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In the center
of a crowded capital city,

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a team of archaeologists
digs down into the past.

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Okay, get Felix.

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Out of the earth appears a face

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hidden for 2,000 years...

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Be very careful.

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...an incredible treasure...

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Oh, wow, wow.

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...from a lost biblical kingdom.

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It's intact!

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The stories in the Bible

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are famous across the world.

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They tell of great battles
between good and evil,

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earth-shaking catastrophes,
and heroic characters.

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One of the most
famous names is King Solomon.

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In the Old Testament,

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Solomon was king of ancient Israel,

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a mighty ruler in a golden age,

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wise and wealthy
beyond any other king.

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In Jerusalem, he built a mighty temple

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to house the Ten Commandments
given to Moses.

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The Ark of the Covenant

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held the central rules
of the early Jewish nation,

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marking a promise between
God and his people.

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The period in which Solomon
would have lived

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is known as the biblical Iron Age.

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It lasted from 1200
to just after 600 BCE

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and was a time of mystery
and great change.

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Excavation of Jerusalem's Temple Mount

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is difficult and controversial,

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and archaeological evidence
for Solomon's temple,

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and even the man himself, are lacking.

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When most people think about

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this region, they think about
the kingdom of Solomon.

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But there's a lot of
other things going on.

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Multiple kingdoms, multiple kings,

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gathered on all sides of the Dead Sea
and the Jordan River.

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To the east of Solomon's Israel

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lay three other Iron Age kingdoms
that appear in the Bible:

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Ammon, Moab, and Edom.

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They're all experiencing their own growth,

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their own development.

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We've only scratched the surface
about what's going on.

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This season,
archaeologists are leading

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new investigations into these kingdoms.

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What can they tell us
about the golden age

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of the legendary biblical ruler?

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It's absolutely exciting, I mean,

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this is something you dream of.

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Using cutting-edge technology,

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they reveal the lost world
of King Solomon.

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In the modern city of Amman...

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dawn breaks...

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as archaeologist
Katharina Schmidt and her team

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arrive at their dig site
in the very center

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of Jordan's capital.

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I love Jordan.

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I mean, look around you.

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It's probably my most favorite place.

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Particularly now, starting
the first season here in Jordan.

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This year, the team is embarking

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on a ground-breaking new project,

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hoping to reveal
a lost Iron Age kingdom.

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3,000 years ago,
the region around this city

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belonged to the ancient
biblical kingdom of Ammon,

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one of Israel's neighbors,

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and is reflected in Amman's name.

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Waking up
with the city every morning,

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it's just absolutely fabulous.

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And being able to work
at that site is a dream really.

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Four million people

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crowd the steep slopes of this city,

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but at its center
is a nearly untouched hill

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known as the Amman Citadel.

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We are right in
the busy capital of Jordan,

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and we are lucky because
the citadel of Amman

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has not been overbuilt over the years.

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Exploratory digs from the 1960s

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found evidence of a mysterious
ancient structure

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that seemed to be from the Iron Age,

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ensuring the land here
remained undeveloped.

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Now, Katharina has the chance
to continue that investigation

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and discover precisely what it is--

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this time,
with all the high-tech tools

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of the 21st century archaeologist.

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We can use
what they have uncovered,

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so we don't need to dig down
for, you know, four years

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to reach the layers we are
particularly interested in.

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We can immediately start
where we want to start,

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and apply all these methods.

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One of the most
useful modern tools

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is drone photogrammetry.

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So, I think we can start here

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on the top of the site.

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-Elevation will be great.

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Imaging specialist Felix Wolter

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wants to create a digital map

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of the whole area of the citadel.

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This will help him find any structures

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that were missed first time around.

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The drone obviously gives us

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bird's-eye view of the site,
so we are able to see the site

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from a completely different perspective

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and much more distance,
which will allow us to see

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certain structures in a 3D model.

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Felix photographs the entire

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eastern end of the citadel...

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Hey, perfect landing!

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...and heads to the site office

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to stitch the high-resolution
images together.

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We see here,
this is our excavation

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from the bird's-eye view,
and we can zoom out now,

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and we see actually all this
eastern part of the citadel.

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I can see that there's also
some other structures,

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possible Iron Age city-wall structures.

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And if I zoom in, I see actually
rows of stone put together.

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A wall surrounding the hill

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suggests the structure
within was important.

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Katharina walks down into the building

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to try to discover its purpose.

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What is very, very useful

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is to get structures in situ,

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having a wall and a floor together,

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in order to really define a building.

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The sheer scale and layout
of this building

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indicates to Katharina that this
is not an ordinary dwelling.

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Right in the south, in the far back,

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we have a set of rooms.

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We have a huge courtyard

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which comes
right after that set of rooms.

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And we have a set of rooms here,
right next to me,

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where sort of a storage area
must have been.

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This is already really large,
but we haven't even reached

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the boundaries of that--
of that entire building yet.

