All language subtitles for Ancient Apocalypse (2022) - 02x02 - Chapter II.NF-EDITH+FLUX.En

af Afrikaans
ak Akan
sq Albanian
am Amharic
ar Arabic
hy Armenian
az Azerbaijani
eu Basque
be Belarusian
bem Bemba
bn Bengali
bh Bihari
bs Bosnian
br Breton
bg Bulgarian Download
km Cambodian
ca Catalan
ceb Cebuano
chr Cherokee
ny Chichewa
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)
zh-TW Chinese (Traditional)
co Corsican
hr Croatian
cs Czech
da Danish
nl Dutch
en English Download
eo Esperanto
et Estonian
ee Ewe
fo Faroese
tl Filipino
fi Finnish
fr French
fy Frisian
gaa Ga
gl Galician
ka Georgian
de German
el Greek
gn Guarani
gu Gujarati
ht Haitian Creole
ha Hausa
haw Hawaiian
iw Hebrew
hi Hindi
hmn Hmong
hu Hungarian
is Icelandic
ig Igbo
id Indonesian
ia Interlingua
ga Irish
it Italian
ja Japanese
jw Javanese
kn Kannada
kk Kazakh
rw Kinyarwanda
rn Kirundi
kg Kongo
ko Korean
kri Krio (Sierra Leone)
ku Kurdish
ckb Kurdish (Soranî)
ky Kyrgyz
lo Laothian
la Latin
lv Latvian
ln Lingala
lt Lithuanian
loz Lozi
lg Luganda
ach Luo
lb Luxembourgish
mk Macedonian
mg Malagasy
ms Malay
ml Malayalam
mt Maltese
mi Maori
mr Marathi
mfe Mauritian Creole
mo Moldavian
mn Mongolian
my Myanmar (Burmese)
sr-ME Montenegrin
ne Nepali
pcm Nigerian Pidgin
nso Northern Sotho
no Norwegian
nn Norwegian (Nynorsk)
oc Occitan
or Oriya
om Oromo
ps Pashto
fa Persian
pl Polish
pt-BR Portuguese (Brazil)
pt Portuguese (Portugal)
pa Punjabi
qu Quechua
ro Romanian
rm Romansh
nyn Runyakitara
ru Russian
sm Samoan
gd Scots Gaelic
sr Serbian
sh Serbo-Croatian
st Sesotho
tn Setswana
crs Seychellois Creole
sn Shona
sd Sindhi
si Sinhalese
sk Slovak
sl Slovenian
so Somali
es Spanish
es-419 Spanish (Latin American)
su Sundanese
sw Swahili
sv Swedish
tg Tajik
ta Tamil
tt Tatar
te Telugu
th Thai
ti Tigrinya
to Tonga
lua Tshiluba
tum Tumbuka
tr Turkish
tk Turkmen
tw Twi
ug Uighur
uk Ukrainian
ur Urdu
uz Uzbek
vi Vietnamese
cy Welsh
wo Wolof
xh Xhosa
yi Yiddish
yo Yoruba
zu Zulu
Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,920 [pensive music playing] 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,360 [Graham] These enormous structures in the Amazon 3 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:18,320 speak to a monumental human endeavor. 4 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:20,040 [dramatic sting] 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,160 But how many of them are there? 6 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:26,240 [pensive music continues] 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:28,480 Tell us what you found. 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,480 - [Fabio] You see the trees? - [Graham] Yeah. 9 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:34,600 - [Fabio] And now the terrain. - [Pärssinen] Now we take it down. 10 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:35,800 Wow. 11 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,000 - Wow. - Incredible. 12 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,080 [pensive music continues] 13 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,360 [Graham] Professor Pärssinen and the team have found nine new geoglyphs 14 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,720 that were hidden beneath the jungle canopy. 15 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:50,800 [electronic warble] 16 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,600 Here we have round octagonal. 17 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,840 This octagon, it's about 100 meters. 18 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:03,176 - Yeah. - 100 meters in diameter. 19 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,080 Diameter. 20 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,280 Incredible. And nobody knew it was there until you got up there with your LiDAR. 21 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:09,720 Nobody knew about this. 22 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,840 Yeah. It's incredible what this technology can reveal. 23 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:15,200 Let's move up and look at this interesting feature. 24 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:18,440 [electronic warble] 25 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:20,760 [Graham] These two nearly overlap 26 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,640 and appear to be connected, perhaps to other sites. 27 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,080 This is road with embankments on both sides. 28 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:32,920 - An ancient road? - Ancient road, yes. 29 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,360 Leading to the large embankment square. 30 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:37,120 - Yes. - Stunning. 31 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:42,480 [Graham] If these geoglyphs were built at the same time as others nearby, 32 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,040 the roads suggest an organized civilization thrived here 33 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,400 at least 2,500 years ago. 34 00:01:52,440 --> 00:01:54,480 And there's evidence they might've been around 35 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,200 for very much longer. 36 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:03,200 We found that many of these sites have been established 37 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:04,840 already 10,000 years ago. 38 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:10,680 [Graham] We can't be sure whether we're looking at 39 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:13,120 reconstructions of much older geoglyphs. 40 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,720 But what we do know is that human beings were present in that area. 41 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,760 And that evidence goes back more than 10,000 years, uh, into the past 42 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,360 and brings us very close to the end of the last Ice Age. 43 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:27,520 However old they may be, 44 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,840 the scale of the enterprise is truly astonishing. 45 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,000 So this raises the question, 46 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,800 how many people would it take to do something like this? 47 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,560 We speak, uh, about hundreds of thousands. 48 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:42,160 Yes. Literally hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. 49 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:43,760 Amazing. 50 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,480 [Graham] Professor Pärsinnen isn't suggesting 51 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:50,200 all of those people physically built the geoglyphs. 52 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,760 But a population that size must have existed here long-term 53 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,520 to both provide for and support the necessary workforce. 54 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,960 [birds chirping] 55 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:05,960 Within a few hundred meters of known geoglyphs, 56 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,760 our LiDAR team were finding more geoglyphs that nobody even knew about. 57 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:13,120 So what on earth can we expect to discover 58 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,440 if we go hundreds of miles into that dense rainforest? 59 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:18,640 [triumphant music playing] 60 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,320 This has changed totally our understanding of Amazonia. 61 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:25,280 We're dealing with a huge phenomenon here, 62 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,040 which has to change the history of the Americas 63 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:30,000 and changing the history of the world. 64 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:31,080 [Pärssinen chuckles] 65 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:34,440 [triumphant music ends] 66 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,880 [theme song playing] 67 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:45,440 [theme song ends] 68 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:47,520 {an8}- [thunder rumbling] - [electronic warble] 69 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:50,560 {an8}[suspenseful music playing] 70 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:03,480 We can't possibly begin to tell the story of the Americas 71 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:08,840 until we have much more complete knowledge of what was going on in the Amazon... 