1 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:11,720 [intriguing music playing] 2 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:15,360 [Graham] As you go into the Temple of the Moon, 3 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,680 you're confronted at the entrance by a serpent. 4 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:25,320 Carved into the rock wall, 5 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:30,120 its glistening body seeming almost alive to your touch. 6 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:33,080 That's no easy task 7 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:36,600 because that means that the rock was cut away, 8 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,640 leaving only this high-relief serpent on the side. 9 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:42,720 [intriguing music continues] 10 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:48,080 As you go deeper into the tunnel, more enigmatic shapes appear, 11 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:50,600 all sculpted from the living rock. 12 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,080 It has a unique atmosphere. 13 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:01,120 The motes of dust catching in the light as it shines down 14 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:03,200 from the hole in the ceiling 15 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:08,880 onto a perfectly-leveled structure, clearly the work of human beings. 16 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,600 The stone plinth, like the serpent, is shaped from the rock itself, 17 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:18,000 lit from that crevasse above, 18 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,720 giving access both to sunlight and to moonlight. 19 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:29,200 Known locally as the Temple of the Moon, and also perhaps more authentically 20 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,760 as Amaru Markawasi, the House of the Serpent, 21 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:38,840 this eerie, rock-cut shelter certainly has a powerful presence. 22 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,360 It's believed the Inca used this space for fertility rituals, 23 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,720 where the hopeful would leave offerings to the goddess of the moon, 24 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,440 Mama Quilla, daughter of Viracocha. 25 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:54,760 [intriguing music continues] 26 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:00,080 The silence of the place, the coldness, the stillness within it, 27 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,160 uh, all of this focused the mind in a way that seems to me 28 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:07,960 to have been deliberately designed, not accidentally achieved. 29 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:10,040 [intriguing music intensifies] 30 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,440 Whoever carved out this sacred chamber, it seems it wasn't the same people 31 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,760 who built the more ostentatious gold-plated temples 32 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:20,600 that the Inca were famous for. 33 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:28,120 It's as if the Incas who venerated it built the outer walls to mark off 34 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,320 and thus respect something they found, not something they created. 35 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,320 Are we looking at the work of someone else, 36 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:41,840 an older culture that understood how to mold stone in fantastical ways? 37 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,800 [intriguing music builds, ends] 38 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:48,960 [theme song playing] 39 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:57,200 [theme song ends] 40 00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,840 -[thunder rumbling] -[electronic warble] 41 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,760 [intriguing playing] 42 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,640 [Graham] I'm on a hillside above Cusco in Peru, 43 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,760 investigating a possibly very ancient technique for shaping stone 44 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,400 known as Hanan Pacha. 45 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:22,440 We have a multi-layered mystery, and in order to solve that mystery, 46 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,160 we need to look at the different styles of architecture 47 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:28,880 sometimes coexisting in the same street. 48 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:30,360 Anywhere else in the world, 49 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:33,840 these would be taken as evidence of the handiwork of different cultures. 50 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:39,480 Midway between the Temple of the Moon and the vast megaliths of Sacsayhuaman 51 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,280 is another of the Sacred Valley's most important sites 52 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,480 that seems to use the same more ancient stone-shaping technique. 53 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:49,920 Q'enqo. 54 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:51,960 [intriguing music builds] 55 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,880 Its Quechua name translates to "labyrinth," 56 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,680 and as I begin to explore, I can see why. 57 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,440 One undertakes a journey to get into the heart of it, 58 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,720 a winding pathway that leads you through it 59 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:11,880 and causes you to reflect inwardly. 60 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:14,520 [intriguing music continues] 61 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:20,480 Q'enqo is ultimately a place where the individual finds him or herself alone, 62 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,280 surrounded by the mysterious mystical atmosphere, 63 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,000 surrounded by silence. 64 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:29,480 [intriguing music subsides] 65 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,560 [mysterious music playing] 66 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:36,480 It's a complex network of sculpted tunnels, 67 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:40,960 subterranean galleries, 68 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:49,120 and what appear to be altars carved out of the bedrock. 69 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,840 And all seemingly leading to a central amphitheater, 70 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,920 where Jesus Gamarra once again joins me to share his expertise. 71 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,640 Were the Incas themselves responsible for any of the workmanship 72 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,240 that we see at Q'enqo Chico? 73 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:08,640 [Jesus hesitates] 74 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:10,360 [in Spanish] No. No. 75 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:16,600 While there are small indicators of Inca presence 76 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:19,840 like small stones and mud joints, 77 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:26,320 these are always respectfully built over the Hanan Pacha forms. 78 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:30,760 It is revered with great affection, 79 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:33,280 and this is done by surrounding it 80 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:39,320 with very precise and respectful constructions of pieces. 