1 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,360 These enormous structures in the Amazon 2 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:18,320 speak to a monumental human endeavor. 3 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,160 But how many of them are there? 4 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:28,480 Tell us what you found. 5 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,480 - You see the trees? - Yeah. 6 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,600 - And now the terrain. - Now we take it down. 7 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:35,800 Wow. 8 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:38,000 - Wow. - Incredible. 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,360 Professor Pärssinen and the team have found nine new geoglyphs 10 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:48,720 that were hidden beneath the jungle canopy. 11 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,600 Here we have round octagonal. 12 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,840 This octagon, it's about 100 meters. 13 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:03,120 - Yeah. - 100 meters in diameter. 14 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:04,080 Diameter. 15 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:08,280 Incredible. And nobody knew it was there until you got up there with your LiDAR. 16 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:09,720 Nobody knew about this. 17 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,840 Yeah. It's incredible what this technology can reveal. 18 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:15,200 Let's move up and look at this interesting feature. 19 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:20,760 These two nearly overlap 20 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:25,640 and appear to be connected, perhaps to other sites. 21 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,080 This is road with embankments on both sides. 22 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:32,920 - An ancient road? - Ancient road, yes. 23 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:35,360 Leading to the large embankment square. 24 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:37,120 - Yes. - Stunning. 25 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:42,480 If these geoglyphs were built at the same time as others nearby, 26 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,040 the roads suggest an organized civilization thrived here 27 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,400 at least 2,500 years ago. 28 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,480 And there's evidence they might've been around 29 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:56,200 for very much longer. 30 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:03,200 We found that many of these sites have been established 31 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:04,840 already 10,000 years ago. 32 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,680 We can't be sure whether we're looking at 33 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,120 reconstructions of much older geoglyphs. 34 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,720 But what we do know is that human beings were present in that area. 35 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,760 And that evidence goes back more than 10,000 years, uh, into the past 36 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,360 and brings us very close to the end of the last Ice Age. 37 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:27,520 However old they may be, 38 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,840 the scale of the enterprise is truly astonishing. 39 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,000 So this raises the question, 40 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,800 how many people would it take to do something like this? 41 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,560 We speak, uh, about hundreds of thousands. 42 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,160 Yes. Literally hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. 43 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:43,720 Amazing. 44 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,480 Professor Pärsinnen isn't suggesting 45 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,200 all of those people physically built the geoglyphs. 46 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,760 But a population that size must have existed here long-term 47 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,520 to both provide for and support the necessary workforce. 48 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:05,960 Within a few hundred meters of known geoglyphs, 49 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:09,760 our LiDAR team were finding more geoglyphs that nobody even knew about. 50 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,120 So what on earth can we expect to discover 51 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:16,440 if we go hundreds of miles into that dense rainforest? 52 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:23,320 This has changed totally our understanding of Amazonia. 53 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,280 We're dealing with a huge phenomenon here, 54 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,040 which has to change the history of the Americas 55 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,000 and changing the history of the world. 56 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,520 {\an8} 57 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,480 We can't possibly begin to tell the story of the Americas 58 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:08,840 until we have much more complete knowledge of what was going on in the Amazon... 59 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:16,080 not 1,000 years ago, but 10,000 years ago, 20,000 years ago, 30,000 years ago. 60 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:20,120 We need to keep going back. 61 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,800 We need not to close our minds to these possibilities. 62 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,120 And there's tantalizing evidence of that deeper history 63 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:33,480 1,000 miles northeast of Acre. 64 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:38,320 I've come to the Monte Alegre National Park 65 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,120 on the north bank of the Amazon. 66 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:49,040 Although much of the Amazon basin is flat and cloaked in trees, 67 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:55,680 here, distinctive rocky outcrops tower over the canopy. 68 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,960 Archaeologist and anthropologist Dr. Christopher Davis 69 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:05,480 has spent years investigating a potentially history-changing discovery 70 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:07,560 high on one of these ridges. 