WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:03.879 Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I, and today I 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:08.439 will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated January twenty twenty six, 3 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:12.240 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:14.919 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:18.160 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.839 printed material. Please join me now for the continuation of 7 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:25.600 the article I began last time, entitled how to Build 8 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:33.200 the Perfect Hike by Gloria Lieu. Long straightaways with infrequent 9 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:36.759 turns can be problematic, he says, because people get anxious 10 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:39.600 when they're aware that they're moving in the opposite direction 11 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:43.079 of their objective. The trick is to keep hikers engaged 12 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:46.560 enough that they're convinced they're on the best route possible. 13 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:50.159 If you're fully imbursed in your environment, Talbot says, you're 14 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:53.520 not looking for another way. Talbot grew up in Maine 15 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.320 and started building trails in college in Minnesota. When he 16 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:01.439 joined his school's conservation crew. He found his people there. 17 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:04.840 He recalled they were down to earth, happy and dirty. 18 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:09.040 He regularly slept outdoors in the campus arboretum, showing up 19 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:12.879 to class smelling like camp fire smoke. When Talbot graduated 20 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:17.400 in nineteen ninety eight, trail building wasn't an established career path. 21 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.760 Virtually no one was willing to pay a living wage 22 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:24.239 to build trails, he says. Talbot enrolled in a programme 23 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:29.000 run by AmeriCorps and the Student Conservation Association, which leads 24 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.879 youth trail building crews, and learned skills like rock work, 25 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:37.200 rigging and chainsaw operation. He fell in love with the challenge, 26 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:41.359 physicality and satisfaction of creating something that served people and 27 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:44.680 protected the environment. For several years after that, he lived 28 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:47.439 out of his truck and traveled around the country, training 29 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:51.040 crews for the SCA and working on projects four other 30 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:55.840 trail builders, in particular veteran New England trail builder Peter Jensen. 31 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.280 He learned the same hand building techniques used by the 32 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:04.840 Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration during the trail 33 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.159 building boom of the nineteen thirties and forties, and was 34 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:13.280 inspired to likewise build trails and structures like stone staircases 35 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.719 and bridges that could last centuries. In two thousand four, 36 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.919 he launched his own business, which to day employs several 37 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:23.560 full time staff and a handful of subcontractors, and is 38 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:27.960 usually engaged in multiple projects throughout New England and Patagonia 39 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.840 to day's young trail builders enter a very different industry. 40 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:36.280 Global hiking tourism is projected to grow over seven percent 41 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.599 a year through twenty thirty three, according to the market 42 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:44.719 research firm Data Intello, driven by the increasing popularity of 43 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:49.319 adventure and wellness based travel. The worldwide demand for professionally 44 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:54.879 built sustainable trails has just skyrocketed, says Dawn Packard, former 45 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.400 president of the Professional Trail Builders Association, whose one hundred 46 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:03.400 forty plus member companies represent twenty to thirty percent of 47 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:08.080 the global trail building industry by its estimate. Talbot is 48 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:13.080 a former PTBA president. People seeking more ways to get 49 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:16.479 outside during the pandemic may have played a factor. The 50 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:19.800 number of companies in the PTBA has grown by more 51 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:23.199 than forty percent in the past six years, while revenue 52 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:25.759 has grown three hundred and fifty percent to just over 53 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:30.120 two hundred million dollars according to a recent member survey. 54 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.960 Communities have come to see trails as cost effective infrastructure 55 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:39.879 in the past decade, says Colorado trail builder Scott Linnenberger. 