Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast

[@lexfridman]

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep446-sa See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. 0:00 - Introduction 1:39 - Lost civilizations 8:43 - Hunter-gatherers 12:16 - First humans in the Americas 22:07 - South America 27:36 - Pyramids 34:40 - Religion 47:44 - Shamanism 49:41 - Ayahuasca 55:54 - Lost City of Z 1:00:48 - Graham Hancock 1:07:51 - Uncontacted tribes 1:13:51 - Maya civilization 1:29:40 - Mayan calendar 1:44:57 - Flood myths 2:13:25 - Aztecs 2:30:52 - Inca Empire 2:48:52 - Early humans in North America 2:54:50 - Columbus 2:59:26 - Vikings 3:03:35 - Aliens 3:08:02 - Earth in 10,000 years 3:24:12 - Hope for the future *CONTACT LEX:* *Feedback* - give feedback to Lex: lexfridman.com/survey *AMA* - submit questions, videos or call-in: lexfridman.com/ama *Hiring* - join our team: lexfridman.com/hiring *Other* - other ways to get in touch: lexfridman.com/contact *EPISODE LINKS:* Ed's KZbin: youtube.com/@archaeoedpodcast Ed's Website: archaeoed.com/ Maya Exploration Center: mayaexploration.org Ed's Lectures on The Great Courses: thegreatcoursesplus.com/edwin-barnhart Ed's Lectures on Audible: adbl.co/4dBavTZ 2025 Mayan Calendar: mayan-calendar.com/ *SPONSORS:* To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: *MasterClass:* Online classes from world-class experts. Go to lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep446-sa *Shopify:* Sell stuff online. Go to lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep446-sa *NetSuite:* Business management software. Go to lexfridman.com/s/netsuite-ep446-sa *AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks. Go to lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep446-sa *Notion:* Note-taking and team collaboration. Go to lexfridman.com/s/notion-ep446-sa

[@C.L.A.S]

What a great surprise. Butterfly wings connecting 🤍

[@miamithijs3579]

Love all the historians you are having on the podcast!!!!

[@Murzinio]

Yeah beats all the political bullshit for sure

[@daisyxfaith]

Yes!! Keep it coming Lex

[@nikkileep8683]

Amazing Lex!!! Very excited about this episode. You should try and have someone on to talk about Ancient China

[@anshdeshwal7004]

lex please keep doing these history podcasts

[@JonnyCook]

Seriously. So sick of politics. Even technology is getting tiresome. But there’s something comforting about these in depth discussions that cover our species’ past. It makes things in our own time seem less dramatic.

[@Jay-eb7ik]

@@JonnyCook year the politics episodes are annoying. I love the history pods

[@S.K0r34]

You should have someone on to talk about Ancient Asia

[@GigaShiv]

Heck yeah! Sounds fun

[@12xenn45]

Yes! China, japan, India so many civilizations we are never taught in school

[@HistoryofWesternCivilisation]

Going hard on the history lately Lex! Great content!

[@Forheavenssake1ify]

The Aztecs extracted the hearts of human sacrifice victims in a few ways, including: Subdiaphragmatic thoracotomy- The most common method, where the victim's chest was cut open under the ribs. This method was the easiest and didn't require cutting through bone. Mr Barnhart refers to either an intercostal thoracotomy- The victim's chest was cut between two left ribs. Or (more likely) a transverse bilateral thoracotomy where the victim's chest was cut vertically through the sternum, cutting the sternal bone.

[@carlporter2239]

It’s good when Lex has guest on topics he’s actually not so knowledgeable ( not like with coding, AI, politics.. ), in these episodes he genuinely poses “basic”, “humble” “normal” questions that a lot of us can relate to, like, “why did humans actually built pyramid” ( with deep curious face). Keep them coming Lex !

[@theakspud]

Imagine how crazy the Americas must have been to a european compared to where they came from.

[@DEV3N87]

like when cortez walked into the capitol of the aztecs and saw these massive pyramids, covered in red blood, and just a completely different society in every way possible. must have been like being on an alien planet

[@smokefirebud]

You got me now i must watch. Thank you lex fridman for the content your always bringing fire fire content for years dont ever change God bless 🔥

[@valavoort]

Hell yeah Lex, you’re on a roll! Giving us what Joe should👏

[@zach_diecast_mansur]

Yep, Joe's had some goobers on talking about goobery things lately.

