Original subtitles

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[ Warbling ]

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

My name is Scott Wolter, 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 gonna investigate these artifacts and sites,

and we're gonna get to the truth.

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

♪♪

[ Insects chirping ]

♪♪

I'm deep in the jungles of Veracruz, Mexico,

hunting for evidence of a lost civilization

that could predate the oldest known Mesoamerican culture

by over 5,000 years.

This is a perfect habitation site

for ancient cultures.

But this quest goes deeper than that.

I've seen artifacts that suggest

the civilization I'm hoping to prove existed

had contact with aliens.

WOLTER: Oh, my God. Look at this.

Well, there's a figure here,

and it's got a face.

It's got a body.

Does this look alien to you?

BENITEZ: Well, to me, they do look like aliens.

Oh, yeah. It's very clear.

I know it sounds crazy,

and at first, I didn't believe it myself.

There's no denying that Mayans,

who built amazing structures at places like Chichén Itzá,

have a legend of a serpentlike god called Kukulkan

who descended from the sky

as well as advanced technology we struggle to comprehend.

But are ancient aliens really part of their history

or the history of their ancestors?

That's what I'm here in the Mexican jungle to find out.

The whole reason I'm here is because two days ago,

a man with something extraordinary

showed up at my lab.

♪♪

♪♪

Scott, you're gonna love these.

Well, Mark, your e-mail was rather cryptic.

Must be good, whatever you've got.

Well, you tell me.

♪♪

This is a statue with...

a pointed head?

Look at the eyes.

That looks alien.

Yes.

♪♪

You know what? Look at that.

That's a little spaceship. Yep.

Mark, what is this?

I believe that these depict contact with aliens.

Are you kidding me? No.

I-I-I-I don't even know what to say.

I've never seen anything like this.

Well, I've saved the best for last.

♪♪

What the hell is this?

There's indigenous people praying,

planets, meteorites,

but on the other side, we have a scene that's carved.

This has a Mesoamerican feel to it,

like Aztec or Mayan,

but I'm not really sure.

Where did you get these?

They come from Ojuelos de Jalisco in Mexico.

Okay. I need to see this.

Turn on the monitor, will you?

Okay.

Where in Mexico did you find these?

Ojuelos de Jalisco is in Central Mexico,

right in there.

WOLTER: You realize that --

I mean, to some people, this will sound crazy.

So, what we need to do

is bring some science to the equation

and look very carefully at these artifacts

to see if we can get some hard facts

to back up your claim.

I'm gonna get my microscope out.

Let's start there. Okay.

I've always known Mark

to be a collector of authentic artifacts,

but I'm not sure what to think about these.

If it wasn't someone like him bringing them to me,

I'd think there's no way these have a chance

of being anything other than a hoax.

Okay.

You see those grooves? Uh-huh.

You can see where they carved the grooves,

and there's dirt in the grooves,

but I'm not seeing any weathering features on the rock.

These came out of the ground, right?

I saw them come out of the ground with my own eyes.

Well, that would explain

why I'm not seeing any evidence of age

because if they were buried,

they could sit there till the end of time

and they won't change.

Okay, let me show you something, Mark.

Do you see this area right here,

this little thin strip? Right.

This material is some type of adhesive. Okay.

If it's organic-based, we could do C-14 testing.

We could date it.

WOLTER: C-14 testing

measures the radioactive decay of organic material

to determine how old it is.

It's high-tech and highly accurate,

and it should be able to tell me

if Mark's artifact is ancient or modern.

Well, it is organic, and I've had it dated.

You've already had it tested? I've had it tested,

and you aren't gonna believe the results.

Okay, I just sent you the results.

Alright. Let's take a look here.

♪♪

University of Arizona.

♪♪

What?

7609 to 7520?

That's 9,500 years ago.

That's right.

I mean, if this test result is right,

this represents a culture

that predates any Mesoamerican culture by a lot,

I mean, by thousands of years. I agree.

And not only that,

a culture that interacted, apparently, with aliens.

Yes.

This is a pretty extraordinary claim,

and we're gonna need extraordinary proof.

So, what I think we need to do

is we need to replicate this result.

