Original subtitles

All right, folks, here's some pretty big news for a tiny town in New Hampshire.

Turns out the stone structures on Malcolm Pearson's property down in Salem

be older than people think.

Some are saying they could be older than Christopher Columbus himself.

Now that would be something.

But I guess we need to wait and see.

In sports, the Red Sox faced the Yankees last night as Benway in the first three

-game series.

The history that we were all taught growing up is wrong.

My name is Scott Wolfe, and I'm a forensic geologist.

There's a hidden history in this country that nobody knows about.

There are pyramids here, chambers, tombs, inscriptions.

They're all over this country.

We're going to investigate these artifacts and sites, and we're going to

the truth.

Sometimes history isn't what we've been told.

Stonehenge in England is one of the most awe -inspiring ancient sites on Earth.

Even today, its origin and purpose remain shrouded in mystery.

One thing archaeologists know for sure is that its construction took over 2

years.

One thing they don't know is who built it.

There's no doubt the site.

Originally comprised of some 150 stones was the work of some advanced

civilization that knew enough about the sun, moon, and stars to align these

stones with the heavens in a very specific way.

But what if I told you we have our very own Stonehenge in the United States?

And that it's possible that two sites were built by the same people.

I'm on my way to investigate it right now.

America's Stonehenge is a prehistoric site in Salem, New Hampshire.

The owner says the stone structures here date back 4 ,000 years.

I got a call from his son, Kelsey.

He's discovered a solar alignment, an example of archaeoastronomy that he

me to see.

So, this is the Central Observatory, and this is what I was telling you about

why we call America Stonehenge.

Just like at Stonehenge, someone placed standing stones, large vertical rocks,

in a circle.

The placement is key.

When viewed from the center of the site, each standing stone lines up with the

sun on important days of the year.

The solstices, the longest and shortest days.

The equinoxes, when the sun is on a level plane with the Earth's equator.

And the cross -quarter days, which fall midway between them.

This is the summer solstice sunrise stone.

So, summer solstice, the sun basically just rises right over there.

Right over the stone, just kind of comes out diagonal, and then just kind of

tracks across the sky.

And then on sunset, it just comes right over to... Right over here?

Somewhere close to the sunset zone there.

You realize this says an awful lot about your site.

Whoever was here is marking these important dates of the year, like many

cultures all over the world did.

I've been seeing this a lot lately.

It's called archaeoastronomy.

It's how ancient cultures used the sun, moon, stars, and planets in their

architecture and design.

I saw archaeoastronomy in Georgia, where it connected Native Americans to the

ancient minds.

And I saw it in a cave in Oklahoma, where markings that are part of an

illumination may have been left by the Celts.

The ancient practice of archaeoastronomy seems to tie many highly advanced

cultures together.

And it also seems to tie them to America.

You know, I'm looking at that stone and it looks very interesting. Is there any

chance we could go down and take a look at that closer? Sure.

Well, that's pretty interesting.

Can you tell me a little bit specifically what happens with our

Sure. Yeah, well, basically what happens is on summer solstice, the sun will

rise right about in the middle here and just kind of go at almost like a

perpendicular to where the stone is and just go right across and just kind of

rise up diagonally.

Well, we think actually originally it probably was going to be up here.

And, you know, over the course of time, it probably moved.

Okay, well, if it moved, that's very interesting because over time, the

axis does shift.

Right.

You probably remember the earthquake in Japan recently.

It was documented that the axis of the Earth actually moved about 8

Now, that may not seem like a lot, but over time, over thousands of years, it

adds up.

So actually, to have the alignment move makes a lot of sense, and that's

important because we can actually use that for dating.

And so as the Earth's axis shifts, these alignments do shift, and that could

indicate a significant length of time.

Well, we actually had someone come up and check that out.

Really? And from how far it's moved, they actually dated the site back to

3 ,800 years ago.

3 ,800 years, okay. Well, I tell you what, that's really an important thing

because there are many people that think that by using archaeoastronomy, that's

actually a more accurate way of dating than carbon -14.

So if that's the case, you've got a pretty ancient site here.

Clearly, this isn't natural, a natural position. This was placed in the ground.

