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[intriguing music playing]
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[Graham] As you go into
the Temple of the Moon,
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you're confronted
at the entrance by a serpent.
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Carved into the rock wall,
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its glistening body
seeming almost alive to your touch.
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That's no easy task
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because that means
that the rock was cut away,
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leaving only
this high-relief serpent on the side.
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[intriguing music continues]
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As you go deeper into the tunnel,
more enigmatic shapes appear,
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all sculpted from the living rock.
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It has a unique atmosphere.
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The motes of dust catching in the light
as it shines down
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from the hole in the ceiling
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onto a perfectly-leveled structure,
clearly the work of human beings.
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The stone plinth, like the serpent,
is shaped from the rock itself,
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lit from that crevasse above,
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giving access both to sunlight
and to moonlight.
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Known locally as the Temple of the Moon,
and also perhaps more authentically
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as Amaru Markawasi,
the House of the Serpent,
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this eerie, rock-cut shelter
certainly has a powerful presence.
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It's believed the Inca used this space
for fertility rituals,
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where the hopeful would leave offerings
to the goddess of the moon,
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Mama Quilla, daughter of Viracocha.
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[intriguing music continues]
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The silence of the place,
the coldness, the stillness within it,
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uh, all of this focused the mind
in a way that seems to me
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to have been deliberately designed,
not accidentally achieved.
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[intriguing music intensifies]
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Whoever carved out this sacred chamber,
it seems it wasn't the same people
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who built the more ostentatious
gold-plated temples
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that the Inca were famous for.
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It's as if the Incas who venerated it
built the outer walls to mark off
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and thus respect something they found,
not something they created.
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Are we looking at the work
of someone else,
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an older culture that understood
how to mold stone in fantastical ways?
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[intriguing music builds, ends]
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[theme song playing]
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[theme song ends]
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{an8}- [thunder rumbling]
- [electronic warble]
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[intriguing playing]
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[Graham] I'm on a hillside
above Cusco in Peru,
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investigating a possibly
very ancient technique for shaping stone
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known as Hanan Pacha.
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We have a multi-layered mystery,
and in order to solve that mystery,
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we need to look at
the different styles of architecture
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sometimes coexisting in the same street.
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Anywhere else in the world,
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these would be taken as evidence
of the handiwork of different cultures.
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Midway between the Temple of the Moon
and the vast megaliths of Sacsayhuaman
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is another of the Sacred Valley's
most important sites
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that seems to use the same
more ancient stone-shaping technique.
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Q'enqo.
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[intriguing music builds]
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Its Quechua name
translates to "labyrinth,"
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and as I begin to explore, I can see why.
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One undertakes a journey
to get into the heart of it,
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a winding pathway
that leads you through it
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and causes you to reflect inwardly.
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[intriguing music continues]
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Q'enqo is ultimately a place where
the individual finds him or herself alone,
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surrounded by
the mysterious mystical atmosphere,
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surrounded by silence.
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[intriguing music subsides]
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[mysterious music playing]
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It's a complex network
of sculpted tunnels,
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subterranean galleries,
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and what appear to be altars
carved out of the bedrock.
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And all seemingly leading
to a central amphitheater,
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where Jesus Gamarra once again joins me
to share his expertise.
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Were the Incas themselves responsible
for any of the workmanship
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{an8}that we see at Q'enqo Chico?
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{an8}[Jesus hesitates]
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{an8}[in Spanish] No. No.
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While there are small indicators
of Inca presence
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like small stones and mud joints,
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these are always respectfully built
over the Hanan Pacha forms.
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It is revered with great affection,
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and this is done by surrounding it
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with very precise and respectful
constructions of pieces.
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[intriguing music playing]
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[Graham in English]
Ancient sculpted rock surrounded
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by more rudimentary block work
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like I saw outside the Temple of the Moon.
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It's a juxtaposition of styles
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that we find in many
of Peru's most sacred sites.
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{an8}As at Machu Picchu,
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{an8}the smoothly-sculpted
ceremonial Intihuatana stone...
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which again appears to be surrounded
by later Inca construction,
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perhaps to honor
and respect this spot as sacred.
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{an8}This could explain
the curious mix of stonework we see
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{an8}both in the walls of Cusco
and at Sacsayhuaman,
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{an8}where what Jesus Gamarra identifies
as later blocks are added above and around
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the possibly much older
smoothly-sculpted stones.
