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[intriguing music playing]
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[Graham] For those who don't know me,
I'm Graham Hancock.
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I've been exploring the possibility
of a lost civilization in prehistory
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for more than 30 years.
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Archaeology claims if there were
such a thing as a lost civilization,
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they would have found it already.
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Well, I profoundly disagree with that.
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[music continues]
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And now, my quest continues...
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[airplane engine revving]
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...in a part of the world often overlooked
by historians of humanity's origins...
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The oldest dates that we got
were about 13,200 before present.
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[Graham] ...exploring some of the world's
most intriguing ancient wonders.
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There's numerology.
There's mathematics. There's astronomy.
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This could be considered
a lost technology.
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[Graham] And making new discoveries.
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Wow.
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[triumphant music playing]
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It's impossible. It's impossible.
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I mean, as a kid,
I always thought the timeline was off.
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[Graham] All with a radical
new proposition in mind.
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Could the key to discovering
a lost civilization
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of the Ice Age lie here,
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in the Americas?
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[triumphant music crescendos]
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[triumphant music ends]
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[theme song playing]
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[theme song ends]
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{an8}- [thunder rumbling]
- [electronic warble]
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[somber music playing]
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[Graham] The quest for our origins
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and the quest
for the origins of civilization,
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are fundamental to what it is,
to being human.
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But I think it's part of the human nature.
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If we're convinced
that something doesn't exist,
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we don't look for it.
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[tense music playing]
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[Graham] My search for those origins
has led me here,
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to one of the most striking places
in North America.
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White Sands.
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This is a land of austere beauty
and strangeness
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that's been hiding a secret
for thousands of years.
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A secret now unveiled
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that's forcing a rewrite
of the prehistory of the Americas.
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[tense music intensifies]
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[Graham] Until the 1990s,
we were taught that deep in the Ice Age,
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humans migrated from North Asia to Alaska,
across the Bering land bridge,
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then, around 13,500 years ago,
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walked south through an ice-free corridor,
before spreading across the Americas.
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A scenario held so firmly for so long
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that few archaeologists went looking
for traces of any earlier human migration.
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[tense music continues]
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For a very long time,
there's been this conviction
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that evidence would not be found
of a human presence
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older than 13,500 years ago.
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Turns out, that idea was wrong.
Very wrong.
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[tense music intensifies, stops]
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[Graham] White Sands National Park's
resource manager, David Bustos,
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{an8}began working here in 2005,
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hoping to share with others his passion
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for this pristine wilderness
and its wildlife.
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But he soon found himself
on the trail of something else,
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something that seemed crazy at first.
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I think about 2006, I heard a story
about footprints of a Bigfoot. [chuckles]
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And there was a government trapper
that found these amazing prints.
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He described them being 22 inches across
and eight inches wide.
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- [Graham] Yeah.
- What could that be? Must be a Bigfoot.
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And I think lot of people gave him
a hard time. There's no Bigfoot.
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But I was thinking,
"I've seen these." [chuckles]
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Yeah.
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[David] And so we went out,
and when we brushed out the footprints,
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you could see
they had incredible claw marks.
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[Graham] Obviously, this was no Bigfoot.
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He did find a big footprint
of a giant ground sloth.
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- That's what they were.
- Giant ground sloths.
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[Graham] They knew
the prints must be very old.
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Giant ground sloths went extinct
around 11,500 years ago.
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Then David and his colleagues found
even larger prints nearby from mammoths,
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also long extinct.
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Some of the gait and stride can be
13 feet long. Really incredible.
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Look a little bit further, you'll find
the giant camel, American camel.
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- [Graham] Yeah.
- Sometimes you'll see dire wolves.
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[Graham] All these tracks are
from megafauna,
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giant mammals which suddenly vanished
at the end of the last Ice Age.
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Many are little more than compacted sand,
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buried and protected by layers
of sediment over thousands of years,
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until erosion brought them back
to the surface.
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[intriguing music playing]
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Among these ancient mammoth tracks,
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David also spotted
another intriguing set of prints,
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and he and his colleagues
decided to take a closer look.
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When we brushed out
these other footprints,
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we've seen really nice, clear
toe impressions in the heel.
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[triumphant music playing]
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- [Graham] Human footprints?
- Human footprints.
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At the same age,
it appeared to be, as the megafauna.
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It was really amazing.
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- Incredible.
- [David] Yes.
