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Guestbook

Graham Hancock has His Day: BBC Program Found to be
Unfair

Graham Hancock writes a lot of
books and has a lot of theories about a lot of things. Here at s8int.com, we
don't know what to make of his theories (we've not read any of his books) and we
certainly aren't endorsing any of them, though some of his articles and/or
speculations appear on these pages. What we do like is that he provides
alternatives to the obviously wrongheaded orthodoxy. Mainstream science however,
knows just what it thinks of Mr. Hancock. They don't like him or his theories
very much as they generally are at odds with current mainstream theories on such
things as; the evolution of man, the age of the Sphinx, the purpose of pyramids
in Egypt, the dawn of civilization etc. Mainstream science treats Mr.Hancock and
his theories and books as "crackpot".

Hancock is not a member of the
"club". He writes popular books, bypassing mainstream peer review and censorship
much in the way evolution popularizer Richard Dawkins does. Dawkins however, is
a member of the mainstream anointed. Well, how best to attack him? How about an
examination of his theories in a scientific program which will purport to be
fair and balanced but which in reality will be anything but? The same sort of
thing has been done here in the States on more than one occasion by a program
called NOVA, specifically in regard to the theory of evolution and
"creationism".

"Horizon is BBC Two's flagship 50-minute science
documentary series. In September 2004 it celebrates its 40th anniversary and it
continues to enjoy outstanding critical acclaim. Recognised as the world leader
in its field, it regularly wins a sweep of international science, medical and
environmental film accolades, and has recently won the Royal Television Society
Award and the Prix Italia."

Horizon did a "hatchet job" on Mr. Hancock
(whether or not his various theories have any merit)in an unusually ham handed
fashion, apparently intended to ensure that he looked like the crackpot that
they believe he is.

Mr. Hancock appealed to a British watchdog agency
concerning the program and the final ruling did in fact find that the program
had been unfair in certain aspects to Mr. Hancock. Mr. Hancock's official
complaint and an article concerning the ruling and the steps that the BBC must
take to remedy the situation (re edit the program among them) are detailed
below.

.....Photo: Bauval, Hancock and West

Broadcasting watchdog vindicates unorthodox
thinkers, Hancock and Bauval, over controversial Horizon documentary about
Atlantis

BBC2 to take unprecedented step of broadcasting a re-cut
and corrected version of the documentary this December

Hancock and
Bauval challenge Horizon critics to a live television
debate

In an unprecedented step, the
Broadcasting Standards Commission, an organisation appointed to uphold
standards and fairness in UK broadcasting, has found the BBC guilty of
unfairly representing alternative history authors Graham Hancock and
Robert Bauval in a programme broadcast in November of last
year.

The BBC 2 programme, entitled
Atlantis Reborn, was part of the flagship Horizon strand of
science-oriented documentaries.

The programme-makers, Bettina Lerner
(series editor), Christopher Hale (director/producer), and Julian Hudson
(researcher), claimed to provide a balanced and objective "testing" of
unorthodox theories relating to the development of human civilisation.

Now the Broadcasting Standards
Commission has judged that the central part of their attack on Hancock and
Bauval was unfair. It appears this is the first time in Horizon's 35-year
history that it has been found guilty of unfairness by an independent
commission. The BSC's finding is therefore a severe blow to Horizon's
well-established reputation for even-handedness.

The complaint upheld by the BSC
specifically concerned Horizon's unfair representation of the Giza-Orion
Correlation Theory, a linchpin of the wider theories of Hancock and Bauval
regarding the possibility of a forgotten chapter in the history of human
civilisation.

The Giza-Orion Correlation Theory,
which links the layout of the famous three Pyramids of Giza with the three
stars of Orion's belt, was originated by Bauval and built upon by Hancock.
Similarly, the Nile is said to represent the Milky Way, and the Sphinx is
associated with the constellation of Leo.

The major implication of the
Correlation Theory is that the ancient Egyptians deliberately designed the
Giza monuments to create on the ground a symbolic simulacrum of the night
sky, focusing on the constellations of Orion and Leo as they appeared in
10,500BC.

The Horizon documentary reported at
length a 'debunking' of the Correlation Theory presented by the astronomer
Edwin Krupp. Krupp accused Bauval of somehow fudging the maps of Orion and
the Pyramids by placing them "upside down" in order to make the theory
work.

Krupp's argument hinges on the modern
convention that 'north is up and south is down' in map-making. In
interviews filmed with Horizon, Hancock and Bauval provided detailed
rebuttals to Krupp and argued that the ancient Egyptians had made the
Pyramids correlate in the most obvious and intuitive manner with the three
stars of Orion's Belt.

