- 6/4/2025
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00:00Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
00:10Death always gets the final word, no matter how we mock it.
00:25Sworn to eternal silence, the dead seem beyond our reach.
00:30Yet to some scientists, they speak volumes.
00:37When I look at a mummy, I'm looking at an encyclopedia.
00:41Through the lens of modern science, the grave has become a window on the past.
00:48Today we can learn intimate details about how the ancients lived and how they died.
00:55Absolutely, that's really a common way that they did it.
00:58Do you think the strangulation or blows to the heads?
01:01Bit by bit, their portraits emerge from flesh, bone and DNA.
01:10Bringing the people back to life, I think that's the fun part of it.
01:14The unearthing of the past reveals the tangled roots of our family tree.
01:26But some see only the desecration of their ancestors.
01:31They must be put back into the bosom of sacred Mother Earth.
01:36As the living defend the dead, battle lines are drawn.
01:45In truth, those who passed here long ago still dwell among us.
01:50From fragile remains, their life stories unfold.
01:56And as we hear them, they become a part of us all.
02:04Listen now to the voices of the dead.
02:07Build the dead.
02:19The dead.
02:28This is the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile.
02:58Life has found a foothold here, not in the blazing sands, but in slender river valleys
03:05that stretch across the desert from the Andes to the sea.
03:11The city of Areca stands where two rivers meet the Pacific Ocean.
03:18Countless generations of fishermen have thrived here, and many families have deep roots.
03:27Whenever ground is broken, there s a good chance these roots may come to light.
03:41The city s arid soil has yielded several ancient burials for the delight of scientists from
03:47the local university.
03:50Physical anthropologist Bernardo Ariazza, now with the University of Nevada, will never
03:56forget a visit to a site where the water company was digging trenches.
04:01I remember in 1983, it was a quiet day when the water company called us.
04:07They said they have found something unusual, so that really caught our interest.
04:14And we get called all the time, and you never know what you re going to find.
04:18So that s also the exciting part of going, so you don t know where it s going to be.
04:22And this time was quite incredible, actually.
04:25The shovels had exposed a plot of nearly a hundred mummies.
04:33Some would be dated to 7,000 years ago, 2,000 years older than the mummies of ancient Egypt.
04:42Eerie masks were sculpted over their faces.
04:47Wigs were glued directly to their skulls.
04:53Bodies were completely made over, paste and paint on the outside, grasses and earth within.
05:02Men, women and children were mummified, even this 8-inch long fetus.
05:12These elaborate mummies were created by a people called the Chinchoro.
05:19They lived along the coast in simple huts, and left little behind.
05:24No monuments, no written texts.
05:27But from their bones and artifacts, Ariaza has compiled a profile of their lifestyle.
05:36The Chinchoro people were fishermen.
05:38They fished from the rocks with fish hooks made of shells.
05:43They also collected shellfish and hunted sea lions with harpoons.
05:48And they wore beautiful nets to gather their food.
05:53Their clothing and ornaments were minimal.
05:57All their emphasis went into mummifying the dead.
06:06Why would a simple people transform their dead into such elaborate creations?
06:10Ariaza has a theory.
06:13Someone is being mummified is a lot of energy investment.
06:16It's a lot of caring.
06:18Even the fetuses are fascinating.
06:21Why?
06:22Because they have long hair.
06:23They have the mouths open.
06:25That's conveying life.
06:27We tend to see our dead as someone that's farther away.
06:30You don't want to see a dead with open eyes, you know, you think, wow, this will scare me.
06:36You want to see the dead completely dead.
06:38In the case of the Chinchoro, they're seeing the dead as part of the living.
06:42Virtual works of art, their mummies were not intended for the grave.
06:48They played an important role in the very heart of the community.
07:00The mummy was an honoured emissary who moved between this world and the next, sending word
07:05to the ancestors, interceding before the gods.
07:14The people rendered thanks with songs and offerings.
07:20Mummification helped ease the loss of a loved one and strengthen bonds between the living.
07:27It made the community whole again.
