0:00:09 > 0:00:13They were among the last great pyramid builders on the planet...
0:00:15 > 0:00:18..one of history's most mysterious civilisations.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23In an isolated valley in the Andes,
0:00:23 > 0:00:29the Lambayeque people were gripped by an obsession to build pyramids.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36But that obsession turned to horror.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45The city descended into violence and bloodletting...
0:00:48 > 0:00:52..and then the whole civilisation vanished off the face of the Earth.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Only recently has the evidence come to light
0:01:02 > 0:01:07to explain what brought this great civilisation to an abrupt end...
0:01:09 > 0:01:14..and to explain the fear that drove these people into oblivion.
0:01:36 > 0:01:42In the foothills of the Andes in northern Peru there's a remote valley.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52It's a place still haunted by its past.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Long ago the people who lived in the Lambayeque valley came to believe
0:02:03 > 0:02:09that building pyramids was essential to their survival.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12They built 250 pyramids,
0:02:12 > 0:02:17one of the most impressive feats of engineering in the ancient world.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23A vast valley of monuments that dominated the landscape.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29But one day something terrible happened here,
0:02:29 > 0:02:36and the civilisation disappeared along with all 250 pyramids.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40And they were lost to the outside world for centuries.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54The outside world finally did learn about them through the work of one man,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59who arrived in this valley unaware that he'd entered a lost world.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16Hans Bruning was one of history's accidental explorers.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22He was an engineer from Germany who'd come here to work with machines for processing sugar cane.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28They are precision machines.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32- Herr Bruning?- Yes. - They need you in the workshop.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Ah, thank you, Carlos. Excuse me one moment.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44Never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd stumble across a lost civilisation,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48yet the hunt for this lost world would take over his life.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01At the time, treasures from the lost world were regularly being dug up
0:04:01 > 0:04:06and melted down in local workshops across the valley.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36If you are interested, he can give you a good price on the gold.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38For that one -
0:04:38 > 0:04:4020 livres.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Silver is cheaper.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51When that is melted down, 100 livres.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01Tell him...tell him I will give him 200 livres not to melt it down.
0:05:04 > 0:05:05Tell him!
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Bruning witnessed kilos of gold and silver artefacts
0:05:11 > 0:05:15being melted down for cash and lost to history forever.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34Bruning decided to rescue these unique objects from obliteration.
0:05:44 > 0:05:51He set off from the sugar plantation on a journey in search of the origin of the artefacts.
0:05:55 > 0:06:01He gave up his life as an engineer for that of an archaeologist and explorer.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18His travels took him through the Lambayeque valley,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21from the Pacific coast to the foothills of the Andes.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31He passed through a strange and eerie landscape.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The lost civilisation was all around him.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41He just couldn't see it.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00And it was on this journey that he was shown the secret of the valley.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11My god.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Bricks.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16Yeah.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19The whole mountain.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23So this...mountain...
0:07:23 > 0:07:26was once a pyramid.
0:07:30 > 0:07:36Every mound he had passed was the remains of a pyramid built out of bricks.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54Over hundreds of years, they'd become heavily eroded...
0:07:54 > 0:07:58then vanished back into the landscape,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00turning into a series of hills.
0:08:06 > 0:08:13He began to assemble a museum full of archaeological objects from this lost civilisation.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21And his hundreds of photographs brought this valley of pyramids
0:08:21 > 0:08:24to the attention of the outside world.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Eventually his journey would take him towards the most
0:08:31 > 0:08:35impressive group of pyramids this civilisation ever built.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42There's a town here called El Purgatorio.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44Purgatory.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47What's there?
0:08:47 > 0:08:51At El Purgatorio there is a mountain.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53Dangerous spirits live there.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57They are very, very powerful.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59No, they can kill a man.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06The people there say it is the entrance to Hell.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11- Do you believe this? - They believe a lot of things.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14It is just a name.
0:09:19 > 0:09:26Bruning ignored the legend, heading for Purgatorio and the collection of pyramids today known as Tucume.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42There was a line separating the city from the rest of the valley which locals feared to cross.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50You can take your pictures from here.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57Senor Bruning!
