Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues

I was already aware of a little of what Graham Hancock discusses in FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS. For example, I knew about places like Baalbek, which was made by an ancient and "undetermined" civilization far superior to the ancient Romans in building technology. Imagine if homes were built like they constructed Baalbek, homes that would just as new and fresh when they were built 2,000 years ago. Today's civilization has no clue how Baalbek could have been built and today they are still completely unable to reproduce such quality and level of worksmanship.Then there was the evidence of drowned advanced underwater cities in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. By "advanced" I mean places that had irrigation, pottery, and running water, and all thousands of years before it appeared on dry land. I was aware of other things like the underwater 'Stonehenge' monolith found off the coast of Sicily in 131 feet of water, and being underwater, I knew this had to mean that this monolith (and many of the advanced cities in the Indian ocean and elsewhere) had to exist before the Younger Dryas event, when sea levels were 393 feet lower than they are today.Finally, I put together an animation of the advance and retreat of the last four major glaciations of the last 400,000 years, and there were a few things that struck me as very odd. Wholly Mammoths had no problem surviving the last three glaciations/inter-glaciation events, so why couldn't they make it through the end of the last glaciation? Also, when the Cordilleran ice sheet withdrew during the last three glaciations, not much change was visible in the landscape (from a satellite's point-of-view), but the end of the last glaciation left behind tremendously huge "potholes" called the Great Lakes, it greatly expanded Hudson Bay, and it left behind numerous large kettle holes -- all things that didn't occur during the last three glaciations, despite all of them being equally sized events.So what does it all mean? That's where Graham comes in with his book, THE FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS ...SIDENOTE -- I don't buy into any of those phony strawman claims of Graham being a "pseudo-archaeologist" because Graham never claimed to be an archeologist. Therefore I am not the least bit interested in any of the great many personal attacks made on Graham, but rather any attacks made on his factual claims, which so far has been absolutely zero.... I don't know where Graham got all the money or the time to do all this research, but I am grateful that he did. So far I have found all of Graham's claims to plausible, verifiable, and validatable. In conclusion, Graham's investigative journalism ties all the pieces together of what I was looking for, and it is a very remarkable story: Obviously a huge mass extinction event took place due to a comet impacting the Cordilleran ice sheet that killed off the Wholly Mammoths (and other large animals like Glyptodons, Megatheriums, etc), inundated major cities in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Mediterranean Sea, as well as why, starting about 7,000 years ago, there was an extreme collapse of human genetic diversity (see CULTURAL HITCHHIKING AND COMPETITION BETWEEN PATRILINEAL KIN GROUPS EXPLAIN THE POST-NEOLITHIC Y-CHROMOSOME BOTTLENECK). It all makes sense now! There were no stones left unturned by Graham, so ...Thank you Graham Hancock for doing such a superb job of investigative researching!SIDENOTE -- I'm not going to be as diplomatic as Graham tries to be: Archeology hasn't become a pseudoscience as he thinks it has, it is a science that has been hijacked by the Christian establishment for the purposes of suppressing anything that makes civilization appear older than what they want you to believe it is. They most certainly don't want you to entertain the idea that a race of humans much superior intellectually to what exists today, used to exist until a global disaster wiped them out. That narrative doesn't exist in the Bible and would erase all confidence in the narrative of the Bible, as well as anything else associated with it.

It’s truly fascinating to read this book. It’s full of possibilities and of facts. In the future with the help of all the scientists interested in the subject we will reach a better understanding of our planet, our people , the accomplishments of previous civilizations and our future, if there’s is one ..

Fascinating read and a truly mind-blowing theory about an earlier, more advanced civilization now lost to the mists of time. This book and its sequel can change your view of human history and predates it by maybe 8,000 - 10,000 years. The world contains so many unsolved mysteries and enigmatic remnants of a much older, wiser civilization that aren't explained in any of our existing history books - were the sphinx and pyramids created thousands of years before Ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs appropriated and reused them and are they a cosmology in stone? Does Gobeckli Tepe prove that human beings were much more organized 9,000 - 10,000 years ago and worshipping in temples rather than the traditional "hunter-gatherer" view of mankind's earlier development? Did a highly sophisticated culture with amazing technological abilities and profound knowledge predate our recorded history and was it wiped out in a series of natural disasters, floods, comet strikes. Are we only now just relearning the secrets of ancient technologies that have been lost to human knowledge for millennia?

Before any comment on Hancock’s thesis or conclusions, I must say this: the guy can write. I suppose I should expect that from a journalist, but still, the reason this book has four stars instead of three is the quality of the writing. It all reads like a long form magazine or newspaper piece (who remembers those? Show me some hands!). I blasted through 450 pages of this puppy in 2 days, almost 300 on one of those.Now to the content: I was of the opinion, on picking up this book, that the “ancient lost civilization” position was, while intriguing, wackadoo in the extreme. The mythological golden age that innumerable cultures share is a longing for a past that never was, idealized fantasy, which, though rich in material, metaphor, cultural insight, etc, never actually existed. My reaction was that of the skeptics quoted and profiled in the text: “Show me the evidence.”However, while Hancock and his sources didn’t convince me, I have to say that the suggestions they put forward are fascinating. They have a much stronger leg to stand on than I supposed, and while I, again, remain unconvinced, it is making me think about the possibilities and historical implications their argument implies.The lynchpin, as far as I can tell, the the grounding of the same argument in 1) the problematic date-ability of certain megalithic structures and 2) the synchronization of elements of those megaliths with scientifically sound astronomy.It is compelling if nothing else, and has made me consider that the archaeological establishment may not have such an airtight hold on historical fact.A disclaimer: I am NOT a scientist, historian, astronomer, or physicist, and I have no professional academic training or credentials on which to base my opinions or reactions. That being said, it’s interesting, thought-provoking, and a page turner. If you like history and can get past the knee-jerk eye roll towards some of the zanier suggestions, you may be surprised how credible some of the arguments are.Loses a star for its lack of reputable sources and hard data, and supposition of coincidence equaling direct correlation, BUT definitely worth the time for the sheer mind blowing implications and wonderful readability.

A really nice piece. Shout out to the packaging employees for the exceptional job.

arrived in great condition

Very nice. You can read it several times, since its very informative. Very detailed.I have not finished it so far, almost half through, since I sometimes read the same capital twice of more and then talk about it at work the next day. Nice icebreaker and super interesting.

Authentic edition with lots of maps and photos.The print is large for easy readingRecommended

Masterpiece. Tutti dovrebbero leggerlo