81 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:41,360 [intriguing music playing] 82 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:44,000 [Graham in English] Ancient sculpted rock surrounded 83 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,000 by more rudimentary block work 84 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,480 like I saw outside the Temple of the Moon. 85 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,120 It's a juxtaposition of styles 86 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,560 that we find in many of Peru's most sacred sites. 87 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:59,080 As at Machu Picchu, 88 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,640 the smoothly-sculpted ceremonial Intihuatana stone… 89 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,480 which again appears to be surrounded by later Inca construction, 90 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,400 perhaps to honor and respect this spot as sacred. 91 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:18,040 This could explain the curious mix of stonework we see 92 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,080 both in the walls of Cusco and at Sacsayhuaman, 93 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:26,800 where what Jesus Gamarra identifies as later blocks are added above and around 94 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:30,720 the possibly much older smoothly-sculpted stones. 95 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:33,560 [intriguing music intensifies] 96 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,040 Regardless of when these blocks were shaped, 97 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:38,120 the question remains how? 98 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,440 Could we be looking at the fingerprints of a lost technology of prehistory? 99 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:44,960 [intriguing music continues] 100 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:51,200 Jesus' research colleague, Jan Peter de Jong, thinks there are clues 101 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:55,280 back at Sacsayhuaman as to how the rock was so expertly crafted. 102 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:06,800 Jan, you've just brought me to this very narrow tunnel 103 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,640 with very shiny sides. What's the name of this place? 104 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,120 They call it here the Chincana Chica. 105 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,160 [Graham] It means "the place where one gets lost." 106 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:19,880 We're looking at natural bedrock here, 107 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,320 but clearly the tunnel is the result of human workmanship. 108 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,760 Is that characteristic of the oldest style of construction here, 109 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,560 that they work with the natural bedrock and shape it? 110 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,440 Yes, one of the characteristics of Hanan Pacha style 111 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:36,000 is that the stone is modified with like a mold technology. 112 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:37,880 You can see that… 113 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:40,920 they have been working with the stone as if it was soft. 114 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:41,840 [Graham] Yes. 115 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,600 [Jan] Because all kinds of things were pressed into the rock. 116 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:47,880 [Graham] So when you say mold technology, you mean softening of the stone 117 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,280 and then pressing down the shape into the stone? 118 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,120 We think that the stones were soft at the moment of construction. 119 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:56,240 [intriguing music continues] 120 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:58,440 [Graham] But how were they made soft? 121 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:03,040 Jan believes the walls of this tunnel are the key to the mystery. 122 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,080 So inside of this tunnel, um, we can see a lot of reflection. 123 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:12,040 I see it shining like a metallic sheen. 124 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:14,760 If you touch it, it's very smooth. 125 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,040 We think that it's been treated with heat, 126 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,840 and this heat caused like a layer on the stone, 127 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:24,960 and that's why it's this shiny. 128 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,000 [fire crackling] 129 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,280 [Graham] Geologists call this effect vitrification. 130 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,520 Any idea how much heat would be involved? 131 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,560 Vitrification, it means "turn to glass," 132 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:40,440 and that means that we need, like, 1,400 degrees Celsius. 133 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,880 Which is a colossal amount of heat. 134 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,000 Yes. Of course, we don't know how they did it, 135 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:47,560 but we know that they did it. 136 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:49,240 [intriguing music continues] 137 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,280 [Graham] When you look at it closely, you have to ask yourself, 138 00:08:55,960 --> 00:09:00,680 "Is that heat source the explanation for the peculiar melted-together appearance 139 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,280 of the gigantic megaliths of Sacsayhuaman?" 140 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,200 [intriguing music builds] 141 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:12,720 The first thing skeptics would say is that the very shiny effect inside the tunnel 142 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:16,200 is caused by people brushing against the sides of the tunnel. 143 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:17,440 -Yeah. -What's your reaction? 144 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,440 So a lot of people say, "Yeah, of course. Yeah." 145 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:23,480 "It's been done by all the hands going through this tunnel, 146 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:25,440 -touching it there." -Mm-hmm. 147 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,080 But you can see it's also on the roof and the whole wall of the tunnel. 148 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:31,960 So it won't be logical to say 149 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:34,560 they've been touching all those places at the same time. 150 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,280 So what about the other argument that it's caused by volcanic activity? 151 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:40,280 Uh, well, we don't have any volcanoes here. 152 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,320 -Okay. -[Jan] So it's not a logical explanation. 153 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:45,400 [intriguing music builds] 154 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,040 [Graham] For Jan, the only viable explanation is 155 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:52,520 that we're looking at the results of some kind of ancient scientific process, 156 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,400 one perfected by a civilization that predates the Inca. 157 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,840 It has been done in the far past by ancient people. 158 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,840 And we don't know exactly which technology they used. 159 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:09,840 [Graham] When I look at Sacsayhuaman, 160 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,720 I think I'm looking at the fingerprints of a lost technology, 161 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:15,200 of a lost science of stone-working, 162 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:18,280 a science that we are not masters of today 163 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,080 that we do not have the technology to reproduce. 