NARRATOR: Sindh
Province, Pakistan, 1922.
An officer of the
Archaeological Survey of India
is led by a Buddhist monk
to an area believed to have
been a religious monument.
But under the mounds
of dirt, archaeologists
find instead an
ancient Indus Valley
city dating back to 2000 BC.
It is called Monhenjo-daro,
or Mound of the Dead,
and it is one of the
oldest civilizations
discovered in the world.
The city of
Monhenjo-daro rivaled
the ancient civilizations
in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Archaeologists believe
that over 35,000
people once occupied the city.
However, only 43 skeletons have
been discovered at the site.
There are many
theories surrounding
the mysterious disappearance
of the Indus people
from Monhenjo-daro.
In 1977, British
researcher David Davenport
discovered that part of
the archaeological site
showed evidence of having
been destroyed by an extremely
powerful explosion.
NARRATOR: In 2014,
mineralogist Dr. Sam Iyengar
was able to obtain a
piece of fused pottery
from Monhenjo-daro and put
it through a series of tests.
When I did the
elemental analysis,
it showed me that the
Monhenjo-daro rock
contained mostly
silicon, aluminum, with
some calcium and potassium.
So my thought was maybe it
could be some type of a clay--
until I did the
X-ray diffraction.
NARRATOR: X-ray diffraction
is able to determine exactly
how a material was formed.
This is the pattern
I got, and you
can see some
crystalline peaks here
along with an
amorphous hump, which
usually results from a
glassy phase in the rock.
The composition is very
similar to volcanic rock.
The only way the clay can be
converted into something which
we saw is subjecting
the clays to a very,
very high temperature.
I'm talking 4,000 to
5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is not something
an early civilization
can do intentionally.
It has to be something
supernatural.
NARRATOR: Could
this pottery sample,
which shows irrefutable evidence
of having been subjected
to extreme heat, be definitive
evidence that Monhenjo-daro
really was the site of some
type of powerful explosion
in the ancient past?
David Davenport and
other researchers
of India's ancient Vedic
texts have suggested
that this is the case, and that
Monhenjo-daro may in fact be
the kingdom of Lanka, a
city whose destruction
is detailed in the Indian
epic known as the Ramayana.
In the Ramayana, it is described
that the god Vishnu decides
the leader of Lanka,
a mortal named Ravana,
has grown too powerful.
Vishnu takes the
human form of Rama
and does battle with Ravana,
who has become like the gods
himself.
It was described
as the sun turning
into 50 even more brighter suns
with this incredible blast.
So some people have
suggested that perhaps
at Monhenjo-daro, some type
of a nuclear blast occurred.
Not only do we have
a textual reference
to a possible
nuclear blast, but we
also find physical evidence that
show vitrification of stone.
And the only way that
stone can be vitrified
is if it's exposed
to extreme heat.
I happen to believe
that mankind possessed
incredible technology,
incredible knowledge,
and that they did things
that we're doing right now.
And then something happened,
and they had to literally
start all over again.
Whoever got involved
said, uh-uh,
that's not going to happen.
Let's let them have knowledge,
but not too much knowledge.
And I think that's probably
what's happening here.
These extraterrestrials
wouldn't want us to have access
to these advanced technologies
and essentially become like
gods, but they may have
a keen interest in, A,
following some sort
of prime directive--
so they don't openly
interfere with us so that
everybody knows they exist--
but B, also making sure that
we don't destroy the planet.