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Bruning discovered a city of pyramids like nowhere else in the world.
0:10:15 > 0:10:21He counted 26 in all, ruins, towering above the landscape.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36This was the last pyramid city built by this mysterious civilisation.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45The city of pyramids was shunned by local people,
0:10:45 > 0:10:50though still used by witch doctors for strange ceremonies.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01But Bruning had no way of knowing the horrific rituals
0:11:01 > 0:11:05that had once taken place here in ancient times.
0:11:11 > 0:11:17Hans Bruning devoted the rest of his life to studying the valley and its people.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22But he died without learning why they built so many pyramids here
0:11:22 > 0:11:28and what had happened at Tucume to cause this civilisation to vanish.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31That task would fall to others.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40A hundred years on, and an international team of scientists brought
0:11:40 > 0:11:45the power of modern archaeology to solve the mysteries Bruning had been unable to tackle.
0:11:49 > 0:11:55Field archaeologists, climate scientists and experts in forensics all became involved.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Their quest was to find out who these people were,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04what drove them to build so many pyramids,
0:12:04 > 0:12:10and what had happened at Tucume to cause this civilisation to vanish.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18Archaeologists have carefully mapped
0:12:18 > 0:12:21the pyramids in the Lambayeque Valley.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27There are so many of them here, they outstrip most other pyramid building cultures.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30This is the Valley Of The Pyramids.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32This whole place is full of pyramids.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35You look here. Here we are in Tucume, but look at all these black dots.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Every one of these is a pyramid.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39There are about 250 pyramids in this valley.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45I don't know anywhere else that's got anything like this concentration of pyramids. This is the pyramid place.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50Across the valley, three great pyramid cities stood out.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Start with Pampa Grande up the valley.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55There's only one pyramid there, but it's huge.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03It's over 50 metres high and 200 metres wide.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Then we move to Batan Grande with over half a dozen.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13And then we come to Tucume with 26, which is unheard of.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17There's no other place anywhere in South America that has 26 pyramids in it.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29There've been pyramids before, but one or two or three.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32But Batan Grande, you've got, oh, over half a dozen pyramids,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35large ones, and then they move to Tucume and it just goes crazy.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57The people who went pyramid crazy had no writing.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00No-one even knows what they called themselves, so they've been named
0:14:00 > 0:14:04after the valley they lived in - the Lambayeque.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09They flourished here around 700 AD.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13They were the last descendants of a culture in northern Peru
0:14:13 > 0:14:17who'd been building pyramids for thousands of years.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22But the Lambayeque took pyramid building to the level of an obsession.
0:14:26 > 0:14:33But what were these pyramids for, and why had the Lambayeque been driven to build so many?
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Every culture that built pyramids did it for a very specific purpose.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52A purpose that takes us to the heart of everything they believed in.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Over a dozen civilisations built pyramids,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02but none of them looked quite like those of the Lambayeque.
0:15:03 > 0:15:09You think about pyramids and probably the first thing that comes to mind would be the Egyptian pyramids,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13these huge pointy tombs that were built to house a particular dead ruler.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16One purpose, one time, that was it.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21When you think of Aztec pyramids,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25which were built for temples, Mayan ones as well, sometimes they may have had a tomb inside,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28but mainly they were the seat for particular rituals.
0:15:33 > 0:15:39At Tucume, the design of the pyramids was different from elsewhere in the world.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52There are 26 pyramids of wildly different sizes,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56all built around an imposing central mountain.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06The site is vast, almost a square mile in size.
0:16:11 > 0:16:19But one building stands out - a giant rectangular platform built into the side of the mountain.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28We have what was arguably the world's largest pyramid ever,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30sitting in the middle of the site.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39It is 700 metres long and more than 20 metres high.
0:16:41 > 0:16:46The space on top is the size of seven football pitches.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55The pyramids are all solid structures, without rooms inside.