I'd like to take another sample of this glue

and test it,

and if we get another similar date,

boy, it's on now.

♪♪

Science is about repeated results.

That's why testing this again is so important.

Well, Mark, I'll send this off right away,

but it's gonna take a couple weeks at least

for us to get the test results.

In the meantime,

I need to find one of these artifacts myself.

Well, there's no active digs

going on in Ojuelos de Jalisco,

but there's a group of treasure hunters

that call themselves JAC Detectors

that are pulling out similar artifacts

out of caves right now.

♪♪

These are the kind of things they're finding.

♪♪

WOLTER: Look at this.

This piece here looks very similar to that one.

I mean, we got the alien. We got spaceships.

We got the indigenous people here

making an offering of corn.

It could have been made by the same culture that made this one.

It could be.

Where did you say this was again?

Deep in the jungles of Veracruz.

Looks like I'm going to the jungle, baby.

♪♪

♪♪

I hop a flight to Mexico

and connect with Fernando Benitez,

a cultural adviser,

to help me reach the remote jungle outpost

where the treasure hunters are finding alien artifacts

like Mark's.

If I can find a similar artifact in context

and it produces the same C-14 date

that Mark got with his find, it could prove the existence

of an ancient, undiscovered Mesoamerican culture.

It's very lush here.

Yeah, this is the Veracruz moist forest.

The jungle here is very big.

It's around 69,000 square kilometers.

You know, that would be about 25,000 square miles.

That is huge.

I want to know,

what do you know about any cultures in this area?

Well, the Olmecs were all around this area.

There's a bunch of archaeological sites.

The Olmec are the oldest known major Mexican civilization.

They first appeared around 1600 BC

and faded out around 350 BC.

They produced countless pieces of art,

but they are most well-known for their colossal head carvings

in the city of Tres Zapotes.

And something else they invented -- rubber balls.

I know that there's an archaeological site

around here in Veracruz, which is called El Manatí,

and it's the earliest site of the Olmecs.

Well, the most famous thing they found there --

It was these wooden figures

with long skulls and almond eyes.

So, elongated heads.

Well, the Mayans were known to take their children

and intentionally put straps on their heads

to elongate them.

It was a symbol of status and beauty.

Were the Olmecs known to do that?

No. No, the Olmecs were not known for doing that.

But yet, here we have these artifacts,

these dolls that were found,

and they have elongated heads.

The question is, why?

It kind of sounds like aliens, doesn't it?

It sounds like aliens to me.

The suggestion that the Olmec encountered aliens is explosive,

but if the C-14 data

from Mark Russell's artifact is correct,

I might be looking at evidence of alien contact

even 3,000 years earlier.

If I'm lucky,

the mysterious artifacts the JAC Detectors are calling

"the Jada Stones"

will give me even more evidence I need

to change the history books.

Buenas tardes.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Nice to meet you.

How are you?

[ Speaking Spanish ] Good to meet you.

Guys, I have to tell you, this place is fantastic.

I mean, I'm a geologist. I see beautiful rocks here.

You got conglomerates. You got lava.

This is your base camp?

BENITEZ: This is the place where they get together

before going to the caves and to the jungle.

WOLTER: Okay. Well, I'd love to see some artifacts.

Where do they want us to go?

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

This way? Okay.

[ Man speaking Spanish ]

♪♪

WOLTER: Look at that. That's amazing.

WOLTER: I'm visiting treasure hunters

who claim to have found artifacts depicting aliens

deep in the jungles of Veracruz, Mexico,

but in this case, I'm not yet convinced

that seeing is believing.

Interesting. Now, this is beautiful stone.

BENITEZ: It is. Yeah.

Where did these come from?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

They found them in the caves around here in the jungle.

So, was this buried,

or did they wash out, or did they excavate?

How did they find them?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Some of them were just there.

Some of them were in the side of the river,

and some of them were, like,

deposited directly in cracks on the cave.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

He says it could be from the Totonacas,

and in the other hand,

it could be from different cultures.

So, we don't really know the age.

WOLTER: The Totonac civilization

thrived in Veracruz for thousands of years

before fading out in the 16th century.