Giza - The layout of the three
Pyramids matches the pattern of the three stars in Orion's Belt. Krupp
argues that if there was any connection with Orion, the Pyramids should
actually look like this.(see diagram outside this box)

Krupp's criticism was also rejected
by two prominent British astronomers, Dr. Percy Seymour of Plymouth
University and Dr. Archie Roy, professor Emeritus at Glasgow University.
But neither of these astronomers was given an opportunity to appear on the
programme. Moreover, the programme-makers cut out Hancock's and Bauval's
own rebuttals of Krupp from the documentary.

Consequently, "the Commission
considers that the omission of Mr Hancock's arguments was not justified.
It therefore finds that this was unfair to Mr Hancock." Likewise, "as the
originator of the Giza-Orion correlation theory, Mr Bauval had a
reasonable expectation that his own views of Dr Krupp's argument would be
included. They were not, and the Commission finds that this was unfair to
Mr Bauval."

This adjudication confirms what
appears to have been a clear violation on the part of Horizon of a prime
directive of the BBC, which is that whenever a programme chooses to test
or report an argument, "it must do so with fairness and integrity [and]
should insure that opposing views are not misrepresented."

Letter of Complaint from Graham Hancock to the Broadcasting
Standards Commission
The Complainant.
Surname: HANCOCK First name:
GRAHAM, Mr
The Programme
Programme Title: "HORIZON: Atlantis
Reborn"
Date and time of broadcast: Thursday 4 November 1999, 9.40
pm.
Channel/Station: BBC2
Type of Complaint
Is the complaint
about
a) Unjust or unfair treatment: YES
b) Unwarranted infringement of
privacy: NO
Unjust or Unfair Treatment
Did you appear in the programme?
YES
Did you contribute in any other way? YES

Please give details of your appearance on, or
involvement in, the programme

My appearance on the programme was as the main
subject of its investigation: "Horizon examines the controversial theory of
bestselling author Graham Hancock who is challenging mainstream
archaeology."

The programme-makers spent two full days
interviewing me on camera at my home in Devon and segments from these
interviews, with my image on screen full-frame, were used repeatedly in the
programme interlaced with reactions to my work from academic experts. My other
involvement was effectively as an unpaid consultant to the programme since the
producers phoned me many times asking for contacts and advice on particular
points, or for clarification of aspects of my work.

The treatment that I am complaining about is the
unjust and unfair presentation of my person, my methods and my work in this
programme in order to create the impression that I am an intellectual fraudster,
that I have put forward half-baked theories and ideas in bad faith, and that I
am incompetent to defend my own arguments. Lest there be in any doubt about the
way that others have perceived these matters I draw the Commission's attention
to the following:

(1) The Guardian newspaper's preview of the programme (4
November 1999) states that "Horizon effectively demolishes most of Hancock's
popular assertions that ancient monuments like the Giza pyramids mirror
constellations. This leaves Hancock groping irritably for justifications to
excuse glaring inaccuracies in his work. The whole exercise is, in the end,
rather embarrassing as he fails to address flaws in his argument pinpointed by
astronomers."

(2) A letter writer to the Radio Times (4-10 December
1999) comments: "Horizon on Atlantis was another one of those broadcasting
events that helped reassure us our licence fee is being spent sensibly. We
were treated to a calm and methodical dismantling until Mr Hancock was reduced
to mumbling lame excuses"

(3) A member of the public contributing a
review of my book "Fingerprints of the Gods" to Amazon.co.uk., warns: "I read
this book, was convinced by the arguments of the maps, and the layout of the
pyramids. However after watching Horizon a few weeks ago which looked more
closely at the layout of the Pyramids, and Hancock's admission that " I'm not
so convinced about Antarctica anymore" I'm back to being a sceptic.

The biggest problem with the whole thing is that the stars in Orion's
belt which are key to the book's section on the pyramids' layout are actually
laid out upside down to the way he says in the book. Perhaps Hancock hoped we
wouldn't notice. Book is well written however the basic science is just wrong.
Don't bother buying it."

Confronted by such obvious damage to my
reputation I think I do have an extremely direct interest in the treatment I am
complaining about - namely Horizon's unjust and unfair presentation of my
person, my methods and my work.

Summary of the Unfairness Complaint.

Please complete this section briefly, summarising
ALL the main points of your complaint under numbered headings and explaining how
the programme was unjust or unfair. The Commission may not consider any elements
of the fairness complaint that are not included within this section and if you
do not complete this section as requested, your complaint may be returned to
you.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON
ROBERT BAUVAL'S "ORION CORRELATION THEORY" LINKING THE PATTERN OF THE THREE BELT
STARS OF THE CONSTELLATION OF ORION TO THE PATTERN OF THE THREE GREAT PYRAMIDS
OF GIZA.

The first example of unfairness in the programme
occurred around its tendentious and misleading treatment of 'the Orion
correlation' - Robert Bauval's discovery that the pattern of the three belt
stars of the constellation of Orion appears to be mimicked on the ground by the
pattern of the three great pyramids at Giza.

Here I must draw the Commission's attention to
the fact that Mr Bauval has separately submitted his own unfairness complaint
outlining in detail the misrepresentation by the programme of his work and
ideas.

