All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens s22e01 Skulls of the Gods.eng

NARRATOR:
In every corner of the world,

archaeologists have found
strange, elongated skulls.

The elongated skull phenomena
is global in scope.

We find them in Mesoamerica,

in Europe, in Asia.

NARRATOR: Many of the skulls
possess other unusual features.

Some of these skulls
had very large eye sockets.

NARRATOR: And ancient astronaut
theorists suggest they are highly

reminiscent of how
our ancestors depicted the gods.

The Anunnaki have
the elongated skulls.

The Ubaid figures, too.

And a Japanese deity
named Fukurojin.

NARRATOR: Could the elongated
skulls be the ultimate evidence

of our alien origins?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Some of these
skulls are in fact extraterrestrial.

They're right
in front of our eyes.

? ?

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists from Jilin University

begin excavations at an ancient
settlement known as Houtaomuga.

The team unearths
ancient pottery,

animal remains,
and agricultural tools.

But their most prized discovery
is a burial ground

that was used by
the inhabitants of Houtaomuga.

Curiously, among the skeletons

are nearly a dozen
that have highly unusual skulls.

These skulls
are so bizarre looking.

I mean the-the eye sockets
and jaws

are pretty much
like a normal human skull,

but the cranium
is severely elongated.

I mean, they look like they're
something from another world.

NARRATOR:
Dr. Qian Wang was part of the scientific team

that sent out bone samples

from the first skeleton
to have them dated.

The results indicate the remains

are far older than expected.

SCOTT SKINNER:
The Houtaomuga site

has the oldest deformed skulls

in China that we know of so far.

They discovered at least
11 elongated skulls

stretching all the way back
to 12,000 years.

It's truly exciting.

So, it's an incredibly
important site.

NARRATOR:
The extraordinary remains recovered in Houtaomuga

are believed to represent

the oldest elongated skulls
ever discovered.

But curiously, many other
similarly misshapen skulls

have been found
all over the world.

The elongated skull phenomena
is global in scope.

In North America, we find them
predominantly in the southwest.

We find them in Mesoamerica.

SKINNER:
We have it in Africa, Europe,

in the Middle East,

India, China.

We know that it comes as south
as the Indonesian islands,

even possibly as far south
as Australia, so

absolutely everywhere.

NARRATOR: What could explain the
discovery of elongated skulls

in so many locations
separated by thousands of miles?

Many of the finds
predate any historical record,

but anthropologists believe
all of these skulls

are the result of artificial
cranial deformation.

SKINNER: Artificial cranial
deformation is the cultural practice

of manipulating the skull, which
is typically done in infants

because the infant skull
is more malleable.

NARRATOR: The earliest known reference
to artificial cranial deformation

is found in a text
from 400 BC called

On Airs, Waters, and Places.

Written by the Greek physician
and philosopher Hippocrates,

it describes the Macrocephali,

a group of people believed to be
from either India

or somewhere in Africa.

Hippocrates wrote
that the most noble

of the Macrocephali
had the longest heads

and that skull elongation
was achieved during childhood

by binding an infant's head
to a hard board.

There are different
forms of this.

There's cradle boarding,
where they literally

wrap around the head with
different types of materials

with hard boards
to create this flat area.

There's elongation of the skull,
where it's often just

wrapped around with material.

So, it kind of almost
stretches out to a point.

So, there's lots of
different techniques.

NARRATOR:
While elongated skulls have been found worldwide,

the Houtaomuga site
in China provides

significant insights
into this phenomenon.

Not only does it contain
the world's oldest known

elongated skulls,
but it also provides evidence

of artificial cranial
deformation taking place

over thousands of years
in a single location.

SKINNER:
The important site in China has, as we know it,

a continuation
of cranial deformation

in the local area and on site
for at least 7,000 years,

which as far as we know,
there's no other site

that can demonstrate this
continuation of the practice

of cranial deformation
in one local area.

It's amazing.

NARRATOR:
Why certain people had their heads elongated

and others didn't is unknown.

