‘Alternative history’ researcher Graham Hancock recently linked to this complete set of his 1998 documentary series ‘Quest for the Lost Civilisation’ on YouTube, so I feel fine in posting it here. The series is made up of three 50 minute documentaries, in which Graham traverses the world and explains his controversial theory that “an ancient civilization, highly intelligent people who sailed the planet as early as 10,500 B.C., spread advanced astronomical knowledge and built ancient observatories”. The three episodes are:
- Heaven’s Mirror
- Forgotten Knowledge
- Ancient Mariners
Skeptics may scoff, but Hancock earnestly points out similarities in giant stone structures in the Egyptian desert and Cambodian jungles, and on Easter Island and in Micronesia, he points out what he considers evidence of an ancient society of seafarers. His ideas may seem utterly bizarre at first, but Hancock presents them in an understated and good-natured manner, and he also makes clever use of computer graphics and aerial photography to illustrate the startling similarities in ancient structures found from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific.
Hancock raises some puzzling questions, and even if you don’t buy his arguments, bolstered though they are by mathematical equations and astronomical diagrams, the Quest for the Lost Civilization is an entertaining mixture of archaeology, astronomy, and speculation.
Wow, almost 13 years since that series aired! In more up-to-date Graham Hancock news, I can also tell you that Graham’s next fiction novel, War God, is now available for pre-order at Amazon UK and other online bookstores (release date of June 6, 2013).
