The conversation continues here.
Stone Atlas is a shared atlas of ancient stone sites, built for the people who watch the videos, argue in the comments, and go take the photos. Whatever gets noticed in one thread stays attached to the place, so the next thread starts where the last one ended.
Read on for the tour, or sign in or create an account so you are ready when it opens.
Connections on the map
Each arc joins Sites that share a Feature. Choose one to follow it across the catalog.
- sites with coordinates
- 332sites with coordinates
- videos pinned to sites
- 10videos pinned to sites
- channels seeded
- 10channels seeded
- features catalogued
- 38features catalogued
Connections on the map
Each arc joins Sites that share a Feature. Choose one to follow it across the catalog.
The conversation continues here.
Stone Atlas is a shared atlas of ancient stone sites, built for the people who watch the videos, argue in the comments, and go take the photos. Whatever gets noticed in one thread stays attached to the place, so the next thread starts where the last one ended.
Read on for the tour, or sign in or create an account so you are ready when it opens.
- sites with coordinates
- 332sites with coordinates
- videos pinned to sites
- 10videos pinned to sites
- channels seeded
- 10channels seeded
- features catalogued
- 38features catalogued
Why this exists
Every good thread dies with its video.
A video drops. The comments fill with the good stuff: someone who lives near the site, someone with photos from a trip in 1987, someone who noticed the same stone knobs at a site nine thousand kilometres away. A week later the next video drops and that thread is buried. A month later someone brings the knobs up again, from scratch, under a different video.
We already know about the knobs. We know about the polygonal walls, the scoop marks, the triple doorways. What is missing is a place where each new thread adds to the record instead of restating it. Knowledge compounds only when somebody keeps the catalog, and this one is kept by the people who care about it.
Comment threads
The same conversation restarts with every upload. The best replies are the first to disappear.
Stone Atlas
- Thread 1 notices the knobs at Sacsayhuamán.
- Thread 2 adds photos from Ollantaytambo.
- Thread 3 finds the same knobs at Aswan.
- Thread 4 saves the connection. The next one starts here.
How it works
From a moment in a video to a testable idea.
Five things, in order. Each one is built from the one before it, and each keeps its evidence attached.
- 7:42UnchartedX
“Look at the size of these knobs on the lower course.”
Sacsayhuamán1A video makes a claim
A creator points at something at a site and a timestamp. The video keeps living on YouTube. The claim gets a home here.
- 6:58What did you notice?knob on the bottom rock hereStone knobsPolygonal masonryphoto attached2
A viewer logs a sighting
Press O while watching, type what you noticed, attach a photo if you have one. Stone Atlas resolves it to a site, a feature, and a name for the thing.
Sacsayhuamán · first terrace wall
exhibits Stone knobs
4
corroborate
1
dispute
5 witnesses · 2 with photosCorroborated3Sightings become a claim
Everyone who sees the same thing at the same place joins one claim, with a running count of who corroborates it and who disputes it.
Stone knobs
14 sites · 4 continents
strong4Claims reveal connections
The same feature at several sites becomes a connection you can see on the map, scored by how much evidence stands behind it.
Shared construction tradition
What would have to be true
- Knobs on load-bearing courses
- Same tool signature at 3+ sites
- Dated to one construction phase
5Connections feed theories
A theory states what would have to be true and cites the claims that support it or cut against it. It stays open until the evidence settles it.
Levels of certainty stay separate.
A sighting is never quietly counted as proof. Feeds, connections, and theories show which level they are built on.
- Unresolved sighting
Someone noticed something. Nothing resolved yet.
- AI-suggested
A suggested site or feature, awaiting a person.
- Resolved
Site, feature, and name confirmed by the contributor.
- Corroborated
Other people saw the same thing at the same place.
- Independently evidenced
Separate proof, from a different source or visit.
Video Pages
Every video gets a page that outlives the upload.
Sites the video covers are pinned. Moments people mark become dots on the timeline. Claims made in the video get a ledger. The discussion stays attached to the video and to each site it covers, so it can be found from either end.
Sightings and comments
- M
6:58Mara K. knob on the bottom rock here, same as the ones at Ollantaytambo
Stone knobs - D
12:30dan_from_cusco those scoop marks continue around the corner, I have photos from March
Scoop marks - P
Peter L. I grew up two streets from here. Happy to walk anyone out to the upper terrace.
