1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Can fresh insights into ancient boat building techniques shed new light on the truth behind the great biblical flood? 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,000 For many of us, this does not make any sense. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 You've got to look at it through the prism of the peoples of the past. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:23,000 Is a mysterious underwater phenomenon being used as a secret weapon of war? 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:28,000 The glow revealed this unearthly shape moving through the water. 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 The sailors couldn't believe what they were seeing. 7 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:37,000 And does a spine-chilling river discovery hold the key to a lost world? 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,000 These bones are broken, twisted, cracked. 9 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 There could be thousands of bodies. 10 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 The underwater realm is another dimension. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:57,000 It's a physically hostile place where dreams of promise can sink into darkness. 12 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000 I'm Jeremy Wade. 13 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:07,000 I'm searching the world to bring you the most iconic and baffling underwater mysteries known to science. 14 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000 Shipwrecks can't just disappear. Or can they? 15 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000 It's a dangerous unexplored frontier that swallows evidence. 16 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,000 We know more about the face of Mars than we do our deepest oceans. 17 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Where unknown is normal and understanding is rare. 18 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:46,000 The story of how Noah survived a great flood by building an ark is one of the defining tales of the human race. 19 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:51,000 For some it's a myth. For others it's a literal truth. 20 00:01:51,000 --> 00:02:00,000 But could recent discoveries tell us once and for all whether this famous biblical story was based on real life events? 21 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,000 Noah's ark is one of the most iconic tales there is. 22 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:20,000 God comes to Noah and explains to him that he needs to go and he needs to build a gigantic ark. 23 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:29,000 In that ark he needs to put in the animals that are on the planet to save them from a flood which is going to follow. 24 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:40,000 The flood, as described in the Bible, is a storm that rages for 40 nights and for 40 days. 25 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:56,000 It's alleged to have covered the entire globe and at the end all life is destroyed except for those individuals and those animals that are on board the ark with Noah. 26 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:08,000 It's a much loved story that most of us have grown up with. But is it based on a real flood? 27 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:17,000 On the one hand we don't expect it to necessarily be the truth but on the other hand many of these things are anchored in some reality. 28 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:31,000 In fact many cultures and beliefs have a version of the Noah story. The oldest come from ancient Mesopotamia, more than a millennium before the Old Testament account was written. 29 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:41,000 Many cultures have a mythological story about a deluge. So it seems as though this was a very real event in some way shape or form. 30 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:56,000 When the Ice Age ends around 10,000 years ago it brings huge rises in sea level which separates continents and changes the world map to the one we recognize today. 31 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:08,000 But this is a gradual change over many years. The biblical account describes Noah's flood as being much more sudden. 32 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:15,000 The Bible tells us that Noah's flood happened over a period of weeks, not hundreds of years. 33 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:30,000 There is one event that could be behind the Noah story. A flood of truly epic proportions that happens in the Black Sea over 7,000 years ago. 34 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:38,000 The Black Sea was originally a great lake and it was separated from the Mediterranean. 35 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:46,000 But rising global sea levels from the melting ice eventually reach a crucial point. 36 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:53,000 This got to the point when the plug which separated the Black Sea from the Mediterranean was breached. 37 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:04,000 According to some estimates this global warming event pours water into the Black Sea with a force around 200 times that of Niagara Falls. 38 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Something with 200 times the power of Niagara Falls would be a monstrous event that would be earth shaking, literally and figuratively. 39 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:27,000 But there's a problem. Even the Black Sea deluge doesn't cover the entire earth. 40 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:36,000 There is no geological evidence to support a worldwide flood as described in the Noah story. 41 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,000 But to people living thousands of years ago it could have felt like their entire world had disappeared. 42 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,000 We understand the world very differently than people would have at the time. 43 00:05:52,000 --> 00:06:00,000 For people living in that part of the world it would have looked to them that everything on the horizon would have been submerged. 44 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:12,000 With this in mind it seems reasonable to hypothesize that the great flood was based on real life events like the Black Sea deluge. 