1 00:00:11,683 --> 00:00:13,123 -[man 1] Happy? -[man 2] Yep. 2 00:00:13,203 --> 00:00:15,283 -[man 1] All right, here we go. -And take one. 3 00:00:15,363 --> 00:00:17,643 [interviewer] How would you describe yourself? 4 00:00:17,723 --> 00:00:18,923 [chuckles] 5 00:00:19,003 --> 00:00:20,683 How would I describe myself? 6 00:00:20,763 --> 00:00:23,683 You've been described as a pseudo-archaeologist. 7 00:00:23,763 --> 00:00:26,003 -I have. -Someone who cherry-picks your data. 8 00:00:26,083 --> 00:00:29,283 Your books are read by millions, but dismissed by academics. 9 00:00:30,523 --> 00:00:33,363 Did you know that you were picking a fight with academia? 10 00:00:33,443 --> 00:00:35,923 Because a lot of people don't want to hear this. 11 00:00:36,003 --> 00:00:39,803 You have been at the front of the line for decades 12 00:00:40,523 --> 00:00:45,083 and you exposed me to a lot of these controversial ideas 13 00:00:45,163 --> 00:00:46,923 that have now been substantiated. 14 00:00:48,323 --> 00:00:50,083 Well, I'm Graham Hancock. 15 00:00:51,563 --> 00:00:54,963 I don't claim to be an archaeologist or a scientist. 16 00:00:55,043 --> 00:00:56,763 I am a journalist, 17 00:00:56,843 --> 00:01:01,003 and the subject that I'm investigating is human prehistory. 18 00:01:15,083 --> 00:01:20,123 My suspicion is humans are a species with amnesia. 19 00:01:20,923 --> 00:01:25,763 We have forgotten something incredibly important in our own past. 20 00:01:26,443 --> 00:01:30,443 And I think that that incredibly important forgotten thing 21 00:01:30,523 --> 00:01:34,523 is a lost, advanced civilization of the Ice Age. 22 00:01:36,723 --> 00:01:40,883 I've spent decades searching for proof of this lost civilization 23 00:01:40,963 --> 00:01:42,643 at sites around the globe. 24 00:01:43,123 --> 00:01:44,043 Oh, wow. 25 00:01:44,563 --> 00:01:48,483 Now my aim is to piece together these clues… 26 00:01:48,563 --> 00:01:51,843 And that seems extremely strange. 27 00:01:52,843 --> 00:01:56,603 …to show you evidence that challenges the traditional view of human history. 28 00:01:57,603 --> 00:02:00,483 It pushes back these dates, far, far back. 29 00:02:01,043 --> 00:02:05,523 [Graham] Ancient structures built with surprising sophistication… 30 00:02:06,043 --> 00:02:09,523 It's the most amazing archeoastronomy site in North America. 31 00:02:10,203 --> 00:02:14,843 …revealing the fingerprints of an advanced prehistoric civilization. 32 00:02:14,923 --> 00:02:16,843 This pillar is like our Rosetta Stone. 33 00:02:17,963 --> 00:02:21,483 The possibility of civilization emerging earlier than we think 34 00:02:21,563 --> 00:02:22,403 gets stronger. 35 00:02:23,603 --> 00:02:27,363 It's going to absolutely demand a rewrite of history as we know it. 36 00:02:27,443 --> 00:02:28,283 Yeah. 37 00:02:30,963 --> 00:02:35,163 Of course, this idea is upsetting to the so-called experts 38 00:02:35,243 --> 00:02:39,483 who insist that the only humans who existed during the Ice Age 39 00:02:39,563 --> 00:02:41,123 were simple hunter-gatherers. 40 00:02:42,323 --> 00:02:47,123 That automatically makes me enemy number one to archaeologists. 41 00:02:47,203 --> 00:02:49,883 Why not say, "We don't know. This is a spectacular mystery," 42 00:02:49,963 --> 00:02:50,883 and leave it at that. 43 00:02:50,963 --> 00:02:53,963 It's my job to offer an alternative point of view. 44 00:02:54,043 --> 00:02:57,443 Perhaps there's been a forgotten episode in human history. 45 00:02:57,523 --> 00:02:59,483 But perhaps the extremely defensive, 46 00:02:59,563 --> 00:03:02,323 arrogant and patronizing attitude of mainstream academia 47 00:03:02,403 --> 00:03:04,643 is stopping us from considering that possibility. 48 00:03:05,843 --> 00:03:09,043 I'm trying to overthrow… the paradigm of history. 49 00:03:31,563 --> 00:03:34,923 [Graham] For 30 years, I've been looking for something 50 00:03:35,003 --> 00:03:37,603 I was told couldn't possibly exist. 51 00:03:39,443 --> 00:03:45,243 An advanced human civilization, much older than our own, lost to history. 52 00:03:47,123 --> 00:03:51,243 The mainstream version of history, says that after the end of the Ice Age… 53 00:03:53,083 --> 00:03:56,243 on their own initiative, our hunter-gatherer ancestors 54 00:03:56,323 --> 00:04:00,123 suddenly began farming and raising livestock, 55 00:04:00,203 --> 00:04:03,403 creating settlements and eventually cities, 56 00:04:04,043 --> 00:04:08,763 until the first civilizations emerged around 6,000 years ago. 57 00:04:10,123 --> 00:04:14,083 But new discoveries keep on pushing that horizon back. 58 00:04:15,403 --> 00:04:19,203 One such discovery has been made here in Indonesia. 