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Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

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...which in itself should tell you everything you need to know about modern "education"...

After having spent best part of the last 6 months reading this juggernaut and cross-checking references, I can only say that the authors have done a tremendous job of proving that the evidence for the great antiquity of man is at least as strong as much of the evidence commonly accepted today as proof of human history. Those reviewers who claim the authors do not know their subject, or that they employ junk science or bad archaeology, quite simply have not read the book. Those claims are based more upon the (often very impressive) ignorance and preconceptions of the reviewers; do not be put off by them. Examine the evidence and judge for yourself.

Not only do they present a very strong case that we should either open our minds or discard most, if not all, of the commonly accepted evidence of human antiquity, but they demonstrate very clearly how the process of knowledge filtration works to preserve orthodox beliefs and bury contradictory evidence. This is a very important part of the discussion because it needs to be understood why a lot of evidence which was once widely accepted is now widely regarded as mythical or having never existed at all (look at some of the early reviews for this book, mostly from Mr. A Customer, which show how widespread that view is).

I started reading this book with no preconceptions at all except for a nagging suspicion that large parts of the history we are asked to uncritically swallow are wrong and known to be wrong by certain small groups of people. It strikes me from the evidence discussed that not only is the accepted version of human history inaccurate, it is almost completely wrong!

A note of caution: the above does not mean that I believe that every artefact uncovered is unequivocal proof that human beings were around millions, and hundreds of millions, of years ago. Nor do I believe every piece of evidence the authors present. Indeed, they make it abundantly clear that they themselves do not. As in all such situations, the point is that ALL of the evidence should be publicised, examined and analysed - evenhandedly. In too many walks of life there is a dogmatic and dangerously arrogant attitude that all there is to know has already been discovered. This is rarely true; this book is yet more evidence of that. Those who insist that works such as this should be consigned to the scrap heap are blissfully unaware of a very basic fact; that their ignorance is total.

When I was at college in the 1970s, we undergraduate anthro majors would kick around the currently known "facts" we were being taught. Not having fully absorbed the approved dogma, we all came to the same conclusion -- the timeline of human development is too compressed. It does not allow enough time for the physical and social changes that had to occur for humans to develop from "proto-ape" to modern man. We felt that a 2 million mark was the absolute minimum required, and would have prefered 10 million, but even we weren't that daring. Today, I see news articles about discoveries that push the approved timeline further and further back. By reviewing evidence that has been labeled anomalous, Cremo and Thompson provide future researchers with the thought-provoking material that will lead to a better understanding of man's development. Human beings have been human --and little changed -- for a very long time.

"Forbidden Archeology" is a superb, well-documented compendium of both the evidence favoring the conventional picture of human evoluton, and the anomalous evidence that casts this picture into doubt.

Its larger significance, however, lies in its detailed documentation and analysis of one particular exampe of a disturbing phenomenon that has increasingly crippled mainstream science: the establishment of a new scientific orthodoxy, i.e. a quasi-religious belief by leading scientists in the absolute and unquestionable validity of the basic theories of their field. These theories are then elevated to "facts" of which any dissenter is accused of being ignorant, which makes for a convenient, easy dismissal of any anomalous evidence. Since any such evidence is thus automatically ineligible for publication in the proper journals, this lack of documentation is then in turn taken by researchers in the field as proof that the evidence must be of low scientific value.

With "Forbidden Archeology", Cremo and Thompson have attempted to break through this self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance and denial. The many angry dismissals by "experts" one can read on this page shows that they have done their job well. A truly educational book that will open the eyes of many who are searching for the true origins of humankind. Those who don't have the time or patience to peruse this 900-page tome should consider reading the abridged version instead. Either way, they will come to appreciate one of the fundamental tenets of true science: theory never overrides evidence.

If you're only interested in the politically correct version of human history, don't read this book. If, on the other hand, you are willing to explore evidence that contradicts the current history books, read on. The research done in this book is extremely comprehensive and hard to refute. The one-star reviews for this book don't get the big picture, and try to point out embellishments within the material that make it sound fishy, when it's really not. It's just their attempt to try and refute the real evidence which contradicts established canon. The current scientific viewpoint concerning the origins of human history has turned into a dogma, resembling that of the Inquisition, where any attempt to bring up an alternative viewpoint to history is met with a venomous assault. Scientists generally find what they are looking for, which only reinforces their current theories, and they tend to ignore evidence that doesn't fit into their belief systems. This is essentially what this book is all about.

_Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race_, published by the Bhaktivedanta Institute, by historian and philosopher of science Michael A. Cremo and researcher Richard L. Thompson first appeared in 1993. This book called into question the most widely accepted account of the origin of mankind by bringing to light an enormous amount of anomalous evidence. Such evidence would seem to indicate that mankind (as Homo sapiens sapiens) existed on this planet long before the accepted date for man's origins (believed to be 100,000 years ago in Africa after evolving from an ape-like ancestor). However, were the evidence presented in this book to be accepted, then it would call into question the most widely held theory of man's origins, the Darwinian account of evolution by means of natural selection. The book relies on a certain understanding of the scientific enterprise itself, emphasizing the role that social forces play in the scientific endeavor. As such, the authors admit their debts to such philosophers of science as Thomas Kuhn, Steven Shapin, and Paul Feyerabend. The ideas of these philosophers are controversial (particularly among scientists) because they seem to show that sociological (and even political) factors play a greater role in the scientific endeavor than is usually admitted. (Long ago, others such as Charles Fort also amassed anomalous evidence that called into account many widely accepted theories of the time.) Throughout the book the authors will maintain that such anomalous evidence presents a challenge to the orthodox scientific account of mankind's origins. They also maintain that while much of the evidence appears in older journals and publications from the Nineteenth century that it was too casually dismissed by scientists of a later generation when the Darwinian account became the orthodox theory. The authors maintain that there is really no good reason to reject such older evidence, provided that one also accepts the modern evidence which lends support to the Darwinian account of mankind's more recent origins. Thus, one can choose to either accept both forms of evidence (for the older account of mankind's origins) or to reject both. Either way, the results do not look good for the standard Darwinian account. Since the beginning however, reactionary scientists have scoffed at such evidence, largely attributing it to fraud, improper data collection, memory distortions, etc. - basically any excuse to reject it. This can be seen in the reactions of many scientists to the ideas presented in this book. When this book did appear, with few exceptions, it was uniformly greeted with a negative reaction from the scientific community. Some maintained that the book amounted to a conspiracy theory, was thus unfalsifiable, and could not be taken seriously. However, this objection cannot be used against it, because science itself has been found to contain many unfalsifiable theories. However, even more importantly others have maintained that the motivations of the authors are religious in nature and that this discredits any evidence they may present. Thus, some have maintained that the authors have a confirmation bias and have leveled the charge of "creationism" against the authors. However, these scientists fail to take into account their own confirmation bias in their blind allegiance to the orthodox Darwinian viewpoint. The authors admit at the beginning of their account that they are members of the Bhaktivedanta Institute and were motivated by reading accounts of mankind on earth long before current history allows in the Vedas. Such accounts are certainly interesting and may reveal that there is more to the story of mankind's origins than is commonly allowed. The fundamental issue at stake here is how science deals with anomalous evidence. Some merely scoff at it, or attribute it to other causes a priori without even examining it. However, others may take a closer look at it and find that there is more to it. I am not quite sure that the authors have proven that man in fact inhabited this planet at such early dates as some of the evidence in this book may seem to indicate, but they have certainly provided me with much to think about. I can no longer look at the official accounts of human origins in the same light again. It seems as if many scientists have allowed personal, political, and ideological motivations to guide the scientific endeavor and thus have lost all sight of objectivity. Such things must be taken into account when formulating a theory of human origins.

The first section of this book deals with anomalous evidence. The authors begin by presenting some history of how Darwin's account as detailed in _The Origin of Species_ and for humans in _The Descent of Man_ came to be the most widely accepted account. The authors then note some epistemological issues that will occur regarding the facts of testimony and the possibility of fraud. They then propose their model of suppression for how the scientific community has systematically ignored certain types of evidence. Following this, the authors present anomalous evidence for human toolmakers in the following forms: incised and broken bones, eoliths (anomalously old stone tools), crude paleolithic stone tools, advanced paleoliths and neoliths, and anomalous human skeletal remains. Much of this evidence is extraordinarily old and it may cause one to doubt until one considers the fact that the case for such evidence is every bit as good as the case for any other piece of evidence used to establish the standard orthodox account. The authors next present the accepted evidence. First, they call into question certain aspects of the Java Man (Pithecanthropus Erectus) finds. Then, they devote a chapter to the Piltdown man fiasco and forgery. The important thing about the Piltdown man case is that it shows how wrong orthodox opinion can often be. Many have attributed the Piltdown man forgery to the scheming of a single scientist (usually conveniently blaming the "amateur" Dawson or the religious Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, rather than a "real" scientist). However, one possibility is that the forgery resulted from an overzealous form of British nationalism. The authors have an interesting take on this. They consider the possibility that a group of scientists themselves created the forgery, only later to "expose" the very forgery that they had created. If such a thing occurred (and it is just as probable as blaming it on any given single scientist), it would certainly cast doubts on a large part of the scientific endeavor. Following the Piltdown case, the authors examine evidence for Peking man and other finds in China. Following this, the authors turn their attention to the possibility of living ape-men, who may live among us. This is a controversial topic; however, they note that evidence for such ape-men (be they called sasquatch, yeti, or what have you) is just as acceptable as any other form of evidence. Further, many new animals are discovered every year. Many mainstream anthropologists have remained silent on this issue and some have spoken out against modern ape-men; however, a brave few have spoken up in favor of modern ape-men, and their studies of the phenomena are presented here. The authors then discuss some of the findings from Africa. Darwin maintained that Africa was the birthplace of man and much of modern paleoanthropology seems to indicate he may have been right. However, there is reason to be suspicious again because of recurrent issues of nationalism. The authors call much of this evidence into question. (They also question the alleged time frame for man's first arrival in the New World.) The book concludes with three appendices: one on chemical and radiocarbon dating of anomalous human skeletal remains (calling into question many accepted methods), one on evidence for advanced culture in distant ages (this remains more questionable of course, but would indicate that many ancient writings are correct were it proven to be valid), and a summary of the evidence.