But for archaeologists,
an even more puzzling question

is what would cause
a civilization

to continue such a strange
custom for 7,000 years?

Curiously,
in some parts of the world,

artificial cranial deformation
is still practiced even today.

This shows that it's not just,
uh, a fashion trend

or done amongst one particular
group that died out,

but that it is being continued
millennia after millennia.

Archeologists, anthropologists

have no real consensus
on exactly why it was done.

SKINNER:
Most of academia would lead to the suggestion

that cranial deformation
was mainly for social status.

And it was used by the elite,

the priests, the scholars.

CHILDRESS:
In Chinese art, these Taoist immortals,

they are often shown
as having extremely

elongated heads and foreheads.

And this indicates that they
are in touch with divine beings.

I mean,
this is the kind of thing

that makes you
above the normal human.

You are now almost a god.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that ancient people practiced

artificial cranial deformation
to look like the gods?

But if so, why would people
all around the world

envision their gods
with elongated heads?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
mysterious ancient sites

where archaeologists have
unearthed highly unusual skulls.

NARRATOR:
In the middle of the Mediterranean Sea

lie the islands of Malta.

While they cover
only 120 square miles,

the islands are home
to some of the most impressive

megalithic sites on the planet.

The Ggantija temple
was built with stones

weighing more than 20 tons,

and Hagar Qim features
one of the largest

freestanding stones
in the world.

But many believe Malta's
most impressive ancient site

lies beneath the Earth.

It is called
the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni.

The Hypogeum site
in Malta, Hal Saflieni,

was first found in the 1900s
by accident by a builder

who was digging foundations
for houses

that eventually uncovers this
mysterious archaeological site

that dates back
to at least 4000 BC.

NEWMAN:
You have all these caverns perfectly cut out

of the bedrock
going down multiple levels

with these tunnels between them.

NARRATOR: In 1907, during one of
the first excavations of the Hypogeum,

archaeologists discovered
an estimated 7,000 skeletons,

some with
strangely shaped skulls.

Thousands of skeletons
were discovered in the Hypogeum,

and what's amazing is that
some of the elongated skulls

had this large sloping aspect
to the back of their head,

which were studied
by archeologists.

NARRATOR:
But despite the remarkable discovery,

many of the original
excavation reports

and many of the skulls
themselves have disappeared.

NEWMAN:
Quite a lot of them were recorded,

but some have been lost,
and this is where

the big mystery lies
'cause we really want to know

what happened to the ones
that are in the old photos.

What happened
to the 7,000 skeletons

that were found down there?

I mean, no one knows
what's happened to them.

They just vanished.

HENRY:
Adding to the intrigue of the Malta skeletons

is the fact that it's-it's not
known that cranial deformation

was practiced
on the island of Malta.

It's-it's simply not there.

I think the reason
why they vanished is because

they're so startling to look at,

and it's mainstream
archeologists

and anthropologists
don't have an explanation

for what's going on here.

So, it's just easier
to pack 'em up in a box

and chuck 'em away rather than

to talk about
what's actually happening.

NARRATOR:
Only a few of the elongated skulls recovered

from the Hypogeum
are still known to exist,

and are periodically
put on display

at the National Museum
of Archaeology in Valletta.

But an even more mysterious
skull was recently discovered

thousands of miles away

at a site known
as Russia's Stonehenge.

This mysterious
ancient settlement

features earthen circles made
nearly 4,000 years ago.

HENRY: Located in the Southern
Urals is a place called Arkaim.

It's referred to
as Russia's Stonehenge

because of
the circular structure

of the monuments
that were discovered there.

And a very unusual skeleton
was discovered at Arkaim.

NARRATOR:
In 2015, archaeologists

unearthed a skeleton
at the site.

Photographs from
the Arkaim Museum

reveal a surprising feature.

HENRY: What was unusual
about it was the skull,

and it had this
massive protuberance

extending from the forehead.

NEWMAN:
This was an elongated skull

apparently of a female.

Possibly some kind of priestess
or revered person at that time.

