Episode 2 The First Eden


Episode 2

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No-one knows why 15,000 years ago

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human beings painted the walls of caves in Spain and France

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with designs like these.

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Whatever reason they had to crawl into the inky blackness,

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lit only by tiny, flickering lamps,

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it surely could not have been just a trivial one.

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Almost all the animals represented are those that were hunted for food.

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So an obvious explanation is

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that painting was part of magic designed to bring success in hunting

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or to maintain the fertility of the herds.

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One thing is certain -

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the animal that dominates this cave in Lascaux

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is not the reindeer or the ibex or even the horse,

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but the great wild boar.

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In life, it stood over six feet at the shoulder

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and weighed about a ton.

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But these astonishing images

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are even bigger than life-size.

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Confronted by them, it's difficult not to believe

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that the artist regarded this animal

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with deep, almost religious awe. It must have been

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the most formidable and dangerous animal in the forest,

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the very embodiment of fertility and strength.

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These bulls, running wild in the Camargue in southern France,

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are descended from domesticated stock,

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but they give some idea of the formidable character

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of their truly wild ancestors,

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which were even bigger and surely just as aggressive.

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MEN SHOUTING AND WHOOPING

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COWBELLS CLANKING

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Around 10,000 years ago, somehow or another,

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men managed to tame the bull.

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The process started, doubtless,

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by rearing the calves of cows killed in the hunt,

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but even so, controlling animals of such strength and ferocity

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and keeping them penned in an enclosure in order not to lose them

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must have been very difficult and hazardous

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for people who had not yet tamed horses to help them do so.

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In the forest-covered mountains,

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they also found another animal they could tame.

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A wild sheep.

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This is the mouflon, probably the best living approximation

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that we have to that wild ancestor,

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which today lives in the remoter parts

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of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia.

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It's a very shy creature with extremely acute eyesight,

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so it's very difficult to approach.

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In spite of its timidity,

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it may have been relatively simple to tame.

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For one thing, it's a mountain animal,

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adapted to picking its way through difficult country,

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so it's built for agility rather than speed.

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Once caught, therefore, it's relatively easy to control.

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Easier than, say, an antelope.

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Furthermore, pasture in this kind of country

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is scattered and difficult to find,

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so the animals do not have small, permanent territories

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which they mark and defend, but wander about over a wide range.

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In consequence, they were ready to accept being moved

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if their human owners wanted to drive them to new pastures.

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And they have one further characteristic

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that must have helped early man to control them.

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The females and their young live together in a small permanent herd.

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The male is a solitary animal,

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and only visits the herd during the breeding season,

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when he leads or drives them and defends them against other rivals.

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Men simply took over his position of authority,

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and by 8,000 years ago,

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people were herding groups of tame sheep

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in many parts of the eastern Mediterranean.

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Wild pig also lived in the prehistoric forests of Europe,

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rootling around for acorns, nuts and roots, just as they do today.

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They were one of the favourite targets for the early hunters.

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Their young are striped, presumably for camouflage

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when for the week or so after they are born

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the mother leaves them in a nest in the undergrowth,

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and they must be virtually invisible

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if they're not to be taken by predators -

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wolves or bears - or men.

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They soon learn to follow their mother around

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as she searches for food, as they have to

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if they themselves are to get a meal.

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After about three months, they will stop suckling

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and then their stripes will fade.

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Pigs are far from being fussy feeders.

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They will tackle almost anything, animal or vegetable.

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These are seeing what they can find

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in the shrinking waters of a drying pond.

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Wild pigs must have scavenged for scraps

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around the hunting camps of early man,

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and doubtless they soon became accepted

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and were thrown regular food to induce them to stay,

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so that they could be killed and eaten when needed.

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9,000 years ago, the shores of the western Mediterranean

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were covered with forest,

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and the people lived in settlements of flimsy huts built in clearings.

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But at the eastern end of the sea, some cattle-owning tribes

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were developing a much more elaborate way of life

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in the grasslands of the Nile delta.

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Nonetheless, they still worshipped the bull.

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THUNDER CRASHING

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The bull god was sent to earth, they believed,

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into the womb of a mortal cow.

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He had a triangular mark on his forehead, double hairs on his tail,

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and the shape of a vulture with outstretched wings

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clasping his shoulders.

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The priests were responsible for finding this holy calf

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as soon as his predecessor died.

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Only one bull god could rule at a time.