71 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:15,680 This is Serra do Paituna... 72 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:19,800 hill of the Blackwater Lake... 73 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:25,960 a towering rocky crag adorned with 74 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,800 an array of seemingly ancient painted images. 75 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:40,880 Thank you for leading the way. 76 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:50,440 We're obviously surrounded by just this amazing art here. 77 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,880 What led you to this investigation and this exploration? 78 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:57,560 {\an8}I started doing archeology, um, as a graduate student. 79 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:01,680 And I had no idea that there was rock art in the Americas. 80 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:03,800 And so I was blown away by that. 81 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,960 The images are known as pictographs. 82 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:15,440 Some are very simple. 83 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,040 Maybe a serpent slithering across the rock. 84 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,240 Others depict more complex geometric patterns. 85 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,160 The big question is when were these images painted? 86 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:35,680 The art itself can't be dated. 87 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:39,280 So Dr. Davis and his team looked for other evidence. 88 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,920 What's your dating of this site based on at the moment? 89 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:46,320 It's from the excavation that we did back behind here. 90 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:53,800 There were fragments of carbonated wood, mostly palm wood, some carbonated seeds. 91 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,440 We found evidence of a fire back there as well. 92 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,320 The results were truly unexpected. 93 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,080 From the radiocarbon dating, 94 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:09,840 the oldest dates that we got were about 13,200 before present. 95 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:11,280 Fascinating. 96 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:16,440 Dating back more than 13,000 years, 97 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,320 we're looking at some of the oldest artwork 98 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:22,400 found anywhere in the Americas. 99 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,600 Artwork created during the last Ice Age. 100 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,680 By people, we're told, who just suddenly appeared here 101 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:39,160 deep in the Amazon wilderness. 102 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:44,800 You can imagine, you know, thousands of years ago, 103 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,400 this would've been much brighter, much more vibrant. 104 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,640 The images were painted using red and yellow ocher 105 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,720 and seemingly treated to make them last. 106 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,320 I've done experiments here where you just take the ocher 107 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,040 and draw it on the rock, and it washes away. 108 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:12,560 Right. So there has to be a binder. 109 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,000 There has to be a binder and a very good one. 110 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,880 - We suspect they mixed it with tree resin... - Uh-huh. 111 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:22,040 ...and the resin forms into almost like amber but it's kind of clear. 112 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:25,320 So that suggests those who created these paintings had, 113 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,160 first of all, experience in how to do paintings like this, 114 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:32,240 and they developed some knowledge of how to make the paint last. 115 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:37,400 Absolutely. Um, and in addition to that, it shows preparation and time. 116 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,800 Most compelling to me are the many handprints... 117 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:53,120 that intimate human contact expressed by the handprints in the rock art. 118 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,960 It's almost as though they were touching the wall, 119 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:03,000 and through the wall, touching us, 120 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:04,960 sending a message to the future. 121 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,560 {\an8} More Paleolithic art has been found in the Western Amazon. 122 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,360 Like this intricate mural in the jungles of Colombia, 123 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:25,120 where 12,600-year-old images depict humans 124 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,200 alongside what appear to be creatures of the Ice Age. 125 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:35,000 {\an8}We are seeing an eyewitness account of the coexistence of human beings 126 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,040 with now long-extinct Ice Age megafauna. 127 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:44,720 {\an8}And to the east of the Amazon, these paintings push the date back further 128 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,040 to more than 25,000 years ago. 129 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:55,480 Which means 2,000 years before those hunter-gatherers were walking 130 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:57,560 the White Sands of New Mexico, 131 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,320 there were other people already living in the forests of South America 132 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,400 creating art like this. 133 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:06,720 And in great numbers. 134 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,280 This should open up exploration 135 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:17,120 of what those human beings might have been doing in the Americas 136 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,280 over these tens of thousands of years 137 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:21,080 that archaeologists previously didn't think 138 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:22,920 there were any human beings there at all. 139 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,400 At Serra do Paituna, Dr. Davis is sure of one thing. 