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				What Happened at Jamestown? What was behind the starvation and violence that devasted the colony?
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: Haven't we all sometimes dreamed of how great it would be to transport ourselves back into the past and see what life was really like back then? About as close as we can get to that are living history exhibits-- like this reconstruction of the Jamestown fort as it appeared around 1610. It was struggling to survive then and become the first permanent English settlement in America. But how do we know what to put in the reconstructions? Of course, where they exist@H documents and records can tell us a lot but sometimes they're misleading or incomplete. Often the most telling information is literally dug up. That's what scientists have been doing on Jamestown Island in the five years since the site of the original fort was discovered about a mile from here. The results have been spectacularly revealing-- particularly what they've found through forensic analysis of the human remains-- so that now we have an intimate and in some ways unexpected picture of those early, terrible days at Jamestown. Then we'll be off around the world in search of other dead men's tales. =In western China the dead men are wonderfully preserved, mummified bodies of people who traveled between China and Europe 2,000 years ago. The discovery of those mummies is shedding surprising new light on the first contacts between Chinese and European cultures. In southern Africa we'll witness the unprecedented discovery of a rich royal grave. It's inside a palace complex in the center of a powerful and ancient trading network. In Egypt, we'll be there as archaeologists discover for the first time the tombs of the people who built the pyramids-- literally built the pyramids; not the pharaohs who gave the orders but the laborers and foremen and engineers who actually did the work. And we'll make our way to the American Wild West to see how forensic archaeology x has shown that the legend of Wild Bill Longley is just a tall tale. But first, think back 400 years. Europeans have begun settling in North America and the continent is about to change forever. I'm traveling with an archaeologist and a climate expert and we're about to cross the James River in Virginia. We're heading for one of the last untouched bald cypress swamps in America with trees that hcan be 1,000 years old. Th?e swamp may contain the key to understanding the terrible death rate suffered in the English colony set up on Jamestown Island in 1607. From our ferry we could see the island which for the colonists was apparently very badly situated. One of the English writes of... "We took most of our drink from the river which was very brackish and makes us sick." ALDA: There could be a simple explanation for the bad river water. MAN: In drought years with very poor flow the brackish and salty waters intrude well upstream of Jamestown. When the Indians visited them that one time and said, "You better start praying to your gods for rain" did they start to put two and two together then? Did they say, "Why should we pray for rain? Is something wrong?" I think they were flattered by that comment more than anything. Because, in fact, what this Indian chief said-- and he lived just upstream from here-- was "In the same way that your guns and your ships "are better than our bows and arrows and our dugouts "your god may be more powerful than ours. "So please pray to him for rain because our god is not sending any." ALDA: Jamestown Island is just 1,600 acres, jutting out into the river. It's about 40 miles from the southern end of Chesapeake Bay. The ancient cypress swamp is here and we'll get back to that later in the story. But first we'll head to the island. In 1994 there was a major breakthrough when the colony's original fort was unearthed. MAN: My interest in this particular piece of land here was the church site. And what you see there is a reconstructed