It had an elongation
of the skull like,

almost like a conehead.

But also a kind of area here
that kind of stuck out,

which is a style we get when
you have a wrapping of materials

around the skull to create
this particular look.

It brings a whole other
dimension to what was going on

there in prehistoric times.

NARRATOR: What compelled the
ancient people of Malta and Russia

to elongate the skulls
of certain individuals?

While very little is known
about the early people

who inhabited these two sites,

another group
that practiced head binding

holds a prominent place
in history: the Huns.

COLLINS:
The Huns were a horse-riding warrior clan,

basically, that came out
of Central Asia into Europe,

during the fourth to fifth
centuries of the Common Era.

They had head deformation

as part of their tradition.

So, they introduced this
particularly into, uh, Hungary.

And basically, the cemeteries

that have been uncovered
in Hungary

have dozens and dozens of skulls
that have been deformed.

TSOUKALOS: The Huns took this
veneration of the elongated skulls

to such an extent
that they created money of it.

It was on their coins.

So, you know,
if that does not indicate

significance or importance,
I don't know what does.

HENRY:
It's known that they widely practiced

cranial deformation as a way
of displaying status and power,

and in fact, as a way
of displaying their strength.

NARRATOR:
If it's true that the Huns elongated

their skulls to display
power and strength,

what inspired them to take
such a drastic action?

Some believe the Huns
were influenced by

encounters
with otherworldly beings.

COLLINS:
Amongst the Maya of Central America,

artificial cranial deformation
was incredibly important.

And when
the earliest missionaries

reached Mexico
in the 16th, 17th centuries,

they said to them,
"Why are you doing this?"

And they said.
"The gods told us to do this

so that we might
better serve them."

NARRATOR:
Ancient astronaut theorists

find it intriguing that the Maya
claimed their inspiration

for head binding
came from the gods...

...because in many
ancient cultures worldwide,

the gods were depicted
with elongated heads.

HENRY:
In ancient Egypt, the god Osiris

is portrayed
with an elongated skull.

You cross over
into the Americas,

and you find among the Olmecs
that they're often portrayed

wearing helmets that are
suggestive of elongated skulls.

We have a Japanese deity
named Fukurojin,

and he also has this very long,
extended cranium and forehead.

And the Japanese say, "Yeah,

this shows that he has
supernatural powers and wisdom."

NARRATOR:
Have people throughout the world

practiced head binding
to emulate the gods,

who they envisioned
as having elongated heads?

And if so, why did cultures
scattered across the globe

represent their gods
with this same strange feature?

HENRY:
Anthropologists suggest

that this was something
that cultures

spontaneously started doing
all around the world.

To display status,
power, beauty,

increased intelligence,
these sorts of things, but

that just doesn't seem
to make a lot of sense.

What makes more sense to me
is that all of these cultures

came into contact
with a group of beings who

had elongated skulls.

Over and again
in the ancient world,

they witnessed these beings
and then started

to mimic what they saw
in these beings themselves

in order to become
more like them.

TSOUKALOS: The bottom line is
that elongated skulls were found

all around the world,
and always with one explanation:

that our ancestors

tried to look like their gods.

The ancient astronaut theory
suggests that these gods

were extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
Did ancient cultures across the world

engage in the extreme practice
of head binding

to emulate extraterrestrial
visitors with elongated heads?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and suggest that further
evidence can be found

by taking a closer look
at a collection

by taking a closer look
at a collection

of elongated skulls which
possess mysterious features

that defy explanation.

NARRATOR:
Peru.

This South American country

is home to some
of the ancient world's

greatest mysteries,
including the incredible

megalithic sites of Sacsayhuam�n
and Ollantaytambo,

as well as the strange
band of holes

that stretches across
the Pisco valley

and the thousands
of massive geoglyphs

known as the Nazca Lines.

Here, in the small,
coastal town of Paracas,

archaeologists discovered
yet another ancient mystery,

some of the most unusual
elongated skulls ever found.

Amongst the strangest
elongated skulls in the world

are those from Paracas in Peru.

