1
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,000
[Graham] At sites all around the globe,
we've seen what I believe
2
00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:21,160
are the fingerprints
of a lost civilization
3
00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:24,400
dating back to the last Ice Age.
4
00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:26,760
The last great mystery is
5
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:29,440
what happened
to this advanced civilization?
6
00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:34,760
There may be clues
in the origin myths of ancient cultures,
7
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,520
because many of them
tell the same basic story.
8
00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:42,520
According to these legends,
9
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:44,040
once upon a time,
10
00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,680
humanity shared the Earth
with a more advanced society,
11
00:00:49,480 --> 00:00:54,160
whether Atlanteans,
or giants, or gods on Earth.
12
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,840
Until a horrific
global cataclysm occurred,
13
00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:00,920
a great flood,
14
00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,160
only a chosen few were spared
to repopulate the Earth.
15
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,040
Who were later visited by other survivors,
16
00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:15,120
mysterious great teachers,
usually arriving by sea,
17
00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,680
to help them lay the foundations
for the rebirth of humanity
18
00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:21,800
and civilization as we know it today.
19
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:23,720
[thunderclap]
20
00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:26,400
Science now confirms
21
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,680
that just such a series
of apocalyptic events
22
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:34,760
did occur at the end of the last Ice Age,
around 12,800 years ago…
23
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:41,040
an epoch known to geologists
as the Younger Dryas.
24
00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:49,920
Only in its aftermath,
25
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,480
did our ancestors suddenly
begin farming and raising livestock,
26
00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:56,280
creating societies
27
00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,040
and building
massive megalithic structures,
28
00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,640
often aligned to the stars.
29
00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:05,800
Why then?
30
00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,760
It's a mystery mainstream archeologists
have no real explanation for,
31
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:13,880
other than "that's just what happened."
32
00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,680
But I have a radically different proposal.
33
00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:20,960
We need to ask ourselves
was that really the dawn of history?
34
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:24,760
Or was it long before that?
35
00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:46,320
It's possible
36
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,440
that all traces of the lost
advanced civilization I'm looking for
37
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,000
were swept away in the cataclysms
of the Younger Dryas.
38
00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,520
But surely the geological evidence
of that apocalyptic moment
39
00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:00,760
should still exist.
40
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:03,120
And I believe it does.
41
00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,280
Here, in the northwest corner of America,
42
00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:13,360
in a part of eastern Washington state
known as the Channeled Scablands.
43
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,360
It's a unique apocalyptic landscape,
44
00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,560
a spectacular area
covering 2,000 square miles.
45
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:33,960
These landscapes speak to an enormous,
46
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,000
almost unspeakable, cataclysm.
47
00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,720
It's an area that's
long fascinated geologists,
48
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,080
with giant scars in the rock,
49
00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:54,880
massive potholes, and epic waterfalls.
50
00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:02,160
All of it conspires to look,
well, unearthly.
51
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:03,720
Not of this world.
52
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,440
This immense fossilized waterfall,
53
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:10,920
appropriately named Dry Falls,
54
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,720
ranks high amongst the natural wonders
of the Channeled Scablands,
55
00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,160
and indeed of the world.
56
00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,880
It's so enormous that it's almost
impossible to comprehend its scale.
57
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:30,040
The Falls are just one section
of a monstrous ravine
58
00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,200
gouged out of the earth,
hundreds of feet deep,
59
00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:36,560
50 miles long,
and almost three miles wide,
60
00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:38,600
called Grand Coulee.
61
00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,880
Geologists believe that
all these dramatic formations
62
00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:45,400
were created by flooding
63
00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,640
that took place sometime
during the last Ice Age.
64
00:04:50,840 --> 00:04:55,040
Precisely when and how this deluge
occurred, however, remains a mystery,
65
00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:58,960
one that has sparked controversy
amongst geologists for decades.
66
00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,360
What really happened here?
67
00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:07,600
And could it be related to what happened
to that lost advanced civilization
68
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:08,960
of the Ice Age?
