1 comments about The Past in Perspective.

1. This book is a necessity for the student of Anthropology/Archeology, it has a very easy to read format and in depth articles that could only increase a student knowledge in these subjects.

No comments about Principles of Archaeology.

5 comments about Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients.

1. I feel this is a great starter book to get a person going in the alternative history/ancient technology direction.
   I have personally given away several of these books to good friends.
   If nothing else it's a great read.
   Buy this book and begin the adventure.



2. The topics are covered in a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Breathless Rush that leaves the reader wondering where it all will lead. Because there is no index, you will find it difficult to go back and find the inscrutible passages. Because there are virtually no margins (1/4 inch instead of a standard 1 inch) there is no place to write notes or even put stickums without affecting the text. The lines are closely leaded (too close together for comfortable reading) perhaps to save paper or cut costs, but regardless, a less-than-comfortable reading experience. Numerous anecdotes and examples are repeated, as if nobody bothered to edit the text, but rather just wrote it down from a transcribed tape or video. The lack of attention to these basics of book-reader's expectations makes you wonder about the validity of the contents. Good info, but bad format.



3. "Technology of the Gods" documents many examples of ancient technologies including sophisticated use of optics, magnetism, and electricity.
   
   What I found even more interesting was a special section of some of Tesla's research into similar avenues of research.
   
   It could have used a few more references or explanation of sources, but all in all a very enjoyable introduction into OOPARTS.



4. I clearly expected a more reliable, truly scientific book. Don't shoot the messenger, this is yellow press at its "best". You expect to read about "ancient computers" and find out meant is Stonehenge, only because astronomy can be predicted with it... The "best-selling" (as in sell the headline best) author - and yes, he's a journalist - hardly leaves anything out, which makes a fine sensation: flying carpets, Perseus' invisible making helmet, manbird Garuda's space travel to the Pole Star 58 lights years away, Icarus flying to close to the sun, King Solomon traveling in aircrafts, an ancient H-bomb knocking out the power plant in a pyramid (still standing).... you name it, and David Hatcher Childress will tell you, it's all true.
   
   His proof is usually a bit lacking. Either in the tune of: "I once saw a levitating lama"; via free spaces in ancient cities around the world without further circumstantial hints have to be nothing else, but landing grounds for air and space ships; to the causal relationship string of thought that the A-bomb on Hiroshima caused some sand to turn crystally salty, the SIMILAR LOOKING salty area around the Dead Sea must have been caused by the ancient nuking of Sodom and Gomorrha, which turned organic material (Lot's wife) into the very same salt, too (but her family could escape the blast, I presume...). His credo by his very own (quoted) words: "The absence of proof is no proof of the proof's absence." Oh, I forgot: The usual unusual item to have been found by private citizens have been lost by now (Including the biggest megaliths ever known, which couldn't get transported by modern means!) or the owners refuse any examination... He's not shying away to present pictures supporting his theory, captioning them with the small print "POSSIBLE secret chambers beneath the Sphinx" (highlight by myself). Mentioning the pictures: Most of them are depicted twice or even four times without any apparent reason, which remains one of the biggest mysteries in this book.
   
   In principle I know that "the ancients" had been MUCH more sophisticated than presented and/or believed by orthodox "science". This book simply is not the way to present that knowledge, for hardly any real knowledge gets included. The author himself terms it "speculation" once in a while. Some curious phenomena are merely mentioned in a sentence, a paragraph or a sub chapter of 2 or 3 pages. The only somewhat in depth analysis by comparison is a lengthy some 30 page quote from a another book, The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt, which at least offers a cohesive theory to work with. Some true discoveries, such as the very real antikythera mechanism device found in an ancient Greek ship wreck, are intermingled with fantasy. Also the ancient Egyptian source for the word "soap" is revealed, which is nice. However, most unsolved mysteries are hilariously distorted by wild fiction fevers. The thing with speculation is: Nearly always, it will lead to the realization later that it was a very funny imagination, even should the direction of thought have been somewhat based on reality. For that, in depth science has to get applied, usually over many years to come to worthy conclusions, usually not expected from the start. The author, however, doesn't engage in science. He merely compiles sensationalist stories, concocted for the Atlantis and UFO philes. He is actually doing a mighty disservice to progressive/alternative science.
   
