WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:04.320 Welcome. This is Marshuker Radio Eye and today I will 2 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.599 be reading National Geographic Magazine dated December twenty twenty four. 3 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:12.320 As a reminder, Radio Eye is a reading service intended 4 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.279 for people who are blind or have other disabilities that 5 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.920 make it difficult to read printed material. Please join me 6 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.920 now for the first article titled Resurrecting Notre Dame by 7 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:30.440 Robert Kunzig. Five years after a blaze nearly destroyed it, 8 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:34.719 France's most famous cathedral is reopening. Here's how the astonishing 9 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:38.200 restoration was pulled off and how a sense of sacredness 10 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:42.960 was rekindled. The fire that came close to destroying the 11 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.159 Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris started under the roof 12 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.359 in the ancient wooden attic near the base of the spire. 13 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:52.679 It began a little after six p m. On April fifteen, 14 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:56.799 twenty nineteen, the Monday of Holy Week, six days before Easter. 15 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.280 Inside the church, a mass was under way. Whipe and 16 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.759 I had arrived in the city the day before, and 17 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:05.359 at around seven that Monday evening we just happened to 18 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.480 be passing by from the window of our cab on 19 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:11.840 the poon Saint Michel. We caught sight of a flickering 20 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:15.400 patch of orange on the roof. Minutes later, stopped in traffic, 21 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.959 we saw flames shoot up the wooden spire. This belief 22 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:23.959 gave way to shock. Notre Dame was really burning. No 23 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.959 cathedral is more important to France or to the world. 24 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:29.760 For more than eight hundred years, Notre Dame has stood 25 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:32.079 at the center of French life and has been the 26 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:35.879 setting for historic events, both religious and secular. In twelve 27 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:39.439 thirty nine, King Louis the Ninth, also known as Saint Louis, 28 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:44.000 delivered what was purported to be Jesus Crown of Thorns 29 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.359 to the cathedral. In nineteen forty four, as German bullets 30 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:50.879 were still flying outside, General Charles de Gaul attempted a 31 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:54.439 mass to celebrate the liberation of Paris. Through it all, 32 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:58.159 Notre Dame largely escaped the bombs and blazes that ravaged 33 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:02.040 other cathedrals. Wind of stability in the Sea of change. 34 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:05.120 It became one of the world's most visited monuments, as 35 00:02:05.159 --> 00:02:09.120 well as a place millions told sacred. When we returned 36 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:11.599 to the scene later that evening, the fire had fallen 37 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:15.879 and the lead roof had melted from the darkness On 38 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.120 the right bank. We gazed at the stone gable of 39 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:20.960 the north transept, and through the small rose window we 40 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.560 saw the flames consuming the oak roof crosses on the 41 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:28.039 banks and bridges of the Seine. Thousands had gathered to watch, 42 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:31.840 Drawn to the catastrophe, into the moment of communion. People 43 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.520 were spreading the news on their phones. Some were singing 44 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:37.199 the how Mary. We were visitors, but for most of 45 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:39.560 the crowd this was home and a piece of their 46 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.400 hearts seemed to be dying. Now five and a half 47 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:45.159 years later, Notre Dame has been brought back to life. 48 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.960 In early December, the Archbishop of Paris is scheduled to 49 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.560 celebrate a festive Mass in the restored church that week. 50 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:55.080 The great doors will open to the public and offer 51 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:57.919 a measure of healing to what has been a public drama. 52 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:01.479 National Geographic was granted special access to the years of 53 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.639 work by architects, craftspeople and scientists that has led to 54 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:08.479 this moment. In the summer of twenty twenty one, I 55 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.360 returned for the first time since the fire, as the 56 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:14.840 reconstruction was about to begin. This past summer, I went 57 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:18.039 back again to witness its final stage, and also to 58 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.319 learn about the clergy's plan for Notre Dame, I came 59 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.039 to appreciate that the great lengths thousands of people have 60 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:26.879 gone to not only to preserve this ex was a 61 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:30.840 medieval monument, but also to revive it as a living church. 62 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.840 There had never been a doubt that Notre Dame would 63 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.520 be rebuilt, but what form would it take? After the 64 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:43.159 fire of French President Imal Immanuel Macron decreed that the 65 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:47.120 cathedral should be restored more beautiful than ever. He set 66 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:49.680 an ambitious goal to have the work completed by twenty 67 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:52.879 twenty four and financed by the eight hundred forty six 68 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:58.159 million euros that have been donated since the disaster. The 69 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:01.240 crow suggested that something structural we knew would be nice 70 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.919 instead of the same old spire. Architects responded eagerly with 71 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.479 far fetched ideas for a glass roof or a crystal spire. 