69
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:14,720
To help wrap my head around it all,
70
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,720
amateur geologist and author
Randall Carlson,
71
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,320
who's been exploring
the Scablands for decades,
72
00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:26,040
joins me in an area of the Grand Coulee
known as Lenore Lake.
73
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:30,320
Whatever the cause,
there's no question in anyone's mind
74
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,400
that this is the result
of catastrophic flooding
75
00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,680
on a scale that's almost inconceivable.
76
00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:38,200
[Graham] My first impression,
looking even at the map,
77
00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:42,080
is that this is an area that's been
ripped and torn and scarred.
78
00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:44,200
What's the story
of this incredible landscape?
79
00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:46,560
Right now,
most of the conventional models go
80
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,600
-the source of this water here…
-Yeah.
81
00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:51,720
…that created the Scablands,
was Lake Missoula.
82
00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:56,680
[Graham] During the last Ice Age,
83
00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,440
massive ice sheets covered
the northern half of North America,
84
00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:01,760
from coast to coast.
85
00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:09,160
Millions of square miles of ice,
locking in enough water to fill an ocean.
86
00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:14,400
And at the southern edge
of the ice sheets,
87
00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:16,640
huge fresh water lakes formed.
88
00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:20,920
One glacial lake, Missoula,
89
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,640
contained as much water
as modern lakes Erie and Ontario combined,
90
00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:29,880
covering much of what is today
northwestern Montana.
91
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,400
The current theory
is that Lake Missoula was blocked up
92
00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:39,800
by some sort of
natural ice dam that burst.
93
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:46,920
[Randall] You remove the ice dam,
94
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,400
all the water's going to be flowing
out here to the west like this.
95
00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,440
[Graham] And to account for
all this damage to the landscape,
96
00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:03,720
geologists theorized that the ice dam
re-formed and burst again and again,
97
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:08,760
causing dozens of floods
over a period of several thousand years,
98
00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:12,960
gradually shaping the Scablands
into what we see today.
99
00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:16,280
So it all came out of Lake Missoula,
100
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,200
and because one emptying
of Lake Missoula wouldn't be enough,
101
00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:21,600
they postulate
up to 80 or 90 emptyings of it.
102
00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:22,760
That certainly helps.
103
00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:28,240
[Graham] It's a curiously
contrived explanation
104
00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:30,440
for such a wild landscape.
105
00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,560
There's a strong what is called
"uniformitarian trend" in geology.
106
00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,880
Modern geologists
don't like cataclysms very much.
107
00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:45,120
They prefer long, slow,
gradual explanations of things,
108
00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:47,960
and they prefer the view that,
as things are today,
109
00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:49,640
so they have always been in the past,
110
00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,640
even though it seems to me that
that view is completely absurd.
111
00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,720
Randall believes
the geological evidence here
112
00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,080
speaks not to centuries of gradual floods,
113
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:06,560
but to a single massively violent deluge
that lasted just a few weeks.
114
00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:08,960
-It's not just water, is it?
-Oh, no.
115
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:11,080
-Yeah.
-Pretty much as far as the eye could see,
116
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,640
it's going to be
a roiling, boiling, turbulent scene.
117
00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,040
Moving water choked
with thousands of icebergs.
118
00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,000
All the stuff in between these cliffs
was ripped out.
119
00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:25,240
[Graham] Yeah.
120
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,320
[Randall] A tremendously
unimaginably violent event.
121
00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:34,280
To give you an idea,
122
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:38,200
if you took every single river
on Earth from every continent,
123
00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:40,039
add that together,
124
00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:43,080
you'd still have
to times that by at least ten
125
00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:45,919
to get the volume of water
flowing through here.
126
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,799
Wow! That really puts it in perspective.
127
00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:57,680
It's a truly awe-inspiring
forbidding landscape,
128
00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,480
that speaks to me
of an ancient apocalypse.
129
00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,800
An apocalypse on a scale
that's almost impossible to imagine today.
130
00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:15,000
During the Ice Age, this would have been
an area of softly rolling grassland,
131
00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,760
speckled with roaming herds
of antelope and mastodons,
132
00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,600
until the violence arrived.
