SCOTT WOLTER: The history that
we were all taught growing up is wrong. My name is Scott Wolter. And I'm a forensic geologist. There's a hidden
history in this country that nobody knows about. There are pyramids here-- chambers, tombs, inscriptions. They're all over this country. We're going to investigate
these artifacts and sites. And we're going to
get to the truth. Sometimes, history isn't
what we've been told. [music playing] I was on vacation in
Scotland when I got a call from my friend Alan Butler. He and I have investigated
many mysteries together. He told me there was a
serpent-shaped mound here at a place called Loch Nell. Serpent mounds are rare. Of the three largest known
to exist, one is in the US, and two are in Europe,
which begs the question, is there a connection
between the people who built the mound in Scotland
and the one in America? Alan, it's always
great to see you. So what you have
must be really good. This is something
very special. This is a site that's extremely
old as far as we know. It's got folklore and tradition. It's a truly amazing and
really quite a unique site. We're actually now standing on
the head of the serpent mound. And you can see that its
sinuous body weaves away on down towards the loch there. If we take a look at this,
which is a fairly unusual view of where we're standing
now, it was done just at the end of the 1800s. - So we're standing right here.
- Yeah. Yeah. SCOTT WOLTER: The serpent we're
standing on is an effigy mound. Effigy mounds are
piles of earth and rock in the shape of
animals or symbols. Many are so old, their true
purpose remains a mystery. But evidence of rituals
involving blood, death, and fire can make
them very intriguing. On the mound that we're
on, there was originally a stone circle with another
stone in the center, which was referred to as the altar stone. The body of the serpent itself
was discovered at that time to have been covered with
very large stones maybe-- These right over here. They're still there,
it looks like. Yeah. ALAN BUTLER: And some of
them were burned stones that have been heated in a fire. And that is fairly
typical of what was going on at the
end of the Stone Age, start of the Bronze Age. SCOTT WOLTER: These
large stones that appear to have been worked
and formed like a chamber down here.
- Yeah. Yeah. This is fairly typical of
Scotland and Great Britain, generally. It's what's known
as a burial kist. In about 1890, when
they looked into it, there was remains
of a cremation. There was also a
bone knife in there. But other than that,
it had been robbed out. The people that were here
were probably somebody who was a prominent individual--
- Absolutely. Maybe a king or a ruler. Or a priest. --in the culture at that time. Do we have any idea
how old this might be? Well, we think it's
probably Bronze Age. So we're talking 2000 BC Absolutely. Of course, there's no way of
knowing whether the Bronze Age people came along
and modified it. It could be older still. There is a legend
in the locality that executions were
carried out here. OK. It's much more likely
that what it harks back to is ritual sacrifices. At a significant
day in the year, they bring the poor person
along, cut their throat, throw them in the loch. We've got a
beautiful lake here. And I can imagine that there was
a large glacier that terminated or ended right here. Underneath these glaciers
as they're melting, there are rivers that
flow under the ice. And they deposit sand
and gravel and boulders. And it forms these sinuating
snaking ridges called eskers. And that's exactly what
this looks like here. This is probably a natural esker
that has been enhanced by man. So the question that people,
of course, are going to ask is why a serpent? Why is that so important? If you look back
at human history, you know the
serpent or the snake has been really
significant to humanity almost right from the start. SCOTT WOLTER: The serpent
plays a major role throughout history. In the first book of
the Bible, the serpent appeared in the garden of
Eden and offered Eve the apple from the tree of knowledge. In ancient Egypt,
a serpent called a Uraeus is on the
forehead of the pharaoh and represents divine authority. The staff of the
Greek god Hermes has two serpents wrapped around
it like our modern day symbol for medicine. Recently, serpents came up in
another investigation closer to home-- a legend of a lake monster
tied to the Aztecs. This serpent is said to be a
protective figure patrolling the waters in
Wisconsin and guarding sacred underwater pyramids. I never saw the serpent myself. But in legend, there
is usually some truth. There's no question
that serpents were important to
whoever built this mound. Sometimes, the same people
who revered serpents also held archaeoastronomy, the
practice of building things in line with the sun, moon,
and planets, sacred as well. That could be a clue to
who built this serpent mound and possibly the
one in the United States. It just keeps recurring theme--
- Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
- This serpent. - Absolutely.
