PHIL CROWLEY: The religious
cults of the ancient world brought to life dark secrets
of the occult, the hidden world of the supernatural. Researchers are now discovering
that the ancient worlds, cults, and secret societies are founded
upon a wealth of technology. Why did an ancient
cult communicate with the ghosts of the dead
through the power of science? How did technology help
a life-sized statue of Jesus Christ spring
miraculously to life? What ancient science protected
a holy military order and its city against
certain annihilation? And how did an
ancient civilization recreate the mysteries of hell,
a newly discovered underworld where no cameras
have gone before? The secret science of the
occult is our ancient discovery. [theme music] [thoughtful music] The study of the occult is where
science meets spiritualism. New discoveries beneath
these ancient temples are revealing that the
ancients combined technology with religion to create
an occult underworld beneath the Earth's surface. The story begins
in ancient Mexico with the mysterious
civilization of the Mayans. It's easy to think
that the occult is just myths and fiction. But when you start to apply
archaeology and science, you can really get to
the truth and the nuggets have of real fact that
underlie all of them. PHIL CROWLEY: In 600 AD, at a
time when the once-great cities of Europe were in decline, the
ancient city of Chichen Itza was in its ascendancy. Temples were aligned
with the solar system. Using an advanced understanding
of geometry and astronomy, they reached for the stars,
the abode of the sun god, and countless other deities. But other gods lived in the
darkness underground, the gods of death. We're very fortunate, in
that the Mayans decorated all of their temples with glyphs
and inscriptions and carvings, which has given us an incredible
insight into their life and culture. Even more so is a mysterious
16th century document known as the Popol Vuh. PHIL CROWLEY: The Popol Vuh
is a sacred text transcribed in the 16th century from
ancient hieroglyphs. It describes a mythical
civilization and a cult underworld known as Xibalba. Xibalba is the Mayan
underworld, the place where all the souls want to get to to
be able to enjoy the afterlife. But the thing about Xibalba
is it's not easy to get there. It's a real challenge. You've got to go
through many ordeals for your soul to
be able to enjoy the benefits of the afterlife. PHIL CROWLEY: Xibalba
lives on in myth, but could it also be an
actual place hidden deep in the earth beneath us? In ancient Mayan
culture, Xibalba is linked to the cenote. These are
naturally-occurring sinkholes which, over thousands of years,
have filled with rainwater. This cenote is the source
of water for the whole city of Chichen Itza. Without this, the city
could not survive. It was so important that
they built a sacrificial way, a sacbe, all the way through
here, through the jungle to the cenote. PHIL CROWLEY:
Human sacrifice has been discovered in the cenote. The remains of small
children and even evidence that live women
were thrown in has been found by archaeologists. So could the real Xibalba
be under a cenote? Using the clues from the
Mayan sacred book, Popol Vuh, we can start to unravel
the Mayan sacred code. But there's only one place
we can really do that, and that's to explore
Xibalba itself. We need to dive into a cenote. PHIL CROWLEY: This is what John
and a team of underwater cave divers are attempting. They have traveled 70 miles west
of Chichen Itza, where they are searching for evidence of
this ancient underworld. I've got to admit, this
is incredibly exciting. How many people have the
privilege to sort of dive and explore such an important
archaeological site? [eerie music] [screeching] PHIL CROWLEY: As they
probe into the darkness, the team is shocked to find a
level of architectural detail almost never seen before
beneath the ground. They have uncovered a sacbe,
the ritual roadway that connects Mayan temples and
ceremonial centers. Is this evidence that this was
a place of ritual sacrifice deep underground? When we see a road like
this, that's a ritual purpose. And maybe they made
pilgrimages here. PHIL CROWLEY: The road
stretches 300 feet and is built from
locally-quarried limestone that would have been cut into
shape using stone tools. Like all Mayan architecture,
its construction relied on manpower. Its layout suggests that it
leads to a place of worship, where votive offerings were
made to the rain god, Chaac. This sacbe, this evidence
of construction underground, is absolutely, totally unique. To spend the time to actually