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The thick walls and vast spaces,

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and the discovery of a stone
toilet seat in one room...

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are evidence this was a royal building.

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Multiple stories high and
covered with fine plaster...

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it would have sprawled
across the hilltop...

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with a huge wall
around its perimeter.

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Could this be a palace
from the age of Solomon?

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Archaeologist Zeidan Kafafi

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is co-director of the project.

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He's been excavating sites
across Jordan for 40 years.

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Archaeology, for me,

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started as a study,

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then as a career, then as a life.

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Zeidan's expertise
lies in pottery,

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a crucial tool for dating
this ancient megastructure.

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He examines the sherds found
at this site for their size,

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material, and appearance.

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Each period of time,
it has its own pottery

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which bears the characteristics
for that period.

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He believes
the design on this pottery

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identifies the century when
this palace was occupied.

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When I look at this,
I see the decoration,

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which we call it

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typical Ammonite period decoration.

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This means this could be
8th, 7th century B.C.

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This evidence
puts the palace's occupation

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close to the age of Solomon.

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We believe that we are
actually dealing here

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with the residence, the palace,
of the Ammonite king.

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[narrator] Katharina and the team

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could find precious clues here,

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to what life was like
in this neighboring kingdom.

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And it's not the only site
that could shed light on this period.

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Thirty miles south of Amman

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is the ancient site of Tell Dhiban.

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Archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman

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is here to explore what other
peoples and settlements

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dotted this landscape
in the age of Solomon.

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Beginning of the Iron Age,
sometime around 1000 B.C.,

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is a bit of a messy period.

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There's no one giant society
that is kind of guiding

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and overpowering all the others.

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It gives an opportunity
for different entities

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to come into existence
in their own way.

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And here, we have a great
example of one of those,

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the kingdom of Moab.

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Dhiban is associated with Dibon,

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a place in Moab
referred to in the Bible.

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The layers of history preserved here

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could provide an insight
into the power of ancient Moab

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and potentially its neighbor,
Solomon's Israel.

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For thousands of years,
people have been occupying

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this specific place.

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And no one knows what's at the bottom yet.

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We just haven't gotten there.

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The accumulation
of building material

192
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and rubbish repeated
over the centuries

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creates a man-made mound
known as a Tell.

194
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At the base of Tell Dhiban,

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Pearce Paul assesses
the construction method

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of the ruins to work out
what period they're from.

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What we can see here
is at least the Iron Age,

198
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so something like 900 or 800 BC.

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This is a retaining wall
from the Iron Age wall above it.

200
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This helps make sure
that all of this stuff

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00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:00,320
stays tucked up and safe.

202
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:02,280
It'd take you the better part of an hour

203
00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:06,440
to walk all the way around it,
so Tell Dhiban is a big tell.

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00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:11,600
[narrator] The physical scale
of the Moabite defenses

205
00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:15,760
suggests this city was
not only large, but important.

206
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:19,880
If all of that was enclosed
in a huge wall,

207
00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,760
this wall was two, three meters high

208
00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:24,400
and two or three meters thick.

209
00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:27,360
That's a lot of effort to build
that to protect the city.

210
00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,800
That means there's things
worth protecting inside of it.

211
00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,560
Pearce Paul heads up on to the tell

212
00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:35,120
to search for what lies at the heart

213
00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,480
of this biblical Iron Age city.

214
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:43,200
At the Amman Citadel,

215
00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:48,080
Katharina believes this palace
was occupied by the Ammonite king

216
00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:52,400
during the biblical Iron Age,
the age of Solomon.

217
00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,480
Now, the team needs to find evidence

218
00:11:54,560 --> 00:11:56,600
of what life was like then.

219
00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:04,400
Gradually, more pieces
of the palace emerge.

220
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:06,080
That's part of a floor.

221
00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,840
It's quite a, you know,
thick layer of floor.

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00:12:10,760 --> 00:12:12,760
The team
is piecing together a puzzle

223
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:14,920
with the smallest of clues,

224
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,920
such as pottery sherds
and fragments of plaster.

225
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,240
So, Haitham is digging down
towards the edge of the wall,

226
00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:25,920
and then we can also remove
the stones on top of it

227
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:27,360
to have a look.

228
00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,280
-We can-- we can move it.
-Come on.

229
00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:33,840
No way.

230
00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,880
But as Katharina
monitors the work...

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00:12:39,560 --> 00:12:41,960
No way. You know what that is.

232
00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:44,880
...excavator Haitham Al-Adwan

233
00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:49,840
uncovers a mysterious piece of
carved stone inside this wall.

234
00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,400
It looks different to
the other blocks around it.

235
00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,360
That's really nice.

236
00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:57,800
-Be very careful.

237
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:02,400
Katharina thinks she
recognizes what this could be.

238
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,360
It's absolutely--
I mean, it's-- I don't know,

239
00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,040
I can't, you know, I can't describe it.

240
00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,640
It's-- it's basically the top part

241
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,120
of a double-faced female head.