They built cities, mastered agriculture,

and developed an advanced economy.

But before that,

Fernando tells me they inhabited the caves in this jungle.

Did early Totonacas encounter alien beings

and leave behind artifacts depicting their experience?

♪♪

I got to be honest --

The artifacts from Mark Russell

and the ones being found by JAC Detector

don't resemble known Totonacan art.

But it's possible

they were produced by an even earlier, undiscovered culture.

What do they think they are?

I mean, what do they think that they found?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

BENITEZ: Well, he thinks that looking into the history,

like our ancestors, they used to offer --

always offer things to the gods, offer things.

So, we believe it's an offering.

Who are the gods in this case?

Who are they making the offerings to?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

WOLTER: The treasure hunters tell me the shocking story of the cave,

where they found these artifacts.

According to local legend,

an alien ship crashed into the cave thousands of years ago.

Totonacas discovered the ship

and worshipped the otherworldly beings

that emerged from the cave as gods,

carving stone relics

like the ones the treasure hunters found

as tokens of respect.

Who have you shown these artifacts to?

Any scientists look at these yet?

No. No?

No. I'm the first?

Primero.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

BENITEZ: They have invited

the National Institute of Archaeology.

Oh, really? Okay. But they denied to put an eye on it.

Too controversial? Too controversial.

I'm all about studying these.

I have no problem studying them.

But what would really be important

is if you could take me to these caves,

and if I could find an artifact myself.

So, the cave is in that direction --

two to three hours, very difficult and dangerous.

Hmm.

Well, if you guys can make it,

I can make it.

Lead the way. Let's go.

Vamonos. Okay, vamonos.

WOLTER: The jungles of Veracruz are home to 100-foot-tall trees

fed by over 60 inches of rain annually.

There are rare Amazonian birds living here

alongside more dangerous predators.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Fernando, what is this?

BENITEZ: A print of a jaguar. Of a jaguar?

A jaguar, yeah.

Muy grande. [ Speaking Spanish ]

It's a big one.

Yeah. It's big.

Probably a male... Probably a male.

...because of the size.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

BENITEZ: They attack as an ambush,

and their bite is so strong,

it can even break skulls.

A human skull? A human skull.

So, he's going this way?

We're expecting he's going this way.

Okay. Let's go this way.

Perfecto.

Let's be careful, and let's open the eyes

in case we see other ones.

I mean, how big would that thing be?

Like... Come on. Like, big. You saw.

It's, like, probably kind of the size of your hand, I'd think.

WOLTER: A jaguar with a paw the size of my hand?

Not something I want to run into.

But the creatures out here are amazing.

WOLTER: Beautiful. BENITEZ: It's really beautiful.

Yeah.

As beautiful as she is, we got to keep rolling.

♪♪

♪♪

So, this is the cave.

So, this is where legend says a ship crashed, right?

Yes. Yes, yes. Okay.

And you can see it has kind of the shape.

Right, yeah. Well...

yeah, it kind of looks like a spaceship.

But when I look here

and I see the way this is weathered out,

this is a perfect habitation site

for ancient cultures.

Well, maybe we'll find some evidence inside.

Let's go. Let's go upstairs.

Okay.

♪♪

As I climb into the cave,

I come face-to-face with something I didn't expect.

♪♪

Oh, my God. Look at all this.

♪♪

WOLTER: I'm in Veracruz, Mexico,

looking for proof of contact

between a lost civilization and alien beings.

And I'm wondering if it's right in front of me.

Oh, my God. Look at all this.

BENITEZ: Wow.

♪♪

This is a figure here.

This is an eye. This is a head.

Arm is like this, and the body here.

Here's the nose here. Yeah. Yeah.

This is a mouth.

The hand. Yep. The hand.

And the foot's over there.

Does that kind of look like an alien?

Very clear, it looks like. Totally.

What about those little holes all around there? Oh, yeah.

Now, these holes over here... Are those natural?

No, those definitely aren't natural.

Let me -- Let me show you something. Okay.

So, you see how these markings --

they're very shallow, very sharp...

BENITEZ: Uh-huh. ...sharp grooves?