56 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:44.120 A new municipal sewer line might cost thirty million dollars, 57 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:47.840 for example, compared to a five million dollar estimate to 58 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:52.039 build Bailey's, an eighty eight mile mountain bike trail network 59 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:56.240 outside of Athens, Ohio that's projected to generate over twenty 60 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:00.479 seven million dollars in taxes and tourist spending in a decade. 61 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:04.599 Most new routes being designed today are mountain bike or 62 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:08.599 multi use trails, often built with excavators and dozers. But 63 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:11.439 when a project is in a designated wilderness area in 64 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:15.960 the US, which is which in most instances prohibits not 65 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:20.040 only motorized access but also motorized tools, or in a 66 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:24.959 remote back country location like Alaska and Patagonia, it requires 67 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:29.680 someone like Talbot, who specializes in hand built backcountry trails. 68 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:33.680 It's difficult for the average highat hiker to grasp how 69 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:37.959 much work goes into any trail, but hand building in 70 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.000 a wilderness area demands a level of effort that can 71 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:45.120 seem practically paleolithic. Consider the task of drilling a hole 72 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.920 through rock without a power tool. Tailbot must line up 73 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:51.439 a drill bit on a rock, hit it with a hammer, 74 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:55.160 rotated a quarter turn, and hit it again, over and over. 75 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.199 It takes an hour to drill through an inch of 76 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:02.000 Sierra granite, and a crew once spent two full weeks 77 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:06.879 in California's john Mere Wilderness using starbits to drill dozens 78 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:10.800 of three inch deep holes so they could insert feather wedges, 79 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.560 two L shaped shims with a wedge driven between them 80 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.560 to split the rock. For all this work, a trail 81 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:20.639 builder usually remains anonymous. You go out in the woods 82 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.839 to gather material and you build something you hope people 83 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.639 don't even notice. Talbot says, it's in service to the environment. 84 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:29.839 You don't sign your name. It's one of the most 85 00:05:29.879 --> 00:05:33.720 beautiful things I could imagine doing. On the best trails, 86 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:37.680 hikers enter an almost imperceptible flow state as they are 87 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:41.439 pulled deeper into the natural world. After a few days 88 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.040 shooting grades in El Chatin, Talbot and Bittner took me 89 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.879 backpacking on the trails they designed in Perito Moreno to 90 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:53.439 experience that feeling firsthand. On the Big Loop, a ten 91 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:58.639 point five mile circumnavigation of the Bel Grano Peninsula, Talbot 92 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:02.319 pointed to how the trail contoured the mountain side, swooping 93 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.000 in and out of micro ungulations in the terrain to 94 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:11.079 turn users and thus shift their perspective between the snowy tigers, 95 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:15.439 striped mountains in the distance and glowing grasses in the foreground. 96 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:19.040 If there isn't continuous variation in what we're doing, we 97 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:22.720 tend to lose gratitude for it. Talbot explained, changing a 98 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:25.800 user's picture like this leads to a continuous renewal of 99 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.199 the senses, even in places where massive views abound. He'll 100 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:34.160 shift a hiker's attention between small, up close details and 101 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:39.000 grander pistas. Whimsy or play is another element of a 102 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:43.720 well designed track. When out, Talbot helps fellow New England 103 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:48.240 trail builder Erin Amadon Reroot, a popular and badly eroded 104 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:51.480 trail in New Hampshire. The pair wove the trail to 105 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:55.680 every beautiful glacial erratic that we could possibly tie into, 106 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.879 Talbot says, referring to the boulders strewed about the landscape 107 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:04.480 the prehistoric movement of glaciers. They also anchored turns with 108 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:07.439 rocks so that hikers couldn't see what was coming around 109 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:10.879 the bend, and in one spot, Talbot used boulders to 110 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.720 construct what trail builders call a gateway when a trail 111 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:19.040 threads between two obstacles like a pair of trees. Gateways 112 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:21.759 make hikers feel as if they're walking through a portal 113 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:26.360 passing from one experience to another, says Talbot. Exciting and 114 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.879 engaging hikers like this makes them forget they're even walking 115 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.959 a trail. They think they're just meandering through the woods. 