- And we have it here. Yeah, and in this
case, of course, you've also got to think that
everybody knows about the Loch Ness Monster, you know? But most of the entities have
been associated with many of the lochs in Scotland. They may to a certain extent
have been trying to reproduce the spiritual entity that they
thought lived in the loch. Along with all of
this serpent mythology, I'm convinced that a
structure like this has to have some
archaeoastronomy associated with it. When I look at this photo,
if you look in the distance, there are those
peaks right there. ALAN BUTLER: Absolutely. SCOTT WOLTER: And
you notice how they seem to follow the long
orientation of the esker here or of the serpent? ALAN BUTLER: Yes. SCOTT WOLTER: I'm wondering if
there might be some alignments here. I think it's highly likely. You know our experience
has been when we come to ancient sites like this,
there's almost always going to be some type of
archaeoastronomy involved, some type of alignments with the
stars, the heavens, the moon, the planets, and with
geographic features. I would like to see if
we have some alignments. I have a brand new app on
my phone that I can use. Maybe we've got some solstice
or equinox alignment. So you up for it? Yeah, I think
that's a great idea. All right. Let's do it. I think this serpent
mound was intentionally built to align with the
peaks of those mountains. I'm taking some
basic measurements to determine the
orientation of its axis. [music playing] All right. Now, I'm going to
pull out the app. The helios sun position app
can calculate the position of the sun from dawn till
dusk on any day at any time and allows people to track
the sun's path from anywhere on Earth. What I'm seeing from here
confirms that this mound is aligned with those mountains. And this app will show me
exactly what day of the year the sun passes over
that alignment. Here's where the sun rises. And it's following that track. ALAN BUTLER: Yeah. And there is the
mountain right there. We're just past the
summer solstice. ALAN BUTLER: That's right. SCOTT WOLTER: So the sun
should rise on those mountains and then make its arc
there on the equinox. We definitely have an
east-west alignment along this megalithic structure. There's probably
other alignments here involving the moon,
the planets, maybe the stars and some other things. Ancient people built alignments
into many of the world's most famous sites. Chichen Itza in Mexico
is a Mayan marvel. And its main
temple, El Castillo, uses the angle of the
sun to honor the serpent on specific days of the year. Stonehenge in England has
enormous standing stones that mark important dates,
serving as a giant calendar. Even the Washington
Monument in DC is part of the Federal Triangle
that lines up with the stars. But the question for
me is who built this? Well, we're talking
about 2000 BC-- 4,000 years ago. We've got people coming in
from France and from Spain. It's the start of farming. It's the start of
people being settled. SCOTT WOLTER: We're talking
about people who are practicing pagan rituals, right? Oh, no doubt about it. SCOTT WOLTER: We had the kist
here with the human remains probably part of some ritual. ALAN BUTLER: And
maybe human sacrifice. SCOTT WOLTER: I believe that
they took a natural feature and enhanced it with the stones. I think it's probably
a glacial esker. They added the stones perhaps
to make the alignment more precise I know of another
serpent mound that has a lot of the same
features that we see here. It's massive. In fact, it's two to three
times larger than this one. Where's that? Ohio. If there is a connection
between these two sites, I'm going to find it. I was on vacation
in Scotland when I got hooked on a new mystery-- a possible ancient connection
between a serpent mound in Scotland and one in Ohio. The Scotland mound
definitely has evidence of archaeoastronomy
and probably dates back to at least 2000 BC I think some ancient pagan
group may have enhanced a natural formation called
an esker for its own ritual purposes. Archaeoastronomy could show that
the same thing happened in Ohio and could be the missing
link that helps prove whether the same people built
both mounds thousands of years ago. [music playing] Hey, Ross. I just got back from Scotland. And I looked at the
Loch Nell serpent mound with my friend Alan Butler. And he said that this
serpent mound maybe dates back to about
2000 BC They've got a burial there
for sure that they were able to get some dates on. To me, it looks like a natural
geologic feature that's been enhanced by man. And there are some
alignments there that were very interesting. And of course, I thought
about the Ohio serpent mound. And I wanted to see if
there might be a connection. Yeah, there could
be a connection. Our serpent is similar
to the Loch Nell serpent, only it's bigger. And its purpose is a mystery. And the best way to see our
serpent mound is from the sky. So-- Well, let's go. [music playing] PILOT: Alexander Solomon airport
helicopter 10-tango departing to the east. Any traffic in the area,
please buzz Solomon airport. SCOTT WOLTER: Ross is right. The best way to view this
mound is from the air. It's huge. If the serpent mound
were stretched out into a straight line, it would
measure 1,371 feet from tip to tail. That's almost as long as four
American football fields. Take a look at that. There is the serpent. Oh, you can see it beautifully. Stunning. You can see the