[@francoluissotomayor3123]

Learn your channels man

[@iherduluvlawngdich]

​@@francoluissotomayor3123nah this is what Rogan used to be

[@loco6336]

Nice

[@Eliteownage]

Nice

[@lukecaverns]

Dr. Barnhart is one of my closest friends & I’m blessed to have him as a mentor. Such a brilliant & humble guy. 🕵🏻‍♂️

[@CosmicVibing]

Just when I was getting interested in that topic, perfect timing !

[@archaeoedpodcast]

Hey Lex, thank you for having me on! I hope everyone enjoyed learning more about the Ancient Americas! 🌎 If anyone has a burning question: please, leave it below! 👇

[@lukecaverns]

Where would you say is the most likely place in the Americas to find an undiscovered ancient city?

[@archaeoedpodcast]

@@lukecaverns Under the ash around volcanoes in Mexico and Guatemala.

[@cokecherry3939]

Ass or Tits?

[@SamNielson100]

Would you say there is any evidence of Christianity in ancient America?

[@TonyWinston]

This looks interesting but after you gave such a platform to Tucker Carlson and other Maga I just don't want to watch you anymore

[@emersonsimmo90]

Never heard of him but can’t wait to put some time aside to watch and listen

[@cloudbloom]

These sorts of discussions are fascinating, glad you had him on. I would love to see Richard Dolan on here someday to discuss UAP phenomena with you Lex🛸

[@paulbunyan9436]

Please send this interview to every Mormon you know.

[@peredavi]

It won’t help. LDS is a cult based on false theology.

[@snookmeister55]

Why send to Mormons?

[@lukesmith1818]

Because they teach America was populated by the tribes of Israel. One Mormon tried to uncover evidence for this and found none. He remained Mormon

[@VaBellaBeautz]

Thank you Lex 💙

[@speakertrees]

Yw

[@CeliaCarvalho-hs3po]

Sou do Brasil e Sr LEX FRDMAN. POR FAVOR TRADUÇÃO E PORTUGUÊS., LEGENDA. GRATIDÃO 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@DrewbattleTheGreat]

My favorite subject of all time is South American history. We should be taught this in school

[@PerspectiveLove]

Robert Edward Grant is next.

[@sharonwickens6921]

Time calculation, I'm lucky I was born before decimalisation Useful for economics, fascinating to listen sxx bravo Juliett

[@mukulnamagiri8160]

lex you should bring someone from open ai mate what all with the drama there? everyone is leaving the company ?

[@dylanhalifaux]

Awesome these ancient History episodes are great.

[@niuage]

This is fascinating. Also whatever the subject is, I really enjoy hearing people who know what they're talking about talk :p

[@moonasha]

time to get Dan Carlin on, if he ever leaves his bunker

[@jimpavlidis5915]

Lex has been binging a lot of DJ Peach Cobbler lately

[@Jooberton32]

I’m here for it

[@johnathonsnape-mclean3457]

Interview Randal carlson!!!

[@fbwthe6]

Have you contacted the guy from The Austin School?

[@pernillerosa5943]

Eske willerslev does the dna - tjek him out❤

[@jaycee945]

This has been one of my favourite episodes, just because of how so damn nice Ed is and how excited he is about what he researches. I also noted the brief discussion of Hancock. No personal attacks, just a disagreement in the conclusions. I wish more people in the archaeology field were like this guy and were receptive to maybe simplistic or uninformed questions or notions about his research. Even when Lex was asking similar questions over and over again, he just kept being nice and enthusiastic about the discussion. It never felt like he was lecturing, it felt like asking your favourite teacher about niche topics. I've never had too much interest or knowledge about this topic but even after half an hour in I started taking notes so I could research this stuff later. Really awesome episode.

[@2Hot2]

I watched his TC video course about the fanged deity in Latin America years agoo but the idea just hit me that people everywhere must have been (rightly) terrified of jaguars, and what's the difference between a mysterious, secretive, terrifically powerful and lethal animal versus a "god" in the mind of the stone age people?

[@3rd_ear]

pyramids allover the planet can easily be weird coincidence. however in america, egypt and asia there are pyramids+mummies+similarities in myhology. is it a common human thing to build unreasonably big structures and to embalm their neighbour as themselves?

[@dandankovsky7968]

What I find fascinating about Mesoamerican civilizations is that their isolation allowed things we might consider “deviations” flourish. But I wonder what would happen if Europe, Asia and other Afroeurasian regions were complete isolated from each other, what weird customs and traditions would appear in our lands.