116 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:38.360 Amadon says, conversely, hikers rebel against a poorly designed trail. 117 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.680 On my third day in ill Chatin, i hiked the 118 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.199 fourteen mile round trip from town to the Laguna Delos 119 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.439 Terrace on my own. For the first time, I noticed 120 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:52.600 ways that the trail influenced my experience. How for example, 121 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.800 the wood in case steps had an awkward rhythm, as 122 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.839 Talbot had pointed out, they were astride and a half 123 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:02.040 long instead of once dried, and how hikers had thus 124 00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:06.199 flowed like water around them, widening the trail on either 125 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:11.800 side and providing feedback without realizing it. Talbot was also 126 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.199 right about the energy shift in the final one point 127 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:18.079 two miles, when my scenic hike became a slog. There 128 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:20.480 were beautiful views of the valley below, but my eyes 129 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.720 were trained on my feet. Yet the summit was spectacular, 130 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:27.639 and the hikers nestled among the rocks like concertgoers seemed 131 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:31.000 as satisfied as I felt. The murmur of different languages 132 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:35.039 filled the air as people took selfies, poured mate from Thermoses, 133 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:38.120 or just stared at the cracked face of Mount Fitzroy 134 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:42.919 in quiet contemplation. One young woman was crying. Talbot, like 135 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.799 most trail builders, is motivated by a deep love for 136 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.440 the outdoors and the belief that it can heal and 137 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.320 transform us. He hopes that bringing more of us to 138 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.879 wild places will persuade us to save them. Connecting people 139 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.960 with nature could solve a lot of humanity's problems, he says. 140 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:01.320 But a good trail does more and bring people into nature. 141 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.600 It protects nature from us. The same hikers who were 142 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:08.120 overcome by the sublime beauty of the lake also told 143 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:12.080 me that theoretically they would prefer to walk the steeper, eroded, 144 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:15.559 and more direct trail than a longer, but more moderately 145 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:21.080 graded reroute. Someone seemed some seem to have mis interpreted 146 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:24.440 what they were experiencing, saying they preferred the raw and 147 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.200 natural character of the existing trail over what they envisioned 148 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:32.360 as a more manicured redesign. This is a misconception that 149 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.320 many hikers have about sustainable trails, and it makes Talbot 150 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:42.159 uncharacteristically irritated. Anyone who thinks that that eroded gully is natural, 151 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:45.039 that's a human made travesty, he tells me as we 152 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:49.360 drive back to El Chatin from Perito Moreno, most people 153 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:52.679 don't think about trails. They don't know what's natural. That 154 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:57.799 may be because unsustainable trails still vastly outnumber sustainable ones. 155 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:01.799 While scouting for the Laguna del Trice redesigned one day, 156 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.960 we descended a slope adjacent and identical in aspect to 157 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:09.320 the damaged mountain side. This is probably what the mountain 158 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.000 originally looked like, Talbot told me. Instead of being brown 159 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:16.480 and rock strewn like its beleaguered twin, the slope was 160 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:21.360 verdant and fuzzy, liketed in vegetation. The contrast was startling. 161 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:24.159 We are so habituated to the site of our own 162 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.320 damage to the land that we don't even recognize its 163 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:30.720 native state. After more than a week of tramping through 164 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:34.000 the woods, Talbot and Bitner unlocked a design for a 165 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.120 new trail, but it's unclear when their vision will come 166 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:40.360 to fruition. The project is now facing an obstacle that 167 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:45.759 even the most vestigious designer can't avoid politics. Last March, 168 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:51.039 while Tabot was wrapping of his scouting, community members protested 169 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:54.720 the APN's construction of a new all terrain vehicle trail 170 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:57.720 that led up to the foot of the problematic section 171 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:01.519 he had been tasked to solve. A court has since 172 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.879 halted all projects in the area until the ap N 173 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:10.799 completes the necessary environmental analysis and public input process. Even 174 