242
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:16,680
You're looking at the top bit of the head.

243
00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:20,840
So, it's basically the hairline,
the midline of the hair

244
00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:22,680
and, uh, the side locks.

245
00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:24,960
So, it's exactly that part.

246
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,560
This Iron Age carved stone head

247
00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,080
has been reused in a later century

248
00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:33,080
as a mere building block.

249
00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,600
If the team can get it out in one piece,

250
00:13:35,680 --> 00:13:37,800
it will be a monumental discovery...

251
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,440
offering invaluable insight
into the people

252
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:43,560
of the biblical Iron Age kingdoms.

253
00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,200
Iron Age sculpture,
stone sculpture are really rare.

254
00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,640
And so, this is, um, yeah,
something you dream of

255
00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,360
before you start an excavation.

256
00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:55,440
Congratulations.

257
00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:56,840
-Yeah.

258
00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:57,920
Congratulations.

259
00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,200
Local team member
Amany Al Dabouki

260
00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:04,560
excavates the soil around the head

261
00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:06,480
one brushstroke at a time.

262
00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:10,280
I just need to clean it to see the edges
so I will not harm it.

263
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,040
That why I'm doing it so carefully.

264
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:17,520
We need to remove all the soil
and stones from around it.

265
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,480
Then, we will pull it out.

266
00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:26,360
Once enough soil is removed,

267
00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,400
the team gathers round to reveal the head.

268
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:32,800
Let's see, let's see!

269
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,000
Oh, wow, wow.

270
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,720
Oh, it's intact!

271
00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,000
It's perfectly preserved.

272
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:55,960
Look at her. She's staring at you.

273
00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:00,280
The pristine expression

274
00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:04,000
of an Ammonite stone sculpture
peers up at the team.

275
00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:08,800
This lady sees sunlight for the first time

276
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,360
of, like, 2,700 years.

277
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:15,480
There is
an incredible level of detail

278
00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,720
on the delicately carved stone features.

279
00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:20,720
See the eye, the left eye?

280
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:24,040
And you see there's still
the remains of the white inlay

281
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:26,040
the eye was made of.
So, this is interesting

282
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,160
that there's obviously
something left over.

283
00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:33,920
This is the largest
and best-preserved object

284
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:35,880
the team has found all season.

285
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:41,600
Traces of paint or inlays could
even remain on the sculpture.

286
00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:44,280
We can take them
to the lab and see

287
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:49,440
if they were colorful or not,
but I-- I guess they were.

288
00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:52,280
But scientifically,
we need to test that.

289
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,440
One of the team
fetches a supersized sample box.

290
00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:01,440
And when the head is fully clear...

291
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,160
Okay, be careful.

292
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:05,960
...they carefully lift the lady

293
00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:07,960
from her millennia-long slumber.

294
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:11,680
Take your time.

295
00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:16,160
Okay.

296
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:20,240
Good.

297
00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,000
Well done! So, let's take it home.

298
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,040
Back at the site office

299
00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:34,600
and out of the blinding sunlight,

300
00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,280
Katharina can take a closer look.

301
00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,040
Yeah, some small traces of red.

302
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:41,520
Tiny.

303
00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:44,360
The first task is to make

304
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,200
a 3D computer model of the head.

305
00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:48,800
Amani's our specialist.

306
00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,280
She's scanned a lot of Iron Age statues

307
00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:53,920
in the museum on the Amman Citadel.

308
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:55,880
And we are lucky that
she's part of our team,

309
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,120
and she's also scanning the new lady.

310
00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,600
Amani needs to
do this as soon as possible

311
00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,920
to ensure the object
is still precisely as it was

312
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:08,320
when she dug it up.

313
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:10,320
Unfortunately, when you take things

314
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,840
out of the ground, the decay starts.

315
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:15,680
And, um, by-- by scanning it,

316
00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:18,120
you really also document the object,

317
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:20,200
in the best possible state.

318
00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:23,880
The bright lamps and powerful camera

319
00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:25,920
can achieve incredible definition

320
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,160
and perfectly capture
the richness of the sculpture.

321
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:34,280
Katharina's next step is to take this
to a national laboratory

322
00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:36,520
and use the latest scanning technology

323
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,640
to gather all the clues
this sculpture holds.

324
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:45,600
The Bible tells of King Solomon's

325
00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:49,320
incredible wealth--
riches of gold and silver.

326
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,400
Clues to what might have
inspired these stories

327
00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:56,600
could lie south of ancient Israel.

328
00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,240
The valley of Wadi Faynan

329
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,240
lies in the Iron Age kingdom of Edom.

330
00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,080
That's the site, you see
the rocky mountain there.

331
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,080
Archaeologist Mohammad Najjar

332
00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:14,800
is on the hunt for the source

333
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:16,960
of this biblical kingdom's wealth.

334
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,240
He's worked across
the Middle East for 45 years,

335
00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:23,840
and shows no sign of slowing down.

