short time to work it's critically important to decide exactly where to dig all are acutely aware of what is at stake sukma is really two cities on opposite banks at the euphrates Seleucia a hillside town and apamea on the flat plane it is apamea that will disappear first under the flood waters one team sets off across the river for apamea crossing at the point where the ancient bridge might once have stood the task ahead is almost overwhelming the site stretches for a hundred and twenty-five acres and none of it has been excavated before the first critical step is to discern the outer boundaries and structure of the city to do this they will have to uncover miles of the great perimeter wall that protected the city it is now mostly buried or destroyed but in a few places sections of the wall are still standing and they provide a hint of how powerful the defenses of the city once were the banks of the Euphrates the cities had very strong defensive walls to protect them here exposed on the plain they had to build even stronger walls because they were very vulnerable to attack that's why this city's wall had to be built with meticulous care these stones were not cut straight so that an attack by catapult would cause only the walls surface to shatter leaving the main part of the wall standing the first challenge is to search the entire site for fragments of the wall its pieces lies scattered around like a giant jigsaw puzzle miles of the wall are still buried underground if there were time the archaeologists would carefully dig out all the walls they could find to get a clearer picture of the size and shape of the city but this is just not possible to speed things up the local people pitch in to help this Kurdish family has lived here for generations and they tell the scientists about an abandoned well deep below the ground [Music] finding the well unexpectedly reveals a crucial hidden stretch of the wall [Music] on an awesome FEMA dinner inside a modern well that gives us access to a section of the old wall we're very lucky we didn't have to dig it out it's a very long very strong wall and about ten feet thick that indicates it was a main defensive rampart and must have surrounded a very important city piece by piece every new discovery is recorded on paper gradually walls and towers begin to take shape [Music] it's clear that the builders of Zeugma used the most sophisticated technology of the time the walls weren't built in simple straight lines but at sharp defensive angles finally the outer limits of the city are revealed but what lies buried inside the walls under these trees there may be streets houses markets and temples but it's impossible to uncover at all there is no way to excavate layer by layer as would normally be done it would take years there must be another way the archaeologists asked for help from Albert Hesse and Christoph Benesh two scientists more used to searching for oil and mineral deposits than finding lost cities they bring with them an amazing machine that could change everything we are all aware of the Earth's magnetic field because we all use it to orient our compasses however we also know that certain underground materials can upset the magnetic lines of force by measuring the magnetism on the surface of the ground with an instrument called a magnetometer we can locate disturbances in a magnetic field that may indicate there is something buried there this device measures tiny variations in the Earth's magnetic field normally the magnetic field is at a constant background level but any large rock or piece of metal under the soil will cause it to change [Music] the two sensors at the end of this poll detect the changes sukma is buried under 10 feet of very fine sedimentary soil the results of thousands of years of the regular flooding of the Euphrates there are no big rocks in the soil here which means that any signal picked up by the sensors is likely to be a sign of the city buried roads houses or temples will all register as tiny fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field it takes several days to survey the site under a sweltering Sun walking in perfect sync to the sounds of the machine [Music] as the information is fed into a computer a detailed picture of a hidden world begins to emerge these shadowy blocks represent houses walls and cobbled streets the foundations of Zeugma deep below the earth you can clearly see this it's about 15 feet thick like the ones we've seen on site there are living quarters next to it there's a road here and these white sections are the walls of houses and all sided after just a few days the archaeologists have results that would have taken years of digging at night they pour over the pictures trying to make sense of them it was the color perfeito victim Tony Podesta said Oh at least fits exactly with your theory of the city's layout as the computer images accumulate they create a three-dimensional map of Sigma as it once existed [Music] now it's time to dig and not a moment too soon at the dam construction is almost complete across the river the team exploring solution the hilly part of Zeugma has been trying to pinpoint the most promising place in the huge site to excavate in the four weeks that remain [Music] there is no way to map this part of the city the machine that worked so well on the flat plane of apamea cannot distinguish rocks in the hillside from the stone foundations of houses [Music] in the previous four years the scientists have dug small exploratory sites all over Zeugma hoping to find a Roman villa rich in ancient artifacts but now there's no more time for exploring they have to narrow their search and do some serious digging this is one of the sites they've chosen the walls look promising but they have no way to know if this will turn out to be a grand villa or a simple house after several days of hard work they're still struggling to figure it out no menu we'd have to remove all of these to learn anything it'll be a huge amount of work if we ever get that far in the race against time the scientists are forced to abandon normal archaeological procedures they can't afford to examine each layer inch by inch they must dig down to the foundations as quickly as possible logging and recording what they can on the way finally they hit pay dirt these