"In the dim past of Europe, by the shores of the Aegean Sea, the ancient bards told stories of a golden age long ago, a time when men were heros larger than life, when the daring Theseus battled the Minotaur," "and soldiers clashed over the face of the beautiful Helen who brought down the walls of Troy." "For hundreds of generations these tales will pass down as myths." "Then in the 19th century, two remarkable men dared to believe that the myths were clues to the treasures of a forgotten past." "Their extraordinary adventures uncovered the roots of Western civilization." "In the 19th century, archeology was in its infancy." "Ancient Greece was considered the beginning of Western civilization, its architecture the most beautiful;" "its ideas the foundation for everything to come." "Yet its roots before the 8th century B.C. were shrouded in mystery." "Did this extraordinary civilization spring out of nowhere?" "Or did another, almost as advanced, come before it?" "The only accounts of an earlier age were legends that nearly everyone dismissed as myths." "The first grade works of Western literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were considered fiction, nothing more." "Who could have guessed that Homer's beloved stories could lead the way to a real past?" "In Athens today a classical temple marks the grave of Heinrich Schliemann, to some, the father of archeology." "To others, an impetuous fool." "To Schliemann, Homer's stories of the Trojan War were true, and he set out to prove it." "His incredible discoveries pushed back European history a thousand years." "Schliemann's story has been romanticized in films, books, even grand opera." "But none more fantastical than his own stories about himself." "I think he thought that he was the center of the world." "And I think he had a kind of medieval map of the world in which he was at the center and everything else was in concentric circles around him." "I think he was the most frightful big head." "Schliemann throughout his life was pretty cavalier with the truth." "He, I don't think, distinguished so clearly as most of us do between what is true and what is false." "He tended to tell the story that suited the moment." "Schliemann's personal myths stretched all the way back to his childhood." "He was born in 1822 in northeastern Germany." "At the age of 7, he tells how his father gave him a history book with a picture of the ancient city of Troy in flames." "Electrified by the site, the young Heinrich asked what had become of the great city." "His father explained that Troy had burned to the ground leaving no trace." "Unconvinced, Heinrich disagreed:" ""Father," retorted I, "if such worlds once existed, they cannot have been completely destroyed." "Vast ruins of them must still remain hidden away beneath the dust of ages."" "In the end we both agreed that I should one day excavate Troy." "It's a wonderful story, but there's really no reason why we need to believe it." "He tells us not a day went by where he thought about this goal of earning enough money to go out and excavate Troy." "But we have thousands of letters and many diaries when he was a young man." "There's no mention of going out and excavating Troy." "Schliemann may have been trying to mask the truth of a painful childhood." "His mother died young, but not before his minister father lost his job by committing adultery with the housemaid." "Schliemann had to drop out of school to help support his brothers and sisters." "All this, I think, etched itself deeply onto Schliemann's mind." "He was left with a bitter, bitter resentment about it in later life." "On the other hand, the drive for all that he achieved came out of this unhappy childhood." "Schliemann's story continues like a fairy tale." "He ran away to sea, was shipwrecked, and then became a clerk for a trading house in Amsterdam." "Toiling endlessly, he taught himself languages by copying passages and then learning them by heart." "He mastered at least ten languages this way." "As Schliemann himself said:" "Talent means energy and persistence, and nothing more." "Schliemann's talent was making money." "With energy and persistence, the obsessive German became an international merchant, trading in commodities like indigo." "In 1849, prospectors struck gold in California." "Ever the opportunist, Schliemann joined the Gold Rush." "In Sacramento, he opened a bank, buying gold dust from the miners and lending them money at 12 percent interest per month." "After two years, he left California a very rich man." "My biggest fault- being a braggart and a bluffer- yielded countless advantages." "And there were even more to come." "Russia was on the brink of war, so Schliemann cornered the market on saltpeter, an ingredient of gunpowder." "The Crimean War made his fortune." "It seemed that everything he touched turned to gold, except his social standing." "His unhappy marriage to the daughter of a St. Petersburg lawyer didn't help." "The uneducated merchant was shunned as nouveau riche." "Now in his mid-46s," "Schliemann realized he wanted more out of life than making money." "He wanted respect." "The situation in 18,8 was that he was adrift." "He'd divorced his first wife, a Russian woman." "He had sewed up his business in St. Petersburg, and he didn't know what to do." "He was going through a kind of mid-life crisis." "And he took a journey to the Mediterranean, to Italy and to Greece." "It was during the course of that journey, he was looking for something to do with the rest of his life and he found it." "In June of 18,8, Schliemann arrived at the ruins of Pompeii." "Buried under layers of volcanic ash for almost 1866 years, this lost city was in the midst of a spectacular rediscovery." "Excavations had uncovered magnificent public spaces." "And rescued intimate frescos from the buried houses." "Schliemann was captivated by this journey into a lost world." "For the first time he met a real archeologist, Giuseppe Fiorelli." "It was the Italian's innovation to inject plaster into the ancient ash, revealing the forms of the Pompeiians caught in the last moments of life." "At this point, archeology was more romance than science, with few precedents and even fewer rules." "Needless to say, it was right up Schliemann's alley." "As he continued his travels," "His diaries began to reflect a new direction." "He would set off on a grand archeological adventure and uncover the biggest challenge of all:" "the legendary city of Troy." "But first he had to find it." "When Heinrich Schliemann set out on his quest for Troy, most people believed the city was a myth." "For one thing, it wasn't on the map." "Legend had placed Troy on the Dardanelles, near the coast of present-day Turkey" "But no ruins identified the great city." "It was as if the site of the Trojan War- the greatest war story ever told- had never existed." "But for thousands of years people had repeated Homer's tale." "How Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships, had been taken away to Troy." "How the Greeks had battled for ten long years to get her back, led by the great king Agamemnon." "How the war was finally won with a wooden horse full of soldiers." "In Homer's tale, the Greeks destroyed the great city of Troy; burning it to the ground." "Schliemann was just captured by the Iliad, the descriptions of what goes on, everything about the human condition is found in the Iliad in a very poetic and agnificent manner." "And the idea of finding the site where all of these great tensions between love and strife, between divine and human interaction were worked out was something that just swallowed him up." "With his copy of Homer as a guide," "Schliemann examined the mound thought to be the likeliest location of Troy." "In the Iliad, two springs marked the foot of the great city's hill." "To his dismay, Schliemann found many more here." "And trial excavations turned up nothing but dirt." "But just as he was about to leave the area, the German got lucky" "He met an Englishman named Frank Calvert who owned another mound, the site of many prior civilizations." "Calvert believed his mound held the real Troy far beneath the surface." "Frank Calvert explained to Schliemann that he had done some excavations there which took him below the Greek and Roman levels, into deep deposits where were earlier." "So he said there was a very good chance that in these deep burial deposits you will find the Troy of the Trojan War." "And that convinced Schliemann;" "it gave him something to do." "But Schliemann didn't have a clue how to begin." "Dear Mr. Calvert, have I to take a tent and iron baluster and pillar with me?" "What sort of hat is best against the scorching sun?" "Please give me an exact statement of all of the implements of whatever kind and of all the necessaries you would advise me to take with me." "With Calvert's encouragement Schliemann began digging in earnest in October 1871." "On the first day, he hired 8 men." "By day three there were 86." "Caution was not his style." "Assuming Homer's Troy lay at the bottom of the mound," "Schliemann had his men dig a great gash right through the center of it." "One must plunge immediately into the depths." "Only then will one find things." "On their way down the men uncovered not one city, but many of them." "But Schliemann didn't let these other Troys get in his way." "You can see when he began that his methods were very, very crude." "He was going in with winches and crowbars and battering rams." "The horrifying tales are spelled out in some of his writings." "Nowadays, one just blenches at the thought of it." "Numbers of immense blocks of stone which we continually come upon cause great trouble and have to be got out and removed." "All of my workmen hurry to see the enormous weight roll down and settle itself at some distance in the plain." "Schliemann was discarding priceless relics from thousands of years of civilization on the site." "Thankfully, rains closed the season early." "But the next year he was back, this time attacking the mound with 156 men under the command of a railroad engineer." "Often by Schliemann's side was his new Greek wife, Sophia, who won his heart by reciting from the Iliad." "Forging ahead," "Schliemann continued to aim straight for the bottom of the mound, haphazardly uncovering ancient stone walls and collecting pottery and other artifacts along the way." "What Schliemann did was to go down deep into this complex, complex site." "And he did try to understand how the layers had built up one on top of the other." "He wasn't bad at either;" "he was quite observant." "Of course now we would do it in much finer detail than he did, but he was the one to reveal that this sort of thing could be done in a site of this sort." "In the third season of digging the hard work finally paid off." "Near the bottom of the mound workman uncovered the charred ruins of a citadel." "It didn't look like much, but Schliemann declared it must be the place of King Priam burned in the Trojan War." "As he himself told the story, he dismissed his workman and began to attack the palace walls himself." "I cut out the treasure with a large knife, which was impossible to do without the most fearful risk of my life." "But I never thought of any danger." "It would, however, been impossible for me to have removed the treasure without the help of my dear wife who stood by me ready to pack the things that I cut out in her shawl and carry them away." "It was a fabulous find." "Ancient silver and copper vessels." "Bronze weapons." "And most extraordinary of all, elaborate gold jewelry." "With Schliemann's usual panache, he announced that he had uncovered the treasure of Priam and the jewels of Helen of Troy." "A photograph of Sophia Schliemann modeling Helen's jewels became one of the most celebrated images of the 19th century." "Yet, Schliemann's account of the discovery was controversial from the start." "The story is certainly fiction in at least one major element, and that is that Sophie was not there." "Sophie had left about three weeks earlier, gone back to Athens." "So she was certainly not there packing the stuff in her shawl and carrying them off." "The question is how much else is true?" "I think that although Sophie wasn't there- and we know that Schliemann was telling a lie about that- that doesn't necessarily mean that the treasure itself is a hoax." "I think, in fact, there are very good signs that it was genuine." "There are discrepancies with regard to where the treasure was found, the day on which it was found, and exactly what was found." "He makes wrong connections." "For example, he misremembers exactly where things were found." "He associates them with the wrong features and so forth." "But I think you also have to consider what he has left us with at the end of the day, and what he has left us with is an enormous volume of material because he was so energetic, and spent so much money and spent so much time at Troy." "A master of 19th century media," "Schliemann informed the world of his success." "But first he carefully smuggled his treasures out of Turkey, ignoring his permit stipulation that all finds belonged to the Turks." "The crafty German was triumphant." "Convinced that he'd uncovered Homer's Troy, buried in myth for more than 3,666 years." "Being Schliemann, however, even fame and recognition couldn't occupy him for long." "Homer pointed him in a new direction, to a city rich in gold." "He turned his sights to Mycenae, home of Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks." "According to Homer, the conqueror of the Trojans had met a violent fate." "Agamemnon returned home to Mycenae, only to find that his wife had taken up with another man." "Late one night, the two murdered the great hero." "It was another compelling tale- sufficient motivation for Schliemann." "And with Mycenae, the fledgling archeologist had an easier assignment." "Unlike Troy, the city had never been lost." "It's picturesque ruins still dominated a hill in Greece, not far from the Aegean Sea." "Hungry for gold, Schliemann began to dig in August 187,." "Within a few weeks, he discovered evidence of a sacred site." "The man's luck seemed unbelievable." "Pressing on, he unearthed a series of royal graves filled with treasures and skeletons adorned with gold." "Leaping to conclusions yet again," "Schliemann declared he had discovered the golden mask of Agamemnon." "As it turned out, later archaeologists decided it wasn't the mythical king." "But it didn't really matter." "Schliemann had uncovered evidence of a rich and sophisticated civilization which had flourished 1,666 years before the days of classical Greece." "The objects he'd unearthed were elegant and skillfully crafted." "He'd even found a helmet made of boar's teeth that matched Homer's description." "Schliemann fabulous discovery at Mycenae brought him international fame, even the respect of many of his critics." "Throughout the next decade, he dug at other Greek citadels, accumulating evidence of the wealth and splendor of this previously unknown civilization." "But Schliemann wasn't satisfied." "In his heart, he knew his new discoveries cast doubt on the primitive treasures he'd found at Troy." "How could he be sure that the walls he uncovered deep beneath that mound were the same ones that kept Agamemnon's forces at bay?" "That down those broken street Helen once walked?" "It was time to return to Troy and make sense of that perplexing mound once and for all." "This time, Schliemann proceeded slowly and cautiously, digging on the edge of the mound." "And bit by bit, the old treasure hunter uncovered a layer in the middle that he'd missed in his earlier days." "Here, finally, was what he had been searching for all along:" "the ruins of broad streets, massive walls, and a much bigger citadel." "Schliemann should have been thrilled." "But instead, his heart sank." "It meant there was a lot of rethinking to do." "In a sense, he saw before his eyes 26 years of work just going down the drain." "For four days Schliemann retreated to his tent, searching for answers." "From the beginning, he'd assumed that Homer's Troy lay at the bottom of the mound." "Now his new discovery changed everything." "If he'd finally found the Troy of the Trojan War in this middle lanyer, then 26 years ago he'd made a tragic mistake." "For in his haste to dig to the bottom, he destroyed much of what he'd been looking for." "He'd never know what treasures had been lost." "Exhausted, Schliemann vowed to continue the following season." "But it was not to be." "Suffering from a terrible pain in his ear, he traveled to Germany for surgery, then headed home to Greece." "He never got there." "Buried in Athens with a state funeral," "Schliemann was mourned even by his critics." "For 26 years he'd lit up the world of early archeology with his drive and enthusiasm." "Pursuing his childhood dreams of ancient Greek heros to the end, he pushed back the frontiers of European history." "In the process, he put the young science of archeology on the map." "Among the many he inspired was a brilliant young man named Arthur Evans who visited Schliemann several years before his death." "Reaching beyond Schliemann's discoveries, the intrepid Englishman would also track down a legend into the far corners or Europe's hidden past." "He would reawaken an even older civilization buried in myth and oblivion for more than 3,666 years." "Unlike Schliemann, Arthur Evans seemed destined to become an archeologist." "His father, a wealthy paper manufacturer, was a pioneer in studying the past." "Born in 1851, Arthur spent his childhood in the English countryside digging for Roman coins." "But as the boy grew older, his nickname grew increasingly annoying" ""Little Evans," son of John Evans the great." "He's kind of, in his early years, like a rebel without a cause." "He's looking for something to get hold of to be different than his father and to prove his own worth." "And so as an expression of this sort of rebelliousness, he did the most romantic thing he could think of, which was to travel to the Balkans." "From his first sight of the Balkans in 1871," "Evans rejected any notion of returning to his father's business." "Instantly at home, he haunted the bazaars, delighting in the colorful mixture of East and West." "To Evans the fact that the land was at war only added to its appeal." "The Slavs were rebelling against the Ottoman Turks after years of domination." "Evans became a roving reporter for the Manchester Guardian." "Affected with