Customer Reviews

Unearthing Ancient America: The Lost Sagas of Conquerors, Castaways, and Scoundrels

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Included in "Unearthing Ancient America" are 37 articles ranging from Roman coins found off the coast of New Jersey to Vikings in Minnesota and Templars in Newfoundland. The articles themselves are very interesting, resulting in a good read for anybody who has an interest in ancient America. That's assuming they're not one of the "censors" keeping all of this information from the general public, of course!

The book is divided into a series of chapters, from Ancient Artifacts to Subterranean Mysteries and Underwater Discoveries. The subject matter is quite varied, with a couple of articles on copper-trading barons in the Great Lakes area, a Crystal Pyramid of Wisconsin's Rock Lake and various figurines and artifacts found either underwater or in deep caves in the Midwest. Thus, the reader never gets bored with one subject as the next article could be on something quite different (occasionally, there is a follow-up or supplementary article following the first one). For those who have only read, or are only familiar with the popular history of the country, most of these articles are quite intriguing, even as some offer more evidence for their theories than others.

Occasionally, the author of an article goes "way out there" and comes to some wild conclusions, but thankfully that's not very often. Most of the articles are interesting in their own way, all of them are short, but occasionally there is one that takes forever to wade through as the authors spend so much time detailing every little bit of their discovery and theories that they forget to actually make it interesting to the reader (with the exception of the small subset of people who might be as fascinated as they are with what they found).

Still, "Unearthing Ancient America" has a lot to recommend it. There is, of course, the occasional sniping at mainstream historians and scholars who want to keep all of this quiet (the introduction has most of this, though some of the articles do too), but most of the time they provide good detail on what the discovery is and what it could mean. It's fascinating stuff, and kept me interested as I made my way through the almost 300 pages of the book. Most of the articles are short and to the point, which makes picking the book up and reading in small segments very easy.

Keep an open mind when you're reading and you should enjoy it. Unless, of course, you're one of these vile censors who would love nothing more than to make sure the "standard" history of America is all that people know. If that is you, I would bet that Frank Joseph is willing to take you on one-on-one.

David Roy

This is an unfootnoted, undocumented, unskeptical retelling of every rumor associated with ...

Stop. I'll begin again.

There are many reasons to accept that America had thriving connections and intercontinental trading partners well before the European voyages of discovery began -- and that these connections were largely with Asia.

This book does not offer any information on current research in any field. It accepts conspiracy theories as to the disappearance of critical evidence, it does not publish photographs for visual reference, and far too many of the accounts are "being kept confidential to protect the identities and/or the locations of the discoveries". The is akin to Penthouse Forum for antiquity hunters (without the alluring women, of course) -- you know, the stories begin: "I was trespassing that day, and I found something I'll never forget. I didn't take a photograph or make any kind of record of my findings, and now those findings have mysteriously vanished. But I'll always rememebr..."

My copy is going in the trash can.

Loved it, if anyone wants to hear about the difference of what they taught us in school and what they have found, documented then swept away this is a good book for the inquisitive at heart

I've always been a believer that history is written by the side that wins. So why then does the evidence supporting many advanced, sea-fairing people, visiting America long before Columbus get dismissed by our scientific and historic communities? Uncovering Ancient America covered a wide range of cases that included underwater pyramids, found on lake bottoms in North America to forgotten civilizations deep in the jungles of South America. I truly enjoyed both the style of writing and the subject matter itself. If you're the type of person who doesn't believe the convenient version of history taught in our history books, then this is an excellent book to read.

I cannot believe that this book is to be taken with any seriousness. There isn't a single "artifact" described that hasn't been mislaid, lost-as-soon-as-photographed, you-should-have-been-there, or yes-they're-real-but-I-forgot-the-location. We learn of Mayan elders who are "aware" of various Javanese matters and of random strokes on various artifacts that, per "Professor" So-and-So, "might" be ogham. Let's all grow up and develop some other interests wherein we can ply our fictitious adventures in Ancientland.

This book presents an interesting take on the prehistory (history before records were kept) of the Americas. It's a compilation of articles by various authors (including Frank Joseph). Frank Joseph's underlying justification for this book is that establishment archaeologists and historians do not accept anything other than "Columbus was the first European in America."

In my (rarely, if ever, humble) opinion, what opens the door to the premise that Europeans were in the Americas millennia ago is the period known as the Dark Ages. The Catholic Empire (commonly misnamed the Catholic "Church") plunged Europe into about 1,000 years of extreme ignorance, superstition, and stupidity. For a large part of this era, literacy was punishable by death--that's an indication of how serious they were about this. When the Empire clamped down on reason and curiosity, it destroyed people and records it considered heretical to its dogma or threatening to its power. So, not only was a great deal of progress lost but so was a great deal of information.

The various authors provide intriguing circumstantial evidence supporting their position, but their conclusions tend to arise from conjecture rather than logical construction. This doesn't mean they are wrong. It does mean they haven't made their case by the standards of, say, formal debate. I was struck by two other things, the first of which is a lack of physical artifacts. The ones referenced are nearly all held by private owners or are lost somewhere.

Now when I say artifacts, I'm speaking of things like the tools these authors claim to have found and the large coffins they claim somebody found. Where are these? The book contains photographs of a few items, so that helps. But mostly, we're left with the same kind of undocumented "proof" that people offer for UFOs. This seems to be especially true for the items that are of particular consequence.