Mr Bauval's complaint should, therefore, be
regarded as the primary source of information on the unfairness of the
programme's treatment of the Orion correlation theory and I will not seek to
duplicate the details of that complaint unnecessarily here - although the
substance that the Commission will find within it is of great relevance to my
own complaint.

The reason that the programme's treatment of the
Orion correlation is unfair to me as well as to Mr Bauval is that in my books
"Fingerprints of the Gods", "Keeper of Genesis" (co-authored with Robert Bauval)
and "Heaven's Mirror", I place considerable weight on the significance of
Bauval's discovery.

The programme's stated objective was to undermine
the significance of the discovery "since it has a crucial role in the evolution
of Hancock's theories of a lost civilisation". Such a debunking exercise is, in
itself, is a legitimate objective for Horizon - so long, of course, as the
debunking is justified and fair.

What was not legitimate were the methods used.
These were unfair to me and misrepresented the arguments that I put forward in
my books.

The programme's chief 'witness for the
prosecution' in the matter of the Orion correlation, given a great deal of time
to make his case, was the Los Angeles astronomer Ed Krupp -- who argues that the
pyramids are 'upside down' in relation to the stars in the sky. Both Robert
Bauval and I in our separate interviews with Horizon provided refutations (and
in Bauval's case an extremely detailed refutation) of Krupp's position on this
matter BUT HORIZON OPTED NOT TO INCLUDE ANY OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THESE
REFUTATIONS WHEN THEY BROADCAST THE SHOW.

Accordingly the viewer is left only with Krupp's
argument, bolstered of course by his weighty authority as a leading astronomer,
without being given the right to hear our counter argument. Worse still the
viewer is not even informed that we in fact do have a
counter-argument!

The way the programme slants the whole thing
builds up a very strong - but entirely false -- impression that we accept, or at
any rate do not dispute, Krupp's 'upside-down' reasoning. The implication is
that, yes, the pyramids are 'upside down' in relation to the stars but that we
regard this merely as 'nit-picking' and not as a fatal argument against the
Orion correlation theory.

Using snippets from my interview I am allowed to
state that a grand symbolic gesture was what was intended here by the ancient
Egyptians and the impression is created that I simply brush aside the worrying
fact that this grand symbol is 'upside down'.

At no point am I allowed to make the point that I
DO NOT ACCEPT THAT THE SYMBOL IS UPSIDE DOWN, OR TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE VIEWER
THAT IT IS NOT IN FACT UPSIDE DOWN.

Had the programme set out to allow me a fair
rebuttal of Krupp's argument it would not have restricted my on-screen comment
to just the snippet from our interviews where I state that it is 'nit-picking'
(which of course sounds ridiculous when the programme has just presented it as a
'fact' that the pyramid-layout is upside down in relation to the stars) but
rather the detailed explanation that both Bauval and I offered that to a viewer
looking south (the only way to look at Orion from the northern hemisphere of
planet earth) the visual pattern of Orion's Belt in the sky is -- repeat IS --
the same as the pattern of the pyramids on the ground and is NOT 'upside
down'.

This is a fact verifiable by observation even
today -- and computer simulations show that the correlation would have been much
more obvious thousands of years ago when Orion rose and set closer to the
southern horizon.

A proper examination of Krupp's position, which it would
only have been fair for the programme-makers to include, reveals that what
this astronomer wants to do to see a correlation is look down on earth and on
the pyramids from a position outside and to the south of the celestial sphere
and the constellation of Orion -- a position that no human being could
possibly find himself in since the stars of Orion's Belt are millions of light
years away!

From that angle of view, which I repeat no human can ever
see -- the pattern of the pyramids is indeed 'upside down in relation to the
stars'. But from the angle of view of a human being on earth at Giza the only
way to produce a recognisable image on the ground of the three stars of the
belt is exactly the way it was done with the pyramids at Giza.

Click and drag photo to resize.

Of course, Krupp has a right to express his own
opinions but it was thoroughly unfair of the programme to act as though Bauval
and I are unable to offer a coherent rebuttal to these opinions. (I even
informed the production team off camera that I had projected a photograph of
Orion's Belt onto a screen at a conference and then asked Krupp's wife -- a
gifted artist --to come up on stage and draw it. She drew the belt in exactly
the way that the pyramids appear on the ground. Indeed there was no other way
she could draw it).

Horizon did interview Robert Bauval, the
originator of the Orion correlation theory, and this gave the programe-makers an
excellent opportunity to introduce some fairness and balance into their show.
Unfortunately, however, as noted above, Bauval's detailed on-camera responses to
Krupp's upside down argument were simply not aired!

The same goes for his detailed rebuttal of the
arguments of another astronomer, Anthony Fairall, concerning the respective
angles of the pyramids and the stars. Indeed in the matter of Fairall a
statement from me, taken entirely out of context, was broadcast while Bauval's
own much more detailed rebuttal was deliberately omitted. Sleight of hand was
used by the programme-makers to convey the impression that my statement was
unreasonable and even stupid.

