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Underfoot · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: On a November evening in eighteen oh nine, a British
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  Speaker 1: diplomat named Benjamin Bathurst and his assistant Herr Krauss, climbed
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  Speaker 1: out of their horse drawn carriage outside of a shabby
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  Speaker 1: inn in a small town in Prussia. As Kraus was
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  Speaker 1: hitching the horses to a post, he saw Bathurst glance
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  Speaker 1: frantically around the street. Kraus asked him what was wrong,
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  Speaker 1: and Bathhurst said that he was certain that they were
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  Speaker 1: being followed. Bathurst had been acting oddly paranoid all week long.
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  Speaker 1: The two men were on their way back from a
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  Speaker 1: diplomatic mission in Vienna, and to get home they had
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  Speaker 1: to travel through territory controlled by the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte,
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  Speaker 1: who was currently at war with Britain. Bathurst was sure
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  Speaker 1: if anyone found out that he a British diplomat was
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  Speaker 1: passing through the area he would be captured or killed,
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  Speaker 1: and so he'd been taking every precaution in the book
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  Speaker 1: to stay under the radar. He was traveling under a
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  Speaker 1: fake name. He refused to stop anywhere for more than
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  Speaker 1: a few hours at a time for fear that his
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  Speaker 1: enemies might find him, And now, despite how careful he'd been,
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  Speaker 1: he was worried that he was being followed by spies.
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  Speaker 1: Kraus was at his wits end trying to keep his
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  Speaker 1: boss calm. They were reaching the last leg of their
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  Speaker 1: journey and so far nothing bad had happened to them,
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  Speaker 1: so he didn't understand why Bathurst was still so agitated.
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  Speaker 1: He was anxious to get home so that they could
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  Speaker 1: both finally rest. While Krauss finished hitching up the horses,
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  Speaker 1: Bathurst went inside to check in. He came back a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes later and gave Kraus a room key. He
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  Speaker 1: said they were just going to rest there for a
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  Speaker 1: few hours, have dinner, and then get back on the
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  Speaker 1: road so they could travel all nights under the cover
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  Speaker 1: of darkness. Kraus went up to his room for a nap,
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  Speaker 1: and around nine o'clock that night, he was awoken by
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  Speaker 1: frantic knocking at the door. He opened it to find
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  Speaker 1: Bathurst looking even more agitated than usual. Kraus asked if
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  Speaker 1: he was okay, and Bathurst barked that it was time
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  Speaker 1: to go. Kraus followed Bathurst outside, and while he loaded
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  Speaker 1: up the carriage, Bathurst tapped his feet and nervously checked
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  Speaker 1: his watch. He was wild eyed and sweat was dripping
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  Speaker 1: down his pale forehead. Something had clearly spooked him, but
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  Speaker 1: Kraus had no idea what. Out of the corner of
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  Speaker 1: his eye, he saw Bathurst walk past him and go
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  Speaker 1: around to the other side of the carriage. Mere seconds later,
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  Speaker 1: Kraus looked over to see where he was going, and
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  Speaker 1: Bathurst was gone. Kraus walked around the stables, searched every
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  Speaker 1: nearby road, and even went back inside the inn to
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  Speaker 1: look around, but there was no sign of Bathurst anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: He had completely vanished without a trace. Benjamin Bathurst was
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  Speaker 1: never found. There are multiple theories about what might have
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  Speaker 1: happened to him. He could have been killed by bandits,
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  Speaker 1: kidnapped by French spies, or even died by his own hand,
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  Speaker 1: but none of these theories can fully explain how in
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  Speaker 1: the span of no more than just a few seconds,
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  Speaker 1: a grown man disappeared into thin air. It was nineteen
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  Speaker 1: oh two in the port town of Paula, Malta, and
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  Speaker 1: Father Maghri was overseeing the construction of a new parish
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  Speaker 1: hall for his growing congregation. Workers toiled all day in
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  Speaker 1: the hot sun excavating the site and hauling away the
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  Speaker 1: rocks to set the foundation, and in one afternoon, something
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  Speaker 1: strange happened. The men broke through the ground to find
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  Speaker 1: a large hollow beneath. In the space, they found artifacts
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  Speaker 1: and human remains. They thought it was perhaps a small tomb,
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  Speaker 1: but further investigation proved they had in fact uncovered one
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  Speaker 1: of the most enigmatic sites in the world. What the
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  Speaker 1: men had discovered was a large subterranean structure, a series
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  Speaker 1: of halls and chambers carved from the limestone. Father Magri
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  Speaker 1: realized immediately that the site could have some historical significance,
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  Speaker 1: and so as the men uncovered more and more of it,
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  Speaker 1: he thoroughly documented the site, hoping to preserve it in
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  Speaker 1: its entirety for future generations. He would not document for long, though,
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  Speaker 1: as he died shortly after without his guiding influence the
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  Speaker 1: site was neglected and fell prey to grave robbers. Five
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  Speaker 1: years passed before an archaeologist would take up his mantle,
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  Speaker 1: the impressively named Sir Zammit Themesticles. It was Zamet who
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  Speaker 1: would truly uncover the real scale of the subterranean structure,
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  Speaker 1: which which came to be known as the Hall Cephlienni Hypogeum.
