Is there a lost civilization?
Could the floods myths that can be found all over the world be based on an event that truly happened? Around 11600 years ago, the last ice age rapidly came to an end when suddenly large amounts of water were released from the ice caps. How did this happen and could there have been a civilization lost due to this mass extinction event?
In 2015 Graham Hancock released ‘Magicians of the gods’ in which he proposed the idea that there had been a civilization lost at the end of the last ice age due to three massive floods that happened between 12800 years ago and 11600 years ago [1]. Graham Hancock illustrates his theory of a comet that crossed paths with the earth around 12800 years ago that vanished a great part of the lost civilization.
Did a comet hit the earth 12800 years ago? In the book, a compelling case is made by Hancock. The journey starts in North America in the channeled Scablands, all around the land you can find unusual landscape such as huge ripples that looks to be done by large amounts of water. Pictures can be found by googling ‘Scablands flood’. The landscape seems almost so unusual and abnormally disrupted that long periods of floods do not seem to be able to do the job, and a huge flood must have happened, likely by a comet. Evidence of the comet at the time of writing could be found in nano-diamond-rich layers around three continents, dating around 12800 years ago. Nano-diamonds can only be made under very high pressure such as a collision between earth and a comet. Also anomalies in the Greenland ice core point toward a cataclysmic event. In 2018, three years after the release a huge crater has been found under the ice sheet dating around 13000 years ago, around the same date Graham Hancock pointed it out [2].
That the earth was challenged by a cataclysmic event between 12800 and 11600 years ago seems to be validated, but how do we know if there actually existed an advanced civilization before this happened? To try to convince the reader, Hancock explores different ancient sites and ruins and explains the mysteries behind them. I will briefly go into this, but if you find this interesting I would highly recommend reading Hancock his books.
The first site that is being explored is Gobekli Tepe, this site lays in Turkey and is dated to be created around 11500 years ago (Note that this is only 100 years ago than the ending of the last ice age, 11600 years ago). The site exists of T-shaped pillars and there is estimated that 95% of the site is still buried underneath the sand. This site alone rewrites history as there was thought that the first temple complex has been made thousands of years later, allegedly during the first agricultural civilizations. How did this huge temple complex consisting of 20 temples and 200 pillars pop up out of nowhere straight out of the ice age? Where did their knowledge come from? Civilizing is always thought to be a long process of improvement, but this site seems to be build out of nowhere.
Another place that is explored is Gunung Padang, this site is laid out in Indonesia and is also reported to be build around 12000 years ago. Another place is Baalbek. At the temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, where there are found in the foundations of the temple stones of 19.60 meters with a weight of 1650 tons (1650000 kg). There is believed that this is done by the Romans, who have never before shown the capability to lift such heavy stones nor capable of working with such high weighted stones. Why did the Romans even decide to build there most ambitious project in Baalbek and not in their capital Rome? South America is also investigated by Hancock, where you can see clearly a decrease in architecture in the workings of the Inca's. Of course, Hancock also goes into Egypt, the pyramids and the sphinx. Lastly, but not least, Hancock also goes into detail into the Edfu building texts and the book of Enoch.
The book is too much work and writing to cover in one article, but I hope that I have thrilled the history fans among you with excitement and curiousness. In later articles I will try to get into more details on different sites and why they don’t fit in the current beliefs about history. If you find this interesting I would highly recommend reading ‘magicians of the gods’ by Graham Hancock. I will also link one of his lectures that are freely available on YouTube below. Don’t forget to follow my page for more content and don’t hesitate to comment if there are any unclarities!
[1] Graham Hancock, Magicians Of The Gods.