72 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:15.000 Preservationists were appalled, including Chief Architect of Historic Monuments Indipe Villeneuve, 73 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:17.800 who at the time of the fire was already leading 74 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:23.240 a renovation of parts of Notre Dame. From Villeneuve's perspective, 75 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:26.040 adding a modern spire would have been like giving Mona 76 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:29.720 Lisa a nose job, whereas restoring Notre Dame as it was, 77 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:35.000 architectural historian Jean Michael Gnawed told me back in twenty 78 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.920 twenty one, with limestone, oak and lead, would be a 79 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:40.959 cathartic act, a way to purge the grim memory of 80 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.199 that night and to grieve the loss of the original structures. 81 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.439 In the end, the preservationists won. Notre Dame has been 82 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:50.879 rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire, and as 83 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:54.680 it was left in the nineteenth century by Eugene Emmanuel 84 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:59.480 voile Le Duc, a pioneer of restoration. We don't have 85 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:03.120 the right to touchet were restoring it, Villeneus says, we 86 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:06.639 leave no trace of our passage. And yet the inside 87 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:09.680 of the cathedral to anyone who has visited before, will 88 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:13.680 seem utterly transfigured, righter than any person alive has ever 89 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:17.680 seen it. Walls, stained glass, paintings, and sculptures have all 90 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:20.079 been cleaned and restored all at once for the first 91 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:24.600 time since the nineteenth century. Visitors will be stupefied, awestruck 92 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:28.759 by the interior of the cathedral, said Philip Schulst, president 93 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:34.000 of the Special Public Authority overseeing the restoration. It will 94 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:36.600 be a shock, but the interior will be new in 95 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:39.399 another way. While the building is owned and managed by 96 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:43.639 the French state as a protected historic monument, the interior furnishings, 97 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:46.480 which were extensively damaged in the fire, were for the 98 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:48.800 most part not his store, and they belonged to the 99 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:53.600 Roman Catholic Diocese of Paris. Church officials chose to undertake 100 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:57.040 a complete new decoration. The cost is small in the 101 00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:00.079 context of the overall restoration, but it will have a 102 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:03.680 big effect on how visitors experienced the church. Early this 103 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:05.759 past summer, I paid a visit to a foundry in 104 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.879 the Rhine Valley to see some of the church's new furnishings. 105 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:13.120 There I met Judome Bargey, a sculptor and designer who 106 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:16.040 had been commissioned by the diocese to create a new 107 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:19.839 altar and other of the churchical objects. In the furnace room, 108 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:23.680 we watched two workers in visors and heavy aprons decant 109 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:27.839 molten white hot bronze into a series of molds. Rough 110 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:32.519 unfinished sections of Barguet's new baptismal font sat on the 111 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.360 floor nearby. His altar stood in the next room, waiting 112 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:38.879 to be polished. Working with clay models, he explained he 113 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:42.519 had searched for shapes that felt simple and immutable. The 114 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:45.079 bronze altar is massive and books rooted to the spot, 115 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:49.160 yet its curved sides above a pair of uplifted arms. 116 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:51.759 The hope is that it will speak not only to 117 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:54.560 the faithful, but also to the larger number of tourists 118 00:06:54.600 --> 00:07:00.040 who are unfamiliar with the policism or even Christianity. You 119 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:03.759 have to understand, Barday said, we have to understand that 120 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.800 we're talking about the sacred. A week later, when I 121 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:09.000 walked into the nave of the church and found it 122 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.759 hard occurs to appreciate the beauty of the place, who 123 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.079 was still a busy construction site. All around us, workers 124 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:20.040 were dismantling scaffolding, stringing electrical cable, polishing the marble floor. 125 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:23.399 Our small group made our way deeper into the cathedral, 126 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.759 creaning our necks to take into soaring vaults, and crossed 127 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.480 the transept into the choir at the east end of 128 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.319 the church. In the side chapels, there we could see 129 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:36.279 the sumptuously refreshed wall paintings which date to Voile Yu 130 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:41.439 Duke's nineteenth century restoration. Outside one chapel, a lone restorer 131 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:43.800 knelt on the stone, her back turned to the soil 132 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:46.759 of activity. She was applying dabs of pink with a 133 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.480 fine brush to a column painted with trefoils. In this 134 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:54.279 confined space, some two hundred fifty different companies employing the 135 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:57.439 two thousand workers have managed to collaborate in work in 136 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.480 sequence over the span of the project. It functions because 137 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:03.959 people are happy and crowds to be working at Notre Dame. 138 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.920 Jos explained. We walked outside and then entered an elevator 139 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.439 that carried us through the scaffolding to the top of 140 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:13.800 the north transept, where we emerged in the church's attic. 