Fingerprints of the gods

Poking about through an assortment of grand earthly mysteries, Hancock (The Sign and the Seal, 1992) cobbles together a fascinating theory that proposes a lost civilization lying behind the conundrums. Why is it that the ruins of central America appear to show such a profound knowledge of spherical trigonometry millennia before that branch of mathematics was to find currency in the West? How is it that the great temples in Peru and Egypt show a clear understanding of the precession of the equinoxes way prior to its ``discovery'' by Hipparchus? All of these ancient monuments depict bearded Caucasian men in their sculpture. Pourquoi? Drawing on an amazing wealth of materials--from a close reading of mythology to geological texts, from archaeo-astronomy to rarefied mathematics- -Hancock devises a theory that posits a highly evolved civilization that was wiped clear off the face of the earth during the cataclysmic happenings that attended the retreat of the last ice sheet. A resulting massive crustal displacement in turn might have buried the evidence of this advanced culture, leaving only a few survivors to pass on their knowledge to succeeding generations. Egyptian, Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations all speak of men- -Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, the bearded men--who brought great wisdom into their midst (though why they didn't pass along the principle of the wheel to the Maya is an equal mystery). Where did these learned men come from? Hancock has evidence to suggest Antarctica, explained via a combination of crust movement and the odd fact that the topography of Queen Maud Land appears on a map dated 1513, when it was--and had for millennia been--under ice. He also has evidence that the next apocalypse may be just around the corner. A fancy piece of historical sleuthing--breathless, but intriguing and entertaining and sturdy enough to give a long pause for thought. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (author tour)

Chapter 1 A Map of Hidden Places 8 RECONNAISSANCE TECHNICAL SQUADRON (SAC)UNITED STATES AIRFORCEWestover Airforce BaseMassachusetts6 July 1960 SUBJECT: Admiral Piri Reis World Map To: Professor Charles H. Hapgood, Keene College, Keene, New Hampshire. Dear Professor Hapgood, Your request for evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis World Map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed. The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land Antarctica, and the Palmer Peninsula, is reasonable. We find this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map. The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949. This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap. The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick. We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513. HAROLD Z. OHLMEYER Lt Colonel, USAF Commander Despite the deadpan language, Ohlmeyer's letter is a bombshell. If Queen Maud Land was mapped before it was covered by ice, the original cartography must have been done an extraordinarily long time ago. How long ago exactly? Conventional wisdom has it that the Antarctic ice-cap, in its present extent and form, is millions of years old. On closer examination, this notion turns out to be seriously flawed - so seriously that we need not assume the map drawn by Admiral Piri Reis depicts Queen Maud Land as it looked millions of years in the past. The best recent evidence suggests that Queen Maud Land, and the neighbouring regions shown on the map, passed through a long ice-free period which may not have come completely to an end until about six thousand years ago. This evidence, which we shall touch upon again in the next chapter, liberates us from the burdensome task of explaining who (or what) had the technology to undertake an "accurate geographical survey of Antarctica in, say, two million BC, long before our own species came into existence. By the same token, since map-making is a complex and civilized activity, it compels us to explain how such a task could have been accomplished even six thousand years ago, well before the development of the first true civilizations recognized by historians. Excerpted from Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.