Although the details of what actually happened at the site’s construction are shrouded in legend and mystery, archaeological analysis has dated the site to around 1180 CE, though some studies claim dates as early as 900 CE for initial construction.

It was Olosohpa who became the first Saudeleur ruler after his brother’s death. For hundreds of years after that, this city was the seat of power for the Saudeleur Dynasty. Although these rulers started out well, they increasingly became more corrupt and exploitative as time pᴀssed.

Around 1550-1630, a new ruler came to the island of Pohnpei: Isokelekel. This semi-mythical warrior-hero invaded the island, deposed the last Saudeleur ruler, and then reformed the island’s political system. Just like the Saudeleur Dynasty before him, he used Nan Madol as his center of government, along with the administrative area of Madolenihmw.

No matter how impressive the site looks today, in its heyday, it was even better. At its peak, it’s currently thought that city of Nan Madol would have housed around 1,000 people. Once home to chiefs, priests, and commoners, this city was a bustling area of life.

Glenn Peterson says in his monograph on Pohnpei’s mythology (Lost in the Weeds: Theme and Variation in Pohnpei Political Mythology) that the city wasn’t just reserved for temples, even though the city may have started out as a religious site. There were military barracks, kitchens, markets, palaces, shelters in case of natural disasters, and crafting centers.

Nan Madol also had a darker side: the site was a place for Saudeleur chiefs to control their political rivals. They required local chiefs to live in the city instead of their own districts, essentially trapping them. This city was one of great beauty, but also one of ᴅᴇᴀᴅly political intrigue.

What Do Proponents Of The Ice Age Civilization Say About Nan Madol?

Some believe that Nan Madol was built during the last ice age instead of the traditional date of ~1180 CE

For those who believe in the theory that a globe-spanning prehistoric civilization existed during the last ice age, Nan Madol holds different meaning. They theorize that the entire history and chronology of the island stated in the previous section is completely incorrect. Rather than being built in 1180 CE, they believe that Nan Madol was built around 20,000 years ago.

According to their timeline, Nan Madol was built first around 20,000 years BP, was destroyed around 12,000 BP, sat unused for thousands of years, and then was settled by the Saudeleurs. This is an extraordinary claim, so where did they get this idea from?

Proponents of this theory use several main hypotheses and lines of evidence to back their claims.

Firstly, they disagree that the sea level rise that may have given the city its canals didn’t actually happen gradually over the last 1,000 years, but rather happened suddenly around 12,000 years ago. They believe that the entire city sank during a singular cataclysmic flooding event during the last ice age, when areas of the Sunda Shelf that were once exposed became submerged.

Secondly, the proponents of this theory point to mᴀssive pillars made from solid coral that are submerged beneath the water. In the 1970s and 80s, a team of archaeologists led by Dr. Arthur Saxe conducted a series of dives off the local Nahkapw Harbor in search of lost cities mentioned in local legends.

They found several large coral pillars that were around 20 feet tall at a depth of around 82 feet below the water’s surface. Proponents of this theory say that these pillars and building remnants indicate that the site was once far more extensive than previously thought, and that their depth indicates that the city was populated thousands of years earlier than what’s currently believed. Basalt column remnants were also found underwater off the coast of the site.

Thirdly, they claim that there was no way that the people of Pohnpei would have been able to move the mᴀssive basalt columns used in the construction of the site. They think that without modern technology, moving large stones would be impossible.

Some of the basalt pillars weigh over 100,000 pounds, meaning that moving them would have been quite a challenge. Based on these lines of reasoning, proponents of this theory claim that the site is 20,000 years old.

Are These Ice Age Civilization Claims Valid?

Sadly for proponents of this theory, the history of Nan Madol has been well-established by science

Unfortunately for proponents of this theory, each of these issues has been addressed in depth by archaeologists. The issues of chronology, of the coral pillars, and of Micronesians’ capability to make structures like this have all been tackled by archaeologists already.

Chronology And Radiocarbon Dating

Perhaps the most damning evidence against this theory is the chronology. The entire argument for the city being built by a prehistoric civilization in the Ice Age hinges on the site being 20,000 years old. However, archaeological data has been able to reliably date the site.

The method used was ingenious. At Nan Madol, bits of coral were used to fill in gaps in construction, along with basalt. Because these structures were filled with local coral, they’re actually very easy to date. Coral is an organic material, meaning that it can be radiocarbon dated. When radiocarbon dated, the coral used in the construction of these buildings dated to around 1180 CE.

The reason these dates are so reliable is because of the timeline used in building structures like this. The structures cannot be built with coral that originates after their construction.

To use the coral in the site’s buildings, that coral would have to date to around the time period that the site was built…or even before. It creates a cap for the oldest date the site could have been built. Thus, that’s where archaeologists got the ~1100 CE date for the site’s construction.

Many might point to Gunung Padang, a site that’s shockingly similar in the conspiracy theories surrounding it. At Gunung Padang, radiocarbon dates of non-human materials were considered to be invalid in the study of human activity at the site.

Why was this data considered invalid, while the radiocarbon dates at Nan Madol are considered reliable? The reason has to do with human interaction. The radiocarbon dates from Gunung Padang are from archaeological layers that don’t have any evidence of human artifacts in them.

The radiocarbon dates from Nan Madol are from an archaeological context that involves not only human artifacts, but actual habitation. So, in reality, Gunung Padang, the world’s oldest “pyramid” wasn’t made by humans, but is actually just a volcano that looks like a pyramid.

Archaeologists are still debating when humans came to Pohnpei, but most believe that this occurred sometime during the 1st-2nd centuries CE.

Some theorize that humans might have gone to Pohnpei as early as 500 BCE, but these dates are still being debated among archaeologists. The people who settled the island were of the Lapita Culture, a Neolithic Austronesian people that settled the far eastern Pacific between 1600 BCE to around the 1st century BCE.

Even the earliest possible date for Pohnpei being inhabited at all is still thousands of years too late for the 20,000-year BP date given by proponents of this theory.