WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.359 Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:08.160 will be reading National Geographic magazine dated April twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:12.199 which is donated by the publisher. As a reminder, RADIOI 4 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.119 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:18.679 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.399 printed material. Please join me now for the continuation of 7 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:27.679 the article I began last time, entitled Unraveling the Mysteries 8 00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:34.799 of the Congo by Melani Goubi. Since twenty thousand five, 9 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:37.799 the number of postgraduates in forestry has grown from just 10 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.240 six to more than three hundred. To day, this new 11 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.920 vanguard of Congolese scientists is striving to understand one of 12 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.119 the most massive and understudied ecosystems on our planet at 13 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:52.840 a time when it's needed. Most Scattered across some sixty 14 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:58.039 thousand acres, Jangambi's dilapidated colonial facilities remain a testament to 15 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:02.359 the research stations tainted or origins. The nearest major city 16 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:06.400 is Kisangani, about seventy miles away, which is where Belgium's 17 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:10.200 King Leopold in eighteen eighty five founded one of the 18 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.439 first settlements of what would become his own private colony, 19 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:17.159 the Congo Free State, after his government refused to sanction 20 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:21.680 a state backed expansion into the territory. The king's emissaries 21 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:25.719 arrived to discover the rainforest vast tropes of rubber vines 22 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.079 which could be tapped for latex to fuel the global 23 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:33.879 rubber boom to harvest evermore latex. However, the nascent colony 24 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:39.040 required a workforce, and Leopold's officials contracted with private companies 25 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:43.920 that enslaved indigenous people in vast numbers and estimated ten 26 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:46.680 million people were killed as a result of famine, disease 27 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:51.840 and the colonizer's brutality. The government of Belgium had wrested 28 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.719 control away from Leopold by nineteen o eight and established 29 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:59.200 the Belgian Congo. During its rule, the new government created 30 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:03.599 the National Institute for Argonomic Study of the Belgian Congo 31 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.159 at Yanambi to explore the rainforest and figure out what 32 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:12.879 other crops could be successfully cultivated there. Colonial Belgian researchers 33 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.479 collected and analyzed tens of thousands of plant specimens and 34 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:20.120 stored them at Ngambi, where they are still housed today 35 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:26.120 in the Angambi Stations. Archives head librarian, Christian Bessombi Efanta, 36 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:29.520 leads me to a corner behind rows of wooden bookcases 37 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.719 filled with decades of scientific journals. The collection includes black 38 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:36.919 and white photographs, several of which he spreads out across 39 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.360 a large mid century desk, pointing to images of beans 40 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:44.000 and seeds at various stages of sprouting, along with close 41 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.560 ups of the different roots and leaves of many plants. 42 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:51.400 Belgians wanted to understand the structure of each existing species 43 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:55.120 and determinates economic value. He explains this led to the 44 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:58.759 rise of palm tree, rice and coffee plantations, including the 45 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.719 introduction of a still popular variety of robusta coffee bean. 46 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:08.639 Other photographs captured a darker side of the station's story, 47 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:13.240 showing black men stuck laboring in the test fields while 48 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:19.360 white scientists worked in laboratories. By the time Yogambi was built, 49 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:22.360 that the Belgian Congo had ended the Free State's most 50 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.240 monstrous practices, but the dynamics at the research station remained 51 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:30.759 steeped in colonial exploitation. Our grandfathers, our fathers were only 52 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:35.039 workers here, Offanta says. They did almost everything manually, always 53 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:38.400 under Belgian's orders, regardless of the scale of the work. 54 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.759 That's how everything you see here, the infrastructure was built 55 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.800 by our ancestors. They were forced to do many things 56 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.759 against their will for survival. By nineteen sixty, Congolese pro 57 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:54.599 independence leaders had rallied enough support to force Belgian authorities 58 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:59.719 to grant the country independence and organize general elections. Belgian 59 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:03.240 researchers left without having trained a single Congolese scientists to 60 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:06.319 replace them. The Belgians did not want to train anyone 61 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.199 to be their equal. The goal was to subjugate Afonta, says, 62 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:13.120 and so after their departure, everything remained in a state 63 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:18.519 of lethargy. But not everyone abandoned Yan Gambhi at independence. 