   Take the title page as an example. The Egyptians depicted are supposed to hold light bulbs. The cover image has been distorted, within the book it becomes clear that these light bulbs are human sized. Why that huge? The symbolic Djed-pillars they are resting on are supposed to be electric generators (yet holding the GLASS then, according to this interpretation on the back cover, i.e. no metal necessary for the electricity to flow). It is a bit bold to interpret ancient temple wall paintings and hyroglyphs of what they remind of in the modern world. It would be even bold to interpret the really depicted things literally. To me, this looks like serpents in a container or symbolic flower, but I wouldn't dare to aver this impression as such. The author doesn't provide ANY context of that image. His knowledge about Egypt seems to be very limited anyway, as he terms the GODDESS Isis/Aset a priestess. She and other facets of the goddess(es) are supposed to wear very real electric light or crystal lenses on their heads. Now we know the reason for the distortion into a real life priestess, killing all the symbolism. In that row of "priestesses" depicted one has a lioness' head. He doesn't refer to how he blinds THAT literally...
   
   Usually the book is about phenomena AS OF YET unexplained (= in 2000 when the book was published originally). Occasionally, it DEFIES any existing scientific knowledge. For example he avers the Mediterranean would have been a dry valley with some lakes, inhabited by an ancient ancient civilization he calls Osirian. (Even though the reference to the mythical first ruler of pre-dynastic Egypt having turned into a god tells the diametrically opposed story of Egypt coming OUT of the water - the growing Nile Delta). I call the Mediterranean a lake myself, yet, tectonics teach that it used to be an OCEAN getting closed. Unorthodox views describe that process a bit variated, yet, it never has been a dry valley, even though the sea level (all over the world) was a bit lower at times.
   
   The author also falls for historic legends (i.e. errors): One example would be the supposed burning of the library in Alexandria by Muslim conquerors. In reality, the re-built library had been re-burned the last time seven centuries before their arrival - by Christian fanatics. (The first time by Julius Caesar as punishment for not submitting quickly enough.) The poisoning of Alexander the Great is controversial at best. And Archimedes constructed a lot of (wooden) machines with which to destroy ships, yet no giant lenses were used to burn any fleet. None of the contemporary historians discribing his gadgets report such lenses, but many centuries later, this myth came to life. Hence it is funny reading this book averring (relatively) sophisticated technology involuntarily based on basically a fairy tale, exposing the very carelessness of the author's approach to scientific findings.
   
   So why did I give any stars at all? Actually, I give 2.5 not 3. One star is obligatory. Half a star is for the principle of challenging orthodox believes, suggesting the ancients didn't know anything. An additional star is for providing information to be looked up independently with more trustworthy sources. For example I had never heard about the Iron Pillar of Delhi, which mysteriously has remained rost free and is some 97% pure iron, which is difficult or should be impossible to produce in these quantities. Two years after the publishing of the book, that mystery seems to have been solved: The ancient melting process of producing iron had been fundamentally different, leaving MUCH more phosphor in the product. That in turn caused a very thin, but very effective protective film to develop on the surface. So: Yes, we didn't know and the product is superior to modern corrosion stricken iron, yet the wild speculation in this book has proven to be just that. I am glad to have been introduced to the (lack of) knowledge about vitrified forts and Libyan Desert Glass (in Egypt), which obviously formed while exposing rock/sand to enormous heat. More theories exist than described in the book, which avers nuclear warfare, because no vulcanic or meteor crater has been found. Yet, as inconsistent as the book gets, existing craters elsewhere are supposed to be caused by nuclear bombs... By the way, the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle has been solved in the meanwhile as well. Gases breaking through the ocean floor temporarily cause such vessels not be supported any more by the transformed water and air. The referenced example of a squadron disappearing has been reconstructed by now as an error of judgement by the leading pilot flying in the wrong direction, though.
   
