Television, at its best, should make us think more deeply about everything. But doing so sometimes makes us uncomfortable because deep critical thinking can force us to question some very fundamental beliefs we hold about ourselves, our world, and our history.
As a person who teaches history as a full-time job, I am fascinated by the past. The events and the people that came before us have shaped who we are as a species, as well as the world in which we live. But one thing that I have learned regarding our past, especially the distant past, is that we clearly don’t know everything that has happened throughout time. It is especially difficult to know what occurred before the advent of writing and the documentation of events. Much of what we do know is passed down orally through stories from indigenous peoples. Since we don’t have any first-hand descriptions from antiquity, to understand these distant times we must search for evidence such as fossils, pottery and other artifacts, and then make educated guesses. It is this aspect of history that is sometimes controversial. Archaeologists, or those who study antiquity, build careers and reputations around their work regarding past human history. They oftentimes pose rigorous defenses against any challenges to their theories, even going so far as launching personal attacks against those with whom they disagree.
This brings us to Graham Hancock and Ancient Apocalypse.
Graham Hancock is not an archaeologist. He will proudly remind everybody of that. What he is, he would tell you, is obsessively curious about distant human history. He has a controversial theory that he has been promoting for years. He believes that a past, highly advanced, civilization existed before the last Ice Age. He argues that his research strongly suggests (We can’t know anything “for sure” about the distant past) that a comet, or large fragments of a comet, struck earth about 12,900 years ago. The impact, according to Hancock, destroyed an advanced civilization that possibly existed in North America and/or elsewhere. The comet impact led to abrupt and intense cooling of the Northern Hemisphere. Scientists have named this period of extreme climate change The Younger Dryas. Multiple species of megafauna went extinct during this period.
Hancock has written extensively about his theories and has been criticized and attacked by mainstream archaeology because his ideas challenge the accepted theory that modern humans have only been in North America for around 15,000 years and were simple hunter-gatherers. He has cobbled together the evidence of his life’s work in a documentary series on Netflix called Ancient Apocalypse.
Through two seasons, Hancock takes us on a journey throughout the world to expose the hidden secrets of our past, while also directly challenging the archaeological status quo.
I don’t want to give too much away, so I will simply say that if you are willing to set aside much of the history we learned in school such as “Clovis First” theory, which argues the earliest modern humans in North America lived near what is now Clovis, New Mexico, this show might be for you.
Hancock begins season one by arguing that there is evidence that a cataclysmic flood, not unlike the Biblical Great Flood, occurred around the time of the Younger Dryas. He travels to places such as Gunung Padang in Indonesia which contain ancient man-made structures. He also explores pyramids in Mexico, the Megalithic Temples of Malta, the underwater structure known as Bimini Road, the recently discovered ancient ruins of Gobekli Tepe, and finally ancient mounds and structures in the present-day United States.
In each of the eight episodes of season one, Hancock ties these places and their artifacts to his greater theory that an advanced civilization existed long before we previously imagined and survived the Younger Dryas cataclysm. Afterward, the survivors traveled the world imparting knowledge to the rest of the world in the areas of agriculture and astronomy, and others.
Season two of the series is titled The Americas, which lets us know that Hancock has narrowed his research focus to our part of the world. He discusses ancient human footprints discovered in White Sands, New Mexico that carbon-dating of seeds found in the sediment layers have placed them between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. In another episode, he uses DNA to show a distant ancestral connection between inhabitants of South America and populations in places like Indonesia and other areas of the South Pacific. He argues that this “ancient DNA signal” is strong evidence that humans were advanced seafarers, with the ability to cross large swaths of the Pacific Ocean, long before current archaeologists believe. The rest of season two is a deep dive into different areas of the Western Hemisphere where Hancock argues civilizations existed deep into pre-history.
In Ancient Apocalypse, Graham Hancock doesn’t claim to have all of the answers regarding our human history. But he does make compelling arguments that we have overlooked evidence that may completely change the narrative of our ancient history. The only catch is that you must be willing to consider the possibilities.
Ancient Apocalypse airs on Netflix. A third season is reportedly in the works.
