Newsdesk Archive

Bonnichsen, director of the Centre for the Study of the First Americans at Oregon State University, said that many experts now give serious consideration to the idea that people in boats sailed along the Pacific Rim

Gerald Dupont has spent the equivalent of £8,700 and six years carrying out research into the pyramid which he's never visited

Astronomers have detected a "cosmic web" in the most accurate image yet obtained of the dark matter in a supercluster of galaxies

An international row is breaking out over a dusty third-rate Inca site, newly located among the rugged snow-peaks and wild jungles of the Vilcabamba region beyond Machu Picchu

Astronomers have calculated that more than a billion habitable planets could exist in our own galaxy, each with a sufficiently stable orbit around a sun to support the evolution of life.

Astronomers have announced that they have found objects in space which appear to be made of a kind of matter which has never been seen before.

The Earth's magnetic poles might be starting to flip say researchers who have seen strange anomalies in our planet's magnetic field

An expedition from the Scientific Exploration Society and India's National Institute of Oceanography discovered the ruins off the coast of Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu.

Contrary to the assertion by the National Institute of Oceanography that the underwater structures recently discovered off the south coast of India were no more than 2000 years old, there now seems to be confirmation that these structures could only have been above water no later than 6000 years ago, thus making them far older than anything similar previously known in this region. For a full report, please check the Underworld page.

A MYSTERIOUS settlement that sank beneath the waves at least 1,200 years ago has been discovered by divers off the south-east coast of India. Granite blocks and walls that lie 20ft below the surface may be the remains of six "lost temples" that form part of local mythology. The ruins came to light after the controversial amateur archaeologist and best-selling author Graham Hancock interviewed fisherman for a recent television series. After hearing accounts of the myth of a submerged city, he and two dozen divers searched the sea bed last week. India's National Institute of Oceanography, which was involved in the discovery, believes the ruins at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu could be 1,200 to 1,500 years old. But Mr Hancock, who argues that civilisation predates the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians by thousands of years, believes the city could go back to 3,000 BC. The ruins were discovered half a mile off the coast by a team from the NIO and the UK-based Scientific Exploration Society. They include remains of walls and scattered carved blocks and stones and may cover several square miles. According to local legend Mahabalipuram was once home to a great city. The gods became so jealous of its beauty that they sent a flood to swamp the city. Six temples were submerged, leaving just one on the shore.

They are the second set of possible man-made ruins found off the sub-continent this year. Another "lost city" was found off Gujarat in January, but that claim has been disputed by archaeologists

The granite ruins, if they are not natural formations, could be what remains of six legendary temples built 1,500 to 1,200 years ago, submerged as a result of natural subsidence

Now, pictures of what appear to be submerged ruins off the coastal town of Mahabalipuram in the Bay of Bengal, taken by divers led by a former Royal Marines officer, Monty Hall, are beginning to corroborate the long-held myth

To read their report, plus response from Graham, visit the Underworld page at the link below:

Analysis of data obtained by the Pathfinder mission to the Red Planet in 1997 suggests there could be chlorophyll - the molecule used by plants and other organisms on Earth to extract energy from sunlight - in the soil close to the landing site.

The release of massive clouds of methane from icy hydrates buried under shallow ocean floors is the leading suspect for the most devastating extinction in the fossil record, according to a new analysis.

The journey began with a 4-foot-thick oak tree. In December 1997, in Bohemia, Czech archaeologist Radomir Tichy and his students felled the oak with a chain saw. For the next few months, in snow and thaw, they hollowed out a 30-foot section of the trunk. They used iron axes and adzes but also, for verisimilitude, tools made of stone. In summer, they loaded what was now a large, rude dugout canoe onto a trailer and drove south, all the way to Sicily. There they mounted an ox skull on the prow, donned shades and sunscreen, and put to sea.

Astronomers say the rare grouping of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn may not be seen again for a century.

Chimps transported suitable pieces of stone to the undated site and used them to crack open nuts placed on thick tree roots, according to Julio Mercader of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

The Blenheim Palace extended more than 200 metres along the shoreline and included an Olympic-sized pool. The extraordinary construction, which has never been fully excavated, is now the subject of an academic controversy.

The workers were cutting trenches at a roadside in Pitmilly, Fife, when they uncovered a 4,000-year-old pot that appeared to have been placed inside a stone-lined chamber.

The moment of truth had arrived. In an arena in the Asia Minor city of Halicarnassus, a pair of gladiators locked in a fight to the death reeled across the sand, exhausted from parrying and charging.

The discovery made last week is "an exceptional event which brings to light important new elements in the history of the town of Damascus", Abdelrazzak Moaz said.

