A Gaia special report on the 2017 inquiry into the three-fingered mummies recovered near Nazca, Peru. Investigative journalist Jaime Maussan brings a team of scientists including Konstantin Korotkov to examine the largest specimen, who concludes the skeletal structure is incompatible with deformed human anatomy.
Transcript
[MAN] We were supposed to see one of the most important discoveries of the 21st century. [NARRATOR] Nazca, Peru. Home of one of the most mysterious archeological sites on Earth. A new mystery has emerged from this remote location. And it takes us from what we see above the ground to what lies below. We get a lot of leads here at Gaia, regarding new discoveries or investigations, but one particularly interesting lead came to us from a journalist named Jaime Maussan. [JAIME] My name is Jaime Maussan. I am an investigative journalist, and I have been working as a journalist for the last 47 years of my life. [MELISSA] He got word of some mummies in Peru that didn't look human. We decided to go to Peru and examine and see if these were fake or real, or what were they? Our crew jumped on an airplane and flew from Colorado to Lima, Peru with cameras and everything in tow. Jaime also took a camera crew with us. We also took scientists. We have a very important mission here in Peru. I came here because it was a group of scientists, professionals, journalists. Once the scientists arrive, the body is revealed, and they get to analyze it for the first time. [JAY] When he brought it out and pulled it out of the box, it was a stunned silence at first. [DR. KOROTKOV] It was a prepared mummy. The size of this humanoid was 168 centimeters. It was practically my size, a little bit shorter. So it means that this was a person who was walking as we do, who was able to move hands as we have, with long legs. So the proportion of the body was very similar to ours. It is an absolutely authentic hand with three long fingers, very long. [DR. BENITEZ] The three fingers is a characteristic that makes it unique and unforgettable, and that is what exactly makes us think that this does not belong to a human species. [DR. KOROTKOV] Then, of course, very important-- the head. That, of course, was the most amazing. It wasn't our rounded skull, but it was a very protruded skull. Very clear. And on the skull as well, it was very, very natural. Very interesting, they had eyes and nose and no ears, only little holes. [JAIME] The mummies are covered completely in this white dust. But it's not just white dust, it's something that is going to really dry the skin, and the skin will be able to survive for so many years. [JAY] When Konstantin pulled out the sample, and we saw the gray skin. Then I knew because I know that bodies, when they reach that level of decomposition, they turn this kind of slate gray. So that, I felt really good about. [MELISSA] One of the most important things I think that we can do, is to take samples. And the samples are important for a couple of reasons, Carbon-14 testing and DNA testing where we can figure out how old the possible creature is and of course what the genetic make-up of it is. One of the labs that we sent a sample to, for Carbon-14 dating, came back, and the results were anywhere from 245 AD to 410 AD. One of the coolest things that we got to do, is we got to take the body to get CAT scanned, and we are currently getting all of the information from the CAT scans analyzed. Could somebody have gone in here, and they did something with the skull to change it? They did something with the hands to make it have this appearance? Based on the images that I'm seeing here, it seems unlikely. [MELISSA] Professor Korotkov and his team in Russia also analyzed the body, and they've actually discovered some very interesting evidence. In layman terms, a mummy is when organs are extracted. So this is technically not a mummy. However in this case, the body was mummified but the organs were not removed. What was interesting is, right after we saw the body, we began looking at some nearby petroglyphs, and we discovered a humanoid figure in the petroglyphs in the mountains that had three fingers. [DR. KOROTKOV] I've seen many images of South American cultures. I would think it's the imagination of someone... all myths, all religious beliefs of ancient peoples. They are based on some reality. [JAY] So we're wondering what we are really dealing with here. [MELISSA] Gaia is completely committed to this story. We're going to let you know if it's human, if it's non-human. Like I said, our whole mission is just pure curiosity. What could it be? And to honestly give a journalistic approach to that. That is our mission. And that's what we hope to bring to you. This is just the beginning. This is not the end, not even with the samples. There is so much more to comb. [KONSTANTIN] From my point of view, there is no way that it is some deformity of the human body. It is absolutely a different structure of all skeletons. And it belongs to another creature, another humanoid.