1 00:00:02,353 --> 00:00:04,318 NARRATOR: Could the mysterious markings on this wooden 2 00:00:04,422 --> 00:00:07,491 tablet be the key to a lost civilization? 3 00:00:08,629 --> 00:00:11,008 GRAHAM: They look a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphs. 4 00:00:11,111 --> 00:00:13,422 They look a bit like Mayan writing. 5 00:00:13,525 --> 00:00:18,043 NARRATOR: Is this the world's most bizarre cosmetics device? 6 00:00:18,146 --> 00:00:21,594 BELLINGER: It would fit over a woman's head and take 7 00:00:21,698 --> 00:00:27,008 micro measurements, which referred to her level of beauty. 8 00:00:27,111 --> 00:00:29,491 NARRATOR: And could this strange disc really be 9 00:00:29,594 --> 00:00:31,698 5,000 years old? 10 00:00:31,801 --> 00:00:35,560 The first impression is this is modern, it's from some 11 00:00:35,663 --> 00:00:37,043 sophisticated machine. 12 00:00:42,077 --> 00:00:43,939 NARRATOR: These are the most remarkable 13 00:00:44,043 --> 00:00:45,974 and mysterious objects on Earth, 14 00:00:47,387 --> 00:00:49,456 hidden away in museums, 15 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,146 laboratories, and storage rooms. 16 00:00:53,249 --> 00:00:56,249 Now, new research and technology can get under 17 00:00:56,353 --> 00:01:00,249 their skin like never before. 18 00:01:00,353 --> 00:01:01,801 We can rebuild them, 19 00:01:03,905 --> 00:01:05,180 pull them apart, 20 00:01:06,422 --> 00:01:08,974 and zoom in to reveal 21 00:01:09,077 --> 00:01:11,698 the unbelievable, the ancient, 22 00:01:13,525 --> 00:01:15,180 and the truly bizarre. 23 00:01:17,525 --> 00:01:21,284 These are the world's strangest things. 24 00:01:30,905 --> 00:01:32,698 In the archives of a religious order 25 00:01:32,801 --> 00:01:36,043 in Rome lies a mysterious wooden artifact. 26 00:01:38,594 --> 00:01:41,180 Strange marks carved into its surface 27 00:01:41,284 --> 00:01:44,249 may be the writings of a lost civilization. 28 00:01:45,698 --> 00:01:48,698 It's an extraordinary object, and we're just 29 00:01:48,801 --> 00:01:51,456 scratching the surface of what it actually is. 30 00:01:57,387 --> 00:01:59,387 NARRATOR: Now, using the latest technology 31 00:01:59,491 --> 00:02:01,491 we're bringing it into the light. 32 00:02:03,801 --> 00:02:06,801 This is the Mamari Tablet. 33 00:02:08,836 --> 00:02:11,215 It is one of only a small number of artifacts 34 00:02:11,318 --> 00:02:13,353 discovered on a remote speck of land 35 00:02:13,456 --> 00:02:16,456 in the Pacific Ocean called Rapa Nui, 36 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,422 or Easter Island 37 00:02:19,525 --> 00:02:23,629 The strange wooden tablet is 12 inches long, 8 inches wide, 38 00:02:23,732 --> 00:02:27,422 and an inch thick, and every corner of it is covered in 39 00:02:27,525 --> 00:02:28,801 curious markings. 40 00:02:30,146 --> 00:02:34,180 There are about 120 different symbols, pictures of things that 41 00:02:34,284 --> 00:02:36,456 we encounter in everyday life -- 42 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,387 birds, animals, plants, people. 43 00:02:40,491 --> 00:02:43,249 NARRATOR: Are these symbols a forgotten language? 44 00:02:44,387 --> 00:02:45,663 What do they say? 45 00:02:47,180 --> 00:02:50,456 Why did this lost civilization create it? 46 00:02:55,698 --> 00:02:59,008 The remote island of Rapa Nui sits 2,300 miles 47 00:02:59,111 --> 00:03:02,422 west of Chile in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 48 00:03:04,767 --> 00:03:07,111 BELLINGER: Rapa Nui is a really small island. 49 00:03:07,215 --> 00:03:08,732 It's essentially a dot in 50 00:03:08,836 --> 00:03:13,111 the ocean, just 14 miles long by 7 miles wide, 51 00:03:13,215 --> 00:03:15,698 but it's hugely important. 52 00:03:17,249 --> 00:03:21,111 NARRATOR: The island's most famous inhabitants are the Moai, 53 00:03:21,215 --> 00:03:24,801 giant stone heads that dot the rugged landscape. 54 00:03:26,318 --> 00:03:28,008 BELLINGER: There's about 900 of them, 55 00:03:28,111 --> 00:03:30,249 and they're spread throughout the island, 56 00:03:30,353 --> 00:03:33,836 and they've been creating a great debate 57 00:03:33,939 --> 00:03:37,629 ever since Europeans first set foot on the island as to what 58 00:03:37,732 --> 00:03:40,284 they are, why they were made. 59 00:03:40,387 --> 00:03:42,974 NARRATOR: But these incredible monuments are not the island's 60 00:03:43,077 --> 00:03:44,870 only mystery. 61 00:03:44,974 --> 00:03:48,801 For 150 years, these strange symbols 62 00:03:48,905 --> 00:03:52,008 have also confounded experts. 63 00:03:52,111 --> 00:03:54,560 GRAHAM: They look a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphs. 64 00:03:54,663 --> 00:03:57,939 They look a bit like Mayan writing, but in terms of 65 00:03:58,043 --> 00:04:00,180 the way that it's presented and in terms of the language, 66 00:04:00,284 --> 00:04:02,215 it actually appears to be 67 00:04:02,318 --> 00:04:05,043 something quite new, quite unique. 68 00:04:05,146 --> 00:04:07,043 NARRATOR: The Mamari Tablet contains more than 69 00:04:07,146 --> 00:04:09,629 1,000 carvings, using around 70 00:04:09,732 --> 00:04:13,180 120 unique symbols called glyphs. 71 00:04:13,284 --> 00:04:15,767 GRAHAM: They depict various objects -- 72 00:04:15,870 --> 00:04:18,698 fish, plants, local animals. 73 00:04:20,215 --> 00:04:22,422 NARRATOR: This is one of just 26 74 00:04:22,525 --> 00:04:25,801 surviving glyph-covered wooden relics from Rapa Nui. 75 00:04:27,043 --> 00:04:30,491 How does this one end up in a Roman Catholic archive? 76 00:04:39,801 --> 00:04:43,008 The latest research suggests people first reach Rapa Nui 77 00:04:43,111 --> 00:04:46,318 between 1100 and 1300 AD. 78 00:04:48,767 --> 00:04:51,560 What they find is a paradise. 79 00:04:51,663 --> 00:04:54,801 BELLINGER: It was filled 80 00:04:54,905 --> 00:04:58,594 with trees that could be used to make rope and sap 81 00:04:58,698 --> 00:05:01,560 that could be used to make sugar and wine, 82 00:05:01,663 --> 00:05:04,353 used as firewood, as building materials. 83 00:05:04,456 --> 00:05:06,491 There were ferns coating the ground, 84 00:05:06,594 --> 00:05:11,077 and they even had at least one large crater of freshwater. 85 00:05:11,180 --> 00:05:13,663 NARRATOR: And archaeological evidence reveals they 86 00:05:13,767 --> 00:05:16,732 feast on porpoise, fish, and seabirds. 87 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,456 The first settlers did really well for some time, 88 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,353 and we know that, because we have evidence 89 00:05:23,456 --> 00:05:27,905 that the population boomed to at least 7,000 and as much as 90 00:05:28,008 --> 00:05:30,008 20,000 at its peak. 91 00:05:31,629 --> 00:05:33,698 NARRATOR: The new arrivals sculpt the giant Moai 92 00:05:33,801 --> 00:05:35,284 from volcanic rock, 93 00:05:36,422 --> 00:05:41,111 and they carve the Mamari Tablet out of Pacific Rosewood. 94 00:05:41,215 --> 00:05:43,111 But Rapa Nui is a tiny island 95 00:05:43,215 --> 00:05:45,698 for such a large and growing population. 96 00:05:47,836 --> 00:05:51,180 So they are using up the trees at an alarming rate, 97 00:05:53,043 --> 00:05:56,870 and unfortunately, they managed to bring along with them rats, 98 00:05:56,974 --> 00:05:59,111 who were prone to eat the seeds for 99 00:05:59,215 --> 00:06:02,353 the trees, and this is the perfect storm, and it did 100 00:06:02,456 --> 00:06:05,836 indeed result in complete deforestation of the island. 