133
00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:33,360
The floodwaters gouged out
an immense waterfall
134
00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,360
that would've been the size
of ten Niagara Falls,
135
00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:39,920
two-and-a-half times taller,
seven times wider,
136
00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:43,400
and 3,000 times more powerful.
137
00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:49,200
How quickly do you think that occurred?
138
00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:51,480
I think it happened very, very quickly.
139
00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:54,160
-Could it have been created in weeks?
-Yes.
140
00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:01,080
[Graham] The clearest evidence
is right here,
141
00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,320
at a place called Wallula Gap,
142
00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:10,000
where the floodwaters carved out
a massive canyon 1,200 feet deep,
143
00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:15,320
leaving behind these
immense basalt outcroppings…
144
00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:19,480
known as the Twin Sisters.
145
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,120
Proof of the speed and ferocity
146
00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:27,920
of what was likely the biggest
flash flood in human history.
147
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,240
Randall's research
shows that the formation
148
00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:42,080
simply couldn't be the work of millennia
of gradual erosion, as geologists claim.
149
00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:46,960
And when this great deluge was over,
150
00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:48,600
the receding waters
151
00:10:48,680 --> 00:10:52,800
didn't just leave behind
isolated towers of harder rock.
152
00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:58,080
Nearby, in a spot
known as the Camas Prairie,
153
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,080
are giant ripples in the landscape.
154
00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,520
They're so uniform
and so perfectly formed,
155
00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:09,120
anybody who goes to the beach
and sees the tide going out
156
00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:13,680
will see that that receding tide
leaves a series of ripples in the sand,
157
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:16,680
and those ripples may be half an inch high
158
00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:18,200
and a few feet long.
159
00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:21,400
What we have on the Camas Prairie
is current ripples
160
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:26,480
that are 30 to 50 feet high
and 300 feet long.
161
00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:31,680
They're the same phenomenon
caused by the recession of waters.
162
00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,080
But the ripples on the landscape
speak of a huge event,
163
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:39,440
an enormous amount of water that ran over
that landscape and then withdrew.
164
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:42,440
Truly apocalyptic.
165
00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:43,800
Apocalyptic, yes.
166
00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:47,960
If somebody did survive here or there
by luck of the draw,
167
00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:49,720
they could emerge in the aftermath
168
00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:52,400
thinking that the entire world
had been destroyed.
169
00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:02,880
[Graham] The Scablands show all the signs
of a massive, devastating flood
170
00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:04,960
of very short duration,
171
00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:09,880
much like the ones
described in myths around the world.
172
00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:21,360
And it's unlikely all that water came
from Lake Missoula, as geologists claim.
173
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:23,840
You remove the ice dam,
174
00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:27,000
all the water is going to be flowing
out here to the west like this,
175
00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,440
yet we find along the south wall,
right in here,
176
00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:33,400
we find massive gravel deposits.
177
00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:35,680
This water's flowing south.
178
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,160
And that's exactly where you diverge
from the mainstream.
179
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:41,880
You see the source of the flooding
on the ice cap, not this lake.
180
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:42,960
[Randall] Right.
181
00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:45,160
It's now being admitted and recognized
182
00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,920
that, oh, well, maybe there were
other lakes up here.
183
00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,800
And what we are going to
really have to do is look to the north.
184
00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:53,600
-To look to the ice cap itself.
-Yes.
185
00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:55,760
[Graham] To come back
to the mainstream theory,
186
00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:58,880
they put those floods
in a specific time frame,
187
00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,240
in the 18,000 to 15,500-year-old window.
188
00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:06,000
Yes. I think we need to
take a hard look at some of those dates.
189
00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:08,000
'Cause I can't think
of anything in that period
190
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:09,960
which would have provided
the massive energy
191
00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:11,640
needed to release this amount of water.
192
00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:17,040
What needs to happen now
is putting the puzzle pieces together…
193
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,160
-Yes.
-…to get the grand view,
194
00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:20,680
the coherent big picture.
195
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:28,440
[Graham] That bigger picture that Randall
is looking for could be emerging.