church. But in front of it is a church tower from the 17th century. Did you think the fort would be near the church? Yeah-- the first description was that the church is in the fort then it's at the center of the fort. These are from historical documents. ACTOR: "A low level of ground about half an acre "is cast almost into the form of a triangle "and so palisadoed. "The south side next the river contains 140 yards; "the west and east sides, 100 only. "In the middest is a marketplace, a storehouse and acorps de garde, as likewise a pretty chapel." ALDA: It had always been thought that the fort had eroded into the river but Bill Kelso reasoned that if the existing church-- right behind him here-- is on the site of the original chapel then the fort should still exist. Okay, this way a little more. Am I excited? You better believe it! ALDA: A private group-- the Associationp for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities-- acquired the site in the 19th century to preserve the church. They agreed to let Kelso dig. Here's a musket ball... and a piece of pottery. ALDA: Kelso's first shovelfuls contained colonial artifacts and over the next three years the shadowy outlines of post holes and walls were revealed. The fort, abandoned and forgotten by about 1625 had been found. We found holes that were dug in the ground where there were supports but they were very small supports and we think it was this crude at first. What would this have been? Probably a barracks... because here you have a military outpost. ALDA: Kelso's teamtried reconstructing the fort's palisade. The colonists built their fort over just a few weeks without the modern conveniences when they were attacked by Indians soon after arriving. ALDA: You don't have any other supports? You just have this stuff going straight in 18 inches? That's it-- when you put these posts side by side they support each other. And we also found that we had dirt left over which would have been a shot platform. This would have acted to support one of those huge muskets. Oh, I see, so you have a little backing here with the dirt. You could be standing here. And also, this obviously is a little problem if you're worried about arrows... What about that? You could get arrows and shot through there. Well, we figure that they probably put saplings in there-- just pounded them in at this point. But up here they'd leave it open because... They can shoot out. ALDA: As I was looking around the site I thought there was something about Bill Kelso's story that didn't quite fit. This fence doesn't seem to encompass the church. It seems to go at an angle that won't include the church. Aha-- right. We were wrong. (laughing) The church-- this church, at least-- was not in the center of the fort. But it's... you know, so what? ALDA: It was pure luck that the present church had been close enough to lead Kelso to the fort. Even with just an eighth of the fort area excavated so far they've been able to build a picture of Jamestown's early days. WOMAN: We have evidence of what was known as "the starving time." That was the winter of 1609-1610. And most of the men literally starved to death. ALDA: These deliberate cut marks in horse bones are just the beginning of an appalling story. They had six mares and two horses before that starving time. They must have been pretty hungry to eat their horses. I mean, you're eating an important part of your life. Exactly-- they're transportation. It's like eating your Oldsmobile or something. ALDA: Even though they ate everythingin sight only 50 people out of 500 survived the winter. It's why the Jamestown colonists have often been dismissed as lazy and incompetent. They were clearly desperate. ACTOR: "Nothing was sparedto maintain life "and to do those things which seem incredible "as to dig up corpse out of graves and eat them "and some have licked up the blood which hath fallen from their weak fellows." ALDA: But far from being lazy or incompetent it now seems the colonists were well prepared and industrious. STRAUBE: It's really unfair to portray the gentlemen who came here as a bunch of lazy, good-for-nothing guys who didn't want to get their hands dirty or blistered. Because we found a lot of evidence of things that they were busy doing such as making window glass to send back to London. They thought they'd make a profit. ALDA: The colony was a straightforward commercial venture. The main objective was gold. This is a metal refining still. They made their own pipes and raising tobacco was another objective. Their plan for subsistence was simple and realistic: trade for corn, using jewelry made from sheet copper that they brought with them. They knew the local Powhatan Indians prized copper highly. Initially this strategy worked, but something went wrong. Indians stopped trading. Some attacked the fort. There were constant skirmishes. The fort site is filled with the leftovers of fighting. A couple of items showed up just in the short time we were there. This is a piece of chipped stone that's been flaked. But it's very distinctive in that these are really straight cuts. If this was natural, this would be more rounded. Probably American Indians did it-- probably to get a piece of stone for a projectile point. GAMBLE: This is probably... Well, thisis. This is a piece of flint that the... or English flint that the colonists would chip off bits and pieces to use for their weapons. This is not natural to the area, but this is a good find. This is a good find. ALDA: The excavations also uncovered a mysterious casualty whose remains are being analyzed at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History by Doug Owsley and Ashley McCowan forensic anthropologists. From radiocarbon dating, it's believed that this could be one of the first colonists. They called it JR102C. You have no idea what his name was? No, I wish we did. You would think he would jump out in terms of the historic record but the record for this time period is such a black hole. ALDA: Here's what they can tell from "J.R.'s" bones. The pelvis says he's male. The skull dimensions and the straight tooth edges say he's European. The growth line in the leg bone says he's young and the healthy teeth say he had good nutrition when growing up so he was probably a gentleman. Then there's one more thing. OWSLEY: His right leg, his shinbone is completely fragmented. And in place was this round ball. This is a lead ball right here. So he got shot, huh? He got shot. And it was essentially like a combat shotgun type of load. Because when you look at the X rays of it not only was there this large round ball but there are a number of small, buckshot-type pellets, and also lead fragments. It practically blew his lower leg off. ALDA: The Indians didn't have guns in the early days at Jamestown. So what happened? The project set up ballistics tests using a reproduction of the type of musket the colonists used. The big ball @landed there, right? Over here. SCHOLPP: Yeah, there isyour main shot. I was aiming right about here. ALDA: They're using a shot load matched to the X ray of the young man's leg bone. There's one large ball with about 25 fragments. Here's a shot from 20 yards. SCHOLPP: So we've got... really a massive spread here. If this is typical of the kind of spread you get at that distance then J.R. had to have been shot much closer. At closer range, absolutely. ALDA: Next: a point-black shot. Aim... fire. ALDA: That looked an awful lot like you were too close to be... to come up with the pattern that J.R. had, right? wñOLet's see what we got here. We got unpleasantry. Wasn't his spread out more? Yeah. ALDA: Next shot: at a range of five yards. (fires) And that's just about right. So J.R. couldn't have shot himself by accident but maybe someone else shot him by accident. Fred Scholpp, the firearms expert thinks he knows how it could have happened. It was standard fighting procedure for soldiers to fire from the front rank and then retire to reload. Someone in the rear rank could have made a mistake while reloading. Present