seven mighty coils. It has three parts
to it-- the oval, the small triangular
feature at the head, and then the main body. Wow. Obviously, it was meant
to be seen from above. Could they have built
this for the gods? ROSS HAMILTON: Well, yeah. If the people on the ground were
wanting to impress or attract someone from above, then they
would have created their effigy in a way that would
indeed evoke somebody from a heavenly point of view. SCOTT WOLTER: Now, who do the
archaeologists think built the mound? ROSS HAMILTON: The question of
who designed this urban mound still remains a mystery. The carbon that was discovered
solidified date of about 312 BC. That would put it squarely
in the middle Adena era. Some carbon from
the early Adena era was also found
going back to 700 BC because we feel that the Adena
people may have been part of a reconstruction effort. So really, what you're saying
is you think it was probably built much earlier, perhaps
thousands of years BC, and then it was rebuilt or
modified by a later culture, possibly the Adena? ROSS HAMILTON: Yeah,
there were burials that were found that suggested
the Archaic people who were before the Adena going
back 2000 BC, even 3000 BC, were thought to
have constructed it. SCOTT WOLTER: Human bones? ROSS HAMILTON: Yeah, and
they were fossilized. So it's possible that the
serpent could have been here long before the Adena and that
the Adena may have religiously attempted to keep its memory. Well, that would be analogous
to what I saw in Scotland. We know that we had burials
there inside the head of that serpent. There was actually something
called a kist constructed there out of quarried stone. And that's where they found
human bones that dated back 2000 BC. Maybe there is a connection. When I look down here in
the mouth of the serpent, it looks like there's
something there. To me, it looks like an egg. The oval that's contained
in the serpent's mouth has been one of the greatest
points of discussion for earthwork aficionados
over the years. SCOTT WOLTER: There is debate
over what the serpent's egg symbolizes. Some believe it is
a type of sun disc which could tie this mound
back to ancient cultures such as the Egyptians. Others believe it is the eye of
Horus, another Egyptian symbol. ROSS HAMILTON: We
know for certain that the serpent can
accommodate over 15 possible solar and
lunar alignments. The serpent also
reflects from directly above a pattern of stars. So that's why we say the serpent
is the most astonishing effigy anywhere in the
world of its kind. SCOTT WOLTER: Some
experts believe that along with more than 15
solar and lunar alignments, the Ohio serpent mound also
reflects the star constellation Draco. In Latin, Draco means dragon. And a portion of
the constellation does line up with the
serpent mound below. I think that evidence
of alignments proves that this mound was
an ancient tool that reflects something similar to what the
original builders were seeing in the heavens. When we look at
Serpent Mound, we're looking at something that was
probably created by a genius-- someone that loved astronomy
and loved the earth. And adept. Yep. [music playing] SCOTT WOLTER: Ross, one
thing we know for sure. It's definitely an effigy
mound, in this case, a serpent or a snake. And whoever built it went to an
awful lot of energy and work. My question to you
is do you think it's more spiritual or
practical in nature? I think both. It was apparently functional. The effigy actually is
a scientific instrument that helps to restore
the spirit of the planet. SCOTT WOLTER: On the practical
side, when I was at Loch Nell, I've documented a
long range alignment. In this case, it was
an equinox alignment where the long
axis of the serpent lined up beautifully with these
twin peaks in the distance. Well, you know, I
can show you actually. Here's the effigy. And you know, we
have seven coils. It's actually three loops going
out toward the east and then three coils kind of
facing in toward the west. And on the ones facing east,
you get the classical winter solstice sunrise. And then if you stand in the
most northern coil facing east, you get the summer
solstice sunrise. And then through the oval
later that same day, you get the summer solstice sunset. SCOTT WOLTER: Maybe that's when
people were making pilgrimages. It could be, but
it could also have been used by those old
astronomers that lived in the prehistoric times to cite
the various phases of the moon. SCOTT WOLTER: So the general
orientation or long axis of the snake in your case
runs north-south whereas in Scotland, it was east-west. ROSS HAMILTON: East-west. Yeah, I guess they had
the same idea in mind. But they just went about
it in a different way. You mentioned that
there are burial mounds. Why would people want to be
buried by the serpent mound? Like Stonehenge
in Great Britain, the serpent may have been one of
those great revered pilgrimage places that people wanted to
be associated with in life and in death. SCOTT WOLTER: When I visited
Stonehenge in England, there are burials there
probably for the same reason that we have them here. They would practice rituals. They would have processions. And it was a very important
part of the culture. Apparently, the same
thing happened here. SCOTT WOLTER: So far, I
see a lot of similarities between the mound in Ohio