   I have to close. If you are interested in REAL, in-depth and as of today judged unorthodox science revealing ancient ancient technology, forget this book and read instead the 1966 Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age and the 2004 Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was. Then you WON'T have to wonder wether in 2,000 years someone interprets Star Trek and Harry Potter as the real state of technology of today...



5. For those not researching much of what is written in Technology of the Gods, the stories would appear to be so fascinatingly convincing and wild and, for the most part, they are! However, if one were to REALLY do a little research and see how much of what Childress write is actually TRUE, they would find that much (and I would say, most) of it is just plain science fiction. Period. As I read Technology of the Gods, wanted badly to verify the accuracy of what Childress claimed, because as it turned out, the book made ever more outrageous claims as you get deeper and deeper into the book.
   
   I wouldn't know where to start with a review, but a few facts stand out. For one, Childress quotes very extensively (and almost to the point of making his own analysis mute) several authors, such as Andrew Tomas, who have been known to write falsities themselves. Tomas is a good example. Most of what Tomas writes about cannot be tracked down mostly because he never left any sources for his outrageous claims. The "Vedic UFO's" from which Childress gets most of his ancient Indian Vimana ideas from (including illustrations of them) were inspired by a book, Vaimanika Shastra, that was claimed to have been "channeled" by the transcribed author, Pandit Subbaraya Shastry. Childress performs these same erroncies in which claims cannot be traced, verified, or researched. This is not science...this is pseudoscience. Or better yet: science fiction. This is a type of religion, in which you must simply believe what is said and leave it at that.
   
   Another problem I found with Technology of the Gods is that there were half-truths (in which the whole explanation or alternative, and more realistic, answer seems to be ignored and not written about) or there were outright lies associated with many of Childress' claims. Quick examples:
   
   -the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull: was actually bought at an auction by Mitchell himself...not found at an archeological dig, as he claimed. But this explanation is never written about by Childress,
   
   -the "metallic vessel" from Dorchester, MA was found near a mine in loose rubble, not, as Childress claims, "blown out of solid rock",
   
   -the Coso Artifact, was found inside of a ball of hard clay, not, as Childress claims, a geode. Also, the object was found, under intense investigation, to be identical to a, then current, 1920's Champion spark plug, probably from mining equipment of the area. Of course none of this is ever mentioned or written about by Childress,
   
   -the Iron Pillar of Delhi: not rusted due, possibly, to the high content of phosphorus film on its surface from the manufacture of it and also to its thickness. (None mentioned in Technology of the Gods),
   
   and many more! In short, a book would need to be written that described the many inaccuracies and missleading information contained in Technology of the Gods. The book makes for some great science fiction, but not knowing anything about the subject matters written about and not researching any of the claims made by the author will lead one into believing a false religion.

5 comments about Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization.

1. These books are nonsense. Any books whose titles include any of the words 'mysterious', 'secrets', 'Templar', 'alien', 'code', 'supernatural', 'mythic', 'cosmic', are just giving away the fact that they are unscientific rubbish. They are based on wishes and dreams, but we should all know that children wish, adults decide.



2. As Far as I know no one else has informed us about all of these underwater places where people, at one time, lived. As always Handcock makes you think.



3. I believe this is a far more important book than most people realize. While the author suffers from a lack of editing and brevity, he more than makes up for it in his subject selection and hands-on detective work. I read the entire book and it was a detailed, highly convincing argument that mankind has done a really slipshod job of investigating our history in terms of looking at the oceans of the world.
   
   I thought the photographs in the book were fantastic and my only complaint is that there weren't more of them! Especially interesting were the underwater photos of Yonaguni which I find almost impossible to believe could be natural phenomena. I wish Mr. Hancock had also put together a DVD release of this material as I think that the actual pictures tell a story that the written word itself can hardly match. The author does actually mention the difficulty of underwater photography in the various locations he travels and this is part of the importance of the book; that is, that we need advances in our ability to image places we are investigating in order to tell the story to the public and thereby capture both imagination and funding in order to continue exploring the hidden history of mankind.
   
