(Describer) In a desert, a man walks on rocky ground toward a fence.
(narrator)
On a pullout off Route 95,
just west of the California/
Arizona border,
there's an ancient treasure
that most people never notice.
That's because
to truly appreciate it,
you have to view it
from above.
(Describer) The view goes higher to show a huge figure inside the fence.
But the Blythe Geoglyphs
were carved into the soil
long before air travel
was invented.
So who were they made for?
[ethereal music]
(Describer) Title: OverView. The R and V are connected.
The man stands at the fence.
Meet Alfredo Acosta Figueroa,
a Chemehuevi elder
and self-taught historian.
Alfredo has spent the better
part of the last six decades
studying and fighting
to protect this collection
of ancient rock paintings
on the desert floor
between Los Angeles
and Phoenix.
The three human figures
and two animals
that make up
the Blythe Geoglyphs,
or Blythe Giant Intaglios,
were made by scraping away
the darker surface desert rocks
to reveal the lighter-colored
stratum underneath.
(Describer) An animal has four legs.
Look at this very leggy boy.
There are hundreds
of such geoglyphs
throughout the Southwest,
but this collection is by far
the largest in number and size.
And I mean really large.
This one right here,
it's 171 feet long.
That's half the length
of a football field.
Archaeologists and historians
disagree on who made
these carvings and to what end.
In fact, it's not even clear
exactly when the glyphs
were made.
Radiocarbon dating,
a process which measures
the age of an object
by its content of carbon 14,
shows the carvings could be
between 450
and 10,000 years old.
That's a fairly imprecise date.
And that's because radiocarbon
dating works best
to measure the age of formerly
living things,
like plants and animals.
(Describer) Fences surround all the glyphs.
Despite long-standing knowledge
of the glyphs by local tribes,
a pilot named George Palmer
is often credited
with discovering the glyphs
when he flew his plane
over the area in 1932.
(Describer) Figueroa:
(Figueroa)
The Mojave oral history
and the Chemehuevi
oral history
identified
a lot of the geoglyphs
that we have here,
different versions
but all related
to the creation story.
(narrator)
For as long as humans
have been on Earth,
we've struggled to understand
who we are
and where we come from.
We even gave this quest
its own scientific discipline.
Cosmology is the study
of the origin, the evolution,
and the fate
of the physical universe.
It's the place where science
and philosophy meet.
And while some scholars
credit Einstein
with formalizing the field
of study in the 1920s,
ancient communities worldwide
have always grappled
with understanding their place
in the universe.
Since written language
only developed
about 5,000 years ago,
we can't read accounts
of this study.
But images
like the Blythe Geoglyphs
give us clues
into the philosophies
of ancient peoples.
Alfredo believes the glyphs
are evidence
that this region
is the birthplace
of the Aztec culture, Aztlán.
The Aztecs ruled a large swath
of Mesoamerica
from the 14th century
until 1521.
Many folks today consider
Aztlán to be a mythical place.
But myths often contain clues
into past truths.
And things we hold to be true
today might later be viewed
as mythical by some future
dominant culture.
(Figueroa)
The United States government,
with its original
Manifest Destiny,
came and said,
"From sea to shining sea
is ours."
So they refuse
to accept these truths.
(Describer) Alfredo writes.
(narrator)
Alfredo wrote
and self-published a book
comparing the glyphs
and other local landmarks,
like the shapes of the rocks
in the local mountain range,
to the images found
in ancient Aztec codices.
Codices are
ancient manuscripts.
The codices that Alfredo
has been studying
contain details
of all aspects of Aztec life,
including their history,
scientific beliefs,
and origin story.
(Figueroa)
The natives here
are so fortunate
that we have codices.
They relate
to the story of the creation.
(Describer) Colorful icons depict people and objects.
(narrator)
Alfredo isn't the first to say
that the region
was once Aztlán.
The Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo map
that was created at the end
of the Mexican American War
in 1848
clearly labels
the Ancient Aztec Residence
near the Colorado River just
outside what is now Blythe.
(Describer) The town is shown.
While there's
no scientific consensus
on where or even if Aztlán
ever existed,
the Blythe Glyphs are one
of many geographic mysteries
that populate the Earth.
And if no one knows who made
something,
who decides how
and if it gets protected?
(Figueroa)
In the old days,
(Describer) Alfredo:
it used to look
like a blackboard.
But now we have roads
all over.
(narrator)
Alfredo has made it
his life's mission
to keep the glyphs
and the land that
surrounds them from suffering
from further damage.
Over the course
of many years,
he's fought to prevent
the construction
of a nuclear power plant
and a nuclear dump.
But his latest battle
is with solar companies.
Since California passed
an aggressive
carbon-reduction law,
Alfredo and a group of people
from the
Lower Colorado River Tribes
have been fighting to prevent
the construction
of dozens of solar projects
in the desert.
(Figueroa)
Solar energy is the father
of the creation.
(Describer) A rock pyramid stands.
We're not against solar power,
but where it's put
is a different story.
(Describer) Alfredo's son Jesus plays a hand drum and sings as his dad stands at a fence.
[singing in Spanish]
♪
(Figueroa)
They do not have to
be destroying sacred sites
or sacred land.
[singing in Spanish]
(narrator)
Places like the Blythe Glyphs
encourage us to continue
to seek a better understanding
not only of who we were,
but who we are today.
(Figueroa)
The three main questions
have always been,
where did we come from?
Why are we here?
And where are we going?
Why are we here relates to
that we have to make
this harmonious balance
among all things.
We do all
for the benefit of all--
different sizes,
different shapes,
but all together in the trunk
of the human race.
(Describer) As shadows stretch over the flat land, titles:
Host/Co-Writer: Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Producer/Editor: Mimi Schiffman
Director of Photography: Nathan Norby
For PBS NC
Coordinating Producer: Nicole Eure
Associate Producer: Josh Clinard
Executive Producer: Rachel Raney
For PBS
Assistant Director of Programming: Gabrielle Ewing
Produced by PBS NC for PBS
Accessibility provided by the
U.S. Department of Education.
[ethereal music]
♪