bad eyesight, he disdained glasses." "Instead, he used is walking stick which he named 'prodger' as a kind of antenna." "The mad Englishman with the walking stick became a familiar sight, and a thorn in the sight of authorities." "He was quite a romantic." "Much more volatile than his father." "He did things like wearing a red cloak and riding on a black horse at the Turkish Burgess, really quite dangerous difficult territory." "He did it with a sense of drama." "He wanted to be a spy, and he did some very rash things." "Evans sympathies were with the Slavs and their struggle for independence." "As the years went on and the conflict intensified, his articles became more and more impassioned." "His recklessness began to worry his wife Margaret, whom Evans had married after several years in the Balkans." "The young couple had settled into Brovnia, Croatia," "Arthur's version of paradise." "But in 1882, Evans articles caught up with him." "Thrown into jail as a spy, he languished there for seven weeks." "Characteristically, the young adventurer found a novel way to communicate with his wife." "Breaking a tooth off his pocket comb, he drew blood from his arm." ""Dear Margaret"" "He wrote in his blood," ""I'm fine, but it would be wise to get a lawyer."" "His family did succeed in getting him released." "But Evans was expelled from the Balkans." "For him, paradise was lost." "Once home in England the landscape looked grey and leaden." "Arthur missed the Mediterranean and found that he couldn't sit still." "So he and Margaret took off on a grand tour, a holiday that would have a lasting impact on his future." "In Greece, the young couple visited the customary sights revered by educated Europeans as the essence of beauty." "Evans was unimpressed." "He was more interested in truly ancient ruins, like the ones at Mycenae." "Ever since the first newspaper accounts more than a decade before," "Evans had been fascinated by the discoveries of Heinrich Schliemann." "He visited the German archeologist at his home in Athens." "With great pride, Schliemann showed the younger man the objects he'd unearthed at Mycenae." "Evans was captivated." "His nearsighted eyes would often notice details others missed." "And what excited him here were the tiny sealstones used to press a design into wax or clay." "Their intricate symbols reminded him of picture writing like the Egyptian hieroglyphs." "Could it be that this early European civilization had also mastered the art of writing?" "And if it was so advanced, thought Evans, then surely another civilization must have preceded it." "He seemed to feel almost instinctively that there had to be something earlier." "I think that as one of the great contributions, really, that Evans made was the sense that Mycenaean art wasn't the beginning of something;" "it was the end of something." "So he had this sense that there must be something earlier to find." "And that, of course, was one of the things that pointed him in the direction of Crete." "In 1893, Evans' wife Margaret died of tuberculosis." "The couple had been living in Oxford for ten years where Evans served as director of the Ashmolean Museum." "Without his companion, Evans was bereft." "For the rest of his life he would only write on black bordered note paper." "Clearly, he needed a new adventure." "His mind returned to his meeting with Schliemann and the enigma of the sealstone." "He'd heard that the island of Crete was full of these little treasures." "It was time to see for himself." "In 1894, Arthur Evans went to Crete, a sleepy island in the Aegean Sea." "In ancient times it had been fabled as a rich and populous land." "Now under the control of the Ottoman Turks, it was timeless and unspoiled." "Exactly the sort of place Arthur Evans liked." "He traveled all over the island looking for sealstones unearthed by the plow." "Here women called them 'milkstones' and wore them around their necks to ensure enough milk for their babies." "Finally, he came to a great mound, still identified by the locals as the site of Knossos, in Greek mythology, the palace of King Minos." "Arthur Evans couldn't resist the power of the myth, that beneath this hill once lay the labyrinth of the monstrous Minotaur." "As the story goes, every year the City of Athens was required to send tribute to King Minos." "Seven youths and seven maidens were sent into the labyrinth to face the Minotaur, the terrifying monster half man and half bull." "No one came out alive." "Then a youth named Theseus devised a scheme to mark his trail with a ball of thread." "The hero met the Minotaur in a great battle." "Triumphant, he followed the thread to freedom." "When Arthur Evans arrived at the great mound, it looked like any other hill with no evidence of a palace, let alone a abyrinth." "But Evans met a man who had found some huge storage jars close to the surface." "He claimed there was much more waiting beneath the earth." "Evans began to negotiate with the land's Turkish owners." "It took him five years and the patience to wait until Crete gained its independence from the Turks." "Evans had learned as a collector that the only way really to control an artifact was to own it." "So Evans decided to own his greatest artifact, and to buy Knossos because he knew that as landowner he would have a right to do whatever he wanted on it." "On the 23rd of March 1966, Arthur Evans broke ground at Knossos." "In an effort to heal scars from the recent war for independence, he hired both Muslims and Christians, men and women, to work the dig." "Evans himself was almost overcome with excitement." "There is a bit of schizophrenia almost in Evans where he is trained by his father as the scientific archeologist." "At the same time, the romantic explorer is desperate to get at the treasure." "It didn't take long." "Exactly one week after he began digging," "Arthur Evans found clay tablets inscribed with two different systems of writing never seen before." "Evans called them 'Linear A' and 'Linear B. '" "He would spend the rest of his long life trying to decipher them." "Even more extraordinary lay in wait." "Arthur Evans found in the very first week of his excavation a wonderful gypsum throne, a stone throne still it in a place, in a room beautifully decorated with frescos, it was flanked by griffins." "And he was instantly able to announce to the world this is the oldest throne in Europe, this is the beginning of European civilization." "The civilization Evans was uncovering seemed amazingly advanced." "While the rest of Europe was still living in huts, these ancient people had resided in comfort and splendor." "Essentially it really was like a grand European palace where you had running water actually running through the building itself." "This sort of thing, most of Evans' readers in the London Times didn't have." "You know, flushing toilets in their own houses and fresh water running through the houses." "Elated by the extraordinary treasures of Knossos," "Evans boldly announced to the world that he had found a completely unknown, unimagined civilization." "Older than Schliemann's Mycenae, and more than 15,666 years older than classical Greece." "He decided these remarkable ancient Europeans needed a name." "'Minoan' he called them after the legend of King Minos." "This time Arthur Evans had found a cause equal to his boundless imagination." "As the years went on, the challenges set in." "Winter storms damaged the vulnerable ruins." "Evans realized he had to devise a way to protect them." "It was only the beginning of his conservation problems." "Soon his workmen found evidence that the palace had actually had several stories." "Evans sent two experienced silver miners tunneling into the earth." "They dug for weeks, eventually revealing the remains of four magnificent flights of stone steps." "Evans found the only way to preserve the staircase was to restore it to its former glory." "All it would take was a bit of imagination." "Really what started off as a first- aid to keep the building in tact grew out of hand a little bit because he began to really enjoy what he was doing." "Little by little, Evans began to restore Knossos." "Using his own fortune, he transformed the ruins into rooms, based on his personal vision of Minoan architecture." "The project was controversial from the start." "Evans used modern materials like steel and reinforced concrete, melding the ancient with the latest in 26th century architecture." "Evans was trying to recreate a total experience in the same way that we try to set up virtual reality mazes where people can experience architecture." "Evans was trying to do the same thing at Knossos." "He was criticized for building a movie set, and in a sense that is what he was doing." "He wanted people to be able to walk through and experience the building." "But really one is experiencing Evans' vision more than anything else when you visit Knossos." "Even Evans critics today admit that the palace would be a confusing maze without his unifying vision." "As more and more ruins continued to be unearthed," "Evans hired architects to help him make sense of the twisting corridors and rooms." "He began to think that the palace itself had inspired the myth of the labyrinth, for he found 1466 rooms stretched over, acres." "The palace was reasonably well preserved, but nothing like as well preserved as it now feels." "It is really quite important to walk into a place and have a sense of walls and ceilings as well as just foundations the come up to about knee level." "So with things like the grand staircase, of which he was hugely proud," "I think a lot of people have cause to be grateful to Evans for allowing them the chance to walk down a Minoan staircase and to be surrounded by Minoan columns and even restored frescos on the wall." "It has been a wonderful experience." "Evans was inspired by the frescos." "The fragments suggested a world surprisingly modern, a handsome people who lived in harmony with nature." "But the images were indistinct and broken." "So Evans took another leap." "He hired a team of artists to help him fill in the blanks." "What emerged from Evans palette was a world of grace of sensuality, unlike any other in ancient times." "There were no images of war." "Women were on an equal footing with men." "Priestesses led the worship of a mother goddess." "How much of this inviting world was truly Minoan, and how much the creation of Arthur Evans?" "He idealized the Minoans." "He had no real concept that there could be an darker side to their nature, any war-likeness." "They were, for him, sort of latter-day hippies, really." "They were people who lived in an almost perfect world, a world which I think Evans saw in contrast to the real world." "They were always a bit of an escape for him." "During Evans years at Knossos, the outside world was shattered by the violence of World War I." "Evans was horrified by the brutal technology and raw power of the 26th century." "Just as he had escaped from industrial England in his youth, he found solace in the refined world of the Minoans." "They became almost real to him, a perfect people who lived in an ideal world." "In his writings only once did Evans admit that his Minoans might have had a violent side." "He couldn't help noticing that everywhere he looked in the palace he saw menacing images of bulls." "They reminded him of the innocent youths and maidens sacrificed to the Minotaur." "One fresco haunted him, a charging bull with a young acrobat in the midst of a suicidal leap." "What could be the meaning of this cruel sport, so like the bloody rituals of the Roman amphitheater?" ""The sports of the Roman amphitheater may thus in Crete may be trace back to prehistoric times." "Perhaps the legends of Athenian prisoners devoured by the Minotaur preserve a real tradition of such cruel sports."..." "Arthur Evans" "But most of the time Evans Minoans seemed to have lived with all the grace and polish of their eminent discoverer." "He was Sir Arthur now, widely honored and renowned." "He entertained frequently, but remained a private person, more at home in the world he created." "He spent much of his later years writing a history of the Minoans called," ""The Palace of Minos."" "In defiance of modern technology, he wrote all four volumes in longhand with a white goose-feather quill pen." "Many of his friends said his handwriting was even beginning to look like Linear A." "Throughout his writings Evans insisted on the superiority of his Minoans." "He believed they had dominated the Aegean," "Iording over the more warlike tribes of mainland Greece." "Even in the face of conflicting evidence, he insisted that only an earthquake precipitated their fall." "Other archaeologists disagreed." "They pointed to evidence which showed that the Minoans had been conquered by the Mycenaeans sweeping in from Greece about 1456 B.C." "Evans could never accept the image of his Minoans as a captive people." "To the end of his life Evans remained true to his dream of the Minoans." "All over Crete other excavators were digging, revealing the outlines of other palaces that had flourished at the same time as his Knossos." "Their methods were not the same as his- science had taken over archeology." "No longer would a single vision recreate a civilization." "The days of the treasure seekers were over°" "There are instances where we can see him as being wrongheaded, pigheaded, just plain wrong." "But what really strikes you very forcibly is that if you're starting any piece of Minoan research, if you're asking any questions, you can almost always go back to Arthur Evans' writings and find a starting point." "You may not agree with what he says about it, but he almost always been there first and thought of the question." "Regardless of whether it was true or not, Evans image of Minoan culture- its elegance and grace- captivated the Western imagination." "It continues to inspire more than a million visitors to Knossos every year." "The treasure he'd unearthed was more than gold." "It was the vision of a civilized world deep in the dark recesses of the European past." "Ashes to ashes." "Dust to dust." "Death always gets the final word - no matter how we mock it." "Sworn to eternal silence, the Dead seem beyond our reach." "Yet to some scientists, they speak volumes." ""When I look at a mummy, I'm looking at an encyclopedia."" "Through the lens of modern science, the grave has become a window on the past." "Today we can learn intimate details about how the Ancients lived- and how they died." ""...that's really, that's, that's really a common way that they did it - the strangulation or blows to the head..."" "Bit by bit, their portraits emerge from flesh, bone, and DNA." ""Bringing the people back to life, I think that that's the fun part of it."" "The unearthing of the past reveals the tangled roots of our family tree." "But some see only the desecration of their ancestors." ""They must be put back into the bosom of sacred Mother Earth."" "As the Living defend the Dead, battle lines are drawn." "In truth, those who passed here long ago still dwell among us." "From fragile remains, their life stories unfold." "And as we hear them, they become a part of us all." "Listen now to the voices of the Dead." "This is the driest place on earth:" "the Atacama Desert in Chile." "Life has found a foothold here:" "not in the blazing sands, but in the slender river valleys that stretch across the desert from the Andes to the sea." "The city of Arica stands where two rivers meet the Pacific Ocean." "Countless generations of fishermen have thrived here, and many families have deep roots." "Whenever ground is broken, there's a good chance these roots may come to light." "The city's arid soil has yielded several ancient burials, to the delight of scientists from the local university." "But physical anthropologist Bernardo Arriaza, now with the University of Nevada, will never forget a visit to a site where the water company was digging trenches." "I remembered in 1983, it was a quiet day when the water company called us." "They said they had found something unusual, so that really caught our interest." ""And we get called all the time, and you never know what you're going to find, so that's also the exciting part of going." "You don't know what it's going to be." "And this time it was quite incredible, actually."" "The shovels had exposed a plot of nearly a hundred mummies." "Some would be dated to 7,666 years ago- 2,666 years older than the mummies of ancient Egypt." "Eerie masks were sculpted over their faces." "Wigs were glued directly to their skulls." "Bodies were completely made over- paste and paint on the outside, grasses and earth within." "Men, women and children were mummified." "Even this eight inch long fetus." "These elaborate mummies were created by a people called the Chinchorro." "They lived along the coast in simple huts, and left little behind- no monuments, no written texts." "But from their bones and artifacts," "Arriaza has compiled a profile of their lifestyle." ""The Chinchorro people were fishermen." "They fished from the rocks with fish hooks made of shells." "They also collected shellfish and hunted sea lions with harpoons." "And they wove beautiful nets to gather their food." "Their clothing and ornaments were minimal." "All their emphasis went into mummifying the dead"" "Why would a simple people transform their dead into such elaborate creations?" "Arriaza has a theory." ""Someone is being mummified, it's a lot of energy investment, it's a lot of caring." "Even the fetuses are fascinating." "Why?" "Because they have long hair, they have the mouth open." "That's conveying life." ""We tend to see our dead as someone that's farther away." "We don't want to see the dead with open eyes- no, you think, wow, that would scare me." "You want to see the dead completely dead." "In the case of the Chinchorro, they're seeing the dead as part of the living."" "Virtual works of art, their mummies were not intended for the grave." "They played an important role in the very heart of the community." "The mummy was an honored emissary who moved between this world and the next- sending word to the ancestors, interceding before the gods." "The people rendered thanks with songs and offerings." "Mummification helped ease the loss of a loved one, and strengthened bonds between the living." "It made the community whole again." "Such rituals may have quelled the awful fear of what lies beyond death- no less a mystery 7,666 years ago than today." "One of the