#446 – Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America

Lex Fridman Podcast

Lex Fridman

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.7 • 13K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2024

⏱️ 216 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ed Barnhart is an archaeologist and explorer specializing in ancient civilizations of the Americas. He is the Director of the Maya Exploration Center, host of the ArchaeoEd Podcast, and lecturer on the ancient history of North, Central, and South America. Ed is in part known for his groundbreaking work on ancient astronomy, mathematics, and calendar systems.
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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/

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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(08:59) - Lost civilizations
(16:04) - Hunter-gatherers
(19:36) - First humans in the Americas
(29:28) - South America
(34:57) - Pyramids
(42:01) - Religion
(55:05) - Shamanism
(57:02) - Ayahuasca
(1:03:15) - Lost City of Z
(1:08:09) - Graham Hancock
(1:15:11) - Uncontacted tribes
(1:21:12) - Maya civilization
(1:37:00) - Mayan calendar
(1:52:17) - Flood myths
(2:20:46) - Aztecs
(2:38:12) - Inca Empire
(2:56:13) - Early humans in North America
(3:02:10) - Columbus
(3:06:46) - Vikings
(3:10:55) - Aliens
(3:15:23) - Earth in 10,000 years
(3:31:33) - Hope for the future

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following is a conversation with Ed Barnhart, an archaeologist specializing in ancient
0:06.4	civilizations of South America, Mesoamerica, and North America.
0:12.0	And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor.
0:15.0	Check them out in the description.
0:17.0	It's the best way to support this podcast.
0:19.0	We got Masterclass for learning, Shopify for e-commerce, NetSuet for Business, Agent 1 for Health, and
0:25.2	Notion for integrating AI into the note-taking process.
0:30.4	She's wisely, my friends.
0:32.0	Also, if you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason
0:35.4	including to work with our amazing team or to submit questions that I can answer in an
0:40.3	AMA go to Lex Rubin.com.
0:42.4	And now on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle.
0:47.8	I try to make this interesting. But if you must skip them, friends, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff, maybe you will
0:56.1	too. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass, where you can watch over 200 classes from the best people in the world in their respective
1:05.3	disciplines.
1:06.3	I return time and time again to Martin Scorsese, who has an excellent master class on filmmaking. I'm a huge fan of Scorsese and it's hard to pinpoint
1:16.2	exactly where his greatness is. I think in part it's the storytelling. How do you tell a story in a way that pulls a person in in a very short amount of time gives you a feeling of a peoples, of a time, of a time, of a culture, of the drama, of the tension, of the hopes of the
1:38.0	loves, of the betrayals, all of that pose you as quickly as possible, and lets you intimately feel that.
1:47.0	That, I think, at the foundation is about storytelling.
1:51.0	Now on top of that, there's the technical expertise of cinematography.
1:56.7	Just a lot of beautiful intense fun shots that contribute to the story.
2:04.7	Some of it is lighting, some of it is framing,
	...

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