141 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.439 We were above the sailing vaults, now in a place 142 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:18.839 not accessible to the public, in the part of the 143 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:21.680 church that was most ravaged by the fire, and where 144 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:24.120 much of the work done over the past five years 145 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:27.720 had been concentrated. Looking up, we saw blue sky through 146 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:31.279 timber trusses that hadn't yet been covered with lead roofing. 147 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:34.480 We picked our way through crowded walkways to the crossing 148 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:37.399 where the two arms of the transept meet the knave 149 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.480 and the choir. The base of the collapsing the spire 150 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:43.759 had plunged through the stone vaults. Here then crushed the 151 00:08:43.799 --> 00:08:47.639 main altar on the floor below. Stonemasons had only recently 152 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.559 closed the jagged hole in the vaults. The smell of 153 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:53.720 fresh wood walked in off the oak beams and spiral 154 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.960 stairs of the new spire. Pressing on into the attic 155 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.720 of the nave, we entered the new forest of triangular 156 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:05.320 oak roof trusses. To replicate the original medieval roof, the 157 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.320 construction workers had relied on ancient techniques. The hand hued 158 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.519 the massive timbers with traditional hand axes, which had themselves 159 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:16.600 been forged by hand. The beams were then fixed in 160 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:20.960 a complicated lattice with pegged mortise and tenin joints. One 161 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:25.120 of the carpenters, Honked Silver, an American who moved to 162 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:28.279 France for this project, grabbed a protruding peg and hung 163 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:32.519 his weight from it to demonstrate its strength. Silver directed 164 00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:34.960 my eye down the nave along the center line of 165 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.639 the new trusses. The line was slightly curved. That deformity 166 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.759 had been in the medieval original, and the architects decided 167 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:45.240 to replicate it. Silver explained that it made things even 168 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:49.279 more complicated for everybody. The new framework does include one 169 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:54.080 important concession to modernity, fire protection. Fire resistant trusses of 170 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.399 the crossing will isolate the spire and the two transept 171 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:00.639 arms from the nave and the choir. A fire could 172 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.120 never again race through the entire attic. Should flames break 173 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:10.120 out in this space, misters distributed throughout the attic will 174 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:14.279 help suppress them until firefighters can climb hundreds of stairs. 175 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.519 Exiting the attic at the front of the church, we 176 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:20.600 spiraled up the narrow stone stairs of the south tower, 177 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.919 passing the balcony that Voile le Duc had populated with 178 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.200 grotesque creatures. At the top of the tower, we circled 179 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.480 around to the east. The sands swimmable again but still 180 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:36.000 brown rolled and sparkled in the late morning sun. From 181 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:37.720 the choir at the far end of the church, we 182 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.960 could hear roofers hammering lead panels into place. The architect's 183 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.000 decision to use lead, especially after the fire had spread 184 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:48.879 that toxic material all over the cathedral and even outside 185 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:53.960 it excited a public controversy, but the preservationists insisted it 186 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.679 was more durable and impermeable than the alternatives, and that 187 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:02.519 the elaborate ornamentation could be reproduced without it. We are 188 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.360 eye leveled now with a new spire inside and out. 189 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:09.360 It's a faithful copy of Whiles L. Duke's intricate creation 190 00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:13.279 made from his nineteenth century drawings, and one exception is 191 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:16.159 the gilded brass rooster at the pinnacle, which we could 192 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.519 see glinting in the sun. Its Villeneuve's own design. The 193 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:24.039 replacement was hoisted into place in December twenty twenty three. 194 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.360 It carries inside it the relics of two Parisian saints 195 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:31.399 and a scroll naming all two thousand restoration workers. It 196 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.600 carries symbolic meaning too. The rooster is a symbol of 197 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.240 French identity, of hope and resurrection, and in this case, 198 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:43.399 since Veneneuve gave his burid flame winged the flame shaped 199 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:48.000 wings of a cathedral rising from the ashes. The original 200 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:50.639 was badly battered from its fall during the fire, but 201 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.480 was salvaged and will be displayed as a memorial of 202 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.600 that night. As we made our way back down from 203 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:58.960 the tower, we crossed in front of the Great Organ 204 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:02.759 on the balcony inside the front wall. It survived the fire, 205 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.679 but had to be completely dismantled and cleaned, and for 206 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.679 months tuners had been calibrating the eight thousand pipes one 207 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:12.440 by one. With our backs to the towering pipes, we 208 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:14.679 looked out at the walls and vaults of the nave. 209 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:18.159 The stained glass glowed once again in the high windows. 