Ancient Aliens s16e07 Episode Script
Impossible Artifacts
NARRATOR: An ancient
hammer of an incredible age.
JEFF WILLIAMS: The
hammer was found in sandstone.
It takes about 140 million years
to form.
Who was here
140 million years ago?
NARRATOR: Strange
figures of unknown origin.
DOMINIC STEAVU: The Sanxingdui humanoid
statues have really striking features
that are unlike anything
that has ever been excavated.
NARRATOR: A sophisticated
computing device recovered from
a 2,000-year-old shipwreck.
DAVID CHILDRESS: They actually
said it was like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.
NARRATOR: Throughout the
world, artifacts have been found
that defy explanation.
Is it possible that they were
purposely left behind
by alien visitors?
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: All
these so-called impossible artifacts
that have been found worldwide
all of a sudden become
very possible if you
take into consideration
the extraterrestrial question.
NARRATOR: There is a
doorway in the universe
Beyond it is the promise
of truth.
It demands we question
everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right
before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
Cape Canaveral, Florida,
February 21, 2019.
SpaceX, a private
aerospace company,
launches a Falcon 9 rocket
carrying an Israeli spacecraft
called the Beresheetlander,
destined for the Moon.
Within the lander is
a digital time capsule
called the Arch Lunar Library,
containing over 30 million pages
of data,
including a full copy of
the English-language Wikipedia.
The Lunar Library is a
multi-billion-year artifact
that we designed to
send a message
of our civilization's history
to whoever inhabits
our solar system
in the deep future.
The Lunar Library contains
30 million pages
of human history, culture,
knowledge, art, science.
NARRATOR: On April 11th,
seven weeks after the launch,
the lander reaches
its destination.
But as it descends
towards the lunar surface,
Beresheet's gyroscope fails,
and the main engine shuts off,
causing the lander
to crash on the Moon.
While the lander is
likely destroyed,
its cargo, the Lunar Library,
was built to be
nearly indestructible,
and is thought to have survived.
SPIVACK: We used quartz
crystal. That is incredibly durable.
It can last 14 billion years.
There are 25 different layers.
The top four layers consist of
60,000 analog images
of pages of text, photos.
Below that are 21 layers
of digital information.
The analog layers teach
important information
to get the digital information
off the deeper layers.
Storing this record
of human history on the Moon
means that once If and when
our planet is destroyed,
something happens and all of our
records are wiped out,
there is something in a place
that has stood the test of time
for four billion years.
NARRATOR: In addition to
providing a record of humanity
that will survive for
potentially billions of years,
the project has another
less conventional motivation.
SPIVACK: We were
interested in retracing the steps
of potential ancient aliens.
If there were ancient aliens,
and they were preserving
a message for us to find,
what would they have done?
NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the mission is
a milestone event,
and one that is long overdue.
As far as they are concerned,
what humans have now undertaken
with the Lunar Library
is exactly what
extraterrestrials did on Earth
thousands of years ago.
The question is always,
well, where is the evidence?
Where is the evidence?
Well, all you have to do
is open your eyes.
It's everywhere!
NARRATOR: Throughout the world,
countless mysterious artifacts
have been discovered that defy
any conventional explanation.
And while skeptics may insist
that proof of alien visitation
could only come in the form
of some highly advanced
technology, ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
even the most mundane items
can serve as evidence.
In fact, in 1936,
a local couple in London, Texas
were walking along a creek
when they came upon one of the
most puzzling ancient artifacts
ever found a hammer.
WILLIAMS: It was a
prehistoric hammer, if you will,
with part of the handle
still in place
inside some very old rock.
And part of the handle
actually is starting
to go through a process
called "coalification."
It's where you have
inorganic material
and organic material
changing into coal.
Now, how old is this hammer?
The hammer itself was found
in the Travis formation.
It's a concretion of sandstone.
And it usually takes about
140 million years
for this to form.
Who was here
140 million years ago?
TSOUKALOS: Modern-day archaeology
suggests that we've only been around
for about 10,000 years,
so this falls into
the category of
out-of-place artifacts.
Around the world,
there are so-called
out-of-place artifacts
commonly referred to
as "OOPArts."
And those OOPArts
are challenging
mainstream archaeology because
they do not fit into
the accepted chronology of
what mainstream science says.
NARRATOR: Could a
140-million-year-old hammer
really have been discovered
in Texas?
Skeptics argue that the couple
who came upon this hammer
must have been mistaken
about where they found it.
But could there be so-called
impossible artifacts
whose authenticity is
beyond question?
Egypt, Valley of the Kings.
November, 1922.
British archaeologists
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon
discover what will prove to be
one of the most important finds
in the history of Egyptology:
the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
To this day, it is considered
the best preserved
and most intact tomb
ever discovered
in the Valley of the Kings.
And within it, a very puzzling
artifact was found.
WILLIAM HENRY: While
they're unpacking Tut's mummy,
they discover these
incredible daggers.
One of them had an iron blade
with a gold handle
and a crystal knob on it.
This is two centuries
before Egypt
is supposed to have had
the ability
to manipulate iron in this way.
In 2016, new tests were done
on this dagger,
and it was confirmed that
this is not just iron,
this is meteoric iron.
This iron came from the stars.
Anybody who has ever worked
with meteorites, even today,
will tell you it's
very difficult to do this
because of the
high nickel content.
It makes the metal very brittle.
And a technique known as
folding, or stacking,
has to be done
in order to strengthen it,
or else it'll crack
and fracture.
So the metal has to be heated up
to about 2,000 degrees,
and then folded and hammered,
folded and hammered.
But the dagger doesn't display
the telltale signs of folding,
which is usually the striations
that run through the metal.
So how was this blade made?
NARRATOR:
According to their texts,
the knowledge of how
to work with metal
was given to the Egyptians
by the god Ptah.
HENRY:
Ptah was the Egyptian god
of smithcraft and alchemy.
He came from the star Sirius.
He had green skin.
Is it possible that
this incredible dagger
has some sort of an
extraterrestrial connection?
NARRATOR: Could it be that
seemingly commonplace objects,
like an ancient dagger
and a hammerhead,
are extraterrestrial artifacts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes and suggest that
hidden away
in a museum storage room
is an even more compelling
out-of-place artifact
that is being purposely kept
out of public view.
Transylvania, Romania, 1974.
Workers digging a trench along
the bank of the Mures River
make an unexpected find
35 feet underground:
two massive bones belonging
to a woolly mammoth,
an animal that went extinct
40,000 years ago.
But even more surprising is that
embedded in the hardened sand
encasing the bones
is a mysterious metal object.
One that would have to be
at least as old
as the bones themselves.
When the metal is examined,
it is found to be
an aluminum alloy.
Except it can't be, because
humans did not learn to smelt
or fabricate aluminum until
the middle of the 19th century.
The Wedge of Aiud,
as it would become known,
is sent to the National Museum
of Transylvanian History.
And because it cannot
be explained,
it is quickly removed
from public view.
ANA GRUIA: The Wedge of Aiud
was not really on display
for a long time because
it's a puzzling artifact for us,
and that's why we don't really
know how to interpret it.