The first-world-war battlefields of Belgium and France are dangerous places where, even today, unexploded shells lurk, making excavation a potentially lethal activity. But as archaeologists pick up their trowels, they must consider more than their personal safety. For the trenches, dugouts and tunnels-many containing human remains and personal belongings are ethical minefields too.

The asteroid, more than half a mile in diameter, is similar in size to the one thought to have plunged into the sea off Mexico 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs.

The process of duplicating information held in subatomic systems constitutes the most effective way currently conceivable of decoding some of the latest cryptographic technologies.

Our predilection for psychotropic substances is usually seen as a biological accident. The conventional view is that drugs fool the brain into thinking it is getting a reward when in fact it is not.

The unusual looking snake has a ferocious expression. It is colored green and is 4.2 centimeters long. Archaeologists say it has features of several other animals and might be meant to be a "dragon", an ancient Chinese symbol.

Havana (CP) Getting to the bottom of the mystery of what could be a lost underwater city near Cuba is far more exciting for a Canadian-led expedition than bringing up emeralds from a galleon on the ocean floor.

A bright red lacquered wooden dish, believed to date back about 5,000 years to the middle of the Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.-ca 300 B.C.), has been excavated in Nohejimachi, Aomori Prefecture, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Mold cape, a unique and stunning example of bronze age metal work, goes on display at the British Museum today, fully restored for the first time since it was discovered by road builders in 1833.

The new science of artificial societies suggests that real ones are both more predictable and more surprising than we thought. Growing long-vanished civilizations and modern-day genocides on computers will probably never enable us to foresee the future in detail-but we might learn to anticipate the kinds of events that lie ahead, and where to look for interventions that might work

It has long been known that the first species domesticated by humans was the wolf. In essence, we made wolves into dogs. But did wolves also make us, beginning over 100,000 years ago? This is the key question explored in this study.

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) celebrated its Foundation Day on Wednesday by dwelling on what has become an obsession of sorts for historians of the Sangh Parivar - the supposed 'Vedic' foundations of the Indus Valley civilisation

The remains of a 20,000-year-old fire have been found in Tibet.

An ancient supercontinent, far older than anything proposed before, has been pieced together by an international team of geologists. The giant landmass, which has been dubbed Columbia, would have spread across the face of the Earth more than one and a half billion years ago

For the first time, radar satellites have mapped Antarctica, revealing a continent whose frozen cloak is in constant (and surprising) motion.

The Solar System may once have had an extra Earth-like planet which was consumed by the Sun. A British scientist says it was smaller than our own planet and orbited just outside Mars.

With global warming dominating the climate change debate, it is surprising to think that just a few decades ago, all the talk was of a new ice age. To many, this is simply another example of scientists doing a U-turn. In fact, nothing much has changed.

Behind the tourist resorts of the Canary Islands is a mystery that has baffled historians and archaeologists alike. Caroline Spence examines the theories behind the arrival of the Guanche, the first inhabitants of the Canaries.

Some American and other Western archaeologists are concerned that anti-American sentiment since the Sept. 11 attacks might put them at risk in the Middle East

Moscow - Memphis, the capital of the so-called Ancient Kingdom that existed on the territory of Egypt in the IV-III centuries BC, remains an all-time mystery of ancient Egyptian history and a cherished dream of almost every archaeologist

Charles C. Mann, the author of "1491," talks about the thriving and sophisticated Indian landscape of the pre-Columbus Americas

A visit to the fantasy aisle of any second-hand bookstore in the country will almost surely yield a treasure trove of yellowing pulps with lurid color covers from the 1930s and 1940s. These aging flights of fancy usually pit sinewy heroes against demons or fell beasts, usually in exotic, eldritch settings.

The U.S. Department of State, NASA, American aerospace firms, European and Russian space officials have joined forces to study human planetary missions, principally to land an international expedition on Mars later this century.

Defying the shackles of gravity is a dream enshrined in myth and the human psyche. Now NASA will test a machine to determine if it is also real science

A Harvard archeologist says he has discovered the oldest intact mural from the Maya Pre-Classic period, a mythological scene dating from about 100 A.D. that provides insight into the ancient and once flourishing civilization.

Experts who reassembled a one million-ear-old skull say it proves the early human it came from was part of a successful global species.

Chinese historians and navigation experts are preparing to rewrite history books after a British historian's claim that Chinese explorers got to the Americas 72 years before Christopher Columbus

Peruvian and British explorers say they have discovered a lost Inca city on a peak in the Andes that was used as a place of resistance against Spanish conquerors.

