WILLIAM SHATNER: A hidden cave that could hold the remains
of an ancient civilization.
An entire city entombed in volcanic ash.
And a royal grave
guarded by thousands
of silent warriors.
Throughout history, kings, emperors and pharaohs
have been laid to rest in sacred tombs.
These burial grounds were meant to protect the body,
and to allow the soul to transition
into the afterlife.
But is it possible that tombs serve another purpose?
Could they contain not just human remains,
but also surprising secrets about our past?
Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
♪ ♪
Here in this rugged, mountainous region
bordering the Gobi Desert,
two brothers begin digging a well on their family farm.
But instead of water, their shovels reveal
a life-sized statue of a soldier.
When archeologists later excavate the site,
they unearth thousands of these sculptures,
known as the Terra Cotta Warriors,
each with remarkably
realistic facial expressions.
Every now and then, there's a game-changing moment
in archaeological history.
This is a discovery of that magnitude,
because as time went on,
it became clear that this wasn't just a few pots.
It was actually a vast underground army
of 6,000 soldiers
standing to attention.
SHATNER: These incredibly lifelike statues
are actually part of a massive underground tomb complex
called the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
The mausoleum covers an area
of nearly four miles and contains
numerous underground palaces and chambers
that surround a tomb mound at the center of the complex.
The tomb mound itself is quite unassuming.
It's sort of a pyramid shape, but it's made of earth.
And these days it's covered with trees.
So it's all very green, but when it was
originally built, it would've supported
some large structures, some large temple structures.
So the tomb complex is far away
from the place where they discovered
the Terra Cotta Warriors.
And everyone doesn't really understand,
initially, how they can be part of the same thing.
The sheer size of the complex is unprecedented.
It's an amazing sight.
The scope of this is hard to describe.
There's chariots, there's horses.
There's an entire labyrinthine complex that exits.
And all of it intentionally kept
underground in what is literally an underworld.
SHATNER: This vast tomb complex was built in the 3rd century BC
to the final resting place for Qin Shi Huang,
the first emperor of a unified China.
Mausoleums and tombs in China
are statements of who you were.
So what you get with this tomb is a huge statement
of how important this man was.
The amazing thing about his reign
is it only lasted 11 years,
but, in that time, he completely transformed China
by making it one unified whole.
Even the name China seems to derive
from the name of his state, Qin.
So this is a guy who was unprecedented.
He thought of himself as the ruler of the known world.
DOMINIC STEAVU: As soon as he came to power he started building
this tomb complex as a way of
transporting what he had acquired and what he had
accomplished in the living world into the afterlife,
into the world of immortals, and that included
material things like treasures and-and vast untold riches.
SHATNER: The pyramid-shaped artificial mound at the center
of the complex is 250 feet tall.
Archaeologists believe that underneath this mound
is a chamber containing Emperor Qin's tomb.
According to ancient Chinese writings,
every detail of this chamber was designed
to perfectly mirror the emperor's kingdom.
There's a very elaborate passage that vividly describes
how the tomb was designed
from the records of the grand historian,
Szuma Chien.
The main feature was a small-scale representation
of the Chinese empire at the time.
And so it had all the waterways and the rivers and the oceans
and geographical features that were duplicated
on a small scale.
There is this sense in Chinese society,
going right back to pre-history,
that when people die, they kind of switch
to another plane of existence
and life goes on for them there.
So the coffin of the first emperor sits
in the center of a map of the known world.
And so the towns are little jewels and the roads are gold.
And then above him, you have a ceiling that has
the constellations, uh, in the sky because
the constellations are supposedly reflected
by the world on the ground, so you have
heaven and earth and the emperor in the middle.
Um, and it's all picked out in precious metals.
SHATNER: To date, the central burial mound
has only been partially excavated
because archeologists believe that,
according to historical records,
it may be too hazardous to uncover.
STEAVU: According to the grand historian,
the tomb itself is highly contaminated with mercury.
The rivers and oceans
were represented by flowing mercury.
And this mercury was
fed through a very complex drainage system
and was mechanically activated,
so that it permanently circulated.
CLEMENTS: In ancient China,
mercury was also believed to be,
uh, one of the substances
that could help somebody achieve immortality.
And it just so happens that, since 1981, we've known
that there are very high concentrations of mercury
in the soil, um, around the grave mound.