As early as 1928,
under the leadership

of an archaeologist there
by the name of Julio Tello,

uncovered dozens and dozens
of these skulls that

look incredibly strange.

They are seriously elongated.

NEWMAN: I've seen some of
these skulls in various museums,

and they are just astonishing.

It's outrageous how long
some of the skulls are.

I mean, they literally
just go up and up and up.

Often, they have ginger
or red hair on them,

or sometimes blond hair.

And some of the jaws
are very big as well.

But it's just
the cranial mass inside it.

It's almost like
they must've had larger heads

because they look
much bigger than

any other skulls I've seen
anywhere on the planet.

CHILDRESS:
These deserts of Southern Peru are super dry.

It rarely rains there.

So, therefore, the skeletal
material that they're able

to excavate from the graveyards
and pyramids and things

in that area
are very, very well-preserved.

NARRATOR:
Given the remarkable quality of these skulls,

researchers have been able
to study them in great detail.

And they have found
several anomalies that challenge

the theory that they are all
the result of head binding.

One anomaly present in several
of the Paracas skulls

is the absence
of a sagittal suture,

which is the seam where the two
parietal bones of the skull

come together.

The elongated skulls
lack what we call

the sagittal suture, which
goes from here to the back.

Only this suture is visible.

Which baffles most scientists.

HENRY: The Paracas skulls
are missing the key sagittal suture

that indicates
that this is a human skull.

So, if there's no suture,

we have to be open
to the question

are these in fact
non-human skulls?

TSOUKALOS:
Now, according to science, sutures only disappear

when an individual achieves
old, old age,

and many of these
elongated skulls,

the individual is not old.

Some of these individuals,
in fact, are children,

NARRATOR:
The Paracas skulls also present anomalies

in terms of the measurements
of facial features

and openings in the skulls.

FOERSTER:
In some cases, the eye sockets are about

20 to 25% larger
on the elongated skulls.

The jaw is bigger,

and there are two holes
in the back of the skull,

which were likely
for blood and nerve flow,

which you do not find
in a typical human skull.

Also, what we call
the foramen magnum,

which is where the spinal cord
enters the bottom of the skull

is a full inch or two
and a half centimeters back

from where it should be

because, in us, it's at
the perfect balance point,

but with the elongated skulls,

it's two and a half centimeters,
one inch backwards,

and I think that's
compensation, genetically

for the skull having a tendency
of wanting to move backwards.

The foramen magnum being off
from where it should be

by a full two centimeters
is not a small thing.

That's highly unusual,

and when you see that
in an elongated skull,

you have to ask
if this is a human skull.

NARRATOR: Another unusual feature
found on some of the Paracas skulls

is a prominent ridge
that appears on the forehead.

TSOUKALOS:
What's important with these skulls is

this bump here, this-this
forehead ridge right here

'cause this is something
that you really cannot achieve

with artificial head binding.

NARRATOR: But perhaps the
most intriguing abnormality of all

is that some of the Paracas
skulls are significantly larger

in volume than a normal
human skull should be.

FOERSTER: What we find among
the oldest of the Paracas skulls,

that their cranial volume
is about 20% larger

than a normal human being,
especially a modern human being.

TSOUKALOS: Practices like head binding
and cradle boarding change the shape

of a child's skull,
but they do not make it larger.

So what's going on here?

FOERSTER: I think that the
Paracas people were closely related

to Homo sapien sapiens,

but I think they were
a subspecies that were able

to interbreed
with what we call humans.

NARRATOR:
Might the elongated skulls of Paracas

be the remnants
of a human-like species

that once existed on Earth?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and suggest it's possible
that this mysterious lost race

came from another planet.

TSOUKALOS: All the skulls that
I think are the extraterrestrial ones

have the larger eye socket,
have the pronounced

forehead ridge,
and the missing sutures.

I really do think that we are
looking at extraterrestrials.

HENRY:
Are these, in fact, extraterrestrial beings?

Are they alien-human hybrids?

