Product Description

The author has a highly controversial view of history and his theory of a mysterious, lost civilization that brought knowledge to other people around the world, has attracted a wide audience. In this new large-format edition, Hancock responds to critics and brings readers up to date with developments in the debate. He exposes the eerie network of connections between: the Great Sphinx and pyramids of Egypt; the Andean temples of Tianhuanaco; the Mexican pyramids of the Sun and Moon; the lost continent that lies beneath Antarctica; ancient knowledge of spherical geometry and astro-navigation; the myths and legends of humanity that have remained strangely consistent across geographical and social divides; and new theories concerning the causes of the ice ages. His new evidence suggests not only the "fingerprints" of an unknown civilization that flourished during the last ice age but also horrifying conclusions about the type and extent of planetary catastrophe required to obliterate almost all traces of it. Included are the BBC transcripts to the "Horizon" TV documentary.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24654 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 764 pages

From the Publisher
Publisher Comment
Every once in a while there is a book that places a very large question mark against the accepted view of history. An example is Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis, which was published in 1882, and inspired a whole new genre of book in the late Victorian era.

The equivalent book today is Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods. Since its publication in 1995, hundreds of writers have followed in Hancock's footsteps, but he has sold and continues to sell more than any of his followers, and on the 'alternative history' lecture circuit he remains the greatest draw.

There are several reasons for this, I believe. As a former Financial Times journalist, Hancock did not enter the subject area as a 'believer', and the text has all the excitement of discovery about it. The reader is drawn in to the theories in tandem with the author, who writes in such a way that the reader's mind races ahead, trying to get to all the connections before the author does - a are gift in narrative non-fiction. Quite difficult ideas are dealt with deftly and in a way which does not impede the narrative flow. And lastly there is the book's ambition, its boldness. Here is a complete history of everything in the world ever. Very few writers can pull this off, but when they do, they are usually rewarded with very large sales.

All this not only makes Fingerprints the biggest best-seller in the area, it also makes it the book that career academics hate the most. It is not that it espouses levitating blocks of granite or channelled agony aunt advice from an ancient Egyptian priestess or Atlantean black magic bringing on the floods, but in view of the howls of execration it provokes, it might as well do. Perhaps these academics' reasoning runs along similar lines to 'if smoke dope, you'll be on heroine next'?

My own interpretation is that the people who hate Hancock - as I say, mostly academics - are militant materialists who have a horror of the spiritual. They may say they are spiritual, but what they mean by that word is something like 'keen on finding moral and aesthetic values', such as having a feeling of wonder when they look at a night sky, which isn't what the word means at all. Now again, Fingerprints isn't a book that espouses spiritual values, at least not openly, but Hancock has since become something of a spiritual leader to his many followers.

The odd thing about these purportedly high-minded militant materialists is that they are prepared to resort to dishonesty in debate, so keen are they to stamp out the spiritual element. No doubt it's all for a higher good.

In December 2000 a BBC Horizon programme about Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, author of another ground-breaking book in the area, The Orion Mystery and co-author with Graham of Keeper of Genesis, made them look bad. The programme was based largely on interviews with them which they felt had been edited in an unfair way. Their complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Commission was in part upheld, and when the documentary was re-shown, it was with changes, but not as many as the authors would have liked. This new edition contains the full transcripts of the tapes so that the reader can make up his/her mind, together with a new introduction which gives the state of play in the arguments for and against the antediluvian civilisation. It also contains 16 pages of beautiful new photographs by Graham's wife Santha.

Fingerprints of the Gods was the book which started the debate in our time, and this new edition also makes it the most up-to-date book on the vital issues.

Customer Reviews

A FRESH LOOK AT PAST & FUTURE
Hancock takes us on a global tour of the legends and myths of the world, collating their common threads and scientific evidence to compose a credible theory that an advanced civilization once flourished on earth but was extinguished at the end of the last ice age. All that remains of this antediluvian culture are the "fingerprints" Hancock identifies in various phenomena that have puzzled mankind throughout recorded history. He reveals strange echoes of a society of navigators and builders that flourished up to about 12 000 years ago, gradually building up a compelling argument for the existence of a prehistorical civilization. By examining phenomena around the world, from the Nazca drawings in Peru to the pyramids of Egypt, he interprets these "fingerprints" as ancient signs, or misunderstood teachings left by our unknown ancestors in order to communicate with modern generations. This, and Hancock's other books like his latest, "Underworld," threatens to overturn conventional explanations of our past and stretch the horizons of our future. Meticulously referenced, and often scientific and technical, "Fingerprints" is consistently captivating because Hancock embroiders the narrative with colorful analogies and travelogue, making it easier to understand his point and leaving the reader impressed by the mysterious patterns he unravels. Lavishly enhanced by photographs and illustrations, the book contains extensive references, a vast bibliography and an index.

A great read that asks all sorts of questions and shocks.
I read Fingerprints of the Gods in the mid nineties when it was first published and was blown away by it. At first I was convinced and believed all of it, then I became more sceptical when later books forced even the author to re-evaluate his ideas.

But what is important about this book is that;
1] It's a great read and really gets you excited and involve,
2] It asks so many questions about what we think we know about history.

All the existing ideas about civilisations development and timeframes are questioned and science is pitted against anthropology to answer questions that conventional historians don't like to tackle. It shows how little we really know about our past and how we can never know what's around the corner.

It makes for a page turning read that is guaranteed to get you going one way or the other. It will excite you and worry you in equal measure.
I recommend it without hesitation as an essential read.

Do not look for the answers, this book makes you QUESTION.!
There has been much said about this book, both good and bad. I read it as I was recommended it by my mate Tony. I started with a completely open mind not aware of the BBC Horizon program etc that tried to question the book and the contents.

All in all this book will make you question who, what, why, when etc. It is a thrilling read, and you will race to get to the last page, but what then.? You can only start to challenge what you know, or what you thought you know...