Can Ancient Apocalypse Series 2 Convince Us of a Lost Ice Age Civilization?

Controversial Scottish journalist Graham Hancock’s hit TV show, Ancient Apocalypse, has just released its second season on Netflix, with a focus on the Americas. With Keanu Reeves signed onboard, the long and short of this season is to present Hancock’s most prevailing theories: an advanced Ice-Age civilization, responsible for shaping modern concepts of mathematics, architecture, and agriculture, was destroyed by catastrophic floods caused by comet strikes around 12,000 years ago.

“What if Everything We Know About Prehistoric Humans is Wrong?”

Hancock claims evidence for this theory can be found at ancient sites across the globe, reports The Guardian. He’d visited locations in countries like Turkey, Mexico, and Indonesia during the first season of his Netflix series, which aired in 2022. Netflix promoted the show with the tagline, “What if everything we know about prehistoric humans is wrong?” In the series, Hancock criticizes mainstream archaeology for rejecting his ideas.

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30 Years of Searching for an Advanced Ancient Civilization Unfolds

Since the release of his 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock has been one of the most vocal proponents of the ancient apocalypse theory. According to conventional archaeological understanding, humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled farmers between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, which paved the way for the rise of the first urban civilizations in Mesopotamia around 6,000 years ago.

Hancock argues that an advanced civilization existed in what is now Antarctica long before this period: between 11,600 and 12,800 years ago, a series of cataclysmic events brought about the end of this Ice Age society. Hancock refers to this time as “an abrupt episode of cataclysmic climate change,” known in scientific circles as the Younger Dryas period. He controversially suggests that a comet impact, part of what proponents call the "Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis," triggered the rapid climate shifts.

“12,800 years ago, the Earth crossed the debris stream of a very large, disintegrating comet and was bombarded by hundreds of fragments, some large, some small. It was the resulting shock of these impacts and airbursts that triggered the Younger Dryas”, posited Hancock.

Before their destruction, Hancock claims, this ancient civilization traveled the globe, constructing monuments and passing on the knowledge of civilization to other peoples.

In the second season of his series, Hancock continues his search for evidence to support his theory, this time focusing on the Americas. He interviews several archaeologists and, curiously, actor Keanu Reeves, as he explores structures across the continent that he believes hint at the existence of this ancient, lost society, reports The Daily Mail.

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Graham Hancock talks with Keano Reeves in the latest Ancient Apocalypse series. (© 2024 Netflix, Inc.)

Filming Troubles: Dissenting Indigenous Groups

Following an outcry from indigenous groups in the US for film permits obtained to shoot at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and the Chaco Canyon national historical park in New Mexico, Hancock and Netflix abandoned their plans to shoot in these locations. This is after local tribal leaders asserted their anger at the wrongful depictions of their history and culture.

The description for the Secrets of the Ancients program listed on the Chaco filming permit application said the program would explore:

 “… one of archaeology’s biggest mysteries: the peopling of the Americas. We’ll uncover the latest findings about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas and reveal remarkable scientific knowledge that’s been handed down for generations. Where did humans settle first in the Americas, and what do we know about them?”

After learning of the production of a new season, and in protest for producing the first, the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) had written an open letter to Netflix in 2023, expressing their dismay for classifying it as a ‘docuseries’ and the injustice being meted out to indigenous peoples. Hancock’s response was dismissive, citing the open letter as another example of personal vendetta by mainstream academics and general persecution for his beliefs.

“That archaeologists have not found material evidence that would convince them of the existence of a lost civilization of the ice age, is not by any means compelling evidence that no such civilization could have existed,” he added.

The White-Supremacist Criticism: Aryan Rescue

One main objection to Hancock’s argument, is that it suggests that indigenous peoples could not have developed their own complex cultures without external help. This perspective, they argue, undermines the cultural heritage of indigenous populations, leading to some critics drawing parallels between Hancock’s theory and ideas that have influenced white supremacist ideologies.

For example, the legend of Atlantis, a supposed advanced ancient civilization, which clearly has parallels with Hancock’s work, has been linked to the notion of a superior ancient race. In certain versions of the Atlantis story, this advanced race is depicted as white Aryans—a concept that has historically fueled white supremacist theories centered on the idea of an ancient Aryan race.

Although Hancock doesn’t discuss race in his Netflix series, he has previously supported the claims that Caucasians arrived in the Americas before Columbus. He has also notes, along with others, that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was described as having white skin, a red beard, and blue eyes, suggesting northern European origins. Similar narratives, featuring white-skinned "civilizing heroes", were once used to justify colonial claims, including the Spanish crown's conquest of the Americas.

In the same letter, the SAA wrote, “The theory it presents has a long-standing association with racist, white supremacist ideologies.”

Such criticism might be missing the point. It is not that the ancients in these examples couldn’t have created these seemingly advanced structures, but just that there is no evidence of how they did it. And so one explanation to be explored is an unknown advanced civilization.

It will be interesting to see whether in this series Hancock presents answers these criticisms satisfactorily, and whether the evidence he shows proves convincing.

Top image: Graham Hancock at Sacsayhuaman, Cusco, Peru.               Source: Netflix

By Sahir Pandey