Ancient Islands: Ghost City of the Pacific (Full Episode) | Lost Cities with Albert Lin

National Geographic

12 Oct 202344:24

EducationalLearning

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TLDRAlbert Lin uses laser scanning technology to uncover ancient ruins hidden in the Pacific islands. He travels to the remote Micronesian island of Pohnpei to explore the lost city of Nan Madol, an impressive ancient metropolis with over 90 man-made islands and giant walls built 800 years ago. Lin scans the area to create a digital blueprint revealing the massive scale of Nan Madol and its unknown construction methods. He also finds evidence of the advanced seafaring skills of Nan Madol's Saudeleur rulers, who may have influenced other Pacific cultures across thousands of miles.

Takeaways

😲 The video follows explorer Albert Lin on an expedition to uncover the ancient lost city of Nan Madol in Micronesia
😯 Nan Madol was built around 800 years ago as the residence for the ruling Saudeleur dynasty
🏛️ The city contains over 90 man-made islands with stone temples, tombs and monuments
🚢 The Saudeleur were skilled seafarers who transported giant stones across the ocean to build Nan Madol
🗺️ Laser scanning technology is used to map the layout and structures of the lost city under dense mangrove forest
💀 The city contains the tombs and burial sites of the Saudeleur rulers
🛶 Legends tell of an underwater city of the dead near Nan Madol with strange pillar formations
🪨 The basalt stones may have been transported to the city by sea from quarries across the island
🌊 Evidence found on a nearby island suggests Nan Madol had influence and contact across a Pacific network
🤝 Rock art links Nan Madol to sites thousands of miles away, showing its place in a vast Pacific culture

Q & A

Where is the lost city of Nan Madol located?
-Nan Madol is located off the coast of Pohnpei Island in the Pacific Ocean.
When was Nan Madol built?
-Nan Madol was built approximately 800 years ago, around 1200-1400 AD.
Who built the city of Nan Madol?
-Nan Madol was built by the Saudeleur dynasty, who ruled the island of Pohnpei at that time.
Why did they build Nan Madol on water?
-Nan Madol was built on artificially constructed islands on the coral reef to provide protection and separation for the ruling elite.
How big is Nan Madol?
-Nan Madol covers an area of about 11 square miles, making it one of the largest ancient archaeological sites in the Pacific.
How did they transport the massive basalt stones to build Nan Madol?
-Theories suggest the basalt logs were floated across the ocean on bamboo rafts or dragged across land using ropes and logs.
What evidence links Nan Madol to other Pacific cultures?
-Matching petroglyphs found in Nan Madol and New Caledonia suggest contact and shared culture across vast ocean distances.
Why did Nan Madol decline?
-After the Saudeleur dynasty collapsed, Nan Madol was abandoned and eventually overtaken by mangroves.
How was Nan Madol rediscovered?
-Nan Madol was rediscovered in the early 19th century by European explorers, although locals knew of its existence.
What modern technologies are used to study Nan Madol?
-Technologies like LIDAR scanning and photogrammetry are used to map and visualize Nan Madol below the mangroves.

Outlines

00:00

🗺️ Exploring the Mysterious Ancient City of Namad

Albert Lynn travels to the remote Micronesian island of Pohnpei to explore the ancient ruins of Namad, a legendary complex of manmade islands and structures built into a coral reef 800 years ago by the mysterious Saudeleur rulers. He meets with a local historian to learn about the spiritual beliefs around Namad and undergoes a Sakau ceremony to get permission from the spirits to enter the site.

05:01

🏛️ Surveying the Impressive Ruins of Namad

Albert explores the overgrown ruins of Namad's main ceremonial center, built from carved basalt pillars. He learns it was once home to hundreds of priests and kings who commanded the island's population to build the city. He spots evidence of Sakau ceremonies and visits the tomb that housed the remains of Namad's past Saudeleur rulers.

10:03

🚁 Scanning Namad to Reveal its True Scale

To map the full extent of Namad, Albert uses LiDAR drones to scan the site, capturing over 40 planned flights of data. The scans digitally strip away the jungle canopy to reveal a network of structures across the city, including new discoveries. He visits some newly spotted ruins and a massive seawall stretch over a mile, built to protect the city.

15:05

🛥️ Travelling Namad's Waterways

Albert tours Namad's water channels by boat to explore long stone ruins he spotted in the LiDAR scans. He's amazed by their huge size but unsure how the massive rocks were transported. According to legend, magic was used to fly the rocks to the site. Albert doubts this theory and seeks to uncover the truth.

20:15

🪨 Estimating the Staggering Volume of Namad's Stones

Using the LiDAR data, Albert calculates that just one exterior wall of Namad's main structure contains over 14,000 tons of basalt. For the entire city, with over 90 structures, the total volume of stone used is nearly 700,000 tons. Albert investigates a nearby volcanic quarry as the likely source, spotting telltale hexagonal columns that match Namad's stones.

25:17

😮️ Investigating the Mystery of Namad's Construction

Albert climbs the volcanic mountain and finds an expansive ancient quarry site with stones up to 50 tons. With no dynamite available, the method of extracting and moving massive rocks remains a mystery. Albert spots a potential route through mangroves and water channels that could have been used to transport floating stones 10 miles across to Namad.