It appears to have been quarried. It looks to me like it's actually been

a little bit. And all the surfaces are definitely weathered, significantly

weathered. Right. And definitely indicates time. This has been here for a

time.

Well, you know, also, we call this place America's Stonehenge, obviously,

because of the standing stones.

But there's another thing that I found that I think really... directly ties the

site into Stonehenge in England.

Really? Yeah.

Well, if you've got time, I'd love to see it. Sure. Let's go.

Kelsey,

let's see what you got here.

All right. Well, a few months ago, I was on Google Earth.

And I was kind of drawing all the lines out on the alignments just basically to

see where they go.

As I was drawing one out on the summer solstice sunrise alignment, yeah, I kept

taking it out further and further.

And, you know, I noticed it went over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Kind of a northeast direction. Right, yeah.

And then as I took it over, I noticed it went right over to England.

And I thought that was kind of interesting.

So I kept zooming in further and further.

Wait a minute.

What?

It's going all the way over towards Stonehenge.

Not only does it go just through Stonehenge, it actually goes right

of the trilithons at Stonehenge. Wait a minute.

Through one of the trilithons at Stonehenge? Right. From America's

Stonehenge is the most well -known megalithic site of all time.

It's a sacred site.

But no one knows who built it or exactly what it was used for.

But maybe whoever built it built this, too.

That's amazing, but I see this line continues off to the east. Where does

go? You're never going to believe where that goes.

let me get this straight you're talking about we're starting at america's

stonehenge in new hampshire and this summer solstice line extends to

in england that actually goes right through one of the trialathons

that's amazing but i see this line continues off to the east where does

you're never gonna believe where that goes okay i'm ready

Starts going over towards the Mediterranean.

Yeah.

You're kidding me.

Yep, goes right through Beirut.

Are you sure that's right?

I double -checked it.

Beirut, Lebanon?

Well, that's the ancient home of the Phoenicians.

Okay, you realize what this means.

Do you think there's a connection here between the Phoenicians and America's

Stonehenge? It's definitely possible.

Well, I tell you what, if you've got a connection here, this rewrites a huge

chapter of American history. This isn't kidding around.

The Phoenicians were based along the coastline of the Mediterranean in modern

-day Lebanon.

They were an ancient seafaring culture that emerged around 1200 B .C.

They were known for trading with distant lands.

Maybe they even made it to America.

They're also responsible for inventing the alphabet we use today.

So, Kelsey, how did your family find out about America's Stonehenge?

Well, my grandfather actually heard about it on the radio when he was

his hair cut back in 1955.

Yeah, afterwards he went up and checked the site out.

He was just so intrigued by it, he just had to buy it.

It wasn't always called America's Stonehenge.

And there was actually a book written back around 1907.

It was referred to as Paddy's Caves.

Who's Paddy? He was one of the first people that was on site, and he lived

for the 1700s and into the 1800s. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, I know you guys

this is an old site, but... Why couldn't he have built it? Well, I can show you.

This is it. This is where Patty's house was.

Right in this area right here? Yeah.

There's no way that Patty built this.

It just reeks of being...

really old.

And if it's old, it's important.

Some people think that he used the existing stone structures up in that

animal pens.

He built those huge, massive walls for animals when he's got all these trees

he could have used wood.

That's what they think.

Well, I don't buy that one.

I mean, look at the size of these rocks.

I wouldn't want to move them. What's that big slab there? Was that like a

We think that was most likely a roof slab for a chamber right there that

collapsed. You know what's interesting about rocks like that? Those actually

serve as clocks as well and indicate something about the age of a structure.

This has a genuine feel to it.

And it's amazing.

I mean, look at all this.

We do have one more thing that ties this site into the Phoenicians.

It turns out Kelsey's dad has a stone from the site.

It has a carving on it. Maybe some kind of ancient message.

Scott, this is the ball stone.

It was found in 1964.

What does it say?

It says, to Ball, on behalf of the Canaanites, this is dedicated.

The Canaanites, from the land of Canaan. That's right. That's what they used to

call themselves, but everybody in the region called them the Phoenicians.

They got all over the known world at that time, and many people believe that

they made it over here to North America. And there are many examples of possible

Phoenician writings, always from Maine down to Brazil.