In my view, this object could
have just two solutions so far.
One, that it is
really not so old,
and it's a new object
strangely preserved, let's say.
And the second option is,
of course,
that it's not
of terrestrial origin.
TSOUKALOS:
How do you explain this?
It doesn't deserve to be
in an unmarked box.
Just because we don't know
how to explain something away
doesn't necessarily mean
we have to look the other way.
What is it?
Let's go figure it out.
NARRATOR: According to
ancient astronaut theorists,
there is one theory
regarding the Wedge of Aiud
that provides an intriguing
parallel to the Lunar Library
that crash-landed
on the Moon in 2019.
HENRY: An aeronautical
engineer who saw the Aiud Wedge
looked at it and said, "That's
a piece of a landing gear
for a vertical
take-off and landing aircraft."
And this is very interesting
in light of what we know about
the Lunar Library project,
which ultimately crashed
into the Moon.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Wedge of Aiud
is part of a spacecraft
that crashed on Earth
just like the Beresheetlander
that crashed on the Moon?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the question is no longer
"Do alien artifacts exist?"
but "What do they tell us?"
Could there be artifacts
that were purposely left
for someone to find,
much like our own Lunar Library?
NARRATOR:
Mysuru, Karnataka, India.
At the center of this sprawling
modern metropolis
is the Mysore Oriental
Research Institute,
home to some of the world's
most important ancient writings.
Here, scholars continue to study
the earliest known manuscripts
of the Ramayana,
the Mahabharata
and other Sanskrit texts
that date back
at least 4,000 years
and form the basis of Hinduism.
Roughly one billion people
still subscribe to the world's
oldest surviving religion,
which features a pantheon
of 333 million gods.
These otherworldly beings
are often depicted
wielding weapons
and traveling in flying craft.
CHILDRESS:
Hindu mythology really reads
like the wildest science fiction
of today.
It is filled with all kinds
of magic stones,
flying spaceships.
In traditional
ancient astronaut theory,
we're looking at mythology
and legends
of these gods coming down,
and reinterpreting
these legends and myths
as possible extraterrestrials
who are, in reality,
these gods of ancient times.
TSOUKALOUS:
In fact, ancient India,
their entire pantheon
of gods is based
exclusively on a cosmic origin
that they arrived
from deep space.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the foundational texts of Hinduism
provide a record of
extraterrestrial intervention
on Earth thousands of years ago?
For the Hindu faithful,
these stories are not mythology,
but history, and ancient
astronaut theorists suggest
incredible artifacts exist
to support this notion.
In the Mahabharata,
it is described
that the god Krishna rules
over a kingdom called Dwarka
that sank into the ocean
after being attacked
by a flying machine
with incredible weapons.
In 1983, 4,000 years
after the text was written,
incredible artifacts
of an ancient city
were found beneath the ocean,
in the exact location
that Dwarka was supposed
to have existed.
CHILDRESS: Indian
archaeologists, for years, thought
it was just a mythical city,
until they started finding
these underwater ruins
off of Gujarat,
and realized that they were
the ruins of Dwarka.
NARRATOR:
Another ancient Sanskrit story
tells that a great deluge
was sent by the god Indra
to destroy what was described
as the Seven Pagodas
of Mahabalipuram
along India's southeast coast.
Today, only one ancient pagoda
stands in Mahabalipuram,
and just as in the case
of Dwarka,
most scholars dismissed
the story as myth.
17th-century Dutch traders
recorded this legend.
And modern archaeologists,
modern scientists,
have generally dismissed it.
NARRATOR:
But then, on December 26, 2004,
a massive tsunami caused water
levels to temporarily drop,
exposing a number
of mysterious-looking formations
along the shoreline.
Upon closer inspection,
they were found to be
man-made structures,
and quite possibly the ruins
of the lost pagodas
of Mahabalipuram.
SCHOCH: It ties in with
the legends and myths
of these ancient temples
having been inundated
by the ocean, that's number one.
And number two,
we now have evidence
that there's more
than one temple.
We don't have all six yet,
but I suspect
that the legends may be correct,
and there really are
six more temples
out there to be found.
NARRATOR: Could the discovery
of these artifacts provide evidence
that the Sanskrit texts
really are historical accounts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest that the most
astounding evidence of all
corroborates a prominent
story of the Ramayana,
an epic poem about the god Rama
and the courtship
of his wife Sita.
According to the text,
Sita was kidnapped
and taken to an island
off the southern tip of India,
known today as Sri Lanka.
Rama raised an army
to rescue her,
but had to overcome
a major obstacle.
To get to his wife,
Rama and his army
must cross 30 miles
of open ocean.
DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Lanka was an
island, and there was no way to get there.
There were no boats, there were
no ships to go there.
And the challenge is,
how do you build a bridge,
you know, so long?
NARRATOR:
According to the Ramayana,
magical construction techniques
were used
to build a bridge to Lanka.
CHILDRESS:
Some of the interesting details
of the building
of Rama's Bridge is that
they were writing Rama's name
on these stones,
and that would magically
levitate the stones.
And some of these were
very big stones, too.
NARRATOR: As with many
of the ancient Sanskrit stories,
it reads like science fiction.
But incredibly, modern
satellite imagery has revealed
a 30-mile-long barrier of rocks
and sand that, in fact,
connects the southern tip
of India to Sri Lanka.
CHILDRESS: For thousands
of years, people just thought,
"Okay, this is just a story,"
but with satellite photos,
we can see this bridge.
Rama's bridge to Sri Lanka
is real.
And you have to ask yourself,
was it built artificially,
uh, by levitating stones
and putting them there?
That's what the Ramayana
tells us.
SHIMKHADA:
According to the mythology,
you know, Rama lived
around 6,000 years ago.
And the interesting fact
that, uh, some geologists
carbon-date the rocks
on the bottom
approximately dating
around the same time.
So that kind of corroborates
whether or not this story
is connected to the mythology,
because the age of Rama
is around that period.
NARRATOR: While skeptics
suggest that Rama's Bridge
is simply a natural formation,
in 2018, the Indian government
voted to protect it
by canceling plans
to cut a shipping lane
through the middle
of the structure.
SHIMKHADA: In order
to get to Sri Lanka today,
ships have to go around,
could not be, you know,
maneuvered through
the rocky area,
so they wanted to cut down
the hours it takes.
It would cut down the fuel,
it will be extremely economical.
But officials
from the Indian government
and religious groups
believe this is something,
you know, that was built
by god Rama,
that that should not
be destroyed,
that should not be desecrated.
NARRATOR:
Do the incredible stories
of the Ramayana
support the notion
that Rama's Bridge
is an alien artifact?
But if artifacts
like the London Hammer,
King Tut's dagger,
the Wedge of Aiud
and Rama's Bridge
are of extraterrestrial origin,
were they purposely left
for future generations of humans
to discover?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest there
may be far more
to these artifacts
than meets the eye.
NARRATOR:
Sichuan, China, 1986.
Archaeologists unearth relics
of a mysterious civilization
that flourished 3,000 years ago
in southern China.