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[intriguing music intensifies]
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Regardless of when
these blocks were shaped,
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the question remains how?
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Could we be looking at the fingerprints
of a lost technology of prehistory?
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[intriguing music continues]
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{an8}Jesus' research colleague,
Jan Peter de Jong, thinks there are clues
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{an8}back at Sacsayhuaman as to how
the rock was so expertly crafted.
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Jan, you've just brought me
to this very narrow tunnel
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with very shiny sides.
What's the name of this place?
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They call it here the Chincana Chica.
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[Graham] It means
"the place where one gets lost."
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We're looking at natural bedrock here,
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but clearly the tunnel
is the result of human workmanship.
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Is that characteristic
of the oldest style of construction here,
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that they work with the natural bedrock
and shape it?
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Yes, one of the characteristics
of Hanan Pacha style
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is that the stone is modified
with like a mold technology.
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You can see that...
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they have been working
with the stone as if it was soft.
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[Graham] Yes.
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[Jan] Because all kinds of things
were pressed into the rock.
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[Graham] So when you say mold technology,
you mean softening of the stone
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and then pressing down
the shape into the stone?
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We think that the stones were soft
at the moment of construction.
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[intriguing music continues]
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[Graham] But how were they made soft?
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Jan believes the walls of this tunnel
are the key to the mystery.
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So inside of this tunnel, um,
we can see a lot of reflection.
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I see it shining like a metallic sheen.
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If you touch it, it's very smooth.
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We think that it's been treated with heat,
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and this heat caused
like a layer on the stone,
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and that's why it's this shiny.
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[fire crackling]
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[Graham] Geologists call
this effect vitrification.
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Any idea how much heat would be involved?
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Vitrification, it means "turn to glass,"
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and that means that we need,
like, 1,400 degrees Celsius.
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Which is a colossal amount of heat.
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Yes. Of course,
we don't know how they did it,
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but we know that they did it.
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[intriguing music continues]
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[Graham] When you look at it closely,
you have to ask yourself,
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"Is that heat source the explanation for
the peculiar melted-together appearance
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of the gigantic megaliths
of Sacsayhuaman?"
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[intriguing music builds]
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The first thing skeptics would say is that
the very shiny effect inside the tunnel
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is caused by people brushing against
the sides of the tunnel.
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- Yeah.
- What's your reaction?
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So a lot of people say,
"Yeah, of course. Yeah."
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"It's been done by all the hands
going through this tunnel,
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- touching it there."
- Mm-hmm.
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But you can see it's also on the roof
and the whole wall of the tunnel.
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So it won't be logical to say
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they've been touching
all those places at the same time.
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So what about the other argument
that it's caused by volcanic activity?
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Uh, well,
we don't have any volcanoes here.
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- Okay.
- [Jan] So it's not a logical explanation.
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[intriguing music builds]
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[Graham] For Jan,
the only viable explanation is
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that we're looking at the results of
some kind of ancient scientific process,
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one perfected by a civilization
that predates the Inca.
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It has been done in the far past
by ancient people.
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And we don't know
exactly which technology they used.
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[Graham] When I look at Sacsayhuaman,
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I think I'm looking at the fingerprints
of a lost technology,
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of a lost science of stone-working,
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a science that we are not masters of today
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that we do not have
the technology to reproduce.
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[intriguing music ends]
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The exact nature of the technology
remains a mystery.
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But Jesus Gamarra believes
the extreme heat
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that allowed the rock
to be softened and molded as it was worked
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also strengthened
and hardened it after it set.
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[mysterious music playing]
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When I look around, in a way,
although they're extremely ancient,
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the stones have a very modern appearance.
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How do you understand
what we see in front of our eyes?
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[in Spanish] Only the parts
that have been worked by heat and mold
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are preserved
without having been destroyed.
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The rest of the stone appears rough.
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There is the eroding effect of weathering.
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[tense music playing]
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[in English] What is your explanation
of what we're looking at here?
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[in Spanish] There is a lot of mystery
that we can't explain
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because these are parts
of a great historical past
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that happened thousands of years ago.
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[music continues]
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[Graham in English] At certain points,
we have to just accept
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that we are looking at
an impossible engineering task.
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Impossible in our terms.
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It requires of us to be more open-minded
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in our view of the ancients
than we presently are.
