Is it a mere coincidence that pyramids are found throughout our globe? Did cultures ranging across vast spaces in geography and time, such as the ancient Egyptians; early Bud-dhists; the Maya, Inca, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations of the Americas; the Celts of the British Isles; and even the Mississippi Indians of pre-Columbus Illinois, simply dream the same dreams and envision the same structures? Robert M. Schoch-one of the world's preeminent geologists in recasting the date of the building of the Great Sphinx-believes otherwise. In this dramatic and meticulously reasoned book, Schoch, like anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in his classic Kon-Tiki, argues that ancient cultures traveled great distances by sea. Indeed, he believes that primeval sailors traveled from the Eastern continent, primarily Southeast Asia, and spread the idea of pyramids across the globe, particularly to the New World of the Americas where they abounded until the days of the Conquistadors.
I am a friend of the authors, so take this with a pinch of salt, but to the reader who called the book "dry, dry, dry" I can only respond with this line from Kirkus Reviews: "The presentation of this material is as entertaining as science-writing gets." I enjoyed this book throughly and found it a real pot boiler. Friend or not, that's the real deal.
Newsflash: Islands Not Settled By Walkers<br>
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
Robert Schoch has done an admirable job in collating data from the Earth's odd corners. This book is one of the best ever books on ancient navigation, and also on catastrophism. Interdisciplinary and of wide scope, it's better and more focused than his earlier popular work, _Voices of the Rocks_ (ISBN: 0609603698).Schoch isn't the first to raise the prospect of an ancient megalith building, seafaring civilization. He's not the first to come around to a catastrophic way of looking at the past, in historic or prehistoric times. But his presentation and credentials lend much higher credibility and a higher profile to such ideas.From the work with proxy data in tree rings etc, to anthropological studies around the world, to exploration of the continental shelf, this scientist has produced what is easily the best of a problematical genre, as well as being a work of popular science. So much debris has been penned regarding the origin of the Great Pyramid, alleged astrological links with ancient structures (Tiahuanaco, Stonehenge, Giza, etc), and precolumbian navigation (those works written from a political rather than scientific or linguistic perspective), this book by Schoch is a new light in an ancient sky.As Schoch recounts, Homo Erectus was crossing miles of open sea 800,000 or more years ago. But we're supposed to believe that crossing open sea was abandoned thereafter in the SW Pacific for at least 750,000 years, then abandoned again for at least another 47,000 years, and Australia was settled just twice during that nearly one million year period.My reservations about this book involve Schoch's use of the conventional pseudochronology of the ancient Near East. But had he been interested in anything else, his book wouldn't stand a chance. As it is, the book's enemies will continue to forge links for their Marley-banshee chains. Recommended.
A great read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
This is a fascinating book. The authors explore the idea that early civilizations were in much greater contact than we know, and that the pyramids are evidence of this contact. The idea sounds speculative, even crazy, but they back it with so much carefully selected and weighed evidence that I found myself nodding and saying yes, yes, yes. Even better, the book is a great read; I had trouble putting it down. All science writing should be so good.
Bringing Ancient History to Life
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
This is a terrific book! It provides a fascinating and convincing view of ancient history that upends many of our previous assumptions. It is extremely well-written and even manages to be suspensful! I had a hard time putting it down!I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the origins and history of civilization.
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