The 2022 Netflix series entitled Ancient Apocalypse is a tour de force in presenting the core ideas of Graham Hancock. The photography, the detailed art of reconstructed ancient monuments and sites, and the integration of concepts and ideas are truly sublime. And Hancock not only presents himself as a wise and knowledgeable person, but as also an excellent and eloquent documentarian and writer. After my review of his book Magicians of the Gods in Skeptic1 and the debate Michael Shermer and I had with Hancock on the Joe Rogan Experience, I have come to respect his sincerity and gentle demeanor through our subsequent correspondence. I think of him as a friend, and I hope he feels the same way toward me.
Unfortunately, as a practicing scientist and spokesperson for applying critical thinking not only to purely scientific, but historical and literary research as well, I feel obligated to identify what I see as his erroneous conclusions in both this series and in his many books, which have been highly influential in presenting an alternative theory of history to those less prepared to evaluate the evidence (or lack thereof). In brief, according to Hancock’s alternative theory of history, indigenous peoples were incapable of building the early sophisticated archaeological structures and monuments across the globe, and so he asserts that these hunter-gatherers have “a shared legacy from a lost global civilization that provided the seeds and the spark of inspiration from which many later civilizations grew.” Who are these “magicians of the gods,” as Hancock describes them, and where did they come from?