101 00:06:07,767 --> 00:06:09,422 NARRATOR: Which accounts for the rough shape 102 00:06:09,525 --> 00:06:10,974 of the Mamari Tablet. 103 00:06:11,077 --> 00:06:13,698 GRAHAM: Wood, by this time, was actually 104 00:06:13,801 --> 00:06:17,560 quite a rare substance, and so any 105 00:06:17,663 --> 00:06:20,974 piece of it that you could get to this beautiful, shiny 106 00:06:21,077 --> 00:06:23,077 Pacific Rosewood, you would 107 00:06:23,180 --> 00:06:25,836 use and use as it was and certainly not be cutting off 108 00:06:25,939 --> 00:06:28,111 any bits or pieces. 109 00:06:28,215 --> 00:06:30,629 NARRATOR: This rarity suggests the tablet is very 110 00:06:30,732 --> 00:06:33,629 important to the people who live here. 111 00:06:33,732 --> 00:06:35,525 The high value of the wood, 112 00:06:35,629 --> 00:06:38,905 it's almost the equivalent of writing on gold. 113 00:06:39,008 --> 00:06:40,663 NARRATOR: When the first Europeans arrive 114 00:06:40,767 --> 00:06:42,836 on the island in 1722, 115 00:06:42,939 --> 00:06:46,525 they describe a grassland without a single tree or bush 116 00:06:46,629 --> 00:06:50,525 over 10 feet high, and experts believe their arrival 117 00:06:50,629 --> 00:06:53,905 likely signals the end for the Rapa Nui civilization. 118 00:06:55,939 --> 00:06:59,318 No more Moai appear to have been built after the arrival of 119 00:06:59,422 --> 00:07:02,560 the Europeans, and that seems to correlate to 120 00:07:02,663 --> 00:07:06,008 the fact that the Europeans brought Christianity, 121 00:07:06,111 --> 00:07:10,146 they converted the islanders, and so their previous practices 122 00:07:10,249 --> 00:07:13,560 and beliefs were considered idolatrous. 123 00:07:13,663 --> 00:07:16,249 Which explains why the Mamari Tablet is one 124 00:07:16,353 --> 00:07:20,249 of the few carved wooden objects that survives. 125 00:07:20,353 --> 00:07:22,663 BELLINGER: The islanders convert to Christianity. 126 00:07:22,767 --> 00:07:25,180 Most of these tablets are burned, 127 00:07:25,284 --> 00:07:27,974 and the Mamari Tablet itself survives 128 00:07:28,077 --> 00:07:31,146 only by virtue of having been taken by Roman Catholic 129 00:07:31,249 --> 00:07:33,698 missionary back to an archive in Europe. 130 00:07:35,939 --> 00:07:38,111 NARRATOR: The Mamari Tablet could give us a unique 131 00:07:38,215 --> 00:07:42,525 insight into the lost civilization that made it, 132 00:07:42,629 --> 00:07:45,180 but is it even writing at all? 133 00:07:47,939 --> 00:07:50,353 How do we determine that something is writing? 134 00:07:50,456 --> 00:07:52,629 One of the things we look at is the way 135 00:07:52,732 --> 00:07:54,146 that the glyphs are placed. 136 00:07:54,249 --> 00:07:56,974 So these don't look like a random comic strip. 137 00:07:57,077 --> 00:08:00,836 They're in clear lines facing in clear directions 138 00:08:00,939 --> 00:08:03,146 with clear, repeated groupings. 139 00:08:05,077 --> 00:08:06,560 NARRATOR: And the structure of these lines 140 00:08:06,663 --> 00:08:09,318 and groupings is very familiar to linguists. 141 00:08:11,077 --> 00:08:13,974 GRAHAM: One thing we've been able to glean from these tablets 142 00:08:14,077 --> 00:08:16,111 is the way that the writing appears 143 00:08:16,215 --> 00:08:19,353 to be presented, and it appears to be 144 00:08:19,456 --> 00:08:22,215 what they would call reverse boustrophedon. 145 00:08:24,043 --> 00:08:25,905 NARRATOR: In reverse boustrophedon 146 00:08:26,008 --> 00:08:27,767 the first line is read, and then 147 00:08:27,870 --> 00:08:30,353 the tablet is rotated 180 degrees 148 00:08:30,456 --> 00:08:32,870 to read the next line that is effectively 149 00:08:32,974 --> 00:08:34,939 upside down and back to front. 150 00:08:36,353 --> 00:08:40,905 And so it's this that suggests the writing is actually writing. 151 00:08:43,422 --> 00:08:46,629 NARRATOR: If so, this is the only known writing system 152 00:08:46,732 --> 00:08:49,594 in this part of the world until the 20th century. 153 00:08:50,801 --> 00:08:52,491 So what does it say? 154 00:09:01,836 --> 00:09:03,801 NARRATOR: For decades, experts have been trying 155 00:09:03,905 --> 00:09:07,836 to decode these strange symbols, known as rongorongo. 156 00:09:07,939 --> 00:09:09,698 The first step is to try and figure out 157 00:09:09,801 --> 00:09:11,043 the writing system. 158 00:09:12,387 --> 00:09:14,905 There are two principal possibilities -- 159 00:09:15,008 --> 00:09:16,905 alphabets, like English, 160 00:09:17,008 --> 00:09:21,767 and logograms, symbols that mean a whole word, like Chinese. 161 00:09:23,077 --> 00:09:25,284 Most alphabets have a relatively small number 162 00:09:25,387 --> 00:09:26,387 of symbols. 163 00:09:26,491 --> 00:09:30,284 Even one of the largest, Russian, has just 33. 164 00:09:30,387 --> 00:09:33,180 But the Mamari Tablet contains up to 120 165 00:09:33,284 --> 00:09:36,560 unique symbols -- that's far too many for an alphabet. 166 00:09:38,284 --> 00:09:40,353 So could it be a logogram? 167 00:09:42,008 --> 00:09:45,249 One of the problems with this being a logogram is that 168 00:09:45,353 --> 00:09:49,215 we only have 120 of these different symbols, 169 00:09:49,318 --> 00:09:53,663 and in something like Chinese, you have 20,000, so we 170 00:09:53,767 --> 00:09:57,974 don't have enough for these actually represent words. 171 00:09:58,077 --> 00:10:00,456 NARRATOR: A third option is that rongorongo could be 172 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:03,939 a syllabary, where glyphs represent syllables, 173 00:10:04,043 --> 00:10:06,456 such as do, re, mi. 174 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,353 But there is a problem with this theory, too. 175 00:10:09,456 --> 00:10:12,215 Japanese Katakana is a modern syllabary. 176 00:10:12,318 --> 00:10:13,836 It has 48 symbols. 177 00:10:13,939 --> 00:10:16,111 With as many as 120 symbols, 178 00:10:16,215 --> 00:10:18,387 rongorongo seems to have too many. 179 00:10:19,629 --> 00:10:23,008 So more recent theories suggest it could be a hybrid. 180 00:10:24,215 --> 00:10:26,525 GRAHAM: There's still a bit of a debate as to whether 181 00:10:26,629 --> 00:10:28,836 the glyphs represent an entire word 182 00:10:28,939 --> 00:10:31,836 or whether or not they represent syllables, and at 183 00:10:31,939 --> 00:10:35,008 the moment, the prevailing theory seems to be 184 00:10:35,111 --> 00:10:37,318 possibly a bit of both. 185 00:10:37,422 --> 00:10:41,525 So some of these pictograms could actually represent 186 00:10:41,629 --> 00:10:44,870 a word, while others could represent 187 00:10:44,974 --> 00:10:46,491 sounds and parts of words. 188 00:10:48,422 --> 00:10:50,180 NARRATOR: But experts are increasingly confident 189 00:10:50,284 --> 00:10:52,249 that this really is writing. 190 00:10:54,215 --> 00:10:58,387 GRAHAM: We're learning more and more about how rongorongo works, 191 00:10:58,491 --> 00:11:00,491 but this doesn't actually help us in 192 00:11:00,594 --> 00:11:03,836 terms of decoding or translating the language. 193 00:11:05,974 --> 00:11:07,836 NARRATOR: Possibly because it may not be writing 194 00:11:07,939 --> 00:11:09,732 as we recognize it today. 195 00:11:13,767 --> 00:11:16,043 BELLINGER: A number of scholars have suggested 196 00:11:16,146 --> 00:11:19,284 that the rongorongo is not a complete language 197 00:11:19,387 --> 00:11:22,284 but rather a proto-language of sorts, 198 00:11:22,387 --> 00:11:26,215 a mnemonic set of symbols that would prompt 199 00:11:26,318 --> 00:11:30,801 memory as an individual told a story or performed a ritual. 