1 00:00:01,249 --> 00:00:03,732 [narrator] What was this gruesome hat for? 2 00:00:03,767 --> 00:00:07,318 That's just a lot of teeth and whose teeth are they? 3 00:00:07,353 --> 00:00:10,732 Did this machine reveal the dark side of humanity? 4 00:00:10,767 --> 00:00:14,939 What does it take to get an ordinary person to shock a stranger to death? 5 00:00:14,974 --> 00:00:18,008 And the answer, apparently, was not very much. 6 00:00:18,043 --> 00:00:23,043 And can this golden weapon prove the legendary Amazons were real? 7 00:00:23,077 --> 00:00:26,870 For so long, people thought that this couldn't even belong to a woman. 8 00:00:30,939 --> 00:00:34,663 These are the most remarkable and mysterious objects on Earth. 9 00:00:36,353 --> 00:00:42,215 Hidden away in museums, laboratories and storage rooms. 10 00:00:42,249 --> 00:00:47,422 Now, new research and technology can get under their skin 11 00:00:47,456 --> 00:00:48,905 like never before. 12 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:51,008 We can rebuild them, 13 00:00:52,905 --> 00:00:54,284 pull them apart, 14 00:00:55,353 --> 00:00:59,215 and zoom in to reveal the unbelievable, 15 00:00:59,939 --> 00:01:01,491 the ancient, 16 00:01:02,387 --> 00:01:04,387 and the truly bizarre. 17 00:01:06,353 --> 00:01:10,043 These are the world's strangest things. 18 00:01:20,249 --> 00:01:24,732 In a small London museum, sits a disturbing, tattered hat 19 00:01:24,767 --> 00:01:27,801 decorated with tiny objects. 20 00:01:27,836 --> 00:01:30,629 It's just such a weird thing, isn't it? 21 00:01:30,663 --> 00:01:33,180 Now, using the latest technology, 22 00:01:33,215 --> 00:01:35,732 we're examining this strange thing 23 00:01:37,491 --> 00:01:39,284 in forensic detail. 24 00:01:41,387 --> 00:01:44,249 Its decoration is bizarre. 25 00:01:44,284 --> 00:01:47,180 Close up, it's clear. It's covered with teeth. 26 00:01:47,215 --> 00:01:50,767 Looks like something out of a witch doctor's sack. 27 00:01:50,801 --> 00:01:55,146 But it actually comes from the back alleys of Victorian London. 28 00:01:55,180 --> 00:01:59,939 Roughly eight inches tall and six and a half inches wide, 29 00:01:59,974 --> 00:02:04,180 it is made of felt, with a faded velvet outer layer. 30 00:02:05,525 --> 00:02:09,008 Stitched into it are 87 fragments of teeth. 31 00:02:10,732 --> 00:02:13,663 Why would anyone make up such an object? 32 00:02:13,698 --> 00:02:16,077 Why are teeth attached to it? 33 00:02:16,111 --> 00:02:18,732 And whose teeth are they? 34 00:02:18,767 --> 00:02:21,836 Unfortunately, there's not a lot to go on. 35 00:02:21,870 --> 00:02:25,284 There are no pictures, no written descriptions, 36 00:02:25,318 --> 00:02:28,249 nothing that really gives us much context, 37 00:02:28,284 --> 00:02:32,732 just a couple of cryptic notes written by a collector. 38 00:02:32,767 --> 00:02:36,594 So who does this gruesome hat belong to? 39 00:02:36,629 --> 00:02:39,215 Why is it covered in teeth? 40 00:02:39,249 --> 00:02:41,767 What is it for? 41 00:02:44,284 --> 00:02:48,249 This macabre object was donated to London's Cuming Museum 42 00:02:48,284 --> 00:02:53,111 in 1916, by collector Edward Lovett. 43 00:02:53,146 --> 00:02:56,732 Lovett is the chief cashier for a major London bank 44 00:02:56,767 --> 00:02:58,836 in the turn of the 19th century. 45 00:02:58,870 --> 00:03:00,732 But that's just his day job. 46 00:03:00,767 --> 00:03:03,353 When Lovett isn't counting checks at the bank, 47 00:03:03,387 --> 00:03:08,180 he can be found combing the back alleys and rougher areas of London, 48 00:03:08,215 --> 00:03:12,767 seeking out curios that he can purchase from street vendors. 49 00:03:12,801 --> 00:03:16,180 [Dr. Mark Benecke] Charms, objects of magical power, 50 00:03:16,215 --> 00:03:19,939 anything that is weird or considered to be strange. 51 00:03:19,974 --> 00:03:22,077 [narrator] Lovett is part of a growing obsession 52 00:03:22,111 --> 00:03:25,249 with collecting folklore across Britain. 53 00:03:25,284 --> 00:03:30,180 This is really a response to the acceleration of urbanization, 54 00:03:30,215 --> 00:03:33,387 when you have people that travel around England 55 00:03:33,422 --> 00:03:38,215 trying to gather up the stories and artefacts relating to folklore, 56 00:03:38,249 --> 00:03:42,387 all in an attempt to sort of protect these local traditions. 57 00:03:43,629 --> 00:03:46,180 [narrator] But there is no known folklore in England 58 00:03:46,215 --> 00:03:49,767 that describes a hat covered with teeth. 59 00:03:49,801 --> 00:03:52,836 Which leaves a very obvious question. 60 00:03:52,870 --> 00:03:56,043 Why would someone in Victorian London want to get a bit of material, 61 00:03:56,077 --> 00:03:58,870 cover it in teeth, and then wear it on their head? 62 00:03:58,905 --> 00:04:00,905 What possible purpose could this serve? 63 00:04:03,525 --> 00:04:07,008 [narrator] Luckily, this gruesome hat comes with a clue. 64 00:04:07,043 --> 00:04:09,629 Lovett does leave a cryptic note 65 00:04:09,663 --> 00:04:12,491 that says it's believed to have magical properties 66 00:04:12,525 --> 00:04:17,215 and it's certainly true that throughout history and in various societies, 67 00:04:17,249 --> 00:04:21,284 teeth have been worn or used to adorn decorative objects, 68 00:04:21,318 --> 00:04:26,456 clothing and weapons, all with reputed magical powers. 69 00:04:28,836 --> 00:04:31,077 [narrator] There is another object in Lovett's collection 70 00:04:31,111 --> 00:04:35,732 that might also be connected to magic. 71 00:04:35,767 --> 00:04:40,801 A small, silk bag containing what is believed to be the tooth of a dog. 72 00:04:40,836 --> 00:04:42,767 [Dr. Andrew Steele] There was a tradition of using animal teeth 73 00:04:42,801 --> 00:04:44,353 to try and cure toothache. 74 00:04:44,387 --> 00:04:46,387 And the idea was that as you wore that tooth, 75 00:04:46,422 --> 00:04:48,974 then the pain, or whatever was causing the problem in your tooth, 76 00:04:49,008 --> 00:04:51,043 would be sucked out and absorbed by the animal tooth. 77 00:04:53,008 --> 00:04:56,008 [narrator] The problem is, these aren't animal teeth. 78 00:04:57,215 --> 00:04:59,008 They're human. 79 00:05:01,353 --> 00:05:04,284 But it turns out that in 19th century London, 80 00:05:04,318 --> 00:05:07,870 wearing human teeth is surprisingly in vogue, 81 00:05:07,905 --> 00:05:09,698 thanks to the queen herself. 82 00:05:10,629 --> 00:05:14,594 The death of Prince Albert in 1861 83 00:05:14,629 --> 00:05:18,422 prompts Victoria to enter a period of extended mourning 84 00:05:18,456 --> 00:05:23,008 and this practice is soon imitated by other members of Victorian society, 85 00:05:23,043 --> 00:05:27,146 women in particular, who'll wear black for up to two years 86 00:05:27,180 --> 00:05:28,663 after the death of a loved one 87 00:05:28,698 --> 00:05:33,525 and they'll often adorn themselves with mementos of that loved one, 88 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,249 including hair, and sometimes teeth. 89 00:05:38,698 --> 00:05:41,215 [narrator] But if this is a memento for a mourning widow 90 00:05:41,249 --> 00:05:44,180 or widower, there's a bit of a problem. 91 00:05:45,387 --> 00:05:47,905 Enlarging the hat reveals tooth fragments, 92 00:05:47,939 --> 00:05:52,732 which combined, could make at least 60 different teeth. 93 00:05:52,767 --> 00:05:57,043 That's just a lot of teeth. How many dead relatives did this poor person have? 94 00:05:57,077 --> 00:05:59,732 [narrator] So maybe not a charm or a memento, 95 00:05:59,767 --> 00:06:02,698 but Lovett does leave another clue. 96 00:06:02,732 --> 00:06:09,353 Which is a note indicating that this hat was bought from another London professional 97 00:06:09,387 --> 00:06:12,870 in 1855 and his profession 98 00:06:14,008 --> 00:06:15,456 was a dentist. 