Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization

by Graham Hancock

Overview

Could the story of mankind be far older than we have previously believed? Using tools as varied as archaeo-astronomy, geology, and computer analysis of ancient myths, Graham Hancock presents a compelling case to suggest that it is.

Graham Hancock is featured in Ancient Apocalypse, a Netflix original docuseries.

“A fancy piece of historical sleuthing . . . intriguing and entertaining and sturdy enough to give a long pause for thought.”—Kirkus Reviews

In Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock embarks on a worldwide quest to put together all the pieces of the vast and fascinating jigsaw of mankind’s hidden past. In ancient monuments as far apart as Egypt’s Great Sphinx, the strange Andean ruins of Tihuanaco, and Mexico’s awe-inspiring Temples of the Sun and Moon, he reveals not only the clear fingerprints of an as-yet-unidentified civilization of remote antiquity, but also startling evidence of its vast sophistication, technological advancement, and evolved scientific knowledge.
 
A record-breaking number one bestseller in Britain, Fingerprints of the Gods contains the makings of an intellectual revolution, a dramatic and irreversible change in the way that we understand our past—and so our future.
 
And Fingerprints of God tells us something more. As we recover the truth about prehistory, and discover the real meaning of ancient myths and monuments, it becomes apparent that a warning has been handed down to us, a warning of terrible cataclysm that afflicts the Earth in great cycles at irregular intervals of time—a cataclysm that may be about to recur.
 
“Readers will hugely enjoy their quest in these pages of inspired storytelling.”—The Times (UK)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307829054
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/19/2012
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	59,503
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Graham Hancock was formerly East Africa correspondent for The Economist and a correspondent for the London Sunday Times. His The Sign and the Seal, an international bestseller, documented his real-life quest for the Ark of the Covenant. He has appeared on television with Michael Palin in his Pole to Pole series, and on the BBC and CNN, as well as the National Geographic’s Explorer series.

Read an Excerpt

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.

Editorial Reviews

"I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods."
—Roland Emmerich, Director "2012" in an interview from Time Out London

From the Publisher