cut blocks, bring materials down here, and lay them down
means this was amazingly important for them. PHIL CROWLEY: This new
discovery deep beneath the earth indicates that the Mayans
thought this place as sacred as the temples that
reached up to the heavens and perhaps that Xibalba
is not just a myth. The sacred text of the Popol
Vuh describes a chamber of infernal heat. Down here in the
darkness, the temperature reaches over 100
degrees Fahrenheit. [screeching] There are bats everywhere. The House of Bats is one
of the rooms of Xibalba. Here, we got bats, thousands
of them flying around all the time. It's no wonder the Maya think
of this as their sacred place, the road to the underworld. PHIL CROWLEY: The ancient
Mayans brought their engineering skills to the
service of religion. Opening up here at
our feet is the Realm of the Gods of the Dead. Here, we are finally
in the huge body of water that all this
causeway was made for. And we are right on the
final steps, you know, to have access to the cave,
which is right in front of me. Really easy to imagine-- as
you come down that causeway, that sacred way-- just how an ancient
Mayan might have felt. It's scary, especially
when the bats are flying across your
face and things like that. But it is exciting
at the same time. And then to come down here and
find this pool of incredibly clear, sweet water in a
dry place, which is not too [inaudible],, this has to
be a gift from the gods. There's no other words for it. PHIL CROWLEY: Despite all
the team has discovered, this underworld
seems to stop short of what is evoked in myth. According to the sacred
text of the Popol Vuh and illustrated in the temple
carvings, the way of the dead comes to a path that
turns to the west, the way to the afterlife. So why is it blocked with water? Is it because the water
levels in the cave have risen over the centuries? To answer this question, it's
time to put on the diving gear and investigate the
cave complex further. [suspenseful music] The divers discover that this is
not the end of the cave system. In fact, it stretches further
and further into the darkness. As they journey deeper,
they discover other rooms, some with air pockets that
allow them to take off their breathing apparatus. Could these be the houses of
demons described in the Popol Vuh? [speaking spanish] INTERPRETER: We enter the first
room, and it's truly beautiful. It's wonderfully decorated with
stalactites and stalagmites. PHIL CROWLEY: Stalactites
and stalagmites can only form in air. This is proof that these
caves were once dry and that the water
table has risen. The Popol Vuh talks about
the House of Knives, a room filled with
blades and razors that the souls of the dead
must overcome on their journey to Xibalba. Did it look like this? [speaking spanish] INTERPRETER: Then we
enter another room that has a large pocket of air, so
you can walk through this part to get a further room. You go back under water. And as you come up again,
you enter a further room. It's truly exciting. You can feel a certain energy
that comes from the respect and care they showed
for this place. And entering it is like
being in another dimension. PHIL CROWLEY: These
new discoveries bear an uncanny resemblance
to the Xibalba described in the Popol Vuh. It's fantastic. It's just fantastic
because you get here. You just get to the end
of the road to Xibalba. And right in front of it, you
find a cave that goes exactly towards the west. And I'm excited about
the west, because this was the road to Xibalba. PHIL CROWLEY: The Mayans had a
vision of the underworld that corresponded with a
real place underground. They peopled it with gods
and the souls of the dead. Our discoveries
beneath the earth are further evidence of
the convergence of the real and the occult in
Mayan religion. Our next discovery involves
the use of technology in the churches of
the Middle Ages. "Ancient Discoveries" will
reveal how a life-sized statue of Jesus came to life to
inspire awe and veneration in worshippers of
the 16th century. Religions and cults
throughout the world are steeped in mystery,
intensified by ritual and dark secrets. Some supposed miracles
or supernatural acts have defied logic for
hundreds of years. In 16th century England,
a full-size wooden statue of Jesus Christ would overawe
worshippers by coming to life. [thunder cracking] It was able to frown. It was able to smile,
to move arms and legs. And the whole thing must
have seemed like pure magic to the congregation
who were there. PHIL CROWLEY: The statue
was known as the Holy Cross of Grace or the Rood of Grace. It belonged to the monks