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[music intensifies]
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According to local traditions
recorded by the Spanish conquistadors,
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the advanced techniques
of working with stone
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were part of a legacy of knowledge
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passed down by the creator-god
of the Andes, Viracocha...
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[menacing music playing]
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...who would cause stones
to be consumed by fire,
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making large blocks as light as feathers
that could be floated into place,
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which sounds a lot like
the extreme heat theory.
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[fire crackling]
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That's why I'm interested
in Indigenous traditions
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that do speak of the stones
being melted or molded together.
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Let's keep our ears and eyes open
to such possibilities.
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This evidence of
unexplainable technologies at work
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can be found
throughout the highlands of ancient Peru.
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[intriguing music playing]
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But could there be proof
of ancient scientific achievements
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on the other side of the Andes Mountains
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that we've similarly overlooked
in the Amazon rainforest?
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[Graham] Just because those areas
are not attractive
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for human beings to live in today
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doesn't mean
that they weren't attractive in the past.
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The investigations that are being done
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are revealing evidence
that there are huge secrets in the Amazon.
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[music continues]
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We now know the evidence
for human habitation in ancient Amazonia
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goes back at least 25,000 years.
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That suddenly opens up
a much wider timeframe
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in which to slot a lost civilization.
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The possibilities
that we need to be investigating
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for creating civilizations
become much deeper and much longer.
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[tense music playing]
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In fact, it seems the first Europeans
to navigate the entire Amazon in 1542...
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[boat engine revving]
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...may have caught a glimpse
of the descendants
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of just such a civilization
when they passed near here.
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The expedition was led
by adventurer Francisco de Orellana
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and was chronicled
by a Dominican friar, Gaspar de Carvajal.
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[intriguing music playing]
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De Carvajal's journal didn't talk of
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the endless, seemingly uninhabited forest
we see today.
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The cleric described the Amazon basin
as teeming with cities
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inhabited by highly-skilled peoples.
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[intriguing music continues]
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"One settlement," he wrote,
"stretched unbroken for around 13 miles."
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00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,200
That's the length of Manhattan Island.
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[uptempo intriguing music playing]
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But when European missionaries arrived
about a century later,
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they saw no such cities.
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So historians dismissed
De Carvajal's account as a fiction,
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00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:11,560
concocted to impress the Spanish crown
so they'd fund more such expeditions.
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00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,680
But as the endless jungle
starts to give up its secrets,
241
00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,200
it's beginning to look like
those reports were true all along.
242
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,040
Recent discoveries in the Amazon suggest
243
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,760
that there was indeed
an ancient civilization here.
244
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,120
[uptempo intriguing music ends]
245
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:37,880
{an8}Using LiDAR to peer through the dense
jungle canopy in Bolivia in 2019...
246
00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:44,640
{an8}archaeologists were amazed to see
vast man-made structures and roads.
247
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,120
[intriguing music playing]
248
00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,800
As a result of new research, now we're
finding that there were huge settlements.
249
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,920
As we all know, there is a tradition
of lost cities in the Amazon.
250
00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,840
Cities is the right word
to use to describe these settlements.
251
00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:02,480
[intriguing music ends]
252
00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:06,480
Based on the data and our knowledge
of existing Amazonian villages,
253
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,120
researchers have a good idea
of what one of those settlements
254
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,520
known as Cotoca might have looked like.
255
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,200
[majestic music playing]
256
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,320
The city was almost a mile wide,
257
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:26,080
an entire metropolis,
surrounded by canals and causeways.
258
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:33,280
Some led inwards to raised terraces,
perhaps for individual dwellings.
259
00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:35,360
[birds chirping]
260
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,960
And at the heart of the city
lay a towering pyramid mound,
261
00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:42,280
likely a ceremonial center.
262
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,040
[majestic music continues]
263
00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:48,760
What's more,
this city appeared to be connected
264
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:53,600
to at least three similar settlements
by raised roads stretching for miles.
265
00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:59,280
We don't know much
about the people who lived in this city.
266
00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:02,280
What we do know,
hidden beneath the jungle canopy,
267
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:05,640
is that there are more cities. Many more.
268
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,480
{an8}[adventurous music playing]
269
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:09,960
{an8}[news anchor] Archaeologists have
pieced together evidence
270
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,680
{an8}revealing what they call
a lost valley of ancient cities
271
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:15,560
hidden in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
272
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,840
[Graham] In the western Amazon,
archaeologists have recently uncovered
273
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,480
what appears to be
a large cluster of settlements
274
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:29,480
connected by roads,
dating back 2,500 years,
275
00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:32,560
much like the geoglyphs I saw in Brazil.