and the mound in Scotland. Could there have been a
transfer of rituals and rites between pagan people over
there and the Adena people or some other native group here? Both are serpents-- effigy
mounds best seen from above. Both have ceremonial burials,
astronomical alignments. And both date back
thousands of years. But what I really want to
know is did the same people build both mounds? And why did they
choose the serpent? There's no doubt that there's
some incredible astronomical alignments here. And they're incredibly precise. We see the same
thing in Scotland, although the question that
comes to mind-- there's all kinds of effigies,
creatures and things that they could have made. Why a serpent? Why a snake? The serpent is a world
symbol from very ancient times of the giver of life. There is an uncanny connection
to a Christian minister back in 1981 said that this
serpent was created directly by God to remind humanity
of the fall from grace. And that what it
has in its mouth is a fruit from
the tree of life. So Ross, are you saying that
the serpent mound or the shape of it could represent the
location of the garden of Eden? ] My investigation into a link
between the serpent mound in Scotland and a similar mound
here in Ohio has me thinking. There has to be some
sort of a connection-- that ancient travelers brought
knowledge from the old world to the new. Both sites have
archaeoastronomy. Both have evidence of burials. And both were thought
to be spiritual sites. But what kind of
spiritual sites? Some suspect pagan rituals
took place at the serpent mound in Loch Nell, Scotland. But there could be a spiritual
connection of a very different nature going on here. So are you saying that the
serpent mound is somehow connected to the garden of Eden? Native Americans think so. The Cherokee elders are
pretty, pretty certain of that. The entire eastern half of
the United States they believe was once a magnificent garden. And it was based, we
believe, in a mythology. SCOTT WOLTER: The garden of Eden
is the biblical garden of God. It is mentioned most notably
in the book of Genesis as the location where Adam and
Eve, the first man and woman, were created. They were forced to leave
the garden after a serpent convinced them to eat
forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. Over the centuries,
many cultures have claimed to know the
location of the garden of Eden. But to this day, no solid
evidence has been found. This site seems too new to
be the actual biblical site. But the themes of the serpent
and of growth and regeneration could be the same. We definitely have dates
through radiocarbon dating that go back about
2,400 years at least. We've got an effigy mound
here that is so large and so important to these people,
they were obviously trying to document
something that was bigger than themselves. Do you think that this mound
could somehow be connected to the one in Scotland? I wouldn't rule that out
because the serpent was considered the great
father or mother. It was the provider of
life for all vegetation and for all things. And so once you understand that
the belief that the serpent is a great symbol of
life and regeneration, then it's kind of
hard not to see a connection between Scotland
and the United States. SCOTT WOLTER: Right. There are other
effigy mounds in the US that are impressive and
not that far from here. Where? Iowa. [music playing] SCOTT WOLTER: I'm
investigating a possible link between an ancient
serpent mound in Scotland and a serpent mound in Ohio
here in the United States. Both are ancient sites possibly
dating back thousands of years with evidence of ceremonial
burials and archaeoastronomy. I think there's a strong
possibility that ancient pagan worshippers from Scotland,
or some other early group of trans-atlantic
travelers, shared knowledge with the earliest inhabitants
of the United States. Ross just told me the
Ohio serpent mound isn't the only animal-shaped effigy
mound in the United States and that a site in Iowa could
figure into the mystery. He told me to meet
a man who knows a lot about the
mound-building cultures here to ask him about an
ancient connection with voyages overseas. Depending on what
I find in Iowa, it may be the evidence I need
to get to the bottom of who made these mounds and for what
purpose, whether it be pagan worship, spiritual
rituals, or something else. Hey, Jim. I'm investigating possible
connections between a serpent mound site that I visited
in Scotland called Loch Nell and the serpent mound in Ohio. We know those sites date
back at least 2,000 years. Both have archaeoastronomy. And the way those
things are laid out, they had to have been designed
to be viewed from above. I've been studying
these mounds for 33 years and surveying them. And I've had a lot of
stories from Native Americans about such things. SCOTT WOLTER: Jim, this is a
lot bigger area than I imagined. How many mounds are here? JAMES SCHERZ: There are
200 mounds in this park. About 31 of them
are effigy mounds. This was a small part of
a much larger complex. SCOTT WOLTER: How
big are we talking? JAMES SCHERZ: Well,
it had estimated at least 1,000 mounds,
essentially all of which are now destroyed. It was a sort of an intertribal
expression of what appears to be a harmony
between the earth and the sky and the seasons. SCOTT WOLTER: So you're saying
they have archaeoastronomy here?