Well, I tell you what, if this is indeed a Phoenician inscription, you've really

got something important here. Absolutely.

I mean, together with the alignment that you found, you're talking about an

incredible site, an incredible discovery.

And it really just blasts apart the history books in places Europeans here

North America around 3 ,500 years ago.

Before I make any conclusions, I need to make sure this inscription is old and

that the lines are man -made, not natural.

By using a 3D microscope, I can see how deep the grooves go and if the

inscription has been weathering for a long time.

What I want to do is I want to focus on this groove right here, which I numbered

as number 3.

Groove number 3.

And that corresponds to this groove right here. This is about 4 ,000 microns

from the highest point down to the deepest point.

This one clearly is a man -made groove. It looks like it here. It looks like it

here.

I can already tell many of these marks that make up the inscription could be

centuries old. And there's no doubt they were deliberately made.

Because it references the Canaanites.

I have to consider the Phoenicians, but I need to know more.

Is there anything else here that you might have that possibly could tie this

site to the Phoenicians?

Well, there is one more thing. It's actually up on the site.

We call it the sacrificial table.

Sacrificial table?

Yes. Well, I'm not going anywhere until I see that.

And this is the sacrificial table.

This? You think there was really human sacrifices here?

We believe this sacrificial table could have been used for a human or animal

sacrifice. The stone is about nine feet by six feet.

It's just on four legs. It weighs about four and a half tons.

And on top is a rectangular -shaped groove that's about six feet by four

And the table is tilted towards me. So if there was a fluid such as blood on

it would go into the groove and then it would... Continue in the groove towards

this little runnel right here.

And are we going to possibly a little base? Or is it cut out in a bedrock

a base could sit?

Well, I see the groove.

And you think this was for channeling blood.

That's amazing.

There's something else that I see. And you see all this cracking and this

layering here along the entire surface.

That's what we call exfoliation weathering. It's kind of like when dead

peels off your body.

That's interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, that indicates a lot

weathering has gone on here. This is wetting and drying, freezing and

And there's been a lot of loss of material on the surface, which indicates

significant age.

And I think this could probably be used as a weathering clock.

I see significant weathering here that appears to be consistent with the

astronomical alignments that we saw, with the structures that are here, which

indicate that this is a very old place.

There's one more secret at the table I'd like to show you.

Oh. Hello, Scott Walter.

What the heck was that?

So you're the man behind the curtain. That's right.

That's funny stuff.

So what do we have here?

Well, Scott, you're standing in the oracle chamber. And we call it the

chamber because of this tube here that goes through the wall about 16 from the

oracle chamber where we're standing out to the sacrificial table.

And we think during a ceremony, perhaps people watching above would hear this

voice coming out. And it would be like a god or a spirit talking to them. And it

was probably a priest or shaman actually shouting through the tube.

Interesting. So really what we have is an example of archaeoacoustics, the

science of where the ancients would manipulate sound typically in rituals by

using something like this tube here to create a pretty scary sound in this

Can you imagine somebody sitting on that table about to be sacrificed and hear

that voice? I mean, it must have been really scary.

I can't help myself. Do you mind if I give it a try?

Yeah, I guess Scott.

Okay. All right.

This is all.

Get off my lawn.

I'm glad I came to investigate this site.

I don't know what's more interesting, the sacrificial table, the ball stone,

the summer solstice line.

that connects America's Stonehenge to the one in England, and further east to

Beirut, Lebanon, home of the ancient Phoenicians.

I plan on coming back for the solstice, but right now I'm headed to Mount

Holyoke College to talk to an expert on Phoenician culture.

Mark, I just came back from a very interesting place called

America's Stonehenge. One of the things that I saw that was discovered by Kelsey

Stone, the son of the owners, was a long -range alignment that starts at their

site, that goes from their site to Stonehenge in England, and then extends

Beirut, Lebanon, which is the ancestral home of the Phoenicians.

Who were the Phoenicians?

The Phoenicians were a group of Middle Eastern people, and their center was in

modern Lebanon, and they developed colonies westward from there, the most

important of which was Carthage. The Carthaginians were Phoenicians on

because they were the most powerful Phoenician culture that ever developed.