196
00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,920
Instead of the Scablands
continuing to be framed
197
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,480
as a puzzlingly isolated
regional phenomenon
198
00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:38,400
with no obvious external cause,
199
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,520
Randall's argument
sets this devastated landscape
200
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,440
in context of the much wider,
indeed global, devastation
201
00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:47,880
that occurred
near the end of the last Ice Age.
202
00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:54,920
Not 18,000, or 15,500 years ago…
203
00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,280
but around 12,800 years ago
204
00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:02,960
at the onset of the Younger Dryas.
205
00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,200
Could the destruction
so evident in the Scablands
206
00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:12,360
have been part
of that larger ancient apocalypse
207
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:16,760
that I suspect erased
an entire advanced civilization?
208
00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:24,040
Another scarred landscape
of ancient America
209
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,160
might hold the final clue.
210
00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:30,920
Twelve hundred miles south,
211
00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:35,120
in the scrub-covered desert
along the US-Mexico border,
212
00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:39,320
at a site called Murray Springs.
213
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,960
Allen West is a member of an
interdisciplinary research group
214
00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,560
that stunned
the scientific community in 2007,
215
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:57,160
publishing a paper
about an extraordinary discovery here,
216
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:03,760
in an area of exposed earth that contains
what's known as a "black mat."
217
00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,280
This black mat layer
that you see through here…
218
00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:09,560
-Yeah.
-…represents the extinction layer.
219
00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:15,440
Below that, there are mammoth bones,
there are American horse bones,
220
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:20,200
American camel, the dire wolves,
and saber-toothed cats.
221
00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:25,760
And so far, not a single one of those
has been found in place above that layer.
222
00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:29,000
In addition to
the extinctions of the megafauna,
223
00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:31,240
there was also
an extinction of human beings.
224
00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,320
We think that
probably 50 to 60% of the people
225
00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,480
across the northern hemisphere
died at this time.
226
00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:41,760
Right. That's a very dramatic figure.
227
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:44,320
So we knew something had happened,
we didn't know what.
228
00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:46,440
So in a sense,
you were confronted by a mystery…
229
00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:48,840
-Yes, yeah, yep.
-…that you wanted to explore.
230
00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:54,920
When the black mat was first discovered
and analyzed in the 1960s,
231
00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:00,440
scientists carbon-dated it
to around 12,800 years ago,
232
00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,800
the exact moment of the onset
of the Younger Dryas.
233
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:07,760
Which is why I'm here.
234
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,080
The black mat might help solve
235
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:16,680
not only the mystery of what kicked off
that cataclysmic epoch in the first place,
236
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:23,400
but also specifically what might
have released the immense flood…
237
00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,480
that created the Scablands.
238
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:32,520
As part of their research,
239
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,760
Allen's group conducted a thorough
chemical analysis of the black mat.
240
00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:42,200
So you came here and you
began to investigate the mat.
241
00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,120
What we found is melted glass spherules.
242
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:51,080
So this is our first clue that some
high-temperature event had happened.
243
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,120
But we didn't know what it was.
244
00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:58,880
So a temperature sufficient
to melt earth basically,
245
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:00,160
is that what you're saying?
246
00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:02,040
Hot enough to melt a car
247
00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,680
into a molten puddle of metal
in the parking lot.
248
00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:05,600
Wow. Right.
249
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:07,080
What else do you find here?
250
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,319
Well, there was a peak
in platinum and in iridium.
251
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:13,000
Were you expecting to find
platinum and iridium here?
252
00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:14,760
No, no, we were not.
253
00:17:15,599 --> 00:17:18,400
That's something you just
don't see on this planet very often.
254
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:22,520
Then we knew that there's
only one thing on Earth that can do that,
255
00:17:22,599 --> 00:17:25,040
and that's some kind of cosmic impact.
256
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,319
[Graham] Something, an asteroid
or fragments of a comet
257
00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,200
coming in through the atmosphere
and either bursting in the air
258
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:32,920
or smacking directly into the ground?
259
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:33,840
That's right, yep.