Here are the relevant passages from the script:
NARRATOR: "In June 1999 astronomer Anthony Fairall re-examined the precise 45
degree angle that seemed to link the pyramids with the belt stars. Fairall found
that the match was not as precise as originally claimed. The angle of the
pyramids is 38 degrees, and that of the belt stars is 50 degrees. Asked about
this discrepancy Hancock and Bauval argued that it's the symbolism, not the
precise calculations that matter."

GRAHAM HANCOCK: "No they're not absolutely
correct and I don't care"

Yet what the programme failed to inform its
viewers of is the fact that I do not under any circumstances accept that the
angles of the pyramids and of the belt stars vary by such a huge amount as 12
degrees (the difference between 38 degrees and 50 degrees).

I put the angle of the pyramids at 45 degrees --
and can substantiate this -- and the angle of the stars at around 43 degrees at
worst (which I can again substantiate), giving a variance of two degrees or
less. My statement that the match is "not absolutely correct and I don't care"
was made in context of a variation of one or two degrees, not, repeat not, of 12
degrees whereas the editing of the programme conveys the strong impression that
I accept a 12 degree variation and yet, unreasonably, dismiss it as unimportant.

This unfairness is then compounded by the
programme's failure to include Bauval's detailed technical rebuttal of Fairall's
figures. For these technical details I refer the Commission to the relevant
passages in Mr Bauval's unfairness complaint.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON THE ASTRONOMY
OF THE ANGKOR MONUMENTS IN CAMBODIA.

Another misrepresentation leading to unfair
treatment of my work occurs when the scholar Eleanor Mannikka is brought on. She
questions the apparent similarity that I have drawn attention to between the
pattern of the principal stars in the constellation of Draco and the pattern of
the principal temples at Angkor in Cambodia.

The resemblance isn't very good, she complains,
and must be a coincidence. She then goes on to argue that Draco, the 'dragon'
constellation, was unknown in Cambodia, that there was no dragon constellation,
and that - apparently the killer blow to my theory -- there is no dragon
symbolism whatsoever at Angkor.

I was not given the opportunity to respond to
these points in the questions that the programme-makers put to me; however once
again I am on record in my written work. In Heaven's Mirror I make it abundantly
clear that the Greek name 'Draco' means 'dragon' but that this constellation:
"has also been understood, throughout history and in almost all cultures, to be
some form of cosmic snake." I make an extensive case (in Chapter 8, pages
134-144) that rearing Naga serpents, which are by far the most prevalent
sculptural motif at all the temples of Angkor, are very likely to be figures of
Draco - the great celestial Naga.

I leave no room for doubt about my view that
Draco was perceived as a serpent at Angkor and I even remark that "the
constellation of Draco does look very much like a rearing cobra with its hood
extended." It seems to me, therefore - since Horizon were well aware of my
arguments on this point - that it was unfair of them to allow Eleanor Mannikka
to pour scorn on the suggestion of a Draco-Angkor correlation because 'there are
no dragons at Angkor" while failing to inform viewers that I do not at any point
claim that Draco was seen as a dragon at Angkor

!

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON THE ASTRONOMY
OF THE GREAT SPHINX

In several of my books (Fingerprints of the Gods,
Keeper of Genesis - with Robert Bauval - and most recently Heaven's Mirror) I
have presented the argument that the Great Sphinx of Giza, which is oriented due
east, may have been designed as a terrestrial image or symbol of the
constellation of Leo as it would have appeared at dawn on the spring equinox in
10,500 BC rising in direct line with the Sphinx's gaze.

Horizon admits that "the constellation of Leo
rose above the horizon directly east of the Sphinx in 10,500 BC" but dismisses
my work on the Sphinx and Leo with the throwaway remark: "there is no evidence
this constellation was recognised by the ancient Egyptians."

This unfairly ignores the detailed case that
Robert Bauval and I made in our book Keeper of Genesis that the ancient Egyptian
Pyramid Texts, the oldest surviving scriptures of mankind, do recognise the
constellation of Leo and refer to it by the name of the god Horakhti - a name
that was also frequently applied to the Sphinx (UK paperback edition, pages
177-189).

And the point at issue here is NOT whether or not our
argument in this case is correct or incorrect but rather, simply, that we have
made an argument on the matter, which we put forward in good faith, and which
should in all fairness have at least been mentioned in Horizon's treatment of
my position on the astronomy of the Sphinx.

This act of unfairness was further compounded by
an attempt on the part of the programme-makers to mock the logic whereby Robert
Bauval and I arrive at suggested sky-ground correlations. In a stage-managed
spoof Horizon claimed to have "made a discovery which further questions his
[Hancock's] basic theory.

