City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri


City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri

Similar Content

Browse content similar to City Beneath the Waves: Pavlopetri. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Off the southern coast of mainland Greece,

0:00:060:00:09

lie the ruins of a city,

0:00:090:00:10

founded over 5,000 years ago.

0:00:100:00:13

It seems to be an incredibly advanced culture here.

0:00:150:00:18

People were living in buildings with two storeys,

0:00:180:00:21

they had flushing toilets, they had drainage systems,

0:00:210:00:24

they had the beginnings of writing.

0:00:240:00:26

This city thrived for 2,000 years during the time that saw

0:00:290:00:33

the birth of western civilisation.

0:00:330:00:37

Pavlopetri is one of the first places in Europe where

0:00:370:00:40

we begin to see buildings and streets

0:00:400:00:43

and people living side-by-side in a way of life

0:00:430:00:46

that we would recognise today.

0:00:460:00:48

But then the city vanished, consumed by the sea.

0:00:500:00:53

Now an international team,

0:00:550:00:56

led by underwater archaeologist Jon Henderson

0:00:560:01:00

has come to unlock the secrets of this mysterious sunken city.

0:01:000:01:05

A really exciting find. This is great.

0:01:070:01:10

Using the latest 21st century technologies,

0:01:130:01:16

they plan to digitally rebuild the city,

0:01:160:01:19

stone by stone.

0:01:190:01:20

This is maybe just a little glimpse of prehistoric suburbia.

0:01:230:01:28

Thought to be the oldest submerged city in the world,

0:01:320:01:35

now, for the first time, the secrets will be revealed

0:01:350:01:39

of Pavlopetri,

0:01:390:01:43

the City Beneath The Waves.

0:01:430:01:45

For Nottingham University archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson,

0:01:580:02:02

the sunken city of Pavlopetri

0:02:020:02:04

provides a unique glimpse into a lost world.

0:02:040:02:07

The site itself just begins a few metres off the coast here

0:02:090:02:13

and that's a very rare thing.

0:02:130:02:15

In a way, this is like an underwater Pompeii,

0:02:150:02:18

it's a settlement frozen in time.

0:02:180:02:20

The city dates to the Bronze Age,

0:02:230:02:25

over 3,000 years ago.

0:02:250:02:27

This was the time of Troy, King Agamemnon

0:02:300:02:33

and Homer's Odyssey.

0:02:330:02:35

You've got one line of stones going up there

0:02:370:02:40

and you've got another line of stones going up there.

0:02:400:02:42

This is one of the main streets of Pavlopetri.

0:02:420:02:47

People walked down here, this was a busy street.

0:02:490:02:53

On this side you just have a wall,

0:02:530:02:57

but on this side here,

0:02:570:02:58

we actually have a range of houses,

0:02:580:03:01

a range of domestic dwellings.

0:03:010:03:03

The Bronze Age was a time of great change,

0:03:070:03:09

when people started living in towns for the first time,

0:03:090:03:13

with trade and exchange of cultures and ideas.

0:03:130:03:17

Pavlopetri is a blueprint for our own way of life.

0:03:200:03:24

This was a place that was a thriving city where people used to live.

0:03:250:03:29

You get a sense of some sort of major drama has happened,

0:03:290:03:34

a major catastrophe.

0:03:340:03:36

It's quite an eerie feeling.

0:03:380:03:40

Located just off the coast of Laconia,

0:03:430:03:46

in the southern Peloponnese,

0:03:460:03:49

this area is prone to violent earthquakes and tsunamis.

0:03:490:03:53

Coastal towns have always faced a constant threat.

0:03:530:03:57

I want to know what happened to the city of Pavlopetri.

0:03:570:04:00

I want to know who was living here,

0:04:000:04:02

I want to know what they were doing,

0:04:020:04:04

I want to know why they left, I want to know why it's under water now.

0:04:040:04:08

I want to make that immediate connection with people

0:04:080:04:11

and just get a brief insight, even just for a moment,

0:04:110:04:14

of what it was like to live in those times in the Bronze Age.

0:04:140:04:17

To answer these questions

0:04:200:04:21

and learn about the origins of our own way of life,

0:04:210:04:25

Jon wants to try and recreate the city in every detail.

0:04:250:04:29

He's flown in a team from Sydney University,

0:04:310:04:34

led by Oscar Pizzaro

0:04:340:04:37

and Matt Johnson Roberson.

0:04:370:04:39

They've brought with them prototype mapping devices to create

0:04:390:04:43

three-dimensional surveys of the site.

0:04:430:04:46

This idea of using

0:04:480:04:49

3D reconstruction is a very new thing for archaeology

0:04:490:04:51

From that perspective it's exciting for us.

0:04:510:04:54

Working alongside the scientists,

0:04:560:04:58

Jon has also invited movie visual effects expert Simon Clarke.

0:04:580:05:02

So this is not too far off, then...

0:05:020:05:05

He wants him to try to digitally recreate Pavlopetri,

0:05:050:05:07

using the actual archaeological data.

0:05:070:05:11

Our role is basically to try and recreate the finds,

0:05:120:05:15

to recreate the buildings and then hopefully

0:05:150:05:17

to give a fantastic impression of what the city would have once looked like.

0:05:170:05:22

Working in collaboration with

0:05:240:05:25

a team from the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities,

0:05:250:05:29

they've been granted a three-week permit to complete their work.

0:05:290:05:32

After a year of planning,

0:05:390:05:40

the archaeologists head out for the first dive of the expedition.

0:05:400:05:44

The first step to understanding what life was like in Pavlopetri

0:05:510:05:54

thousands of years ago,

0:05:540:05:56

is to search for items the inhabitants left behind.

0:05:560:05:59

This is part of a bowl.

0:06:070:06:09

A Bronze Age bowl.

0:06:090:06:11

Maybe for cooking your soup, your lentil stew in.

0:06:120:06:17

The team get help from the sea itself.

0:06:180:06:21

The shifting underwater currents naturally excavate the site,

0:06:210:06:24

constantly bringing new artefacts to the surface.

0:06:240:06:27

Part of a rather nice jug there.

0:06:300:06:34

For pouring water or pouring wine.

0:06:340:06:36

Every object they find is photographed,

0:06:420:06:45

before it's labelled and bagged.

0:06:450:06:48

Its location is then recorded using a pole with a prism on top

0:06:490:06:54

which reflects back a laser beam

0:06:540:06:57

sent out by a land-based ranging device.

0:06:570:06:59

With their knowledge of artefacts from other sites,

0:07:030:07:06

the archaeologists immediately have an idea of what the objects

0:07:060:07:10

might be and even how they were used.

0:07:100:07:13

See, that is quite a nice find.

0:07:150:07:18

We've got a base of a bowl.