07:39Such rituals may have quelled the awful fear of what lies beyond death.
07:45No less a mystery seven thousand years ago than today.
07:55One of the earliest expressions of the human spirit, death rites, date back at least a hundred
08:00thousand years.
08:03Even the Neanderthals buried one of their own beneath a blanket of flowers.
08:15Every culture on earth has evolved rituals to bid a final farewell to the dead.
08:25Some consign the body to the embrace of the earth.
08:30Others ensure the release of the soul through fire.
08:35In today's crowded world, the practice of cremation is on the rise, wherever land is at a premium.
08:46We even send our dead into space.
08:50For about the cost of a terrestrial burial, a company in Texas will load a container of ashes
08:57on a small rocket.
09:01After orbiting for several years, the ashes eventually fall into earth's atmosphere and
09:07vaporize like a tiny shooting star.
09:13It's a fitting 21st century send off, but would have been unthinkable in one of the greatest
09:18civilizations the earth has ever known.
09:24The ancient Egyptians believed the body had to last forever.
09:30Without it, the deceased could not rise again in the next world to enjoy eternal life.
09:37To prevent decay, the bodies of the dead were drained of moisture and reduced to the
09:42consistency of leather.
09:49Everyone wanted to be mummified.
09:53There may have been cut-rate embalming for the poor, first-class treatment for the rich.
10:01Even animals were mummified to accompany the dead on their final journey.
10:10For some 30 centuries, countless mummies were made, but countless were also destroyed.
10:18Almost from the moment they were sealed, the pyramids and nearly every other well-appointed tomb
10:23were ransacked by thieves.
10:30Kings or commoners, bodies were hacked apart and left in tatters.
10:39Things got worse when Europe developed a taste for mummies.
10:44By the 12th century, they were imported by the ton to be ground up and mixed in potions,
10:50purported to cure everything from headaches to impotence.
10:57In 1798, Napoleon's campaign spawned a new wave of mummy mania.
11:06Over the next century, hundreds were dissected both in laboratories and at fashionable unwrapping
11:12parties.
11:16The supply seemed endless.
11:20Mummies made cheap fertilizer and fuel.
11:25In the 19th century, trains from Cairo burned stacks of them to power their steam boilers.
11:35Their fascination with mummies continued unabashed well into the 20th century.
11:43Is it dead or alive, human or inhuman?
11:47You'll know, you'll see, you'll feel the awful, creeping, crawling terror that stands your
11:54hair on end and brings a scream to your lips.
11:57Today, Egypt's mummies are treated as fragile time capsules.
12:15Science now has the tools to explore their secrets without destroying them.
12:24Researchers can coax clues about daily life 3,000 years ago from the tiniest samples of tissue
12:30and bone.
12:32Egyptologist Bob Breyer of Long Island University knows more than most about mummies.
12:43But just how a mummy became a mummy was a question that irked him for years.
12:50The party line among Egyptologists was always, oh, we know how they did it.
12:54They removed the brain through the nose, they removed the internal organs.
12:57We know pretty much how they did it.
12:59But there's no papyrus that tells how to mummify a human.
13:03The Egyptians never wrote down how they did it.
13:05It was a secret, probably a trade secret.
13:09A brief description was recorded by Greek historian Herodotus around 450 BC.
13:15For Breyer, it was not the final word.
13:19I started to do a mental mummification, trying to just imagine exactly what happened.
13:26At some point I realized, the only way we'll ever really find out is to do it.
13:34In 1994, Breyer set about to perform the first Egyptian-style mummification in 2,000 years.
13:44In Cairo, he tracked down the embalming spices mentioned by Herodotus, including frankincense
13:50and learned.
13:55He would also need special equipment.
13:58We had to have replica tools made of all the instruments we thought the embalmers used.
14:03So for example, we had to have obsidian, an obsidian blade flaked by somebody in the southwest
14:09who knew how to do this.
14:11We had to have a silversmith make bronze tools, just like ancient Egyptian bronze tools.
14:17Not since the time of Sneferu has its leg been done.