It links a group of unique monuments with a
pattern of stars. Here are the monuments on the ground looking north [graphic].
The pattern matches one of the great constellations: Leo the Lion. These are the
monuments: Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library, Maceys, Madison
Square Gardens, the Central Post Office, a Theatre, a University, Times Square,
the Rockefeller Centre and a police station.

The monuments are, of course, in Manhattan, The
Leo master plan doesn't account for every Manhattan landmark, but using
Hancock's criteria it doesn't have to. As long as you have enough points and you
don't need to make every point fit, you can find virtually any pattern you
want."

This seriously misrepresents the work that Robert
Bauval and I have attempted to do in this field -- which in none of the above
cases rests on simple pattern-correlation alone. Both at Giza and at Angkor we
have shown a rich context to the correlations including religious texts that
specifically advocate the construction of temples on the ground that are
'copies' of particular groups of stars, and local deities specifically
identified with the relevant constellations (e.g. Orion/Osiris, Leo/Horakhti,
Naga/Draco).

Since Horizon's spurious "Leo" correlation is not
buttressed by any such context in New York the comparison that the programme
attempts to make is invalid. Once again, however, viewers were simply not
informed of the contextual background to our sky-ground correlations and were
left with the impression that the correlations were nothing more than a game of
'join-the-dots'.

Had I been asked to comment on Horizon's Leo/New
York exercise I would have asked: (1) Is there a god in New York identified with
the constellation of Leo? (2) Is there a religious system in New York which
stipulates or encourages the construction of monuments on the ground according
to the pattern of constellations in the sky? (3) Are the buildings in Horizon's
New York/Leo "correlation" individually aligned with high precision to the
cardinal directions? (because if they are then this would tell us they were
built by people who knew their astronomy); (4) Are all of these buildings
religious buildings?

The answer to these questions, in the case of New
York, is 'no'. No, there is not a god identified with the constellation of Leo.
No, there is no sky-ground religious system. No, the individual buildings in the
'correlation' are not aligned to the cardinal directions. No, none of them are
religious buildings.

The answer to these same questions in the case of
Angkor and Giza is 'yes'. Yes there were gods identified with the
constellations. Yes there was a sky-ground religious system. Yes the individual
components of each correlation are precisely aligned to the cardinal directions.
Yes all the monuments concerned were religious buildings. How can my work be
said to have been fairly represented by the BBC when it did not allow me to
present such vital parts of my argument?

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON THE EROSION
AND ANTIQUITY OF THE GREAT SPHINX.

One of the areas of research that I investigate
and report at great length in my books concerns the possibility that the Great
Sphinx of Giza, which cannot be dated by radiocarbon because it is carved out of
solid rock, may be thousands of years older than Egyptologists believe. I cite
in particular the work of Robert Schoch, Professor of Geology at Boston
University, who is the leading academic proponent of this case.

Schoch's argument, in brief, is that the Sphinx
bears unmistakable traces of having been eroded over long periods by heavy
rainfall; since such rains last fell in Egypt thousands of years before the
Pharaohs, Professor Schoch argues that the Sphinx must predate the civilisation
of the Pharaohs.

Unfairly misrepresenting the case I have made,
the programme chose not to broadcast Schoch's professional testimony as a
geologist on the erosion and antiquity of the Sphinx. Instead it chose to state
in narration: "Hancock claims there is geological evidence [for an older
Sphinx]. Egypt has had a dry climate since the time that the pyramids were built
but the Sphinx and its enclosure are deeply eroded. It has been argued by
Hancock and others that the erosion was caused by heavy rainfall and that this
means the Sphinx must have been carved many thousands of years earlier than we
thought, when the climate was wetter. But the erosion argument has not stood up
to the scrutiny of geologists."

How can it be fair to make such a statement
without admitting that the erosion argument which I report in my books was
originally formulated and put forward by a leading geologist - Professor Schoch
- who to this day continues staunchly to maintain his position that the Sphinx
is thousands of years older than Egyptologists believe? If there was evidence
that Horizon mistrusted Schoch's credentials as a geologist qualified to comment
on such matters then it might be easier to understand the programme's complete
omission of his testimony on the Sphinx.

Yet this cannot be so, for a few minutes after
dealing with the geology of the Sphinx, without recourse to Schoch, the
programme brings him forth as an expert witness on another geological issue -
one on which he is in fact far less qualified to comment -- the question of
whether the so called 'underwater monument' off the Japanese island of Yonaguni
is a natural or artificial (i.e. man-made) structure.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON THE YONAGUNI
UNDERWATER MONUMENT.

I have argued, and continue to argue, that the
underwater structure near the island of Yonaguni, to which I have personally
made in excess of 100 dives, is a structure that is partially natural and that
was in part carved out of natural bedrock by the hand of man. Horizon correctly
reported (as I do also in my book Heaven's Mirror) that Professor Schoch, who I
invited to study the structure, is not persuaded that it is man-made (although
his broadcast statement in the programme, "I'm convinced it's a natural
structure", is at odds with his written statements in his 1999 book "Voices of
the Rocks" that "the ancient inhabitants of the island may have partially
reshaped or enhanced a natural structure to give it the form they wished" --
Harmony Books, New York, 1999, page 111).