earliest expressions of the human spirit, death rites date back at least 166,666 years." "Even the Neandertals buried one of their own beneath a blanket of flowers." "Every culture on earth has evolved rituals to bid a final farewell to the dead." "Some consign the body to the embrace of the earth." "Others ensure the release of the soul through fire." "In today's crowded world, the practice of cremation is on the rise wherever land is at a premium." "We even send our dead into space." "For about the cost of a terrestrial burial, a company in Texas will load a container of ashes on a small rocket." "After orbiting for several years, the ashes eventually fall into Earth's atmosphere and vaporize, like a tiny shooting star." "It's a fitting twenty- first century sendoff... but would have been unthinkable in one of the greatest civilizations the Earth has ever known." "The ancient Egyptians believed the body had to last forever." "Without it, the deceased could not rise again in the next world to enjoy eternal life." "To prevent decay, the bodies of the dead were drained of moisture, and reduced to the consistency of leather." "Everyone wanted to be mummified." "There may have been cut-rate embalming for the poor, first-lass treatment for the rich." "Even animals were mummified, to accompany the dead on their final journey." "Over some thirty centuries, countless mummies were made." "But countless were also destroyed." "Almost from the moment they were sealed, the Pyramids and nearly every other well- appointed tomb were ransacked by thieves." "Kings or commoners, bodies were hacked apart and left in tatters." "Things got worse when Europe developed a taste for mummies." "By the 12th century, they were imported by the ton to be ground up and mixed in potions purported to cure everything from headaches to impotence." "In 1798, Napoleon's campaign spawned a new wave of "mummy-mania."" "Over the next century, hundreds were dissected both in laboratories and at fashionable unwrapping parties." "The supply seemed endless." "Mummies made cheap fertilizer and fuel." "In the 19th century, trains from Cairo burned stacks of them to power their steam boilers." "Our fascination with mummies continued unabashed well into the 26th century." ""Is it dead or alive?" "Human or inhuman?" "You'll know." "You'll see." "You'll feel the awful, creeping crawling terror that stands your hair on end and brings a scream to you lips!" "The Mummy!"" "Today, Egypt's mummies are treated as fragile time capsules." "Science now has the tools to explore their secrets without destroying them." ""Take this side off right here."" "Researchers can coax clues about daily life 3,666 years ago from the tiniest samples of tissue and bone." "Egyptologist Bob Brier, of Long Island University, knows more than most about mummies." "But just how a mummy became a mummy was a question that irked him for years." ""The party line among Egyptologists was always," "'Oh we know how they did it, they removed the brain through the nose, they removed the internal organs." "We know pretty much how they did it. '" "But there's no papyrus that tells how to mummify a human." "The Egyptians never wrote down how they did it." "It was a secret, probably a trade secret."" "A brief description was recorded by Greek historian Herodotus around 456BC." "For Brier, it was not the final word." "I started to do a mental mummification, trying to just imagine exactly what happened." "At some point I realized, the only way we'll ever really find out is to do it."" "In 1994, Brier set about to perform the first Egyptian- style mummification in two thousand years." "In Cairo, he tracked down the embalming spices mentioned by Herodotus, including frankincense and myrrh." "He would also need special equipment." ""We had to have replica tools made of all the instruments we thought the embalmers used." "So for example, we had to have obsidian, an obsidian blade flaked by somebody in the Southwest who knew how to do this." "We had to have a silversmith make bronze tools just like ancient Egyptian bronze tools."" ""Not since the time of Sneferu has its like been done." "Now I'm a little bigger than the average Egyptian..."" "Copying ancient designs, Brier built an embalming board for the elevation of the corpse and drainage of fluids." ""And I'll tell you, it might be good for the dead, but it's not good for the living."" "With his colleague Ronald Wade, at the University of Maryland Medical School," "Brier would mummify a man who had donated his remains to science." ""There were quite a few surprises along the way as we did the mummification." "One was in removing the brain." "Everybody always thought that you kind of pull the brain out a piece at a time through the nose, at least that's how all the articles say it was done." "We tried it, it didn't come out that way."" ""What we figured out, what the Ancient Egyptians did was they inserted a long hook and then moved it around, using it like a whisk." "And then broke down the brain until- it was almost like a, a milk shake consistency, and then turned the cadaver upside down, and then the brain ran out." "That's how they did it."" "Internal organs were removed through an incision made with an obsidian blade - sharp as any modern scalpel." "Then the body was covered with several hundred of pounds of natron - a naturally occurring salt, Brier had imported from Egypt." "Internal organs were treated separately." "Left in place for about a month, the natron was supposed to leach all moisture from the body." "For Brier, the suspense was overwhelming." ""What would we get?" "Would it look like a mummy?" "Or would it need another 3,666 years before it looked like the things in the museums?"" ""One of the things that was really almost shocking was when we took the natron off, we had a mummy."" "A striking demonstration that people are mostly water, the body would shrink from more than 1,6 pounds, to just 45." ""What are the oils in it, Bob?"" ""The oils are frankincense, myrrh oil, palm oil, lotus oil, and cedar oil." "There are five that I got."" "Brier anointed the body with oils considered sacred by the Egyptians, then began wrapping." ""Nice and tight."" "Accurate to the last detail, he used more than a hundred yards of pure linen inscribed with Egyptian spells." "Internal organs were placed in replica funerary jars, created by local college students." ""It's been perfumed and now it's going to be wrapped and we place it inside the jar."" ""A lot of people don't realize that we did the project not to get the mummy, but to get knowledge." "And the project isn't over." "Our mummy, it seems, is what we say, dead and well." "He's been at room temperature now for about two years, no signs of decay, it's stable." "So we think we did it right." "But he's still being used in research projects around the world." "We get requests for tissue samples, from people doing studies on ancient Egyptian mummies." "This is the only mummy in the world for which we know exactly what was done to him." "It's the only, so to speak, ancient Egyptian mummy that we have a full medical record on." "So it's an important mummy."" "If only in the annals of science, Brier's mummy has achieved immortality- a fate the Egyptians would surely have approved." "The quest for eternal life still goes on today- just in a different form." "Cryonics involves freezing the body in liquid nitrogen immediately fter death." "Practitioners have faith that scientists of the future will have the know-how to revive them." "The sad truth is the human body- about two thirds water, plus a few basic chemicals- is simply not built to last." "Exposed in warm weather, a corpse could be reduced to a skeleton in a matter of weeks." "Underground, or underwater, the process usually takes somewhat longer." "Bone may last from months to millennia." "But when conditions are just right, Nature makes mummies." "In northwest China, near the route of the fabled Silk Road, the searing sands have yielded more than a hundred heat- dried mummies." "Surprisingly, they have the features of Caucasians, and date back two to four thousand years." "Many must have lived in the region centuries before the opening of the Silk Road around 266 BC." "Scholars had long been puzzled by ancient Chinese texts describing figures of great height, with red or yellow hair." "Cave paintings in the region lent credence to the accounts, but the discovery of the mummies adds an important piece to the puzzle." "Their existence suggests foreign traders settled in China much earlier than previously believed." "The bogs of northern Europe have long inspired legends- among them the "boogie-man."" "Two thousand years ago, the Celts and their kin believed bogs were an entrance to the realm of the gods." "They tossed in tribute of silver and gold- and other strange sacrifices." "Bogs are filled with a natural "embalming fluid", acidic water low in oxygen and rich with tannins, the same chemicals used to cure leather." "Over time, this brew converts dead vegetation into peat, long harvested as a heating fuel." "It also works wonders on bodies." "More than a thousand "bog mummies" have come to light;" "most are some 2,666 years old." "Often, their bones are dissolved, while their skin is transformed into a supple leather that retains a breathtaking impression of life." "Many bog mummies bear signs of a violent death- slit throat, strangulation, or hanging." "Many scholars believe they were sacrificed to fertility gods by early farming communities." "They were plunged into the bog, so the wheat would rise again." "More than 2,566 years ago, the Altai mountains of Siberia were home to a nomadic people called the Pazyryk." "They lived by the horse, and moved great herds across the land in search of pasture." "Horses were their measure of wealth and status." "The Pazyryk buried their dead in chambers dug deep into the icy earth." "In 1993, Russian archaeologists opened an undisturbed chamber." "First, they found the remains of six horses killed by blows to the head." "Surely, they thought, this must be the tomb of a powerful man." "The coffin itself was completely sealed in ice." "To everyone's surprise, it contained a young woman- her features gone, but her body intact." "Tattoos of mythical creatures adorned her sturdy hands." "Was she a Priestess?" "Warrior?" "Healer?" "Her identity eludes us, but she provides a new image of women in this ancient culture." "On the west coast of Greenland, a rocky cove once harbored an Eskimo village, home to a people called the Inuit." "Some five hundred years ago, misfortune struck here, and eight bodies were laid to rest in a dry, sheltering cave." "Cause of death remains a mystery." "But these freeze?" "Dried mummies, in superb fur clothing, rank as one of the most spectacular archaeological finds from the arctic region." "The frozen heights of the Andes preserve a record of the past." "Five hundred years ago, the Inca ruled these highlands, and worshiped the mountains as gods." "Traces of their sacred sites are scattered throughout the peaks." "For nearly two decades, anthropologist Johan Reinhard has sought out the high altitude sites of the Inca." "But in September 1995, he first climbed Mount Ampato in Peru with a different goal in mind." ""Ampato's been a peak that's always been a mystery." "It's always stood out there and people haven't really climbed it very often and haven't seen much that's been on it."" ""And the idea was just to get some pictures of another volcano that was erupting nearby, never really thinking we'd find anything on the summit." "Now the reason for that is is that it's never been seen without a permanent snow-capped summit."" "The eruption had showered Ampato with dark ash." "Even at more than 26,666 feet, much of the snow had melted." "When my assistant, Miguel Zarate, and I, we reached the summit," "I was taking some notes when Miguel just continued on and, all of a sudden, gave a whistle and pointed." "And I looked and, sure enough, it was clear from even, forty, fifty feet away, that there were feathers sticking out of the slope."" "They adorned three Inca figurines once buried, now exposed by a rockslide." ""We were still looking down the slope and very quickly saw this bundle, laying right out on the ice." "I asked Miguel to pick it up and move it a bit." "And as he did, all of a sudden we were looking into the face of this dead young woman."" "Mummified by the cold, she had been sacrificed and buried on the mountaintop some five hundred years ago." "When her rocky tomb collapsed, her face was exposed to the sun." "But her body was intact-skin, muscle, bone, even the blood in her veins frozen solid." "Scientists estimate she was twelve to fourteen years old when she died." "Never before had the richly patterned clothing of an Inca noble woman come to light." "She is probably the best-preserved mummy ever discovered in the Americas." "In May 199, the Maiden is flown, still frozen, to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore." "A state-of-the-art CAT scanner produces a detailed three-dimensional image of her body." "Her strong bones and teeth, well-formed muscles and internal organs speak volumes about Inca nutrition and health." "It's a stunning sight for the man who carried her down the mountain." "Then Johan Reinhard learns the secret of the Maiden's death." "A fatal two-inch fracture mars her skull." ""You can see it pretty nicely just rotating it around but, uh, would it, would it make sense that she may have been hit by a blow?"" ""Absolutely, that's, that's really a common way that they did it- the strangulation and blows to the heads were, were common ways to do human sacrifice." "We just didn't see it."" ""I kept having visions of what it was like carrying her in the dark, with the volcano and snowfall and everything." "And seeing this modern machinery and you could look at the screen and view bones and even organs." "It was just amazing, she just began to come alive."" "To the Inca, human sacrifice was the ultimate offering, an act of gratitude when the gods were generous;" "a desperate plea when they were angry." "Archaeologists now know the Ampato Maiden died during a long-term volcanic eruption." "The cataclysm could have had devastating effects on the region." "Daily showers of hot ash." "Air thick with smoke." "Water sources poisoned." "Crops and livestock decimated." "A circle of priests would have led the Maiden to the highest reaches of Mount Ampato." "It was a grueling climb that took days." "She alone shouldered the fate of her family and her people." "To be thus chosen was a great honor." "In exchange for her life, she would earn an eternity of bliss and a place among the gods." "Soon after she died, the eruption spent itself, and the snows returned to Ampato, sealing the Maiden in ice for the next five centuries." "Even now, she serves her people well." ""She's providing us with so much information, that I hope that we are giving back something to her by deepening our respect and understanding for the culture that she came from, and the Inca civilization five hundred years ago."" "Across the globe, another chain of snowy peaks yields a messenger from the past." "The Alps seem impenetrable from the air." "But for millennia, shepherds and traders have hiked their mountain passes." "Today's trekkers are mostly tourists." "Every year, millions enjoy the alpine splendors of southern Austria." "In the fall of 1991, unusual weather turns snow to slush." "On September 19th, a couple of hikers stray from a marked trail, hoping to find a shortcut." "Instead, in a melting glacier at more than 16,666 feet, they spot something that stops them in their tracks." "Four days later, delayed by bad weather, an Austrian forensic team arrives." "This is not an uncommon sight in the Alps." "The frozen bodies of mountaineers are sometimes found decades after they perish among the peaks." "But this body is so deeply icebound the team borrows an ice axe and ski pole from a passing hiker." "Somewhat puzzling are the scraps of leather pulled from the slush around the body." "Not to mention the strange artifacts." "Team members conclude this body has been frozen a very long time." "They turn it over to experts at the University of Innsbruck." "Still wearing a strange shoe stuffed with grass, it's the body of a 25 to 46 year old man, shriveled but virtually intact." "Teeth show heavy wear." "Simple blue tattoos adorn his lower back and legs." "Seventy objects were found near his body." "A quiver of animal skin containing fourteen arrows." "A leather waist pouch, not unlike a "fanny pack."" "Bits of leather and grass rope." "A flint dagger." "Most telling, an axe with an exquisite copper blade." "To archaeologists, the design of the blade suggests its owner may have died 4,666 years ago." "It was not the final word." "Skin, bone and grass samples are sent to four eminent European laboratories for radiocarbon dating." "All four conclude the Iceman died about 5,366 years ago- which makes him the oldest frozen mummy ever found." "Almost immediately, word gets out." "The University of Innsbruck is overrun, and a humble man from the Copper Age becomes an overnight sensation." "Few archaeological discoveries have so completely dominated the headlines." "Nicknamed after the Otztal Alps," ""Otzi" provides endless inspiration to local entrepreneurs." "Who was he?" "How did he die?" "We may never know." "But his body and artifacts have begun to yield glimpses of a lifestyle practiced more than 5,666 years ago." "X-rays speak of lifelong physical stress:" "broken ribs, heavily worn joints, arthritis." "In his left foot" "With an endoscope, scientists remove a sample from the Iceman's stomach and found remnants of meat and grain- his last meal." "His lungs made a startling sight, blackened by hours spent near open fires, in close, smoky quarters." "Clinging to tatters of the Iceman's fur clothing, grains of primitive wheat suggest he had passed through a farming community near harvest time." "Found frozen in the snow near his body, a sloe berry also helped pinpoint the season of his death:" "the fruit ripens in early autumn." "At the discovery site, now determined to be inside the Italian border, researchers sifted through six hundred tons of snow." "After days of melting and filtering, they recovered part of a plaited grass cloak." "Another fragment, the upper edge of the cloak, held hairs that fell from the Iceman's head after death." "Chemical analysis would show the hair was heavily