Review of Graham Hancock's Underworld

The following is a review I wrote of Graham Hancock's 2002 book, Underworld: the Mysterious Origins of Civilization

.

Although Graham Hancock's Underworld has been criticized as being "lengthy" or "disorganized," the sites he examines are unified by their contributions to his theory of a more ancient date for civilization than conventionally accepted. Further, the areas of inquiry in this book are essential for any student of mankind's ancient history. Perhaps each could have been a book of its own, but none of them can be ignored: the evidence of man-made ruins at depths of over 75 feet, the mysterious megalithic temples of Malta, the subject of the portolan maps and charts, and the ancient Jomon culture of Japan.

While I believe that the series of events posited in Walt Brown's hydroplate theory better explains both the mechanism of the rise of sea levels and the reason why sites such as Mnajdra on Malta continue to maintain precise alignments with the solstice sunrise after at least 5,000 years, Mr. Hancock has done every student of alternative historical explanation a service by covering these less well-known archaeological treasures as well as the breaking story of the underwater ruins. If critics would like a book that delves into them in a different manner, they should write their own -- Mr. Hancock has certainly provided an excellent jumping-off point and one that belongs in the library of any student of the mystery of mankind's ancient past.

As noted, I believe that the hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown provides a more rigorous explanation for the phenomenon of a rising ocean level, some centuries after the cataclysmic global flood.

As Dr. Brown explains in greater detail in his book, immediately after the flood, the sea levels were significantly lower than they are today, but eventually rose due to the sinking of the continents. I also discuss this mechanism in conjunction with the discovery of underwater ruins in the Mathisen Corollary.

Nevertheless, while disagreeing on the precise details, I am in agreement with Mr. Hancock that the evidence he provides in Underworld clearly indicates a rise in ocean levels within human memory. His analysis of early maps and navigational charts, as well as of the contours of the undersea terrain off the coast of India, the Maldives, Malta, and elsewhere provides powerful confirmation of this important but little-known fact of human history.

Furthermore, his discussion of the megalithic temples of Malta, of aspects of ancient Hindu culture, and his examination of the mysterious Jomon of ancient Japan are all important and lesser-known clues in the search for the truth of mankind's ancient past.

Mr. Hancock is an engaging writer, an expansive intellect, and a courageous promoter of theories that he knows will invite critics and personal attacks. He is not afraid to go in a variety of directions and to correct his previous hypotheses when he uncovers new evidence that cause him to reconsider or revise his conclusions. Because of his many gifts and his ceaseless inquiring, he has become one of the most well-known voices for the idea that mankind's past is dramatically different than previously believed.

While different people examining this broad subject will arrive at different conclusions and will surely have intellectual disagreements over various points, Mr. Hancock should be viewed as a strong ally and in many ways a true pioneer in the cause of bringing mankind closer to the truth of our distant past.

The hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown

The connection between geology and the ancient history of mankind cannot be overlooked.

The currently-dominant theory of plate tectonics was ridiculed for decades when first proposed by scientists such as Alfred Wegener (1880 - 1930) in the early 1900s. Now it is so widely accepted that academic professionals who question it jeopardize their careers.

But plate tectonics is wrong. It may have been an improvement over previous theories, and it clearly seems to explain many phenomena on earth, but other phenomena -- some not even natural phenomena -- clearly illuminate its fatal flaws.

Ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid, the Caracol at Chichen Itza, the megalithic passages at Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, the megalithic temples of Malta such as Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, and many others around the world contain precise alignments with true north, with the rays of sunrise on the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, and with the transit points of certain important stars.

Many of these monuments are many thousands of years old (Stonehenge and the megalithic temples of Malta are dated by conventional historians to 3000 BC and earlier, and the Great Pyramid is dated by conventional historians to a period around 2580 BC). If the theory of plate tectonics is correct, in which we are told that the continental plates are in constant gradual motion, drifting by several millimeters to as much as an inch a year, then why are all these monuments still so precisely aligned after thousands of years of drift?