336
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,320
We don't stop. I mean, you cannot retire

337
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:27,720
from archaeology.

338
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:33,480
Whenever chance is happening,
you just go there and doing things.

339
00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:37,160
Mohammad is following a trail of clues

340
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:40,440
visible in satellite imagery--

341
00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,480
dark patches scattered
through the valleys.

342
00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:49,640
Beside one of these dark patches,

343
00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:54,640
he discovers a bizarre-looking well
that runs deep into the ground.

344
00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:58,960
We have this circular hole,

345
00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:02,360
and there are three holes inside,

346
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:04,640
and this is manmade.

347
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,400
You can see this bigger hole
is provided with steps

348
00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:10,040
where people can move.

349
00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:15,520
So, the hole here indicates
that we are dealing with a mine.

350
00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:19,840
These mineshafts
originally descended

351
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:22,600
for more than 120 feet underground.

352
00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:25,520
And Mohammad believes they're the source

353
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:29,000
of the nearby heaps
of black stone and dust.

354
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,960
The dark heaps around
are coming from deeper level.

355
00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:36,520
So, this is waste.
These heaps here are tailings.

356
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:38,120
They are very helpful

357
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,360
when you are doing
the investigations here,

358
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,360
because you can see these tailings from

359
00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,880
even a satellite picture,
or from aerial picture.

360
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,560
And these are always indicators

361
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:53,760
that there should be a mine there.

362
00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:58,480
Ancient mines were
a source of valuable metals.

363
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,280
Rulers not only used
these metals for currency,

364
00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:04,680
but also to decorate their palaces

365
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,200
and show off their wealth.

366
00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:10,080
Mohammad heads
down the hill to investigate

367
00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:12,640
which metal these miners
were extracting.

368
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,680
At a laboratory just outside Amman,

369
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:26,320
Katharina wants to find more clues
from the Ammonite head sculpture.

370
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,000
She's brought it to a facility
that can detect chemical elements

371
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,440
without the need for destructive testing.

372
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:35,040
-Good to see you.
-Nice to see you.

373
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:36,320
-We have one.
-Really?

374
00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,880
It's one of the double-faced heads.

375
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,000
-It's fresh-- is it fresh one?
-It's fresh from the field.

376
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,320
Finding ancient traces of paint

377
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,800
could help Katharina
understand how elaborate

378
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,560
the Ammonite palace was,
and how wealthy its king.

379
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:59,680
Measuring the eye and the whites
around the eye

380
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:01,640
would be, of course, fantastic.

381
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,120
And possibly we see in the light
inside some of the red traces,

382
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,960
and we can, um, we can try that.

383
00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,120
The SESAME laboratory

384
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,200
is able to detect the presence
of different metals

385
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,000
used as bases for
different colors of paint.

386
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:25,160
To do this, they use a circular
particle accelerator,

387
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:27,240
known as a synchrotron.

388
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,240
Magnets arranged in a 140-foot-wide loop

389
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,480
speed up subatomic particles
to almost the speed of light.

390
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,160
Then, they're fired down this barrel

391
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,040
straight at the object being tested.

392
00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:47,160
I wonder if we should put her
upside down-- poor her--

393
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:49,080
to give her a bit more stability?

394
00:21:50,360 --> 00:21:53,440
Senior scientist Messaoud Harfouche

395
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,720
helps to place the stone head
in the crosshairs.

396
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,040
Usually, they have
really small samples

397
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:02,120
that would fit into the beam
line without any problem.

398
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,920
But moving the lady
in between the beam line

399
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,600
is a bit more complicated.

400
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:12,000
Messaoud and Katharina

401
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:14,040
carefully tie it into place.

402
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,480
It's a bit odd,
because she was just buried

403
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:22,960
2,500 years, and now she's in
this high technological lab!

404
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,400
What we really want to know is the colors.

405
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:28,600
We really want to know
how she would stare at us.

406
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,280
Do we have different colors of the pupil,

407
00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:33,920
of the surrounding part of the eye?

408
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,360
Messaoud places
the fluorescence detector

409
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:39,880
into position.

410
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,720
The way in which the photons
bounce off the stone head

411
00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,640
will identify specific elements.

412
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,240
A camera trained
on the head shows them

413
00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,720
precisely where
the particle beam will scan.

414
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:56,880
The beam line fires up,

415
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,000
and photons traveling at about
600 million miles per hour

416
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:03,360
interact with the ancient head

417
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,520
but leave its stone surface
completely intact.

418
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,080
Readings begin to come through.

419
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:15,960
Each peak in the graph
identifies a particular element.

420
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:20,040
So, all calcium, the iron.

421
00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:21,600
That's copper. That's zinc.

422
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,760
-So, that's copper?
-This is copper, yes.

423
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:28,200
The stone itself
is made up of many elements,

424
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,480
so Katharina and Messaoud expect to see
a number of these metals.

425
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,320
But crucially, this test reveals

426
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,760
different concentrations
on different parts of the face.