59 00:04:22,283 --> 00:04:24,603 On the most populated island, Java, 60 00:04:26,203 --> 00:04:30,363 about four hours south of Jakarta, near the village of Karyamukti. 61 00:04:37,043 --> 00:04:40,483 I've come here to investigate one of the most remarkable 62 00:04:40,563 --> 00:04:43,843 and controversial archaeological discoveries of our time. 63 00:04:45,083 --> 00:04:45,923 The initial evidence 64 00:04:46,003 --> 00:04:49,083 has utterly confounded mainstream archaeologists 65 00:04:49,163 --> 00:04:52,563 because it calls into question everything they've taught us 66 00:04:52,643 --> 00:04:54,323 about the prehistory of humanity. 67 00:04:56,323 --> 00:04:58,883 It's a site that raises a disturbing question. 68 00:04:59,883 --> 00:05:01,963 What if an advanced civilization 69 00:05:02,043 --> 00:05:04,683 flourished here in Indonesia during the Ice Age? 70 00:05:05,803 --> 00:05:07,923 A civilization that was lost to history 71 00:05:08,003 --> 00:05:09,003 until now. 72 00:05:12,483 --> 00:05:14,403 This is Gunung Padang. 73 00:05:19,083 --> 00:05:23,083 The name means "mountain of light" or "mountain of enlightenment" 74 00:05:23,163 --> 00:05:24,883 in the local Sundanese dialect. 75 00:05:27,483 --> 00:05:31,043 Local people speak with awe of its mysterious atmosphere… 76 00:05:34,483 --> 00:05:38,443 and pilgrims come from far and wide to honor the spirit of the mountain. 77 00:05:40,203 --> 00:05:43,363 They purify themselves at an ancient spring at the base… 78 00:05:45,963 --> 00:05:47,443 before heading up the hill… 79 00:05:49,483 --> 00:05:51,163 three hundred and sixty feet. 80 00:05:52,603 --> 00:05:55,443 The climb up it is steep and hard work. 81 00:05:57,443 --> 00:05:59,963 But worth it once you reach the top. 82 00:06:05,243 --> 00:06:09,203 Because Gunung Padang is like no place else on Earth. 83 00:06:17,323 --> 00:06:21,643 For a long while, archaeologists thought it was just another hill in the jungle. 84 00:06:23,283 --> 00:06:25,363 But there was a problem with that view. 85 00:06:26,643 --> 00:06:30,523 You get to the summit and you see these blocks scattered across the landscape. 86 00:06:37,963 --> 00:06:41,923 Oddly hexagonal stone slabs strewn about everywhere. 87 00:06:46,523 --> 00:06:47,763 Thousands of them. 88 00:06:48,723 --> 00:06:49,883 It's quite a spectacle. 89 00:06:51,643 --> 00:06:55,323 But not out of place in Indonesia's volcanic landscape 90 00:06:55,403 --> 00:06:58,163 where blocks like these are naturally formed. 91 00:07:00,163 --> 00:07:02,203 They're called columnar jointing 92 00:07:02,283 --> 00:07:05,923 and are created when volcanic rock, in this case, basalt, 93 00:07:06,003 --> 00:07:08,363 cools and cracks into distinctive shapes. 94 00:07:11,203 --> 00:07:14,083 At first sight, this open terrace could be mistaken 95 00:07:14,163 --> 00:07:16,723 for a natural formation of volcanic rock, 96 00:07:16,803 --> 00:07:20,083 which is why archaeologists were so slow to investigate it. 97 00:07:21,043 --> 00:07:24,483 But take a closer look, and it becomes obvious 98 00:07:24,563 --> 00:07:28,643 that these rocks have been cut, repurposed as building materials 99 00:07:28,723 --> 00:07:30,483 and placed by human hands. 100 00:07:33,443 --> 00:07:35,963 Among the jumbled masses of fallen stone, 101 00:07:36,043 --> 00:07:39,563 traces of structures show up all over this hill. 102 00:07:40,363 --> 00:07:47,163 Mounds, rectangular rooms, and long walls 103 00:07:48,243 --> 00:07:50,483 on carefully laid out terraces, 104 00:07:52,563 --> 00:07:54,323 all clearly man-made. 105 00:07:58,403 --> 00:08:02,963 When archaeologist Ali Akbar and his team began working here in 2012, 106 00:08:04,003 --> 00:08:06,243 they assumed that any structures on this hill 107 00:08:06,323 --> 00:08:09,483 would prove to be less than 2,500 years old. 108 00:08:09,563 --> 00:08:10,763 [thunder rumbles] 109 00:08:10,843 --> 00:08:13,923 We don't know about the absolute dating in this site. 110 00:08:14,003 --> 00:08:18,643 This site was abandoned for so long and perhaps forgotten. 111 00:08:19,883 --> 00:08:24,163 [Graham] The team also assumed that the ancient builders of Gunung Padang 112 00:08:24,243 --> 00:08:27,683 had found the blocks of columnar jointing naturally present at the site. 113 00:08:28,843 --> 00:08:31,283 But then they discovered something strange. 114 00:08:33,523 --> 00:08:38,003 The columnar joint is imported from another region, 115 00:08:38,082 --> 00:08:39,403 from another location. 