Graham Hancock, the famous author of ‘Fingerprints of the Gods’ is all set for a 500-page sequel titled ‘Magicians of the Gods’ and in an interview recently he reveals that he has “smoking gun” proofs to prove his 20-year-old claim about a comet wiping out an ancient civilisation and the proofs, we have come to know from his presentations and talks around the world, lay hidden in Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, India and quite a few other countries.
One of his ‘smoking gun’ evidence seems to be the sacred site dubbed Gunung Padang in Indonesia which means “Mountain of Light”, or “Mountain of Enlightenment”, in the local Sundanese language. Gunung Padang was the site where blocks of columnar basalt were found scattered across five terraces, which he claims are the top of an ancient pyramid that dates back to 22,000 BC and earlier. According to Hancock, main stream archaeologists carried out radiocarbon dating of the soil just a few meters deep and pegged the date as some 500 BC.
However, Dr Danny Natawidjaja, PhD, senior geologist with the Research Centre for Geotechnology at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences carried out radiocarbon dating of tubular drills that brought up cores of earth and stone from much deeper levels. Hancock revealed in one of his presentation in March 2014 for Alternatives London at Saint James’s Church in Piccadilly that the drill cores contained evidence including fragments of columnar basalt. The radiocarbon dating yielded older and older dates – 3,000 BC to 5,000 BC, then 9,600 BC as the drills bit deeper, then around 11,000 BC, then, 15,000 BC and finally at depths of 90 feet and more an astonishing sequence of dates of 20,000 BC to 22,000 BC and earlier.
Hancock points out the specific dates that emerged in the radiocarbon dating – 9,600 BC and earlier – which he says belong to the period that archaeologists call the “Upper Palaeolithic”. He says that these evidence takes us to a time deep into the last Ice Age when Indonesia was not a series of islands as we know it today, but was rather a part of a vast southeast Asian continent dubbed “Sundaland” by geologists.
Hancock says that there was event that led to submergence of majority of Sundaland with only the Malaysian Peninsula and the Indonesian islands as we know them today high enough to remain above water. He claims that Gunung Padang is a pyramid that has been worked upon over the years and the terraces we see today are just the tip of these huge pyramid.
Pointing out Plato claimed that Atlantis was submerged by floods and earthquakes to “9,000 years before the time of Solon” – i.e. to 9,600 BC, the end of the last Ice Age, Hancock notes that since the Greeks had no access to modern scientific knowledge about the Ice Age and its rapidly rising sea levels, the date that Plato gave are an uncanny coincidence.
However, Dr Natawidjaja doesn’t believe that this is a coincidence at all as his research at Gunung Padang proves that there was a high civilization in the depths of the last Ice Age, which was wiped out because of floods and earthquakes in an epoch of great global instability between 10,900 BC and 9,600 BC. According to mainstream geologists, this epoch is called the “Younger Dryas”. Back in 10,900 BC, when the epoch began, the Earth had just emerged from the Ice Age and global temperatures were rising steadily with ice caps melting. But, then something happened and there was this dramatic return to colder conditions.
Hancock says that this sudden decline in temperatures, was a direct result of an impact of a comet in North American ice caps that first led to floods followed by tidal waves and ultimately a vast cloud of dust into the upper atmosphere that enshrouded the entire earth for more than a thousand years, preventing the sun’s rays from reaching the surface, and setting off the Younger Dryas deep freeze.
Next up, Hancock points out in the presentation involving his research, which was still a work in progress at the time, are the proofs involving man-made hill at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute, reveals that the hill consists of a series of immense megalithic stone circles on the scale of Stonehenge. According to radiocarbon dating, these circles date back to 9,600 BC. Researchers haven’t excavated all the circles, but using ground penetrating radar, there are quite a few circles which are deeply buried. Research is still ongoing at these sites, but Hancock believes that these structures are yet another proof for his claim.
Hancock points out that great amount of scientific evidence have been unearthed that have identified that a comet that broke into multiple fragments now known to have hit the earth 12,980 years ago. He says that he, along with catastrophist researcher Randall Carlson, explored some of the extraordinary effects of the comet impact in September 2014 when he drove from Portland, Oregon, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. His latest book shall talk about these.
“Simultaneously other large fragments hit the northern European ice cap with the same cataclysmic effects. The result was a global disaster that lasted for 1,300 years. It is, I believe, the “smoking gun” that made us a species with amnesia and wiped out almost all traces of a former high civilisation of prehistoric antiquity”, Hancock notes in an article on his own website.
“But there were survivors, who preserved at least some of the knowledge of the civilisation that had been destroyed with the intention of transmitting it to future generations, so it is not an accident that the first traces of the re-emergence of civilisation, in the form of the earliest known megalithic architecture and the re-promulgation of agricultural skills, occur at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey 11,500 years ago — a date that coincides exactly with the end of the Younger Dryas and the return to a more congenial global environment”, he adds.
The author also notes that fragments of the comet may have hit Egypt (though it is yet to be confirmed), and if so it raises an intriguing speculation concerning the ancient Egyptian cult of the Benben stone. Back in 1989, Robert Bauval – an author of many books on Egypt – proposed in the academic journal “Discussions in Egyptology” that the original Benben stone might have been an oriented iron meteorite. Hancock is of the opinion that the mysterious object worshipped in the Mansion of the Phoenix in Heliopolis might be a fragment of the Younger Dryas comet that caused the global cataclysm of 12,800 years ago.
He notes that such speculations sheds new light on the strange correlation of sky and ground that memorialises the sky of 12,800 years ago in the giant monuments of Egypt’s Giza plateau where the priesthood of Heliopolis practised their star religion.