Quite apart from the issues raised by the
editorial decision to use Schoch only as a 'witness for the prosecution' (on
Yonaguni) but to ignore his testimony as a 'witness for the defence' (on the
Sphinx), I believe it was unfair of Horizon to write off my position on Yonaguni
in this way.

None of the detailed arguments that I have put
forward for the artificiality of the Yonaguni structure were presented to the
viewer and, more importantly, the viewer was not told that there are Japanese
academic experts -- also geologists and every bit as well-qualified as Schoch -
who have studied the structure for many years and are convinced that it was
extensively worked on by human beings before it was covered by the
sea.

The leading pro-artificiality expert is Professor
Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist at the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa.
Not only was he not allowed to testify in favour of my position but the
programme did not even inform viewers of his existence or of the results of his
team's extensive underwater research at the monument.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON ATLANTIS,
ANTARCTICA AND EARTH-CRUST DISPLACEMENT.

One of the many misrepresentations of my work to
appear in the programme and contributing to the overall unfairness of the
programme as a whole was the perpetration of the error that I was somehow the
originator or creator of the theory that identifies Antarctica with the lost
continent of Atlantis.

To quote from the broadcast : "To find the home
of the lost civilisation would be the find of the century, the real Atlantis.
Hancock has made an astonishing suggestion about where it could be: Antarctica.
In his best-selling book Fingerprints of the Gods Hancock claims Antarctica was
once in a warmer region and home to the lost civilisation. He suggests that a
massive shift in the earth's crust 12,000 years ago displaced Antarctica to the
South Pole, where it became ice-bound."

I AM NOT THE ORIGINATOR OR CREATOR OF THIS
THEORY. The full credit for it, as I explained in Chapters 50 and 51 of
Fingerprints of the Gods, belongs to the Canadian authors Rand and Rose Flem-Ath
who set it out in their book When The Sky Fell (1995) which I was privileged to
read in manuscript form in 1993.

I believed then, and believe still, that their
theory is a ground-breaking one and that it is immensely important to any proper
consideration of the possibility that there may have been a lost civilisation.
My role vis-à-vis this original and well-thought-out theory was simply that of a
reporter and synthesizer, just as I also reported and synthesized the work and
theories of many other writers and researchers in Fingerprints of the
Gods.

The programme then went on, through the use of
extremely selective editing, to make it appear as though I have now withdrawn
all support from the Atlantis/Antarctica theory. This is not correct. As I
explained at length to the 'Horizon' team in remarks that they chose not to
broadcast, the sudden end of the last Ice Age is one of the great enigmas of
earth history.

I do not believe that this mystery can be
explained by recourse to relatively slow and gentle climatic changes. I do very
strongly believe that some cataclysmic agency must have been at work and I
continue to believe that the mechanism advocated by the Flem-Aths, and by their
predecessor and mentor Dr Charles Hapgood, namely a massive one-piece
displacement of the earth's crust, is a very plausible explanation of the
worldwide cataclysm that did indeed occur.

Accordingly I defended the mechanism of
earth-crust displacement forcefully against hostile questions from the 'Horizon'
interviewer - who, amongst other things, accused me of being a
'pseudo-scientist' for so doing -- but none of this appeared in the final edited
film that was broadcast by the BBC.

In the same interview I went on to make further
remarks concerning asteroidal and cometary collisions with the earth -- which,
in my view are also strong contenders for the mysterious cataclysmic agency that
ended the Ice Age. All this was cut out of the film as well.

In conclusion on this line of questioning I
reiterated that the end of the Ice Age was a cataclysm of almost unparalleled
ferocity and magnitude and pointed out that the fact that this cataclysm did
occur can be accepted from the overwhelming body of evidence that testifies to
it - and, furthermore, is accepted by most scientists - even if there is not yet
any agreement on the precise mechanism that caused it.

The key fact of this mysterious cataclysm, I added, was a
worldwide rise in sea levels of approximately 100 metres (more than 300 feet)
which changed the face of the earth completely -- inundating vast land-masses
that might previously have been inhabited along almost all the continental
shelves.

All this, too, was edited out of the film and
instead the producers homed in on a tiny snippet from my comments where I
stated: 'What I've come to realise, as my research has gone on, in a sense is
that I don't need Antarctica and therefore I don't need to propose a radical
revolution of geological ideas in order to explain a lost
civilisation.'

Taken out of context as it was, this remark
certainly does sound like a total withdrawal of my support from
Atlantis-Antarctica and from earth-crust displacement. It was none of that,
however, but merely the point in the interview, following a lengthy defence of
cataclysmic theories, where I stated that my own research had now moved on in a
different direction - based on the undisputed fact of global sea-level rise at
the end of the Ice Age - involving scuba-diving on continental shelves all
around the world and looking for the underwater ruins of a globally-distributed
lost civilisation.