72 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:16,080 not 1,000 years ago, but 10,000 years ago, 20,000 years ago, 30,000 years ago. 73 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:20,120 We need to keep going back. 74 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,800 We need not to close our minds to these possibilities. 75 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:27,720 [tense music continues] 76 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:31,120 And there's tantalizing evidence of that deeper history 77 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:33,480 1,000 miles northeast of Acre. 78 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:38,320 I've come to the Monte Alegre National Park 79 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,120 on the north bank of the Amazon. 80 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:49,040 Although much of the Amazon basin is flat and cloaked in trees, 81 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:55,680 here, distinctive rocky outcrops tower over the canopy. 82 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,960 Archaeologist and anthropologist Dr. Christopher Davis 83 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:05,480 has spent years investigating a potentially history-changing discovery 84 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:07,560 high on one of these ridges. 85 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:09,640 [menacing music playing] 86 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:15,680 This is Serra do Paituna... 87 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:19,800 hill of the Blackwater Lake... 88 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:25,960 a towering rocky crag adorned with 89 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:28,800 an array of seemingly ancient painted images. 90 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:31,760 [menacing music continues] 91 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:40,880 Thank you for leading the way. 92 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:45,440 [music ends] 93 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:50,440 [Graham] We're obviously surrounded by just this amazing art here. 94 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,880 What led you to this investigation and this exploration? 95 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:57,560 {an8}I started doing archeology, um, as a graduate student. 96 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,680 And I had no idea that there was rock art in the Americas. 97 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:03,800 And so I was blown away by that. 98 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:05,880 [mysterious music playing] 99 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,960 [Graham] The images are known as pictographs. 100 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:15,440 Some are very simple. 101 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,040 Maybe a serpent slithering across the rock. 102 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,240 Others depict more complex geometric patterns. 103 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,160 The big question is when were these images painted? 104 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,720 [music intensifies] 105 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:35,680 The art itself can't be dated. 106 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:39,280 So Dr. Davis and his team looked for other evidence. 107 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,920 What's your dating of this site based on at the moment? 108 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,320 It's from the excavation that we did back behind here. 109 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:53,800 There were fragments of carbonated wood, mostly palm wood, some carbonated seeds. 110 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,440 We found evidence of a fire back there as well. 111 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,320 [Graham] The results were truly unexpected. 112 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,080 [Dr. Davis] From the radiocarbon dating, 113 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:09,840 the oldest dates that we got were about 13,200 before present. 114 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:11,280 Fascinating. 115 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:16,440 Dating back more than 13,000 years, 116 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,320 we're looking at some of the oldest artwork 117 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,400 found anywhere in the Americas. 118 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,600 Artwork created during the last Ice Age. 119 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,680 By people, we're told, who just suddenly appeared here 120 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:39,160 deep in the Amazon wilderness. 121 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:41,240 [triumphant music playing] 122 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:44,800 You can imagine, you know, thousands of years ago, 123 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,400 this would've been much brighter, much more vibrant. 124 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:50,160 [camera shutter clicks] 125 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:52,240 [tense music playing] 126 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,640 [Graham] The images were painted using red and yellow ocher 127 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,720 and seemingly treated to make them last. 128 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:05,720 [tense music ends] 129 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,320 I've done experiments here where you just take the ocher 130 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,040 and draw it on the rock, and it washes away. 131 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:12,560 Right. So there has to be a binder. 132 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:15,000 There has to be a binder and a very good one. 133 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:17,880 - We suspect they mixed it with tree resin... - Uh-huh. 134 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:22,040 ...and the resin forms into almost like amber but it's kind of clear. 135 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:25,320 [Graham] So that suggests those who created these paintings had, 136 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,160 first of all, experience in how to do paintings like this, 137 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,240 and they developed some knowledge of how to make the paint last. 138 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:37,400 Absolutely. Um, and in addition to that, it shows preparation and time. 139 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,440 [tense music playing] 140 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,800 [Graham] Most compelling to me are the many handprints... 141 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:53,120 that intimate human contact expressed by the handprints in the rock art. 142 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,960 It's almost as though they were touching the wall, 143 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,000 and through the wall, touching us, 144 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:04,960 sending a message to the future. 145 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,840 {an8}[tense music crescendos, stops] 146 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:13,000 {an8}[tense music playing] 147 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,560 {an8}[Graham] More Paleolithic art has been found in the Western Amazon. 148 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,360 Like this intricate mural in the jungles of Colombia, 149 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:25,120 where 12,600-year-old images depict humans 150 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,200 alongside what appear to be creatures of the Ice Age. 151 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:30,960 [tense music intensifies] 152 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:35,000 {an8}We are seeing an eyewitness account of the coexistence of human beings 153 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,040 with now long-extinct Ice Age megafauna. 