After reading this book, I remain largely baffled as to how to respond. Certainly most of the evidence here deserves a careful looking at. And, the fact that many mainstream scientists remain so skeptical and outright reactionary is not a good sign. It would appear that much of the scientific endeavor has become corrupted with politics as a result. (For example, the authors note the role of the Rockefeller Foundation in influencing the modern scientific endeavor and the decline in traditional religion.) Scientists have been fooled before by the Piltdown man hoax, and it remains a distinct possibility that a great many of them are fooled even today. However, until such time as more open-minded and cautious people are capable of looking objectively at the evidence, the scientific community is unlikely to alter its course in dogmatically affirming the Darwinian account. Such is the sad story of the modern scientific enterprise.

I just finished reading this book cover to cover. Despite its 900+ page length, the book is written for the layman and is an easy, fascinating read that holds your attention and leaves you wanting to read more every day - took me a couple of weeks to get through it, reading for 1 - 5 hours every day or so. And I'm a pretty fast reader.

If you thought the theory of evolution was cut and dried, with all those cute pictures of hairy ancestors with hominid bodies and ape-like faces and that nifty "family tree" with all the branches, then you've been swallowing what popular media has been feeding you hook, line and sinker. I was amazed to find that, behind the scenes, there is an incredible amount of desention among respected paleoarcheologists about what all these fossils and artifacts mean, how to date them, and what they say about the history of the human race. It'st unfortunate that only one of the many theories - evolution - has been pushed to the public.

The authors don't just throw facts at you. They back everything up with an extensive bibliography that points to litterally thousands of reports from scientific journals that have been either ignored or forgotten over time. I can't imagine the amount of work and time that must have gone into finding, cross-referencing, and organizing all of these documents. But the authors did it and have pulled everything together in a easy to read and understand chronology of discovery.

Again, I found it an amazing, eye-opening book. Those who don't like it must either don't like to read or hold to very conservative views that don't permit an open-minded view of new ideas. And the ideas presented in this book aren't new. Interestingly enough, even the famous Louis, Mary and Richard Leaky, along with other pre-eminate paleoarcheologists, believe that the evolutionary tree so often taught to us is a lot of complete nonsense.

Read the book, cover to cover with an open mind, and decide for yourself.

Years after drifting away from my background in archaeology, I started playing catch-up with some current works. This book made me take a hard look at what I was taught in college. In retrospect I see how archaeology can be highly unscientific. For example, I was told in one lecture that a certain site in Wisconsin (Aztalan State Park) used to be a great site, but it had been paved over years before. Well, I've been to Aztalan three times with friends, and it's an honest-to-goodnes ancient city with earth pyramids. Did that professor purposely lie to the class? Did he think no one would ever actually visit the place? What other complete fabrications have I been taught? Cremo and Thompson are very brave for taking on the establishment, but they have a lot of allies like me out here. Let's bring on SCIENCE and some TRUTH to our origins.

During a 1989 sabbatical leave from Niagara University, I investigated philosophical problems arising from the interface of evolution theory and religious revelation, especially respecting the historicity of human first parents as depicted in Genesis. The 1993 publication of "Forbidden Archeology" brought my attention to concerns about the manner in which the scientific community treats anomalous evidence of earlier than Late Pleistocene anatomically modern human beings. This, combined with a few apparently well-documented examples of anomalous finds, such as Reck's skeleton, the Castenedolo skeletons, and the Laetoli footprints -- plus a plethora of lesser known and sometimes less well-documented cases -- led me to the conclusion that there exists probable cause to have rational doubt about the current theory of human evolution.