14:20Now I'm a little bigger than the average Egyptian.
14:23Copying ancient designs, Breyer built an embalming board for the elevation of the corpse and drainage
14:29of fluids.
14:30And I'll tell you, it might be good for the dead, but it's not good for the living.
14:37With his colleague Ronald Waid at the University of Maryland Medical School, Breyer would mummify
14:43a man who had donated his remains to science.
14:47There were quite a few surprises along the way as we did the mummification.
14:52One was in removing the brain.
14:55Everybody always thought that you kind of pull the brain out a piece at a time, through
14:59the nose.
15:00At least that's how all the articles say it was done.
15:02We tried it.
15:03It didn't come out that way.
15:07What we figured out, what the ancient Egyptians did, was they inserted a long hook, and then
15:16moved it around, using it like a whisk, and then broke down the brain into it was almost
15:22like a milkshake consistency, and then turned the cadaver upside down, and then the brain
15:27ran out.
15:28That's how they did it.
15:32That's how they did it.
15:36Internal organs were removed through an incision made with an obsidian blade, sharp as any
15:41modern scalpel.
15:44Then the body was covered with several hundred pounds of natron, a naturally occurring salt
15:49Breyer had imported from Egypt.
15:54All organs were treated separately.
16:01Left in place for about a month, the natron was supposed to leech all moisture from the
16:05body.
16:07For Breyer, the suspense was overwhelming.
16:12What would we get?
16:13Would it look like a mummy?
16:14Oh, but it would need another 3,000 years before it looked like the things in the museums.
16:21One of the things that was really almost shocking was when we took the natron off, we had a mummy.
16:30A striking demonstration that people are mostly water.
16:34The body would shrink from more than 160 pounds to just 45.
16:50Breyer anointed the body with oils considered sacred by the Egyptians, then began wrapping.
16:58When we put it to the last detail, he used more than a hundred yards of pure linen inscribed
17:04with Egyptian spells.
17:07Internal organs were placed in replica funerary jars, created by local college students.
17:12It's been perfumed and now it's going being wrapped, and we're going to place it inside
17:18the jar.
17:19A lot of people don't realize that we did the project not to get the mummy, but to get knowledge.
17:24And the project isn't over.
17:26Our mummy, it seems, is what we say dead and well.
17:30He's been at room temperature now for about two years, no signs of decay, it's stable,
17:34so we think we did it right.
17:36But he's still being used in research projects around the world.
17:39We get requests for tissue samples, people doing studies on ancient Egyptian mummies.
17:44This is the only mummy in the world for which we know exactly what was done to it.
17:49It's the only, so to speak, ancient Egyptian mummy that we have a full medical record on,
17:53so it's an important mummy.
17:57If only in the annals of science, Breyer's mummy has achieved immortality, a fate the Egyptians
18:05would surely have approved.
18:08The quest for eternal life still goes on today, just in a different form.
18:16Cryonics involves freezing the body in liquid nitrogen immediately after death.
18:21Practitioners have faith that scientists of the future will have the know-how to revive them.
18:33The sad truth is, the human body, about two-thirds water plus a few basic chemicals,
18:39is simply not built to last.
18:44Exposed in warm weather, a corpse can be reduced to a skeleton in a matter of weeks.
18:51Underground or underwater, the process usually takes somewhat longer.
19:02Bone may last from months to millennia, but when conditions are just right, nature makes mummies.
19:15In northwest China, near the route of the fabled Silk Road, the searing sands have yielded
19:21more than a hundred heat-dried mummies.
19:26Surprisingly, they have the features of Caucasians and date back two to four thousand years.
19:36Many must have lived in the region centuries before the opening of the Silk Road, around 200 B.C.
19:43of ancient Chinese texts, describing figures of great height with red or yellow hair.
19:55Cave paintings in the region lent credence to the accounts, but the discovery of the mummies
20:03that adds an important piece to the puzzle.
20:06Their existence suggests foreign traders settled in China much earlier than previously believed.
20:15The bogs of northern Europe have long inspired legends, among them the boogeyman.