116 00:08:40,363 --> 00:08:45,962 [Graham] That means that every one of these blocks, up to 50,000 of them, 117 00:08:46,043 --> 00:08:50,043 and each weighing up to a third of a ton, were carried up this hill. 118 00:08:52,763 --> 00:08:55,243 When Dr. Akbar's team first surveyed the site, 119 00:08:55,883 --> 00:08:59,083 they quickly found evidence that humans had been present, 120 00:08:59,643 --> 00:09:03,683 in what's called a cultural layer, but not where they expected. 121 00:09:05,243 --> 00:09:09,723 We are very surprised that this site consists of two cultural layers. 122 00:09:11,523 --> 00:09:15,643 The first layer on the surface, it's from 500 BC. 123 00:09:17,443 --> 00:09:19,123 But at four meters depth, 124 00:09:19,203 --> 00:09:21,523 we found another cultural layer. 125 00:09:22,363 --> 00:09:25,403 It is from 5,200 BC. 126 00:09:29,323 --> 00:09:31,843 It is very surprising. We are very shocked. 127 00:09:32,963 --> 00:09:34,043 It is very old. 128 00:09:37,883 --> 00:09:39,763 [Graham] Seven thousand years ago, 129 00:09:39,843 --> 00:09:42,563 far from being builders on such an epic scale, 130 00:09:43,243 --> 00:09:45,883 there's no evidence that the people of this region 131 00:09:45,963 --> 00:09:48,683 were anything other than simple hunter-gatherers. 132 00:09:51,123 --> 00:09:54,443 What could have motivated them to make the immense effort 133 00:09:54,523 --> 00:09:56,243 of bringing all these blocks here? 134 00:10:00,723 --> 00:10:03,843 I'm not really sure about the function of this site. 135 00:10:03,923 --> 00:10:09,683 However, we've still not found a skeleton or human bone, 136 00:10:09,763 --> 00:10:11,803 so this is not a burial site. 137 00:10:12,723 --> 00:10:15,883 Perhaps it is for ceremonies or rituals. 138 00:10:18,883 --> 00:10:22,603 We're dealing with truly a mystery here. A mystery that needs to be explained. 139 00:10:26,803 --> 00:10:31,323 It wasn't until another investigation looked even deeper into the site 140 00:10:31,403 --> 00:10:36,283 that an extraordinary new possibility began to force itself on the researchers. 141 00:10:38,043 --> 00:10:40,083 That they might be confronted 142 00:10:40,163 --> 00:10:43,403 by the work of a civilization lost to history. 143 00:10:47,003 --> 00:10:50,963 Dr. Danny Hilman Natawidjaja studied at Caltech, 144 00:10:51,043 --> 00:10:54,683 but now works for Indonesia's Geotechnology Research Center. 145 00:10:56,963 --> 00:11:01,003 As a geologist, Dr. Hilman knew there was something very strange 146 00:11:01,083 --> 00:11:02,283 about Gunung Padang. 147 00:11:05,723 --> 00:11:09,483 Exploring the site, he found that the columnar basalt blocks 148 00:11:09,563 --> 00:11:11,803 don't just blanket the top of the hill. 149 00:11:13,683 --> 00:11:16,123 They also wrap around its terraced slopes 150 00:11:17,843 --> 00:11:20,923 covering an area of at least 37 acres. 151 00:11:24,083 --> 00:11:27,123 This exposed section between two of the terraces 152 00:11:27,203 --> 00:11:29,563 appears to be some sort of retaining wall. 153 00:11:30,443 --> 00:11:34,283 There are some archaeologists who are convinced this is entirely natural. 154 00:11:34,363 --> 00:11:35,763 I know this is natural rock, 155 00:11:35,843 --> 00:11:38,843 but they're suggesting the whole layout of the thing is natural as well. 156 00:11:38,923 --> 00:11:42,923 They are natural, but the position now is not in the natural position. 157 00:11:43,003 --> 00:11:45,683 -[Graham] And normally vertical. -Vertical, yes. 158 00:11:45,763 --> 00:11:47,563 -That's right. -Here it's laid on its side. 159 00:11:47,643 --> 00:11:49,763 -Also, it's not cut like this. -Yeah. 160 00:11:49,843 --> 00:11:51,963 Here, all is cut into one or one-and-a-half meters. 161 00:11:52,043 --> 00:11:52,923 [Graham] Right. 162 00:11:54,443 --> 00:11:57,603 There's something else unusual that Dr. Hilman noticed 163 00:11:58,923 --> 00:12:00,403 between the blocks. 164 00:12:01,283 --> 00:12:04,763 [Dr. Hilman] The natural position, there is no ground mass in between. 165 00:12:05,323 --> 00:12:06,723 It will be very tight together. 166 00:12:08,683 --> 00:12:12,203 But here, in between these columnar rocks, there is a mortar 167 00:12:12,283 --> 00:12:16,003 -that holds them together, like cement. -Yeah. 168 00:12:16,083 --> 00:12:19,283 The thickness is, like, five centimeters, and it's very consistent. 