Even these have, you know, great detail.

Right.

I don't like that.

I don't like what I see here.

I've examined countless ancient inscriptions,

and one thing they all have in common

is their edges are worn down

by centuries of exposure to the elements.

The edges of these carvings look sharp and crisp,

which can be a telltale sign they're not very old,

certainly not thousands of years old

like Mark Russell's artifacts appear to be,

if his C-14 test results are correct.

I mean, I'm not liking that. They look modern.

Okay.

There's more work that I want to do.

I want to take a look with the microscope,

but I also want to talk to you privately.

Is there any way you could ask them

to just be occupied for a little bit,

maybe back up a little bit?

Just so you and I can...

For sure. Okay?

Yeah, for sure. Alright.

[ Benitez speaking Spanish ]

Muchas gracias.

WOLTER: These carvings might be a modern hoax.

It doesn't happen often,

but sometimes people fake archaeological discoveries

for attention or even profit.

I may have to ask the treasure hunters some tough questions,

but first, I need to take a closer look

for evidence of modern manufacture.

So, you see the groove right here? Right.

You can see the organic material here on the sides.

We got this green mold,

but it's not in the grooves here.

I don't see anything. Do you?

Nothing.

WOLTER: This is on the outside,

but in the groove, I see nothing.

And that means that...

It's not old. ...it's not old.

Yeah. At least, that's my opinion.

If these carvings were authentic,

I would expect to see the same organic material

growing outside of the carved lines

inside the carved lines, but I don't.

These things --

I don't even think they're 100 years old.

BENITEZ: Oh, that fresh? Yeah.

Not even 100 years old?

Not this stuff.

Should we see what else they have to show us?

Yeah, definitely.

I'm not letting those modern carvings discourage me.

Even if they are a hoax, that doesn't mean

the rest of what the JAC Detectors want to show me

isn't real.

The evidence I'm looking for could be just around the corner.

♪♪

Okay.

This is pretty, pretty tight.

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

Ah. Alright.

So, here's a carving right here.

[ Benitez speaking Spanish ]

This is the one he wanted to show us.

Well, there's a figure here,

and it's got a face.

It's got a body.

Does this look alien to you?

Well, to me, they do look like aliens.

Oh, yeah. It's very clear.

And it's got a spiral-like pattern on the chest,

and it's got, like, a big --

Oh, those are arms? Those are arms.

Yeah, they're raising up,

and then he's got something in his right hand,

almost like a sun.

Oh, look, and there's another one here...

Oh, there is another one. ...quite similar,

with the same spiral on his chest.

And his same arms going up.

Do you see the --

It's like a -- like a ball with rays coming out.

Exactly.

And this has the same sort of a spiral symbol.

As I look at these carvings,

they don't look Mayan,

they don't look Olmec, Toltec, Aztec.

They don't look like anything I've ever seen.

Is it possible

that they actually predate those cultures?

I'm skeptical of that.

WOLTER: The only way to answer that question is with science,

and I have an idea for a test

that I think will tell me what I need to know.

Did the artifacts that we look at,

did they come from this cave?

Yes. Okay.

Oh, way up there?

That was the area where they found them.

So, they came from up there?

Way up in there.

You know what I would like to do,

is I want to take a sample

of some of the dirt around here,

where you found these artifacts.

I have a reason for wanting to do that.

I think the dirt in this cave might tell me

just how old the artifacts the treasure hunters showed me

really are,

but I won't know for sure until we get back to base camp.

If the artifacts were really left deep in this crevice,

the same dirt should be on the artifacts as I'm finding here.

That sample's collected.

The treasure hunters tell me

they have searched every square inch of this cave

for artifacts,

and they think they've found all it has to offer.

But they reveal there's another cave deeper in the jungle

they haven't yet searched.

That's music to my ears.

An unexplored cave means it hasn't been tampered with,

and any discoveries we make there

have a higher chance of being authentic.

Guys, this is --

looks like an interesting area, okay?

Let's fan out and check every hole you can --

every crevice --

with your flashlight, okay?

But if you find something, don't touch it, okay?

Call me over. We'll collect it properly.