0:17:01 > 0:17:07They have the tops cut off to create a series of huge open spaces.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13And there was no evidence that they were built to be tombs or temples.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16This is very different from other pyramids in the world.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23There was only one way to the top, via a ramp.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34This one was 120 metres long and built with rooms to control access halfway up it.
0:17:41 > 0:17:48The route to the top then went through a complex maze of closed doorways and passages.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52The layout of these pyramids was quite unlike
0:17:52 > 0:17:56those built by the other great pyramid-building civilisations.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12It's clear that pyramids were of such central importance
0:18:12 > 0:18:18to this society that they were prepared to commit all their resources to building them.
0:18:22 > 0:18:29Slowly, methodically, thousands of people must have toiled all their lives on these buildings.
0:18:32 > 0:18:38The bricks are made from mud, baked dry in the sun.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40The scale is dazzling.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42It was like a military operation.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Every brick had a mark showing which factory it came from,
0:18:49 > 0:18:54and the valley was crammed with hundreds of brick factories,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57each one with its own recognisable mark.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Take a look at some of the marks. You can see footprint marks...
0:19:05 > 0:19:06Spirals...
0:19:08 > 0:19:11T shapes... Now, remember they didn't actually have an alphabet.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13They didn't have a writing system.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Nevertheless they did have symbols that meant something.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21And in total these are over 80 marks and they came out of a single segment of wall
0:19:21 > 0:19:25in one small part of the site, so there would have been many more marks throughout the entire site.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34Something clearly drove the Lambayeque to create a production line for pyramids.
0:19:41 > 0:19:48Carbon dating shows that the first pyramid at Tucume was built around 1100 AD,
0:19:48 > 0:19:54and for 400 years they built more pyramids and added extensions to the ones they already had.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00An ancient architect's model found at the site
0:20:00 > 0:20:04shows the pyramids were built according to a strict master plan.
0:20:08 > 0:20:15It would have taken 2,000 people a year just to make the bricks for this one pyramid.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23It would have taken another army of people to build the pyramid itself,
0:20:23 > 0:20:28hundreds more to grow and cook food for the workers.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33So it would have taken thousands several years to complete one pyramid.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40And there were 25 others at Tucume, and another 200 across the valley.
0:20:43 > 0:20:50So building pyramids must have become an all-consuming task for the people of the Lambayeque Valley.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56The pyramids must have satisfied some overwhelming need.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01Whatever that was, it had to be in some way connected to how these pyramids were used.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13And on top of the pyramid there are clues.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19Here a complex of rooms has been unearthed, some richly decorated.
0:21:24 > 0:21:31Just outside these rooms, archaeologists found mounds and mounds of food remains.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34This isn't usually found on top of pyramids.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Among the remains there were the bones of llamas and large fish -
0:21:41 > 0:21:43the food of the wealthy.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52TRANSLATION: We found a very important area because it was a space for many kitchens.
0:21:52 > 0:21:59In this place we found formal ovens with a lot of charcoal, a lot of rubbish like seeds and animal bones
0:21:59 > 0:22:04and fragments of cooking pots - all with evidence of cooking.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12As they dug further down, they found so many layers of rich food
0:22:12 > 0:22:19that generations of wealthy people must have lived and eaten here on the pyramid.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24These facts confirm that people lived in this building
0:22:24 > 0:22:31for long periods of time, and not just temporarily during ceremonial occasions.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44And then on top of the pyramid they discovered the remains of
0:22:44 > 0:22:48a 35-year-old man who they believed had once lived here.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56He was found with the jewellery and the feather headdress he once wore.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03The richness of these finds meant this was a member of the governing elite.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11TRANSLATION: We found very clear evidence of the status and hierarchy this person had.
0:23:14 > 0:23:20So there is no doubt that the pyramids at Tucume served as places of residence,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25like a palace for the lords who governed the whole area.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38So at Tucume it seems generations of lords had moved in
0:23:38 > 0:23:41to live on top of the pyramids.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47As with all rulers in the Andes, these lords must have been treated as semi-gods.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52These were men who claimed to have magical powers to control the world.