169 00:12:19,363 --> 00:12:22,363 [Graham] Right, so they're kind of leveling out the construction blocks 170 00:12:22,443 --> 00:12:26,163 with the mortar between them. Put there deliberately by human beings 171 00:12:26,243 --> 00:12:28,163 -as part of a construction process. -Yes. Yeah. 172 00:12:32,003 --> 00:12:33,523 So Danny began to investigate this, 173 00:12:33,603 --> 00:12:36,003 and this is where the surprises began to appear. 174 00:12:37,923 --> 00:12:42,403 What Dr. Hilman started to realize as he put together all his data, 175 00:12:43,043 --> 00:12:46,243 was that Gunung Padang is much more than just a hill. 176 00:12:50,803 --> 00:12:53,923 This is the ancient site of Gunung Padang. 177 00:12:55,323 --> 00:12:57,923 The north side features a stairway 178 00:12:58,003 --> 00:12:59,763 climbing more than 300 feet, 179 00:12:59,843 --> 00:13:02,363 until it reaches the first of five terraces. 180 00:13:03,843 --> 00:13:09,323 Over an area about 490 feet long by 130 feet wide. 181 00:13:10,963 --> 00:13:15,883 The entire hill is ringed by retaining walls of columnar basalt. 182 00:13:17,323 --> 00:13:20,163 Using an estimated 50,000 blocks, 183 00:13:20,243 --> 00:13:22,883 it's a massive terraforming project 184 00:13:22,963 --> 00:13:24,923 that remodeled a volcanic hill 185 00:13:25,003 --> 00:13:28,643 into what can best be described as a step pyramid. 186 00:13:34,323 --> 00:13:36,603 So this is all man-made terraces here. 187 00:13:36,683 --> 00:13:37,963 [Dr. Hilman] Yeah. 188 00:13:38,043 --> 00:13:40,963 It's not the same shape of pyramids 189 00:13:41,043 --> 00:13:43,803 like Mayan or Giza pyramids. 190 00:13:43,883 --> 00:13:48,603 No. It's a similar idea that it rises in terraces to a pyramid-shape, yeah. 191 00:13:48,683 --> 00:13:50,723 -Yeah. But it has circular features. -Indeed. 192 00:13:52,203 --> 00:13:55,083 There's a question of definitions here. How do we define a pyramid? 193 00:13:55,163 --> 00:13:59,323 But if we define it as a structure that rises in a series of terraces to a summit, 194 00:13:59,403 --> 00:14:01,923 that's what we're looking at at Gunung Padang. 195 00:14:03,803 --> 00:14:08,003 And the fact that such an ancient pyramid exists here at all 196 00:14:08,083 --> 00:14:12,323 could radically alter what we know about the capabilities of our ancestors. 197 00:14:14,123 --> 00:14:18,483 Archaeologists currently believe the oldest pyramid in the world 198 00:14:18,563 --> 00:14:21,563 dates to around 4,700 years ago. 199 00:14:22,723 --> 00:14:25,203 And it's not in Egypt, but in Peru. 200 00:14:26,923 --> 00:14:30,843 But Dr. Hilman has found evidence that Gunung Padang could be even older. 201 00:14:33,243 --> 00:14:35,003 So how old is it really? 202 00:14:35,963 --> 00:14:38,963 Who built it? And why? 203 00:14:44,283 --> 00:14:46,123 Dr. Hilman and his team 204 00:14:46,203 --> 00:14:49,883 turn to technology usually deployed in geological surveys 205 00:14:49,963 --> 00:14:52,883 to look for answers deep inside the structure. 206 00:14:54,003 --> 00:14:56,443 So, we have three methods here. 207 00:14:56,523 --> 00:14:59,843 -The GPR. -Yeah, that's ground-penetrating radar. 208 00:14:59,923 --> 00:15:02,203 -Ground-penetrating radar, yes. -Yeah. 209 00:15:02,283 --> 00:15:05,043 -And resistivity tomography. -[Graham] Yeah. 210 00:15:05,123 --> 00:15:07,443 [Dr. Hilman] And also the seismic tomography. 211 00:15:09,523 --> 00:15:13,883 [Graham] Previously, archaeologists had dug down into the site only a few meters 212 00:15:13,963 --> 00:15:16,483 and in a few isolated trenches. 213 00:15:17,923 --> 00:15:20,803 This new technology covers much more ground… 214 00:15:21,323 --> 00:15:22,883 -Thirty meters, yeah. -Thirty meters. 215 00:15:23,443 --> 00:15:24,843 …and goes far deeper. 216 00:15:25,683 --> 00:15:29,043 We're going to do the ground-penetration radar, 217 00:15:29,123 --> 00:15:30,443 the GPR surveys. 218 00:15:31,403 --> 00:15:33,243 [Graham] Ground-penetrating radar 219 00:15:33,323 --> 00:15:36,043 emits pulses of radio waves into the ground. 220 00:15:36,723 --> 00:15:41,923 When they hit something, they bounce back, and that data is recorded and analyzed. 221 00:15:43,483 --> 00:15:49,203 We chose the frequency of 40 megahertz to penetrate down to 30 meters. 222 00:15:51,883 --> 00:15:54,163 Okay. Let's go. 223 00:16:06,483 --> 00:16:10,643 [Graham] The more Dr. Hilman and his team learn from their scans of the interior, 224 00:16:10,723 --> 00:16:12,723 the more mysterious it's become. 225 00:16:14,323 --> 00:16:17,323 The nature of the structures underground became more and more complex. 226 00:16:17,403 --> 00:16:19,523 Although the columnar basalt is always there, 227 00:16:19,603 --> 00:16:21,243 always used as a construction material. 