276
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,320
Creating large cities,
creating the geoglyphs of Acre State,
277
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,560
this was not considered to be
within the potential
278
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,160
of the hunter-gatherer inhabitants
of the Amazon,
279
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,000
and yet it clearly was.
280
00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:47,760
[dramatic music playing]
281
00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:51,840
More and more of these ancient settlements
continue to be discovered,
282
00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,000
suggesting a widespread
Amazonian civilization,
283
00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,080
one that may have been home
to as many as 20 million people.
284
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,800
What we are learning now
is that the story of the Amazon
285
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:09,560
is not as it had been told.
286
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:11,560
[boat engine revving]
287
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,760
Perhaps de Carvajal did witness
large settlements in 1542.
288
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,720
But if so, why didn't the Europeans
who voyaged down the river
289
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,480
over a century later
see any evidence of them?
290
00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:27,920
[somber music playing]
291
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,280
There's a rather grim explanation.
292
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,640
When the Spanish and the Portuguese
came into the Americas,
293
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,640
they brought with them
a whole host of diseases
294
00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,640
to which European peoples
had some natural immunity,
295
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,640
but to which the peoples
of the Amazon did not.
296
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,400
Any population here
would have been devastated,
297
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,520
while the rainforest
quickly reclaimed their settlements.
298
00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,080
But we find more echoes
of that civilization
299
00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:00,880
in a myth of the Western Amazon
from the Tucano people.
300
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:05,600
The Tucano have an origin story
about how their ancestors
301
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,360
were first brought to that area
as part of a civilizing mission
302
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:14,040
in a... in a serpent canoe that travels
the length of the Amazon system.
303
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,440
So the legend goes,
304
00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,040
this anaconda canoe
was helmed by a spirit being
305
00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,920
and set down a cargo of human migrants.
306
00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,600
[menacing music playing]
307
00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:28,080
[water sloshing]
308
00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,680
Soon after, the divine daughter
of the sun came to Earth,
309
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,360
bearing the gifts of fire and tools
310
00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,320
as well as knowledge of arts and crafts.
311
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,240
[majestic music playing]
312
00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,920
She and her supernatural associates
prepared the land for humans to thrive
313
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:51,600
before returning
to their otherworldly abodes.
314
00:19:55,720 --> 00:20:00,360
This sounds to me so much like
the civilizing hero stories
315
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:01,840
that are told all around the world
316
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,120
that I feel it's very much
part of the... of the same pattern.
317
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,120
These themes keep on cropping up.
318
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:08,240
[intriguing music playing]
319
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:10,520
A spirit being who arrived by boat,
320
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,280
much like Quetzalcoatl did in Aztec lore.
321
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,760
Or Hotu Matu'a when he landed on Rapa Nui.
322
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,360
Or Viracocha, who appeared
from the waters of Lake Titicaca
323
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,160
after a time of chaos.
324
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:32,600
Could this daughter of the sun
325
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,480
and her mission to encourage people
to settle the Amazon
326
00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:39,680
be related to the same lost civilization
I've been looking for?
327
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,640
[intriguing music builds, ends]
328
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:45,200
[tense music playing]
329
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:46,800
In the Peruvian Andes,
330
00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,840
Viracocha supposedly worked miracles
in stone.
331
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:51,160
[fire crackling]
332
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,120
But here in the Amazon,
where large outcrops of rock are rare,
333
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,760
structures made from less durable material
334
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,400
such as wood and earth
clearly predominate.
335
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,120
[tense music intensifies, fades]
336
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,320
What's less clear is how they succeeded
337
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,040
in making this
seemingly inhospitable place their home.
338
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,520
[suspenseful music playing]
339
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,360
How did they sustain huge populations
340
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,080
on what we've long considered to be
infertile soils?
341
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:23,440
[music continues]
342
00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,600
If we don't get to grips with
the ability of the Amazonian peoples
343
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,120
to feed populations of millions,
344
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,720
then we're not ever going
to get to grips with the...
345
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,320
the truth about
the human story as a whole.
346
00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:43,520
One explanation can be found in the heart
of the Brazilian Amazon, near Manaus.
347
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,360
Emerging from the very ground
of the Amazon itself,
348
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,920
a long buried secret
has recently been brought to light.