154 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:44,720 {an8}And to the east of the Amazon, these paintings push the date back further 155 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,040 to more than 25,000 years ago. 156 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,120 [tense music continues] 157 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:55,480 Which means 2,000 years before those hunter-gatherers were walking 158 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:57,560 the White Sands of New Mexico, 159 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,320 there were other people already living in the forests of South America 160 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,400 creating art like this. 161 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:06,720 And in great numbers. 162 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:10,760 [tense music crescendos, subsides] 163 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,280 This should open up exploration 164 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:17,120 of what those human beings might have been doing in the Americas 165 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:19,280 over these tens of thousands of years 166 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:21,080 that archaeologists previously didn't think 167 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,920 there were any human beings there at all. 168 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,000 [intriguing music playing] 169 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,400 [Graham] At Serra do Paituna, Dr. Davis is sure of one thing. 170 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,040 Whoever they were and whatever they were doing, 171 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:38,920 the rock painters here suddenly stopped. 172 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,120 [Dr. Davis] So the first people who were at this region, they were here, 173 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,840 they were doing the art, and then about 12,700 years ago, 174 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:47,840 they were gone. 175 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:50,560 So was the area abandoned at that time? 176 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:51,920 [Dr. Davis] It appears to be so. 177 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,080 For quite some time. For thousands of years. 178 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:59,000 [Graham] To me, 12,700 years ago is a highly significant date. 179 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:02,760 There's always margins of error in dates. 180 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:08,360 But that's very close to the beginning of the Younger Dryas climate anomaly. 181 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:10,680 So I can't help wondering if there's a connection. 182 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:13,080 [music intensifies] 183 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:16,120 [Graham] Back then, temperatures suddenly plunged, 184 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,800 while unexpectedly, fires raged across the planet. 185 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:23,320 [fire crackling] 186 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:24,560 And sea levels rose. 187 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:30,600 [music ends] 188 00:11:30,680 --> 00:11:32,640 [birds chirping] 189 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,800 We can hear echoes of this catastrophic epoch... 190 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:37,880 [pensive music playing] 191 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,800 ...in the oral traditions of Amazonia. 192 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:42,120 [birds chirping] 193 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,280 There are countless myths and legends about an ancient cataclysm 194 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:49,360 that are still told all across the Amazon. 195 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,120 And there's one that I find particularly intriguing. 196 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:57,600 [dramatic music playing] 197 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:00,400 [Graham] According to the Indigenous Tiriyó people, 198 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,800 long ago, the sky spirits told a shaman 199 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:06,480 that a terrible flood would soon be unleashed, 200 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:08,920 a punishment for the people's wickedness. 201 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:14,760 Some heeded his warning and fled to safety atop Mount Kantani. 202 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:16,840 [people screaming] 203 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:20,400 But most perished in the deluge. 204 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:27,400 Eventually, the flood receded, leaving the survivors to start over. 205 00:12:30,680 --> 00:12:33,320 [music ends] 206 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:36,960 It is a worldwide tradition. There was a golden age. 207 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:41,040 There was a time when humans lived in harmony with one another. 208 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,960 But that it somehow fell from its high standards, 209 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:47,800 and it was punished with a great flood, with a global destruction, 210 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:49,920 which wiped it from the face of the Earth. 211 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:51,440 [tense music playing] 212 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:56,080 [Graham] The global distribution of this shared myth can't be a coincidence. 213 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,880 I believe these ancient stories may be our last surviving memories 214 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:05,000 of very real events that occurred all over the world 215 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:06,920 around the end of the Ice Age, 216 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:09,040 during a period of cataclysms 217 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,560 that we've been calling the Ancient Apocalypse. 218 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:12,680 [thunder rumbling] 219 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:21,280 [tense music ends] 220 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:23,200 [thunder rumbling] 221 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:25,280 [menacing music playing] 222 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:29,840 The evidence is mounting more and more 223 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,800 that the Earth crossed the path of cometary debris. 224 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,600 And the argument is that it was multiple impacts of fragments 225 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:43,560 of this cometary debris that set off the Younger Dryas climate emergency 226 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:45,280 12,800 years ago. 227 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,840 [menacing music continues] 228 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:56,040 [Graham] It's an idea we keep encountering 229 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:59,160 called the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis. 230 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,280 In both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, 231 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:07,440 {an8}scientists have found black matte layers like this one, 232 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,680 {an8}showing traces of nanodiamonds, platinum, and iridium, 233 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:13,720 suggesting a nearby cosmic impact or airburst. 234 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,160 But here, in the Amazon, other evidence might be present, 235 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:19,800 etched into these walls. 