99 00:06:21,077 --> 00:06:23,353 [narrator] Dentistry really takes off in Europe 100 00:06:23,387 --> 00:06:25,870 after Columbus discovers the Americas 101 00:06:25,905 --> 00:06:29,111 and refined sugar begins to arrive in vast quantities. 102 00:06:30,249 --> 00:06:34,698 The rot sets in across Britain and no one is prepared. 103 00:06:34,732 --> 00:06:40,491 People did not know until the 18th century what really made teeth decay. 104 00:06:40,525 --> 00:06:42,698 The idea was that there is a tiny worm 105 00:06:42,732 --> 00:06:44,422 that lives inside of your teeth 106 00:06:44,456 --> 00:06:47,318 and produces the holes that many people know. 107 00:06:48,870 --> 00:06:51,594 [narrator] And in a time before antibiotics, 108 00:06:51,629 --> 00:06:55,077 blood poisoning from tooth decay is a killer. 109 00:06:55,111 --> 00:06:58,387 Actually, it was the fifth or sixth leading cause of death in London 110 00:06:58,422 --> 00:07:00,111 during that period of time. 111 00:07:00,146 --> 00:07:03,043 [Dr. Sascha Auerbach] And if the infection didn't kill you, 112 00:07:03,077 --> 00:07:06,594 the pain from the ache itself might do that. 113 00:07:06,629 --> 00:07:10,974 In 1862, there is a report of a man in Sussex 114 00:07:11,008 --> 00:07:16,732 who after suffering for five months of pain from a rotting tooth, 115 00:07:16,767 --> 00:07:19,801 committed suicide because the pain was just so unbearable. 116 00:07:21,698 --> 00:07:24,905 [narrator] All this decay and despair leaves a gaping cavity 117 00:07:24,939 --> 00:07:26,939 in the market for dentists. 118 00:07:26,974 --> 00:07:28,974 An assortment of different people came forward 119 00:07:29,008 --> 00:07:33,560 from barber surgeons to street tooth-pullers to blacksmiths. 120 00:07:33,594 --> 00:07:36,318 And what blacksmiths might have lacked in knowledge of dental anatomy 121 00:07:36,353 --> 00:07:37,836 and maybe subtlety of practice, 122 00:07:37,870 --> 00:07:40,249 they made up for with the ability to manufacture tools. 123 00:07:43,008 --> 00:07:45,422 [narrator] Each one is more like a torture device 124 00:07:45,456 --> 00:07:46,663 than a dental tool. 125 00:07:49,870 --> 00:07:53,767 But tooth-pullers are supposed to pull teeth, not wear them. 126 00:07:54,663 --> 00:07:57,180 So what is this hat about? 127 00:07:57,215 --> 00:08:01,974 There's a painting by a 17th century Dutch artist that shows a tooth-puller. 128 00:08:02,008 --> 00:08:05,767 And if you look closely, you can see that he's wearing something rather strange. 129 00:08:07,456 --> 00:08:10,008 It's a necklace made of human teeth. 130 00:08:12,111 --> 00:08:15,215 [narrator] So it's not unknown for tooth-pullers to wear teeth. 131 00:08:15,249 --> 00:08:17,870 The question is why. 132 00:08:26,491 --> 00:08:30,836 This strange hat is said to have belonged to a dentist. 133 00:08:30,870 --> 00:08:34,249 It comes from an age when anyone with a tool and a strong arm 134 00:08:34,284 --> 00:08:36,318 can practice medicine. 135 00:08:36,353 --> 00:08:39,525 Back in the day when barbers were also doubling as surgeons, 136 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:41,387 they used to be bloodletting. 137 00:08:41,422 --> 00:08:44,939 That red streak down the pole represents the blood on the bandages 138 00:08:44,974 --> 00:08:46,870 as they removed the blood from a patient. 139 00:08:46,905 --> 00:08:49,008 In the days predating that pole, 140 00:08:49,043 --> 00:08:51,767 they used to use literal blood to advertise their services. 141 00:08:51,801 --> 00:08:54,284 Just leave a bowl of blood on the street outside their shop. 142 00:08:54,318 --> 00:08:57,939 [narrator] Traveling tooth-pullers go to even greater extremes. 143 00:08:57,974 --> 00:09:00,836 It became kind of a theatrical event 144 00:09:00,870 --> 00:09:04,111 to draw the attention of as many people as possible. 145 00:09:04,146 --> 00:09:08,008 There could be juggling, there could be storytelling, there could be music. 146 00:09:08,043 --> 00:09:10,318 and of course there was tooth-pulling. 147 00:09:10,353 --> 00:09:12,422 And if the tooth-puller seemed to be good at what he was doing 148 00:09:12,456 --> 00:09:15,422 and was yanking out those teeth without causing too much pain, 149 00:09:15,456 --> 00:09:18,663 maybe they'd put themselves forward to have their teeth pulled. 150 00:09:18,698 --> 00:09:23,284 [narrator] Some tooth-pullers were known to wear necklaces of the teeth they had pulled. 151 00:09:23,318 --> 00:09:26,905 The more teeth they wore, the more skillful it made them look. 152 00:09:27,905 --> 00:09:30,456 The most famous of the tooth-pullers 153 00:09:30,491 --> 00:09:33,008 at the end of the 19th and the early 20th century 154 00:09:33,043 --> 00:09:37,318 was Edgar Randolph Parker, otherwise known as Painless Parker. 155 00:09:37,353 --> 00:09:39,836 And he joins a circus, 156 00:09:39,870 --> 00:09:43,732 where he will offer his services as a kind of sideshow 157 00:09:43,767 --> 00:09:48,111 amidst the other entertainments, you know, such as clowns, elephants, 158 00:09:48,146 --> 00:09:50,387 the tent of mysteries. 159 00:09:50,422 --> 00:09:54,422 He carried around a bucket of hundreds of teeth that he'd yanked out 160 00:09:54,456 --> 00:09:59,215 and also reportedly wore a necklace of 357 teeth 161 00:09:59,249 --> 00:10:02,284 that he claimed to have pulled in a single day. 162 00:10:07,077 --> 00:10:09,422 [narrator] So this hat of teeth could be an advert 163 00:10:09,456 --> 00:10:12,043 for a tooth-puller's prowess. 164 00:10:12,077 --> 00:10:14,491 There's just one problem with this explanation. 165 00:10:16,111 --> 00:10:19,146 When we look closer at the teeth on this hat, 166 00:10:21,180 --> 00:10:23,801 we see something that's rather wrong 167 00:10:23,836 --> 00:10:26,801 or rather, not as wrong as it should be, 168 00:10:26,836 --> 00:10:30,767 because a lot of these teeth show no sign of decay whatsoever. 169 00:10:30,801 --> 00:10:32,974 They're absolutely pristine. 170 00:10:33,008 --> 00:10:36,249 [narrator] If this hat was an advert for tooth-pulling prowess, 171 00:10:36,284 --> 00:10:38,318 why are most of them so healthy? 172 00:10:42,249 --> 00:10:46,974 It's fair to say that tooth-pullers weren't always 100 percent honest. 173 00:10:47,008 --> 00:10:52,215 The tooth-pullers occupied this strange space between really vital medical service 174 00:10:52,249 --> 00:10:56,422 and yet they also had their share of scams going along with that. 175 00:10:56,456 --> 00:10:58,249 Sometimes they'd have accomplices in the crowd 176 00:10:58,284 --> 00:11:00,008 who'd volunteered to have their teeth pulled 177 00:11:00,043 --> 00:11:01,249 and when they yanked out the tooth, 178 00:11:01,284 --> 00:11:03,594 it wouldn't actually be one of the accomplices teeth, 179 00:11:03,629 --> 00:11:05,974 but a hidden tooth that they'd got stuffed in their mouth 180 00:11:06,008 --> 00:11:07,456 exactly for that occasion. 181 00:11:09,111 --> 00:11:12,077 [narrator] The deception could explain the apparently healthy teeth 182 00:11:12,111 --> 00:11:14,456 on this weird hat. 183 00:11:14,491 --> 00:11:16,905 These tooth-pullers, they'd sometimes, let's say, 184 00:11:16,939 --> 00:11:20,525 exaggerate the medical diagnosis and remove teeth that were perfectly healthy, 185 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:21,905 just to get a bit of cash. 186 00:11:24,594 --> 00:11:28,077 [narrator] But there's an even more grizzly possibility, 187 00:11:28,111 --> 00:11:33,318 because a healthy set of teeth isn't all that hard to come by in 19th century England. 