Alright. Let's go.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

♪♪

♪♪

Did you find something? Do you see something?

Hey, Fernando. BENITEZ: Yeah?

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

♪♪

Look at this. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I see.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Conversing in Spanish ]

You see that?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Hey, guys. This looks man-made.

♪♪

♪♪

Hey, guys. This looks man-made.

WOLTER: If this object is man-made, that's huge.

It could be evidence

that this cave was used as a domicile by ancient people,

and there may be more relics nearby.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

You got something?

Si.

♪♪

Alright, guys, what do you got?

Let's see it.

Oh, those are scratches.

BENITEZ: Looks like some marks there.

That's what they found.

Man-made for sure.

Oh, yeah. Look here.

Actually, these carvings do look very similar

in the sort of squares.

They look a lot like what we saw in the previous cave, right?

Yes, pretty much.

♪♪

Yeah, this is like a bowl.

So you think this bowl was man-made as well?

Hard to tell, but, you know,

they seem to have pulled back here.

They may have created that bowl intentionally.

These carvings are very interesting.

I'm not really sure what culture could have made them.

Could they be Mayan or Olmec? I don't know.

I don't know if they're that old,

but they've been here a while.

These are more convincing to me

than the ones we saw before. Okay.

These could be 100 years or 1,000 years.

I don't know.

But we see nothing

in the way of artifacts like you guys found, right?

Not yet.

We should probably sift that whole thing.

♪♪

Maybe there's an artifact here.

Alright.

That looks like rock.

What about that one? Yeah.

This one here?

I think that's rock.

I think that's rock.

Oh, that's pottery. See the curve?

See how it's curved?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you can actually see the firing difference --

the color change. Okay.

That's definitely pottery. Wow.

So, this is a habitation site.

There were people here.

These carvings and this bowl here,

this reminds me of a site

that was used for ritual purposes. Okay.

So, maybe the ceramic --

something was put in a vessel,

placed in here. Okay.

But I think our work is done here.

But we've got some pottery.

We've got some amazing carvings here,

which are great.

And most importantly, we have an artifact.

So, let's go back to base camp.

We'll take a look at everything

and see what we have.

♪♪

WOLTER: Looking closely at what we found,

I definitely have something to say to the JAC Detectors.

Well, first of all, I just want to say

it was a really good effort out in the field today.

You did a great job.

I'm real happy with the way it went.

The pottery.

This pottery is definitely man-made, okay?

I cannot tell you the culture that made these.

An archaeologist must do it.

I don't know if it helps us that much, either,

but it's interesting, for sure.

The carvings at the second site

looked really good to me,

definitely man-made carvings.

I just don't know how old.

Could it go back to an ancient culture?

Not sure, probably not,

but definitely man-made, definitely interesting.

This artifact that we pulled out of the cave

has what appear to be man-made lines here,

but I don't think it's at all related to these.

Unfortunately, there's no organic material

that we can pull out to date,

but it's interesting, for sure.

Okay. Now, the carvings in the first cave --

I have to say, I'm not very impressed.

I can't say with total certainty how old they are,

but they don't seem old to me,

and they seem a little contrived.

♪♪

While Fernando explains how skeptical I am

that this is ancient or proof of ancient alien contact,

the treasure hunters look surprised and disappointed,

but they want the truth, and I'm going to give it to them.

Remember this sediment

you said came from those three recesses?

I collected this to show you.

If you look, that's not the same sand, right?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, if this was found in that site,

this would look like this.

It doesn't.

So, this doesn't appear to have come from this site,

or this was from a different site and put in there.

But these definitely do not match.

Alright? Okay.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Especially on this artifact,

when I look close at the carvings,

I see things that bother me.

I'm gonna show you.

I'm gonna take a close-up of this area right here.

I'll just snap a picture.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Okay. Let's take a look.

So, this is that area on that artifact,

but when we blow it up...

and look, do you see these lines?

You can see those scratches are parallel

all the way across.

Looks like it's been machined,

like a Dremel tool going all the way across.

Everything is uniform.

An old carving shouldn't have that.

WOLTER: The parallel lines in this carving are a dead giveaway

that this was carved by the spinning head

of a modern rotary tool.