Also, they tended to be very secretive, so it's been a challenge to try to

figure out exactly what the Phoenicians knew.

what they were able to do and we're still trying to learn more about them

it's a it's a a difficult task because there's not much evidence the

really sort of appear around 1200 000 bc they were trying to build trading

centers and colonization centers and they began to move both north and south

along the atlantic coast

Part of the reason for Phoenician success as navigators was the fact that

were able to navigate at night.

And this is because they knew about Polaris, the pole star.

Polaris is also known as the North Star.

And if the Phoenicians knew about it, chances are they knew about the rest of

the sky too.

The sun, the stars, the moon, the planets.

And that means they would have had enough knowledge of archaeoastronomy.

to create the summer solstice alignment from America's Stonehenge to Stonehenge

in England.

This proposed alignment at America's Stonehenge is very intriguing, and

a possibility that it will connect to some research that I did. In particular,

study that I made of a group of Phoenician coins that had been minted in

Carthage in 350 BC, and that I interpreted as having a map on the

coin. Do you have a picture of the coin?

Yes. This is good.

Here are two images from the British Museum. You can pick out the islands

clearly. Sardinia in the center, which is the central point in the

Basin. We've got Sicily there, the triangular island.

The boot of Italy coming down.

Iberian Peninsula here.

This straight line here is probably the north coast of Africa, India here, and

this is America. And this almost looks to me like they're giving us the Gulf of

Mexico there in Florida, but that could be subject to interpretation.

Well, that's fascinating. A couple thoughts here. Sure.

They were there here. They were put there for a reason. And I guess until a

better thesis comes along, I like yours. I love yours.

But thank you. I think that this this gives us an insight into the Phoenician

psyche. Absolutely.

And remember, they're extremely secretive. Yeah. And so they're not

giving away the store, so to speak.

However,

there was they had enough ego to want to have some kind of record of what they

had done. So here.

On these coins and these tiny little images, they were giving us an extremely

condensed Phoenician geography, you know, telling a huge story in a couple

millimeters space here.

There's one other thing I'd like to talk about. It's this sacrificial table.

Did the Phoenicians practice human sacrifice?

Yes, they did. And I think the evidence is overwhelming that they...

They did practice human sacrifice.

I think there's a lot of sources, biblical and otherwise, suggesting that

was the case.

Do you think the Phoenicians made it to North America or not?

They probably went farther than anyone is willing to admit today. They had the

ships to do so. I think the Phoenicians could easily have crossed the Atlantic.

Their whole history suggests that they would have tried to do this.

Diodorus, a Greek historian, reports the Phoenicians knew about this gigantic

island out in the Atlantic with navigable rivers.

The only place with navigable rivers once you get past Spain is America.

When I went to America's Stonehenge, I was amazed to learn about a possible

connection between that site in New Hampshire and Stonehenge in England.

Bob Stone purchased America's Stonehenge in 1955 because he believed this

ancient place needed to be preserved.

Years later, when his grandson Kelsey mapped the site's sunrise solstice line,

He discovered that line started at America's Stonehenge and went straight

Stonehenge in England.

And now I'm heading there to see if these two ancient sites with massive

standing stones are connected.

So, Henry, I'm here because I'm investigating a megalithic site in New

Hampshire called America's Stonehenge. And there appears to be a connection to

Stonehenge here.

And I'd just like to know a little bit about Stonehenge.

Well, Stonehenge, I mean, it is one of the most famous prehistoric monuments.

But I think a couple of things that people don't always realize about it is

it took over a thousand years to make what you can see now.

To construct. Yeah, yeah. There's lots of different phases and it gets

reinvented through time.

Well, you know, when people think about Stonehenge, they think about what's

right here. But you're saying that it goes all around us, even beyond where we

are? Yes. Yeah, I mean, going back for a couple of thousand years before, you've

got various monuments in all sorts of different directions.

And the focus over time becomes Stonehenge. These stones.

Stonehenge is the most well -known megalithic site in the world.

It consists of 150 enormous stones, the tallest of which rises 22 feet from

the ground.

But in the beginning, around 3100 BC, it was just a hench, a ditch, a bank,

and several round pits.