164 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:25,280 [intriguing music ends] 165 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,720 The exact nature of the technology remains a mystery. 166 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,160 But Jesus Gamarra believes the extreme heat 167 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:37,080 that allowed the rock to be softened and molded as it was worked 168 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,320 also strengthened and hardened it after it set. 169 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:42,560 [mysterious music playing] 170 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,000 When I look around, in a way, although they're extremely ancient, 171 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,560 the stones have a very modern appearance. 172 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,840 How do you understand what we see in front of our eyes? 173 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:57,760 [in Spanish] Only the parts that have been worked by heat and mold 174 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,080 are preserved without having been destroyed. 175 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:05,480 The rest of the stone appears rough. 176 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:11,320 There is the eroding effect of weathering. 177 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:13,400 [tense music playing] 178 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,040 [in English] What is your explanation of what we're looking at here? 179 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:21,880 [in Spanish] There is a lot of mystery that we can't explain 180 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:26,000 because these are parts of a great historical past 181 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,920 that happened thousands of years ago. 182 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:31,640 [music continues] 183 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,080 [Graham in English] At certain points, we have to just accept 184 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:41,080 that we are looking at an impossible engineering task. 185 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:42,960 Impossible in our terms. 186 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:48,280 It requires of us to be more open-minded 187 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,000 in our view of the ancients than we presently are. 188 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:54,000 [music intensifies] 189 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:58,040 According to local traditions recorded by the Spanish conquistadors, 190 00:11:58,560 --> 00:12:01,320 the advanced techniques of working with stone 191 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:03,560 were part of a legacy of knowledge 192 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:07,080 passed down by the creator-god of the Andes, Viracocha… 193 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,000 [menacing music playing] 194 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,000 …who would cause stones to be consumed by fire, 195 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:19,760 making large blocks as light as feathers that could be floated into place, 196 00:12:22,680 --> 00:12:25,480 which sounds a lot like the extreme heat theory. 197 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:27,560 [fire crackling] 198 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:31,960 That's why I'm interested in Indigenous traditions 199 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:36,000 that do speak of the stones being melted or molded together. 200 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,440 Let's keep our ears and eyes open to such possibilities. 201 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,680 This evidence of unexplainable technologies at work 202 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:48,120 can be found throughout the highlands of ancient Peru. 203 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:49,720 [intriguing music playing] 204 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:52,880 But could there be proof of ancient scientific achievements 205 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,040 on the other side of the Andes Mountains 206 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:01,440 that we've similarly overlooked in the Amazon rainforest? 207 00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:03,000 [suspenseful music playing] 208 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,760 [Graham] Just because those areas are not attractive 209 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:15,840 for human beings to live in today 210 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,560 doesn't mean that they weren't attractive in the past. 211 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:23,600 The investigations that are being done 212 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,280 are revealing evidence that there are huge secrets in the Amazon. 213 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:29,600 [music continues] 214 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:33,280 We now know the evidence for human habitation in ancient Amazonia 215 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,160 goes back at least 25,000 years. 216 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:43,200 That suddenly opens up a much wider timeframe 217 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:45,080 in which to slot a lost civilization. 218 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,280 The possibilities that we need to be investigating 219 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:53,560 for creating civilizations become much deeper and much longer. 220 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:57,360 [tense music playing] 221 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:06,320 In fact, it seems the first Europeans to navigate the entire Amazon in 1542… 222 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:07,440 [boat engine revving] 223 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:09,920 …may have caught a glimpse of the descendants 224 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,400 of just such a civilization when they passed near here. 225 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:20,400 The expedition was led by adventurer Francisco de Orellana 226 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:23,800 and was chronicled by a Dominican friar, Gaspar de Carvajal. 227 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:26,880 [intriguing music playing] 228 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,160 De Carvajal's journal didn't talk of 229 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:32,600 the endless, seemingly uninhabited forest we see today. 230 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,600 The cleric described the Amazon basin as teeming with cities 231 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:42,280 inhabited by highly-skilled peoples. 232 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:44,360 [intriguing music continues] 233 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,880 "One settlement," he wrote, "stretched unbroken for around 13 miles." 234 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:52,200 That's the length of Manhattan Island. 235 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,920 [uptempo intriguing music playing] 236 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:59,320 But when European missionaries arrived about a century later, 237 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:01,400 they saw no such cities. 238 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,760 So historians dismissed De Carvajal's account as a fiction, 239 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:11,560 concocted to impress the Spanish crown so they'd fund more such expeditions. 240 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,680 But as the endless jungle starts to give up its secrets, 241 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,200 it's beginning to look like those reports were true all along. 