It is AD 2011 as this is published, which makes the temples of Malta and Stonehenge well over 5,000 years old, and the Great Pyramid around 4,590 years old according to conventional dating (it may well be much older). Even at half an inch a year, 5,000 years of movement would equate to over four hundred feet.

If one or two of these sites happened to be on a particularly stable part of the globe (if such a place can be imagined in the theory of plate tectonics), that excuse can hardly be used for every single ancient and astronomically-aligned site on several different continents.

The continuing precise alignment of ancient man-made sites is not the only piece of evidence that demonstrates the grave errors with the tectonic theory, but it seems to be a particularly damning one. Because the connection between ancient history and geology is rarely made and often overlooked, this obvious problem with tectonics goes unnoticed.

There is, however, a geologic theory that has no difficulty with the ancient sites described above, and yet can also decipher many of the geological puzzles that plate tectonics was created to resolve.

That theory is the hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown. The hydroplate theory is fully explained on Dr. Brown's website, the Center for Scientific Creationism, and in his book, In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood.

According to the hydroplate theory, the Mid-Altlantic Ridge and the continental shelves (clearly seen in the above image from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) were formed by the violent escape of massive flows of water. The jetting water eroded tons of material (which later spread across the earth and was sorted into the sediments we see today in many geologic sites such as the Grand Canyon). As weight was removed due to this jetting action of water escaping, the underlying crust sprang upwards, causing the plates carrying the continents to begin sliding away from this ridge towards the Pacific basin.

The Pacific basin itself was formed as an opposite reaction to the upward springing action of the Atlantic floor. These sliding plates eventually ground to a stop, creating buckling that formed the mountain ranges we see today. The intense friction particularly along the leading edge of these formerly sliding plates created magma and volcanic activity, which was more pronounced in the past but continues to this day.

According to Dr. Brown's theory, earthquakes are not the result of drifting plates but of continuing settling and shifting of these plates, just as heavy boxes in the back of a truck will occasionally shift and find a position of lower potential energy (Dr. Brown explains all of these phenomena in much greater detail, particularly earthquakes, which fall into different categories based on different causes, all of them understandable using the hydroplate model).

Not only does this theory explain literally hundreds of geological phenomena around the world more satisfactorily than competing theories such as tectonics (many of which Dr. Brown details in his book), but it also creates a paradigm shift in our understanding of the clues from mankind's ancient past. The hydroplate theory can unlock some of the mysteries of ancient archaeology and mythology.

The Mathisen Corollary applies Dr. Brown's theory to the human evidence of an ancient civilization that possessed a deep understanding of precession and encoded that understanding in their myths and archaeological monuments.

Anyone who is interested in unraveling the mystery of mankind's ancient past should carefully consider the hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown.

How history is like a Scooby Doo mystery

In any given episode of

Scooby Doo

(and most classic crime mysteries), the formula remains remarkably consistent:

• A crime has been committed.
• The authorities have a theory, often suspecting an obvious person that nobody in the town liked or trusted to begin with (perhaps a cranky old hermit).
• The gang arrives in the Mystery Machine and begins to stumble across clues that point in a different direction.
• The real culprit engages in extensive misdirection to try to scare them away from pursuing the mystery any further, so that they won't discover the truth. This usually involves dressing up as a monster, ghost, mummy, witch doctor, or other malevolent creature.
• The gang splits up and Shaggy and Scooby accidentally trap the culprit through a combination of clumsiness and a search for snacks.
• The culprit is revealed to be a pillar of the community, someone the authorities would never have suspected.
• The authorities thank Scooby and the gang, and the culprit grumbles that he would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for "you kids."

It doesn't seem like a very realistic scenario, and you wouldn't think it happens that way in real life, but when it comes to the mystery of mankind's ancient origins, you might be surprised at how "life imitates art," so to speak.