200 00:11:32,318 --> 00:11:33,836 NARRATOR: In the Rapa Nui language, 201 00:11:33,939 --> 00:11:35,939 the word rongorongo itself means 202 00:11:36,043 --> 00:11:40,008 to recite or chant, so this idea does make sense. 203 00:11:41,629 --> 00:11:44,939 But that still doesn't help crack the Rapa Nui code. 204 00:11:45,043 --> 00:11:47,594 Could the individual symbols on them Mamari Tablet 205 00:11:47,698 --> 00:11:49,077 provide answers? 206 00:11:54,525 --> 00:11:57,491 In the 1950s, a German epigrapher called 207 00:11:57,594 --> 00:12:01,353 Thomas Bartel made it his mission to decipher 208 00:12:01,456 --> 00:12:03,146 these tablets. 209 00:12:03,249 --> 00:12:04,836 NARRATOR: Bartel travels the globe, 210 00:12:04,939 --> 00:12:06,629 studying every tablet he can. 211 00:12:08,249 --> 00:12:11,525 And on the Mamari Tablet, he spots something familiar. 212 00:12:12,663 --> 00:12:16,353 Many of the symbols on the Mamari Tablet are really 213 00:12:16,456 --> 00:12:18,836 just completely mysterious, 214 00:12:18,939 --> 00:12:21,560 but there's one that's quite clear in 215 00:12:21,663 --> 00:12:23,663 representing a crescent moon, 216 00:12:23,767 --> 00:12:26,456 and what's more, it appears repeatedly, 217 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:28,525 and this is very intriguing. 218 00:12:30,525 --> 00:12:32,836 Knowing the importance of lunar calendars in 219 00:12:32,939 --> 00:12:37,008 Polynesia, he starts thinking, could this possibly be 220 00:12:37,111 --> 00:12:38,284 a lunar calendar? 221 00:12:39,422 --> 00:12:42,146 In the 1990s, epigrapher Jacques Guy 222 00:12:42,249 --> 00:12:43,767 develops the idea further, 223 00:12:43,870 --> 00:12:45,939 suggesting one key symbol right 224 00:12:46,043 --> 00:12:49,111 in the middle corresponds to Rapa Nui's traditional 225 00:12:49,215 --> 00:12:51,698 mythology of the woman in the moon, 226 00:12:53,215 --> 00:12:55,698 and another symbol on the tablet provides 227 00:12:55,801 --> 00:12:56,905 a further clue. 228 00:12:58,146 --> 00:13:01,801 When we have the lunar symbols, they're followed by a fish. 229 00:13:01,905 --> 00:13:03,594 As they come to the full moon, 230 00:13:03,698 --> 00:13:07,180 the fish is facing up, and then on 231 00:13:07,284 --> 00:13:10,180 the other side of the full moon, the fish is facing down. 232 00:13:10,284 --> 00:13:12,353 NARRATOR: Guy suggest the upward fish 233 00:13:12,456 --> 00:13:16,974 represents a waxing moon and the downward fish a waning one. 234 00:13:17,077 --> 00:13:19,939 Most experts now accept that Bartel and Guy have 235 00:13:20,043 --> 00:13:23,043 cracked the code of this part of the tablet. 236 00:13:23,146 --> 00:13:25,560 It is a lunar calendar, but that's 237 00:13:25,663 --> 00:13:29,560 not enough on its own to decode rongorongo. 238 00:13:29,663 --> 00:13:30,905 GRAHAM: While we can get somewhere 239 00:13:31,008 --> 00:13:32,525 with the lunar calendar, 240 00:13:32,629 --> 00:13:36,456 the road of translation and figuring out the code 241 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:40,422 kind of ends there, it doesn't help us further crack the code 242 00:13:40,525 --> 00:13:42,008 of the rest of the tablet. 243 00:13:43,422 --> 00:13:46,732 So we've kind of taken the tablet as far 244 00:13:46,836 --> 00:13:49,594 as we can go for this moment in time. 245 00:13:50,732 --> 00:13:52,905 NARRATOR: Will we ever completely decipher 246 00:13:53,008 --> 00:13:55,043 the rongorongo code? 247 00:13:55,146 --> 00:13:57,146 GRAHAM: It's incredibly fascinating, but it's also 248 00:13:57,249 --> 00:14:01,491 something that's going to be very hard to crack. 249 00:14:01,594 --> 00:14:05,284 There's always hope that more materials and new scientific 250 00:14:05,387 --> 00:14:09,663 approaches will allow us to crack this code one day. 251 00:14:11,353 --> 00:14:13,353 NARRATOR: For the time being at least, most of 252 00:14:13,456 --> 00:14:17,111 the secrets contained within these symbols remain a mystery. 253 00:14:23,732 --> 00:14:25,249 In a locked cabinet under 254 00:14:25,353 --> 00:14:26,732 the bright lights of Hollywood's 255 00:14:26,836 --> 00:14:28,939 Entertainment Museum 256 00:14:29,043 --> 00:14:32,146 sits a strange metal cage that looks 257 00:14:32,249 --> 00:14:35,111 like a torture device from the Dark Ages. 258 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:38,180 AUERBACH: Despite its appearance, however, 259 00:14:38,284 --> 00:14:40,663 it is not a medieval device. 260 00:14:40,767 --> 00:14:42,353 It's very modern, it's 20th century, 261 00:14:42,456 --> 00:14:44,594 and it's completely unrelated to torture. 262 00:14:46,629 --> 00:14:49,422 NARRATOR: Now, using the latest technology we've brought it 263 00:14:49,525 --> 00:14:53,008 out of the shadows and painstakingly reconstructed it. 264 00:14:55,525 --> 00:14:59,456 Adjustable metal screws and rotary gauges 265 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:01,249 poke out of the frame. 266 00:15:02,594 --> 00:15:06,663 Measuring 17 inches wide and 15 and a quarter inches high, 267 00:15:06,767 --> 00:15:08,180 it's designed to engulf 268 00:15:08,284 --> 00:15:11,284 a woman's head and lock it rigidly in place from 269 00:15:11,387 --> 00:15:13,353 the cranium to the neck 270 00:15:13,456 --> 00:15:14,836 and even the eyes. 271 00:15:16,146 --> 00:15:17,284 STEELE: This really is one of 272 00:15:17,387 --> 00:15:20,318 the most bizarre inventions of Hollywood's Golden Age. 273 00:15:22,353 --> 00:15:25,456 NARRATOR: Its purpose is to measure beauty. 274 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:28,732 Who comes up with such a weird idea? 275 00:15:28,836 --> 00:15:31,043 Can you really quantify beauty? 276 00:15:32,146 --> 00:15:33,456 And how exactly is this 277 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,318 bizarre contraption supposed to achieve that? 278 00:15:48,077 --> 00:15:52,043 NARRATOR: This weird machine is the beauty calibrator. 279 00:15:52,146 --> 00:15:55,215 It is first unveiled to the public in 1932. 280 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,939 BELLINGER: Basically, this device would fit 281 00:16:00,043 --> 00:16:04,008 over a woman's head, and it would take micro measurements, 282 00:16:04,111 --> 00:16:07,836 and the operator would manipulate them to come up with 283 00:16:07,939 --> 00:16:11,698 one number, which referred to her level of beauty. 284 00:16:14,318 --> 00:16:16,594 NARRATOR: Flexible metal strips inside the cage 285 00:16:16,698 --> 00:16:19,008 align with the wearer's facial features 286 00:16:19,111 --> 00:16:21,387 and can be adjusted with screws so that it sits 287 00:16:21,491 --> 00:16:23,353 perfectly centered on the face. 288 00:16:24,905 --> 00:16:27,180 A rail at the front supports a series 289 00:16:27,284 --> 00:16:31,111 of micrometers with metal probes on the end. 290 00:16:31,215 --> 00:16:34,491 A micrometer is essentially a very accurate screw device, 291 00:16:34,594 --> 00:16:35,698 which can measure things 292 00:16:35,801 --> 00:16:39,077 to thousandths of an inch, and that's what gives it 293 00:16:39,180 --> 00:16:41,663 its real engineering authority. 294 00:16:42,905 --> 00:16:45,077 NARRATOR: A typical micrometer uses a screw, 295 00:16:45,180 --> 00:16:47,594 which is marked along its length. 