STEAVU: Because the soil around the tomb has high levels of mercury,
archaeologists are reticent about opening up the tomb.
There's a concern they could expose
the local populations to mercury poisoning.
And that it would lead to a large amount of the artifacts
being damaged or lost irretrievably.
SHATNER: Will archaeologists ever be able to safely open
the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang?
No one is certain.
But there are those who believe the emperor's body
was never located in the tomb's burial chamber
in the first place.
CLEMENTS: In Chinese history books, it says that the emperor was
buried at Mount Li, but it's not clear if that
meant in the mountain or in a grave mound near the mountain.
And this is important, because in the Middle Ages,
there was an historian who suggested that, actually,
the emperor was buried in a jade mine
in a mountain nearby.
So, it's very possible that the tomb mound itself
is a decoy, that he's not there at all.
And if they start digging there,
they'll be digging in the wrong place.
One big, hanging question that we're still
left with is, of course, what else is there?
We've only uncovered parts of this tomb.
So much of it still has not been revealed.
And who knows if it will ever be discovered.
Is it possible
that the tomb of China's first emperor is a decoy,
and his remains are actually held somewhere else?
Well, if that's true,
then it could be quite an elaborate ruse.
In fact, there's another massive tomb,
located in Ireland, that has an equally mysterious purpose.
Because it was designed to offer passage
to the land of the dead.
Rising above this region's lush fields,
not far from the banks of the River Boyne,
is one of the most mysterious ancient tombs
in the world.
Newgrange.
This massive stone structure
has a diameter of 87 yards,
or nearly the size of a football field.
Newgrange is the envy of monuments all around the planet.
The thing that people say when they come here
is they're surprised how big it is.
It is huge.
It takes up over an acre of ground.
And there is an estimated
200,000 tons of stone in the monument.
SHATNER: According to archaeological findings,
Newgrange was built around the year 3200 BC,
making it centuries older
than both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Because Newgrange is so ancient,
there's still much that we don't know about
the people who built this extraordinary tomb.
MURPHY: Probably one of the most fascinating
things about Newgrange is the fact
that it was built in pre-metal days,
just as the Stone Age was kind of sort of coming to a close.
And it's difficult to imagine
how ancient people were able to assemble this
massive monument, but they managed to do so.
TUFFY: A lot of work went into the building of this monument,
and it was all done with extreme precision.
Inside, there are carved stones.
And then you come into a chamber, which is quite roomy.
So you have this cathedral-like feeling when you walk inside.
MURPHY: Newgrange is what archaeologists refer to as a passage tomb.
It has a passage leading
into the interior.
And in that interior, human bones
have generally been found, in different quantities.
THOMPSON: There are human remains in these places, but the most common
um, burial practice around this time was cremation.
So we find multiple people being cremated and then interred.
Then the traditional Irish folklore
that dates way, way back, the other world of the dead,
it sort of overlaps with our own.
So the idea is that these sites would sort of allow
for this passage between the realm of the dead
and the realm of the living.
TUFFY: On the back recess of the inner chamber
there is a tri-spiral.
The most common interpretation
that people come up with is that it represents
this constant cycle of renewal and regeneration.
On a spiritual level, it may promise rebirth
for the spirits of the dead.
The tri-spiral is unique to Newgrange.
And it's also found on the entrance stone
and throughout the tomb.
SHATNER: Archaeologists who have studied Newgrange
have theorized that this ancient tomb
was intended to serve a profound and mystical purpose.
And as evidence, they point to a curious element
of its design that is only visible
one day a year.
Newgrange is unusual in that it has
a very special aperture...
...or opening above the entrance.
On the day of winter solstice,
this glimmering golden beam of sunlight enters there,
and pierces the darkness.
TUFFY: When the sun rises at winter solstice,
light hits the chamber
for precisely 17 minutes.
And some even speculate that the spirits
would have used the light
to leave the burial chamber and go and join the deities.
SHATNER: Did the builders of Newgrange
specifically design it to be a gateway into the afterlife?
Some archaeologists believe that the answer is yes.
And they also claim that Newgrange was built
to allow those who stood within its inner chamber
to communicate directly
with the dead.
In the case of Newgrange, the notion of the sunbeam
drawing out the souls of the deceased,
and-and leading them to that other world,
is not just a one-way ticket.
It was a portal between worlds.