228 00:16:22,923 --> 00:16:27,923 Seismic tomography, in particular, has uncovered an intriguing spot 229 00:16:28,003 --> 00:16:29,443 deep inside the hill. 230 00:16:30,883 --> 00:16:34,683 [Dr. Hilman] It has a seismic velocity of about 200 meters per second. 231 00:16:34,763 --> 00:16:37,723 Right. Which in layman's terms means what exactly? 232 00:16:38,723 --> 00:16:39,763 That's a void. 233 00:16:41,523 --> 00:16:43,763 -A void. An empty space. -Empty. 234 00:16:43,843 --> 00:16:46,243 And you can get a sense of the shape of that empty space? 235 00:16:46,323 --> 00:16:48,483 Yes, as you see here, it's rectangular. 236 00:16:48,563 --> 00:16:50,043 -[Graham] It's a rectangle. -Yes. 237 00:16:50,123 --> 00:16:51,963 -And the spot is just right… -Yeah. 238 00:16:52,043 --> 00:16:54,203 -…because in the center of this site… -Right. 239 00:16:55,363 --> 00:16:58,003 …beneath the Terrace One, there is also a chamber… 240 00:17:00,243 --> 00:17:02,323 -Yes. -…connecting to this chamber 241 00:17:02,403 --> 00:17:04,203 beneath the second terrace. 242 00:17:07,403 --> 00:17:10,003 [Graham] What Dr. Hilman and his team have discovered 243 00:17:10,763 --> 00:17:14,083 are at least three large rectangular chambers. 244 00:17:14,763 --> 00:17:17,243 One around ten meters down, 245 00:17:17,323 --> 00:17:19,763 perhaps an entrance hall of some kind, 246 00:17:19,843 --> 00:17:23,723 it seems to have an access tunnel leading to a larger main chamber. 247 00:17:25,003 --> 00:17:28,483 And another passage connecting to a third chamber, 248 00:17:28,563 --> 00:17:30,563 between 20 to 30 meters deep. 249 00:17:31,362 --> 00:17:35,083 All three located right along the central axis of the site. 250 00:17:37,443 --> 00:17:40,483 I'm very intrigued by all these chambers. 251 00:17:40,563 --> 00:17:43,243 I so much wish you could get the archaeologists 252 00:17:43,323 --> 00:17:44,883 to actually excavate this site. 253 00:17:44,963 --> 00:17:47,683 When we see these chambers… 254 00:17:47,763 --> 00:17:48,923 -Yeah. -…three chambers, 255 00:17:49,643 --> 00:17:51,643 it's just like, we were amazed. 256 00:17:55,043 --> 00:17:57,523 You know you've found something significant at that point. 257 00:17:57,603 --> 00:17:59,683 -Sure. -Yeah, it's unmistakable. 258 00:17:59,763 --> 00:18:00,643 Yeah. 259 00:18:04,883 --> 00:18:09,283 But to historians and the archaeologists who first excavated this site, 260 00:18:09,363 --> 00:18:12,603 Dr. Hilman's discovery just doesn't make sense. 261 00:18:15,803 --> 00:18:18,603 The accepted timeline of human history 262 00:18:18,683 --> 00:18:20,803 tells us that the tribe of hunter-gatherers 263 00:18:20,883 --> 00:18:23,643 living atop the hill around 7,000 years ago 264 00:18:25,283 --> 00:18:28,123 wouldn't have been capable of building a structure 265 00:18:28,203 --> 00:18:30,483 of this colossal size and complexity. 266 00:18:31,723 --> 00:18:33,643 And yet, here it is. 267 00:18:36,443 --> 00:18:38,843 A mystery crying out for investigation. 268 00:18:42,883 --> 00:18:46,043 To put a date on this hill that's not a hill, 269 00:18:46,723 --> 00:18:50,123 Dr. Hilman and his team turned to another geological tool, 270 00:18:51,443 --> 00:18:52,443 core drilling. 271 00:18:56,443 --> 00:19:01,683 As expected, samples of the top two layers dated from 3,000 years ago… 272 00:19:04,003 --> 00:19:06,163 back to around 8,000 years ago. 273 00:19:07,803 --> 00:19:12,083 But when they drilled to 15 meters, around 50 feet or so, 274 00:19:12,163 --> 00:19:14,563 they found something completely unexpected. 275 00:19:17,123 --> 00:19:22,123 Those sections had been laid out around 11,600 years ago… 276 00:19:24,163 --> 00:19:28,363 pushing the origins of this site back to the end of the last Ice Age. 277 00:19:31,723 --> 00:19:34,923 And Dr. Hilman's discoveries didn't stop there. 278 00:19:35,763 --> 00:19:41,603 Going further down, around 100 feet or so, he hit the earliest layer of construction. 279 00:19:41,683 --> 00:19:44,043 Let's try and put dates on when this was shaped. 280 00:19:44,123 --> 00:19:47,083 Okay. Layer four could be before 20,000. 281 00:19:47,163 --> 00:19:49,163 -Could be before 20,000. -[Dr. Hilman] Very old. 282 00:19:49,763 --> 00:19:52,843 [Graham] Those drill cores were pulling up datable materials 283 00:19:52,923 --> 00:19:56,043 that dated way back as far as 24,000 years ago. 284 00:19:59,483 --> 00:20:03,883 Organic materials clearly associated with structural elements now deeply buried. 285 00:20:05,523 --> 00:20:08,563 And this convinced Danny, and I must say it convinces me, 286 00:20:08,643 --> 00:20:12,003 that Gunung Padang goes back to a remotely ancient origin. 