'Horizon's' misrepresentation of my role in the
formulation of the Atlantis/Antarctica theory, and of my views on earth-crust
displacement and other cataclysmic theories, cannot be explained away as a
simple misunderstanding of my position as expressed in my interviews and
discussions with the production team. In addition to the interview material at
their disposal, my views on Altantis/Antarctica are very clearly set out in the
body of my written work -- which Horizon had a responsibility to represent
fairly.

Most recently, for example, I comment on the
issue in Chapter 12 of Heaven's Mirror (1998) - particularly on pages 207-212.
On page 210 I point out that: 'The earth-crust displacement theory advocated by
Hapgood, the Flem-Aths and others has not been well received by orthodox
planetary scientists. Geologists in particular have poured scorn on the theory,
linked it to the lunatic fringe, and failed to give it any serious peer-review.
The impression has been sucessfully conveyed that it is simply an 'impossible'
process, advocated by lunatics and therefore not worthy of consideration by
genuine scientists.

Yet behind the scenes the evidence has been
slowly mounting up that displacements of the earth's crust do occur from time to
time and that there is no physical or geological reason why such a displacement
should not have occurred around 12,000 years ago - precisely as the Flem-Aths
allege.'

So the producers were unjustified and unfair not
only in portraying me as the originator of the Atlantis-Antarctica and
earth-crust displacement theories, but also in portraying me as a man who has
now entirely abandoned these theories.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY POSITION ON
CARBON-DATING

A key element of the programme's 'demolition' of
my ideas concerns the manner in which it presented my position on carbon-dating.
I maintain that the treatment I received here was extremely unfair because the
production team simply omitted any statements that I made which, by inclusion,
would have demonstrated that I have a well worked out view on this
subject.

Thus in a snippet taken out of context from their
lengthy interviews with me I appear, near the end of the episode, to make a
blank statement - it comes across almost as an admission of guilt - to the
effect that in my book "Heaven's Mirror" I did not write at all about the
subject of carbon-dating at the Andean megalithic city of Tiwanaku, parts of
which I claim may date back to 10,500 BC.

The way my statement is set up it is as though I
have been caught out in a deception. The narrator informs viewers that "Carbon
dating is a method that has provided increasingly reliable dates for
archaeological sites all over the world, including Tiwanaku.

The very earliest signs of human habitation are
just 3500 years old. The great stone monuments were begun only 2,000 years ago,
nowhere near 10,500 BC. So how does Graham Hancock deal with this information in
his recent book?

I then appear, stating: "I'm not required to be
encyclopaedic. In Heaven's Mirror there is no representation whatsoever of
recent carbon dates for Tiwanaku."

Immediately afterwards an academic expert states:
"When you have the radiocarbon dating for places like Tiwanaku it shows how old
the site is. When you insist on ignoring that, not even rejecting it, just
ignoring it, it shows that what you are doing is not science" So the
presentation of my position on the important issue of carbon-dating that has
been offered here is that I ignore it - a position that I seem to be confirming
when I state: "In Heaven's Mirror there is no representation whatsoever of
recent carbon dates for Tiwanaku."

I regard this as unfair, and also as unjust
because in our interviews I told the Horizon team extremely clearly WHY I do not
regard radio-carbon as a definitive dating tool for meglithic sites and why I
have not spent a great deal of time writing about its implications.

This is because it cannot date the stones
themselves but only organic materials found in association with those stones. I
repeat: YOU CAN ONLY DATE ORGANIC MATERIALS ---- BONE, CHARCOAL, WOOD, ETC -
WITH RADIOCARBON TECHNOLOGY; YOU CANNOT DATE ROCK-HEWN STRUCTURES SUCH AS THE
GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA OR THE GIGANTIC MEGALITHS OF THE PUMA PUNKU IN
TIWANAKU.

I believe it is extremely unfair - not only to my own
work but also to the viewer who has the right to be properly informed of all
the facts -- that across the entire span of two episodes (the programme was
the second episode of a two-part series), Horizon consistently treated
carbon-dating as the final arbiter in establishing the antiquity of megalithic
sites - i.e. of sites made of big stones. Never once did the programme-makers
let on to their viewers that radio-carbon cannot date stone.

For a production that repeatedly took a high
moral tone about me being selective with my facts I think this is an
extraordinary example of being selective with the facts. But to go further than
that and use one segment of my interview where I state I don't write about
carbon-dating at Tiwanaku in Heaven's Mirror but then to fail to use the other -
where I explain why - is to perpetrate an injustice.