236 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,440 [menacing music ends] 237 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:28,080 We have several images of comets, 238 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:30,160 but one panel particularly, 239 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:36,080 there's a comet that is positioned facing upward. 240 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,240 The tail is going down. The head is going up. 241 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:39,240 [Graham] Yeah. 242 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:42,440 Above the comet image is a painting of the sun. 243 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,000 And this was baffling when I first saw it because normally you wouldn't see a comet 244 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:49,520 until after the sun sets. 245 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,240 [Graham] Most comets are easily distinguishable by their tails, 246 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:59,320 usually only visible above the setting sun streaming away from it. 247 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:05,200 Surely it would be impossible to see a comet below the sun in broad daylight. 248 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,840 So that gave me the idea, "When would you possibly see a comet head up 249 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:13,160 before the sun sets?" 250 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,000 - Maybe during an eclipse. - Mm-hmm. 251 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:19,760 And so I started looking in astronomy software, 252 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:25,520 and there was an eclipse that occurred facing that image about 13,027 years ago. 253 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:26,520 [Graham] Right. 254 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,840 [Dr. Davis] And a comet that was near the sun. 255 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,360 If there was an eclipse that darkened the sun, 256 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,720 you could possibly see suddenly this comet, 257 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,680 and it would be head up facing the sun. 258 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:43,800 - So... - That's what we see in the art? 259 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:45,720 The art does seem to show that. 260 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,520 [Graham] Could this painting be a record of the comet 261 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:50,200 that many believe broke apart, 262 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:54,840 pummeling the Earth with debris and triggering the Younger Dryas? 263 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,960 I think the ancients were already getting warnings from the sky. 264 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,960 They were becoming aware that something had changed in the heavens, 265 00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:10,040 and perhaps they were painting the first signs of the apocalypse 266 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:11,120 that was to come. 267 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,240 [tense music crescendos] 268 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:20,000 [tense music ends] 269 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:29,080 [Graham] The timing certainly fits with when humans abandoned this rocky outcrop. 270 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:32,320 I know archaeologists don't like to speculate 271 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:33,920 and I'm gonna ask you to speculate, 272 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,256 but do you think the Younger Dryas had anything to do with 273 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:37,920 that sudden cessation of activity? 274 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:39,760 You can't ignore it, certainly, 275 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,440 because it does come right at that period of time. 276 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:43,800 [thunder rumbling] 277 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:46,320 [tense music playing] 278 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:47,960 [thunder rumbling] 279 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:49,360 [tense music ends] 280 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,440 [somber music playing] 281 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,840 [Graham] At a personal level, what's your estimation 282 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:59,400 of the people who created this art? 283 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:01,520 How do you envisage them in your mind? 284 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,360 It's kind of hard to imagine how brave you would have to be 285 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:07,280 coming to a new environment. 286 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:09,880 I mean, they were pioneers. 287 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:12,040 [crickets chirping] 288 00:17:12,120 --> 00:17:15,440 [Graham] But how did these pioneers get here in the first place? 289 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,040 [intriguing music playing] 290 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:24,040 In 2015, scientists investigating just that question dropped a bombshell. 291 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,440 They found that members of certain Indigenous Amazonian tribes 292 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:32,480 share a specific DNA marker 293 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:36,880 with people from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. 294 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:39,760 [music intensifies] 295 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,560 The fact that we find it amongst remote tribes in the Amazon rainforest 296 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:47,680 and in Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Australia 297 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:52,680 suggests very strongly that there was a direct crossing 298 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:54,760 across the Pacific Ocean. 299 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,040 Even more surprising is where this DNA signal isn't. 300 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:07,880 This DNA signal is not found anywhere in North America. 301 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,840 If the Americas were peopled entirely by land, 302 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:15,800 we should find this DNA signal present in North America 303 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:17,520 as well as in South America. 304 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:25,760 What's more, the DNA signal is very old, dating back at least 10,000 years. 305 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,040 Nobody is supposed to have been able to cross the Pacific Ocean 306 00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:34,520 from one side to the other 10 or 11,000 years ago. 307 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:38,320 For that to have happened just turns the whole story on its head. 308 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,400 If there's one place on Earth that might hold clues 309 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:43,600 as to who crossed the Pacific back then... 310 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:45,440 [music crescendos] 311 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:48,560 ...it's here. 312 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,440 [tense music playing] 313 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:55,800 I've come to one of the world's most remote inhabited islands 314 00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:01,360 2,300 miles west of South America 315 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,520 and 2,600 miles east of Tahiti. 316 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:13,880 On Easter Sunday, 1722, Dutch explorers stumbled across this small speck of land, 317 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,400 lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 318 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,920 So they named it Easter Island. 