The Great Flood

 

When you listen to the hancockian and other pseudoarchaeologists, what strikes me is the number of folk who talk about "the Great Flood" as though it was a real, geologically-tested, historical global event that really happened. What's more, they never qualify that phrase, they seemingly do not even conceive that there might be a reason why many of their potential listeners do not share that conclusion. For them, the event is seen as a foundational, universally accepted baseline. For example US YouTuber Jimmy Corsetti  writes several times of the site at Gobekli Trepe (admittedly in the same country as Mt Ararat!) as potentially the site of THE altar that Noah built when the Ark came to rest (Genesis 8:5-21). Because their algorithms, podcasts, and books cross-reference each other as objective fact, they genuinely lose the cognitive perspective required to realize that mainstream science views the global deluge myth as entirely unsupported by any evidence.  

Google n-gram of Google-Book content also gives food for thought, the mentions of this myth-as-event increases dramatically after 1987. It is odd that there was rather a low incidence of use of the term when it was more 'mainstream' in the nineteenth century (possibly other terms such as "Noah's Flood" supplemented that). 

This is pretty shocking. What could be causing it? There are a number of (unrelated?) reasons. A lot of it is due to influence from the USA. The Anglophone "alternative history" market is structurally, financially, and rhetorically dominated by American cultural exports. 

In Europe, the ground was prepared by related processes. In particular chanbges in the book market (away from more serious literature to ephemeral train-station paperbacks) and the blossoming of the New Agey approach to the world that grew from beginnings in the late 1970s and 1980s, developing the "Earth Mysteries" movement. By 1987–1988, this movement crossed over from radical counter-culture into mainstream British publishing.

Unlike in the US, where climate anxieties were largely academic or simply dismissed, Europeans were led to change their views in the mid-eighties. Although climate change and related threats had been discused in Europe since the late 1960s (Silent Spring) the threat was seen as rather an abstract situation that "someone" would have to deal with eventually. But when the explosion of the Soviet-built Chornobil in April 1986 suddenly blanketed Europe in radioactive fallout, a whole continent experienced an overnight, invisible environmental cataclysm. Arguably this led to an abrupt shift in thinking about humanity's vulnerability to sudden, invisible, global ecological ruin. This seems to be one of the roots of a vein of neo-cataclystic (apocalytic) fears - into which the pseudoarchaeologists like Hancock tapped. One corollory of this was the increasing prevalence to see ancient myths not as religious dogma, but as historical warnings. "The Great Flood" stopped being viewed as an ancient Sunday-school story and was re-interpreted through a secular, ecological lens: it became the ultimate archetype of a highly advanced society destroyed by planetary upheaval. 

In the US, there had long been attempts to get the Biblical account of the human past accepted as absolutely literal events, though until the late eighties this was largely confined to fundamentalist Christian circles (for example under the banner of "Creation Science). In June 1987, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard that teaching "creation science" (sic) in public schools was unconstitutional because it advanced a specific religion. This legal loss seems to have forced a massive, highly funded intellectual migration. Creationist organizations could no longer use standard educational channels, so they heavily shifted resources toward pop-science literature, alternative documentaries, and alternative geology books too promote their pseudoscientific views. This included encouraging seeing the Biblical deluge myth instead as a real "historic, global cataclysmic event".

As in Europe, in the late eighties there was greater interest in New Age and related ideas and this period marks the birth of modern mass-market alternative history to cater for the massive, commercially viable demographic of consumers hungry for books that validated ancient wisdom over traditional, mainstream history and geology. In this period too, the conceptual framework for pseudoarchaeology transitioned from ancient astronauts (the fading 1970s Chariots of the Gods era) to Earth-based cataclysms.Writers and researchers in the late 1980s realized that audiences were weary of UFO explanations but deeply responsive to ideas of lost human greatness. By treating the Great Flood as a purely physical, geological event caused by crustal displacement, comets, or ice age melting rather than the wrath of God they made the myth palatable to a secular, scientifically literate but conspiratorially minded public. This laid the exact structural groundwork that writers like Graham Hancock stepped into in the early 1990s.