427
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,120
This bit has higher copper elevations,

428
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,120
-or levels, than...
-Than the... the body.

429
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,760
...than the white-ish surrounding.

430
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,800
These could be
the first tell-tale signs

431
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:56,600
of what colors decorated
the grand palaces and temples

432
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,280
of these ancient biblical kingdoms.

433
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:02,680
From the analysis,
we have different elements

434
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:07,280
and most likely also have
different colors or color tones.

435
00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:10,000
The machine identifies metals

436
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,960
including lead, zinc, and copper

437
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,520
that could be used to make
black, white, and red paint.

438
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,840
This statue was likely richly painted,

439
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,280
and the resources put into its decoration

440
00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,480
suggest it was commissioned
by a wealthy ruler.

441
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:30,240
Where did the metals to make
these colors come from?

442
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,000
In the arid valleys
of southern Jordan,

443
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,080
Mohammad searches for the metals
that were a source of wealth

444
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,080
for the ancient biblical kingdom of Edom.

445
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,680
In a dried-up riverbed
where water has worn a channel

446
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:53,200
right through an Iron Age mine,
he hits pay dirt.

447
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,920
Okay, we have here one of the galleries.

448
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,520
Probably the shaft was somewhere
here and is gone by erosion.

449
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:05,760
This gallery goes
for about 25 meters deep.

450
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,000
One shaft probably
has more than one gallery.

451
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:12,360
So, galleries were spreading out
in different directions.

452
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:15,720
The target of all this digging

453
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,880
still glimmers from the exposed rock face.

454
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:23,600
The green color here everywhere
indicates that we are dealing

455
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,320
with copper ores here.

456
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:26,880
So, this is copper.

457
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,600
The Iron Age takes its name

458
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,120
from the innovation in iron production,

459
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,800
a far more plentiful metal.

460
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,240
But copper was still a precious material,

461
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,600
important for coins and jewelry.

462
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,640
The Edomites turned the dirty
business of copper mining

463
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,120
into a highly profitable industry.

464
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,080
They became expert smelters,

465
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,520
whose furnaces reached
2,400 degrees Fahrenheit

466
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:03,040
to melt the ore
and extract the pure metal.

467
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,120
Each settlement produced
tons of copper every year,

468
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,800
and shipped it all over the ancient world.

469
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:17,280
The metal was in high demand
in the age of Solomon.

470
00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:20,160
The Bible describes his fabled temple

471
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,640
as having columns covered in pure copper.

472
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,880
Mohammad walks the ruins
of the Edomite town of Faynan

473
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:35,280
and finds that signs of
smelting cover the landscape.

474
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:39,240
If we look around us, we can see
heaps of slags everywhere.

475
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,920
It means that production here
was at industrial scale.

476
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,240
It was a big industry.

477
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,200
Slag is melted rock and ore

478
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,800
that has run out of
the furnace and solidified.

479
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,000
Thousands of years later,

480
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:57,480
this waste material is vital evidence

481
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,960
of when in the Iron Age
this mining town was active.

482
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,640
Pieces of charcoal trapped inside the slag

483
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,400
can be used for carbon dating.

484
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,880
This particular site was dated

485
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,400
to about 11th to 10th century BC.

486
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:17,120
This places a thriving

487
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,880
Edomite copper industry
at the same time as Solomon

488
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,120
and the tales of his elaborate temple.

489
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:27,000
All that remains of the mining boom here

490
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,480
is the melted waste
of the copper furnaces.

491
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,000
Does evidence of the grand
projects they fed

492
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:37,360
still exist elsewhere
in the three kingdoms?

493
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,120
At Tell Dhiban in the ancient
kingdom of Moab...

494
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,000
Pearce Paul continues
his exploration of the mound

495
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,800
to find out how grand this city was,

496
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,040
and what made it worth defending.

497
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,200
The team clears a structure
at the center of the tell.

498
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,760
It lies deep down in one
of the city's earliest periods

499
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:03,560
of occupation.

500
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:05,880
If you look at the
walls that look a bit whiter

501
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,080
than all the others, those are pretty old.

502
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:10,600
Those are probably
the early part of the Iron Age.

503
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,360
Excavators have only exposed

504
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:15,480
part of the structure so far,

505
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,480
but it's still enough for
Pearce Paul to get a sense

506
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,320
of how impressive this would have been.

507
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,680
I can walk most of this room,

508
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,920
this chamber in about 10 seconds.

509
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:33,240
To us today, that wouldn't
feel like a massive structure.

510
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,200
But 3,000 years ago,
our priorities are different.

511
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:38,920
Our technologies are different.

512
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,720
Having a room and a structure like this

513
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,720
doesn't serve
your basic functions of life.

514
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:46,120
This is something more.

515
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:48,560
The construction of this building

516
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,800
at the heart of the city would
have been a huge investment

517
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,200
of energy and resources
for an Iron Age people.