319 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:26,920 But they were stunned to discover that it was inhabited 320 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,320 by a people who today call their home Rapa Nui. 321 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:33,880 [tense music ends] 322 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:36,360 [waves crashing] 323 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,160 [Graham] I mean, look at the basic geography. 324 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:47,040 It's just sitting there in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 325 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:51,080 this tiny little dot of land. 326 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:57,240 And so the first extraordinary thing about it is, 327 00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,120 how did people find it at all? 328 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:03,480 How did anybody ever end up settling on Easter Island 329 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:08,000 in this huge wilderness of the Pacific Ocean? 330 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:09,880 [suspenseful music playing] 331 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,640 That Pan-Pacific DNA signal convinces me 332 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:18,320 that this island could play a key role in my efforts to reconstruct the story 333 00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:20,720 of a lost civilization of the Ice Age. 334 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:23,400 Why? 335 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:27,160 Because of these. 336 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,680 [dramatic music playing] 337 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,200 Vast megalithic statues that tower over the landscape... 338 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,400 for which Rapa Nui is famous today. 339 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:46,040 [music ends] 340 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:48,720 [Graham] Across the Pacific, 341 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,600 several islands are home to collections of remarkable megalithic structures. 342 00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:57,680 However, the greatest concentration of such monuments is found here. 343 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,760 The islanders call them Moai. 344 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:01,840 [intriguing music playing] 345 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,000 [Graham] There are more than 1,000 of them... 346 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,320 on a remote rock that's smaller than Washington, DC. 347 00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:23,880 Many stand together along the coastline, facing inland... 348 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,720 while others are found seemingly at random, 349 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:35,760 as if a massive project had been abandoned midway through. 350 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:39,920 [music crescendos, stops] 351 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:46,480 For me, Easter Island is just one of the most enchanted places on Earth. 352 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,720 The great Moai statues, 353 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,360 these human figures carved out of the soft volcanic rock. 354 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,040 It's confronting us with a mystery right there, 355 00:21:58,120 --> 00:21:59,840 which needs to be explained. 356 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:01,920 [intriguing music continues] 357 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,320 Who were the sculptors of these giant statues? 358 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,120 What were they trying to achieve, 359 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,760 and why did they expend such mighty efforts to achieve it? 360 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:16,960 These are puzzles to which no definite solution, 361 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,280 only speculation, has ever been offered. 362 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:21,720 [music continues] 363 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:26,560 [birds chirping] 364 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:28,640 [mysterious music playing] 365 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,600 [Graham] This gap in our knowledge is mostly due to the devastation 366 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,680 wrought here by outsiders. 367 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:41,640 During the 19th century, 368 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,880 the Rapa Nui people were reduced to a tiny remnant 369 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,840 by slave raids and disease. 370 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,440 The few who clung on, did so, 371 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,680 by taking refuge in underground lava tubes like this. 372 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,760 [water dripping] 373 00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,440 [Graham] I often say that we're a species with amnesia, 374 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,880 and that is particularly true of Easter Island 375 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,760 because of its tragic history. 376 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:07,040 Because from the moment 377 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:11,120 that Easter Island encountered Western culture, 378 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:13,480 uh, disaster set in. 379 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:15,080 [water dripping] 380 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:20,000 The elders who had preserved the memories were all taken away. 381 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,000 Some slaves were later repatriated, 382 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,280 but brought with them deadly diseases, 383 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:28,840 with the result that the remaining islanders 384 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,480 were all but wiped out. 385 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:32,560 [dramatic music playing] 386 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,440 Leo Pakarati is an Indigenous documentarian 387 00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:42,080 {an8}whose family has carefully preserved the oral traditions of Rapa Nui 388 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:43,440 {an8}for generations. 389 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,760 He's painfully aware of what was lost 390 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,560 during those dark times of the slave raids. 391 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,320 The only memory that is preserved of the origins of Easter Island 392 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,480 is the memory that survived the 19th century. 393 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:04,040 In a historical moment, we are only 111 persons on the island. 394 00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:05,656 - It's a big disaster. - For the culture. 395 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:07,320 It's a cultural disaster too 396 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,320 because you need many people to keep the knowledge. 397 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:11,920 Few people, few knowledge. 398 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:15,960 - Yeah. - And we lose a big part of our history. 399 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:17,440 [somber music playing] 400 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,840 [Graham] And yet, despite these overwhelming odds, 401 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,280 the Rapa Nui have retained memories 402 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,720 concerning this tiny island's most intriguing mystery. 403 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,800 Tell me what the old tradition says about the Moai. 404 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,920 The real name for the Moai is "te aringa ora o te Tupuna." 405 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,400 - Mm-hmm. - "The living face of our ancestors." 