There is a lot that hides among the rocks. Many secrets. Here I tell about the beginning of my travels. On the coast of East Greenland, I have learned about a rock with petroglyphs, which I have come to investigate and I find more than I could dream of. The rock tells the story of a forgotten whale culture that lived along the Arctic coasts millennia ago and based everything on their whaling. A culture that was completely based on the sea and what it could provide. One discovery follows the other as I wrestle the secrets from the rock and a forgotten ancient culture reveals itself to me and draws me into it. This is the beginning of my travels and the basis of my further search for traces of the forgotten whale culture. This is my translation of some of the writings of the lost explorer Vito de la Vera, who's travels brought him into contact with many lost cultures before he himself was lost.

To gain an understanding of the past, it is sometimes useful to test what one has learned by investigating the past. That is what this book is about. It is a continuation of my book, "The Whale Culture of Greenland". Based on the details about the whale culture in Greenland that I learned from rock carvings on a cliff in Eastern Greenland, I and like-minded individuals have built an airship, as it could have been built by a hunter-gatherer culture in the Arctic during the Holocene Maximum, and we will now attempt to fly it around Greenland and propel it with the fuel we can gather from hunting. This is therefore the story of our journey in a hot-air balloon around Greenland and how we managed the long trip north around the island and down along the west coast until we returned to the east coast, facing all the challenges and dangerous situations that arose along the way. It is also the story of what an ancient people could achieve in the distant past and what it tells about their spread in the Arctic and beyond. It is a long and eventful journey that I and my companions undertake, which does not go as expected and certainly does not end as such, but still bears the fruits we desired. The journey is long and tough and constantly tests us, as the Arctic must have tested the whale culture in Greenland's distant past, but we endure it all the way to the abrupt end of the journey, thereby showing that an airborne culture in Greenland could have been possible around the time of the Holocene Maximum.

My search for the origins of the whale culture has now taken me from the first findings on the East coast of Greenland across the Arctic Ocean and down the Bering Sea to the Aleutian Islands. Here I have found evidence that they originated in the Pacific, which brings us to Japan and the Yonaguni monument. Here it becomes evident that the Whale culture originated from hunter-gatherers, on the Eurasian Mammoth step, who have begun to hunt seals and whales in the Sea of Japan and have then crossed over to Japan from where their culture has adapted to the rich hunting waters of the Pacific during the ice age. The abundance of hunting game has led them to be very successful in the Pacific and to have the resources to develop their unique culture, where they lived on and hunted from the ice cover on the Ocean. On the journey from Japan across the Pacific we find evidence on Hawaii that causes us to take a detour to Kiritimati. There we find evidence that very specific ocean currents during the ice age created a continent of ice in the pacific during the ice age with very rich waters both to the north and south of this ice continent on which the whale culture established a civilization that must have been the real lost continent of Mu. From this continent the whale culture of Mu could cover the entire pacific in their airships based on whale skin and bone. In our continued search we come to Tahiti and New Caledonia to find the source of the specific conditions in the ocean currents that led to the formation of the ice continent of Mu and how these conditions started to collapse and led to the decline of the Whale culture in the Pacific. We thus end up following the whale culture to New Zealand, where it tries to adapt to the missing sea ice and follows the ice south towards the Antarctic before disappearing.