of the Abbey of Boxley, a village 30 miles
east of London. Word of its legend spread,
and pilgrims throughout Europe traveled to the small
village to become spellbound by its miraculous
powers of movement. Now, remember, we are talking
about a congregation who were illiterate. All they had to believe
in was what the church told them to believe in. The image of a moving Christ
must have been the most incredible, awesome experience. PHIL CROWLEY: The cross
was situated on a screen, called a rood screen, in
the middle of the church. It was the focus of worship. Behind the screen
was the sanctuary, the place of mystery,
where the daily miracle of the transformation of bread
and wine into Christ's body and blood took place. Christ on the cross is
the main focus of attention. And it allowed the
medieval viewer to contemplate his suffering. PHIL CROWLEY: Christ's
death and resurrection is at the heart of
Christian belief. His agony on the cross
is a powerful image. In the Middle Ages,
such statues were made as lifelike as possible. At Boxley, the statue
went one step further. From lifelike, it came to life. In response to a supplication
or possibly a donation, Jesus would open his
eyes and move his lips. Behind me on the
wall, we have painted images of heaven and hell. These were real places to
a-- to the congregation. And the moving Christ
made this real. If Christ smiles, you are safe. You will find salvation. You will find your
way to that heaven. If Christ frowns,
then hell beckons. [thunder cracks] [suspenseful music] PHIL CROWLEY: What caused
a lifeless wooden statue to move and speak? Was a higher power at work,
one that could breathe life into an inanimate object? Or was there a more human
agency at work, one which sought to exploit the innocence
of the faithful? To answer these questions, we go
back to the eyewitness accounts of the time, when the
secret of the Rood of Grace was first unmasked. 16th century England was a time
of immense religious upheaval, a time when men and women were
prepared to kill and be killed for their faith. King Henry VIII
was on the throne. He decided to break England's
ties with the church of Rome, because the Pope
would not grant him a divorce from his first
wife, Catherine of Aragon. This shattered the unity of
Western Christianity forever. Henry VIII breaking with the
church of Rome is a big step, because-- and he knows it-- he is the first king, actually,
to turn against the Pope. So what he's doing is big, bold,
charismatic, and all the stuff that Henry wants to be. PHIL CROWLEY: After
breaking with Rome, Henry destroyed the
monasteries to get his hands on their immense wealth. To rouse popular
support, he gathered evidence of the monks'
financial, sexual, and religious misdeeds. In 1538, one of his agents
handed him a propaganda coup, a discovery that implicated
the monks of Boxley in a fraud behind
their famous miracle. A man called Geoffrey Chamber
is talking about the Rood of Grace at Boxley Abbey. "On defacing the late Monastery
of Boxley and plucking down the images found in the
Rood of Grace, which has been had in great
veneration, certain engines and old wire with old rotten
sticks in the back of the same, which caused the eyes to move
and stir in the head thereof." PHIL CROWLEY: The
discovery of wires in the Rood of Grace by Geoffrey
Chamber exposed it as a temple machine. It was engineered by an
unknown English carpenter and operated by a hidden monk. Exactly how the
monks manipulated the mechanism is not clear. The physical evidence
was destroyed. We can speculate that
the head of the figure was pivoted at the back,
the eyes moved by wires so they appeared to
open, and the lower lip attached with a simple leather
hinge that also operated with a wire to simulate speech. What happened to
the Rood of Grace is that it was taken down. And it was exhibited in various
places in Kent and then, finally, in London. The reason for this
was London was already the biggest city in the world. PHIL CROWLEY: The
exposure of the miracle as a mechanical fraud
served Henry well. The whole deal with the Rood
of Boxley, the Rood of Grace is that it's one of the
show pieces for Henry VIII's reformation. It's paraded around London. It's shown off at
the royal court. And finally, it's
ceremonially burned, and it's used as their
biggest single exhibit to prove that the old church
was full of trickery and fraud. PHIL CROWLEY: Why
did the monks do it? Was it a technological
extension of the wall paintings and statues that encourage the
faithful in their devotions? Or was it a cynical