140 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,040 Whoever they were and whatever they were doing, 141 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:38,920 the rock painters here suddenly stopped. 142 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,120 So the first people who were at this region, they were here, 143 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,840 they were doing the art, and then about 12,700 years ago, 144 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:47,840 they were gone. 145 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,560 So was the area abandoned at that time? 146 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:51,920 It appears to be so. 147 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:54,080 For quite some time. For thousands of years. 148 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:59,000 To me, 12,700 years ago is a highly significant date. 149 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:02,760 There's always margins of error in dates. 150 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:08,360 But that's very close to the beginning of the Younger Dryas climate anomaly. 151 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:10,680 So I can't help wondering if there's a connection. 152 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,120 Back then, temperatures suddenly plunged, 153 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,800 while unexpectedly, fires raged across the planet. 154 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:24,560 And sea levels rose. 155 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:35,800 We can hear echoes of this catastrophic epoch... 156 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,800 ...in the oral traditions of Amazonia. 157 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,280 There are countless myths and legends about an ancient cataclysm 158 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:49,360 that are still told all across the Amazon. 159 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,120 And there's one that I find particularly intriguing. 160 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,400 According to the Indigenous Tiriyó people, 161 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:03,800 long ago, the sky spirits told a shaman 162 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:06,480 that a terrible flood would soon be unleashed, 163 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:08,920 a punishment for the people's wickedness. 164 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:14,760 Some heeded his warning and fled to safety atop Mount Kantani. 165 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:20,400 But most perished in the deluge. 166 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:27,400 Eventually, the flood receded, leaving the survivors to start over. 167 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:36,960 It is a worldwide tradition. There was a golden age. 168 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:41,040 There was a time when humans lived in harmony with one another. 169 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:43,960 But that it somehow fell from its high standards, 170 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:47,800 and it was punished with a great flood, with a global destruction, 171 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:49,920 which wiped it from the face of the Earth. 172 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:56,080 The global distribution of this shared myth can't be a coincidence. 173 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,880 I believe these ancient stories may be our last surviving memories 174 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:05,000 of very real events that occurred all over the world 175 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:06,920 around the end of the Ice Age, 176 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,040 during a period of cataclysms 177 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:11,560 that we've been calling the Ancient Apocalypse. 178 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:29,840 The evidence is mounting more and more 179 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,800 that the Earth crossed the path of cometary debris. 180 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,600 And the argument is that it was multiple impacts of fragments 181 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:43,560 of this cometary debris that set off the Younger Dryas climate emergency 182 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:45,280 12,800 years ago. 183 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:56,040 It's an idea we keep encountering 184 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,160 called the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis. 185 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,280 In both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, 186 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:07,440 {\an8}scientists have found black matte layers like this one, 187 00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:10,680 {\an8}showing traces of nanodiamonds, platinum, and iridium, 188 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:13,720 suggesting a nearby cosmic impact or airburst. 189 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,160 But here, in the Amazon, other evidence might be present, 190 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:19,800 etched into these walls. 191 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,080 We have several images of comets, 192 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:30,160 but one panel particularly, 193 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:36,080 there's a comet that is positioned facing upward. 194 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,240 The tail is going down. The head is going up. 195 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:39,240 Yeah. 196 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:42,440 Above the comet image is a painting of the sun. 197 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,000 And this was baffling when I first saw it because normally you wouldn't see a comet 198 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,520 until after the sun sets. 199 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,240 Most comets are easily distinguishable by their tails, 200 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:59,320 usually only visible above the setting sun streaming away from it. 201 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:05,200 Surely it would be impossible to see a comet below the sun in broad daylight. 