242 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,040 Recent discoveries in the Amazon suggest 243 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,760 that there was indeed an ancient civilization here. 244 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,120 [uptempo intriguing music ends] 245 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:37,880 Using LiDAR to peer through the dense jungle canopy in Bolivia in 2019… 246 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:44,640 archaeologists were amazed to see vast man-made structures and roads. 247 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:47,120 [intriguing music playing] 248 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,800 As a result of new research, now we're finding that there were huge settlements. 249 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,920 As we all know, there is a tradition of lost cities in the Amazon. 250 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,840 Cities is the right word to use to describe these settlements. 251 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:02,480 [intriguing music ends] 252 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:06,480 Based on the data and our knowledge of existing Amazonian villages, 253 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,120 researchers have a good idea of what one of those settlements 254 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,520 known as Cotoca might have looked like. 255 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,200 [majestic music playing] 256 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,320 The city was almost a mile wide, 257 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:26,080 an entire metropolis, surrounded by canals and causeways. 258 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:33,280 Some led inwards to raised terraces, perhaps for individual dwellings. 259 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:35,360 [birds chirping] 260 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,960 And at the heart of the city lay a towering pyramid mound, 261 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:42,280 likely a ceremonial center. 262 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,040 [majestic music continues] 263 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:48,760 What's more, this city appeared to be connected 264 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:53,600 to at least three similar settlements by raised roads stretching for miles. 265 00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:59,280 We don't know much about the people who lived in this city. 266 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:02,280 What we do know, hidden beneath the jungle canopy, 267 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:05,640 is that there are more cities. Many more. 268 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,480 [adventurous music playing] 269 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:09,960 [news anchor] Archaeologists have pieced together evidence 270 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,680 revealing what they call a lost valley of ancient cities 271 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:15,560 hidden in the Ecuadorian Amazon. 272 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:20,840 [Graham] In the western Amazon, archaeologists have recently uncovered 273 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,480 what appears to be a large cluster of settlements 274 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:29,480 connected by roads, dating back 2,500 years, 275 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:32,560 much like the geoglyphs I saw in Brazil. 276 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,320 Creating large cities, creating the geoglyphs of Acre State, 277 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,560 this was not considered to be within the potential 278 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,160 of the hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Amazon, 279 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,000 and yet it clearly was. 280 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:47,760 [dramatic music playing] 281 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:51,840 More and more of these ancient settlements continue to be discovered, 282 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,000 suggesting a widespread Amazonian civilization, 283 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,080 one that may have been home to as many as 20 million people. 284 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,800 What we are learning now is that the story of the Amazon 285 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:09,560 is not as it had been told. 286 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:11,560 [boat engine revving] 287 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,760 Perhaps de Carvajal did witness large settlements in 1542. 288 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,720 But if so, why didn't the Europeans who voyaged down the river 289 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,480 over a century later see any evidence of them? 290 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:27,920 [somber music playing] 291 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,280 There's a rather grim explanation. 292 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,640 When the Spanish and the Portuguese came into the Americas, 293 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,640 they brought with them a whole host of diseases 294 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,640 to which European peoples had some natural immunity, 295 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:42,640 but to which the peoples of the Amazon did not. 296 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,400 Any population here would have been devastated, 297 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,520 while the rainforest quickly reclaimed their settlements. 298 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,080 But we find more echoes of that civilization 299 00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:00,880 in a myth of the Western Amazon from the Tucano people. 300 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:05,600 The Tucano have an origin story about how their ancestors 301 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,360 were first brought to that area as part of a civilizing mission 302 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:14,040 in a… in a serpent canoe that travels the length of the Amazon system. 303 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,440 So the legend goes, 304 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,040 this anaconda canoe was helmed by a spirit being 305 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,920 and set down a cargo of human migrants. 306 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,600 [menacing music playing] 307 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:28,080 [water sloshing] 308 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,680 Soon after, the divine daughter of the sun came to Earth, 309 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,360 bearing the gifts of fire and tools 310 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,320 as well as knowledge of arts and crafts. 311 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,240 [majestic music playing] 312 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,920 She and her supernatural associates prepared the land for humans to thrive 313 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:51,600 before returning to their otherworldly abodes. 314 00:19:55,720 --> 00:20:00,360 This sounds to me so much like the civilizing hero stories 315 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:01,840 that are told all around the world 316 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,120 that I feel it's very much part of the… of the same pattern. 317 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:07,120 These themes keep on cropping up. 318 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:08,240 [intriguing music playing] 319 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:10,520 A spirit being who arrived by boat, 320 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,280 much like Quetzalcoatl did in Aztec lore. 321 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,760 Or Hotu Matu'a when he landed on Rapa Nui. 322 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,360 Or Viracocha, who appeared from the waters of Lake Titicaca 323 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,160 after a time of chaos. 