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:15.440 once work is greenlit, the trail faces significant hurdles, namely 175 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:20.639 funding for construction and labor. Talbot's redesign sounds phenomenal, says 176 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:25.080 professional climber Rollo Garibalti, who led volunteers in a two 177 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:29.120 thousand eighty nine restoration of parts of the trail. But 178 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:32.600 trail work, more than anything, is hard work, he reminds me, 179 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.519 requiring lots and lots of hands. For now, the fate 180 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:41.840 of the embattled upward segment of Laguna Delo's trace remains unclear, 181 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:44.399 But having been with Talbot the day he figured out 182 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:47.200 the reroute, I can tell you what the trail could be. 183 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.519 The new track would begin by gently ascending through a 184 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:55.200 forest of old, widely spaced langa trees. About half a 185 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:58.840 mile in it would turn up hill around a small 186 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.399 rib in the terrain to reveal a sight that made 187 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:04.879 both Talbot and Bidner laugh in wonder when they found it, 188 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.720 a willowy waterfall framed between a pair of vertical rocks. 189 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.000 Here the trail would change tack and ascend gradually back 190 00:12:13.159 --> 00:12:16.720 toward the old route, crossing three more waterfalls, and emerging 191 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.039 from the forest to sweeping views of the valley, where 192 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.840 hikers might enjoy that paradoxical comfort of feeling like a 193 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:28.639 small creature in a vast landscape. At this junction, hikers 194 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:31.639 would probably see the old, eroded trail for years to come, 195 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:34.639 But if this path is built, they could one day 196 00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:38.080 make the pilgrimage up to the Laguna de Lustrace on 197 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:41.000 a route that no longer tears apart the land. They'd 198 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:43.799 continue to find awe or peace or a sense of 199 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.919 accomplishment or whatever else they came for along the way, 200 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:50.039 and the old wound would begin to close as the 201 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.919 mountain slowly heals the new rules of trail building. Professional 202 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.120 trail builders deploy their knowledge of psychology, geography, and geology 203 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:03.840 to lead highs on an immersive, ecologically friendly journey. Their 204 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:06.919 best routes feel as if they are part of the landscape. 205 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:11.679 Preserve the land. A sustainably built trail follows the contours 206 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:15.240 of the terrain to prevent erosion. Subtle dips and rises 207 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.440 on the path on a moderate grade insure water sheds 208 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:23.759 easily immerse the user. Using rocks and trees as anchor points, 209 00:13:23.879 --> 00:13:27.039 helps signal turns and urges up hikers to stay on 210 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:31.240 the path. A designer uses those same materials for structures 211 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:35.919 like steers and bridges when needed keep hikers on their toes. 212 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:40.159 The best trails feed our desire for novelty. They'll alternate 213 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:44.000 between close up, intimate views and expansive vistas. It's even 214 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:47.480 better if the changes unfold gradually, allowing a user to 215 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:53.559 build anticipation for a grand reveal. Manage behavior wide climbing 216 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:57.279 urns are easier to navigate than tight and steep switchbacks. 217 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:01.159 They also discourage all users hikers, climb Himer's, bikers and 218 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:06.919 equestrians from cutting the trail. Next Decoding the Lost Scripts 219 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:11.960 of the Ancient World by Joshua Hammer. Across the Globe, 220 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.440 a race is underway to crack some of the last 221 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:18.519 mysterious forms of writing that have never been translated. Here's 222 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:23.279 how new technology and fresh breakthroughs might help scholars solve 223 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:28.159 the world's most vexing puzzles and rewrite history. The room 224 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.840 we are in is locked. It is windowless and lit 225 00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:34.200 from above by a fluorescent bulb in the hallway outside. 226 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.559 Two stories beneath, the City of London attendance in dark 227 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:41.720 suits patrol silently, giving the scene an air of cinematic drama. 