202 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,840 So that gave me the idea, "When would you possibly see a comet head up 203 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:13,160 before the sun sets?" 204 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,000 - Maybe during an eclipse. - Mm-hmm. 205 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,760 And so I started looking in astronomy software, 206 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:25,520 and there was an eclipse that occurred facing that image about 13,027 years ago. 207 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:26,520 Right. 208 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:30,840 And a comet that was near the sun. 209 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,360 If there was an eclipse that darkened the sun, 210 00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,720 you could possibly see suddenly this comet, 211 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:41,680 and it would be head up facing the sun. 212 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,800 - So-- - That's what we see in the art? 213 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:45,720 The art does seem to show that. 214 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,520 Could this painting be a record of the comet 215 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:50,200 that many believe broke apart, 216 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:54,840 pummeling the Earth with debris and triggering the Younger Dryas? 217 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,960 I think the ancients were already getting warnings from the sky. 218 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,960 They were becoming aware that something had changed in the heavens, 219 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:10,040 and perhaps they were painting the first signs of the apocalypse 220 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:11,120 that was to come. 221 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:29,080 The timing certainly fits with when humans abandoned this rocky outcrop. 222 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:32,280 I know archaeologists don't like to speculate 223 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:33,920 and I'm gonna ask you to speculate, 224 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:36,200 but do you think the Younger Dryas had anything to do with 225 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:37,920 that sudden cessation of activity? 226 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:39,760 You can't ignore it, certainly, 227 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:42,440 because it does come right at that period of time. 228 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,840 At a personal level, what's your estimation 229 00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:59,400 of the people who created this art? 230 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:01,520 How do you envisage them in your mind? 231 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,360 It's kind of hard to imagine how brave you would have to be 232 00:17:05,360 --> 00:17:07,280 coming to a new environment. 233 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,880 I mean, they were pioneers. 234 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:15,440 But how did these pioneers get here in the first place? 235 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:24,040 In 2015, scientists investigating just that question dropped a bombshell. 236 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,440 They found that members of certain Indigenous Amazonian tribes 237 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:32,480 share a specific DNA marker 238 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:36,880 with people from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. 239 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,560 The fact that we find it amongst remote tribes in the Amazon rainforest 240 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,680 and in Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Australia 241 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:52,680 suggests very strongly that there was a direct crossing 242 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:54,760 across the Pacific Ocean. 243 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,040 Even more surprising is where this DNA signal isn't. 244 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:07,880 This DNA signal is not found anywhere in North America. 245 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,840 If the Americas were peopled entirely by land, 246 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:15,800 we should find this DNA signal present in North America 247 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:17,520 as well as in South America. 248 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:25,760 What's more, the DNA signal is very old, dating back at least 10,000 years. 249 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,040 Nobody is supposed to have been able to cross the Pacific Ocean 250 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:34,520 from one side to the other 10 or 11,000 years ago. 251 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:38,320 For that to have happened just turns the whole story on its head. 252 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,400 If there's one place on Earth that might hold clues 253 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:43,600 as to who crossed the Pacific back then... 254 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:48,520 ...it's here. 255 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:55,800 I've come to one of the world's most remote inhabited islands 256 00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:01,360 2,300 miles west of South America 257 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,520 and 2,600 miles east of Tahiti. 258 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:13,880 On Easter Sunday, 1722, Dutch explorers stumbled across this small speck of land, 259 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,400 lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 260 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,920 So they named it Easter Island. 261 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,920 But they were stunned to discover that it was inhabited 262 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,320 by a people who today call their home Rapa Nui. 263 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,120 I mean, look at the basic geography. 264 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:47,040 It's just sitting there in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 265 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:51,080 this tiny little dot of land. 266 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:57,240 And so the first extraordinary thing about it is, 267 00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,120 how did people find it at all? 268 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:03,480 How did anybody ever end up settling on Easter Island 269 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:08,000 in this huge wilderness of the Pacific Ocean? 