Sites covered
- Cusco megalithic foundations2:00 to 9:00Main site
- Sacsayhuamán9:00 to 31:00Main site
- Ollantaytambo31:40Comparison
Claim ledger
- Sacsayhuamán exhibits Polygonal masonry6corroborated
- Sacsayhuamán exhibits Stone knobs4corroborated
- Foundations show saw-cut marks2 vs 3disputed
- Blocks were moved by unknown means0open
Watch with the map
On the desktop map, playback flies to each site as the video reaches it. Press O to pin the moment you are looking at.
- 1
The video and its timeline
Each dot is a moment someone marked, with the site it points at. Click one and the video and the map jump together.
- 2
Sites covered
Every site the video visits, with the segment where it appears. An hour-long journey video shows up at each site for exactly the minutes it spends there.
- 3
The claim ledger
What the video asserts, and where the community landed on each claim: corroborated, disputed, or still open.
- 4
The sighting stream
One stream, in YouTube's shape. Keep the timestamp chip and a comment becomes a sighting on the timeline. Drop it and it stays a comment. Either way it is here next year.
- 5
Watch with the map
The map answers what the video is talking about, site by site, while it plays.
For creators and researchers
Your channel page already exists. Claim it.
For every video already seeded, the channel behind it has a page here, marked unclaimed and built from public channel information. Claiming it keeps it yours: your videos get pages, each page maps the sites you covered, viewers add sightings and photos between uploads, and a Video Page link in your description box lands people on a map of everything in the video.
- Basic creator presence is free and stays free.
- You moderate the viewer timestamps on your own videos.
- Writers and independent researchers get the same treatment. Send a link to your work.
Takes a minute. I set it up and send you access.
Channels already seeded
8 shown- AEUnclaimed
Ancient Epochs
@AncientEpochs · 1 video mapped
- EEUnclaimed
Earth Explorer
@earthexplorer8256 · 1 video mapped
- LRUnclaimed
Liam Richards
@liam.richards · 1 video mapped
- MDUnclaimed
Matthew David
@MatthewRobertDavid · 1 video mapped
- MLUnclaimed
Matthew LaCroix
@MatthewLaCroix · 1 video mapped
- MUnclaimed
MegalithomaniaUK
@MegalithomaniaUK · 1 video mapped
- MBUnclaimed
Michael Button
@MichaelButton1 · 1 video mapped
- SIUnclaimed
Secrets in Stone
@CassieCoppersmith · 1 video mapped
Seeded from public videos and labeled as imported. A channel stays unclaimed until the creator says otherwise, and comes down on request.
One feed for every channel
The newest video from everyone, and what it covers.
The map opens on a feed of creator videos. Each card shows the sites the video covers, the claims it makes, how many are corroborated, and the newest comment. Post a Site page or a Video Page into your Facebook group, your subreddit, or your Discord, and the thread that grows here is the one that survives.
- Video Page
Matthew David · unclaimed · Apr 2026
I Found Hidden Megaliths in Mexico Nobody Knows About
GuirúnMonte Albán - Video Page
Michael Button · unclaimed · Oct 2025
This Could Be The Greatest Archaeological Find Ever
Sites pending - Video Page
Liam Richards · unclaimed · Sep 2025
this temple has carvings that SHOULDN'T exist: Chennakeshava
Chennakeshava Temple (Belur) - Video Page
Ancient Epochs · unclaimed · Aug 2025
A Plasma Torch Matched Ancient Egyptian Scoop Marks
Unfinished ObeliskSerapeum of Saqqara
Where it stands
A preview, labeled as one.
The catalog
A few hundred seed sites and a few dozen videos, some of it still being cleaned. That is why the full app opens at launch and the preview shows this page and the map.
Accounts
Accounts are open now for reading. Contribution opens by access code first, so the early threads stay high quality. Ask for one below and I will send it.
The rules
Built by one person, in the open. Basic creator presence stays free. Feeds stay chronological. YouTube stays the home of the video, and Stone Atlas hosts what happens after.
Say hello
Leave a note, or write to me directly.
Public notes go on the wall for everyone to read. Private messages come straight to my inbox. Either way, I read every one, and an account is optional.
The wall