your piece, give fire... and retire. Don't point that thing! (Alda laughing) This is sort of from the front. ALDA: But J.R. was shot from the side. The angles just don't work out with Fred's theory. I don't know. ALDA: Well, now what? Now, where are you with the theory now? What do you think? That's his theory. Oh-ho, that's not your theory. My theory is that it was on purpose. Ah. And that, you know, what you say-- one less mouth to feed. Right. And, in times of stress-- people are starving to death-- we resort to some pretty animalistic behavior. ALDA: We made it to the swamp 20 miles from Jamestown. Okay, I'm going to watch. If you disappear, I'm not taking your path. ALDA: These magnificent bald cypress trees contain the simplest explanation for all the colony's problems. It just takes a little work for David Stahle to find it. ALDA: You know, I'm sure glad that you're here today. Otherwise, they'd have me doing this. (hollow thumping) We're not going to get much, fellas. Not out of this one. ALDA: We're looking for an old tree but one that still has a solid center. David Stahle is part of a network of scientists @ who study cores drilled from ancient trees in order to reconstruct the history of climate. The Jamestown colonists said their water was bad. The Indians said there was no corn to trade. Maybe the colonists were incompetent or the Indians were playing politics. But, no, says David Stahle, there really was a drought. The annual growth rings in these cypresses record what the climate was doing in this region for the last thousand years. It's in two pieces, but... xxxxThere you go. You can see... you got about ten, 12 inches there of ancient cypress. But it looks like you got about 20 to here. I would say that outer inch has probably got more like a hundred. Really? Yeah, I'd really be surprised if it didn't. Yeah, I may need a new prescription, too. ALDA: Actually, you need a microscope. Each pair of dark and light bands represents one year of growth. In 1607, as the colonists arrived the region began its driest seven-year period in 700 years. And 20 years earlier, the worst drought in 800 years simply wiped out an English colony set up at Roanoke Island in North Carolina. You mean to say that they came over twice and hit the worst droughts in hundreds of years two times in a row? STAHLE: Monumental bad luck. I mean, phenomenal bad luck. Yeah, both the two first English adventures in the New World were both beset by drought. ALDA: But the second adventure, Jamestown, succeeded. By 1612, the drought was over and the colony began to thrive. America's first representative assembly met at Jamestown in 1619. Around that time, the first slaves were brought in to work in the tobacco plantations. Jamestown settlers had laid the foundations for the best and the worst of a new nation.

				Time Travelers Spectacular mummies found preserved in Northwest China’s deserts suggest that Europeans came to China over 3 thousand years ago.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: IN SEARCH OF A LITTLE HISTORY. THIS IS LIN XUAN QIN, AN ARTIST WHO MAKES CHOPS. THESE ARE STONES WITH YOUR NAME CARVED IN THEM THAT ARE USED FOR STAMPING YOUR SIGNATURE ON DOCUMENTS. CHOPS ARE GIVING WAY TO WESTERN-STYLE SIGNATURES NOW BUT THEY HAVE A VERY LONG HISTORY IN CHINA. THEY'RE THE FORERUNNER OF PRINTING USING MOVABLE TYPE WHICH WAS INVENTED IN CHINA NEARLY 1,000 YEARS AGO-- 500 YEARS BEFORE GUTENBERG INVENTED MOVABLE TYPE IN EUROPE. Alda: LIN XUAN QIN WAS CARVING MY OWN PERSONAL MOVABLE TYPE. OKAY. HEY... NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. THAT'S TOWARD ME. LIKE THIS, OKAY. Alda: THE LIST OF FIRSTS IN CHINESE INVENTIONS IS STAGGERING. THEY INVENTED GUNPOWDER, THE MAGNETIC COMPASS, PAPER THE WHEELBARROW, THE DECIMAL SYSTEM, PORCELAIN, RELIEF MAPS AND ON AND ON AND ON. SO YOU PROBABLY THINK I'M GOING TO SAY THESE STAMPS WERE INVENTED IN CHINA, TOO. ACTUALLY THEY WEREN'T, THEY CAME TO CHINA FROM THE MIDDLE EAST 3,000 OR SO YEARS AGO. SO WERE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS INVENTED IN CHINA OR IN THE WEST? WELL, HISTORY IS NEVER THAT SIMPLE. WE'RE IN THE FAR WEST OF CHINA. THIS ARID LAND HAS BEEN YIELDING UP SOME EXTRAORDINARY FINDS. THEY'RE THE MUMMIES OF XINJIANG. XINJIANG PROVINCE IS THE OVERLAND BRIDGE BETWEEN CHINA AND EUROPE. IN THE EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY EUROPEANS EXPLORING XINJIANG BEGAN UNCOVERING MUMMIES IN SHALLOW DESERT GRAVES. MORE RECENTLY CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE MADE DISCOVERIES. THE MUMMIES WERE BROUGHT TO URUMQI, THE PROVINCIAL CAPITAL. XINJIANG IS LARGELY MOSLEM ITS PEOPLE DRAWN FROM MANY PARTS OF CENTRAL ASIA. AN ARCHAEOLOGY INSTITUTE HAS SOME OF THE MUMMIES AND THE REST ARE AT THE LOCAL MUSEUM. OURS WERE THE FIRST TV CAMERAS ALLOWED TO FILM THE MUMMIES. THIS IS THE OLDEST, DATING FROM ABOUT 4,000 YEARS AGO. ONCE A YEAR, THE MUMMIES ARE CLEANED AND EXAMINED FOR INSECT DAMAGE. BLOCKS OF INSECTICIDE ARE REPLACED. THE HAT WITH THE EAGLE FEATHER IS FELT AND THE WOVEN ROBE IS WOOL. THEY'RE ALL VULNERABLE TO INSECTS AS ARE THE COWHIDE BOOTS. THE CHILD IS FROM THE SAME PERIOD AS THE FIRST MUMMY. IT WAS CAREFULLY WRAPPED IN A LARGE WOVEN WOOLEN CLOTH HELD TOGETHER WITH WOODEN PEGS. THIS CHILD, FROM ABOUT 3,000 YEARS AGO WAS WRAPPED IN A FINE WOOL BLANKET TIED WITH A BRAIDED CORD. THE REASONS FOR THE STONES AND WOOL NOSE PLUGS ARE UNKNOWN. IT LIES ON A BED OF FELT, WITH A COW HORN DRINKING CUP. THIS MAN IS ONE OF THE MUSEUM'S FINEST EXAMPLES. HE HAS A SUNBURST DECORATION, AGAIN OF UNKNOWN SIGNIFICANCE. THE STATE OF PRESERVATION IS EXTRAORDINARY A RESULT OF THE DRY, SALTY DESERT SOIL... AND ALSO, IT SEEMS, SOME KIND OF GLUELIKE COATING THAT THE BODIES WERE TREATED WITH. ONE STRIKING FACT ABOUT THE MUMMIES STANDS OUT-- THEY DON'T SEEM TO BE CHINESE. THEIR FULL BEARDS AND PROMINENT NOSES ARE CLEAR CAUCASIAN FEATURES. SO WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? CLOSE ANALYSIS OF THE SKULL TYPES SUGGESTS THAT THEY CAME FROM WHAT'S NOW KAZAKHSTAN, IN THE NORTHWEST AND FROM PAKISTAN, IN THE SOUTHWEST. IN THAT PERIOD CHINESE SKULL TYPES FROM THE EAST ARE ONLY FOUND AT THE EDGE OF XINJIANG. XINJIANG'S SPECTACULAR MOUNTAIN RANGES ONCE FED STREAMS AND RIVERS WHICH RUSHED DOWN INTO THE DESERT. THE ANCIENT SETTLERS CLUSTERED AROUND THOSE DESERT OASES. IT'S DRIER HERE NOW, BUT THE LOCAL KAZAKH PEOPLE STILL FOLLOW THE HERDING LIFESTYLE ALONG THE RIVERBANKS CLOSER TO THE MOUNTAINS. THE WONDERFULLY PRESERVED OBJECTS FOUND WITH THE MUMMIES SHOW HOW THEY LIVED. THESE ARE 3,000-YEAR-OLD LAMB RIBS COMPLETE WITH BARBECUE SPIT. THE KAZAKHS LIVE IN HOUSES CALLED YURTS COVERED ENTIRELY WITH FELT THEY'D MADE FROM MATTED WOOL FIBERS JUST LIKE THE CHILD'S FELT BED IN THE MUSEUM. INSIDE, THE YURTS ARE DECORATED WITH WOVEN STRIPS FINISHED WITH BRAIDED CORDS. THE MEN RIDE HORSES, AS THEY DID IN ANCIENT XINJIANG. THIS SADDLE WAS ALSO FOUND WITH THE MUMMIES. IF IT WEREN'T FOR THIS MAN THE MUMMIES WOULD PROBABLY HAVE REMAINED AN OBSCURE CURIOSITY. VICTOR MAIR, A CHINA SCHOLAR FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA VISITED THE MUSEUM SOON AFTER WE'D FILMED. FOR SEVERAL YEARS, HE'S BROUGHT VARIOUS WESTERN SPECIALISTS TO EXAMINE THE MUMMIES. THIS TIME HE WANTED TWO TEXTILE EXPERTS TO BE GIVEN ACCESS. NOW WE'RE GOING UP TO SEE THE MUMMY ROOM. Alda: BUT VICTOR MAIR IS A TERRIBLE THORN IN THE SIDE OF OFFICIAL CHINA. HE'S WORKING ON A THEORY THAT THE MUMMIES REPRESENT PEOPLE WHO ORIGINATED FAR TO THE WEST, IN EUROPE BRINGING WITH THEM NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT THE CHINESE DID NOT HAVE. OF COURSE, WE WERE INTERESTED IN RECORDING THE VISITORS' FIRST REACTIONS. BUT EVEN THOUGH WE'D FILMED THE MUMMIES EARLIER AND PAID THE REQUIRED FEE THE MUSEUM AUTHORITIES WOULDN'T ALLOW IT. WE WERE ASKED TO LEAVE. THE EXPERTS WERE FASCINATED BY WHAT THEY SAW PARTICULARLY THIS PIECE, WHICH THEY IDENTIFIED AS PROBABLY A PRACTICE WEAVING SAMPLER. Woman: IN A WAY THAT... THAT ALMOST TOUCHED ME THE MOST. YEAH, BECAUSE IT REALLY BRINGS... I HAVE