moneymaking ploy to bring in gullible pilgrims? We shall probably never know. Our next ancient discovery
involves a bitter struggle between two world religions. We investigate a
religious secret society that brought the art of
war to the service of God and its own survival. "Ancient Discoveries"
has investigated the use of technology and engineering
to reinforce the faith of religious believers. Now we will examine how
faith inspired new technology to combat its enemies. In the early Middle Ages,
the Order of St. John was founded in Jerusalem
to care for sick Pilgrims. By 1530, they were installed
on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Part monk, part soldier,
the Knights of Malta dedicated themselves to the
spiritual and military defense of Christianity. The Order is unique because it
did start as a monastic order, with the individuals taking
the vows, the monastic vows of poverty, chastity,
and obedience. And it grew into
a warrior order, as well, to defend the faith. PHIL CROWLEY: The
Knights of St. John were in a religious
and military conflict with an Islamic empire
that threatened to overrun the whole of the Mediterranean. In 1565, on the island of
Malta, they faced annihilation from an invading force sent by
the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. By the time the Ottomans
have got their army ashore, there were at least 25,000
soldiers and possibly 10,000 more men from the Navy
who can be used, if necessary. The Christians have around 500
knights, 3,000 mercenaries, probably another
3,500 Maltese militia. PHIL CROWLEY: The Order was
outnumbered, four to one. If we look at
the raw numbers, it might seem that the knights
must have been supermen. They took on and defeated four
times their number of Ottoman troops-- not any old Ottoman troops, but
the very best household troops of the most powerful
man on earth. PHIL CROWLEY: How did
the knights overcome these overwhelming odds? Prayer and faith doubtlessly
inspired their immense courage and resourcefulness. They planned for
a four-week siege. And, of course, it went on
for nearly as many months with appalling casualties. The Order was going to
survive by the will of God, or it was going to
perish there on Malta. PHIL CROWLEY: The Ottoman
armada of 190 ships was one of the largest
invasion forces assembled since antiquity. The thoughts of any knight
seeing that huge armada descend on Malta, when the grand master
of the time, La Vallette, had tried for years to persuade
Europe that this was going to happen and no aid has come-- it was a small force. And we thought, how could
we possibly survive this? [boom] PHIL CROWLEY: The Order combined
one of man's oldest resources with technology to
succeed in battle. Throughout the
history of warfare, men have constantly tried to
find ways of harnessing fire, the most deadly element
known to primitive man, a way of getting into the
primeval psyche of the human. And the Knights of St. John,
like the Greeks of Byzantium, like the ancient Greeks and, in
the 20th century, flamethrowers and napalm, they found
a way of harnessing fire for military purposes. PHIL CROWLEY: Andrew has come to
Malta's national library, home to precious documents
of the Order dating back to before the Great Siege. He has unearthed a text
that could reveal evidence of the knight's
fabled fire weapon. This is the Balbi manuscript. This is the original firsthand
account of the Siege of Malta, written by a man who was
there in the first person, printed only a few years
after the battle finished. This is the most
important single account of the Siege of Malta. PHIL CROWLEY: The
text vividly describes the terrifying destruction
wrought by Turkish artillery during the Great Siege. One of the things
Balbi does is-- here at Page 39, he describes
how, when the Turks commenced their bombardment during
the night of St. Elmo, the fireworks being
thrown up by both sides were so luminous that they
turned night in to day. PHIL CROWLEY: Buried
in the account is a description of a
devastating weapon deployed by the knights. It was called a trump, an
old name for a trumpet. It was a flamethrower that
discharged a sheet of fire upon the attackers as
they swarmed up the walls. It sometimes incorporated
a device which fired a number of bullets. Balbi tells us
how the trumps work, and he gives us a
great opportunity to try and replicate
those results. Do these things do, on
test, what Balbi tells us they do at Fort St. Elmo? PHIL CROWLEY: In
the United Kingdom, historic gunsmith,
Ian Henn, is taking up the challenge of recreating