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[triumphant music ends]
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[tense music playing]
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[Graham] These fossilized human footprints
must have been made
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in the time of the mammoths
and the giant sloths.
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At least 11,500 years ago.
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And there are thousands of them.
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[tense music continues]
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There's something intimate and special
about White Sands. It's not tools.
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It's not a broken femur
from a prey animal that's been butchered.
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It's human footprints. It's us.
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We are seeing the human presence
very intimately and very directly
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in those footprints.
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[tense music continues]
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But when were they left here exactly?
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Just how old are these footprints?
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There's no technology
that can date them directly.
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So the National Park Service
teamed up with the US Geological Survey
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to search for more evidence.
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[tense music intensifies]
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[Graham] And they struck gold,
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finding layer upon layer of animal
and human tracks going deep into the past.
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[camera shutter clicks]
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Buried among them
were seeds from an aquatic grass...
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[camera shutter clicks]
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...seeds that could be carbon dated.
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[Graham] And the results were astounding.
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[David] We know that the footprints
were here for thousands of years,
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at least from 23,000 years
to 21,000 years.
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Wow.
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[suspenseful music slows down]
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The discovery of human footprints
at White Sands is a huge step forward
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in our understanding
of the peopling of the Americas.
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{an8}We're looking at
absolutely incontrovertible evidence
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that humans were present
in New Mexico deep in the Ice Age,
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as much as 23,000 years ago.
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It's proof that long before
it was possible to spread south
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into the Americas
through that ice-free corridor,
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humans were already here.
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[suspenseful music continues]
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This changes the history of the Americas,
and it changes the history of the world.
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These are human beings just like us,
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but human beings concealed
behind the veil of time.
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And our task now is to lift that veil back
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and re-establish that connection
with our ancestors and the remote past.
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[suspenseful music ends]
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The footprints hold
special meaning and significance
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for the Indigenous communities
of this area.
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{an8}Kim Pasqual-Charlie of the Pueblo of Acoma
consulted with the team
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{an8}on this groundbreaking discovery.
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[Graham] Tell me about the relationship
of the Acoma to the land.
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How long have your people been here?
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Are there myths and traditions
about an origin story of your people?
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Yes. Our origin story started
somewhere in the north area.
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And through our migration story
that has been passed down
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from generation to generation,
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we settled here and there,
coming down here.
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- And that's where my people stayed.
- Yeah.
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We've been in the Southwest
for a very long time.
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[Graham] Yeah.
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To Kim and her people,
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these prints are far more
than archaeological records.
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- Your ancestors left their footprints.
- [Kim] Mm-hmm.
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I understand you were involved in finding
some of those footprints?
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Yes. There's no words to describe it.
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We've come to see
where our ancestor once walked this earth.
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[tense music playing]
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And to place my hands
in the little footprints of children.
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- You know? And it gets very emotional.
- [Graham] Yeah.
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- [Kim] You know? It's...
- Yeah.
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I'm sorry, Graham, but it just... [chuckles]
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There are times it makes you wanna cry.
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- [Graham] Absolutely.
- You know?
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[Graham] But once
the footprints are exposed,
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the same process of erosion
that revealed them
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will slowly start to erase them.
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These footprints which testify
to the ancient presence of your people
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are also fragile.
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- Right.
- They could easily be lost.
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[Kim] You know, maybe 50 years from now,
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the next generation
won't be able to see the footprints.
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- [Graham] Yeah.
- [Kim] But the stories will continue.
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Our stories will continue.
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[wind howling]
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[Graham] But the barren landscape
begs a question.
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Why would all these humans
and animals have come here?
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[suspenseful music playing]
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Remember, North America
was different during the Ice Age.
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The north half of the continent
was smothered by ice.
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And this part of New Mexico
was very different.
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At first glance,
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this vast, open desert with patches
of brush and wind-sculpted dunes
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seems pitiless and otherworldly.
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[Graham] But if we wind the clock back
to the height of the Ice Age,
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conditions here were very different.
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The Tularosa Basin held a giant body
of fresh water known as Lake Otero
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surrounded by vegetation.
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[mammoth trumpeting]
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Ancient mammoths, ground sloths,
and camels came to this watering hole
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to feast on the grasses and trees.
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- [mammoth trumpeting]
- [birds chirping]
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And, as we now know, humans followed them.
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Establishing the age of the footprints
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was a complex scientific problem.
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David and a team of experts spent
more than a decade building the evidence.
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But when, in 2021, they published
their findings in the journal Science,
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not all reactions were favorable.
