Indonesian Pyramid May Be Definitive Proof of a Lost Civilization
A massive pyramidal structure on the Indonesian island of Java was found to be man-made, after drilling samples returned evidence of a hidden, subterranean temple below layers of vegetation and soil. The structure might predate the oldest megalithic site on Earth, Göbekli Tepe, by millennia.
Though the pyramid has been known to locals as the Gunung Padang megalithic site for some time, it’s now being acknowledged by mainstream archeology as a possible “ancient temple.”
The pyramid is located atop Mount Padang in West Java, covered by a dense layer of trees and foliage that have amassed over the thousands of years since it was built. In addition to the tier of flora, a number of soil and rock layers have developed over the course of its history leading to its obfuscation and making it appear as if it might be a natural formation.
Danny Natawidjaja, Ph.D., a senior geologist for the Research Center for Geotechnology at the Indonesian Institute for Sciences, has been studying the pyramid for years, saying he believes it may be evidence of an ancient, lost civilization predating any we’ve known.
“Old stories about Atlantis and other great, lost civilizations of prehistory, long dismissed as myths by archaeologists, look set to be proved true,” Natawidjaja told Graham Hancock in a 2014 interview.
Natawidjaja and colleagues first noticed artificial signatures in the temple when comparing it to the eroded, natural landscape nearby. They also spotted particular characteristics in the basaltic standing stones atop the pyramid, that frame its stepped terraces. These can be found next to other rock columns and arrangements that form distinct walls, paths, and spaces clearly hinting at an anthropogenic origin. This layer alone dates back 3,500 years, with subsequent layers getting continually older the further archeologists dig.
In a recent report by LiveScience, Natawidjaja revealed the results of a study that incorporated ground-penetrating radar, x-rays, tomography, and core samples showing the pyramid’s age. The latest interest in his findings among the academic community may encourage the Indonesian government to allow further excavation – something it’s been averse to in the past.
“Underneath the surface, to a depth of about 10 feet (3 m), was a second layer of similar rock columns, thought to be 7,500 to 8,300 years old. And a third layer, extending 49 feet (15 m) below the surface, is more than 9,000 years old; it could even date to 28,000 years ago, according to the researchers. Their surveys also detected multiple chambers underground,”
Today, the top of the pyramid is used for prayer like it probably was thousands of years ago. And now that mainstream archeology is finally willing to accept that it is in fact, a man-made structure, we may be on the precipice of a true paradigm shift in our perception of human history.
For more on anomalous archeological sites around the world, check out Ancient Civilizations :
About the Author
Laser Scanning Reveals Mayan Complex Hidden for Centuries
Laser mapping reveals nearly 500 ancient ceremonial sites hiding just under the landscape of modern-day Mexico and leads scientists to revise their understandings of the origins of the Maya Civilization.
Eastern Mexico is home to the ancient Maya, renowned for their striking pyramids, written language, and complex calendar system. It is there that scientists first discovered Aquada Fénix, the largest and oldest-known Mayan construction.
Professor Takeshi Inomata is an archeologist at the University of Arizona who led the study. “We did LiDAR, which is an airborne laser marking technique. Using this technique we found Aguada Fénix, which is the oldest monumental construction in the Maya area,” Inomata said. “It has a huge artificial plateau which has a perfect, rectangular shape measuring 1.4 km long and 400m wide, which represents the largest construction in the entire Maya history. It dates to probably 1,100 – 700 BC, which makes it the oldest monumental construction in the Maya area. So the interesting part is that the largest building happened at the very beginning or oldest stage of Maya civilization.”
Having made this extraordinary find, the team recently expanded their search to a broader area using the same cutting-edge LiDAR technology. They were specifically hoping to find sites built by the Olmec people, an older civilization thought to have influenced the development of the Maya. What LiDAR revealed was groundbreaking.
“We found nearly 500 ceremonial complexes, which look like Aguada Fénix, although they are not as big. This distribution shows they shared similar concepts of space, ritual, and probably worldview. It tells us the people in the Olmec area and the Maya area really exchanged ideas and that kind of interaction was very important for the initial development of Mesoamerican civilizations,” Inomata said.
“This is the earliest evidence for the gathering of a really large number of people. Those people probably did not have too many hierarchical organizations, they most likely did not have kings. They didn’t have much marked social inequalities, so those people gathered and organized themselves, then made these huge constructions. This really makes us think about the development and possibility of human societies, not just about Mesoamerica, but about human societies in general.”