Until the surprise discovery,
this civilization
was completely unknown
to archaeologists.
DOMINIC STEAVU:
Excavation of Sanxingdui
revealed a very rich
treasure trove
of ritual objects at the site,
and these were extremely,
uh, refined.
And, especially for the time,
they revealed
very advanced knowledge
of metalworking,
and engineering as well.
It was unlike anything that has
ever been unearthed in China.
NARRATOR: Based on
radiocarbon-dating of the artifacts,
archaeologists say
they were created
by a civilization that emerged
in China around 1700 BC.
This mysterious culture
is believed to have been part
of the ancient kingdom of Shu
and has been dubbed
the "Sanxingdui."
Further excavation
of the site suggests
the Sanxingdui thrived
for six centuries
before suddenly
and mysteriously disappearing.
JULIE LEE: One of the
things I find most interesting
about the Sanxingdui culture
is that no one wrote
about the Sanxingdui culture,
and the Sanxingdui culture
didn't leave
any writing about themselves
for us to find out
more about them.
So to me, that they were able
to slip under the radar
for so long is one of the most
incredible stories
about the Sanxingdui culture.
NARRATOR:
But buried among the marble
and jade artifacts,
researchers discovered
something strange:
hundreds of humanoid figurines
that have an unusual appearance.
STEAVU:
The Sanxingdui humanoid statues
have what seems to be
a mask on the face,
and protruding eyes
or beams, almost,
shooting out of the eyes.
And as to what exactly
these protruding beams
emerging from these goggle-like,
uh, masks represent
or why these humanoid
figures would have
such really striking features
that are unlike anything
that has ever been excavated.
TSOUKALOS:
Chinese archaeologists admit
that whatever or whoever
is represented here,
it's not the Chinese people.
NARRATOR:
Archaeologists believe
the masks depict a strange
figure named Cancong,
the founder of the Shu kingdom.
According to ancient
Chinese chronicles,
Cancong had protruding eyes
and ruled for more
than a thousand years.
While scholars
consider Cancong mythical,
the striking appearance
of the masks
caused the Chinese government
to openly wonder
if it had
an otherworldly inspiration.
TSOUKALOS:
On November 1, 2007,
the official press agency
of China asked the question
whether or not
what we're looking at here
are ancestors
or in fact extraterrestrials.
And my question is, "What if
what we have here is both?"
I am of the opinion
that whatever or whoever
is represented in
these Sanxingdui statues
is a representation
of the visitors.
NARRATOR:
Curiously, the Sanxingdui
are just one of many
ancient cultures
that created ceremonial masks
of strange,
perhaps otherworldly beings.
The Aztecs of Central America,
the Dogon of West Africa,
the Asaro tribe
of Papua New Guinea,
the Native Hawaiians,
and the Selk'nam
of the southernmost parts
of South America all made masks
to honor the sky gods.
CHILDRESS:
When we look at these masks,
as well as the unusual masks
from the Sanxingdui culture
in China,
we have to wonder,
are we looking at the face
of an extraterrestrial?
NARRATOR:
Could these artifacts
be commemorating alien
visitation throughout the world?
While mainstream scholars argue
that they are simply
imaginative representations
of fictional gods,
ancient astronaut theorists say
other evidence exists to suggest
that these were real beings
witnessed by our ancestors.
What you can find
with many of these depictions
of these ancient gods
is they're depicted
inside flying animals
or flying machines.
In Guatemala,
we have a giant flying turtle,
and you have the helmet,
which is the turtle's head.
The entire body
is aerodynamically fashioned.
And there's some
modern-day fighter pilot glasses
or goggles.
There are multiple statues
all throughout India
that depict Buddha,
sitting on top what looks
like a flying lotus flower
with smoke and fire coming out.
In present-day Mexico,
in La Venta,
we have this plumed serpent,
the snake that appears
to be floating in the sky,
and it has a helmet
for a person as a head,
and then down below,
you actually see a person
sitting inside this weird snake,
this flying snake.
The sarcophagus lid that we can
find in Palenque, Mexico
has a carving that looks
as if Pakal is seated
in some sort of
a rocket vehicle.
That right there
is the smoking gun.
NARRATOR: Ancient carvings
that resemble flying machines,
and strange masks depicting
otherworldly beings
found all across the globe.
Do these artifacts provide
a physical record
of extraterrestrial visitation?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
these artifacts have deeper
secrets still to reveal.
And an important clue
as to what really happened
here on Earth
in the distant past
can be found by examining one
of the most mysterious objects
ever discovered,
the Antikythera device.
NARRATOR:
The Aegean Sea, April 1900.
Off the coast of the small
Greek island of Antikythera,
sponge divers discover
an ancient shipwreck
150 feet beneath the surface.
Over the next two years,
dozens of artifacts
are recovered from the wreckage,
including the remains
of a coral-encrusted
wooden and bronze box
that looks like a clock.
Archaeologists date it
to the second century BC,
but are unable
to determine what it is
or what purpose it served.
RIC RADER: So when the
shipwreck is first discovered,
nobody made much of this device.
The ship had been full of much
more interesting material
that was mined out first.
It didn't exert much fascination
until people
started looking
a lot more closely.
NARRATOR:
For almost 60 years,
the artifact sat in storage
at the National Museum
of Archaeology in Athens.
But in 1951,
physicist
Derek John de Solla Price
began a careful examination
of the box
and found something astonishing.
It contains the workings
of a highly sophisticated
mechanical device.
RADAR: The Antikythera
device is what looks to be
a complex machine of gears,
cranks and levers.
That's the best way
to describe what it is.
If you were to look at it,
it looks like a box.
Wooden on the outside
with a crank.
And what the crank
would've done is moved
a series of levers and gears
around on the inside.
What we can tell
from the inscriptions on it,
and what we can tell from
the way the device works is that
it was a very mathematically
sophisticated machine
for showing, even predicting,
where the stars,
the Sun, the planets
and the Moon
were all going to be
on a particular date
that you were looking for.
Really, for several
thousand years ago,
this is a remarkably
Promethean invention
to put together this machine
in order to give
the user of the box, in a sense,
a vision of the future.
It's absolutely astounding.
And you could see
how this would be useful
if you were making
a trip on a ship,
or if you were trying to plan
your agricultural output.
NARRATOR:
It is also believed
that the Antikythera device
may have had
an astrological purpose.
JASON MARTELL:
The Antikythera mechanism
was a numerological device
that would help them know
their planet sign, what day
and month they were born on,
and how this information applied
to their life.
Numerological information
was passed down
as sacred knowledge
from various cultures.
To know when to make
certain decisions.
NARRATOR: To operate it,
a user would enter information
into the mechanism using
the complex system of gears
and levers,
and then turn the crank
to determine specific
astronomical positions.
In June 1959,
Price published his findings
in the journal
Scientific American,
and described
the Antikythera mechanism
as an "ancient Greek computer."
CHILDRESS: He realized
that it was a sophisticated
computer that could dial up
astronomical configurations.
And, at the time,
the American scientists
were so shocked
at how advanced this device was.
And they actually said
that discovering
the Antikythera device
was like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.