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[David] I think with anything
that's so unique and unusual,
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it takes a lot of science
to be able to support it.
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[Graham] The carbon dating of the seeds
was challenged.
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But the team confirmed their results
using other samples of pollen and sediment
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quieting their critics.
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Is there still controversy
around the 23,000-year-old dates?
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I think until you have a time machine,
there always will be.
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But beyond all these dates
also, if you look,
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you still see a mammoth footprint
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a meter, a meter and a half
above human footprints.
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- And there's more mammoth prints below...
- Below. Yeah.
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...so megafauna and people
have been on this horizon
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- for thousands of years together.
- Yeah.
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[tense music playing]
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[Graham] The White Sands discovery
helps to solve
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one of the most perplexing mysteries
of prehistory,
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the sudden extinction
of America's Ice Age megafauna
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between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago.
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The suggestion of archaeology was that
human beings hunted down all the megafauna
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and butchered them.
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I don't know of any hunter-gatherer group
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that would willingly exterminate
its food supply.
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So the notion that humans were responsible
for the extinction of the megafauna,
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uh, has always seemed,
to me, quite bizarre.
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[tense music ends]
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[Graham] The tracks here prove
that humans and those animals overlapped
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for at least 10,000 years
before their extinction.
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I think a much better explanation
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for the extinction
of the Ice Age megafauna
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is the global cataclysm that took place
around about 12,800-12,900 years ago,
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known as the Younger Dryas.
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[thunder rumbling]
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[tense music playing]
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There was a sudden plunge
in global temperatures,
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a sudden rise in sea levels,
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and the world very rapidly became
an extremely difficult place to live.
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It's a time we call
the ancient apocalypse.
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North America was hardest hit,
244
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,360
which could explain
both the extinction of its megafauna
245
00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,160
and also, the big gaps
in human history here.
246
00:15:57,840 --> 00:15:59,160
[tense music ends]
247
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We are going to have to completely change
the story of the peopling of the Americas
248
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in the light of this new evidence.
249
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,040
Archaeologists are opening their eyes
and their minds
250
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,880
to the possibility
of a much older human presence.
251
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,480
[David] We're just touching the tip
of the surface of what's to be learned.
252
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I think throughout the Southwest
as people look,
253
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:25,080
they're gonna find sites
that are just as old as White Sands also.
254
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:27,480
So it's like you've opened
a door on the past,
255
00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:29,480
- which nobody's stepped through before?
- Yeah.
256
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[tense music playing]
257
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,720
[Graham] Paradigm shifts
don't happen instantly.
258
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It's the accumulation of evidence
that finally discredits an old paradigm
259
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,600
and allows eyes to open
to new possibilities.
260
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:43,680
That's what we're witnessing
in the Americas now.
261
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:50,960
What's been discovered here at White Sands
is part of a much bigger story,
262
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,400
a global story
that I've been investigating
263
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,320
for more than 30 years.
264
00:16:55,400 --> 00:17:00,000
If we want to clear the fog of amnesia
that surrounds our remote past,
265
00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,520
we need to look much deeper
and much further back
266
00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,320
than we've ever done before,
right here in the Americas
267
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,160
where the timeline of prehistory
268
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,000
keeps on receding
with every new discovery.
269
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,280
[tense music ends]
270
00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:16,760
New discoveries
271
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,920
that are not just being followed
by archaeologists.
272
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:25,760
[tense music playing]
273
00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:33,720
[Graham] So, Keanu.
274
00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:34,960
Graham.
275
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Let's talk about the past.
276
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,160
{an8}- Okay.
- Why does the past matter to you?
277
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:42,680
Well, you know.
278
00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,200
I remember as a young child
just being inquisitive.
279
00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,200
And as I have grown up,
280
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:52,040
it comes to the question
of a fundamental sense of
281
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:54,600
"who are we?"
282
00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:59,920
Yeah. And what's driven me on this quest
of my own for more than 30 years,
283
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,240
um, is to try to get back
to some sort of source.
284
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:04,480
Source of what?
285
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:06,760
The source of who we are.
286
00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:09,840
- And the timeline.
- [Graham] Timeline's all wrong.
287
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:15,080
That's why those footprints in White Sands
were so significant to me.
288
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:16,000
[Keanu] Mm.
289
00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:18,200
My feeling is that 23,000 years is
just the beginning.
290
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:19,920
We're gonna go back
much further than that.
291
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,560
Yeah. I have that...
