WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:03.759 Welcome missus Marcia a Radio Eye. To day, I will 2 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:08.279 be reading National Geographic magazine dated May twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:12.240 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:15.199 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.600 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:22.519 printed material. Please join me now for the continuation of 7 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:27.640 the article I began last time, entitled Rediscovering the Ancient 8 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:34.200 Empire that History Forgot. This article is by Andrew Currie, 9 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.240 inscribed on tablets of silver with copies made in clay. 10 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:44.200 The twelve fifty nine b c Accord promised mutual assistance 11 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:47.719 against invaders and a good piece and a good fraternity 12 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:50.759 between the Land of Egypt and the Land of Hati forever. 13 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.600 The agreement marked a pivotal shift in the annals of 14 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:58.399 state craft. Up until that moment, the rule was winner 15 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.000 take all. Peace treaties were the winner, dictating to the losers, 16 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:08.400 Shakner pointed out the Hittites and the Egyptians decided not 17 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:11.879 to continue that way. The Treaty of Kadesh describes the 18 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:15.239 two rulers as equals and peace as an end in itself. 19 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:19.200 It's the beginning of modern diplomacy, one reason. A copy 20 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:21.879 of the agreement hangs at the United Nations Headquarters in 21 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:26.159 New York City. A fragmented clay original found at Hitusha 22 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.599 in nineteen o six is on display at the Istanbul 23 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:34.879 Airport Museum. Diplomacy and religion were crucial tools for the Hittites, 24 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:37.280 who referred to their empire as the land of a 25 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:40.640 thousand Gods. When they conquered or took control of a 26 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:44.840 group of people, they permitted the subject subjugated to keep 27 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.920 their religious practices. Rather than wiping out local deities, they 28 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:53.040 folded them into the Hittite empire and pantheon. Holy statues 29 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.799 from temples thought to embody the gods themselves were transported 30 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:00.719 to Hittusha's temple district and worshiped there the way they 31 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:04.840 were at home. Temple archives record the problems with this approach, 32 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.960 like God's who didn't speak Hittite. In one example, after 33 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.439 a new god was brought from the island of Lesbo's, 34 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:14.400 Hittites realized that no one knew how to talk to it. 35 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:18.120 A sheep was sacrificed and its innards were examined to 36 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:22.319 determine if the new God could accept being worshiped Hittite's style. Yes, 37 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:25.879 was the answer discerned in the sheep's intestines. They didn't 38 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:31.039 want to anchor the gods. Villemin while, a hittitologist at 39 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:34.080 Leiden University in the Netherlands told me, but at the 40 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.759 same time, they're very pragmatic. It's kind of adorable. Was 41 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.599 also a key to their success. They were able to 42 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:44.479 bring people together not by brutal despotism, but by persuasion, 43 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:49.080 using religion and beliefs. Schachner said, that is unique. That 44 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.280 is what makes them so special. What we know about 45 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:56.319 the Hittites is, by the standards of ancient history, incredibly new. 46 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:01.039 Hittite writing wasn't unlocked until nineteen fifteen, when a linguist 47 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:06.479 in Prague named Bedrich Kirozhni realized that the unearthed tablets 48 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:10.120 were written in an Indo European language, the earliest known 49 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:13.400 example of a family that today includes everything from English 50 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:17.280 to Sanskrit. Over the past century, more than thirty thousand 51 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:20.840 remnants of clay tablets have been recovered from Hatusha and 52 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:25.199 other Hittite cities. More are found every year. That constant 53 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:28.639 flow of brand new information makes histitology one of the 54 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:33.360 most dynamic, fast moving fields of ancient history. Late one afternoon, 55 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:38.159 I found Daniel Schwemer, a researcher from Germany's University of Wurtzburg, 56 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.960 seated at a table in the German Archaeological Institute's dig 57 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.000 house in vojas Kala, the village next to Hittusha's ruins. 58 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:50.719 Schwemer is part of a small community of scholars who 59 00:03:50.759 --> 00:03:55.520 specialized in reading and translating Hittite texts. Every autumny comes 60 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:00.120 to Hatusha to see what's been found during the summer's excavations. 