270 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:13,640 That Pan-Pacific DNA signal convinces me 271 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:18,320 that this island could play a key role in my efforts to reconstruct the story 272 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,720 of a lost civilization of the Ice Age. 273 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:23,240 Why? 274 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:27,160 Because of these. 275 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,200 Vast megalithic statues that tower over the landscape... 276 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,400 for which Rapa Nui is famous today. 277 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:48,720 Across the Pacific, 278 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:52,600 several islands are home to collections of remarkable megalithic structures. 279 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:57,680 However, the greatest concentration of such monuments is found here. 280 00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,760 The islanders call them Moai. 281 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,000 There are more than 1,000 of them... 282 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,320 on a remote rock that's smaller than Washington, DC. 283 00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:23,880 Many stand together along the coastline, facing inland... 284 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,720 while others are found seemingly at random, 285 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,760 as if a massive project had been abandoned midway through. 286 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:46,480 For me, Easter Island is just one of the most enchanted places on Earth. 287 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,720 The great Moai statues, 288 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:53,360 these human figures carved out of the soft volcanic rock. 289 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,040 It's confronting us with a mystery right there, 290 00:21:58,040 --> 00:21:59,840 which needs to be explained. 291 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,320 Who were the sculptors of these giant statues? 292 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,120 What were they trying to achieve, 293 00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:12,760 and why did they expend such mighty efforts to achieve it? 294 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:16,960 These are puzzles to which no definite solution, 295 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,280 only speculation, has ever been offered. 296 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,600 This gap in our knowledge is mostly due to the devastation 297 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,680 wrought here by outsiders. 298 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:41,640 During the 19th century, 299 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,880 the Rapa Nui people were reduced to a tiny remnant 300 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,840 by slave raids and disease. 301 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,440 The few who clung on, did so, 302 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,680 by taking refuge in underground lava tubes like this. 303 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,440 I often say that we're a species with amnesia, 304 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,880 and that is particularly true of Easter Island 305 00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:04,760 because of its tragic history. 306 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:07,040 Because from the moment 307 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:11,120 that Easter Island encountered Western culture, 308 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:13,480 uh, disaster set in. 309 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:20,000 The elders who had preserved the memories were all taken away. 310 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,000 Some slaves were later repatriated, 311 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,280 but brought with them deadly diseases, 312 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:28,840 with the result that the remaining islanders 313 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:30,480 were all but wiped out. 314 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,440 Leo Pakarati is an Indigenous documentarian 315 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,080 {\an8}whose family has carefully preserved the oral traditions of Rapa Nui 316 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:43,440 {\an8}for generations. 317 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,760 He's painfully aware of what was lost 318 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,560 during those dark times of the slave raids. 319 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,320 The only memory that is preserved of the origins of Easter Island 320 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,480 is the memory that survived the 19th century. 321 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:04,040 In a historical moment, we are only 111 persons on the island. 322 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:05,600 - It's a big disaster. - For the culture. 323 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:07,320 It's a cultural disaster too 324 00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,320 because you need many people to keep the knowledge. 325 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:11,920 Few people, few knowledge. 326 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,960 - Yeah. - And we lose a big part of our history. 327 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,840 And yet, despite these overwhelming odds, 328 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:23,280 the Rapa Nui have retained memories 329 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,720 concerning this tiny island's most intriguing mystery. 330 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,800 Tell me what the old tradition says about the Moai. 331 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,920 The real name for the Moai is "te aringa ora o te Tupuna." 332 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,400 - Mm-hmm. -"The living face of our ancestors." 333 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:38,560 That is the name. 334 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:42,640 The idea is the Moai represent a real person. 335 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:43,680 Yeah. 336 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,560 And in life, this person is special, important. 337 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,880 According to Rapa Nui lore, 338 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,520 these important ancestors were memorialized in the Moai 339 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,160 with distinctive features related to their rank. 340 00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:59,840 - Some of the Moai have short ears. - Yeah. 341 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:01,800 Some have long ears. What's that about? 