Are they carryovers
from a previous civilization,

for example, from the time
before the ice age?

We don't have
definitive answers,

but all of those
are worthy questions.

NARRATOR:
Could the elongated skulls

that feature other
unexplainable anomalies

really be the remains
of extraterrestrials

who visited planet Earth
in the distant past?

Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining

the strange depictions of
Egypt's most infamous pharaoh.

NARRATOR:
Amarna, Egypt. December 1891.

While excavating a necropolis
east of the city,

a team of Italian archeologists

uncover the entrance
to a royal tomb.

Inside, they make
a surprising discovery.

Rather than being filled
with magnificent artwork

and treasures, the burial
chamber has been defaced.

Its sarcophagus destroyed,
and its mummy has vanished.

The few legible carvings on
the wall reveal it is the tomb

of Egypt's most reviled
pharaoh, Akhenaten.

PAMELA J. SMITH:
In the 14th century BCE

Akhenaten became the most
controversial pharaoh...

...because he went
from the pantheon

of all the previous dynasties

to a monotheistic system

worshiping the sun god Aten.

So, he moved the capital,
built new temples,

made this new religion
the religion of Egypt.

In the story of Akhenaten,

we know that he introduced
a religious revolution,

the religion of light
to ancient Egypt.

This religion of light
called the Aten

was symbolized by the disc.

NARRATOR:
But just what could have inspired Akhenaten

to make such a drastic change
in Egyptian society?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe there may have been

an otherworldly influence
guiding his decision

and point to the unusual way

he was depicted
by artists of the time.

Akhenaten was the first and only
pharaoh to institute a rule

amongst his people saying

any artisan that creates

either a statue or a carving
or a drawing

of him has to create images of
him the way he actually looks.

And it goes without saying
that Akhenaten

immediately looks
rather strange.

We have this guy
with the high cheekbones,

with a very weird
and pear-like torso,

with thin arms,
and chicken legs,

and an elongated skull.

NARRATOR:
Curiously, Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti

and their children are also
portrayed with elongated heads.

What's so interesting about
Akhenaten is that his children,

including Tutankhamun,
when they did CT scans

on Tutankhamun's skull,
they found

that he had an elongated skull.

So, too, did Akhenaten's
daughter Meritaten.

NARRATOR:
Following Akhenaten's death,

his enemies
went to extreme lengths

to destroy any images of him
they could find.

HENRY:
When you go into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,

you will see sculptures
of Akhenaten

clearly portraying
the elongated skull, but

the ancient Egyptians
did not want us to know

anything about Akhenaten,

They made every effort
they possibly could

to erase all references
to his existence.

NARRATOR:
But what inspired the Ancient Egyptians

to try to erase Akhenaten
from history?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest Akhenaten

had a profound connection
to otherworldly beings.

Akhenaten introduced
to the Egyptian people

the Aten disc,

which is often depicted
as a winged disc.

And that means that
it's a disc that flies.

TSOUKALOS: Akhenaten had an encounter
with the so-called Aten sun disc,

from which he kept
receiving knowledge.

There are pictures of Akhenaten

standing underneath a sun disc
with hands coming down

as so-called rays,

handing down items
like the ankh, for example.

So, these are
all renderings, to me,

that try to depict misunderstood
technology-type situations

because that
Aten sun disc was said

to have moved in the sky

and was able to descend
in front of people

and then lift off again.

We have multiple
references about this.

So what is that?

Well, if it wasn't the sun,

the only answer to that is

a visiting
extraterrestrial craft.

You have to ask the question,

is it possible that Akhenaten
was from another planet?

NARRATOR: Could it be that Akhenaten
had extraterrestrial origins?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and suggest that,
if his mummy is ever found,

it might change everything
we thought we knew

about our history.

TSOUKALOS:
Akhenaten's mummy is still missing,

and his wife Nefertiti's, too.

How awesome would it be
if his mummy would be found

because we would then
be able, most likely,

to test an extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR: If the mummies of Akehnaten
and Nefertiti are ever discovered,

could they provide undeniable
proof that extraterrestrials

visited Earth
in the distant past?