518
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,840
All of these things
put together-- the location,

519
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,720
the size, the scale, and the age of it

520
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,920
tell us this belonged
to the most important person,

521
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,400
or served the most important
function of this time and place.

522
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:09,720
Usually, that's palaces, temples,

523
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:11,480
administrative structures.

524
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,960
In the case of Tell Dhiban,

525
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,760
archaeologists have been able
to attach a name

526
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:18,720
to this structure.

527
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,160
This particular building in the past

528
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,600
has been dubbed Mesha's Palace.

529
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,480
Now, that has to do with a find, not here,

530
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,600
but here in Dibon,
just over on the other hill.

531
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,480
Two-hundred feet
from the walls of the palace...

532
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:40,600
a Bedouin tribe uncovered a huge slab
of polished basalt rock...

533
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,280
bearing the longest Moabite
inscription ever found.

534
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:52,960
It refers to Mesha,
a leader of the Moabites,

535
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:57,280
who the Bible describes as mortal enemies
of the Israelites.

536
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,760
The inscription is the single
biggest source of text

537
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:06,800
to come direct from that age,

538
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,640
and is full of detail of Mesha's deeds.

539
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,040
It reads, "To add to Dhiban,

540
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,160
"I built the walls of its parks,

541
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,080
"the walls of the citadel.

542
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:21,440
"I built its gates,
its towers, a royal palace.

543
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,360
I made the retaining walls
of the water reservoir within."

544
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,120
There are other lines that talk about

545
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:28,720
how he's vanquishing his enemies,

546
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,000
how he's taking
the spoils of war from them

547
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:32,400
and bringing them back here.

548
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,280
It's clear to Pearce Paul

549
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,520
that this list of great feats,

550
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,160
and the language used in the inscription,

551
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,760
are intended as nothing less
than the boasts of a king.

552
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,200
This is part
of Mesha's greatest hits.

553
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:51,680
He says, "I'm King Mesha
the king of Moab, of this place,

554
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,120
"and these are the things
that I have been able to do

555
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:55,600
with and for my people."

556
00:30:57,800 --> 00:30:59,400
This stele was written

557
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,200
only a century after
Solomon might have lived.

558
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:05,120
The wording indicates that Moab

559
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,560
was more than a spread-out clan or tribe.

560
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:10,760
It was a fully-fledged nation.

561
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,160
There is another key feature
mentioned throughout--

562
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:17,240
a Moabite god.

563
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,320
In all these feats,
he is attributing the success

564
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:24,960
and the previous inability
to do so, to the primary deity.

565
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:29,600
The foremost god, the one
above them all is Chemosh.

566
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:34,840
Throughout human history,

567
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,440
the worship of many gods
has been the norm.

568
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,760
Pearce Paul thinks this begins to change

569
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:42,480
in the age of Solomon.

570
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:44,400
During this time,
there's something

571
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:46,960
different happening
culturally, spiritually,

572
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,800
socially around this part of the world,

573
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:53,600
and you start to see societies
leaning more heavily on one God.

574
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,360
So, it wouldn't be a stretch
to think that these practices

575
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,240
that we see in this one
very detailed record,

576
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,520
might be repeated
in these other societies.

577
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:07,120
How different were
these nations in their beliefs?

578
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,760
As work continues to reveal
more of the Moabite palace,

579
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,400
Pearce Paul searches for further links

580
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,280
between these kingdoms and
the biblical age of Solomon.

581
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:23,760
At the dig site in Amman...

582
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,720
the team continues to search for clues
to how the Ammonites lived.

583
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:34,360
In the spot where they found
the carved head...

584
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,360
lightning strikes twice.

585
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:42,760
Guess what? We actually--
we found a second one.

586
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:48,080
Katharina's team has uncovered
another stone head.

587
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:53,080
This one is similar in appearance,
but crucially not identical.

588
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,720
The beauty of these heads
is that they are all individual.

589
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,560
Katharina believes it shows

590
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,400
they weren't representing
one specific person or god.

591
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:07,240
These heads next to each other

592
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,600
adoring the person
who would enter the palace,

593
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,040
that's how you have
to imagine these heads.

594
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:17,480
These female heads were really
the good spirit of the building.

595
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:21,920
They are supernatural beings,
in between humans and gods.

596
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,280
They symbolize beauty
and surplus of everything.

597
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,000
Good spirits.

598
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,480
And it's beautiful. You feel it!

599
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,160
These heads were intricately carved

600
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:36,840
and richly decorated...

601
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,720
with inlaid eyebrows,
eyes, and necklace beads.

602
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,240
Dozens of these heads, each one unique

603
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:47,920
and brightly painted...

604
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,200
would have slotted
between two stone dowels...

605
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:57,760
and formed a striking
decoration for a royal palace.

606
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,600
These sculptures were
for decoration, not worship.

607
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,800
However, there is evidence
of an Ammonite deity

608
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,080
elsewhere on the citadel.