20:27Two thousand years ago, the Celts and their kin believed bogs were an entrance to the realm of the gods.
20:37They tossed in tribute of silver and gold and other strange sacrifices.
20:47Bogs are filled with a natural embalming fluid, acidic water low in oxygen and rich with tannins,
20:54the same chemicals used to cure leather.
20:56Over time, this brew converts dead vegetation into peat, long harvested as a heating fuel.
21:03It also works wonders on bodies.
21:11More than a thousand bog mummies have come to light.
21:15Most are some two thousand years old.
21:19Often their bones are dissolved, while their skin is transformed into a supple leather
21:25that retains a breathtaking impression of life.
21:31Many bog mummies bear signs of a violent death.
21:45Slit throat, strangulation or hanging.
21:49Many scholars believe they were sacrificed to fertility gods by early farming communities.
21:57They were plunged into the bog so the wheat would rise again.
22:03More than 2,500 years ago, the Altai mountains of Siberia were home to a nomadic people called the Pazarik.
22:19They lived by the horse and moved great herds across the land in search of pasture.
22:27Horses were their measure of wealth and status.
22:31The Pazarik buried their dead in chambers dug deep into the icy earth.
22:37In 1993, Russian archaeologists opened an undisturbed chamber.
22:47First, they found the remains of six horses killed by blows to the head.
22:53Surely, they thought, this must be the tomb of a powerful man.
22:59The coffin itself was completely sealed in ice.
23:03To everyone's surprise, it contained a young woman.
23:07Her features gone, but her body intact.
23:17Tattoos of mythical creatures adorned her sturdy hands.
23:23Was she a priestess, warrior, healer?
23:27Her identity eludes us.
23:29But she provides a new image of women in this ancient culture.
23:33In the west coast of Greenland, a rocky cove once harbored an Eskimo village,
23:47home to a people called the Inuit.
23:50Some 500 years ago, misfortune struck here,
23:54and eight bodies were laid to rest in a dry, sheltering cave.
23:58The cause of death remains a mystery.
24:04But these freeze-dried mummies in superb fur clothing
24:08rank as one of the most spectacular archaeological finds from the Arctic region.
24:24The frozen heights of the Andes preserve a record of the past.
24:28Five hundred years ago, the Inca ruled these highlands,
24:33and worshipped the mountains as gods.
24:36Traces of their sacred sites are scattered throughout the peaks.
24:45For nearly two decades, anthropologist Johan Reinhardt
24:49has sought out the high-altitude sites of the Inca.
24:53But in September 1995, he first climbed Mount Ampato in Peru with a different goal in mind.
25:02Ampato's been a peak that's always been a mystery.
25:05It's always stood out there, and people haven't really climbed it very often,
25:09and haven't seen much that's been on it.
25:12The idea was just to get some pictures of another volcano that was erupting nearby,
25:17never really thinking we'd find anything on the summit.
25:20Now, the reason for that is that it's never been seen without a permanent snow-capped summit.
25:26The eruption had showered Ampato with dark ash.
25:31Even at more than 20,000 feet, much of the snow had melted.
25:36When my assistant Miguel Zarate and I reached the summit,
25:41I was taking some notes when Miguel just continued on,
25:44and all of a sudden gave a whistle and pointed.
25:47And I looked, and sure enough, it was clear from even 40, 50 feet away
25:52that there were feathers sticking out of the slope.
25:57They adorned three Inca figurines once buried, now exposed by a rock slide.
26:07We were still looking down the slope,
26:09and very quickly saw this bundle laying right out on the ice.
26:14I asked Miguel to pick it up and move it a bit,
26:17and as he did, all of a sudden we were looking into the face of this dead young woman.
26:26Mummified by the cold, she had been sacrificed and buried on the mountaintop some 500 years ago.
26:35When her rocky tomb collapsed, her face was exposed to the sun.
26:40But her body was intact.
26:43Skin, muscle, bone, even the blood in her veins frozen solid.
26:50Scientists estimate she was 12 to 14 years old when she died.