61 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.680 Like unpacking Christmas presents, Schemer said, you really never know 62 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:06.840 what you'll get. Each new find has the potential to 63 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.080 change what we know about Bronze Age empires. It's an 64 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.240 area where history is still in the process of being written. 65 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:17.680 Schemer said. Documents are coming out of the ground nobody 66 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.959 has seen for thousands of years. Of course, answers to 67 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:24.519 a question that the heart of Hittite research remain elusive. 68 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:28.279 What happened to them? Theories abound, from political unrest to 69 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:32.240 climate change, but a lone explanation seems unlikely to be found. 70 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:36.480 There's no single reason why such a complex society disintegrates 71 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:42.199 and completely disappears from history. Schachner said instead, a perfect 72 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:46.160 storm of factors probably pushed Hittites to the limits and 73 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:51.040 then beyond. Raiders were a constant threat. For example, tribes 74 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:54.519 known as the Kaska living along the Black Sea coast 75 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.199 show up in tablets, destroying temples and desecrating statues before 76 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:02.160 dividing up the the priests, the holy priests, the priestesses, 77 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.480 the anointed ones, the musicians, the singers, the cooks, the bakers, 78 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:10.360 the plowmen, and the gardeners and making them their servants. 79 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:14.199 Natural disasters, too, strained the Hittite empire from time to time. 80 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:20.160 Recent finds from a site called Stepaneuva suggest powerful earthquakes 81 00:05:20.199 --> 00:05:24.560 regularly rock the Hittite heartland about forty miles northeast of 82 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:29.199 Hatusha at the shop of Nuva's Palace and Tempel complex, 83 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:34.399 excavations rebuilt walls and floors that rippled like waves. Archaeologists 84 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:38.120 discovered buildings and storehouses consumed in a huge fire, all 85 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:41.120 clues the city was hit by a devastating quake. The 86 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:45.600 Hittite successfully handled these and different challenges for years until 87 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:49.480 suddenly they didn't. By about twelve fifty BC, the tablets 88 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.839 begin to show the strains of the empire's final century. 89 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:58.959 Pallas Infighting and royal assassination attempts grew rampant, making it 90 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:02.680 hard for Hatusha's leaders to maintain control over their subjects. 91 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:07.319 Epidemic diseases were a problem too. The tablets contained prayers 92 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.079 to ward off plagues and changes in language and writing styles. 93 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:15.000 In the empire's final decades, navy signs of social strife 94 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:20.680 or upheaval signs their multi ethnic state was under strain. 95 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:24.319 The latest findings suggest climate change in a series of 96 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:29.240 natural disasters helped accelerate the empire's decline. In a twenty 97 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:34.240 twenty three study, researchers analyzed preserved wood recovered from Gordian, 98 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:38.079 a city on the western outskirts of the Hittite Empire. 99 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.240 By measuring tree rings, they could tell nearby forests were 100 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:45.759 unusually stressed between eleven ninety eight and eleven ninety six BC, 101 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.600 evidence of a punishing three year drought right around the 102 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.160 time the Hittite Empire was ented. The drought may have 103 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:58.920 sparked famine. Archaeologists found empty grain depots at Hititusha, Chapineuva, 104 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:03.279 and other abandoned Hittite cities. Letters reflect the desperation of 105 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:07.160 Hittite kings who begged foreign leaders to send barley and 106 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:10.199 wheat as a matter of life and death, and invaders 107 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:14.839 referred to as sea peoples in Egyptian chronicles, caused chaos 108 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:19.000 that rippled all across the Mediterranean, weakening all alliances and 109 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:22.600 prompting mass migrations. That was the salt and pepper on 110 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:26.360 the Dish, says Ginch. Around eleven eighty b C. The 111 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:30.279 Hittites methodically abandoned their capital. There are no signs of 112 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:35.519 battle or conquest, no mass graves, no toppled towers or buildings, temples, 113 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:39.160 storehouses full of gold and silver vessels, gilded spears, and 114 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:45.120 booty from successful military campaigns elaborately described in festival instructions 115 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:49.040 and inventory lists but missing today must have been packed 116 