287 00:20:16,243 --> 00:20:20,043 Danny's findings are utterly extraordinary and bewildering. 288 00:20:21,243 --> 00:20:24,923 Hitherto, archaeologists had regarded it as a long established fact 289 00:20:25,003 --> 00:20:28,763 that no large-scale structures were built anywhere in Southeast Asia 290 00:20:28,843 --> 00:20:30,883 until around 4,000 years ago. 291 00:20:36,203 --> 00:20:39,363 Your datings of this structure put it right back to the Ice Age. 292 00:20:39,443 --> 00:20:42,123 So for me, this raises a sense of enormous excitement. 293 00:20:42,203 --> 00:20:43,643 -Yeah. -I can't help wondering 294 00:20:43,723 --> 00:20:47,083 whether those chambers contain some evidence or information 295 00:20:47,163 --> 00:20:49,043 that might have a bearing… 296 00:20:49,123 --> 00:20:51,523 -Yeah. -…on my search for a lost civilization. 297 00:20:51,603 --> 00:20:55,483 -I think we know little about our history. -Right. 298 00:20:55,563 --> 00:20:57,763 I think we miss a big thing here. 299 00:21:00,883 --> 00:21:04,883 [Graham] This is an idea mainstream archaeology finds very hard to accept. 300 00:21:04,963 --> 00:21:07,803 The notion that it's a man-made structure 301 00:21:07,883 --> 00:21:10,283 is no longer seriously disputed by anybody. 302 00:21:10,883 --> 00:21:14,403 But what archaeology finds very hard to swallow and very hard to accept 303 00:21:14,483 --> 00:21:18,163 is that the origins of this structure could date back as much as 24,000 years. 304 00:21:20,403 --> 00:21:22,163 To the depths of the last Ice Age. 305 00:21:32,963 --> 00:21:35,883 What the scholars seem reluctant to get to grips with 306 00:21:35,963 --> 00:21:38,803 is that the Ice Age was a very special time 307 00:21:40,043 --> 00:21:42,363 when the world was very different. 308 00:21:45,803 --> 00:21:50,803 You see, back then, 20,000 years ago, Earth didn't look the same as it does now. 309 00:21:50,883 --> 00:21:53,523 The island of Java wasn't an island. 310 00:21:54,923 --> 00:21:59,643 It was the southernmost part of a vast Southeast Asian continent. 311 00:21:59,723 --> 00:22:02,843 A continent that geologists call Sundaland. 312 00:22:05,883 --> 00:22:07,843 During the last Ice Age, 313 00:22:07,923 --> 00:22:13,523 sea levels were about 120 meters, 400 feet, lower than they are today. 314 00:22:14,883 --> 00:22:19,683 So what is now the Java Sea was actually an enormous landmass 315 00:22:19,763 --> 00:22:22,123 extending out from the mainland of Asia. 316 00:22:22,963 --> 00:22:28,283 Sundaland covered an area around 695,000 square miles, 317 00:22:29,123 --> 00:22:32,323 about the size of the western United States. 318 00:22:32,403 --> 00:22:34,843 It was an entire subcontinent. 319 00:22:38,603 --> 00:22:43,643 We know that tribes of hunter-gatherers thrived on Sundaland's abundant wildlife, 320 00:22:43,723 --> 00:22:48,803 as far back as 45,000 years ago, and probably much further back than that. 321 00:22:50,643 --> 00:22:54,403 Why shouldn't another more technologically advanced culture 322 00:22:54,483 --> 00:22:56,083 have been present here as well? 323 00:22:57,923 --> 00:23:02,483 In a cold and forbidding world, this huge Southeast Asian landmass 324 00:23:02,563 --> 00:23:05,683 would have been amongst several warm and inviting locations 325 00:23:05,763 --> 00:23:08,363 where early humans might have had a real stab 326 00:23:08,443 --> 00:23:11,323 at developing an advanced and sophisticated civilization. 327 00:23:13,203 --> 00:23:15,683 I think that whoever built Gunung Padang 328 00:23:15,763 --> 00:23:17,923 shared our planet with the hunter-gatherers, 329 00:23:18,003 --> 00:23:20,563 who we know were also widely present at that time. 330 00:23:25,643 --> 00:23:27,603 It's not such a wild idea. 331 00:23:28,843 --> 00:23:32,403 Even today, the technologically advanced nations of the world 332 00:23:32,483 --> 00:23:36,403 coexist with hunter-gatherer societies, like the San in Namibia, 333 00:23:37,123 --> 00:23:38,883 or the Lacandón in Mexico, 334 00:23:40,163 --> 00:23:42,523 or the Kazakhs in western Mongolia. 335 00:23:43,923 --> 00:23:47,083 Different cultures at different levels of development, 336 00:23:47,643 --> 00:23:49,763 have always lived alongside one another. 337 00:23:51,043 --> 00:23:52,723 Gunung Padang suggests 338 00:23:52,803 --> 00:23:57,603 that some culture was around in the area of the Sunda Shelf, 339 00:23:57,683 --> 00:24:01,803 which was capable of creating a gigantic megalithic structure. 