26:55Never before had the richly patterned clothing of an Inca noblewoman come to light.
27:01She is probably the best preserved mummy ever discovered in the Americas.
27:08In May 1996, the maiden is flown, still frozen, to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
27:15A state-of-the-art CAT scanner produces a detailed three-dimensional image of her body.
27:25Her strong bones and teeth, well-formed muscles and internal organs speak volumes about Inca nutrition and health.
27:34It's a stunning sight for the man who carried her down the mountain.
27:40Then Johann Reinhardt learns the secret of the maiden's death.
27:46A fatal two-inch fracture mars her skull.
27:49You can see it pretty nicely, just rotating it around.
27:52But would it make sense that she may have been hit by a blow?
27:56Absolutely.
27:57That's really a common way that they did it.
27:59The strangulation of blows to the heads were common ways to do human sacrifice.
28:04We just didn't see it.
28:05I kept having visions of what it was like carrying her in the dark,
28:11with this volcano and snowfall and everything, and seeing this modern machinery.
28:17And you could look at the screen and view bones and even organs.
28:23It's just amazing, she just began to come alive.
28:34To the Inca, human sacrifice was the ultimate offering,
28:38an act of gratitude when the gods were generous,
28:41a desperate plea when they were angry.
28:45Archaeologists now know the Ampato maiden died during a long-term volcanic eruption.
29:00The cataclysm could have had devastating effects on the region.
29:04Daily showers of hot ash, air thick with smoke,
29:08water sources poisoned, crops and livestock decimated.
29:15A circle of priests would have led the maiden to the highest reaches of Mount Ampato.
29:21It was a grueling climb that took days.
29:24She alone shouldered the fate of her family and her people.
29:30To be thus chosen was a great honor.
29:37In exchange for her life, she would earn an eternity of bliss and a place among the gods.
29:45Soon after she died, the eruption spent itself, and the snows returned to Ampato,
30:00sealing the maiden in ice for the next five centuries.
30:04Even now, she serves her people well.
30:11She's providing us with so much information that I hope that we are giving back something to her
30:19by deepening her respect and understanding for the culture that she came from
30:26and the Inca civilization 500 years ago.
30:36Across the globe, another chain of snowy peaks yields a messenger from the past.
30:41The Alps seem impenetrable from the air.
30:46But for millennia, shepherds and traders have hiked their mountain passes.
30:50Today's trekkers are mostly tourists.
30:54Every year, millions enjoy the alpine splendors of southern Austria.
31:00In the fall of 1991, unusual weather turns snow to slush.
31:06On September 19th, a couple of hikers stray from a marked trail, hoping to find a shortcut.
31:13Instead, in a melting glacier at more than 10,000 feet,
31:17they spot something that stops them in their tracks.
31:30Four days later, delayed by bad weather, an Austrian forensic team arrives.
31:37This is not an uncommon sight in the Alps.
31:40The frozen bodies of mountaineers are sometimes found decades after they perish among the peaks.
31:51But this body is so deeply ice-bound, the team borrows an ice axe and ski pole from a passing hiker.
32:00Somewhat puzzling are the scraps of leather pulled from the slush around the body.
32:12Not to mention the strange artifacts.
32:18Team members conclude this body has been frozen a very long time.
32:23They turn it over to experts at the University of Innsbruck.
32:30Still wearing a strange shoe stuffed with grass,
32:35it's the body of a 25 to 40-year-old man, shriveled but virtually intact.
32:41Teeth show heavy wear.
32:46Simple blue tattoos adorn his lower back and legs.
32:49Seventy objects were found near his body.
32:57A quiver of animal skin containing 14 arrows.
33:01A leather waist pouch, not unlike a fanny pack.
33:06Bits of leather and grass rope.
33:09A flint dagger.
33:12Most telling, an axe with an exquisite copper blade.
33:19To archaeologists, the design of the blade suggests its owner may have died 4,000 years ago.
33:27It was not the final word.
33:31Skin, bone and grass samples are sent to four imminent European laboratories for radiocarbon dating.