- They do. People came to
these mound groups at certain times of
the year for education where they learned about the sky
and the animals and the stars. SCOTT WOLTER: Do we know
which native group built them? This was in the area that was
controlled by what are called the Ho-Chunk. And stories say that the
Ho-Chunk controlled the trade along the rivers all the way
from Lake Superior to the gulf. That means they
were traveling. And they travelled. There were priests that went
across to Europe and to Asia. And people from there came
here for training as well. SCOTT WOLTER: So Jim,
what you're saying is that there was a
transfer of information through the native priesthood
both in Europe over here to North America and back again,
I mean, long before Columbus, right? That's what they say. SCOTT WOLTER: When I
was in Scotland and then when I went to the
serpent mound in Ohio, I saw things that definitely
connected those two sites. One was archaeoastronomy. And based on what you've
told me about this site here, there seems to be the
same thing going on. Do I have that right? Yes. Keep in mind that the knowledge
was spread by the priesthoods. Across the continents. And across the seas. This would explain some
of the mysterious artifacts that people have been pondering
over for decades and over 100 years. That would answer a
lot of questions, yes. You're saying that these
effigy mounds here in Iowa are almost certainly connected
to the serpent mound in Ohio. Well, couldn't they then be
connected to the serpent mound in Scotland as well? I'm investigating a connection
between an ancient serpent mound in Scotland and similar
mounds in the United States. All of the sites
have a sacred purpose and are best seen from above. What's more, there
is evidence that they were aligned with the heavens. But why? Evidence like this
left at the mounds could be the key to unlocking
a global system of shared knowledge and ideas-- a link between cultures that
reaches further back in time than our history
books tell us today. If it can be proven that a
group of pagan worshippers, their rituals, and their symbols
came from Scotland to America thousands of years
ago, that would open up a whole new chapter
in American history. So Jim, it sounds to me
like what you're saying is that there was a native
priesthood in Europe and Scotland that
shared information with Native Americans over
here in North America? That's what they say here. Certainly, somebody has to
have the knowledge of how to construct in
archaeoastronomy. And I believe that knowledge was
shared freely among all tribes and also across the ocean. That's amazing. What are we looking at, Jim? JAMES SCHERZ: Oh, it's a
bear mound of the north group that's 137 feet long and
about 3 and 1/2 feet high. There is a main group
with 10 other bear mounds with the same shape. SCOTT WOLTER: Jim tells
me that 1,000 years ago, this entire area used to
be covered with hundreds of mounds, and not just bear
mounds, but serpent mounds, too. Even though they've
now been destroyed, the fact they existed
during that time could mean they were tied to
a ritualistic religious group centered around a figure
called the plumed serpent. In America, the plumed serpent
religion was widespread. But their trade empire went far
beyond our country's borders to Mexico and
possibly to Europe. JAMES SCHERZ: These people
who traded, they went all across this country. And so those would
be the same people that were at Cahokia until they
were abandoned about 1200 AD. SCOTT WOLTER: Cahokia is one
of the most mysterious sites in America. It had an outpost called
Aztalan, which I've seen. Jim says Cahokia was
also a central hub for the plumed serpent religion,
a belief that stretched all the way south into Mexico. Some experts believe the plumed
serpent religion connects this Iowa effigy mound
site with Cahokia. In fact, serpent shape
artifacts have been found there. Any serpent connection
is important in my search for the truth. What happened to those
people at Cahokia? Where did they go? By 1200, they were gone,
so the culture kind of-- SCOTT WOLTER: Collapsed? JAMES SCHERZ: Collapsed. I've now been to
three different sites on two different continents. And between the archaeoastronomy
and the effigy mounds at all three places that
are best viewed from above, this all seems to tie
these sites together. But there's one