188 00:11:33,353 --> 00:11:37,215 Thanks, in part, to one of the most famous battles in history. 189 00:11:40,422 --> 00:11:44,801 [Dr. Auerbach] Waterloo teeth comes from the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, 190 00:11:44,836 --> 00:11:48,180 which had an immense number of casualties. 191 00:11:48,215 --> 00:11:52,422 And what you had was people roaming the battleground 192 00:11:52,456 --> 00:11:55,387 pulling the teeth out of corpses. 193 00:11:55,422 --> 00:11:58,146 Thousands of teeth were collected this way 194 00:11:58,180 --> 00:12:01,836 and they were sold to the manufacturers of dentures. 195 00:12:06,111 --> 00:12:07,560 [narrator] In the 19th century, 196 00:12:07,594 --> 00:12:10,974 the trade in real teeth becomes so lucrative 197 00:12:11,008 --> 00:12:13,974 that people aren't just raiding battlefields. 198 00:12:14,905 --> 00:12:17,767 They're turning up graves. 199 00:12:17,801 --> 00:12:22,215 A more extreme form of tooth collection came via the resurrectionists, 200 00:12:22,249 --> 00:12:24,043 which is a polite term for graverobbers. 201 00:12:25,249 --> 00:12:27,318 The origin of the resurrectionists 202 00:12:27,353 --> 00:12:30,732 really comes from the demand of medical schools 203 00:12:30,767 --> 00:12:35,318 for fresh cadavers that can be used to train students in anatomy. 204 00:12:35,353 --> 00:12:37,353 And the resurrectionists figured, well, 205 00:12:37,387 --> 00:12:40,284 it's not like they're going to need to examine the teeth, 206 00:12:40,318 --> 00:12:42,525 so why not make a little extra money on the side. 207 00:12:44,180 --> 00:12:45,732 [narrator] But if any of these teeth 208 00:12:45,767 --> 00:12:49,767 do come from the battlegrounds of Waterloo or the spoils of graverobbing, 209 00:12:49,801 --> 00:12:52,043 they don't come cheap. 210 00:12:52,077 --> 00:12:55,180 [Dr. Steele] Given the highly competitive market for them in London at the time 211 00:12:55,215 --> 00:12:58,456 this could have been quite an expensive hat to put together. 212 00:12:58,491 --> 00:13:03,974 [narrator] Which might explain something odd you can only see in close-up. 213 00:13:04,008 --> 00:13:05,801 [Dr. Steele] Some of these teeth are actually sliced in half 214 00:13:05,836 --> 00:13:07,422 to make it look like there's more of them. 215 00:13:09,249 --> 00:13:13,008 [narrator] But by 1855, when this strange hat is sold off, 216 00:13:13,043 --> 00:13:16,249 the tooth-pulling business is on the way out. 217 00:13:16,284 --> 00:13:20,008 The first dental colleges were being founded in the US and the UK 218 00:13:20,043 --> 00:13:23,043 and this was the beginning of a regulated profession of dentistry. 219 00:13:25,387 --> 00:13:28,215 [narrator] The days of the traveling tooth-puller are over 220 00:13:28,249 --> 00:13:33,456 and one street dentist appears to quite literally hang up his hat. 221 00:13:34,698 --> 00:13:36,974 But what about Edward Lovett's first note 222 00:13:37,008 --> 00:13:41,077 that claimed this hat has magical properties? 223 00:13:41,111 --> 00:13:44,629 If you go back to 2013, when this hat was being stored in the Cuming Museum, 224 00:13:44,663 --> 00:13:46,318 there was a huge fire. 225 00:13:46,353 --> 00:13:51,146 And that fire destroyed a load of extremely valuable and very old artefacts. 226 00:13:51,180 --> 00:13:55,732 [narrator] Incredibly, the tatty velvet hat covered in 87 teeth survives, 227 00:13:55,767 --> 00:13:58,249 unscathed. 228 00:13:58,284 --> 00:14:03,318 So maybe not magic, but certainly a little charmed. 229 00:14:11,180 --> 00:14:16,008 At the University of Akron in Ohio is a harmless-looking box. 230 00:14:16,043 --> 00:14:19,525 It's covered in lights, switches and dials. 231 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,870 It looks like a prop from a 1960s science fiction movie. 232 00:14:23,525 --> 00:14:24,870 But it's not. 233 00:14:24,905 --> 00:14:28,905 This seemingly innocuous piece of equipment was actually created 234 00:14:28,939 --> 00:14:33,215 for one of the most infamous experiments in the 20th century. 235 00:14:33,249 --> 00:14:35,249 [narrator] Now, using the latest technology, 236 00:14:35,284 --> 00:14:38,043 we can examine it in unprecedented detail. 237 00:14:40,767 --> 00:14:43,525 This is the Milgram shock box. 238 00:14:45,077 --> 00:14:50,249 On its control face is printed shock generator type ZLB, 239 00:14:50,284 --> 00:14:53,905 because that is exactly what it is designed to do. 240 00:14:55,043 --> 00:14:57,594 This box was part of an experiment 241 00:14:57,629 --> 00:15:03,111 where one person was told to electrocute another person, literally until they died. 242 00:15:04,767 --> 00:15:08,491 [narrator] And hundreds of people did deliver that final, lethal shot. 243 00:15:10,456 --> 00:15:13,249 But what is the test's real purpose? 244 00:15:13,284 --> 00:15:14,939 Who was behind it? 245 00:15:14,974 --> 00:15:18,663 And how is an experiment this dangerous ever allowed? 246 00:15:26,318 --> 00:15:31,491 In 1961, an unusual ad appears in a Connecticut newspaper. 247 00:15:31,525 --> 00:15:34,008 [Sarah] These advertisements were looking for participants 248 00:15:34,043 --> 00:15:38,629 to take part in a study that looked really inoffensive at Yale University. 249 00:15:38,663 --> 00:15:43,939 Participants would get $4 for their time, which is about 40 bucks today. 250 00:15:43,974 --> 00:15:46,905 [narrator] Initially, the experiment seems straightforward. 251 00:15:46,939 --> 00:15:48,387 [Dr. Keon West] Two people enter the experiment 252 00:15:48,422 --> 00:15:50,249 who've never met each other before. 253 00:15:50,284 --> 00:15:53,318 One of them is chosen, randomly, to be the learner, 254 00:15:53,353 --> 00:15:55,629 and one of them to be the teacher. 255 00:15:55,663 --> 00:15:59,629 The teacher sees the learner strapped into a chair. 256 00:15:59,663 --> 00:16:02,180 The learner is strapped down by their wrists, 257 00:16:02,215 --> 00:16:03,836 so they can't get out of this chair 258 00:16:03,870 --> 00:16:05,560 and they're hooked up to something. 259 00:16:07,215 --> 00:16:10,870 [narrator] Electrodes and wires are attached to the learner's wrists. 260 00:16:10,905 --> 00:16:12,767 The teacher then leaves the learner 261 00:16:12,801 --> 00:16:15,905 and is led into an adjoining room. 262 00:16:15,939 --> 00:16:19,594 They sit down at the controls of the device they will be operating. 263 00:16:19,629 --> 00:16:22,284 The shock generator, type ZLB, 264 00:16:22,318 --> 00:16:25,249 the machine at the heart of this experiment. 265 00:16:25,284 --> 00:16:28,111 [Dr. West] There's a lot of different switches running along the bottom, 266 00:16:28,146 --> 00:16:31,594 from 15 volts all the way up to 450 volts. 267 00:16:31,629 --> 00:16:33,318 It allows you to shock someone, 268 00:16:33,353 --> 00:16:37,353 to give them shocks of increasing magnitude and severity 269 00:16:37,387 --> 00:16:42,043 as you flip each switch from slight shock, to moderate shock, 270 00:16:42,077 --> 00:16:46,663 to higher levels of shock, to even a danger XXX. 271 00:16:46,698 --> 00:16:48,836 [narrator] The machine is connected to the learner, 272 00:16:48,870 --> 00:16:52,043 but the teacher is told that despite the alarming warnings, 273 00:16:52,077 --> 00:16:55,077 the machine poses no threat to the learner's health. 274 00:16:56,008 --> 00:16:57,905 But that's hard to believe. 