And also solve the mystery
of why, for thousands of years,

people have taken
extreme measures

to elongate the skulls
of their children?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining discoveries made
in the region that gave rise

to humankind's
first known civilization.

NARRATOR:
British archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley

undertakes
an extensive excavation

of the Mesopotamian city of Ur.

Based on previous
discoveries made here,

Woolley believes this could be
the location of the city of Ur

that is mentioned
in the Bible's Book of Genesis

and was the home of Abraham.

COLLINS:
The excavations began to reveal

an extraordinary necropolis.

And as more and more rich,
funerary goods,

pieces of art and jewelry

and remains started to come up.

This treasure became almost
as important as that

of the discovery
of Tutankhamen's tomb,

which had occurred
just a few years earlier.

And what this did
was to make Leonard Woolley

a very famous archeologist.

NARRATOR: Of all the artifacts
uncovered during the excavation,

perhaps none
are more extraordinary

than the discovery of the
elaborate tomb of Queen Puabi.

HENRY: They found her body
intact, covered with gold ornaments

and wearing this incredible
golden headdress

with cylinder seals
attached to her body

that identified her
as this queen.

HEATHER LYNN: Queen Puabi's burial
chamber had almost been untouched

since its original burial.

It was quite amazing.

There was a headdress,
there were gold artifacts,

and even a lyre.

NARRATOR: Queen Puabi is believed
to have belonged to the royal family

of the world's first known
civilization, the Sumerians.

But what's even more intriguing

is that researchers
examining her remains

determined that her skull
had an unusual shape.

When you look at the old photos
and the reports,

you can see that it's kind of
been crushed probably over time.

It looked like
she had an elongated skull.

Whether it was elongated,
we don't know,

but there's a good chance
it could've been.

NARRATOR:
Curiously, a number of other mysterious skulls

have been discovered
in the region.

Almost a hundred years
after the discovery

of Queen Puabi's tomb, in 2022,

a team of archeologists
in nearby Iran

unearthed a site that contained
13 ancient, elongated skulls.

COLLINS:
In Iran, at Chega Sofla,

they have uncovered quite a
large number of deformed skulls.

And these skulls
had peculiarities

about them that showed
that they were from

families that were
clearly inbred,

and I think
this is really significant

because they were all
elongating their heads,

and this begs the question

of why exactly
they were deforming their heads?

NARRATOR:
While the skulls unearthed in the Middle East

are not as old
as those found in China,

researchers consider them
equally significant

because these
discoveries suggest

that artificial cranial
deformation was practiced

not just by primitive tribes
in remote areas,

but in the very first
civilizations on Earth.

And ancient astronaut theorists
believe clues as to what might

have inspired the Sumerians
to elongate their heads

can be found by examining
the cuneiform writings

concerning the Anunnaki.

NEWMAN:
The Anunnaki are the founder gods

of the Sumerian civilization,

and writings about them
refer to a much earlier epoch

where the gods and goddesses
ruled and created mankind.

And the Anunnaki were masters
of the arts and sciences

bringing civilizing qualities
to this part of the world.

COLLINS:
The original name for the Anunnaki is the Anunna.

Now, the Anunna means
"those of the sky"

or "the sky people."

And they were the people
with the knowledge of the stars,

the knowledge of astronomy,

and they were the prime movers

behind the foundation
of civilization.

CHILDRESS:
The Anunnaki were also

talked about as having
elongated skulls.

They were tall,
taller than most people.

They also wore special hats
and things like that.

And so, they look really,
you know, different.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

it's highly intriguing
that 13 elongated skulls

have been discovered
in the same region

where the Anunnaki are said
to have descended to Earth.

TSOUKALOS:
Mainstream anthropology suggests the reason

why head binding was done
is in order to

delineate the ruling class
from the so-called masses.

Basically, the idea
is that they tried

to emulate or imitate
their gods.

Well, what do you mean?

Does that mean whomever they saw
had elongated skulls?