228 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.399 Where in the downtime Safety Deposits Center where the Iranian 229 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:52.720 British art collector Pombi's mahbub Bayan, direct keeper of one 230 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:56.480 of the world's great trobes of Near Eastern ancient art, 231 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.720 houses some of his more precious pieces under lock and key. 232 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:03.159 Sitting across from me at a small table, mah bu 233 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:07.200 Bayan reaches gingerly into a green plastic shopping bag from 234 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:12.080 Wytrous and Partners, the British supermarket chain. From it, he 235 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:15.799 produces a silver beaker covered with friezes long ago hammered 236 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.840 out in high relief. As he places the tea kettle 237 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.360 sized vessel on the table, I can see on it 238 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:24.679 the image of a helmeted, barrel chested man with a 239 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.559 long braided beard, his arms held outward in a gesture 240 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:33.120 of devotion. Mah bub Bayan emotions for me to take 241 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:35.159 a closer look. Can I pick it up? I ask him? 242 00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:39.080 Of course, he replies. Neat Rows of engraved symbols wrap 243 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:45.200 around the object. Asterisks, triangles with antenna like appendages, hatch diamonds, 244 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:47.799 lightning bolts. As I hold the beaker to the light, 245 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:50.960 I catch a slight tremble in my hands. The metal 246 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.720 is so soft and pliable that I fear it will 247 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.600 break apart in my fingers. The beaker dates to the 248 00:15:56.679 --> 00:16:02.200 early Bronze Age, meaning the craftsmen whoulously scratched these symbols 249 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:05.440 into silver did so roughly forty three hundred years ago. 250 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.320 What they all mean has been a riddle that's baffled 251 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:12.480 archaeologists and historians. The characters belonged to a system of 252 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:17.320 writing called linear Elamite, which took root between twenty seven 253 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:20.919 hundred and twenty three hundred BC in a peaceful kingdom 254 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:25.639 called Elam in what is now southwestern Iran. The Elamite 255 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:29.039 writing system endured for several hundred years before it was 256 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:32.679 swept aside by another script and lost to history. Then, 257 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:36.960 just over a century ago, French archaeologists excavating the Elamite 258 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:42.120 capital of Susa discovered nineteen inscriptions written in stone and clay. 259 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.759 The long sequences of signs clearly meant something, but what. 260 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:50.159 For decades, the philologists studying the symbols in a quest 261 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:54.519 to understand linear Elamite made little progress. For one big reason, 262 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:58.840 the corpus of written material consisted of only about forty inscriptions. 263 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:03.559 The code cracking researchers who piece together ancient languages generally 264 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.960 rely on an abundance of symbols to spot repetitions, patterns, 265 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:12.240 and signed clusters, the raw dead data that provide clues 266 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:16.400 to grammar, syntax, names, and places. One such scholar who 267 00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:19.960 fell into the seemingly impossible mission of making sense of 268 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:25.759 linear Elamite was Francois des Sat, a French archaeologist whose 269 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.960 curiosity turned into a twenty year journey to decipher the 270 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:33.400 writing system. His recent headline making claims of success have 271 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:38.799 both galvanized public attention and incited skeptics. They've also underscored 272 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:41.279 the idea that we might be at a pivotal moment 273 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:44.519 in the study of these ancient scripts today, roughly a 274 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:48.400 dozen forms of writing remain undeciphered, and a new generation 275 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.240 of scholars as set forth, often with the aid of 276 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.680 new technology, to reveal the last secrets of the ancients. 277 00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:00.720 Decipherers have used AI in recent years to locate arclical sites, 278 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:05.559 restore illegible texts, and analyze linguistic patterns to make inferences 279 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:09.680 about grammar and vocabulary. But while AI has sped up 280 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.119 the translations of languages and writings already known to a 281 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.559 handful of scholars, the technology has yet to demonstrate the 282 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:23.279 creativity needed to decode hitherto unknown scripts. Indeed, creativity is 283 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:28.799 what Dessett summoned when he set out to understand linear elamite. 284 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.400 His first conclusion was that he needed to find more 285 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.240 examples of the script. Around two thousand and four, he 286 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:38.759 heard about the mah Bu Bayan Collection, the stockpile of 287 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:42.839 Near Eastern treasures. The family claims had initially been acquired 288 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:50.000 by mah Bubayan's grandfather, a physician turned archaeologist named Benjamin Machbubayan. 