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His name was Apis

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and his discovery was the cause for national rejoicing.

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Children born on that auspicious day

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might be given the name "Apis Is Found"

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to mark such a happy coincidence.

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Once he was identified,

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he was brought to the great temple at Memphis

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and kept in a stall quite near here.

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He was fed on special foods and regularly anointed,

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and on all great festivals and occasions

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he was led forth in front of the people

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with garlands around his neck and golden regalia between his horns.

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The people consulted him as an oracle.

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They would recite questions to him and interpret his answers

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as to whether he advanced or retreated.

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They would write questions on pieces of pottery

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and put them beside his path

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to see whether he veered towards them or away from them.

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And when he died, his great body was brought here

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to this immense mortuary table.

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It weighs about 50 tons,

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it was brought here from 250 miles upriver,

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and on each side it carries a lion,

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the guardian of the dead and the symbol of the resurrection.

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The body was then mummified,

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using exactly the same embalming techniques

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as were used for the bodies of the god kings, the pharaohs.

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After the removal of the viscera,

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scented embalming fluid was poured over the corpse,

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which drained through this runnel here,

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and were collected in this basin.

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For, having passed over the body of a god,

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they were very magical and precious.

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Then the body was wrapped in bandages

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and carried in procession to its last resting place.

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For over 1,000 years, the mummified bodies of the bulls

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were brought down here in these limestone galleries

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cut deep below ground.

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Once their walls were covered with tablets, like this one,

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erected by the priests or devotees or workers,

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as acts of devotion to the spirits of the bull gods.

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Preparations to receive the body of the bull

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had been going on for some time, perhaps as much as a year,

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perhaps even before the bull itself had died.

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A huge granite sarcophagus had been quarried upriver

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and brought down here on barges.

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This is just the lid of one

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that for some reason had been abandoned here.

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The main part of it lies deeper in these galleries.

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This huge block,

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although it's hollowed out inside and is without its lid,

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must weigh, nonetheless, between 60 and 70 tons.

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It was dragged here by the dozen or so masons who made it,

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and it would have taken them about four days

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to pull it all the way to its appointed vault.

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When the sarcophagus reached this position,

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this vault was full of sand.

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The sarcophagus was hauled across on top of it

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and then the sand removed from either side

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so that this huge block sank slowly to its final position.

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On its side are inscribed in hieroglyphs,

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"Apis, beloved of Osiris...

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"given...

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"all...life...

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"stability...

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"power...

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"and all joy...

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"..forever."

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Then the bull, in its wrappings and adornments, was placed inside,

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and this immense lid hauled across to seal it.

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But not forever.

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For, a century or so later, in Christian or Roman times,

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thieves came and pulled back this lid,

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and stripped the bull of all its golden finery.

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The falcon was also worshipped.

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Hovering aloft in the sky,

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ceaselessly scanning the earth beneath,

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and on occasion flying so high that it disappeared from sight,

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the people identified it with the sun

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and worshipped it as Horus, lord of the sky.

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It too had temples dedicated to it,

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where priests kept captive falcons and revered them as gods.

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As the centuries passed, these cults changed in character.

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Instead of choosing one representative bird,

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all birds of a particular species

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were believed to contain something of the god's spirit.

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So all falcons, for example, merited mummification.

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They lie here in Saqqara in immense stacks,

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each eviscerated, embalmed,

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and sealed in its own pottery sarcophagus.

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There are estimated to be 800,000 falcons here,

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and they're not only falcons, they're birds of prey of all kinds.

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Some of the bigger pots contain vultures,

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a bird that was sacred to the kingdom of Upper Egypt.

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But, above all, there are ibis.

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There are so many that it's impossible to believe

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that they all met a natural death,

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yet Herodotus the Greek historian was absolutely clear -

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even the accidental killing of a sacred ibis in ancient Egypt

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was a crime punishable by death.

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But the devotees of the ibis cult

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flocked to this temple in huge numbers,

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and each wanted to gain merit with the ibis god

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by presenting an embalmed bird

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and depositing it in these vaults.

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So it seems that the priests

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maintained a kind of ibis breeding station,

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a sort of sacred zoo on a lake near here.

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And then when devotees came, they were able to supply

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a bird ready-mummified and sealed, for a price.

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These galleries have not yet been fully explored,

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but it's estimated that, at very least,

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there are four million mummified ibis here,

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and the true number may be twice that.