Chapter fourteen of my own "Origin of the Human Species," (Sapientia Press: 2003) discusses at length "Forbidden Archeology's" contention that anatomically modern humans predated hominids from which evolutionary theory claims we descended. My book demonstrates that sound natural science is entirely compatible with an authentic reading of Genesis, including Adam and Eve's reality -- and this, without recourse to young-Earth creationism. While my thesis need not rely upon "Forbidden Archeology's" claims, still, I considered its carefully documented analysis of the paleoanthropological record sufficiently credible to devote an entire chapter to analysis of its claims. I am grateful to Michael A. Cremo for his comments and suggestions during the writing of this chapter, which I include as a possible alternative scenario for human origins - one still consistent with belief in a single pair of historical first parents for the human race.

We must recall that even a single instance of an anatomically modern human being prior to the Late Pleistocene period would be catastrophic to the current human evolution theory. The telling admission made in a review by the "Social Studies of Science" (26:1 (1996): 207) that "much of the historical material that they (Cremo and Thompson) resurrect has not been scrutinized in such detail before" should forewarn critics to beware of a priori dismissal of "Forbidden Archeology's" claims concerning the early presence of true humans in the fossil record. "Forbidden Archeology" explains how practical epistemological limitations place paleoanthropology in a category far removed from experimental science conceived as easily verifiable in a laboratory and universally replicable. These epistemological limitations, combined with Cremo and Thompson's extensive documentation of what appears to be anomalous evidence of true man living earlier than the Late Pleistocene period, renders credible the contention that, even in the early years of the 21st Century, educated persons can have rational doubts about the standard human evolution scenario. Indeed, the entire process of human origins might prove to be much more mysterious than atheistic Darwinians suppose. "Forbidden Archeology" deserves careful consideration in any serious discussion of evolution and human origins.

Since the Authors, Cremo and Thompson, gathered, compiled and analyzed such a large quantity of material from many diverse sources, I was initially excited about the book. However, as I read their book and referred back to some of the primary sources cited, I found that, at best, material was frequently taken out of context, , or, worse, the Authors ignored critical, supplemental material.

For example, the Authors make early reference to the distal end of a humerus (KNM-KP 271) that was recovered from the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya, at the Kanapoi site. The Authors went on to quote from Henry McHenry's early work that the Kanapoi humerus was "barely distinguishable from the modern Homo," thereby suggesting that modern humans were at least 4 million years old. However, other researchers (Patterson and Howells ) in addition to McHenery note that "it is difficult to identify the family from the distal end of the humerus [alone]," and that, in general, scientists are not able to distinguish between human and chimp populations based the humerus alone. Subsequent research (prior to the release of the Author's book) by Meave Leakey has shown that the remains in question belong to Australopithecus anamensis not Homo sapiens.

While the above is but one example, I found that as I read further into Forbidden Archeology, I frequently had to go back to the original citations in order to get a "true," "uncolored" view of what information was actually presented in the primary sources.

Given the fact that both of the Authors are members of the Krishna Bhaktivendanta Institute "that studies the relationship between modern science and the world view expressed in the Vedic literature," one begins to suspect the authors might have an agenda that "colors" the findings presented in their book.

The more I read, the more it became obvious to me that Forbidden Archeology serves better as a bibliography than as Johnson suggests a "complete review of the scientific evidence concerning human origins."

In writing this book, Michael Cremo has touched upon a very intriguing subject that is as elusive as it is intriguing - for the very foundations of the history of mankind and its labyrinthine secrets. "Alternative" histories and explainations of Man and his origins, religions, culture and the whys and wherefores of his civilisation, especially from the angle of the argument that technologically advanced human civilisations existed in what is opaque "prehistory" to us - are not nonsense at all, and this view started gaining serious credence in the last century, especially as man's present technological achievements gained lightning speed. This book is about this subject and is scholarly set. But there are in my view, basic aspects which need attention, failing which sceptics could derail what is a theory as promising as Einstein's concept of Special Relativity. Number one is the "Vedic" tinge Cremo has given his work, in consonance with his private beliefs. He could just quote from it, instead of making it central to the thrust of his arguments. This tinge is not only offensive to many, but also to the concept of the objective scientific procedure of investigation for establishing theories. This suggestion of mine is all the more important, as Cremo appears to take pains to appear academic in his methodology and image. Secondly, as he illustrates there exists a huge corpus of irrefutable anomalous evidence on which to base the work for such a theory, but Cremo should also address the fact as to why substantial evidence for such a Civilisation(s)has not yet been found - instead of a few anomalous objects here and there. Although these objects defy all "conventional" explaination they are not sufficient to base a whole theory upon, and it will be very easy for detractors to attack this theory on the basis of the point mentioned above. Cremo should come up with an explaination for why widespread debris hasn't yet been found, or whether we haven't looked in the proper places, or if it has - it has been "covered up", etc. He hasn't made any such attempts, and these plus viewing his work wholly from the Vedic angle are the weak points he should address in what is otherwise a perfectly plausible theory, plus his own scholarly effort.