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  Speaker 1: It was divided into three levels, each one dug deeper
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  Speaker 1: into the earth to make the best use of the space.
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  Speaker 1: The top level, the one discovered by Father Magri's men,
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  Speaker 1: was the primary entrance, containing a number of chambers used
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  Speaker 1: for ritualistic and burial practices. The level below had a
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  Speaker 1: more sophisticated design that mirrored the large above ground temples
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  Speaker 1: of the era that it was built in. This included
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  Speaker 1: an oracle room, the Sanctum Sanctorum, or the Holiest of Holies.
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  Speaker 1: This chamber was built with strange acoustic properties. Its shape
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  Speaker 1: causes sound to resonate at one hundred hertz. Modern studies
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  Speaker 1: have shown that this particular frequency can suppress activity in
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  Speaker 1: the brain's left hemisphere, subtly altering consciousness. This suggests that
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  Speaker 1: the room was likely used for religious purposes, priests attempting
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  Speaker 1: to commune with the dead or some divine power. In
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  Speaker 1: the lowest level, archaeologists discovered the remains of roughly seven
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  Speaker 1: thousand people in a large necropolis or city of the dead.
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  Speaker 1: This meant that it was no ordinary burial ground, but
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  Speaker 1: likely the central tomb for the area. Over many centuries,
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  Speaker 1: excavations have uncovered stone tools and pottery, as well as
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  Speaker 1: a small alabaster figure of a woman which came to
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  Speaker 1: be known as the Sleeping Lady. She among many other
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  Speaker 1: similar figurines and walls and bones colored in ochre, suggests
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  Speaker 1: a complex religion complete with ancestor worship and an afterlife,
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  Speaker 1: as well as a possible cult of the dead. Construction
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  Speaker 1: of the Hypogeum dates all the way back to three
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  Speaker 1: THOY three hundred BCE, and it seems as though the
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  Speaker 1: necropolis was used until at least twenty five hundred BCE.
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  Speaker 1: That's up to eight hundred years of burial. It was
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  Speaker 1: an incredible accomplishment of engineering for the time, as builders
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  Speaker 1: didn't have the use of metal tools, and so they
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  Speaker 1: used picks made of antlers, stone hammers, and flint carving
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  Speaker 1: tools to dig out and shape the limestone. Despite these limitations,
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  Speaker 1: though their stone work is deeply impressive. Pillars and false
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  Speaker 1: doors carved into the walls mirror those found in temples
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  Speaker 1: on the surface, and that the structure keeps an average
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  Speaker 1: temperature of sixty eight degrees shows the excellent understanding of
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  Speaker 1: ventilation and has helped to preserve the bodies for thousands
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  Speaker 1: of years. In twenty seventeen, Malta finished a massive renovation
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  Speaker 1: project to help curb some of the normal wear and
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  Speaker 1: tear that happens to ancient sites with heavy traffic. A
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  Speaker 1: modern climate controlled system has been installed to keep the
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  Speaker 1: air cool and dry, and visitors are limited to occasional
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  Speaker 1: tours which need to be booked far in advance. In
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  Speaker 1: this way, they hope to preserve the ancient site for
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  Speaker 1: generations to come. The Hall Saflienni Hypogeum is a powerful
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  Speaker 1: link to the prehistoric past of the Mediterranean. It gives
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  Speaker 1: us insight into the spiritual lives of a society that
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  Speaker 1: grew in isolation and challenges the more common perception of
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  Speaker 1: the capabilities of ancient people. In nineteen eighty one, it
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  Speaker 1: was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Sites and continues
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  Speaker 1: to teach us about the daily lives and deaths of
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  Speaker 1: the people who live there and who carve themselves a
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  Speaker 1: curious tomb. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written
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  Speaker 1: by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk.
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  Speaker 1: Learn more about the show and the people who make
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  Speaker 1: it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also
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  Speaker 1: find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book,
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  Speaker 1: available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
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  Speaker 1: joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
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  Speaker 1: the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
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  Speaker 1: sign up over at patreon dot com, slash Grimandmild, and
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  Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.