296 00:16:47,698 --> 00:16:50,663 Each mark represents a whole turn, 297 00:16:50,767 --> 00:16:51,974 and each turn might move 298 00:16:52,077 --> 00:16:55,043 the screw just one-hundredth of an inch. 299 00:16:55,146 --> 00:16:56,905 The body of the drum might be marked 300 00:16:57,008 --> 00:17:00,560 around the circumference to show thousandths of an inch 301 00:17:00,663 --> 00:17:04,215 so that one full turn would be one hundredth. 302 00:17:04,318 --> 00:17:06,525 The device can measure things to such a degree 303 00:17:06,629 --> 00:17:10,836 of accuracy that's not even visible with the naked eye. 304 00:17:10,939 --> 00:17:12,629 NARRATOR: The micrometer system can be 305 00:17:12,732 --> 00:17:15,249 moved up and down the rail and in and out, 306 00:17:15,353 --> 00:17:16,732 allowing the machine's creator 307 00:17:16,836 --> 00:17:19,353 to accurately measure different features. 308 00:17:19,456 --> 00:17:21,215 He used his beauty machine to measure certain 309 00:17:21,318 --> 00:17:23,525 distances and ratios on the face, which he believed 310 00:17:23,629 --> 00:17:25,491 corresponded to optimal beauty. 311 00:17:25,594 --> 00:17:26,525 For example, he thought that 312 00:17:26,629 --> 00:17:28,491 a nose being the same height as a forehead was 313 00:17:28,594 --> 00:17:30,905 optimally beautiful, and the distance between the eyes 314 00:17:31,008 --> 00:17:33,215 should be about the same as the width of one eye. 315 00:17:33,318 --> 00:17:35,318 After all of these various measurements 316 00:17:35,422 --> 00:17:37,077 had been taken, a total score 317 00:17:37,180 --> 00:17:39,767 could be assigned, with a maximum of 100 percent. 318 00:17:41,801 --> 00:17:44,456 But, of course, nobody ever made it to that the idea of 319 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:45,801 absolute beauty. 320 00:17:45,905 --> 00:17:48,180 The inventor made sure that everyone had something perhaps 321 00:17:48,284 --> 00:17:50,249 ever so slight that could be improved. 322 00:17:53,008 --> 00:17:55,180 NARRATOR: The man who believes he has the expertise 323 00:17:55,284 --> 00:17:58,870 to determine what defines beauty is world famous. 324 00:17:59,974 --> 00:18:01,698 So who is he? 325 00:18:04,043 --> 00:18:07,111 One thing that's really interesting about this device 326 00:18:07,215 --> 00:18:12,111 is that it wasn't created by an inventor who was just 327 00:18:12,215 --> 00:18:15,387 casting about trying to think of something to make. 328 00:18:15,491 --> 00:18:18,180 It was created by arguably 329 00:18:18,284 --> 00:18:21,836 the beauty industry's ultimate guru. 330 00:18:21,939 --> 00:18:24,180 NARRATOR: Even today, he is a household name. 331 00:18:25,318 --> 00:18:26,560 Max Factor. 332 00:18:26,663 --> 00:18:28,456 ANNOUNCER: Big news from Hollywood with the premiere 333 00:18:28,560 --> 00:18:30,698 of Max Factor's colossal makeup studio. 334 00:18:32,008 --> 00:18:33,111 NARRATOR: And the company he founded 335 00:18:33,215 --> 00:18:35,870 is now a multi-billion-dollar business. 336 00:18:37,387 --> 00:18:38,698 The man behind it all comes 337 00:18:38,801 --> 00:18:41,594 from very humble beginnings in Poland. 338 00:18:41,698 --> 00:18:45,767 His name is Maximilian Faktorovich. 339 00:18:45,870 --> 00:18:48,353 AUERBACH: He is one of 10 children 340 00:18:48,456 --> 00:18:52,594 born to a relatively poor family in Lodz. 341 00:18:52,698 --> 00:18:56,180 At 9, he's apprenticed to the city's leading wig maker 342 00:18:56,284 --> 00:18:57,801 and cosmetician. 343 00:18:57,905 --> 00:19:00,560 By the turn of the century, he's opened up his own shop, 344 00:19:00,663 --> 00:19:03,836 and a very famous touring theater is employing 345 00:19:03,939 --> 00:19:06,974 his products -- that, in turn, lands him an even more 346 00:19:07,077 --> 00:19:10,077 prestigious job working for the Russian Royal Ballet. 347 00:19:12,215 --> 00:19:15,422 The story Goes that the Russian royal family is 348 00:19:15,525 --> 00:19:18,801 so impressed by his work that he's brought 349 00:19:18,905 --> 00:19:20,077 for a formal introduction. 350 00:19:22,525 --> 00:19:24,629 NARRATOR: He is summoned to the Imperial Court as 351 00:19:24,732 --> 00:19:27,801 Chief Cosmetics Advisor to the Russian royal family. 352 00:19:29,629 --> 00:19:33,008 But for a Jew, this is not a good time to be in Russia. 353 00:19:35,318 --> 00:19:38,111 The imperial family, with cooperation of the army, is 354 00:19:38,215 --> 00:19:40,767 instituting a program of de-Jewdification 355 00:19:40,870 --> 00:19:42,043 across the country. 356 00:19:43,180 --> 00:19:45,767 Things are bad, and they are getting worse. 357 00:19:47,111 --> 00:19:50,180 NARRATOR: In 1904, Maximilian flees To America with 358 00:19:50,284 --> 00:19:53,387 his wife, Esther, and their three children. 359 00:19:53,491 --> 00:19:57,077 Here, he takes a new name -- Max Factor. 360 00:19:58,215 --> 00:20:01,767 He ends up in California, just as Hollywood is about to 361 00:20:01,870 --> 00:20:03,491 take off. 362 00:20:03,594 --> 00:20:05,870 STEELE: He was appalled by the standards of the makeup. 363 00:20:07,111 --> 00:20:09,870 The actors were still using the rather brash, thick, greasy 364 00:20:09,974 --> 00:20:11,111 makeup that was so popular 365 00:20:11,215 --> 00:20:13,836 on stage at the time, and close up with the camera, 366 00:20:13,939 --> 00:20:15,111 that just wasn't as flattering. 367 00:20:16,939 --> 00:20:19,043 Max Factor spots an opportunity, 368 00:20:22,077 --> 00:20:26,456 and by 1914, he has perfected a new style of cosmetics 369 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:29,939 tailored specifically to the demands of the movies. 370 00:20:30,043 --> 00:20:34,974 Some of the earliest pioneers in Hollywood used his products. 371 00:20:35,077 --> 00:20:38,387 I mean, we're talking Chaplain, Arbuckle, Keaton, 372 00:20:38,491 --> 00:20:41,249 but his big break came in 1925 373 00:20:41,353 --> 00:20:44,974 with a whopping order for 600 gallons 374 00:20:45,077 --> 00:20:48,905 of body paint for use for the extras in Ben Hur. 375 00:20:50,249 --> 00:20:53,629 Women everywhere want to look as glamorous as the sirens of 376 00:20:53,732 --> 00:20:55,836 the Silver Screen, and everyone 377 00:20:55,939 --> 00:20:59,560 knows the man to do that is Max Factor. 378 00:20:59,663 --> 00:21:02,836 he is the go-to guy for hair and makeup 379 00:21:02,939 --> 00:21:05,905 for anyone who's anyone in Hollywood at this point, 380 00:21:06,008 --> 00:21:09,663 the likes of Rita Hayworth and Judy Garland, included. 381 00:21:11,077 --> 00:21:13,870 NARRATOR: Max Factor Cosmetics go mainstream. 382 00:21:13,974 --> 00:21:16,249 He even coins the term "make-up." 383 00:21:17,594 --> 00:21:20,008 So why does someone this successful 384 00:21:20,111 --> 00:21:22,043 need a beauty calibrator? 385 00:21:32,180 --> 00:21:34,491 NARRATOR: This weird device is conjured up by 386 00:21:34,594 --> 00:21:38,249 a titan of the cosmetics industry -- Max Factor. 387 00:21:40,008 --> 00:21:43,180 But why does he need it in the first place? 388 00:21:43,284 --> 00:21:46,353 BELLINGER: He's not just a gifted cosmetic artist. 389 00:21:46,456 --> 00:21:49,974 He's an inventor, and an experimenter. 390 00:21:51,215 --> 00:21:54,353 AUERBACH: One of the things that Max Factor becomes known for is 391 00:21:54,456 --> 00:21:57,525 not only finding the right hues for different skin tones 392 00:21:57,629 --> 00:22:01,663 but also finding subtle ways to apply makeup 393 00:22:01,767 --> 00:22:04,387 differently to different parts of an actress's face 394 00:22:04,491 --> 00:22:08,491 to even out all the features so that it's symmetrical. 