52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable source of ignored information, despite its age, May 29, 2002
This review is from: Secrets of the Lost Races: New Discoveries of Advanced Technology in Ancient Civilizations (Hardcover)
Noorbergen's classic text on archeological anomalies that confound the established picture of human prehistory and suggest that an advanced global civilization thrives on this planet in the remote past is a treasure trove of information. In that respect, it is similar to the more recent "Forbidden Archeology" by Cremo and Thompson, and to works by Graham Hancock. The main difference is that Noorbergen accepts as evidence biblical accounts of a flood, and of a line of (very long-lived) patriarchs descended from the survivors of that flood. Even though I do not believe in the historical veracity of the biblical texts, his case did not seem to be without merit; still, non-christian readers will probably find that part of the book lacking in credibility.
Luckily, the remainder of the book relies more on archeological than scriptural evidence. Highlights include chapter 4, which discusses evidence for "Advanced Aviation in Prehistoric Times", and chapter 5, "Nuclear Warfare Among the "Primitives". Noorbergen's claim of nuclear warfare in prehistoric times may seem preposterous to even an open-minded reader, and his interpretation of ancient texts to be the product of an overactive imagination, but as a matter of fact, it is backed up by solid physical evidence. The following story ran on the Cosmiverse website on June 13, 2000:
[Quote] From 1992 comes another fascinating, mysterious discovery: that of an ancient city in India that appears to have leveled by an atomic blast 8,000 - 10,000 years ago. Reported in January 1992 by the UK's World Island Review, a construction team discovered the site in Rajasthan, India while preparing to build at housing development.
The heavy layer of radioactive ash found in a three-mile-square area concealed "an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945," said the newspaper.
After its discovery, the ancient city became suspect as the cause of a high rate of birth defects and cancer in the region. "The levels of radiation there (the city site) have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region," said the newspaper.
Interestingly, the Indian Mahabharata appears to have recorded the historic blast event. "A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe...An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor...it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race," says the sacred text.
Archeologist Francis Taylor told the paper that etchings in some nearby temples he has managed to translate suggest that they prayed to be spared from the great light that was coming to lay ruin to the city. "It's so mid-boggling to imagine that some civilization had nuclear technology before we did. The radioactive ash adds credibility to the ancient Indian records that describe atomic warfare." [End of Quote]
Noorbergen wrote his book in 1977, before this discovery was made.
Despite its age, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in taking off the blinders of conventional consensus and learning about the true history of the human race.
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33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ancient Races More Advanced Than Science Thinks?, September 18, 2002
This review is from: Secrets of the Lost Races: New Discoveries of Advanced Technology in Ancient Civilizations (Hardcover)
Were our ancestors really as primitive as scientists claim, or were they, in fact as technologically advanced, perhaps in some ways even more so, than we are today? Is it possible they even had the capability to make and use nuclear weapons, and did use them? Could it be that there really was a great flood, as the Bible claims, that destroyed the whole earth, including a civilization that was more advanced than we ever dreamed possible? Although it may sound like a science fiction novel from an imaginative mind, it is not. Noorbergen presents solid evidence for his theories. The story of the great flood is not confined to the Bible, but is in fact a universal story the world over. Almost every culture on earth has this story, and while a few of the particulars change, the core of the story remains the same: That the earth was completely destroyed by a worldwide flood, and only a few survived. Most stories, in fact, mention one man and his family surviving because of a boat, or ark, that was built. As most anyone knows who has studied mythology, there is almost always a kernel of truth at it's core. The story of the flood is the only "myth" that is so universal.What is so fascinating to me is that since the time I first read this book, I have seen programs that have shown how geologists have started to discover in the layers of the earth's crust all over the world the evidence that there was indeed such a flood. They have found, even in mountainous regions, a layer of silt that could only have been deposited by a tremendous flood. Not only that, but they have found in these layers fossils of animals that lived in the oceans. It seems that there is more evidence found all the time to support the story of a universal flood.
As for the idea that our ancestors had nuclear weapons,well there is evidence of that too. Ancient cities have been found that bear the scars of being destroyed by nuclear bombs. They show strong marks of having been exposed to the kind of extreme heat that only can be produced by a nuclear explosion, because not even a very hot fire can do what a nuclear bomb can.
But there is more evidence in the archaeological record that supports the superior advancement of the ancient peoples. Numerous "ooparts", or out-of-place-artifacts have been found, though largely ignored or suppressed by mainstream scientists. For instance, did you know that a lump of coal was found that contained a finely wrought gold chain? Or that batteries (not like we have now, but batteries just the same) have been found in archaeological digs? Supposedly, batteries were only recently discovered, and yet some were found in these sites long before we "invented" them, and it was only discovered fairly recently what these objects really were.
If you have an open mind, and are willing to look at the evidence presented, this book is absolutely fascinating. It made me really think, and what's more, it made me want to learn. When you really think about it, why should we presume that the ancient people were incapable of discovering and creating advanced technology? Noorbergen's research into these questions is not done willy-nilly, but thorough. Give this book a try and you will see what I mean.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A logical solution to the mysteries of the ancients, August 13, 1999
By A Customer
Of all the books I have read on the mysteries of the ancient civilizations, this book is the best. Most books dealing with this subject are full of far-fetched theories, such as contact with space aliens. Rene Noorbergen approached the subject from a different angle-- by rejecting the current thinking that mankind progessed from a primitive background (from simple stone tools) to higher civilization. Instead, he maintains that mankind was intelligent from the start and was able to develop technology early on in history. He offers a wealth of archaeological evidences to support this view. This is a rare book that challenges the whole secular view of archaeology and history, and I highly recommend it to anyone who question the validity of what is being taught in universities on the subject of early civilizations.
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