33:38All four conclude the Iceman died about 5,300 years ago, which makes him the oldest frozen mummy ever found.
33:53Almost immediately, word gets out.
34:01The University of Innsbruck is overrun, and a humble man from the copper age becomes an overnight sensation.
34:13Few archaeological discoveries have so completely dominated the headlines.
34:17Nicknamed after the Otzel Alps, Otzi provides endless inspiration to local entrepreneurs.
34:36Who was he?
34:38How did he die?
34:40We may never know.
34:41But his body and artifacts have begun to yield glimpses of a lifestyle practiced more than 5,000 years ago.
34:55X-rays speak of lifelong physical stress.
34:59Broken ribs.
35:01Heavily worn joints.
35:04Arthritis.
35:05In his left foot, signs of frostbite, like that seen in high-altitude climbers today.
35:16With an endoscope, scientists remove a sample from the Iceman's stomach and found remnants of meat and grain.
35:24His last meal.
35:28His lungs made a startling sight, blackened by hours spent near open fires in close, smoky quarters.
35:35Heavily.
35:40Clinging to tatters of the Iceman's fur clothing, grains of primitive wheat suggest he had passed through a farming community near harvest time.
35:53Found frozen in the snow near his body, a slow berry also helped pinpoint the season of his death.
35:59The fruit ripens in early autumn.
36:01At the discovery site, now determined to be inside the Italian border, researchers sifted through 600 tons of snow.
36:13After days of melting and filtering, they recovered part of a plated grass cloak.
36:24Another fragment, the upper edge of the cloak, held hairs that fell from the Iceman's head after death.
36:32Chemical analysis would show the hair was heavily coated with copper particles, the kind that are airborne near the smelting of copper ore.
36:45Not an unusual finding, if the Iceman was a coppersmith or an assistant to one.
36:50Finally, every last inch of the Iceman's body became digital information in a three-dimensional CAT scan.
37:03This virtual Iceman allows for unlimited study without risking the fragile frozen remains.
37:15It also provides a ghostly foundation for a skilled artist as he resurrects a traveler from a distant time.
37:23Something drives him to the heights, trade or duty.
37:41He may be a renegade on the run.
37:43He knows the mountains well, but fails to heed the warning signs.
37:51Perhaps he has no choice but to press on.
38:02He climbs higher than the trees, beyond hope of any kindling to build a fire against the terrible cold.
38:09In the lee of a rocky ridge, he'll lay down his belongings and wait out the night.
38:19He knows that with sleep comes certain death, but his senses are already numbed.
38:25His lonely death deprived him of funeral rites by his people.
38:42But this everyday man, frozen in time on his way somewhere, has helped write a new chapter on daily life in prehistoric Europe.
38:52In southwest England, Somerset is a region of limestone cliffs and deep gorges.
39:08Home to some 3,000 people, the town of Cheddar is known not just for its namesake cheese,
39:14but for a series of spectacular caves sculpted by an underground river.
39:23Some 9,000 years ago, Ice Age hunters camped here, and left one of their dead in the damp darkness.
39:31Today, a replica of Cheddar Man marks the spot.
39:35He lived before the age of farming when bears and wolves roamed the land.
39:41The oldest complete skeleton found in England.
39:45It seems Cheddar Man died of head injuries around age 40.
39:50In 1996, a fragment from his tooth was analyzed by scientists at Oxford University.
39:56The ancient bone yielded traces of DNA.
40:01A tiny fraction of Cheddar Man's genetic fingerprint was revealed.
40:06A local television producer decided to test whether any of Cheddar Man's descendants were still living in the area today.
40:15The high school became involved in his experiment.
40:20Students from local families were asked to donate DNA samples.
40:26Why are those two unpopular, and who are they unpopular with?
40:31History teacher Adrian Target, himself a native of the Somerset region, helped coordinate the volunteers.
40:38Within the Liberal Party.
40:41A simple cheek swab was all it took to collect the necessary cells for DNA analysis.
40:49To make up an even 20, Target donated a sample too.