Ongoing excavations in Russia indicate anatomically modern humans were developing new technologies for survival in the cold, harsh region some 30,000 to 40,000 years ago

Scientists reveal a witches' brew of fats, resins, perfumes and waxes

The book is about a sect of Gnostic-Christians who were known as the Naassenes. They were based in Alexandria during the early period of Christianity, and they claimed a direct link to James the Just, the brother of our Lord. Almost everything we know about the Naassenes is based on a single source document, the Refutation of All Heresies by Bishop Hippolytus. The Naassenes believed that Jesus reversed the flow of the Jordan. The following chapter explores the Old Testament background for such a belief, and arrives at some radical conclusions about the relationship of John the Baptist and Jesus to the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha. See the article by following the link below.

The pieces found correspond to the late pre-classic period of Meso-American civilization, from 200 years before to 260 years after the birth of Christ, archaeologist Fabricio Valdivieso, of the National Museum, says.

A new genetic survey has found more evidence early man conquered other populations by mating with them rather than competition.

A pair of ancient deer antlers which could date Stonehenge have been rediscovered. The three fragments were excavated from below one of the stones 80 years ago, before carbon dating, and then forgotten.

Graham Hancock's new book Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age is today the Number 1 UK non-fiction bestseller in the definitive Sunday Times national list.

If genuine it suggests astronomy may have been practised hundreds of years earlier than thought.

January 2002 had the warmest global temperatures in modern records

Following the link below will take you directly to the Underworld section (which can also be reached by clicking the tab at the top of the screen)...

Welcome to Stars and Signs II, a five-star tour and Nile Cruise on which Robert Bauval, Graham Hancock and special guests will lead us on a voyage of discovery, both in words and experience.

Ground surveys of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire have revealed it was built up in a spiral and not layer by layer like a wedding cake. Britain's Stone Age people saw the spiral as a sacred symbol and archaeologists are now beginning to believe Silbury may have been a ceremonial site.

February 16, 2002 Surat, India - A month ago in mid-January, marine scientists in India announced they had sonar images of square and rectangular shapes about 130 feet down off the northwestern coast of India in the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay). Not only are their sonar shapes with 90-degree angles, the Indian Minister of Science and Technology ordered that the site be dredged. What was found has surprised archaeologists around the world and was the subject of a private meeting two weeks ago attended by the Indian Minister in charge of investigating the underwater site about thirty miles off the coast from Surat.

Sea threatens Scotland's history Archaeologists say coastal erosion is destroying important prehistoric landmarks in Scotland. They say urgent action needs to be taken in places like the Orkneys if ancient settlements are to be saved. So far Bronze Age forts have collapsed, skeletons have been washed out of Iron Age burial chambers and part of a Viking grave ship, found in 1991, has disappeared.

There have been several new exciting entries recently added to the "Mars and Space Phenomena" Links section of this website.

Read this article at The Times website by following the link below...

The first part of the Underworld TV series was broadcast on the 11th. Overnight ratings put the audience at 2.9 million viewers, peaking at 3 million. The first programme was mostly about introducing general issues. Episode 2, on India, will cover specific underwater sites in far more detail and depth and will, we hope, will clinch the argument that the first programme introduced. Our website popularity statistics have sky-rocketed. February 8th was our busiest day ever, with more than 52,000 pages downloaded - that's a whopping 2.34gigabytes of information in just 24 hours. We've received so many e-mails that it hasn't been possible to reply to every one individually. But we do read them and really appreciate them. We've already received some e-mails from people interested in contributing skills or funding for underwater exploration, and so there's a real chance that Underworld will help to further research in this exciting area. Thank you! Sharif Sakr (Graham Hancock's researcher)

Intriguing take on how 'discovery stories' can lead to problems.....

You can reach this article by clicking the Underworld tab above, or more directly by following the link below...

"Is Graham Hancock bonkers? His theories on the origins of civilisation have been dismissed by archaeologists as rubbish. But as he tells Stephen Moss, a discovery off the coast of India may prove him right..." The article is on page 4 of the G2 section. But you can also read it online at the Guardian Unlimited website by following the link below...

It will be on the programme between 11pm and 2am (Pacific time) on the night of Thursday 7th of February (crossing over to the morning of the 8th). For those in England listening over the Internet, the interview will be between 7 and 10am on Friday the 8th of February. The link below will take you to the Schedule page on the Art Bell website.

There are several Cambay Sonar images now posted on the site. See the new 'Underworld' section of the site or follow the article link to see them. These are only a few of the images available and we'll be posting more in due course.