The answer to that
is a resounding yes.

Our ancestors tried
to look like whoever it was

that visited them
because our ancestors always say

that somebody descended from
the sky to impart knowledge.

Our ancestors tried
to look like their gods.

NARRATOR: Considering that
elongated skulls have been found

across the globe and date back
to the first known civilization,

is it possible that, worldwide,

people witnessed
the same otherworldly visitors?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and suggest
further evidence can be found

at the world's
oldest archeological site.

NARRATOR:
In southeastern Turkey

stands one of the most important
archaeological sites

in the world, G�bekli Tepe.

When it was
first excavated in 1994,

archaeologists discovered
megalithic structures

that were found to date back
an astounding 12,000 years,

long before humans
were thought to be capable

of such sophisticated
construction.

What we can see from, uh,
monumental architecture

at G�bekli Tepe is that

you have a high culture

at a very early age.

Many people today
believe in the idea

that, before the end
of the last ice age,

there was a high culture,
a global culture,

that achieved advances
in technology, innovation,

and science that was destroyed
in some kind of cataclysm

that took place probably
around 12,000 years ago.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

G�bekli Tepe offers
compelling evidence

that an advanced civilization
existed on Earth

before our earliest
recorded history.

And they find it intriguing
that the dating of G�bekli Tepe

to 12,000 years ago
matches the age

of the world's oldest
elongated skulls found in China.

HENRY:
The discovery of elongated skulls in China

from 12,000 years ago
is enormously significant.

It clearly points to something
very mysterious happening

in the ancient world.

And perhaps, at this time,
there were beings

who displayed these
elongated skull features.

Elevated beings, perhaps even
otherworldly-looking beings,

extraordinary beings
that had this elongated skull,

and people decided to copy them.

COLLINS:
It is thought possible that the descendants

of this civilization

moved into every part
of the world,

and that new civilizations
arose from that.

NARRATOR: Could it be that the
worldwide practice of head binding

was inspired by real encounters
our ancestors had

with non-human entities
thousands of years ago?

Is this why
so many ancient cultures

depicted their gods
with elongated heads?

And while it is certain
that many elongated skulls

are the product of artificial
cranial deformation,

could there be some
that belong to

an entirely different species?

Most, if not all, archeologists
believe that the skulls

that we were looking at would be
the result of head binding

or cranial deformation.
I do not agree with them.

I think that they were
a subspecies of human,

which I would call
Homo sapiens Paracas

as compared
to Homo sapien sapiens.

So, a subspecies,

not necessarily
a different species

or an alien entity,
though that is a possibility.

HENRY: I think as we continue
to study the elongated skulls,

especially using
DNA research processes,

we're gonna discover that
there's a non-human component

to these skulls.

Now, whether they're
extraterrestrial or not,

we might not be able
to definitively say that,

but I do believe
we're looking at

an entirely different
species of beings.

CHILDRESS:
Ultimately, it's exciting.

You know, here we have
a real mystery.

And we're still finding out
new things about them.

And doesn't this
deserve our attention?

To find out who
these people really were?

And how they are all connected?

And are they connected
to extraterrestrials

who came thousands of years ago?

TSOUKALOS:
The fact that these artificial elongated skulls

exist worldwide-
that, to me, is the smoking gun

we've been visited
by extraterrestrials.

It only happened because
somebody saw something,

and they were like,
"You know what?

"Those are amazing beings.
They taught us something,

so you know what?
Let's emulate this."

Otherwise, why would there be
all these elongated skulls

around the world
if there was no contact?

There had to have been
an inspiration for it.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the
extreme and highly mysterious custom

of head binding,

that has been practiced
for at least 12,000 years,

was first inspired by
an extraterrestrial encounter?

Are the many ancient depictions
of gods with elongated heads

portraying
otherworldly visitors?

And if so, could some
of the strange skulls

that have been unearthed
around the world

be of non-human origin?

Perhaps scientists
will soon discover

that we have already
come face-to-face

with our alien ancestors.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY
A+E NETWORKS

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0