45 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:21,000 And if that's the case we would expect to find other evidence that backs up the biblical tale. 46 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 Such as clues to the existence of Noah's fabled Ark. 47 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:39,000 A chance discovery in a Middle Eastern marketplace in 1948 could be the missing link. 48 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:46,000 A Royal Air Force pilot goes to a local market in Iraq and comes across a clay tablet with very strange writing on it. 49 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:54,000 He buys the tablet and takes it home to England but then it stays there forgotten about for years. 50 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,000 Decades later his son takes it to the British Museum to find out if it's of interest. 51 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:08,000 The museum curator immediately recognizes the strange markings as ancient cuneiform text. 52 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,000 The world's oldest form of writing. 53 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:17,000 He's seen thousands of tablets but this one is special. 54 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,000 He started reading it was totally blown away by what he was reading. 55 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:31,000 It reveals a secret about Noah's Ark that has been hidden from the world for nearly 4000 years. 56 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:43,000 Inscribed on it is the familiar story of the Great Flood with one intriguing new detail about the design of the Ark. 57 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:51,000 Not only does it tell us the story of the deluge from a time before Noah but also crucially and here's the new thing. 58 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,000 It says the boat should be round. 59 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:01,000 This simple statement goes against thousands of years of anecdotal history. 60 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Noah's Ark that iconic ancient wooden boat is one of the most familiar and established images of all time. 61 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 So how could it possibly be round? 62 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:30,000 The biblical tale of Noah and the Ark is one of the best known stories of all time. 63 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,000 But could it have a basis in real events? 64 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:46,000 An ancient clay tablet predating the Bible contains a detailed description of a huge Ark built to survive a catastrophic flood. 65 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:53,000 But there's one crucially important detail that's different from the traditional story. 66 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000 According to this tablet Noah's Ark is round. 67 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:10,000 I think for many of us this does not make any sense because when we think of a sea-worthy craft it is rectangular or cylindrical in shape. It's not circular. 68 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,000 Circular? 69 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:16,000 We associate boats with being what we call boat shapes, sort of long, not round. 70 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:23,000 So having a round shape looks to us to be odd but you've got to look at it through the prism of the peoples of the past. 71 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Research suggests that amongst ancient cultures in this part of the world circular vessels were not unusual. 72 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000 Circular boats were the common construction. 73 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:43,000 So it actually makes sense coming from that region to build a circular vessel because that would be what they all knew how to build. 74 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:57,000 I think if we try to get our minds off of Noah and his companions having to travel from point A to point B, if we think about them just having to survive, they just needed to stay above water. 75 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:01,000 And if we think in that way a circular craft starts to really make sense. 76 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:10,000 In fact, today's nautical engineers are beginning to utilize the unique properties of circular shaped vessels. 77 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Modern lifeboats on ships are often a round shape because the purpose of it is to protect the people and to keep them floating on the surface, not necessarily to travel any distance. 78 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:31,000 Circular lifeboats are supposed to have a far higher survivability rate than traditional lifeboats. 79 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,000 These shapes are incredibly strong, they're incredibly supportive. 80 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:42,000 It's one thing to have a circular boat which offers shelter to a small group of people. 81 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:51,000 But it's quite another to build one big enough to house Noah's family, plus a menagerie of animals. 82 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:58,000 The tablet account gives very precise measurements for the arc. 83 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,000 At 222 feet across, it's about two-thirds the length of a football field. 84 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:14,000 A round vessel of these dimensions would have been a huge undertaking thousands of years ago, so could it actually be built? 85 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,000 One man is determined to find out. 86 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:25,000 When I first heard about it, I thought, oh yeah, that's an exaggeration. 87 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:32,000 But the more I actually started it, I actually realized that that tablet tells you exactly how to build a round vessel. 88 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:38,000 The technology and the construction method, it's real, it's good. 89 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:44,000 In fact, the tablet gives what is effectively a 4,000 year old construction blueprint. 90 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:53,000 This tablet for the first time actually tells us quite vital information about the boat, the size and the materials. 91 00:11:53,000 --> 00:12:04,000 You have specific figures about the shape, which is the most important and most interesting aspect, and also construction, sequence and methods. 