349
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,120
Evidence of an ancient science
that helps to explain
350
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,560
how the rainforest supported
large urban populations.
351
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:01,000
[birds screeching]
352
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,480
Angela Araujo is an archaeologist
353
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:10,160
who specializes in humankind's
historical relationship with plants.
354
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:18,080
Recently, she's been focusing her studies
on a mysterious phenomenon.
355
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:26,440
Typically, rainforest soils
are not particularly fertile
356
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,520
or suitable for agriculture.
357
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:30,760
[music builds, ends]
358
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,760
But around settlements,
ancient and modern,
359
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,400
scientists have found
something astonishing,
360
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,600
self-regenerating patches of soil
361
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,440
they call "terra preta"
or Amazonian dark earth.
362
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:50,360
We have here a soil which is dark in color
by comparison with the surrounding soils.
363
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,600
Mysteriously and strangely,
it contains bacteria,
364
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,400
which constantly reproduce
and renew themselves
365
00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:00,320
and renew the fertility of the soil.
It's a kind of magical earth.
366
00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:06,200
And this super-powered soil
has been found all across the Amazon
367
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,120
wherever there's evidence of humans.
368
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,600
I'm meeting Angela near
a recently-discovered ancient settlement
369
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,280
to see this dark earth for myself.
370
00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:24,760
When did you first become specifically
interested in Amazonian dark earth?
371
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:30,080
{an8}[in Portuguese] Nowadays,
we also use this soil
372
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:31,680
{an8}for agriculture in the region.
373
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:36,000
And all of a sudden,
I came across an interaction
374
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,680
between the past and these populations.
375
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,760
I wanted to understand why and how
376
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:48,000
these populations were connected
to such dark soil.
377
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,960
[Graham in English] Researchers have found
that mixed in with the organic elements
378
00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,440
of every patch of dark earth,
no matter how old,
379
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,880
are tiny ceramic shards,
380
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,880
undeniable evidence
that human populations have been involved
381
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:03,960
in generating this special soil.
382
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:09,920
And studies have found samples
dating back at least 7,000 years.
383
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000
[intriguing music playing]
384
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,200
How large were those populations?
385
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:19,240
[in Portuguese] I can't say for sure,
but there are records that suggest
386
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,480
there were at least
around three million people
387
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,640
living in the region
of the Alto Rio Negro alone.
388
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,600
[in English] Do you think
that the ancients deliberately,
389
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,040
cleverly invented this soil?
390
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:36,400
Or did they discover
its special properties by accident?
391
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,000
[in Portuguese] Personally,
I don't believe it was intentional.
392
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:43,720
I believe what happened was that,
with so many people inhabiting the area,
393
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:49,360
a lot of decomposing waste was produced
bringing about these benefits.
394
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,480
[Graham in English]
But it's a chicken and egg argument.
395
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,960
I can't help seeing a paradox here.
396
00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,520
On the one hand, we're saying
397
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,360
that there were very large populations
in the Amazon
398
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,640
and that as an accidental product
of their presence,
399
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,480
they created black earth.
400
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,840
But on the other hand,
we're saying that natural Amazon soils
401
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:17,120
are not fertile enough
to support large populations.
402
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,840
Doesn't it seem likely that
what made the large populations possible
403
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,680
was the black earth itself?
404
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,240
[in Portuguese] I believe it's possible
405
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:32,920
that they realized
the area was productive,
406
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:38,400
but their intention wasn't,
407
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:43,240
"I will dump waste to fertilize the land
and improve crop production."
408
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,320
[tense music playing]
409
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,360
[Graham in English]
The research continues.
410
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,880
But to me,
the reason this feels so intentional
411
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,880
is that terra preta can be found
throughout the Amazon,
412
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,400
inevitably close by
prehistoric settlements.
413
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,960
We need to be more open-minded
414
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,440
in our view of the capacity
of the ancients than we presently are.
415
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:12,040
We need to regard them
as masters of their environment
416
00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:17,840
who made that environment work for them
over thousands and thousands of years.
417
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:19,920
[intriguing music playing]
418
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,920
And given the immensity of the jungle,
419
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,360
who knows how many more patches
of terra preta may lie undiscovered
420
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,240
that could push the origins
of this miracle soil
421
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,680
even further back into the past.