Othala and neo-Nazi Migration Fantasies

Internet user  ThoughtfulWitz (@ThoughtfulWitz Sep 4, 2026) with reference to undiscovered archaeology in northern Africa, says:

"Especially when you look at some of the cultures and ethnicities who have inhabited NW Africa since pre-history.. like the ancestors of the Berbers (The Amazigh, etc).. who you’d look at and think were from Europe… similar to the Guanches (the primitive, ancient people who inhabited the Canary Islands and the Azores.. who the Portuguese came in contact with centuries ago, went to war with and eventually enslaved/killed… they mummified their dead, and built pyramids… and they were Tall, Blonde/Red haired people, who also in some cases had tattoos….

They were believed to be survivors of Atlantis.. and the Amazigh as well as the Berbers seem to be the genetic descendants of these people.. it’s fascinating.

I’m wondering if, considering the climate changes, etc.. if these Guanches, are the surviving remnants of a vastly ancient civilization that was wiped out by a cataclysm so brutal, that it separated them from the mainland of Africa.. and the island which they inhabited, were simply the peaks of the mountains of the Atlantic landmass that they lived on for Millenia.

Look into the Guanches and the Amazigh. They’ve been in Africa and the Azores (sic) since before written history.. yet they look almost Germanic or even Celtic."

Good grief. What does "being Germanic" or "being Celtic" look like? There is a fair bit of Ahnenerbe in that. So they "wore tattoos" did they (source?)? Why does his picture show tattoos like the Elder Futhark Ōþala-rune (apparently corresponding to the notion "inheritance, home, native land" in Old English) and much used by the Nazi SS and currently by far-right groups? Instead of going on what they "look like" the typical pseudo-science standby, why not use the actual genetic evidence (conveniently summarised here)?

There is no accepted evidence that the island groups Cape Verde Islands, Madeira and the Azores off the coast of north-western Africa had an indigenous population in the deeper past. Specifically, the Azores, mentioned above, were uninhabited when Portuguese explorers arrived in the 15th century. As any history book would have told Mr Witz before he set out to lecture us all, the bloody conquest and decimation of the Guanche population of the Canary Islands however was not by the Portuguese but was a Spanish/Castilian initiative. 

As for the idea that the Guanche "mummified their dead and built pyramids", Mr Witz has got confused. The Guanches did practice mummification of some of the deceased, preserving bodies with leather and herbs in burial caves. The "pyramids" claim refers to structures like the Pyramids of Güímar in Tenerife. However, mainstream archaeology dates these specific step-stone structures to the 19th century agricultural era, not to the ancient Guanches, though romantic and pseudohistorical theories (promoted by explorers like Thor Heyerdahl) often tied them to the indigenous population and external influences. The mention of tall, blonde / red-haired people with tattoos selectively quotes from earlier accounts but is mixed with fantasy from 19th-century racial mythmaking. Nineteenth and and early twentieth century racial anthropologists had exaggerated these traits to claim the Guanches were a "lost white tribe," attributing Nordic, Cro-Magnon, or Atlantean origins to them. Mr Witz just follows along.

Last Glacial Maximum

Mr Witz also ignores the huge depth of the ocean between the island groups that he idly speculates (but does not fact-check) might have been joined as a larger landmass when the sea level was lower. Reality is more modest. Why do people write such crap without thinking it through first?

The so-called Pyramids of Güímar

The so-called Pyramids of Güímar are a tourist attraction in the southeast of Tenerife (Güímar, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain). The site is a 64,000 m² series of stone-built terraces (now partly destroyed). They seem to be 19th-century agricultural terraces and field walls. They seem to have been formed during the 1800s when local landowners cleared rocks from arable fields to prepare the land for cultivation by piling the stones systematically into structured terraces, a common regional practice known as majanos (but of course terraces appear whenever areas of stony land on hillslopes are cleared for fields). Excavations conducted by the University of La Laguna in the 1990s uncovered 19th-century pottery shards and domestic items buried directly in the soil layers underneath the terraces (Gómez and Mederos 1996).

Some of the terraces have been claimed to have astronomical alignments (Belemonte, Aparicio and Estaban 1993 etc.), but why modern terraces should be aligned this way is not clear. The site was opened to the public in 1998, sponsored by a Norwegian investor, Fred Olsen, who owns the largest ship and ferry company in the Canary Islands.

The famous Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl became fascinated by the site in 1991, when he moved to Tenerife with his third wife (Jacqueline Beer) with whom he became very actively involved with several archaeological projects until his death in 2002 [this was well after his Kon-Tiki stunt (1947), the 1955–1956 expedition to Easter Island and the Ra sailings of the 1970s]. Heyerdahl argued that the structures were meticulously designed step pyramids that shared uncanny structural similarities with ancient temples in Peru, Mexico, and Mesopotamia. He proposed that the Canary Islands served as a crucial geographic stopping point for ancient Mediterranean or African mariners who sailed to the Americas thousands of years before Christopher Columbus. He believed the indigenous Guanches of Tenerife originally constructed the pyramids based on these seafaring connections.