289 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:56.240 The collection included ten silver vessels and fragments known as kunanki, 290 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:01.279 decorated with images and covered by linear elamite inscriptions. The 291 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:06.240 family has long maintained that Benjamin Mubabian uncovered the art 292 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:10.960 himself in a tomb in Campfurus in southwestern Iran. He 293 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:14.440 found them all in one place, cambiz Maubumbian told me, 294 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:17.200 and then he sent them all to Paris, where they 295 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:21.240 remained with relatives before making their way to London. But 296 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:25.400 experts have challenged the authenticity of the Kunanki. The family 297 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:30.039 has no documents proving their provenance. The mab Bubayans fled 298 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.200 Tehran just before the toppling of the Shah in nineteen 299 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:37.279 seventy nine and arrived in London, where they became prominent 300 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:41.759 art dealers. To say, eager to get his eyes on 301 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:44.880 what he imagined to be linear, Elamite reached out to 302 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:49.920 the mabu Bayans, who ignored his approaches for years. Then 303 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:54.599 a British museum curator they trusted made an introduction. In 304 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.839 twenty fifteen, the Kunanki, which had been stored in the 305 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:01.079 London vault, were delivered by a secure team to the 306 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.839 home of mom Bu Bayan's sister Roya, where to say, 307 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:08.000 it was at least permitted to inspect them. What to say, 308 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:10.799 found amazed him. Laid out before him, he could see 309 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:14.319 rows of symbols wrapping around beakers, cups, and fragments of 310 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.559 broken vessels. He was elated as he snapped hundreds of 311 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.640 photographs documenting everything, while suspecting he might never see the 312 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:24.839 artifacts again. He told me that he thought, maybe this 313 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:27.279 will be the last time I should get all the 314 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:31.200 information possible to say. Says that the visit to Roya 315 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:35.559 Mabubian's home has vastly increased the number of symbols available 316 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:38.440 to him, and he hoped that among the symbols he 317 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:40.920 might find the missing link he had yearned for, the 318 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.839 break that would allow him to solve one of archaeology's 319 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:47.559 most vexing puzzles. Every now and again, there are moments 320 00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:50.440 when history seems to lift its veil and the secrets 321 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:53.880 of long lost scripts are freshly revealed. In the early 322 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:58.200 eighteen hundreds, the discovery of the famed Rosetta Stone ignited 323 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:02.759 a competition between england wishman Thomas Young and Frenchman Jean 324 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.440 Frecois Champollion to decrypt Egyptian hieroglyphs the sacred writing of 325 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:12.079 the Pharaohs. Three decades later, the excavation of twenty five 326 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:16.440 hundred year old riverside palaces in northern Iraq set off 327 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:21.279 a race between the Victorian scholars Henry Wallinson and Edward 328 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:27.079 Hinks too understand a Cyrio a Sirio Babylonian. Their break 329 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:31.960 through these captivated millions, stirred patriotic fervor, and made accessible 330 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:36.079 the science, medicine, history, mythology, and quotidian life of some 331 00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:41.680 of the ancient ancient world's greatest civilizations. Deciphering ancient writing 332 00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:45.759 reveals how people understood the world, organized their soco acieties, 333 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:49.359 and thought about love and death. The work reanimates the 334 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:55.200 voices of kings and ordinary citizens alike, exposing dreams, insecurities, obsessions, 335 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:58.960 and even humor. It makes the ancients human, and the 336 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.400 scholarship underway now to recover and decipher some of the 337 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.880 oldest and most mysterious writing is reshaping our view of 338 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:09.799 how languages spread, and, in the case of linear Elamite, 339 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:13.759 how early writing itself might have begun. Of course, the 340 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:17.440 scripts that remain undeciphered occupy that category for a reason. 