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The ibis uses its long, curved bill

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to probe in mud and find its food.

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The Egyptians watching it do so in their fields

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interpreted its action as a continuous search for the truth,

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and so they regarded the bird

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as the incarnation of Thoth, the god of wisdom.

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We still call this handsome black and white species

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the sacred ibis, but it no longer lives in Egypt

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and has retreated to more southerly parts of Africa.

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The papyrus swamps that existed throughout the Nile delta

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were rich in wildlife of all kinds,

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and the Egyptians found in them a great source of delight and wonder.

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Certainly, they deified and worshipped

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many of the animals that they saw here.

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The hippopotamus with its swollen belly was Tawaret,

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the protector of pregnant women, who, if suitably propitiated,

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could make the trial of childbirth less difficult.

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The crocodile, not surprisingly, was the god of evil, Sobek.

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The cat, which had come to live alongside people in their houses,

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was also a suitable subject for mummification.

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It was an associate of the goddess of war, Pasht.

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There were lion gods and ram gods, hawk gods and goat gods.

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The images of them that stood in temples were given human bodies

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to show that they represented

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not ordinary animals but divine beings.

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But though the people saw divinity in all the creatures around them,

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that didn't stop them from handling and exploiting animals.

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Indeed, they were expert farmers.

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They handled wild animals with equal skill.

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Judging from carvings such as these,

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they kept several kinds of antelope in captivity,

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even though they never succeeded in domesticating them.

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And here they appear to be force-feeding hyenas.

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One of their favourite pastimes

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was to go hunting in the swamps of the delta.

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They used throwing-sticks to bring down flying ducks.

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And they caught fish with harpoons.

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As well as abundant wildlife, the Nile brought other treasure.

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Every year, hundreds of miles away upstream to the south,

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abundant rains fell.

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And so, every year, in a way that must have seemed almost magical

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to these people living here where there is no rain,

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the river rose between its banks,

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here and the upper part of its valley, by as much as 20 feet or so.

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And every year, a high official of the state would come

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and ceremonially break the banks

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to allow the waters to flow over the fields.

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They lay there for two months or so,

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and when the river began to fall again and the waters to retreat,

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they left behind what was perhaps

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the Nile's greatest treasure of all -

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a thick layer of rich, fertile mud.

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And so the people here were able to grow the plants

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that now are being domesticated

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all round the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

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Wheat and barley grew abundantly,

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and the people were able to plough and sow not only once

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but twice in a year.

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We know how they worked in the fields

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from the way in which they chose to be buried in their tombs.

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They believe that scenes painted on the tomb walls

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would be repeated in the afterlife.

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So the nobleman who once lay here

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chose to be surrounded in death

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by pictures of some of the most important and delightful times

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that he spent on earth,

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and that included cultivating the crops.

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The heads of grain were cut with sickles

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that initially were made of flint.

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Cattle, yoked together, pulled the wooden ploughs,

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and they too trod the grain

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to loosen the kernels from the seed heads.

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Winnowing, to get rid of the chaff,

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was done exactly as it is now.

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Away to the northwest, 400 miles across the Mediterranean,

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lay a scatter of islands.

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The nearest and biggest of them was Crete,

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itself 200 miles long.

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Tribes of people from the mainland on the other side of the sea,

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from Greece and Turkey,

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had reached Crete about 9,000 years ago,

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even before the Egyptians had begun building their cities.

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For a long time after their arrival here, however,

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the Cretans had lived simple lives in small hamlets of wooden huts,

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for their land was far less kind to them

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than the valley of the Nile was to the Egyptians.

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Here, there was no annual flood of fertile mud.

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The land was stony, the soil was thin,

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and when people first began to build the cities here,

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some 4,000 years ago,

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all this land was covered with forest,

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and in that forest grew trees like these.

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They are amongst the longest-living of Mediterranean trees,

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living for as long as 1,000 or 1,500 years.

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And they bear great wealth -

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their olives.

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The people, then as now,

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harvested them by beating the branches with sticks

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to knock down the ripened fruit.

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The olives were then crushed in mills,

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using not horses as they use today, but oxen.

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PEOPLE CHATTING IN GREEK

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The final squeezing of the pulp is done in a press,

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which extracts the last drops of this clear, precious oil.

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In ancient times, this oil was the main form of wealth on the island.

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By now, there were many cities in Crete,

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and people paid their taxes to the king in this oil.

