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Graham Hancock being interviewed on London Real
Graham Hancock being interviewed on London Real

Graham Hancock on Ancient Seafarers

I enjoyed watching this presentation from ‘alternative history’ author Graham Hancock on the topics covered in his books, including the bestselling Fingerprints of the Gods:

It was great to revisit some of these topics that I read in FotG way back in the 90s. Coincidentally I watched this not long after reading a Discovery Magazine story titled “Egypt’s Lost Fleet“, which discussed a recent archaeological excavation which appears to show that the 
ancient Egyptians “
mastered oceangoing technology and 
launched a series of 
ambitious expeditions 
to far-off lands” – something that Graham concluded in FotG sixteen years ago. Materials discovered in ocean-side caves have led archaeologists to believe that, almost 4000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians built ocean-going boats up to 30 metres long in order to sail to the land of Punt. From the magazine article:

Boston University archaeologist Kathryn Bard and an international team have uncovered six other caves at Mersa Gawasis. The evidence they have found, including the remains of the oldest seagoing ships every discovered, offers hard proof of the Egyptians’ nautical roots and important clues to the location of Punt. “These new finds remove all doubt that you reach Punt by sea,” Baines says. “The Egyptians must have had considerable seagoing experience.”

Readers of Fingerprints of the Gods will know that Graham mentions the 42-meter-long boats buried near the Great Pyramid (some 600 years, at least, before the boats mentioned in the above article). Graham cites Thor Heyerdahl as saying that the boat’s design incorporated “all the seagoing ship’s characteristic properties, with prow and stern soaring upward, higher than in a Viking ship, to ride out the breakers and high seas, not to contend with the little ripples of the Nile”, and that it must have been “created by shipbuilders from a people with a long, solid tradition of sailing on the open sea.”

Editor
  1. Ocean voyages
    Thanks Greg, this brings back memories. Surfing the ‘net for Graham Hancock is how I found TDG way back in ’99. Those were the days.

    It never ceases to bemuse me every time a skeptic claims ancient civilisations were incapable of traveling across the Pacific Ocean. “It’s pseudoscience,” they huff and puff. “Oceans are too dangerous for primitive craft and they would have drowned.”

    Thor Heyerdahl has proven without a doubt that it was possible, and I linked to a news story recently of traditional Polynesian canoes successfully sailing 15000 nautical miles across the Pacific.

    Pseudoskeptics and cynics aren’t maritime experts. The only thing they know about water is when to put the bubbles in their baths.

  2. Polynesian seafarers
    Polynesian seafarers were amongst the most talented in the world – their home was the sea just as much as the land was. They regularly made astounding voyages amongst their various island homes and a study of their expertise is well worth the effort. The pseudoskeptics would be much better off if they kept their mouths shut and their minds open.

    Regards, Kathrinn.

  3. Ancient Seafarers
    I remember reading, some 40 years ago, =/- a few, that a cave had been found in the Mississippi River bluffs in (I think) Tennessee and which had the bodies of several Phonecian (obviously) seafarers. They were identified by armor, weaponry and some pottery, if I remember correctly, and identfied as pre-Christian era. Now, I’m not sure where I read that – Science Weekly, Scientific American, I don’t know any longer, so I can’t steer anyone to the right place to verify it. Sorry.

    1. I am just amazed that there
      I am just amazed that there continues to be establishment rejection of the ancient seafarer idea. How many old fogeys have to retire and die before the old guard with all of its ridiculous pride goes the way of the dinosaurs?

  4. 4000 yr old egyptian fleet
    This verifies and provides a explanation for the cocaine & tobacco found in Egyptian mummies. Perhaps a link to transfer of architectural styles scattered over the planet.

    1. It is really curious to me
      It is really curious to me that the consensus reality in formal archaeology is that the Egyptians could have built technological marvels like the pyramids yet be too backwards to sail the high seas. Really, in comparison to the technology of building the pyramids high seas navigation would have been child’s play to these people.

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