341 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:22.240 They present extraordinary challenges. For instance, linguists have been working 342 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:27.240 for a century to decipher Rongorongo, a collection of glyphs 343 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:30.839 carved mostly into wood by the Rapa Nui people of 344 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:35.119 Easter Island. Success has eluded the experts. Similarly, the ancient 345 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:38.559 writing known as Etruscan, used from the seventh to the 346 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:42.799 first century VC and found inscribed on clay tablets in Italy, 347 00:22:43.240 --> 00:22:46.720 has defied attempts to crack it for generations. But the 348 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:50.240 progress that is seemingly being made on several ancient systems, 349 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.200 among them a form of writing referred to as the 350 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:56.960 Indus script, a system of writing called linear a, and 351 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:02.160 certainly the advancements that Francois de Say captained on linear 352 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:06.559 elamite provide instructive insight on how new tools and fresh 353 00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:10.799 ideas might soon reveal some of history's longest held secrets. 354 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:15.480 When Drisley morning in Chennai, India, the bustling capital of 355 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.880 the state of Tamil Nadu, I rode in an auto 356 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:22.720 rickshaw out along the Bay of Bengal, traveling past a 357 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:26.359 beach covered with wooden fishing boats and tin roofed shacks, 358 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:31.519 returned onto a side street and stopped before a yellow 359 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:35.880 concrete building marked the Indus Research Center. Inside I found 360 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:41.519 Sukamar Raja Gopal, a software engineer and amateur decipherer who 361 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:43.759 has been working for more than eighteen years on the 362 00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:47.440 Indus Script. He was hunched over a pile of academic 363 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:52.519 papers immersed in what he calls my obsession. Raja Gopal 364 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:57.160 describes himself as an irrepressible problem solver. He was twenty 365 00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:00.319 years into a software engineering career when he first grew 366 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:03.680 intrigued by the ancient script, joining a long line of 367 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:08.440 whitby decoders, professionals and amateurs alike who've tackled the Bronze 368 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:13.640 age script, perpetually optimistic that the critical break through is 369 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:16.680 right around the corner. Just last year, interest in the 370 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:20.319 long running project was given a major boost after the 371 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:24.319 Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu offered a one million dollar 372 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:27.680 prize to anyone who solved the mystery and could prove it. 373 00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:31.279 Not surprisingly, the bounty has ratcheted up the stakes in 374 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:35.079 the hunt for solutions. Back in the nineteen twenties, when 375 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:38.920 archaeologists found the script, they recognized its importance right away. 376 00:24:39.400 --> 00:24:43.240 Researchers have been working at two sites, Mohenjo Daro and 377 00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:47.160 Harappa along the Indus River in what is now Pakistan, 378 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.079 when they located twenty four hundred small pieces of soapstone, 379 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.759 as well as a few bits of ivory and clay, 380 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:58.079 all engraved with what looked like both abstract characters and 381 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:01.920 recognizable objects, such as fil fish, water, buffalo, plants, and 382 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:06.920 human like stick figures. The British archaeologists leading the excavation, 383 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:10.839 Sir John Marshall, theorized that they were looking at evidence 384 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:14.279 of one of the world's first literate societies, the achievements 385 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.480 of which were, he wrote, far in advance of anything 386 00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:21.039 to be found at that time in Babylon or on 387 00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:24.319 the banks of the Nile. If Marshall suspected that he 388 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.839 was on the brink of unlocking something extraordinary, those hopes 389 00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:32.720 eventually fizzled. The inscriptions on the soapstone seals are frustratingly 390 00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:37.240 maddeningly short. Ninety percent of them consist of fewer than 391 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:41.240 four characters. The longest has only fourteen. What could you 392 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.680 possibly communicate with that? Asks Raja Gopal. In two thousand 393 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.519 and four, three noted scholars in the field published a 394 00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:52.960 paper titled the Collapse of the indiscript Thesis The Myth 395 00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:57.759 of a literate hareupon civilization. In it, they posited that 396 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:02.599 the signs say nothing at all. Most recently, the Indus 397 00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:05.799 Research Center has become a gathering point for linguists and 398 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:10.279 a locusts of modern investigation into the script. Raja Gopal 399 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.680 began volunteering there in two thousand and nine. He had 400 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.480 always nurtured a deep admiration for the great philologists of 401 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:20.640