I have that feeling too.
292
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:27,560
And we are just at the edge of...
of rediscovering so much of our lost past.
293
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:28,560
[Keanu] Mm.
294
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And in a way, America is the place
where that story is unfolding.
295
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,680
Well, that's an exciting idea.
296
00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:36,800
[tense music playing]
297
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,240
I think you're on a quest, Graham,
298
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:43,400
to teach
and to bring understanding, perhaps.
299
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,040
[Graham] Well,
the issue about the Americas is
300
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:51,320
that there is so much of our past
that we've forgotten.
301
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:57,160
And my role, such as it is,
has been to try to recover,
302
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,000
uh, some of that lost memory.
303
00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:03,160
When I think of the past like that,
it sounds exciting.
304
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,000
Absolutely. For me,
the past is all about mystery.
305
00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,920
It's not about what we do know.
It's about what we don't know.
306
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,840
The huge areas that
have not been explored or investigated.
307
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,080
The possibilities
that haven't been explored.
308
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:16,080
Yeah.
309
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,160
[tense music continues]
310
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,720
[Graham] We need
to start looking specifically for evidence
311
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:27,640
in places where
we might not have looked before.
312
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:30,640
During the Ice Age,
313
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:33,360
the northern part of North America
was a frozen wasteland.
314
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:37,440
The places to look
are down near the tropics.
315
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:38,560
Down near the equator.
316
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:42,200
Places that were warm,
comfortable, nurturing, hospitable.
317
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:45,360
Perhaps even a vast region
318
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:49,160
that was long believed to be
an archaeological wasteland,
319
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,320
but where astounding secrets
of the human past
320
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,400
are now beginning to be revealed.
321
00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,240
This is the Amazon.
322
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,320
[tense music intensifies]
323
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,080
You're looking at more than
six million square kilometers of land
324
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:10,040
that are still under
dense canopy rainforest.
325
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:17,520
That immense land area is a huge mystery
326
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:19,880
at the heart of the human story.
327
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,520
And little by little,
we're beginning to realize
328
00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:24,600
how enormous that mystery really is.
329
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:26,280
[tense music continues]
330
00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:30,080
For decades, the dominant view
of archaeologists was that
331
00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,520
the Amazon's only historical inhabitants
332
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,920
were small semi-nomadic tribes
of hunter-foragers,
333
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,800
much like those still surviving
in the rainforest today.
334
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,640
But I believe the dominant view is wrong.
335
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:47,680
[tense music intensifies]
336
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:50,200
[tense music continues]
337
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:57,120
[Graham] I'm headed to the far west
of Brazil and the state of Acre.
338
00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,000
Like most of the Amazon basin,
339
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,520
it had long been blanketed
by sprawling rainforest
340
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,000
until vast expanses
began to be burned down
341
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,480
to make way for cattle ranches.
342
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,000
[fire crackling]
343
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:21,640
Coming to the Amazon rainforest is both
an exhilarating and depressing experience.
344
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,720
The amount of land
that's been cleared of trees
345
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,960
is an unfolding modern day disaster
with no easy solution.
346
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,240
But as new swathes of land
have been cleared,
347
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,600
it's led to something
that no one expected.
348
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:39,680
[tense music continues]
349
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,080
{an8}[Graham] I'm here to meet Dr. Alceu Ranzi,
350
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:51,320
a paleogeographer who began his career
studying the Amazon's Ice Age animals.
351
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:54,440
[airplane engine revving]
352
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,040
[Graham] He wants
to show me evidence of a mystery
353
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:01,280
that remains unsolved today.
354
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,560
[tense music intensifies]
355
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:12,560
- Whoa!
- Whoa!
356
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:13,680
[both laugh]
357
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:14,760
Roller coaster.
358
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,920
[Graham] From up here,
the ongoing devastation is unmissable.
359
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,400
You can see
how much of it has been cleared.
360
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:34,840
- So much. So much.
- [Graham] Yes.
361
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,080
Twenty years from now,
all the forest will disappear.
362
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:45,360
But this clearance has opened
a little window on a great mystery.
363
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:50,440
In 1986,
Dr. Ranzi was flying over this region
364
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,360
when he caught a glimpse
of something unexpected.
365
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,040
I was arriving in Rio Branco by jet,
commercial jet.
366
00:22:58,120 --> 00:22:58,960
Yes.
367
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:00,880
- Sitting in the window seat.
- [Graham] Yeah.
368
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,280
- And looking at the environment like this.