coated with copper particles the kind that are airborne near the smelting of copper ore." "Not an unusual finding- if the Iceman was a coppersmith, or an assistant to one." "Finally, every last inch of the Iceman's body became digital information, in a three?" "Dimensional CAT scan." "This "virtual Iceman" allows for unlimited study without risking the fragile, frozen remains." "It also provides a ghostly foundation for a skilled artist, as he resurrects a traveler from a distant time." "Something drives him to the heights-trade or duty." "He may be a renegade on the run." "He knows the mountains well, but fails to heed the warning signs." "Perhaps he has no choice but to press on." "He climbs higher than the trees, beyond hope of any kindling to build a fire against the terrible cold." "In the lee of a rocky ridge, he'll lay down his belongings and wait out the night." "He knows that with sleep comes certain death." "But his senses are already numbed." "His lonely death deprived him of funeral rites by his people." "But this everyday man, frozen in time on his way somewhere, has helped write a new chapter on daily life in prehistoric Europe." "In southwest England," "Somerset is a region of limestone cliffs and deep gorges." "Home to some 3,666 people, the town of Cheddar is known not just for its namesake cheese, but for a series of spectacular caves sculpted by an underground river." "Some 9,666 years ago, Ice Age hunters camped here, and left one of their dead in the damp darkness." "Today a replica of "Cheddar Man" marks the spot." "He lived before the age of farming, when bears and wolves roamed the land." "The oldest complete skeleton found in England, it seems Cheddar Man died of head injuries around age 46." "In 199, a fragment from his tooth was analyzed by scientists at Oxford University." "The ancient bone yielded traces of DNA." "A tiny fraction of Cheddar Man's genetic fingerprint was revealed." "A local television producer decided to test whether any of Cheddar Man's descendants were still living in the area today." "The high school became involved in his experiment." "Students from local families were asked to donate DNA samples." "Why are those two unpopular and who are they unpopular with?" "History teacher Adrian Targett, himself a native of the Somerset region, helped coordinate the volunteers." "A simple cheek swab was all it took to collect the necessary cells for DNA analysis." "To make up an even twenty, Targett donated a sample, too." "At Oxford University, the DNA was parsed and sorted." "Within weeks, results were in." ""On the basis of what we've got here, that would be an identical match which would mean that they had a common maternal ancestor." "So, who do we match this up with?" "Let's see..."" ""Number 12."" ""Number 12, so who's number 12?"" "On a Friday afternoon, the volunteers were assembled to hear the news." ""You're all agog, no doubt, to know who it is?" "Who is related to the cave man found in Cheddar?" "Yes?" "What would it feel like if it was one of you?" "Because it's probably going to be of interest to people all over the world that there is a link, over 9,666 years, to this person found in the cave." "Think you could stand the publicity and visits to California and wherever?" "Yes?" "So, who is it?" "It's Adrian Targett!"" ""Thank you very much!"" ""This is the man that's closest related to Cheddar Man."" ""I'm overwhelmed!"" ""How do you feel about that?"" ""A bit surprised!" "I was just about, about to say, 'I hope it's not me!"'" ""Adrian, what was your instant reaction when you were told that you had this amazing line back 9,666 years to a caveman?"" ""Well, it was a great shock, but then I realized that was why I had been put in next to the person who was doing the filming."" "The study of "dead DNA"?" "is becoming a powerful tool for unraveling relationships long buried in the past." "It can help illuminate patterns of gene flow between ancient populations, or family ties among rulers in a bygone dynasty." "DNA gave this man the oldest documented pedigree in the world." "But there's more to it for Adrian Targett." "It's essentially about our roots and connections and families, and I think, at heart, most people want to know more about themselves, where they come from, and of course this story does just that."" "The goal of archaeology is to understand our past." "Much of what we know about long vanished peoples comes from the excavation of their graves." "This work has shed light on the very roots of humanity." "But it has also disturbed the sacred sites of earlier cultures." "In 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." "The conflict is especially heated in North America." "In the last century, countless Indian burials have been stripped bare." "Today, museums and institutes across the United States house the remains of some 366,666 Native Americans." "In 1927, this thousand-year-old burial site in Illinois was opened to the public." "The Dickson Mounds Museum would prosper." "But in the 1986s," "Native Americans registered complaints about the exposed skeletons." "By the 1996s, protests were held outside the museum." ""...in our own land." "So this movement, the American Indian movement, is said to be first a spiritual movement."" "To political activist Vernon Bellecourt, of the Ojibwa tribe, and to many others, the burial display was deeply disturbing." ""We practice our spiritual way of life." "We still have our language, our prayer songs and, and many of us who follow the traditional teachings of our, of our grandfathers and grandmothers, we then take exception when we see our burial sites being desecrated and the physical remains of our ancestors" "who are in an open burial pit for tourists and others to witness." "We decided to take some direct action."" "In 1991, Bellecourt and four other activists were forcibly removed from the museum for attempting to rebury the skeletons." "One year later, museum officials closed the display, and completely covered it with earth." "Under a law passed in 1996, federally funded institutions have begun to return Indian remains to their tribes." "Native peoples in Australia, New Zealand," "Africa and elsewhere are calling for similar policies." "Across time and space, the voices of the dead still reach us- in the most surprising ways." "In 1991, a British housewife purchased a book at an antique market near her home in the town of Bromsgrove." "Since childhood, Elizabeth Knight had been captivated by Native American culture." "Her new book included a 1926s essay about an Indian chief who visited London- and never returned home." "It was the story of Chief Long Wolf." "Legend has it, he was a seasoned Sioux warrior who fought at Little Big Horn." "Documents suggest he was one of several Indian "prisoners of war"" "released by the US Government to the custody of Buffalo Bill Cody." "In 1892, Cody's Wild West Show toured Europe." "Chief Long Wolf, at age 59, was the oldest performer in the troupe." "In London, the show was applauded by Queen Victoria." "But Long Wolf developed pneumonia." "As he lay dying, he asked his wife to take his body back to the land of his ancestors." "But on June 13th, he was buried, under the sign of the wolf, in London's Brompton Cemetery." "His wife and child returned home." "In time, his gravesite was forgotten." "The chief's final wish touched Elizabeth deeply." ""I had the book for a couple of weeks and," "I put the book back on the shelf several times, but eventually I had to take it down and said to my husband," "'I'll have to do something about this because it's really bothering me."'" "Some 35,666 gravestones rise from the grounds of Brompton Cemetery." "On May 1, 1992, Elizabeth searched the aisles until she found the weathered wolf." ""I made a vow to try and help him." "To try and find his family, because I knew his spirit would forever wander."" "Half a world away, in Tempe, Arizona, Long Wolf was far from forgotten." "A retired mechanic, John Black Feather was born and raised in South Dakota, not far from the site of Wounded Knee." "John had always known his great grandfather was buried in London- but he had no idea exactly where." ""I've been hearing about Long Wolf ever since I was about five years old." "My mother always talked about trying to find him but still, we didn't know how to go about finding him." "That's like looking for a needle in a haystack."" "In 1992," "John's wife spotted a newspaper article that changed everything." "Elizabeth Knight's letter marked the beginning of four years of planning and fundraising." ""Maybe you should writer her, a letter to her right away and see what..."" ""I always knew that he would one day come home." "I never thought I'd be involved with it a hundred years later, but, I did."" "September 25th, 1997." "The Black Feather family come to London to claim one of their own." ""It's not a sad day for us." "It's, it's, it's gonna be like a great homecoming for him when we get him back to South Dakota."" "For Elizabeth Knight it is a day of promises kept." ""This is a moment of resolution, of achievement, and blessing."" ""It was the most extraordinary day of my life." "And I'm sure Long Wolf's spirit was there."" "On September 28th, 1997, Long Wolf is laid to rest in a small cemetery in Wolf Creek, South Dakota." "His descendants reenact an ancient rite, this gesture of love beyond death." "More than anything else, it may be what makes us human." "We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us." "We walk in their footsteps." "We live on their graves." "Each time we speak their names, or honor their ways, perhaps they do live again." "To be remembered, and nothing more." "That alone may be the secret to immortality." "The earth does not easily yield its secrets." "Yet around the world scientists are unraveling the compelling story of human evolution." "It is a saga that blends the rigors of science with the romance of a detective story." "We have only traces that hint at who our ancestors were and how they may have lived." "It is like a gigantic puzzle with most of the pieces forever missing." "Today, biological scientists may quibble over the details of evolution, but they all agree that evolution is a fact." "Animal studies now shed light on why some distant ape like creature became an upright walker and how it may have confronted the perils of life on open ground." "Once barely noticeable on the landscape, humans would come to dominate the earth." "The tool, mother of all inventions, was a key to our success." "Tools chipped from stone helped bring us to where we are today." "Now new tools help us better understand what paths we may have traveled along the way." "Much of our current knowledge our understanding of who we are and where we came from has come about only in the last 36 years." "Can we reconstruct the past?" "Can long silent voices be summoned across the vast reaches of time?" "Join us as we probe the MYSTERIES OF MANKIND." "By nature mammals are intensely curious." "We humans are the most curious of all." "And perhaps nothing arouses our curiosity more than the intriguing question of our origins." "What about the cavemans?" "Caveman?" "Well, what do you think he is?" "A caveman." "At the close of the 1,th century when William Shakespeare wrote:" "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, no one had any concept of the vast array of players who preceded us." "Today we yearn to know just who the actors were in this greatest of dramas." "When did they appear on the stage and when did they finally depart?" "The story is elusive at best, like peering into mists that float above an unfamiliar land." "Here and there through a dusky veil we think we catch a fleeting echo of some distant call feel primordial eyes watching us across the ancestral dark." "A thread of kinship surges within us." "Then, just as we grasp at a clue, the phantom voices melt away." "In the early 1966s the scientific world believed that the cradle of mankind was in Asia." "Then, in 1924," "South African anatomist Raymond Dart was brought a skull workmen had found in a limestone quarry." "Dart outraged the scientific community by announcing that this primitive, apelike child was a hominid a member of the family of man." "And, he said, it had walked upright just as we do." "Dart named the species Australopithecus africanus southern ape of Africa." "For more than a decade Dart's only vocal supporter was paleontologist Robert Broom." "Dart was finally vindicated when Broom, in the 1936s and 46s, discovered an assortment of adult australopithecine fossils." "Africa's Great Rift Valley has been geologically active for millions of years an ideal setting for the burial of fossils and their later re-exposure here, Olduvai Gorge would become known as the "Grand Canyon of Evolution"" "because of two maverick scientists." "Coming here in the 1936s, Louis Leakey and his wife, Mary, undertook one of the most persistent efforts in the history of anthropology." "What particularly excited the Leakeys about Olduvai was the presence of primitive stone tools scattered across the eroded landscape" "Their passionate dream:" "to find the remains of the creatures who fashioned these tools to find the earliest known human." "It would be nearly a quarter of a century before their single-minded perseverance finally paid off." "The year was 1959." "We appeared to have got what we were looking for." "Here at last was a man or a man-like creature, apparently the earliest known man in the world." "It would turn out to be a teen-aged male, and not a true human, but a more primitive hominid an australopithecine." "And yet surely, like us, he had cried when hungry as a baby, wobbled his way onto two upright legs, knew pain, love, and joy." "Then in the way of all flesh, he died." "The boy died near the edge of what was then a lake." "The skeleton is missing, perhaps washed away or destroyed by scavengers." "Fortunately, the skull was buried by sediments." "Over the centuries water soluble minerals turned bone to stone as layer upon layer of deposits buried the skull ever deeper into the earth." "Some layers were volcanic ash laid down when a nearby volcano erupted." "Gradual geological uplift typical of the Rift Valley and subsequent erosion brought the fossil once again to the surface." "The odds of finding a hominid fossil are said to be one in ten million." "Because the Leakey's fossil was found in a deposit with volcanic ash, it could be accurately dated." "Volcanic ash contains radioactive potassium that decays into argon gas at a known rate over time." "Human evolution was then believed to begin no more than one million years ago." "Yet here was a fossil nearly double that age." "The scientific world was stunned." "Today, the addition of lasers to the dating technique enables scientists to date minuscule samples even more accurately." "A single grain of ash, seen magnified here many thousands of times, can produce a date much more reliable than ever before possible." "The name and age of a fossil tell little about how the creature actually lived." "But perhaps the behavior of living primates can." "Charles Darwin wrote that we are most closely related to the African apes." "But at that time no one knew how closely or to which species." "The answer would come from a most unlikely source the test tubes of molecular biologists." "Twenty years ago Dr. Vincent Sarich and his colleagues at the University of California were among a small group of scientists dating evolution with molecules and test tubes instead of fossils." "Sarich's group compared a blood protein in 13 species of primates, including humans, and charted when each had diverged from a common ancestor." "The dates differed radically from those obtained from fossils." "Among the great apes, beginning millions of years ago, the line that led to orangutans was the first to split off from a common ancestor." "The evidence suggests gorillas were next." "According to Sarich, chimpanzees and man may have diverged as recently as four to five million years ago." "Such a recent divergence was almost impossible for many scientists to accept." "Laymen were equally reluctant to listen." "There is still a very strong resistance to looking at human beings in an evolutionary context, especially behavioral." "Because we want to retain a separateness." "We don't want to see ourselves as having any non-human in our ancestry." "There are significant differences between us." "We are essentially hairless" "Oh, he likes the beard." "We are habitually upright walkers, we have a much larger brain, and we have the gift of spoken language." "But genetically humans and chimpanzees are 99%% identical." "Chimps may even be more closely related to us than they are to gorillas." "In 19,6 Louis Leakey, with uncanny intuition, sent a young woman into the field to study chimpanzees." "Jane Goodall's 27-year old study has become a classic and confirms Leakey's conviction that chimps have much to teach us about the behavior of early humans." "Understanding of chimp behavior today helps us to understand the way in which our early ancestors may have lived." "Because I think it makes sense to say any behavior shared by the modern chimpanzee and the modern human was probably present in the common ancestor." "And if it was present in the common ancestor, therefore in early man." "A mechanical leopard was instrumental in an experiment with chimpanzees conducted by scientists from the University of Amsterdam." "Anthropologists have long puzzled over how our ancestors defended themselves against predators." "How could such small creatures, not yet intelligent enough to make stone weapons, have possibly survived?" "Leopards are natural predators of chimpanzees." "Here, as the chimps attack, we catch a glimpse of how our ancestors, having left the safety of the trees, may have first met the challenges of life on the ground." "Once the leopard is decapitated, the chimp may not comprehend that it is "dead,"" "but it clearly knows the enemy is no longer a threat." "If a chimpanzee has the intelligence to defend itself with natural weapons, it seems likely our early ancestors did the same." "The chimpanzee has never become an habitual upright walker." "Why did we?" "Upright walking is so fundamental we seldom think about it, and yet it is one of the crucial ways we are set apart from all other mammals on earth." "When did our ancestors take that first tentative step out of the trees to brave the vast African landscapes?" "Important answers