REFERENCES
J. A. Belmonte, A. Aparicio and C. Esteban 1993, 'A solsticial marker in Tenerife: the Majanos de Chacona', in: Archaeoastronomy (supplement of Journal for the History of Astronomy), No. 18.

Antonio Aparicio Juan/César Esteban López 2005, 'Las Pirámides de Güímar: mito y realidad'. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, La Laguna 2005, ISBN 978-84-7926-510-6.

Aparicio, A., Esteban, C. 2015, 'A Modern Myth - The “Pyramids” of Güímar' In: Ruggles, C. (eds) Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_107

Maria Cruz Jiménez Gómez/Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos 1996, 'El complejo de las morras de Chacona (Güímar, Tenerife): resultados del proyecto de investigación', XII Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana (1996), Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 1998, vol. 1.

Italian Self-Delusion, now Nicole Ciccolo Wants to dig up the Giza Plateau.

Official press release of the Khefren project (translation).

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"On August 22, 2026, the Khefren project team officially filed with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt the technical documentation relating to the research to be carried out in the Giza Plain area. The filing includes the collection of non-invasive field measurements as well as an official request for excavation permits.

The non-invasive surveys conducted over the last 18 months have revealed density anomalies compatible with structures, including hypogeums of significant archaeological interest. The results were acquired in compliance with the international protocols applicable to UNESCO cultural heritage [meaning unclear - PMB] and will be the subject of scientific publication in the form and timeframe established by the project. Further updates on the Khefren Research Project will be published starting October 1st on Professor Corrado Malanga's official YouTube channel [Corrado Malanga Experience]. The Khefren project does not shy away from any scientific debate; on the contrary, it demands it. Any institution, researcher, or journal wishing to question our data, our methodologies, or our conclusions is invited to do so in the appropriate scientific forums before independent third-party international bodies such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the International Science Council, or bodies of equivalent authority and impartiality. We will be present at every forum for serious, well-documented debate based on the scientific method.

The Khefren Project has acted and will continue to act firmly in every forum and context to assert its rights and guarantee full transparency on the facts. Together with all the aware people of this planet, we will transform objective measures into certainties for humanity. Thank you."

Bonkers. No mention here of any involvement of archaeological bodies. The Chinese Academy has agreed to get involved, what about the Italian one? Instead of submitting a "collection of raw non-invasive field measurements", how about first publishing them as is the usual way of things and subjecting them and the group's analysis (using AI no less) to proper peer review which would help refine the research aims?

"At Ease folks"

 

Twitter soothes, there's no anthropocene at all in the shaping of the global climate, "David" [whose Twitter account reveals to be a rabid hater of Islam] instructs us:  

Do the Younger Dryas Impact Theorists know about this? So where are the effects of their cometary-winter and consequent civilational collapse and great extinctions on this chart? If it happened, its not in this schematic picture of long cycles in ANTARTICA.

This map, that David uses originates from material disseminated by "The CO2 Coalition" (registered address an office suite in Prosperity Ave Fairfax, VA 22031-4968, USA). This is an advocacy organization and non-profit think tank based in Trump's USA that promotes the view that carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuels are beneficial to the Earth and the economy. It was established in 2015 as a successor organization to the now-defunct George C. Marshall Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank known for casting doubt on mainstream climate science. Its stated mission is use selectively-presented material "to educate policymakers and the public about the positive contributions of carbon dioxide to life and agriculture, arguing against mandated emission reductions and questioning climate models". The organization has received funding from energy industry interests, fossil fuel executives, and conservative foundations that oppose environmental regulations.

The group's membership is listed here (with mugshots)., the ultimate appeal-to-authority. The group's roster includes roughly 200 members, they are overwhelmingly drawn from the engineering field, but also hard sciences (physicists, atmospheric physicists, engineers, meteorologists, and mathematicians together with various researchers who challenge mainstream consensus on human-caused climate change) and the energy sector (including geologists and geophysicists, many of whom have career backgrounds in petroleum, coal, or mineral exploration). Tellingly, there are no professional archaeologists or prehistorians listed among the members or experts of the CO2 Coalition.