NARRATOR: Could a 2,000-year-old
machine from ancient Greece
upend the accepted history
of modern astronomy?
According to ancient astronaut
theorists,
this seemingly impossible
artifact is yet
another example
of extraterrestrial visitation.
Clearly this thing existed
at a time when computers,
as far as we know it,
didn't exist.
Am I proposing that
that machine itself
was created by
extraterrestrials?
Absolutely not.
However, the knowledge
with which this thing was built
was given to the Greeks by
potential extraterrestrial
visitors.
NARRATOR: If the Antikythera
device was made based on knowledge
gleaned from extraterrestrial
visitors,
might there be more to it than
scientists have yet discovered?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe artifacts like this
were intended to one day
be found,
much like the Lunar Library
that humans left on the Moon.
And that recent technological
advancements will soon reveal
that they have much more to
tell us than meets the eye.
NARRATOR: Zurich,
Switzerland. December, 2019.
Scientists Yaniv Erlich
and Robert Grass announce
an incredible technological
breakthrough.
One that takes
the unassuming form
of a small plastic bunny.
This seemingly mundane object
hides an incredible secret.
Just like a living creature,
the bunny has its own DNA.
But how?
By binding negatively charged
molecules of biological DNA
with positively charged
particles or protective silica,
Erlich and Grass were able
to create the world's first
synthetic DNA.
While biological DNA is
relatively fragile,
this synthetic DNA can last
potentially for eons.
In the case of the bunny,
the scientists encoded
the digital files
used to create
the 3D-printed object
into the plastic.
With even just a tiny snippet,
they can decode
the information inside,
and print a new copy
of the bunny,
which will carry the same
synthetic DNA.
What makes this breakthrough
particularly significant
is the fact that
it has the ability
to store massive amounts
of data.
Digital computers that you have
in your cell phone
and everywhere
in our world today
deals with digital
information.
Zeros and ones, zeros and ones.
And that's how it makes
calculations.
Now, Mother Nature is
more sophisticated.
On a DNA molecule,
Mother Nature computes
in base four.
A, T, C, G, rather than
zero, one, zero, one, zero, one.
And we can actually compute
by hijacking
this base four mechanism
that Mother Nature has created,
and putting our programming on
A, T, C, G, A, T, C, G.
NARRATOR: Experts say that
once this technique is scaled up,
massive amounts of data can be
stored in any object,
retrieved and replicated,
presumably forever.
TEITEL: These are great
alternatives of storing data
because they don't need any
energy for storage.
They can just sit on a shelf
and not degrade.
SPIVACK: Once you
actually encode data into DNA,
it's very cheap to replicate.
So you can put petabytes of data
into a droplet of DNA,
and then make a billion copies
of it very inexpensively.
And if you have
a redundancy strategy,
lots of copies is a good thing.
DNA is also very compact.
The amount of space it takes
to store the Wikipedia
is just a few drops of liquid,
and those could
actually just be embedded
into fabric or paper
and take up almost no space.
NARRATOR:
Although DNA data storage
is still in its infancy,
ancient astronaut theorists
believe it presents
an intriguing possibility.
Is it possible
that many out-of-place artifacts
discovered around the world
have much more to offer
than what meets the eye?
Might they contain information
within them
about whatever civilization
left them behind?
There are lots
of natural materials
that conduct and can contain
information today:
crystals,
various types of stones,
even living organisms.
So, is it possible
that extraterrestrials
have embedded
ancient, sacred knowledge
in some type of material
that, if we were able
to extract this information,
there could be a wealth
of information ready,
waiting at our fingertips?
NARRATOR:
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that by examining
out-of-place artifacts,
we might discover clues
as to what information
is contained within them
and how to access it.
As support for this notion,
they point to the artifacts
that humanity
recently sent to the Moon.
When the Arch Mission Foundation
created the Lunar Library,
they included analog layers
that could be read
without a computer.
SPIVACK: The idea of the Lunar
Library was to make it something
which recipients who find it
in millions to billions of years
could see
that it has data on it.
And the analog layers teach
everything you need to know
to build a computer
and get the digital information
off the deeper layers.
By trying to store information
for thousands
or millions of years,
you end up going
to the same solutions
that the hypothetical
ancient aliens
may have also figured out
how to use.
CHILDRESS:
So, we have to ask ourself
if these artifacts
didn't, perhaps,
have a technological purpose
that we still do not understand
and information
could be extracted from them.
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that extraterrestrials
left artifacts on Earth
that are embedded
with information,
much like scientists today
are encoding synthetic DNA
into inanimate objects?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the technology
of DNA data storage
may lead to an even more
profound revelation
and the discovery
of the most incredible
alien artifacts of all.
NARRATOR:
A mysterious aluminum wedge
dated to 40,000 years ago.
A bizarre mask said to depict
a king who ruled for centuries.
A highly sophisticated
computing device
found aboard
an ancient Greek shipwreck.
Archaeologists have unearthed
so-called "impossible artifacts"
all over the world.
But ancient astronaut
theorists ask
what if the most incredible
alien artifact
is right before our eyes?
TSOUKALOS:
We've always suggested
that the ultimate proof
for the ancient astronaut theory
will not happen
because we'll discover
a buried spaceship somewhere
or a ray gun in a tomb
but rather
that the ultimate proof
of this ultimate quest
will be found
inside of our own DNA.
KAKU:
And believe it or not,
I have colleagues of mine
looking for secret messages
in our DNA.
And some of my friends take this
to the nth degree and say,
"Maybe aliens from outer space
have left us a message."
Maybe there's a message there
hidden by an advanced
civilization and that says,
"Here we are, folks.
"We created you.
"We are your great-great-
great-great-great grandparents,
"and to prove it,
we left a code for you
in your DNA."
[chuckles]
Well, we can't rule it out.
SPIVACK: What if
we're all walking libraries
and we don't even know it?
What if each of us,
somewhere in our genome,
contains a huge library
from an ancient civilization
that we're not aware of today?
If there's a way
to encode knowledge in DNA,
maybe we have it
in our own bodies today
and don't even know it.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the ultimate alien artifacts
are humans?
And if extraterrestrials
are using
DNA to store data,
could there be
a wealth of information
embedded
in out-of-place artifacts
that exist all over the world,
just waiting to be discovered?
HENRY:
We're in the midst
of a biotechnological
revolution.
Scientists now have
in their hands
the very same
or similar genetic tools
that ancient myths and legends
tell us the gods possessed
when they fashioned
the human body.
We can only speculate
on what the impact
of this is going to be,
but I think deep in our core
that something would awaken
in our DNA itself.
I think we're preprogrammed
to find our origins.
That's what ancient astronaut
theory is all about.
We're trying to find
where do we come from.
And this is gonna have an effect
that I think none of us
can even calculate.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that an incredible history
of alien intervention
on planet Earth
has been right in front of us
for thousands of years,
perhaps even embedded
within our own DNA?
Were artifacts
intentionally left
for future humans to discover
and ultimately decipher
once we developed
the technology to do so?
Perhaps humanity
has finally reached an age
where we can begin to recognize
the ancient time capsules
that exist all around us
and possibly even within us.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY
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hammer of an incredible age.