would be found in the Afar Triangle region of Ethiopia." "Here, in 1974, an international expedition of 15 specialists headed out to the remote badlands known as Hadar." "Co leader of the team, Dr. Donald Johanson describes himself as superstitious." "After two frustrating months on the sun scorched slopes, he woke up one morning feeling lucky and so noted in his diary." "Later that very day the team discovered bones that made headlines around the world" "at the time the oldest, most complete hominid ever found." "To anthropologists who usually consider themselves lucky to recover a tooth or a broken fragment of bone, this 46%% complete skeleton was a bonanza." "Nicknamed Lucy, she quickly became the object of intense study." "What is most exceptional about a skeleton as complete as Lucy is all the information that we as anthropologists can glean from a skeleton like this." "For example, looking at her femur or her thigh bone, which is only about 12 inches in length, we know that she was no taller than three and a half or four feet." "Now that brings up the question of was it perhaps a child?" "If we look at the state of development for example, of the third molar or the wisdom tooth, it is fully erupted and is already beginning to wear." "So that relative to modern humans, she was an adult when she died." "We're able to tell from the weight bearing area of the hip socket, for example, that she probably only weighed about 56 or 55 pounds." "From the size of the brain case, there is enough of the brain case preserved to suggest to us that the brain was very small about one fourth the size of a modern human brain." "Historically, large brains have been considered the fundamental human trait." "In the 26s when Raymond Dart suggested a small brained creature walked upright he had only a skull to work with." "Here was a significant portion of a skeleton a creature with some very ape like features that walked upright." "Lucy had an ape like brain, a human like skeleton, and teeth both ape and human like a startling mixture of traits." "Yet clearly she was a hominid, a member of the family of man." "Returning to Hadar the following year, the team combed the slopes hoping to discover newly exposed fossils." "They never dreamed they would find anything as exciting as Lucy." "But the Johanson luck proved even better than the year before." "We have the femur and the foot and the knee!" "They had come across the first fragments of 13 individuals, possibly members of the same band." "They may have all perished together perhaps in a flash flood." "The fossils from Hadar and similar ones from Tanzania represent from 35 to,5 individuals." "Based on the abundant evidence," "Johanson and his colleagues felt confident in announcing an entirely new species." "They called it Australopithecus afarensis and put forth the still controversial idea that it is the common ancestor to other Australopithecines who eventually died out, as well as the line that led to true humans." "In the laboratory fragments of skulls and jaws from several males were combined into a composite plaster skull by Johanson's colleague, Dr. Tim White." "After initial discovery and analysis scientists rarely work with an original, fragile fossil." "In fact, the fossils are usually returned to the country where they were found." "But these durable casts are exact replicas down to the most minute details." "In Alexandria, Virginia, the composite skull begins a magical transformation in the hands of anthropologist turned artist, John Gurche." "Gurche has been fascinated with human evolution since childhood." "Today he combines the talents of an anatomist with those of a master sculptor." "His workroom is a cross between an artist's studio and a scientific laboratory." "Placing the eyes is often a special moment." "I base the position of the eyes on scientific data, but there's also often a mystical side of it as well." "That is often the moment when I begin to feel that I'm being watched by the thing I'm working on that it is not so much a thing of clay and plaster, but is actually a living being." "What I really want to do is get at the human past, and having the scientific data behind me makes it much more rewarding for me because I can believe in what I'm doing." "I can believe that the face that's developing in front of me is very much like the face of the individual that it actually belonged to." "The really fascinating thing about working with Australopithecines is that you have something that's right on the line between being human and not human." "You have a lot of features that are ape like and yet it's in the process of becoming human." "The reconstruction will take Gurche more than two months." "It is painstaking, arduous work that often continues well into the night." "I'd really like to be able to make the claim for this kind of work that it's a hard science." "Unfortunately, it's not." "It's as good as it can be without actually going back in time and coming face to face with our ancestors." "The end result is often a surprise even to me." "I'm basing the restoration on clues one by one that I'm getting from the bony anatomy and the cumulative effect of those clues is often a surprise." "A face long lost to the tides of time emerges out of plaster and clay." "We come face to face with one of out earliest known relatives across a chasm of three million years." "More than half a million years before Lucy and more than a thousand miles away, a volcano erupted spewing ash across Tanzania's Serengeti Plain." "Then a moment was frozen in time." "An amazing sequence of chance events created a record unique in the pageant of prehistory." "Soon after the eruption the rain clouds that had been threatening parted." "Then three hominids, perhaps of the same species as Lucy, walked by." "Their footprints left an impression in the dampened ashfall." "Only because the sun then came out did the footprints harden." "And only because continued eruptions laid down yet other layers of ash were the traces entombed more than three and a half million years." "Today this area, not far from Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, is called Laetoli." "Here, in 1978, a team led by Dr. Mary Leakey finds what is one of the most astounding archaeological discoveries of all time the very footprints not seen on this earth since the eruption of one volcano millions of years ago." "Dr. Leakey and her team begin the delicate process of removing the cement hard rock." "To Dr. Leakey the prints are more evocative than any fossil." "They tell a vivid story of one fleeting moment in time." "The track of footprints that you see here on my left was a truly remarkable find that we made this season." "It's a trail left by three people who walked across a flat expanse of volcanic ash three and a half million years ago." "We can say they were relatively short." "We can estimate that their height was probably between four and five feet." "We can say they had this free striding walk." "One assumes they were perhaps holding hands or" "They are so evenly spaced, the tracks, and they're keeping step, always left foot for left foot and right foot for right foot, that it may, for all we know, have been a family party." "The emotional impact of the footprints is universal, but scientifically they arouse debate:" "Were these creatures related to Lucy, and could their upright walk so long ago have been the same as ours today?" "Tim White helped excavate the Laetoli footprints." "Now, to answer some of the questions raised, he has devised an experiment." "With our closest living relative, he walks across an expanse of wet sand." "Its consistency is roughly the same as damp volcanic ash." "Here we have my footprint with a strong heel strike and the big toe in line with the other toes." "The chimpanzee's footprint is here and the knuckle print is right behind it." "We see the chimpanzee's toe is divergent, whereas the human toe is in line with the other toes." "The human foot also has a dramatic arch to it." "The chimpanzee foot and its print lacks this arch." "And at Laetoli we have evidence from three and a half million years ago of a large toe in line with the rest of the toes and a longitudinal arch and a strong heel strike." "In other words, the human pattern has been established three and a half million years ago in Tanzania with these early hominids." "Some scientists feel that only by studying the locomotion of apes can we know how Lucy and our other early ancestors actually walked." "At the state University of New York at Stony Brook, a team led by anatomists Randall Susman and Jack Stern videotapes the movements of an orangutan." "They have also extensively studied chimpanzees." "Come on." "Electrodes implanted in the arm and leg muscles send signals to monitoring equipment." "Clothing holds the transmitter in place on the animal's back." "That's good bipedalism." "Keep him going." "On their screen Susman and Stern receive a superimposed image of the electrical output of the muscles as the animal moves." "One intriguing finding:" "The hip muscles used by apes in climbing are used in many of the same ways as human hip muscles are in walking." "So the transition from tree dweller to ground walker may have been relatively simple." "The pattern of muscle usage was already in place." "Good boy." "But Susman and Stern, unlike Johanson, White, and others, believe that these ancestors did not walk exactly as we do, but more like an ape when it walks on two legs." "They maintain that those creatures, like apes, still spent much time in the trees and had not yet fully adapted to life on the ground." "In earlier days, anthropologists compared and contrasted stones and bones, but could only ponder questions about behavior." "Today they can directly address some of the fundamental issues of our ancestry." "How did Lucy and the others live?" "Where did they sleep?" "What did they eat?" "In the line of other Australopithecines to which Lucy may have given rise, there were smaller creatures known as graciles and robust ones with puzzlingly massive jaws and teeth" "The fossil teeth themselves hold clues to what these hominids were eating." "Thousands or millions of years later, the wear on the teeth remains." "Let's see if we can't acquire that image." "Dr. Fred Grine, also at Stony Brook, studies diet, using a scanning electron microscope and computer graphics." "Different foods leave distinctively different marks on teeth." "Comparing the two patterns of a gracile and robust australopithecine side by side, it becomes quite evident that the wear patterns are very dissimilar, and that, therefore, the foods they would have eaten would have been dissimilar." "The scratches and the polished surfaces found on a gracile Australopithecine molar would have been produced by soft foods such as soft fruits and leaves, whereas the pitting which characterizes a robust Australopithecine molar would have been produced by hard food objects such as seeds and nuts." "Shrouded in myth since their discovery" "Australopithecines were long characterized as blood thirsty killer apes." "It now seems far more likely they were vegetarians who should be seen in their more rightful place in the human evolutionary drama." "Robust Australopithecines flourished for well over a million years, then disappeared an apparent evolutionary dead end." "It is possible they lost out in competition with another, more intelligent species a hominid tool user a line that would eventually lead to modern human beings." "Like the remains of their predecessors the fossil bones of the tool users are almost always discovered in deposits formed along lake shores or streams." "The areas around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya have a record of both human and animal life that is perhaps unmatched in the world." "Every week during the field season, a light plane from Nairobi brings expedition leader Richard Leakey, son of Louis and Mark Leakey." "Despite an early decision not to follow in his parents' footsteps," "Richard's passion for paleontology won out." "For two decades he has been digging here with remarkable success." "Over the years since 19,8 the Turkana region has yielded ten to fifteen thousand fossil remains." "Most are animal, but amazingly more than 366 are early human." "Leakey has been called the "organizing genius of modern paleontology"." "He heads a team that scours the exposures daily for several months at a time." "They cover every foot of the,66 square mile area each year." "Looking for new evidence in any scientific discipline is exciting." "In our field it's particularly rewarding because every year there is a new opportunity." "These vast areas of desert are periodically washed by rain." "and every time it rains, there's a chance that something new will be exposed something new that's going to tell us something that we never knew before." "It's going to expose a completely new chapter in our understanding of human origins." "And it's really great fun to be out there on the desert realizing that although you were there the year before, this year it will be different because it rained a few months ago and something new must have washed up somewhere." "It's simply a question of finding it." "In 1984 a small piece of skull was found." "It was immediately recognized as human by Leakey's colleague Kamoya Kimeu." "With anatomist Alan Walker and the rest of the team, he went on to unearth a seemingly endless array of bones." "The rest of the skull and face were found and painstakingly glued together from 76 separate pieces." "The bones were clearly those of a Homo erectus, a species on the path that eventually led to modern humans." "The skeleton, a boy of about 12, was dated at more than a million and a half years old." "Far more complete than even Lucy, it is one of the most remarkable finds in the study of human evolution." "The boy differs little from a modern human in stature and body proportions." "An artist imagines what he might have looked like;" "Richard Leakey reconstructs what his life may have been like." "The area that he was living in was probably lake margin, swampy ground near the lake edge." "There was grassland;" "there were forests;" "there were permanent rivers running into the lake." "Probably an enormous amount of animals plains animals, carnivores, scavengers." "I suppose one could visualize an area like one of the better national parks in East Africa today, teeming with wildlife ideal conditions for an early human." "I think it's remarkable because it's so complete." "But perhaps another aspect that is often overlooked is that many people who don't like the idea of human evolution have been able to discount much of the work we've done." "On the basis that it was built on fragmentary evidence just little bits and pieces." "And who knows." "Those little bits of bone could belong to anything." "To confront some of these people with a complete skeleton that is so manifestly human and is so obviously related to us." "In a context where it's definitely one and a half million years or a little more is fairly convincing evidence." "And I think many of the people who are fence sitters on this discussion about creationism versus evolution are going to have to get off the fence in the light of this discovery." "A Homo erectus head would have looked very different from our own." "It had a heavy brow ridge, jutting face, and a smaller braincase." "It is very likely their skin was dark nature's protection against the tropical sun." "Some scientists believe Homo erectus was the first hominid to hunt." "In earlier times our ancestors, themselves prey, were probably accepted without fear at Africa's water holes." "But when they began to hunt, the other animals would sense them as a threat." "Exactly when hunting began may never be known." "But it is clear that the tools made by erectus were far more sophisticated than any that had been made before." "Even the earliest and most primitive tools marked a momentous advance for humankind the first evidence of culture." "And, as intelligence grew over time, tools became ever more refined and specialized." "Learning how tools may have been made and used provides a window into the behavior of our ancestors." "Dr. Nicholas Toth of Indiana University has become a master of the technique." "Many scientists had believed that the objective of the earliest toolmakers was to create these large cobbles and that the chipped off flakes were merely the debris." "Toth's experimentation led him to conclude it was quite the reverse." "The razor sharp flakes, he believes, were often the tools our ancestors made and used." "If you take a hard look at your average human being, we're very poor carnivores." "We have small canines;" "we don't have slashing claws;" "we're not very strong;" "we don't look anything like a hyena or a lion." "And I think with the simplest flake stone technology, you can butcher an animal from the size of a gazelle to the size of an elephant with absolutely no problem." "Even hyenas will not tackle the biggest bones on a carcass." "But with the simplest tools used like a hammer and anvil, an early hominid could get at the marrow inside." "Almost completely fat, marrow is high in calories, essential to a hominid roaming the African landscape." "When an animal bone is butchered, the edge of the tool leaves cutmarks." "Often ignored in the past, cutmarks are now recognized as vital clues to the behavior of early humans." "They can tell us, for instance, which animals our ancestors ate, which parts of these animals they may have favored, and ultimately they may reveal when hominids became successful hunters." "In the past scientists often suspected cutmarks were man made if tools were found nearby." "Today they know many factors from the natural world can plant false clues." "One factor not often considered came to light in unusual experiment conducted by Dr. Kay Behrensmeyer." "In Asia she had been puzzled by grooves and scratches on bones eight to nine million years old, long before hominids existed." "Later, in Africa, she saw how bones frequently are trampeled by migrating game herds." "Could random trampeling, she wondered, leave marks that could be confused with those made purposefully by a tool." "Dr. Pat Shipman of Johns Hopkins University has been experimenting with cutmarks since 1978." "She believes that by creating them herself and examining them microscopically, she and other can better define what is a true cutmark and what is not." "Into a