Graham Hancock
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Graham Hancock (born 1951) is the author of several books, including The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, and Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. A recent release (with co-author Robert Bauval) is Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith. His chief areas of interest are stone monuments or megaliths, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of Hancock's main areas of study is the possible global connection with a 'mother culture' from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang. While Hancock's books have sold rather well, his methods and conclusions have found little support among orthodox academics, and Hancock has been criticized as a pseudoarchaeologist. His main goal, however, is to question prevailing scientific knowledge, believing that widely-held theories are sometimes based on little to no conclusive evidence.
Hancock spent his early career as a journalist for many of Britain's leading newspapers, including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was also the East African correspondent of The Economist in the early eighties, writing prolifically on the hunger and disease crises there. Despite his background as a researcher and journalist, he admits to no formal archaeological education. His ideas have been refuted on numerous occasions, most famously by BBC 2's Horizon programme. It detailed his attempts to join the dots on maps of ancient temple complexes to produce outlines of astrological features and pointed out that the same thing could be done with famous landmarks in New York. It also revealed that Hancock had selectively moved or ignored the locations of the temples to fit his own theories. Hancock states that he was misrepresented by the programme. He and Robert Bauval made complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission against the way BBC programme portrayed their work, the BSC ruling that the programme had treated them improperly on two of the ten points they had raised as being unfair.
See also
External links
- Graham Hancock's official website (http://www.grahamhancock.com)
- BBC Horizon Scandal at Graham Hancock's official website (http://www.grahamhancock.com/horizon/default.htm)
- Broadcasting Standards Commission - Synopsis of adjudication. Horizon: Atlantis Reborn (November 4th 1999) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisreborn_bsc_synopsis.shtml)
- The BBC's response to the Horizon programme debate (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisreborn_bsc.shtml)
- Robert Bauval's official site' (http://www.robertbauval.com)
- Skeptical review of Hancock #1 (http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-07/fingerprints.html)
- Skeptical review of Hancock #2 (http://skepdic.com/atlantis.html)
- Critical review of one of Hancock's books (http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns23389)
- Review of a book criticising Hancock (http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns23449)
- Arguments against Hancock (http://www.antiquityofman.com/hancock.html)
- Criticism of Hancock's astronomical arguments (http://astunit.com/astrocrud/hancock.htm)
- A marine geo-archaeologist relates his experience of Hancock's methods with lengthy discussion following (http://www.hallofmaat.com/maat/read.php?f=1&i=27960&t=27960)it:Graham Hancock