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The most important of these cities

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stood near the north coast, at Knossos.

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The oil was stored in gigantic pots like these.

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420 of them stood in 18 long, narrow chambers like this one.

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So this, in effect, was the treasury

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of the palace and the state.

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It was used, of course, for cooking,

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just as it is today in this part of the world.

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But it was also used for lighting, being burnt in small, pottery lamps,

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of which hundreds have been found in ruins such as this one.

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And it had another use -

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purified and scented with crushed herbs,

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the people used it to anoint their bodies.

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That not only gave them a pleasant perfume,

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but it also helped in keeping themselves clean.

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After heavy exercise, they would take an instrument such as this

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and scrape away the oil,

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so carrying away the perspiration and the dirt.

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Not all these pots had oil in them.

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Others contained that other very precious liquid, wine.

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ANIMATED CHATTER

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In Crete today, as almost everywhere else

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that grapes are grown and wine made,

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happy parties are held to celebrate the harvest.

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While some drink, others, fortified and encouraged

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by the taste of last year's crop,

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tread the grapes to produce the juice for this year's vintage.

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ANIMATED CHATTER

0:25:140:25:17

The wild vine grew originally as a creeper

0:25:290:25:32

in the forests around the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

0:25:320:25:35

Somehow, people discovered very early

0:25:350:25:37

that it could be propagated with cuttings grafted onto root-stocks.

0:25:370:25:41

So if a man happened to find in the forest a vine

0:25:410:25:44

that produced particularly abundant, big or sweet grapes,

0:25:440:25:48

he could cut the stem and graft it onto a plant

0:25:480:25:51

that grew beside his house.

0:25:510:25:53

Over the years, this steady collection of selected vines

0:26:010:26:04

produced crops which had a high proportion

0:26:040:26:07

of large, elongated pips,

0:26:070:26:09

and from finding such evidence as that,

0:26:090:26:11

archaeologists deduce that the domestication of the vines

0:26:110:26:14

started around 8,000 years ago.

0:26:140:26:17

MEN CHATTING AND LAUGHING

0:26:170:26:20

There are many palaces in Crete,

0:26:280:26:30

some say over 100.

0:26:300:26:32

This one is at Phaestos on the southern coast,

0:26:320:26:35

and it was only a little less magnificent than that at Knossos.

0:26:350:26:39

They had upper storeys supported by long lines of wooden columns.

0:26:390:26:43

Inside, they were magnificently decorated with frescoes.

0:26:430:26:47

And all those that have been excavated so far

0:26:470:26:50

have one thing in common in their layout -

0:26:500:26:52

they are centred around one large, paved arena.

0:26:520:26:56

Here, many archaeologists believe,

0:26:580:27:00

was held the great ritual which dominated the lives of the people.

0:27:000:27:04

It was a blend of religious devotion,

0:27:040:27:07

athletic prowess and great bravery.

0:27:070:27:11

For these people, like the Egyptians before them,

0:27:110:27:14

worshipped the bull.

0:27:140:27:16

Young men would seize a charging bull by its horns,

0:27:220:27:25

somersault over its back and then land on their feet behind it.

0:27:250:27:29

CROWD CHATTERING BUGLE PLAYS FANFARE

0:27:300:27:32

CROWD JEERING AND WHISTLING

0:27:420:27:44

4,000 years later, in southern France,

0:27:470:27:50

men still taunt bulls.

0:27:500:27:53

CROWD JEERING AND WHISTLING

0:27:530:27:55

The bull carries a red rosette on its forehead

0:28:030:28:05

and white tassels on the points of its horns.

0:28:050:28:08

If the men, skilled athletes who specialise in this sport,

0:28:080:28:11

manage to snatch off a tassel or a rosette

0:28:110:28:14

they win considerable prizes,

0:28:140:28:16

and the crowd lays bets on who will do so.

0:28:160:28:19

There's real danger.

0:28:390:28:40

If the men are caught, they may be severely gored

0:28:400:28:43

and even tossed and killed.

0:28:430:28:45

CROWD CHEERING

0:28:560:28:58

BUGLE PLAYING FANFARE

0:29:020:29:04

After a carefully timed period of 15 minutes,

0:29:100:29:12

the bull is let out of the ring

0:29:120:29:14

and goes back to its pen, uninjured.

0:29:140:29:17

But it will return several times later in the season

0:29:170:29:19

to fight again in this extraordinary tournament.

