Now on Spotify VIDEO https://open.spotify.com/show/58Y61M78gDxzaSWQPrD6z9What happens when archaeologists discover something that shouldn't exist? They change its age, lock it away, or pretend it was never found. At least, that's what Michael Cremo claims has been happening for more than a century.
In this extraordinary conversation, Michael Cremo, author of Forbidden Archaeology, takes us into the forgotten records of nineteenth-century geology, where scientists reported human bones and manufactured stone tools in rock formations supposedly tens of millions of years old.
In Portugal, government geologist Carlos Ribeiro reportedly discovered hundreds of stone tools in geological deposits dating back 20 million years. After his death, museum officials changed their labels to just 20,000 years old. Eventually, the entire collection disappeared from public display.
In California's Sierra Nevada mountains, gold miners claimed to have uncovered human remains and artefacts deep inside ancient rock formations, some assigned geological ages approaching 50 million years. The discoveries were investigated by California's chief geologist, J. D. Whitney, and published by Harvard University in 1880. So why have these reports almost vanished from the story of human evolution?
And then there's Virginia Steen-McIntyre, the geologist whose dating work at a Mexican archaeological site suggested an age of approximately 300,000 years. Cremo describes the professional consequences she allegedly faced when her findings challenged accepted timelines.
But the conversation goes considerably further.
Could humans have existed alongside prehistoric creatures millions of years before conventional evolutionary timelines allow? Are Sasquatch and the Yeti surviving representatives of a forgotten branch of humanity, perhaps possessing abilities that conventional science cannot explain? And could the ancient Sanskrit writings of India preserve accounts of previous human civilizations destroyed by catastrophes?
We investigate Vedic cosmic cycles lasting billions of years, repeated destructions of life on Earth, ancient flying machines known as Vimanas, the terrifying Brahmastra weapons described in Indian literature, and Robert Oppenheimer's interest in Sanskrit texts.
Cremo also recounts the extraordinary backlash against the 1996 NBC documentary The Mysterious Origins of Man, including attempts to punish the network for broadcasting material that challenged accepted scientific explanations.
The artefacts are real subjects of historical reports. Their extraordinary claimed ages and interpretations remain disputed. But the question at the heart of this interview is harder to dismiss: who decides which discoveries deserve a place in the history books?
From museum storerooms in Berkeley to forgotten Portuguese excavations, Michael Cremo makes his case that humanity's past may be far older than we have been taught — and that some of the most controversial archaeological evidence has been hiding in plain sight.