422
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:36,320
The proposition I present here,
423
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,360
hotly contested by many archaeologists,
424
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,600
is that the settlement and expansion
of human populations in the Amazon
425
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,400
was a planned affair.
426
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,840
[dramatic music playing]
427
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,280
But building and maintaining
those vast settlements
428
00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:54,680
would have demanded
massive amounts of natural resources.
429
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,280
Not just food crops,
but something we might imagine
430
00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:01,840
could never have been scarce
in the Amazon itself.
431
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:03,920
Timber.
432
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,120
[majestic music playing]
433
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,080
The Amazon is truly
a wonder of natural diversity.
434
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:19,360
Today, there are
around 390 billion trees here,
435
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,680
made up of some 16,000 species.
436
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,200
What if I told you
that most of this immense jungle
437
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,160
is the end result
of an intentional campaign
438
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,800
undertaken by humans
thousands of years ago?
439
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,200
What if I told you
the Amazon might have been planted?
440
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,280
[intriguing music playing]
441
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,400
[intriguing music ends]
442
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,680
Researchers have confirmed
that during the Ice Age,
443
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:59,680
the Amazon wasn't dense jungle,
but grassland broken up by trees.
444
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:05,760
They assumed the warming planet nurtured
the sprawling rainforest we see today.
445
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:10,680
But recently, archaeobotanists uncovered
something unexpected.
446
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,760
Half of the forest is made up of
just 1.4% of known Amazonian tree species,
447
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,760
the very same species, as it turns out,
that happen to be useful to humans.
448
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:24,600
[birds chirping]
449
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,400
Was this the result of a long-term project
set in motion thousands of years ago,
450
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,480
a project that would eventually blossom
451
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,080
into a widespread
Indigenous Amazonian civilization?
452
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,760
And there's something else.
453
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,720
As with terra preta,
most of these useful trees are found
454
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,040
close by the newly-discovered
ancient cities of the Amazon.
455
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,520
Instead of the hostile, dangerous jungle
that we Westerners tend to see,
456
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:55,920
they were turning it into
a homeland for millions,
457
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,560
making the Amazon a garden,
making it a place that served human needs.
458
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,040
[intriguing music playing]
459
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:03,400
[Pärssinen] In the 20th century,
460
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:08,720
{an8}it was thought that the hinterlands
of Amazonia was totally virgin.
461
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:11,560
That humans had not touched it.
462
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,840
And now we know
that many of the trees that we have here,
463
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,720
Brazil nut, many palms,
are semi-cultivated
464
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,360
and even cultivated and domesticated,
465
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,240
so that our understanding
of the forest has changed.
466
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,000
[intriguing music ends]
467
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,800
[Graham] This is truly
a scientific project
468
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,360
that's been underway in the Amazon
for a very long time.
469
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,520
[intriguing music playing]
470
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,040
How long, exactly?
471
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:41,760
What's really intriguing
472
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,800
is that the oldest date
for tree cultivation so far
473
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,440
found in the Amazon
is some 10,800 years ago.
474
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,440
That's around the end of the Ice Age,
475
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,400
exactly the time
that we see similar leaps forward
476
00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,160
in human civilization
and innovation all across the globe.
477
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,240
[dramatic music playing]
478
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,360
This causes us to ask
what else remains to be found
479
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,000
in that vast expanse
of the Amazon rainforest
480
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:13,240
that really wasn't supposed to be there
and yet clearly is there.
481
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,200
[music intensifies]
482
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,360
As we saw with
the advanced stonework of ancient Peru,
483
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,600
these sophisticated agricultural projects
and settlements in the Amazon
484
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,400
begun thousands of years ago
485
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,760
seem to demonstrate
scientific achievements
486
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,480
that are, to say the least,
unexpected so long ago.
487
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,560
[music continues]
488
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,920
We have to completely reframe
our understanding of the Amazon.
489
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:46,400
We have to see it as a product
of human intelligence, human initiative,
490
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,240
human ingenuity, and human intention.
491
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,720
The most astounding example
of Amazonian technology
492
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,200
may also point to an unexpected source
for all this advanced knowledge.
493
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,480
[blade whirring]
494
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,160
[bass drum playing]
495
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,040
[Graham] I've returned
to the Peruvian Amazon to learn more.
496
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,960
{an8}This is Iquitos,
a port city located at a junction
497
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,760
where the great river
is fed by several tributaries.