Were the people inside there--
the priests, for instance, the Druids--
were they in contact with the ancestors who'd gone before?
TUFFY: The builders of the monument have created a space
which is separate, which is a world of the dead.
There was always a feeling that this is
a house for the spirits.
Where consulting with the ancestors,
asking advice from the ancestors,
would have happened 5,000 years ago.
Which is extraordinary.
SHATNER: Was Newgrange constructed to be not only a tomb,
but also a place where the living
communicated with the dead?
It's an intriguing theory.
Which is why archaeologists continue
to study Newgrange in the hope of one day
unraveling all of its mysteries.
THOMPSON: How people choose to handle their remains
always tells you a lot about
what people think about the afterlife.
Where are they going?
What is the relationship between the soul and the body?
And in Newgrange, this had a lot to do
with this notion that the dead are still around.
And perhaps can see you even if you can't see them.
So, in a sense, with Newgrange,
we might even say that the dead
did achieve immortality.
The idea that Newgrange was built to allow
the soul to live forever is fascinating.
But on the other hand, there are some tombs
that seem frozen in time.
For instance, there's an entire city
located near Mount Vesuvius
that suddenly became a mass grave
when it was covered in a blanket of volcanic ash.
SHATNER: At approximately 1:00 p.m. on a peaceful late summer day,
this ancient Roman city in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius
is shaken by a massive volcanic eruption.
Within minutes, superheated gas and lava
engulf the city and its surroundings.
In an instant, thousands of people are
buried alive, as a city that was once their home
suddenly becomes their tomb.
Nearly 2,000 years after the eruption,
Pompeii is a city that remains
frozen in time.
This eruption was what we call a pyroclastic eruption.
Where clouds of-of ash and debris,
hundreds of degrees hot, came flowing down the mountain,
flash-frying everything in its path.
And miraculously, the heat of this cloud
was enough to carbonize and preserve,
rather than destroy, all kinds of information.
We have well-preserved architecture,
wood and organic materials,
foodstuffs,
human remains,
animal remains that have been preserved
for 2,000 years
beneath, uh, this volcanic debris.
SHATNER: Today the excavated ruins of Pompei
offer archaeologists and tourists
a breathtaking look at the doomed ancient city.
Perhaps the most intriguing discovery found beneath the ash
from Mt. Vesuvius' eruption
was an ancient Roman structure
located not far from Pompeii
known as the Villa dei Papiri.
The Villa dei Papiri was a Roman luxury villa
that was full of sculpture
and marble and bronze.
The villa was discovered by chance in 1750
by well diggers, who, tunneling about 75 feet
through volcanic debris,
first hit a colored marble floor
with an amazing pattern
made up of bright red and yellow marbles.
We think this was once the vacation home
of a Roman senator of the highest rank
of an old noble family
named Lucius Calpurnius Piso.
SHATNER: The volcanic ash that buried Villa dei Papiri,
did not only preserve the physical structure.
It also entombed a library that contained
more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls.
These scrolls are an extraordinary record
of the thoughts and writings of people
who lived nearly 2,000 years ago.
Those texts were discovered when the city was excavated
and some of the artifacts were first found.
The people who discovered them didn't know what they were.
They thought that maybe they were pieces of branches
or logs because they were rolled up and carbonized.
Until someone finally realized these are texts on papyrus.
LAPATIN: The Villa dei Papiri library is significant because
it's the only surviving library
from antiquity with its contents.
There were scrolls found that date to the 3rd,
2nd and 1st century BC
and the 1st century AD.
About 300 of them or so have been un-scrolled.
And they contain mostly philosophic texts,
some poetry, some literary criticism,
a little bit of history.
But many of the scrolls are so tightly bound together
and carbonized that there's been a moratorium
on attempts to open them.
SHATNER: Fear of damaging the scrolls has left many of them
virtually untouched for over 100 years.
But new technology has presented an extraordinary opportunity
to actually read these mysterious ancient texts.
Scientists in the computer science department
at the University of Kentucky have developed
a new method known as "virtual unwrapping,"
which uses a sophisticated X-ray machine
to scan the scrolls without damaging them.
SEALES: The virtual unwrapping that we innovated basically
allows a 360-degree set of views to be collected
from an object that rotates in front of an X-ray beam.
This is a real scroll that's 2,000 years old.