- [Graham] Yes.
369
00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:04,680
[Dr. Ranzi] Like this.
370
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:06,760
And then I see a big circle.
371
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,280
[dramatic music playing]
372
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,520
My God. What's this? Huh?
373
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:19,960
- And the jet is so fast. Gone.
- Yeah.
374
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:21,800
Disappear.
375
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:25,680
[Graham] He didn't yet realize it,
376
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,080
but in those few seconds,
Dr. Ranzi had spotted something,
377
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:32,200
that if our old notions
of the Amazon are true,
378
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:33,800
simply shouldn't exist.
379
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:37,520
- Wow.
- [Dr. Ranzi] Yeah.
380
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:44,040
[Graham] Giant geometrical shapes,
as much as 1,000 feet across,
381
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,160
formed by trenches
and massive piles of earth,
382
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,240
now known as geoglyphs.
383
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:54,960
Fantastic design. My God.
384
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,400
Fantastic design. And so big.
385
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:58,360
[Graham] And enormous.
386
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,600
- So enormous. Enormous.
- [Graham] Yeah. Yeah.
387
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:01,680
Yeah.
388
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:04,280
[tense music ends]
389
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:06,720
- Beautiful. Beautiful thing.
- [Dr. Ranzi] Beautiful.
390
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,800
[tense music playing]
391
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:13,680
And what I'm seeing is a square
surrounded by an oval.
392
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,000
[Dr. Ranzi] Ah, look. Another one.
393
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,920
- Yes. They're everywhere.
- [Dr. Ranzi] Everywhere.
394
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:22,000
Another one here.
395
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:23,960
Another one here.
396
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,040
Wow. Incredible.
397
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,960
[Graham] The perfect geometry
is only visible
398
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:35,960
from hundreds of feet in the air.
399
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:40,400
And yet, somehow,
this was all created by people
400
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,880
with their feet stuck firmly
on the ground.
401
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,520
[tense music ends]
402
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,440
This, to me,
raises a feeling of deep respect.
403
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,240
How do they have the perspective
to see how they would look from above?
404
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:00,800
It's a powerful experience.
405
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:05,400
I've visited many temples and pyramids
and sacred sites around the world,
406
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,040
and this has a very special feeling.
407
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:10,560
You know, very special.
408
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,600
[triumphant music playing]
409
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,240
I mean, it touches my heart.
410
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:21,120
[spluttering] I'm...
I'm looking at something majestic.
411
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,680
It's as though the curtain is being
pulled back from the... from the Mona Lisa.
412
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,000
Suddenly, I'm seeing something
that I didn't know was there,
413
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,880
and it had an enormous
emotional impact upon me.
414
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,640
It was as though
the ancients were speaking to me directly.
415
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,080
"Look what we could do.
Don't underestimate us."
416
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:52,320
"We were scientists."
417
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,040
[tense music playing]
418
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:02,360
When you first told archaeologists
about this phenomenon, what did they say?
419
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,200
- The first one was a famous archaeologist.
- [Graham] Yes.
420
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,680
- [Dr. Ranzi] I showed her the picture...
- Yeah. Yeah.
421
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:13,520
...and she looked and said, "Where is it?
In the Amazon? It's impossible."
422
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,160
It's impossible? Look at the picture.
423
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:18,080
Help me, please.
424
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:19,880
- I don't know what this is.
- Yes.
425
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,160
[Graham] The evidence is undeniable
426
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,080
and spread across an area
the size of West Virginia.
427
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,320
[tense music playing]
428
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,000
At first, it was thought these mounds
429
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:37,080
might be defensive ramparts.
430
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,680
But there's no evidence of warfare here.
431
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,880
And the ditches lie inside the mounds,
so they're not moats.
432
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:51,880
And there's no evidence
that they were used as settlements.
433
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:56,720
[tense music ends]
434
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:01,320
It's impossible to avoid speculation when
we look at the Amazon geoglyphs. Why?
435
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,680
Because there are no written documents
from their original creators
436
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,360
that tell us why they made them.
We don't know why they made them.
437
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,800
[intriguing music playing]
438
00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,760
What's your thought about
how many there are in the whole area?
439
00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:16,800
- Thousands.
- [Graham] Thousands.
440
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,080
- Thousands. Thousands.
- [Graham] All right.
441
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:20,160
Thousands.
442
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,640
[music crescendos, stops]
443
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:26,920
[Graham] It raises many questions.