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:54.240 up and evacuated. Afterward, the city burned, but in a 117 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:58.600 final irony, the flames that destroyed Hatusha preserved its history, 118 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:02.680 Too heavy to move from their archives, thousands of clay 119 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:06.000 tablets the Hittites amassed over the course of roughly four 120 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:10.519 centuries were left behind. Fire baked them into hard bricks, 121 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:14.959 helping them survive the ensuing centuries intact. The advantage for 122 00:08:15.079 --> 00:08:17.639 us is that all these clay tablets were left behind 123 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:21.800 when everyone fled the capital. Schemer said, what remained was 124 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:26.759 the paperwork. Until a tablet emerges inscribed with an account 125 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:30.879 of Fatucia's last days, the mystery abides. The Hittites managed 126 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:33.639 to adapt to a harsh environment and grow into a 127 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.519 mighty empire despite their surroundings, until circumstances beyond their control 128 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.720 upset their delicate balancing act. The Hittites collapse and their 129 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:46.279 recent rediscovery as a testament to the importance of resilience 130 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:51.080 and good record keeping. Hittites clash with Egypt twelve seventy 131 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:54.759 four BC, turning point at Kadesh, a century before the 132 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:58.440 Hittite Empire vanished, its forces fought the Egyptians in what 133 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:01.759 is believed to be history's biggest East chariot battle. It 134 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:05.000 ended in a draw. Fifteen years after the conflict, the 135 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:08.480 empires settled their differences with one of the world's oldest 136 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:12.320 known peace treaties rivals of the Hittites in the early 137 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:16.000 thirteenth century BC. The Hittite Empire was just one of 138 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.679 the mighty powers that arose in the fertile lands of 139 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:23.720 the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. Ancient records show that while 140 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:27.279 they were connected through regular diplomacy and trade, each had 141 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:31.279 its own distinct language and culture. City of the Gods. Today, 142 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.360 some thirty three hundred years after the peak of the 143 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:37.200 Hittite Empire, the realms grandeur can be clipsed in the 144 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:41.600 ruins of the capital Atusha, an ancient stronghold dotted with 145 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:46.759 temples that honored a litany of deities. The capital's Great Temple, 146 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:50.559 Hittite social, political, and religious life centered on its temples. 147 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:55.879 Annual festivals, and Hittusha's impressive architecture projected power and promoted 148 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:00.879 a common culture emanating from the empire's corp Next, how 149 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:05.399 visiting the Titanic got a lot simpler by Canille Bromley. 150 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:09.440 Fresh advances in three D scanning technology are making it 151 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.080 possible to explore some of the hardest to reach in 152 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:17.159 most fragile sites on Earth. Last year, Parks Stevenson stood 153 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.200 next to the Titanic and walked slowly around it, gazing 154 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:22.919 up at the massive ship. He paused to look inside 155 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:25.159 one of the boiler rooms and at the position of 156 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.120 the controls on the engines. He noticed the number four 157 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.559 O one the ship's id, etched on the propeller blades. 158 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:36.200 Rusticles hung from the steel shell, Twisted metal and personal 159 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:40.320 trinkets from those long dead littered the ground. Stevenson, a 160 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:45.039 retired naval officer and Titanic historian, wasn't twelve thousand, five 161 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.200 hundred feet below the surface of the North Atlantic, of course. 162 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:52.200 He was in London inspecting the ship's digital Twin, a 163 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.519 one for one computer model made possible by advances in 164 00:10:55.639 --> 00:11:00.120 remote three D scanning and mapping technology. The model is 165 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:03.279 so densely detailed a video rendering of it can be 166 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:06.799 projected to life size in a warehouse where researchers can 167 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:10.879 walk alongside it and zoom in and out on individual features, 168 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:14.840 like a steam valve from the boiler room, which the 169 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:18.480 scan revealed was left open, possibly to keep an emergency 170 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:23.120 generator running as the ship sank. The Titanic Twin adds 171 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.679 to a growing list of similar models made of archaeological 172 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:30.039 and cultural sites around the world that both preserve these 173 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:34.120 fragile places and provide a new means of exploring them. 174 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:37.480 Stevenson has seen the actual Titanic wreck twice since his 175 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:40.200 first dive in two thousand and five, but he didn't 176 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:43.240 catch so many details on his trips. You can only 177 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.720 see what's immediately in front of you, he says, of 178 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:51.159 peering through a submersibles roughly six inch viewport and camera views. 