Fingerprints of the Gods - Book Review

[Digit]

Scuba divers with archaeolical knowledge are a little thin on the ground over here unfortunately, and funnily enough the one man who has made the British public aware of the potential of underwater exploration is Hancock.
What rank did that guy hold in the Atlantean army, or did he not as far as that?

[Minimalist]

Not every lost "civilization" has to be a world-bestriding colossus like the Atlantis of myth. I've noted that Hancock studiously avoids using the word. And the Athenians wrote themselves heroically into the story 8,000 years before there was an Athens.

When you consider the progress that our "civilzation" has made in the last 2,000 years (at least in a technological sense) it seems more than reasonable that there could have been a semblance of civilization which was wiped out at the end of the last ice age. What the immediate event did not destroy or kill could easily have been finished off by resulting plague or famine or warfare.

How many body blows do you suppose our civilization could take and remain recognizable? Hell...turn off the electricity for a while and most of us can't even shave anymore.

Somewhere out there is an asteroid with our name on it. Then the survivors can re-build the whole thing from scratch and maybe while sitting around their camp fires they'll tell strange tales of us.

[Cognito]

What rank did that guy hold in the Atlantean army, or did he not as far as that?

I'm sure he was a general or someone really important ... we never got that far.

[Cognito]

Not every lost "civilization" has to be a world-bestriding colossus like the Atlantis of myth. I've noted that Hancock studiously avoids using the word. And the Athenians wrote themselves heroically into the story 8,000 years before there was an Athens.

When you consider the progress that our "civilzation" has made in the last 2,000 years (at least in a technological sense) it seems more than reasonable that there could have been a semblance of civilization which was wiped out at the end of the last ice age. What the immediate event did not destroy or kill could easily have been finished off by resulting plague or famine or warfare.

The estimate for the world's population at 4-5 million at 10,000bce is put together with considerable thought, and it factors in the data that agriculture did not represent a significant source of food. Most populations were still stone age hunter-gatherers and carrying rates for different habitable continents can be reliably estimated. Sizable civilisations always begin with the prior expansion of agriculture and that just didn't happen before the Younger Dryas. HOWEVER, temperate areas could carry above average populations if humans were motivated by external factors to congregate. But any fledgling "civilisation" would be tiny by today's standards and I doubt they would leave much in the way of structures or monuments since they would be highly mobile. Instead of structures and monuments we should really be looking for cultures and mythology.

[marduk]

the one man who has made the British public aware of the potential of underwater exploration is Hancock

what you mean is the one man who made you aware of it

he doesn't even get a mention at wikis underwater archaeology page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_archaeologist
funnily enough i expect thats because it distinguishes between genuine underwater archaeologists and pseudo authors who put on a scuba mask and then visit known underwater sites in order to write complete crap about them

[Digit]

I said what I meant and meant what I said.

[Minimalist]

Instead of structures and monuments we should really be looking for cultures and mythology.

People who do that get denounced by the Club.

[marduk]

well in that case perhaps you can tell me what sites Hancock has practiced marine archaeology on ?

you seem to be under the misconception that someone who is a pseudoscientific author suddenly becomes not only an archaeologist but also a marine archaeologist the second he puts a scuba mask on despite continuously proving in his books that he doesnt know the first thing about either
thats great
tomorrow I'm going to get myself a red briefcase and I'll suddenly become the chancellor of the exchequer
if you need a loan just ask

[Digit]

Marduk, I doubt that you or anybody else was born with a geologist's hammer in one hand and a book about fosills in the other, something must have aroused your interest and started you on studying. In my case it was TV report many years ago about Linear B, even idiot ideas about Atlantis, for example, if they start people along this path serve a useful purpose. A highly technical programme about the inner ear of T Rex, for example, would result in the biggest TV turn off in history. Anybody, or anything, that starts people down this road is something that I welcome.

[marduk]

which road is that
claiming that you know things because you read a few Hancock books
or actually getting an archaeology degree

I doubt that you or anybody else was born with a geologist's hammer in one hand and a book about fosills in the other

archaeotheist was

[Digit]

You seem always to see things either as black or white, what about a neither of the examples you chose, but one where the person develops a love of learning about our past?
What was it that started you on that path?

[Beagle]

The Barsoum article is a contemporary theory, I guess we should struggle on through the Egypy stuff. (not my favorite).

Do you know where we're at Min? Giza? Abydos?

[Minimalist]

The Osirion is at Abydos. That's where I'm waiting for you.

[Beagle]

I am at Abydos. Yep, the Osireion is gonna be fun.

What part do you like?

[marduk]

What was it that started you on that path?

I don't fit the pattern Roy
I wanted to discover things for myself following a personal experience