" When I was a youth I had a plain simple faith in
progress. It seemed to me impossible that once man had passed a milestone of progress in one way that he could ever pass the same milestone again the other way. Once the telephone was
invented it would stay invented. If civilizations had faded away it was just because they had not learned the secret of progress. Most people feel this way despite two world wars and the threat of total annihilation in a third"
These are the words of Charles Hapgood, cartographer and scientific lecturer and they sum up concisely how most people think about the path of progress. Scientific break- through leads to more of the same and the word moves ever onwards towards a better and more technologically advanced future. If this is true then it is possible to follow the
history of this scientific development backwards to an ever more primitive past until we arrive at the beginning of mans journey to civilization. Our schools teach such an idea, it is
accepted by the establishment and there is no reason to think it is otherwise so. If it were found that writing was in
evidence around 8000 BC, rather than the accepted date of around 3000BC, then it would upset the applecart somewhat. Similarly if the Mesolithic period threw up evidence of skull surgery, it would be equally unexplainable given our
current view of our past. However this is exactly the sort of out of context evidence that Richard Rudgley presents in his book, Lost Civilizations of The Stone Age. To say that this is a very important book is an understatement in the extreme, not content to push the boundaries; this book storms the Winter Palace of the
academic status quo.
The problem we have made for ourselves is that our past is portrayed as having risen from some sort of cultural "big bang" about 5000 years ago, before then was a hunter gatherer culture supposedly achieving little and operating at a purely subsistence level, the other side of the watershed being a dramatic cultural rise to the modern age. If the evidence that Rudgley puts before us is to be believed, something is amiss in our view of our early development. Weaving together threads of evidence from archaeology, ancient history and anthropology, the author shows us just how myopic that view is. A convincing set of arguments shows that the achievements, inventions and discoveries of prehistoric times have been all bur edited out from the popular accounts of the human story. Writing, astronomy and mathematics all have roots far older than can be imagined. Tool making and other industrial activities similarly have to be repositioned in our accepted timeline. Even medical practices and surgery have to be brought into line. The Palaeolithic cave artists of Western Europe used techniques forgotten until the Renaissance, Picasso himself is said to have remarked after visiting Lascauxs famous prehistoric paintings, "We have invented nothing!"
This book, and much of Rudgley's work in general, poses some difficult questions for the academic elitists. Defending the high ground against such a convincing collection of evidence will not be easy, which is why books such as this are generally ignored by those that should know better and find champions amongst the laymen. With Rudgley's credentials however he is not easily dismissed by the academic set, as he is definitely changing things from within. Whereas the likes of Graham Hancock and Andrew Collins are easily tarred with the brush of sensationalism, Rudgley's approach and his track record make him a difficult to dismiss with the same ease.
Whether this book is an academic work that will appeal to the laymen or a populist book that will be picked up by those in the seats of learning can be argued over at a later date, what can't be ignored is the importance of this work on our current understanding of the past. Nineteen chapters cover nineteen different areas all with evidence enough to challenge the current views held by thmajority and a wealth of photographs and black and white drawings help illustrate the points covered. Although not a light read it is a rewarding one and a valuable addition to any pre-historians bookshelf.
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