   Those who gave this book bad reviews are ignoring the fact that, to my knowledge, modern history has absolutely no explanation at all for formations like Yonaguni, if it is indeed man-made. The author's book is, as far as I can tell, one of the only attempts to provide any kind of real explanation for this. Yonaguni is an anomaly whose only other explanation (that it is a natural formation) is almost impossible to believe.
   
   With some additional editing, etc., in a second edition, this book could easily rate five stars. And the subject matter is important enough that it needs to.



4. The photos of underwater dives are what originally interested me in buying the book. Hancock's thorough method of gathering facts to support his version of history are what made me a believer. He inspired me to use my skills in satellite imagery analysis to search for proof from above that civilization is much older than is commonly thought. My search resulted in a book Noah's Ark, Discovering the Science of Man's Oldest Mystery that offers amazing proof that both supports and expands Graham's book.



5. Graham Hanock continues to blow my mind with his brilliant deductions, make you open up for possibilites outside the box. I had first heard about the mindblowing underwater monuments off the Japanese coast. I couldn't put the book down and three of my other family members were pulled into the earthshattering theories that truly make you rethink what exactly occurred in our very ancient past. I couldn't put it down and grew nearly intoxicated on all of the amazing possibilites those monument signfies. I recommen it you can keep an open mind this book will impress and inspire thought for you as wall

5 comments about In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth.

1. If you are like me you do not want to read a huge review--you just want the essentials. This review is for you.
   
   Dr. Mallory's book is very thorough, as can be deduced from the title. In my opinion, the strongest parts are those on mythology, Indo-European origins, simple linguistic comparisons, and the brief overviews of each sub-Indo-European ethnic/linguistic group. Indeed, the book deserves five stars simply for the sheer amount of information.
   
   There are a few small issues. Some of the archaeological terms and sub-categories can get a little confusing. In order to follow Dr. Mallory you ought to read a summary of European/Near Eastern Archaeological theory.
   
   Nevertheless, this book is definitely a must-have for anyone interested in Indo-European theory or ancient Europe and the ancient Near-East.



2. I wanted to add a very brief review of this book, which I read many years ago and have returned to now with some new research I am doing on Proto-Indo-Europeans. I was reminded what a great overview of the subject this book is and what a wealth of information it contains. It is one of my favorite books on the topic of Indo-Europeans.
   
   Mallory does an excellent job of presenting and condensing a mountain of historical, mythological, archaeological, liguistic, and genetic information, theories, and evidence into a concise relatively easy to read book that stays on topic. He also manages to offer a logical resolution to the Indo-European "homeland" debate.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone as the perfect starting point in Indo-European studies.



3. I truly appreciate well reasoned arguments and those few that can still write them. Some developments do not appear as clearly stated as I would find convincing. Nomadic pastoralists only happen after the aridity of a region deposes them from traditional agriculture and forces them to survive on herds navigated over ever greater and greater ranges. The Scythians are one such example. The transition is natural and climatic. While comparative linguistics and reconstructed linguistics are wonderful ideas, and I often follow them myself to see what they might imply *IF*, they have no factual value. This appears to be lost on some who accept the theoretical constructions of this science as if it were chemistry or physics with a certitude of knowledge. We can only say such and such a word existed if we have a written copy of that word, and insinuating a technology or concept to a culture because it is found in cultures of descent 500 or 1,000 years later is invalid science regardless of what we wish to believe. This does not keep the ideas from being worthy of note or interesting to explore, but always reduces my enjoyment in reading works of this type.



4. This book is a definate must read for anyone who is studying the Indo-Europeans or the Celts or any culture derived from the Indo- Europeans.
   
   It is a look at a language, history and culture of a great people. The author has spent time on the documentation of the sources and uses a great deal of resources which are in and of themselves interesting.



5. Great info but way too many pages searching for the exact
   geographic location of the original group of people, as if
   they need have had one location at some particular moment.
   But an important basic text for understanding the issues
   of PIE.

5 comments about Reading the Maya Glyphs, Second Edition.