drain pipes are 2,000 years old they're a clue to how the house was organized and why it met an untimely end [Music] do some DC does a Yahtzee diabeetus you a inches in we second FET laughs this is wealthy people he the collision mode ready to talk this not even these houses were abandoned and then suddenly covered by a landslide D mu D mu world so large sections of the wall were preserved it was like this one for example there was probably a door here oh sweet penetrators we not yes you see you can go into another room Trudy's though probably wear wooden steps leading down into the next room because there's a drop of 40 centimeters between the floors this is just an ordinary Roman dwelling there's no sign of the richly decorated villa they were hoping for but then the discovery of a network of gullies leads the archaeologists to a dramatic insight into the layout of the entire city is it that we say 12 me no question Babu take your time don't rush it it's incredible they carefully squeeze into narrow passages that lead them further and further under the city these tunnels were built with amazing precision and probably have been untouched for 2,000 years [Music] the precision is extraordinary the blocks are all made so exactly walking directly under the streets and houses of ancient Zeugma the archaeologists realized they have discovered the sewer system of the buried city this is the way the sewer workers would have come it stand here to clear out the blockages they'd sweep along the passages and clean them out the construction resembles classic Greek architecture suggesting it was built by the earliest settlers of Zeugma in 300 BC but then they come across another clue to its history a Roman artist way very beautiful you can see right away that it's Roman this type of motor didn't exist before the Romans they can even die it's a classic Roman arch and this mortar is incredibly strong [Music] but give us what fascinates me is that if we could map out the entire sewer system we'd have a blueprint of the town all the Vedas that sent their wastewater into this network it would be the city in Reverse by following the tunnels of the sewer system the archaeologists could come up with the ground plan of the entire city [Music] the broad streets of the wealthiest neighborhoods are probably directly above the widest tunnels in the sewer but mapping the tunnels would take months time they just don't have the scientists must leave the sewers and concentrate on the critical work above-ground [Music] at the second site on the hill digging is well underway these broken columns suggest an important discovery [Music] perhaps these walls rooms and doorways belong to a genuine Roman villa a house that contained valuable mosaics and artwork riches the archaeologists desperately want to find and rescue their now more than halfway through the six-week dig and the site is getting bigger by the day they will never manage to uncover it all in just three weeks so they make a radical decision [Music] as a last resort they decide to bring in the bulldozers it would take weeks to remove by hand the amount of Earth these machines can handle in a single day still there's a significant risk valuable artifacts buried in the site could be damaged or destroyed music you have to try everything will be drowned anywhere everything will be lost therefore in these circumstances and to further our research we have to sacrifice walls that will vanish under water and use the bulldozers much more freely [Music] every fragment of the villa is carefully drawn and catalogued just as it is found from the precise location of each fallen common they will later be able to reconstruct what the villa once looked like [Music] by studying the ruins the archaeologists hoped to solve the mystery of what happened in Zeugma towards the end of the Roman occupation [Music] according to ancient texts around 250 ad Sigma was attacked from the east by the Persians legend has it that they raided the city and defeated the Roman army Sigma was burned and destroyed after the raid the Roman soldiers who defended Sigma were moved away to other parts of the Empire as the city went into a slow decline now all this ancient history is coming back to life in the ruins there is evidence of events that took place nearly 2,000 years ago in every part of this house in a house like this you would expect layers of debris from settled dirt or maybe from digging but here we've got an indistinct mass the whole place has been subjected to extreme heat the wood has burned slowly and become charcoal this stone has been reduced to lime this area has turned red this is charcoal it's everywhere see the brown dust there was probably a fire broken columns the sediment containing coal and ash and burned wood there was a catastrophe here something calamitous happened some kind of huge collapse a terrible fire then it all settled down until there was a landslide and the house was abandoned serve ma lies in an earthquake zone so it's possible the landslide was caused by a natural disaster but the dates of these coins suggest that the catastrophic fire preceded the landslide and was probably part of the Persian raid the image on the coin is Phillip the Arabian who was emperor of Rome in 249 ad right before the villa was most likely destroyed a month's hard work has yielded this small collection of decorative items the remains of a wealthy Roman household frozen in time and buried for centuries [Music] but so far there is no sign of the fine mosaics and other treasures that the ancient city once almost certainly contained with only two weeks left all attention is focused on the final excavation of the villa sifting through the bottom layers the team uncovers a steady stream of evidence that this house met a disastrous end when you excavate a house like this you can follow the different stages of its destruction first there was a huge fire which burned all the doors windows paneling and furniture we found burned bronze fixtures then the roof caved in with the tiles it all formed a thick layer then the walls gradually collapse on top of everything else you can see the final moments of a very luxurious house but a luxurious Roman house ought to contain great artistic treasures unless they were destroyed by the fire and landslides that