[@Alynnescape]

Thanks for the long form interesting topics lately Lex. It's a great accompaniment to my states of creative and fitness flows. Just wanted to say thanks, appreciate being here to witness these records of current knowledge being created in real time. Imagine far in the future people studying our time. I hope the future will know us very well and that your archive of interviews survives. Can digital media last as long as some of these stone structures? I wonder if that's possible, if any digital media will survive into the future. A problem of knowledge preservation that I hope one day to hear an expert on your show talk about (or if they have, i haven't heard that one yet). Thx!

[@adayinthelifeoftimothy]

thank you lex for bringing this magnificent man to this podcast topics about history and civilaitzation excite me tremendously the insights that your guest and your questions create for me are invaluable for my happiness

[@beanshadow008]

👊 hyped. Thanks!

[@MillerGreen-v1c]

From $15k to $45k that's the minimum range of profit returns every month its not a bad one for me.. As a beginner, it's essential for you to have a mentor to keep your accountable...

[@johnreese1584]

Sooooo now you’ve had like the best 2 presenters from Great Courses. And I love it. 🙏🏻 Drink deep from the Pierian spring!!

[@Sandra_D.9]

Can I suggest a topic for a podcast: human nature, why is it so fucking forbidden how the hell is anything gonna ever get better if we can’t even talk about it

[@bravozero6]

Christianity got its demi gods and angels literally from the Roman Empire. Part of what the Romans would do is mix the old gods with the new when integrating cultures. The spanish did this woth quetzlquatal too

[@eythemischief4148]

Randall Carlsson should be a priority.

[@Di_Clara]

I've been watching Randall Carlson for many years, and I still have absolutely no idea what his message is. He talks a lot, but never gets to the conclusion.

[@stuartthomas94]

please ❤

[@BOZ_11]

@@Di_Clara He's informed on a great deal, like the end of the recent glacial age, and megafauna migration. His sacred geometry speeches are deliberately opaque.

[@Di_Clara]

​@@BOZ_11 for sure the man has a great wealth of knowledge, but what is his overall message? He just jumps from one subject to the next without actually saying anything. The closest he has ever got to a message is that we're all going to die lol!

[@BOZ_11]

@@Di_Clara not everything has a moral focus. A thing only need be interesting to be studied and discussed.

[@onori6812]

The map in the beginning is so wrong. It shows migration through Africa and when it reached Egypt only then it gets to Asia. Yemen is one of the oldest inhabited regions and some say it was where humans first lived.

[@inbracedefeat]

this must be such cool job for Lex. Whenever he gets hyper fixated on a random subject like dudes tend to do he can just invite the foremost expert in the topic to discuss it for hours and get paid super well to do so.

[@robertodiaz1597]

Just came to comment and like this episode. Saving the podcast for my next shift. Thanks for covering this topic!!

[@carlporter2239]

37:19 - only a plastic Coca Cola bottle found 😅 - unleash your imagination ! * nice product placement Lex ; )

[@MillerGreen-v1c]

I'm favoured $55k every 4 weeks! I now have a good house and can afford anything and also support my family

[@TGTDestiny]

Lex has been having all these history podcasts recently and its been amazing! Its great to see more podcasts with historians and/or archaeologists.

[@ignaciosalas8241]

Get some more archs on! We know a bit of something once in a while! Maybe some who know about ancient North American history and society

[@WhiteBuffaloWakanGli]

Please keep doing podcasts like these. They’re so much better than the recent political grifters making appearances.

[@papatango2453]

WHat about Orkney, Scotland! Predates Pyramids by a few thousand years......

[@AsdfAsdf-np7wj]

So I think that when the snake comes down the stairs on that particular day and then claps its hands, that probably means, I mean the sound when you clap to feed the

[@aflinden555]

At initial glance, I thought the thumbnail was Tim Curry and I was irrationally joyful.

[@BidensTaint]

Most of my Hispanic friends don’t know a huge portion of their ancestry comes from Asia

[@lovromudrinic37]

Simply love historians as guests, would love to see dr. Roy Casagandra with Lex!

[@inkoftheworld]

Oh it's the guy from that Wired video. xD He was good in that, looking forward to this!