260
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,800
[Graham] A comet, a species killer.
261
00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:43,440
Would that explain
the apocalyptic cataclysms
262
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,080
that took place
at the end of the Younger Dryas?
263
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,320
It's happened before to the dinosaurs.
264
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,760
Nobody disputes that it was
a cosmic impact, an asteroid or a comet,
265
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,480
that caused the demise of the dinosaurs
66 million years ago.
266
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,720
That event left
a distinct layer in the earth,
267
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,160
which is still visible
in certain places today,
268
00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,560
and a very similar layer
is found at Murray Springs.
269
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:16,360
Once Allen's research group
270
00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,280
realized the implications
of the black mat layer at Murray Springs,
271
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,840
they launched a painstaking,
long-term investigation
272
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:28,000
to see if it showed up anywhere else.
273
00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:32,920
And it did, all over the world.
274
00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:41,360
To date, black mat sites have been found
across North America,
275
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,720
from California to Michigan to New Jersey,
276
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:49,040
and from Belgium in northern Europe
to Syria in the Middle East.
277
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:53,440
That's a lot of potential impact sites,
278
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:58,440
all dated to around the same time,
roughly 12,800 years ago.
279
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:04,640
We began to realize this had to have been
some kind of huge event.
280
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:09,040
The total picture got clearer to us
that something catastrophic had happened.
281
00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:16,320
[Graham] But if there was a comet strike,
where's the impact crater?
282
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,160
I think we saw the answer to that…
283
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:24,560
up in the Scablands.
284
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:29,920
If the primary impacts
at the beginning of the Younger Dryas
285
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:31,760
were on ice caps,
286
00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:35,320
when the ice melts away,
there's no crater left to see.
287
00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:39,040
It would support Randall's theory
288
00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:43,760
that the sudden catastrophic flooding
responsible for the Scablands
289
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:48,200
came not from that lake,
but from the ice cap itself.
290
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:54,520
It's going to absolutely demand
a rewrite of history as we know it.
291
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:55,440
Yeah.
292
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,680
Still, one impact alone
couldn't have created
293
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,520
all the black mat sites mapped out
by Allen's research team.
294
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,960
Their discoveries led to a startling idea.
295
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:13,480
Perhaps it wasn't one cosmic impact that
left all these traces around the world,
296
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:14,800
but many.
297
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,600
A brief intense storm of cosmic debris
that the Earth ran into.
298
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:21,800
They called it
the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.
299
00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:26,880
[Allen] Don't think Earth was actually hit
by the comet itself,
300
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,920
but rather hit by
tens of thousands of fragments.
301
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,920
Think that 12,800 years ago,
302
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,040
Earth wandered into
the debris trail of a giant comet.
303
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,920
[Graham] It would have been like thousands
of atomic bombs going off.
304
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:53,320
In just a few hours,
a truly Earth-shaking event,
305
00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:00,160
releasing water vapor and clouds of dust
that would have shrouded the skies,
306
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,360
causing temperatures to plunge.
307
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:07,920
Imagine living in Miami
and you're enjoying the beach,
308
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:12,080
and suddenly the climate
changes to Anchorage, Alaska.
309
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,960
-[Graham] Just, overnight, really. Yeah.
-Yeah, in a matter of probably months.
310
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,600
[Graham] When Allen and his colleagues
311
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:26,400
from what was now called
the Comet Research Group,
312
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:27,840
first published their findings,
313
00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:32,440
predictably they were met
with scorn and derision.
314
00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:36,680
Scientists unfortunately
are taught to be cynical about things.
315
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,280
Skepticism is healthy, cynicism is not.
316
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,560
[Graham] What's even more unsettling
about their discovery
317
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,960
is the likely origin
of that cometary debris.
318
00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:49,960
The Taurid meteor stream,
319
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,720
a patch of sky which the Earth
passes through twice a year
320
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:58,120
in late June and late October.
321
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:02,200
It's estimated
there are probably 200 objects
322
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,120
with diameters of at least a kilometer,
323
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:06,560
whirling around
in the Taurid meteor stream.