275 00:16:57,939 --> 00:17:00,387 The teachers were given a small shock, 276 00:17:00,422 --> 00:17:03,111 just a taste of what they would be administering. 277 00:17:03,146 --> 00:17:05,939 So they were given a 45 volt shock. 278 00:17:05,974 --> 00:17:07,318 That's not going to kill you. 279 00:17:07,353 --> 00:17:11,732 It's enough to give them a sense of what was going to happen 280 00:17:11,767 --> 00:17:13,560 when they pressed these levers and switches. 281 00:17:15,663 --> 00:17:18,043 [narrator] The experiment begins. 282 00:17:18,077 --> 00:17:21,284 The learner is given a series of memory tests. 283 00:17:21,318 --> 00:17:25,836 The teacher is instructed to give a shock 284 00:17:25,870 --> 00:17:28,732 to the learner, whenever they give an incorrect answer 285 00:17:30,491 --> 00:17:34,353 and then, subsequently, to raise the voltage one notch. 286 00:17:35,732 --> 00:17:37,422 As the voltage went higher, 287 00:17:37,456 --> 00:17:41,284 the teacher would begin to hear the learner react, through the dividing wall. 288 00:17:41,905 --> 00:17:43,284 [learner screams] 289 00:17:43,318 --> 00:17:46,422 The learner becomes increasingly agitated, 290 00:17:46,456 --> 00:17:48,974 pleading that the experiment stop. 291 00:17:49,008 --> 00:17:51,249 The learners would scream and shout. 292 00:17:51,284 --> 00:17:53,043 Sometimes they would bang on the wall. 293 00:17:53,077 --> 00:17:55,146 On occasion, they would go completely silent 294 00:17:55,180 --> 00:17:57,801 and refuse to answer the questions. 295 00:17:57,836 --> 00:18:01,146 The teacher was instructed that any refusal to answer 296 00:18:01,180 --> 00:18:03,663 counts as an incorrect response 297 00:18:03,698 --> 00:18:06,043 and therefore they should administer a further shock. 298 00:18:06,939 --> 00:18:08,008 [screams] 299 00:18:08,043 --> 00:18:10,077 [narrator] If the learner keeps getting it wrong, 300 00:18:10,111 --> 00:18:13,905 the teacher will eventually reach the maximum lethal switch. 301 00:18:13,939 --> 00:18:16,422 Four hundred fifty volts. 302 00:18:17,525 --> 00:18:19,215 What's going on? 303 00:18:19,249 --> 00:18:22,629 Will this machine really deliver a fatal shock to a learner 304 00:18:22,663 --> 00:18:25,180 who just can't get it right? 305 00:18:27,594 --> 00:18:29,525 Using state-of-the-art graphics, 306 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:34,111 we can get under the skin of the remarkable shock generator type ZLB. 307 00:18:35,491 --> 00:18:39,491 You open up the box and it does look a bit fishy. 308 00:18:39,525 --> 00:18:44,698 [Dr. Auerbach] The whole thing is held together by ordinary shelving brackets. 309 00:18:44,732 --> 00:18:47,491 [narrator] And the chaotic interior seems totally at odds 310 00:18:47,525 --> 00:18:49,525 with its professional exterior. 311 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,836 It's just a rat's nest. 312 00:18:52,870 --> 00:18:56,939 It's a mess of wires. It's not really clear what's connected to anything. 313 00:18:56,974 --> 00:18:59,767 [narrator] The switches and lights are wired to come on together 314 00:18:59,801 --> 00:19:02,525 and there are buzzers that activate with each switch press. 315 00:19:03,284 --> 00:19:05,905 But something vital is absent. 316 00:19:05,939 --> 00:19:08,491 What is missing from it is the crucial element. 317 00:19:08,525 --> 00:19:10,663 A high-voltage transformer 318 00:19:10,698 --> 00:19:14,353 that would create the kind of voltages that allegedly it's producing. 319 00:19:16,008 --> 00:19:20,767 That means the shock generator type ZLB is technically incapable 320 00:19:20,801 --> 00:19:23,732 of generating a lethal shock. 321 00:19:23,767 --> 00:19:25,353 [Dr. West] And that's the funny thing about the box. 322 00:19:25,387 --> 00:19:27,836 The learner is never actually being shocked. 323 00:19:27,870 --> 00:19:29,353 The box is a fake. 324 00:19:29,387 --> 00:19:32,870 Is the whole experiment some gruesome practical joke? 325 00:19:37,629 --> 00:19:38,939 [Sarah] This experiment was conducted 326 00:19:38,974 --> 00:19:42,284 by the eminent Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram. 327 00:19:42,318 --> 00:19:46,698 But the secret is that it was all smoke and mirrors. 328 00:19:46,732 --> 00:19:50,353 [narrator] Everything about Milgram's experiment is rigged from the start. 329 00:19:51,732 --> 00:19:55,560 The learners are never the subject of this experiment. 330 00:19:55,594 --> 00:19:59,043 [Dr. Auerbach] The so-called learners are all in on it. 331 00:19:59,077 --> 00:20:03,594 The only real volunteers and the true subjects of the experiment 332 00:20:03,629 --> 00:20:05,939 are the teachers. 333 00:20:05,974 --> 00:20:08,043 The screams and the cries were actually a recording. 334 00:20:08,077 --> 00:20:11,353 And they were a key part of what was being tested. 335 00:20:11,387 --> 00:20:14,698 Would the teachers continue to raise the voltage 336 00:20:14,732 --> 00:20:17,284 if they were told to do so by someone in authority. 337 00:20:21,318 --> 00:20:24,353 [Dr. West] The whole thing was designed to get the participants, 338 00:20:24,387 --> 00:20:27,111 the teachers, into a situation where they believe 339 00:20:27,146 --> 00:20:29,284 that they are going to shock the person to death 340 00:20:29,318 --> 00:20:33,008 if they comply and flip all of those little switches. 341 00:20:33,043 --> 00:20:36,732 [narrator] And if the teacher refuses to initiate a shock to the learner, 342 00:20:36,767 --> 00:20:41,560 the scientist monitoring the experiment responds in one of four ways. 343 00:20:41,594 --> 00:20:44,525 The first response was please continue. 344 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:48,456 The second response was the experiment requires you to continue. 345 00:20:49,456 --> 00:20:51,905 If they still refuse, the response is 346 00:20:51,939 --> 00:20:55,629 it is absolutely essential that you continue. 347 00:20:55,663 --> 00:20:57,249 And the final response was 348 00:20:57,284 --> 00:21:01,146 you have no other choice. You must go on. 349 00:21:01,180 --> 00:21:04,249 [narrator] Will the teachers ultimately do what they're told 350 00:21:04,284 --> 00:21:09,767 even though the markings on the box clearly suggest it could be lethal? 351 00:21:09,801 --> 00:21:14,249 [Dr. West] Milgram designed this experiment to test the limits of human morality 352 00:21:14,284 --> 00:21:16,663 and human response to authority. 353 00:21:16,698 --> 00:21:19,077 Essentially, it was to answer the question 354 00:21:19,111 --> 00:21:23,456 what does it take to get an ordinary person to shock a stranger to death? 355 00:21:23,491 --> 00:21:26,387 And the answer, apparently, was not very much. 356 00:21:27,629 --> 00:21:28,905 [screams] 357 00:21:28,939 --> 00:21:30,422 People were horrified. 358 00:21:31,974 --> 00:21:34,284 [narrator] The teachers are ordinary people. 359 00:21:34,318 --> 00:21:36,318 Without any threat to themselves, 360 00:21:36,353 --> 00:21:39,284 the majority sacrificed their moral compass 361 00:21:39,318 --> 00:21:41,767 for $4. 362 00:21:41,801 --> 00:21:46,111 What motivates Stanley Milgram to construct such a dark experiment? 363 00:21:54,146 --> 00:21:57,594 [narrator] What motivates psychologist Stanley Milgram to build a machine 364 00:21:57,629 --> 00:22:01,905 that makes people think they are delivering a lethal shock to someone? 365 00:22:01,939 --> 00:22:05,249 [Dr. Auerbach] Milgram is born in New York City in 1933 366 00:22:05,284 --> 00:22:09,008 and he's the son of Jewish immigrant parents. 