the military technology of the knights. He is attempting to build and
fire the flamethrower Balbi describes. Using sheet iron
rolled into a tube, Ian is producing a large
version of the trump that is 12 feet in length. The metal is heated to
over a thousand degrees and then shaped into
its trumpet-like design. We can masturbate how
effective it would have been, but we can't really tell until
it's gone through a proper test firing. PHIL CROWLEY: At a
disused stone quarry, Ian has come to put the
knights' 16th century flamethrower to the test. IAN HENN: We'll be using
modern blasting gunpowder, very similar to the
powder they would have used in the Siege of Malta. They had what was known
as corn powder, which had been in existence for
about 150 years by then. And it's very similar
to modern black powder. PHIL CROWLEY: Ian's first test
will examine its capability as a flamethrower. The gunpowder charge is
loaded into the muzzle and then ignited
with a burning fuse. [suspenseful music] ANDREW LAMBERT: Give me fire! PHIL CROWLEY: The
first test demonstrates that at short range, the
trump could be lethal. What we're just seeing is
a highly efficient, early modern flamethrower. Remember, the enemy are wearing
long-flowing silk robes. They're going to
burn just like this. It's a highly effective
way of stopping an attack. The last thing these guys are
going to be thinking about is carrying on and breaking
through into the defenses. They're going to want to
put these clothes out. They're going to
want to stop burning. PHIL CROWLEY: What makes the
trump an even more effective weapon is its reported ability
to attack the enemy in two stages. After the flame
shoots out, the texts recount that
projectiles were fired. This was done by placing a
second charge of gunpowder at the back of the iron
chamber and loading it with projectiles. Ian is setting up the
Trump to replicate this. First, the team
will fire the flame from the front of the muzzle. They will then ignite the second
stage charge via the touch hole at the back of the trump,
shooting out small stones and shards of metal
at the target. Give me fire! Powder [inaudible]. [boom] ANDREW LAMBERT: There's a lot
of flame, a lot of smoke, a lot of noise not once, but twice. So you can be set on fire. You can be shot. And at night, with these
large flashes and flares, it's going to be a
really frightening thing to be coming up against. [boom] PHIL CROWLEY: The tests confirm
that the trump would have been an effective close-range firearm
against besiegers attempting to breach castle walls and
would have performed exactly how the Balbi text describes it. It combines a terrifying
stream of fire with a deadly hail of shot. But the trump is not the only
extraordinary weapon mentioned by Balbi in his
account of the siege. The ancient manuscript tells
us about an even deadlier secret weapon, one that
helped the Knights of St. John secure their
extraordinary victory. In 1565, on the Mediterranean
island of Malta, a religious order
of warrior monks, called the Knights of St. John,
was under siege by a force four times its size, sent
by the Ottoman emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent. [boom] The extraordinary victory of
the knights in their holy war was partly due to
the development of terrifying weapons. The mysterious arts of the
armorers of the Knights of Malta are being investigated
by historian Andrew Lambert. He starts at Fort St. Elmo,
where the siege began. About here, we can see just
where the Turkish galleys would have been, forming
up under [inaudible],, ready to bombard the castle. And there would have been dozens
of them, each one with two or three canon facing forward,
a continuous reign of fire on the seaward side
of Fort St. Elmo. [boom] PHIL CROWLEY: Throughout
June and July of 1565, fighting was intense. Both sides were merciless,
and thousands of soldiers were killed. When the Ottomans
captured some knights, they'd crucify them in a mockery
of the crucifixion of Christ and then float them across the
harbor to try and intimidate the knights into surrendering. The knights respond by beheading
their Turkish prisoners, which is, again, blasphemous,
and firing their heads back into the Turkish camp. There's no quarter expected. This is life and death,
and the losers will die. PHIL CROWLEY: The knights
had to play for time. If they could hold
out until the winter, the Turks would
have to return home. Until then, they needed every
possible device and stratagem to keep the Turks at bay. One of the devices described
in the ancient texts is known as the fire hoop. For the defenders of St.