395 00:22:08,594 --> 00:22:12,043 The goal of this device is to find 396 00:22:12,146 --> 00:22:16,043 a way to formalize that measurement in order to later 397 00:22:16,146 --> 00:22:18,974 achieve better symmetry with the application of cosmetics. 398 00:22:19,077 --> 00:22:21,594 SOMARA: To me, he was a kind of version 399 00:22:21,698 --> 00:22:23,732 of Leonardo da Vinci who created 400 00:22:23,836 --> 00:22:27,491 such beautiful art but then also cared a lot about 401 00:22:27,594 --> 00:22:31,525 functionality and form, and it's this idea 402 00:22:31,629 --> 00:22:34,560 that innovation is born out of 403 00:22:34,663 --> 00:22:37,456 creativity and logic. 404 00:22:38,905 --> 00:22:41,249 NARRATOR: This incredible contraption is also meant 405 00:22:41,353 --> 00:22:44,767 to help with the advent of new color film technologies. 406 00:22:46,008 --> 00:22:48,594 BELLINGER: Originally, all actors had to worry about 407 00:22:48,698 --> 00:22:50,905 was looking good in black and white, 408 00:22:51,008 --> 00:22:53,077 but in 1932, with the advent 409 00:22:53,180 --> 00:22:57,284 of Technicolor, that all got much more complicated, 410 00:22:57,387 --> 00:23:00,146 and this really was the impetus behind 411 00:23:00,249 --> 00:23:03,801 his desire to perfect this system. 412 00:23:05,939 --> 00:23:08,111 NARRATOR: But unlike many of his other inventions, 413 00:23:08,215 --> 00:23:10,594 this one is never meant for the public. 414 00:23:11,836 --> 00:23:15,491 The beauty calibrator was never intended for 415 00:23:15,594 --> 00:23:18,456 mass consumption -- it was targeted 416 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:22,939 and, in fact, used by Hollywood royalty, essentially, 417 00:23:23,043 --> 00:23:26,594 and American socialites who had the money to pay for it. 418 00:23:26,698 --> 00:23:29,180 But can it really work? 419 00:23:29,284 --> 00:23:32,249 Is the idea of measurable beauty credible? 420 00:23:38,387 --> 00:23:40,353 WEST: When we use the word beauty, we tend 421 00:23:40,456 --> 00:23:42,629 to think mostly about women, because we've constructed 422 00:23:42,732 --> 00:23:44,836 an idea that beauty is a feminine thing. 423 00:23:44,939 --> 00:23:47,180 Really, though, we should be talking about attractiveness, 424 00:23:47,284 --> 00:23:49,698 because everybody can be attractive, whether you're a man 425 00:23:49,801 --> 00:23:52,387 or woman or anything else, you can be very attractive, 426 00:23:52,491 --> 00:23:54,767 and so that's an important consideration -- 427 00:23:54,870 --> 00:23:57,870 not just what's beautiful, but what's attractive. 428 00:23:57,974 --> 00:23:59,870 NARRATOR: So why are some men and women 429 00:23:59,974 --> 00:24:02,698 seen as more attractive than others? 430 00:24:02,801 --> 00:24:05,043 WEST: There have been many studies about what makes someone 431 00:24:05,146 --> 00:24:08,146 attractive, what makes a human face or human body attractive. 432 00:24:08,249 --> 00:24:11,111 People are surprised that these are reasonably consistent 433 00:24:11,215 --> 00:24:14,318 across numerous societies, numerous cultures. 434 00:24:14,422 --> 00:24:16,387 NARRATOR: One key factor in our perception 435 00:24:16,491 --> 00:24:19,836 of attractiveness is averageness. 436 00:24:19,939 --> 00:24:21,525 STEELE: If you have an average face 437 00:24:21,629 --> 00:24:23,043 in the scientific sense the word, 438 00:24:23,146 --> 00:24:25,836 are you one that's close to the population average, numerous 439 00:24:25,939 --> 00:24:27,905 studies have shown that those faces are considered to be more 440 00:24:28,008 --> 00:24:29,629 attractive by other people than 441 00:24:29,732 --> 00:24:31,905 faces that deviate from those average proportions. 442 00:24:34,836 --> 00:24:37,284 NARRATOR: Another key factor to what we consider attractive 443 00:24:37,387 --> 00:24:38,456 is symmetry. 444 00:24:39,698 --> 00:24:41,353 WEST: Humans like certain things -- 445 00:24:41,456 --> 00:24:44,663 they like symmetry, for example, and so the more symmetry 446 00:24:44,767 --> 00:24:46,767 you get, the more attractive people think you are. 447 00:24:48,387 --> 00:24:49,870 NARRATOR: This could be something to do 448 00:24:49,974 --> 00:24:51,353 with how our brains function. 449 00:24:52,594 --> 00:24:54,387 STEELE: There's evidence that faces that are closer to average 450 00:24:54,491 --> 00:24:56,974 proportions and symmetrical faces and any other 451 00:24:57,077 --> 00:24:58,698 symmetrical objects are easier for 452 00:24:58,801 --> 00:25:01,560 our minds to cognitively understand, and that reduced 453 00:25:01,663 --> 00:25:03,077 burden of processing might be 454 00:25:03,180 --> 00:25:05,146 one of the factors that makes them appear more attractive. 455 00:25:06,284 --> 00:25:09,077 NARRATOR: So Max Factor may be onto something with his beauty 456 00:25:09,180 --> 00:25:13,077 calibrator, because one thing it measures is symmetry. 457 00:25:13,180 --> 00:25:15,215 STEELE: Although Max Factor didn't have access 458 00:25:15,318 --> 00:25:16,560 to this science at the time 459 00:25:16,663 --> 00:25:18,732 when he developed his beauty machine, nonetheless, there may 460 00:25:18,836 --> 00:25:20,318 have been something to what he was doing 461 00:25:20,422 --> 00:25:22,043 in the sense that if he detected a face that was 462 00:25:22,146 --> 00:25:24,594 slightly asymmetrical, then he could apply makeup 463 00:25:24,698 --> 00:25:26,043 to try and correct that to make the face 464 00:25:26,146 --> 00:25:28,732 look more symmetrical again, and we get closer to what modern 465 00:25:28,836 --> 00:25:31,905 science would let us understand is an ideal of attractiveness. 466 00:25:34,525 --> 00:25:36,629 NARRATOR: Max Factor might also be onto something with 467 00:25:36,732 --> 00:25:40,284 his device's measurements of the ratios of facial features. 468 00:25:41,732 --> 00:25:45,180 A recent study found that attractiveness is optimized 469 00:25:45,284 --> 00:25:46,387 when the vertical distance 470 00:25:46,491 --> 00:25:49,077 between the eyes and mouth is approximately 471 00:25:49,180 --> 00:25:51,939 36 percent of the face's length 472 00:25:52,043 --> 00:25:53,594 and the horizontal distance between 473 00:25:53,698 --> 00:25:57,249 the eyes is approximately 46 percent of its width. 474 00:25:58,698 --> 00:26:02,077 We find that faces the shadow these ratios are perhaps almost 475 00:26:02,180 --> 00:26:04,870 objectively perceived to be more active, because even if you 476 00:26:04,974 --> 00:26:08,077 show a newborn baby faces with different proportions, it will 477 00:26:08,180 --> 00:26:10,111 tend to pick the one that's closer to these ratios 478 00:26:10,215 --> 00:26:11,974 and closer to the average -- seems to 479 00:26:12,077 --> 00:26:13,974 be something that we don't learn through societal 480 00:26:14,077 --> 00:26:16,974 conditioning but something we're actually born with. 481 00:26:17,077 --> 00:26:19,801 NARRATOR: This suggests our brains may be hardwired 482 00:26:19,905 --> 00:26:22,353 at birth to look for attractiveness -- 483 00:26:22,456 --> 00:26:25,732 or as Hollywood prefers to call it, beauty. 484 00:26:25,836 --> 00:26:29,387 And it's possible that this may sometimes hijack our minds. 