But even then, it was a popular gathering place.

Being a geologist, I'm very interested in the rocks, the stones.

Tell me a little bit about the stones. There's a variation in the geology, is

that right? Yeah, there's two different types. The very big stones are sarsen.

They come from sort of the local area, within 20 miles or so.

The blue stones, which are the smaller ones, they're still very big.

They come from South Wales.

How far away is that?

Well, it's about 150 miles.

If you think, actually, how they would have transported them, that's not

straight. That's a heck of a task.

240 miles, maybe? I mean, that's at the heart of it.

That really suggests sophistication.

and coordination and something at a pretty complicated level. I think

huge amount of sophistication. People do know what they're doing. I mean, the

fact they can build Stonehenge, the amount of labor which goes into building

something like that is incredible. And people have estimated something like 30

million hours.

30 million hours of work? And how many people say to move one of those stones?

There's no real way of telling. It's something which we continue to think

But the fact they did it, I mean, it's a massive feat of engineering.

But we still find them more sophisticated than we thought. So, might

people, but it might have been just a couple.

The blue stones may not be the biggest stones here, but for me, they're the

interesting.

They're said to have spiritual significance, and I think America's

has that too.

The blue stones came from a land that was believed to have healing powers.

Archaeologists think Stonehenge may have been a franchise of sorts, a closer

version of a faraway sacred place.

There's no doubt these stones were placed here for a reason.

And it has everything to do with the sun and the solstice, just like it does at

Stonehenge in New Hampshire.

If we think back to ancient times, were there rituals going on? What were the

people doing at this site?

We could see ceremonies following on the day of the solstice. People starting

the day at the eastern pitch.

As from here, you can observe sun rising.

on the solstice and then they're following the sun round so basically the

this long rectangular enclosure is basically just a walkway so you follow

the perimeter following the sun in front of you all the time but it's a bit like

a church or a cathedral now you have multiple functions and i think all of

would be happening here why do you think it was so important for these ancient

people to track the movement of the celestial bodies the people are farmers

rely on seasons they rely on understanding

They know when to plant crops, when to harvest them. But actually having a

of how that time develops, I think, is really important.

The importance of these bodies, I think, is fundamental to being human and being

farmers, but also something which they celebrate.

Tell me a little bit about the archaeoastronomy here. Well, there's

a huge amount of work.

You'll see there are stones dotted around the site. I saw a big one. Well,

see it right here. That big standing stone over there on the side.

That one is known as the heel stone.

Now, the weird thing about that stone is it's undressed. It hasn't been worked

like all the other stones on site.

But what seems to be important is that stone, whenever you look at the center

Stonehenge and line things up, people have done this in the past.

That's the stone which leads you towards the summer solstice sunrise.

If you line up the heel stone with each of those pits, on one side it marks

sunrise on the summer solstice, and the other one it marks sunset on the summer

solstice.

I don't know, is that more than a coincidence, that they actually are

with two very sort of significant events?

I don't think it's a coincidence, no, I don't.

I have something I'd like to show you. It's a new discovery of archaeological

astronomy at America's Stonehenge.

It's a summer solstice line running from the site in New Hampshire directly to

here.

My initial reaction would be that that's beyond possible.

When I was at America's Stonehenge, a megalithic site in New Hampshire, I

learned about a new discovery by the owner's son, a connection between that

and Stonehenge in England.

From there, the line extends even further to modern -day Lebanon, which

home base of the Phoenicians.

I want to find out if a Stonehenge expert thinks all three sites could be

connected to each other and to that specific ancient culture.

So here we have the alignment that starts at America's Stonehenge at the

of the observatory. And then as you extend a line through and continue that

line, it comes across the Atlantic and comes right here to Stonehenge.

When you look here at a close -up, you can see that it goes right through that

central trilithon.

Then, if you extend that line, it goes to Beirut, Lebanon, the home of the

Phoenicians. As incredible as it is, it appears to be there.

What's your reaction?

I think it's incredible. I can't imagine there's a link other than the

possibility that people are marking the same sort of alignment.

And I think also when you extend it onto the Phoenician world.

Their world starts around about 1200 BC.