Elmo, this was the crisis. Under constant
artillery bombardment, the men standing at the parapet
would have been carrying below under heavy artillery fire,
constantly being sniped at with muskets. They'd have brought the hoops
blazing, one man on each side, with long iron tongs. And the trick was to
flick them over the top and get them rolling down onto
the Turkish infantry, as they stormed up the assault bridge. They're often referred
to as firework hoops. And they were, in fact,
smeared in linseed oil, with wool and gunpowder. And the idea was that these were
like gigantic Catherine wheels spinning through the air. Because of what
is on those hoops, we have a sticky, burning
mess that is almost impossible to put out. PHIL CROWLEY: How would
this unlikely weapon work in practice? What was so innovative
about the hoop? Could it really give
defenders a decisive advantage against a mass assault
of determined warriors with ladders and siege engines? These are questions ancient
technology expert, Richard Windley, is
attempting to answer, using the same materials
described in the Balbi manuscript. So basically, we've
got a large hoop. We bind it with wool and cotton. And these would then be
soaked in flammable oils. And then over the top with
that, we start to bind material. Something like coarse Hessian or
any old material which is going spare will do the trick. This is then bound around very
tightly and held on with wire. And then it was dipped
in molten pitch. They also use
flammable compounds. PHIL CROWLEY: The flammable
compound Richard is using consists of natural
oils and waxes, animal fat and
gunpowder, ingredients available to the knights
during the siege. This was a highly secret
formula in the Middle Ages and was applied to the
iron hoops usually used to make barrels. Because I don't
what's going to happen, I'm going to pop the goggles on,
just for safety, and light it. And we'll see what happens. [thoughtful music] Well, that seems to be burning
for quite a prolonged period. And what's interesting is we can
actually see the molten pitch dripping off. Now, when I actually
applied the pitch to this, I got one or two
spots on my hand. It is very, very nasty. And if you get any quantity on
you, it adheres to the skin. And it produces very,
very nasty burns. PHIL CROWLEY: After successfully
testing the flammable material, Richard will try out the hoops. At the bottom of the cliff
face, a set of targets has been set up to represent the
Turkish troops in their flowing robes. Thousands of Turks would have
attacked the knights' positions at once. Richard's task will be to set
fire to them using the hoops. [suspenseful music] Despite their simple
appearance, the damage caused by Richard's fire
hoops is remarkable. It gives us an indication
of why the weapon was so critical to the knights. Due to the highly
flammable compounds smeared around the hoops,
they burn for up to 30 minutes and are very difficult
to extinguish. Two or three soldiers could
easily have become entangled with just one of
these blazing hoops. Throwing these down
in their hundreds, the knights sowed
panic and destruction among the besieging soldiers. They actually caused
a lot more damage than all the other
arsenal of weaponry which they had
available to them. In their own small
way, the fire hoops played a critical part in the
successful defense of Fort St. Elmo, far longer than the
knights had anticipated or the Turks had hoped
that the siege would last. So they might just have tipped
the balance between success and failure in what
was the pivotal battle of the 16th century. PHIL CROWLEY: The knights
came within days of defeat. By September, they had
just 600 men able to fight, but they held out. The Ottoman army was
depleted and demoralized. They gave up the siege and
sailed back to the east. These two forces met. They fought it out. And the Christians
came out on top. This time, a little bit
of skill, a bit of luck, some new weapons, but,
ultimately, the Christian west would triumph because it
had a more powerful economy, more innovative technology. And within 150 years, the
Ottoman Turkish Empire was a backwater, and it
was the Christian west that ruled the world. PHIL CROWLEY: In our
next ancient discovery, we investigate an archaeological
site that holds dark secrets. We explore a mysterious world
in which the ancients used their knowledge of technology to
recreate the realm of the dead here on Earth. In northern Greece, in the
middle of the 20th century, archaeologists uncovered
a strange sight that had remained hidden
for over a thousand years. It was a mystifying maze
of corridors and rooms leading to a central sanctuary. In a stone chamber
hidden underground, the archaeologists discovered
figures of ancient gods. More intriguing were the remains
of substantial machinery. Now, ancient historian,
Michael Scott, has set out on a mission to