scanning electron microscope, or SEM, she inserts a gold coated cast of the marks she has made." "Compared with regular microscopes, the SEM offers greater depth of field to look at three-dimensional structures." "It seems likely that marks on bones found in sandy soil may remain open to interpretation." "But for others," "Shipman has found that what distinguish a true cutmark are the fine lines within a groove." "Experimenting, she says, is the best way to suggest what happened to a bone thousands or millions of years ago." "The problem for us today is to tease out of the past, to coax out of the evidence the specialness of early hominids." "And once we know where we started and how we started and what was important then, we may have a very different idea of what it is to be human." "Homo erectus was the first human species to leave Africa." "Sometime after a million years ago, their fossil remains, and those of a number of African mammals, first appear in other tropical regions of the world." "Some scientists believe that by then meat had become an appreciable part of the diet." "With the addition of this important protein, this intelligent and curious creature would have been well equipped to expand out to unknown lands." "We know from preserved remains and tools that erectus reached China," "Java and southern Europe." "On the Sussex coast of England, quarry workers were the first to unearth a site called Boxgrove." "It may hold answers to the life style of the species that came after Homo erectus." "About 356,666 years old," "Boxgrove is an unusually important site." "It covers a hundred acres, and it contains vast numbers of tools and animal bones that are extraordinarily well preserved." "Erectus probably never reached this far north in Europe, but his descendants did." "They were the earliest form of our own species, Homo sapiens." "Here flags mark the locations where their tools or fragments have been found." "Animal bones abound." "Deer teeth." "Part of the lower jaw of an extinct bear." "A large pelvic bone with cutmarks that hint at a tool user's presence." "Yet strangely, no human remains have been found." "So untouched is the site that if one could peer back through the centuries, here would sit an ancestor chipping stone to make a tool." "Nearby, what may have been that very tool is held again in a human hand for the first time in 356,666 years." "Perhaps it was used to scrape wood, prepare a hide, or dig for roots in the ground." "It may have helped kill the deer or bring down the bear." "But where is the maker of the tool?" "Once Boxgrove was a beach front, ideal for the preservation of fossils." "Why no people have been found remains just another missing piece in the human puzzle." "These pre modern Homo sapiens seemingly evolved from Homo erectus, but their exact relationship to erectus, as well as to the more modern humans who followed, is still unclear." "One of the most puzzling of these pre modern Homo sapiens was Neandertal." "Some scientists think they were a short lived side branch on the family tree." "Indeed, the longest ongoing controversy in paleoanthropology has been who were the Neandertals?" "But there are more questions than answers." "We do know the Neandertals were not the dimwitted brutes so often portrayed by cartoonists." "But one characteristic attributed to them is true." "They were cave people." "At Kebara Cave in Israel, a Neandertal excavation in run jointly by Israeli and French teams." "When carefully studied, layers in a cave can tell a rich story." "Too often in the past they were dug with reckless abandon." "Thirty years ago Kebara was attacked with pickaxe and shovel." "Today, dental probes and fine brushes move methodically, inch by inch." "Each pail of dirt is screened for even the tiniest fragment of bone or stone." "Each piece will then be washed, identified, labeled, and catalogued." "By far the greatest number of finds at Kebara have been these well fashioned tools." "Literally hundreds of thousands have been unearthed." "The leader of the Israeli team is Professor Ofer Bar Yosef." "He has clear evidence that over many thousands of years" "Neandertals repeatedly occupied Kebara Cave." "What we can see here are the fireplaces as built by the people around 45-4,666 years ago." "And this is one of the special features of Kebara Cave that we can see these fireplaces which are built one on top of the other and always at the same place in the central area of the cave." "They were either heating the area of the cave during wintertime or also using them for cooking." "And then when you still have the hot ashes, spreading them so they can sleep on them." "One problem that we should always keep in mind is that we cannot and we should not perhaps excavate the entire cave area because we have to preserve part of it for future archaeologists who will probably use better techniques of excavation or better approaches." "And, therefore, we'll never know the entire picture of what really happened everywhere." "We do know Neandertals camped in this natural shelter, or at least came here with food, perhaps huddling in groups around the warmth of a fire." "We also know some of them died here." "Neandertals were the first people to bury their dead." "This skeleton, except for the missing skull which may have been used in some ritual, is among the most complete Neandertals ever found." "What the meaning of burials was in the life of these long vanished ancestors cannot be known for certain." "But the fact that they buried their dead links them to us in deep and meaningful ways." "From Neandertal excavations throughout Europe and the Middle East, a picture of how they lived has gradually emerged." "Theirs was a non-settled existence." "A socially organized people, they traveled in groups as they moved from place to place in search of food." "Hardy and robust, they were probably much stronger than most modern people." "They survived even in harsh Ice Age conditions." "Whether they had language as we know it is unclear." "But surely, in some sophisticated way, they communicated with their own." "Then about 36 to 46,666 years ago these intelligent, well-adapted people mysteriously disappeared." "They may or may not have evolved into modern Homo sapiens." "If modern Homo sapiens evolved elsewhere and then migrated," "Neandertals may have simply lost out to them." "Anatomically much like us, these early modern humans stood at the threshold of everything we usually define as human." "Farming and the rise of great cities would await a later time." "But these early modern humans were the very first to create fine art." "This rich record of the past ranks among the greatest artistic achievements of humankind." "We know these people spread to every habitable part of the globe, but where had they come from?" "One scientist at the British Museum of Natural History in London thinks the answer has been found." "Physical anthropologist Dr. Chris Stringer." "The research on the origin of modern people is interesting obviously because it deals with the origins of all living people alive today." "And my idea of an African origin is based partly on the fossil evidence." "I feel that modern people appeared earliest in Africa and then later on in other parts of the world." "But there is also genetic data, and the genetic data also support the idea of an African origin of modern people." "At the University of Hawaii one of the primary genetic researchers in this field investigates the migration patterns of modern races" "Dr. Becky Cann believes her research adds rather startling information to the theory of an African origin." "All humans who are alive today can trace their ancestry in their genes back to a single female who, we think, lived in Africa sometime perhaps two hundred thousand years ago" "Dr. Cann bases her theory on studies of DNA extracted from women." "She traces backward in time one part of the DNA molecule that only females can pass on." "The genetic work is supplemented with interviews about the women's maternal ancestry." "Could I ask you about your maternal grandmother, your mother's mother?" "My grandmother was born on August 16, 1963 in Macau," "Macau is the coast of China." "Dr. Cann has studied Americans of European," "African, and Asian descent, as well as Australian Aborigines." "By comparing small segments of DNA from these women," "Dr. Cann assesses the similarities and the differences." "The more alike the DNA, the more closely related two individuals are." "With a computer," "Cann suggests different migration patterns over the centuries." "If she is right, modern humans, like earlier hominids, evolved in Africa." "In Africa it seems that the evolution of modern people first began and from there we all trace our ancestry." "So we're all very closely related." "And that goes for all people American Indians," "Australian Aborigines, Eskimos," "Europeans we all trace our origin to Africa, and under the skin we are all Africans." "Old concepts of human diversity die hard." "But certainly we must consider the possibility that human equality is a fact of our evolution that it's in our very genes." "We are all time travelers together, the most recent players in a drama that began at least four million years ago." "In the detective story of human evolution we know in a broad sense how the plot turned out." "But we know very little about the chapters along the way." "There are too many fossils that are merely fragments and too many gaps in time for which we have no fossils at all." "The science of anthropology is little more than a hundred years old." "But as it moves forward, it opens new mysteries, poses greater riddles." "To begin filling in the numerous blanks, the discovery of new fossils is essential." "New technologies will add other pieces to the expanding puzzle." "But that is all we can expect random puzzle pieces." "Never can the entire picture be known." "For scientists the excitement of the quest never diminishes." "And as the rains come again next year and the next, they know that somewhere in thousands of square miles, with a bit of luck, they will find new and even more provocative clues to the ongoing drama of our human past." "The mere suggestion of this creature strikes fear into the hearts of many." "Legendary serpent." "Stealthy predator." "This king of the rattlesnakes won his reputation for good reason." "In truth, his world is one full of danger, one that we know little about." "Look at that!" "One man has set out to change that and nearly dies doing it." "Dr. Bruce Means ventures through the inland waterways that went from Georgia through Florida's panhandle." "A freelance scientist, he is often on his own and prefers it that way." "For 25 years now, Means has pioneered the study of North America's largest and most feared viper." "Means journeys into this personal heart of darkness on a mission." "He fears for the fate of the venomous snake he is after, the Eastern diamondback rattler," "a proud and complex recluse slithering toward the black hole of extinction." "For over 56 years, I've wondered in nature by myself, sometimes barefooted, but usually with just my sandals on." "Where I'm heading takes some getting used to." "There's marsh and muck, but on the other side there's this paradise where the longleaf pine forest grows and this special creature I love so much survives." "Diamondbacks are almost impossible to find." "Sometimes in the summer, though, you can use the gopher tortoise for a guide." "Pregnant snakes often make their temporary homes in the long burrows that the turtle digs." "So if you find a tortoise, he can sometimes lead you to a diamondback." "There!" "There's the gopher tortoise about two feet down." "The gopher tortoise shovels out his own burrow, creating a home for hundreds of other creatures large and small." "There's another gopher of sorts, the gopher frog." "The Florida mouse and its pups." "And something we've been searching for, something menacing." "Incredibly, this is also the home of the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake." "A serpent scaled in diamonds, it is among the most highly evolved of all snakes, among the most dangerous, and among the most unlikely roommate any tortoise ever had." "The perfect odd couple." "Diamondbacks only prey on warmblooded animals, so the coldblooded tortoise is safe from the snake." "Still, the snake is not harmless and the tortoise is not taking any chances." "The Eastern diamondback rattlesnake is as American as the bald eagle." "It is the largest rattlesnake in the world." "This is a singular serpent." "Many snakes swim, but few take to surfing like this rattler." "It seems as at home at sea as it is on land." "It is the king of American snakes more forbidding, almost invisible and utterly silent, but for its warning." "Its signature, the menacing rattle, signalling the nearness of sudden death." "The snake's trademark is made up of scales left behind each time the snake sheds its skin." "They scratch together when shaken." "Amazingly, the frequency is the same as an ambulance siren." "The rattle evolved in the ancient dance of survival." "Twelve thousand years ago, a menagerie of strange animals roamed the Atlantic Coast mastodons, lamas and bison, like this one, were as plentiful as deer." "All are gone now from the region but for this survivor, the Eastern diamondback." "Having melted into his environment through camouflage, the viper may have evolved a signal to spook off these big mammals." "Instead of being trampled, the snake rattled out a warningdon't tread on me." "Like the snake, Means prefers to be left alone." "So often, it's just the doctor and the diamondback, man on snake, and sometimes snake on man." "I had hoped to be one of the few herpetologists who studied venomous animals and to say at the end of a career that I had never been bitten." "Means didn't get his wish." "He suffered his first bite in a laboratory accident more than two decades ago." "Then a few years later, he paddled out to a distant and deserted barrier island off the Florida coast to take a wildlife inventory." "The hazards of meeting up with a killer snake were the furthest thing from his mind." "I was wandering through the dune of vegetation and I encountered a rattle snake about a threeandahalffoot, beautiful looking female." "Had my camera, so I start taking photographs." "The snake wanted to start fleeing and I grabbed it by the tail and threw it up into the open, and it coiled up, so I got more photographs." "And at that point, I should have been satisfied, but for some crazy reason, and I'll never know why," "I decided I wanted to capture the snake." "I got in front of the snake, and I'm trying to pin the head of the snake when it struck at me and I misjudged how far the snake could strike." "It could strike further than I realized." "And it, one fang got me on the forefinger." "I looked at my forefinger and there was a pinprick of blood there, just beginning, a little jewel of red." "I thought to myself, "I cannot believe I let this happen." "When he was bitten in the safety of his lab, he collapsed in just four minutes, his legs rubbery and useless." "Now, he faced a halfmile trek back to his canoe." "He had no communications and no choice." "The scientist in him understood that with every step he took, his chances at survival dimmed, because the long march pumped the venom faster through his body." "And he knew from his last experience that the legs go first." "The entire time it took me to get myself to safety, there was one thing that overwhelmingly occupied the whole episode:" "I kept thinking, "You're gonna do it." "Don't let this fear get you." "Don't panic." "Keep going."" "And I set my teeth, I mean, I literally clenched my teeth, and I said, "I'm gonna do it."" "As the pain spread, the paralysis set in, and he still had to paddle nearly a mile across the channel separating him from the mainland." "Almost 36 minutes had passed." "Means knew from experience time was running out." "I had many thoughts of my life passing, you know, before me, and most of all I worried about my children and my wife, about what they would think if I would not make it." "And worst of all, here I was in a canoe, and suppose that I panicked in the middle of the water and drowned and disappeared and they'd never have known what had happened to me." "So I kept that thing in mind, "I'm gonna make it." "I'm gonna make it."" "And I get all the way to shore." "So when I got on the shore, I tried to get out of the boat," "I couldn't move my legs." "I was totally paralyzed from the hips down." "I just threw myself over in the boat into the water." "My stuff dumps out into the water." "I pull myself out of the boat, and didn't bother with it;" "it floated off a ways from me." "And I literally clawed my way to my car." "When I got to the car, I had a problem getting the key in the door, and my car happened to have an idiosyncracy about opening up, but fortunately it opened for me." "I dragged myself up into the car, pulled myself onto the seat." "Then I found out I couldn't drive." "It's a stick shift." "So I had to grab my right leg, pull it in, put it on the accelerator, grab my left leg, pull it in on the clutch." "I pushed the clutch in, started the car, gave it some gas." "And I was able to twist and pull it down and I popped the clutch." "I kept it in first gear and I tore off down the road towards help not being able to shift, so I was in first gear, going, "Rrrrrr," down the road." "The few minutes it took to drive to Survey Headquarters were an endless nightmare." "All I could do is just turn the key off and let it," ""Chugchugchug" to a stop, open the door." "And then I had to let myself down onto the pavement." "The pain was like salt poured in an open wound, and worse, he was growing weaker and weaker." "No longer able to drag himself over the hot knobby pavement, he had to roll in order to move, but he couldn't roll in a straight line." "So he plotted a circle across the burning parking lot to his last, best chance for survival." "Means reached his destination only to discover that his ordeal had just begun." "Nearly an hour had passed since the rattler sank its fangs in Bruce Means's hand, and now the scientist was discovering that the cure was as bad as the bite." "Twentysix vials of antivenin were pumped into his veins to stem the tide of the snake's poison." "But the medicine proved an even more lethal toxin, because Means was allergic to it." "People around me could see the