406 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:38,560 That is the name. 407 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,640 The idea is the Moai represent a real person. 408 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:43,720 Yeah. 409 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,560 And in life, this person is special, important. 410 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,880 [Graham] According to Rapa Nui lore, 411 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,520 these important ancestors were memorialized in the Moai 412 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,160 with distinctive features related to their rank. 413 00:24:57,960 --> 00:24:59,840 - Some of the Moai have short ears. - Yeah. 414 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:01,800 Some have long ears. What's that about? 415 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,640 [Leo] This is because of our different social classes on the island. 416 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:08,160 - [Graham] Yeah. - Some people have time for long earrings. 417 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,280 They have long nails too. 418 00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:12,280 - It's a social class act. - [Graham] Yes. 419 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:15,200 So those long fingers on the Moai, those are actually nails? 420 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,080 [splutters] They have long fingers, 421 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:20,360 and some Moai have very long nails and curves too. 422 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,440 [tense music playing] 423 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,920 [Graham] I find it impossible to avoid seeing 424 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:30,080 parallels with similar statues of great antiquity found elsewhere. 425 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:37,600 {an8}On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, we find 4,000-year-old megalithic figures 426 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,720 in a remarkably similar posture 427 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:42,520 {an8}and with similar hand positions. 428 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,040 {an8}Even on the other side of the world, in Turkey, 429 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:52,960 {an8}a statue known as Urfa Man that dates back to the Ice Age 430 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:57,120 strikes a similar pose, his hands clasped across his belly. 431 00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,200 [tense music continues] 432 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,960 {an8}An equally intriguing parallel is found also in Turkey, 433 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,200 {an8}in the ten-ton megalithic pillars of Göbekli Tepe. 434 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:12,160 These pillars are 11,600 years old. 435 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,520 Could the similarities of these designs across time and space 436 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:22,400 be evidence of a single common ancestor culture, 437 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:27,160 leaving a legacy of ideas for later peoples to express? 438 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,960 [tense music crescendos, stops] 439 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:34,040 [pensive music playing] 440 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:37,760 No records exist that could explain the origins of such imagery. 441 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:39,680 [music continues] 442 00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:42,560 But according to Rapa Nui oral tradition, 443 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,360 the Moai, in addition to being megalithic memorials, 444 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,480 channel a sacred spiritual power from their ancestors, 445 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,720 an energy known as mana. 446 00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:58,840 Tell me more about mana. 447 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,320 Mana is very important. 448 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:01,920 Mana is the energy. 449 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:03,280 All the people have mana. 450 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:06,640 Any rock, any elements in the universe have mana. 451 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,080 So the Moai are invested with mana? 452 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,720 [Leo] Yeah. People, when they die, 453 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:16,160 the family send to make a Moai with the intention, 454 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,920 the soul, the mana, the spirit of this person entering the Moai. 455 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,240 [Graham] But interestingly, that mana only starts to flow 456 00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:30,400 after the Moai are set in place and properly finished. 457 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,680 In the moment, the Moai is safe on the platform, 458 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,680 the tupuna, the ancestors, carve in the holes for the eyes first, 459 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:42,360 and later they put in coral for the white part 460 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,480 and sometimes obsidian or other rocks for the eyes. 461 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,080 - [Graham] Right. Yeah. - In this moment, it's no more Moai. 462 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,360 Now it's Aringa ora o te Tupuna. The living face of our ancestors. 463 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,320 - Once it has the eyes? - Once it has the eyes. 464 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,840 - Right. - And from the platform, from the Ahu, 465 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,080 the Moai look in direction to the town and protect the family. 466 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:00,680 That is the function of the Moai. 467 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,120 [music fades] 468 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,240 [Graham] Clearly, the Moai are deeply sacred to the Rapa Nui. 469 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,600 But does that mean they originally carved them? 470 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:21,360 Or could the Moai have already been here? 471 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,680 If so, we'd need to rethink the entire timeline 472 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,280 of the peopling of Rapa Nui. 473 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,080 Let's consider an alternative scenario 474 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,640 in which it was first explored by a small group 475 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,720 of highly sophisticated navigators, 476 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,240 much further back in prehistory than is presently accepted. 477 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:46,320 [tense music playing] 478 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:50,840 [man chanting] 479 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,360 [all chanting] 480 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,120 [Graham] Based on genetic testing, 481 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:56,880 we know that the Rapa Nui people... 482 00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,120 [chanting] 483 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,240 ...are descended from those great ancient navigators, 484 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:03,760 the Polynesians. 