Josh Gates’ Extraordinary Archaeological Finds | Expedition Unknown

Embark on a thrilling journey with renowned adventurer and archaeologist, Josh Gates, as he uncovers extraordinary relics from the past. Explore uncharted territories and immerse yourself in the thrill of discovery. Witness ancient civilizations come to life as Josh Gates unearths long-lost treasures, delves into mysterious ruins, and deciphers cryptic codes. Through his unique blend of wit, expertise, and relentless determination, Josh brings these archaeological finds to light, revealing their significance in shaping our understanding of history. From ancient Pyramids of Egypt to hidden cities of the Bible, each episode is a captivating quest, unveiling secrets that have puzzled experts for centuries.

Oh my God. This is a full skeleton.
Look at this. I’m deep inside the llama cave, an undisturbed time capsule from the era of Spain’s heroic king Pelayo.
We’re searching for evidence of the truth behind his legend.
This might qualify.
We have a full skeleton here.
But there are skeletons.
There’s another one up there.
Oh, there’s another skeleton right there.
Yeah. How many of these skeletons are here?
There are five in this gallery.
Five.
And these are from the time of Pelayo?
Yes. Yes they are.
The archaeologists have discovered that this chamber is in fact, an eerie necropolis.
The skeletons have been carefully laid out on the floor, surrounded by broken pieces of stalactites in some sort of burial ritual.
Wow. Unbelievable.
I’m trying to understand this.
People brought these five bodies all the way down here.
This whole trip that we’ve made, they came the same way.
All the ropes and torches.
Ropes and torches. Think about that with torches.
How scary this environment would be.
They must have felt like they were venturing into the underworld.
Yeah, yeah. No doubt.
Why?
This must have been a kind of ceremonial burial in a way.
Right?
It’s a funerary treatment.
Yeah.
Was any clothing found?
Was any textiles found?
No, it has not been preserved.
We did find one thing in the other room.
Just a metal belt buckle.
A metal belt buckle.
And what does it look like?
He is made of iron with silver and brass inlays.
And it has a cross.
It has a cross? Yes.
So these.
These are Christians?
We think so.
I mean, there’s something very heathen or pagan about this.
There are so few burials from the time of Pelayo that what we are seeing here is revelatory. It’s clear that at this time Christianity existed alongside lingering pagan traditions, including some very dark rituals.
For being here over a thousand years, it’s incredibly well preserved.
Except for one thing the skull.
Where’s the skull?
The skull is here, but it has been crushed.
Literally smashed down to a powder.
Almost.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of them have their their skulls crushed.
There’s something going on here that feels superstitious.
Yes. Why?
Why crush the skull?
Well, probably because they had a fear of these people.
Because they wanted them to not to to to return.
To return.
Revenants.
Revenants? You’re talking about vampires in the Middle Ages, the belief that people could return from the dead as evil spirits was not only common, urgent measures were taken to prevent it. So-called revenant burials have been found all over the world, with the dead buried upside down with stones in their mouths and even with the occasional stake through the heart. But there from the time of polio.
Yeah, yeah. But who these five people are, we don’t know.
No, we don’t know.
These bodies are an incredible discovery.
We don’t know who they were or why they were given such a strange burial, but the fact that things like this were happening shows us that all of the romantic imagery of Pelayo and his men as squeaky clean Christian heroes isn’t painting a full enough picture of the time. You can see the notch in the back of it there, and it’s clearly an arrowhead.
Another head made of quartz, a.
Quartz arrowhead at the Kingdom of Kush’s holiest mountain.
I’ve learned how this place was written into ancient Egypt’s creation story.
The Kushites used this religious connection to get a foothold within Egypt.
And now this arrowhead offers a clue on how they may have conquered them.
This would not be for hunting, right?
No no no, no.
This is ceremonial.
It’s ceremonial. Yeah.
This is a classic symbol of Kushite kingship.
Of kingship? Yeah.
In the very earliest tombs, just as the Kushite dynasty was coming to power, the burials all had these arrowheads in them.
And that’s in the royal.
Burials, in the.
Royal burials and all made of this same colored stone, sort of reddish orange.
So the earliest Egyptian term for this region was ta-seti, land of the bow.
They had a reputation for archery.
They did so. This is part of the secret of Kushite success in warfare.
Kushite mercenaries are being hired in Egypt.
And they’re all they’re all archers.
All of them. Wait a minute. The Egyptians are hiring Kushites.
Yes. They were such excellent archers.
That’s why the Egyptians used them in the army.
