Fingerprints of the Gods
Former Economist correspondent Graham Hancock argued that an advanced civilization flourished during the last Ice Age and was wiped out around 12,800 years ago. Survivors, he wrote, passed on astronomy, engineering and myth to the people who later built Giza, Tiwanaku and Teotihuacan. The book sold millions of copies and made him the best-known voice for a lost civilization.
Evidence, in date order (1)
- Robert Schoch, geologistwitnessargues the Sphinx is far older than archaeologists accept Wikipedia: Fingerprints of the Gods
How plausible · Low
A record of the book; its thesis rests on Hancock's argument and Schoch's Sphinx dating, against mainstream archaeology. (Revised 2026-10-23: a single proposed explanation is noted, not deducted.)
- ●●Consistent over time The same thesis since 1995.
- ●○Access Decades of field visits.
- ●○Character record Former Economist correspondent.
- ●○Independent convergence Schoch's water-erosion dating of the Sphinx, independently.
- ●○Checkable details check out The sites and myths he cites are real.
- −Commercial motive A bestselling book series.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- The book, published in 1995, and its follow-ups, Heaven's Mirror (1998), Underworld (2002), Magicians of the Gods (2015) and America Before (2019).