485 00:26:31,043 --> 00:26:33,732 People who are more attractive are perceived as better, as more 486 00:26:33,836 --> 00:26:35,422 moral, as more honest, as more 487 00:26:35,525 --> 00:26:38,215 worthy of being treated well -- attractive people are 488 00:26:38,318 --> 00:26:40,491 just treated better than everybody else, 489 00:26:40,594 --> 00:26:42,836 and that's not fair, and it's not good, but it 490 00:26:42,939 --> 00:26:45,491 is, unfortunately, a reality of the society we live in. 491 00:26:48,525 --> 00:26:49,801 NARRATOR: So somewhat surprisingly 492 00:26:49,905 --> 00:26:51,456 with the beauty calibrator, 493 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,491 Max Factor may have spotted something 494 00:26:53,594 --> 00:26:55,456 fundamental about our brains. 495 00:26:56,767 --> 00:26:57,974 And he isn't the only person 496 00:26:58,077 --> 00:27:00,939 to apply science and technology to beauty. 497 00:27:11,215 --> 00:27:14,111 NARRATOR: This eccentric device is designed to use science 498 00:27:14,215 --> 00:27:18,698 and technology to enhance beauty, and it's not alone. 499 00:27:18,801 --> 00:27:20,870 AUERBACH: The beauty calibrator is one of the earliest of 500 00:27:20,974 --> 00:27:23,043 these beauty machines, but it's far from 501 00:27:23,146 --> 00:27:25,180 the last -- it was just the beginning of a long 502 00:27:25,284 --> 00:27:28,663 line of various gadgets and devices that appear in the '30s, 503 00:27:28,767 --> 00:27:30,767 '40s, and '50s, all with one 504 00:27:30,870 --> 00:27:34,629 purpose in mind, to enhance female beauty through science. 505 00:27:35,974 --> 00:27:38,422 BELLINGER: One of these was called the freckle freezer, 506 00:27:38,525 --> 00:27:41,974 a contraption that used a wand dipped in frozen 507 00:27:42,077 --> 00:27:46,249 carbon dioxide to burn off offensive moles and freckles, 508 00:27:46,353 --> 00:27:49,215 which would ruin an otherwise perfect complexion. 509 00:27:51,353 --> 00:27:54,353 NARRATOR: The freckle freezer is just one of many weird 510 00:27:54,456 --> 00:27:56,525 cosmetic devices, 511 00:27:56,629 --> 00:27:59,043 but despite the general enthusiasm for beauty 512 00:27:59,146 --> 00:28:02,870 technologies, Max Factor's calibrator fades from view. 513 00:28:05,215 --> 00:28:10,077 The beauty calibrator is first created in 1932, and in 1933, 514 00:28:10,180 --> 00:28:11,387 it makes it to the cover of 515 00:28:11,491 --> 00:28:15,491 Popular Science, but after that, it just ends up sitting in 516 00:28:15,594 --> 00:28:17,663 a storage room in Max Factor's headquarters. 517 00:28:18,801 --> 00:28:21,491 NARRATOR: The calibrator remains there for decades before 518 00:28:21,594 --> 00:28:25,560 the building and all its contents are sold in 1994. 519 00:28:26,801 --> 00:28:28,629 It doesn't return to the light of day 520 00:28:28,732 --> 00:28:31,422 until this museum opens in 2003. 521 00:28:35,974 --> 00:28:40,008 The beauty calibrator may seem antiquated and weird today, 522 00:28:40,111 --> 00:28:43,456 but the ideas that underpin it do persist. 523 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:45,456 WEST: We should almost never look at these things and laugh 524 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,249 and say how silly that such a thing would exist that we'd 525 00:28:48,353 --> 00:28:50,801 measure beauty that way --- we're still doing that. 526 00:28:50,905 --> 00:28:52,629 We still look at our noses and think 527 00:28:52,732 --> 00:28:53,905 they're too small, we still look 528 00:28:54,008 --> 00:28:56,180 at our foreheads and think they're too big, we still look 529 00:28:56,284 --> 00:28:59,077 at one thing or another thing and compare ourselves to some 530 00:28:59,180 --> 00:29:01,836 other arbitrary standard, and this continues to affect 531 00:29:01,939 --> 00:29:03,663 the way we think about ourselves today. 532 00:29:04,801 --> 00:29:07,215 NARRATOR: Bizarre as it may seem, nearly a century 533 00:29:07,318 --> 00:29:11,456 after its creation, the beauty calibrator's legacy lives on. 534 00:29:17,111 --> 00:29:20,491 Locked away in a display case in the Cairo Museum sits 535 00:29:20,594 --> 00:29:22,698 a mysterious object that has 536 00:29:22,801 --> 00:29:25,870 confounded the experts for decades. 537 00:29:25,974 --> 00:29:28,767 The first impression is this is modern. 538 00:29:28,870 --> 00:29:31,422 It's from some sophisticated machine. 539 00:29:31,525 --> 00:29:35,560 But it's not -- it is more than 5,000 years old, 540 00:29:35,663 --> 00:29:37,629 and it comes from Egypt. 541 00:29:37,732 --> 00:29:40,008 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: This object is completely unique. 542 00:29:40,111 --> 00:29:43,456 We don't have anything like it from ancient Egypt. 543 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,146 NARRATOR: Now, using state-of-the-art 544 00:29:45,249 --> 00:29:48,422 digital imaging, we're unlocking its secrets. 545 00:29:50,456 --> 00:29:53,111 This is the Disc of Sabu, 546 00:29:53,215 --> 00:29:55,318 and it's a complete mystery. 547 00:29:57,180 --> 00:30:00,353 Since it was discovered, we have been trying to find out 548 00:30:00,456 --> 00:30:03,146 what it was and what it was used for. 549 00:30:03,249 --> 00:30:05,939 NARRATOR: The disc is 24 inches in diameter, 550 00:30:06,043 --> 00:30:08,008 with three sweeping lobes 551 00:30:08,111 --> 00:30:11,594 separated from the rim by three distinct apertures. 552 00:30:12,939 --> 00:30:17,629 At the center is a smooth hole roughly 4 inches across. 553 00:30:17,732 --> 00:30:20,318 Its shape is really organic, as if 554 00:30:20,422 --> 00:30:23,008 you could fold it with your hands. 555 00:30:23,111 --> 00:30:25,560 NARRATOR: It is so thin, less than half an inch, 556 00:30:25,663 --> 00:30:29,629 it seems as if it's made of metal, but it's not. 557 00:30:29,732 --> 00:30:32,525 It's made out of stone. 558 00:30:32,629 --> 00:30:35,905 To make that today, you would use something like a 3D printer. 559 00:30:37,215 --> 00:30:40,180 NARRATOR: So how was this strange object made? 560 00:30:41,525 --> 00:30:42,456 What is it for? 561 00:30:44,180 --> 00:30:46,249 Who did it belong to? 562 00:30:50,180 --> 00:30:52,249 January 1936. 563 00:30:52,353 --> 00:30:55,008 Famed Egyptologist Walter Emery is 564 00:30:55,111 --> 00:30:58,353 excavating the tomb of the Egyptian prince, Sabu. 565 00:31:00,008 --> 00:31:04,180 We don't know much about who Prince Sabu was -- we know that 566 00:31:04,284 --> 00:31:06,663 he lived during this very early period 567 00:31:06,767 --> 00:31:09,353 of the First Dynasty, and we know 568 00:31:09,456 --> 00:31:13,663 that he was a high official and an important person in 569 00:31:13,767 --> 00:31:17,111 the court of this time and perhaps the ruler of 570 00:31:17,215 --> 00:31:20,077 a particular province in early Egypt. 571 00:31:22,422 --> 00:31:24,629 NARRATOR: Once inside Sabu's tomb, Emery 572 00:31:24,732 --> 00:31:27,698 discovers many typical Egyptian burial items. 573 00:31:28,939 --> 00:31:32,111 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: In the burial chamber, we find the coffin 574 00:31:32,215 --> 00:31:34,525 of Sabu with the body inside 575 00:31:34,629 --> 00:31:39,732 and a series of objects, stone vessels and different elements 576 00:31:39,836 --> 00:31:42,284 that would allow him to go into the afterlife. 