If it had been carved by hand in the ancient past,

there would be noticeable imperfections in the work,

but there aren't.

[ Speaking Spanish ] You see it?

Something done by hand wouldn't look like that.

I think these were made in recent times,

and here's the final clue.

Okay?

You want to look at this piece like this,

but when you turn it like this,

here's what I see --

U-F-O.

Do you see it? Mm-hmm.

Now, this may be a coincidence,

but maybe not.

I'm going with maybe not.

To me, I see evidence of modern manufacture,

so maybe people in the last 50 to 100 years

made these and brought them as offerings.

That's possible,

but these things are not thousands of years old.

I'm convinced of that.

I was hoping to come here

to find evidence of some ancient culture

going back many thousands of years,

but unfortunately, we didn't find it.

If this is a folly or a joke,

I don't think you guys did it.

I think you found somebody else's joke,

unless there's something you haven't told me yet.

WOLTER: Here's my conclusion.

To me, I see evidence of modern manufacture.

These things are not thousands of years old.

I'm convinced of that.

And if this is a folly or a joke,

I don't think you guys did it.

I think you found somebody else's joke,

unless there's something you haven't told me yet.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Gracias, Scott.

BENITEZ: They really appreciate all of this, you know,

because this is what they wanted.

They wanted to know, "What was this?"

and they appreciate that you came

and that you gave them an answer.

You're welcome. My pleasure, guys.

Even though I didn't have any luck

finding an authentic alien artifact in Veracruz,

I'm still looking forward

to seeing the results of the C-14 sample

I took from Mark Russell's artifact.

If my sample comes back with the same results as his test,

it could mean he's the owner of a 7,000-year-old artifact

that will shatter the archaeological record,

and it might even prove that aliens exist.

♪♪

In the meantime,

I'm traveling back home to show Mark's artifacts

to an expert in Mesoamerican cultures

named Ed Barnhart

to see if he can shed some light on who might have made them.

Here's the first one.

Well...definitely see the resemblance

to movie-style aliens.

Yeah. Odd, leaf-shaped eyes.

I don't know.

There's really not a lot

that I could identify as Mesoamerican.

Take a look at that.

[ Laughs ]

Well, if there's anything that's consistent

in Mesoamerican art, it's their love of symmetry.

Symmetry is definitely not something this artifact has.

This has such an interesting, organic look to it

that I can't imagine any Maya doing something like that.

Alright. Well, let's try one more here.

This is pretty interesting.

There's something a little different on here.

If you look at the face,

there's some interesting script.

One thing that stands out right off the bat

is that people in Mesoamerica tend to write from up to down

and in either pairs or columns.

But this doesn't have any column order.

Instead, it has more of a right-to-left writing.

Swing and a miss, huh? Alright. [ Laughs ]

Well, Ed, I'd like to show you a picture,

if you don't mind.

This is more three-dimensional.

It actually comes off the surface of the piece,

but this is an inset piece,

and there's actually glue along here.

This glue is organic-based.

Really? Yes.

I showed Dr. Barnhart the results of the C-14 test

Mark Russell performed on this tablet,

and he's just as shocked by the date of 7500 BC as I was.

Whoa. That's incredibly old.

That's -- That's reaching right back into Paleolithic times.

That's amazing.

The organic material should not survive that long.

There's not even a hint

of any kind of organized society at that point.

Is it possible maybe this is a culture

that we really don't know much about?

That is entirely possible.

I think that especially out in Western and Central Mexico,

we have a lack of archaeology.

These dates --

is there any way they could be faked in your mind?

I mean, it's within the realm of possibility.

You could take some very old material

and put it in the binder

if you were determined to create a false artifact

and trick a test like this,

but you'd have to know it was that old.

You'd probably have to get an archaeologist

who had already found a site that old

that knew how to get access to that material.

Do you think an archaeologist would do that?

Certainly, I wouldn't.

Now, I remind you that you've got one date here,

and at the moment, I call it an anomaly.

This is not a pattern.

You need to find a pattern if you're going to prove this.

Absolutely, and that's why we've taken some samples

from this piece,

and I've sent them off for C-14 testing,

and I can't wait to get the results back.