498
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:18,920
The port might be young,
499
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,960
but this region has,
for thousands of years,
500
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,160
been a center
for a profound cultural practice,
501
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,000
the use of ayahuasca.
502
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:29,520
[bass drum stops]
503
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,560
[suspenseful music playing]
504
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,760
{an8}Dr. Luis Eduardo Luna
is an Indigenous anthropologist
505
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,320
and leading expert
on this ancient plant-based medicine.
506
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:41,800
[insects chirping]
507
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,640
[Dr. Luna] I have witnessed
many people taking ayahuasca,
508
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,400
and I'm astonished,
you know, by what they experience,
509
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,200
sometimes extraordinary journeys
into other realms,
510
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,400
sometimes simply looking into themselves,
511
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,400
finding ways of solving
their own problems.
512
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,880
[Graham] What do you see happening?
513
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,920
Important changes
taking place in their lives?
514
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,680
Many people write to me, you know,
515
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,400
and that those experiences
were completely life-changing,
516
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,600
changed completely their perspective,
you know.
517
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:08,360
[intriguing music playing]
518
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,240
[Graham] The use of ayahuasca
has recently become popular
519
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,320
in our contemporary society.
520
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:20,120
But for Indigenous people of the Amazon,
the brew has long held a sacred power.
521
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,440
[Dr. Luna] Many Indigenous people say,
you know,
522
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:27,800
they take ayahuasca in order
to understand the rules of society,
523
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,160
you know, become better human beings.
524
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,920
[uptempo intriguing music playing]
525
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:35,960
[Graham] The preparation of ayahuasca
526
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,360
is the realm
of the shaman healers or curanderos.
527
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,640
{an8}Like Don Francisco Montes Shuna
from the Kapanawa people,
528
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,280
{an8}who must blow smoke
from an ancient species of tobacco
529
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,440
known as mapacho to purify the ritual.
530
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:02,960
[in Spanish] In the Capanahua language,
my name is Shamorin Kyashi Piary.
531
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,720
Shamorin Kyashi Piary means
"The Angel of the Jungle."
532
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:09,800
[uptempo intriguing music continues]
533
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,400
[uptempo intriguing music ends]
534
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,120
I come from a line of healers.
535
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,120
I feel the connection to all my ancestors,
536
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:32,440
my grandmother, my great-grandmother,
the whole family.
537
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:38,880
We are connected and feel the connections
with everything to do with Amazonia.
538
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:40,520
[tense music playing]
539
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:42,800
[Graham in English]
As research progresses,
540
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,280
the evidence is building
that ayahuasca can have health benefits.
541
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:53,160
When brewed, the vine alone
has powerful healing properties
542
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,360
thanks to a molecule it contains
known to science as harmine.
543
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,800
[Dr. Luna] There have been studies
suggesting neurogenesis.
544
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:03,720
[Graham] Mm-hmm.
545
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,840
[Dr. Luna] You know, that the harmine
will be producing new neurons,
546
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,200
even new beta cells for the pancreas.
547
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:10,160
[Graham] Mm-hmm.
548
00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:14,440
And perhaps new cells
also for the ligaments and so on.
549
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:16,720
[intriguing music playing]
550
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,280
[Graham] The harmine in the vine
might be a medical miracle,
551
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,040
but it doesn't produce a visionary state.
552
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,600
That only happens when it's combined
with the leaves of certain other plants
553
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:32,800
Indigenous to the Amazon
like this one called chaliponga,
554
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:38,880
which contains the psychoactive chemical
at the heart of ayahuasca,
555
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,400
DMT, short for dimethyltryptamine.
556
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,120
[intriguing music builds, subsides]
557
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:49,800
DMT is considered
one of the most potent psychedelics.
558
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,440
But scientific studies
have now confirmed it is non-addictive
559
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,360
and can have therapeutic properties
560
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,280
when administered
in controlled doses and circumstances.
561
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,760
[wood cracking]
562
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,840
We're discovering that when accompanied
by talking therapy as well,
563
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,560
it can be extremely helpful
in bringing to an end
564
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,520
long-term intractable conditions.
565
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,120
But there's just one problem.
566
00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:21,200
DMT isn't orally active
567
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,160
because enzymes in the gut
normally destroy it on contact.
568
00:35:25,240 --> 00:35:27,160
[intriguing music playing]
569
00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:28,240
It's precisely here
570
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,240
that the shamanistic science
of the Amazon comes in
571
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:33,360
with a remarkable solution.