Incredible. And there are depictions of this or writings of this?
Both. So we have the the name of Kush being Ta-seti.
We have Kushite kings are sometimes represented with, with thumb rings that they use to pull back very powerful bows.
The Kush were so proficient with a bow and arrow.
Arabians of the time called them I smiters, meaning they could unfailingly hit the eyes of their targets.
In some ways, this one object feels like it kind of unlocks the secrets of the success of this civilization. They can be dangerous, but this is also filled with beauty, sophistication, craftsmanship.
Yeah, that’s.
Kush, it’s got everything.
Don’t mess with the kushites.
Don’t mess with the kushites ever.
So here at Jebel Barkal, I’ve seen two of the keys to the Kushites power their spiritual authority and military might.
The result of this mastery was a century of kushites ruling as the pharaohs of Egypt’s 25th dynasty, and after that, centuries more of Kush kings dominating this region.
As we know, a Kush king has never before been found in his own tomb.
But that may be about to change.
Oh my God, we got something here.
More gold leaf. Oh, what is that?
Wait, what is this?
That is not gold leaf.
It’s like thimble shaped.
Yeah. What is this?
I think I know exactly what this is.
This would have been one of the finger or toe caps of the king that they put on him when they buried him.
Wait. This is a finger or toe cap that was on the king.
Yeah, it’s pretty great.
This is insane.
This item may look small, but make no mistake, this appears to be a monumental find. We may have our first confirmation that the King has not left the building.
This has to have been on him.
Right.
There’s no question. There’s no other way this gets in there.
It’s a major clue.
These gold caps, also called stalls, were used only in royal burials to protect the king’s extremities.
In death. The feet of King Tut had them when his sarcophagus was opened, and apparently King Nastasen was sporting a set as well.
That is a true smoking gun.
Well, it is a true smoking gun.
And even better, look at it.
Is there something in it?
There’s something in it.
Could there be bone in there?
There. There should be bone in there.
So we need to get this up.
We need to clean it up. And then we need to see if we can’t just pry this open a little bit and see if there’s not some bone in there.
So the king is here.
The king is in the tomb.
Dude, this is incredible.
That’s pretty great. Should we get out of the tent?
Let’s go. Okay.
In moments, I’m laying inside the doorway to the tomb of King Nastasen.
I think I can see the slab, but this view of it will be our last.
That still just kicks off as soon as we come in.
God, I can’t see anything now.
Can’t see my hand in front of my face.
What I want you to do is I want you.
To come around this corner where I am.
Over to the clockwise around it.
Yeah.
Clockwise around it.
Okay. Let me get your left hand and put it down here on the bottom left corner of this slab. Oh my gosh.
It just feels smooth as can be.
But as we run our hands over the slab, Pierce Paul notices something has changed since his last visit to the tomb.
Hold on a.
Second. Give me your hand and feel this.
Is this a.
Crack? I just don’t understand.
It’s not just a crack.
It feels like the corner itself isn’t here.
So did a part of this cave in and crack the top of this slab.
That’s really what it feels like.
This is disconcerting.
Sometime recently, a piece of the ceiling likely collapsed onto the slab with enough force to crack a large section of it off.
On the other hand, we now have an unforeseen opportunity.
Is it possible for you to get your hand under that slab in that cracked area?
Let me check. Just give me your hand.
Put your hand under here and feel this.
Hold on. Okay. I’m at the corner of the crack.
Yep.
Oh, my. This goes down.
You can go inside of it.
This is 100% hollow.
This is not just a platform on the floor.
There is open space under this.
Stop the presses!
This slab is not a burial platform at all.
It is the lid of a sarcophagus that has remained unopened for thousands of years until now.
The downside?
Well, at any moment, this entire tomb is in danger of collapse.
We decide to resurface in the air pocket of chamber two to plan our next steps, so that things definitely hollow in there.
This is huge. We now know that the slab is the top of a container of some kind.
Yes, you can get your arm.
In there always. There’s definitely material.
So what’s the move now?
So now we.
Need to actually get some of it out of here.
Having reached into what appears to be a sarcophagus Pierce, Paul doesn’t want to waste any time excited at the possibilities.
He intends to begin excavating immediately.
Oh.
Man. So what you can see here is it’s all wrapped over itself.
That’s astounding.
Look at that. My first dive into the flooded tomb of King Nastasen revealed a cracked sarcophagus lid that could lead to the first remains of a Kush king ever found in his own tomb. But as we learn in the Dig sifting tent, it also revealed gold.