twitching that goes on a thing called muscular fasciculation." "The hair follicles around the mouth and I'm fully bearded move in a circular motion." "My whole face was involved in these strange rhythmical movements of the skin, which are characteristic of Eastern diamondback snake bites." "He spent ten days hovering between recovery and death, often in intensive care, as his body rebelled against the antivenin." "But he survived." "And less than 24 hours after he left the hospital, he was back at work, back to the snakes that nearly killed him." "What is the allure?" "Why is Means willing to risk the snake's fatal attraction?" "You know, this is a magnificent creature." "It's at the pinnacle of evolution and we know so little about it." "Apart from its beauty and its mystery, it has a rightful place in nature." "And now, it's at risk." "It's actually a very benign creature." "It likes to lie coiled up and hidden waiting for food and, once in a rare while, for a mate." "The survival of the Eastern diamondback depends on bogs like this and on these dwindling stands of longleaf pines, a once vast torrent of forest that tumbled south and west from Virginia to Texas." "These lofty but threatened woodlands sustain an immense web of wildlife and are the keystone to the Eastern diamondback's survival." "The powerful connection between the pines and the diamondbacks was little understood when Bruce Means arrived in Florida's woodlands." "The snake was feared and hunted, but never studied." "More than 26 years ago," "Means pioneered the use of radio signals to track the Eastern diamondback's behavior." "He carefully introduced a harmless, mousesized transmitter into the sedated snakes, which beamed their whereabouts." "In summer, he combs the forests for his latest subject." "At this point, sometimes I get so close that I can't see them." "They're camouflaged very well in the grass." "I have to be very careful I don't step on one." "Ah, there it is." "Whew!" "A big one." "Little head." "Whoa!" "Big body." "Hello?" "Who are you?" "Whoa, is he heavy." "Look at the size." "Oh!" "This is a big snake, but it's not nearly as big as rattlesnakes get the Eastern diamondback." "This guy is about four and a half feet long and I would estimate about five and a half to six pounds in weight." "They come a lot bigger." "A ten pound snake, is not uncommon, which would be almost twice his bulk." "And I've known of 12 and 13pound snakes." "The next thing I need to do is be sure that I don't endanger myself and also that I am careful not to cause him to hurt himself, so I'll partially narcotize him by putting an inhalant and it'll take about five minutes for him to become totally placid." "I'm not going to put him entirely out." "And then we can work with him." "Let's see how he's doing." "Yeah." "What is important here is I know he's under sufficiently for me to work with him when he's lost his writhing response, which you see him lying on his back now." "Now he's not out." "I have to be quite careful with him, anyway, but he's probably out sufficiently for me to flip him over and then capture him." "Alright, notice he's not thrashing." "He would be doing that were he not somewhat groggy." "So the first thing I do is get a measurement and he is 126 millimeters is now rattle length." "And his tailnow that rattling indicates he's not, he's quickly coming out of his narcosis, but I have his head in my hand." "So it's 1266 millimeters in length and 126 tail, that's about 16 percent of the body length, which is about right for a male." "Females have about 16 percent less tail length." "This is a young snake." "This animal may only be in his third year of life." "That's amazing." "A lot of people don't realize a snake that big could be a juvenile." "But this one's probably just sexually mature." "Could you imagine what one twice that size in volume would look like?" "The Eastern diamondback really represents the epitome of snake evolution." "And there are several reasons for that." "One is that it has this remarkable heatsensitive pit right there, which is an advancement among snakes." "Another, of course, is this elaborate venom and fang apparatus." "The venom is a complex liqueur having several different proteins in it 8 to 16 and, depending on the species, more." "Each one of those proteins has various functions." "Many of them are enzymes." "They break down the tissue or in the case of the Eastern diamondback, it actually has quite a bit of nerve attacking components in its venom." "So the initial use that the venom is put to is to immobilize its prey, so it doesn't go too far away and the snake can go find it." "The snake employs its fierce weapons with surgical precision." "And it strikes with lightening speed." "Its jaws are lashed by sinew and powerful muscles that snap open the fangs like a switchblade." "Sacks similar to salivary glands pump the venom through hollow channels just like a hypodermic needle." "Though the bite is instantaneous, the snake pumps its venom several times to force a lethal dose into its victim." "After locating its prey, the snake begins the laborious process of feeding." "And it always starts with the head." "First one half of the jaw, then the other walk along the prey as it is ingested." "Small sharp teeth in the palate and lower jaw curve backward sliding over the food, pulling it in." "The body moves forward like an accordion as muscles in the throat draw the prey down." "A full grown snake could survive for a year on three or four lunches like this one." "Though bitten and nearly killed by the Eastern diamondback," "Means says his research makes plain the snake doesn't deserve its menacing reputation." "The Eastern diamondback rattlesnake is not a sinister animal." "A lot of people might think that." "They rely on several mechanisms to avoid your presence." "The first is camouflage." "There's a rattlesnake close by." "Normally you can't see the snake, becausewell, I know where it is but he's hidden in the grass and they're very difficult to see, so the rattlesnake is not rattling." "And they don't want to rattle because they don't want to attract your attention." "Human beings will go over and kill it." "But watch what happens if I walk slowly towards the snake, and it perceives that I'm aware of it, which it does now, you can hear it rattling." "This snake doesn't have a huge rattle string, but he's beginning to rattle." "In fact, he's not rattling a lot." "This is a very complacent animal." "I might have to be a little more threatening." "You see that he's orienting to me, as I walk around him, his head's turning." "Oh, this guy's quite complacent." "He can stick and reach me if he were to strike now." "Now if I back away from him, he'll stop rattling, which he's done." "Generally, they rely on camouflage." "Interestingly, I touched the snake to stimulate it, it did jump, but it still didn't strike me." "And it'll probably strike at this point." "Look at that." "It did sort of lethargically as I passed it." "This is sort of the common, average behavior of the Eastern diamondback." "Some will strike, but in general most of them don't." "They're not the sinister animal that people think." "And they by no means chase people." "They don't go after you." "So how can you loathe an animal that really doesn't have dirty deeds in its heart?" "August is a brief but crucial passage for the Eastern diamondback." "Males are on the move now trailing the pheromones of females." "More than ever, the males are out in the open and exposed to danger." "The females are less restless during this time, awaiting a mate or preparing to give birth near the safety of a burrow." "Birds of prey are the curse of the diamondback." "From the treetops, a redtailed hawk can spy a snake a half a mile away." "A pregnant diamondback, storing fat for the dozen young maturing inside her body, would make for a feast." "Sensing danger overhead sends the tortoise and the pregnant rattler down into the safety of the burrow." "The hawk is undaunted and the male is still in the open." "Its talons over fangs." "The hawk dances gingerly around its dangerous prey." "The victor shrouds its victim from intruders." "For this rattler, the mating game is over." "The gopher tortoise's well engineered burrow is both a safe haven and a refuge." "The tunnel usually slopes some six feet underground, but an ambitious turtle will tunnel 36 feet or more." "Over time, as many as 356 creatures may come and go as tenants here." "The gopher frog calls this hole in the ground home." "Like the tortoise, it's cold blooded and so it's safe from the diamondback." "The sheepishlooking gesture is really a reflex protecting its delicate eyes." "The barging gopher tortoise leaves no doubt who is landlord of this burrow." "He bulldozes past the other tenants who are preparing to head out into the night." "Though the turtle's tunnel is little more than a narrow hallway, the warmblooded Florida Mouse occupies a oneroom apartment dug into the wall." "It's tiny, keyholesized entryway keeps out the big diamondback." "Though coming and going is still a risk, she and the snake tend to keep different hours." "The diamondback usually hunts by day and the Florida mouse is nocturnal." "In the warmest months, the Eastern diamondback may stay out after hours, but not to hunt." "Instead, it will find a spot to curl up and wait out the night." "As the orange light of day parts the clouds, the diamondback nestles motionless at the base of a tree." "Rattlers are ambush hunters, using patience, stillness and stealth." "A family of squirrels ventures out into the day, unaware of the deadly interloper nearby." "The fleeing squirrel has moments to live." "No matter where the squirrel dies, the snake will find it." "I know when I was bitten, my body fell apart." "As big as I am, I had a chance." "But for a small creature like the squirrel, it's all over in an instant." "How the snake tracks its wounded prey is not yet clear." "Means thinks a stricken animal gives off a special scent, a unique signature that distinguishes it." "Food goes down headfirst, so the feet fold easily through the gaping jaws." "The diamondback gets its meal," "and there will be no more tales of alarm from this squirrel." "The diamondback brought a subtle advantage to its encounter with the squirrel, a sixth sense, hunting through its heat sensing pits." "Means wants to understand the world as the snake perceives it." "The growing tip of the longleaf pine is warm." "That's interesting." "A pioneer in research, he has embarked on a new series of experiments." "He uses a thermal camera to reveal a world invisible to humans, a world of heat radiating all around us." "Here is my imprint of my hand, right on the ground, where you can see nothing but leaves with the naked eye." "It's absolutely different." "Now for an experiment, I have brought a cute little laboratory rat." "Good morning you cute little rat." "Are you ready to be a star?" "We're gonna put him down on the ground to see what he looks like through this infrared camera." "Alright, Mr. Rat, wander around." "Whoa!" "This is fantastic." "The thermal camera dramatically shows how heat from the warmblooded mouse strips it of both cover and camouflage." "While no one knows what the snake actually perceives, the camera offers visual evidence of the Eastern diamondback's advantage in hunting warmblooded prey." "For the Eastern diamondback, heat is an allyand in surprising ways." "Lightning is as common to Florida as coastline, and the bolts become firebrands setting the forest aflame." "The snake depends on these fires, because they sustain the longleaf pine forest, the diamondback's principal habitat." "Fire burns out underbrush, allowing for new growth." "The diamondback is well adapted to these fiery conditions and seeks refuge from the flames." "This cotton mouth was not so lucky." "There are the quick and the dead and the well adapted." "After the fire, a mosaic of ash and old growth patch the earth." "A turtle navigates the embers trying to find food." "Within a few days, fresh greens will have punched through the ashes and new palmetto sprays will have fanned out." "This is the miracle of the longleaf pine forest." "Here the role of fire is not to kill;" "it's to rejuvenate." "Even tortoises seem to sprout from the soil after a fire" "newborns hungry for the green shoots." "August in the piney woods is a season of upheaval." "And the pregnant diamondback feels it most." "A month before labor she hunkers down, feeding stops, movement stops for the most part." "Labor lasts 12 exhausting hours, as she gives birth to a clutch of a dozen little diamondbacks." "Though the young are carried within her body and born live, they hatch from sacks identical to eggs but without the finishing touch the shell." "From the beginning, young rattlers can deliver a lethal dose of venom and soon bear the first button of their baby rattle." "Conventional wisdom says snakes don't make good mothers." "But Means believes Eastern diamondbacks may." "The mother stays close to the clutch in the first crucial days of life, although the reason may simply be exhaustion." "Deadly as the diamondback may be, they grow into a world of treachery." "Few survive their first year, for danger lurks in every direction even from other snakes." "The kingsnake is known as a muscular hunter a constrictor that kills by suffocating its prey." "Tongueflicks sample the air." "The diamondback senses a dangerous foe the kingsnake, dinner." "The kingsnake gets its name because it eats other snakes and it's immune to its opponent's venom." "Pinning the diamondback in its corkscrew coils, it crushes its victim, than swallows it whole." "It leaves the trophy till last." "More treacherous than the snake's natural predatorsthe commercial hunter." "While against the law, practices like this go on to this day." "Hunters are paid $16 a foot for diamondbacks, as much as $,6 a snake." "Outwitted, the rattler is lured into betraying itself with its last line of defense." "The hunter listens for the telltale rattle." "A spray of gasoline chokes the burrow." "The snake is desperate to escape the fumes and abandons the sanctuary of the tunnel, winding up in a bucket." "The burrow that had harbored so much life may now become a wasteland." "No one knows how long the gas fumes may linger." "If the snakes are not killed outright, many are brought to rattlesnake roundups, which have been entertaining audiences for decades." "It's 39 years we've had this roundup." "It's a way of controlling the snakes down in this country." "And I don't really know if it has that much of an impact, but we seem to get a lot of snakes every year." "Each year, Eastern diamondbacks are captured for roundups that attract crowds as large as 25,666." "That's essentially a diamond there." "Yeah, we come up here for rattlesnake burgers." "They tell us they're really good." "Yeah, you know I had to say chicken." "Chicken?" "Then I said take the alligator too." "People want to cook them, kill them and wear them." "They even want their venom, which the roundups milk at bargain prices for medical researchers." "Means attends roundups to take a head count of the rattlers, trying to gauge the impact these events have on the Eastern diamondback." "The snakes are treated badly." "They're exploited for money, then killed, with no thought for them as a renewable resource." "Worse than the roundup, says Means, is the skin trade." "Hides become fashion." "It is an ironic end for the Eastern diamondback, the magical camouflage that had hid the snake so well now calls attention to its wearer." "This is out of control and needs much more regulation." "Even alligators are licensed and tagged now." "But dead diamondbacks, they're treated as party favors." "Roundups give people the wrong message." "The truth is these snakes are not expendable, they're not evil." "People need to realize the value of what they're destroying." "This is already a snake hard pressed to survive." "But roundups and snake skin boots are just one threat." "Humans keep upping the ante on the snake's future, and dangers are everywhere." "In the summer, hot highways become killing gauntlets or worse burning barriers, cutting the snake off from its habitat." "Little more than two percent of the rattlers' ancient territory remains." "Humanity's pattern of destruction, the precious longleaf pinelands replaced by regiments of future two by fours, plowed over by agriculture, slashed apart by highways, and fragmented into withering islands, the leftovers of development." "There may not be enough land left to the snake to sustain it, let alone provide a future." "And as the snake goes, so go his neighbors." "What the diamondback needs is a better image, more public relations, some fans." "One of the roundups in the Eastern United States has done a wonderful job of this very sort of thing." "They don't even call it a roundup anymore, because they do not roundup snakes." "It's called a festival." "And they are very frightened of people." "If you come across one, he'll usually coil up, shake his tail, and back away from you." "And they put emphasis on environmental education." "They have just as many people that come to the festival." "They'll crawl down in there and live there with the turtle and just stay there." "Every now and then something will spook a rabbit, he'll run down the hole, he'll get a meal served to him like meal service." "These civic organizations that are involved in running the festival in the communities generate just as much income as any of these roundups that put the accent on beautization and misuse of the creatures." "It may be that it's already too late for the Eastern diamondback." "While well adapted to the trials of nature, the torments of humans are pushing the rattler to its limit." "Means fears that before we fully understand the snake's role in the environment, it may be gone." "But even he acknowledges that the snakes have found some surprising ways to survive." "Florida's torrents flood the lowlands and tiny streams become channels." "Even the tortoise goes with the flow, if sometimes reluctantly." "The hazards of the deep abound." "Carried along on the stream, the hardpressed animals take with them the future." "Means believes the snake's survival skills might help it endure." "Swimming makes it mobile." "Streams become highways, escape routes from the destruction caused by development, and these streams sometimes ferry snakes all the way out to sea." "The Eastern diamondback