92 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:10,000 Dr. Alessandro Guidoni is a leading expert on ancient boat building techniques. 93 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Along with a team of other scientists, he plans to follow the directions on the tablet and create a replica of the arc. 94 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:25,000 The instructions are clear. The vessel is to be built primarily from reeds. 95 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:34,000 So reeds are hollow, which makes them buoyant. They're easy to manipulate, they're easy to handle. You can make almost whatever you want. 96 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:44,000 The tablet mentions just two other materials, wood for the supporting framework and most importantly, bitumen to waterproof the vessel. 97 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:54,000 Bitumen is a type of thick oil that seeps out of the ground and it was widely used by ancient people. 98 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,000 Bitumen is a great material because you can use it for multiple purposes. 99 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:10,000 And we know that they had bitumen for every purpose. So they had bitumen for boat building, they had bitumen for plastering walls or bitumen just used as glue. 100 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Harnessing all their knowledge of ancient boat building techniques, Guidoni and his team successfully build a circular vessel one-fifth the diameter of the tablet specifications. 101 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:26,000 And it floats. 102 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:34,000 It's a huge step forward in finding solid evidence to underpin the Noah's Ark story. 103 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:42,000 But so far, Guidoni has struggled to build anything even close to the full size of the ark. 104 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:51,000 When you actually start increasing the size of a boat, then it's when you start having problems. 105 00:13:52,000 --> 00:14:02,000 Bitumen is a great material but it also has limits and the main issue is that usually reeds are more flexible than the bitumen and that can cause the bitumen to crack. 106 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:09,000 Once the bitumen layer this coating cracks, then you sink. 107 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:17,000 So did ancient people have a special boat building technique that has been lost in the mists of time? 108 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:24,000 They have the knowledge, they have experience of hundreds if not thousands of years of using this material which we don't have. 109 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:35,000 So now the big question is like how in the past would they make such a big ark and actually avoiding all these issues that we encountered. 110 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,000 That's the main question. I'm not sure I have an answer for that. 111 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:47,000 I'm still working on prototypes just to see if this time we will be able to make it work. 112 00:14:49,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Guidoni believes that if he can crack the secrets of the ancient boat builders, the circular ark might finally become accepted as reality and change the way we think about one of the most iconic marine mysteries of all time. 113 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:24,000 On my travels around the globe I spent many nights on boats out on the ocean. 114 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:33,000 Looking out across the water I've occasionally been lucky enough to witness an incredible spectacle. 115 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:40,000 A spooky underwater firework display known as bioluminescence. 116 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,000 I've never thought of this as anything more than a bizarre marine phenomenon. 117 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:53,000 But I've recently come across a mysterious incident which suggests something a lot more sinister. 118 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:59,000 The story comes from the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol. 119 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:07,000 Ukraine's secret service raids the office of these unsuspecting marine biologists. 120 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:16,000 They break into the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, interrogate four of its scientists and search their homes. 121 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:23,000 What have these men got that the government is so eager to get its hands on? 122 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Perhaps the answer lies in the one thing that all four of these men have in common. 123 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,000 It just so happens that they were studying bioluminescence. 124 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:50,000 Bioluminescence is the light that many marine creatures produce to help them find prey, avoid predators or communicate in the darkness. 125 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:57,000 Why would the secret service be interested in the light of marine creatures? 126 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Is there more to this bizarre ocean spectacle than meets the eye? 127 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:12,000 The answer could lie in a little known event that allegedly took place during World War I. 128 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,000 November 9th, 1918. 129 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:23,000 The story goes that British Navy vessel HMS Preve is out at night in the Strait of Gibraltar. 130 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:31,000 Many vessels are stationed in the Strait in an effort to prevent German submarines leaving the Mediterranean. 131 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,000 All of a sudden there's an eerie shape glowing in the depths, building a new base. 132 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000 All of a sudden there's an eerie shape glowing in the depths beneath the ship. 133 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,000 The glow revealed this unearthly shape moving through the water. 134 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,000 The sailors couldn't believe what they were seeing. 135 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:00,000 They identify it as the silhouette of one of the most dangerous submarines in the entire German fleet. 