Our Unknown Ancient Past: Thoughts and Reflections on the Unexplained Mysteries of Prehistory

This is an extremely well done book about the ancient past of humanity and what happened to cause major problems at times. The author uses a lot of photos and, in most cases, good, solid evidence to back up his ideas.

The first thing I want to point out is that there seems to be a general belief that the people who lived in ancient civilizations were not very smart. The book does a good job of discrediting that belief.

Second, there have been major disasters, often involving meteor impacts, throughout history and these have played havoc with human civilization. Again, there is strong evidence that supports this in the book.

The author is also not an absolutist. He talks a lot about Atlantis and presents some good reasoning about why it might have existed but he is broad-minded enough to admit that it may not have existed at all.

He also shows that people of different nations/groups managed to sail to other places, some far away, primarily for trading purposes, often getting metals that were not available where they lived and which they used to make weapons and other things.

He also does not believe that space aliens were behind all major human advances and I'm very glad he does that. To believe that space aliens helped build the pyramids, for example, is just another way to play down the actual achievements of people who lived at that time.

The book covers so much that I'm just going to give a partial listing of the topics he examines:

Atlantis (maybe existed, maybe didn't.)

Ancient maps (including the one of Antarctica before it became covered by ice. He includes letters he received from the U.S. Navy backing up his analysis)

Egypt

Gobekli Tepe (one of my major interests at this time)

Common written symbols

Mythology (Very important as he shows how truth can be found behind the myths)

Ancient sailing ships

Easter Island

Megalithic monuments (one was discovered in Spain due to the drought lowering the water level in a place to reveal the monument)

Geoglyphs

Burial customs

How skeptical scientists have been proven wrong in relation to the existence of Troy and other places

The rise and fall of sea levels over time

How 95% of ancient Greek knowledge has been lost along with knowledge from other civilizations.

Pyramids being found in lots of places.

The destructive force of comets and meteors (which may come down in pieces, spreading the destruction over a wide area)

How human memory in the past is better than generally believed.

The origin of writing.

How the tales of Gods and Goddesses may be stories of real people doing remarkable things that got blown a little out of proportion.

DNA comparisons.

25 Appendices

It's probably the most complete and balanced book on ancient peoples that I have ever read.

Main index page

Main Unsolved Mysteries Ghosts index page