The Lost Empires of Turkmenistan

Modern forgery or sensational artifact? This film seeks to answer the age-old debate surrounding the authenticity of the 4,000-year-old Phaistos Disc.

The Sacred City of Caral or Caral-Supe is the capital of the Norte Chico Civilization of Supe located in the Supe Valley, 200 km (124 miles) north of Lima. The Sacred City of Caral is the earliest known civilization in the Americas, it dates to the Late Archaic period. Radiocarbon analysis performed by the Caral-Supe Special Archaeological Project (PEACS) dates its development between 3000 to 1800 B.C.. It is believed that this civilization started by the merging of small villages based on trade of agricultural and fishing products. Its importance rests on the success of techniques of domestication of cotton, beans, potatoes, chilis, squash among other products. Success in agriculture was due to the development of water canals, reservoirs and terraces. They used guano, bird excrement, and anchovies as fertilizer.

The Chachapoya people, who perished centuries ago, left behind hidden necropolises in the headwaters of the Amazon and Kuelap, the largest fortress in the Americas. After extensive research, a German professor now believes he has solved the mystery of the Chachapoya's origins. Similarities between religious symbols and images of gods as well as identical stone slingshots and holes in the skullcaps lead him to believe that survivors from destroyed Carthage reached Peru together with Celtic warriors from the Mediterranean region more than 2,000 years ago.