0:07:180:07:20

It had a bowl coming up here. It's quite finely made.

0:07:210:07:24

Probably one of the better pieces that you bring out

0:07:240:07:29

when your guests come round.

0:07:290:07:31

It takes a highly-trained eye to make out

0:07:340:07:36

some of the more obscure artefacts.

0:07:360:07:38

This is how they would have ground their grain or ground their lentils.

0:07:420:07:46

They would have got a rounded stone

0:07:460:07:49

and just ground the grain down,

0:07:490:07:50

grinding cereals,

0:07:500:07:53

grinding pulses for food.

0:07:530:07:55

This is just a general domestic item. But that's nice.

0:07:550:08:00

With all the finds bagged and tagged,

0:08:090:08:12

they are sent off to the processing area back at base camp.

0:08:120:08:16

As part of his role to create a detailed

0:08:240:08:26

view of life in Pavlopetri,

0:08:260:08:29

visual effects supervisor Simon Clarke

0:08:290:08:32

wants to rebuild some of the key finds from the site.

0:08:320:08:35

Using a laser scanner, he can digitally capture

0:08:380:08:41

the exact 3D structure and surface textures of each sherd.

0:08:410:08:44

We've got something which is totally real

0:08:490:08:52

so we are making our pot, when we reconstruct it,

0:08:520:08:55

as scientifically accurate as we possibly can.

0:08:550:08:57

Using the laser scans, the visual effects team can now start to

0:09:000:09:03

reconstruct some of the ancient artefacts.

0:09:030:09:06

They've sought guidance from Jon's finds expert, Dr Chrysanthi Gallou.

0:09:090:09:13

This is an open vessel,

0:09:150:09:18

we can say so because it is decorated in the interior.

0:09:180:09:22

This looks quite thick here. Would that be the thickness all the way through?

0:09:220:09:26

No, I would guess like it gets a little bit opening here

0:09:260:09:29

and then get thinner as we move up.

0:09:290:09:32

Even the simplest of artefacts can be hard to recognise at first.

0:09:330:09:37

-I don't think it's like that!

-Whoops!

0:09:390:09:42

The neck should be higher.

0:09:420:09:44

Yeah, I mean, so these shapes now look very familiar.

0:09:440:09:46

Definitely. The same needs bring the same shapes.

0:09:460:09:51

By rebuilding the finds,

0:09:530:09:55

the team can start peering into the everyday lives of the inhabitants.

0:09:550:09:59

The simple cooking wares used for soups.

0:09:590:10:02

The fine crockery that was brought out for guests.

0:10:050:10:08

These were fired at high temperatures to give

0:10:080:10:10

a resounding clink when struck together.

0:10:100:10:13

And for very special occasions, including funeral rites,

0:10:150:10:19

they used a large two-handled goblet known as a kylix.

0:10:190:10:23

The site is actually just strewn with pottery.

0:10:330:10:36

This is the table wares they used.

0:10:360:10:38

It's high status vessels they used when they had guests round for tea.

0:10:380:10:41

It's the vessels they used to make offerings towards the gods.

0:10:410:10:45

We can touch the people of the past through touching their pottery.

0:10:450:10:48

Many of the pieces found from the site are coming from

0:10:490:10:52

what is known as the Mycenaean period,

0:10:520:10:55

dating from 1600 to 1100BC.

0:10:550:10:59

The Mycenaeans were a warrior people

0:11:040:11:07

led by wealthy and powerful rulers,

0:11:070:11:09

like the legendary King Agamemnon.

0:11:090:11:12

At the heart of their civilisation was a network

0:11:140:11:17

of hilltop fortresses.

0:11:170:11:19

The most famous was at Mycenae.

0:11:190:11:22

Legend has it

0:11:270:11:28

that these walls were so huge

0:11:280:11:30

they were built by one-eyed giants, the Cyclops,

0:11:300:11:34

since no mere mortal could have built them.

0:11:340:11:36

From their network of fortresses,

0:11:390:11:41

they used their military might to control trade throughout this whole region of Greece.

0:11:410:11:45

Trade that would have passed through harbour towns,

0:11:480:11:51

like the one at Pavlopetri.

0:11:510:11:53

But unlike the well-documented city of Mycenae,

0:11:580:12:00

no mention has been found for a port at Pavlopetri.

0:12:000:12:03

It lay forgotten under the waves for over 3,000 years

0:12:070:12:10

until it was discovered purely by chance.

0:12:100:12:12

In 1967, oceanographer Dr Nic Fleming was

0:12:180:12:22

working along the coastline, searching for ancient harbours,

0:12:220:12:25

when he stumbled upon the ruins.

0:12:250:12:28

I looked at these rows of stones and I just had no idea what it was

0:12:300:12:34

but I realised, immediately, that it was man-made,

0:12:340:12:38

that we were looking at a large part of a town.

0:12:380:12:41

And, I mean, I just went crazy.

0:12:410:12:44

I grabbed my plastic board and started scribbling

0:12:440:12:48

and drawing and everything.

0:12:480:12:49

I had been arrogant enough when I was in Athens

0:12:510:12:53

to write in the visitors' book,

0:12:530:12:55

"Gone south to look for Bronze Age harbours."

0:12:550:12:59

So, here we were in the south,

0:12:590:13:00

and we'd found a Bronze Age harbour.

0:13:000:13:03

So I was very pleased!

0:13:030:13:04

The following year, Nic returned to the site with

0:13:060:13:10

a group of students from Cambridge University.

0:13:100:13:12

Armed with just tape measures and pencils,

0:13:160:13:19

the group attempted to survey the site for the first time.

0:13:190:13:22

I mean, all surveying tapes were sort of canvas,

0:13:240:13:27

but they weren't really waterproof.

0:13:270:13:29

You took them in the water and it started to stretch and fray.

0:13:290:13:32

Things were measured with tape and string simply to triangulate,

0:13:350:13:39

measure the two sides of a triangle

0:13:390:13:41

off the baseline, and gradually build up the map.

0:13:410:13:45

Using basic techniques,

0:13:450:13:47

the university team created the very first survey map of Pavlopetri.

0:13:470:13:52

The town appeared to consist of 15 buildings located off two main streets,

0:13:540:13:59

with an area extending to just under four football pitches.

0:13:590:14:03

Here you've got rows of houses on a street.

0:14:050:14:07

The preservation is incredible.

0:14:070:14:10

There is absolutely nothing like it.

0:14:100:14:12

Since the 1960s, no-one has done any further survey work

0:14:150:14:18

on this important site.

0:14:180:14:20

Until now.

0:14:200:14:21

To get an idea of the full extent of the ruins

0:14:250:14:28

and the area where the city once stood,

0:14:280:14:30

Jon is taking to the sky.