324
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:13,120
The evidence brought forward
325
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,360
by the scientists
of the Comet Research Group
326
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:22,200
amounts to nothing less than an immense
global cataclysm around 12,800 years ago,
327
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,720
an apocalypse big enough
to have obliterated almost all traces
328
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,400
of an advanced civilization
of the Ice Age,
329
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:30,520
and to explain at a stroke
330
00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,800
all the mysteries I've spent
the last 30 years investigating.
331
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:40,240
It might be why the ancient civilizations
that emerged afterward
332
00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:44,360
were so scientifically focused
on the skies.
333
00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:48,080
This is an area
we really need to pay attention to
334
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,440
because there's
something dangerous up there
335
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,320
and it can end civilization.
336
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:58,800
At Göbekli Tepe in Turkey,
we've already seen
337
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:03,840
how the ancients may have memorialized
this apocalypse in stone.
338
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:08,520
By recording the constellations in the sky
at the time on Pillar 43.
339
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,680
But the pillars may contain
another coded message
340
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,080
that Dr. Martin Sweatman
was keen to show me,
341
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,000
something that he believes is a record
342
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:23,520
of precisely when and from where
the meteor shower came.
343
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:29,280
What you've got here,
you've got snakes emanating
344
00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:32,480
from the body and the legs of the fox.
345
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:35,880
And if we go on
to the other side of the pillar,
346
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:39,720
and again we have the snakes
kind of emanating from these birds.
347
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:45,440
Ancient cultures
did see comets as sky serpents.
348
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,080
There's really
no serious dispute about that.
349
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:52,160
We can interpret this as meteors
radiating from specific constellations…
350
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:53,080
Yeah.
351
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,840
…tall bending birds
probably representing Pisces.
352
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:56,760
[Graham] Right.
353
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,600
[Dr. Martin] And here we have
the constellation Aquarius,
354
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:01,840
we think that's what the fox represents.
355
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,280
At the time Göbekli Tepe was built,
356
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:09,480
these were the constellations from which
the Taurid meteor stream radiated.
357
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:11,400
They're essentially saying
358
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,120
that the Taurid meteor stream
radiates from Aquarius
359
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,440
and then from Pisces,
360
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,400
and it makes that change
over the course of a few weeks.
361
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,360
[Graham] A record of a storm
of comet fragments that lasted weeks.
362
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:31,240
That's a timeframe that fits
all the evidence of the global cataclysm
363
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,840
that hit Earth 12,800 years ago,
364
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:39,000
including the violent flooding
that tore up the Washington Scablands.
365
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,880
And there might be more
to that specific configuration
366
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,640
of Sun and constellations
featured on Pillar 43.
367
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,240
It occurs at a solstice,
368
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:55,960
only twice in a cycle
of just under 26,000 years,
369
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,600
each return lasting barely a century.
370
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:01,680
I therefore find it eerie
371
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,240
as archaeoastronomer
Paul Burley first noted,
372
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,000
that the exact same configuration
373
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:11,680
seen at the summer solstice
around 12,800 years ago
374
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:17,960
has returned to our skies today,
at the winter solstice.
375
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,440
Could the imagery of Pillar 43
be a message
376
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:27,760
contrived by the master astronomers
of a lost civilization?
377
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,680
A warning to the future, to us,
378
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,920
that what goes around comes around?
379
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:43,600
That when the Sun and stars next take up
this configuration at the solstice,
380
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:47,240
an apocalypse
of sky serpents could return?
381
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:52,760
So take heed.
382
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,400
The notion should give us
pause for thought.
383
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,240
I don't want to be
a prophet of gloom and doom,
384
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,200
but are we in danger
from the Taurid meteor stream today?
385
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,240
It was danger to our ancestors.
386
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,000
It caused a cataclysm
on Earth 12,800 years ago.
387
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:10,200
Can that happen again?
388
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:11,880
We absolutely are in danger.
389
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:16,320
In fact, the calculations
of the astronomers
390
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,000
are that we're in
a danger window right now
391
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:23,760
where the thicker part of the Taurids
could be impacting Earth.