0:23:57 > 0:24:04Tucume was a truly bizarre city of 26 lords living on 26 pyramids.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Archaeologists believe the likely explanation
0:24:08 > 0:24:13is the lords on these pyramids were rulers from across this valley.
0:24:13 > 0:24:21Something about this one place drew them all here to build their pyramid palaces side by side.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25If you look around all the pyramids at Tucume,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27each one of them would have had some kind of lord living on top.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Perhaps the more powerful lords on the bigger pyramids like this one,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33perhaps the less powerful lords on smaller ones.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36But there are 26 pyramids here - that's a lot of lords.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42And this is how the lords lived on top of their palace pyramids.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50To get to the top you had to climb a series of ramps.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52At the centre of the pyramid on a raised mount
0:24:52 > 0:24:57were the rooms where the lord lived and met with priests and courtiers.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Behind it were his vast kitchens.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Llama and fish were favourites on the menu.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23Nearby have been found the remains of rows of workshops and store rooms.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33This must have been a place of constant noise and activity.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39But the front of the pyramid served a very different function.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44The vast open space was reserved for huge public ceremonies.
0:25:53 > 0:26:00So why did 26 lords choose to live crowded together on 26 pyramids in one city?
0:26:03 > 0:26:08One clue seemed to be the mountain at the centre of Tucume.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17TRANSLATION: The mountains in ancient Peru and today
0:26:17 > 0:26:21constitute very special centres of religious and magical power.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28We know from later travellers to Peru that people here
0:26:28 > 0:26:32in ancient times believed the gods spoke through the forces of nature.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Thunder was a voice of a god. So was lightning.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47But the truly powerful gods lived in the mountains.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51When they were angry, they could unleash terror on the population.
0:26:53 > 0:27:00They also controlled life and death by bringing water from the Andes.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Without this water, the valley would be a desert.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Scientists believe that when the Lambayeque built a pyramid they were
0:27:10 > 0:27:18building a replica mountain with the same supernatural power they hoped could control the forces of nature.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22If you look back here you can see the mountain, the centre of the site of Tucume.
0:27:22 > 0:27:29Mountains in the Andes are power, they're seats of the lords of the supernatural, the gods of the Andes.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33And the pyramids are little mountains. They capture that power.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35This is the power to protect.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52So this was the logic of the valley.
0:27:52 > 0:28:00The people would toil to build pyramids they believed had the magical power of mountains.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04And just as the gods lived on the mountains, the lords would live on
0:28:04 > 0:28:09top of these pyramids to protect the people from what they most feared.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18But what was it in this valley they were so afraid of?
0:28:18 > 0:28:22And why did they need so many pyramids to protect themselves?
0:28:30 > 0:28:34Archaelogists believe they may have discovered the answer
0:28:34 > 0:28:38in the ruins of the three great cities in the valley.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46The carbon dates from the cities showed something surprising.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53These three cities hadn't existed at the same time, each one was only
0:28:53 > 0:28:59built after the previous city was, for some reason, abandoned.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Pampa Grande had been built first.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Then a few hundred years later, suddenly abandoned.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Immediately after this they built Batan Grande.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15And then that had suddenly been abandoned.
0:29:18 > 0:29:23Finally, enormous effort had gone into building the vast city of Tucume.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26And it too was abandoned.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31That was the end of this civilisation.
0:29:34 > 0:29:40There were strange things linking the abandonment of all these cities.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42Just before each city was deserted,
0:29:42 > 0:29:47the very tops of the pyramids had been set on fire.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01The evidence for this is clear in all three cities.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Here in the palace on the main pyramid at Tucume
0:30:03 > 0:30:08there was a two-metre thick reddened layer caused by the fire.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19TRANSLATION: The colour of the walls that we can see here is the product of a very intense fire,
0:30:19 > 0:30:27a fire that was so strong that it not only burnt the outer surface of the wall but it melted the stones.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33This fire was so intense it would have been visible for miles.
