[music playing] 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 Mohenjo-daro,
or mound of the dead, and it is one of the
oldest civilizations discovered in the world. WILLIAM BRAMLEY:
Mohenjo-daro was very advanced for that time. They had sanitation. They had all kinds
of good things going. And they had a lot of trade
going with Mesopotamia. NARRATOR: The city
of Mohenjo-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 Mohenjo-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. --epicenter of something that
he believed was an explosion-- NARRATOR: Scholars claim that
several calcified skeletons found at the site
suggest they suffered an instantaneous death. WILLIAM HENRY: In
Mohenjo-daro, they found bodies arm in
arm, skeletons arm in arm that had been
vitrified, virtually vitrified. NARRATOR: For years,
restricted access to the site has prevented scientists from
analyzing the vitrified ruins. But in 2014, mineralogist
Dr. Sam Iyengar was able to obtain a piece of
fused pottery from Mohenjo-daro and put it through
a series of tests. SAMPATH IYENGAR: When I
did the elemental analysis, it showed me that
the Mohenjo-daro rock contained mostly silicon,
aluminum with some calcium and potassium. So my thought was maybe it
could be some type of a clay-- till I did the
X-ray diffraction. NARRATOR: X-ray diffraction
is able to determine exactly how a material was formed. SAMPATH IYENGAR: When I did
the X-ray powder diffraction, this is the pattern I got. And you can see
some crystal 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 clay to a very, very high temperature. I'm talking 4,000 to
5,000 degree Fahrenheit. That is not something
a 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 Mohenjo-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
Mohenjo-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. DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Ravana
was a very formidable enemy. In fact, most of
his power, it was acquired from god Shiva
himself because he was a great devotee of Shiva. And Vishnu gave
him lethal weapons. 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
Mohenjo-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. This is not mythology. This is not superstition. This is documented
historical events of people that are
warring with each other using advanced technology. GEORGE NOORY: 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.