40:56At Oxford University, the DNA was parsed and sorted.
41:02Within weeks, results were in.
41:05On the basis of what we've got here, that would be an identical match,
41:11which would mean that they had a common maternal ancestor.
41:16So, who do we match this up with? Let's see.
41:19Number 12.
41:21Number 12. So, who's number 12?
41:23On a Friday afternoon, the volunteers were assembled to hear the news.
41:27You're all agog, no doubt, to know who it is.
41:30Who is related to the caveman found in Cheddar?
41:35Yes?
41:37What would you feel like if it was one of you?
41:39Because it's probably going to be of interest to people all over the world
41:43that there is a link over 9,000 years to this person found in the cave.
41:48Think you could stand the publicity and the visits to California and wherever?
41:51Yes?
41:53So, who is it?
41:57It's Adrian Target.
41:59Thank you very much.
42:01This is the man that's closest related to Cheddar Man.
42:05I'm overwhelmed.
42:06How do you feel about that, Adrian?
42:08Bit surprised I was just about to say, I hope it's not me.
42:10Adrian, what was your instant reaction when you were told that you had this amazing line back 9,000 years to a caveman?
42:25Well, it was a great shock, but then I realised that that was why I'd been put in next to the person who was doing the filming.
42:31The study of dead DNA is becoming a powerful tool for unravelling relationships long buried in the past.
42:51It can help illuminate patterns of gene flow between ancient populations,
42:56or family ties among rulers in a bygone dynasty.
43:06DNA gave this man the oldest documented pedigree in the world,
43:11but there's more to it for Adrian Target.
43:15It's essentially about our roots and connections and families,
43:20and I think at heart most people want to know more about themselves.
43:26where they come from.
43:28And of course this story does just that.
43:44The goal of archaeology is to understand our past.
43:49Much of what we know about long-vanished peoples comes from the excavation of their graves.
43:57This work has shed light on the very roots of humanity,
44:01but it has also disturbed the sacred sites of earlier cultures.
44:05In recent years, the collecting and handling of human remains have become more controversial as native peoples around the world demand a new respect for their ancestors.
44:11The conflict is especially heated in North America.
44:12In the last century, countless Indian burials have been stripped bare.
44:15Today, museums and institutes across the world have been in the last century.
44:16In the last century, the world has been in the last century.
44:17In the last century, the world has been in the last century.
44:18The world has been in the last century.
44:19In the last century, the world has been in the last century.
44:28The conflict is especially heated in North America.
44:35In the last century, countless Indian burials have been stripped bare.
44:41Today, museums and institutes across the United States
44:46house the remains of some 300,000 Native Americans.
44:52In 1927, this thousand-year-old burial site in Illinois
44:57was open to the public.
45:00The Dixon Mounds Museum would prosper.
45:06But in the 1980s, Native Americans registered complaints
45:10about the exposed skeletons.
45:12By the 1990s, protests were held outside the museum.
45:17In our own land.
45:19So this movement, the American Indian Movement,
45:23is said to be first a spiritual movement.
45:26To political activist Vernon Belcourt of the Ojibwe tribe,
45:30and to many others, the burial display was deeply disturbing.
45:36We practice our spiritual way of life.
45:38We still have our language, our prayer songs,
45:41and many of us who follow the traditional teachings
45:45of our grandfathers and grandmothers.
45:49We then take exception when we see our burial sites being desecrated
45:54and the physical remains of our ancestors,
45:57who are an open burial pit for tourists and others to witness.
46:02We decided to take some direct action.
46:13In 1991, Belcourt and four other activists were forcibly removed from the museum
46:19for attempting to rebury the skeletons.
46:21One year later, museum officials closed the display,
46:31and completely covered it with earth.
46:34Under a law passed in 1990,
46:37federally funded institutions have begun to return Indian remains to their tribes.
46:43Native peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and elsewhere are calling for similar policies.
46:55Across time and space, the voices of the dead still reach us in the most surprising ways.
47:13In 1991, a British housewife purchased a book at an antique market
47:18near her home in the town of Bromsgrove.