more place that I want to go to that might provide
some additional evidence-- Cahokia. My investigation into an ancient
connection between Scotland, Ohio, and Iowa
thousands of years ago has me thinking that
ancient traders may have brought knowledge here to
the United States from across the Atlantic. All three of these mound sites
have evidence of nearby burials and archaeoastronomy. All could be connected
and were thought to be ancient ceremonial
meeting places. I want to find out whether
ancient cultures possibly from Europe traveled
to the United States and shared knowledge
with Native Americans. [music playing] I think evidence at Cahokia
could give me the answer. And that's my next stop. But a regular plane
ride over the site won't be enough this time. I want to look under
it to find clues hidden beneath the Earth's surface. To do that, I'll need to use
a technology called LIDAR. LIDAR stands for light
detection and ranging. It uses laser light to scan
the surface of the earth to generate precise 3D
information about the terrain below. This technology essentially
removes all vegetation and allows scientists
to map the terrain and see what may
be buried below. It's a way to dig up new
information without digging at all. And I think it could
be exactly what I need to solve this mystery. Hey, Jamie. Good to see you again. Good to see you too, Scott. Well, I'm investigating
Cahokia, which was an ancient city, trying
to see if maybe there's a connection between this
site and effigy sites I've looked at both in
America and Scotland. So what kind of connections
have you made so far? Well, I've looked at
two serpent mound sites-- one in Ohio and one in Scotland. I was also in Iowa. And I looked at an
effigy mound site. They were important
ritual sites. And they also incorporate
elements of archaeoastronomy. And while I was there,
I heard about Cahokia. And I'm hoping to
see if there might be a connection between
this site and those sites. What we're trying
to do is see if we can find any effigy mounds with
your technology that weren't found in the past. JAMIE YOUNG: I have some
pictures of the old LIDAR that was collected. It was collected at one meter. SCOTT WOLTER: This is
the old technology. JAMIE YOUNG: Correct.
SCOTT WOLTER: OK. JAMIE YOUNG: We now can collect
the data 30 to 60 points per meter.
- Really? Yeah. SCOTT WOLTER:
That's a lot better. JAMIE YOUNG: If the old LIDAR
was looking down at a dog, the new LIDAR would be
looking at a flea on the dog. That sounds exactly
what we're looking for. JAMIE YOUNG: If those
effigy mounds are there, we'll definitely see them. SCOTT WOLTER: Maybe
this data you generate will help us tie the site
Scotland with what we have here in America. [music playing] In the entire world, there are
only a few known serpent mound sites. Two in Europe and a massive
one in the United States seem to share similarities. And I have to wonder
could they be connected? At each location, I found
evidence of similar beliefs and practices. That evidence could connect
native cultures here with cultures
across the Atlantic. Cahokia was once the epicenter
of mound-building culture in the United States. In 1200 AD, there were
40,000 people living here, making this city bigger than
London or Paris at the time. Some experts believe forefathers
of an ancient plumed serpent religion which
spanned through Mexico and the United States used
Cahokia as a central meeting place. Serpent-shaped artifacts
have been found here. But I want to know if there
was ever a serpent-shaped mound at this site. And remote sensing
technology called LIDAR is going to help
me figure that out. [music playing] Right now, I'm flying over
the Cahokia mound site. The largest mound, Monks
Mound, is 100 feet high and at its base is bigger than
the pyramid of Giza in Egypt. This ancient city spread
for miles over the Illinois countryside and was once
a booming metropolis for the Mississippian
mound-building culture. What I'm hoping here is that
by looking at this data, we might be able to figure out
if the mound-building culture here at Cahokia-- maybe they're connected to
these other energy sites that I saw in both Ohio and
Iowa and maybe even connect to Scotland. [music playing] Grid over here [inaudible]
north-south and east-west. SCOTT WOLTER: Right. Yeah, a heck of a lot more
detail than the last time, isn't it?
