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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:05,275 --> 00:00:08,103 WILLIAM SHATNER: Abandoned cities, 2 00:00:08,206 --> 00:00:12,172 ancient cultures nearly erased by time, 3 00:00:12,275 --> 00:00:15,689 and colossal empires that simply vanished 4 00:00:15,793 --> 00:00:17,275 without a trace. 5 00:00:19,344 --> 00:00:23,344 How does a civilization become lost? 6 00:00:23,448 --> 00:00:26,206 Is it decimated by wars, 7 00:00:26,310 --> 00:00:28,793 or does it die off as the result 8 00:00:28,896 --> 00:00:31,413 of some deadly plague or cataclysm? 9 00:00:31,517 --> 00:00:34,482 What could cause a once-thriving group of people-- 10 00:00:34,586 --> 00:00:37,517 like the Mayans, for example-- 11 00:00:37,620 --> 00:00:40,068 to just abandon their great cities, 12 00:00:40,172 --> 00:00:42,275 never to return? 13 00:00:42,379 --> 00:00:46,724 Well, that is what we'll try and find out. 14 00:00:46,827 --> 00:00:48,827 ♪ 15 00:01:05,931 --> 00:01:08,689 SHATNER: Explorers John Lloyd Stephens 16 00:01:08,793 --> 00:01:12,275 and Frederick Catherwood mount an expedition to investigate 17 00:01:12,379 --> 00:01:14,793 reports of mysterious ruins 18 00:01:14,896 --> 00:01:18,758 located in this remote, largely uncharted region. 19 00:01:18,862 --> 00:01:24,448 After scouting and mapping miles of dark, impenetrable jungle, 20 00:01:24,551 --> 00:01:28,000 they find some unusual features in the dense brush. 21 00:01:29,586 --> 00:01:31,827 Oddly-shaped stones, 22 00:01:31,931 --> 00:01:34,448 peculiar carvings 23 00:01:34,551 --> 00:01:39,000 and strange artifacts that could only be manmade. 24 00:01:39,103 --> 00:01:41,000 It isn't long 25 00:01:41,103 --> 00:01:43,965 before they realize they've made an incredible discovery: 26 00:01:44,068 --> 00:01:48,827 the remains of the mysterious ancient Maya civilization, 27 00:01:48,931 --> 00:01:51,413 deep in the rainforest. 28 00:01:51,517 --> 00:01:53,931 CARL WENDT: And what was so remarkable 29 00:01:54,034 --> 00:01:56,655 to Stephens and Catherwood is, eventually, 30 00:01:56,758 --> 00:01:59,517 they found temples and platforms and pyramids. 31 00:01:59,620 --> 00:02:02,689 There was monumental architecture and conical mounds 32 00:02:02,793 --> 00:02:05,413 and other building platforms in the rainforest. 33 00:02:05,517 --> 00:02:07,758 And to look at these cities in the jungle, 34 00:02:07,862 --> 00:02:09,827 kind of coming out of the jungle was... 35 00:02:09,931 --> 00:02:13,517 was just absolutely remarkable, and it got people's attention. 36 00:02:16,206 --> 00:02:18,448 SHATNER: On their return to the United States, 37 00:02:18,551 --> 00:02:20,551 Stephens and Catherwood publish an illustrated book 38 00:02:20,655 --> 00:02:23,068 of their findings, 39 00:02:23,172 --> 00:02:27,034 detailing 44 individual ruins. 40 00:02:27,137 --> 00:02:31,448 Readers are astounded by the book's meticulous illustrations, 41 00:02:31,551 --> 00:02:34,379 which portray a sophisticated ancient society. 42 00:02:34,482 --> 00:02:37,241 And news of the astonishing find 43 00:02:37,344 --> 00:02:39,689 quickly spreads around the world. 44 00:02:41,724 --> 00:02:44,103 WENDT: The Maya become more mysterious 45 00:02:44,206 --> 00:02:45,793 as we collect more information. 46 00:02:45,896 --> 00:02:47,724 They have a sophisticated writing system. 47 00:02:47,827 --> 00:02:49,551 They obviously have a sophisticated religious system, 48 00:02:49,655 --> 00:02:51,758 a calendar system. 49 00:02:51,862 --> 00:02:55,586 And so, the calendar which would have been a very useful tool 50 00:02:55,689 --> 00:02:59,862 for the Maya elite and priests to be able to understand, 51 00:02:59,965 --> 00:03:03,482 say, for example, when there was gonna be a solar eclipse. 52 00:03:03,586 --> 00:03:07,000 They were ancient astronomers and architects. 53 00:03:07,103 --> 00:03:08,620 They have social structure 54 00:03:08,724 --> 00:03:10,448 that we're just beginning to understand, 55 00:03:10,551 --> 00:03:12,620 and their cities are remarkable. 56 00:03:13,586 --> 00:03:15,655 SHATNER: At its peak, 57 00:03:15,758 --> 00:03:18,827 the Maya civilization stretched from Guatemala and Belize 58 00:03:18,931 --> 00:03:22,068 to western Honduras and El Salvador. 59 00:03:22,172 --> 00:03:25,827 Their total population was estimated to be in the millions, 60 00:03:25,931 --> 00:03:28,310 and concentrated in large city centers 61 00:03:28,413 --> 00:03:33,034 like Copán, Tikal and Calakmul. 62 00:03:33,137 --> 00:03:37,758 And then, suddenly, during the ninth century A.D., 63 00:03:37,862 --> 00:03:42,172 this advanced society just collapsed. 64 00:03:42,275 --> 00:03:46,103 Vast cities, ornate palaces, towering pyramids-- 65 00:03:46,206 --> 00:03:48,965 all of it completely abandoned, 66 00:03:49,068 --> 00:03:52,655 left to be reclaimed by the jungle. 67 00:03:52,758 --> 00:03:54,413 But why? 68 00:03:54,517 --> 00:03:56,448 ED BARNHART: The mystery 69 00:03:56,551 --> 00:04:00,689 of why Maya civilization collapsed is one 70 00:04:00,793 --> 00:04:03,413 that archeology has been debating forever. 71 00:04:03,517 --> 00:04:08,862 830 is right about when all of the cities in the Maya area 72 00:04:08,965 --> 00:04:11,689 and all over Mesoamerica are falling apart. 73 00:04:11,793 --> 00:04:14,034 They drop their tools, and they walk away. 74 00:04:14,137 --> 00:04:18,137 They're abandoning those cities, and it's a mystery. 75 00:04:18,241 --> 00:04:20,206 Where did the people go? Why did they leave? 76 00:04:20,310 --> 00:04:22,482 If you have such a sophisticated civilization, 77 00:04:22,586 --> 00:04:24,862 how do these things collapse? 78 00:04:24,965 --> 00:04:26,655 What went wrong? 79 00:04:26,758 --> 00:04:28,724 SHATNER: For decades, 80 00:04:28,827 --> 00:04:30,827 archaeologists have speculated 81 00:04:30,931 --> 00:04:33,931 as to what might have caused the sudden demise of the Maya. 82 00:04:35,448 --> 00:04:37,379 Dozens of theories-- blaming everything 83 00:04:37,482 --> 00:04:39,000 from drought, to disease, 84 00:04:39,103 --> 00:04:42,344 to devastating earthquakes-- have been proposed. 85 00:04:42,448 --> 00:04:47,689 Yet, the simple truth is no one knows what really happened. 86 00:04:49,275 --> 00:04:51,034 But a recent study-- 87 00:04:51,137 --> 00:04:53,793 using state-of-the-art technology-- 88 00:04:53,896 --> 00:04:57,034 might have provided a significant clue. 89 00:05:03,310 --> 00:05:06,620 An airplane operated by the University of Houston's 90 00:05:06,724 --> 00:05:09,620 National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping 91 00:05:09,724 --> 00:05:12,586 flies 2,000 feet above the thick jungle canopy. 92 00:05:12,689 --> 00:05:16,172 As the plane reaches its target area, 93 00:05:16,275 --> 00:05:20,275 an advanced scanning technology called "lidar" is used 94 00:05:20,379 --> 00:05:24,827 to fire laser pulses through the trees at the ground below. 95 00:05:24,931 --> 00:05:28,137 When the resulting data is later compiled 96 00:05:28,241 --> 00:05:31,000 into a three-dimensional rendering of the area, 97 00:05:31,103 --> 00:05:34,965 the scientists are stunned by what they see. 98 00:05:36,827 --> 00:05:38,862 Once lidar got involved, 99 00:05:38,965 --> 00:05:42,862 we saw roads leading out into other city centers. 