609
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:15,760
If you want to look
for the gods,

610
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,240
or at least the major god,

611
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,600
you would have to go
to that side of the citadel.

612
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:23,840
Nine-hundred feet
from the dig site

613
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,640
stand the columns of a Roman temple.

614
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,120
Beneath the Roman ruins,
archaeologists discovered

615
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:34,880
a much earlier monumental
Iron Age structure.

616
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:37,800
This is, in fact, the highest place

617
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:39,440
on the Amman Citadel.

618
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:42,200
So, you either expect there
to be a temple,

619
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:43,920
or a palatial structure.

620
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,000
Since the palatial structure
was actually here,

621
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,520
the only other building
that could sit there

622
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,280
is the major temple
of the kingdom of Ammon,

623
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,640
which would be the temple
for the major deity, Milcom.

624
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,080
The Ammonites built large stone statues

625
00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:03,720
to the god Milcom, and worshipped him

626
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,640
much like other kingdoms did
with their state deities.

627
00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:09,920
But biblical texts accuse them

628
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:13,080
of sacrificing children to Milcom,

629
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:14,960
burning them in fires,

630
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,000
accompanied by drumbeats
to drown out the screams.

631
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,080
Why does the Old Testament
depict the Ammonite religion

632
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,120
in such a diabolical light?

633
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,800
In ancient Moab, at Tell Dhiban...

634
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,960
Pearce Paul examines the rest of the mound

635
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,600
to learn more about the real relationship

636
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,080
between the different kingdoms
of the Bible.

637
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,160
A thick stone wall surrounds
a bowl-shaped depression

638
00:35:47,240 --> 00:35:48,800
on the side of this tell.

639
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:50,400
There's an interesting feature

640
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,960
on the inside of this wall.
It's a thick plaster.

641
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:57,520
And if this is down here
with the bowl here,

642
00:35:57,600 --> 00:35:59,320
this could be a kind of waterproofing

643
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,640
to help retain anything
coming off the tell.

644
00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:04,600
This is almost certainly a reservoir

645
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:06,880
for that Iron Age settlement on the top.

646
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,200
This enormous reservoir

647
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,840
would've been
a huge infrastructure project

648
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,320
for an Iron Age city.

649
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,000
On the Mesha Inscription,

650
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:21,280
the king brags about
being able to develop cisterns

651
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:23,280
and prepare his people
and save more water.

652
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:26,000
The pool itself could also reflect

653
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,360
a reference from the Bible.

654
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,280
Another settlement here in Jordan

655
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:32,720
is ancient Heshbon.
And so, the pools of Heshbon

656
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,880
are mentioned in
historic scriptures and texts.

657
00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,680
And this is the kind of thing
that could inspire that.

658
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,280
The biblical poem Song of Songs,

659
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,240
supposedly written by Solomon,
compares his lover's eyes

660
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,160
to Moab's famous pools of Heshbon.

661
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:54,640
Solomon took wives
from all the kingdoms around.

662
00:36:54,720 --> 00:36:57,120
He had a child with an Ammonite princess,

663
00:36:57,200 --> 00:36:59,880
and another with the Queen of Sheba.

664
00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:02,040
He even built temples in Jerusalem

665
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,640
for his wives to worship their gods,

666
00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:07,120
and angered his own god as a result.

667
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,520
These accounts paint a picture
of a cosmopolitan king of Israel,

668
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:18,560
an attitude also seen
in daily life in this region.

669
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,400
People are bumping into each other.

670
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,440
You're trading with each other,
there's intermarrying.

671
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,840
There's all kinds of social engagements.

672
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,600
So much of it is incidental
and unrecorded.

673
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:32,320
The kingdoms next door to ancient Israel

674
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:36,280
provide clues to what Solomon's
own realm might have been like.

675
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,880
Just as the Mesha stele
describes the Moabites' reward

676
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,400
for honoring their god,

677
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,560
the Bible describes Israelites
suffering for Solomon

678
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,760
insulting Yahweh, the god of Israel.

679
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:52,760
With every story
that people write about,

680
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:55,400
where they came from,
and how they came into existence,

681
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:57,280
they talk about
the trials and tribulations

682
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:58,760
that they have encountered.

683
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,800
And they paint anyone
who's not them as the other.

684
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,920
These other groups,
these other societies--

685
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,960
the Moabites, the Edomites,
and the Ammonites--

686
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:11,040
are the other in the biblical histories.

687
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:15,360
But just because those documents
reflect them as other,

688
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:17,240
doesn't mean that's how they were.

689
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,800
When the Bible texts were written,

690
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:22,960
many centuries after Solomon,

691
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,160
they berate him for his
outward-looking approach.

692
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:32,400
Why do these later texts
look so harshly on Israel's neighbors?

693
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:35,640
Instead of taking the much-later
biblical literature

694
00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:39,440
and scriptures as a writ
of how these things happened,

695
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,360
the responsible thing to do
is to take them

696
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,080
as a piece of evidence,

697
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:46,040
try and evaluate them
against what we can prove

698
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:47,880
through the physical record.