0:14:300:14:33

This is the first time he's seen Pavlopetri from the air.

0:14:470:14:51

Woah! Ha ha. I'm glad I didn't eat now!

0:14:520:14:57

Many of the buildings that Nic surveyed in the '60s can be seen.

0:15:020:15:06

But beyond the original mapped area,

0:15:060:15:08

something catches Jon's eye.

0:15:080:15:11

I think I can see new buildings just off Pavlopetri island.

0:15:120:15:16

And I can see lines of what I think are buildings,

0:15:200:15:22

square lines - that makes the site much, much bigger.

0:15:220:15:26

It's bigger now to the north and bigger to the south,

0:15:260:15:29

so that's a pretty major discovery.

0:15:290:15:32

From his high vantage point,

0:15:350:15:37

Jon starts to see how the city could have operated as a harbour.

0:15:370:15:40

You would have had ships coming in,

0:15:420:15:44

trading through the whole of the eastern Mediterranean, trading with people of this city.

0:15:440:15:49

The site would have been sitting right at the entrance of a sandy bay

0:15:490:15:53

and that would have been an ideal location for beaching ships.

0:15:530:15:57

That was what a Bronze Age harbour was,

0:15:570:16:00

a protected sandy bay.

0:16:000:16:02

It's incredibly exciting

0:16:050:16:06

because it's suddenly putting the site in context.

0:16:060:16:09

Jon also spots clues which could help work out how the city

0:16:100:16:14

succumbed to its watery grave.

0:16:140:16:17

The other exciting thing that we've seen is old shore lines,

0:16:180:16:22

and this is perhaps a clue as to how the site went under water.

0:16:220:16:27

So the city is bigger than originally thought

0:16:290:16:32

and was located in the perfect spot for a harbour.

0:16:320:16:34

But to understand how it functioned as a whole,

0:16:360:16:39

Jon is keen to start a detailed survey.

0:16:390:16:41

Rather than string and tape measures,

0:16:510:16:53

he's bringing underwater archaeology into the 21st century.

0:16:530:16:58

You'll see this whole range of buildings there....

0:16:580:17:02

The team of scientists from Sydney University have been

0:17:020:17:05

researching ways to produce a 3D photo map of the sea floor.

0:17:050:17:09

They've built a prototype push-along device called a diver rig.

0:17:110:17:15

The diver rig is basically just a surfboard with

0:17:150:17:17

a pair of cameras mounted on it.

0:17:170:17:19

So the same way you can use your left and your right eye

0:17:190:17:22

to figure out the distance of things,

0:17:220:17:24

the diver rig uses two cameras to figure out

0:17:240:17:26

the distance to rocks on the sea floor.

0:17:260:17:28

So from that we can build up a 3D model of all the stones on the site

0:17:280:17:31

just using those two pictures.

0:17:310:17:33

It allows you to feel like you're actually there,

0:17:330:17:36

sitting on the bottom.

0:17:360:17:38

Pushed back and forth over the survey area,

0:17:410:17:44

the rig takes thousands of digital photos of the sea floor.

0:17:440:17:48

Harsh shadows caused by bright overhead sunlight were

0:17:500:17:53

confusing the software, so the work is carried out at dusk.

0:17:530:17:57

The first results are very promising.

0:17:590:18:01

We imaged the side and the edge of a very small building in the site

0:18:030:18:07

just to see if we could see the individual stones.

0:18:070:18:09

And it's really exciting because we actually could.

0:18:090:18:12

If you look here you can see, we can count the individual rocks

0:18:120:18:15

which build up the foundation of this building.

0:18:150:18:18

It's a really unique look under the sea.

0:18:180:18:20

The equivalent of draining the ocean, taking pictures and filling it back up.

0:18:200:18:24

Using the push-along rig,

0:18:270:18:29

they continue to survey key parts of the site.

0:18:290:18:32

But to be able to map the whole city,

0:18:340:18:36

including the new buildings Jon saw from the air,

0:18:360:18:39

the Australian team have been developing a secret weapon.

0:18:390:18:43

At first glance, it may look like a torpedo,

0:18:460:18:49

but this is the very latest in autonomous underwater robotics.

0:18:490:18:53

In addition to the diver-held unit, we've brought a proper robot.

0:18:550:19:00

It has a much better suite of navigation instruments

0:19:000:19:03

that allow us

0:19:030:19:05

to build a better map more easily, cover more ground,

0:19:050:19:07

and avoids the tedious aspect of having to swim around

0:19:070:19:12

with a camera when you're trying to cover a large area.

0:19:120:19:15

The mapping torpedo stands at the cutting edge of underwater archaeology.

0:19:190:19:24

As the robot has never been used before,

0:19:240:19:26

it still needs further testing before they let it lose on the site.

0:19:260:19:30

They hope to survey the entire city,

0:19:320:19:34

completing the job in a matter of days.

0:19:340:19:36

The 3D photo mapping data will eventually be used to help

0:19:430:19:48

digitally rebuild the city.

0:19:480:19:51

But to get the visual effects team up and running,

0:19:510:19:55

Jon has a line-drawn site plan to give them an overview.

0:19:550:19:58

How am I able to identify what are buildings and what are streets?

0:20:000:20:03

The red lines there are picking out the streets

0:20:030:20:06

so we have five or six main streets that we've recognised so far.

0:20:060:20:10

We have a main street going up here, a street up there, a street running along this reef.

0:20:100:20:16

The blue lines are actually marking out

0:20:160:20:18

building complexes. These are the domestic structures, the houses.

0:20:180:20:22

Then we have yellow, which is marking out courtyards.

0:20:220:20:25

There's a lot of open space in this city. There was probably people

0:20:250:20:29

out, you know, threshing, drying their clothes,

0:20:290:20:32

grinding their cereals and so on,

0:20:320:20:34

and talking to their neighbours probably.

0:20:340:20:37

We can tell they're courtyards because they have less stone,

0:20:370:20:40

less rubble, they have lower walls.

0:20:400:20:42

Is there any evidence to suggest...

0:20:420:20:45

The visual effects team can now start to extrude the walls

0:20:450:20:48

of some of the buildings directly on top of the archaeological site plan.

0:20:480:20:53

..probably paving.

0:20:530:20:54

How are the buildings split up in terms of division of rooms?

0:20:540:20:57

What you've got is you've got a range of buildings

0:20:570:21:01

around a courtyard, so you've got I think, about one, two, three,

0:21:010:21:05

four, five, six separate rooms at the least

0:21:050:21:08

around a courtyard with an entrance into it.

0:21:080:21:11

The walls are more or less correct,

0:21:110:21:14

but we've got work to do with the height of some of them.