179 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:53.080 It's like being in a dark room and you have 180 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:56.919 a flashlight that's not very powerful. The digital twin, on 181 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.360 the other hand, gave him an unobstructed three one hundred 182 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:03.919 and sixty degree view of every gnarled, nook and cranny. 183 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.519 The scan at the storage ship was carried out over 184 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:09.960 three weeks in twenty twenty two by Magellan, a deep 185 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.120 sea mapping company based in the Channel Islands. Titanic the 186 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:20.039 Digital Resurrection, a new national geographic documentary streaming on Disney Plus, 187 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.720 tells the story of the effort. It is the largest 188 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:27.200 underwater three D scan ever made, amounting to sixteen terabytes 189 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:30.639 of data equivalent to the hard drive footprint of six 190 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:35.440 million E books. To create it, two remote operated robots 191 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.120 romantically named Romeo and Juliet traveled down to the wreck 192 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:43.360 and systematically canvassed the site, taking some seven hundred fifteen 193 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:47.840 thousand photos and millions of laser measurements. For Stevenson, the 194 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.559 quality of detail in the scan opens new lines of 195 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:54.360 inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic. The ship lies 196 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.360 broken in two pieces, with a bow and stern about 197 00:12:57.399 --> 00:13:00.759 twenty six hundred feet apart. The hull descended in a 198 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:04.240 straight line and as largely still intact, the scan shows 199 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:07.440 it neatly wedged into the ocean floor. The stern, on 200 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:10.440 the other hand, is shattered, and researchers have never been 201 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:15.440 able to definitively say how that happened. When Stephenson looked 202 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.320 at the scan, though, he could immediately envision the back 203 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.480 half of the ship's spiraling as it sank and disintegrated 204 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:26.120 into rubble. At a first glance, he says, it just 205 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:29.519 made sense. In the past, a full grand scale of 206 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:33.240 the wreck could be depicted only through artistic renditions or 207 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:40.240 photomosaics created by humans. Neither method conveyed conveyed precise verisimilitude. 208 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:44.000 The machine run three D model, however, is exact. As 209 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:47.519 soon as I saw the Titanic digital twid images, Stevenson says, 210 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:51.240 I could tell number one, I'd never seen Titanic like 211 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:55.080 this before, and number two it felt right. The quest 212 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.480 to create exact models for more accessible surveying started over 213 00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:02.879 a century ago. The technology that makes digital twinning possible 214 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:05.919 dates back to at least eighteen fifty eight, when a 215 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:11.120 German engineer named Albrech Maidenbauer was tasked with surveying a 216 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:14.879 church and nearly fell to his death while measuring the facade. 217 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:17.519 To avoid another dangerous climb, he worked out a way 218 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:22.279 to mathematically calculate the measurements of large objects from photos, 219 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:27.720 a technique he called photo grammatry. Today, photo grammatry, combined 220 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:31.519 with lidar, which uses lasers to measure distances, as well 221 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:36.240 as advanced computing power, produces models that can accurately replicate 222 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:39.840 the most minute details of enormous structures like Mount Rushmore 223 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:45.480 or the esthetic proportions of Mclangelo's David. The Italian Renaissance 224 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:48.279 master's sculpture was one of the first major artifacts to 225 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:53.200 be digitally modeled in two thousand by Stanford University. Though 226 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:57.120 not as massive as the Titanic, the statue's relatively large 227 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:01.039 size seventeen feet tall and twelve thousand, a hundred pounds 228 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.120 and finely chiseled details make it a good test for 229 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:08.240 how accurately three D technology might reproduce objects on a 230 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:11.240 grand scale to day. The tech is so precise that 231 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:14.240 in twenty twenty a team at the University of Florence 232 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:18.120 produced a three D printed copy accurate down to David's 233 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:23.039 resolute expression and every defect of the original stone. People 234 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:26.600 travel to see masterpieces of human creativity because they want 235 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:29.919 to feel the presence of something awesome or genius, but 236 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:34.480 too much of our presence can destroy places that are irreplaceable. 