699
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,880
What separated these biblical kingdoms

700
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,440
at the end of the age of Solomon?

701
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,120
How did their paths diverge?

702
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:01,760
At the Amman Citadel,

703
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:05,680
the dig team continues its investigations.

704
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,720
Katharina examines how this period

705
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:12,760
of flourishing independent kingdoms
came to an end.

706
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:14,680
The excavation here is so exciting,

707
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:16,680
because we hope on the long run

708
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:18,320
that we can say a little bit more

709
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,320
about what happens here in Amman.

710
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:24,440
We hope to find different layers

711
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,880
where we can say a little bit
more about this transition--

712
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,600
if there is a continuity,
if there's a pause,

713
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,640
if there's a destruction, question mark.

714
00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:36,760
Discoveries from around the citadel

715
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,560
could also hold clues to what came next.

716
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,160
Among the ancient riches
of the Archaeological Museum of Jordan,

717
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:49,280
museum director Taher Gonmin

718
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,640
tracks down a very small object

719
00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:56,040
that could tell a much bigger story.

720
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:58,760
This is the seal we found
in the Ammonite kingdom

721
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,200
in the southern slope in Amman citadel

722
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,280
across from the Roman theater.

723
00:40:05,720 --> 00:40:09,520
Stamp seals
are common ancient objects.

724
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,920
They were used to make
a unique impression in wax

725
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,800
as a way to seal official documents.

726
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,840
This particular stamp seal
has a curious design.

727
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:22,280
This seal, we can see it's very pure.

728
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:24,920
Very pure Assyrian influence.

729
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,880
The Assyrians were a mighty empire

730
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,120
that dominated the region to the north.

731
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,800
This seal could indicate
their presence here in Ammon.

732
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:39,600
This inscription is Ammonite language.

733
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,680
This is an Ammonite stamp seal,

734
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:45,800
but in the Assyrian style.

735
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:49,720
A symbol in miniature of the period

736
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:53,440
when Ammon had become part
of the Assyrian empire.

737
00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,320
Faced with the brute force
of the Assyrians,

738
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:04,560
the Ammonites chose to submit
rather than face annihilation.

739
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:11,080
The Assyrian overlords allowed
local rulers to stay in power,

740
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,320
provided they remain loyal
and paid their dues.

741
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:21,160
In the ancient kingdom of Israel,
Solomon's heirs

742
00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:24,440
-refused to bow to Assyria...

743
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,200
...and its cities were raided
and destroyed.

744
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,640
Many Israelites
were deported and scattered,

745
00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:36,240
marking the end of a golden age.

746
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,280
The Iron Age was a period,

747
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,600
this entire region was split up

748
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:47,960
into these independent kingdoms,

749
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:51,480
and it's something
very special in that period.

750
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,640
I think it's also important,
however, to see that,

751
00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:58,200
especially with the example
of the kingdom of Ammon,

752
00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:02,360
there's always a certain way
to react towards these empires.

753
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:04,800
For a while, at least,

754
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,240
it seems Ammon made the right choice.

755
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:11,240
It was peace and prosperity,
like, Ammon was blossoming.

756
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:15,880
And it was a period of a peaceful
and good life, probably.

757
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:21,280
The same cannot be said
for the ancient kingdom of Israel.

758
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,200
Crucially, these events
of the late Iron Age

759
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,080
were close to the time
when many scholars think

760
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:30,320
parts of the Old Testament were written.

761
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:35,200
By then, Solomon was
a legend centuries-old,

762
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,680
but the destruction and turmoil
of invading empires

763
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:40,360
was all too real.

764
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:47,440
The contrasting fates of Israel
and its neighbors across the Jordan River

765
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:52,320
spurred the writers of the Bible
to create an image of Solomon's kingdom

766
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:57,040
standing mighty and alone
in a golden age of its own making.

767
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:02,520
The biblical texts
and scriptures for any religion

768
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,720
are trying to tell us
a specific version of events,

769
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,520
the version of events that are
most important to the people

770
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:09,960
when they wrote them down.

771
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,680
That's useful information
because it gives us a perspective,

772
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,040
but it is not the perspective.

773
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,840
What we do is weave
all of the data together,

774
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,320
and come to what actually happened.

775
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,960
Evidence found today
by archaeologists

776
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:27,640
across the region

777
00:43:27,720 --> 00:43:30,680
is shedding light on a lost age,

778
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,800
a time of evolving religions...

779
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,360
of great industry and trade...

780
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,240
and a landscape of competing kingdoms...

781
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,120
that culminated in grand palaces,

782
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,920
decorated with incredible finery.

783
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:55,160
Each new discovery uncovers
the reality behind the legend

784
00:43:55,240 --> 00:44:00,040
to reveal the truth about
the lost world of King Solomon.

784
00:44:01,305 --> 00:45:01,267
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