324 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:32,600 Could this daughter of the sun 325 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:35,480 and her mission to encourage people to settle the Amazon 326 00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:39,680 be related to the same lost civilization I've been looking for? 327 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,640 [intriguing music builds, ends] 328 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:45,200 [tense music playing] 329 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:46,800 In the Peruvian Andes, 330 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,840 Viracocha supposedly worked miracles in stone. 331 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:51,160 [fire crackling] 332 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,120 But here in the Amazon, where large outcrops of rock are rare, 333 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,760 structures made from less durable material 334 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,400 such as wood and earth clearly predominate. 335 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,120 [tense music intensifies, fades] 336 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,320 What's less clear is how they succeeded 337 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,040 in making this seemingly inhospitable place their home. 338 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,520 [suspenseful music playing] 339 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,360 How did they sustain huge populations 340 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,080 on what we've long considered to be infertile soils? 341 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:23,440 [music continues] 342 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:27,600 If we don't get to grips with the ability of the Amazonian peoples 343 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,120 to feed populations of millions, 344 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,720 then we're not ever going to get to grips with the… 345 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,320 the truth about the human story as a whole. 346 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:43,520 One explanation can be found in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, near Manaus. 347 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,360 Emerging from the very ground of the Amazon itself, 348 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,920 a long buried secret has recently been brought to light. 349 00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,120 Evidence of an ancient science that helps to explain 350 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,560 how the rainforest supported large urban populations. 351 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:01,000 [birds screeching] 352 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,480 Angela Araujo is an archaeologist 353 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:10,160 who specializes in humankind's historical relationship with plants. 354 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:18,080 Recently, she's been focusing her studies on a mysterious phenomenon. 355 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:26,440 Typically, rainforest soils are not particularly fertile 356 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,520 or suitable for agriculture. 357 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:30,760 [music builds, ends] 358 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,760 But around settlements, ancient and modern, 359 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,400 scientists have found something astonishing, 360 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,600 self-regenerating patches of soil 361 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,440 they call "terra preta" or Amazonian dark earth. 362 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:50,360 We have here a soil which is dark in color by comparison with the surrounding soils. 363 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,600 Mysteriously and strangely, it contains bacteria, 364 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,400 which constantly reproduce and renew themselves 365 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:00,320 and renew the fertility of the soil. It's a kind of magical earth. 366 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:06,200 And this super-powered soil has been found all across the Amazon 367 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,120 wherever there's evidence of humans. 368 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,600 I'm meeting Angela near a recently-discovered ancient settlement 369 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,280 to see this dark earth for myself. 370 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:24,760 When did you first become specifically interested in Amazonian dark earth? 371 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:30,080 [in Portuguese] Nowadays, we also use this soil 372 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:31,680 for agriculture in the region. 373 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:36,000 And all of a sudden, I came across an interaction 374 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,680 between the past and these populations. 375 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,760 I wanted to understand why and how 376 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:48,000 these populations were connected to such dark soil. 377 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,960 [Graham in English] Researchers have found that mixed in with the organic elements 378 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,440 of every patch of dark earth, no matter how old, 379 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,880 are tiny ceramic shards, 380 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,880 undeniable evidence that human populations have been involved 381 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:03,960 in generating this special soil. 382 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:09,920 And studies have found samples dating back at least 7,000 years. 383 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000 [intriguing music playing] 384 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,200 How large were those populations? 385 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:19,240 [in Portuguese] I can't say for sure, but there are records that suggest 386 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,480 there were at least around three million people 387 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,640 living in the region of the Alto Rio Negro alone. 388 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,600 [in English] Do you think that the ancients deliberately, 389 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,040 cleverly invented this soil? 390 00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:36,400 Or did they discover its special properties by accident? 391 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,000 [in Portuguese] Personally, I don't believe it was intentional. 392 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:43,720 I believe what happened was that, with so many people inhabiting the area, 393 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:49,360 a lot of decomposing waste was produced bringing about these benefits. 394 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,480 [Graham in English] But it's a chicken and egg argument. 395 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,960 I can't help seeing a paradox here. 396 00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,520 On the one hand, we're saying 397 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,360 that there were very large populations in the Amazon 398 00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,640 and that as an accidental product of their presence, 399 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,480 they created black earth. 