0:21:140:21:17

Although the foundations of much of Pavlopetri have been preserved,

0:21:170:21:23

rebuilding the city will have to be based to some extent

0:21:230:21:26

on interpretation.

0:21:260:21:28

Fortunately, rare yet vital clues exist from other Bronze Age sites.

0:21:280:21:33

This fresco from the ancient city of Akrotiri,

0:21:390:21:42

on the Greek island of Thera,

0:21:420:21:44

is one of the only depictions of a Bronze Age town.

0:21:440:21:47

It dates to 1550 BC, and shows neighbourhoods

0:21:490:21:53

of neat brickwork buildings, even roof terraces.

0:21:530:21:56

The fresco also indicates this was a time

0:21:590:22:01

when people took to the sea and began widespread maritime trade.

0:22:010:22:06

To find clues to Pavlopetri's trade links,

0:22:180:22:21

the archaeologists are expanding their search of the site.

0:22:210:22:25

Quite delicate, you can see the base of it.

0:22:270:22:30

It would have sat like that.

0:22:300:22:32

This probably dates to 2000BC.

0:22:340:22:37

This is one of three legs for a standing bowl,

0:22:410:22:45

so it would have been about this size.

0:22:450:22:47

They're finding objects that date from almost 2000 years

0:22:510:22:54

before the Mycenaean period.

0:22:540:22:56

This implies the site may be much older than first thought.

0:22:560:23:01

Jon also starts to find key evidence of local industry.

0:23:030:23:07

This is a loom weight. You can see its got a hole in it

0:23:100:23:15

for hanging on a loom, for preparing textiles and making textiles,

0:23:150:23:19

so we know that they were making clothes here.

0:23:190:23:22

We've got literally hundreds of these on the sea floor.

0:23:240:23:27

These loom weights, these are used for hanging

0:23:270:23:30

from a loom for making textiles essentially.

0:23:300:23:33

They must have been making it on a very large scale.

0:23:330:23:36

Maybe even an industrial scale.

0:23:360:23:37

Maybe this is one of the main things that they were sending out

0:23:370:23:41

into the Eastern Mediterranean and trading with other cultures.

0:23:410:23:44

This is a significant discovery

0:23:440:23:47

and suggests a thriving textile industry.

0:23:470:23:50

And with trade, there would have been wealth.

0:23:520:23:55

Even the most innocuous finds

0:23:550:23:57

tell an elaborate story.

0:23:570:24:00

This is quite an exciting find

0:24:010:24:03

because it's a roof tile

0:24:030:24:05

and you only get roof tiles on sites with quite serious buildings.

0:24:050:24:08

Important buildings have roof tiles.

0:24:080:24:11

It's a good find.

0:24:110:24:13

Your average house would have had a flat timber roof

0:24:170:24:20

but once we've got roofs with roof tiles on it,

0:24:200:24:23

it makes you think somebody important is living there.

0:24:230:24:26

The building is saying something about the inhabitants, it's more monumental

0:24:260:24:30

So it's raising the status of this town.

0:24:300:24:32

Previously thought to be just a harbour town, we now think

0:24:320:24:35

it's a city, we're now getting big buildings

0:24:350:24:38

and evidence of big architecture.

0:24:380:24:40

To help better understand the possible structure

0:24:480:24:51

of the buildings of Pavlopetri,

0:24:510:24:52

Jon is taking Simon

0:24:520:24:54

to an old farmhouse in a nearby village.

0:24:540:24:57

Jon sees architectural similarities that span the millennia.

0:25:000:25:04

Almost everything you've got here, the sort of general layout

0:25:070:25:11

of a 100-year-old farmstead up to the modern day,

0:25:110:25:13

we can see at Pavlopetri.

0:25:130:25:15

And that shows you how advanced Pavlopetri was.

0:25:150:25:18

Perhaps the only difference is the building complexes in Pavlopetri.

0:25:180:25:21

There are a range of rooms built around a courtyard.

0:25:210:25:24

Rather than an isolated building like this.

0:25:240:25:27

It's remarkable that house design in this area appears to have

0:25:300:25:34

changed very little in the last 3,000 years.

0:25:340:25:37

The stones here would be like stone foundations of Pavlopetri.

0:25:390:25:42

Then on top of that you would have the clay and timber framework.

0:25:420:25:45

We think the design of the buildings

0:25:470:25:49

has something to do with resistance to earthquakes.

0:25:490:25:52

We are in a very, very active tectonic zone,

0:25:520:25:54

probably one of the most active earthquake areas in the world.

0:25:540:25:58

And, as a result, we think that the foundations of the buildings

0:25:580:26:01

were made out of stone, supporting a timber framework,

0:26:010:26:04

plastered with clay or with mud bricks,

0:26:040:26:06

because that would move in an earthquake, it would be less likely to collapse.

0:26:060:26:10

Would they have all been pitched roofs or would some be flat as well?

0:26:130:26:17

I think at Pavlopetri we've probably got both.

0:26:170:26:19

And I say that because we found quite a range of roof tiles

0:26:190:26:22

with actual ridges on them, for hanging them along a pitched roof.

0:26:220:26:26

So very similar to this.

0:26:260:26:28

To make his digital recreations as accurate as possible,

0:26:290:26:33

Simon wants to know what colour to paint the houses.

0:26:330:26:35

Jon draws inspiration from the Bronze Age frescos.

0:26:370:26:41

'It might have been a mark of status

0:26:420:26:44

'that there would be different colours for different buildings.'

0:26:440:26:47

We know they were using yellow ochres and red oxides

0:26:470:26:50

to produce a range of colours from sort of pink to browns.

0:26:500:26:53

So, it was... it's a city awash with colour.

0:26:530:26:56

People are living there, it's an exciting place. I want to capture that.

0:26:560:27:00

Back at the site, Jon is convinced that two of the large buildings

0:27:130:27:17

just off the main high street

0:27:170:27:20

are prime examples of domestic dwellings.

0:27:200:27:22

Here we have possibly one of the first neighbourhoods

0:27:220:27:25

on mainland Europe.

0:27:250:27:28

So this here is the entrance

0:27:300:27:32

to a Bronze Age house where people would have been living

0:27:320:27:36

about 3,000- 4,000 years ago.

0:27:360:27:39

So what we have is a square, ground floor room

0:27:390:27:44

and we've got the entrance doorway here

0:27:440:27:48

marked by a stone threshold.

0:27:480:27:50

And on this there would have been built

0:27:500:27:53

a wooden doorway, an entrance into this building.

0:27:530:27:58

What we actually see on this site are just the foundation walls.

0:27:590:28:05

And on top of these walls you would have had a timber framework...

0:28:110:28:14

..and then either mud brick or clay and plaster walls.

0:28:180:28:21

In a number of the houses we have, sunk into the floor,

0:28:260:28:32

the bottoms of storage vessels.

