Graham Hancock Quote
Even if we admit that running-survey and compass techniques somehow being used on ships to produce sea-charts as early as the thirteenth century (which most historians of science would rule out) we still come against the unexplained enigma of the miraculous and fully formed appearance of the . As we've seen, not a single chart pre-dates it that demonstrates in any way the gradual build-up of coastal profiles across the whole extent of the Mediterranean that have occurred before a likeness as perfect as this could have been resolved.It is possible, of course, through the vicissitudes of history, that all the evidence for the prior evolution of portolans before the has simply been lost. If that were the case, however -- in other words if the is a snapshot of a certain moment in the development of an evolving genre of maps, and if we accept that all earlier 'snap-shots' have been lost, wouldn't we nevertheless expect that such an 'evolving genre' would have to evolve after the date of the earliest surviving example?Whether we set the date of the between 1270 and 1290 [...] or a little later -- between 1295 and 1300 -- as other scholars have argued, we've seen that there was .Now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the enigmatic is an unsigned chart and scholars have no idea who the cartographer might have been.
Even if we admit that running-survey and compass techniques somehow being used on ships to produce sea-charts as early as the thirteenth century (which most historians of science would rule out) we still come against the unexplained enigma of the miraculous and fully formed appearance of the . As we've seen, not a single chart pre-dates it that demonstrates in any way the gradual build-up of coastal profiles across the whole extent of the Mediterranean that have occurred before a likeness as perfect as this could have been resolved.It is possible, of course, through the vicissitudes of history, that all the evidence for the prior evolution of portolans before the has simply been lost. If that were the case, however -- in other words if the is a snapshot of a certain moment in the development of an evolving genre of maps, and if we accept that all earlier 'snap-shots' have been lost, wouldn't we nevertheless expect that such an 'evolving genre' would have to evolve after the date of the earliest surviving example?Whether we set the date of the between 1270 and 1290 [...] or a little later -- between 1295 and 1300 -- as other scholars have argued, we've seen that there was .Now kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the enigmatic is an unsigned chart and scholars have no idea who the cartographer might have been.
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About Graham Hancock
Born in Edinburgh, Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before working as a journalist, writing for a number of British newspapers and magazines. His first three books dealt with international development, including Lords of Poverty (1989), a well-received critique of corruption in the aid system. Beginning with The Sign and the Seal in 1992, he shifted focus to speculative accounts of human prehistory and ancient civilizations, on which he has written a dozen books, most notably Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods.
Experts have described Hancock's investigations of archaeological evidence, myths and historical documents as superficially resembling investigative journalism but lacking in accuracy, consistency, and impartiality. They define his work as pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory because they consider it to be biased towards preconceived conclusions by ignoring context, misrepresenting sources, cherry picking, and withholding critical counter-evidence. Anthropologist Jeb Card has described Hancock's writings as being paranormal in nature and his idea of an Ice Age civilization as a modern mythological narrative that, due to its emphasis on alleged secret and spiritual knowledge (including psychic abilities and communing with souls and "powerful nonphysical beings" via the use of psychedelics), is incompatible with the archaeological scientific method. Hancock portrays himself as a culture hero who fights the "dogmatism" of academics, presenting his work as more valid than professional archaeology and as "a path to truly understanding reality and the spiritual elements denied by materialist science", though he often cites science in support of his ideas. He has not submitted his writings for scholarly peer review, and they have not been published in academic journals.
He has also written two fantasy novels and in 2013 delivered a controversial TEDx talk promoting the use of the psychoactive drink ayahuasca. His ideas have been the subject of several films as well as the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse (2022). Hancock makes regular appearances on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience to promote his claims.