JEFF WILLIAMS: The
hammer was found in sandstone.
It takes about 140 million years
to form.
Who was here
140 million years ago?
NARRATOR: Strange
figures of unknown origin.
DOMINIC STEAVU: The Sanxingdui humanoid
statues have really striking features
that are unlike anything
that has ever been excavated.
NARRATOR: A sophisticated
computing device recovered from
a 2,000-year-old shipwreck.
DAVID CHILDRESS: They actually
said it was like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.
NARRATOR: Throughout the
world, artifacts have been found
that defy explanation.
Is it possible that they were
purposely left behind
by alien visitors?
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: All
these so-called impossible artifacts
that have been found worldwide
all of a sudden become
very possible if you
take into consideration
the extraterrestrial question.
NARRATOR: There is a
doorway in the universe
Beyond it is the promise
of truth.
It demands we question
everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right
before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
Cape Canaveral, Florida,
February 21, 2019.
SpaceX, a private
aerospace company,
launches a Falcon 9 rocket
carrying an Israeli spacecraft
called the Beresheetlander,
destined for the Moon.
Within the lander is
a digital time capsule
called the Arch Lunar Library,
containing over 30 million pages
of data,
including a full copy of
the English-language Wikipedia.
The Lunar Library is a
multi-billion-year artifact
that we designed to
send a message
of our civilization's history
to whoever inhabits
our solar system
in the deep future.
The Lunar Library contains
30 million pages
of human history, culture,
knowledge, art, science.
NARRATOR: On April 11th,
seven weeks after the launch,
the lander reaches
its destination.
But as it descends
towards the lunar surface,
Beresheet's gyroscope fails,
and the main engine shuts off,
causing the lander
to crash on the Moon.
While the lander is
likely destroyed,
its cargo, the Lunar Library,
was built to be
nearly indestructible,
and is thought to have survived.
SPIVACK: We used quartz
crystal. That is incredibly durable.
It can last 14 billion years.
There are 25 different layers.
The top four layers consist of
60,000 analog images
of pages of text, photos.
Below that are 21 layers
of digital information.
The analog layers teach
important information
to get the digital information
off the deeper layers.
Storing this record
of human history on the Moon
means that once If and when
our planet is destroyed,
something happens and all of our
records are wiped out,
there is something in a place
that has stood the test of time
for four billion years.
NARRATOR: In addition to
providing a record of humanity
that will survive for
potentially billions of years,
the project has another
less conventional motivation.
SPIVACK: We were
interested in retracing the steps
of potential ancient aliens.
If there were ancient aliens,
and they were preserving
a message for us to find,
what would they have done?
NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the mission is
a milestone event,
and one that is long overdue.
As far as they are concerned,
what humans have now undertaken
with the Lunar Library
is exactly what
extraterrestrials did on Earth
thousands of years ago.
The question is always,
well, where is the evidence?
Where is the evidence?
Well, all you have to do
is open your eyes.
It's everywhere!
NARRATOR: Throughout the world,
countless mysterious artifacts
have been discovered that defy
any conventional explanation.
And while skeptics may insist
that proof of alien visitation
could only come in the form
of some highly advanced
technology, ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
even the most mundane items
can serve as evidence.
In fact, in 1936,
a local couple in London, Texas
were walking along a creek
when they came upon one of the
most puzzling ancient artifacts
ever found a hammer.
WILLIAMS: It was a
prehistoric hammer, if you will,
with part of the handle
still in place
inside some very old rock.
And part of the handle
actually is starting
to go through a process
called "coalification."
It's where you have
inorganic material
and organic material
changing into coal.
Now, how old is this hammer?
The hammer itself was found
in the Travis formation.
It's a concretion of sandstone.
And it usually takes about
140 million years
for this to form.
Who was here
140 million years ago?
TSOUKALOS: Modern-day archaeology
suggests that we've only been around
for about 10,000 years,
so this falls into
the category of
out-of-place artifacts.
Around the world,
there are so-called
out-of-place artifacts
commonly referred to
as "OOPArts."
And those OOPArts
are challenging
mainstream archaeology because
they do not fit into
the accepted chronology of
what mainstream science says.
NARRATOR: Could a
140-million-year-old hammer
really have been discovered
in Texas?
Skeptics argue that the couple
who came upon this hammer
must have been mistaken
about where they found it.
But could there be so-called
impossible artifacts
whose authenticity is
beyond question?
Egypt, Valley of the Kings.
November, 1922.
British archaeologists
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon
discover what will prove to be
one of the most important finds
in the history of Egyptology:
the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
To this day, it is considered
the best preserved
and most intact tomb
ever discovered
in the Valley of the Kings.
And within it, a very puzzling
artifact was found.
WILLIAM HENRY: While
they're unpacking Tut's mummy,
they discover these
incredible daggers.
One of them had an iron blade
with a gold handle
and a crystal knob on it.
This is two centuries
before Egypt
is supposed to have had
the ability
to manipulate iron in this way.
In 2016, new tests were done
on this dagger,
and it was confirmed that
this is not just iron,
this is meteoric iron.
This iron came from the stars.
Anybody who has ever worked
with meteorites, even today,
will tell you it's
very difficult to do this
because of the
high nickel content.
It makes the metal very brittle.
And a technique known as
folding, or stacking,
has to be done
in order to strengthen it,
or else it'll crack
and fracture.
So the metal has to be heated up
to about 2,000 degrees,
and then folded and hammered,
folded and hammered.
But the dagger doesn't display
the telltale signs of folding,
which is usually the striations
that run through the metal.
So how was this blade made?
NARRATOR:
According to their texts,
the knowledge of how
to work with metal
was given to the Egyptians
by the god Ptah.
HENRY:
Ptah was the Egyptian god
of smithcraft and alchemy.
He came from the star Sirius.
He had green skin.
Is it possible that
this incredible dagger
has some sort of an
extraterrestrial connection?
NARRATOR: Could it be that
seemingly commonplace objects,
like an ancient dagger
and a hammerhead,
are extraterrestrial artifacts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes and suggest that
hidden away
in a museum storage room
is an even more compelling
out-of-place artifact
that is being purposely kept
out of public view.
Transylvania, Romania, 1974.
Workers digging a trench along
the bank of the Mures River
make an unexpected find
35 feet underground:
two massive bones belonging
to a woolly mammoth,
an animal that went extinct
40,000 years ago.
But even more surprising is that
embedded in the hardened sand
encasing the bones
is a mysterious metal object.
One that would have to be
at least as old
as the bones themselves.
When the metal is examined,
it is found to be
an aluminum alloy.
Except it can't be, because
humans did not learn to smelt
or fabricate aluminum until
the middle of the 19th century.
The Wedge of Aiud,
as it would become known,
is sent to the National Museum
of Transylvanian History.
And because it cannot
be explained,
it is quickly removed
from public view.
ANA GRUIA: The Wedge of Aiud
was not really on display
for a long time because
it's a puzzling artifact for us,
and that's why we don't really
know how to interpret it.
In my view, this object could
have just two solutions so far.