And this site's sort of finished really by about 2000 BC. So there's a good 800

years or so difference.

Interestingly, I think Stonehenge has attracted people in prehistory from

far away.

There's a burial just over there, actually a couple of burials from over

One from about 1400 BC.

So people are moving here. It's people that Phoenicians might have been.

It's not beyond...

But they couldn't have been involved in the design of Stonehenge because it's

too early.

I don't think there's any question that this site was an observatory.

And it was sacred. When we had these ancient people going to other places,

North America and other continents, something that was sacred, that was

their existence and their belief system, they would build those in other places.

And could perhaps these sacred sites be connected or connect these people across

the continents?

I think you're actually right. I think these sites are sacred in that way. And

think possibly people move, but also equally, maybe just... People are so

similar in wherever they live on the planet that they all observe the same

of things. Whether or not people actually move or don't move between

places, the fact that you have similar sorts of sights all over the planet, all

respecting the heavenly bodies and so on, I think it's just a really nice

Something about humanity and being human.

Well, I think the one thing that we can definitely agree on, if nothing else,

places like Stonehenge and America's Stonehenge prove how important

the celestial bodies were to these ancient people.

The Phoenicians couldn't have built Stonehenge, but the site still might

been a sacred sanctuary for them.

I think the fact that this place directly aligns with America's

the summer solstice is no mistake.

Archaeoastronomy links many cultures together, like the Mayans in Georgia and

the Celts in Oklahoma.

And I think it's also what links the Phoenicians to our very own Stonehenge,

proof of which I'm about to see with my own eyes.

They could be the ones who marked an important day, the summer solstice, with

standing stone at the site over which the sunrise takes place.

Good morning, Scott.

Hi, Jenna.

Hi, Kelsey. How are you doing? Good, how are you? Good. How did the trip go? I

had a great trip. I've got some really good stuff to share with you, but I'm

excited to see that alignment. So sun's coming up. Can we head out?

Yeah, I'm ready.

Go.

We're about to see the sunrise over the Solstice Dome. To see the alignment,

Kelsey Stone discovered that links this site to Stonehenge in England.

If you were to draw a line directly through the sun as it rises over the

it would run right through the center trilithon at Stonehenge and then

on to Lebanon, once the center of the Phoenician Empire.

To me, it's proof of an advanced understanding of archaeoastronomy and of

ancient connection to the United States.

What else can you say but wow, that's amazing.

I never get old.

Tell you what, what we're seeing here is an amazingly accurate astronomical

calendar. There's no accident.

I saw the exact same thing at Stonehenge. They used standing stones

this to track the seasons.

They used it for worship.

I think they also used it for navigation to come to the new world amongst other

places.

It was absolutely amazing.

The beginning of Stonehenge predates your site here.

The later stages do correspond, especially with the stone erecting

there might be a connection there.

The Phoenician connection is a little bit tenuous because this actually

the Phoenicians by a little bit. Maybe it was a proto -Phoenician group. We're

not sure.

You know what's great is you've got a sacred site in England, you've got a

sacred site here, and there's no doubt that they're connected.

Whether it was the Phoenicians or not, what it tells us is that some highly

sophisticated culture, probably the elite in that culture, came over here

established this incredible site.

And it's sites like this that connect the new world to the old world.

The Stone family wanted to know if the Phoenicians made their site.

It's a question the family has been trying to answer since Bob Stone bought

mysterious site back in 1955.

While I can't say for sure the Phoenicians made it there, I believe

easily have made it to the Americas.

Someone had to assemble those huge stones.

Someone with a vast knowledge of archaeoastronomy.

I believe archaeoastronomy is what links together many advanced civilizations

and is what links some of them to America.

I believe there was contact between ancient cultures.

It may be why America's Stonehenge was built where it was, to create a place in

the New World that lined up with a sacred site in the Old World.

People were connected.

And we're just starting to find out how.

Next time on America Unheard. What happened to the Lost Colony?

It's like we have a breadcrumb trail of these stones leading to wherever they

ended up.

Eventually they're going to fall prey to an attack.

You've got to be kidding me. My theory is right.

If you have a mysterious artifact or site I need to see, I want to know about

it. Go to history .com slash... honor.