100 00:05:42,965 --> 00:05:47,793 We saw thousands upon thousands of houses. 101 00:05:47,896 --> 00:05:51,448 Collectively, all the areas that they covered 102 00:05:51,551 --> 00:05:56,344 were over 60,000 new buildings that we didn't see before. 103 00:05:56,448 --> 00:05:58,275 Previously, they thought 104 00:05:58,379 --> 00:06:02,137 that the Maya reached probably a maximum level 105 00:06:02,241 --> 00:06:06,000 of population of around five million. 106 00:06:06,103 --> 00:06:08,862 But the estimates now take us up 107 00:06:08,965 --> 00:06:13,034 to at least 15 to 20 million. 108 00:06:13,137 --> 00:06:15,827 SHATNER: Ever since the rediscovery 109 00:06:15,931 --> 00:06:19,034 of Maya ruins by Europeans in the 19th century, 110 00:06:19,137 --> 00:06:22,965 nearly every piece of data uncovered about the Maya 111 00:06:23,068 --> 00:06:24,931 raised more and more questions. 112 00:06:25,034 --> 00:06:29,758 But now, after scientists began using lidar, 113 00:06:29,862 --> 00:06:32,655 they finally started to find answers, 114 00:06:32,758 --> 00:06:34,793 such as the possible cause 115 00:06:34,896 --> 00:06:38,724 of the Maya civilization's collapse: war. 116 00:06:38,827 --> 00:06:40,793 WENDT: Once we started going out 117 00:06:40,896 --> 00:06:42,517 and recording and mapping these sites, 118 00:06:42,620 --> 00:06:45,551 we see defense warfare structures. 119 00:06:45,655 --> 00:06:48,103 [indistinct chatter and shouting] 120 00:06:48,206 --> 00:06:50,896 This is a remarkable thing that we never knew 121 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,827 that these defensive works were out there, 122 00:06:52,931 --> 00:06:55,482 leading archeologists to scratch their heads 123 00:06:55,586 --> 00:06:58,241 and basically say, "Oh, my gosh. 124 00:06:58,344 --> 00:07:01,206 The Maya were warlike, and warfare was very important." 125 00:07:01,310 --> 00:07:02,551 [grunts] 126 00:07:02,655 --> 00:07:03,758 DAVID WHITEHEAD: We know there was 127 00:07:03,862 --> 00:07:05,413 warfare going on. 128 00:07:05,517 --> 00:07:07,655 They were building all kinds of defensive structures. 129 00:07:07,758 --> 00:07:09,586 Could that have something to do 130 00:07:09,689 --> 00:07:11,862 with the vanishing of the Mayans? 131 00:07:11,965 --> 00:07:14,655 BARNHART: More and more, 132 00:07:14,758 --> 00:07:16,724 as the classic period went on, 133 00:07:16,827 --> 00:07:21,000 monuments became full of war imagery 134 00:07:21,103 --> 00:07:25,689 and people taking captives and people being beheaded. 135 00:07:25,793 --> 00:07:28,586 So we know war was a factor. 136 00:07:28,689 --> 00:07:32,827 If it was just war, the victors would have claimed the land, 137 00:07:32,931 --> 00:07:35,206 and the losers would have beat it. 138 00:07:35,310 --> 00:07:37,103 But that's not the fact. 139 00:07:37,206 --> 00:07:38,517 Everybody left. 140 00:07:38,620 --> 00:07:40,103 Why? 141 00:07:40,206 --> 00:07:43,551 SHATNER: According to the Popol Vuh, 142 00:07:43,655 --> 00:07:45,103 the written history of the Maya, 143 00:07:45,206 --> 00:07:49,000 they believed that time was cyclical in nature. 144 00:07:49,103 --> 00:07:52,931 Each cycle lasted for a fixed number of years, 145 00:07:53,034 --> 00:07:56,931 at which time, a great cataclysm would wipe the slate clean 146 00:07:57,034 --> 00:08:00,896 so a new world could be born from the old one's ashes. 147 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,655 So was this the real reason? 148 00:08:03,758 --> 00:08:09,034 Did the Maya abandon their great cities and disband their culture 149 00:08:09,137 --> 00:08:11,517 simply because an ancient prophecy 150 00:08:11,620 --> 00:08:15,206 told them when exactly to do it? 151 00:08:17,172 --> 00:08:19,620 BARNHART The timing is very interesting. 152 00:08:19,724 --> 00:08:23,655 In 830, a great cycle is ending. 153 00:08:23,758 --> 00:08:27,620 There was certainly evidence for them 154 00:08:27,724 --> 00:08:29,137 to believe that things were going bad. 155 00:08:29,241 --> 00:08:30,862 There were climate problems. 156 00:08:30,965 --> 00:08:32,862 There were resource problems. 157 00:08:32,965 --> 00:08:34,827 There were people fighting. 158 00:08:34,931 --> 00:08:38,034 Were they timing the leaving of their cities 159 00:08:38,137 --> 00:08:40,000 to the calendar that they created? 160 00:08:40,103 --> 00:08:42,344 That's a... a big possibility. 161 00:08:44,172 --> 00:08:47,103 SHATNER: Right or wrong, the Maya believed 162 00:08:47,206 --> 00:08:50,172 that the end of their civilization was at hand. 163 00:08:50,275 --> 00:08:53,827 And while that may seem like a farfetched notion, 164 00:08:53,931 --> 00:08:55,724 there actually exists one group of people 165 00:08:55,827 --> 00:08:58,137 that hold similar beliefs: 166 00:08:58,241 --> 00:09:01,724 the descendants of the Maya. 167 00:09:01,827 --> 00:09:04,068 When you talk to modern Maya people 168 00:09:04,172 --> 00:09:06,103 in the Guatemalan Highlands, 169 00:09:06,206 --> 00:09:08,793 people called day keepers, Ajq'ij-- 170 00:09:08,896 --> 00:09:11,862 they are priests who still follow the calendar, 171 00:09:11,965 --> 00:09:15,344 and they teach people that things begin 172 00:09:15,448 --> 00:09:17,275 and they come to an end, 173 00:09:17,379 --> 00:09:21,103 and that to be in harmony with the world, you need 174 00:09:21,206 --> 00:09:26,103 to know these cycles and change before the world changes you. 175 00:09:26,206 --> 00:09:28,724 It's very possible that back then, 176 00:09:28,827 --> 00:09:33,379 when all the signs that the world was going a serious 177 00:09:33,482 --> 00:09:36,862 wrong direction, that the Maya civilization 178 00:09:36,965 --> 00:09:39,689 as a whole said, "These are the signs. 179 00:09:39,793 --> 00:09:41,724 "The time is now. 180 00:09:41,827 --> 00:09:44,000 Let's collectively change ourselves." 181 00:09:44,103 --> 00:09:46,413 SHATNER: Was the collapse 182 00:09:46,517 --> 00:09:48,172 of the Maya civilization 183 00:09:48,275 --> 00:09:51,275 simply the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy? 184 00:09:51,379 --> 00:09:54,448 There are many who aren't so sure. 185 00:09:54,551 --> 00:09:55,758 As far as they're concerned, 186 00:09:55,862 --> 00:09:59,000 something more sinister happened. 187 00:09:59,103 --> 00:10:01,172 And they believe the evidence can be found 188 00:10:01,275 --> 00:10:04,655 by studying the fate of another ancient civilization, 189 00:10:04,758 --> 00:10:07,344 one found much closer to home: 190 00:10:07,448 --> 00:10:09,344 the Anasazi. 191 00:10:19,931 --> 00:10:21,724 SHATNER: Set into the high cliffs 192 00:10:21,827 --> 00:10:24,931 of Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado 193 00:10:25,034 --> 00:10:29,241 is what many consider to be America's biggest mystery. 194 00:10:29,344 --> 00:10:30,758 [bird caws] 195 00:10:30,862 --> 00:10:34,172 A mystery carved in solid rock. 196 00:10:34,275 --> 00:10:36,000 [bird caws] 197 00:10:36,103 --> 00:10:39,655 Cliff Palace, as it has come to be known, 198 00:10:39,758 --> 00:10:42,482 contains more than 150 chambers 199 00:10:42,586 --> 00:10:45,620 connected by extensive ramps and stairways. 