Graham Hancock – Ancient World Maps and their significance.

In a world where we often think
we have uncovered all the secrets of the past,

a conversation between Joe Rogan and
Graham Hancock on the Joe Rogan podcast,,,

reveals a fascinating story
of ancient seafaring cultures.

While archaeology acknowledges
the Polynesian expansion…

as the first great seafaring adventure,

Hancock questions the evidence and points
to DNA evidence from the Amazon…

and ancient maps as proof of a
global navigating culture in the Ice Age.

The discovery of an old map that shows the world
as it looked during the last Ice Age,

incorporating precise relative latitudes
and longitudes, is hard to explain.

What could this mean?

Was there an advanced civilization
that existed long before ours…

that had mastered the art
of ocean navigation?

When archaeologists
talk about seafaring humans,

what do they date that to?

The great seafaring adventure
that is accepted by archaeology…

is called the Polynesian expansion,
and it’s a remarkable story,

and that occurs roughly
3,000 to 3,500 years ago.

And those Polynesians
were amazing ocean navigators.

They could cross distances of thousands
of kilometers with pinpoint accuracy.

I mean, it’s not an accident
that the Polynesians found Easter Island.

Finding Easter Island
is a really challenging project.

Easter Island is 2,000 miles
from the coast of South America.

It’s 2,000 miles from
the nearest other island, which is Tahiti.

It’s just a little speck
in the middle of the ocean,

but the Polynesians found it
and settled there…

and appeared to have brought
a reproductively viable population there…

and appeared to have made
voyages back and forth.

BUT that was 3,000 to 3,500 years ago.
That was NOT 12,800 years ago.

And this is where archaeology’s
adamant position…

that ocean voyaging
was begun by the Polynesians…

and that there was no major ocean voyages
before that,

I think, needs to be strongly questioned
and it needs to be strongly questioned…

in the light of this DNA evidence
from the Amazon,

rather than rejecting the evidence

and attempts should be made
to consider what that might mean.

Well, it’s interesting because we know
that the Egyptians had boats.

Yeah.

If there were boats 4,500 years ago,

why do we think
that they didn’t try them out in the ocean?

That doesn’t make any sense,

especially if they existed 1,000 years prior,
which is also possible.

Archaeologists wouldn’t argue
that the Egyptians had boats,

but that is still within the framework
of accepted history.

It’s the notion
of a global navigating culture…

in the Ice Age
that archaeologists can’t swallow.

It’s a subject that I’ve kept on
coming up against over a number of years.

I think the best evidence for it
is ancient maps,

which show the world
as it looked during the last Ice Age.

We’re talking about maps…

that were drawn roughly
between the 1300s and the 1700s.

In other words,
in relatively recent history.

However, these maps were largely based on
much older source maps, which they copied.

And we can say that for sure,

because one of the famous maps
is the Piri Reis map,

which was created by a Turkish admiral
called Piri Reis in the year 1513.

Actually,
only a corner of his map has survived.

It was originally a world map.

We now just have a bit that shows
the East Coast of South America…

and North America
and the West Coast of Africa.

Piri Reis writes in that map
that it is (in his own handwriting)

that he based it
on more than 100 older source maps,

some of which had come
from the Library of Alexandria.

In other words,

when the Library of Alexandria
had been destroyed…

in the 4th century AD
or whenever it was,

some of its contents had been rescued
and brought to Constantinople,

which became the Turkish capital.

And Piri Reis had access to those maps…

and he incorporated information
from those maps on his maps,

as well as incorporating more recent
navigational information.

And this is one of a whole category of maps,
which are extremely hard to explain.

All of them based on older source maps,
now lost.

All of them incorporating extremely precise
relative longitudes and latitudes.

Latitude is not that difficult
a technological feat,

but longitude is
a difficult technological feat.

Longitude involves a chronometer.

It involves knowing the time
at the place you began your voyage…

and the local noon as well,

and calculating
the difference between them.

You need a chronometer
that will keep accurate time at sea…

with the motions of a ship.

And it’s just a plain fact
that our civilization…

did not invent such a chronometer
until the late 18th century.

Before that, we didn’t know
what longitude we were at,

and ships were constantly sailing
unexpectedly into coastlines…

that they thought
were hundreds of miles further away.

So the discovery of the technique
to do longitude…

was a major civilizational advance.

Its presence in maps
based on much older source maps…

that actually show the world
as it looks during the last ice age…

suggests that somebody during the last ice age
was mapping the world…

and had mastered the technique
of calculating longitude.

Classic example of these maps,
and I make a point of this,

is what’s called the Pinkerton World Map,

which was drawn in the year 1818,

and it was based on the latest
navigational information at that time.

I reproduced that map in the book.

What’s missing from the map,
entirely missing, is Antarctica.

There’s just a hole at the bottom of the world.
There’s nothing there.

The reason that Antarctica is not there

is that our civilization
hadn’t discovered Antarctica in 1818.

So they couldn’t authentically
put it on a map in 1818.

Actually, we discovered it in 1819,

and that’s when it starts appearing
on modern maps.

The problem is that Antarctica appears repeatedly
on these much older maps,

and it appears in the right place…

and a bit bigger than it is today, but very much
as it looked during the last ice age.

So what all of this suggests to me…

is that the world was mapped and explored
by a global seafaring culture…

with a level of technology
that was at least equivalent to ours…

at the end of the 18th century
during the ice age.

Wasn’t there also a map of Greenland
that showed it underneath the ice?

Yes, there are.

And another intriguing thing,
I mentioned the Piri Reis map just now.

Shown on the Piri Reis map,
lying off the east coast of North America,

is a large island
with a row of megaliths,

like a road of megaliths,
running up the middle of it.

That island is in the exact place
of the Grand Bahama Banks.

So this island is sitting there
off the southeast coast of North America.

Look at the way
they used to draw things back then, too.

And what you see
running down the middle of it…

is this road-like feature of megaliths.
I’ll point them out again.

Yes, I see, right there, yeah.

Now the thing is,

it was a long period of my life
when I did a lot of scuba diving,

and I was looking at underwater structures,
and one of the sites I dived on…

was the Bimini Road,
which is in the Grand Bahama Banks,

and the Bimini Road
is exactly where that island is.

And here’s the issue.

I don’t care whether the Bimini Road
is natural or man-made.

For me, the mystery is
that it is shown above water on that map,

and the last time it was above water
was thousands and thousands of years ago.

So for me, this is all evidence
that we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility…

that our ancestors had achieved
a level of technology

where they could explore
and map the world’s oceans.

We shouldn’t dismiss that.

And the whole effort of archaeology
has been to dismiss the significance…

of the Bimini Road.

How would they dismiss that?

Well, they say it’s totally natural.

I can tell you
I absolutely do not think it’s natural.

I think it’s a man-made structure,
but the argument is…

that it’s a kind of beach rock
that forms in these blocky formations.

Does it?

Yes, beach rock does form
in blocky formations,

but here I believe that the beach rock
has been used as a construction material.

But, I repeat,

the key issue is not whether
the Bimini Road is man-made or not.

The key issue is that it features
on a map above water,

and that is a dating project.

That tells us that somebody
was mapping that bit of the world…

when it was above water,

and that takes us back
a very long way into the past.