0:28:320:28:34

This is probably where they were storing the grain,

0:28:340:28:37

perhaps wine or olive oil.

0:28:370:28:40

Um, it's a bit like a sort of Bronze Age fridge.

0:28:400:28:45

Jon believes the people living here would have had bedrooms upstairs.

0:28:500:28:55

The walls and the connections

0:28:550:28:57

suggest that it's probably more than one storey high.

0:28:570:29:01

It was probably a two-storey building.

0:29:010:29:03

These villas are made up of possibly seven to ten rooms.

0:29:090:29:13

While the ground floor may have been used for storage

0:29:150:29:19

and possibly keeping animals,

0:29:190:29:22

wooden staircases would have led up

0:29:220:29:24

to living quarters on a second floor,

0:29:240:29:25

with windows and possibly a terrace.

0:29:250:29:29

So this is maybe just a little glimpse of prehistoric suburbia.

0:29:380:29:42

From their discoveries, the team now believe

0:29:550:29:58

there were some important, wealthy people living in Pavlopetri

0:29:580:30:02

and that it was a harbour town that thrived on trade, possibly textiles.

0:30:020:30:07

Just down the high street from the domestic dwellings,

0:30:110:30:14

one of the other prominent buildings has caught Jon's attention.

0:30:140:30:18

There's so much evidence of storage here.

0:30:260:30:29

There's so many broken pieces of storage vessels

0:30:290:30:32

way beyond what somebody would need just for a normal house.

0:30:320:30:37

And that makes us think that this is a building

0:30:370:30:39

of a different function to the houses elsewhere on the site,

0:30:390:30:42

and perhaps this is some sort of administrative function.

0:30:420:30:47

So if that's true, this might be one of the most important buildings on the site.

0:30:470:30:52

The building appears to have had several narrow oblong rooms

0:30:540:30:57

located at the back.

0:30:570:30:59

In one of these are the remains of a huge ceramic jar called a pithos.

0:30:590:31:06

This is the edge of a 4,000-year-old storage vessel.

0:31:070:31:12

And you can see the handle of the storage vessel,

0:31:120:31:16

and we know that there is at least half a metre of deposit

0:31:160:31:21

to excavate underneath here.

0:31:210:31:23

'There's a pithos sitting just in that building'

0:31:260:31:29

right in the middle there which we've actually marked...

0:31:290:31:32

Back at base, Jon has brought his findings to the attention of

0:31:320:31:36

the co-director of the project, Ilias Spondylis from the Greek team.

0:31:360:31:41

-Then we get the number, lift it and it's out.

-OK.

0:31:410:31:43

So we don't have to measure...

0:31:430:31:45

He's agreed for a small excavation to take place

0:31:450:31:48

to try and lift the large pithos jar.

0:31:480:31:52

This is the first ever excavation on the site.

0:31:520:31:56

The Greek team establish the boundaries of the dig site...

0:32:020:32:05

..and set up what is known as a water dredge.

0:32:060:32:10

The basic underwater technique of excavation,

0:32:130:32:16

it's not a trowel, it's not a spade, it's just your hands, OK?

0:32:160:32:19

With a water dredge.

0:32:190:32:21

It effectively works like a vacuum cleaner,

0:32:230:32:27

and it allows us to very carefully

0:32:270:32:29

remove sand and silt around artefacts.

0:32:290:32:33

The sand and silt gets sucked up

0:32:390:32:41

and deposited several metres from the dig.

0:32:410:32:44

Throughout the next few days,

0:32:470:32:49

the excavation proceeds under the direction of the Greek team,

0:32:490:32:53

with the divers working in shifts.

0:32:530:32:55

It's a very delicate operation.

0:32:550:32:57

This is the top of it, this is the top rim.

0:32:590:33:03

These are the handles for actually moving it around,

0:33:030:33:06

and maybe, you know, lifting it onto ships or with ropes, or so on.

0:33:060:33:11

You would use them in your house, you could sink them in your floor.

0:33:110:33:14

But equally they were used for transporting

0:33:140:33:18

all sorts of items in the Bronze Age.

0:33:180:33:20

Everything from wine, olive oil, grain, to ceramics.

0:33:200:33:25

You actually sometimes find smaller pots inside these vessels.

0:33:250:33:29

In the corner of the excavation, a second pithos starts to emerge.

0:33:370:33:42

This adds weight to Jon's suggestion

0:33:420:33:45

that the building was some sort of storage depot.

0:33:450:33:48

These jars could give clues as to who the city was trading with.

0:33:480:33:52

Jon wants to try something never done before.

0:33:570:34:00

He's asked the mapping team to use the push-along survey unit

0:34:000:34:04

to see if they can produce a daily 3D photo map

0:34:040:34:07

of the trench as it's being excavated.

0:34:070:34:10

As night falls, the team download the data

0:34:230:34:27

to see if the plan has worked.

0:34:270:34:29

There's a new part in this corner, can you tell?

0:34:290:34:31

Stitching together the photos,

0:34:310:34:33

it looks like they have been successful.

0:34:330:34:38

So far it looks quite convincing, you can see that

0:34:380:34:41

outside of the trench, most of the site is recognisable.

0:34:410:34:46

You can see more of the main pithos, the jar, the clay jar.

0:34:460:34:51

But you can also start to see perhaps another jar

0:34:510:34:53

coming up in a corner,

0:34:530:34:55

and perhaps a bit of burnt coal or something on another area.

0:34:550:35:00

Real time 3D photo mapping

0:35:010:35:03

of an active underwater excavation has never been done before.

0:35:030:35:08

So we can look at the evolution of the trench over a period of time.

0:35:090:35:14

Which should show us what they've been doing every day,

0:35:140:35:18

with the excavation.

0:35:180:35:20

This is great for archaeology because you can then, in a sense, re-excavate the site.

0:35:200:35:25

It'll allow us to step back through time

0:35:250:35:27

and see each layer of the site individually.

0:35:270:35:29

And as opposed to having to record everything manually,

0:35:290:35:33

now you can record everything visually and then, preserve it.

0:35:330:35:36

So it speeds things up quite quickly.

0:35:360:35:39

You get more accurate plans than you would have done drawing them.

0:35:390:35:43

The excavation doesn't just help understand

0:35:490:35:52

what was going on in this building,

0:35:520:35:55

but also how the city itself

0:35:550:35:58

fitted into the wider Mediterranean world.

0:35:580:36:01

You can just see these little circular...

0:36:050:36:09

decoration pieces on it.

0:36:090:36:11

If I just get it a bit clearer there.

0:36:110:36:15

They're just stamped on when the clay is still wet.

0:36:150:36:18

This decoration went right round it.