136 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:06,000 SMU-34 was one of the most successful, if not the most successful submarines of all time. 137 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:11,000 For 117 missions, she sunk 119 ships. 138 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:20,000 SMU-34 has eluded detection for years. 139 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000 But now she's easy pickings. 140 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:33,000 The British naval records indicate that the submarine was identified and that it was sunk by depth charge. 141 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:46,000 Now the story goes that the reason that they were able to finally see this submarine was because it went through a patch of bioluminescing organisms which lights up the path of the submarine. 142 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:58,000 More specifically, experts believe that the organisms which betrayed SMU-34 were bioluminescent plankton, vast swarms of them. 143 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:06,000 There's millions and millions of phytoplankton in the ocean and when they're disturbed they light up. 144 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:17,000 Most plankton is invisible to the naked eye until something moves through the water and disturbs it. 145 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:30,000 If I was on a ship in the middle of the night and all of a sudden I see this light glowing, that's an indication to me that there's something large in the ocean. 146 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:40,000 The Navy happened to spot SMU-34 as it passed through a huge cloud of bioluminescent plankton. 147 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:46,000 But it was pure fluke, a case of right place, right time. 148 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:59,000 The question is, has anybody found a way to harness this unpredictable phenomenon and turn it into a reliable weapon of war? 149 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,000 The science of bioluminescence 150 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:18,000 Scientists are investigating the dark side of the mysterious ocean phenomenon known as bioluminescence. 151 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000 Has it secretly been turned into a weapon of war? 152 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,000 Bioluminescence gave away the location of the submarine. 153 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:33,000 So if you can imagine, if you could harness that technology, it would be one way to expose the locations of your enemy. 154 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:45,000 Military powers are interested in any technological advancement or military application that will give them an edge against their enemy. 155 00:20:46,000 --> 00:21:01,000 There's evidence to suggest that after the sinking of SMU-34, bioluminescent plankton becomes a focus of naval engineers around the globe. 156 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:09,000 And during the Cold War, the stakes are higher than ever before. 157 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:15,000 The Cold War was mostly fought under the water with nuclear submarines. 158 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:20,000 And these nuclear submarines were getting more and more sophisticated and harder to track. 159 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:27,000 So there was this idea of using bioluminescence to detect submarines that were undetectable any other way. 160 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:35,000 Rapid developments in satellite technology could make bioluminescence an extremely powerful tool. 161 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:44,000 I suspect, and again, this is only speculation on my part, that you could use satellites to detect bioluminescence. 162 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:54,000 Saying you're looking down at the ocean and there's a massive bloom being disturbed, you could potentially see the bioluminescence from space. 163 00:21:55,000 --> 00:22:04,000 There's little doubt that military powers on both sides of the Iron Curtain attempted to weaponize bioluminescence. 164 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:11,000 But with what success? That's where the trail goes cold. 165 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:17,000 We do know that both sides have experimented with bioluminescence and have studied it. 166 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,000 And we don't know how successful it's been. So in some ways that's still a mystery. 167 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:31,000 If the military did figure out how to use bioluminescence plankton as means for detecting vessels, would we even know? 168 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:44,000 Military research is highly secretive. But new information from the US Ministry of Defense reveals that marine creatures are still very much on the radar. 169 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:51,000 DARPA are the American Defense Research Agency. They are the ones charged with inventing the future. 170 00:22:53,000 --> 00:23:05,000 DARPA has recently launched an ambitious project. As well as using the light of marine animals to track submersibles, they're investigating the possibility of using sound. 171 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:14,000 One of the speculations is as objects like a submarine move past animals will make different sounds. 172 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:22,000 So they may be talking to one another saying, hey, there's something big that's just moved by. 173 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:29,000 Any significant changes in the sounds made by the animals can be picked up by high-tech hydrophones. 174 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:35,000 According to DARPA, this is a real program that they're working on right now. 175 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:44,000 Perhaps marine animals will soon be operating as underwater spies if they're not already. 176 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:56,000 Just like a lot of closely guarded naval secrets, if it is being used as a surveillance technology, it will remain a secret. 177 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:13,000 A long time ago, a team of archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery. 178 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:20,000 The remains of two large, luxurious Roman superyachts, unlike anything ever seen before. 