ONE, TOO, THAT LOOKS JUST ABOUT AS BAD. ONES THAT YOU'VE TRIED TO MAKE? THE FIRST PIECE YOU WEAVE LOOKS CRUMMY. Alda: MOST INTERESTING WAS THE FACT THAT IT'S TOO BIG TO HAVE BEEN MADE ON THE TYPE OF LOOM THAT THE CHINESE HAD AT THE TIME. I'M VERY INTERESTED IN THAT SAMPLER BECAUSE I'M STARTING TO WONDER IF SOME OF MY IDEAS ABOUT THE LOOM MAY BE CONFIRMED BY THAT PARTICULAR PIECE... THE WIDTH OF IT, FOR EXAMPLE. THE WIDTH, AND ALSO THERE WERE SOME OTHER GARMENTS THAT HAD A VERY WIDE SWATH TO THEM. IT'S NOT BEING DONE ON THE NARROW, BODY-TENSION LOOM. Alda: TODAY, XINJIANG'S DESERT HIGHWAYS ARE BUSY WITH TRUCKS. 700 YEARS AGO, IT WAS MARCO POLO'S CAMELS. THIS IS THE ANCIENT SILK ROAD BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. IF THE MUMMIES WERE THE TRAILBLAZERS ALONG THIS GREAT WORLD TRADE ROUTE, 4,000 YEARS AGO IT COULD MEAN THAT CHINA ACQUIRED IMPORTANT NEW IDEAS FROM THE WEST AND THAT'S WHAT IRRITATES THE GOVERNMENT. IT'S POSSIBLE THAT THE WHEEL ENTERED CHINA THIS WAY. THEY'VE BEEN UNEARTHED IN THE DESERT ALTHOUGH THE DATES AREN'T YET CLEAR. IT DOES NOW SEEM THAT BRONZE CAME TO CHINA FROM THE WEST A FACT WHICH VICTOR MAIR'S CHINESE COLLEAGUES ARE BEGINNING TO ACCEPT. Mair: WHEN I FIRST STARTED THIS PROJECT I WAS GETTING IN HOT WATER FOR SAYING THAT, "HEY, WHY DO WE HAVE BRONZE OUT HERE NOW AND YOU GET IT EARLIER, AND IT ENDS UP IN CHINA LATER? " AND I GOT IN TROUBLE FOR THAT. BUT I'M VERY RELIEVED NOW BECAUSE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE EVENTUALLY WINS. AND CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE. Alda: BUT A PROBLEM FOR THE GOVERNMENT CONCERNS THESE UYGUR PEOPLE. THEY'RE THE DOMINANT GROUP IN THE PROVINCE AND THEY HAVE A GROWING UYGUR NATIONALIST MOVEMENT. VICTOR MAIR'S IDEAS COULD ENCOURAGE THEM. WE KNOW THAT THE UYGURS THEMSELVES DIDN'T GET HERE UNTIL THE EIGHTH CENTURY OF OUR ERA, SO... AND WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE SECOND MILLENNIUM, B. C. SO THAT'S REALLY A SPECIOUS ARGUMENT AND SO THE CHINESE SHOULDN'T WORRY. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH UYGUR NATIONALISM SO WE CAN OMIT THAT ONE, AND I DON'T REALLY THINK I SHOULD GET IN TROUBLE WITH THAT EVER. Alda: BUT VICTOR MAIR CONTINUES TO GET IN TROUBLE. SOON AFTER HIS VISIT THE GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED A LONG ATTACK ON HIS IDEAS. IN CHINA, EVEN TECHNICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS CAN'T BE CONDUCTED FREELY. WILL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EVENTUALLY COME TO CHINA? WELL, TIMES ARE CHANGING. I THINK THE MOST STRIKING THING ABOUT THIS TRIP TO CHINA FOR ME HAS BEEN THE TREMENDOUS SENSE OF CHANGE I'VE SEEN HERE. I MADE MY FIRST TRIP TO CHINA ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO AND IT WAS NOTHING LIKE THIS. THERE ARE RICH PEOPLE HERE NOW. THERE'S NEON. PEOPLE DRESS DIFFERENTLY. IN THOSE DAYS, IT WAS HARD TO FIND SOMEBODY WHO DIDN'T WEAR A MAO SUIT. NOW IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND SOMEBODY WHO DOES. AND THEY DRESS STYLISHLY, TOO, AND THEY MOVE STYLISHLY. IN THOSE DAYS, GETTING ACROSS THE STREET INVOLVED A KIND OF A UTILITARIAN WALK. NOW THEY STRIDE ACROSS THE STREET. THERE'S A SENSE OF SELF-PRESENTATION. AND THERE'S KARAOKE NOW. YOU ALMOST CAN'T GO INTO A CHINESE RESTAURANT WITHOUT HEARING KARAOKE. A FEW YEARS AGO, I TRIED TO GET THEM TO SING FOR ME. THEY WOULDN'T DO IT. I SAID, "TEACH ME A CHINESE SONG. " THEY SAID, "NO. THERE'S A SAYING: "THE BIRD THAT STICKS ITS NECK UP ABOVE THE FLOCK GETS ITS HEAD CUT OFF. " WELL, AS SURPRISING AS THESE CHANGES HAVE BEEN THERE SEEM TO BE EVEN MORE PROFOUND CHANGES UNDER THE SURFACE. I HOPE I'LL BE BACK BEFORE TOO LONG TO SEE THOSE CHANGES. THIS HAS BEEN OUR SPECIAL CHINA EDITION OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS. UNTIL NEXT TIME. ZAIJIAN. PRESENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRANT FROM GTE CORPORATION.

				A Texan Tall Tale Did legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Longley escape the hangman's noose?