1. Holy Crap![.] This book is totally sweet![.] I may not be an expert in Mayan junk but I was keenly interested in this subject and this book delivered. In addition I had to write this paper about Classic Mayan Grammar in this class I was taking and this book saved my bacon. Thanks Michael D. Coe, I love you man...



2. Great tool for opening the field for Mayan Hieroglyphs.But not enough to master fully.



3. Not only is this book beautifully printed with exquisite glyphs printed in red ink, it is also coherent and accessible to everyone interested in Maya hieroglyphs. It takes almost no time to read and fully understand, and is a perfect introduction and reference tool. A must have for any Maya enthusiast.



4. I'm giving this 4 stars, because it just doesn't seem right to rank it as only an average book, it's really fantastic. However, having done a lot of (admittedly amateur) study of the Maya script, I found this book problematic in a few areas. First, you should know that some of the grammar presented here is still very much debatable--especially the sections on morphosyllables and syllabic disharmony. If you don't have any idea what that means, don't worry, Coe explains it well. The answers are just a little more hypothetical than the presentation suggests.
   
   John Montgomery's book "How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs" is a little more conservative on those topics, and is generally more in-depth and scholarly. The book on this page, on the other hand, is better illustrated and has practice exercises that are extremely helpful. Ideally, I would recommend owning both--the overlap is not as bad as you might think and they have different strengths for bringing along in visits to sites like Palenque and their museums. If you must choose one, the Coe book is a quicker study and better designed for practicing and looking up material such as the syllabary easily. The Montgomery gives you decidedly more info and a more solid foundation. I hope this review helps you choose the best one for your taste. Either way, enjoy studying this difficult and beautiful script.



5. Perhaps the problem lies less with the authors and more with the language, but I suspect both are guilty of making this study of Maya glyphs as enjoyable as mowing a near vertical lawn in 100 degree weather. Imagine being asked to name and recognize each of the 101 Dalmations (with the understanding that sometimes any dalmation could alternately appear as a collie or unicorn or frog or loaf of bread OR any of those things turned upside down or stuck to the wall with velcro or distorted as if pushed up against a glass wall from behind). Add to that a series of cryptic lessons on linguistic esoterica designed to give you fits and several exercises to show that you will never make any progress here (and ought to question whether or not you have early Alzheimers or something equally dreadful that could explain why you got so many wrong answers on the tests). I actually started arguing with the book around page 30 which is when I knew it was time to move on. Instead of tearing hearts out of thousands of people the Maya should have spent more time making a language that was user friendly . . . even the Klingons did a better job.

5 comments about Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age.

1. Wonderful book! Highly suggest buying if interested in socially concerned photography. Only negative comment is that the book designer chose to place some images on a two page spread which means the subject of the photo's are in the crease.



2. Salgado, like Bresson, Smith and Evans goes into the detail the world of WORK, it is an amazing array of images.



3. The author: a great reporter.
   The book: a detailed "story" of manual workers, from Sicily to Cuba and India...
   Very good images, very well printed. Very very good black and white warm tone.



4. This review has nothing to do with the contents of this wonderful book - I'm sure you can gather from the other extremely positive reviews the quality of Salgado's work.
   
   When I received the book (fulfilled by Amazon itself), the dust cover was all scratched and there was small dents on it. If I saw a book like that in the bookstore I wouldn't buy it unless I was getting a discount. Especially for a fine art book like this one.
   
   So I returned it and asked for a replacement, which Amazon did without even waiting for the original to be returned (they have my credit card details, so can always charge me again). But the next one that came, which was packaged by itself, arrived in the same condition.
   
   I contacted Amazon again to ask for another replacement, but they informed me that there was obviously a problem with the quality of their stock, but there was no way for them to go down to the warehouse and guarantee the quality of another replacement. So they said the only option I had was to accept a refund.
   
   In summary, Amazon, as always, good customer service, but not able to provide this book in the condition that it deserves. I'm sure it was only an issue with the supply they had, or something in their process that was damaging the book, but at the end of the day, I would expect better.



5. Beautiful images, good printing, generous size. What more could you ask for?
   
   I won't bother talking about how good Salgado is. Chances are, my words won't do him justice.