179 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:29,000 But rumor has it that the mothership, a vast vessel even bigger and more extravagant, is still to be found. 180 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:35,000 Now, a new lead promises to reveal the long-hidden truth. 181 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,000 Lake Nemi, central Italy. 182 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:55,000 A man is fishing at the western end of the lake when his net catches on something solid under the water. 183 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:12,000 Local people believe that it could be the remains of a huge Roman ship and for good reason. 184 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:26,000 In 1927, fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini orders his men to drain the lake. 185 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:33,000 Mussolini, who was fascinated with Rome, came up with this grand scheme to drain the lake. 186 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:40,000 It's the kind of ambitious project that probably only a dictator could get away with. 187 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:47,000 Mussolini has heard the rumors of magnificent Roman vessels lying on the lakebed. 188 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,000 If he can find them, they could be used for his own political gain. 189 00:25:53,000 --> 00:26:00,000 It was trying to show the glory of the Italian state based on the Roman past. 190 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,000 And he isn't disappointed. 191 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:12,000 As they drain these lakes, what was exposed was these two massive beautifully built ships being raised up out of the bottom of the lake. 192 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:19,000 Examining the remains more closely, archaeologists discover that these are no ordinary ships. 193 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,000 In their day, they would have looked more like floating Roman palaces. 194 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:32,000 These are massive, massive ships and not only that, but they were found with these beautiful decoration. 195 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,000 They were really kind of decked out with the most luxurious goods of the time. 196 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:45,000 It was really impressive. Not only did they have water systems on the ship, it appeared that they had hot water and cold water. 197 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:52,000 Also platforms that could rotate and all sorts of conveniences that was very advanced. 198 00:26:54,000 --> 00:27:00,000 But the question is, what are these vast ships doing in such a tiny landlocked lake? 199 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,000 What use would they serve and what's their purpose? 200 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:16,000 It's a mystery until archaeologists discover that behind these superyachts is one of history's most unhinged and infamous men. 201 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:34,000 In 1929, two luxurious Roman superyachts were discovered in Italy's Lake Nemmi. 202 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:41,000 But there are rumours that a third, even more extravagant ship remains hidden beneath the surface. 203 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:47,000 It is a tantalising mystery as to what is at the bottom of the lake. 204 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:59,000 Locals believe that like the two found in the 1920s, the missing ship once belonged to notorious Roman Emperor Caligula, also known as the Mad Emperor. 205 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:09,000 Caligula is the Mad Emperor. We have references to Orges, we have killing of family members, 206 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,000 we have the killing of senators. 207 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:25,000 He was a playboy without the limitations of a credit card. He wanted the finest palaces, he wanted the finest of everything and he made sure he got it. 208 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:30,000 The Lake Nemmi ships were built to suit Caligula's flamboyant taste. 209 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:36,000 These ships were the equivalent of a billionaire's mega yacht today. 210 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:42,000 Experts believe that Caligula hosted his infamous parties and Orges on board. 211 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:54,000 He had his ship basically built for his wants, desires, needs and they were built in the most advanced fashion of the day. 212 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:04,000 But just a year later, Caligula was murdered and his state of the art pleasure palaces ended up on the bottom of the lake. 213 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:13,000 By the time Mussolini's team finds the first two, they've been underwater for centuries. 214 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,000 Even though these ships were 2,000 years old, they were in a pretty good state of preservation. 215 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:25,000 Both ships and their contents are removed from the lake and displayed in a purpose-built museum. 216 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,000 But then, disaster strikes. 217 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:39,000 The tragedy is that at the end of the Second World War, the museum was destroyed. 218 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:46,000 It was either hit by Allied artillery or it may have been German arson. We don't know, but the museum was destroyed and within it, the ships. 219 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:55,000 They lasted over 1,900 years underwater. They were there, they were safe, they were preserved. 220 00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:00,000 And then they were only open to human eyes for another 20 years before they were destroyed. 221 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000 It was a huge loss. 222 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:13,000 But what if there's a third, even larger vessel still hidden safely away beneath the surface? 223 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000 There have been stories about a ship in the western end of the lake for years. 224 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,000 Could this be what snagged the fisherman's net? 225 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,000 It would be great if Mussolini missed one, so we could find it today. 