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It's clear that Graham Hancock's theories are not well-substantiated. And anybody watching the documentary, will probably agree. But he is doing something that
by zosima 4y ago
It's clear that Graham Hancock's theories are not well-substantiated. And anybody watching the documentary, will probably agree.
But he is doing something that archaeologists and historians are deeply afraid of. He is weaving a grand narrative of history, superficially supported by archaeological artifacts. And I believe that much of the criticism of him, is less because of his misunderstanding of historical artifacts, and more because he dares to weave this grand narrative.
If academic scholars dared to create a grand narrative of history and archaeology, I'm sure that they could do a much better job than Graham Hancock. But they don't. And so we are left to people like Hancock to fascinate us with the magic of the past and give meaning to the events that occurred.
- posterboy 4y agoI wouldn't call it a grand narrative of history. It is grandious and it is a narrative that holds the episodes together, but it isn't even beginning to narrate history because the narrative is explicitly speculative. So, a narrative of grand speculative hypotheses bound together by deus ex machina. In other news, reports of the Azores settled by 2000 BCE.
- everybodyknows 4y ago2000 BCE? Where is that reported? Earliest date mentioned by archaeology.org is 700 AD: https://www.archaeology.org/news/10038-211006-azores-islands-habitation https://www.archaeology.org/news/10038-211006-azores-islands...
- posterboy 4y agoDr. Félix Rodriguez: "The oldest dating we have is from 4200 years ago" in a recent BBC documentary. I never heard of the University of the Azores until today.
- johnnymorgan 4y agoThis article wasn't even a strong rebuttal of Hancock, if anything it did the same thing they are accusing him of doing. Very circular and super focused on Hancock's race, while acknowledging he doesn't even suggest these ideas. I enjoy Hancock's narrative and it has some plausibility to it. The grand Canyon being a result of the fast melt of the glacier is interesting. We do know the land mass was super different during the past ice age, which is pretty cool to imagine what that was like to live during