200 00:10:45,724 --> 00:10:49,000 According to most archaeologists and historians, 201 00:10:49,103 --> 00:10:52,379 it was constructed almost a thousand years ago 202 00:10:52,482 --> 00:10:55,206 by a tribe of Ancestral Puebloans 203 00:10:55,310 --> 00:10:58,000 known as the Anasazi. 204 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,379 BARNHART: The Ancestral Pueblo are a people 205 00:11:04,482 --> 00:11:09,724 that grew up in the Four Corners area of the United States. 206 00:11:09,827 --> 00:11:14,206 They're actually in an area called the San Juan Basin, 207 00:11:14,310 --> 00:11:17,655 where they spent most of their culture's history, 208 00:11:17,758 --> 00:11:20,344 all the way into Paleo-Indian times, 209 00:11:20,448 --> 00:11:22,620 which is about 12,000 years ago. 210 00:11:22,724 --> 00:11:25,689 They're a culture we call Basket Maker, 211 00:11:25,793 --> 00:11:28,413 and they did most of their cooking and gathering 212 00:11:28,517 --> 00:11:32,655 in pit houses and weaved baskets. 213 00:11:32,758 --> 00:11:36,241 I think one of the things that's the most admirable 214 00:11:36,344 --> 00:11:40,413 about the Ancestral Pueblo is their ability to live 215 00:11:40,517 --> 00:11:44,103 in such a resource-poor environment. 216 00:11:44,206 --> 00:11:46,689 It was highland desert. 217 00:11:46,793 --> 00:11:49,379 There were not many natural plants to eat. 218 00:11:49,482 --> 00:11:52,068 It was very difficult to grow corn. 219 00:11:52,172 --> 00:11:54,551 There were not a whole lot of animals to hunt, 220 00:11:54,655 --> 00:11:58,413 and yet they found a way to live in that niche 221 00:11:58,517 --> 00:12:00,379 and survive. 222 00:12:01,827 --> 00:12:03,689 SHATNER: Starting in the ninth century, 223 00:12:03,793 --> 00:12:06,206 the Anasazi expanded their civilization 224 00:12:06,310 --> 00:12:10,448 by building massive structures throughout the Southwest, 225 00:12:10,551 --> 00:12:13,689 first in New Mexico's Chaco Canyon 226 00:12:13,793 --> 00:12:16,275 and later in the cliffs of Mesa Verde. 227 00:12:17,862 --> 00:12:20,137 There was a big explosion 228 00:12:20,241 --> 00:12:23,137 in the kind of architecture they were making 229 00:12:23,241 --> 00:12:26,448 and its scale and its sophistication. 230 00:12:26,551 --> 00:12:31,793 There were already tens of thousands of little communities, 231 00:12:31,896 --> 00:12:35,551 but now they started building these gigantic buildings. 232 00:12:35,655 --> 00:12:37,724 We call them "great houses," 233 00:12:37,827 --> 00:12:39,758 and they were apartment complexes 234 00:12:39,862 --> 00:12:42,655 but on a scale that the Pueblo had never made. 235 00:12:42,758 --> 00:12:45,586 Hundreds of individual rooms 236 00:12:45,689 --> 00:12:48,275 would make up these great houses, 237 00:12:48,379 --> 00:12:52,275 and they could be upwards of five stories tall. 238 00:12:55,758 --> 00:12:57,137 SHATNER: For years, 239 00:12:57,241 --> 00:12:59,655 people studying the Anasazi have wondered 240 00:12:59,758 --> 00:13:01,655 how a simple group of people 241 00:13:01,758 --> 00:13:05,206 developed into an advanced civilization so quickly. 242 00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:08,862 But perhaps an even more intriguing question is: 243 00:13:08,965 --> 00:13:11,000 Why would those same people 244 00:13:11,103 --> 00:13:14,655 go to such great lengths to build incredible structures, 245 00:13:14,758 --> 00:13:17,344 only to abandon them? 246 00:13:19,034 --> 00:13:20,931 TOK THOMPSON: And then, during the 1200s, 247 00:13:21,034 --> 00:13:24,000 very mysteriously, suddenly, it disappeared. 248 00:13:24,103 --> 00:13:27,206 When archaeologists looked at these remains 249 00:13:27,310 --> 00:13:30,172 at the time of the civilization disappearance, 250 00:13:30,275 --> 00:13:32,655 it was very sudden, as if people just grabbed what they could 251 00:13:32,758 --> 00:13:35,344 and took off. 252 00:13:35,448 --> 00:13:37,517 People just up and left. 253 00:13:37,620 --> 00:13:40,275 They left behind all of their belongings. 254 00:13:40,379 --> 00:13:45,965 And there is evidence that this activity occurred very quickly. 255 00:13:46,068 --> 00:13:50,620 It was almost as if they left behind ghost towns. 256 00:13:50,724 --> 00:13:54,068 So, what really happened to the Anasazi? 257 00:13:54,172 --> 00:13:58,344 We know that drought must have been a factor, 258 00:13:58,448 --> 00:14:00,586 because there were periods 259 00:14:00,689 --> 00:14:03,172 when there was virtually no rain. 260 00:14:03,275 --> 00:14:07,965 BARNHART: We can say they left for drought reasons, 261 00:14:08,068 --> 00:14:10,482 but if these perfectly good places 262 00:14:10,586 --> 00:14:12,275 were good again after the drought, 263 00:14:12,379 --> 00:14:13,724 why didn't they come back? 264 00:14:13,827 --> 00:14:17,103 It had to be more than just a practical 265 00:14:17,206 --> 00:14:19,965 "Well, we can't plant here anymore." 266 00:14:20,931 --> 00:14:22,586 SHATNER: If it wasn't drought 267 00:14:22,689 --> 00:14:26,379 that forced the Anasazi to leave their cliff dwellings, 268 00:14:26,482 --> 00:14:29,965 then what was it? 269 00:14:30,068 --> 00:14:32,931 According to some anthropologists, 270 00:14:33,034 --> 00:14:35,275 the answer may lie in their own mythology 271 00:14:35,379 --> 00:14:39,344 and a tale about a shadowy supernatural figure 272 00:14:39,448 --> 00:14:42,275 known as the Gambler. 273 00:14:45,758 --> 00:14:48,931 ROB WEINER: The story of the Gambler tells of a very powerful figure. 274 00:14:49,034 --> 00:14:51,896 He challenges all the people of the Four Corners region 275 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:54,793 to these gambling matches, and he always wins. 276 00:14:54,896 --> 00:14:56,724 And in these stories, 277 00:14:56,827 --> 00:14:58,482 the people give away their goods. 278 00:14:58,586 --> 00:15:02,586 Eventually, they're giving away even their homes and their food 279 00:15:02,689 --> 00:15:05,620 and eventually themselves as slaves 280 00:15:05,724 --> 00:15:08,034 to this powerful gambler figure. 281 00:15:09,931 --> 00:15:11,482 And in their mythology, 282 00:15:11,586 --> 00:15:14,034 they say the Gambler is the one who taught them 283 00:15:14,137 --> 00:15:16,517 how to build these great houses 284 00:15:16,620 --> 00:15:18,827 and asked them to do it, basically, 285 00:15:18,931 --> 00:15:20,620 in terms of slavery. 286 00:15:20,724 --> 00:15:23,241 They were then his to command. 287 00:15:23,344 --> 00:15:25,482 WEINER: Eventually, in the story, 288 00:15:25,586 --> 00:15:29,620 the gods decide that the Gambler has overstepped. 289 00:15:29,724 --> 00:15:32,896 He has become full of hubris. 290 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,206 He's behaving in a way he shouldn't. 291 00:15:35,310 --> 00:15:38,551 So he's eventually defeated and banished from Chaco Canyon. 292 00:15:41,034 --> 00:15:43,000 So, when the Gambler was finally defeated, 293 00:15:43,103 --> 00:15:46,827 it's said that he laid some kind of curse on the land. 294 00:15:48,137 --> 00:15:51,206 He said, "I will kill you with lightning, 295 00:15:51,310 --> 00:15:53,551 "and I will send war and disease among you. 296 00:15:53,655 --> 00:15:56,448 "May the cold freeze you. 297 00:15:56,551 --> 00:15:58,344 "May the fire burn you. 298 00:15:58,448 --> 00:16:01,448 May the waters drown you." 299 00:16:01,551 --> 00:16:05,448 Some groups say he opened up some kind of vortex. 300 00:16:05,551 --> 00:16:09,241 And because there was so much badness and so much suffering, 301 00:16:09,344 --> 00:16:12,827 everyone made the decision to leave 302 00:16:12,931 --> 00:16:15,241 and never go there again. 303 00:16:17,034 --> 00:16:21,000 SHATNER: Many cultures have tales of a wily trickster, 304 00:16:21,103 --> 00:16:23,827 someone who cheats people out of hearth and home 305 00:16:23,931 --> 00:16:25,827 before laying a curse on their village 306 00:16:25,931 --> 00:16:28,000 and vanishing in a puff of smoke. 307 00:16:28,103 --> 00:16:31,448 But could the Anasazi legend of the Gambler 308 00:16:31,551 --> 00:16:36,517 have actually been based on a real-life event? 309 00:16:36,620 --> 00:16:38,103 I went into museum collections, 310 00:16:38,206 --> 00:16:41,448 and I found hundreds of gambling pieces excavated 311 00:16:41,551 --> 00:16:43,793 from Pueblo Bonito and the other buildings in the canyon, 312 00:16:43,896 --> 00:16:47,862 things like dice or pieces used in different guessing games. 313 00:16:47,965 --> 00:16:49,931 There's a lot of archaeological evidence 314 00:16:50,034 --> 00:16:51,931 for gambling at Chaco Canyon. 315 00:16:52,034 --> 00:16:54,586 And I do think the stories are literal 316 00:16:54,689 --> 00:16:58,172 in the sense that it was a major aspect of the society. 317 00:16:58,275 --> 00:17:01,310 It has to do with actual people, historical events. 318 00:17:03,103 --> 00:17:05,413 SHATNER: Does archaeological evidence of gambling 319 00:17:05,517 --> 00:17:07,793 mean the Anasazi legend of the Gambler 320 00:17:07,896 --> 00:17:11,655 is simply a parable about the dangers of unchecked vice? 321 00:17:11,758 --> 00:17:14,896 Or were the Anasazi forced to flee from their homes 322 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:16,586 after being tormented by some sort 323 00:17:16,689 --> 00:17:20,517 of dark, supernatural force? 324 00:17:20,620 --> 00:17:23,034 Very often, abandoned villages or abandoned sites 325 00:17:23,137 --> 00:17:25,103 are held to be haunted by the ghosts. 326 00:17:25,206 --> 00:17:28,620 This is probably a very widespread notion that, 327 00:17:28,724 --> 00:17:30,344 when a civilization collapses, 328 00:17:30,448 --> 00:17:32,655 very often, something went wrong. 329 00:17:32,758 --> 00:17:36,310 And it's not purely physical. It's something spiritual. 330 00:17:36,413 --> 00:17:39,413 Today, Pueblo people will go to Chaco, 331 00:17:39,517 --> 00:17:41,862 and they will honor their ancestors there. 332 00:17:41,965 --> 00:17:44,379 But some groups of them say 333 00:17:44,482 --> 00:17:47,068 that there was a very bad thing that happened there 334 00:17:47,172 --> 00:17:50,655 and that their ancestors, for a long period of time, 335 00:17:50,758 --> 00:17:53,965 didn't go there and they wanted nothing to do with it. 336 00:17:57,827 --> 00:18:01,482 Could a deadly curse really have caused the Anasazi 337 00:18:01,586 --> 00:18:04,551 to abandon their elaborate cliff dwellings? 338 00:18:04,655 --> 00:18:08,068 There are those who believe that dark forces were responsible 339 00:18:08,172 --> 00:18:11,448 and that similar forces were also behind 340 00:18:11,551 --> 00:18:13,965 the mysterious disappearance of what might have been 341 00:18:14,068 --> 00:18:15,827 the world's first civilization, 342 00:18:15,931 --> 00:18:19,000 the one located at a place now known 343 00:18:19,103 --> 00:18:21,551 as Gobekli Tepe. 344 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:32,758 WSHATNER:: While plowing his field, 345 00:18:32,862 --> 00:18:35,931 shepherd Safak Yildiz spots a strangely shaped stone 346 00:18:36,034 --> 00:18:38,931 emerging from the parched earth. 347 00:18:39,034 --> 00:18:40,896 When he brushes away the dirt, 348 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,862 he realizes the stone may be part of a much larger object. 349 00:18:44,965 --> 00:18:47,137 After reporting his find, 350 00:18:47,241 --> 00:18:50,344 he is visited by archaeologist Klaus Schmidt 351 00:18:50,448 --> 00:18:53,724 and a team from the German Archaeological Institute. 352 00:18:55,517 --> 00:18:57,172 Further excavation reveals 353 00:18:57,275 --> 00:18:59,931 the stone is actually part of a massive, 354 00:19:00,034 --> 00:19:02,896 elaborately carved stone pillar, 355 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,241 one in what turns out to be dozens 356 00:19:06,344 --> 00:19:10,827 that form an ancient underground complex. 357 00:19:12,206 --> 00:19:15,551 Gobekli Tepe is arguably the most important 358 00:19:15,655 --> 00:19:18,724 archaeological discovery in recent years. 359 00:19:18,827 --> 00:19:23,758 We're talking about a whole series of stone circles 360 00:19:23,862 --> 00:19:27,172 built on the top of a mountain. 361 00:19:27,275 --> 00:19:30,586 If you can imagine Stonehenge in England 362 00:19:30,689 --> 00:19:33,724 but multiply it by 20 times 363 00:19:33,827 --> 00:19:36,689 and have these stones in circles 364 00:19:36,793 --> 00:19:40,896 facing towards two massive, great monoliths 365 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:44,344 as much as 18 and a half feet tall, 366 00:19:44,448 --> 00:19:47,551 weighing between 15 and 20 tons, 367 00:19:47,655 --> 00:19:52,241 this is what we see at Gobekli Tepe. 368 00:19:52,344 --> 00:19:57,103 Gobekli Tepe could very well be the first lost civilization. 369 00:19:57,206 --> 00:20:00,068 We've only uncovered a small percentage of it, 370 00:20:00,172 --> 00:20:01,379 like ten or 15%. 371 00:20:01,482 --> 00:20:04,620 We have no idea, really, how much bigger this is 372 00:20:04,724 --> 00:20:07,724 and what else we're gonna find there. 373 00:20:07,827 --> 00:20:09,827 COLLINS: We have to ask ourselves: 374 00:20:09,931 --> 00:20:12,862 Could Gobekli Tepe been 375 00:20:12,965 --> 00:20:15,931 a place of commerce and trade? 376 00:20:16,034 --> 00:20:19,965 And I think the answer is an undoubted yes, 377 00:20:20,068 --> 00:20:24,586 because its construction would have necessitated 378 00:20:24,689 --> 00:20:27,172 the presence of not just hundreds 379 00:20:27,275 --> 00:20:32,068 but many thousands of people coming from across the region 380 00:20:32,172 --> 00:20:35,275 who, at the beginning, were hunter-gatherers. 381 00:20:36,758 --> 00:20:39,103 SHATNER: While there are many theories, 382 00:20:39,206 --> 00:20:43,103 the true purpose of Gobekli Tepe remains shrouded in mystery. 383 00:20:43,206 --> 00:20:46,689 But no less mysterious than the stones themselves 384 00:20:46,793 --> 00:20:50,827 is the lost civilization that fashioned them. 385 00:20:50,931 --> 00:20:54,068 Because when sediment layers of the site were carbon-dated, 386 00:20:54,172 --> 00:20:58,000 it was shockingly revealed that Gobekli Tepe 387 00:20:58,103 --> 00:21:01,275 is more than 12,000 years old. 388 00:21:03,551 --> 00:21:05,793 PAUL BAHN: Gobekli Tepe really did send shock waves 389 00:21:05,896 --> 00:21:08,758 through the whole world of early prehistory, 390 00:21:08,862 --> 00:21:11,068 because we'd never before known or imagined, even, 391 00:21:11,172 --> 00:21:12,931 that simple hunter-gatherers 392 00:21:13,034 --> 00:21:15,931 could produce such spectacular monumental structures 393 00:21:16,034 --> 00:21:18,793 as-as are found at Gobekli Tepe. 394 00:21:18,896 --> 00:21:20,551 Now, many of these pillars 395 00:21:20,655 --> 00:21:24,000 also have remarkable carvings on them, wonderful carvings 396 00:21:24,103 --> 00:21:26,758 and bas-reliefs of animals, birds, insects, 397 00:21:26,862 --> 00:21:28,103 all kinds of things. 398 00:21:28,206 --> 00:21:30,103 So to fashion those and carve them 399 00:21:30,206 --> 00:21:31,931 and set them up in these structures 400 00:21:32,034 --> 00:21:34,137 was just absolutely amazing. 401 00:21:36,206 --> 00:21:38,724 SHATNER: More than one-third of Gobekli Tepe's stone pillars 402 00:21:38,827 --> 00:21:41,379 contain elaborate bas-relief carvings 403 00:21:41,482 --> 00:21:43,068 of various animals. 404 00:21:43,172 --> 00:21:46,827 But what has many archaeologists and historians puzzled 405 00:21:46,931 --> 00:21:49,137 is that many of the species depicted, 406 00:21:49,241 --> 00:21:53,517 like geese and armadillos and wild boar, 407 00:21:53,620 --> 00:21:57,000 are not indigenous to the area. 408 00:21:57,103 --> 00:22:01,379 That location just happens to be near where Noah 409 00:22:01,482 --> 00:22:05,206 and the animals in the ark ended the long journey 410 00:22:05,310 --> 00:22:07,034 through the flood. 411 00:22:07,137 --> 00:22:10,379 And these giant pillars in Gobekli Tepe 412 00:22:10,482 --> 00:22:14,655 have carvings of animals, many different kinds of animals. 413 00:22:14,758 --> 00:22:17,655 Are these the animals from the ark? 414 00:22:17,758 --> 00:22:20,586 Did the stories about those animals 415 00:22:20,689 --> 00:22:24,034 end up being depicted in stone? 416 00:22:25,448 --> 00:22:27,172 SHATNER: Could there really be a connection 417 00:22:27,275 --> 00:22:29,655 between Gobekli Tepe and the Great Flood? 418 00:22:29,758 --> 00:22:31,137 Perhaps. 419 00:22:31,241 --> 00:22:34,655 But according to another audacious theory, 420 00:22:34,758 --> 00:22:37,068 the animal carvings at Gobekli Tepe 421 00:22:37,172 --> 00:22:39,344 may have been inspired by another, 422 00:22:39,448 --> 00:22:42,482 even older biblical story. 423 00:22:44,620 --> 00:22:49,379 COLLINS: Gobekli Tepe is located in the very area 424 00:22:49,482 --> 00:22:54,344 that the Bible tells us the Garden of Eden was located. 425 00:22:54,448 --> 00:22:58,793 It is said that Eden was where the four rivers of paradise 426 00:22:58,896 --> 00:23:00,896 took their rise. 427 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,655 Two of those rivers were the Euphrates and the Tigris 428 00:23:05,758 --> 00:23:08,103 that flowed through Mesopotamia. 429 00:23:08,206 --> 00:23:12,275 And these both rose in the same area 430 00:23:12,379 --> 00:23:14,310 as Gobekli Tepe. 431 00:23:14,413 --> 00:23:18,413 Professor Klaus Schmidt, the German archaeologist, 432 00:23:18,517 --> 00:23:20,896 even suggested himself 433 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,758 that this could be the area of Eden 434 00:23:23,862 --> 00:23:28,103 and the point of foundation of civilization. 435 00:23:29,896 --> 00:23:31,965 SHATNER: The Garden of Eden? 436 00:23:32,068 --> 00:23:35,275 It's a fascinating theory 437 00:23:35,379 --> 00:23:39,448 but one that is not without its problems. 438 00:23:39,551 --> 00:23:42,793 Because archaeological evidence shows that Gobekli Tepe 439 00:23:42,896 --> 00:23:45,896 was not only later abandoned, 440 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,310 but also backfilled and deliberately buried. 441 00:23:49,413 --> 00:23:51,344 Why... 442 00:23:51,448 --> 00:23:55,448 would anyone want to leave-- and bury-- 443 00:23:55,551 --> 00:23:57,655 paradise? 444 00:23:57,758 --> 00:24:00,689 COLLINS: Around 8000 B.C., 445 00:24:00,793 --> 00:24:04,103 the people of Gobekli Tepe just vanish. 446 00:24:04,206 --> 00:24:06,482 They just disappear. 447 00:24:06,586 --> 00:24:09,448 So we have to ask ourself: Where did they go? 448 00:24:09,551 --> 00:24:13,379 Did they just vanish into oblivion? 449 00:24:13,482 --> 00:24:17,344 What we know is that recently archaeologists discovered 450 00:24:17,448 --> 00:24:21,206 a number of human skulls that had been modified. 451 00:24:22,793 --> 00:24:26,896 And what this means is that they had been sculpted, 452 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,896 or that they had been pierced, 453 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,827 uh, so that they could be hung up 454 00:24:32,931 --> 00:24:35,689 perhaps on some kind of frame or platform. 455 00:24:37,517 --> 00:24:40,137 WHITEHEAD: They found skulls that are smashed in. 456 00:24:40,241 --> 00:24:42,931 They found remains that look as if there's been some kind 457 00:24:43,034 --> 00:24:46,655 of mass ritual or murder or sacrifice going on. 458 00:24:46,758 --> 00:24:50,310 There may have actually been a skull cult there. 459 00:24:50,413 --> 00:24:51,827 Do we know what these people were doing? 460 00:24:51,931 --> 00:24:53,206 Of course not, because they were doing this 461 00:24:53,310 --> 00:24:55,137 thousands of years before writing took place. 462 00:24:55,241 --> 00:24:57,068 We can try and guess. 463 00:24:57,172 --> 00:25:00,068 We-we know important rituals took place there. 464 00:25:00,172 --> 00:25:03,275 [distorted screaming] 465 00:25:03,379 --> 00:25:06,551 Klaus Schmidt would talk about this as Eden. 466 00:25:06,655 --> 00:25:08,965 I think what he meant was this is an Edenic society. 467 00:25:09,068 --> 00:25:11,137 Because if you look at the story 468 00:25:11,241 --> 00:25:13,724 of the Garden of Eden in the Bible, 469 00:25:13,827 --> 00:25:15,413 that's a hunter-gatherer society. 470 00:25:15,517 --> 00:25:18,586 That's before we discover agriculture. 471 00:25:18,689 --> 00:25:22,413 And so the fact that here's this place, Gobekli Tepe, 472 00:25:22,517 --> 00:25:24,448 it's really challenging our understandings 473 00:25:24,551 --> 00:25:27,724 of our own origins, our own religious origins. 474 00:25:27,827 --> 00:25:30,068 And you start thinking about what else we're gonna find. 475 00:25:30,172 --> 00:25:32,000 BAHN: It remains to be seen what will be found 476 00:25:32,103 --> 00:25:33,413 in the rest of the site. 477 00:25:33,517 --> 00:25:35,724 But, certainly, I'm sure Gobekli Tepe 478 00:25:35,827 --> 00:25:37,344 has plenty more surprises for us. 479 00:25:37,448 --> 00:25:39,275 Every new enclosure excavated, 480 00:25:39,379 --> 00:25:41,655 every new piece of evidence puts another piece in the jigsaw 481 00:25:41,758 --> 00:25:43,275 but also, at the same time, 482 00:25:43,379 --> 00:25:47,000 raises new questions that we find very difficult to answer. 483 00:25:49,275 --> 00:25:51,034 SHATNER: Whether Gobekli Tepe has 484 00:25:51,137 --> 00:25:54,482 a connection to biblical stories or not, 485 00:25:54,586 --> 00:25:56,103 one thing is certain: 486 00:25:56,206 --> 00:25:59,448 its builders chose to bury their great creation, 487 00:25:59,551 --> 00:26:03,413 and we may never know why or where they went, 488 00:26:03,517 --> 00:26:06,241 not unlike another ancient civilization 489 00:26:06,344 --> 00:26:09,724 that also buried their most important artifacts, 490 00:26:09,827 --> 00:26:12,758 giant stone heads that suggest 491 00:26:12,862 --> 00:26:15,758 they might have possessed the ability to harness 492 00:26:15,862 --> 00:26:20,482 one of the most powerful forces in the universe. 493 00:26:29,931 --> 00:26:31,620 WILLIAM SHATNER: Archaeologist Matthew Stirling 494 00:26:31,724 --> 00:26:34,172 is excavating an ancient site 495 00:26:34,275 --> 00:26:36,862 once occupied by the Olmec people, 496 00:26:36,965 --> 00:26:40,827 a lost Mesoamerican civilization 497 00:26:40,931 --> 00:26:44,034 dating as far back as 1200 B.C. 498 00:26:44,137 --> 00:26:48,724 As Stirling's team unearths and catalogs numerous artifacts, 499 00:26:48,827 --> 00:26:51,379 they notice a number of unusually large, 500 00:26:51,482 --> 00:26:54,931 rounded boulders buried nearby. 501 00:26:55,034 --> 00:26:59,034 What emerges from the ground are, quite literally, 502 00:26:59,137 --> 00:27:02,482 some of the largest archaeological finds 503 00:27:02,586 --> 00:27:04,931 of the 20th century. 504 00:27:05,034 --> 00:27:07,068 Over the next several decades, 505 00:27:07,172 --> 00:27:12,000 17 colossal heads carved from solid basalt 506 00:27:12,103 --> 00:27:14,896 were ultimately discovered in the area, 507 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,655 the largest measuring a staggering 11 feet tall 508 00:27:18,758 --> 00:27:22,103 and weighing 50 tons. 509 00:27:22,206 --> 00:27:24,344 When you walk up to these imposing, 510 00:27:24,448 --> 00:27:25,965 you know, stone monuments, 511 00:27:26,068 --> 00:27:28,275 you see these things are-are huge, 512 00:27:28,379 --> 00:27:31,241 with these just amazing lifelike features. 513 00:27:31,344 --> 00:27:33,275 It would have taken thousands of people 514 00:27:33,379 --> 00:27:36,344 to drag these stones through the rainforest, 515 00:27:36,448 --> 00:27:40,344 through mud and swamps, onto the tops of their sites. 516 00:27:40,448 --> 00:27:43,758 SHATNER: But perhaps what's most striking about these giant heads 517 00:27:43,862 --> 00:27:45,896 is not their size 518 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,000 or how they were brought to the middle of the jungle 519 00:27:49,103 --> 00:27:53,862 but rather who they seem to be depicting. 520 00:27:53,965 --> 00:27:56,482 COLLINS: The colossal heads have 521 00:27:56,586 --> 00:27:59,413 an African appearance. 522 00:27:59,517 --> 00:28:02,241 But, also, equally, 523 00:28:02,344 --> 00:28:07,344 they've been seen to have a Polynesian appearance as well. 524 00:28:07,448 --> 00:28:11,103 Is it possible that the Olmec were the result 525 00:28:11,206 --> 00:28:16,034 of transpacific or even transatlantic migrations 526 00:28:16,137 --> 00:28:19,275 of peoples from other continents? 527 00:28:19,379 --> 00:28:21,896 SHATNER: Although mainstream historians dismiss the notion 528 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,034 that the Olmec originated in Asia or Africa, 529 00:28:25,137 --> 00:28:27,862 the appearance of the Olmec heads 530 00:28:27,965 --> 00:28:31,000 suggests that it is possible. 531 00:28:31,103 --> 00:28:34,896 But not only do we not know where the Olmec came from, 532 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,482 we also don't know where they went. 533 00:28:39,586 --> 00:28:42,448 One of the real frustrations to archaeologists 534 00:28:42,551 --> 00:28:43,965 who study the Olmec 535 00:28:44,068 --> 00:28:47,724 is that we don't have a single Olmec skeleton 536 00:28:47,827 --> 00:28:50,551 that we can look at and analyze. 537 00:28:50,655 --> 00:28:53,137 For over a thousand years, 538 00:28:53,241 --> 00:28:56,965 the Olmec were the culture in the middle of Mesoamerica. 539 00:28:57,068 --> 00:28:59,724 But then they faded away. 540 00:28:59,827 --> 00:29:04,172 And why exactly they stopped 541 00:29:04,275 --> 00:29:06,551 is something we're not sure of. 542 00:29:08,517 --> 00:29:11,275 SHATNER: The Olmec disappeared so completely, 543 00:29:11,379 --> 00:29:15,068 all that's left of them are scattered remains, 544 00:29:15,172 --> 00:29:18,413 some sculptures and figurines. 545 00:29:18,517 --> 00:29:21,103 Which means, if we're to answer the riddle 546 00:29:21,206 --> 00:29:25,103 of the Olmecs' disappearance, there's only one place to look: 547 00:29:25,206 --> 00:29:28,241 those huge, imposing stone heads, 548 00:29:28,344 --> 00:29:31,965 staring back at us through time 549 00:29:32,068 --> 00:29:35,896 with their odd, sphinxlike gazes. 550 00:29:37,931 --> 00:29:41,000 One of the most remarkable discoveries 551 00:29:41,103 --> 00:29:44,655 in connection with the art of the Olmec 552 00:29:44,758 --> 00:29:47,517 is the presence of magnetism. 553 00:29:48,931 --> 00:29:51,724 In a number of different statues, 554 00:29:51,827 --> 00:29:54,379 when a compass is brought up to them, 555 00:29:54,482 --> 00:29:56,896 the needles move. 556 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,103 Archaeologists in the late 1960s and early 1970s 557 00:30:00,206 --> 00:30:02,931 used magnetometers to find many 558 00:30:03,034 --> 00:30:06,103 of the most remarkable colossal heads. 559 00:30:06,206 --> 00:30:07,965 BRANDENBURG: The Olmec heads 560 00:30:08,068 --> 00:30:10,586 probably gave off magnetic signatures, 561 00:30:10,689 --> 00:30:12,275 because they're made of basalt, 562 00:30:12,379 --> 00:30:15,758 a dense volcanic rock that becomes magnetic 563 00:30:15,862 --> 00:30:18,724 as it cools. 564 00:30:18,827 --> 00:30:22,206 So, by making the heads of basalt 565 00:30:22,310 --> 00:30:24,827 that came from the volcano itself, 566 00:30:24,931 --> 00:30:26,965 that same energy 567 00:30:27,068 --> 00:30:30,379 was inherited by those colossal heads. 568 00:30:30,482 --> 00:30:34,827 What all of this suggests is that the Olmec 569 00:30:34,931 --> 00:30:38,206 went out and deliberately chose rocks 570 00:30:38,310 --> 00:30:41,137 that had this magnetic effect. 571 00:30:42,103 --> 00:30:44,344 SHATNER: Magnetic stones. 572 00:30:46,034 --> 00:30:48,586 If the Olmec were harnessing magnetism, 573 00:30:48,689 --> 00:30:51,896 what were they using it for? 574 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,586 There are many theories about how the Olmecs 575 00:30:53,689 --> 00:30:55,344 may have used magnetism. 576 00:30:55,448 --> 00:30:58,931 One interesting speculation is whether they could have moved 577 00:30:59,034 --> 00:31:02,896 some of the large stones using magnetic levitation. 578 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,068 It's very simple to get magnets 579 00:31:05,172 --> 00:31:08,034 to either attract or repel each other 580 00:31:08,137 --> 00:31:10,655 if their poles are opposing. 581 00:31:10,758 --> 00:31:15,482 It's difficult to imagine even using modern moving technology 582 00:31:15,586 --> 00:31:16,965 to move very large stones. 583 00:31:17,068 --> 00:31:18,724 Yet they were moved. 584 00:31:18,827 --> 00:31:20,931 SHATNER: Levitation? 585 00:31:21,034 --> 00:31:23,034 It's a fascinating theory, 586 00:31:23,137 --> 00:31:25,206 although one that's hard to prove, 587 00:31:25,310 --> 00:31:28,103 not unlike another theory that suggests 588 00:31:28,206 --> 00:31:31,379 that the Olmec may have been using the magnetic properties 589 00:31:31,482 --> 00:31:35,172 in their giant stone heads for healing purposes. 590 00:31:36,896 --> 00:31:40,758 Colossal head ten from San Lorenzo has what appears to be 591 00:31:40,862 --> 00:31:43,931 these little multiperforated beads 592 00:31:44,034 --> 00:31:46,862 all over all of the head in his headdress. 593 00:31:46,965 --> 00:31:50,413 In a recent excavation, the lead archeologists found thousands, 594 00:31:50,517 --> 00:31:55,275 144,000 of these little magnetic cubes. 595 00:31:55,379 --> 00:31:58,206 And they could have been then strung together in mats 596 00:31:58,310 --> 00:32:00,482 and possibly, in this case, the headdress. 597 00:32:03,310 --> 00:32:05,379 And leading some archeologists to say, 598 00:32:05,482 --> 00:32:07,137 "What about the magnetic qualities 599 00:32:07,241 --> 00:32:09,137 that might have been used in possible healing?" 600 00:32:09,241 --> 00:32:10,931 We know the importance 601 00:32:11,034 --> 00:32:13,413 of magnets used in certain therapies. 602 00:32:13,517 --> 00:32:15,586 And did the Olmec-- did they already discover 603 00:32:15,689 --> 00:32:18,827 the important health benefits of-of magnetic therapy? 604 00:32:18,931 --> 00:32:21,758 SHATNER: If the Olmec leaders 605 00:32:21,862 --> 00:32:24,137 were using the power of magnetism 606 00:32:24,241 --> 00:32:26,241 for some type of healing, 607 00:32:26,344 --> 00:32:29,896 it may have had the opposite affect. 608 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,275 Magnetic fields can be healing or harmful. 609 00:32:33,379 --> 00:32:36,241 In some cases, people who have been exposed 610 00:32:36,344 --> 00:32:38,206 to very strong magnetic fields 611 00:32:38,310 --> 00:32:41,448 have lapsed into comas, had seizures. 612 00:32:41,551 --> 00:32:44,379 Some people have even died after being exposed 613 00:32:44,482 --> 00:32:46,172 to very strong magnetic fields. 614 00:32:46,275 --> 00:32:48,172 COLLINS: So, could the presence 615 00:32:48,275 --> 00:32:51,241 of magnetism in the art objects 616 00:32:51,344 --> 00:32:53,655 that were fashioned by the Olmecs 617 00:32:53,758 --> 00:32:55,551 have had something to do 618 00:32:55,655 --> 00:32:59,172 with why they deliberately buried many 619 00:32:59,275 --> 00:33:03,137 of their statues and figurines? 620 00:33:03,241 --> 00:33:06,724 We do not have any definitive answers. 621 00:33:06,827 --> 00:33:08,965 But what we do know is 622 00:33:09,068 --> 00:33:13,034 that the Olmec culture dissolved. 623 00:33:13,137 --> 00:33:16,310 It disappeared almost into oblivion. 624 00:33:20,034 --> 00:33:22,482 Did the Olmecs meddle with magnetic powers 625 00:33:22,586 --> 00:33:25,689 that were simply beyond their ability to control? 626 00:33:25,793 --> 00:33:27,482 Recent findings suggest 627 00:33:27,586 --> 00:33:31,137 such a fantastic notion is entirely possible. 628 00:33:31,241 --> 00:33:33,379 Theirs is a cautionary tale 629 00:33:33,482 --> 00:33:37,758 of technology run amok, and, just like our next example, 630 00:33:37,862 --> 00:33:41,379 the consequence of trying to harness a power 631 00:33:41,482 --> 00:33:44,482 far too deadly to be contained. 632 00:33:52,758 --> 00:33:53,827 WILLIAM SHATNER: Located more than 2,000 miles 633 00:33:53,931 --> 00:33:55,827 west of South America, 634 00:33:55,931 --> 00:34:00,034 it is one of the most remote and desolate islands in the world. 635 00:34:00,137 --> 00:34:04,137 It is also the home of nearly 1,000 moai, 636 00:34:04,241 --> 00:34:07,241 a collection of giant megalithic stone sentinels 637 00:34:07,344 --> 00:34:10,103 whose purpose remains as mysterious 638 00:34:10,206 --> 00:34:12,724 as the lost civilization that carved them. 639 00:34:16,034 --> 00:34:18,827 Located in what is now Cambodia, 640 00:34:18,931 --> 00:34:23,206 this enormous, 402-acre temple complex was once part 641 00:34:23,310 --> 00:34:28,379 of the thriving city of Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire. 642 00:34:28,482 --> 00:34:30,344 Although most historians agree 643 00:34:30,448 --> 00:34:32,758 that the Khmer people were most likely vanquished 644 00:34:32,862 --> 00:34:36,310 by a series of devastating wars, the real reason 645 00:34:36,413 --> 00:34:40,172 for their complete disappearance is unknown. 646 00:34:42,827 --> 00:34:44,862 Located on an island 647 00:34:44,965 --> 00:34:47,896 in what is now Dare County, North Carolina. 648 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,931 This English colony was originally conceived in 1585 649 00:34:52,034 --> 00:34:56,000 as part of Sir Walter Raleigh's plan to settle North America. 650 00:34:56,103 --> 00:34:58,827 When English explorers returned 651 00:34:58,931 --> 00:35:01,482 to check in on the colony in 1590, 652 00:35:01,586 --> 00:35:06,344 they found that its estimated 121 inhabitants 653 00:35:06,448 --> 00:35:09,413 had vanished. 654 00:35:09,517 --> 00:35:13,000 The only clue they left behind was the word "Croatoan," 655 00:35:13,103 --> 00:35:15,172 mysteriously carved into a tree. 656 00:35:17,137 --> 00:35:19,275 All of these, and more, 657 00:35:19,379 --> 00:35:23,103 are examples of civilizations that simply vanished. 658 00:35:24,206 --> 00:35:25,965 But why? 659 00:35:26,068 --> 00:35:28,793 And how? 660 00:35:28,896 --> 00:35:30,862 Perhaps the answer can be found 661 00:35:30,965 --> 00:35:33,344 by examining a more recent cataclysm, 662 00:35:33,448 --> 00:35:38,137 one that forced an entire city to be abandoned. 663 00:35:44,344 --> 00:35:46,862 [rumbling] 664 00:35:46,965 --> 00:35:49,586 A magnitude nine point earthquake 665 00:35:49,689 --> 00:35:52,172 triggers a devastating tsunami 666 00:35:52,275 --> 00:35:55,482 along the country's eastern shore. 667 00:35:55,586 --> 00:35:58,620 Giant waves up to 50 feet tall 668 00:35:58,724 --> 00:36:00,758 are sent crashing into the coast, 669 00:36:00,862 --> 00:36:03,310 killing almost 16,000 people 670 00:36:03,413 --> 00:36:05,620 and destroying hundreds of buildings, 671 00:36:05,724 --> 00:36:09,793 including the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 672 00:36:09,896 --> 00:36:12,517 As seawater pours into the plant, 673 00:36:12,620 --> 00:36:14,068 it triggers a chain reaction 674 00:36:14,172 --> 00:36:18,034 that leads to three nuclear meltdowns, 675 00:36:18,137 --> 00:36:20,137 multiple hydrogen explosions, 676 00:36:20,241 --> 00:36:22,689 and a massive flood of radioactive contamination 677 00:36:22,793 --> 00:36:24,241 into the surrounding area. 678 00:36:26,241 --> 00:36:29,620 200,000 people are immediately evacuated. 679 00:36:32,620 --> 00:36:37,482 In less than 48 hours, this once-thriving city 680 00:36:37,586 --> 00:36:40,172 becomes a ghost town. 681 00:36:40,275 --> 00:36:41,620 BRANDENBURG: An entire city 682 00:36:41,724 --> 00:36:43,068 was abandoned 683 00:36:43,172 --> 00:36:45,000 in the middle of the Fukushima crisis. 684 00:36:45,103 --> 00:36:46,448 Something like from 685 00:36:46,551 --> 00:36:49,206 a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. 686 00:36:49,310 --> 00:36:52,896 Food still on the shelf in stores. 687 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:54,931 People literally did not go down 688 00:36:55,034 --> 00:36:56,827 into the house to grab their coats. 689 00:36:56,931 --> 00:36:58,896 They just got theirselves 690 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,931 and their family into the car and drove 691 00:37:02,034 --> 00:37:03,862 because of the danger of radiation leakage. 692 00:37:03,965 --> 00:37:05,793 PAUL SPRINGER: The Japanese didn't 693 00:37:05,896 --> 00:37:08,034 prepare adequately for tsunamis 694 00:37:08,137 --> 00:37:10,000 because this was just an unforeseen consequence 695 00:37:10,103 --> 00:37:12,965 of a catastrophically large earthquake. 696 00:37:13,068 --> 00:37:15,344 The earthquake that caused the tsunami was one 697 00:37:15,448 --> 00:37:17,862 of the-the nastiest earthquakes ever recorded. 698 00:37:17,965 --> 00:37:20,000 Nobody had envisioned this level 699 00:37:20,103 --> 00:37:23,275 of catastrophe happening all at once. 700 00:37:23,379 --> 00:37:26,034 WHITEHEAD: We know that no one will ever go and live there again. 701 00:37:26,137 --> 00:37:27,724 This place is gonna have to be vacant for years 702 00:37:27,827 --> 00:37:29,379 because it's radioactive. 703 00:37:29,482 --> 00:37:32,724 SHATNER: We tend to think that just because we live in a world 704 00:37:32,827 --> 00:37:35,241 with advanced technology, modern medicine, 705 00:37:35,344 --> 00:37:38,586 and the ability to fly around the world in a single day, 706 00:37:38,689 --> 00:37:41,931 that our civilization is safe from extinction. 707 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000 But disasters, 708 00:37:45,103 --> 00:37:50,206 like the one at Fukushima, prove that is not the case. 709 00:37:50,310 --> 00:37:55,586 I look at an event like Fukushima and see a pattern: 710 00:37:55,689 --> 00:37:58,206 that we are not that different 711 00:37:58,310 --> 00:38:00,793 than the people that lived in the past. 712 00:38:00,896 --> 00:38:06,206 We have, as civilizations, again and again created technologies, 713 00:38:06,310 --> 00:38:11,000 and forgotten the power of nature. 714 00:38:12,172 --> 00:38:16,379 COLLINS: Civilizations disappear rapidly. 715 00:38:16,482 --> 00:38:20,206 So we have to ask ourselves whether, in past ages, 716 00:38:20,310 --> 00:38:23,827 natural catastrophes can have combined 717 00:38:23,931 --> 00:38:27,689 with the presence of human civilizations 718 00:38:27,793 --> 00:38:32,758 to create cataclysms that completely obliterated 719 00:38:32,862 --> 00:38:35,482 entire civilizations. 720 00:38:35,586 --> 00:38:38,758 SHATNER: Whether by natural catastrophe 721 00:38:38,862 --> 00:38:42,655 or by war, famine or disease, 722 00:38:42,758 --> 00:38:44,931 all civilizations, even our own, 723 00:38:45,034 --> 00:38:47,241 are destined not to last forever. 724 00:38:47,344 --> 00:38:51,241 But is there any way to stop the inevitable from happening, 725 00:38:51,344 --> 00:38:53,965 or are we really doomed 726 00:38:54,068 --> 00:38:57,000 to repeat the mistakes of the past? 727 00:39:07,931 --> 00:39:11,172 A panel of experts from the Future of Humanity Institute 728 00:39:11,275 --> 00:39:13,827 publish the results of a survey regarding 729 00:39:13,931 --> 00:39:16,172 the global catastrophic risks 730 00:39:16,275 --> 00:39:19,413 that humanity will face in the 21st century. 731 00:39:19,517 --> 00:39:23,068 The results of the questionnaire are both surprising 732 00:39:23,172 --> 00:39:24,931 and concerning, 733 00:39:25,034 --> 00:39:29,793 because the experts agree that there is a one-in-five chance 734 00:39:29,896 --> 00:39:34,241 of human extinction before the year 2100. 735 00:39:39,620 --> 00:39:41,620 SPRINGER: At the 2008 Oxford conference, 736 00:39:41,724 --> 00:39:44,241 participants considered nanotechnology, 737 00:39:44,344 --> 00:39:47,206 artificial intelligence and war to be the three categories 738 00:39:47,310 --> 00:39:49,655 that were most likely to bring about such an event. 739 00:39:51,310 --> 00:39:55,000 Personally, the one that keeps me awake at night 740 00:39:55,103 --> 00:39:58,862 is the unbridled development of artificial intelligence. 741 00:39:58,965 --> 00:40:01,827 It's partially because of the weaponization 742 00:40:01,931 --> 00:40:04,379 of artificial intelligence, 743 00:40:04,482 --> 00:40:08,310 and what I like to refer to as the dark triad of offensive, 744 00:40:08,413 --> 00:40:10,172 lethal, autonomous machines. 745 00:40:10,275 --> 00:40:13,758 The possibility of programming errors 746 00:40:13,862 --> 00:40:16,413 or of users deliberately inflicting these 747 00:40:16,517 --> 00:40:18,896 upon enemy populations is 748 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,241 the type of thing that makes me nervous. 749 00:40:21,344 --> 00:40:23,172 The development of artificial intelligence 750 00:40:23,275 --> 00:40:25,724 is supposed to make lives a lot easier, 751 00:40:25,827 --> 00:40:27,517 but in practice might represent 752 00:40:27,620 --> 00:40:29,344 the biggest existential threat of all. 753 00:40:29,448 --> 00:40:32,655 When we see a civilization that effectively disappears 754 00:40:32,758 --> 00:40:35,931 without a record of precisely why they left, 755 00:40:36,034 --> 00:40:37,586 the answer is often rooted in the development 756 00:40:37,689 --> 00:40:39,137 of advanced technology, 757 00:40:39,241 --> 00:40:43,310 because advanced technology enables a larger population 758 00:40:43,413 --> 00:40:45,034 to live in a smaller area. 759 00:40:45,137 --> 00:40:49,586 But if something happens to the resources themselves, 760 00:40:49,689 --> 00:40:51,137 then you don't have the capacity 761 00:40:51,241 --> 00:40:53,172 to support the population anymore. 762 00:40:53,275 --> 00:40:55,862 BARNHART: When I look at an episode like 763 00:40:55,965 --> 00:40:59,206 Rome making an incredible drainage system 764 00:40:59,310 --> 00:41:02,689 out of lead pipes, and then everyone goes nuts-- 765 00:41:02,793 --> 00:41:06,965 Is it all that different than human society 766 00:41:07,068 --> 00:41:10,275 building up technology to the point where we forget 767 00:41:10,379 --> 00:41:13,517 that we're really just part of an ecosystem 768 00:41:13,620 --> 00:41:16,586 that's much more powerful than us no matter what we build? 769 00:41:16,689 --> 00:41:19,344 SPRINGER: We have a tendency to assume that we can always 770 00:41:19,448 --> 00:41:22,896 innovate our way out of the crisis of the moment. 771 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,172 There's also no guarantee that technology will save 772 00:41:25,275 --> 00:41:28,862 a civilization when it's faced with an existential threat. 773 00:41:32,482 --> 00:41:34,034 Will we live to see the day 774 00:41:34,137 --> 00:41:37,103 when our own civilization comes to an end? 775 00:41:37,206 --> 00:41:40,206 Given how advanced we've become, it seems unlikely 776 00:41:40,310 --> 00:41:42,862 that all of our current technology-- 777 00:41:42,965 --> 00:41:45,862 our cities, architecture, culture-- 778 00:41:45,965 --> 00:41:48,793 could ever be reduced to a giant pile of rocks 779 00:41:48,896 --> 00:41:50,896 and a few carvings, but then again, 780 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:54,931 maybe it's our naive belief that it can't happen to us 781 00:41:55,034 --> 00:41:57,965 that makes our demise inevitable. 782 00:41:58,068 --> 00:42:00,896 So is there any way we can prevent it? 783 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:05,275 Perhaps the answer will be one more that for now remains 784 00:42:05,379 --> 00:42:07,344 unexplained. 62167

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