485 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:10,400 The Polynesians were fantastically advanced navigators and seafarers 486 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,840 and settled many parts of the Pacific Ocean 487 00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,440 during the Polynesian expansion about 3,000 years ago. 488 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,960 Carbon dating of the oldest human settlements here 489 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:26,040 strongly suggests that Rapa Nui was one of the last islands they reached 490 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,280 around 1,100 years ago. 491 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,320 [tense music crescendos, stops] 492 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:32,720 A new study proposes 493 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,520 that the first people arrived even more recently, 494 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:37,880 just 800 years ago or less. 495 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,840 [singing in local language] 496 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,480 [Graham] And yet, fragments of a different earlier origin story 497 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,160 that seem to contradict the archaeological timeline 498 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,240 have been kept alive here. 499 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,680 I'm privileged to witness a celebration of it. 500 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:02,760 [singing in local language] 501 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,040 [singing continues] 502 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,320 The oral traditions speak of a primeval homeland called Hiva, 503 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:19,400 a large island destroyed by a global flood that forced their ancestors to flee. 504 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:22,120 [tense music playing] 505 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,960 In this account, the great king of Hiva, Hutu Matu'a, 506 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,760 was warned that his island nation would suffer a terrible deluge 507 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:32,440 and be submerged forever. 508 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,280 [tense music continues] 509 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:38,560 Guided by a vision, 510 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,200 he sent seven chosen men out in seafaring canoes, 511 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,680 heading towards the rising sun in search of a new home. 512 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:49,680 [people screaming] 513 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:51,560 [Graham] After weeks at sea, 514 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,240 they landed safely on the island of Rapa Nui, 515 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:58,680 where they were later joined by Hutu Matu'a and hundreds of his people 516 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:00,960 to reestablish their civilization. 517 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,120 [wind howling] 518 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,040 [waves crashing] 519 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,560 So we have a tradition of a great flood and an exploration, 520 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,480 and we have to ask ourselves, "Did such an event happen?" 521 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,240 You really have to go back to the end of the last Ice Age 522 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,080 to get the kind of flood that would submerge an entire land. 523 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:24,720 [tense music playing] 524 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:27,680 The name of that sunken island, Hiva, 525 00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,280 in Rapa Nui language means far-off land, 526 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,040 suggesting it wasn't a land the Polynesians were familiar with. 527 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:42,000 But the arrival of a band of seven by sea after a time of great cataclysm 528 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,320 {an8}is a tradition encountered all over the ancient world 529 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:47,840 {an8}from the Apkallu of Mesopotamia 530 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,600 {an8}to Egypt's seven sages 531 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:54,240 {an8}and India's seven rishis. 532 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:55,960 {an8}[tense music continues] 533 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,080 {an8}Such traditions often speak of a small band of flood survivors 534 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,760 arriving in a distant land in a time of chaos 535 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,240 with a mission to restart civilization. 536 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,960 [Indigenous people singing] 537 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:13,560 Coincidence? Could these origin stories be memories of real events 538 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,080 experienced by many ancient cultures around the world? 539 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,240 [singing in local language] 540 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,640 [Graham] Crucially, the legend of Hotu Matu'a and Hiva 541 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:28,160 doesn't include a date. 542 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,440 [singing continues] 543 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,480 [Graham] This causes me to raise questions in my mind 544 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,920 about when Easter Island was first settled. 545 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,360 [singing continues] 546 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,240 [Graham] I'm not disputing the Polynesian expansion. 547 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,320 I'm not disputing that the population of Easter Island today 548 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,640 is a Polynesian population. 549 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,080 But the question is, could it have been settled earlier than that? 550 00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,720 [cheering] 551 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,120 [suspenseful music playing] 552 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,120 [Graham] Alas, the Moai themselves can't help us answer this question. 553 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:12,920 The characteristic Moai are cut from 554 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,560 a relatively soft type of rock called tuff, 555 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:19,040 a form of volcanic ash turned to stone. 556 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:21,400 They can't be dated in and of themselves. 557 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:24,880 In the absence of direct evidence 558 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,680 for when these megalithic statues were carved, 559 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,800 archaeologists relied on dating the organic matter 560 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:36,080 embedded in the Ahu platforms, on which many of the Moai stand. 561 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:38,720 For example, 562 00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:45,080 Ahu Nau Nau has been dated to between 400 and 900 years old. 563 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,160 [music ends] 564 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,240 [dramatic music playing] 565 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:55,080 So that's when historians believe the islanders began to carve the Moai. 566 00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,440 But if that were true, 567 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,000 it means that after a few centuries, 568 00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:06,040 living simply with no traces of building the necessary skills, 569 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,880 the Rapa Nui people suddenly embarked on this mammoth project, 570 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,520 which continued until just a few decades before the Europeans arrived. 571 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:20,600 Many of the platforms are really quite rough 572 00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,040 and ready by comparison with the statues. 