342 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,640 This is because of our different social classes on the island. 343 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:08,160 - Yeah. - Some people have time for long earrings. 344 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:10,280 They have long nails too. 345 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,280 - It's a social class act. - Yes. 346 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,200 So those long fingers on the Moai, those are actually nails? 347 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,080 They have long fingers, 348 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,360 and some Moai have very long nails and curves too. 349 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,920 I find it impossible to avoid seeing 350 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:30,080 parallels with similar statues of great antiquity found elsewhere. 351 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:37,600 {\an8}On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, we find 4,000-year-old megalithic figures 352 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,720 in a remarkably similar posture 353 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,520 {\an8}and with similar hand positions. 354 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,040 {\an8}Even on the other side of the world, in Turkey, 355 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,960 {\an8}a statue known as Urfa Man that dates back to the Ice Age 356 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:57,120 strikes a similar pose, his hands clasped across his belly. 357 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,960 {\an8}An equally intriguing parallel is found also in Turkey, 358 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:07,200 {\an8}in the ten-ton megalithic pillars of Göbekli Tepe. 359 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:12,160 These pillars are 11,600 years old. 360 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,520 Could the similarities of these designs across time and space 361 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:22,400 be evidence of a single common ancestor culture, 362 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:27,160 leaving a legacy of ideas for later peoples to express? 363 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:37,760 No records exist that could explain the origins of such imagery. 364 00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:42,560 But according to Rapa Nui oral tradition, 365 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,360 the Moai, in addition to being megalithic memorials, 366 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,480 channel a sacred spiritual power from their ancestors, 367 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,720 an energy known as mana. 368 00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:58,840 Tell me more about mana. 369 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,320 Mana is very important. 370 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:01,920 Mana is the energy. 371 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,280 All the people have mana. 372 00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,640 Any rock, any elements in the universe have mana. 373 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,080 So the Moai are invested with mana? 374 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:11,720 Yeah. People, when they die, 375 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:16,160 the family send to make a Moai with the intention, 376 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:20,920 the soul, the mana, the spirit of this person entering the Moai. 377 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,240 But interestingly, that mana only starts to flow 378 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,400 after the Moai are set in place and properly finished. 379 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,680 In the moment, the Moai is safe on the platform, 380 00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,680 the tupuna, the ancestors, carve in the holes for the eyes first, 381 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:42,360 and later they put in coral for the white part 382 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:45,480 and sometimes obsidian or other rocks for the eyes. 383 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,080 - Right. Yeah. - In this moment, it's no more Moai. 384 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,360 Now it's Aringa ora o te Tupuna. The living face of our ancestors. 385 00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:53,320 - Once it has the eyes? - Once it has the eyes. 386 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,840 - Right. - And from the platform, from the Ahu, 387 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,080 the Moai look in direction to the town and protect the family. 388 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:00,680 That is the function of the Moai. 389 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,240 Clearly, the Moai are deeply sacred to the Rapa Nui. 390 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,600 But does that mean they originally carved them? 391 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:21,360 Or could the Moai have already been here? 392 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,680 If so, we'd need to rethink the entire timeline 393 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,280 of the peopling of Rapa Nui. 394 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,080 Let's consider an alternative scenario 395 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,640 in which it was first explored by a small group 396 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,720 of highly sophisticated navigators, 397 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,240 much further back in prehistory than is presently accepted. 398 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,120 Based on genetic testing, 399 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:56,880 we know that the Rapa Nui people... 400 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,240 ...are descended from those great ancient navigators, 401 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:03,760 the Polynesians. 