This thread will examine:

1) The rhetoric Graham Hancock uses to cover for a lack of evidence

2) How Hancock’s narrative recycles 19th century ideas on #Atlantis

3) How to identify similar conspiracy theories

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Why trust me?

No idea. I’m just a dude who won’t pay for a checkmark on #Twitter and is now on #Mastodon

But I am a real #archaeologist. I’ve excavated at sites spanning tens of thousands of years of human #history and #prehistory

Trust my credentials or don’t. But I’ll present actual evidence why #AncientApocalypse is not worth your time
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The first lines of #AncientApocalypse define Hancock’s all out assault upon real #archaeology

And he doesn’t stop sneering. It is total war against “mainstream” archaeologists, “so-called experts,” who are “defensive, arrogant, and patronizing,” & “utterly confounded”
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Why is Graham__Hancock so aggressive against archaeologists?

Apparently, it’s because my colleagues have been calling him a "pseudoarchaeologist” for decades

That hurts his feelings
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Despite writing multiple books about archaeology and hosting a show on Netflix that is labeled a “docuseries” and covers archaeology, Graham__Hancock says he is not an archaeologist

He calls himself an “journalist” who investigates “human prehistory”
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That’s an odd claim. Journalists investigate events happening today. They interview living people. They examine documents & accounts to reveal ongoing or recent events

Prehistoric humans can’t give interviews. It wasn’t till historical times that humans left documents behind
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The real reason for Graham Hancock’s aggressive rhetoric against archaeologists & historians is because it sells. It’s attention grabbing. It starts Twitter feuds. It fits with conspiracy thinking

It’s also a sleight of hand that covers up his lack of evidence

Let’s dig in
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Hancock’s claim is there’s a MYSTERIOUS & ADVANCED Ice Age civilization that spanned the globe

This lost civilization was destroyed in an APOCALYPTIC flood. Its few survivors taught Stone Age humans the secrets of agriculture, architecture, and other advanced technologies
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Why isn’t this civilization found in textbooks?

1. It mostly vanished in the flood leaving few traces behind

2. Humans have “amnesia” and forgot about it

3. Archaeologists refuse to investigate it because it threatens their theories

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I used to laugh at this kind of argument because it’s ridiculous if you know the evidence

But, more and more people believe in conspiracy theories today, whether they be QAnon types, Ancient Aliens, or #Atlantis (which Hancock thinks this Ice Age civilization is)
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If you look closely, Hancock doesn’t ever present any real evidence. Just a range of negative evidence: endless possibilities and suppositions, untested claims, and many explanations for why there isn’t evidence

We can walk through a few examples
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In the final episode, Hancock & Randall Carlson suggest the flood that ended this worldwide Ice Age civilization was caused by a comet impact that melted the glaciers

Why is there no crater? Because it landed in a glacier. Proof both of floods and the fact that there is NO EVIDENCE
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