400 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,840 But on the other hand, we're saying that natural Amazon soils 401 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:17,120 are not fertile enough to support large populations. 402 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,840 Doesn't it seem likely that what made the large populations possible 403 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,680 was the black earth itself? 404 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,240 [in Portuguese] I believe it's possible 405 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:32,920 that they realized the area was productive, 406 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:38,400 but their intention wasn't, 407 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:43,240 "I will dump waste to fertilize the land and improve crop production." 408 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,320 [tense music playing] 409 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,360 [Graham in English] The research continues. 410 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,880 But to me, the reason this feels so intentional 411 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,880 is that terra preta can be found throughout the Amazon, 412 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,400 inevitably close by prehistoric settlements. 413 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,960 We need to be more open-minded 414 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,440 in our view of the capacity of the ancients than we presently are. 415 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:12,040 We need to regard them as masters of their environment 416 00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:17,840 who made that environment work for them over thousands and thousands of years. 417 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:19,920 [intriguing music playing] 418 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,920 And given the immensity of the jungle, 419 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,360 who knows how many more patches of terra preta may lie undiscovered 420 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,240 that could push the origins of this miracle soil 421 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,680 even further back into the past. 422 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:36,320 The proposition I present here, 423 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,360 hotly contested by many archaeologists, 424 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,600 is that the settlement and expansion of human populations in the Amazon 425 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,400 was a planned affair. 426 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,840 [dramatic music playing] 427 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,280 But building and maintaining those vast settlements 428 00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:54,680 would have demanded massive amounts of natural resources. 429 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,280 Not just food crops, but something we might imagine 430 00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:01,840 could never have been scarce in the Amazon itself. 431 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:03,800 Timber. 432 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:07,120 [majestic music playing] 433 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,080 The Amazon is truly a wonder of natural diversity. 434 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:19,360 Today, there are around 390 billion trees here, 435 00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,680 made up of some 16,000 species. 436 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,200 What if I told you that most of this immense jungle 437 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,160 is the end result of an intentional campaign 438 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,800 undertaken by humans thousands of years ago? 439 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,200 What if I told you the Amazon might have been planted? 440 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,280 [intriguing music playing] 441 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,400 [intriguing music ends] 442 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,680 Researchers have confirmed that during the Ice Age, 443 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:59,680 the Amazon wasn't dense jungle, but grassland broken up by trees. 444 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:05,760 They assumed the warming planet nurtured the sprawling rainforest we see today. 445 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:10,680 But recently, archaeobotanists uncovered something unexpected. 446 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,760 Half of the forest is made up of just 1.4% of known Amazonian tree species, 447 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,760 the very same species, as it turns out, that happen to be useful to humans. 448 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:24,600 [birds chirping] 449 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,400 Was this the result of a long-term project set in motion thousands of years ago, 450 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,480 a project that would eventually blossom 451 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:36,080 into a widespread Indigenous Amazonian civilization? 452 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,760 And there's something else. 453 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,720 As with terra preta, most of these useful trees are found 454 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,040 close by the newly-discovered ancient cities of the Amazon. 455 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,520 Instead of the hostile, dangerous jungle that we Westerners tend to see, 456 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:55,920 they were turning it into a homeland for millions, 457 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,560 making the Amazon a garden, making it a place that served human needs. 458 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,040 [intriguing music playing] 459 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:03,400 [Pärssinen] In the 20th century, 460 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:08,720 it was thought that the hinterlands of Amazonia was totally virgin. 461 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:11,560 That humans had not touched it. 462 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,840 And now we know that many of the trees that we have here, 463 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,720 Brazil nut, many palms, are semi-cultivated 464 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,360 and even cultivated and domesticated, 465 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,240 so that our understanding of the forest has changed. 466 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,000 [intriguing music ends] 467 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,800 [Graham] This is truly a scientific project 468 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,360 that's been underway in the Amazon for a very long time. 469 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,520 [intriguing music playing] 470 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,040 How long, exactly? 471 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:41,760 What's really intriguing 472 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,800 is that the oldest date for tree cultivation so far 473 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,440 found in the Amazon is some 10,800 years ago. 474 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,440 That's around the end of the Ice Age, 475 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,400 exactly the time that we see similar leaps forward 476 00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,160 in human civilization and innovation all across the globe. 477 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,240 [dramatic music playing] 478 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,360 This causes us to ask what else remains to be found 479 00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,000 in that vast expanse of the Amazon rainforest 480 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:13,240 that really wasn't supposed to be there and yet clearly is there. 