64 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.639 The workers from surrounding villages recruited by Belgian scientists to 65 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:27.639 perform small technical tasks, kept quietly going along about with 66 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.920 these tasks, even without the guarantee of payment from the 67 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:35.360 newly formed Congolese state. And when they became too old 68 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:38.199 to carry on, their sons took over, continuing the important 69 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:42.240 duty of chronicling changes throughout the region five times a day. 70 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:47.560 Observers like Henry Alongui Agualais still do the work that 71 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.600 has gone on for generations at the research station. One morning, 72 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.600 I joined him as he heads out to a grassy 73 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:58.480 field a few miles away to meticulously record the meteorological 74 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.560 data available from an assortment of rudimentary instruments that are 75 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:07.240 arranged at intervals like a contemporary art installation. Using a 76 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.480 penned paper, he checks the readings on a pair of 77 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:12.519 rain gages, the same ones that were installed in nineteen 78 00:05:12.519 --> 00:05:18.519 twenty eight, thermometers and a totalizing anemometer which measures the 79 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.360 speed and direction of the wind over time. My father 80 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:24.120 began working here decades ago. It was his life, a 81 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:27.920 Gualle says, But he was too tired, so Angualle took 82 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:30.000 over the job from his father, who passed away just 83 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:34.279 six months after retiring. In the meantime, the Congo Basin's 84 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.800 lack of reliable data on long term climate change meant 85 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:42.040 that the rainforest continued to be excluded or misrepresented in 86 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.480 global reports and analysis. In twenty twenty one, it was 87 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.839 one of only two regions worldwide without enough data for 88 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:53.560 the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess 89 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:57.879 past trends in extreme heat, findings that other governments might 90 00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:02.639 use in determining what places deserved more resources for continuing 91 00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:08.160 study or even emergency aid. More than fifty years after independence, 92 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:11.519 the Yangambi Station was still operating on a minimal budget, 93 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:16.199 with handwritten records stored in a decrepit office alongside stacks 94 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:22.279 of yellowing paper bundles. Emmanuel Kasango Yakusu, a forestry PhD. 95 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:25.759 Candidate at Ghent University in Belgium who teaches at the 96 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:29.639 University of Kisangani, first learned in twenty eleven about the 97 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.959 ongoing efforts of the station's climate observers while seeking data 98 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:38.319 that signal how communities dependent on the forest might face 99 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:41.759 new challenges with climate change. When I first walked in here, 100 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:44.519 it was like walking into a gold mine, he tells me, 101 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.600 picking up a bundle dating back to the nineteen seventies. 102 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:52.360 So Yakusu began working with the department staff to digitize 103 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:55.839 the records, focusing on temperature and rainfall. The team was 104 00:06:55.879 --> 00:06:59.959 about to chart sixty years of data tracking daily meteorologic 105 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:04.160 changes from nineteen sixty to twenty twenty, save for nineteen 106 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:08.120 sixty five, when political unrest meant activities at the station 107 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:11.800 ground to a halt. The collective findings published in twenty 108 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:15.519 twenty three reveal a mean daily temperature increase of a 109 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.319 third of a degree fahrenheit point eighteen celsius per decade. 110 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.839 The region has also seen a disruption of rainfall patterns 111 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:28.439 toward drier dry seasons and shorter, more intense rainy seasons 112 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:32.439 with fewer rainy days throughout the year. The temperature increases 113 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.519 and changes in rainfall timing and intensity have become more 114 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.920 pronounced since the turn of the twenty first century. Today, 115 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:42.360 the staff at the center are fully trained and equipped 116 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:46.079 with computers and a scanner to update the database independently. 