340 00:24:05,363 --> 00:24:09,123 One that specialized in building with blocks of columnar basalt. 341 00:24:11,283 --> 00:24:14,843 It's a style of construction I've seen before in this part of the world 342 00:24:16,523 --> 00:24:21,843 on the tiny Pacific island of Pohnpei, at a site known as Nan Madol. 343 00:24:23,643 --> 00:24:27,203 It too was constructed using volcanic basalt blocks 344 00:24:27,283 --> 00:24:30,683 laid out one atop the other, just as at Gunung Padang. 345 00:24:32,443 --> 00:24:34,923 Archaeologists believe most of the construction 346 00:24:35,003 --> 00:24:39,283 visible at Nan Madol today dates to around 900 years ago, 347 00:24:39,363 --> 00:24:42,083 when the blocks were quarried at a neighboring island. 348 00:24:44,123 --> 00:24:46,923 But during my explorations on previous visits, 349 00:24:47,003 --> 00:24:52,363 I found several of its megalithic pillars extending out below the water line, 350 00:24:53,963 --> 00:24:56,843 suggesting that earlier versions may have been constructed 351 00:24:56,923 --> 00:25:00,443 when sea levels were lower, during the last Ice Age. 352 00:25:03,963 --> 00:25:05,603 Could Gunung Padang's architects 353 00:25:05,683 --> 00:25:08,923 have made it across the South Pacific to Micronesia? 354 00:25:10,883 --> 00:25:13,283 And if so, what happened to them? 355 00:25:17,403 --> 00:25:20,403 Well, I believe it has something to do with what happened 356 00:25:20,963 --> 00:25:23,123 around 12,800 years ago, 357 00:25:23,683 --> 00:25:28,483 when the Ice Age suddenly and quite dramatically shifted gears. 358 00:25:30,443 --> 00:25:34,523 Things had gradually been getting warmer for quite a long period of time. 359 00:25:35,483 --> 00:25:38,203 And then suddenly, two things happen at once. 360 00:25:38,283 --> 00:25:40,683 First, global temperatures plunge 361 00:25:40,763 --> 00:25:43,483 to the level that they were at the peak of the Ice Age, 362 00:25:43,563 --> 00:25:46,363 and they do so almost literally overnight. 363 00:25:47,363 --> 00:25:51,603 And secondly, there's a sudden and inexplicable rise in sea level. 364 00:25:53,003 --> 00:25:58,603 Now, normally, in an Ice Age, when you enter an episode of freezing, 365 00:25:58,683 --> 00:26:02,123 you do not expect to see a large amount of water dumped in the world ocean 366 00:26:02,203 --> 00:26:04,363 because that water has been turned into ice. 367 00:26:06,003 --> 00:26:09,283 What happened was a literal great flood. 368 00:26:10,003 --> 00:26:16,763 Between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago, the oceans of the world rose dramatically 369 00:26:17,363 --> 00:26:21,603 in a series of immense deluges one after another. 370 00:26:21,683 --> 00:26:24,803 Eventually, the great continent of Sundaland 371 00:26:24,883 --> 00:26:27,963 was engulfed by the sea, a lost world. 372 00:26:30,443 --> 00:26:32,283 It prompts the obvious question. 373 00:26:32,883 --> 00:26:37,483 Could there be more temples and structures out there in the Java Sea 374 00:26:37,563 --> 00:26:39,123 still waiting to be discovered? 375 00:26:42,163 --> 00:26:45,763 Goodness knows what was lost to the rising sea levels. 376 00:26:45,843 --> 00:26:47,363 [tribal music playing] 377 00:26:54,523 --> 00:26:58,203 [man singing in Javanese language] 378 00:26:58,283 --> 00:27:02,683 [Graham] This epoch of immense floods would have traumatized all of humanity. 379 00:27:02,763 --> 00:27:04,563 [speaking in Javanese language] 380 00:27:04,643 --> 00:27:06,803 And indeed there's testimony that it did. 381 00:27:06,883 --> 00:27:09,083 [speaking in Javanese language] 382 00:27:09,163 --> 00:27:12,643 Nearly every ancient culture preserved traditions of a great flood 383 00:27:12,723 --> 00:27:14,163 that swallowed up the Earth. 384 00:27:14,883 --> 00:27:16,123 Here in Indonesia, 385 00:27:16,203 --> 00:27:19,803 the Batak people have their own version of this global flood myth. 386 00:27:19,883 --> 00:27:21,643 [speaking in Javanese language] 387 00:27:24,963 --> 00:27:28,723 Once, long ago, the Earth grew old and dirty. 388 00:27:29,683 --> 00:27:32,963 So the creator god, Debata, sent a great flood 389 00:27:33,043 --> 00:27:35,283 to cleanse the Earth of every living thing. 390 00:27:36,843 --> 00:27:40,203 The last human pair had taken refuge on the highest mountain. 391 00:27:40,963 --> 00:27:43,603 But just as the waters were about to drown them, 392 00:27:43,683 --> 00:27:46,043 the god repented from ending humankind. 393 00:27:47,283 --> 00:27:49,243 He conjured a clod of earth into being, 394 00:27:49,843 --> 00:27:53,163 laid it on the rising flood forming the islands of Indonesia, 395 00:27:54,043 --> 00:27:55,803 and thus the pair were saved. 