577 00:31:44,353 --> 00:31:46,836 NARRATOR: But in the center of the room, positioned close to 578 00:31:46,939 --> 00:31:49,870 the body of the prince, is a collection of strange 579 00:31:49,974 --> 00:31:51,353 stone fragments. 580 00:31:52,698 --> 00:31:59,077 Walter Emery found this broken object in many pieces, 581 00:31:59,180 --> 00:32:01,939 an object that doesn't resemble anything 582 00:32:02,043 --> 00:32:04,043 that we have from ancient Egypt. 583 00:32:05,284 --> 00:32:08,043 STEELE: This disc-shaped object resembles a bowl, apart from 584 00:32:08,146 --> 00:32:10,043 these three strange lobes 585 00:32:10,146 --> 00:32:11,767 that protrude from the periphery 586 00:32:11,870 --> 00:32:14,422 at about 120 degree angles from one another. 587 00:32:17,146 --> 00:32:18,939 NARRATOR: The shape is unique. 588 00:32:20,180 --> 00:32:23,284 STEELE: The incredible delicacy, the thinness of that material, 589 00:32:23,387 --> 00:32:26,043 and the incredibly elaborate shape makes this thing look 590 00:32:26,146 --> 00:32:29,180 like it's made of metal with modern metallurgy techniques. 591 00:32:29,284 --> 00:32:32,629 SOMARA: In theory, you can pretty much make anything from 592 00:32:32,732 --> 00:32:36,629 stone, but the idea that they were able to achieve such 593 00:32:36,732 --> 00:32:41,629 a thin, curved, finessed finishes... 594 00:32:41,732 --> 00:32:45,456 I mean, it looked like it had almost been cast 595 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:49,215 NARRATOR: This strange thing would be unusual 596 00:32:49,318 --> 00:32:51,491 in any period of ancient Egypt, 597 00:32:51,594 --> 00:32:53,422 but it actually dates to the very 598 00:32:53,525 --> 00:32:57,974 earliest days of the Egyptian Empire, 5,000 years ago. 599 00:32:59,077 --> 00:33:02,111 Who were the ancient artisans that crafted it? 600 00:33:06,767 --> 00:33:09,043 The First Dynasty is a very important period in 601 00:33:09,146 --> 00:33:10,456 the history of Egypt. 602 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,870 We're starting to see trade with different lands in Egypt 603 00:33:14,974 --> 00:33:18,456 and also outside of Egypt -- we see an increase in 604 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:23,353 the complexity of the society, a more hierarchical society, 605 00:33:23,456 --> 00:33:26,215 a developed administration, the use of writing. 606 00:33:27,353 --> 00:33:29,077 NARRATOR: The First Dynasty is also marked 607 00:33:29,180 --> 00:33:31,180 by the prominence of stonework. 608 00:33:32,525 --> 00:33:34,422 STEELE: Ancient Egyptian craftsmen were 609 00:33:34,525 --> 00:33:36,629 incredibly skilled at extracting and shaping 610 00:33:36,732 --> 00:33:39,560 all different kinds of stone, including granite, 611 00:33:39,663 --> 00:33:41,698 travertine, diorite, and quartzite. 612 00:33:42,836 --> 00:33:44,353 NARRATOR: But despite the obvious skill 613 00:33:44,456 --> 00:33:46,318 of the ancient artisans, nothing 614 00:33:46,422 --> 00:33:51,008 this finely crafted has ever been found from this period. 615 00:33:51,111 --> 00:33:53,801 Exactly how it is made remains a mystery. 616 00:33:55,318 --> 00:33:56,215 But it's clear it would 617 00:33:56,318 --> 00:33:59,836 have been incredibly difficult to produce, 618 00:33:59,939 --> 00:34:04,629 which suggests that whatever it is, it must be important. 619 00:34:05,870 --> 00:34:09,043 Too much work has gone into it -- it must have had 620 00:34:09,146 --> 00:34:12,767 a real use, and, as an engineer, 621 00:34:12,870 --> 00:34:15,732 the mind boggles as to what that use could be. 622 00:34:17,146 --> 00:34:19,249 NARRATOR: Now there is an astonishing new theory, 623 00:34:19,353 --> 00:34:20,353 one that involves a precious resource 624 00:34:20,456 --> 00:34:23,560 that sits at the very center 625 00:34:23,663 --> 00:34:25,043 of ancient Egyptian life. 626 00:34:35,663 --> 00:34:37,870 This strange disc was somehow carved from 627 00:34:37,974 --> 00:34:42,146 a single block of stone 5,000 years ago. 628 00:34:42,249 --> 00:34:43,525 What is it for? 629 00:34:45,146 --> 00:34:47,043 Some experts propose the hole in 630 00:34:47,146 --> 00:34:50,043 the center of the disc provides a clue. 631 00:34:50,146 --> 00:34:53,043 They think it could be for an axle 632 00:34:53,146 --> 00:34:57,215 and that this weird disc is just an unusual wheel. 633 00:34:58,663 --> 00:35:01,836 The idea that this could be a wheel isn't entirely crazy, 634 00:35:01,939 --> 00:35:04,387 and we know that the wheel had been invented by this time. 635 00:35:05,732 --> 00:35:08,732 The oldest known example, the Ljubljana Marshes wheel, 636 00:35:08,836 --> 00:35:10,698 is made of ash and oak 637 00:35:10,801 --> 00:35:14,387 and has been dated to about 5,200 years ago. 638 00:35:14,491 --> 00:35:18,801 Could the Disc of Sabu be an ancient Egyptian equivalent? 639 00:35:18,905 --> 00:35:21,594 Although we know the wheel was around at this time in history, 640 00:35:21,698 --> 00:35:24,077 as far as we know, the ancient Egyptians didn't have access to 641 00:35:24,180 --> 00:35:26,215 this technology -- even pyramids that were 642 00:35:26,318 --> 00:35:29,318 built long after this disc was discovered were manufactured, 643 00:35:29,422 --> 00:35:32,077 as far as we can tell, without any help from wheels at all, 644 00:35:32,180 --> 00:35:35,387 and the first recorded instance of wheel usage in ancient Egypt 645 00:35:35,491 --> 00:35:37,767 dates several centuries after the disc was made. 646 00:35:40,077 --> 00:35:42,939 NARRATOR: And there is an even bigger problem with this theory. 647 00:35:44,043 --> 00:35:45,491 SOMARA: From an engineering point of view, 648 00:35:45,594 --> 00:35:47,456 there's no way that this could have been a wheel, 649 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:51,043 because those thin, fragile sections would never 650 00:35:51,146 --> 00:35:53,215 have taken any kind of load. 651 00:35:56,353 --> 00:35:58,732 NARRATOR: The extraordinary thinness and unique form 652 00:35:58,836 --> 00:36:03,008 of this disc have led to even more outlandish ideas, 653 00:36:03,111 --> 00:36:05,836 including the conspiracy theory that often comes 654 00:36:05,939 --> 00:36:10,387 with unexplained Egyptian artifacts -- little green men. 655 00:36:12,215 --> 00:36:15,284 But for every idea about UFO steering wheels, there's 656 00:36:15,387 --> 00:36:17,836 a different and more Earthly explanation 657 00:36:17,939 --> 00:36:19,456 that's a bit easier to swallow. 658 00:36:21,077 --> 00:36:23,698 Could it be a battle shield for warfare? 659 00:36:23,801 --> 00:36:25,974 The fact that it's made of heavy stone 660 00:36:26,077 --> 00:36:28,387 and has three large holes in it suggests it would 661 00:36:28,491 --> 00:36:29,870 be less than ideal. 662 00:36:31,284 --> 00:36:34,594 One suggestion is that it could be an incense burner, 663 00:36:34,698 --> 00:36:36,456 but incense burners are commonplace 664 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,974 in ancient Egypt and are much simpler in design. 665 00:36:40,698 --> 00:36:44,146 The sheer difficulty of producing this strange object 666 00:36:44,249 --> 00:36:47,353 suggests something much more important. 667 00:36:47,456 --> 00:36:51,767 One of the theories is that it was part of a centrifugal pump, 668 00:36:51,870 --> 00:36:55,353 and it was essentially the impeller part of 669 00:36:55,456 --> 00:36:58,111 the device that sat inside a casing 670 00:36:58,215 --> 00:37:00,353 and spun around a shaft, 671 00:37:00,456 --> 00:37:01,905 and centrifugal pumps are 672 00:37:02,008 --> 00:37:05,422 a very efficient way of pumping water. 