117 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:50.800 Their work with regional wind patterns influenced decisions on where 118 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.759 the flux tower should be located and how it should 119 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:59.680 be designed. Jose Mobifo nud Yapo, who directs climatology research 120 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:03.319 at the SUNS Station, remembers when Yukusu called to announce 121 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.839 that their hard work was being formally recognized. That day, 122 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.040 I got my staff together and told them what you 123 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.720 do here, never re un underestimate it, do it right, 124 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:18.680 as per our motto here at climatology honesty accuracy. He says, 125 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:25.160 we felt valued for Yukusu. Kimbeisa Nyapopo there and their 126 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:29.160 peers shaping the science as a crucial part of recovering 127 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:33.639 from when the forest was harvested harnessed for colonial gains. 128 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:36.600 For them, the future of their communities is at stake. 129 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.320 More than sixty percent of the d RC's workforce are farmers. 130 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:44.360 Hotter growing seasons with less regular rain means they can 131 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:48.600 expect lower crop yields, while more weeds and pests prolipherally. 132 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:51.519 I grew up in Kisangani and all my life I've 133 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:54.919 seen how farmers struggle to make ends meet, says Yukusu, 134 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:58.200 who now also works as a consultant with the World Bank. 135 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.440 Along with the Congolese government, the Bank is developing the 136 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:07.679 region's first climate contingency plan, identifying potential emergencies and designing 137 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.799 responses with the right kind of bank for local farmers. 138 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:15.279 While extreme weather events are becoming the norm in many places, 139 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:20.600 most client climate impact research has focused on rich nations, 140 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:24.519 leading to an attribution gap as robust levels of data 141 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:27.879 are lacking in low income countries, which may leave people 142 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.879 behind with little support to mitigate, prepare and adapt with 143 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:34.799 climate change. Things are going to get worse, says Yukusu. 144 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:39.279 They need urgent support. We need to create dynamic agricultural 145 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:44.960 calendars and modernize farming techniques. Yukusu and other Congolese scientists 146 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.600 have been lobbying for international funds to create a network 147 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:52.039 of weather stations in the DRC to gather accurate data 148 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:56.120 across more Land. DRC has one of the lowest densities 149 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:59.879 of weather stations in the world, says Simon Lewis, a 150 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.159 climate change and rainforest researcher at the University of Leeds 151 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.480 in England who supports the effort. Lewis led a team 152 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.879 several years ago to map the extent of the Congo 153 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:12.919 Basin Peatlands. The team discovered that they are the largest 154 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:16.360 tropical peatlands in the world, storing three years worth of 155 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.159 global fossil fuel emissions. But as Lewis recounts, his only 156 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:24.399 advantage was to receive unrestricted funding to explore this fuzzy 157 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:29.120 area via a science prize. The massive logistical and scientific 158 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:32.519 efforts demanded on the ground were only possible because of 159 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:35.799 the deep local knowledge of our Congolese partners, he says. 160 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:38.600 They knew about the peatlands and the potential for major 161 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.799 discovery there, but the resources were not available to them. 162 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:45.360 In twenty twenty three, Lewis joined a coalition of regional 163 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:49.720 scientists to create the Congo Basins Science Initiative, a research 164 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:53.039 group seeking two hundred million dollars in funding to green 165 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.440 light more home grown studies, a move that is world 166 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.480 changing potential to transform our understanding of the rainfall. The effort, 167 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:05.159 patterned after a similar successful program in the Amazon, has 168 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:09.080 already attracted investment from the United Kingdom, including more graduate 169 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:13.799 level scholarships for researchers at partner institutions in Central Africa 170 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:19.320 and the UK. Science is extractive in nature, Lewis says, 171 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:23.240 we need to build equal partnerships and inclusivity between local 172 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:26.600 and foreign scientists, not just because it is right, but 173 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:28.720 because it is the only way we can scale up 174 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:31.159 the work that needs to be done before it's too late. 175 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:34.720 Why the Congo Basin appears to be more resilient than 176 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:39.159 the Amazon remains an incredibly complex question, and researchers are 177 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:43.320 looking for answers in the trees. Back at Jangambhi, Yakusu 178 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.480 leads me down a trail through the surrounding forest and 179 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:49.360 then signals that we should head deeper. Into the underbrush. 