In this case, the "authorities" are those who are supposed to represent learning and inquiry, the academic community, museums, and official historians holding government positions, all of whom tend to adhere to a set of foundational assumptions.

The "gang of kids and their stupid dog" are the alternative theorists who have been uncovering clues that something isn't quite right with the conventional narrative, and who are poking around in annoying fashion in areas that the authorities would rather they stay out of.

To dissuade them and try to get them to butt out, all kinds of scare tactics are employed, in this case consisting of academic censure, ridicule, name-calling (see for instance

this previous post

), and other means of intellectual bullying and intimidation. If you doubt that this takes place, ask someone who works in academia what would happen to them if they published a paper that points to evidence that challenges the conventional narrative of mankind's ancient past -- or better yet, talk to someone from the academic community who has actually experienced the loss of their career and credibility because they dared to go against the status quo.

We don't know how this story will finally turn out, but we do know that in the Scooby series, the truth eventually comes to the surface. We know that if Shaggy and Scooby sniff around in the right area long enough, they will eventually bumble across the truth, even if largely by accident.

All it takes is persistence, the refusal to be scared off, and an insatiable desire to find out what there is in the fridge of the old castle.

So what?

Why is it important to know if there was an advanced ancient civilization predating dynastic Egypt, possessing knowledge of the size and shape of the earth and how to navigate across its oceans, as well as sophisticated mathematical skills and unbelievable architectural prowess?

Why is it so important for so many in academia to deny such a possibility?

The existence of such an advanced civilization, at such an early date, completely upsets the conventional narrative of mankind's past, which includes a timeline of gradual improvement and almost unbroken progress through the ages. Such a timeline generally mirrors the assertions of Darwinism, which also posits gradual improvement and advancement in biological species from primitive to complex and sophisticated.

But the evidence clearly shows that the real timeline was almost the exact opposite to what is taught in schools and universities. Instead of centuries of progressive improvement, what we actually find is a precipitous decline from advanced understanding and ability to millennia of what can only be described as relative ignorance.

Because this understanding of mankind's past is suppressed at every turn, we are unable to move forward to the point of asking what lessons it has to offer us, a people who live at a point in history that can look back on centuries of tremendous technological advance and who take continued centuries of progress to be our birthright. Until we can even acknowledge the decline that took place, we can hardly begin to ask why it happened.

It is also evident that whatever the cause of their disappearance, the ancients were very careful to preserve and encode the fact of their existence and the knowledge they felt was most important in a way that would withstand millennia of chaos. In fact, they did this so effectively that we can still find their clues today, even during a period in which few in the academic community are looking for them (and some are in fact deliberately ignoring, ridiculing, and suppressing such signs). Perhaps they encoded other knowledge whose secrets we have yet to unlock.

How did they do it? It is apparent that they did so not only through the incredible megalithic structures but also through their mythology and legends. It is also evident that in many cultures there were groups of initiates who passed on some dim recollection (and perhaps in some cases a clear understanding) of the significance of the knowledge hidden in these myths and monuments.

Because of the suppression and general lack of awareness of the truths about mankind's ancient past, we generally operate today using various false assumptions and models which expose us to various liabilities. At the very least, they teach people to believe that they are little better than animals, or that they are in fact beasts. Worse, they paint a picture of age after age of nearly unbroken progress, giving a false sense of security and complacence that can prevent us from looking for warning signs. Those who try to prevent others from looking into these things can in some sense be thought of as deliberately removing the warning signs that might alert us to dangerous conditions ahead.

For these reasons, it is vitally important that everyone examine the evidence for themselves and reach their own conclusions. The

Mathisen Corollary

is written to provide some of the tools for readers to do so.

Celestial Mechanics in one easy lesson

You probably already know that the phenomena of precession, the intersection of the celestial equator and the path of the ecliptic, the movement of the sun from one solstice to the other and back again, and the heliacal risings of different stars and constellations throughout the year are incredibly important concepts for any examination of the evidence left to us by ancient civilizations.