481 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,200 [music intensifies] 482 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,360 As we saw with the advanced stonework of ancient Peru, 483 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,600 these sophisticated agricultural projects and settlements in the Amazon 484 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:28,400 begun thousands of years ago 485 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,760 seem to demonstrate scientific achievements 486 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,480 that are, to say the least, unexpected so long ago. 487 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,560 [music continues] 488 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,920 We have to completely reframe our understanding of the Amazon. 489 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:46,400 We have to see it as a product of human intelligence, human initiative, 490 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,240 human ingenuity, and human intention. 491 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,720 The most astounding example of Amazonian technology 492 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,200 may also point to an unexpected source for all this advanced knowledge. 493 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,480 [blade whirring] 494 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,160 [bass drum playing] 495 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,040 [Graham] I've returned to the Peruvian Amazon to learn more. 496 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,960 This is Iquitos, a port city located at a junction 497 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,760 where the great river is fed by several tributaries. 498 00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:18,920 The port might be young, 499 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,960 but this region has, for thousands of years, 500 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,160 been a center for a profound cultural practice, 501 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,000 the use of ayahuasca. 502 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:29,520 [bass drum stops] 503 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,560 [suspenseful music playing] 504 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,760 Dr. Luis Eduardo Luna is an Indigenous anthropologist 505 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,320 and leading expert on this ancient plant-based medicine. 506 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:41,800 [insects chirping] 507 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,640 [Dr. Luna] I have witnessed many people taking ayahuasca, 508 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,400 and I'm astonished, you know, by what they experience, 509 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,200 sometimes extraordinary journeys into other realms, 510 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,400 sometimes simply looking into themselves, 511 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,400 finding ways of solving their own problems. 512 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,840 [Graham] What do you see happening? 513 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,920 Important changes taking place in their lives? 514 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,680 Many people write to me, you know, 515 00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,400 and that those experiences were completely life-changing, 516 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,600 changed completely their perspective, you know. 517 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:08,360 [intriguing music playing] 518 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,240 [Graham] The use of ayahuasca has recently become popular 519 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,320 in our contemporary society. 520 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:20,120 But for Indigenous people of the Amazon, the brew has long held a sacred power. 521 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,440 [Dr. Luna] Many Indigenous people say, you know, 522 00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:27,800 they take ayahuasca in order to understand the rules of society, 523 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,160 you know, become better human beings. 524 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,920 [uptempo intriguing music playing] 525 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:35,960 [Graham] The preparation of ayahuasca 526 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,360 is the realm of the shaman healers or curanderos. 527 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,640 Like Don Francisco Montes Shuna from the Kapanawa people, 528 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,280 who must blow smoke from an ancient species of tobacco 529 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,440 known as mapacho to purify the ritual. 530 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:02,960 [in Spanish] In the Capanahua language, my name is Shamorin Kyashi Piary. 531 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,720 Shamorin Kyashi Piary means "The Angel of the Jungle." 532 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:09,800 [uptempo intriguing music continues] 533 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,400 [uptempo intriguing music ends] 534 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,120 I come from a line of healers. 535 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,120 I feel the connection to all my ancestors, 536 00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:32,440 my grandmother, my great-grandmother, the whole family. 537 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:38,880 We are connected and feel the connections with everything to do with Amazonia. 538 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:40,520 [tense music playing] 539 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:42,800 [Graham in English] As research progresses, 540 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,280 the evidence is building that ayahuasca can have health benefits. 541 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:53,160 When brewed, the vine alone has powerful healing properties 542 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,360 thanks to a molecule it contains known to science as harmine. 543 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,800 [Dr. Luna] There have been studies suggesting neurogenesis. 544 00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:03,720 [Graham] Mm-hmm. 545 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,840 [Dr. Luna] You know, that the harmine will be producing new neurons, 546 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,200 even new beta cells for the pancreas. 547 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:10,160 [Graham] Mm-hmm. 548 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:14,440 And perhaps new cells also for the ligaments and so on. 549 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:16,720 [intriguing music playing] 550 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,280 [Graham] The harmine in the vine might be a medical miracle, 551 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,040 but it doesn't produce a visionary state. 552 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,600 That only happens when it's combined with the leaves of certain other plants 553 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:32,800 Indigenous to the Amazon like this one called chaliponga, 554 00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:38,880 which contains the psychoactive chemical at the heart of ayahuasca, 555 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,400 DMT, short for dimethyltryptamine. 556 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,120 [intriguing music builds, subsides] 557 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:49,800 DMT is considered one of the most potent psychedelics. 558 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,440 But scientific studies have now confirmed it is non-addictive 559 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,360 and can have therapeutic properties 560 00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,280 when administered in controlled doses and circumstances. 