One, that it is
really not so old,
and it's a new object
strangely preserved, let's say.
And the second option is,
of course,
that it's not
of terrestrial origin.
TSOUKALOS:
How do you explain this?
It doesn't deserve to be
in an unmarked box.
Just because we don't know
how to explain something away
doesn't necessarily mean
we have to look the other way.
What is it?
Let's go figure it out.
NARRATOR: According to
ancient astronaut theorists,
there is one theory
regarding the Wedge of Aiud
that provides an intriguing
parallel to the Lunar Library
that crash-landed
on the Moon in 2019.
HENRY: An aeronautical
engineer who saw the Aiud Wedge
looked at it and said, "That's
a piece of a landing gear
for a vertical
take-off and landing aircraft."
And this is very interesting
in light of what we know about
the Lunar Library project,
which ultimately crashed
into the Moon.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Wedge of Aiud
is part of a spacecraft
that crashed on Earth
just like the Beresheetlander
that crashed on the Moon?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the question is no longer
"Do alien artifacts exist?"
but "What do they tell us?"
Could there be artifacts
that were purposely left
for someone to find,
much like our own Lunar Library?
NARRATOR:
Mysuru, Karnataka, India.
At the center of this sprawling
modern metropolis
is the Mysore Oriental
Research Institute,
home to some of the world's
most important ancient writings.
Here, scholars continue to study
the earliest known manuscripts
of the Ramayana,
the Mahabharata
and other Sanskrit texts
that date back
at least 4,000 years
and form the basis of Hinduism.
Roughly one billion people
still subscribe to the world's
oldest surviving religion,
which features a pantheon
of 333 million gods.
These otherworldly beings
are often depicted
wielding weapons
and traveling in flying craft.
CHILDRESS:
Hindu mythology really reads
like the wildest science fiction
of today.
It is filled with all kinds
of magic stones,
flying spaceships.
In traditional
ancient astronaut theory,
we're looking at mythology
and legends
of these gods coming down,
and reinterpreting
these legends and myths
as possible extraterrestrials
who are, in reality,
these gods of ancient times.
TSOUKALOUS:
In fact, ancient India,
their entire pantheon
of gods is based
exclusively on a cosmic origin
that they arrived
from deep space.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the foundational texts of Hinduism
provide a record of
extraterrestrial intervention
on Earth thousands of years ago?
For the Hindu faithful,
these stories are not mythology,
but history, and ancient
astronaut theorists suggest
incredible artifacts exist
to support this notion.
In the Mahabharata,
it is described
that the god Krishna rules
over a kingdom called Dwarka
that sank into the ocean
after being attacked
by a flying machine
with incredible weapons.
In 1983, 4,000 years
after the text was written,
incredible artifacts
of an ancient city
were found beneath the ocean,
in the exact location
that Dwarka was supposed
to have existed.
CHILDRESS: Indian
archaeologists, for years, thought
it was just a mythical city,
until they started finding
these underwater ruins
off of Gujarat,
and realized that they were
the ruins of Dwarka.
NARRATOR:
Another ancient Sanskrit story
tells that a great deluge
was sent by the god Indra
to destroy what was described
as the Seven Pagodas
of Mahabalipuram
along India's southeast coast.
Today, only one ancient pagoda
stands in Mahabalipuram,
and just as in the case
of Dwarka,
most scholars dismissed
the story as myth.
17th-century Dutch traders
recorded this legend.
And modern archaeologists,
modern scientists,
have generally dismissed it.
NARRATOR:
But then, on December 26, 2004,
a massive tsunami caused water
levels to temporarily drop,
exposing a number
of mysterious-looking formations
along the shoreline.
Upon closer inspection,
they were found to be
man-made structures,
and quite possibly the ruins
of the lost pagodas
of Mahabalipuram.
SCHOCH: It ties in with
the legends and myths
of these ancient temples
having been inundated
by the ocean, that's number one.
And number two,
we now have evidence
that there's more
than one temple.
We don't have all six yet,
but I suspect
that the legends may be correct,
and there really are
six more temples
out there to be found.
NARRATOR: Could the discovery
of these artifacts provide evidence
that the Sanskrit texts
really are historical accounts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest that the most
astounding evidence of all
corroborates a prominent
story of the Ramayana,
an epic poem about the god Rama
and the courtship
of his wife Sita.
According to the text,
Sita was kidnapped
and taken to an island
off the southern tip of India,
known today as Sri Lanka.
Rama raised an army
to rescue her,
but had to overcome
a major obstacle.
To get to his wife,
Rama and his army
must cross 30 miles
of open ocean.
DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Lanka was an
island, and there was no way to get there.
There were no boats, there were
no ships to go there.
And the challenge is,
how do you build a bridge,
you know, so long?
NARRATOR:
According to the Ramayana,
magical construction techniques
were used
to build a bridge to Lanka.
CHILDRESS:
Some of the interesting details
of the building
of Rama's Bridge is that
they were writing Rama's name
on these stones,
and that would magically
levitate the stones.
And some of these were
very big stones, too.
NARRATOR: As with many
of the ancient Sanskrit stories,
it reads like science fiction.
But incredibly, modern
satellite imagery has revealed
a 30-mile-long barrier of rocks
and sand that, in fact,
connects the southern tip
of India to Sri Lanka.
CHILDRESS: For thousands
of years, people just thought,
"Okay, this is just a story,"
but with satellite photos,
we can see this bridge.
Rama's bridge to Sri Lanka
is real.
And you have to ask yourself,
was it built artificially,
uh, by levitating stones
and putting them there?
That's what the Ramayana
tells us.
SHIMKHADA:
According to the mythology,
you know, Rama lived
around 6,000 years ago.
And the interesting fact
that, uh, some geologists
carbon-date the rocks
on the bottom
approximately dating
around the same time.
So that kind of corroborates
whether or not this story
is connected to the mythology,
because the age of Rama
is around that period.
NARRATOR: While skeptics
suggest that Rama's Bridge
is simply a natural formation,
in 2018, the Indian government
voted to protect it
by canceling plans
to cut a shipping lane
through the middle
of the structure.
SHIMKHADA: In order
to get to Sri Lanka today,
ships have to go around,
could not be, you know,
maneuvered through
the rocky area,
so they wanted to cut down
the hours it takes.
It would cut down the fuel,
it will be extremely economical.
But officials
from the Indian government
and religious groups
believe this is something,
you know, that was built
by god Rama,
that that should not
be destroyed,
that should not be desecrated.
NARRATOR:
Do the incredible stories
of the Ramayana
support the notion
that Rama's Bridge
is an alien artifact?
But if artifacts
like the London Hammer,
King Tut's dagger,
the Wedge of Aiud
and Rama's Bridge
are of extraterrestrial origin,
were they purposely left
for future generations of humans
to discover?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest there
may be far more
to these artifacts
than meets the eye.
NARRATOR:
Sichuan, China, 1986.
Archaeologists unearth relics
of a mysterious civilization
that flourished 3,000 years ago
in southern China.
Until the surprise discovery,
this civilization
was completely unknown
to archaeologists.