It should happen anytime.

I never stop being amazed

at the rich, cultural history of Mesoamerica.

That's why it's so critical

I verify the results of Mark Russell's C-14 test.

If the artifact he showed me is truly 9,000 years old,

it will represent a new unwritten chapter

in Mesoamerican history,

and that's not a book we can rewrite without ample proof.

So, I need to be sure.

That's why I wanted to repeat the C-14 dating of his artifact,

and today, I finally get the results of my test back.

[ Laughs ]

Hey, Scott.

Mark, how you doing? Good to see you, pal.

I had a very interesting time with the JAC Detectors.

I did go in the caves, I saw the carvings,

and I saw their artifacts,

and I have to say,

I really wasn't very impressed.

I don't know how old these are.

All I know is, is that in my opinion,

they're not old.

The other thing that I did recently

was I talked to a Mayan expert,

and I showed him some of the artifacts

that I got from you,

and he said these things don't look like anything

that came out of the known cultures that he's studied.

And that might not be a bad thing

because these had to have come from a culture

that existed prior to...

A time before.

...the Olmecs, the Mayans, the Toltecs.

So, that's where we're at.

And you might recall that we collected a sample,

sent it off...

...and here are the test results. Hmm.

The initial test result

that you got from the University of Arizona

was about 7500 BCE.

If these results are even close to what you got,

I mean, this will completely

blow up the historical narrative of North America

as we know it today.

Are you ready to take a look?

Yes.

♪♪

Okay, Mark. Okay.

Here we go.

You ready for this? Okay.

♪♪

You ready for this? Okay.

9240 years BP --

before present.

That's fantastic.

9,500 years ago from today.

Read this and make sure I'm not mistaken.

[ Exhales sharply ]

Is that what it says? That's what it says.

9240, plus or minus 30 BP.

Before present.

That's almost exactly what you got before. Yeah.

Do you know what this means?

That means history's changed.

I mean, this is just crazy.

Ah. Hold on a sec here.

Let's go look at this piece for a second over here.

Take a look at this.

Okay, this is where you guys took your sample, right? Right.

Okay, around the eye,

and I took mine under the mouth here,

and we got virtually the same results.

9,500 years ago.

So, you know what that means?

You have an incredible artifact here,

or somebody had to fake this.

The only way something like this could be faked

is if an archaeologist went to a known site,

collected 9,500-year-old material,

created an adhesive,

and then created the artifact.

Off the top of my head,

I'm not even sure what sites you could go to

that would have that kind of material,

and would an archaeologist do that?

I don't -- I just can't imagine it.

And if they're genuine, it changes the timeline.

[ Chuckles ] It changes everything.

I'm glad you brought up the timeline.

Let's put this into perspective.

WOLTER: If this artifact truly dates to 7200 BCE,

it predates the Inca, the Maya, the Olmec,

any Mesoamerican culture by 5,000 years or more.

Whatever culture created this

existed at the dawn of the Archaic period.

Archaeologists believe there were primarily hunter-gatherers

around at that time,

but clearly, this artifact is more advanced than that.

Archaeologists are gonna put these artifacts

into the Archaic period.

I think they're gonna have to rename that period

because there's nothing archaic about these artifacts.

Clearly these people are advanced.

Look at the beautiful artwork.

We've got these strange symbols

that we don't even know what they are.

I mean, this is a high advanced culture.

And let me ask you this.

Is what we're seeing depicted here

contact between these ancient cultures and aliens?

Yes.

To me, there's no doubt.

You don't have any doubt, do you? No.

But you realize as amazing as these results are,

people aren't gonna believe it. No.

They're gonna say, "This is impossible."

This is just the beginning.

We have a lot more work to do.

As excited as I am,

I still have a lot of investigating to do

before I can be 100% certain

Mark's artifact is authentic.

As I've said before, this is an extraordinary claim,

so it needs extraordinary proof.

But for now, I can't help but wonder --

Maybe the truth isn't out there after all.

Maybe it's right here in front of me.

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

I want to know about it.

Go to travelchannel.com/ americaunearthed.