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: They're burying Wild Bill Longley today. MINISTER: Our Lord said repent and believe the gospel. Your relative, your cousin, your kinsman in the flesh. It was said, before he died, he repented. ALDA: Wild Bill goes to his grave a repented sinner-- for the second time-- and this time, it really is him. For the day when you look into that eastern sky, right over there... ALDA: Last time he was buried, 120 years ago many people believed he wasn't in the coffin-- it was just a bunch of rocks. Wild Bill had gotten away with it once again, it was said. William Preston Longley was an outlaw and a killer. In 1878, at the age of 27, he was hanged for murder. But the rumor was that the rope was attached to a secret harness to hold him up and that he was spirited away still alive. Now, this wouldn't be Wild Bill Longley inhere, would it? It is. It took 15 years to prove that but it is him. I can't wait to see this guy. ALDA: Doug Owsley, who's also working on the Jamestown project identified Wild Bill. What were you able to find out when you examined these bones? Well, this is a long story in the sense I started looking for this skeletonin 1986. I was asked to help a man who believed that his grandfather was William Preston Longley. We want to thank the scientists here at the Smithsonian for their perseverance. ALDA: Although the man who firsapproached Doug Owsley turned out eventually not to be related to Wild Bill the 15-year search turned into something of an obsession for Owsley and dozens of Wild Bill's relatives. I had a chance to chat with family members when they came to Washington for the press conference. "...though I will come there just when I please." Arrogant, wasn't he? He was, wasn't he? "I rode by your house..." ALDA: Two relatives had descendefrom Wild Bill's grandparents and one, Helen Chapman, is descended from his sister. That'll be important later in the story. Had you always wondered if he, in fact, died at that hanging? For 50 years. Really? Was this the topic of a lot of family conversation? HANNES: It was. It was. I remember, as a kid, hearing the adults talk about this and debate about this. And I got the impression that they thought... they really thought he had escaped this hanging. ALDA: Wild Bill was a truly bad man widely feared, but a little admired, too. He possessed a lethal combination: great skill as a gun fighter, a quick temper and a fondness for whiskey. In jail after his final arrest he bragged that he'd killed 32 men and one woman. He wasn't even sure which one they'd come to get him for. REESE: He thought he was going to be accused of killing a preacher named Lee and he was worried about that because that was an outright killing. The man was unarmed; he was milking a cow, and he was... There's something about that that Bill just didn't like, right? REESE: Well... (all laughing) He didn't like the man to start with. The man had spread some rumors. But, I mean, milking a cow... it's kind of going too far, don't you think? I think so. Right. You just got to kill a man for that. Well, some people just have a short temper, you know? CHAPMAN: It might have been Bill's cow. ALDA: Oh, you know, I never thought of that. ALDA: Wild Bill was convicted for oneof his many other murders. He was hanged and supposedly buried somewhere here. There's a Bill Longley grave marker, put up in 1976. Doug Owsley had to find out if it was actually Wild Bill's grave or just a marker. This photograph-- taken 50 years after the burial, around 1930-- is the only visual record of Wild Bill's grave if the caption is accurate. Let me show you, let's go over here... ALDA: Owsley and Brooks Ellwood,a geologist first tried to match the 1930 photograph to what's visible today. ELLWOOD: What you have is these two treesright here. That's those two trees right there. Then you have this tree here-- that's that tree there. The configuration is just right. ALDA: Things seemed to match when they stood beside the 1976 marker. There's another one closer in. ALDA: Brooks Ellwood sat in place of the headstone which had been visible in 1930. Well, I agree with the three trees. The three trees look really nice. ALDA: Recently we asked Ellwood and Owsley to return to the cemetery to go over what happened next. They had probed all around the 1976 marker looking for the telltale mottling which is a sign of soil disturbed when a grave is dug. The upper soil core here is what they hoped to find, but no luck. We probed in this area right here looking in front of the marker. We probed down the back of the marker just to make sure that there was nothing here. ALDA: So what was the 1930 headstone marking? Maybe nothing, it turned out. Notes kept by the president of the Cemetery Association showed that over the course of 50 years he'd moved the headstone several times. MAN: We figured out that he probably moved it down into the Hispanic part of the cemetery then moved it back up here just beyond us to the road. And then when they put in the road-- at that time there wasn't any road-- they moved it here. Then as a result of that we felt that we'd lost the location of the grave. ALDA: So now they were looking for one unmarked grave in a five-acre cemetery. Okay, move it. ALDA: Brooks Ellwood and his wife, Suzanne-- also a geologist-- tried magnetic measurements to detect disturbed soil in the most likely sections-- like here along the old fence line. Wild Bill was supposedly buried outside the original cemetery boundary. Just in one 1,500-square-foot area they found 14 possible unmarked graves. Before too long, we had 60 unmapped, unmarked graves. So now we're faced with a problem: Well, okay, is it this one? Or is it this one? We had a real needle in a haystack. ALDA: There was no choicebut to start digging concentrating on the areas suggested by the magnetic surveys. Right away they began to find burials all without any kind of marker on the surface. That's common in cemeteries of this age. It was quite a show for the town with the added attraction of