237 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:38.440 Hundreds have visited the Titanic, most of them at enormous expense, 238 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:43.679 including five on the ill fated titan submersible. These explorers 239 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:46.720 are the source of significant damage suffered by the wreck. 240 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:51.120 Human piloted submersibles have in it burdenly, stripped a mast 241 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:56.279 and gashed the bow. Beyond tourism, sites may be unpredictably 242 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:01.120 damaged by natural disasters, climate change, or war. In twenty nineteen, 243 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:07.360 three D documentation company si ARC created models of Nigeria's 244 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:13.399 ousen Osogbo Sacred Grove just before the sculpture laden forest 245 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:18.600 shrines were destroyed in a flood. Chance Kaufner, a program 246 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.039 manager for Google Arts and Culture, which supported si ARC 247 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:26.080 in these efforts, and hosts these models online hopes the 248 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:30.919 shrines can be rebuilt from the scans. Kaufnauer's group supported 249 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:35.000 similar efforts to create digital twins of a cathedral and 250 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.799 a historic government landmark in Ukraine that are now damaged 251 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:42.639 by the war. On an even grander scale, digital twins 252 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:45.559 can be made of not only buildings, statues, and shipwrecks, 253 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:49.960 but also entire cities, living or dead. Alison Emerson, and 254 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.840 archaeologist at Tulane University, is making a digital twin of 255 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:57.639 parts of Pompeii, a famously fragile site where she spent 256 00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:01.759 the past sixteen years digging through layers of soil to 257 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:06.440 uncover the city's earliest history. Emerson says digital twinning is 258 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:11.319 the biggest leap forward for archaeology since photography our process 259 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.240 is inherently destructive. She says, of excavating a site, we 260 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:17.960 can never redo it. We can dig the site once, 261 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:21.240 and so the focus in modern archaeology has been on 262 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:26.119 recording as well as we possibly can. Her team's twin 263 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:30.960 of a block in the southeast of the city was 264 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.000 made with just a few hand held cameras. The model 265 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.400 allows them to visualize the site with the walls of 266 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.200 a room taken away, or a roof added, or how 267 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:42.200 the land looked before the building was constructed. They can 268 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:44.480 call up the model back in the lab and continue 269 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:48.759 conversations that previously would happen only in the field. Emerson's 270 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.440 work has revealed how one building at the site was 271 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:54.680 both a restaurant and a workshop for people manufactured read 272 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:58.359 baskets and mats, details that help her understand the city's 273 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:02.240 economy and the daily life of its working class. For 274 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:05.119 her part, Emerson plans to make her model of POMPEII 275 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:09.240 and the coompanying findings available to the public, avoiding a 276 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:14.000 common outcome for these projects. Because digital twins are expensive 277 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:18.799 to create, many ambitious projects end uplocked way in the 278 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.319 private archives of universities or governments. I did not want 279 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.079 the model to live on a team member's laptop, she says. 280 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:29.160 While Magellan has not announced any plans to make its 281 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.920 Titanic scans free to the public, the documentary itself shows 282 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.359 what's possible. Much of the existing research on the shipwreck 283 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.799 has been conducted by private expeditions that guard bindings, an 284 00:18:40.839 --> 00:18:45.240 ongoing source of concern for scientists and citizen enthusiasts. Alike, 285 00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:49.319 Stevenson remains concerned the wreck is not being treated as 286 00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:52.599 an archaeological site. It's one of the most famous sites 287 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:54.920 in the world, and we don't even have the basic 288 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:00.680 baseline