Lost Civilization Uncovered! Josh Gates Explores Etruscan Ruins | Expedition Unknown

Look at this thing. This is what’s known
as a tumulus. A tumulus, it’s a tomb cut
into the summit of a hill. Literally cut
into the top of the hill. That’s
[Music]
Right, so you have to imagine this being
kind of the main tomb area of a
whole family, and there are tombs carved
in all along the outside of this tumulus.
And then there’s one of the biggest, the
principal tomb, which would have been
maybe for the founder of a dynasty or
definitely the leader of that family
group.

Wow, can we see it?
Yeah, let’s go. I mean, look at this.
This is serious construction. It’s
cut out of the hill, a big passageway
leading into the main tomb. But you can
see here how it’s carved into the summit
of the hillside, and then blocks are used
to build up the top and make an even
more impressive entryway.

This is definitely like the big boss’s tomb.
The big boss in the middle of the 7th
century BC was buried right in here.
And what’s going on inside?
Let’s go see the painted chambers.
We saw back in Tarquinia aren’t the only type
of Etruscan tomb here. We see them carving
what life may have been like in three
dimensions.

Now, this is legit. Look at
these carved columns. This is like very
Regal back in the day. These huge family
tombs must have looked so
impressive.

I think they would have been
magnificent, crowning the hilltops of the
necropolis on all the hills surrounding
the city of the living.

Absolutely unbelievable. One such hilltop still
exists nearby at the Etruscan necropolis
called Chetar. It has stone made to look
like wood beams, benches, long hallways,
and detailed reliefs. There’s even a
carving of a book on a night table,
evidence that the Etruscans once had
literature.

But those tombs, like the ones
I saw at Tarquinia and even the sewer
here, had been largely raided. When this
tomb was discovered, it had been looted.
It had been looted. We have some objects
and some sculptures from inside. For
instance, there were two Griffins
guarding the entrance. This gives you an
idea of how important the individual was.

This really is a tomb fit for a king.
Very high status.

Yeah, David is determined to find
undisturbed burials here at this site,
which may contain inscriptions that
could unlock the Etruscan language as well
as priceless grave goods to explain
their culture and origins.

But as it turns out, even some of the tombs that
have been broken into aren’t totally
empty. Right under our feet is an old
funerary path that leads along the side
of a row of tombs. There’s one here,
uh-huh, and there’s another one here.

Oh wow, look at this! I mean, I would never have seen
this, just totally filled up and
overgrown. This is a good example of what
the tombs looked like when we first
encountered them.

So why isn’t this fully
covered? Because at some point in the
past, somebody broke into this tomb by
removing the top block of the doorway. So
it’s been looted. Has it been excavated?
It has not been excavated, but typically,
the looters leave a wealth of
information inside the tomb for us to
document.

Okay, do you want to go in?
No, there’s science in there. No, there’s
spiders in there, dude! Spiders and signs.
Yeah, but a lot of spiders. Let’s go.
You’re going first, though.

Alright, spiders or not, we’re going.
In! Alright, here we go.
[Music]
This is
horrible.

Okay, I’m
in. Wow, this is awesome in here, actually.
Okay, so we’ve got two beds here with
these kind of lower bunks carved out
here.

That’s right, there’s room for two
on each side here to be laid out. Each
tomb has its own
particularities.

Alright, well let’s
have a look around.

Yeah.
Oh wow, Josh, look over here! What do you
have? There’s just bone everywhere here,
just littered all over this
bed. All these little white flakes that
we see here, this big piece, that’s all
human bone.

That’s right. These remains
weren’t deliberately damaged. Chances are,
the ancient brittle bones shattered as
the tomb was being looted.

What is that? That dark thing?
This is a piece of bronze. Wow, look at that! What do you
think this is from?

I think it would have
been a decorative element, perhaps like
something they were wearing. Yeah,
probably a breastplate, maybe part of a
belt. These people would have been laid
out here wearing their best, right? They
would have been laid to rest in their
finest clothes.

Right, look at that. Is the tooth a molar?
Oh my word, that is a tooth! That is a
human tooth! That is an Etruscan tooth
right there! Not just a trace of pottery now,
not just the trace of their architecture,
but actually the remains of an
individual.

That’s right, and this is
important data. We can do a series of
analyses on bones like this that’ll tell
us about the life, the diet, the
health, the migrations, and the origins of
the Etruscans. This is a big question,
their origins, right?

Right, because
they do seem to us to be this culture
that just kind of comes out of nowhere,
and people have been debating their
origins since ancient times.

Right, that’s
right. From their writings, the Roman
rains and Greeks looked at the Etruscans
as an exotic culture that could not have
been from the Italian
peninsula. The Roman writer Livy
speculated they were from Turkey, home of
the mighty Trojans. Others thought they
were originally from Greece. But because
the Etruscan language hasn’t survived,
they’ve never been able to speak for
themselves.

Recently, there’s been an
increasing number of genetic studies,
both using modern populations and
ancient populations.

Okay, and those
studies may show us where the Etruscans
were really from.

Recently, scientists gathered genetic information
from the ancient remains of 82 Etruscans
to compare the DNA against other
ancient and modern
peoples.

Okay, so where are they really
from?
Here, on the Italian peninsula, in the
middle of Italy.

So they’re not from
somewhere else at all?
It doesn’t seem that way.

So they’re just part of this
landscape, literally. They’re from here.
They’re Italians.

They’re Italians.
They’re from here.

Identifying the
origins of the Etruscans is a major win,
but even with these human remains, we’re
left with more questions than answers.
Right here in front of us, we have, in
many pieces, an Etruscan individual. I
don’t think the story is fully
told.

In order to fully know who the
Etruscans were and why they fell to Rome,
archaeologists need unlooted tombs. But
every burial David’s team has found to
date has been robbed, and the tombs are
hard to locate since they’re overgrown,
buried, or hidden along steep cliffs. In
other words, we need some high-tech help.

Josh, this is Forest, Laura, and Natalie
from LAR USA.
I’m very familiar with LAR USA. I’ve
worked with your company before.
Yes, you have. You worked with our dad,
Jeff, in Roanoke.

That’s right, and my
brother Daniel in Guatemala. Yes, at
Alador. I think I made your brother throw
up in a helicopter, MH.

Sometimes science is
puky.
He’s okay now.
He’s fine. He’s fine. He’s recovered.
Okay, sorry about that.
Sorry. And here we are again.

Yes, so, okay, talk to me. What’s
the plan here? I’m excited about this
because, as you’ve seen, this is a very
hard site. Very
challenging to actually see what’s on
the surface. A lot of hills, a lot of
vegetation.

That’s right. The lidar will
get us through those trees, right?
The plan is for the lidar to peer down and
image any additional cavities around the
site—targets for potentially unlooted
tombs.

And what kind of area are we going
to be scanning here today?
So we’re looking at somewhere around 250 acres.

250 acres is a lot! And that will take
this drone how long?
About 15