0:30:36 > 0:30:44There's no evidence of battles or invasions to suggest these fires were lit by an attacking army.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49Instead, it looks like the people of the pyramids had, for some reason, done it themselves.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55So they spend a hundred years building this really big site,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58this really important site, and then, boom, it's abandoned.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02That's it. They burn the top of the pyramid, they go away and they never come back.
0:31:05 > 0:31:12To wilfully destroy what the whole community had toiled so hard to build seems unfathomable.
0:31:12 > 0:31:19But if you understand the logic of the valley it begins to make a sinister kind of sense.
0:31:23 > 0:31:29Because fire is used throughout northern Peru to purify places
0:31:29 > 0:31:32considered touched by evil.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40TRANSLATION: Fire is a very important element.
0:31:40 > 0:31:42It purifies sites.
0:31:42 > 0:31:48It clears away all the bad energy or negative elements that could be present in a place.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And across the region scientists have found evidence
0:31:57 > 0:32:03of the supernatural force the ancient people of the valley most feared.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09When it struck, it drove them to purify their cities by fire and abandon them forever.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19This region has been subject to some of the most extreme climate disasters on the planet -
0:32:19 > 0:32:22disasters the lords and the pyramids themselves,
0:32:22 > 0:32:27the source of magic and power, were supposed to protect the people from.
0:32:33 > 0:32:41Archaeological layers from the city of Batan Grande show it had been hit by a great wall of water.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52And the nearby pyramid complex of Moche had been hit by a wave of sand which covered the city.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10These disasters of biblical proportions were caused
0:33:10 > 0:33:16by the violent climate upheavals known as El Ninos.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20They still strike in the region today.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28It seems this must have been the supernatural force that the people in the valley so feared,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31becuase for the Lambayeque, these climate disasters
0:33:31 > 0:33:35could only be understood as the wrath of the angry gods.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50So once the gods had struck, the pyramids and the lords who
0:33:50 > 0:33:55lived on top of them were shown to have failed to protect the people.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58These events keep happening, and they're extreme events.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Rains would have washed away the fields.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05People would have had nothing to eat.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07There would have been diseases.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12It would be a good time to wonder if your lords and your pyramids were doing the right job,
0:34:12 > 0:34:16or if it was time to abandon them to find new ones. And indeed that seems to have happened.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24This was the obsession that ruled the valley.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28When the pyramids failed to protect against catastrophe, it was as if
0:34:28 > 0:34:34they were cursed, so they had to be purged by fire and abandoned.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40And new ones built to replace them.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48It suggests this is why the valley is littered with the ruins of so many abandoned pyramids.
0:35:07 > 0:35:14But when it comes to the last pyramid city built in the valley, to Tucume, things are different.
0:35:15 > 0:35:20There's no evidence here it was struck by an overwhelming climate catastrophe.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32Something else must have happened to cause the people of Tucume
0:35:32 > 0:35:38to set fire to their pyramids and for their civilisation to disappear forever.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56A dramatic new discovery has recently revealed what may have
0:35:56 > 0:35:59happened at Tucume in its final days.
0:35:59 > 0:36:06It has allowed archaeologists to recreate the likely course of events that brought about the end
0:36:06 > 0:36:12of this great pyramid city and the entire civilisation of the Lambayeque Valley.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19It all began when archaeologists first noticed the remains
0:36:19 > 0:36:23of a two-laned walled walkway that once led into the city.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30The walkway took a series of right-angled turns on its way into Tucume.
0:36:32 > 0:36:38Something about it was designed to take visitors past this one spot in the city.
0:36:40 > 0:36:46This small unassuming building turned out to be a temple.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57This was the ritual heart of Tucume.
0:37:00 > 0:37:07At times of crisis, this was where the people came to make offerings to appease the angry gods.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18A series of ritual offerings has been found at the temple dig site.