180 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.840 As we leave the path, the texture of the ground 181 00:11:51.879 --> 00:11:56.360 suddenly changes, crackling softly as dry branches snap beneath our feet, 182 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.480 and then grows squishy as we step over the soft 183 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.799 husk of a decomposing tree trunk. We finally stop in 184 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.320 front of a huge tree with a wide, smooth trunk 185 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:08.679 that jots high into the canopy, part of the Mahogany 186 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.720 family of trees that belongs to a particular native species 187 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:17.279 called Nadrophagma eutile. The tree is part of another long 188 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:20.720 term survey that's been happening at the station. To inspect 189 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:25.039 it properly, Yakusu unslings his backpack and produces a wood poorer, 190 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:29.080 shaped a bit like an oversized corkscrew, placing it against 191 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:31.559 the trunk a few feet above the ground. When he 192 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:34.240 turns the handle, the hardwood seems to resist at first, 193 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:37.799 creaking under the pressure being applied. After a few minutes, 194 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:41.440 Yukusu extracts a long, thin core sample of wood from 195 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.360 the inner layers, which he carefully inserts into a protective sleeve. 196 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:47.679 You have to be careful to not let it break, 197 00:12:47.720 --> 00:12:52.720 he says. Inside the station's Modern Wood Biology lap. Another 198 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:55.919 first in the DRC, researchers would be able to compare 199 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:59.279 the tree's height and trunk diameter with visible rings from 200 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:02.799 the core sample to determine changes in its growth over 201 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:06.039 time in relation to the climate. As we've demonstrated the 202 00:13:06.120 --> 00:13:09.720 rainforest as warming, Yakusu says, this means that the environment 203 00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:13.080 in which these trees grow is changing and the conditions 204 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.919 for growth are no longer optimal. In the long run, 205 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.519 decreased tree growth could lead to higher tree mortality in 206 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:23.799 the region, one factor responsible for the Amazon's diminishing capacity 207 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:28.480 to store carbon. Already, some tree species are disappearing in 208 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:32.279 the research stations archives. Detailed records on a tree from 209 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:37.720 the same genus and trando from Mamaga Hollustra show that 210 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:40.600 it was once the most studied species at yng Gambhi, 211 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.720 but in this forest you won't find a single pollustra 212 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:47.440 to day, says Yukusu. At the same time, some trees 213 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.000 are proving more resistant to extreme climate shifts, which could 214 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:55.039 hold the key to helping the forest adapt. Chadrak Kafuti 215 00:13:55.480 --> 00:14:02.080 and Bryce Jovac, two tropical ecologists working at Yanggambi's Wood Lab, 216 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.879 have been closely studying the adaptation of Peracopsis elata, a 217 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:10.679 large leaved hardwood with a surprising capacity to pause its 218 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.399 growth during periods of drought or when sunlight is scarce. 219 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:18.159 That kind of resilience could help direct replanting in areas 220 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.440 where the forest has been logged for lumber or affected 221 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:26.639 by wild fires, which are increasingly common. Without strong environmental protection, 222 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.440 the Congo Basin is projected to lose twenty percent twenty 223 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:34.960 seven percent of its undisturbed rainforests by twenty fifty. But 224 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:38.080 these Central African scientists work with the knowledge that the 225 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:41.639 rainforest has never been untouched landscape. It is a place 226 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:45.320 that has been and will be continually reshaped by human habitation. 227 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:49.840 Exploring the outcome of such interactions may lead to other surprises. 