444
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,680
How old are these geometrical earthworks?
445
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:32,200
Are they older or younger
446
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,600
than the Amazon rainforest
that long concealed them?
447
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,040
[suspenseful music playing]
448
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,720
What was the size of the workforce
that created them in the first place?
449
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,880
And what skills were required
to direct the work successfully?
450
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,160
[Graham] This is not new work.
451
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,680
This is people who
already knew what they were doing.
452
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,760
They've done it many times before.
453
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,680
I would love to know
what was in their minds
454
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,000
when they were making this.
455
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:04,120
Yeah.
456
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:05,920
[Graham] It's such a huge effort
and energy.
457
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:07,960
[suspenseful music continues]
458
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,720
[Graham] The geoglyph building project
is a compelling mystery,
459
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,280
one that scores of researchers
are now grappling with.
460
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,880
Back on the ground,
we're meeting Professor Martti Pärssinen,
461
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:32,360
an archaeologist and anthropologist
from the University of Helsinki,
462
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,920
who's been searching for answers
alongside Dr. Ranzi for two decades.
463
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,280
[Graham] Clearly, we're looking
at an enormous phenomenon here,
464
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:45,960
not something small.
465
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,240
And a phenomenon that shows
knowledge of geometry
466
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,040
and also a high level of organization
must have been involved.
467
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,800
[Pärssinen] I think so
because many of these are so complicated.
468
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:57,920
[Graham] Very complicated.
469
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:02,080
{an8}It is necessary to have pre-planned
how to do it and how to organize it.
470
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,880
[music ends]
471
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,000
[Graham] After examining
hundreds of geoglyphs,
472
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,640
Professor Pärssinen has uncovered
a key piece of evidence
473
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,680
that points to the type of society
that built these structures,
474
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:25,720
ancient raised roads connecting
many of the geoglyphs.
475
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,360
[mysterious music playing]
476
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,160
This area is full of roads.
477
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:35,000
- Hunters and gatherers do not build roads.
- [Graham] Mm-hmm.
478
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:36,880
[Pärssinen]
They don't have any need for that.
479
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:42,000
It needs already society
with a much more higher level of thinking.
480
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:45,360
- [Graham] I see.
- And relationships between each other.
481
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,120
- So that is a really complex society.
- [Graham] Yeah.
482
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,080
And if I'm right, this was not
expected before in the Amazon.
483
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,920
No, it was totally a... surprise for us.
484
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,200
[tense music playing]
485
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,040
[Graham] To figure out more
about who the builders were,
486
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:04,840
Professor Pärssinen's team has been
excavating the areas around the geoglyphs,
487
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,160
including this one known as Tequinho.
488
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,400
Archaeologically, tell me what
you do find, uh, inside the earthworks?
489
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,680
From Tequinho,
we found 40,000, uh, shards of ceramics.
490
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:20,680
[camera shutter clicking]
491
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,600
[Graham] These shards
were around 2,000 years old.
492
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:28,880
The earthwork itself was dated
to around 2,500 years ago.
493
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:32,480
But the pottery
was unexpectedly sophisticated.
494
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,640
- Most of it is of high quality...
- Right.
495
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:39,360
- ...and polychrome ceramics.
- Right.
496
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:42,360
So that polychrome is
a rather advanced form of ceramics.
497
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:46,760
Yes, normally polychrome ceramic is
considered to be part of civilization.
498
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,360
[tense music playing]
499
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,640
[Graham] The multicolored ceramics raised
an unexpected parallel
500
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,640
with another far-off culture known for
their deep knowledge of geometry,
501
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:01,880
the ancient Greeks.
502
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:07,000
Generally, historians and archaeologists
say that, you know,
503
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,840
the Greeks were amongst
the first to create geometry,
504
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,600
but clearly,
we have to reconsider that view.
505
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,040
I think you're right because
506
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,920
this Geoglyph culture
is exactly the same time
507
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,600
when the Greek culture had
archaeological period
508
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,760
that has been called
Geometric Greek period.
509
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,720
{an8}[tense music playing]
510
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,240
{an8}[Graham] The fact
that two cultures so far apart
511
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:31,760
{an8}were making geometric art
512
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,080
{an8}and producing sophisticated pottery
around the same time
513
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:37,520
{an8}seems more than a coincidence.
514
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,000
{an8}It's fascinating that we're seeing
this parallel development of ideas
515
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:45,520
between cultures unconnected.
516
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:46,600
Yes, exactly.