information needed to establish what's there at any particulegular time, 289 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:04.480 because you've had different explorers who don't share information. He says, 290 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.319 the digital twin has the potential to allow more visitors 291 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:13.640 to experience it in a less destructive and more collaborative way. 292 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:17.559 It's unlikely people will stop going to the Titanic wreck site. 293 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.680 Its draw has proven irresistible for those with enough money 294 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.519 and motivation. In two thousand and one, for example, a 295 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:27.680 couple exchanged vows crouched in a submersible perched on the bow. 296 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.119 A digital twin certainly doesn't replace sitting on the deck 297 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:35.480 of the Titanic, says Robert Ballard, an oceanographer and National 298 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:39.720 Geographic Explorer who discovered the wreck in nineteen eighty five 299 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:42.960 along with Jean Louis Michael, but he thinks it will 300 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:46.400 help preserve the wreck for those who cannot resist going themselves. 301 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:49.799 He offers two warnings, don't touch it, don't get married 302 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:55.960 on it. Next Australia's Great Big Camel Conundrum by Sean Williams. 303 00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:59.599 Imported from the Middle East and Asia in the nineteenth century, 304 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:04.039 caials now thrive in Australia's air and out back, but 305 00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:07.279 drought and climate change are raising tough questions about whether 306 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:13.799 they belong. Jack Carmody has built a sizeable YouTube following 307 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:16.200 by showing his viewers what it takes to run a 308 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:19.599 cattle station in the Australian outback. The rugged work of 309 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:25.240 mending troughs, reinforcing fences and shooting trespassers feral horses and donkeys, 310 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:31.160 that is, and one particularly destructive invasive species, camels, introduced 311 00:20:31.160 --> 00:20:34.359 in the nineteenth century to help colonists survey the country's 312 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:37.880 vast interior. The creatures are now wrecking havoc across the 313 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:42.640 outback and decimating the Carmody family's ranch property, or what 314 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:46.559 Australians call a cattle station. At more than fifteen hundred 315 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:49.960 square miles, the property Prenty Downs is the size of 316 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:52.440 Rhode Island. So there's plenty of work to be done, 317 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:55.440 and in this modern Internet age, there's plenty of content 318 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:59.599 to be created on Carbony's channel, Jack out the Back 319 00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:03.319 no videos are more popular than those focused on in 320 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:06.440 Spite against the camels, which the straight talking father of 321 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:10.039 three culls with his rifle, taking out nearly eight hundred 322 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.200 each year. The approach might seem alarming, but to Carmody 323 00:21:13.240 --> 00:21:16.400 and other cattle farmers, it's simply the most rational solution 324 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.119 to a dire problem, like weeding the veggie patch, as 325 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.680 he puts it, and in a twist that is perhaps 326 00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:26.039 good for YouTube and bad for cattle farming, the camels, 327 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:30.079 like stubborn weeds, keep coming back. Australia is now home 328 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:34.559 to the large world's largest feral camel population, with estimates 329 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:37.359 from several hundred thousand to as many as a million. 330 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:40.759 Females can give birth every two years and live up 331 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.519 to forty years in the wild, meaning the number of 332 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:48.799 camels can double every nine years. Weighing on average one 333 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:51.839 thousand pounds, they roam in herds from fewer than ten 334 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.680 to several hundred, trampling ecosystems and destroying infrastructure. Creatures are 335 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:01.880 voracious consumers of plants, eating with other wildlife and live stock, 336 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:08.039 and limiting food sources for aboriginal communities. They destabilize sand dunes, 337 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:12.400 which can lead to erosion. Camels also foulw water holes 338 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:15.680 with their droppings or by mobbing them, only to die 339 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:20.240 of thirst. Their carcasses poisoning what little water is left. Water, 340 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:22.880 in fact, is the source of the biggest problem. When 341 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:28.079 enough moisture rich plants are available, camels famously can subsist 342 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:30.759 for weeks on end without a drink, but when they 343 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:34.920 do go thirsty, they're insatiable. An adult camel can consume 344 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:38.599 fifty gallons in the day. When natural sources of water 345 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:43.240 dry up on Aboriginal land, pastoral territory, and cattle stations, 346 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:46.440 camels go looking for a drink wherever they can find it. 347 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.480 In the process, they often rip up pipes, destroy toilet blocks, 348 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:54.880 and knock air conditioners out of windows. What's even more 349 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:58.160 concerning is that a rising number of droughts is pushing 350 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:01.799 the animals into ever closer in frequent contact with humans. 