Even though they lack specialists in human prehistory or archaeology, the CO2 Coalition frequently publishes material regarding the "prehistoric record". They do this by selecting paleoclimatological data in isolation from the archaeological record of human societies. They often cite periods from millions of years ago (such as the Cambrian or Mesozoic epochs) to argue that something or other thrived on Earth when carbon dioxide levels were thousands of parts per million higher than they are today. I wonder if they'd have liked to have lived a decent civilised life on such a planet.

For example in the landscape of the Jurassic, not a lot of crops can be farmed in these conditions. If we today have problems with urban foxes (and in Warsaw, boars and elk) just imagine a large sauropod rummaging through the rubbish bins. 

The vast majority of climate scientists and major scientific organizations dispute the group's assertions, categorizing its messaging as climate disinformation or denial.

Reuters Fact Check: 'Chart of historical CO2 levels misleading, overlooks human-driven increase' January 2, 2024

Argüelles and Mayanism

 

José Argüelles (January 24, 1939 – March 23, 2011) was an American New Age writer and artist. His 1987 book, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology, became a foundational text for the New Age movement by popularizing the "2012" phenomenon and reshaping how western subcultures viewed ancient Mesoamerican culture. Argüelles combined Maya mathematics, astrology, and mysticism to argue that humanity was reaching the end of a 26,000-year galactic cycle. For some reason, he claimed that at the time of writing, our solar system was passing through a 5,125-year-wide "galactic synchronization beam" that began in 3113 BCE and would conclude in 2012, and that the Maya understood this cosmic frequency. Arguelles revealed that a great moment of human transformation awaited us as we approached 2012: that there are galactic "seasons" and that the Maya accurately recorded them; and that each person had the capability to connect directly with the energy of this beam emanating from the galactic centre that contains the power to awaken the higher mind.

In his book, he criticized modern industrial civilization and argued that humanity had lost touch with the natural cycles of time by relying on artificial clocks and technology, and that ancient civilizations had possessed "lost knowledge" needed to heal the planet. He tied to persuade people to transition from the Gregorian calendar to a 13-moon, 28-day cycle to harmonize with the universe (and made up a modified version of the Maya calendar system that he called the "Dreamspell Calendar" as a step towards this).

He also initiated "The Harmonic Convergence" of 1987 to prepare humanity for the cosmic shift that the book announced. On August 16–17, 1987, hundreds of thousands of people gathered for what was probably the world's first group meditation at sacred sites around the world, such as Mount Shasta, Stonehenge, and the Egyptian pyramids, to channel positive energy, prevent a predicted global catastrophe, and usher in a new era of peace.

While the book succeeded in popularizing the concept of the 2012 winter solstice as a moment of global transformation, it faced heavy criticism. Anthropologists, historians, and scholars of Maya culture heavily disputed Argüelles' interpretations, pointing out that his theories were a blend of Western astrology and New Age philosophy rather than authentic Maya cosmology. Despite the academic backlash, the book fundamentally changed pop culture, laying the groundwork for the widespread fascination with the year 2012 that persisted for the next two decades.

Coherent Catastrophism of the 1980s

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In the mid-to-late 1980s, British astronomer Victor Clube (together with Scottish astronomer and author Bill Napier) published (1982) a foundational work on so-called "Coherent Catastrophism". This theory posits that Earth has, throughout human history, been subject to episodic, heavy bombardments from space that are tied directly to the evolution and fragmentation of giant comets. Rather than viewing comet impacts as entirely random, isolated events, Clube argued that massive "giant comets" enter the inner solar system and continuously break apart, creating streams of debris that periodically intersect with Earth's orbit. According to Clube, a massive bombardment event occurred just a few thousand years ago. He argued that the widespread fear of comets, the cross-cultural association of gods with planets, and the belief in angels in ancient history are literal cultural memories of these terrifying cosmic events.

He further postulates that these events were accompanied by climate change due to dust deposition, proposing that a comet doesn't need to make a direct, single catastrophic impact to alter human history. Instead, the "exceptional deposition of cosmic dust" into Earth's atmosphere from these debris streams induces severe climate changes. These cosmic-dust-induced climate shifts directly to major historical crises and societal collapses, including the fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, and even the English Civil War.

References

1982a 'The Cosmic Serpent', with Bill Napier

1982b 'Close encounters with a million comets' (15 July 1982). New Scientist 95, (1314), 148–151, with Bill Napier