573 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:25,280 And we have to ask ourselves the question, 574 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,240 "Are the platforms actually the same age as the statues that stand on top of them?" 575 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,360 Or is it possible that the statues were re-erected 576 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,360 by latecomers to Easter Island, 577 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,600 giving us a totally false idea of how old the statues are 578 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:40,400 based on the platforms alone? 579 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,480 [suspenseful music playing] 580 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:45,400 [Graham] After all, throughout history, 581 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:50,160 many objects of great cultural value have later been moved and displayed 582 00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:51,520 in a newer setting. 583 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,720 {an8}- [music intensifies] - [bells tolling] 584 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:57,120 {an8}In Venice, the four tetrarchs of St. Mark's Basilica 585 00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:02,960 {an8}were actually carved in Constantinople 900 years before they were installed here. 586 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:10,120 {an8}And the Renaissance fountain in front of Rome's Pantheon isn't nearly as old 587 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,760 {an8}as the ancient Egyptian obelisk it supports. 588 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,760 Many of these huge statues were moved around, relocated, 589 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:20,440 placed in different positions. 590 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:23,160 And I think we have to remain open to the possibility 591 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:25,480 that the statues may already have been there 592 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,360 when the first Polynesians arrived. 593 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,120 And that they were kind of adopted by those new settlers 594 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,360 and taken in to their culture. 595 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,040 Supporting this idea is Ahu Nau Nau, 596 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,120 which uses another Moai head, deeply weathered, 597 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,200 as one of its foundation stones, recycled for this purpose. 598 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,120 [music crescendos, subsides] 599 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,240 Another hint that the Moai could be much older than previously thought 600 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:02,080 can be found at the extinct volcano, 601 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,880 where nearly all of the megaliths were first quarried and shaped. 602 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:07,960 [suspenseful music playing] 603 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,400 Here, in the southeastern corner of the island, is an extinct volcano 604 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:16,120 called Rano Raraku. 605 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,760 It's a dramatic feature on the landscape. 606 00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,520 [suspenseful music ends] 607 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:27,840 And on its slopes are the remains of hundreds of partially completed Moai. 608 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,720 It truly is one of the world's most mysterious places. 609 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:35,680 [triumphant music playing] 610 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:43,000 [Graham] Nearly 400 Moai are scattered about the volcano... 611 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:50,080 in various stages of completion. 612 00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,320 [triumphant music crescendos, subsides] 613 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,400 [pensive music playing] 614 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,360 Many only peek above ground level, 615 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:08,560 their squat torsos embedded in deep sediment. 616 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,160 This sedimentation could result from landslides, 617 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:17,160 mudflows, or even tsunamis. 618 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:25,480 But although they might lean, most of the statues remain upright, 619 00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:27,120 not randomly tumbled over, 620 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,240 as you would expect if such an event were the cause. 621 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:34,560 So what really happened here? 622 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:39,440 For centuries, the sediment concealed the evidence. 623 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,760 Until 1914, when archaeologists began excavations. 624 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:49,000 As this photograph shows, 625 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:53,000 some Moai are much more than just head and shoulders 626 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:56,760 and include the whole torso lodged deep in the hillside... 627 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,120 a finding that was only fully revealed to the world in the 1950s 628 00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,080 by the famous ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. 629 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,120 [tense music crescendos, stops] 630 00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,720 Thor Heyerdahl was a remarkable human being. 631 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,680 I was lucky to meet him more than once. 632 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,840 He was willing to challenge convention. 633 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,800 He was convinced that there were some missing pieces 634 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:24,760 in the story of our past. 635 00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:28,960 And he tried to show us that deep in prehistory, 636 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,120 uh, ancient humans were capable of achievements 637 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,760 that we have tended to allocate to much later periods. 638 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:37,480 [triumphant music playing] 639 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,560 [Graham] Like this mysterious Moai building project. 640 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:43,240 Archaeologists tell us 641 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,040 that the last of the Moai were sculpted around 400 years ago. 642 00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,320 But it seems implausible, on such a small island, 643 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,440 that such a massive amount of sedimentation could have accumulated 644 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,960 around them in such a short time. 645 00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,160 None of these Moai show evidence of intentional burial. 646 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,280 So is there another explanation? 647 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,080 [triumphant music intensifies] 648 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,760 Could it be that what we're looking at is the end result 649 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:13,560 of a process of sedimentation 650 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:17,120 that would have taken not hundreds of years, but thousands? 651 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,560 The problem with that theory? 652 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:25,320 There's no evidence of human habitation dating so far back. 653 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:26,720 [dramatic music playing] 654 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:27,840 Or is there? 655 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,080 [music ends] 656 00:39:38,720 --> 00:39:40,720 [closing theme playing] 657 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:07,960 {an8}[closing theme ends] 56025

Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.