210 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:20.679 The soot from the fire, the lead, and the filth 211 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:23.720 of the ages had been stripped from the stone walls, 212 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:27.000 leaving them bright and creamy, with key stones in gold 213 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:31.360 leaf and ribs delicately outlined in rich Burgundy. The vaults 214 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.200 looked impeccable. My greatest satisfaction is that you can't tell 215 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:39.039 the vaults that collapsed and were rebuilt, Villaineude told me later. 216 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:43.879 There's a lot to like about the restoration, said Lenaud, 217 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.399 the historian. With the brutal pealing of the walls, latex 218 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.320 was sprayed on them and then peeled off in part 219 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:53.360 to extract the lead, has left the stones so white 220 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:57.120 that some will feel the cathedral has lost elements of 221 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:00.480 its sacred character. It will take forty years of and 222 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:03.840 condensation before we see the gray that the eyes appreciate. 223 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:08.600 He now said to church officials, Notre Dame's sacredness drives 224 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.000 not so much from the building itself as from what 225 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:13.720 goes on inside it. The cathedral is, above all a 226 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:19.080 place of worship, said Monseigneur Olivier Vadou duma that was 227 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.360 built for the glory of God. Riveadou Dumas is the 228 00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:24.960 rector of Notre Dame, meaning he runs the place when 229 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.440 it's open. He's expected a record fifty million to come 230 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.120 to Notre Dame in twenty twenty five, and he doesn't 231 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:33.600 like to call them to us. The word visitor is 232 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:37.639 a better fit for what he anticipates they'll experience once inside. 233 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:40.480 He hopes a visitor just might become a pilgrim. The 234 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:44.600 redecoration is designed to facilitate that. In addition to sculptor 235 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:48.720 Bardet's liturgical furnishings, there will be fifteen hundred new cheers 236 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:52.000 of solid oak with low backs gently curved at the top. 237 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:56.000 They'll be like a calm sea that acentuates the verticality 238 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:01.039 of the vault. Designer Iona Valutrini told me. The new lighting, 239 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.320 on the other hand, will do much more than illuminate 240 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:08.159 the architecture, said Light sculptor Patrick Rimo is deploying a 241 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:13.279 programmable array of one thousand, five hundred fifty l ed spotlights, 242 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:16.759 each of which can vary in intensity and hue according 243 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.559 to the season and what service is being held in 244 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.279 the cathedral. The shadowy candlelight atmosphere on the verge of 245 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.440 vigil of Easter, for example, could give way to a 246 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.039 joyous illumination on Easter morning. What's important is to treat 247 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:34.240 the cathedral as a living place, Remo said. After the 248 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.360 fire of the clergy debated creating a little space in 249 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.679 the choir where Catholics could attend Mass in peace among 250 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:43.639 themselves and away from the visitors. In the end be 251 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:47.399 decided to They decided the opposite. All masses will be 252 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.120 celebrated of the main altar in the nave, with no 253 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.840 barriers to keep tourists from wandering into the congregation. We 254 00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:59.039 have prietortis pritoritized, the demonstration of faith, of the tranquility 255 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:04.240 of prayer. Ribadeau Dumas told me. The side chapels, which 256 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.320 had been a hotchpodge, will become a pilgrim's way that 257 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.240 gives a coherent account in paining the sculpture of the 258 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:13.240 Catholic Faith. From the entrance in the center of the 259 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:16.679 west facade, visitors will move along the north aisle, where 260 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.519 each chapel will be devoted to an Old Testament prophet, 261 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.960 then around the perimeter of the choir, which will recount 262 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:26.440 the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and finally along 263 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.279 the south chapels of the nave, each of which will 264 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.480 introduce a saint who embodies a particular value of the 265 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:35.759 Catholic Church. A smartphone app will explain it all in 266 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:39.039 multiple languages. In the apse, at the far east end 267 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.240 of the church, visitors will pass one of the most 268 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.559 treasured relics in Christendom, the crown of thorns, said to 269 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:48.559 have been placed on Jesus's head before the crucifixion. Notre 270 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:54.360 Dame never advertised its presence much. Architect Sylvain du Buisson 271 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:57.679 was commissioned to design a new reliquary to display the 272 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:02.480 crown more prominently, to magnify something that's of an incredible humility, 273 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:05.759 he said. The artifact is a dried out woven wreath 274 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:10.120 of rushes from which the thorns were long ago removed dubious. 