0:37:25 > 0:37:31The stone at the centre of the temple represented the mountain and its powerful gods.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43In a world without science, this ritual was how the people of Tucume believed
0:37:43 > 0:37:46they could control the world.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51But in the final days of this civilisation
0:37:51 > 0:37:57the temple became the scene for a much darker series of offerings.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18In the summer of 2005,
0:38:18 > 0:38:25scientists were called in to investigate human bones found outside the temple.
0:38:29 > 0:38:36This discovery revealed the sinister turn this civilisation took in its last days.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45One specific indicator with this particular skeleton that suggests
0:38:45 > 0:38:50that something is not right with this individual is the fact that the body,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53the thorax and the upper arms are in a normal position,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56but the head is twisted and out of place.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58And what we're going to do now is we're going to lift the head up...
0:39:11 > 0:39:17The head and the top two neck vertebrae have been severed from the rest of the spinal column.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28So what we have here...
0:39:28 > 0:39:32is the first cervical vertebrae and this is where the head sits right onto this vertebrae.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35And then this vertebrae sits right onto this one.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38These are the two that were found still attached to the head,
0:39:38 > 0:39:41separated from the rest of the neck and the spinal column.
0:39:41 > 0:39:49And when we turn them up like this, what we can notice on the base are very, very clear signs of
0:39:49 > 0:39:55cut marks going across this inferior articular facet of this vertebrae.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59But when you see cuts
0:39:59 > 0:40:00reaching very far back - you can see
0:40:00 > 0:40:05this is the space where your spinal column goes - they were cutting all the way through the spinal column,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09and in fact they're even cutting into here in the back of the vertebrae.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11So they're going all the way through.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17This is clear evidence that this head was decapitated.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33It was now clear this individual had not died a natural death.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35This was ancient homicide.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Altogether 119 bodies were found outside the temple,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47including women and children,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51most of them decapitated.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57All the evidence indicated this was human sacrifice.
0:40:57 > 0:41:04It makes Tucume one of the biggest sites of human sacrifice ever found in the ancient Andes.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12It seems that human sacrifice is always reserved for a time of greatest need,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15when something is going wrong in the world which can't be explained.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And the only way to deal with these problems is to try and appease the gods.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28The bodies had been buried in five layers.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Most were in the top, the most recent layer,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36dated to the final years and days of Tucume.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43The increase in number of human sacrifices in front of the temple
0:41:43 > 0:41:48seems to suggest that there must have been something going on that required more sacrifices,
0:41:48 > 0:41:49more offerings.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54They needed to communicate with the gods in a way in which just a single offering was not enough.
0:41:55 > 0:42:02It seems something so terrible had happened towards the end of Tucume that the only way to deal with it
0:42:02 > 0:42:05was to offer the gods what was most precious.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11The blood of men, women and children as young as five.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21It looked like the number of sacrifices had increased towards the end of Tucume.
0:42:26 > 0:42:32Archaeologists believe the increase in human sacrifice and the end of the city were connected.
0:42:36 > 0:42:42And with this new discovery, archaeologists now believe it's possible to tell the likely story
0:42:42 > 0:42:48of the final days of Tucume and how and why this pyramid civilisation vanished.
0:42:55 > 0:43:01They believe it all began in 1532, the year the Spanish conquistadores
0:43:01 > 0:43:05arrived in Peru, far to the north of the Lambayeque Valley.
0:43:11 > 0:43:17These alien men stalking the land, riding strange four-legged beasts,
0:43:17 > 0:43:22seemed like the ancestral gods returned to walk the Earth.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27So when the news of the Spanish invasion eventually reached
0:43:27 > 0:43:33the Lambayeque Valley, it would have created shock and incomprehension.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38The conquistadores themselves did not come here and destroy Tucume,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42but just the stories of their presence in Peru brought fear.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47TRANSLATION: Although they did not directly come to Tucume,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49the Spanish were greatly feared
0:43:49 > 0:43:52by the people as it was known that they were in the region.
0:43:52 > 0:43:58They came with different kinds of animals, like horses, that were not known in the continent.
0:44:01 > 0:44:08From artefacts found at the site, it's clear that by the time the Spanish arrived in South America,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12the Lambayeque Valley had fallen under the control of the Incas.