367 00:22:09,043 --> 00:22:12,698 And for quite obvious reasons, the whole family is deeply affected by the Holocaust. 368 00:22:13,767 --> 00:22:17,077 [narrator] Between 1941 and 1945, 369 00:22:17,111 --> 00:22:22,249 Nazi Germany and its allies systematically murder over six million Jews. 370 00:22:23,905 --> 00:22:26,939 [Dr. Auerbach] The burning question in Milgram's mind 371 00:22:26,974 --> 00:22:30,594 is why would ordinary Germans, 372 00:22:30,629 --> 00:22:34,111 people who had never killed anyone or tortured anyone their whole lives, 373 00:22:34,146 --> 00:22:37,836 why would they carry out these horrendous acts? 374 00:22:37,870 --> 00:22:40,008 [narrator] This shock box is the result 375 00:22:40,043 --> 00:22:42,284 of Milgram following through on that question. 376 00:22:44,663 --> 00:22:47,353 [Dr. West] Milgram's study was a study of obedience. 377 00:22:47,387 --> 00:22:48,836 What Milgram wanted to know is 378 00:22:48,870 --> 00:22:52,870 can you get good people to do really bad things 379 00:22:52,905 --> 00:22:55,870 if you ask them to obey someone in authority? 380 00:22:55,905 --> 00:22:56,939 That was the central question. 381 00:23:01,353 --> 00:23:05,146 [narrator] Milgram suspects the answer lies in something more universal 382 00:23:05,180 --> 00:23:07,560 than extremist Nazi ideology. 383 00:23:08,836 --> 00:23:12,663 Milgram is convinced that the uniform 384 00:23:12,698 --> 00:23:16,249 conveys a very powerful element of authority, 385 00:23:16,284 --> 00:23:18,043 so he makes sure that the people 386 00:23:18,077 --> 00:23:20,318 who are instructing his teachers 387 00:23:20,353 --> 00:23:26,560 are dressed in lab coats and identify themselves as Yale psychologists. 388 00:23:26,594 --> 00:23:28,939 [narrator] To Milgram, this proves beyond doubt 389 00:23:28,974 --> 00:23:32,525 that it is the uniform that makes people obey. 390 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:36,974 So what made the shock box so essential to the success of the experiment? 391 00:23:38,146 --> 00:23:42,456 Although this box is actually completely harmless, 392 00:23:42,491 --> 00:23:44,560 what was crucial to the experiment 393 00:23:44,594 --> 00:23:46,560 is that it looked like it wasn't 394 00:23:46,594 --> 00:23:50,008 and in order to really persuade people of that, 395 00:23:50,043 --> 00:23:51,767 it seemed to be crucial 396 00:23:51,801 --> 00:23:57,215 to get it to look like a proper, designed, commercial instrument. 397 00:23:57,249 --> 00:24:02,008 [narrator] Milgram's box taps into the visual grammar of groundbreaking new ideas 398 00:24:02,043 --> 00:24:05,387 surrounding product design and ergonomics. 399 00:24:05,422 --> 00:24:08,318 [Sarah] There was a new way of thinking about the design of machines 400 00:24:08,353 --> 00:24:10,560 called human systems engineering. 401 00:24:10,594 --> 00:24:13,525 This brought psychology and engineering together 402 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:17,180 to think about the way that machines should be visually organized. 403 00:24:19,146 --> 00:24:22,353 [narrator] Designers of everything from telephones to spaceships 404 00:24:22,387 --> 00:24:26,422 were evolving controls to make them as intuitive as possible. 405 00:24:26,456 --> 00:24:29,353 And Milgram takes the same approach. 406 00:24:29,387 --> 00:24:30,905 [Dr. West] Milgram tried different versions. 407 00:24:30,939 --> 00:24:33,974 Like buttoned versions and some switch versions for example, 408 00:24:34,008 --> 00:24:36,905 and he found that people understood the switches. 409 00:24:36,939 --> 00:24:40,974 [narrator] But there is more to Milgram's final shock box, the ZLB, 410 00:24:41,008 --> 00:24:43,939 than just it's functional appearance. 411 00:24:43,974 --> 00:24:46,801 It's also designed to leave no room for confusion 412 00:24:46,836 --> 00:24:49,836 about the consequences of the teachers' actions. 413 00:24:49,870 --> 00:24:51,663 [Dr. West] The little line underneath that said, 414 00:24:51,698 --> 00:24:54,491 "Slight Shock," or "XXX" extreme shock, 415 00:24:54,525 --> 00:24:56,870 that helped people figure out what they were doing. 416 00:24:56,905 --> 00:25:00,077 They knew that over here was a slight shock and that over here was death. 417 00:25:00,111 --> 00:25:03,043 They had to know what the consequences of the flips were. 418 00:25:03,939 --> 00:25:06,008 [narrator] But is Milgram right? 419 00:25:06,043 --> 00:25:09,215 Does all this carefully staged psychological theatre 420 00:25:09,249 --> 00:25:12,077 that humans can be manipulated 421 00:25:12,111 --> 00:25:14,111 to follow almost any order? 422 00:25:17,043 --> 00:25:19,801 [Dr. West] As a psychologist, looking at just the first experiment, 423 00:25:19,836 --> 00:25:22,353 I would say you have no idea why they shocked that person, 424 00:25:22,387 --> 00:25:23,560 it's really difficult to tell. 425 00:25:23,594 --> 00:25:25,491 Too much is going on. 426 00:25:25,525 --> 00:25:28,939 [narrator] Milgram is aware of this and carries out follow up experiments. 427 00:25:29,905 --> 00:25:31,836 In order to test his theory, 428 00:25:31,870 --> 00:25:35,836 Milgram will sometimes replace the instructor in a lab coat 429 00:25:35,870 --> 00:25:37,801 with an instructor in plain clothes. 430 00:25:37,836 --> 00:25:39,698 And the results are dramatic. 431 00:25:41,939 --> 00:25:43,456 The number of teachers 432 00:25:43,491 --> 00:25:46,111 willing to administer a lethal shock 433 00:25:46,146 --> 00:25:48,974 drops from 65% to 25%. 434 00:25:50,387 --> 00:25:51,870 So it's exactly the kind of thing, 435 00:25:51,905 --> 00:25:54,387 switching it out from a lab coat 436 00:25:54,422 --> 00:25:57,249 to plain clothes and then watching the compliance drop. 437 00:25:57,284 --> 00:25:59,456 That tells us it's the lab coat. 438 00:25:59,491 --> 00:26:02,939 Changing the institution that Milgram is supposed to be attached to from Yale 439 00:26:02,974 --> 00:26:05,870 to somewhere a lot less fancy and seeing if the compliance goes down. 440 00:26:05,905 --> 00:26:08,801 That's how you tell what's driving the behaviors. 441 00:26:08,836 --> 00:26:11,974 [narrator] The more symbols of authority Milgram eliminates, 442 00:26:12,008 --> 00:26:14,905 from the white coat to the prestigious institution, 443 00:26:14,939 --> 00:26:17,180 the less teachers comply. 444 00:26:17,215 --> 00:26:19,180 [Dr. West] The original experiment is just the start. 445 00:26:19,215 --> 00:26:21,560 It's the eye-catching headline, 446 00:26:21,594 --> 00:26:24,215 but it's the later experiments that tell you why it worked. 447 00:26:24,249 --> 00:26:25,318 That's the important part. 448 00:26:27,008 --> 00:26:30,698 [narrator] Sixty years on, some dispute Milgram's results. 449 00:26:30,732 --> 00:26:33,594 And it's a dispute that's unlikely to be resolved 450 00:26:33,629 --> 00:26:36,801 because his groundbreaking study would not be allowed today. 451 00:26:37,353 --> 00:26:38,732 In the old days, 452 00:26:38,767 --> 00:26:41,249 psychologists didn't really have standards 453 00:26:41,284 --> 00:26:44,043 for how to treat people or how not to hurt them, 454 00:26:44,077 --> 00:26:47,318 and unfortunately, that meant quite a lot of people got hurt, 455 00:26:47,353 --> 00:26:48,939 which is why we have the standards today. 456 00:26:50,284 --> 00:26:51,974 [narrator] This lack of ethical standards 457 00:26:52,008 --> 00:26:55,387 could have potentially fatal consequences. 