561 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,760 [wood cracking] 562 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:07,840 We're discovering that when accompanied by talking therapy as well, 563 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,560 it can be extremely helpful in bringing to an end 564 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:12,520 long-term intractable conditions. 565 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,120 But there's just one problem. 566 00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:21,200 DMT isn't orally active 567 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,160 because enzymes in the gut normally destroy it on contact. 568 00:35:25,240 --> 00:35:27,160 [intriguing music playing] 569 00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:28,200 It's precisely here 570 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,240 that the shamanistic science of the Amazon comes in 571 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:33,360 with a remarkable solution. 572 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,480 [Dr. Luna] So what happens is that the harmine in the vine 573 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:42,600 will block the destruction of DMT in the gut, 574 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,080 so that the DMT will cross the blood-brain barrier, 575 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,400 go into receptors in the brain. 576 00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,920 That is what produces the visions, you know, the DMT. 577 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:55,200 [Graham] The result? 578 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,040 Out of the tens of thousands of plant species of the Amazon, 579 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:05,480 only the combination of the ayahuasca vine with the leaves of a plant containing DMT 580 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,880 will produce the highly-prized visionary effects. 581 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,960 [intriguing music builds, subsides] 582 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:17,560 We have two plants, which are not psychoactive on their own, 583 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,240 but are psychoactive when cooked together 584 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,280 to create the ayahuasca brew. 585 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:24,520 To do that by trial and error 586 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,400 could involve centuries or millennia of experimentation. 587 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,080 [mysterious music playing] 588 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,560 I think we have a mystery here. How did they come to this discovery? 589 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,760 Right there looks to me like a scientific project. 590 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:38,440 It is, yeah, absolutely. 591 00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,280 I mean, it is based on experience. It's based on observation. 592 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,760 It's based on experimentation, constant experimentation and so on. 593 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:46,760 -Over thousands of years? -Yes, exactly. 594 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:53,720 [Francisco in Spanish] This tradition goes back thousands of years. 595 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:59,200 I mean, we can't say. Two thousand, three thousand years… 596 00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,480 [Graham in English] We're getting evidence of science in the Amazon, 597 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:09,080 the knowledge that Indigenous shamans have accumulated and passed down 598 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:14,720 over generations, over thousands of years, of plants and the properties of plants 599 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:18,640 and how they may be mixed together to produce desired effects. 600 00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:21,200 -[menacing music playing] -[wind howling] 601 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:33,320 [Graham] During an ayahuasca ceremony, the shaman summons the visions 602 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,560 by singing an ikaro, a power song. 603 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,320 [Francisco singing] 604 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,240 [Graham] But the shaman is simply the ceremonial leader. 605 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,120 The plant itself is considered the teacher. 606 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:54,880 [Francisco in Spanish] When you take ayahuasca, 607 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,640 you need to prepare a question. 608 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:01,800 She will provide an answer. 609 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,080 -[suspenseful music playing] -[insects chirping] 610 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:10,720 [Graham in English] The power of psychedelics to achieve a deeper wisdom 611 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,480 isn't limited to the Amazon. 612 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:15,840 We see it in many of the world's 613 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,760 most ancient and deeply respected cultures. 614 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:24,240 It's clear now that what we call psychedelics today 615 00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,600 were embraced all around the ancient world. 616 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,960 [mysterious music playing] 617 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:35,280 In Ancient Greece, Socrates and Plato wrote of intellectual breakthroughs 618 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,640 following the ritual taking of a hallucinogenic brew. 619 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,240 Hieroglyphs from Egypt suggest they ingested petals 620 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:47,440 from the psychoactive blue water lily to communicate with the divine. 621 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,280 And in the Vedic sacrifices of ancient India, 622 00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,840 priests seeking to connect with the gods 623 00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:57,200 drank a visionary concoction known as soma. 624 00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:03,640 The fact that these altered states of consciousness have been embraced 625 00:39:03,720 --> 00:39:05,760 throughout prehistory and history 626 00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,160 tell us that they're very important to the human experience. 627 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:13,160 I actually think that it's impossible to understand the ancient world 628 00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:15,160 unless we take psychedelics into account. 629 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:17,000 [music continues] 630 00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,760 [Graham] What's your own view on how old ayahuasca might be? 631 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,440 [Dr. Luna] They've been experimented with for thousands of years. 632 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:23,920 -It could be much older. -Yeah. 633 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,000 -It feels ancient to me. -[Dr. Luna] Yeah. 634 00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:29,960 This is an extraordinary mystery. 635 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,200 [music intensifies] 636 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,280 [Graham] I believe the complex science of ayahuasca goes back 637 00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,680 much further than anyone thinks. 638 00:39:38,720 --> 00:39:40,280 And there's evidence to prove it. 639 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:45,640 [mysterious music builds, ends] 640 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,760 [closing theme playing] 641 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,120 [closing theme ends]