0:29:190:29:22

The ancient Cretans were skilled fishermen.

0:29:250:29:28

They probably copied their ships from those of the Egyptians,

0:29:280:29:30

who had developed a technique

0:29:300:29:32

of sailing in the calm waters of the Nile.

0:29:320:29:34

But the Cretans ventured out into the rough and unpredictable open sea

0:29:340:29:38

and were greatly rewarded.

0:29:380:29:40

From deep water around their coasts,

0:29:460:29:48

they occasionally hauled up red coral.

0:29:480:29:51

They used it for jewellery and for trade.

0:29:510:29:54

Eventually, people as far away as central Asia

0:29:540:29:56

came to prize this extraordinary substance,

0:29:560:29:59

so like a stone, yet so unlike anything dug from the earth.

0:29:590:30:03

Cretan pots carried pictures

0:30:050:30:07

of the products the people specially valued.

0:30:070:30:10

At the bottom of this one, among the twigs of coral,

0:30:100:30:13

is a particularly precious sea snail.

0:30:130:30:16

This is murex.

0:30:200:30:22

At first sight, it looks very similar

0:30:220:30:25

to many other kinds of whelk-like molluscs

0:30:250:30:27

that crawl about on the sea floor.

0:30:270:30:29

But in its mantle it has a special gland

0:30:290:30:31

from which comes a substance that will dye fabric a rich purple.

0:30:310:30:35

Royal purple, it was called,

0:30:350:30:37

and for the next 1,000 years or so,

0:30:370:30:39

the murex was regarded throughout the Mediterranean lands

0:30:390:30:42

as one of the most valuable things to come from the sea.

0:30:420:30:45

Another creature they collected still entices men

0:30:520:30:55

to dive deep at the risk of their lives.

0:30:550:30:57

Holding a lead weight in one hand to keep him down,

0:31:180:31:21

with bursting lungs and seeing only blearily without goggles,

0:31:210:31:26

he's searching for sponges.

0:31:260:31:28

That's one.

0:31:320:31:34

Divers in Tunisia still work without face masks,

0:31:590:32:02

let alone any breathing equipment,

0:32:020:32:05

just as they once did in ancient times.

0:32:050:32:07

The length of time they can manage to stay below

0:32:120:32:16

is quite extraordinary.

0:32:160:32:17

He takes his breath...now.

0:32:180:32:22

And only now can he breathe again.

0:33:350:33:37

Octopus appear again and again on Cretan pots.

0:33:420:33:46

And they were, then as now,

0:33:460:33:47

one of the most favoured foods that the sea had to offer.

0:33:470:33:50

The method used for catching them has also not changed

0:34:020:34:05

since ancient times, nor does it need to.

0:34:050:34:08

It's simplicity itself

0:34:080:34:10

and requires nothing more than an earthenware pot.

0:34:100:34:13

The octopus likes to hide inside small dens on the sea floor,

0:34:250:34:30

and these pots apparently suit it so well, they are irresistible.

0:34:300:34:35

All the fisherman has to do is to return after a few hours

0:34:370:34:40

and haul up the pots.

0:34:400:34:42

The way to get an octopus out of the pot is also easy.

0:34:570:35:00

Pour in a little extra-salty water through a hole in the bottom

0:35:000:35:04

and out it comes.

0:35:040:35:06

The most valuable fish in the sea, then as now, is the tunny.

0:35:350:35:40

Every year in the early summer,

0:35:400:35:42

they swim in from the Atlantic to spawn.

0:35:420:35:44

They are immense, some as much as 12 feet long.

0:35:440:35:48

Because of the shape of the coastline

0:35:480:35:49

and the topography of the sea floor,

0:35:490:35:51

in some places they have to swim along

0:35:510:35:53

a restricted and predictable route,

0:35:530:35:56

and there, the people wait for them.

0:35:560:35:58

Nets hanging from floats

0:36:010:36:02

are stretched diagonally across the migration path

0:36:020:36:05

for as much as three miles.

0:36:050:36:07

The fish swim along the face of them, seeking a way past,

0:36:070:36:10

until they enter a corridor that not only has an end wall,

0:36:100:36:14

but a floor of netting.

0:36:140:36:16

Once they have started down it,

0:36:160:36:18

the fishermen pull up the end of the floor

0:36:180:36:20

and the tunny are trapped.