458 00:26:55,422 --> 00:26:57,629 [Dr. Auerbach] Harvard psychologist, Henry Murray, 459 00:26:57,663 --> 00:26:59,939 decides to study the effects 460 00:26:59,974 --> 00:27:04,387 of psychological attacks on people's core beliefs, 461 00:27:04,422 --> 00:27:06,836 and he subjects volunteers 462 00:27:06,870 --> 00:27:10,318 to weekly sessions of vicious verbal abuse. 463 00:27:11,422 --> 00:27:12,698 In 1959, 464 00:27:12,732 --> 00:27:16,111 a 17-year-old math prodigy joined the study, 465 00:27:16,146 --> 00:27:18,111 and over the course of the next few years, 466 00:27:18,146 --> 00:27:22,008 he's subjected to some 200 hours of verbal abuse. 467 00:27:23,939 --> 00:27:25,525 [narrator] Nearly 20 years later 468 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:30,560 that math prodigy begins a 17-year bombing campaign in the US. 469 00:27:30,594 --> 00:27:33,939 He kills three people and injures 23. 470 00:27:33,974 --> 00:27:36,387 His name is Theodore Kaczynski. 471 00:27:37,422 --> 00:27:40,629 The press call him the Unabomber. 472 00:27:40,663 --> 00:27:44,629 It's been suggested that the psychological damage inflicted by the experiment 473 00:27:44,663 --> 00:27:46,180 helped send him off the rails. 474 00:27:48,698 --> 00:27:51,043 [Dr. West] I do think it is our responsibility, 475 00:27:51,077 --> 00:27:53,836 if we're conducting experiments on human beings 476 00:27:53,870 --> 00:27:55,387 to treat these human beings well. 477 00:27:55,422 --> 00:27:58,525 To think about not only what can be learned from the experiment, 478 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:00,836 but also what are we doing to the people who take part, 479 00:28:00,870 --> 00:28:04,456 to respect them as much as we'd like to be respected. 480 00:28:04,491 --> 00:28:08,077 [narrator] Milgram was aware his shock box apparently killing someone 481 00:28:08,111 --> 00:28:11,284 might have been traumatic for the teachers. 482 00:28:11,318 --> 00:28:14,215 To look after them, he debriefed some participants 483 00:28:14,249 --> 00:28:17,491 before they returned to their normal lives. 484 00:28:17,525 --> 00:28:19,836 There's no evidence that any of the teachers 485 00:28:19,870 --> 00:28:22,525 suffered long term issues from their experience. 486 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,008 -[shock box buzzes] -[narrator] Milgram's shock box study 487 00:28:25,043 --> 00:28:27,629 remains one of the most significant experiments 488 00:28:27,663 --> 00:28:29,732 ever conducted in psychology. 489 00:28:31,043 --> 00:28:35,249 The implications of this are that what happened under Nazism 490 00:28:35,284 --> 00:28:39,353 could happen to any of us, anywhere, at any time. 491 00:28:39,387 --> 00:28:43,767 [narrator] Milgram's shock box changed our understanding of who we are. 492 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,491 In the archeological museum at Vergina in Greece 493 00:28:52,525 --> 00:28:55,698 is a mysterious 2,300-year-old relic. 494 00:28:57,491 --> 00:29:00,146 This strange thing holds a remarkable secret 495 00:29:00,180 --> 00:29:01,422 about an ancient myth. 496 00:29:02,836 --> 00:29:04,974 [Dr. Abigail Graham] It might allow us to connect 497 00:29:05,008 --> 00:29:07,629 a real life individual 498 00:29:07,663 --> 00:29:11,594 with the mythic legends of the past. 499 00:29:11,629 --> 00:29:13,629 [narrator] Now, using the latest technology, 500 00:29:13,663 --> 00:29:17,043 we're bring this incredible object into the light. 501 00:29:18,525 --> 00:29:20,801 This is the golden quiver. 502 00:29:22,146 --> 00:29:24,456 About the size of a briefcase, 503 00:29:24,491 --> 00:29:27,560 it is an exceptional piece of ancient craftsmanship. 504 00:29:28,732 --> 00:29:31,146 The golden surface skillfully embossed 505 00:29:31,180 --> 00:29:34,422 with finely wrought details of lifelike scenes, 506 00:29:35,353 --> 00:29:36,560 but this isn't an ornament. 507 00:29:37,353 --> 00:29:38,732 It's a weapon. 508 00:29:38,767 --> 00:29:42,594 A quiver is container that an archer uses to hold their arrows. 509 00:29:42,629 --> 00:29:45,663 [narrator] And where it is found is startling. 510 00:29:45,698 --> 00:29:48,663 The quiver was found in the tomb of a Macedonian king. 511 00:29:49,870 --> 00:29:53,008 [narrator] But this style of quiver isn't Macedonian. 512 00:29:53,043 --> 00:29:55,491 It comes from hundreds of miles to the north, 513 00:29:55,525 --> 00:29:59,525 in Scythia, home to a mythical warrior race. 514 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,525 [Dr. Graham] The deadly warrior Scythian women 515 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,422 were said to be legends 516 00:30:04,456 --> 00:30:06,422 that descended from the Amazons. 517 00:30:07,629 --> 00:30:09,560 [narrator] And that's why the quiver matters. 518 00:30:09,594 --> 00:30:13,456 Because the king isn't the only body in the tomb. 519 00:30:13,491 --> 00:30:16,491 There are also the remains of a woman. 520 00:30:16,525 --> 00:30:20,043 The question is, does she have anything to do with the quiver? 521 00:30:20,077 --> 00:30:23,663 [narrator] What is the Scythian quiver doing in a Macedonian tomb? 522 00:30:24,387 --> 00:30:26,629 Does it belong to the woman? 523 00:30:26,663 --> 00:30:28,767 Could she be a real life descendant 524 00:30:28,801 --> 00:30:30,698 of the legendary Amazon? 525 00:30:38,870 --> 00:30:42,008 [narrator] This golden quiver is part of a spectacular find 526 00:30:42,043 --> 00:30:43,698 made in 1977 527 00:30:43,732 --> 00:30:47,077 by archeologist Manolis Andronikos. 528 00:30:47,111 --> 00:30:50,732 The excavations occurred in the Macedonian city of Agia 529 00:30:50,767 --> 00:30:53,456 which was an important city, really, in the Macedonian kingdom. 530 00:30:54,939 --> 00:30:57,594 [narrator] Andronikos uncovers a complete and untouched 531 00:30:57,629 --> 00:30:59,387 Macedonian tomb. 532 00:30:59,422 --> 00:31:02,422 Nothing like it has ever been found before. 533 00:31:02,456 --> 00:31:04,560 They uncovered this incredible building 534 00:31:04,594 --> 00:31:07,594 with the vaulted room and two chambers. 535 00:31:07,629 --> 00:31:10,767 And within them, they actually found a cache 536 00:31:10,801 --> 00:31:13,422 of really incredible objects. 537 00:31:13,456 --> 00:31:15,732 [narrator] In the tomb is a gold ossuary 538 00:31:15,767 --> 00:31:18,215 containing the remains of a Macedonian ruler. 539 00:31:19,387 --> 00:31:22,456 The tombs dating spans the reigns of Macedonia's 540 00:31:22,491 --> 00:31:24,767 two most famous and ambitious kings, 541 00:31:25,767 --> 00:31:27,249 Philip II, 542 00:31:27,284 --> 00:31:30,318 and his son, Alexander the Great. 543 00:31:32,215 --> 00:31:35,387 These men transformed the ancient world. 544 00:31:35,422 --> 00:31:39,180 Philip II expands Macedonia into a Mediterranean powerhouse, 545 00:31:40,422 --> 00:31:42,939 Alexander turbocharges this, 546 00:31:42,974 --> 00:31:46,836 creating a vast empire that stretches over 3,000 miles. 547 00:31:50,387 --> 00:31:54,077 But there are the remains of a second body in the tomb, 548 00:31:54,111 --> 00:31:56,525 the partially cremated bones of a woman. 549 00:31:57,870 --> 00:32:00,767 Beside her lie the tools of a warrior, 550 00:32:00,801 --> 00:32:04,594 spearheads, shin guards and the golden quiver. 551 00:32:05,353 --> 00:32:07,249 What is it doing there? 552 00:32:07,939 --> 00:32:09,043 Where does it comes from? 553 00:32:12,629 --> 00:32:16,491 This design of quiver is known as a gorytos. 554 00:32:16,525 --> 00:32:19,077 An arrow case worn on the archer's hip. 555 00:32:20,043 --> 00:32:22,422 The whole point is to enable rapid fire, 556 00:32:22,456 --> 00:32:25,249 so you can quickly get your arrows, shoot at your enemies, 557 00:32:25,284 --> 00:32:27,249 um, as fast as you can. 558 00:32:27,284 --> 00:32:31,043 Often speed was the decisive factor who was going to win the combat. 