island hops." "It's been found way out as far as the The Dry Tortugas." "That's about 126 miles from the Florida Coast." "This could be the snake's salvation, but like everywhere else, the islands are prime real estate for development." "Propelled far and fast beyond their normal range, the diamondbacks become pilgrims protected by their isolation." "Where the snake's habitat is overrun by development, the flood carries survivors to another, more welcoming place, their distant island, though it may be full of fiddler crabs." "Still, on his own, Means scours the barrier islands, studying the snakes in their remote habitats." "The Eastern diamondback is likely to be an endangered species very soon." "It has a special role in nature and it won't take much for it to be lost forever." "The snake simply needs a place to live and the opportunity to survive." "Even after 25 years of research," "Means says his efforts remain a work in progress." "What's clear is that the snake plays an essential role in nature, both as predator and prey." "Means's aim is to help us know this animal before it's too late." "It's my greatest wish that in my lifetime," "I'll still be able to come to places like this and see the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake." "I hope that continues." "Bruce Means reminds us that the diamondback's rattle may be more than a threat, that it may have a deeper meaning, that nature is sending us a message," ""Don't tread on me."" "This is the story of a pool and the animals that cannot live without it." "It's a place where hippos and crocodiles survive in mysterious harmony." "A crowded pool*** where predator and prey are drawn together and where strange things happen that have rarely been seen before." "At this pool thirst can be dangerous, and drinking*** becomes a deadly game of chance." "When the pool shrinks in an unrelenting drought*** there is a desperate fight for life." "A wild anarchy takes over that only the fittest can survive." "Here in a strange communion hippos attend the last feast of the crocodiles." "A river in Africa ***" "It's known as the Luvuvhu or Hippo river, and where land and river meet there exists a rich concentration of animals." "For countless years, this river has sustained life in the northern reaches of South Africa's Kruger National Park." "When good rains have fallen there is abundant water for all, but this year little rain fell, the river dwindled to a narrow channel, and finally stopped flowing." "The pools that remain in the river-bed are life sustain oases, and this which is one of the largest and deepest, and has never been known to go dry, is a favorite refuge for hippos and crocodiles." "For those who have to drink here each day the challenge is to drink and survive." "With over,6 crocodiles congregated here caution becomes the first rule." "Wise in the ways of the pool, oxpeckers, on their floating islands, drink safely, and these unpredictable giants don't seem to mind the few extra ounces of their company." "But, more extraordinary is this young crocodile, the smallest in the pool, who's become a regular passenger and is possibly safer basking on the surprisingly tolerant hippos than with its own kind." "Wily baboons have another strategy." "They dig pits at the pool's edge and drink the seepage water, rather than risk a croc attack." "In contrast, this female impala is so stressed by thirst she's beyond caution." "Dazed and distracted she finally drinks in the worst possibly place." "Crocs aren't the only problem here." "These impala have run afoul of a white" " Crowned plover, whose eggs are in a depression in the sand." "These birds only rest nest near water, and so, when the river dries, the fringe of the pool becomes prime real estate." "But it's also a busy and dangerous throughfare - crocs come here regularly to bask." "Crocodiles lumbering up the bank are a major hazard for the fragile eggs." "But, unlike the timid impala, the crocs ignore the birds' warning cries." "Lucky this time*** and she settles down again to brood." "Hippos spend their nights grazing, often far from the pool, and, by day, they too like to lie in the warm sun." "A large wet snout, applied with surprisingly gentleness, seems all that's needed to clear some space on the crowded beach." "There's no hurry*** we're all relaxed and easy here, and the great reptiles gradually respond to gentle nudges until all accommodated to their liking." "Another close call for the plovers." "As the crocodile returns to the pool." "But it's all just part of the price for a good waterfront site." "Hippos are a nuisance for the plovers" " They don't leave much space between them." "The rains that usually revive the river are late this year and the water level in the pool drops rapidly." "Fishing birds move on and find good pickings among the fish trapped on the shallows." "The yellow-billed stork's juggling act is no game, but a way to tire the fish into relaxing its sharp, erected spines." "Crocs eat fish too*** they're also cunning thieves*** who deliberately harass the birds into dropping their fish." "The herons must wet their catch before they can swallow it, and the crocs watch closely, waiting to move on and panic the bird at just the right moment." "Sometimes these waterbirds appear to live a charmed life and to be mysteriously immune from attack by crocodiles." "But birds and reptile understand each other well." "And the crocs seem to know these birds are just too alert to be easily caught." "But not all birds are crocodile smart." "Green pigeons don't often drink." "Usually they get enough moisture from the fruits they eat." "But in the heat of this dry year the birds are forced to come to water." "And they're innocent of any danger." "The sight of crocodiles spinning in a feeding frenzy is enough to frighten most animals away." "But as the crocs tear apart an nyala bull, something amazing happens." "A hippo moves on and begins to mouth and lick the bodies of the feeding crocs." "Hippos are strictly vegetarians." "She hasn't come for a share of the spoils." "Why she intrudes in this way is a mystery." "She is more powerful than the crocs and her dominance over them is absolute." "She prods and licks the face of the biggest croc on the pool - even as it struggles to swallow the skull of the antelope." "And then, as if her curiosity has been satisfied, she loses interest and leaves the crocs to their feast." "Elephants don't have to worry about crocodiles when they drink, but they still prefer the cleaner water in the pits and vigorously dig them out." "In the riverbank, near the pool, a large colony of nesting bee-eaters are feeding their young." "They must forage continually in the hot sun to satisfy their needs." "To cool off, every afternoon, they fly over the pool and dive for their drinks." "For some of the crocs this is the signal to take up positions." "The odds are heavily in favor of the bee-eaters and most survive the croc strikes." "A thirsty lioness comes to water." "She tries a pit but finds it full of bees." "She decides to risk the pool." "In heat like this the bees need water, too." "Lions can go without water for a long time***" "But this one is a nursing mother." "She must drink." "Maybe the bee-pit isn't so bad after all." "Large flocks of queleas are in the area, searching for seed and grain." "As they stop by the pool to drink, their busy fluttering at the water's edge inspires the crocodiles with a keen and almost sporting enthusiasm." "The monitor lizard is the scourge of both ground nesting birds and the egg lying crocodiles." "It's a voracious predator, particularly partial to eggs***" "And the feisty plover immediately declares war." "During the heat of the day the sand becomes unbearably hot and burns the skin between the impalas' hooves." "For the plovers on their nest, this is when easy access to water pays off." "The bird is soaking its breast-feathers until they are weighted with water." "It then hurries up the scorching sand to reliever its mate." "The plovers are brooding on sand that feels hot enough to fry an egg, and by mid-day they are changing guard at the nest every ten minutes." "Without the constant protection of their cool wet feathers, the eggs could not survive the heat." "The sand is so hot*** it's a wonder she doesn't fly down." "These buffalo have just one thing in mind." "Their usual watering places are dry now and they've had a long, hot journey to get there." "One of the calves strikes out on its own and is soon in dangerous company***" "But these aren't the biggest crocs in the pools and the lucky calf quickly returns to the herd." "The crocs intentions are clear enough but before they can find a small enough victim the buffalo decide it's time to leave." "An irritated hippo helps them on their way." "The drought and heat are now so severe that some animals with small young cannot supply enough milk, and thirsty youngster follow their mothers to water before they're weaned or wise enough to know how to drink." "In an instant both croc and fawn vanish into the pool*** laving behind a bewildered mother." "Somewhere under the surface of the pool fthe crocodile lies low with its prey, waiting for an opportune moment to eat without having to share." "The most carefree creature in the pool is this baby hippo." "She frolics around her mother in that special state that belongs to all young things." "She is oblivious to the dangers in her world." "The pool is steadily shrinking and is already too small for so many animals." "But the hippos can't settle fights caused by overcrowding." "There is no place else to go." "As usual now, the hippos subside in an uneasy truce." "Subdued by the day's heat, and temporarily at peace, the baboons relax around the pool." "His peace is shattered by a familiar cry of outrage." "He's innocent but he's too close to the nest and the plover has a good eye for trouble*** ***an young male baboons*** are especially targeted." "A sudden spat between rival crocs send a ripple of panic through the pool." "It's small wonder that the plovers are having trouble." "A fresh track shows that a crocodile ploughed right over their eggs." "This is their third nest of the season that's been lost to the crocodiles." "Starting again from scratch the plovers perform the ritual of selecting a site for a new nest." "The baby hippo is exploring her world." "The restraint of the crocodiles seems out of character, but with two tons of devoted mother nearby***" "***she is free to treat crocodiles with the same bold familiarity as the adult hippos do." "These great artist of violence are obliged to hold a kindly pose as the hippo child wanders on her playground of gently smiling dragons and slobbers on their tails." "A yellow-billed kite checks pool for an easy meal, and sights a dead fish." "The surrounding land is parched and bare and each night the hippos, must trek for miles to find grazing." "Other animals wander in the river-bed in search of the few remaining pools." "But most now are little more than reeking mud wallows, full of dead and dying fish***" "Even so, the impala would drink here, but the pool is dominated by a single croc," "the last of a group of more than forty that were here a month ago." "The monkeys won't risk it-and drink, instead, in deep footprints." "The fawn's attempt to drink is a small disaster." "Now it's covered with stinking mud." "The mother sniffs her offspring but doesn't recognized it in this foul disguise." "The crocodile that has held back the drinkers suddenly leaves." "Perhaps there is no future for it in this tiny pool." "The mother has made up her mind." "This is not the sweet smelling youngster she came with." "But the fawn knows better." "The little impala is persistent." "Soon the mud will wear off and the mother will again accept her." "The crocodile reappears, covered in fresh red earth." "She thrusts her head into the mud and swings it from side to side." "At first her peculiar behavior is a puzzle." "And then her secret is revealed as her muddy jaws open gently to release the newly hatched babies she has carried down from her nest on the riverbank." "This is the reason she has remained in the pool so long." "She would never desert her young*** she is their only protection." "But between predators and the thick mud, there is no chance for the little crocs." "And all will die within an hour." "Back in the big pool crocodiles writhe and heave over another carcass." "And once again, hippos are amidst the frenzy." "There's nothing for them to eat, yet something attracts them here." "With jaws clamped tight on the carcass, the croc spins until a piece breaks off." "The hippos seems content to gently interrupt the spinning crocs from time to time." "But no one knows why they attend these terrible feasts." "For nine months little rain has fallen." "And the animals risk death for water." "The hippos calm is disturbed by the violent arrival of the croc's latest victim." "For this one there will be no lucky escape." "The baby hippo is already wedged deep among crocs close to the impala carcass and the biggest crocs in the pool." "The mother then does a strange thing." "Rousing herself to investigate the scene, she pushes her baby almost on the impala, and then retreats leaving her calf between these jaws and the meal." "The mother's presence is enough to ensure her safety***" "Though the baby seems less certain." "But the mother knows they wouldn't dare, and she drifts back on top the secure slumbers of the strong." "The pool has become so dangerous that most animals prefer to drink from the pits***" "But a fierce comedy of survival results when so many are desperate for water." "Large make baboons commandeer the pits and drink every mouthful of water that seeps in." "They can scare off most animals, but sharp horns have the advantage and the baboon reluctantly gives way." "Competition at the pits is so fierce that those that can't cope with a big baboon have to take their chances at the pool." "A nursing mother must have water, but she takes a terrible risk to get it." "The mother has torn herself free***" "But the baboons can see that another croc has her baby." "The croc will lose its prize to the others unless it leaves the pool." "But when it does a big baboon is waiting." "The croc drops the baby." "But the brave rescue is too late." "The drought continues." "It has become the worst in living memory." "The pool has dwindled to a mud wallow and many of the hippos have left on a final quest for water." "But for an increasing crowd of animals their only chance of salvation lies here." "For the plovers, no eggs have survived these cruel and chaotic conditions." "Every day an assemble of desperate animals gathers around the pool." "These baboons, who are seldom peaceable, reach new levels of aggression among themselves." "Even mothers with small babies do not escape the brutal bullying." "Baboons still dominate the pits but a female nyala, driven by thirst, is ready to fight for a drink." "Each day now a few baboons appear with blood on their hands." "Their victims are impala fawns." "Some are orphans of the drought, others, only temporarily lost and alone." "Trusting and totally defenseless, they are easy prey for a strong male baboon." "Unaware of the fate of her offspring, the mother ranges up and down the pool, calling." "A hungry warthog roots around for choice pieces of rotting catfish*** while a kudu, heedless of the crocs, drinks the mud..." "The baboons didn't keep his kill to himself for long. '" "Yet the contest seems to be as much about male dominance as ownership of a carcass." "Meanwhile the warthog sees a good opportunity." "She's little slow and no match for an agile baboon." "As their pool dies around them the hippos and crocs lie marooned on the mud, like creatures made of clay," "half-formed and waiting for their creator to complete them." "A baboon risks all on a thin crust of mud as she searches for puddles on the surface." "While all around her lie more than a hundred crocs, indistinguishable from the mud." "The mother is brave but the life and death struggle is between these two." "If baboons have nightmares this is surely one of them." "Torn between terror and wanting to help, the mother is unable to rally any support." "She has escaped with muddy legs*** a sore face and, possibly a haunting memory." "Right now she needs some hands on grooming;" "but there is none to be had just a curious stare." "When everything seems to have reached the end of endurance, the sky fills with clouds, and relief seems at hand." "The spell of the drought is broken." "The crocs return to life and begin immediately to devour the ripe remains of some old feast*** that was locked in the mud." "But the rain was just a fleeting reminder of better times." "It does not break the drought." "The withering heat returns and draws all remaining moisture from the pool." "The last hippo has moved on and will probably die in a hopeless search for water." "Only one old crocodile is left." "He was the largest, the dominant croc." "He shows no signs of leaving." "He remains in his empty pool like a stranded nightmare." "The other crocs have taken shelter from the scorching sun in the vegetation around the pool." "They lie motionless in the shade, surviving on their last reserves." "The old male croc only pushes deeper onto the mud, covering himself with the remains of his pool." "Six weeks later, in the center of the pool, at the place where the water was deepest, lies the skeleton of the big male croc, dominant to the end." "Close by, are the bodies of more than thirty baboons, who succumbed when temperature reached nearly 126 degrees." "And in the surrounding bush, where they had sheltered from the sun, are the desiccated remains of the crocodiles." "But there are survivors." "In holes, dug deep into the riverbanks, there are a few crocs." "Entombed in the cool dark, they're able to conserve moisture and wait for the return of their river." "For some day, beyond the distant hills, where the weather is made, it will rain again***" "and the end of the drought will come trickling down the riverbed." "No wild calls will welcome this sight, but, as the river surges, ***" "And flows deep enough to swim in, who is to say that the crocodiles won't rejoice***" "and the birds won't revel in that first flooding." "In nature there are few happy endings*** instead there is a continuing." "When the river returns*** survivors will replenish its banks and the great cycle of life and renewal will begin again."