402 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:10,400 The Polynesians were fantastically advanced navigators and seafarers 403 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,840 and settled many parts of the Pacific Ocean 404 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,440 during the Polynesian expansion about 3,000 years ago. 405 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,960 Carbon dating of the oldest human settlements here 406 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:26,040 strongly suggests that Rapa Nui was one of the last islands they reached 407 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,280 around 1,100 years ago. 408 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:32,720 A new study proposes 409 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,520 that the first people arrived even more recently, 410 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:37,880 just 800 years ago or less. 411 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,480 And yet, fragments of a different earlier origin story 412 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,160 that seem to contradict the archaeological timeline 413 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,240 have been kept alive here. 414 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,680 I'm privileged to witness a celebration of it. 415 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,320 The oral traditions speak of a primeval homeland called Hiva, 416 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:19,400 a large island destroyed by a global flood that forced their ancestors to flee. 417 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,960 In this account, the great king of Hiva, Hutu Matu'a, 418 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,760 was warned that his island nation would suffer a terrible deluge 419 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:32,440 and be submerged forever. 420 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:38,560 Guided by a vision, 421 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:42,200 he sent seven chosen men out in seafaring canoes, 422 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,680 heading towards the rising sun in search of a new home. 423 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:51,560 After weeks at sea, 424 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,240 they landed safely on the island of Rapa Nui, 425 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,680 where they were later joined by Hutu Matu'a and hundreds of his people 426 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:00,960 to reestablish their civilization. 427 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,560 So we have a tradition of a great flood and an exploration, 428 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,480 and we have to ask ourselves, "Did such an event happen?" 429 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,240 You really have to go back to the end of the last Ice Age 430 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,080 to get the kind of flood that would submerge an entire land. 431 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,680 The name of that sunken island, Hiva, 432 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,280 in Rapa Nui language means far-off land, 433 00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:35,040 suggesting it wasn't a land the Polynesians were familiar with. 434 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:42,000 But the arrival of a band of seven by sea after a time of great cataclysm 435 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,320 {\an8}is a tradition encountered all over the ancient world 436 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:47,840 {\an8}from the Apkallu of Mesopotamia 437 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,600 {\an8}to Egypt's seven sages 438 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:54,240 {\an8}and India's seven rishis. 439 00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:00,080 {\an8}Such traditions often speak of a small band of flood survivors 440 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,760 arriving in a distant land in a time of chaos 441 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:06,240 with a mission to restart civilization. 442 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:13,560 Coincidence? Could these origin stories be memories of real events 443 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,080 experienced by many ancient cultures around the world? 444 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,640 Crucially, the legend of Hotu Matu'a and Hiva 445 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,160 doesn't include a date. 446 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,480 This causes me to raise questions in my mind 447 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,920 about when Easter Island was first settled. 448 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,240 I'm not disputing the Polynesian expansion. 449 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,320 I'm not disputing that the population of Easter Island today 450 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,640 is a Polynesian population. 451 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,040 But the question is, could it have been settled earlier than that? 452 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,120 Alas, the Moai themselves can't help us answer this question. 453 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:12,920 The characteristic Moai are cut from 454 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,560 a relatively soft type of rock called tuff, 455 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:19,040 a form of volcanic ash turned to stone. 456 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,400 They can't be dated in and of themselves. 457 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:24,880 In the absence of direct evidence 458 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,680 for when these megalithic statues were carved, 459 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,800 archaeologists relied on dating the organic matter 460 00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:36,080 embedded in the Ahu platforms, on which many of the Moai stand. 461 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:38,720 For example, 462 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:45,080 Ahu Nau Nau has been dated to between 400 and 900 years old. 463 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:55,080 So that's when historians believe the islanders began to carve the Moai. 464 00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,440 But if that were true, 465 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,000 it means that after a few centuries, 466 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,040 living simply with no traces of building the necessary skills, 467 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,880 the Rapa Nui people suddenly embarked on this mammoth project, 468 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,520 which continued until just a few decades before the Europeans arrived. 469 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:20,600 Many of the platforms are really quite rough 470 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,040 and ready by comparison with the statues. 471 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,280 And we have to ask ourselves the question, 472 00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:29,240 "Are the platforms actually the same age as the statues that stand on top of them?" 473 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,360 Or is it possible that the statues were re-erected 474 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,360 by latecomers to Easter Island, 475 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,600 giving us a totally false idea of how old the statues are 476 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:40,400 based on the platforms alone? 