DOMINIC STEAVU:
Excavation of Sanxingdui
revealed a very rich
treasure trove
of ritual objects at the site,
and these were extremely,
uh, refined.
And, especially for the time,
they revealed
very advanced knowledge
of metalworking,
and engineering as well.
It was unlike anything that has
ever been unearthed in China.
NARRATOR: Based on
radiocarbon-dating of the artifacts,
archaeologists say
they were created
by a civilization that emerged
in China around 1700 BC.
This mysterious culture
is believed to have been part
of the ancient kingdom of Shu
and has been dubbed
the "Sanxingdui."
Further excavation
of the site suggests
the Sanxingdui thrived
for six centuries
before suddenly
and mysteriously disappearing.
JULIE LEE: One of the
things I find most interesting
about the Sanxingdui culture
is that no one wrote
about the Sanxingdui culture,
and the Sanxingdui culture
didn't leave
any writing about themselves
for us to find out
more about them.
So to me, that they were able
to slip under the radar
for so long is one of the most
incredible stories
about the Sanxingdui culture.
NARRATOR:
But buried among the marble
and jade artifacts,
researchers discovered
something strange:
hundreds of humanoid figurines
that have an unusual appearance.
STEAVU:
The Sanxingdui humanoid statues
have what seems to be
a mask on the face,
and protruding eyes
or beams, almost,
shooting out of the eyes.
And as to what exactly
these protruding beams
emerging from these goggle-like,
uh, masks represent
or why these humanoid
figures would have
such really striking features
that are unlike anything
that has ever been excavated.
TSOUKALOS:
Chinese archaeologists admit
that whatever or whoever
is represented here,
it's not the Chinese people.
NARRATOR:
Archaeologists believe
the masks depict a strange
figure named Cancong,
the founder of the Shu kingdom.
According to ancient
Chinese chronicles,
Cancong had protruding eyes
and ruled for more
than a thousand years.
While scholars
consider Cancong mythical,
the striking appearance
of the masks
caused the Chinese government
to openly wonder
if it had
an otherworldly inspiration.
TSOUKALOS:
On November 1, 2007,
the official press agency
of China asked the question
whether or not
what we're looking at here
are ancestors
or in fact extraterrestrials.
And my question is, "What if
what we have here is both?"
I am of the opinion
that whatever or whoever
is represented in
these Sanxingdui statues
is a representation
of the visitors.
NARRATOR:
Curiously, the Sanxingdui
are just one of many
ancient cultures
that created ceremonial masks
of strange,
perhaps otherworldly beings.
The Aztecs of Central America,
the Dogon of West Africa,
the Asaro tribe
of Papua New Guinea,
the Native Hawaiians,
and the Selk'nam
of the southernmost parts
of South America all made masks
to honor the sky gods.
CHILDRESS:
When we look at these masks,
as well as the unusual masks
from the Sanxingdui culture
in China,
we have to wonder,
are we looking at the face
of an extraterrestrial?
NARRATOR:
Could these artifacts
be commemorating alien
visitation throughout the world?
While mainstream scholars argue
that they are simply
imaginative representations
of fictional gods,
ancient astronaut theorists say
other evidence exists to suggest
that these were real beings
witnessed by our ancestors.
What you can find
with many of these depictions
of these ancient gods
is they're depicted
inside flying animals
or flying machines.
In Guatemala,
we have a giant flying turtle,
and you have the helmet,
which is the turtle's head.
The entire body
is aerodynamically fashioned.
And there's some
modern-day fighter pilot glasses
or goggles.
There are multiple statues
all throughout India
that depict Buddha,
sitting on top what looks
like a flying lotus flower
with smoke and fire coming out.
In present-day Mexico,
in La Venta,
we have this plumed serpent,
the snake that appears
to be floating in the sky,
and it has a helmet
for a person as a head,
and then down below,
you actually see a person
sitting inside this weird snake,
this flying snake.
The sarcophagus lid that we can
find in Palenque, Mexico
has a carving that looks
as if Pakal is seated
in some sort of
a rocket vehicle.
That right there
is the smoking gun.
NARRATOR: Ancient carvings
that resemble flying machines,
and strange masks depicting
otherworldly beings
found all across the globe.
Do these artifacts provide
a physical record
of extraterrestrial visitation?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
these artifacts have deeper
secrets still to reveal.
And an important clue
as to what really happened
here on Earth
in the distant past
can be found by examining one
of the most mysterious objects
ever discovered,
the Antikythera device.
NARRATOR:
The Aegean Sea, April 1900.
Off the coast of the small
Greek island of Antikythera,
sponge divers discover
an ancient shipwreck
150 feet beneath the surface.
Over the next two years,
dozens of artifacts
are recovered from the wreckage,
including the remains
of a coral-encrusted
wooden and bronze box
that looks like a clock.
Archaeologists date it
to the second century BC,
but are unable
to determine what it is
or what purpose it served.
RIC RADER: So when the
shipwreck is first discovered,
nobody made much of this device.
The ship had been full of much
more interesting material
that was mined out first.
It didn't exert much fascination
until people
started looking
a lot more closely.
NARRATOR:
For almost 60 years,
the artifact sat in storage
at the National Museum
of Archaeology in Athens.
But in 1951,
physicist
Derek John de Solla Price
began a careful examination
of the box
and found something astonishing.
It contains the workings
of a highly sophisticated
mechanical device.
RADAR: The Antikythera
device is what looks to be
a complex machine of gears,
cranks and levers.
That's the best way
to describe what it is.
If you were to look at it,
it looks like a box.
Wooden on the outside
with a crank.
And what the crank
would've done is moved
a series of levers and gears
around on the inside.
What we can tell
from the inscriptions on it,
and what we can tell from
the way the device works is that
it was a very mathematically
sophisticated machine
for showing, even predicting,
where the stars,
the Sun, the planets
and the Moon
were all going to be
on a particular date
that you were looking for.
Really, for several
thousand years ago,
this is a remarkably
Promethean invention
to put together this machine
in order to give
the user of the box, in a sense,
a vision of the future.
It's absolutely astounding.
And you could see
how this would be useful
if you were making
a trip on a ship,
or if you were trying to plan
your agricultural output.
NARRATOR:
It is also believed
that the Antikythera device
may have had
an astrological purpose.
JASON MARTELL:
The Antikythera mechanism
was a numerological device
that would help them know
their planet sign, what day
and month they were born on,
and how this information applied
to their life.
Numerological information
was passed down
as sacred knowledge
from various cultures.
To know when to make
certain decisions.
NARRATOR: To operate it,
a user would enter information
into the mechanism using
the complex system of gears
and levers,
and then turn the crank
to determine specific
astronomical positions.
In June 1959,
Price published his findings
in the journal
Scientific American,
and described
the Antikythera mechanism
as an "ancient Greek computer."
CHILDRESS: He realized
that it was a sophisticated
computer that could dial up
astronomical configurations.
And, at the time,
the American scientists
were so shocked
at how advanced this device was.
And they actually said
that discovering
the Antikythera device
was like finding a jet plane
in the tomb of King Tut.