From 1989 to 1994, more than 200 m2 were excavated at the Saqqaq site of Nipisat, situated on a small island 15 km south of Sisimiut. The excellent preservation conditions for organic material, and the fact that some of the stone artefacts were not previously known from the Saqqaq Culture, were the main reasons for the excavation. More than 70,000 bone fragments, 20,000 flakes and 1,000 artefacts were recovered. A total of 33 dates, making this site one of the best dated in the entire Arctic, reveal that Nipisat was occupied continuously for nearly 1,500 years. Although protruding bedrock disturbed the stratigraphy and several lenses of crushed shells interrupted the layers, three different chronological phases could be identified. Phase 1 is dated by eight 14C dates ranging from 2020 to 1740 BC (cal). Phase 2 partly overlaps, but is mainly younger than phase 1 and dated by five 14C dates to 1860-1325 BC (cal). Phase 3 is dated by 16 14C dates to 1310-810 BC (cal). One date was very young (520 BC (cal)) and problematic because of extreme oscillations of the 14C curve. From phase 1 there is a mid-passage structure with a box-hearth. A ring of flagstones surrounds the structure. From phase 2 there is a well-defined box-hearth. There was no clear outline of a tent ring surrounding the hearth, which could be due to later disturbances in phase 3. No dwelling structures were recognised from phase 3. Instead several sherds of soapstone were recorded, indicating the use of blubber for light or cooking. From phase 1 and 2 the tool types are well known from other Saqqaq sites in Greenland and Arctic Canada e.g. small harpoon endblades, projectile points, knife blades, scrapers, burins etc. and needles, flint flakers, harpoon heads, wedges etc. But from phase 3 previously unknown types were recorded. A new tool kit for sea mammal hunting is seen in the very sturdy harpoon or lance head made of antler. In addition there are many different kinds of barbed leisters or spears. New types of bevelled harpoon heads, bevelled knife blades and bevelled projectile points, all made of killiaq (silicified slate), were also registered. The faunal assemblage of Nipisat yielded 28,823 identified bone fragments representing at least 42 species of fish, birds and mammals. The fish remains, comprising c. 2% of the faunal material, consisted nearly entirely (98%) of fairly large sized cod (). The bird remains comprise c. 47% of the material and derive from at least 24 bird species. Gulls are the dominant group (c. 54% of the bird remains) followed by eider ducks (spp.) (24%) and spp. (13%) presumably barnacle geese (), while auks () were found in lower frequencies. The most spectacular finds, however, were skeletal remains of subadult great auks () from the oldest phase. A total of 60 presumed whooper swan () remains constitute the hitherto largest, northernmost and oldest occurrence in Greenland. At least 14 mammalian species were identified revealing a surprisingly large proportion of caribou () (51% of the mammal remains) for a coastal site. Seals accounted for 45%, with the common seal () as the absolutely dominant component. Other marine mammals were walrus () and harbour porpoise (), which played an important but minor role. Polar bear () hunting was documented by the presence of four fragments from the youngest phase. Saqqaq people were accompanied by fairly large and robust dogs (). Nipisat, the first larger Saqqaq site to be excavated from the Open Water Area was a coastal site and through all occupation phases the game animals of the surrounding waters and fjords were hunted. For more than a millennium, the site was visited briefly from time to time, at least during spring, summer and early autumn. Staging geese were captured during spring. In June and July the breeding birds were exploited for their eggs and easily accessible young, as documented by large numbers of juvenile gull bones in particular. The common seal hunting specialised on immature individuals caught primarily during their first summer on the breeding grounds. The inhabitants at Nipisat also hunted caribou on the mainland. The age structure and sex distribution of the caribou remains primarily reflect stalking. Selected body parts, especially the fore and hind legs and the heads, were transported to the island for raw material, meat filleting and further processing for marrow extraction and fat rendering. The exploitation of fauna through the entire occupation period was remarkably constant with respect to choice of game animal and the selected age groups. Although eiders were more abundant in phase 1 (36%) than in phase 3 (17%) while gulls increased from 43 to 61% in the same time period. The same trend was found valid for geese, which increased over time while the importance of auks decreased. Harbour porpoise seem to have decreased while walrus increased in relative importance through time. Caribou seem to be of greater importance in phase 3 with 55% compared to 45% in phase 1. The slight shift in preferred resources may be explained by fluctuating abundance and availability of the game species combined with the development of new hunting tools. Based on the new investigations in the Sisimiut District, the gap between Saqqaq and Dorset Culture in Central West Greenland has been diminished. Although resource exploitation at the site seems to have been very stable through all three phases, there are aspects of cultural change bridging the transition from Saqqaq to Dorset Cultures. The introduction of bevelled tools, sturdy harpoon or lance heads and the abandonment of the bow and arrow in phase 3, show cultural affiliation with Dorset technology. This is also true in terms of lithic raw material preference, the introduction of soapstone artefacts and the absence of dwelling structures with a well-defined box-hearth. At the same time it looks like, the central occupation area for the Saqqaq Culture shifted southwards from the Qeqertarsuup Tunua area towards Sisimiut and Nuuk.

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Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, located in the northern part of North America. It is the world’s largest island, covering an area of over 2.1 million square kilometers, with most of its land covered by ice. The island has a population of approximately 56,000 people, who majority are Inuit, who have inhabited the land for over 4,500 years. Greenland has developed an economy based on fishing, mining, tourism, and a limited agricultural sector. Its capital city, Nuuk, is the largest city and has all of the modern amenities one would expect in a developed country. The climate in Greenland is harsh, with long and cold winters, and short cool summers. The island is home to the largest national park in the world, which is the Northeast Greenland National Park that covers a third of the island The park is home to various wildlife species, including polar bears, walruses, and Arctic foxes, among others. Greenland is a beautiful island that is rich in history and culture. It has retained much of its cultural heritage, which can be experienced through its folk music, traditional dress, and cuisine. With its stunning landscapes and unique culture, Greenland has become a popular tourist destination for travelers seeking an adventure in the mystical and remote Arctic north.