Nor is it as if there is any doubt about my
position on the limitations of radio-carbon dating of megalithic sites -- so I
can only conclude that the Horizon team must have wanted deliberately to
misrepresent it. Not only from our interviews but from the body of my printed
work the producers know perfectly well that I have concentrated on trying to
bring forward an alternative approach to measuring the antiquity of megalithic
sites precisely because I am not satisfied that radio-carbon dates from
associated organic debris tell us the whole story.

As far back as 1995 I explained in Fingerprints
of the Gods (UK paperback edition, pages 54-55) that archaeologists found it
difficult: "to provide accurate dates for engineering works like roads and dry
stone walls which contained no organic compounds. Radiocarbon was redundant in
such circumstances; thermoluminescence, too, was useless.

And while promising new tests such as Chlorine-36
rock-exposure dating were now being developed their implementation was still
some way off. Pending further advances in the latter field, therefore, 'expert'
chronology was still largely the result of guesswork and subjective
assumptions."

I made the same point again, in a different
context on pages 134-135 of "Fingerprints of the Gods" and on page 92 of
Heaven's Mirror (in relation to the Great Sphinx of Giza) -- so the producers
were unjustified and unfair in portraying me as a man who simply (and perhaps
even dishonestly) 'ignores' carbon-dating.

On the contrary I have a clear view on the
subject and good reasons to seek out alternative dating methods for megalithic
sites like Tiwanaku. It was unfair of the programme to withhold this information
from the viewer.

UNFAIRNESS IN THE TREATMENT OF MY PERSON

I am a successful author. My books, which have
sold an estimated 5 million copies around the world, explore the possibility
that a high civilistion, not yet identified or recognised by historians, may
have existed in remote prehistory - a lost civilisation in other words. I make
no secret of the fact that I see my role primarily as an ADVOCATE for this
hypothetical and as yet unproven civilisation.

What I confront in this advocacy is an
overwhelming belief on the part of established academics that there was no such
lost civilisation - overwhelming not because individual historians or
archaeologists ever outsell me as a writer (the programme rightly points out
that my books have been far more popular than theirs) but because the findings
and conclusions of these scholars are the basis of all teaching about the past.

From kindergarten to university, children and
students are rarely offered an alternative view of history. Against this
backdrop of a largely unquestioned doctrine of the past taught to the entire
population of the industrialised world, a population numbered in billions, my 5
million readers represent only a tiny fraction. Nevertheless, 5 million people
is a significant number in itself and I am happy that my ideas have interested
so many.

However there is no doubt that the only reason my
books have succeeded to this extent over the ten years that I have been
publishing in the field is because I have built up a substantial reputation for
HONESTY, RELIABILITY , INTEGRITY and the ability to express INTELLIGENT,
WELL-SUPPORTED ARGUMENTS.

It was this reputation (for honesty) that the programme
sought to destroy, achieving its objective not through an an honest, fair and
courageous attack on me and my work but by a dishonest presentation that
slants the editing, the evidence and the witnesses against me and that never
allows me the opportunity even to begin to mount a proper defence of
myself.

The unfair treatment of the seven categories of evidence listed
above ensures that I am portrayed in the film as a thoroughly reprehensible
and even fraudulent individual who seems incapable of intelligently supporting
his own arguments - which are presented as having been put forward in bad
faith --and who, as other commentators quoted above have observed, is "reduced
to mumbling lame excuses" and "fails to address flaws in his argument
pinpointed by astronomers."

Had the programme allowed me time on air to
defend my arguments properly, either by using my on-camera rebuttals of my
critics (which were all deleted from the programme in the editing) or by fairly
and accurately summarising my arguments in the body of my published work, then
such a portrayal of my person would not have been possible.

Moreover there is another more subtle element of
unfairness in the way that the programme depicts me. Again by the use of
ruthlessly selective editing, the impression is conveyed that I am dogmatic and
intolerant - a 'believer' who never questions his own theories. This impression
is achieved by repeatedly taking my remarks out of context, by allowing excess
and unrepresentative airtime to the relatively few occasions where I did show
irritation during the two days of intensive, often repetitive questioning that
Horizon subjected me to, and by editing out all the very many self-deprecating
and self-critical remarks that I made so often during these interviews.

For example, after summarising my views on camera
concerning particular aspects of the theories presented in my books I several
times stated "but, hey, I might be completely wrong" and cautioned that I was
simply putting forward ideas for consideration and did not claim to posses all
"the facts". I also emphasised again and again during my interviews with Horizon
that I am "just an author", that I am not - and do not claim to be - "any kind
of scientist" and that my primary objective (and responsibility) in my books is
to entertain and stimulate my readers and to put the case for an alternative
view of history as forcefully as possible (since the case for the orthodox view
of history is already put forcefully at all levels of education, in textbooks,
in encyclopaedias, and in the mass media).

I therefore feel that it was extremely unfair of
the programme to build up and transmit a very one-sided portrayal of my
personality when large amounts of interview material were recorded with me
which, if used representatively, would have conveyed an entirely different
impression.

SOURCE: Graham Hancock.com

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