47:21Since childhood, Elizabeth Knight had been captivated by Native American culture.
47:28Her new book included a 1920s essay about an Indian chief who visited London
47:34and never returned home.
47:39It was the story of Chief Longwolf.
47:43Legend has it he was a seasoned Sioux warrior who fought at Little Bighorn.
47:48Documents suggest he was one of several Indian prisoners of war,
47:54released by the U.S. government to the custody of Buffalo Bill Cody.
48:04In 1892, Cody's Wild West show toured Europe.
48:08Chief Longwolf, at age 59, was the oldest performer in the troupe.
48:17In London, the show was applauded by Queen Victoria.
48:22But Longwolf developed pneumonia.
48:24As he lay dying, he asked his wife to take his body back to the land of his ancestors.
48:34But on June 13th, he was buried under the sign of the wolf in London's Brompton Cemetery.
48:40His wife and child returned home.
48:45In time, his gravesite was forgotten.
48:49The chief's final wish touched Elizabeth deeply.
48:53I had the book for a couple of weeks and I put the book back on the shelf several times.
49:03But eventually I had to take it down and said to my husband,
49:06I'll have to do something about this because it's really bothering me.
49:12Some 35,000 gravestones rise from the grounds of Brompton Cemetery.
49:17On May 1st, 1992, Elizabeth searched the isles until she found the weathered wolf.
49:30I made a vow to try and help him, to try and find his family.
49:36Because I knew his spirit would forever wander.
49:42Half a world away, in Tempe, Arizona,
49:45Longwolf was far from forgotten.
49:49A retired mechanic, John Blackfeather, was born and raised in South Dakota,
49:54not far from the site of Wounded Knee.
49:58John had always known his great-grandfather was buried in London,
50:02but he had no idea exactly where.
50:05I've been hearing about Longwolf ever since I was about five years old.
50:10My mother always talked about trying to find him.
50:12But still, we didn't know how to go about finding him.
50:17That's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
50:21In 1992, John's wife spotted a newspaper article that changed everything.
50:28Elizabeth Knight's letter marked the beginning of four years of planning and fundraising.
50:33Maybe you should write a letter to her right away.
50:38I always knew that he would one day come home.
50:42I never thought I'd be involved with it a hundred years later, but I did.
50:47September 25th, 1997, the Blackfeather family comes to London to claim one of their own.
51:02It's not a sad day for us. It's going to be like a great homecoming for him when we get him back to South Dakota.
51:15I'm so pleased to see you.
51:18For Elizabeth Knight, it is a day of promises kept.
51:20This is a moment of resolution, of achievement and blessing.
51:34It was the most extraordinary day of my life.
51:38And I'm sure Longwolf's spirit was there.
51:41Longwolf's spirit was there.
51:42Longwolf humming
52:09On September 28th, 1997,
52:12Long Wolf is laid to rest in a small cemetery
52:15in Wolf Creek, South Dakota.
52:19His descendants reenact an ancient rite,
52:22this gesture of love beyond death.
52:27More than anything else, it may be what makes us human.
52:31We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
52:40We walk in their footsteps.
52:43We live on their graves.
52:48Each time we speak their names or honor their ways,
52:52perhaps they do live again.
52:57To be remembered and nothing more.
53:01That alone may be the secret to immortality.
53:31Oh, God.
53:32Wow at the end.
53:33To be remembered and nothing more.
53:35It's a symphys of the prince of pre-topsies.
53:36It'sцуv haga王朝,
53:37it's you over at the edge of the tree.
53:38Athena lived tousalen a town called Majors Arch.
53:40It was j错amed.
53:41Then it came in before us.
53:42Your He loneloucai is the aktimean.
53:43This was all about whether his son was growing up with a little,
53:44Old Fargoan and Roach.
53:45A town was saved.
53:46It's unt draw for you to be猜 eg.
53:48But other than Vaughan was buried.
53:49If you were searching for himстрcome by palavra A.
53:50The higher view of Petra just arrived at the frust Temper Erst socio
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