On the other hand, the large constructed mounds referred to by several authors aren't privately held or lost. While there's probably no way to prove these mounds were constructed hundreds or thousands of years ago by Europeans, it doesn't seem there's a way to rule this out either.

And that raises another issue. What about other types of monuments? These have information encoded into their physical arrangement. The information appears to reveal European awareness of the Americas long before Columbus.

The DNA issue raised in this book is also intriguing. The claim made is this proves the "diffusionist" viewpoint. I hadn't heard that term before reading this book and it wasn't defined. So I'm guessing it means that Europeans diffused throughout the Americas and other far flung places like the South Pacific millennia ago. But does it really prove anything? Compared to what?

Unfortunately, the book doesn't present the dissenting (official?) counterarguments. So we have no way of being able to judge the explanations and pick one. We have merely the one-sided presentation of a particular viewpoint on the DNA.

A huge weakness of this book is its information base. The bibliography is composed of sources that are minor or dubious (there may be exceptions, but I didn't spot any). That doesn't mean the sources are worthless or wrong, but it does mean the book confines its research to "acceptable" sources--those acceptable to the viewpoints of the "diffusionists." That "approved sources only" approach is the same one that Frank Joseph complains the establishment takes. To get at the truth, we need to examine all sources and filter out those that don't pass scrutiny.

Once we have the sources sorted out, then we need to apply the scientific method to what we find. Some of the authors may do this, but I got the impression that generally the "diffusionist" authors do not. Since counterviews weren't rigorously examined, I can't tell for sure if anyone did apply the scientific method though I can tell for sure that many did not.

Maybe this book was too broad in scope to adequately address any particular issue. While it fails to be definitive, this book does provide cause for thought and further exploration. We have to remember that science, at least officially, seeks objective and verifiable truth. On the one hand, this book raises interesting questions. On the other hand, it doesn't provide objective and verifiable answers although the general tone is that it does. Lack of disproof is not proof, and lack of proof is not disproof. Something more is needed in either case.

Some of the physical evidence described by this book just is not explained by our current official canon of knowledge. I think this book makes a good "eye opener" for anyone interested in prehistory. At the very least it should cause people to question official dogma. The next logical step is to ensure that valid sources are considered rather than rejected out of hand, then the scientific method is rigorously applied.

Frank Joseph is sure that the establishment rejects valid sources out of hand. He seems to make a fairly compelling case that this is true in many instances. He frequently expresses his frustration over not being taken seriously by the establishment. Yet, he doesn't deliver the objective and verifiable answers that would solve that problem for him. Nor does he, curiously enough, include input from establishment experts in this book.

This book consists of nine chapters in 270 pages. Each chapter contains three to six articles (or essays) by contributing authors. Mr. Joseph introduces each author with a short bio.

A note on the editing

Having worked previously for many years myself as an editor, I was disappointed to keep encountering editorial errors in this book. Certain ones are like nails on a chalkboard for me. For example, Mr. Joseph let slide a particularly grating word combination, "absolutely unique." The word "unique" is an absolute. There's no modifier with it. In this particular article, the author used the word several times in rapid succession, too. I realize the typical editor-in-chief is not an English major, and that publishers no longer budget for proper copy-editing. But I still would like to see authors and editors take more care with English.

America is not new. America has been here for as long as the rest of the world. "Unearthing Ancient America: The Lost Sagas of Conquerors, Castaways, and Scoundrels" covers the history of the country before the Europeans ever set foot here . . . or so we thought. Incidents abound baffle historians, such as a Christian temple showing up, dated a century before we believed a Christian laid eyes on the country. "Unearthing Ancient America" is filled with enthralling facts about the history that most Americans never knew that was there.

Frank Joseph has compiled this collection of the strange mysteries surrounding the ancient Americas. The subjects range from lost cities to strange skeletal remains found. Many authors contribute essays to this book, from David Hatcher Childress to Frank Joseph himself.

Great fun for those interested in alternative ideas of who came to America first and sure to make skeptics mad. The book is divided into nine chapters:

1. Anomalous artifacts: Did Egyptians leave behind evidence they visited the Americas?

2. Messages from the past: Are there carvings of rune and other symbols made before Columbus set foot on the Western Hemisphere?

3. Strange Structures: Who built those Celtic like structures in Massachusetts?

4. Subterranean mysteries: The Oak Island Money Pit is but one mystery examined.

5. Underwater discoveries: Bimini Road along with a find of a statue dating to Roman times off of New Jersey.

6. Enigmatic effigies: Strange pipes in the shape of spiders found in Tennessee are among the articles.

7. Lost Kingdoms: The evidence showing some once great kingdoms now lost to antiquity.

8. Forgotten Seamanship: Much evidence showing ancient mariners knew their way around.

9. Bones, skulls and DNA: Many strange discoveries and finds challenge what is perceived to be the official story.

The alleged Egyptian find in the Grand Canyon, finds of metal plates in Utah and the controversial Burrows Cave in Illinois are also among the articles.

The book is a fast read and quite interesting, especially to those of us interested in alternative theories. It is good to read others' ideas and form one's own opinion on the matters presented.

If you like to read about ancient history this is the book. I could not put it down. I loved it. I recommend this book highly.

Good walk through some incidents you never heard about. Spot checked some articles and they checked out!