Graham Hancock - America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization: A new investigation into the mysteries of the human past by the bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods

Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earths Lost Civilization

War God: Nights of the Witch

Entangled: The Eater of Souls

Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith

Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

Heavens Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization

The Mars Mystery: A Tale of the End of Two Worlds

The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind

Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earths Lost Civilization

The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Coronet

An Imprint of Hodder & Stoughton

An Hachette UK Company

Copyright Graham Hancock 2019

The right of Graham Hancock to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

eBook ISBN 9781473660564

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

For Santha,

through many lives, past, present, and future, my soul mate always.

Looking forward to more amazing adventures!

Contents

I MAY, THROUGH OVERSIGHT, FAIL TO acknowledge properly here some of the many wonderful people who have helped me in the efforts that led to this book. If so, I hope I can be forgiven. The years grow long and memory short!

It is my wife, soul mate, and fellow adventurer, photographer Santha Faiia, to whom I owe the greatest debt. During the making of this book I suffered two terrifying episodes of seizures and loss of consciousness, as a result of which it is no longer responsible, or legal, for me to drive. So for all our thousands of miles of road trips through some of the most spectacular landscapes in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, upstate New York, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio I was in the passenger seat and Santha was behind the wheel. I therefore want to thank my extraordinary wife for her grit in the face of adversity, for her inspiring presence, for her creative talent in always taking the right photograph at the right moment, and for her immense capacity for love. I would have stalled and come to a grinding halt long ago if not for you, Santha. Thank you. Thank you for EVERYTHING.

Aside from its photographic content, this book contains large numbers of designed images illustrating some of the more complex aspects of the argument. An art director was needed, and my son Luke took on this responsibility, working around the clock to prepare the graphics and illustrations that accompany the text. Gratitude and respect for an excellent job well done.

My research assistant, Holly Lasko Skinner, worked with me on gathering documentation and tracking down hard-to-find facts from the early days of this project. She brilliantly sought out, churned through, and made sense of bewildering masses of data, carefully checked all sources, and constantly alerted me to new scientific developments. Thank you, Holly.

Ross Hamilton, an inspiring teacher of the ancient mysteries, opened my eyes to the enigma of Ohios Serpent Mound and helped me grasp the implications of its numinous connection to the summer solstice sunset.

William Romain, in my opinion the most important archaeologist presently studying the earthwork-building cultures of the Mississippi Valley, kindly took time to exchange views with me and granted me permission to reproduce a number of his excellent photographs and diagrams illustrating the archaeoastronomical implications of his research.

Gary David, whose work on the archaeoastronomy of the Southwest is of the first importance, generously shared his extensive knowledge and insights with me on a journey through Arizona and New Mexico.

Im grateful to Randall Carlson, a true comrade in arms, and to Bradley Young and Camron Wiltshire, who all contributed to this project in different and important ways.

Special thanks to the scientists of the Comet Research Group whose groundbreaking Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis provides the most complete explanation for the mysterious end of the last Ice Age and casts world prehistory in an entirely new light. Allen West, Al Goodyear, Chris Moore, and George Howard were particularly generous with their time.

Im grateful to Tom Demr, chief paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum, for meeting with me and taking me behind the scenes to the archives to share the full implications of the discoveries at the Cerutti Mastodon Site. Indicative of a human presence in North America at least 130,000 years ago, this is a find that rewrites prehistory.

Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, a world expert in the study of ancient DNA, patiently answered my questions and shared his thoughts on the anomalous Australasian genetic signal found among certain isolated peoples of the Amazon rainforest.

Meanwhile archaeological research of immense importance is under way across the Amazon, revealing the existence of stone circles and of hundreds of immense geometrical earthworks. In this context Id like to thank Mariana Petry Cabral of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Sanna Saunaluoma, and Martti Prssinen of the University of Helsinki, and Christopher Sean Davis of the University of Illinois, for the positive spirit with which they greeted my request to reproduce photographs and maps illustrating their findings.

For their thoroughly professional and friendly support with every aspect of our research visit to Denisova Cave in Siberia, huge thanks to Sergey Kurgin, who organized the trip and did all the driving, and to Olga Votrina, our excellent interpreter. Thanks and appreciation also to the Siberian Branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences for their kind cooperation and for their permission to reproduce photographs of artifacts from Denisova Cave.

My editors, Peter Wolverton of St. Martins Press in the United States and Mark Booth of Coronet in the United Kingdom, and my literary agent, Sonia Land, of Sheil Land Associates, have been superb allies and friends, giving me the benefit of their excellent advice and top-class professional expertise at every turn.

Any merits in America Before owe much to those named here, and to the many scientists and vocational researchers around the world whose discoveries are reviewed in the pages that follow. I have been diligent in my attempts to represent their work correctly, but if there are any errors or misinterpretations, then the responsibility is entirely my own.