Read this article from the BBC News website by following the link below:

27th January, 2002. The article is in the Review section of the newspaper, page 64-65, and occupies a full double-page spread plus continuation on page 66. Unfortunately, The Mail on Sunday don't have an on-line edition, so if you want to read it you'll have to buy it. But we will be posting an article here on Monday that includes all the info sent to The Mail and more.

This is a nice long piece on the Cambay discovery at the Sunday Times website - after following the link below, you may need to register to read it. One important point about the article: it focuses solely on the radiocarbon dating as evidence for the age of the cities, when in fact the first dating of the cities (which pushed them back into the prehistoric era) was based on inundation mapping of the area by Glenn Milne, a geologist at the University of Durham who is not mentioned in this article. Although Milne's sea-level rise model can't put an exact age on the cities due to uncertainties in the topographic data and in the lack information on tectonics, the models have put a relatively reliable lower limit of 7,000 years on the age of the cities. Garret Fagan, who is quoted in the article (the Times having been put in touch with him by Graham Hancock), uses the carbon-dates alone to introduce uncertainty and indicate that instead the cities could be Harappan, without considering the geological fact that a city this size is extremely unlikely to have reached a depth of 40m in just 5,000 years. The 100m sea-level rise that accompanied the end of the last Ice Age ended long before 3000BC, so if the cities are Harappan then their sinking will have to be primarily due to vertical tectonic motion. Such tectonic motion, of the required scale, recency and consequence, has no precedent in geology. Besides, it is very difficult to imagine an earthquake causing such a massive area (many tens of square kilometres) to sink by 40 metres without completely destroying the cities themselves, as well as other known Harappan sites in the Gujarat area. Moreover, we know what Harappan ruins, artifacts and writing look like, and they don't look like the ruins, artifacts and writing discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Cambay. Had an archaeologist who'd actually taken the trouble to go to India and see the recovered artifacts been interviewed, this point would have been easily made. Of course, archaeologists have been far too busy for that kind of thing, and the armchair variety of their discipline is apparently coming back into fashion. Sharif Sakr You can read the Sunday Times article by following the link below...

Read this article at The Times website by following the link below... There's also an article in today's Daily Mail, but unfortunately they don't seem to have an on-line edition. The text of the article may appear on the News Desk shortly.

It's finally finished and with the Publishers... Over 736 pages crammed with shocking new discoveries that will necessitate a major re-writing of the history of civilisation. The three-part Underworld TV series will be out on Channel Four (UK) and The Discovery Channel a few days later - probably around February 10th (to be confirmed). The Learning Channel and Tokyo-TV will also be showing the series (again, details to be confirmed). Following the link below will take you to the Underworld page at Amazon.co.uk where you can pre-order your copy of the book at a 30% discount off the list price...

Read this article at The Daily Telegraph website by following the link below...

Read this article at the National Geographic website by following the link below...

Read this article at the New Yorker website by following the link below...

Read this article at BBC News Online by following the link below...

Read this article at Ananova by following the link below...

Read this article at The New York Times website by following the link below...

Read this article at BBC News Online by following the link below.

Best wishes for 2002, from Graham, Santha, Ronny (the webmaster) and Sharif (me).

Read this article at the Washington Post website by following the link below...

Read this article at Ananova.com by following the link below...

Read this article at the International Herald Tribune by following the link below.

Read this article at Middle East News Online by following the link below...

Read this article at ctnow.com by following the link below...

"Rewrite" seems like an exaggeration, but you can read about it for yourself at the Cornell University website by following the link below...

You can read the article at the Times of Malta by following the link below. The newspaper's coverage of Graham's involvement in the explorations is basically accurate. Sean Arrigo and Dr. Anton Mifsud will both appear in Underworld.

TV networks around the world have reported the claim of an exploration company, ADC, to have discovered a lost city 700m beneath the sea off Cuba. Some of the news broadcasts, including those on CNN, SkyNews and CBS local affiliates, included underwater footage. But Paul Weinszweig, co-founder of ADC, says that while they do have some video footage of the site, they have not released any of it will not do so until the Cuban government gives them permission. Does this mean that the TV networks broadcast irrelevant material without telling us? With all the other useless garbage they try to make us swallow, I wouldn't be surprised... Sharif Sakr

Read this article at the Space Daily website by following the link below...

This article is about the latest ideas of Alan Alford. Read it at the Guardian Unlimited website by following the link below...

Read this article at the Vancouver Sun by following the link below...

Read this article at the National Geographic website by following the link below...

Read this at The Independent website by following the link below...

Read this article at The Globe and Mail by following the link below...

Click the link below to read the Miami Herald's report...