followed the Persian attack the archaeologists keep digging but hope is beginning to fade and then finally they discover something that fulfills their greatest expectations as they brush away the earth brightly colored paintings emerge from beneath the crumbling soil [Music] the mud that filled the house has preserved and protected several beautiful wall paintings that have not seen the light of day for nearly two thousand years [Music] now that the paintings are exposed they have to be cleaned and removed quickly if not they will deteriorate rapidly in the hot Sun and humid air [Music] the archaeologists are almost out of time but they are close to reaching the final moments of Zeugma history in a corner of one room is something that they've all been waiting for since the dig began a mosaic floor at first it seems to be disappointingly plain but then Greek inscriptions and familiar names begin to appear it's very strange very very strange there's an inscription it's in Greek as if I they're all mythological characters on this mosaic [Music] Union [Music] over the next three days a brightly colored and exquisitely designed mosaic is revealed it takes time for the mosaic is large more than 200 square feet [Music] dish a spoiler no give up what's so striking is the richness of the colors all the greens and blues the characters expressions with I don't know the old man the beautiful young woman it's very rich truly it's magnificent how many more of these historic masterpieces will have to be left behind the discovery of the mosaic in Zeugma has stunned the world of archeology and prompted an international outcry the archaeologists convinced the Turkish government to give them time for another series of short digs Joel Pierre Dharma an expert in Roman mosaic art comes to Zeugma to examine the remarkable find [Music] one of the most original and beautiful mosaics I have ever seen from his period it's an absolutely masterpiece we are in the presence of a great artist magnificent do Live Oak as human visual at addition it embodies the artistic tradition of the Hellenistic blue fabulous [Music] the mosaic tells the Greek myth of pacify who gave birth to a beast called the Minotaur the Minotaur was half man and half bull pacify asks Daedalus a carpenter and the father of Icarus to build the famous labyrinth to hide the monster from humanity is one of the masterpiece they they have to remove the mosaic from the site to save it from the coming flood they cover it with glue and then hammer down a thin layer of gauze over the thousands of tiny tiles to hold them in place once the glue is dry the mosaic is cut into pieces for transport to the local museum sections of floor are pried from the ground and carefully lifted onto a waiting truck [Applause] the archaeologists will continue their desperate search for other treasures that might still be buried in so far the mosaic goes to the nearby city of Gaziantep where it will hold a place of honor in the local museum restored for the ages protected from the floodwaters it will give all those who live and visit here a unique perspective on the culture of the valley in ancient times when Zeugma brought together the magnificence of the Greek and Roman empires in a city of power wealth and artistic triumph [Music] construction on the dam is now finished in the village below local people have been told to leave they tear down their homes to save anything that can be used to rebuild their lives [Music] doors windows bricks and beams are ripped out they don't know how long they'll be forced to live in temporary housing [Music] the new homes they've been promised by the government and nearby areas are not finished 30,000 people are now on the move over the next three months the waters of the Euphrates will gather behind the dam rising inch by inch every day to create a vast reservoir in just over a month Belkis village will be gone [Music] two weeks after that the newly discovered villa will also disappear with the waters rising around the villa the archaeologists find 14 rooms and many mosaics each one a masterpiece in any room of this house you have different image and you have to imagine that the child who is born in this house has all the time in front of his eyes this image his imagination is formed by this image and the others in the house it could be the 9th or 10th mosaics [Music] these discoveries make it possible to visualize in great detail what this villa looked like in ancient times the central courtyard with its fountain columns and wall paintings [Music] the elaborate bathhouse [Music] the ornate dining room with its extraordinary mosaic one can imagine the family who lived here gathering with friends for lively discussions and lavish feasts [Music] the villa is the find of a lifetime but its discovery will always leave the haunting question of what else might have been uncovered if only there had been more time but now the archaeologists have to leave there will be one more dig further up the hill by another team and then it will all be over Cottle Tsuzuki vidas perfect it when you realize what's going to disappear and all we haven't been able to do you can't have feeling bitter part of Seleucia will still be here and we will continue to work on that but everything that is important about Zeugma the bridge the ancient crossing point of the great trade route between east and west all of that will be irredeemably loss [Music] with the dam completed and the flooding begun the waters of the Euphrates River take only a month to reach the villa and the entire site is now flooded [Music] the precious ancient city of Zeugma with all its secret treasures has vanished forever [Music] Sigma is not the only archaeological treasure to be flooded on Nova's website explore other ancient sites around the world that are threatened by rising waters at pbs.org where america online keyword PBS tonight at eight o'clock cinema Sunday features Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford in the 1939 film the women that's tonight at 8:00 here on GBH 44 theater talk is next [Music]

Channel: Nowhere Man

Views: 175,536

Rating: 4.554585 out of 5

Keywords: Ancient History, Roman, Archaeology, Turkey, Mozaic Tiles

Id: 71kAHZFs82g

Length: 55min 11sec (3311 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018