392
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,640
[Graham] More and more scientists
are now embracing
393
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,960
the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis…
394
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:40,120
and this accelerating interest
is no longer confined to scientists.
395
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:48,080
If something did hit Earth
somewhere around 12,000 years ago,
396
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,040
and reset civilization,
it's an interesting theory.
397
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:53,960
But I think it's a theory
that's worth discussing.
398
00:26:54,760 --> 00:27:00,040
I just feel like there's so much emotion
tied up into your theories,
399
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:02,800
and so much emotion in the resistance.
400
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,520
How does mainstream archaeology
dismiss these things?
401
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,720
Like, what's the common arguments?
402
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:12,560
The common argument is,
"We are archeologists and we know best."
403
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,400
It's an argument from authority,
"You must accept our dating system."
404
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,200
"We've done all the work
and this is how it is."
405
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:24,040
It's so strange that people will only
accept and talk about one narrative.
406
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:27,280
The narrative that
they established a long time ago…
407
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:28,200
Yeah.
408
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:29,760
…and they won't let it be debated.
409
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,200
Maybe part of the reason
is it threatens the notion
410
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:36,880
that we are the apex and pinnacle
of the whole human story.
411
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:40,160
Maybe the notion
of a lost civilization in the past
412
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:42,080
raises the uncomfortable question
413
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,400
that we might be
a lost civilization of the future.
414
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:53,400
If we were to confront
a massive global cataclysm
415
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:55,200
of the kind that took place,
416
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:58,040
that we now know took place
at the end of the last Ice Age,
417
00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:02,120
I think our civilization would
actually be very unlikely to survive it.
418
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:11,040
So it's not hard to imagine
that an earlier advanced civilization
419
00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:12,520
might have been wiped out,
420
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:14,960
erased from memory
421
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,560
during this ancient apocalypse
12,800 years ago.
422
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:25,560
After those cosmic impacts
on the ice caps,
423
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:30,160
sea levels rose, swallowing up
all the low-lying coastal lands
424
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,200
that would have likely been
settled by an advanced culture.
425
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,320
Places like Sundaland…
426
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:42,680
the Maltese peninsula,
or the Grand Bahama Banks.
427
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:46,800
Perhaps in Indonesia
428
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,640
the survivors retreated to the hills,
429
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,760
leaving behind tantalizing clues
to their sophisticated architecture.
430
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,200
Some survivors in Turkey
431
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,760
may have decided
to carve out refuges underground
432
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,680
in case more meteors struck.
433
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:05,600
In the Mediterranean, on Malta,
434
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,240
the survivors might have built temples
435
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,880
aligned to the brightest new star
in their night sky,
436
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:15,560
perhaps fearing that it might herald
the next comet to strike.
437
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,000
They traversed the seas,
438
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,760
passing down
their geographic knowledge to others.
439
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,480
Their appearances
recorded in ancient traditions,
440
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:28,920
even etched in stone.
441
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:35,160
They directed less advanced cultures
to memorialize what happened
442
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:36,520
with huge monuments
443
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,920
incorporating specific,
dateable alignments,
444
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:47,520
and megalithic memorials recording
those dates, buried as time capsules.
445
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:58,000
And these ancients helped reboot humanity
in a scarred and devastated landscape.
446
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,600
In my travels and adventures
over the decades,
447
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:09,120
I've learned to respect the wisdom
and, yes, the science of the ancients.
448
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,600
They understood the threat from the skies,
449
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,360
and kept their attention focused
very closely on the cosmos,
450
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,000
and on its sometimes deadly
interactions with the Earth below.
451
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,280
Their myths
and their monumental structures,
452
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,640
so carefully aligned
to the stars and to the Sun,
453
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:29,480
bear witness to this obsession,
454
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,840
and memorialize the terrible events
at the end of the Ice Age
455
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:38,800
that changed the human story forever,
and gave birth to the modern world.
456
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:47,920
Perhaps our own advanced civilization
should heed their warnings,
457
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,480
lest our own story end the same way.