0:36:200:36:22

MEN SHOUTING

0:36:220:36:25

SHOUTING

0:36:340:36:36

The net is pulled in, forcing the fish closer to the surface.

0:37:140:37:18

As they thrash about in panic, the fish so exhaust themselves

0:37:210:37:25

that some are already close to death.

0:37:250:37:28

One single chamber may have trapped 100 of these giant fish,

0:38:550:38:59

30 tons of prime-quality meat.

0:38:590:39:02

When the last have been collected, the netting floor is dropped again

0:39:250:39:28

to wait for the next shoal, which may well arrive within a few hours.

0:39:280:39:33

The harvest of the Mediterranean has always been rich.

0:39:400:39:43

The Romans were particularly fond of fishing scenes

0:39:430:39:46

for the mosaics with which they decorated the floors

0:39:460:39:49

of their sumptuous villas.

0:39:490:39:51

And these give a good idea of the range of sea creatures

0:39:510:39:53

that they knew and relished.

0:39:530:39:56

Hunting, too, was a Roman passion.

0:40:010:40:05

Many of the animals they caught alive.

0:40:230:40:26

By the beginning of the first century AD,

0:40:310:40:33

the Romans had become the dominant nation in the Mediterranean,

0:40:330:40:37

ruling all the lands right round the sea.

0:40:370:40:40

And they ransacked their vast empire for animals,

0:40:400:40:43

the stranger and the more ferocious the better.

0:40:430:40:46

The fate of these creatures was to be transported to huge cities

0:41:010:41:06

that now stood in all parts of the empire,

0:41:060:41:08

and there to be taken to the arenas

0:41:080:41:11

that were the centres of mass entertainment.

0:41:110:41:13

This, one of the most perfectly preserved, is at El Jem in Tunisia.

0:41:160:41:20

The Roman public's thirst for blood

0:41:240:41:26

and pleasure in witnessing pain

0:41:260:41:28

seems to have been unquenchable and without limit.

0:41:280:41:32

The caged animals were kept in dungeons below the main arena.

0:41:320:41:36

When this place was in use, timbers were laid across

0:41:360:41:39

to roof this underground passage.

0:41:390:41:41

And when the day of the spectacle came,

0:41:410:41:43

30,000 people were packed into the terraces.

0:41:430:41:47

And then, to the sound of blaring trumpets and roars from the crowd,

0:41:470:41:52

the terrified animals in their cages were hoisted up from this pit.

0:41:520:41:57

And not only animals - human beings, too.

0:41:570:41:59

Criminals, slaves and prisoners of war.

0:41:590:42:02

And here in this arena, they were set one upon the other,

0:42:020:42:06

to provide the crowd with spectacles of the most appalling carnage.

0:42:060:42:10

CROWD CHEERING

0:42:100:42:12

ANIMALS ROARING

0:42:130:42:15

APPLAUSE

0:42:360:42:38

It still continues in Spain -

0:42:480:42:51

even sometimes in the very arenas built by the Romans.

0:42:510:42:56

The Romans built huge cities

0:43:050:43:07

all around the shores of the Mediterranean.

0:43:070:43:09

Here at Ephesus, in what is now Turkey,

0:43:090:43:12

they took over a Greek town around a great religious centre

0:43:120:43:15

sacred to the goddess of fertility and nature, Artemis.

0:43:150:43:18

Her temple here was so rich and splendid,

0:43:200:43:22

it was listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

0:43:220:43:25

Roman copies in marble of the wooden statue

0:43:280:43:30

that once stood in her temple still survive.

0:43:300:43:34

And very strange they are too.

0:43:350:43:37

Heads of bulls are clustered around her ankles.

0:43:400:43:43

Above them are lionesses,

0:43:430:43:46

mythical winged creatures like griffins,

0:43:460:43:50

and then the heads of lions.

0:43:500:43:52

For she had all nature, tame and wild, in her charge.

0:43:520:43:55

The strange objects above them

0:43:570:44:00

were for a long time thought to be multiple breasts,

0:44:000:44:04

a kind of expression of her huge fertility,

0:44:040:44:07

in spite of the fact that they aren't shaped like breasts,

0:44:070:44:10

they don't have nipples, they are so low down on her body

0:44:100:44:13

and there are so many of them.

0:44:130:44:15

But recently we've learnt more about the cult of Artemis.