Hancock proposes that the title of the High Priest of Heliopolis was “Chief of the Astronomers” and had its origins in a lost civilisation which was destroyed during the Younger Dryas cataclysm. He proposes that there were a few survivors who made it out and settled in Egypt and created a message to the future written in the language of astronomy and monumental architecture that was designed to draw attention to the exact epoch of the comet impact.
This and more such ‘smoking gun’ evidence will be revealed in Hancock’s next – ‘Magicians of the Gods’ – which is expected in September this year.
There is no real evidence for any civilisations anywhere near that old.
There is no real ‘solid’ evidwnce, true, but, as Hancock exhaustively doxuments, there is considerable suggestive evidence, unfortunately with little real willingness to further explore it.
Until mainsyream archeology is willing to at least admit the hypothesis, and subject it to proper investigation, we are left with no real evidence to either prove or disprove it.
Recent DNA evidence establishes that homo sapiens were spread globally at a time frame earlier than previously thought, that at least does not preclude the possibility of earlier phases of development than we are currently aware of. It would be rash to entirely dismiss novel hypotheses in archeology – it is a relatively new science, and it is little more than 100 years since the previously unknown Mycenaen civilisation was first uncovered, or since the extent of Etruscan technological and cultural advancement was first recognised.
To dismiss all suggestion of an earlier date dor the dirst civilisations with the phraae “there is no real evidence” is to limit even the possibility of the discovery of just such evidence – arxheology owes it to itself to at least remain open-minded to the possibility of the limits od its current understanding – as, of course, does any field of scientific enquiry.
At the very least, a thorough examination of Hancock’s claims, even to refute them, woyld establish a more robust basis for our understanding odfthe development of human civilisations
With the sea level rising 300-400 feet following the Younger-Dryas event much of the “evidence” will be difficult to find & harder yet to investigate given the state of our current deep water investigative technology.
Plato heard his “Atlantis” 10,000bce dating from Solon, the high priest/chief astronomer in Heliopolis which is, at the very least, an interesting coincidence.
Gobekli Tepe demonstrates that a temple(s) dating to the paleolithic (9,500bce) existed & extrapolates to an inherited astronomical knowledge that does suggest an older knowledge base. This is one of the basic tenets of civilization.
Might I suggest keeping an open mind on the subject of pre-10,000bce civilizations for the time being.
No. You can;t date the building materials, which is why all experts say they don’t know how old any pre-roman artifacts are except for a few Greek ones, and only then because we have written evidence which can be dated.
Gobekle could easily be 2,000 years old, we don’t know yet.
Scientist do know that the dating is accurate. The dating is based on geological analysis of the strata. Last time I checked that was considered authoritative accepted scientific fact.
Are you joking?
There are no civilisations that are buried in the rock strata, it takes hundreds of millions of years to form, not the 5,000 we have had civilisations for!
You are confusing prehistoric palaentology with recent anthropology that doesn’t use fossils because it is not that far back!
The imposing stratigraphy of Göbekli Tepe attests to many centuries of activity, beginning at least as early as the epipaleolithic period. Structures identified with the succeeding period, Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), have been dated to the 10th millennium BCE. Remains of smaller buildings identified as Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) and dating from the 9th millennium BCE have also been unearthed.
A number of radiocarbon dates have been published. They are reproduced below with one standard deviation errors, calibrated to the BCE:Lab-NumberDate BPCal BCEContextUa-195618430 ± 807560–7370enclosure CUa-195628960 ± 858280–7970enclosure BHd-200259452 ± 739110–8620Layer IIIHd-200369559 ± 539130–8800Layer III
The Hd samples are from charcoal in the lowest levels of the site and would date the active phase of occupation. The Ua samples come from pedogenic carbonate coatings on pillars and only indicate a time after the site was abandoned—the terminus ante quem
^^^^^^
Kool-aid effect.
This works for me — being pointed to from Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog in next day or so.
Fingerprints of the Gods was a monster and life changer. I can’t for this followup.
I am inclined to believe that it was not a comet, but a giant interstellar cargo ship full of crystallized vanilla extract.
[sarcasm]So it wasnt ‘god’ that destroyed the earth.. wow… major revelation..[/sarcasm]
Very interesting – I think that the case for a civilisation predating 10,000 has grown stronger and stronger and Graham has probably done more than anyone else in terms of actually GOING to all the sights, diving and photographing the structures etc – that is often overlooked. I very much admire his work and insights.
Fact is, Only five percent of Gobekli Tepe has been excavated, ground radar says there are many more structures and older, So maybe there is something to this, it would be great to get a crew and excavate on a bigger scale an see whats there,
For many the fact of Gobekli Tepe’s age is an embarrassment – THAT is why there is furious refusal to accept it – the Archaeology establishment does not like it when someone suggests an age that disrupts their previous ‘expert’ opinion. Great work Klaus Schmidt – the whole world thanks you for your work – we – the public – are watching with great interest.
I love history and ancient civilisations, studied them at university but I am always open minded about it. I really love Graham Hancock, I always make time for what he says. Even when I may not agree, I still listen because he challenges the conventions and forces historians to really think and re-think the established norms. That really makes the subject more interesting. I’ve always agreed with his basic thesis that history of civilisation goes much further back, that man lives near water and seas and those coastlines have drastically changed in since the end of the last ice age. If anyone has an interest in this sort of thing and has never seen it, please see the documentary series: ‘Underworld – Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age’ as a jumping off point, it’s still a favourite documentary of mine now. (Along with John Romer’s beautiful ‘Byzantium’.)
Now with fascinating sites like Gobekli Tepe we are forced again to re-examine conventional thinking, Klaus Schmidt has done a great service to mankind and to our lost ancestors by revealing that which has been lost to us. I think this is the tip of the iceberg, more will be revealed and Graham Hancock is there to keep archaeologists and historians on their toes. I can wait to see what else will be discovered in the future.