673 00:37:05,525 --> 00:37:06,870 NARRATOR: But there are very good reasons 674 00:37:06,974 --> 00:37:08,525 why centrifugal pumps don't 675 00:37:08,629 --> 00:37:12,284 turn up until thousands of years after the disc is made. 676 00:37:13,663 --> 00:37:14,870 SOMARA: For the impeller to work, 677 00:37:14,974 --> 00:37:16,594 it has to spin really fast, 678 00:37:16,698 --> 00:37:18,732 and for that you need bearings. 679 00:37:18,836 --> 00:37:21,801 it would have had to have been encased 680 00:37:21,905 --> 00:37:25,491 in a watertight container, split in two halves. 681 00:37:25,594 --> 00:37:27,180 There would have had to be sealings around 682 00:37:27,284 --> 00:37:30,491 the shaft, they would have used screws, and none of that 683 00:37:30,594 --> 00:37:34,801 technology had been invented at that time. 684 00:37:34,905 --> 00:37:38,594 NARRATOR: The disc's use in a pump is just a leap too far. 685 00:37:38,698 --> 00:37:42,456 A slightly less implausible idea also focuses on water. 686 00:37:44,594 --> 00:37:46,353 STEELE: This disc could have been used to distribute 687 00:37:46,456 --> 00:37:47,974 water vapor in an environment like maybe 688 00:37:48,077 --> 00:37:50,180 a sauna, so you bring the disc down in 689 00:37:50,284 --> 00:37:52,801 a column and allow it to contact the hot water. 690 00:37:52,905 --> 00:37:54,146 Then as you lift it up, the shape 691 00:37:54,249 --> 00:37:57,456 naturally causes steam to waft about. 692 00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,249 NARRATOR: But are these ancient Egyptians really creating 693 00:38:00,353 --> 00:38:01,491 steam rooms? 694 00:38:02,629 --> 00:38:04,284 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: Even though purity and cleanliness 695 00:38:04,387 --> 00:38:06,663 were really important for the ancient Egyptians, 696 00:38:06,767 --> 00:38:08,284 we don't have any evidence 697 00:38:08,387 --> 00:38:11,801 that they had steam rooms to clean themselves, 698 00:38:11,905 --> 00:38:14,111 so this theory just doesn't work. 699 00:38:15,353 --> 00:38:18,939 NARRATOR: Recently, a new idea has surfaced, one that proposes 700 00:38:19,043 --> 00:38:22,284 the disc is used in a liquid, just not water. 701 00:38:24,215 --> 00:38:27,353 Scientists from Kanagawa University in Japan 702 00:38:27,456 --> 00:38:28,905 has proposed that it 703 00:38:29,008 --> 00:38:33,043 could have been part of the tools used for brewing beer. 704 00:38:34,387 --> 00:38:37,387 What this theory proposes is that there will be a pole 705 00:38:37,491 --> 00:38:38,594 inserted in the middle of 706 00:38:38,698 --> 00:38:41,077 the disc, and then the disc will be moved 707 00:38:41,180 --> 00:38:44,043 up and down to create a vortex, 708 00:38:44,146 --> 00:38:45,905 or circulation of the water, 709 00:38:46,008 --> 00:38:49,077 in order to mix this water with 710 00:38:49,180 --> 00:38:52,111 the grain in a more efficient way. 711 00:38:52,215 --> 00:38:55,043 NARRATOR: Similar implements, known as mash rakes or paddles, 712 00:38:55,146 --> 00:38:57,180 have been used for thousands of years 713 00:38:57,284 --> 00:39:00,870 and are still used in the brewing process today. 714 00:39:00,974 --> 00:39:04,043 But is beer important enough to the ancient Egyptians to 715 00:39:04,146 --> 00:39:08,180 justify the time and effort to make this complex disc? 716 00:39:08,284 --> 00:39:11,249 Beer was one of the two staple foods 717 00:39:11,353 --> 00:39:13,698 in ancient Egypt, together with bread, 718 00:39:13,801 --> 00:39:17,836 so we find lots of production centers for both 719 00:39:17,939 --> 00:39:22,629 bread and beer together, and it was one of the ways in which 720 00:39:22,732 --> 00:39:27,180 workmen, for example, were paid, by means of bread and beer. 721 00:39:28,629 --> 00:39:31,043 NARRATOR: Archaeological evidence suggests the workers 722 00:39:31,146 --> 00:39:33,043 who build the pyramids of Giza are 723 00:39:33,146 --> 00:39:36,560 given a daily ration of more than a gallon of the stuff. 724 00:39:37,801 --> 00:39:41,284 And another recent discovery has revealed that beer is just 725 00:39:41,387 --> 00:39:43,318 as central at the very beginning 726 00:39:43,422 --> 00:39:44,974 of the Egyptian empire. 727 00:39:46,387 --> 00:39:51,180 In 2021, archaeologists found what is considered the oldest 728 00:39:51,284 --> 00:39:57,180 large production factory of beer, a very old brewery. 729 00:39:57,284 --> 00:40:00,284 The site in the ancient city of Abydos dates to 730 00:40:00,387 --> 00:40:03,249 the First Dynasty 5,000 years ago, 731 00:40:03,353 --> 00:40:05,663 the same era the disc is created. 732 00:40:07,077 --> 00:40:10,836 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: The brewery was composed of eight large areas 733 00:40:10,939 --> 00:40:14,249 of around 65 feet long, and each 734 00:40:14,353 --> 00:40:19,180 one of them had 40 large containers for the beers, 735 00:40:19,284 --> 00:40:21,111 so this was a massive space. 736 00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,422 NARRATOR: The team who unearth it estimate 737 00:40:24,525 --> 00:40:26,525 5,900 gallons, 738 00:40:26,629 --> 00:40:29,594 or 22,400 liters of beer, 739 00:40:29,698 --> 00:40:31,525 could be brewed here in one go. 740 00:40:32,974 --> 00:40:35,318 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: The amount of beer has been calculated 741 00:40:35,422 --> 00:40:39,180 to be able to support the daily ration for 742 00:40:39,284 --> 00:40:45,215 8,800 workers, which gives you an idea of how important beer 743 00:40:45,318 --> 00:40:47,801 would be for the ancient Egyptians. 744 00:40:49,836 --> 00:40:52,422 NARRATOR: One further clue could support the argument 745 00:40:52,525 --> 00:40:54,698 that the disc is related to beer production. 746 00:40:56,318 --> 00:40:58,629 ESCOLANO-POVEDA: The importance of beer for the Egyptians 747 00:40:58,732 --> 00:41:01,974 was not just something for daily life, 748 00:41:02,077 --> 00:41:04,905 but it also extended to the afterlife. 749 00:41:05,008 --> 00:41:10,284 In the tombs, we find beer jars deposited as offerings that 750 00:41:10,387 --> 00:41:13,215 would allow the deceased to drink 751 00:41:13,318 --> 00:41:15,629 in the -- in the afterlife. 752 00:41:16,870 --> 00:41:19,180 NARRATOR: So despite all the wild theories of 753 00:41:19,284 --> 00:41:21,560 alien intervention and ancient hydraulic 754 00:41:21,663 --> 00:41:24,767 engineering, maybe this strange relic is simply 755 00:41:24,870 --> 00:41:27,525 a tool for brewing beer... 756 00:41:27,629 --> 00:41:29,560 or is it? 757 00:41:29,663 --> 00:41:33,905 If this disc had been used for the production of beer, 758 00:41:34,008 --> 00:41:37,663 we would have many of them, because of this large-scale 759 00:41:37,767 --> 00:41:42,663 production, but unfortunately, we only have one, so even though 760 00:41:42,767 --> 00:41:47,387 it is a nice theory, there is no evidence to support it. 761 00:41:48,525 --> 00:41:50,732 NARRATOR: There are multiple explanations for this beautiful 762 00:41:50,836 --> 00:41:55,732 and strange thing, but none seem like a perfect fit. 763 00:41:55,836 --> 00:41:58,284 Perhaps it is simply made for its beauty 764 00:41:58,387 --> 00:42:01,422 and for its strangeness with no practical purpose, 765 00:42:01,525 --> 00:42:04,836 an expression of a unique artistic ability.