And in cross section, we can see
there-there's damage, there are parts that are missing,
sections that are broken.
Now we're using our software for the second step,
which is to trace these wraps all the way through,
so that we can build a 3D model that lets us
flatten that out and then read the text that's on it.
And once we're done, we've achieved
this image that's on the left, which is the final,
completely unwrapped version.
This is a quote from Democritus
who was an early Greek philosopher
and is very well known for having postulated with others
that materials are made of atoms.
I think it's remarkable that 2,000 years ago,
Greek philosophers were postulating
what we now know is true from science.
SHATNER: Thus far, the team has been able to digitally scan
two complete scrolls and a number of fragments.
They hope that, in the future, technology will advance
and allow them to reveal even more.
But what secrets might be contained
in those 2,000-year-old scrolls?
One exciting possibility that has been suggested
is that the original letters
written by Jesus's apostle Paul
could've been kept within the library at Villa dei Papiri.
RIC RADER: The Villa of the Papyri was entombed about
40 to 50 years after the death of Jesus.
At this time, the original apostles are now out doing
their mission work in various parts of the Mediterranean.
So it's entirely likely that the Villa of the Papyri,
could have a collection
of copies of Paul's letters.
SEALES: If the letters from the Apostle Paul circulated
and found its way into the collection,
such a discovery would represent the earliest Christian
material that we have, almost dating back
to the time of Christ and the disciples.
Being able to use these techniques
to understand history in a way that's almost forensic
is gonna bring surprising things forward
and we're gonna be revealing more secrets
than we'd ever imagined before.
It's incredible to think that the original writings
of Paul the Apostle might have been buried
and preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
And, also, it makes you wonder
are there other tombs that could be hiding
forgotten knowledge?
Well...
there's one located in Ecuador that might contain
the ancient library
of a lost civilization.
SHATNER: The Andes Mountains.
In the eastern part of Ecuador,
not far from the border of Peru,
is the entrance to a cave
known as Cueva de los Tayos,
or the Caves of Tayos.
Located at an elevation of 2,600 feet,
this winding cave system contains a network
of tunnels approximately three miles long
and is considered sacred
by the native Shuar people of the region.
But what's most remarkable about these caves...
is that somewhere within its depths
is believed to be a tomb that was constructed
by a mysterious lost civilization.
The Tayos Caves are arguably one of the most
enigmatic cave systems in the world.
They first came to note in the 1960s,
when an explorer by the name of Juan Moricz
came suddenly out of the jungle,
claiming that he'd descended hundreds of feet
into the Tayos Caves,
and had seen incredible things.
This included this tomb chamber
that is supposed to contain
evidence of a lost civilization,
most particularly what he described as a metal library
of these metal tablets,
seemingly in gold, with these
weird glyphs written all over them,
that were carved by some kind of ancient race
that has been entirely lost to us.
And Juan Moricz claimed
that this is what he'd seen and wanted to...
tell the world about this.
SHATNER: A metal library containing gold tablets?
Juan Moricz's extraordinary account
sparked worldwide curiosity.
And many began to wonder whether there really were
ancient gold tablets hidden somewhere
in the Tayos Caves.
COLLINS: Anybody reading that story
would've been fascinated by the mystery of the Tayos Caves.
And this is indeed what happened,
because it attracted the attention
of a Scottish civil engineer
by the name of Stan Hall,
who decided that he would create
an expedition to explore the caves.
SHATNER: In 1976, Stan Hall
recruited a number of people to join his expedition
to the remote jungle of Ecuador in search of the gold tablets,
including American astronaut Neil Armstrong,
whose participation helped to draw worldwide
interest to Hall's efforts.
HALL MUNOZ: My father became very obsessed with this treasure story.
The expedition that he mounted is still today
one of the largest of all time.
and it's because it involved over 100 personnel
from both the British and Ecuadorian government's
special forces and some universities
sent their scientists.
The main challenge was entering the cave.
Because the only way to get in
is this very deep hole in the ground.
SHATNER: According to Stan Hall's account of the expedition,
the entrance to the Tayos Caves was a hole
that required the group to descend one by one
more than 200 feet.
Soon after they entered the cave,
they made an extraordinary discovery.
DAVID KUSHNER: They saw these walls
leading from one chamber to the next
that looked smooth and they looked like they're...
cut at right angles, so...
it looks like the ruins of some lost civilization.