275 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.120 Whole solution is a twelve foot high, eight and a 276 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:16.759 half foot wide altar piece of cedar. At the center 277 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:20.200 is a glass hemisphere whose curved backed surface will be 278 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.840 painted dark blue, but lit in such a way that 279 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.120 the surface isn't apparent. Looking into it will be like 280 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:29.679 looking into an infinite sky. The crown will hang within it. 281 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:33.080 On the night of the fire, the crowds along the 282 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:35.720 sun had no idea what was happening inside the cathedral. 283 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:38.279 You couldn't see the fire fighters racing up into the 284 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.960 north bell tower just in time to save it from 285 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.720 a collapse that might have brought down the whole building. 286 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:47.200 You couldn't see the fire fighters and church officials entering 287 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:49.799 the burning structure to save the crowd of thorns and 288 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:53.360 other priceless artifacts, which for the past few years have 289 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:56.679 been kept safe in a vault at the move. By December, 290 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.519 they will have been returned to their rightful home, as 291 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:03.600 initially geographic. Much oppressed Paris officials had still not completed 292 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:07.799 their investigation into what might have caused the fire. Perhaps 293 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:11.440 it was some kind of electrical short circuit. On Saturday, 294 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:15.359 December seventh, the French Estate will return the restored cathedral 295 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:18.759 to the Archbishop of Paris. The Archbishop will bang on 296 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:21.359 the doors with his large staff, and they will open 297 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.160 once again to the world. The great Workan will wake 298 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:27.240 up and plasp a hand of thanks. When you walk 299 00:17:27.240 --> 00:17:29.680 into Notre Dame, the first thing you'll see will be 300 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:34.000 Bardet's bronze baptismal font, the portal to the Catholic faith. 301 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:37.200 His new altar will be visible at the crossing under 302 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:40.359 the new spire. In the society in which were often 303 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:44.079 tempted by despair, reopening the cathedral as a sign of hope, 304 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:48.400 Ribadeau Dumas said that moment should be as powerful and memorable. 305 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.200 He said, as the sight of Notre Dame on fire 306 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:54.440 was to the millions who sought in Paris and around 307 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.519 the planet, it will be a kind of gust of 308 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:02.039 joy that will I hope fill the world. Notre Dame's 309 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:05.160 two bell towers featured ten bronze bells, the largest of 310 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.079 which is called Immanuel, and hangs in the South tower, 311 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.400 where it was undamaged by the fire cassed in sixteen 312 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:16.200 eighty three under Louis fourteenth. The fourteen ton billamoth measures 313 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.160 nearly nine people wide in its base and has traditionally 314 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:22.599 been played at Christmas or on other special occasions, ringing 315 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.839 out a low f sharp. Eight smaller bells in the 316 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:28.839 North tower had to be removed and cleaned of lead dust. 317 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:33.119 Two were damaged and needed to be restored at Corneille Havard, 318 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:40.240 a foundry in Normandy. Next Why scientists are rethinking ancient 319 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:45.279 gender rolls by Tom Netcalf. Archaeologists have found a new 320 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.319 tool for studying human remains, and its up ending what 321 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.519 we thought we knew about gender and past societies. In 322 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:55.480 two thousand and eight, archaeologists discovered a tomb at Valencina 323 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.079 de la Concepcion, a town near Seville in southern Spain, 324 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:02.039 or the ret just burial sites ever found in the region. 325 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:06.079 It was filled with lavish goods, including entire elephant's tusk, 326 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:08.920 a dagger with a crystal blade, and dozens of mother 327 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:13.039 of Pearl beads. Scholars dated the tombs between forty two 328 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:16.279 hundred and fifty two hundred years ago and suggested that, 329 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:19.680 based on an assessment of the skeletal remains, the person 330 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:22.759 buried there was between the ages of seventeen and twenty five. 331 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:26.160 The remains in items in the grave convinced experts that 332 00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:28.799 this was a man who had held an elite position 333 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.839 in society, but a recent study now suggests that this 334 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:36.119 important man wasn't a man. After all. Their paper published 335 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:39.359 in twenty twenty three, a team of researchers from the 336 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:43.200 University of Seville and the University of Vienna concluded that 337 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:45.960 the person in the burial chamber was a biological woman. 