discover the site's secrets. Since 1953, finds
have been coming to light at this site that
have left us with a mystery. We have a heavy-duty
machine here. We have counterweights
made of solid iron. We have ratchets, which
would have been used as a kind of braking mechanism. But what is this machine? Opinions are divided. On the one hand,
some people think that we have some
kind of catapult or, indeed, several catapults. PHIL CROWLEY: The iron machine
parts date to the third century BC. If they had a military
use, experts suggest, they would probably have been
part of a large catapult that could have been used
to defend the site. [boom] There is another,
more compelling theory that the machinery was somehow
connected with secret occult ceremonies that
were practiced here. The site was a cult shrine
dedicated to necromancy, the Greek word for
consulting the dead. Pilgrims, both rich and poor,
would come from far and wide to discover their fate by
speaking with the spirits of those who had passed on. Also found at this site was
a statuette of the goddess, Persephone-- Persephone, the wife of Hades,
the lord of the underworld; Persephone, the woman
that Hades came back up from the underworld
into the real world to grab and take back down to
the underworld as his bride. So what we may have
here, at this site, is not some kind
of defensive farm or keep but, actually,
an Oracle of the Dead. And these heavy-duty weights,
this lifting mechanism may well be something
to do with that oracle. PHIL CROWLEY: But why would
a place of religious ceremony need heavy machinery? Perhaps the pilgrims
here needed help in visualizing the ghosts
they were consulting. It was not unknown at the time
to give mechanical inspiration to worshippers. Was this machinery used to
summon forth spirits and not part of a catapult? Michael is taking the route
the ancients took to the site, but this time to unlock its
mysteries, not to take part in them. You chose to consult
an Oracle of the Dead if there was particular
information that only that dead person knew,
that you now needed. You went to the Oracle of
the Dead as something as-- of a last resort. You had to be bold,
strange, or desperate to go anywhere near them. [suspenseful music] PHIL CROWLEY: To recreate
the awe-inspiring experience, Michael follows the same route
that would have been traced by an ancient pilgrim,
as described by Herodotus in his book, "The Histories,"
written in the fifth century BC. Herodotus locates the
Oracle of the Dead on the River Acheron in
the Northwest of Greece. It still flows into the sea near
the ruins of our ancient site. In Greek mythology,
the Acheron was one of the rivers that
flowed into Hades, the hell of the ancient world. The souls of the dead were
ferried across by the boatmen Charon. Visitors to the oracle
would have passed this way and been reminded that
the underworld was near. MICHAEL SCOTT: To come
here on the Acheron River, to follow that route in search
of the Oracle of the Dead, is to get back
into the footsteps, to make the journey that those
ancients made all the way to try and find the
answer to their questions. And so it makes it so much more
real, so much more exciting, so much more vivid to understand
exactly what they felt as they made that journey. PHIL CROWLEY: The
Oracle of the Dead was called the Nekromanteion
in Greek, from which we get our word, necromancy,
speaking with the dead. The shrine was known in ancient
texts of Herodotus and Strabo as one of the gates of hell. Destroyed by the
Romans in 167 BC, it was buried in
the rubble of time. The site was rediscovered and
excavated in the 1960s, which is when the machine
parts were discovered. The location corresponds
to descriptions in the ancient texts. This is the Oracle of the
Dead and a gate of hell. [non-english speech] INTERPRETER: This is
the place believed to be the heart of the
Oracle of the Dead. It's where the
visitors to the Oracle could get in touch with the
souls of their dead relatives. PHIL CROWLEY: The maze
of corridors and rooms begins to make sense. Someone who consults an Oracle
is known as a consultant. After rituals of
purification and sacrifice, he or she followed the
narrow and winding passages to the central sanctuary. This is where the mysterious
machine parts were discovered. After the long
stages of preparation and perhaps up to
29 days of fasting, the consultant came
here, the final turn before entering the room
of the Oracle of the Dead. Here, he may well have been
fed with hallucinogenic beans and herbs that were meant
to give him an intensely heightened sense of
the ghost that he was about to experience. And so he took that final
turn and went into the room. [ominous music] [creaking] PHIL CROWLEY: Upon entering
the oracle chamber, the consultant
would be disoriented by the natural hallucinogens,
their psychedelic properties enhancing the pilgrim's
perception and emotion. When you came