SHATNER: The massive walls did not appear to be formed naturally,
but instead they looked like they were carved and placed,
as if they were man-made.
Stan Hall and his team believed this was evidence
that a lost civilization had inhabited
the Tayos Caves.
As they moved deeper into the caves
in search of the gold tablets,
they made another remarkable discovery inside a chamber
they referred to as the Altar of Light.
HALL MUNOZ: Inside the Altar of Light,
there was a ray of sunlight that shone straight
into the entrance of that chamber
and it made it really significant.
And within it, there's a smaller chamber
in which my father's expedition found the remains of a person.
COLLINS: They found this human skeleton
and surrounding it was pottery, um,
various shell objects and adornments.
But, unfortunately, when they reached out
to touch this skeleton,
it fell apart, it just fragmented.
Showing how old it was.
But subsequent research
would show that this was around 3,500 years old,
dating back to 1500 BC.
And according to the local Shuar,
this was one of their ancestors,
the race that had inhabited the caves before them.
SHATNER: The discovery of this ancient tomb was an astonishing
and unexpected find, one that heightened the mystery
of who inhabited the Tayos Caves
and led many to wonder what else might be hidden
within this vast network of underground passages.
A few interesting things happened
during Stan Hall's expedition.
They did not find the metal library,
but they did find other things.
Number one, it had these
walls that were cut at right angles.
And number two, they found a corpse that was dated
to go back to 1500 BC.
So even though they didn't find the metal library,
Stan was still convinced that it was there somewhere.
Is there a collection of metal tablets
hidden somewhere in the Tayos Caves?
The search for answers continues.
Just like on the other side of the world,
in the mountains of Mongolia,
where archaeologists are looking for the lost tomb
of the most notorious warlord
in history.
SHATNER: Towering above the sparse landscape
is a massive, 130-foot-tall statue
made of stainless steel.
This magnificent monument is a depiction
of Mongolia's most famous ruler,
Genghis Khan.
THOMPSON: Genghis Khan is one of the most prominent figures
in all of history, and he came up
as a very small, minor player in what was a small, minor country
that most of the world hadn't heard of.
But by the time he had died,
he had conquered most of the known world.
STEAVU: Genghis Khan is unquestionably
Mongolia's greatest, uh, cultural
and historical and national hero.
He was at the head of one
of the largest empires in the world,
second only to the British Empire.
And many people
maybe outside of Mongolia might remember Genghis Khan
for, uh, the bloodshed and conquests.
But he was also at the origins
of many technological, scientific,
astronomical developments and advancements.
SHATNER: After 20 years of empire-building,
Genghis Khan died in the year 1227 AD,
while battling the western Shi dynasty.
Khan's exact cause of death is a mystery.
But before he passed, he commanded
that his final resting place should be unmarked,
so that his tomb would be undisturbed forever.
STEAVU: The circumstances of his burial are quite mysterious.
According to legend, Genghis Khan's body
was brought back to Mongolia
by a group of, uh, 2,000 servants
who were guarded by a group of soldiers.
And once they finished their work of burying the body,
the servants were all killed by the soldiers.
Now the soldiers themselves were then killed
by a second group of soldiers,
who then themselves committed suicide,
so that the burial site would remain
forever undisturbed and unknown.
THOMPSON: Many great rulers in many parts of the world
have wanted not to display one's body, but rather to hide it.
And that would have been practiced by Genghis Khan.
Because he knew that his tomb, if it was ever uncovered,
would be an enormously political tool
for whoever uncovered it.
And he wanted to control that legacy.
SHATNER: In the eight centuries since Genghis Khan's death,
many have tried to find his tomb.
But thus far, no one has been able to defeat
Khan's drastic measures to keep its location a secret.
Which naturally begs the question...
where could it be?
The Khentii Mountain Range, 2016.
A French archaeological expedition
ventures deep into this rugged region of northern Mongolia
to find Genghis Khan's lost tomb.
The team believes that the tomb may be hidden
near a particular mountain peak that is known as...
Burkhan Khaldun.
SHATNER: Burkhan Khaldun is almost 8,000 feet high
and covers more than 93 square miles.
Exploring this vast, rugged terrain
is made even more difficult because, in 2015,
the mountain was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
rendering if off-limits to any excavations
in search of Genghis Khan's tomb.