351 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.559 One of the most damashing of these conflicts occurred in 352 00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:10.680 twenty thirteen on a Northern Territory cattle station named Curtain Springs. 353 00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:15.680 Six years earlier, feral camels, desperate for a drink, erect 354 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:18.640 one hundred miles of the station's fencing and i mean 355 00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:22.599 just totally destroyed, says Lindy Severand, who runs the farm 356 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:26.119 with her family gone. Replacing the fencing cost about half 357 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:29.799 a million dollars. Ranchers have a legal obligation to remove 358 00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:33.079 feral animals on their property. When she saw the camels 359 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:37.200 were back, Sovereign called the Australian Feral Camel Management Project, 360 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.880 which had called twenty seven thousand camels from the region 361 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:44.720 the previous year. Within forty eight hours, snipers arrived at 362 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:47.319 the property and over the next four days they shot 363 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:51.839 seventeen hundred camels dead from their helicopters. But the feral 364 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:55.759 camel calling program, budgeted for four years, ended in twenty 365 00:23:55.799 --> 00:23:59.240 thirteen with little political will in cities to keep the 366 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:04.039 distant out project going, and feral camel numbers have only 367 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:07.640 gone up. According to biologist Tim Lowe, co founder of 368 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:13.640 Australia's Invasive Species Council, a private nonprofit, the current impact 369 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:17.960 of feral camels on farmers and rural Aboriginal Australians is 370 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.440 very substantial. Costs and damage and control less estimated at 371 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:27.319 twelve million dollars in twenty thirteen, are unknown today. Low 372 00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:29.960 and other experts say if they can't get the population 373 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:34.279 under control, the country's next droughts will lead to more crises. 374 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:38.759 There are plenty of ideas, both practical and fanciful, for 375 00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:41.440 what to do with the feral camels, but it's helpful 376 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:43.920 to understand why they were brought to Australia in the 377 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:47.599 first place. In the eighteen thirties, British colonists struggling to 378 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:51.240 survey the outback on horses that tired easily caught word 379 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:54.880 of camel's extraordinary endurance. The first camel to enter the 380 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:58.640 country arrived in eighteen forty from the Canary Islands, and 381 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:02.440 others followed from a rape via Afghanistan, British India, and 382 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:07.279 the Persian and Ottoman Empires. Colonists also brought in more 383 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:11.680 than two thousand camel operators or kamaliers, whom they collectively 384 00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:17.160 called Afghans. Despite their disparate origins, camels helped open the 385 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:20.880 remote interior, transporting food and supplies, as well as gold 386 00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:25.880 prospectors and workers building railway and telegraph systems. Then, the 387 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.680 White Australia Policy, enacted in nineteen oh one to prevent 388 00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:33.240 non Europeans from immigrating, began to thin the number of 389 00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:38.759 kamaliers as wood technology. By the nineteen thirties, cars and 390 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:43.119 railroads had rendered Australia's camel industry all but obsolete. Many 391 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:46.839 foreign kamaliers returned to their homelands and their camels, up 392 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:50.279 to ten thousand of them. Suddenly, jablists were set free 393 00:25:50.359 --> 00:25:53.920 to Rome when traditional use for these wayward animals is 394 00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:57.640 to enlist them in the camel trekking industry, which offers 395 00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:00.920 a ruggedly authentic way for travelers to see most of 396 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:04.799 the remote parts of Australia's interior. Camel trekking was made 397 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:09.079 famous by Robin Davidson's nineteen eighty memoir Tracks about her 398 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:13.240 solo seventeen hundred mile journey by camel across the deserts 399 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:18.240 of Western Australia, and the industry now comprises a dozen operators. 400 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.359 One of the longest running is the Outback Camel Company. 401 00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:24.720