into that room, it would have been dark, just
like where we are now. The priests would have
been chanting more and more incessantly, creating
the atmosphere. And then out of nowhere,
out of the mists of time and the underworld
itself came a vision of that spirit and perhaps
a voice echoing up, answering your question. PHIL CROWLEY: How this happened
was shrouded in secrecy, secrets that our researchers
are hoping to discover. They are investigating
the theory that the mechanical
parts found at the site belong to a machine that
lowered the ghostly apparition that ancient writer, Herodotus,
describes in his account of the Oracle of the Dead. MICHAEL SCOTT: If these
apparitions of ghosts did appear, then it's most
likely that they came down from above, a first floor
from which they were lowered on some kind of crane mechanism. But to get any further,
to know for sure, we need to test it out. PHIL CROWLEY: Perhaps these
apparitions were human. Ancient technology
expert, Richard Windley, is investigating the theory. Using the iron components
recovered from the site as his template, he
is reconstructing a mechanical lifting device
that could have been mounted in a room above the
central sanctuary. There are one or two
rather mysterious objects, which are sort of cog-like. Now, my feeling is
they're probably not cogs. They look more like some
sort of ratchet device. And this would be consistent
with a kind of simple winch technology. PHIL CROWLEY: Michael has
joined Richard at the "Ancient Discoveries" testing facility,
where they will try to work out how the ancient priests
created their spirit from the underworld. To lower the priest, Richard has
constructed a winch-based crane that lowers a piece of rope
using a hand crank, similar in principle to a
winch on a tow truck. The machine is constructed
out of iron and wood and has a ratchet on
the side of the shaft. This can be used to stop the
weight returning back down. With a big, long
handle, you can actually apply more leverage to a
relatively small shaft. And around the shaft,
we wind the rope. So for every sort of
major turn of the handle, the rope is only
moving a few inches. We call this
mechanical advantage. The handle may move, actually,
through several feet, whereas the rope's only
moving through several inches. PHIL CROWLEY: Using this
mechanical advantage, Richard's machine can lift or lower
up to 300 pounds on the rope by applying only a few pounds
of force on the handle. To test this
crane-lifting mechanism, we've recreated the
archaeological site. Imagine I am the
consultant coming in to the Oracle of the Dead. Richard, up on the first floor,
replaces what is now the church at the site, where there would
have been a hidden first floor with a crane tucked away. And below that, we
have our stunt man, John, who's going to play the
part of the priest who would have been let down into
the consultant room to pretend to be the
spirit of the dead, come to answer the question. PHIL CROWLEY: Such a machine
was common in the theaters of the ancient world to
lower gods from heaven onto the stage. Here, it is used to
summon a spirit from hell. [suspenseful music] In their disoriented
state, in the smoke and noise and flickering
light of the sanctuary, consultants would believe
they had seen a spirit from the underworld. MICHAEL SCOTT: As the
consultant came into the chamber and saw, through the mists,
the priest pretending to be that spirit of the dead
the consultant had come so far to talk to, the consultant
may well have finally got his answers to the
questions he had sought. PHIL CROWLEY: The consultation
finished with the pronouncement of the Oracle. The consultant was
sworn to secrecy about what he had witnessed
or, rather, believed he had witnessed. He was ushered out
of a side door, firmly believing in his
encounter with the dead. There wasn't a question of
whether they believed or not believed. There was no
alternative to the fact that the gods
controlled the world and that the dead lived
in the underworld. That was the way things were. And so when they came here,
when they saw or, at least, thought they saw the spirits
of the dead rising once again, it's almost certain that they
would have believed what they were seeing, because they
had no reason to question it. PHIL CROWLEY: Archaeological
discoveries in Greece and at the "Ancient
Discoveries" testing facility have revealed the technology
behind the supernatural. We now know that the spirits
were summoned not by magic, but by machinery. [thoughtful music] Religions, cults,
and secret societies have strived to bring the
supernatural into our world, to make the occult real. They have also
called on technology to inspire and sometimes
manipulate their followers. "Ancient Discoveries"
has revealed the yearning of the ancients to
explore the supernatural and their willingness to marry
the science of this world to the science of the occult.