This may be commonplace for you, but just the fact that we’ve gone into this tomb once and we’re coming out and there’s there’s gold in this, too, I just and it shines as gold does, just like it did thousands of years ago.
At one time, this thin gold foil likely covered everything in these chambers pottery offerings, even the huge slab in the tomb.
In fact, the entire room may have been literally covered in gold pounds of it that will be recovered one flake at a time.
Okay. Very carefully bringing this back to you.
Look what we got coming out here.
I felt you hand this to me and I was like, what is this incredible.
This kind of thing makes Tracy’s day.
It does. This is my version of gold.
Yes.
This is more than 2000 year old pottery from Nastasia’s tomb.
It likely held an offering that Nastasen would have used in his afterlife, making it literally fit for a king.
And just to think, that’s been sitting down there in complete darkness for thousands of years. Beautiful.
Absolutely.
Come on. I got another piece of stone down here.
Looks like Portland stone.
This looks like it might have patterning on it.
Oh, that is really cool.
Definitely seems to have carving on it.
I’m going to bring it to the surface now.
Okay, great.
We’ll have to bring it to the team and see where it came from.
And maybe one of these statues along here, but.
That’s for sure.
That’s work. Sandstone.
That’s from something. Yeah.
This is from something that was carved a thousand years ago.
How about that? Yeah.
Incredible. Insane.
The pattern on the second fragment I found suggests that it may be part of the carved Naga serpent that once encircled the moat.
Most importantly, we have confirmed that there are fragments of sculpture in the water here and have given the team a whole new region in which to search.
As for me, right now, I have one priority.
Can I get out of this water now?
Yeah. Come on up. You sure?
Yes.
Dave, can I get out?
No.
Stay in.
He’s the worst. He’s the worst.
Millimeter by millimeter.
We expose ancient letters from beneath the soil.
But making them legible is going to take a little more work.
What’s the next step?
The next step is washing it.
Okay.
Please, Steve.
With the dirt swept away, all it takes is some water and elbow grease for the past to shine through.
Wow. Look at that.
Oh, just coming to life.
That’s unbelievable.
Can I see the scrubber? Sure.
If it looks like we shouldn’t be doing this.
Don’t worry. The mosaic has lasted 14 centuries in a harsh world.
A little spit and polish ain’t going to hurt it.
Wow, my brain is exploding right now.
It looks like it was written just a few hours ago.
It really does.
I can’t describe what an honor it is to be able to see this, and to reveal it to the world in its entirety, for the very first time.
This is unbelievable.
I mean, look at this.
It’s extraordinary.
The entire inscription is here.
Not a letter is missing.
In the news articles.
I saw like a corner of this, but not the whole thing, really.
This is the first time publicly it’s being shown clearly.
This is the first time the world has seen this in 1400 years.
Amazing isn’t it? Huh?
It’s unreal.
Okay, now the big question.
What does it say?
I read Ancient Greek about as well as I swing dance.
Fortunately, Steve and Moti have Professor Jacob Ashkenazi on hand to do the translating. Okay, so, professor, help us out here.
What does this say?
The word here.
Kappa Omicron Rho.
It means the chief of what?
Right. The chief of what?
Uh huh. Of Apostalon.
The apostles.
The apostles.
Chief apostles of the apostles.
Peter. Peter.
Peter is Peter.
Nobody else.
He’s the chief of the apostles.
Okay.
The Apostle Peter, who of course was from Bethsaida, was first among equals in Jesus devout dozen.
It was to Peter that Jesus would entrust his church, and to whom he gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Now I’m reading his title right here on the floor.
So there is no doubt at all that we are talking about Peter.
Zero doubt.
How common is it to find an inscription like this?
That is a dedication to Saint Peter.
Zero.
This has not happened before.
This is a unique one.
So when you first found this, what was your reaction?
It’s not the smoking gun. It’s a bomb.
Okay. We have hundreds of years after the time of the apostles in the Byzantine era.
This beautiful basilica is built here and appears to be dedicated to the Apostle Peter.
Yes. So why would they have done that?
I think the church here commemorates the home of Peter, Andrew and Philip.
Byzantine churches like this were frequently placed atop sites believed to have been the locations of biblical events.
Hence, the churches became destinations for pilgrims.
This is very compelling evidence.
This is something you don’t often get at an archaeological site in the Holy Land, a complete inscription.
One word is missing Bethsaida.
Right.
That’s it. If it said Bethsaida, then it would be a done deal.
But just short of that.