3 comments about Jordan: Past and Present: Petra, Jerash, Amman.

1. I got this book, AFTER I visited these places and I'm glad I did. Very effective way of comparing what one can see nowadays and what it must have been like in its time. Useful before travelling, after or even if only interested in finding out more about the region. Perfect size book and very easy to consult. A friend saw my copy and immediately ordered one for herself. It is that interesting. Recommend highly



2. Overlays of the past and present are fantastic! Gives a wonderful visual overview of Petra, Jerash, Amman. Worth every penny!



3. Loved this book as a quick guide. The overlays added to the visual effect. I acrually carried this with me on a hike through Petra and was able to identify several locations by the photos.

2 comments about Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything.

1. The main focus of this book is on how objects can be dated using measurements of radioactive isotopes and their products, that is the elements and isotopes that form after radioactive decay.
   The author begins with a brief discussion of ideas about the earth's duration before the advent of dating techniques using radioactive isotopes. Here he discusses the duration of the earth as inferred from the Bible, the influence of James Hutton in moving scientific opinion towards a longer time scale, William Smith's use of fossils to come to a relative (that is, the order in which rocks were formed, but not when they were formed) dating of sedimentary rocks, and the conflict in the later half of the 19th century between geologists' belief in a long earth history and the physicist Lord Kelvin's model of a relatively short (20 million years in some versions of the model) duration for the earth.
   With the discovery of radioactivity, in the early 20th century it became apparent that radioactive decay could be used a sort of clock. The physicist Ernest Rutherford was one of the first to attempt to estimate geological time scales using radioactive decay. The British geologist Arthur Holmes in his early work was one of the first geologist's to use the decay of uranium to lead to estimate geological time scales. These early efforts were hampered by the lack of understanding that different isotopes of the same element exist, and that there can be more than one radioactive isotope of an element.
   As understanding of the complexity of the problem increased, more accurate methods resulted. Claire Patterson, at the University of Chicago and later at Caltech, came up with the roughly 4.55 billion year estimate of the duration of the earth's existence in the 1950s using the uranium to lead decay series, after much difficulty in eliminating laboratory contamination of lead from leaded gasoline. Starting in the 1940s at the University of Chicago, Libby and his graduate students developed carbon 14 dating, which is suitable for dating objects that contain carbon from roughly the last 50,000 years and is therefore useful for archaeologists, and for geologists who study ice ages. One thing I was interested to learn is that the carbon 14 method is the only one that involves the actual counting of radioactive decay; the other methods, such as uranium to lead or potasssium argon, actually require the measurement of the "parent" element and isotope (such as uranium) and the "daughter" element and isotope (such as lead) with a mass spectrometer, because radioactive decay is too slow for practical counting from small samples of these isotopes.
   Each radioactive method is suitable for different time spans, The uranium lead method is suitable for very long (billions, hundreds of millios of years) time spans, the potsssium argon method for intermediate (in a geological sense!) time spans, and carbon 14 for the last 50,000 years or so. Because carbon 14 is produced at varying rates over time in the upper atmosphere (from the interaction of cosmic radiation with molecules in the air), to improve its accuracy it is calibrated with (mainly) tree ring data. The calibration at the moment goes back about 26,000 years.
   Recent developments have allowed for collecting information from smaller samples, such as individual crystals of zircon,
   I found the book easy to read. The author includes two appendices with some discussion of the mathematics of radioactive decay, a chart of the geological time scale, and the periodic table of the chemical elements.



2. This excellent book provides an overview of how things or events from the past can be dated - from when the earth formed to events in human history. As the author points out, although much of the distant past can be dated in a relative way, i.e., by classifying events in the order in which they occurred, the determination of actual ages has received an incredible boost through the use of radioactive isotopes of certain elements. The author weaves this fascinating tale very well - from the discovery of radioactivity, through the discovery of its use in dating ancient artifacts to refining the age of the earth and the timing of milestones in human evolution. The individuals who did the early pioneering work, as well as those who currently strive for greater precision and refinement in this field, play prominent roles in this gripping story which clearly illustrates how science works. The writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative, very engaging and quite accessible. This book appears to have been aimed at broad readership; specialized terminology is well explained when first used in the main text and a glossary of technical terms can be found at the back of the book. But also, an appendix is included that concentrates on some of the mathematical formulas involved, for those who are more mathematically/technically inclined. Consequently, this book can be enjoyed by anyone, although science buffs may consider it a particularly special treat.