Mongolians in general still desire
to honor Genghis Kahn's wishes.
They discourage archaeological digs,
uh, to try to find the tomb.
He is still very, very much a hero in Mongolia.
And his wishes are still respected.
SHATNER: Because of the restrictions
against searching Burkhan Khaldun,
members of the French expedition decided that the key
to finding Genghis Khan's tomb
was to explore the mountain from the sky.
And in 2016, they used drones
equipped with both photographic and infrared cameras
to do an unprecedented survey of the area.
SHATNER: After surveying the mountain from above,
the French team made an extraordinary discovery.
They identified a mound that was 130 feet high
and 820 feet wide
that they believe might be man-made.
The French team that accessed, uh, the mountain
identified that the pyramid-shaped elevation
also had a little shrine
and it sits atop of this sacred mountain.
So they speculate that this would
probably be where Genghis Khan is buried.
SHATNER: Is it possible that the structure discovered
by the French expedition on Burkhan Khaldun
is the tomb of Genghis Khan?
For now, that question is unanswered,
because the Mongolian people remain committed
to honoring the revered emperor's dying wish
that his tomb should never be found.
Will Genghis Khan's final resting place ever be found?
It might seem impossible after all this time,
but new technology is helping archaeologists
discover tombs that were lost for centuries,
including a number of Egyptian burial sites
that weren't found by digging,
but rather by satellites
orbiting the Earth.
SHATNER: Archaeologists from the University of Alabama
announce that they have discovered thousands
of ancient Egyptian sites by analyzing satellite imagery.
Photographs taken from 435 miles above the Earth
showed that the ancient city of Tanis,
which is located in northeastern Egypt,
was much larger than previously thought.
The images of Tanis also revealed
over 1,000 lost tombs
that had been hidden beneath the sands
for thousands of years.
We've known for 300 years roughly where Tanis is.
But digging up a couple of sphinxes or a temple is not
the same as being able to look down from above
at the entire area.
And to see not only that it's four times
larger than we thought it was,
but also, when you look down on the satellite imagery,
there's a little cluster of huts which gets a bit bigger,
and then there's a kind of mansion phase where people get
these bigger buildings.
There's a temple district, and suddenly it allows you
to see tombs below the earth that people have never suspected
were there before.
COLLINS: What's happened is that satellite imagery
has actually given us the entire layout
of that city for the first time.
As we go into the future,
the techniques of archaeology are becoming better and better.
CLEMENTS: Space archaeology allows you to look
from above.
Beyond the human spectrum.
It can look into the infrareds,
so it can see tombs and cities below the earth
that people have never suspected were there before.
SHATNER: Thanks to these technological tools,
finding hidden tombs is becoming much easier,
including in areas that are extremely difficult to excavate,
such as under the shifting sands of the Arabian desert.
Which was where, in 2021,
an incredible tomb structure was discovered
near the city of Al-'Ula
in northwest Saudi Arabia.
MARK ALTAWHEEL: In the deserts of Arabia, many round structure tombs
have been discovered using satellite technologies.
These features are often located in very remote places.
But with such technologies, we can
locate them much more easily.
CLEMENTS: What they worked out was that, at some point,
six and a half thousand years ago,
there had been a monumental tomb structure
in what is now the Arabian desert.
And so, suddenly, that changes our perspective
on the history of the Arabian Peninsula.
And we've worked that all out because a satellite
notices something from way, way up.
SHATNER: No matter what tools we use to find them,
the search for lost tombs will continue.
Because these sacred burial places
contain secrets about our past.
Some tombs are elaborate,
some are mystical and some are hidden
right beneath our feet.
CLEMENTS: Human beings have been burying their dead
for millennia, and we're often unaware
that we're walking around on cemeteries
from the distant past.
But sometimes a tomb is the only way
we can access the past.
The further you go back in history,
the greater the likelihood
that a tomb is the only way you're gonna find out
about life back then.
The amazing thing about archaeology
is it repeatedly confronts us
with what we never even dreamed of.
Could there be thousands of lost tombs
scattered around the world, waiting to be found?
It's a tantalizing prospect.
But maybe we should remember that our ancestors
sometimes went to great lengths
to build and hide their sacred burial places.
So while we're exploring ancient tombs,
we should also take care to let the dead rest in peace
and allow their journey into the afterlife
to remain undisturbed and...
...unexplained.
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