226 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:37,000 To investigate, the Italian authorities commissioned a thorough scientific search of the lake bed. 227 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,000 The team is using side scans, so you're getting a sideways view of the floor. 228 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,000 And this can give you a lot of heights and a lot of textures. 229 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:54,000 The scans locate one intriguing point of interest, around 60 feet down. 230 00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:01,000 They find something, but they can't make out what it is, so they send scuba divers out to find out. 231 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,000 Scrabbling around in the murk, one of the divers comes across something solid, buried deep in the silt. 232 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:17,000 Could this be the lost pleasure palace of Mad Emperor Caligula? 233 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:38,000 The wreck of two priceless Roman superyachts belonging to crazed Emperor Caligula were tragically destroyed in World War II. 234 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:46,000 But could there be another one hidden safely away in the depths of Lake Nemi? 235 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:51,000 Is there a third or even a fourth Roman ship hiding in the depths of Lake Nemi? 236 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,000 Scientists have discovered an unidentified object on the lake bed. 237 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:04,000 But divers soon confirm that it's not Caligula's missing pleasure palace. 238 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,000 It turns out to be a small boat dating back to the 1920s. 239 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,000 Possibly one of the boats which Mussolini's men would have used to find the first two ships. 240 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,000 The investigation is frustratingly inconclusive. 241 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:27,000 But in 2018, a revolutionary new technology brings fresh hope. 242 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:38,000 A company has used new data analysis technology to take commercial satellite footage to examine the part of the lake which wasn't drained by Mussolini. 243 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:47,000 By reinterpreting satellite image data, they claim to be able to reveal objects that weren't visible before. 244 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:55,000 And as they scan Lake Nemi from space, something incredible emerges. 245 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,000 Not just one, but at least three large ship-like objects. 246 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:09,000 It's a tantalising possibility that there could be more shipwrecks at the bottom of the lake. 247 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:16,000 If we do find another Nemi ship, it would be a literal gold mine for anyone who studied the Roman Empire. 248 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,000 Until divers explore further, the case of Caligula's lost super yacht remains unsolved. 249 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:33,000 But it seems that even after 2000 years, Lake Nemi has not yet given up all of her secrets. 250 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:53,000 Exploring the depths of a murky German river, divers make an extraordinary find. 251 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,000 The long-forgotten remnants of a Bronze Age bridge. 252 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:05,000 And the discovery of human remains nearby raises a colossal question. 253 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,000 Could this be the site of Europe's first major war? 254 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,000 The Tolentzer River, northern Germany. 255 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:29,000 This story begins with an amateur archaeologist finding a human bone with a flint arrowhead, 256 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:36,000 with a flint projectile point embedded in it. And this immediately raised questions. 257 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:43,000 Radiocarbon dating analysis reveals that the bone is a rare relic from the Bronze Age, 258 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:49,000 more than 3000 years old. But who did it belong to? 259 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:57,000 The arrowhead is hard proof that this is no accidental death. 260 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000 This is deliberate. This is not an accident. This is not somebody being hurt. 261 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,000 This is somebody engaging in some kind of conflict. 262 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:13,000 As underwater archaeologists start to explore the river and its extensive floodplain, 263 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,000 a much more chilling picture begins to emerge from the gloom. 264 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:23,000 They kept expanding the dig, finding more and more bones. 265 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:27,000 They were scattered everywhere. 266 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:31,000 They slowly piece together the remains of body after body, 267 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:37,000 until they have an unexpected assembly of over 130 skeletons. 268 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:45,000 They've only dug 10% of the site and they already have hundreds of bodies. 269 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:50,000 So the potential is there could be thousands of bodies still to be found. 270 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,000 It's clear that something much bigger than a fatal duel took place here. 271 00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,000 We start telling a much darker story. 272 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:08,000 Closer examination of the bones reveals some vital clues about how these people died. 273 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,000 These bones are broken, twisted, cracked, smacked. 274 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:20,000 They found numerous skulls and some of these skulls have wounds in them that are phenomenal. 