However, you may feel a twinge of uneasiness when it comes to the mechanics behind all of these celestial phenomena. After all, the descriptions of these heavenly events in books on the subject are sometimes rather hasty and perhaps assume a greater familiarity with the material than the reader may bring with him. It is pretty certain that these concepts are rarely -- if ever -- encountered in the general education that one receives in school. It is quite possible to obtain a college education without ever hearing them explained.

In fact, even though these phenomena are critical for anyone studying ancient history, religion, mythology, and archaeology, they are rarely taught even to aspiring students in those fields, as author Jane B. Sellers points out in her groundbreaking work,

Death of Gods in Ancient Eygpt: A Study of the Threshold of Myth and the Frame of Time

.

Lamenting the isolation and "specialization" that has developed between different disciplines and different academic departments, she writes:

Speculations from those working in astronomy, and also in the relatively new field of archaeoastronomy, that many myths originated in observations of the results of the precessional movement, have fallen for the most part on deaf ears. Astronomers often complain of the frustration that comes from realizing that archaeologists too often are completely unaware that the North Star is not fixed forever, as indeed, neither are the so-called 'fixed' stars.

[. . .]

Archaeologists, by and large, lack an understanding of the precession, and this affects their conclusions concerning ancient myths, ancient gods, and ancient temple alignments. Philologists, too, ignore the accusation that certain problems are not going to be solved as long as they imagine that familiarity with grammar replaces the scientific knowledge of astronomy. For astronomers, precession is a well established fact; those working in the field of ancient man have a responsibility to attain an understanding of it. 170-171.

In other words, if you don't completely understand the phenomenon of precession, don't beat yourself up too badly: professional archaeologists, historians, philologists and anthropologists often don't understand it either, and what's worse don't even bother to try, according to Jane B. Sellers, who knows a thing or two about the situation (you can read the entire chapter containing the above quotation online; it is called

The Succession of World-Ages

and it is chapter 20 in her book).

For readers who do want to understand precession, heliacal risings, the solstitial and equinoctial colures, and the shifting of the ages from the Age of Taurus to the Age of Aries to the Age of Pisces and beyond, the

Mathisen Corollary

contains a detailed and clear explanation of the fairly straightforward facts of planetary motion that lead to all of these phenomena.

Even better, the book contains numerous diagrams showing what is taking place, both from the perspective of an observer on earth and from the perspective of an observer looking down at the earth's orbit around the sun. Some of these are conceptually descended from the excellent diagrams created by beloved children's author H.A. Rey in his outstanding book the

Stars: A New Way to See Them

, but because the scope of the

Mathisen Corollary

is to apply an understanding of celestial mechanics to ancient myths and monuments, the subject is expanded and explained in many different ways to ensure that the reader can proceed confidently to the material that follows.

If you've ever felt that you wanted to understand the mechanics behind the precession of the equinoxes and the other important celestial phenomena of archaeo-astronomy and alternative examinations of mankind's past, then the

Mathisen Corollary

is for you. It doesn't matter if you are a high-school student, an Infantry soldier, a software developer, or a stock broker: you will understand enough celestial mechanics to watch the stars every night (and in the wee hours before the break of dawn) every day of the year.

Philologists, historians, and professional archaeologists are welcome too.

Review of Martin Doutre's Ancient Celtic New Zealand

The following is a review which I wrote for

Martin Doutré's 1999 book, Ancient Celtic New Zealand, on the Amazon.com website:

Martin Doutré's Ancient Celtic New Zealand is a very important examination of the evidence for an advanced ancient civilization that understood phi, pi, the size and shape of the earth, the intricate details of the celestial phenomena caused by earth's orbit and the axial rotation that leads to precession, and that could navigate the seas, mine for greenstone and copper, and construct precision monuments such as the pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge at a date in history that conventional theory says is impossible.