CHRIS GUY: Oh yeah. This will get it from
different angles as well-- the north-south and east-west
and with a different overlap so. Cool. [music playing] CHRIS GUY: All right, Scott. Wrapping up our last line here. We have the scans that we need
to compile our LIDAR results SCOTT WOLTER: That
sounds great, Chris. I've got an archaeologist who's
meeting us on the ground when we land. CHRIS GUY: Let's drop off this
data and see what we uncover. [music playing] SCOTT WOLTER: Once Chris hands
off the LIDAR data to Jamie, he'll be able to tell
me what the data shows. He'll be able to pinpoint
anything interesting hidden under the Earth's surface. But in order to find out
what that data means, I have an expert on
Cahokia meeting me here. He'll be able to
interpret any new evidence the LIDAR uncovers. Hi, Peter. I've been doing research
trying to see if there's a connection between effigy
sites here in the United States with the serpent mound site
that I saw in Scotland. And I also went to an
effigy mound site in Iowa. And I learned there that
there is a likely connection between that site and Cahokia. Well, Cahokia was the
largest human-made construction in the United States
before Columbus. Cahokia brought people
in from everywhere. My understanding is that
there is a serpent artifact here in Cahokia.
Correct? There's actually a couple. There was a copper serpent
found by an amateur late 1800s. But there's also a very famous
figurine called the Birger figurine. And what it shows
is a woman who's hoeing the back of a serpent. It shows that serpent being
a figure of fertility. One of the things I learned
at the Effigy Mounds Park was that there's something
called a plumed serpent. PETER PEREGRINE: The plumed
serpent is very broadly shared across the
eastern United States. The plumed serpent is a
flying serpent otherwise known as a dragon. So in fact, that idea
of this flying serpent probably goes all the
way back to the time before Native Americans
came to the United States. It's probably a very
ancient set of ideas. The rituals that were
created at Cahokia embodied that knowledge. A big part of it was
looking at the sun, knowing when the seasons were. The whole city is lined
up with celestial events. So the big question is,
what happened to these people? Where did they go? And the answer is
probably pretty simple that they just left. They had a lot of people
in a very small place. They had begun to
diminish the soils. They'd begun to use up
wood resources in the area. And once again,
we don't know why. We just know that by about
1350, the place was pretty much abandoned. Well, we're definitely seeing
connections between these sites that I visited. Maybe the LIDAR data will
give us more information. Well, Jamie, do you
have the data for us? JAMIE YOUNG: Yeah, we've
got all the data processed so we can go ahead
and look at it. All right. JAMIE YOUNG: I think I found
some new mounds right here. There's some more over here that
I didn't see in the other data. Peter, what do you think? Well, there's an
east plaza over here. And I think those may
be associated with that. I think what you're seeing is
part of the woodhenge, which would be right
about in that spot. They may just not have
been big enough to be seen. So this is a great improvement. And also, if we can
go to the north, this whole area was all
artificially leveled-- Engineered. --so that it would
be relatively flat. So the possibility exists
that there could have been an effigy mound there. But because it's been
flattened, we'll never know. That's true.
Yeah. SCOTT WOLTER: I don't think
we found the smoking gun yet. However, it's still
possible that there could have been a connection
between those two sites. At least, I'm firmly
convinced of that. I believe that ancient
civilizations were much more advanced and
intelligent than we give them credit for. And the possibility
does exist that there was contact across the oceans. I mean, the oceans were
like super highways. I don't believe that
they were barriers. And I really believe that we're
just beginning to understand the connections of civilizations
that were here in North America thousands of years ago. I think effigy mound sites
hold the key to understanding our ancestors-- where they traveled
and what they believed. The Loch Nell serpent
mound in Scotland has evidence of ceremonial
burials and alignments with the heavens, as does the
serpent mound in Ohio, which hints at a possible connection. I believe the people who built
that serpent mound shared or received knowledge
with ancient cultures across the ocean-- trading ideas, symbols
like the serpent, and who knows what else. I think there is more evidence
of a connection out there, hidden beneath the surface,
waiting to be unearthed.