0:44:13 > 0:44:18The Incas and the Lambayeque shared a belief that the Spanish,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21these violent invaders, were a sign of the anger of the gods.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29So now the gods must be appeased.
0:44:33 > 0:44:41But within a year of the Spanish arrival, truly terrifying news would arrive at Tucume.
0:44:41 > 0:44:47The invading Spanish had captured and killed the Inca god-king far away in the highlands.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55This news would have set off a riptide of fear at Tucume.
0:45:05 > 0:45:12So now the people of the valley had to start offering the gods something more precious -
0:45:12 > 0:45:13human beings.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Once the victims had been chosen,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29we know in detail from the archaeological evidence and
0:45:29 > 0:45:33from the later Spanish chroniclers how the sacrifices would have been
0:45:33 > 0:45:38performed outside the temple during the last days of Tucume.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45The high priest talked to the sacred stone, to the god of the mountain.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50Another priest to the god of thunder.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Another to the god of lightning.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06For the sacrifice to work, it had to follow a strict ritual.
0:46:12 > 0:46:18The elite Lambayeque lords and the Inca governor gathered around the temple.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45The high priest blew coloured powders over the stone.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50This is exactly what archaeologists found there.
0:47:02 > 0:47:10By putting on a mask, the high priest would have shown he had assumed the role of a god.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15The killing was soon to begin.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28The 119 skeletons themselves give us a detailed description
0:47:28 > 0:47:34of what it would have been like to be ritually executed outside the temple.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43When you think of the violent way in which these individuals were killed,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47it'd be natural to assume or to guess that they must have struggled or resisted.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50However, when I look at the skeleton, I really don't find evidence of struggle.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55First of all, there's no signs of peri-mortem trauma
0:47:55 > 0:47:58that would indicate in any way that they had been, for example,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01subdued by being hit or beaten.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07Secondly, the cut marks across the throat and neck region are smooth single slices and there doesn't seem
0:48:07 > 0:48:13to be any evidence of chatter marks, where the knife would skip along and bounce along the bone as though
0:48:13 > 0:48:18an individual were struggling and the bone was missing its mark. And finally,
0:48:18 > 0:48:23the arms were often gently placed by their sides or crossing the bodies, not tightly fixed together.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Nor was there any evidence of any ropes or ligatures.
0:48:28 > 0:48:34There was no need to tie these victims up, as they'd been drugged with a seed called amala.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41These amala seeds were found outside the temple.
0:48:41 > 0:48:47They contain a drug that paralyses the body but leaves the victim conscious,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50able to understand everything that's happening to them.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03TRANSLATION: We can therefore come to a simple conclusion, and this is the current hypothesis,
0:49:03 > 0:49:09that the people who were taken to be sacrificed in front of the temple
0:49:09 > 0:49:12didn't put up any resistance to their death
0:49:12 > 0:49:15because they had previously consumed a large quantity of amala.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23It must have been a terrible fate.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29To be aware of impending death but powerless to resist.
0:49:40 > 0:49:45Now the sacrifice victim would have been brought to the temple.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49He would already have been given the drug amala,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53so every muscle in his body was paralysed.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56He could neither struggle nor run,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00yet he remained aware of what was about to happen to him.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28Exactly what happened next is revealed by the skeletons themselves.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Of the 119 individuals that we recovered.
0:50:30 > 0:50:37from this small area, almost 90% of them show cut marks in the area of the throat and neck region.
0:50:37 > 0:50:43These patterns are very consistent across the group, suggesting that it was almost a systematic execution.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55In each skeleton, the same pattern had been repeated.
0:51:01 > 0:51:07And from the cut marks, scientists can piece together exactly how these people were sacrificed...