His first-hand work and insights provide a valuable new perspective that is different from alternative thinkers who have gone before him. The presence of extensive evidence from sites in the Americas, in lesser-known sites in Europe, and of course in New Zealand are added to the work that others have written about, and serve to help add credence to others who also perceive major gaps and flaws in the conventional framework bitterly defended by those currently controlling "academia."

Mr. Doutre's work breaks important new ground in the use of phi reductions, the analysis of recurring geometric patterns found in art around the globe, and theories concerning who these ancients were and where they traveled.

I have written a book which examines these issues using additional evidence from geology and mythology, and Mr. Doutré's theory was absolutely foundational to my own analysis (The Mathisen Corollary). I wholeheartedly recommend Mr. Doutré's book and his website (also called Ancient Celtic New Zealand).

Far from being racist or supremacist, his work is a contribution to all mankind in that it provides insights into the amazing past of our ancient predecessors (the ancestors of us all), which has been forgotten and at times deliberately hidden and even violently suppressed. Sadly, there are many today who would continue to suppress discussion of these issues and to marginalize those who try to analyze them. Don't let their voices dissuade you from considering the excellent work of Martin Doutré.

---------------

I would like to discuss this recommendation a little here on the Mathisen Corollary

blog. Mr. Doutré has been called a racist in no uncertain terms in print on more than one occasion (see for example this "open letter" which labels him a purveyor of "Nazi pseudo-history").

It is unfortunate that highly charged epithets like these are thrown around at those who attempt to make an honest examination of history. Perhaps some of those hurling these charges of racism truly believe that Mr.

Doutré's theory makes him a racist. It is also probable that some who level that charge do so as a way to silence opposing views, knowing that calling someone a racist is one of the fastest ways to marginalize someone and make him a pariah.

In my review above, and in my book as well, I try to make it very clear that not everyone who puts forward an alternative theory is motivated by racism.

I personally believe that all mankind is descended at a very recent date (less than 10,000 years ago, and probably less than 6,000 years ago) from the survivors of a cataclysmic global flood, and that therefore we are all more closely related than most people realize. We are all brothers and sisters (or at least cousins) in a very real sense.

I also believe that the amazing accomplishments and achievements of the ancient predecessors of Egypt and Sumer should be a source of wonder and joy for all people. If the histories of any modern branch of the human family contain some surprises as we peer further back into the mists of time, that should not in and of itself be a cause for one group to feel better or worse than another. We can all be astonished at the achievements of our most ancient ancestors.

Further, if archaeological evidence indicates that a people from one region or branch of the post-flood human family accomplished something many thousands of years ago, and if I assert that I feel the evidence is compelling that they did so, this does not in and of itself make me a racist, even if I happen to be descended from people who lived in that region or who look like that branch of the human family. How can I take credit for something someone did thousands of years before?

Of course, if I use that history to make claims that one ethnicity is superior or inferior to another, then I show myself to be a racist, but to simply claim that something happened is not the same as claiming that some piece of ancient history has implications for the branches of the human family today.

I have read Mr. Doutré's work extensively, and I have not come across evidence that he makes racist claims of the second sort described above, but rather that he makes claims of the first sort (in other words, that this or that happened, but not that this or that ancient event makes one group superior or inferior to another group today). In fact, on his website, he explicitly states that his site is intended "to promote a frank and open discussion of true ancient history" and that "politics and the agendas of racial groupings have no place here."

I have not personally met Mr. Doutré. I do not think he is a racist, but in terms of uncovering the truth for the enlightenment of others, it actually does not matter if he is or is not. If his analysis of the evidence found in actual archaeological sites and artifacts is a correct analysis of the facts, then it does not really matter to other thinkers whether or not he arrived at those conclusions because of some distasteful view or not (again, I must stress that from what I have read of his work, I see no evidence that he holds any racist views).