[@Our_Patterns]

Bro this guy and the Rome guy are my favorite guests. Keep these legend historians coming

[@gsberserk]

Lex. Есть 2 сериала: Запретные темы истории - Загадки древнего Египта и Неизвестная Мексика. Анализ с точки зрения современной инженерии, обработки камня, возможностей наших технологий и т.п. Что скажешь ?

[@karlgimmedatforfreemarx]

So J. Philip Rushton’s cold winter theory holds more water now….

[@luisvalencia5505]

Another gem by lex, thanks for these amazing history pods. Love it

[@papatango2453]

Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpvEp3utiL2gepY

[@ΧρήστοςΚαψάλης-σ5φ]

When I visited Akrotiti, the guide said they found pieces on Greenland.

[@Ifelta]

Ben Davidson from suspicious observers would make a great guest.

[@davidR9410]

50:48 Has Lex identified which method HE used when he took Anahuasca? 😂

[@michelleaneous]

*Mexican scholars watching yt ppl try to explain our ancestors to us* 🙄😬

[@angusmcbraith]

Did I hear there was some ancient Australasian dna found in South America?

[@walkertongdee]

Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA not Watson and Crick...

[@Sandra_D.9]

If Rome wasn’t bad enough eh Lex .. Fucking hell ❤

[@shelbzillathrilla]

Lex never stop what you are doing, no matter how mad the naysayers become.

[@frankdasilva]

Graham Hancock next! Great interview, keep up with the great work!

[@Jokesonyou123]

Yes more historians thank you 🙏🏻 watched the Roman one twice

[@benjaminfrances]

the fanged deity reminds me of the hindu god with the necklace made of heads

[@m_nikitin]

While everyone is here, what do you think about how we currently count years? We base it on before and after Christ, rather than, for example, starting from when the first human civilization was built. Many people think (and feel) that we’ve only been around for about 2,000 years, and everything that came before seems uninteresting or irrelevant. I think maybe we should reconsider how we count years so that people feel that, as a species, we have a much longer and deeper history. What do you think? What point in history would you consider the best starting point for counting?

[@TrxOnex]

It's arbitrary.

[@bilbobaggage198]

For a guy in the field of archaeology-- it saddens me that he can dismiss Atlantis. Although I agree it hasn't been his particular field of study... Almost nothing is know about the Sahara Desert before it turned from green to a wasteland-- and we will never likely find out either... It's not to say the Egyptian's made up their own origin story

[@snookmeister55]

Everyone makes up an origin story.

[@fhvisuals479]

Is Mr. Lex ear blooming a cauliflower ?? 🤔

[@Jeff-KK]

Anyone else think this is Paul Giamatti wearing a wig 😂

[@chandlerdutton6033]

Is that Jerry Smith?! He must have not ever met Beth in this universe

[@MUSCLETAKEOVER]

Pod was over as soon as he said he doesn't think Atlantis existed 🌊 ✌️

[@Zuzana.Ruttkayova]

I love these topics, Lex you never disappoint 🙃

[@choppers1036]

Sex,drugs,rock and roll, and...puppies

[@VanillaAttila]

How smart is smart water thats full of microplastics?

[@johnnyrascal6109]

I thought you were sponsored by Coca Cola 😅

[@solardisk3]

I'm going to work 'snotting' into a sentence today.

[@HenryBartlett-b1l]

Yet another amazing episode. Fantastic!

[@humphreykimani3927]

I have been enjoying these history back to back

[@SerDunk]

Hello from Peru 🇵🇪🌎🤙🏽

[@lashallure4634]

Thank you so much for this podcast! ❤❤❤❤

[@johannesk.-nz3wp]

This is the real world version of Indiana Jones

[@landonsegress5483]

Love these long forum history episodes.

[@Jokesonyou123]

W FOR THE HISTORY PODCASTS KEEP EM COMING

[@psychedelicmushroompeople]

I went to elementary school in the 1970s. Does anyone else remember those old hardcover books on the Aztecs, with coloured illustrations of human sacrifices? That was an education about the real world.

[@iangrabowski2298]

Homie looks like a thumb good podcast tho

[@lashallure4634]

The wolf and the rabbit! The Future…

[@blackni99a]

we got lex talking about aztec before gta 6

[@V43xV1CT15]

Thank you for the guests that speak about history

[@RobBigs-lu8bq]

oh hell yes. this looks super interesting.

[@haileebleachgeass]

Loving these history podcasts.

[@marksmandrilla7057]

You should get Dr Ammon Hillman on