517
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,960
[Graham] I'm not suggesting the Greek
and Amazonian cultures were in contact.
518
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,800
But could both perhaps have shared
a legacy of knowledge
519
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,760
inherited from
a vastly older civilization,
520
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,720
one that traveled the Earth
in the night of time,
521
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,640
leaving traces
of its wisdom wherever it went?
522
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,000
Now, the way
that archaeology explains this is to say,
523
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,600
"Well, look, we all have
the same human minds,
524
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,880
and so we're all going to do
the same things."
525
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:19,840
{an8}And the fact
that they did them at the same time
526
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:23,160
{an8}in widely separated geographical locations
527
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,840
is just explained
by that shared neurology.
528
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,200
I'm afraid that just doesn't work for me.
529
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:33,560
It's obvious from looking at the design
that there must be a background to this.
530
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,880
This isn't something that just appears
out of nowhere suddenly one night.
531
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,040
So how far back can you trace
the prehistory of this area?
532
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,160
And is there any evidence
that these places were special
533
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,640
before the geoglyphs were put there?
534
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:52,120
That's a very good question
because we excavated up to one meter...
535
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,200
- [Graham] Mm-hmm.
- ...and after that, the ceramic disappeared.
536
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,720
But then I noticed
that the charcoal continued.
537
00:32:58,800 --> 00:32:59,640
[Graham] Mm-hmm.
538
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,240
And we went down and down and down,
539
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:06,640
and then we started to take
radiocarbon samples,
540
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:10,840
and finally we found
that many of these sites
541
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:14,360
have been established already
10,000 years ago.
542
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,400
My goodness. Wow. From the deep past.
543
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:20,800
- From the deep past, exactly.
- Yeah. Fascinating.
544
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,520
[tense music playing]
545
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:28,200
[Graham] So, 10,000 years ago,
not long after the end of the Ice Age,
546
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,640
it looks like these same sites
may already have held
547
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,920
some great significance
to the people who visited them.
548
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,240
That adds more to the picture then.
549
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:42,560
So in a sense, what we're looking at now
is the latest incarnation
550
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,600
of a very long-term association
with the land,
551
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:47,960
- a very long-term project in a way.
- [Pärssinen] Yes.
552
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,560
We have evidence of a highly organized,
sophisticated Indigenous civilization
553
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,960
taking all the initiatives that
we would expect of a high civilization.
554
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,160
[Graham] This research
is truly groundbreaking
555
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,960
for our growing understanding
of human history.
556
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,640
We have to reconsider
our whole ideas of the ancient Amazon
557
00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:13,640
and our whole ideas
of ancient civilizations.
558
00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:15,840
To me, this is one
of the most exciting discoveries
559
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:17,840
that has been made in the last 100 years.
560
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:19,560
It's really, really something special.
561
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:21,640
[tense music playing]
562
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,560
[Graham] And the work is far from over.
563
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:33,000
We are now aware of a phenomenon
that we didn't know existed 20 years ago.
564
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,760
The next question is
how many of them are there?
565
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,240
How many
of these earthworks actually exist?
566
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:41,320
[triumphant music playing]
567
00:34:42,720 --> 00:34:45,440
To date, more than 1,000 geoglyphs
have been discovered
568
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:47,320
in the Acre region alone.
569
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,000
Eight miles from the airfield,
570
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,480
Professor Pärssinen is hoping to add
to the tally
571
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,680
in an unexplored part of the forest
572
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,200
near an exposed geoglyph
called Fazenda Cipoal.
573
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,080
[triumphant music ends]
574
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:11,440
Our understanding stopped
on the border of the forest,
575
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,720
and now we want to know what's there.
576
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,080
[suspenseful music playing]
577
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,200
[Graham] To detect
what's beneath the trees,
578
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,840
the team is depending on a technology
that sees through them.
579
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:25,320
LiDAR.
580
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:32,080
By using this system,
we can clear the vegetation out
581
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:35,280
and get the results from the bottom.
582
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:39,280
And in that way,
we can see the topography exactly.
583
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,760
[Graham] With LiDAR, you can see
what's under the canopy
584
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,840
without destroying a single tree.
585
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,160
You don't have
to tear down the rainforest.
586
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:49,960
You don't have to destroy anything.
587
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,640
Joining the hunt is Fabio De Novaes Filho,
588
00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:58,840
who will be surveying the forest
with his drone-based LiDAR system.
589
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,120
[Fabio] We are going to fly at 80 meters.