275 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,000 Basically like taking a baseball bat and cracking somebody's head. 276 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:33,000 Before long, the remains of the weapons themselves begin to appear in the river sediments. 277 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,000 It wasn't like a croquet mallet. 278 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,000 It was basically a stick with a giant head on it for bashing. 279 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:46,000 We're talking hand-to-hand combat, people bashing each other with bludgeoning weapons. 280 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,000 The archaeologists are stunned. 281 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:56,000 This appears to be the first concrete evidence in northern Europe of a large bronze age battle. 282 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,000 The remains of the bronze age warriors are still in the river. 283 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,000 The remains of the bronze age warriors are still in the river. 284 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,000 The remains of the bronze age warriors are still in the river. 285 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:21,000 In Germany's Tolensa River, divers discover remains of hundreds of bronze age warriors killed in battle more than 3,000 years ago. 286 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:29,000 What started with one find, with one human bone, with a stone projectile point in it, 287 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,000 snowballed and escalated into this mass burial site. 288 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:41,000 The immense scale of the battle shocks scientists and historians. 289 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,000 It becomes clear that this was the site of a huge bronze age battle. 290 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,000 In some ways it was really the World War of the Bronze Age. 291 00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:01,000 Before this find, there had been no known conflict of this size north of the Alps. 292 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:07,000 Compared with more sophisticated civilizations in the Near East and Greece, 293 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:15,000 Bronze Age Europe was long believed to be a cultural backwater, where violence was restricted to small groups of men. 294 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:23,000 But the Tolensa River site suggests a battle involving as many as 4,000 warriors. 295 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:29,000 These are major undertakings. This is not a rudimentary society that can put this together. 296 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:39,000 It kind of forced researchers to rewrite their understanding of what was happening in this region in the Bronze Age. 297 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000 But the biggest mystery of all remains. 298 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:54,000 Who were these men and what were they fighting over? 299 00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:01,000 There obviously was a battle at Tolensa. The question is why there? 300 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:08,000 Why did all these warriors come from all around Europe to fight in this river? 301 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:15,000 Could a new discovery in the murky waters of the Tolensa River provide the answer? 302 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:25,000 They found right below where the bodies were, layer of bodies, layer of bodies, bridge. 303 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:32,000 A series of oak piles and posts preserved within the Tolensa River sediments 304 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,000 are identified as the remnants of a Bronze Age bridge. 305 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:46,000 Further excavation reveals that the bridge seems to have been connected to a vast causeway 306 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:54,000 that once spanned the entire marshy valley, allowing people to cross even during times of flood. 307 00:39:55,000 --> 00:40:03,000 This was a very surprising find because the traditional perspective of the Bronze Age is small farming clans, very small groups. 308 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:12,000 If there was a long causeway across the river, that would suggest that there was a major infrastructure going on. 309 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:19,000 This bridge was probably the only crossing place over the Tolensa River for many miles around, 310 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,000 which would have made it a key point on an important trading route. 311 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:31,000 This was clearly a major thoroughfare, a major travel route for people within that part of Europe. 312 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:39,000 Bridge crossings are vitally vitally important, transporting goods, let alone accessing raw materials. 313 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:50,000 Historically, many battles have been fought around bridges, from the Romans through to World War II, Vietnam and Iraq. 314 00:40:51,000 --> 00:41:00,000 River crossings are always these kind of high priority targets because they provide a way of moving either people or goods. 315 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:11,000 Experts agree that the bridge must have played a vital role in the battle of Tolensa, but exactly what that role was, we can only speculate. 316 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:17,000 Maybe one side was fighting with the other over control of this bridge. 317 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,000 Another theory is that there could have been an ambush. 318 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:27,000 Given the fact that there were so many combatants and they had come from so far afield, 319 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:38,000 in my opinion, suggests what we have really here is evidence of one of the first examples in the early Bronze Age of a large scale war. 320 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:48,000 Nobody knows for sure why thousands of warriors fought to the death beside the Tolensa River all those years ago, 321 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,000 but the incredible finds make one thing very clear. 322 00:41:54,000 --> 00:42:05,000 The solutions to some of humanity's most ancient and enduring mysteries still lie hidden in the murky underwater realm, waiting to be discovered.