0:51:09 > 0:51:11blow by blow.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17Based on the patterns of the cut marks, their location as well as the angle at which the bone is being
0:51:17 > 0:51:24struck by the knife, this suggests that most likely the individual was cut in an upward motion.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27Now, based on the location of the cuts across the front of the throat,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31there would be a great deal of blood generated from these initial cuts.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33So it's not likely that the sacrificer would be in front,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36because they would probably be covered with blood.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Looking at the cut marks, it suggests more likely that the
0:51:39 > 0:51:45sacrificer was behind the victim and that they were cutting most likely from left to right across the body.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49The angle of the cut mark upwards suggests that the victim was most
0:51:49 > 0:51:53likely in a prone position, face down and the sacrificer would have been behind them,
0:51:53 > 0:51:57perhaps holding their head, making the cut mark across the front of the body.
0:52:00 > 0:52:06But even after the throat had been cut and the head hacked off, the ritual was not over.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Looking at the skeletons, I began noticing right away that
0:52:16 > 0:52:19there's very distinctive patterning in the cut marks.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22For example, across the left clavicle, this bone here
0:52:22 > 0:52:27has seven distinctive cut marks going along the front of it.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Another bone is the manubrium here, right in the centre of the chest.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33And we can see...
0:52:33 > 0:52:35that a fragment of it, the left side,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39has been completely sliced off.
0:52:39 > 0:52:45And finally, there's some fractures that appear to have occurred around the time of death.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50And here we have the first rib, and this rib has been fractured.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55These cut marks are consistent with sawing up and down, trying to open the chest cavity.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05The final moment of the human sacrifice ritual outside the temple
0:53:05 > 0:53:09saw the victim's heart being ripped out.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14So over and over again, this is what was happening
0:53:14 > 0:53:19outside the temple in the final days of this great civilisation.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29The priest approached the drugged victim with a ritual copper knife.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31One has been found at Tucume.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38This was the weapon of sacrifice.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49The most important thing in this ceremony was blood.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57We know from later chroniclers that the gods who controlled the
0:53:57 > 0:54:02world were seen as living beings and that human blood would nourish them.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47Finally, the victim's heart was hacked out.
0:54:56 > 0:54:57CRIES OUT
0:55:00 > 0:55:04But the sacrifice didn't stop the Spanish advance.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19It must have seemed as though the gods needed ever more blood.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23As the fear grew, the violence spiralled out of control.
0:55:25 > 0:55:31Tucume's leading archaeologist believes that in the last few days of the city's existence,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35the sacrifices must have been repeated day after day.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43TRANSLATION: And the only way that this chaos could be controlled
0:55:43 > 0:55:47was to offer an increasing number of human sacrifices.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53Probably in a very few days dozens of sacrifices were carried out simultaneously
0:55:53 > 0:55:57so that this state of crisis could in some way be controlled.
0:56:08 > 0:56:15Before the end of the Lambayeque civilisation, the bodies piled up outside the temple.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20But the mass of human sacrifices had failed to stop the Spanish.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24It must have seemed that once again the pyramids and the lords
0:56:24 > 0:56:29had failed to protect the people or bring the world back under control.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37The pyramids had lost their supernatural powers.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39They were tainted.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43And so the logic of the valley, the same logic that lay behind
0:56:43 > 0:56:47the building of the pyramids, dictated what happened next.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53The people who'd built the pyramids began to purge them.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Just before the end of the civilisation, the burning must have begun.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07They carefully set fire to the palaces on top of the pyramids.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14The temple was deliberately set alight.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21The cursed city had to be purified by flames.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35After Tucume's abandoned, that's it for pyramids.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37No more.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42The end of this pyramid-building tradition that you could trace back for maybe 3,000 years -
0:57:42 > 0:57:45it's over. That's it.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57TRANSLATION: After the city of Tucume was burnt,
0:57:57 > 0:57:59the city was completely abandoned.
0:57:59 > 0:58:05It's a mystery really as to where the people went after this event.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10The Lambayeque fled the city, hoping to start again,
0:58:10 > 0:58:13to build a new city of pyramids.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17But the Spanish ruled Peru now.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21There'd be no more pyramids, no more lords.
0:58:21 > 0:58:26The Lambayeque civilisation melted away into the valley.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:45 > 0:58:48E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk