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[Graham] One of the problems I have
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with the mainstream view
of the development of civilization
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is the notion that
our own civilization in the 21st century
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is the apex and the pinnacle
of human achievement.
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This makes us very conceited,
it makes us very big-headed.
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We look back on the past, as though
our ancestors were always simpler than us,
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had less knowledge than us,
had less ability than us.
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It hasn't just been
a straight-line evolutionary progress
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from primitive cavemen
to anatomically modern humans.
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It just hasn't been like that.
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In the story of civilizations,
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maybe there are ups and downs,
civilization rises and falls again,
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and it is possible
to lose entire civilizations.
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It's happened before,
here in the Mediterranean in Malta.
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Malta, this stunning
Mediterranean archipelago,
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has long fascinated me.
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Because I suspect almost everything
archaeologists have told us about its past
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is wrong.
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And because the truth,
if it's allowed to come out,
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could offer crucial evidence in my search
for a lost civilization of prehistory.
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Malta's two main islands
are barely a speck in the Mediterranean.
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Strategically located between
Europe, Africa, and the Middle East,
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for centuries, it's had an outsized impact
on the story of civilization.
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According to Malta's official timeline,
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the first people settled here
around 7,900 years ago.
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They were simple Stone Age farmers
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who crossed the sea
from Italy in wooden rafts.
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[Katya Stroud] They came
probably from Sicily,
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and they brought with them
the first domesticated animals,
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the first domesticated plants.
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And as people settled here,
they developed their own culture.
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[Graham] According to the official
timeline, around 5,600 years ago,
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they then woke up one morning
and built this.
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It's called Ġgantija
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and it certainly is
a giant of a megalithic structure.
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For decades, it was thought to be
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the oldest freestanding
monumental structure on Earth.
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As I walk around Ġgantija,
I feel cut down to size,
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a dwarf in the presence
of the work of giants.
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The construction of these walls
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required the lifting
of hundreds of massive megaliths.
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Some weighing up to 50 tons.
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And what we see today
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is only roughly half
of the temple's original height.
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[thunder rumbling]
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In its prime, Ġgantija was truly gigantic.
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As tall as a three-story house.
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The outer walls were constructed
from huge stones stacked atop one another.
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Two connected temples
with oval-shaped chambers,
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their walls painted red.
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And a series of altars,
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where charred remains
of animal bones were found,
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suggesting ritual sacrifices or feasting.
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There are no written sources
telling us when Ġgantija was built,
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and no reliable carbon dates.
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So how old is this giant temple, really?
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And does it provide evidence
for the lost civilization
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that I'm convinced flourished
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long before any kind of civilization
is supposed to have begun?
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The sole reason that archaeologists claim
Ġgantija was built around 5,600 years ago
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is that some artifacts found in the area
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match those of other much simpler sites
dated to that period,
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but that doesn't mean
that the structure itself is the same age.
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The artifacts may have
simply been left there at a later date.
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The truth is that
none of the prehistory of Malta stacks up.
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Think about it.
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Could those farmers,
who archaeologists tell us
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never built anything bigger than a shack,
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really have achieved all this?
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When you look
at a structure like Ġgantija,
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you would expect to see
evidence of the build-up of skills
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necessary to create that structure.
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A culture doesn't just
know how to move 20 or 30 ton megaliths.
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It has to learn how to do it.
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I see no evidence
of the development of those techniques.
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And here's the thing,
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Ġgantija isn't
Malta's only megalithic temple.
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Across Malta's two main islands,
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archaeologists have uncovered
19 such ancient structures,
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all on a land mass
half the size of Chicago,
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with the oldest, so we are told,
being Ġgantija itself.
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For such tiny islands,
that's a lot of temples
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requiring a lot of man power.
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Too much.
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Which forces me to question
who really built Ġgantija and when?
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Does it make sense that those people
with a very simple material culture
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could have been responsible for creating
the largest, most magnificent,
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most complex structure on Malta?
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I think the truth is more complicated
and far more explosive.
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We've already seen in Indonesia
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and Mexico that ancient myths and legends
have something important to teach us.
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These stories,
passed down through generations,
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shouldn't be overlooked by archaeologists.
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And if we turn
to the ancient lore of Malta,
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it has a story to tell
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about who was responsible
for building Ġgantija.
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There's an intriguing ancient legend here
concerning a giantess called Sansuna.
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It's said that the giantess
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had intercourse
with one of the men of this land
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and gave birth to a hybrid child.
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Afterwards, to commemorate the event,
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she built this massive temple
in a single day and night,
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carrying the child on her shoulder.
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I'm fascinated by this legend,
of course, it could just be a legend.
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I certainly don't believe
literal giants ever roamed the Earth.
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But what if she's a human being
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who has enormous
and incredible capacities and skills
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that could lead her
to build a temple such as this?
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This legend is eerily similar to the story
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of the so-called giants who built
the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico,
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a story connected
to a great flood in prehistory.
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Could these legends of giant builders
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encode memories of some other
more advanced and more ancient culture?
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What if the timeline
of Malta's prehistory is wrong?
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When those farmers
arrived by raft from Sicily,
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what if Ġgantija
and the other megalithic temples
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were already here?
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What if these extraordinary structures
had been built by someone else?
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A far more advanced society
that arrived on Malta long before.
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It's not only possible…
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but likely.
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And I don't think they sailed here.
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I think they walked here.
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You see, Malta wasn't always an island.
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At the height of the last Ice Age,
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the level of the world's oceans
was about 120 meters,
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400 feet, lower than it is today.
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And The Maltese islands
used to be hilltops,
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part of a single continuous landmass
that connected Malta
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all the way to present-day Sicily
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and from there to the southern end
of Italy and the European mainland.
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Back then,
Europe wasn't a great place to live.
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Cold, dry, and inhospitable.
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We know Ice Age animals
migrated across that ancient land bridge
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to the warmer, more abundant lands
of Malta and flourished here.
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Wouldn't humans have followed them?
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Archaeologists have found traces of
early humans on Sicily from back then.
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So why would their migration southwards
have stopped there?
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To me, the mystery of
the sudden appearance out of nowhere
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of the Maltese temples
5,000 or 6,000 years ago,
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goes away when we accept
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that actually,
there was a time long before that,
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during the Ice Age,
12,000, 14,000 years ago,
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when Malta was part of the mainland.
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The problem is archaeologists claim
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there's simply no evidence
of any species of humans on Malta
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from that long ago.
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But that isn't entirely true.
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And the proof is in this cave.
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This is Ghar Dalam,
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near the southeast coast
of the main island of Malta.
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A geological time machine
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that offers a glimpse back
into Malta's prehistory.
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Here, a series of floods
left behind animal bones and fossils
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dating back thousands of years.
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Dr. Anton Mifsud,
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president of
the Prehistoric Society of Malta,
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has studied this site for decades.
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It's really large.
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[Graham] His independent findings here
have caused great controversy.
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Ghar Dalam cave
is a kind of record in stone
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of the prehistory of Malta,
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and I understand that this stalagmite
is particularly important in your work.
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[Dr. Mifsud] Well, starting, well,
from where the light brown…
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-That's called the cultural layer.
-Right.
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That actually people lived here.
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-[Graham] Yeah. The last 8,000 years.
-The last 8,000 years. Correct.
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And there, at the bottom of it,
is something called a Pleistocene sheet.
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-Once we get below that sheet…
-Yes.
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-…we're into an area that is Ice Age…
-There was--
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…it contains the remains
of Ice Age animals…
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-Yes.
-…but they don't call it a cultural layer
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because they're convinced
there were no human beings here.
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Exactly, yes.
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[Graham] Anything found at this depth
is at least 11,600 years old.
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If the official account
of Malta's history is correct,
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no human remains should have
been discovered once they dug into it.
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But over a century ago,
archaeologists did find something.
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Something no one expected.
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In 1917, two Maltese excavators
discovered two special teeth.
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Right.
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They had a fossilized color,
they had no roots.
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The roots were absorbed
into the body of the tooth.
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Yeah. And so these
are classic Neanderthal teeth?
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-Yes.
-And where were these two teeth found?
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They were found there,
at the bottom of the stalagmites, here.
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-Right at the bottom.
-[Dr. Mifsud] Exactly.
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[Graham] Experts involved in the dig
were convinced they'd found evidence
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that would rewrite the story
of humans on Malta.
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Here was proof that Neanderthals
did walk across that Ice Age land bridge.
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But sometimes archaeologists dig up things
that other people want to bury.
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In 1952, there were
relative dating tests carried out.
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Yeah. What results
were produced from those tests?
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Well, the results were not published.
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For some reason,
the results were not divulged.
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[Graham] What we do know
is that in the years that followed,
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the authenticity of the teeth
was officially downplayed.
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And to this day,
the history books continue to insist
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that no human species ever reached Malta
until around 7,900 years ago.
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Why is archaeology so opposed
to the notion of earlier humans?
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Changing a paradigm is no easy business.
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When a particular mindset
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has become the preoccupation of
a group of scholars in a particular field,
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they are so reluctant to let go of it,
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they become existentially attached to it,
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and an attack on the paradigm
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becomes an attack on them,
and they vigorously defend it.
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Curious to mount his own investigation,
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in 2016, Dr. Mifsud paid for his own
state-of-the-art analysis of the teeth.
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They've been examined by three top-notch
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-physical anthropologists for me…
-Yeah.
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…and they confirmed
they were Neanderthal teeth.
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Right.
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This is evidence of human activity
during the Ice Age.
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[Graham] What does this do
to the whole story of Malta?
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It pushes back these dates, way back.
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-Far, far back.
-Yeah.
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Another chapter has to be reintroduced.
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Yeah.
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If our cousins,
the Neanderthals, reached Malta,
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it proves that the land bridge
was used by ancient humans
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and it's possible
that another Ice Age culture
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could have left their mark here too.
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In my view, the evidence for a far older
civilization here on Malta is compelling
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and it doesn't just
hinge on a couple of teeth.
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I want to show you something
that I saw quarter of a century ago
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when I first visited Malta,
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etched into the bedrock
of the island itself.
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It's a phenomenon found
all over these islands.
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Parallel grooved channels
carved deep into the ancient limestone.
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There are nearly
35 kilometers of these ruts,
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often crossing one another
like train tracks.
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Mainstream archaeologists
presume them to be
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not much more than about 2,600 years old,
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but they've never been seriously studied.
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They don't show
signs of obvious tool marks
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and they also aren't the result
of any known natural process.
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They're definitely man-made.
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Though it's not entirely certain
what function they serve.
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They're usually presumed to be
some kind of ancient transportation route.
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Hence, their popular name "cart ruts."
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00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:28,960
But here's what intrigues me.
243
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,720
These ruts don't just appear on land.
244
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,760
Some of them carry right on into the sea.
245
00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:40,280
Here's a pair of them
hidden beneath the modern road,
246
00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:44,320
but disappearing on my right
beneath the waters of the harbor.
247
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,680
Clearly made before
rising sea levels covered them.
248
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:54,840
Over the years, I have found and followed
more of these man-made grooves underwater,
249
00:17:54,920 --> 00:18:00,440
filming them up to a kilometer offshore
and at depths of up to 25 meters.
250
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,200
Whoever created them must have done so
251
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,320
when that part of the sea floor
was above water,
252
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,640
more than 12,000 years ago,
during the last Ice Age.
253
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:17,240
It makes me wonder
how much more of Maltese prehistory
254
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,120
lies hidden beneath the waves?
255
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,200
How many other man-made structures,
256
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,640
maybe even megalithic temples,
still await discovery?
257
00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:31,320
The reason I believe
that a deeper ancient intelligence
258
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:33,760
lies behind these temples on Malta
259
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,360
is that they're far more complex
than they first appear.
260
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,000
Beneath a canopy
that protects it from the elements,
261
00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:47,000
lies one of Malta's
most spectacular temples, Mnajdra.
262
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:55,200
Its futuristic, modern covering
cuts it off from the sky,
263
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:56,680
which is a shame,
264
00:18:57,560 --> 00:18:59,280
because whoever built Mnajdra
265
00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:03,560
had an extraordinarily
advanced understanding of the cosmos,
266
00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:07,120
a fact that Malta's archaeologists
don't dispute.
267
00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:11,400
We know that they observed
the rising of the sun,
268
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,160
and the position of certain stars.
269
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,600
And they have incorporated
some of those observations
270
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:19,400
within the architecture.
271
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,800
[Graham] Mnajdra's builders devised
an ingenious way of tracking the heavens.
272
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:32,600
On the spring and fall equinoxes,
273
00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:35,920
respectively 21st March
and 21st September,
274
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,840
the rays of the rising sun
exactly bisect the temple entrance,
275
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,600
flooding the deepest recesses
of the inner shrine with light.
276
00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,800
On these occasions,
the interior of the temple
277
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,760
would have glowed
and sprung magically to life.
278
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:08,200
And that's not all.
279
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:10,920
At sunrise on the summer
and winter solstices,
280
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,440
the longest and shortest days of the year,
281
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,520
a different distinctive
projection of light
282
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,320
precisely illuminates
the edges of the megaliths
283
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,400
to the left and right of the doorway.
284
00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,680
This phenomenon is far from unique
in ancient constructions.
285
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,760
In fact, the Great Pyramid of Cholula
286
00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,240
and the pyramids beneath it,
all directly face the setting sun
287
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:35,800
on the summer solstice.
288
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:40,440
And other megalithic sites
around the world boast similar alignments.
289
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:42,640
Like Stonehenge,
290
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:45,760
or Egypt's Temple of Karnak.
291
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,040
Here at Mnajdra, the ancients
created these enormous structures
292
00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:55,160
to celebrate the marriage
of Heaven and Earth.
293
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,400
In fact, Mnajdra and the other temples
294
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:02,680
may be part of a much larger
ancient astronomical project.
295
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,840
One that, if proven to be true,
296
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,200
would rewrite the accepted timeline
of Malta's prehistory.
297
00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:14,560
Dutch researcher
and author, Lenie Reedijk,
298
00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,840
has explored every one
of Malta's megalithic temples
299
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,760
and made a close study
of their alignments.
300
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:22,640
To her great surprise,
301
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:27,360
none of Malta's other temples
line up with any equinoxes or solstices.
302
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,200
But they also don't face any particular
geographical feature in their area.
303
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,760
In fact, none of them
even face the same direction.
304
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,160
No two orientations are the same.
305
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,880
-That's quite extraordinary in itself.
-That is very, very curious.
306
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:48,560
You would expect temple culture,
307
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,840
like the church or a mosque,
to have a preference.
308
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:58,080
[Graham] Why would Mnajdra be
the only temple oriented to the solstices?
309
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:03,280
Were Malta's other temples also built
to aim towards something in the heavens?
310
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,320
If so, what?
311
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:11,960
You have to look for a principle.
312
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,880
So you need to know
313
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,280
-a little bit of archeoastronomy.
-Mmm-hmm.
314
00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:20,560
That means the astronomy of the ancients.
315
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:26,240
There is a fascinating
and little-known movement in the sky
316
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,640
which has a name, and that is precession.
317
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,440
[Graham] Contrary to what
most of us think,
318
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:38,880
the Earth isn't a perfect sphere.
319
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,480
It's actually bulging slightly
at the equator.
320
00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:43,280
The result?
321
00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:46,400
Because of the gravitational pull
of the Sun and the Moon,
322
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,680
the Earth wobbles just slightly
as it spins on its axis.
323
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,720
This precession alters our view
of the night sky over the years,
324
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:59,800
making distant constellations appear
to shift position in a systematic way.
325
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:04,080
The whole sky makes this movement,
which is very slight.
326
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,960
It is only one degree difference
327
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:14,760
in the rising or setting position
of any given star in 72 years.
328
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,800
[Graham] So if you were
building these temples
329
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,760
to point at a single specific star,
over the centuries,
330
00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:26,160
the alignments of those temples
would shift, just as we see on Malta.
331
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:30,760
But there's a problem.
332
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,640
The official timeline claims
that all Malta's temples
333
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,480
were built between around
5,600 and 4,500 years ago.
334
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,720
And in looking at the positions
of the brightest stars
335
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,480
visible in the sky during that time frame,
336
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:47,800
none were a likely possibility.
337
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,080
[Lenie] There was a sort of
a strong dislike
338
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:56,440
to consider anything
outside conventional theory.
339
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:58,240
To go back before the temples
340
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,640
-are supposed to have been built.
-Exactly.
341
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,200
[Graham] But using
state-of-the-art software
342
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,480
that tracks the movement of stars
over thousands of years,
343
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,880
Lenie was able
to rewind the night sky like a clock,
344
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,120
looking for a single visible star
that aligned with all the temples.
345
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,360
And not just during the time frame
when they were supposedly built,
346
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:26,320
but from any point in the past.
347
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,240
[Lenie] I have been working
to check and check,
348
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,920
and then all of a sudden, it appeared.
349
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,920
The temples were orientated to one star.
350
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:43,360
[Graham] That one star was Sirius,
often called the Dog Star.
351
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,520
[Lenie] It passes all the entrances
at some point in time.
352
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:53,200
All the temples fit it. Every single one.
353
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,760
And Sirius, of course,
is a particularly magnificent star.
354
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,080
If I'm correct,
it's the brightest star in the sky.
355
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,000
The brightest, by far. It is two times
as bright as the next brightest.
356
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:10,800
[Graham] Lenie's theory would also explain
357
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,240
why these early astronomers
built so many temples.
358
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:18,320
As Sirius shifted position over time,
359
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,040
it fell out of
each temple's line of sight,
360
00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:26,040
forcing the architects to build a new one
with a slightly different orientation.
361
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,080
Because of precession, Sirius hadn't been
visible from Malta for thousands of years,
362
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,880
until the Earth's wobble
brought it spectacularly back into view,
363
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,000
around 11,000 years ago.
364
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,840
And the temple lined up
with that spectacular appearance
365
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,840
after a long absence
is a simple one called Hagar Qim North.
366
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,680
It is also one of the smallest temples.
367
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,200
They started very small,
368
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:54,760
-and as the millennia passed…
-Yeah.
369
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,080
…they ended up
with the largest of all the temples.
370
00:25:58,160 --> 00:25:59,400
You could say, the cathedral,
371
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:02,120
which is Ġgantija.
372
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:05,880
[Graham] But if Lenie is right,
373
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:10,320
it means that Malta's megalithic project
began thousands of years
374
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,480
before those Stone Age farmers from Sicily
arrived on the island…
375
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,280
and must have been the work of a culture
with advanced knowledge of astronomy,
376
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,160
and advanced architectural skills.
377
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,520
As for why they chose
to honor Sirius this way…
378
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,400
it might be simply because
379
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,560
it was the brightest star
in the night sky at the time.
380
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:44,800
But there might be more to it.
381
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,240
The star, Sirius,
also plays a prominent role
382
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,120
in the legends
of another great culture of antiquity,
383
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:54,200
ancient Egypt,
384
00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:58,920
where it was associated with the annual
flooding of the Nile and the new year
385
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,880
and was a symbol
of their great goddess, Isis.
386
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,080
And this is not
the only curious connection
387
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,120
between ancient Egypt and ancient Malta.
388
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:15,880
Maltese fishing boats are traditionally
decorated with a prominent symbol…
389
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,000
borrowed from Egyptian mythology…
390
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:24,120
The Eye of Horus.
391
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,480
The fishermen believe it provides them
with good health, prosperity
392
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,400
and above all, protection.
393
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,480
The exact same symbol
394
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,320
played the exact same role
in ancient Egypt.
395
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:46,560
Intriguingly, this tradition connects
Malta to Egypt's most famous myth,
396
00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:50,240
the story of the parents
of that god, Horus…
397
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,160
Osiris and Isis.
398
00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,320
In ancient times,
the wise God Osiris descended to Egypt
399
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,200
to rule alongside his sister Isis,
400
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,280
but the people
were uncivilized and lawless.
401
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,680
So Osiris brought them culture,
402
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,200
established the rule of law,
and taught them agriculture.
403
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,920
Then he left Isis to rule Egypt
while he traveled the Earth,
404
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,000
teaching people
of other nations the same skills.
405
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,080
This myth of a traveling, civilizing hero
406
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,560
is something I recognize
from my own travels.
407
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,480
The story of Osiris is similar to that
of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico,
408
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,080
and other civilizing heroes
from ancient lore.
409
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,440
Wise teachers who arrive
after an immense cataclysm,
410
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:46,680
sharing the gifts of civilization,
411
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,840
showing humanity how to build
great works in stone,
412
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,080
bringing them agriculture
and a knowledge of the stars.
413
00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:01,920
Is it possible that such myths
so similar in so many different cultures
414
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,360
might even be traced back
to a single source?
415
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,960
If these bearded robed figures
from the near East,
416
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,440
to the Americas, to the Mediterranean,
417
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:15,760
originate from the same ancient culture,
418
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,640
it means that while
our hunter-gatherer ancestors
419
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,520
were busy surviving the Ice Age,
420
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,760
someone else
was circumnavigating the globe,
421
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,240
passing on
their advanced skills to others.
422
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,680
And I believe there's proof of that
on another island,
423
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,640
that, like Malta, was nearly drowned
at the end of the last Ice Age,
424
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,200
a world away
in the blue waters of the Caribbean.
425
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:51,480
If an advanced civilization was
swallowed up by the sea 11,600 years ago,
426
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:56,520
then perhaps evidence for its existence
can still be found underwater.
427
00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,680
Let's talk about Atlantis.