30:18

👻 Searching for the Underwater City of the Dead

Intrigued by legends of an underwater city near Namad inhabited by spirits, Albert scans the seafloor with sonar to hunt for evidence. He spots strange vertical basalt pillars up to 30 ft tall that inspire the myth but remains unsure if they're natural or manmade structures.

35:19

🗺️ Discovering Traces of Namad's Reach Across the Pacific

Hundreds of miles away on tiny Ant Atoll, Albert finds remnants of basalt ceremonial stones and architecture similar to Namad, suggesting its cultural influence stretched across ocean voyages. Anthropologist Ashley Meredith shares astonishing ancient rock carvings that bear striking similarities to art in New Caledonia 2,000 miles away.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest ocean, covering more than 30% of the Earth's surface. It plays a crucial role in the video as the setting for exploring ancient civilizations and archaeological wonders such as Easter Island and Nam Madol. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean underscores the impressive seafaring capabilities of these ancient cultures, highlighting their ability to navigate and settle across remote islands and develop complex societies in isolation.

💡Easter Island

Easter Island, known for its enigmatic giant stone heads (moai), represents one of the archaeological wonders mentioned in the video. Situated in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, it exemplifies the advanced cultural and engineering capabilities of its ancient Polynesian inhabitants. The reference to Easter Island in the video establishes a parallel to the mysterious civilization that built Nam Madol, underscoring the theme of human ingenuity and the capacity to create monumental structures in remote parts of the world.

💡Nam Madol

Nam Madol is a prehistoric city built on a coral reef in Micronesia, consisting of man-made islands and stone structures. It serves as a focal point in the video, illustrating the complexity and enigmatic nature of ancient civilizations in the Pacific. Nam Madol's construction directly into the coral reef showcases exceptional engineering skills and a deep connection with the environment, emphasizing the video's theme of exploring hidden worlds and ancient wonders through modern technology.

💡LiDAR

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology used in the video to map and explore the dense jungles and hidden structures of ancient sites like Nam Madol. By emitting laser pulses and measuring the time it takes for them to return after hitting the ground, LiDAR creates detailed three-dimensional images of the Earth's surface, stripping away vegetation to reveal underlying structures. This technology is pivotal in the video for uncovering lost cities and providing insights into the scale and complexity of ancient civilizations.

💡Saka ceremony

The Saka ceremony, as depicted in the video, is a traditional ritual in Micronesia involving the preparation and consumption of a narcotic drink made from the Saka root. This ceremony is essential for gaining the protection and permission of the local king and spirits before entering sacred sites like Nam Madol. It represents the deep cultural traditions and respect for ancestors and spirits that permeate the societies explored in the video, emphasizing the importance of understanding and honoring local customs in archaeological research.

💡Sao dynasty

The Sao dynasty is mentioned in the video as the ruling dynasty of Nam Madol approximately 6 to 800 years ago. This dynasty is significant for its role in establishing Nam Madol as a residential and ceremonial center of power. The mention of the Sao dynasty highlights the social and political organization of the civilization that built Nam Madol, illustrating the video's theme of uncovering the stories and achievements of ancient peoples through the lens of modern technology.

💡Basalt rock

Basalt rock is a volcanic stone used extensively in the construction of Nam Madol's structures. Its presence signifies the advanced engineering and architectural skills of the ancient builders, who transported and assembled massive basalt logs to create the city's impressive stone complexes. The video's focus on basalt rock emphasizes the connection between the natural environment and human ingenuity, showcasing how ancient civilizations utilized local resources to construct monumental architectures.

💡Coral reef

The coral reef is the foundation upon which Nam Madol is built, illustrating the unique interaction between human construction and the natural environment. The choice to build a city on a coral reef demonstrates the innovative adaptation and engineering capabilities of its builders, making Nam Madol a marvel of ancient architecture. The coral reef context in the video underscores the theme of exploring the symbiosis between human activity and the environment in ancient times.

💡Seafaring

Seafaring refers to the skill of navigating and traveling by sea. In the video, the ancient inhabitants' ability to traverse the vast Pacific Ocean and transport materials for monumental constructions like Nam Madol highlights their advanced seafaring capabilities. This concept is crucial for understanding the spread of cultures, ideas, and technologies across the Pacific islands, reinforcing the video's theme of uncovering the connections and achievements of ancient civilizations through exploration and technology.

💡Digital reconstruction

Digital reconstruction in the video involves using modern technologies like LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry to create three-dimensional models of ancient sites such as Nam Madol. This process allows researchers to visualize and analyze structures that are no longer visible due to vegetation overgrowth or erosion. Digital reconstruction is a key concept in the video, illustrating how contemporary technology can bridge the gap between the past and present, offering new perspectives on ancient civilizations and their architectural marvels.

Highlights

Introduced a new deep learning architecture for image classification

Achieved state-of-the-art results on ImageNet with 98.5% accuracy

Proposed a novel regularization technique to reduce overfitting

Demonstrated the method scales well to large datasets

Showed the approach transfers well to other computer vision tasks

Presented thorough ablation studies to validate design choices

Open sourced code and models for community use

Provided clear theoretical analysis of model properties

Benchmarked performance on diverse image datasets

Visualizations gave insights into model representations

Showed the method is compute and memory efficient

Discussed limitations and directions for future work

Well-written paper with strong empirical results

Clearly explained motivation and design of the approach

Overall an impactful contribution to the field

Transcripts

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