Fingerprints of the Gods

"Fingerprints of the Gods" is a book first published in 1995 by Graham Hancock, in which he contends that some previously enigmatic ancient but highly-advanced civilization had existed in prehistory, one which served as the common progenitor civilization to all subsequent known ancient historical ones. Supposedly, sometime after the end of the last Ice Age this civilization passed on to its inheritors profound knowledge of such things as astronomy, architecture and mathematics.

The book pivots on "fingerprints" of these civilizations, evidence of which Hancock finds in the descriptions of Godmen like Osiris, Thoth, Quetzalcoatl, and Virachocha. These creation myths predate history, and Hancock suggests that in 10,450 B.C., a major poleshift took place, before which Antarctica was further from the South Pole than it is today, and after which it was moved to its present location. This civilization was supposedly centered around Antarctica, and later survivors initiated the Olmec, Aztec, Maya, and Egyptian cultures.

The pole shift hypothesis hinges on Charles Hapgood's theory of Earth Crustal Displacement which has very few supporters in the geological community compared to the more accepted model of plate tectonics.

The scholarly and scientific community have described the proposals put forward in the book as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology.

External links

*Brass, M., 2002, [http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-07/fingerprints.html "Tracing Graham Hancock's Shifting Cataclysm. "] Skeptical inquirer. vol. 26, no. 4, pp. ??-??.
*Edlin, D., nd, [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=28 "The Gentle Art of Myth Management."] [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Topics Hall of Ma’at Papers]
*Fagan, G., nda, [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=20 "Tiwanaku: Alternative History in Action"] , [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Topics Hall of Ma’at Papers]
*Fagan, G., ndb, [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=18 "An Answer to Graham Hancock"] , [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Topics Hall of Ma’at Papers]
*Hancock, Graham, nd, [http://www.grahamhancock.com/library/fotg/default.htm "Fingerprints of the Gods"] Hancock's own page on the book
*Malek, J. 1996, [http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=27 "Fingerprints of the Gods: A Review."] Discussions in Egyptology. vol. 34, pp. 135-142.
*Wildside of Geoarchaeology web page [http://members.cox.net/pyrophyllite/wildside.shtml#link05 "Fingerprints of the Gods"] Comments on geology discussed in Fingerprints of the Gods.