0:36:180:36:20

This vessel probably came from Crete.

0:36:200:36:24

The design and build of this pithos jar

0:36:300:36:32

suggests it was made between 1700 and 1500BC.

0:36:320:36:37

It would have been used for storage

0:36:370:36:40

or transportation of a range of goods.

0:36:400:36:43

The pithos is similar to hundreds that have been found

0:36:430:36:47

within the ancient palace of Knossos on the island of Crete.

0:36:470:36:51

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands

0:36:530:36:56

and lies south-east of Pavlopetri.

0:36:560:36:59

It was home to the Minoan civilisation

0:37:040:37:07

dating back over 5,000 years.

0:37:070:37:09

Knossos was their most lavish of palaces,

0:37:120:37:15

boasting over 1,500 rooms, running water and even flushing toilets.

0:37:150:37:22

Minoan palaces weren't fortified.

0:37:260:37:29

Their civilisation thrived without any great military strength.

0:37:290:37:33

They had a strict social hierarchy,

0:37:330:37:36

were pioneers of writing,

0:37:360:37:38

and flourished through trade.

0:37:380:37:40

Minoan cultural influence spread far beyond the island of Crete,

0:37:420:37:46

not by military might...

0:37:460:37:48

..but by a network of trade routes

0:37:490:37:51

reaching all corners of the Mediterranean.

0:37:510:37:55

Just up the coast from Crete, on the island of Kythera,

0:37:550:37:59

was a Minoan colony called Kastri.

0:37:590:38:01

There's strong evidence that Minoan traders lived there...

0:38:010:38:05

..and trading links would have extended north to the mainland.

0:38:060:38:10

Right through Pavlopetri.

0:38:100:38:12

Jon believes the city was an active trading hub,

0:38:200:38:23

seeing the passage of imports and exports

0:38:230:38:26

from all over Bronze Age Greece.

0:38:260:38:28

The key to understanding Pavlopetri is the location.

0:38:300:38:33

It's basically at the gateway of the mainland Peloponnese.

0:38:330:38:37

If you're trading anything, sailing from the eastern Mediterranean

0:38:370:38:40

and you're coming into mainland Greece,

0:38:400:38:43

you've got to pass by Pavlopetri to get up towards Sparta.

0:38:430:38:48

So just its very location meant that it was always going to be

0:38:480:38:51

a good place to have a settlement by the sea.

0:38:510:38:54

Back at base camp,

0:39:000:39:01

the visual effects team continue with their work

0:39:010:39:05

to digitally rebuild the city.

0:39:050:39:08

They've started reconstructing the storeroom building.

0:39:080:39:11

What's your first impression of that?

0:39:110:39:13

I'd say it looks fantastic, I'm really excited by it.

0:39:130:39:16

There's a few things I would change now.

0:39:160:39:19

This part here, I think probably wasn't roofed.

0:39:190:39:21

And I know why you've done that. I think this courtyard,

0:39:210:39:24

there may have been some sort of entranceway,

0:39:240:39:27

there may have been something demarking that.

0:39:270:39:29

With his knowledge of other Greek Bronze Age settlements,

0:39:290:39:33

Jon can use the reconstruction to piece together

0:39:330:39:36

what may have happened within the building.

0:39:360:39:39

Seeing it like this is really making me think about

0:39:400:39:43

how this building worked.

0:39:430:39:45

Maybe you had carts coming in here, filled with goods,

0:39:450:39:48

and they're unloading and then taking them into here.

0:39:480:39:50

If you imagine it almost like a public council building,

0:39:500:39:54

you go into the first room and it's probably a waiting room,

0:39:540:39:57

with a bureaucrat waiting to record what you've just brought in.

0:39:570:40:00

At the front of the building were the admin offices

0:40:080:40:11

where imports and exports may have been checked in and out.

0:40:110:40:15

Towards the rear, located in the long, narrow outhouses,

0:40:220:40:26

the large pithos jars would have stored items ready for dispersal.

0:40:260:40:31

We had people here capable of complex administration,

0:40:380:40:41

complex buildings and sort of an almost modern way of life.

0:40:410:40:46

We can identify with this.

0:40:460:40:47

The city not only shows evidence of local administration

0:40:520:40:56

and organised trade,

0:40:560:40:58

but it's starting to look like

0:40:580:41:00

they were actively trading with the Minoans on Crete.

0:41:000:41:04

With their time on the site rapidly coming to an end,

0:41:070:41:11

the team are finding more and more older artefacts.

0:41:110:41:15

So this is quite an exciting find...

0:41:210:41:25

..dating to around 4,000 years ago.

0:41:270:41:32

You can just see the ropework-like design.

0:41:330:41:37

This is great, so let's get it lifted up.

0:41:380:41:41

As well as storage vessels,

0:41:440:41:46

a strong Cretan influence is now coming through

0:41:460:41:50

with the domestic wares.

0:41:500:41:52

Absolutely fantastic.

0:41:520:41:55

Well found. It looks absolutely brilliant.

0:41:550:41:58

We can recognise it as a palatial amphora,

0:41:580:42:02

that's the new palace period in Crete.

0:42:020:42:05

It's a really diagnostic shape,

0:42:050:42:08

we can put it about 1700, 1600 BC.

0:42:080:42:11

It's a pouring vessel, a jug essentially,

0:42:110:42:14

but it's a really brilliant find, it's in great condition

0:42:140:42:18

and it's giving us a really nice, tight date

0:42:180:42:21

of something that's going on around here.

0:42:210:42:23

The Cretan-influenced finds

0:42:280:42:30

don't just mean the city is older than first thought.

0:42:300:42:34

They are starting to reveal Pavlopetri as a cultural melting pot.

0:42:350:42:40

We're beginning to get things

0:42:400:42:41

that are putting us directly in touch with the people.

0:42:410:42:44

You can imagine, you know, somebody 4,000 years ago was using

0:42:440:42:48

this little pot lid, and it's still complete.

0:42:480:42:51

The same with this little bottle for pouring some sort of liquid.

0:42:510:42:55

We have this situation where we have the people of Pavlopetri

0:42:560:43:00

copying Cretan styles.

0:43:000:43:01

We've got a change from people using indigenous pottery forms,

0:43:010:43:04

pottery forms you'd find in the mainland,

0:43:040:43:06

but they're making them in Cretan shapes,

0:43:060:43:09

but they're making it out of local pottery. So they're adopting the fashions.

0:43:090:43:13

The ceramic jug is thought to be

0:43:150:43:17

an exact copy of a bronze metal amphora.

0:43:170:43:20

The detail in the spout and the line around the neck

0:43:200:43:24

are seen on metal versions of the jug found in Crete

0:43:240:43:27

that would have been much more expensive to produce.