559 00:32:32,353 --> 00:32:35,353 The gorytos is unique to an ancient warrior race 560 00:32:35,387 --> 00:32:38,836 that flourishes between 900 and 200 BCE. 561 00:32:39,732 --> 00:32:40,629 The Scythians. 562 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,456 [Dr. Graham] The Scythians are a group of nomadic people 563 00:32:45,491 --> 00:32:47,525 who lived on the steppe, 564 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:49,939 and travelled across broad areas, 565 00:32:50,698 --> 00:32:53,249 from modern China and Russia, 566 00:32:53,284 --> 00:32:55,836 all the way over to the Black Sea, 567 00:32:55,870 --> 00:32:57,663 and they're known as a warrior people. 568 00:32:59,939 --> 00:33:04,284 [narrator] And this quiver does depict a bloody battle scene. 569 00:33:04,318 --> 00:33:07,836 Finding a Scythian quiver buried with a woman could be momentous. 570 00:33:08,905 --> 00:33:10,387 Because according to legend, 571 00:33:10,422 --> 00:33:14,284 the most deadly Scythians were mounted female archers, 572 00:33:14,318 --> 00:33:17,801 said to be descendants of the greatest mythical female warriors of all, 573 00:33:18,663 --> 00:33:20,043 the Amazons. 574 00:33:20,077 --> 00:33:22,146 [Dr. Mark Altaweel] The Amazons derived from Greek legend. 575 00:33:22,180 --> 00:33:23,663 They were female warriors 576 00:33:23,698 --> 00:33:26,284 who would only selectively mate just to produce more warriors, 577 00:33:26,318 --> 00:33:28,870 would get rid of the males usually, and just only keep the women, 578 00:33:28,905 --> 00:33:32,043 and raise the women as effectively warriors. 579 00:33:34,146 --> 00:33:35,905 [narrator] The problem with Ancient Greece 580 00:33:35,939 --> 00:33:38,560 is that it's packed with mythical stories. 581 00:33:38,594 --> 00:33:41,387 A lot of them are clearly works of fiction. 582 00:33:41,422 --> 00:33:44,077 Like Pegasus, the flying horse. 583 00:33:44,111 --> 00:33:47,284 Or Medusa, the woman with snakes for hair. 584 00:33:47,318 --> 00:33:49,939 [Dr. Graham] Some of these are utterly fantastical 585 00:33:49,974 --> 00:33:51,870 as opposed to actual things. 586 00:33:51,905 --> 00:33:54,560 That doesn't necessarily mean that all of them are. 587 00:33:54,594 --> 00:33:57,801 Um, but we want to tread carefully. 588 00:33:57,836 --> 00:34:00,939 [narrator] Perhaps the stories of women warriors are just that, 589 00:34:00,974 --> 00:34:02,491 stories. 590 00:34:02,525 --> 00:34:05,732 Maybe the quiver simply belongs to the man buried in the tomb. 591 00:34:09,318 --> 00:34:12,043 So who exactly is buried here? 592 00:34:13,111 --> 00:34:17,008 The tomb is dated between 350 and 325 BCE. 593 00:34:18,215 --> 00:34:21,387 A time that spans the reigns of Philip II, 594 00:34:21,422 --> 00:34:22,870 Alexander the Great, 595 00:34:22,905 --> 00:34:25,456 and Alexander's half-brother, Philip III. 596 00:34:26,836 --> 00:34:28,215 We know that Alexander the Great 597 00:34:28,249 --> 00:34:30,836 was buried in Egypt in Alexandria, 598 00:34:30,870 --> 00:34:32,180 the city that bears his name. 599 00:34:33,284 --> 00:34:35,008 [narrator] So it's not Alexander. 600 00:34:35,043 --> 00:34:37,491 Could it be his father or his half-brother, 601 00:34:37,525 --> 00:34:38,939 buried with their wives? 602 00:34:38,974 --> 00:34:41,663 [Plummer Sires] So both Philip II and Philip III 603 00:34:41,698 --> 00:34:44,905 fit the profile of the bones that were found within the tomb. 604 00:34:44,939 --> 00:34:47,249 So each of them could have been contenders 605 00:34:47,284 --> 00:34:49,353 for the identity of the bones. 606 00:34:49,387 --> 00:34:51,594 [narrator] For 30 years, arguments raged 607 00:34:51,629 --> 00:34:53,939 over whether the bodies could belong to Philip II 608 00:34:53,974 --> 00:34:56,525 and his seventh wife, Cleopatra Eurydice, 609 00:34:57,801 --> 00:35:01,180 or Philip the III and his teen bride Adea. 610 00:35:03,525 --> 00:35:05,525 Then in 2013, 611 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,249 osteoarcheologists make a detailed study 612 00:35:08,284 --> 00:35:10,698 of the remains of the women's pelvis. 613 00:35:10,732 --> 00:35:13,008 [Dr. Steele] The pelvis is actually a really useful part 614 00:35:13,043 --> 00:35:15,284 to allow you to work out how old the skeleton owner was 615 00:35:15,318 --> 00:35:17,008 when they died. 616 00:35:17,043 --> 00:35:19,560 That's because of the part when the pelvis meets the lower part of the spine, 617 00:35:19,594 --> 00:35:23,146 and it's texture changes quite significantly during life. 618 00:35:23,180 --> 00:35:26,008 By the earlier thirties, the surface becomes rougher. 619 00:35:26,043 --> 00:35:28,146 [narrator] The analysis of the bone's textures 620 00:35:28,180 --> 00:35:29,249 suggest that the woman 621 00:35:29,284 --> 00:35:32,560 was between 30 and 34 years old when she died. 622 00:35:33,594 --> 00:35:35,663 It changes everything. 623 00:35:35,698 --> 00:35:37,043 [Plummer Sires] This rules out 624 00:35:37,077 --> 00:35:41,077 Adea, Philip III's wife, because she would've been much too young. 625 00:35:41,111 --> 00:35:44,939 [narrator] Historical texts reveal that Philip III was buried with Adea. 626 00:35:45,905 --> 00:35:47,836 So if the body isn't Adea, 627 00:35:47,870 --> 00:35:50,353 then the man isn't Philip III. 628 00:35:50,387 --> 00:35:52,663 It has to be his father Philip II. 629 00:35:53,939 --> 00:35:56,146 He is a legendary warrior. 630 00:35:56,180 --> 00:35:57,767 So is the quiver his 631 00:35:57,801 --> 00:36:00,422 rather than some mythical Amazonian warrior's? 632 00:36:09,146 --> 00:36:11,767 [narrator] Many scholars believe this golden quiver, 633 00:36:11,801 --> 00:36:15,180 and other armor discovered in a royal Macedonian tomb, 634 00:36:15,215 --> 00:36:17,560 must belong to the man found there 635 00:36:17,594 --> 00:36:19,215 rather than the woman. 636 00:36:19,249 --> 00:36:21,525 We had these sort of associations of weaponry 637 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:26,318 that are often more linked with male warriors or kings even. 638 00:36:26,353 --> 00:36:28,939 [narrator] That certainly fits with the battle scene on the quiver, 639 00:36:28,974 --> 00:36:31,525 depicting an attack on a city. 640 00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:33,974 All the warriors appear to be men. 641 00:36:34,008 --> 00:36:37,284 There are women shown, but they seem to be running for their lives. 642 00:36:38,525 --> 00:36:40,318 [Dr. Graham] For so long people have thought these 643 00:36:40,353 --> 00:36:43,318 couldn't even belong to a woman. 644 00:36:43,353 --> 00:36:46,974 So much so that in the museum, there was a plaque included 645 00:36:47,008 --> 00:36:50,456 that said, "jewelry's for women, weaponry's for men." 646 00:36:50,491 --> 00:36:54,146 [narrator] But in 2013, the legs are literally kicked out 647 00:36:54,180 --> 00:36:58,146 from under that idea by analysis of the woman's bones. 648 00:36:58,180 --> 00:37:02,318 [Plummer Sires] They discovered that there was a very severe fracture 649 00:37:02,353 --> 00:37:05,318 to her left tibia, her shin bone. 650 00:37:05,353 --> 00:37:07,698 This could well be the kind of traumatic injury 651 00:37:07,732 --> 00:37:10,180 that you find in the skeleton of a warrior. 652 00:37:10,215 --> 00:37:12,008 [narrator] The injury has left the woman 653 00:37:12,043 --> 00:37:15,456 with one leg almost an inch and a half shorter than the other. 