338 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.880 Their claim up ended long standing assumptions about gender roles 339 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:52.839 in ancient times, but what's notable is how they reached 340 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:56.119 their conclusion. It represents a new way for archeologists to 341 00:19:56.119 --> 00:19:59.440 get the details of history right. The researchers didn't use 342 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:02.880 any direct genetic evidence. They didn't study the corps of 343 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.559 DNA to reveal a female's signature XX chromosomal pattern. Instead, 344 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.279 they inferred the biological sex from a bit of protein 345 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:15.359 in a tomb. In recent years, breakthroughs in the study 346 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:19.720 of ancient DNA have enabled archaeologists to extract detailed information 347 00:20:19.799 --> 00:20:22.960 from remains, giving them insight into a range of physical 348 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.559 characteristics such as sex and eye color. But the process 349 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.240 involved can be expensive in time consuming. Samples are prone 350 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:33.279 to contamination, and there is often not enough DNA to 351 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:37.519 recover since molecules degrade over thousands of years. But now 352 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:40.640 proteins are providing a way for scientists to create a 353 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:44.960 partial genetic profile in the absence of DNA. These molecules, 354 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.039 which give the body structure and execute its biochemical functions, 355 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:52.359 are often more stable and better preserved in ancient bones 356 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:56.400 and teeth than DNA is. By examining proteins, scientists can 357 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:00.400 learn details of the DNA that created them. Of the 358 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:04.440 tomb near Seviebe, the tooth enamel from the individual's remains 359 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.359 showed the presence of proteins made by genes on an 360 00:21:07.559 --> 00:21:11.079 X chromosome, but no equivalent proteins made by genes on 361 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:14.400 a Y chromosome, That suggests the person in the tomb 362 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:19.880 was biologically female acsex and not male x Y. Such techniques, 363 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:25.559 called proteomics, are often cheaper and faster than traditional DNA 364 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:30.000 analysis and could transform archaeology. Although the method is only 365 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:33.119 a few years old, it's already having a broad scientific impact. 366 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:37.200 Like the researchers of the tomb in Spain, Peruvian archaeologist 367 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:42.160 and National Geographic Explorer Gabriel Creato worked on a project 368 00:21:42.200 --> 00:21:45.559 that determined sex from proteins, which led to new insights 369 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:48.400 into history. He sent teeth from the victims of a 370 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:52.400 masked child sacrifice by the Chimu people of Peru to 371 00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:56.440 Glendon Parker at the University of California Davis, a pioneer 372 00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:02.720 in proto proteomics. The protein means inside revealed the key 373 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:07.000 sacrifices were male children. It really helped us to understand that, 374 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:09.640 at least for this event, boys were the most important 375 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:15.480 sacrificial victims, Preeto says. Chimu sacrifices involved hundreds of victims. 376 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:19.359 It would be prohibitively expensive to do DNA analysis on 377 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:22.359 each of them. But that's not to say DNA analysis 378 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:25.279 has no role to play. It's just used to answer 379 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:31.480 more specific questions. Proteomics and an ancient DNA work together, 380 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.799 Preeto says. In fact, some DNA analysis is going is 381 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:39.039 ongoing for some of the sacrificial victims, for example, to 382 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:44.079 show if any of them were related. Besides providing genetic 383 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:48.759 information from animal and human remains, proteomics can be used 384 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:53.920 to investigate microorganisms that caused historical diseases such as leprosy 385 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.839 or plagues, to identify food residues on aged pottery, and 386 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:01.480 to determine sources of fibers used in old textiles, which 387 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:07.119 could lend insight into long lost trading networks. Biomolecular archaeologist 388 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.359 Michael Buckley at the University of Manchester in the United 389 00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:13.480 Kingdom has developed a way to identify the species of 390 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:17.359 an animal from an ancient bone by analyzing collagen, the 391 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:21.240 main protein in bone. The technique was recently used to 392 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:24.559 show that ivory found in a fifth, fifth or sixth 393 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:28.720 century English grade came from an African elephant, which implies 394 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:32.759 a previously unknown trade route across the ancient world. At 395 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:36.279 that time, were starting to generate much larger amounts of 396 00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:40.680 data in getting much better information about human interactions with 397 00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:44.720 animals in the past. Baby says every year more ancient 398 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:50.279 remains are uncovered. Proteomics means each discovery is more likely 399 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.599 to fill in the missing chapters of our history books, or, 400 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:56.799 as in the case of that extravagant burial site found 401 00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:01.119