0:43:270:43:30

The people of Pavlopetri are copying the lifestyles

0:43:300:43:33

of the rich and famous in some ways.

0:43:330:43:35

It's a bit like buying a cheap copy

0:43:350:43:37

of a rich fashion label or something like that.

0:43:370:43:40

It's buying into the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

0:43:400:43:43

Why not have a Minoan jug in your home as well?

0:43:430:43:45

You can get it at a knock-down price in ceramic,

0:43:450:43:48

and you're getting some of that cache of having, you know,

0:43:480:43:51

the latest fashions in your house.

0:43:510:43:53

Cultural insights aren't just coming from artefacts.

0:44:020:44:06

Clues to the inhabitants' belief systems and even social structure

0:44:070:44:12

can be seen in the way the people of Pavlopetri took care of their dead.

0:44:120:44:16

Some of these tombs date to nearly 5000 years ago.

0:44:180:44:21

This is probably one of the only indications

0:44:220:44:26

that there's an archaeological site here from the shore.

0:44:260:44:29

We've got about 60 rock-cut tombs, just following a line of bedrock

0:44:310:44:35

which would have overlooked the city.

0:44:350:44:38

For the first time, really, in the Bronze Age,

0:44:420:44:44

we're beginning to see attitudes towards death

0:44:440:44:47

and disposing of the dead in some ways,

0:44:470:44:49

or sending them on to the next life.

0:44:490:44:51

We're beginning to see attitudes towards the dead

0:44:510:44:53

which we recognise in our own society.

0:44:530:44:55

The inhabitants appear to have had a close relationship

0:44:570:45:01

and respect for their dead.

0:45:010:45:03

But not everyone was entombed in such grand structures.

0:45:030:45:07

This is what's called a cyst grave.

0:45:090:45:12

What you have is four slabs

0:45:120:45:14

placed in to create a small compartment,

0:45:140:45:19

almost like a coffin, almost like the kind of thing

0:45:190:45:21

we would imagine a grave to be today.

0:45:210:45:24

But what's interesting is how small it is.

0:45:240:45:28

And we think that these graves were used for the burials of children.

0:45:280:45:33

There are over 40 cyst graves across the city,

0:45:380:45:41

all located inside buildings.

0:45:410:45:44

Each would have had a stone slab to seal the tomb.

0:45:480:45:51

Jon has a theory why they buried their children in their homes.

0:45:540:45:58

What people were doing was keeping the children that had died

0:46:040:46:09

close to them after death,

0:46:090:46:12

in the sort of house space,

0:46:120:46:15

perhaps to encourage fertility in the household

0:46:150:46:18

or to make sure there would be more children along the way.

0:46:180:46:22

As well as connections with the afterlife,

0:46:270:46:31

the team is finding that social standing is also reflected in death.

0:46:310:46:35

Cut into the ridge of rock running along the eastern edge of the city

0:46:390:46:43

are two huge rock-cut chamber tombs.

0:46:430:46:46

This is the entrance passage into a central chamber.

0:46:490:46:54

I suspect this is one of the most pre-eminent graves

0:46:560:47:00

in the whole of the site.

0:47:000:47:02

It was probably only for one or two very important people.

0:47:030:47:08

This would have been entirely carved out of rock

0:47:130:47:17

and this is where people would have come and laid out their dead.

0:47:170:47:21

These tombs date to the Mycenaean era

0:47:250:47:28

and are like today's large family crypts.

0:47:280:47:31

They could be re-opened to add additional bodies

0:47:320:47:36

or conduct rituals.

0:47:360:47:37

These impressive structures

0:47:380:47:40

were for the elite leaders or ruling families of Pavlopetri,

0:47:400:47:44

boasting the best resting place overlooking the city.

0:47:440:47:48

It appears the city's inhabitants

0:47:550:47:57

had a complex and multi-layered social hierarchy.

0:47:570:48:01

We've got evidence that people are beginning to have defined roles

0:48:030:48:06

within that society, even professions.

0:48:060:48:08

They'd have been craftsmen or merchants or even soldiers.

0:48:080:48:13

And you're beginning to see some level of status in society

0:48:130:48:16

and it's interesting that that's now being reflected in the burials,

0:48:160:48:20

where we're now beginning to see tombs reflecting probably some level of status.

0:48:200:48:25

The people of Pavlopetri lived in a vibrant city,

0:48:280:48:32

with a structured society, and organised trade.

0:48:320:48:36

So how did a culture so advanced disappear under the waves?

0:48:370:48:41

Its fate has been puzzling oceanographer Nic Flemming

0:48:450:48:49

ever since he first discovered the site over 40 years ago.

0:48:490:48:52

When you find an underwater city,

0:48:530:48:55

the problem always is, did the land go down or did the sea come up?

0:48:550:49:00

Here at Pavlopetri, there's a lot of explaining to do.

0:49:000:49:04

Pavlopetri stood at a time when global sea level was on the rise,

0:49:060:49:10

still fed by water melting from the last great Ice Age.

0:49:100:49:15

But Nic believes that wouldn't have been enough to drown the city.

0:49:160:49:20

Greece is one of the most geologically active places in the world.

0:49:230:49:27

Throughout history, there are records of huge earthquakes,

0:49:270:49:32

giant tsunamis,

0:49:320:49:34

and vast volcanic eruptions.

0:49:340:49:36

Could it be that Pavlopetri was sent to its watery grave

0:49:390:49:43

in one single cataclysmic earthquake?

0:49:430:49:46

Clues to the answer lie in a set of strange underwater rock formations

0:49:520:49:57

which are actually ancient fossilised shorelines.

0:49:570:50:01

You find strips of what look like concrete,

0:50:030:50:07

laid almost like a paving strip

0:50:070:50:09

along the beach, which is actually a natural cement,

0:50:090:50:13

formed by the action of sunlight on the sand with the salt water.

0:50:130:50:17

And that can give you exactly where the sea level was at past dates.

0:50:170:50:21

These ancient shorelines

0:50:230:50:25

are what Jon originally saw from the helicopter.

0:50:250:50:28

They are made up of something called beach rock

0:50:280:50:31

and show up as dark strips lying parallel to the sandy shore.

0:50:310:50:35

Beach rock only forms at the water's edge,

0:50:400:50:43

so these parallel strips show where the beach would have been

0:50:430:50:46

at different times in history.

0:50:460:50:48

Jon wants to get a sample from the individual lines of beach rock

0:50:530:50:59

to track the times of the changing shoreline.

0:50:590:51:01

Hopefully we'll get a rough date of the formation of this coastline,

0:51:050:51:09

this old shoreline, and that might tell us something

0:51:090:51:13

about when Pavlopetri was submerged.