572
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,480
[Dr. Luna] So what happens is
that the harmine in the vine
573
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,600
will block the destruction
of DMT in the gut,
574
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,080
so that the DMT
will cross the blood-brain barrier,
575
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,400
go into receptors in the brain.
576
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,920
That is what produces the visions,
you know, the DMT.
577
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:55,320
[Graham] The result?
578
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,040
Out of the tens of thousands
of plant species of the Amazon,
579
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:05,480
only the combination of the ayahuasca vine
with the leaves of a plant containing DMT
580
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,880
will produce
the highly-prized visionary effects.
581
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,960
[intriguing music builds, subsides]
582
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:17,560
We have two plants,
which are not psychoactive on their own,
583
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,240
but are psychoactive when cooked together
584
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,280
to create the ayahuasca brew.
585
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:24,520
To do that by trial and error
586
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,400
could involve centuries
or millennia of experimentation.
587
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,080
[mysterious music playing]
588
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,560
I think we have a mystery here.
How did they come to this discovery?
589
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,760
Right there
looks to me like a scientific project.
590
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:38,440
It is, yeah, absolutely.
591
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,280
I mean, it is based on experience.
It's based on observation.
592
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,760
It's based on experimentation,
constant experimentation and so on.
593
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,760
- Over thousands of years?
- Yes, exactly.
594
00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:53,720
[Francisco in Spanish] This tradition
goes back thousands of years.
595
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:59,200
I mean, we can't say.
Two thousand, three thousand years...
596
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,480
[Graham in English] We're getting evidence
of science in the Amazon,
597
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:09,080
the knowledge that Indigenous shamans
have accumulated and passed down
598
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:14,720
over generations, over thousands of years,
of plants and the properties of plants
599
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:18,640
and how they may be mixed together
to produce desired effects.
600
00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:21,200
- [menacing music playing]
- [wind howling]
601
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:33,320
[Graham] During an ayahuasca ceremony,
the shaman summons the visions
602
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,560
by singing an ikaro, a power song.
603
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,320
[Francisco singing]
604
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,240
[Graham] But the shaman
is simply the ceremonial leader.
605
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,120
The plant itself
is considered the teacher.
606
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:54,880
[Francisco in Spanish]
When you take ayahuasca,
607
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,640
you need to prepare a question.
608
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:01,800
She will provide an answer.
609
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,080
- [suspenseful music playing]
- [insects chirping]
610
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:10,720
[Graham in English] The power
of psychedelics to achieve a deeper wisdom
611
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,480
isn't limited to the Amazon.
612
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:15,840
We see it in many of the world's
613
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,760
most ancient
and deeply respected cultures.
614
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:24,240
It's clear now
that what we call psychedelics today
615
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,600
were embraced
all around the ancient world.
616
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,960
[mysterious music playing]
617
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:35,280
In Ancient Greece, Socrates and Plato
wrote of intellectual breakthroughs
618
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,640
following the ritual taking
of a hallucinogenic brew.
619
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,240
Hieroglyphs from Egypt suggest
they ingested petals
620
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,440
from the psychoactive blue water lily
to communicate with the divine.
621
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,280
And in the Vedic sacrifices
of ancient India,
622
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,840
priests seeking to connect with the gods
623
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,200
drank a visionary concoction
known as soma.
624
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:03,640
The fact that these altered states
of consciousness have been embraced
625
00:39:03,720 --> 00:39:05,760
throughout prehistory and history
626
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,160
tell us that they're very important
to the human experience.
627
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:13,160
I actually think that it's impossible
to understand the ancient world
628
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:15,160
unless we take psychedelics into account.
629
00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:17,000
[music continues]
630
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,760
[Graham] What's your own view
on how old ayahuasca might be?
631
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,440
[Dr. Luna] They've been experimented with
for thousands of years.
632
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:23,920
- It could be much older.
- Yeah.
633
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,000
- It feels ancient to me.
- [Dr. Luna] Yeah.
634
00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:29,960
This is an extraordinary mystery.
635
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,200
[music intensifies]
636
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,280
[Graham] I believe the complex science
of ayahuasca goes back
637
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,680
much further than anyone thinks.
638
00:39:38,720 --> 00:39:40,280
And there's evidence to prove it.
639
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,640
[mysterious music builds, ends]
640
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,760
[closing theme playing]
641
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,120
[closing theme ends]