228 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:55.399 For instance, Nest luambois, a forest ecologist who manages Janggo 229 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.759 Yang Gambi's wood Lab, is studying whether some human made 230 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:03.960 dist urbances, such as clearing for villages and slash unburned agriculture, 231 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.720 may partly explain why the Congo Basin is still absorbing 232 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:12.679 relatively high amounts of carbon today. Over time, these clearings 233 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:16.960 have given way to new growth, encouraging trees like Paracopsis elata. 234 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:21.600 Before we leave the survey site, Yakusu retrieves the borer 235 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.159 and fills the hole in the tree with leaves to 236 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:27.919 prevent insects from crawling inside and causing damage. He pats 237 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.679 the trunk gently, as though saying goodbye to an old friend. 238 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:34.480 Each of the scientists at Yanggambi has developed a soft 239 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:37.919 spot for a particular species of tree, often the one 240 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:42.000 each has been studying over the years. For farbres Kimbasa, 241 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:47.320 that special plant is the combretum lukehede, a somewhat gnarled 242 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.120 tree that does not grow any higher than about twenty 243 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.320 feet here, making it sometimes difficult to spot from his 244 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.879 perch atop the flux tower. It could keep going, but 245 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.200 instead it will break and give birth to many small 246 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:01.919 trees on the same trunk. He tells me at one point, 247 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:05.639 it's sharing and caring for others. What could be more beautiful. 248 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:09.960 The next article is from May twenty twenty five National 249 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:15.440 Geographic Rediscovering the ancient Empire that history forgot. They forgot. 250 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:19.120 They fought the Egyptians and sacked Babylon. They built elaborate 251 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:23.480 cities across modern Turkia and beyond, and then the Hittites vanished, 252 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:26.600 lost to history for thousands of years. But today new 253 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:32.080 discoveries are restoring the legend of a forgotten superpower. This 254 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.879 article by Andrew Curry. At its height, the ancient city 255 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.799 of Hutasa, capital of the Hittite civilization, must have been 256 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:43.200 on inspiring Built into a steep hill side in what 257 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:47.159 is today central Turkya, the city was ringed by tall 258 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.480 brick walls, who was home to as many as seven 259 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:53.759 thousand people, vast temple complexes, and an imposing stone rampart 260 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:57.000 visible from miles away. Today, the hillside is home to 261 00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:00.000 a mystery. No pillars or high walls mark the room 262 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:02.960 ruins of the palace and temples that once stood, just 263 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.359 stone foundations, half covered by dry grass. Some of the 264 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:10.160 city's gates still stand guarded by statues of lions, sphinxes, 265 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:14.119 and an axe wielding god, but much is gone. The 266 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:17.119 mud brick walls have crumbled over the centuries. Floods and 267 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.400 snow melt have eroded the original hillside, sending buildings full 268 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:25.079 of clay tablets cascading down the slopes. Paters still are 269 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.200 the clues that might explain what happened to the powerful 270 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:32.039 Hittites people, a lost empire that researchers are now beginning 271 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:37.319 to understand with greater clarity. The disappearance of the Hittites 272 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:40.440 around eleven eighty b C. Was a vanishing act with 273 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:43.839 few parallels in history. For at least four hundred fifty years, 274 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:47.559 the Hittites controlled much of modern day Chyrchia and beyond, 275 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.079 from close to the shores of the Black Sea to 276 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:53.559 the rivers of Mesopotamia and the waters of the Mediterranean. 277 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.640 They built sophisticated cities, impressive temples, and an elaborate palace 278 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:02.960 in the rugged countryside Vanitolia. They authored massive archives of 279 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:08.359 cuneiform tablets containing numerous ancient languages and sacred rituals. Their 280 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.079 kings benefited from trade roots that reached far beyond the 281 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:16.799 Hittite homeland. Their armies once even penetrated deep into Mesopotamia. 