In2-MeC

Helsinki, Finland
29 October 2004

Fingerprints of the Gods

In 1995, a British journalist named Graham Hancock published Fingerprints of the Gods--The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization. Lalitanatha Prabhu loaned it to me when I visited his house in the Danish countryside. I have not read the whole thing, it's 570 pages long, but I've gone through several chapters.

The book is useful in that it argues there was civilization on this earth tens of thousands of years ago. It backs up this argument with a good spectrum of evidence. It also shows how this evidence was covered up by so-called experts.

For example, there is the widely respected history of Egypt that was written in the 3rd century BC by Mantheo, a priest of Heliopolis. Today it exists only in fragments. These fragments form the framework of Egypt's past as studied by modern scholars. There's a little problem, though. Mantheo traces civilization in Egypt back 24,925 years before his time. From this record, modern Egyptology accepts only the part about 30 royal dynasties, but not the part about the long periods when demigods, superhumans and spirits ruled. The streamlining of Mantheo's data began early in the Christian era. There was a need to fit world history into the Biblical narrative of creation. Accordingly, before about 4000 years before Christ, the world did not yet exist. Eusebius, who wrote a commentary on Mantheo, arbitrarily interpreted "year" to mean "month. " He thus reduced 24,925 years to a little over 2000 years so that Mantheo's record would nicely fit in the 2242-year period between Adam and the Flood.

Another point in this connection is that there are no traces of "evolution" in back of ancient Egyptian civilization. For all that can be examined of it today, it looks as if it suddenly appeared fully formed. One expert on the subject, John Anthony West, concludes that this shows civilization did not 'develop' in Egypt. It was a legacy from an earlier age. Mantheo told that it was established by demigods like Isis and Osirus. Later it was handed over to earthly kings.

Similarly, according to the record of history compiled by the Mayan people of Mexico and Central America, the source of Mayan culture was a race of superhumans known as the First Men. With names like Balam-Quitze, Balam-Acab, Mahucutah and Iqui-Balam, these personalities rivaled the demigods above in wisdom and power.

There is evidence that ancient Egypt was somehow linked to the Mayan civilization. In both we find large pyramids built from stone. The Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt) and the Pyramid of the Sun (Mexico) were built according to similar mathematical formulas. These formulas employ the "transcendental number" pi. When the length of the diameter of any circle is multiplied by pi, then the distance round the circle is the result. Pi is 3. 14 plus decimal fractions after the 4 that extend without apparent end. Because the number is endless, pi is considered eternal. Pi is fundamental to advanced mathematics. The point is that it would have been much more "natural" for the Egyptians and the Mayans to build their pyramids with corners of simple 45 degree angles. Such a pyramid be the same length on all sides. You could set it down on any of its sides and the structure would look exactly the same. But the Giza and Sun pyramids have corner angles that are multiples of pi. Hence the base line is longer than the line of the sides rising to meet at the top. This is most unusual and prompts us to ask, Why "pi", and why pi in two cultures that modern historians say could have had no contact with one another?

Within the colossal stone ruins of Tihuanaco in Bolivia is the Kalassaya, which is accepted today as an ancient observatory. On the basis of how it was designed by its builders to line up with the rising sun, a number of scientists, beginning with Arthur Posnansky (who studied Tihuanaco for 50 years), concluded that the Kalassaya is at least 15,000 years old. Featured in the Kalassaya are clear carvings of elephants' heads. There are no elephants in South America today, but science says there were prior to 10,000 years ago. Yet in spite of such scientifically verified evidence, historians and archaeologists are very reluctant to admit a date for Tihuanaco earlier than AD 500!

To me, Chapters 28-31 are most interesting. Hancock walks us through another book, Hamlet's Mill, which I read years ago. Written by Giorgio de Santilla and Hertha von Dechend and first published in the late '50s, Hamlets Mill is a brilliant, sweeping comparative study of the astronomy embedded in ancient iconography and "mythology" around the world. What is revealed is a knowledge of what is termed today as the cycle of precession. Precession is the opposite of succession, thus its simple meaning is "going before" while succession means "going after. "

In the sky around the Earth there is a great circle of 12 constellations of the Zodiac. In the course of one year, the point at which the sun rises over the eastern horizon passes through the "houses" of each of the constellations. This is a cycle of succession: in mid-summer on the longest day of the year, the sun rises in Sagittarius, a month later it rises in Capricorn, a month after that it rises in Aquarius, and so on. The cycle of precession is traced through the same 12 houses, but what moves here is the point at which the sun rises on the vernal equinox. There are two times in the year, in spring and autumn, when day and night are the same length. These times are the equinoxes. The vernal equinox is the springtime equinox. Every year on the morning of the vernal equinox we see the sun rise in the house of Pisces. But year by year the exact point where the sun pops up on that morning is gradually sliding over to Aquarius, which is before Pisces in the cycle of succession. Hence the vernal equinox moves in precession, backwards through the 12 houses. It will take some 600 more years for the vernal equinox to move into the house of Aquarius (and when it does, that will be the dawning of the "Age of Aquarius. . . Aquarius. . . la-la-la-la-la-la"). It takes 25,776 years for the sun to move round the entire cycle of precession.

Now, the official line is that the cycle of precession was worked out sometime in the 2nd century BC by a Greek astronomer and mathematician named Hipparchus. What Hamlet's Mill demonstrates by presenting many impressive evidences from Vedic India, Ancient Egypt, Babylon, China, South America and other places, is that the cycle of precession was known long, long before Hipparchus. Moreover, it was known all around the world. De Santilla and von Dechend suggest that this knowledge goes back at least 8000 years.

In Chapter 24, Hancock compares the flood narratives of various ancient civilizations, including the story of Matsya Avatara and King Satyavrata. In the ruins of Mesopotamia and in the Kalassaya of Tihuanaco are stone depictions of fish-gods that are reminiscent of Indian depictions of Matysa.

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