Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America | Lex Fridman Podcast #446

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep446-sa
See below for timestamps, transcript, 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

Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/ed-barnhart-transcript

CONTACT LEX:
Feedback - give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey
AMA - submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama
Hiring - join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring
Other - other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact

EPISODE LINKS:
Ed's YouTube: https://youtube.com/@archaeoedpodcast
Ed's Website: https://archaeoed.com/
Maya Exploration Center: https://mayaexploration.org
Ed's Lectures on The Great Courses: https://thegreatcoursesplus.com/edwin-barnhart
Ed's Lectures on Audible: https://adbl.co/4dBavTZ
2025 Mayan Calendar: https://mayan-calendar.com/

SPONSORS:
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
MasterClass: Online classes from world-class experts.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/masterclass-ep446-sa
Shopify: Sell stuff online.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/shopify-ep446-sa
NetSuite: Business management software.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/netsuite-ep446-sa
AG1: All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/ag1-ep446-sa
Notion: Note-taking and team collaboration.
Go to https://lexfridman.com/s/notion-ep446-sa

I like this guy ❤

Reading the Book of life,
Or extra ordinary deck of cards...is a lost language. Dream interpretation is a huge...
Lost language.... great question ❤ love this

"Art teaches nothing but the significance of art" Henry Miller??

Not just about food. Life. Using everything. Creating less work. Path of least resistance = sustainable

I have just rewatched this again and towards the end when they are discussing what a future civilization might think of us thousands of years later. What an interesting thing to consider. What would they find? What would still be standing?

Humor. "That's so human". Many things in humor as just that, human. My guess is what we find funny, the ancients probably also would find funny. The only change being the setting. Physical humor - the preoccupied person trips and falls because they're not paying attention to... walking; The misunderstandings between men & women; The nagging wife & hen-pecked husband; Misunderstandings of Lost-In-Translation situations; Unexpected consequences that the viewer or listener sees coming, but the folks in the situation do not...

This guy is so good. What a great episode.

August 14th brother

У казахов (Центральная Азия) есть поговорка - "До КАЗАХОВ были КАНГЛЫ" ............ Племя КАНГЛЫ самое древнее племя у казахов. Гаплогруппа КАНГЛЫ - Q1 ............КАНГЛЫ - это река ГАНГ в Индии ................. КАНГЛЫ - это Династия Старшая ХАНЬ в истории Китая (China) .............. КАНГЛЫ - это графство АНГЛИЯ в Великобритании ................. Q1 - Это Уинстон Черчиль ................ Q1 - это древний народ МАЙЯ ............ также ................ Россия-Якутия - есть ХАНГАЛАСКИЙ РАЙОН ............... КАНГАЛ - порода собак в Турции .............

Fucking ACID, i think this is the first time ive ever heard someone say that, and now i really think about it, it actually makes sense. It is like they are fused together and without sun like or volcano level heat what else could it be. I hope we find out thats true

That's why I love the book Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It takes this same philosophical idea of cyclical empires and civilization but sci-fi imagining humanity 12,000 years in the future as an interplanetary species

I don't get the argument that aliens wouldn't be interested in us. In human society, we have whole scientific communities investigating bugs. And bacteria. You're telling me our nascent civilization wouldn't be of some interest to some other civilizations? What if we found aliens but they were in their caveman stage? Would we really not care? Come on.

Dude are you crazy, they killed off all the Bison to starve the Indian s

1:21:13 “I’d be lying if I told you I had the answers” hahaha😂

I could listen to these guys talk about Mexicans all day

I love how Lex tries to sound profound with his questions and comments but actually sounds really dumb.

"It seems like slavery, murder and disease all have a large role to play in the story of humans."

Is that supposed to be a deep thought? A profound thought? Lmao just shut up and let the experts speak, Lex.

Lex or editors: at 2:17:09 the photo shown is not of Tenochtitlán but I believe Teotihuacán, the great Toltecan capital about an hour to the north of Mexico City. I'd recommend you show instead the painting of Diego Rivera of the market in Tlatelolco which shows Tenochtitlán as the marvelous city in the lake with the different bridge-avenues/calzadas leading to it (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Murales_Rivera_-_Markt_in_Tlatelolco_3.jpg).

@1:36:00 The Egyptian calendar had 365 days in a year, which lost a day every 4 years. The Julian Calendar, introduced in 325 AD, improved upon that by adding the leap year, which makes it so it only loses a day every 128 years, but by the 1500s enough days had been lost that the vernal equinox was off by 11 days. The Gregorian Calendar fixed this by making it so that every 4th year is a leap year, except years divisible by 100, but years divisible by 400 were also leap years, making it so that we lose a day every 3300 years.

In a few millennia we will no doubt invent something that copes with that loss of days as well, or we'll destroy ourselves by then, or we'll become such masters of our environment by then that keeping track of days, weeks, months, seasons, etc will become unnecessary.

Our dna was created outside our planet. It was created by GOD. that’s why it’s so complex

Without knowing much about the Maya calendar, I would offer one solution for 360 days in the calendar despite their knowledge of an astronomical year. I don't think it's a coincidence that there are 360 degrees in a circle...

I watch all your videos , you should of research this guy more before you brought him in , you can tell that he is " faking it " when he goes from one thing to another changing the conversation so you can't ask .

A fantastic, fascinating conversation; I enjoyed this so much. Thank you Lex and Ed.

The image you used for tenochtitlan is incorrect. That is teotihuacan which was not Aztec. It was built 1000 years before Tenohctitlan.

This guy makes so much more sense

Great guest to have on brotha I really enjoy your podcast you do a good job picking your guest consistently. I love to see Flint dibble on here soon that would be right on topic with Ed Barnhart.

I love Ed nighart

Doblen o pongan doblaje en automático a español todos los capítulos de todos los podcast por fa si ❤🎉

I know I’m late, but such an incredible episode!

Great episode!

"Did civilization start in the amazon" not a great question Lex

I like him but 10k years is excessive

Mr bernhardt's description of erosion and water eating away at lost and ancient civilizations could be absolutely applicable to atlantis, I respect his opinion I disagree with him on that I think the best hypothesis for maritime civilization would have been the Azores Plateau which matches Plato's descriptions, however if there were settlements elsewhere they've long been submerged from coastlines that don't exist anymore doggerland of Europe is a good example that's a lot of real estate that's now underwater, I'm confident one day residual artifacts and structures that haven't been plundered by humans will be discovered and will know it last yet another missing chapter

Isn't there evidence the Egyptian pyramids were constructed over 30,000 years ago?

The "noble savage" theory falls apart everywhere. Conquerors and people subyugated, way before europeans conquered the previous conquerors and so on.