Graham Hancock on history: what the evidence says · JRE #1284
SUBJECT: HISTORY
The short answer
Hancock claims there was a global seafaring civilization mapping the world during the last Ice Age, evidenced by old portolan maps like the Piri Reis map. A peer-reviewed Science Advances commentary documents that this thesis has been widely rejected by professional archaeologists and other scientists: it lacks supporting physical evidence, relies on rhetorical 'what if' framing rather than verifiable data, and has been publicly characterized as pseudoarchaeology by the Society for American Archaeology and numerous academic critics, who also raised concerns about the show mischaracterizing mainstream archaeology as a suppressive 'gatekeeping' establishment.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
It's the notion of a global navigating culture in the Ice Age that archaeologists can't swallow. It's a subject that I've kept on coming up against over a number of years
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Hancock's claim of a global, advanced seafaring civilization mapping the world during the last Ice Age (ending roughly 11,700 years ago) is part of the broader lost-civilization thesis he has popularized for decades, including in the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse. A peer-reviewed Science Advances commentary documents that this thesis has been widely rejected by professional archaeologists and other scientists: it lacks supporting physical evidence, relies on rhetorical 'what if' framing rather than verifiable data, and has been publicly characterized as pseudoarchaeology by the Society for American Archaeology and numerous academic critics, who also raised concerns about the show mischaracterizing mainstream archaeology as a suppressive 'gatekeeping' establishment. No peer-reviewed archaeological, geological, or cartographic evidence supports the existence of a globe-spanning Ice Age seafaring culture. Status: unsupported by mainstream evidence and widely characterized by specialists as pseudoarchaeology.