0:51:130:51:16

The idea of a massive subsidence and a sort of huge tidal wave

0:51:200:51:24

and molten lava and ash coming down out of the sky is very attractive,

0:51:240:51:28

and of course it does sometimes happen,

0:51:280:51:31

but unfortunately for the Hollywood movie people,

0:51:310:51:34

it doesn't seem to have happened here.

0:51:340:51:37

The presence of successive lines of beach rock

0:51:400:51:43

indicates there was more than one seismic event.

0:51:430:51:47

From the radiocarbon dating process,

0:51:470:51:50

it appears Pavlopetri sunk in at least three earthquake events,

0:51:500:51:55

the first coming soon after 1000 BC.

0:51:550:51:58

Each time the land dropped, more of the remaining buildings

0:51:590:52:03

were claimed by the sea.

0:52:030:52:05

We've got a grand city which has seen better days,

0:52:060:52:09

but slowly as the edge of the town became waterlogged,

0:52:090:52:13

winter storm takes away some of the key buildings,

0:52:130:52:16

and then finally you're left with, you know, just a few houses

0:52:160:52:19

sticking out of the water and it's gone, and I find that a...

0:52:190:52:24

an attractive, rather sad image, but it's just as human

0:52:240:52:28

and just as moving as blowing the whole thing up in one night.

0:52:280:52:31

With only a few days left and all testing complete,

0:52:400:52:43

the mapping team are finally ready to deploy their robotic surveying torpedo.

0:52:430:52:48

Just like the push-along rig,

0:52:520:52:54

bright sunlight interferes with the cameras,

0:52:540:52:57

so they have to run the robot at night.

0:52:570:53:00

I think this is the first time this has been done

0:53:000:53:03

in a submerged archaeological site like this.

0:53:030:53:06

Just seeing it go in the water was fantastic.

0:53:060:53:09

The plan is to survey the entire site in just a couple of nights,

0:53:100:53:15

a job that would normally take months.

0:53:150:53:17

The stakes are high.

0:53:180:53:20

It's always a bit disconcerting, I guess, to put a machine

0:53:200:53:25

that costs several hundred thousands of dollars into the ocean

0:53:250:53:29

without a way of knowing what it's going to do exactly.

0:53:290:53:32

Following a programmed route,

0:53:340:53:36

the torpedo moves across the site at around two nautical miles an hour,

0:53:360:53:41

with its twin cameras photographing the sea floor three times a second.

0:53:410:53:46

After just a few nights' work,

0:53:470:53:50

the team have got some impressive results.

0:53:500:53:52

They've succeeded in completing a stone by stone photo map of the entire city.

0:53:520:53:57

This will fundamentally change the way we do underwater archaeology.

0:54:000:54:04

This is... You can't get any better than this

0:54:040:54:07

in terms of underwater survey.

0:54:070:54:09

The other thing about doing this is it allows you to create views,

0:54:090:54:12

which are actually impossible otherwise.

0:54:120:54:14

If we had this in reality, we'd be way out of the water,

0:54:140:54:17

we'd be right above the sea.

0:54:170:54:19

So it allows us to examine the city in different ways.

0:54:190:54:23

Using the millimetre-accurate, 3D photo map of the whole city,

0:54:230:54:28

the visual effects team can now finish building Pavlopetri,

0:54:280:54:32

and digitally raise it from the seafloor.

0:54:320:54:34

But to apply the final touches,

0:54:450:54:47

Simon has one last job to complete down on the beach.

0:54:470:54:51

By capturing the way the sunlight falls on the mirrored ball,

0:54:530:54:58

Simon can reproduce exactly how the sun

0:54:580:55:01

would have bathed the city itself thousands of years ago.

0:55:010:55:04

We want to be able to get a map of this light

0:55:060:55:09

to add to our computer model to give us a very realistic interpretation

0:55:090:55:13

of what the city would have once looked like.

0:55:130:55:16

We've had the very detailed survey,

0:55:180:55:20

but then we've enhanced that with the visual effects team

0:55:200:55:23

to reconstruct, bring the city back to life.

0:55:230:55:25

By digitally recreating the city stone by stone,

0:55:300:55:33

we can at last glimpse Pavlopetri through the eyes of its inhabitants.

0:55:330:55:39

I'm blown away by the fact that they can actually reconstruct

0:55:460:55:49

whole buildings from just the really basic robotic models we generated.

0:55:490:55:54

It takes the city from a pile of artefacts and stones

0:55:540:55:57

and really turns it into something that the public can visualise.

0:55:570:56:02

Some parts of the city are missing from the seafloor,

0:56:040:56:07

washed away by wave action.

0:56:070:56:10

But guided by the spread of pottery sherds and isolated foundation stones,

0:56:100:56:15

plus clues from other Bronze Age town plans,

0:56:150:56:18

Jon believes this is what the complete city might have looked like.

0:56:180:56:22

Bringing the city back to life creates a closer connection with the site,

0:56:240:56:28

and perhaps a closer connection with the people who lived there.

0:56:280:56:31

Based on the age of artefacts found across the site,

0:56:340:56:37

this is an impression of Pavlopetri at its peak, around 1600BC.

0:56:370:56:43

It was a city with a planned layout.

0:56:440:56:48

People lived alongside each other, in neighbourhoods.

0:56:500:56:53

They had large houses with courtyards, upstairs bedrooms,

0:56:550:57:00

and views of the sea.

0:57:000:57:02

So we get people such as merchants. We get craftsmen.

0:57:040:57:08

Scribes, administrators.

0:57:080:57:10

Probably even prostitutes. We get slaves.

0:57:100:57:13

We get a wide range of people.

0:57:130:57:15

The kind of thing we would expect in a busy, mixed port town.

0:57:150:57:19

Starting as a small, presumably fishing village

0:57:220:57:27

and developing into a very busy port with connections

0:57:270:57:30

throughout the Aegean Sea initially, then with Crete,

0:57:300:57:32

and then with the Eastern Mediterranean.

0:57:320:57:35

And the kind of complexity and development

0:57:350:57:37

that would have had for the city itself,

0:57:370:57:39

for me, that's the big story of Pavlopetri.

0:57:390:57:42

Pavlopetri was an active harbour town.

0:57:450:57:48

It stood as a gateway to the mainland,

0:57:490:57:51

not just where imports and exports changed hands...

0:57:510:57:56

..but a meeting of minds and an exchange of ideas.

0:57:570:58:01

It's making us realise that the people

0:58:020:58:05

were very much like you and I.

0:58:050:58:07

They were living lives which are not far distant from the lives we live today.

0:58:070:58:11

We're actually seeing the dawning of the West, in some way.

0:58:120:58:16

We can begin to trace that back to sites like Pavlopetri.

0:58:160:58:19

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:330:58:36

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:360:58:39

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS