"Lost Treasures of the Bible" Mystery of King Solomon

1 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:08,320 In the center of a crowded capital city, 2 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:13,080 a team of archaeologists digs down into the past. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:15,560 Okay, get Felix. 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,920 Out of the earth appears a face 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,800 hidden for 2,000 years... 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,400 Be very careful. 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:25,760 ...an incredible treasure... 8 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:27,960 Oh, wow, wow. 9 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,520 ...from a lost biblical kingdom. 10 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:34,040 It's intact! 11 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:42,074 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:48,320 The stories in the Bible 13 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:50,240 are famous across the world. 14 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,080 They tell of great battles between good and evil, 15 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:00,680 earth-shaking catastrophes, and heroic characters. 16 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,840 One of the most famous names is King Solomon. 17 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,640 In the Old Testament, 18 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,720 Solomon was king of ancient Israel, 19 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,680 a mighty ruler in a golden age, 20 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,600 wise and wealthy beyond any other king. 21 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,920 In Jerusalem, he built a mighty temple 22 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,920 to house the Ten Commandments given to Moses. 23 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:27,280 The Ark of the Covenant 24 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,640 held the central rules of the early Jewish nation, 25 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,320 marking a promise between God and his people. 26 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,600 The period in which Solomon would have lived 27 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,200 is known as the biblical Iron Age. 28 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:45,720 It lasted from 1200 to just after 600 BCE 29 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,600 and was a time of mystery and great change. 30 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,000 Excavation of Jerusalem's Temple Mount 31 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:54,840 is difficult and controversial, 32 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,440 and archaeological evidence for Solomon's temple, 33 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,000 and even the man himself, are lacking. 34 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:02,840 When most people think about 35 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,920 this region, they think about the kingdom of Solomon. 36 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,840 But there's a lot of other things going on. 37 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,600 Multiple kingdoms, multiple kings, 38 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,960 gathered on all sides of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. 39 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:17,480 To the east of Solomon's Israel 40 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,560 lay three other Iron Age kingdoms that appear in the Bible: 41 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:25,440 Ammon, Moab, and Edom. 42 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:27,720 They're all experiencing their own growth, 43 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:28,960 their own development. 44 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,160 We've only scratched the surface about what's going on. 45 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:34,960 This season, archaeologists are leading 46 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:38,360 new investigations into these kingdoms. 47 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:42,000 What can they tell us about the golden age 48 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,560 of the legendary biblical ruler? 49 00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:45,920 It's absolutely exciting, I mean, 50 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,520 this is something you dream of. 51 00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:51,200 Using cutting-edge technology, 52 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,480 they reveal the lost world of King Solomon. 53 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,320 In the modern city of Amman... 54 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:03,960 dawn breaks... 55 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,720 as archaeologist Katharina Schmidt and her team 56 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:11,920 arrive at their dig site in the very center 57 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:13,800 of Jordan's capital. 58 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:17,280 I love Jordan. 59 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:19,520 I mean, look around you. 60 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:22,520 It's probably my most favorite place. 61 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,720 Particularly now, starting the first season here in Jordan. 62 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:29,720 This year, the team is embarking 63 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:32,120 on a ground-breaking new project, 64 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:35,080 hoping to reveal a lost Iron Age kingdom. 65 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,920 3,000 years ago, the region around this city 66 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,480 belonged to the ancient biblical kingdom of Ammon, 67 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:45,640 one of Israel's neighbors, 68 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:48,600 and is reflected in Amman's name. 69 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:50,960 Waking up with the city every morning, 70 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,120 it's just absolutely fabulous. 71 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,760 And being able to work at that site is a dream really. 72 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:01,560 Four million people 73 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:03,880 crowd the steep slopes of this city, 74 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:07,880 but at its center is a nearly untouched hill 75 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,160 known as the Amman Citadel. 76 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:13,160 We are right in the busy capital of Jordan, 77 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:15,760 and we are lucky because the citadel of Amman 78 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,400 has not been overbuilt over the years. 79 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,400 Exploratory digs from the 1960s 80 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:25,480 found evidence of a mysterious ancient structure 81 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,000 that seemed to be from the Iron Age, 82 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:31,120 ensuring the land here remained undeveloped. 83 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:36,040 Now, Katharina has the chance to continue that investigation 84 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,840 and discover precisely what it is-- 85 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:42,080 this time, with all the high-tech tools 86 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,480 of the 21st century archaeologist. 87 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,000 We can use what they have uncovered, 88 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,480 so we don't need to dig down for, you know, four years 89 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,960 to reach the layers we are particularly interested in. 90 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,640 We can immediately start where we want to start, 91 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,520 and apply all these methods. 92 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,640 One of the most useful modern tools 93 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,600 is drone photogrammetry. 94 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:09,120 So, I think we can start here 95 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:10,680 on the top of the site. 96 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:15,320 -Elevation will be great. 97 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,000 Imaging specialist Felix Wolter 98 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:23,880 wants to create a digital map 99 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:26,120 of the whole area of the citadel. 100 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,600 This will help him find any structures 101 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:30,600 that were missed first time around. 102 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:32,840 The drone obviously gives us 103 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,400 bird's-eye view of the site, so we are able to see the site 104 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:38,400 from a completely different perspective 105 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:40,760 and much more distance, which will allow us to see 106 00:05:40,840 --> 00:05:43,240 certain structures in a 3D model. 107 00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:46,120 Felix photographs the entire 108 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:48,080 eastern end of the citadel... 109 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:52,160 Hey, perfect landing! 110 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:55,280 ...and heads to the site office 111 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,360 to stitch the high-resolution images together. 112 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:00,760 We see here, this is our excavation 113 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:04,160 from the bird's-eye view, and we can zoom out now, 114 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:08,680 and we see actually all this eastern part of the citadel. 115 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,920 I can see that there's also some other structures, 116 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,520 possible Iron Age city-wall structures. 117 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:17,280 And if I zoom in, I see actually rows of stone put together. 118 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,160 A wall surrounding the hill 119 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,360 suggests the structure within was important. 120 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:27,600 Katharina walks down into the building 121 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,200 to try to discover its purpose. 122 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:33,200 What is very, very useful 123 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:35,840 is to get structures in situ, 124 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,440 having a wall and a floor together, 125 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:41,560 in order to really define a building. 126 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:45,800 The sheer scale and layout of this building 127 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,120 indicates to Katharina that this is not an ordinary dwelling. 128 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,080 Right in the south, in the far back, 129 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:54,800 we have a set of rooms. 130 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:56,600 We have a huge courtyard 131 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,040 which comes right after that set of rooms. 132 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:02,960 And we have a set of rooms here, right next to me, 133 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,400 where sort of a storage area must have been. 134 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,760 This is already really large, but we haven't even reached 135 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,080 the boundaries of that-- of that entire building yet. 136 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,320 The thick walls and vast spaces, 137 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:20,480 and the discovery of a stone toilet seat in one room... 138 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:23,720 are evidence this was a royal building. 139 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:28,520 Multiple stories high and covered with fine plaster... 140 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,080 it would have sprawled across the hilltop... 141 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,040 with a huge wall around its perimeter. 142 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,520 Could this be a palace from the age of Solomon? 143 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:50,200 Archaeologist Zeidan Kafafi 144 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,520 is co-director of the project. 145 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:57,600 He's been excavating sites across Jordan for 40 years. 146 00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:59,960 Archaeology, for me, 147 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,840 started as a study, 148 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,680 then as a career, then as a life. 149 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,240 Zeidan's expertise lies in pottery, 150 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:13,920 a crucial tool for dating this ancient megastructure. 151 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:18,400 He examines the sherds found at this site for their size, 152 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:20,360 material, and appearance. 153 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,680 Each period of time, it has its own pottery 154 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:32,000 which bears the characteristics for that period. 155 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:36,200 He believes the design on this pottery 156 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,280 identifies the century when this palace was occupied. 157 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,240 When I look at this, I see the decoration, 158 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:46,880 which we call it 159 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,960 typical Ammonite period decoration. 160 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,920 This means this could be 8th, 7th century B.C. 161 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:59,240 This evidence puts the palace's occupation 162 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,200 close to the age of Solomon. 163 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:05,480 We believe that we are actually dealing here 164 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:09,240 with the residence, the palace, of the Ammonite king. 165 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:11,880 [narrator] Katharina and the team 166 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:13,800 could find precious clues here, 167 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,920 to what life was like in this neighboring kingdom. 168 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:21,400 And it's not the only site that could shed light on this period. 169 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,320 Thirty miles south of Amman 170 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,760 is the ancient site of Tell Dhiban. 171 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,720 Archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman 172 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:39,320 is here to explore what other peoples and settlements 173 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,120 dotted this landscape in the age of Solomon. 174 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,320 Beginning of the Iron Age, sometime around 1000 B.C., 175 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:50,240 is a bit of a messy period. 176 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:54,000 There's no one giant society that is kind of guiding 177 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:56,240 and overpowering all the others. 178 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,800 It gives an opportunity for different entities 179 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:01,080 to come into existence in their own way. 180 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,160 And here, we have a great example of one of those, 181 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:04,520 the kingdom of Moab. 182 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,000 Dhiban is associated with Dibon, 183 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,360 a place in Moab referred to in the Bible. 184 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:13,320 The layers of history preserved here 185 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,080 could provide an insight into the power of ancient Moab 186 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:20,520 and potentially its neighbor, Solomon's Israel. 187 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,320 For thousands of years, people have been occupying 188 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:24,920 this specific place. 189 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:26,960 And no one knows what's at the bottom yet. 190 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,520 We just haven't gotten there. 191 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:31,520 The accumulation of building material 192 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,080 and rubbish repeated over the centuries 193 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:36,640 creates a man-made mound known as a Tell. 194 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,760 At the base of Tell Dhiban, 195 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,040 Pearce Paul assesses the construction method 196 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,840 of the ruins to work out what period they're from. 197 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:49,840 What we can see here is at least the Iron Age, 198 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,360 so something like 900 or 800 BC. 199 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,040 This is a retaining wall from the Iron Age wall above it. 200 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:58,120 This helps make sure that all of this stuff 201 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. 204 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. 222 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... 231 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 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