By Andrew Unsworth for the Sunday Times
Magicians of the Gods
Graham Hancock (Coronet)
***
Are we silly to worry about climate change when we all will be wiped out by a comet within the next 25 years? That’s the implication of the latest theory from Graham Hancock, the consummate but controversial master of alternative history. He is usually discredited by orthodox historians, astrologers, geologists and a whole slew of academics, but unlike them he writes bestsellers.
One of those is Fingerprints of the Gods, written 20 years ago. In it, Hancock argues that an ancient civilisation was wiped out, leaving behind massive monuments and mysterious buildings, including the earliest temples in Egypt. Members of that ancient civilisation, he argues, were gods to the primitive hunter-gatherers, who survived and kickstarted civilisation again. The monuments left behind carried a message for future generations to be deciphered at a time when they could be understood: that the disaster will happen again – soon.
Now, in Magicians of the Gods, Hancock argues that said ancient civilisation ended when the Earth took a direct hit from a comet 12 800 years ago. The impact threw so much dust and smoke into the atmosphere that it precipitated an ice age that lasted 1 200 years.
Hancock travels the world to explore the monuments to decipher the message: from the scablands of Washington State, to Gunung Padang in Indonesia, to Easter Island to Syria. This message indicates Earth will cross the path of the comet again sometime between 1960 and 2040.
There is new information too, such as the discussion of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, an ancient site first excavated in 1995. Hancock’s writing contains fascinating information and insights but it does not all add up to a lost civilisation. He does not argue that the monolithic blocks of Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuaman in Peru, Baalbek in Lebanon, or the Valley Temple at Giza are remnants of the lost civilisation.
He also never gets round to explaining why there are strange handbags drawn on a pillar at Göbekli Tepe, the same handbags as carried by engraved figures in Babylon and Mexico.
Hancock has been accused of lifting ideas, cherrypicking his evidence to fit with his argument, and ignoring that which does not. He postulates that the lost civilisation was one of high technology, but he never says exactly how advanced. At times one feels overwhelmed by astronomical details. And too often, he refers the reader to his earlier books for more detailed examination of a point. However, whatever his faults, Hancock is a brilliant storyteller.
Book details
- Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock
EAN: 9781444779684
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