282 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:20.319 Their tangle with Egypt's Rameses the Great at the Battle 283 00:18:20.359 --> 00:18:24.640 of Kadesh resulted in the world's first peace treaty. They 284 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:26.960 were able to fight the Egyptians and the Babylonians and 285 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.400 Assyrians had to treat them as equals. Said Andreas Schachner 286 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:35.039 of the German Archaeological Institute, which has been carrying out 287 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:39.039 digs at the Hutasa site for nearly a century. Yet 288 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:42.559 the Egyptians, the Assyrians, they were all part of historical memory, 289 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:47.240 the Hittites were extinguished completely. Scholars didn't register the Hittite's 290 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:50.920 existence until three thousand years later, when carvings at ancient 291 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:56.000 Egyptian temples and diplomatic correspondents discovered on clay tablets set 292 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.559 off an international hunt for the location of their capital. 293 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:04.559 Little remained at the suspected site besides monumental foundations, but 294 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:08.119 digs there in the early nineteen hundreds unearthed a trove 295 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:14.039 of clay cuneiformed tablets, confirming suspicions that Hatusa was the 296 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:17.960 lost Hittite capital. From what they have continued to unearth 297 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.960 at Hatusa, once vibrant center of commerce, culture, and conquest, 298 00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:26.160 researchers have compiled an eloquent record of life in the empire. 299 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.960 They have assembled details on everything from royal squabbles and 300 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:34.400 religious ceremonies to the proper punishment for killing a dog. 301 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.319 Yet the causes for the empire's collapse remain mysterious. How 302 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:41.440 did the mighty Hittites vanish without a trace, and what 303 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:44.799 can their sudden end teach us to day. Between early 304 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:48.880 June and late October, Shaschner spends seven days a week 305 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:53.720 criscrossing Hatchusa and overseeing a team of Turkish and German archaeologists, 306 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:57.279 as well as scores of local workers. He traverses the 307 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:00.880 city's hills in a battered passenger van. His black dog 308 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.519 knocks routinely at his side. As director of the German 309 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:08.319 Archaeological Institute's excavations, he has been making sense if the 310 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:11.880 sites jumbled ruined since two thousand six. Nothing is in 311 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.759 its original place, Shashner said, with a sigh, There is 312 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.799 so much destruction. One day, not long ago, I joined 313 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:21.680 him at the city's Great Temple Complex, a hub of 314 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.839 ritual spaces, courtyards, store rooms, and secret chambers, not far 315 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.200 from what were Hotusa's northern gates. I followed him as 316 00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:33.480 he wound his way through waste high stone blocks, gesturing 317 00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:36.279 upward now and again to refer to the plastered and 318 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:40.000 possibly painted walls that would have towered thirty feet above 319 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.960 our heads. He took me to a space once considered 320 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:46.400 the center of the Hittite universe. The Great Temple dedicated 321 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:50.000 to the storm god Tarhuna and his partner, the Sun, 322 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:55.000 goddess of Arna. Foundations surrounding the temple preserve the outlines 323 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:59.319 of eighty store rooms that previously contained vessels full of wine, water, 324 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:04.000 and grain. Researchers have discovered inventorious hinting at the riches 325 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:07.400 stored in the temple's treasury. When the king came back 326 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.359 from a campaign, all the booty was for the storm god. 327 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:14.079 Shashnar told me he would have brought it here. One 328 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.279 question that Shashnar hopes to solve is why the Hittites 329 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:21.039 situated their capital here. There are worse places than Central 330 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.440 and Atoilia to base an empire, but not many. Half 331 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:28.000 Way between the back Black Sea and the deserts of Syria, 332 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:31.920 Hutasa sits in a land of unlikely extremes. Fresh Water 333 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.960 springs are abundant in the rocky, virtually unfarmable mountains near 334 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:38.920 by the region's few plains, on the other hand, are 335 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:42.039 bone dry most of the year unless they are submerged 336 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:46.440 by seasonal floods. Close reading of Hittite texts, combined with 337 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:50.960 environmental data shows that droughts gripped the region every few decades, 338 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:54.640 regularly pushing populations to the brink of starvation and beyond. 339 00:21:55.279 --> 00:22:01.160 Archaeologist Brulent Djenk, who works with Shashnar at Tusa, frames 340 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.279 the mystery of why the city was built here with 341 00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:08.119 amused admiration considering the climate and surroundings. Its mind blowing 342 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.640 that they had all this here, said Jenk, teaches at 343 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:17.960 Turkya's mardin Artukla University. The real question is how did 344 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.079 they build an empire in the middle of this central 345 00:22:20.119 --> 00:22:25.599 Anatourian hell. The answer a combination of resilience, adaptation, and planning. 