Travis Simpkins: Easter Island

Sunday, December 4, 2016

"Magicians of the Gods" by Graham Hancock

Magicians of the Gods

The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization

by Graham Hancock

St. Martin's Press, 2015

Notes by Travis Simpkins

For the past 30 years, bestselling author Graham Hancock has made a career of posing intriguing questions and challenging long-held theories related to our ancient past. Billed as a sequel to his best known 1995 work, Fingerprints of the Gods, his latest tome Magicians of the Gods both compliments his earlier book and takes his brilliant writing in an expanded direction.

The basic theory presented in both works maintains that a cataclysmic event occurred 12,800 years ago when fragments of a comet struck the Earth's northern ice caps, causing massive floods which erased nearly all traces of an early advanced civilization. These events were passed on in oral traditions and later preserved in the ancient texts of the world's religions… recounted in the more than 2,000 flood myths that permeate the traditions of virtually all known cultures. Can these corroborative yet unrelated legends really be a coincidence?

If all this sounds like a "Lost City of Atlantis" theory… that is because in essence, it is.

The text takes the reader on a round-the-world journey, beginning with the archaeological dig at Gobekli Tepe, which has been conclusively dated to at least 9,600 B.C. (more than 6,000 years older than any other previously known megalithic site). The quest continues to Indonesia and the "pyramid" and buried vaults at Gunung Padang. A brief sidetrack takes us to the scablands of the American Northwest for proof of the Younger Dryas comet's devastation and sudden after effects on the earth's terrain. We venture to the underground ancient city of Derinkuyu, where inhabitants spent many generations presumably in hiding (from a hostile climate). The Temple of Horus at Edfu offers an Ancient Egyptian take on the flood myth and Atlantis. The great Sphinx (which possibly had a lion's head to begin with) shows evidence of being much older than previously thought… it's creation originating in the age corresponding to the zodiac sign of Leo, around 10,000 B.C. The megaliths and Trilithon at Baalbek offer pause for thought. The massive stones at Sacsayhuaman and Easter Island present further mystery as well.

Mr. Hancock's research is a laudable pursuit, and the praise and audiences he receives at sold-out lectures are well deserved. Check out this great book, as well as all his other works of both non-fiction and fiction.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed seeing Timothy Hogan (Grand Master, Knights Templar) being referenced, offering an interesting take on ancient signs and how they correspond to Masonic traditions and rituals.

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Gobekli Tepe

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Comet and Flood

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Antediluvian Sage

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Gunung Padang

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Derinkuyu

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Temple of Horus at Edfu

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Sphinx and Pyramids

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Sphinx with a lion head

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Great Pyramids and Orion

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Baalbek

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Sacsayhuaman

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Easter Island

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: Urfa Man

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock: The Sphinx

Magicians of the Gods. Graham Hancock

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Mystery of Easter Island: Did the Moai Walk?

Mystery of Easter Island

by Travis Simpkins

Oral tradition on Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island, has long been rapt with legend. When asked how the giant ancient stone heads, called Moai, had been moved to their current locations miles from where they were carved and quarried, the natives' reply was simple: "They walked." Made to represent their ancient ancestors, the largest of the moai stand 32 feet tall and weigh 82 tons. Imbuing this fanciful myth with a sense of practicality, archaeologist Sergio Rapu Haoa developed a theory that "walking" the heavy statues is precisely the method that was used in transporting them upright. In Mystery of of Easter Island, produced in 2012 for the NOVA television series, archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo put the upright "walking" theory to the test. Past assumptions had centered on the statues being pulled horizontally on log rollers, but seemed unlikely given the lack of resources on the desolate island. Hunt and Lipo designed and constructed a scaled-down concrete replica of a moai, and recruited a team of strong volunteers, to put their theory to the test. After several miscalculations and adjustments, three teams (one behind, two on either side) were able to rock the moai back and forth using ropes, using the weight and momentum of the 5 ton statue to "walk" it forward. What initially seemed doomed to be a failure now seems the probable method utilized by the ancient people on Rapa Nui, extolling their ingenuity and creativity in carving and transporting some of the most intriguing and colossal artworks ever produced by human hands.