396 00:27:57,283 --> 00:28:01,283 And the pair had children together to repopulate the Earth, 397 00:28:01,363 --> 00:28:03,803 becoming the ancestors of the Batak people. 398 00:28:06,603 --> 00:28:11,123 It's a story of an ancient apocalypse that one finds again and again 399 00:28:11,203 --> 00:28:16,403 in traditions from all over the world, passed down for thousands of years. 400 00:28:17,043 --> 00:28:19,683 Of course, there's the account of Noah in the Bible. 401 00:28:20,483 --> 00:28:24,203 But Indian folklore also tells of a fisherman, Manu, 402 00:28:24,283 --> 00:28:27,603 who survived a great flood after being warned by a god. 403 00:28:28,403 --> 00:28:34,803 From the Sumerians to the Babylonians, the ancient Greeks to the Chinese, 404 00:28:35,483 --> 00:28:38,123 all have similar versions of the same tale. 405 00:28:38,723 --> 00:28:41,203 The notion that all of this is just a coincidence, 406 00:28:41,283 --> 00:28:44,923 just invented independently by individual cultures doesn't make sense. 407 00:28:47,643 --> 00:28:51,363 All these things are probably tales of stories 408 00:28:51,443 --> 00:28:53,763 that people passed down from generation to generation 409 00:28:53,843 --> 00:28:55,403 that survived this time. 410 00:28:55,483 --> 00:28:57,323 Yeah. Truly global cataclysmic events 411 00:28:57,403 --> 00:28:59,963 -involving rapid rises in sea level… -Yeah. 412 00:29:00,043 --> 00:29:04,003 …did occur, and suddenly, the worldwide tradition of a global flood 413 00:29:04,083 --> 00:29:07,083 stops being just a myth and starts being a memory. 414 00:29:07,163 --> 00:29:08,683 -Yeah. -An account of real events. 415 00:29:11,683 --> 00:29:14,683 I'm fascinated by Indonesia's ancient history, 416 00:29:15,603 --> 00:29:19,003 and the secrets it's beginning to reveal to us at Gunung Padang. 417 00:29:19,923 --> 00:29:21,923 But the way archaeology works, 418 00:29:22,003 --> 00:29:25,643 there is going to continue to be huge resistance to new evidence, 419 00:29:25,723 --> 00:29:27,123 and that's really problematic 420 00:29:27,203 --> 00:29:29,403 because science should be open to new evidence 421 00:29:29,483 --> 00:29:31,523 and it should be willing to change its mind 422 00:29:31,603 --> 00:29:34,643 when new evidence suggests that a change of mind is needed. 423 00:29:35,603 --> 00:29:38,763 What sort of reaction have you had from the archaeological profession? 424 00:29:38,843 --> 00:29:41,483 -They are still not accepting it. -Right. 425 00:29:41,563 --> 00:29:43,803 I regret because archaeologists, 426 00:29:43,883 --> 00:29:47,083 or any other researchers, just stop researching. 427 00:29:47,643 --> 00:29:51,283 That's very sad, because at the very least there's an intriguing mystery here, 428 00:29:51,363 --> 00:29:53,643 which archaeology should be paying attention to. 429 00:29:53,723 --> 00:29:56,843 If we could prove clearly, 430 00:29:56,923 --> 00:30:01,923 and accept there is advanced human cultures before 11,000 BC, 431 00:30:02,003 --> 00:30:03,243 that will be a big step. 432 00:30:03,323 --> 00:30:04,483 [thunder rumbling] 433 00:30:06,283 --> 00:30:07,403 I've been arguing 434 00:30:07,483 --> 00:30:11,243 that there was a massive global cataclysm about 12,500 years ago 435 00:30:12,843 --> 00:30:14,763 that wiped out almost all traces. 436 00:30:15,723 --> 00:30:19,203 We're left with these haunting memories… 437 00:30:23,243 --> 00:30:25,723 which we try to dismiss and say, "No, they're not memories. 438 00:30:26,483 --> 00:30:29,123 "They're just folklore. They're just a myth, just tradition." 439 00:30:29,963 --> 00:30:31,243 I think they're memories. 440 00:30:31,323 --> 00:30:33,763 I think they're real memories of something terrible 441 00:30:33,843 --> 00:30:37,163 that happened to our ancestors at the end of the last Ice Age. 442 00:30:37,243 --> 00:30:41,563 Preserved in legends, in art and in stone. 443 00:30:42,403 --> 00:30:44,643 And they don't just talk of a great flood. 444 00:30:45,523 --> 00:30:48,843 They also reference survivors of the cataclysm, 445 00:30:48,923 --> 00:30:53,043 wise travelers who sowed the seeds of humanity's rebirth. 446 00:30:54,723 --> 00:30:57,083 It's a tradition that's particularly strong 447 00:30:57,163 --> 00:30:58,723 in the same ancient culture 448 00:30:59,483 --> 00:31:02,923 that created the largest man-made pyramid on Earth. 449 00:31:04,243 --> 00:31:05,643 It's where I'm headed next, 450 00:31:07,003 --> 00:31:08,603 and it's not Egypt.