346 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:29.359 For the centuries that they reigned, the lords of Hotusa 347 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:31.519 managed to squeeze just a little more out of the 348 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:35.880 land than anyone before or since. Based on what we 349 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:39.400 know of hurting practices and the myriad animal bones found 350 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:43.880 at Hotusa, Shashner thinks the surrounding hills supported tens of 351 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:47.480 thousands of sheep and goats, providing a four footed alternative 352 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.720 to the irrigation dependent farms that supported Egypt and Mesopotamia. 353 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:56.160 To supply water for industrial and agricultural uses, the Hittites 354 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:00.640 cut storage spot ponds into Hotusa's hillsides dug into clay 355 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:04.000 soil to be filled by groundwater. Some were longer than 356 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:07.799 an Olympic swimming pool and up to twenty six feet deep. 357 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:12.279 Immense air tight underground pits meanwhile, contained enough grain to 358 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:15.920 feed their animals in periods of drought. All of this 359 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.960 infrastructure was surrounded by strong walls that ran for an 360 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:23.240 astonishing four miles along the city perimeter, engineered to contend 361 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:27.160 with the hilly terrains, steep slopes, and deep ravines. Between 362 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:29.240 two thousand and three and two thousand and six, a 363 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:34.039 seventy one yard long segment of it was reconstructed using 364 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.599 only materials that would have been available to the Hittites, 365 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:40.119 including wood, rock, and three thousand tons of mud brick. 366 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.799 Based on this experiment, research calculated that building just a 367 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:46.759 half mile of wall would have taken one thousand men 368 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:51.039 a year a stunning feet of logistics. Touring the site 369 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:54.359 with Shachner, I rode along as he piloted his van 370 00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:59.279 up a twisting, one laid road to reach Hutasa's highest spot. Here, 371 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:03.279 the city's most impressive building projects survives your copy. An 372 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:07.000 elongated rampart standing one hundred thirty feet high. And eight 373 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:10.680 hundred twenty feet long. The white Stone embankment features a 374 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:14.839 narrow gate decorated with sphinx statues, adding to its imposing 375 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:18.640 visual impact. A portion of the city's protective wall ran 376 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:22.240 across the top. On a clear day, this monumental structure 377 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:25.680 is visible from twelve miles away, gleaming white amid the 378 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:29.720 green and gray mountaintops. Imagine the ambassador of Babylonia, who's 379 00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:33.680 seen everything, says Shakner, and then he turns this corner 380 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.880 and sees this building that's as spectacular as anything in 381 00:24:36.920 --> 00:24:40.400 Mesopotamia or Egypt. I've seen a lot of sights and 382 00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:42.880 can't think of any that are as spectacular from a 383 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:45.839 long way away as this one. This is how they 384 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:52.279 executed control over the landscape. Amazingly, Hatusa still yielding new discoveries. 385 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:54.920 The day after my trip up the mountain with Shakner, 386 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:59.200 I returned to the summit to meet jank At Karpaki 387 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:02.079 and found him at the mouth of a tunnel that 388 00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:06.160 passes underneath the rampart. He stood in an arched passageway 389 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:08.960 that's about nine feet tall, two hundred thirty feet long, 390 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:12.279 and wide enough to accommodate two people walking side by side. 391 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.759 As I entered the unlit tunnel, I became acutely aware 392 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:18.279 of the hundreds of tons of dirt and rock above 393 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.720 our heads. Jentch, the grandson of a stone mason, wasn't worried. 394 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:26.000 This is all this all interconnects like a tapestry made 395 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.079 of stone, he said, gesturing to the tunnel walls. It 396 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:32.359 takes really fine masons to make this. Half Way down 397 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:36.039 the passageway we stopped bending low. Jank showed me a 398 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:39.839 pinkish palm sized painting on a stone wall, a symbol, 399 00:25:39.880 --> 00:25:42.400 one of two hundred forty nine that he discovered in 400 00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:46.720 the tunnel in twenty twenty two, with each glyph representing 401 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.759