0:44:150:44:20

Excavations at Ephesus in her shrine

0:44:200:44:22

have revealed a great number of skeletons of bulls.

0:44:220:44:27

It seems that they were not only sacrificed in her honour,

0:44:270:44:30

but castrated. And, as part of the ritual, her image was hung

0:44:300:44:35

with the parts of their body that were the very source

0:44:350:44:38

of their power and fertility -

0:44:380:44:40

their testicles.

0:44:400:44:42

People were now travelling widely around the sea,

0:44:450:44:48

protected by the peace imposed by Roman rule,

0:44:480:44:50

and religious ideas were spreading.

0:44:500:44:53

Visitors to Ephesus might well have carried bull worship

0:44:530:44:56

back to western Europe, if indeed the practice of it,

0:44:560:44:59

once so strong in earlier times, had ever ceased.

0:44:590:45:03

During the first century BC,

0:45:030:45:06

a bull cult appeared in Rome itself

0:45:060:45:09

and was soon spreading all over the empire.

0:45:090:45:12

In underground temples like this one near Rome,

0:45:120:45:15

devotees gathered to worship this god, Mithras.

0:45:150:45:19

The legend of Mithras originated, like that of Artemis,

0:45:190:45:23

in the eastern Mediterranean,

0:45:230:45:25

and it told how the god fought a great bull,

0:45:250:45:29

stabbing it in the throat

0:45:290:45:30

so that its blood gushed onto the earth, giving life to the animals,

0:45:300:45:35

here represented by the snake and the dog

0:45:350:45:38

which are lapping up the blood.

0:45:380:45:39

So the bull is still seen as the source of all life,

0:45:400:45:44

but now it requires a god in human form to release its fertility.

0:45:440:45:49

At this time, Rome was at the height of her power,

0:45:510:45:54

her empire extending across the Mediterranean

0:45:540:45:57

to the North African shore.

0:45:570:45:59

And here there were some 600 great cities,

0:45:590:46:01

the biggest of all being this, Leptis Magna,

0:46:010:46:04

with a population of around 100,000 people.

0:46:040:46:07

And in the first year of the Christian era, AD 1,

0:46:070:46:11

one of the wealthiest of them, a man by the name of Annobal Rufus,

0:46:110:46:15

built for the benefit of the citizens,

0:46:150:46:17

and doubtless for his own greater glory,

0:46:170:46:19

this splendid theatre which could accommodate 7,000 spectators.

0:46:190:46:23

Here, pantomimes and ballets were performed.

0:46:260:46:29

Elaborate scenery was set on the stage,

0:46:290:46:31

and screens of canvas stretched between sticks

0:46:310:46:35

were raised in front of the stage to allow settings to be changed.

0:46:350:46:38

There was a magnificent basilica

0:46:380:46:41

and huge municipal baths.

0:46:410:46:43

In the city centre stood a splendid marketplace

0:46:480:46:51

with marble colonnades

0:46:510:46:52

adorned with statues of distinguished citizens.

0:46:520:46:55

This city in Libya, in fact,

0:46:550:46:57

was one of the wealthiest in the whole of the empire.

0:46:570:47:00

That wealth was based directly on the land.

0:47:030:47:06

Into this marketplace flooded produce of all kinds -

0:47:060:47:09

figs and pomegranates, chicken and sheep,

0:47:090:47:12

and this stone was used for measuring olive oil -

0:47:120:47:15

pouring the oil in at the top

0:47:150:47:18

and collecting it by removing the bung at the bottom,

0:47:180:47:21

so forming a standard unit.

0:47:210:47:23

But above all, there was grain.

0:47:230:47:26

Pliny, the Roman historian, said that the land here was so rich

0:47:260:47:29

that if you planted one grain of wheat,

0:47:290:47:32

from it would sprout a stem carrying 150 grains.

0:47:320:47:36

By the end of the first century AD, North Africa was producing

0:47:360:47:40

half a million tons of grain every year

0:47:400:47:43

and supplying the densely populated city of Rome,

0:47:430:47:46

which had long since outstripped its own resources,

0:47:460:47:49

with two-thirds of its wheat.

0:47:490:47:51

The southern shores of the Mediterranean, in fact,

0:47:540:47:57

were among the most fertile territories

0:47:570:47:59

in the whole of the Roman Empire.

0:47:590:48:01

Their produce was brought to the great ports like this one at Leptis.