To criticize his findings by attacking his personal beliefs is really an unhelpful ad hominem argument, and is similar to saying that he cannot possibly have arrived at any true conclusions because he holds religious beliefs that I disagree with, or because he has a tendency towards overindulging in alcohol (again, these are only examples for the sake of argument, and I do not mean to imply at all that any of these sorts of labels are true).

If I was seeking to make the right dietary choices to prevent heart disease or diabetes, and I came across the work of someone who had views outside of the mainstream but was able to back them up with plenty of clinical evidence, I would consider those views very carefully as I decided who I should listen to. After all, it is an important matter to my own health and well-being. I would consider the arguments of the "alternative" thinker very carefully, even if all the academics in the mainstream derided him for having fewer academic degrees than they had, or saying that he wasn't a doctor at all. I would be especially suspicious if they told me that his views on heart disease and diabetes were not worth looking at because he himself was a racist, or an occasional heavy drinker. In fact, even if it turned out that he was actually a racist or a heavy drinker, if I decided that his arguments about diet and heart disease were correct, I would follow them anyway. It would be foolish to jeopardize my own health by following the recommendations of academics who were wrong, just because I had a personal dislike for the outside voice who actually was correct about the matter.

I feel it is important to make this point because those who disagree with my own work will no doubt find it easier to attack me with ugly labels than to discuss the evidence that I bring up, just as they find it easier to do with Mr. Doutré (who brings up so much evidence that his opponents must be somewhat intimidated). I also feel it is important to make this point because in my review of his book I wholeheartedly endorse both his book and his website, and I would not do so if I thought that his work was a bunch of spurious claims motivated by mere racism, as his critics contend.

I wish Martin Doutré and all those who are seeking to uncover the truth about the past the very best in their endeavors, and I caution readers who come across the inevitable invectives of those who hurl incendiary terms such as "racist" and "Nazi" to be wary of those who do so simply to marginalize or discredit analysis that they want to silence.

Those who are seeking to understand mankind's ancient past must unfortunately be aware of these modern issues.

Introducing the Mathisen Corollary

The Mathisen Corollary offers new perspective on the alternative theory of mankind's ancient past, examining the clues from ancient myths, from the geological evidence on our planet's surface, and from the archaeological evidence from Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid, and Teotihuacan, among other sites. It provides new evidence in support of the theories of a cataclysmic global flood, using both mythology and archaeology in addition to geology. It includes a detailed explanation of important celestial phenomena, particularly the precession of the equinoxes, and a refutation of the conventional theories of plate tectonics and Darwinian evolution.

Have you ever felt that the conventional explanation of mankind's history doesn't seem to add up?

For instance, since conventional geological theory and plate tectonics teach that the continents are drifting by as much as 30 millimeters per year (a little over an inch a year), then why are the sides of the Great Pyramid still almost perfectly aligned with the cardinal directions? Not only that, but the astronomical alignments intended by the builders are still intact after more than four thousand years.

The same question can be asked about the impressive pyramids and monuments of Mexico and Central America, which also contain precise astronomical alignments still intact in contrast to what would be expected if plate tectonics were true. The megalithic structures at Stonehenge also preserve their astronomical functions, even though conventional scholars admit they may be 5,000 years old or even older.

Even more difficult to answer using the conventional explanations are the many amazing correlations between the dimensions and ratios of the pyramids of Giza, megalithic structures like Stonehenge, and the pyramids of New World sites such as Teotihuacan.

Because of this mass of evidence from around the world contradicting the conventional paradigm, many thoughtful men and women have offered alternative theories, backed up with extensive research. The Mathisen Corollary builds on some of the valuable insights of many of these, while offering some new insights and explanations as well.

A corollary is a theory or proposition that follows from another theory, or deals with related subject matter as another theory.

The Mathisen Corollary takes the hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown, which argues that the earth experienced a cataclysmic global flood, and applies it to the facts of man's ancient history that are not satisfactorily explained by the conventional paradigm. Dr. Brown primarily examines geological evidence in support of his conclusion. While he touches briefly on the fact that the mythology of many cultures around the globe describes a flood which is survived by a small number of people and animals, the focus of his work is primarily on the natural sciences.