654 00:37:16,870 --> 00:37:20,560 And when the team measure the shin guards from the tomb, 655 00:37:20,594 --> 00:37:23,525 the left one is shorter than the right. 656 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,008 It's an exact match for the woman's injuries. 657 00:37:27,249 --> 00:37:29,905 The conclusion from this is that quiver 658 00:37:29,939 --> 00:37:32,663 and the associated armor and weaponry 659 00:37:32,698 --> 00:37:35,491 belong to the woman and not the man. 660 00:37:35,525 --> 00:37:38,870 [narrator] So who is this mysterious warrior woman 661 00:37:38,905 --> 00:37:41,353 with the Scythian quiver? 662 00:37:41,387 --> 00:37:44,008 Is she connected to the legendary Amazons? 663 00:37:46,456 --> 00:37:48,560 The obvious choice for the quiver's owner 664 00:37:48,594 --> 00:37:51,422 is Philip II's seventh and last wife, 665 00:37:51,456 --> 00:37:53,215 Cleopatra Eurydice. 666 00:37:53,249 --> 00:37:56,146 We know they died at around the same time 667 00:37:56,180 --> 00:37:59,008 But the dating of the pelvis is a problem. 668 00:37:59,043 --> 00:38:01,560 [Plummer Sires] It rules out Cleopatra Eurydice, 669 00:38:01,594 --> 00:38:04,732 Philip II's wife because she was also much too young. 670 00:38:04,767 --> 00:38:07,180 [narrator] Does that mean the woman is Scythian? 671 00:38:08,870 --> 00:38:11,629 There is one other Macedonian candidate 672 00:38:11,663 --> 00:38:14,560 Alexander the Great's half-sister, Cynane. 673 00:38:15,767 --> 00:38:17,525 Her mother is Illyrian, 674 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,663 a society where women fight in battle. 675 00:38:20,698 --> 00:38:23,974 And Cynane is raised as a warrior princess. 676 00:38:24,008 --> 00:38:26,491 [Dr. Altaweel] She was famed for being trained in the arts of war, 677 00:38:26,525 --> 00:38:29,525 she's even famed to have killed a queen in battle. 678 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:33,043 So, it does potentially suggest that she is a likely 679 00:38:33,077 --> 00:38:34,974 or a potential individual who's buried in this grave. 680 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,043 [narrator] Cynane is killed at 34. 681 00:38:39,077 --> 00:38:41,767 It fits the age of the pelvis. 682 00:38:41,801 --> 00:38:44,594 So is it Cynane laid to rest next to her father? 683 00:38:48,767 --> 00:38:52,111 One intriguing bit of evidence supports this possibility. 684 00:38:52,146 --> 00:38:54,077 [Dr. Altaweel] When they excavate the tombs, they realize 685 00:38:54,111 --> 00:38:56,180 it's actually the chambers that were found 686 00:38:56,215 --> 00:38:57,767 were not exactly the same level, 687 00:38:57,801 --> 00:38:59,836 there seems to be an elapsed period of time 688 00:38:59,870 --> 00:39:02,732 between the main chamber and the other chamber that was found. 689 00:39:02,767 --> 00:39:05,767 So it indicates that the individuals buried, 690 00:39:05,801 --> 00:39:07,663 um, did not die at the same time. 691 00:39:08,870 --> 00:39:10,594 This fits with Cynane 692 00:39:10,629 --> 00:39:15,008 because she dies 13 years after her father, Philip II. 693 00:39:15,043 --> 00:39:18,215 Cynane is a good match for the quiver's owner. 694 00:39:18,249 --> 00:39:21,732 It can't belong one of the legendary Scythian women warriors 695 00:39:21,767 --> 00:39:23,318 because they are just myths. 696 00:39:24,422 --> 00:39:25,318 Or are they? 697 00:39:28,732 --> 00:39:31,974 Throughout the 20th century, archeologists investigate 698 00:39:32,008 --> 00:39:35,939 ancient Scythian burial mounds known as kurgans. 699 00:39:35,974 --> 00:39:37,767 [Dr. Altaweel] And they found many bodies. 700 00:39:37,801 --> 00:39:40,318 In addition to the skeletons, 701 00:39:40,353 --> 00:39:42,284 a number of weapons were found. 702 00:39:42,318 --> 00:39:45,456 Bows, knives, swords, shields. 703 00:39:45,491 --> 00:39:48,525 So these clearly are warrior burials. 704 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,387 [narrator] They also find four gorytos with the bodies. 705 00:39:53,111 --> 00:39:54,284 For over a century, 706 00:39:54,318 --> 00:39:57,629 these battle scarred skeletons are believed to be male 707 00:39:57,663 --> 00:40:01,146 until recent DNA analysis. 708 00:40:01,180 --> 00:40:04,456 [Dr. Altaweel] About a third of the skeletons appear to be female. 709 00:40:04,491 --> 00:40:07,663 This actually corroborates Herodotus and the other Greek writers 710 00:40:07,698 --> 00:40:10,491 who talked about the Scythian female warrior. 711 00:40:10,525 --> 00:40:12,008 This race of Amazons 712 00:40:12,043 --> 00:40:13,767 is not entirely mythical. 713 00:40:13,801 --> 00:40:16,939 There was probably a class of female warriors. 714 00:40:16,974 --> 00:40:19,939 [narrator] The warrior women of Scythia are no myth. 715 00:40:19,974 --> 00:40:23,077 They are real battle-hardened fighters. 716 00:40:23,111 --> 00:40:26,663 So does the quiver belong to Alexander the Great's half-sister, 717 00:40:26,698 --> 00:40:27,560 Cynane? 718 00:40:27,594 --> 00:40:29,698 Or to a Scythian warrior? 719 00:40:32,318 --> 00:40:34,008 According to ancient texts, 720 00:40:34,043 --> 00:40:37,008 Philip II's son, Alexander, actually encounters 721 00:40:37,043 --> 00:40:39,111 these warrior women. 722 00:40:39,146 --> 00:40:42,318 [Dr. Graham] There was apparently a famous Amazon queen 723 00:40:42,353 --> 00:40:45,594 who approached Alexander and apparently spent 724 00:40:45,629 --> 00:40:47,939 13 nights with him. 725 00:40:47,974 --> 00:40:49,974 [narrator] So it's possible these warrior women 726 00:40:50,008 --> 00:40:52,491 are also known to his father, Philip II. 727 00:40:53,732 --> 00:40:55,870 And if the woman in the tomb is Scythian 728 00:40:55,905 --> 00:40:58,698 it explains the presence of a Scythian quiver. 729 00:41:00,456 --> 00:41:02,905 But there is another possibility. 730 00:41:02,939 --> 00:41:07,146 The quiver could be an artful copy of the Scythian style. 731 00:41:07,180 --> 00:41:09,353 Macedonians would've understood how to make 732 00:41:09,387 --> 00:41:10,801 intricate, elaborate metalwork. 733 00:41:10,836 --> 00:41:13,663 They certainly had the skills to make very beautiful objects. 734 00:41:13,698 --> 00:41:17,043 Making something like the gorytos that was found in the Macedonian tomb 735 00:41:17,077 --> 00:41:18,905 would not have been above their skillset. 736 00:41:20,698 --> 00:41:24,698 [narrator] Which would explain where Cynane might have got her hands on one. 737 00:41:24,732 --> 00:41:27,870 Perhaps the quiver was a way for Cynane to connect herself 738 00:41:27,905 --> 00:41:31,180 to the myth of Amazonian warriors. 739 00:41:31,215 --> 00:41:35,663 It would certainly explain the graphic depictions of battle on the quiver. 740 00:41:35,698 --> 00:41:39,387 [Dr. Graham] If it is Cynane who is buried inside the tomb, 741 00:41:39,422 --> 00:41:41,836 what would we have is a female figure 742 00:41:41,870 --> 00:41:45,491 who isn't a mythic legendary creature 743 00:41:45,525 --> 00:41:47,870 like an Amazon, but a real woman, 744 00:41:47,905 --> 00:41:50,801 a real empowered warrior figure. 745 00:41:50,836 --> 00:41:52,525 [narrator] Scythian or Macedonian, 746 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,146 this quiver was the weapon of a powerful female warrior. 747 00:41:57,111 --> 00:41:58,836 One who could trace her story back 748 00:41:58,870 --> 00:42:02,491 to the most feared and powerful women in all of mythology, 749 00:42:03,215 --> 00:42:05,456 the legendary Amazons.