0:48:020:48:07

Then, the sea lapped this jetty,

0:48:070:48:10

and alongside it were moored the great ships.

0:48:100:48:13

Onto to them were loaded hundreds of tons of wheat,

0:48:130:48:16

thousands of gallons of olive oil,

0:48:160:48:18

ivory for the craftsmen of the imperial city,

0:48:180:48:21

caged wild beasts such as lions and leopards and rhinoceroses

0:48:210:48:25

to be tormented and put to death in the arenas of the empire.

0:48:250:48:28

And yet today the harbour is silted up,

0:48:300:48:33

most of the city lies buried beneath sand dunes

0:48:330:48:37

and the land has become a desert.

0:48:370:48:39

As the population had grown and more people wanted more fields,

0:48:400:48:44

so more of the forest that once stood around the city was cut down

0:48:440:48:48

until, eventually, it was all gone.

0:48:480:48:50

With no roots to hold the soil and no attempt to conserve it,

0:48:500:48:54

it was carried away by the wind and the rain.

0:48:540:48:57

And this is where it went.

0:48:570:48:59

In bays all around the eastern Mediterranean,

0:49:040:49:07

the sea is separated from the hills inland

0:49:070:49:10

by strips of flat marshy land like this, made up of the soil

0:49:100:49:14

that once clothed the rocks of the hills beyond.

0:49:140:49:17

All this was deposited during the last 2,000 years,

0:49:180:49:22

for this is the marsh that now separates the sea

0:49:220:49:25

from the city of Ephesus.

0:49:250:49:27

These ruined buildings mark the edge of the quay

0:49:290:49:32

where once merchant ships lay moored.

0:49:320:49:35

As the harbour died, so did the trade

0:49:350:49:37

on which the city's wealth was based,

0:49:370:49:40

and so, ultimately, did Ephesus itself.

0:49:400:49:43

What was once one of the most splendid cities of the Roman Empire

0:49:430:49:47

fell into decay and was abandoned.

0:49:470:49:50

The city was approaching the height of its wealth and prosperity

0:50:090:50:13

when, in the year 53 AD,

0:50:130:50:16

St Paul settled here.

0:50:160:50:18

Not only was there great wealth coming from the port,

0:50:180:50:21

even though the harbour was rapidly silting up,

0:50:210:50:24

but every year thousands of devotees came here

0:50:240:50:27

to worship at the ancient shrine of Artemis of Ephesus,

0:50:270:50:31

the goddess of fertility.

0:50:310:50:33

But St Paul's message of Christianity

0:50:330:50:36

began to strike at that trade.

0:50:360:50:38

The silversmiths who made images of the goddess

0:50:380:50:41

for sale to the pilgrims complained that it was ruining their trade,

0:50:410:50:45

and eventually they organised a riot right here in this very theatre.

0:50:450:50:50

Two of Paul's companions were badly beaten up,

0:50:500:50:54

and although the authorities eventually managed to restore order,

0:50:540:50:57

the situation remained so tense that Paul had to leave.

0:50:570:51:02

But in truth, it was the Ephesians themselves

0:51:020:51:05

who were flouting the principles of fertility

0:51:050:51:09

by what they were doing to the land around their city.

0:51:090:51:12

It used to be said that in places like this,

0:51:130:51:16

nature eventually failed to support man.

0:51:160:51:20

The truth is exactly the reverse -

0:51:200:51:23

here, man failed to support nature.

0:51:230:51:26

10,000 years ago, man regarded the natural world as divine.

0:51:270:51:31

But as he domesticated animals and plants,

0:51:310:51:34

so nature lost something of its mystery

0:51:340:51:36

and seemed to be little more than a larder

0:51:360:51:39

that could be raided with impunity.

0:51:390:51:41

The bull, once the most important of the gods, was dethroned.

0:51:410:51:46

So today, castrated and subdued,

0:51:460:51:49

it works out its days in harness

0:51:490:51:52

as man's patient slave.

0:51:520:51:54

But at the other end of the Mediterranean,

0:51:540:51:56

the sun was just a little less harsh,

0:51:560:51:59

the rainfall a little more generous,

0:51:590:52:01

and so there, nature is able a little better

0:52:010:52:04

to withstand man's assaults.

0:52:040:52:06

And so, over the next few centuries,

0:52:060:52:09

the centres of human power and population

0:52:090:52:12

slowly moved to the other end of the sea.

0:52:120:52:15

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