The Mathisen Corollary examines the extensive evidence from myth and from archaeology which indicates the existence of an advanced ancient civilization with knowledge of the dimensions of the earth, sophisticated mathematical concepts, and details of astronomical phenomena that conventional academia asserts were not understood in even rudimentary form until the late Hellenistic and Roman periods.

There have been others who have also argued that there is overwhelming evidence to believe in the existence of such a civilization, but they have generally pursued other explanations for its existence and its disappearance. The Mathisen Corollary suggests that the hydroplate theory both explains this anthropological evidence more satisfactorily than alternative theories, and is in itself strengthened by the evidence from ancient myth and archaeology that are the primary clues to solving the mystery of mankind's distant past.

Other important theorists discussed include:

• Giorgio de Santillana (1902 -1974) and Hertha von Dechend (1915 - 2001), the authors of Hamlet's Mill: an essay investigating the origins of human knowledge and its transmission through myth (1969). While de Santillana and von Dechend certainly did not accept the idea of a world-wide flood (and in fact, ridiculed the idea in their text, believing the legend of the flood to have been a metaphor for events which take place in the celestial sphere), their ground-breaking and extensive exploration of the clues found in myths from around the world for the existence of an advanced ancient civilization is essential to the argument in the Mathisen Corollary. The Mathisen Corollary provides even more extensive explanation of the celestial mechanics at the heart of de Santillana and von Dechend's thesis, along with numerous illustrations to enable the reader to understand the complex mechanics of the sky with confidence. This celestial machinery is crucial to deciphering the clues left to us from our ancient predecessors. Evidence from Hamlet's Mill is discussed, and augmented with new evidence found in other ancient mythology from around the globe.

• Martin Doutré, author of Ancient Celtic New Zealand (1999) and a website of the same name, who has provided extensive and original analysis using archaeology and mythology, notably from New Zealand (which has received little examination from alternative theorists) but also of megalithic sites in Europe, east Asia, and the Americas.

• Graham Hancock, well-known author of numerous important studies of the evidence for an alternative paradigm for understanding mankind's ancient past, including Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (with Robert Bauval), Underworld, and Heaven's Mirror, who has put forward various theories to explain what happened to the ancient and advanced civilization or civilizations. Some of these are based on the theories of Charles Hapgood (1904 - 1982), author of many valuable works full of insights and examinations of his own, including Earth's Shifting Crust, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, and The Path of the Pole. The thesis of the Mathisen Corollary is that the evidence for a global flood (particularly some of the details in Walt Brown's theory) provide a much better fit for the evidence than the crustal-displacement theories; nevertheless, what is important to note is that men such as Professor Hapgood and Graham Hancock, perceiving that the dominant paradigm of academia does not satisfactorily explain the evidence around us, especially the evidence which has come down to us from very ancient sources, are doing their best to suggest alternatives that fit the evidence more accurately. While other theories may later prove to be more satisfactory than these preliminary hypotheses, they are orders of magnitude better than the dominant academic paradigm, whose defenders deliberately ignore and marginalize clear evidence that threaten their position.

• Jane B. Sellers, author of Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt: A Study of the Threshold of Myth and the Frame of Time, who took the thesis of de Santillana and von Dechend and concentrated in particular detail on the application to the Egyptian legend of Osiris, Set and Isis. Her insights into this seminal mythological series build on and amplify the work of Hamlet's Mill and are absolutely vital to any examination of the mythology of later cultures.

In a sense, this work is a corollary to the theories advanced by these pioneers and others. By adding the geological element of Walt Brown to the ground broken by de Santillana, von Dechend, Doutré, Hancock, Sellers, and others, important new perspectives can be achieved and further light shed on this critically important topic (more on its importance to follow in future posts).

SDG