NARRATOR: Could a 2,000-year-old
machine from ancient Greece
upend the accepted history
of modern astronomy?
According to ancient astronaut
theorists,
this seemingly impossible
artifact is yet
another example
of extraterrestrial visitation.
Clearly this thing existed
at a time when computers,
as far as we know it,
didn't exist.
Am I proposing that
that machine itself
was created by
extraterrestrials?
Absolutely not.
However, the knowledge
with which this thing was built
was given to the Greeks by
potential extraterrestrial
visitors.
NARRATOR: If the Antikythera
device was made based on knowledge
gleaned from extraterrestrial
visitors,
might there be more to it than
scientists have yet discovered?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe artifacts like this
were intended to one day
be found,
much like the Lunar Library
that humans left on the Moon.
And that recent technological
advancements will soon reveal
that they have much more to
tell us than meets the eye.
NARRATOR: Zurich,
Switzerland. December, 2019.
Scientists Yaniv Erlich
and Robert Grass announce
an incredible technological
breakthrough.
One that takes
the unassuming form
of a small plastic bunny.
This seemingly mundane object
hides an incredible secret.
Just like a living creature,
the bunny has its own DNA.
But how?
By binding negatively charged
molecules of biological DNA
with positively charged
particles or protective silica,
Erlich and Grass were able
to create the world's first
synthetic DNA.
While biological DNA is
relatively fragile,
this synthetic DNA can last
potentially for eons.
In the case of the bunny,
the scientists encoded
the digital files
used to create
the 3D-printed object
into the plastic.
With even just a tiny snippet,
they can decode
the information inside,
and print a new copy
of the bunny,
which will carry the same
synthetic DNA.
What makes this breakthrough
particularly significant
is the fact that
it has the ability
to store massive amounts
of data.
Digital computers that you have
in your cell phone
and everywhere
in our world today
deals with digital
information.
Zeros and ones, zeros and ones.
And that's how it makes
calculations.
Now, Mother Nature is
more sophisticated.
On a DNA molecule,
Mother Nature computes
in base four.
A, T, C, G, rather than
zero, one, zero, one, zero, one.
And we can actually compute
by hijacking
this base four mechanism
that Mother Nature has created,
and putting our programming on
A, T, C, G, A, T, C, G.
NARRATOR: Experts say that
once this technique is scaled up,
massive amounts of data can be
stored in any object,
retrieved and replicated,
presumably forever.
TEITEL: These are great
alternatives of storing data
because they don't need any
energy for storage.
They can just sit on a shelf
and not degrade.
SPIVACK: Once you
actually encode data into DNA,
it's very cheap to replicate.
So you can put petabytes of data
into a droplet of DNA,
and then make a billion copies
of it very inexpensively.
And if you have
a redundancy strategy,
lots of copies is a good thing.
DNA is also very compact.
The amount of space it takes
to store the Wikipedia
is just a few drops of liquid,
and those could
actually just be embedded
into fabric or paper
and take up almost no space.
NARRATOR:
Although DNA data storage
is still in its infancy,
ancient astronaut theorists
believe it presents
an intriguing possibility.
Is it possible
that many out-of-place artifacts
discovered around the world
have much more to offer
than what meets the eye?
Might they contain information
within them
about whatever civilization
left them behind?
There are lots
of natural materials
that conduct and can contain
information today:
crystals,
various types of stones,
even living organisms.
So, is it possible
that extraterrestrials
have embedded
ancient, sacred knowledge
in some type of material
that, if we were able
to extract this information,
there could be a wealth
of information ready,
waiting at our fingertips?
NARRATOR:
Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest that by examining
out-of-place artifacts,
we might discover clues
as to what information
is contained within them
and how to access it.
As support for this notion,
they point to the artifacts
that humanity
recently sent to the Moon.
When the Arch Mission Foundation
created the Lunar Library,
they included analog layers
that could be read
without a computer.
SPIVACK: The idea of the Lunar
Library was to make it something
which recipients who find it
in millions to billions of years
could see
that it has data on it.
And the analog layers teach
everything you need to know
to build a computer
and get the digital information
off the deeper layers.
By trying to store information
for thousands
or millions of years,
you end up going
to the same solutions
that the hypothetical
ancient aliens
may have also figured out
how to use.
CHILDRESS:
So, we have to ask ourself
if these artifacts
didn't, perhaps,
have a technological purpose
that we still do not understand
and information
could be extracted from them.
NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that extraterrestrials
left artifacts on Earth
that are embedded
with information,
much like scientists today
are encoding synthetic DNA
into inanimate objects?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the technology
of DNA data storage
may lead to an even more
profound revelation
and the discovery
of the most incredible
alien artifacts of all.
NARRATOR:
A mysterious aluminum wedge
dated to 40,000 years ago.
A bizarre mask said to depict
a king who ruled for centuries.
A highly sophisticated
computing device
found aboard
an ancient Greek shipwreck.
Archaeologists have unearthed
so-called "impossible artifacts"
all over the world.
But ancient astronaut
theorists ask
what if the most incredible
alien artifact
is right before our eyes?
TSOUKALOS:
We've always suggested
that the ultimate proof
for the ancient astronaut theory
will not happen
because we'll discover
a buried spaceship somewhere
or a ray gun in a tomb
but rather
that the ultimate proof
of this ultimate quest
will be found
inside of our own DNA.
KAKU:
And believe it or not,
I have colleagues of mine
looking for secret messages
in our DNA.
And some of my friends take this
to the nth degree and say,
"Maybe aliens from outer space
have left us a message."
Maybe there's a message there
hidden by an advanced
civilization and that says,
"Here we are, folks.
"We created you.
"We are your great-great-
great-great-great grandparents,
"and to prove it,
we left a code for you
in your DNA."
[chuckles]
Well, we can't rule it out.
SPIVACK: What if
we're all walking libraries
and we don't even know it?
What if each of us,
somewhere in our genome,
contains a huge library
from an ancient civilization
that we're not aware of today?
If there's a way
to encode knowledge in DNA,
maybe we have it
in our own bodies today
and don't even know it.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the ultimate alien artifacts
are humans?
And if extraterrestrials
are using
DNA to store data,
could there be
a wealth of information
embedded
in out-of-place artifacts
that exist all over the world,
just waiting to be discovered?
HENRY:
We're in the midst
of a biotechnological
revolution.
Scientists now have
in their hands
the very same
or similar genetic tools
that ancient myths and legends
tell us the gods possessed
when they fashioned
the human body.
We can only speculate
on what the impact
of this is going to be,
but I think deep in our core
that something would awaken
in our DNA itself.
I think we're preprogrammed
to find our origins.
That's what ancient astronaut
theory is all about.
We're trying to find
where do we come from.
And this is gonna have an effect
that I think none of us
can even calculate.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that an incredible history
of alien intervention
on planet Earth
has been right in front of us
for thousands of years,
perhaps even embedded
within our own DNA?
Were artifacts
intentionally left
for future humans to discover
and ultimately decipher
once we developed
the technology to do so?
Perhaps humanity
has finally reached an age
where we can begin to recognize
the ancient time capsules
that exist all around us
and possibly even within us.
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