590
00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:03,240
{an8}That's good.
591
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:08,640
{an8}Maybe we can have
about 100 to 200 points per square meter.
592
00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:09,960
That's excellent.
593
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:12,600
The topography will be very precise.
594
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:14,480
[adventurous music playing]
595
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,480
[blades whirring]
596
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,680
[Graham] The device fires laser beams
down between the leaves,
597
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,760
detecting changes in elevation.
598
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,400
[music continues]
599
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,840
The data is then used to create
a 3D map of the landscape,
600
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:41,720
revealing any anomalies.
601
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:43,480
[music ends]
602
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,600
These drones will change everything
in archaeology.
603
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:48,680
[intriguing music playing]
604
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,160
[Graham] While the team looks to see
what might be hidden beneath the canopy,
605
00:36:57,240 --> 00:36:59,080
I'm investigating a different question.
606
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:05,160
Why were the geoglyphs built
in the first place?
607
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,760
Archaeological excavations offer no clue
as to why they were created.
608
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,160
But the Indigenous people in this area
hold knowledge and memories
609
00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:18,720
that help to shed light
on the significance and meaning
610
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:20,800
of these remarkable earthworks.
611
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,520
I've come to the geoglyph known as Jaco Sá
to meet one of its caretakers.
612
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:32,600
[intriguing music continues]
613
00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:39,520
{an8}Antônio Apurinã is from the Apurinã people
and works within FUNAI,
614
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,080
Brazil's national Indigenous agency.
615
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,000
[Antônio in Portuguese]
The Apurinã are a people
616
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:53,040
whose origins are closely tied to nature,
to the earth.
617
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,920
[in English] What is
the opinion of the Apurinã
618
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,520
about these constructions?
What is your feeling about them?
619
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:01,960
[in Portuguese] I am standing in a place
620
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,320
for which I have the utmost respect.
621
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,680
For us, it is a sacred place.
622
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:16,080
It wasn't made for war.
It wasn't made for defense.
623
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:21,200
It was made to express something cultural.
624
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,080
[Graham in English] If the geometrical
shapes have no practical function,
625
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:31,240
such a huge effort to create them
suggests a higher purpose.
626
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,000
There may be a clue in
the spiritual traditions of the Apurinã.
627
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:42,080
[in Portuguese] So, we compare this here
628
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:47,960
as if it were a circle of the Apurinã
629
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:54,120
when they dance and pay homage
to a deceased chief, a shaman,
630
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:57,680
to an important person
from the village who has died.
631
00:38:57,760 --> 00:38:59,760
[somber music playing]
632
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:06,160
We see this space as somewhere
that would welcome us
633
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:13,040
once we have left the material world.
634
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,000
[in English] This is a view
very strongly held
635
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:21,800
amongst Indigenous cultures
across the Amazon to this day,
636
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:25,160
that, after death,
our soul makes a journey,
637
00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:28,520
ultimately to an afterlife existence.
638
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,440
This is an idea that is found
all around the world,
639
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:37,920
and structures were created to aid
the journey of the soul after death.
640
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,160
[tense music playing]
641
00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:43,280
Let's take the example of pyramids.
642
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,400
I don't know
of a single pyramidal structure
643
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,320
around the world that isn't connected
644
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:54,120
to the notion of death
and the afterlife journey of the soul.
645
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:59,880
This is particularly evident
in the ancient Egyptian pyramids,
646
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:05,200
but it's just as evident in the pyramids
of the Americas and of Mexico.
647
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:06,760
[tense music continues]
648
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:10,000
So it's interesting to learn from Antônio
649
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,040
that the Amazon geoglyphs
may have served a similar purpose
650
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:17,480
for the people who first created them
untold thousands of years ago.
651
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:18,920
[tense music ends]
652
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,840
[intriguing music playing]
653
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:29,600
[Graham] Back at the airfield,
it's time to find out if our LiDAR survey
654
00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:33,840
has detected yet more
of these sacred sites beneath the canopy.
655
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,680
So, Fabio, please, tell us what you found.
656
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,760
We surveyed the area using the LiDAR.
657
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,920
And you see the trees?
658
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:44,840
[Graham] Yeah.
659
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:46,960
[music crescendos]
660
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:49,160
And now...
661
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:52,240
Wow. Incredible.
662
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:53,240
Wow.
663
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,880
[music ends]
664
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:58,680
[closing theme playing]
665
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:25,800
{an8}[closing theme ends]