3 comments about The Lost Tomb of Viracocha: Unlocking the Secrets of the Peruvian Pyramids.

1. Maurice does it again...I don't believe that he will ever write a book that is as good as 'The Tutankhamun Prophecies', but 'The Lost Tomb of Viracocha' reveals more of the great secrets encoded into artifacts by clever ancient peoples.
   
   The book can be read simply as an archaeological or anthropological guide to the lost pyramids of Peru. The pictures and expanations of the pyramids and artifacts are fantastic (my favorite is the Crab Man). Cotterell also makes a cogent case regarding the spiritual messages encoded in the burial sites. The ancient Lord of Sipan, who should not have not more about physics than what can be seen in the heavens at night with the naked eye, knew more about some aspects of physics than our modern science does. He (and Tutankhamun and the rest of the Supergods) also had sophisticated knowledge about the physical world and its relationship to the spiritual world.
   
   Cotterell has a special talent: finding, presenting, and explaining information that has previously been a mystery. The 'Lines of Nazca' is an example of this. Nobody knew who made these lines, many miles long, or why, and then suddenly Maurice says exactly who made them and what the significance of the lines is. This type of research makes it difficult for mainstream science or any other interested party to remain in a state of cognitive dissonance. Maurice's books are definitely for the open minded reader.
   
   I highly recommend the book, although it is not a masterpiece like 'The Tutankhamun Prophecies'. Maurice tends to repeat himself, giving a great deal of old information to his fan base, and at the end of the book goes a little too far in attempting to explain how we escape the reincarnation cycle. Even after all of his research, we still don't know as much as we don't know. And who's to say that the path of the ancients is the only one? Other than that, the book really is a great read. Hold on for another wild ride in 'The Lost Tomb of Viracocha'. econ



2. I was pointed to this book while looking for "Fingerprints of the Gods" by Graham Hancock, wanting to read up on Inca culture and Machu Picchu before visiting the actual site. Unfortunately, since there's no Amazon.com in the Amazon, I got this instead.
   
   I say "unfortunately" because even though it was recommended to me by a bookstore owner and I began by enjoying it, I very quickly got frustrated with the author. Throughout the book he uses terms like "super-science" to refer to ancient civilisations' knowledge of the sun. What's wrong with plain "science"? This isn't a marvel comic book.
   
   That annoyance pales in comparison to the myriad theories he puts forth without any kind of solid reasoning. For example, he suggests that the Nazca lines in the desert in southern Peru bear a striking resemblance to drawings made on the computer using a mouse to connect points on a line. Therefore, the ancient culture which made the Nazca lines must have possessed computer technology.
   
   I don't know where to begin, but the reasoning is so preposterous and leaves so many questions unanswered that poking holes in it would be like beating up on a child. That is the level of some of the theories and arguments put forth to support those theories on show in this book.
   
   The final chapter of the book turns into a full on diatribe against modern western society's failure to accept the idea of reincarnation. Regardless of your beliefs, whether they be for or against reincarnation, I can't imagine why the author thought a book on South American archeological artefacts and mysteries is the proper place for such a rant. He finishes by picking random scientific theories, drawing vague correlations to religious beliefs, and thereby "proving" his own spiritual beliefs. This is the type of "scientific proof", similar to the above example theory and proof I mentioned, which bears no relation to any kind of real science or scientific process.
   
   Overall, he spends a bit of time discussing genuinely interesting aspects of South American history. He also has some though-provoking theories, but the arguments he presents to backup his thories utterly fail to convince me that he's not grasping at straws.
   
   Not recommended.



3. I like his style to a point. However, I prefer the explanantions found in the Book Of Mormon. So get past the election year rhetoric and find out about the ancient Americas.