477 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:45,400 After all, throughout history, 478 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:50,160 many objects of great cultural value have later been moved and displayed 479 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:51,520 in a newer setting. 480 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,720 {\an8} 481 00:34:53,720 --> 00:34:57,120 {\an8}In Venice, the four tetrarchs of St. Mark's Basilica 482 00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:02,960 {\an8}were actually carved in Constantinople 900 years before they were installed here. 483 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:10,120 {\an8}And the Renaissance fountain in front of Rome's Pantheon isn't nearly as old 484 00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,760 {\an8}as the ancient Egyptian obelisk it supports. 485 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,760 Many of these huge statues were moved around, relocated, 486 00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:20,440 placed in different positions. 487 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,160 And I think we have to remain open to the possibility 488 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,480 that the statues may already have been there 489 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,360 when the first Polynesians arrived. 490 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,120 And that they were kind of adopted by those new settlers 491 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:35,360 and taken in to their culture. 492 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,040 Supporting this idea is Ahu Nau Nau, 493 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,120 which uses another Moai head, deeply weathered, 494 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,200 as one of its foundation stones, recycled for this purpose. 495 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,240 Another hint that the Moai could be much older than previously thought 496 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:02,080 can be found at the extinct volcano, 497 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,880 where nearly all of the megaliths were first quarried and shaped. 498 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,400 Here, in the southeastern corner of the island, is an extinct volcano 499 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,120 called Rano Raraku. 500 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,760 It's a dramatic feature on the landscape. 501 00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:27,840 And on its slopes are the remains of hundreds of partially completed Moai. 502 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,720 It truly is one of the world's most mysterious places. 503 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:43,000 Nearly 400 Moai are scattered about the volcano... 504 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:50,080 in various stages of completion. 505 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,360 Many only peek above ground level, 506 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,560 their squat torsos embedded in deep sediment. 507 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,160 This sedimentation could result from landslides, 508 00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,160 mudflows, or even tsunamis. 509 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:25,480 But although they might lean, most of the statues remain upright, 510 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:27,120 not randomly tumbled over, 511 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,240 as you would expect if such an event were the cause. 512 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:34,560 So what really happened here? 513 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:39,440 For centuries, the sediment concealed the evidence. 514 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,760 Until 1914, when archaeologists began excavations. 515 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:49,000 As this photograph shows, 516 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,000 some Moai are much more than just head and shoulders 517 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,760 and include the whole torso lodged deep in the hillside... 518 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,120 a finding that was only fully revealed to the world in the 1950s 519 00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:07,080 by the famous ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. 520 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,720 Thor Heyerdahl was a remarkable human being. 521 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:16,680 I was lucky to meet him more than once. 522 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,840 He was willing to challenge convention. 523 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,800 He was convinced that there were some missing pieces 524 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,760 in the story of our past. 525 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,960 And he tried to show us that deep in prehistory, 526 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,120 uh, ancient humans were capable of achievements 527 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,760 that we have tended to allocate to much later periods. 528 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,560 Like this mysterious Moai building project. 529 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:43,240 Archaeologists tell us 530 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:47,040 that the last of the Moai were sculpted around 400 years ago. 531 00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,320 But it seems implausible, on such a small island, 532 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,440 that such a massive amount of sedimentation could have accumulated 533 00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:57,960 around them in such a short time. 534 00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,160 None of these Moai show evidence of intentional burial. 535 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,280 So is there another explanation? 536 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,760 Could it be that what we're looking at is the end result 537 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:13,560 of a process of sedimentation 538 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,120 that would have taken not hundreds of years, but thousands? 539 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,560 The problem with that theory? 540 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,320 There's no evidence of human habitation dating so far back. 541 00:39:26,720 --> 00:39:27,840 Or is there?