The diffusion and population/ecological global models have difficulties in explaining archaeological data and so we now turn to the “traditional” climatic models. These theories, such as Childe9 and Binford10 have suffered as Cohen correctly pointed out,11 from two problems: they are regional in scope and thus cannot account for the data on a broader perspective; and they are repetitive processes, which fail to explain why the particular changes of the post-Pleistocene period resulted in agriculture, when similar events in the past had not done so. Any new climatic theory must address these two problems.
Before we proceed to the primary thesis of this paper it may be helpful to describe the type of theory that is required. We need a theory that can explain “why” the process of agriculture began in the New and Old Worlds at approximately the same time yet led to much different rates of cultural evolution. The model must not only address this “when” evidence and especially the long-neglected correlation between altitude and centers, but the theory, if it is a climatic one, must address itself to the traditional limitations of repetitive and regional effects outlined by Cohen. Finally the theory should address the data on a global scale.
A climatic model based on the geological theory of Hapgood in conjunction with the stress model of Harris can meet all the requirements stated above. The sad state of affairs is that Hapgood’s geological work has simply been ignored despite the fact that the original volume was prefaced by the late Albert Einstein. Einstein’s preface is an excellent summary of the basic theory and since the book is now out-of-print, I have taken the liberty of quoting him:
I frequently receive communications from people who wish to consult me concerning their unpublished ideas. It goes without saying that these ideas are very seldom possessed of scientific validity. The very first communication, however, that I received from Mr. Hapgood electrified me. His idea is original, of great simplicity, and—if it continues to prove itself—of great importance to everything that is related to the earth’s surface.
A great many empirical data indicate that at each point of the earth’s surface that has been carefully studied, many climatic changes have taken place, apparently quite suddenly. This, according to Hapgood, is explicable if the virtually rigid outer crust of the earth undergoes, from time to time, extensive displacement over the viscous, plastic, possibly fluid inner layers. Such displacements may take place as the consequences of comparatively slight forces exerted on the crust, derived from the earth’s momentum of rotation, which in turn will tend to alter the axis of rotation of the earth’s crust.12
It should be noted that the process of earth crust displacement (ECD) refers only to a movement of the earth’s crust and not to the mantle, core, or pole of rotation. Put simply, ECD is a process, which results in various parts of the earth’s crust being shifted, at different times, over the earth’s axis (the North and South Poles).
Working on the assumption that the earth’s magnetic fields are usually located in close proximity to the pole of rotation, Hapgood collected geo-magnetic rock samples from different parts of the globe indicating those areas of the crust, which were at the poles from the last three ECDs. Hapgood found evidence that the most recent ECD occurred between 17,000–12,000 BCE, at which time the crust displaced resulting in the North Pole’s relocation to its current place in the “Arctic” Ocean after having been located previously in the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada. More recent climatic data from different sources have been brought together13 indicating at dramatic climatic change at 12,000 BCE, which coincides with Pleistocene extinctions, rising ocean levels, the close of the ice age, and the origins of agriculture.
A displacement of the earth’s crust causes dramatic climatic changes, but it should be noted that these variations are not all equal in their impact. There were areas of the globe following the ECD of 12,000 BCE that were tropical before and after the event. Taken in conjunction with the data of Vavilov14 I have labeled these areas as “Micro-Centers” because the further one travels from the midpoint between the current and previous equators, the less likely that one will be able to survive the harsh ecological changes (see figure A.1).
Figure A.1. Tropical agricultural origins.
Vavilov found a direct correlation between agricultural origins and land over 1,500 meters above ocean level. This long-neglected data is explicable in terms of ECD because the displacement of the crust results in immense tidal waves. Survivors of the event have a strong motive for staying in high mountains. The Micro-Centers listed in figure A.1 are over 1,500 meters above ocean level.
Important archaeological discoveries in three of the four Micro-Centers date agricultural developments to approximately 12,000 BCE. MacNeish15 reviews the archaeological evidence in Peru dating to this time range, while Pickersgill and Heiser16 delineated the number of important crops, which were domesticated in the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia/Peru. The same sort of data comes from the antipode of Lake Titicaca in the highlands of Thailand. Early agricultural experiments at Spirit Cave, Thailand, are reviewed by Solheim17 and Gorman.18 Similar evidence near the Ethiopian highlands is found in Wendorf.19 The model suggested here indicates that more excavations might be profitably undertaken in the highlands of northeastern Borneo.
ECD creates a situation where mobility is limited and important plants and animals for man become extinct.20 This is exactly the condition that Harris argues leads to the process of agriculture. According to his model, an immobile population creates population pressures, which intensify wild-food procurement with eventual improved seasonal scheduling. A resource specialization coupled with improved technological innovations and a cultural selection of specific plants or animals may develop into a genuine food-producing system. If mobility is restored this last phase may not take place and a reversion to huntinggathering can take place.
Harris’s model can also be applied to the areas in high altitudes, which were temperate both before and after the ECD of 12,000 BCE. Figure A.2 shows the conditions that prevailed in the northern hemisphere following the last ECD (see figure A.2).
The absence of important early agricultural experiments in the “Non-Center” shown and described in Figure A.2 is entirely in line with climatic conditions proposed by Hapgood and the stress model of Harris. Since this area was temperate both before and after the ECD of 12,000 BCE, it did not take long for mobility to be reestablished. Cohen reviews the literature showing the preference for the hunting and gathering way of life over the more labor-intensive means of agriculture.
Figure A.2. Temperate agricultural origins.
The area labelled “Macro-Crescent” was the most favorable area for agricultural experiments following the ECD of 12,000 BCE. Since this area was formerly tropical and newly become temperate, the possibility of expansion into this zone from the Old World Non-Center was especially favorable. People who had gone almost all the way to food-producing during the population pressures in the high mountains around the Black Sea could move from a region, which was temperate both before and after the ECD, into a newly temperate zone. Such expansion would favor the use of agriculture since the indigenous plants and animals had been depleted.
The situation in the “Micro-Crescent” of the New World was entirely different. Here expansion to the south was into a zone that was formerly temperate but that had become tropical. Expansion into this zone was slow because of the radically different climatic conditions compared to the North American Non-Center. This fact accounts for the time-lag of New World civilizations (see figure A.3).
Figure A.3. Sequence of pristine civilizations.
Figure A.3 demonstrates the utility of ECD as a model for accounting for the sequence of early independent civilizations. It will be noted that the first five civilizations appeared within the Macro-Crescent and that later societies fall into place according to the climatic conditions delineated. The first four civilizations were dependent upon plants and animals that were first domesticated near or in mountains and in the v
icinity of the Black Sea. China is here seen as an off-shoot of the Thailand highland Micro-Center, which brought high altitude plants from a tropical zone into a low altitude temperate zone.
This paper has restricted itself to addressing the questions of the origins of agriculture and the sequence of pristine civilizations as seen through the climatic model of Charles H. Hapgood and population stress model of David R. Harris. Why previous ECDs have not led to agriculture can be accounted for by two factors: the fact that only two ECDs (12,000 BCE and 55,000 BCE) have occurred within the lifespan of Homo sapiens; and because lower overall population levels in the past allowed for a reversion to hunting and gathering.
It is my conviction that the theory of earth crust displacement constitutes a scientific revolution as defined by Kuhn.21 It is a theory that has a wide application to various persistent problems in different scientific fields, and in the field of archaeology it orders data on a global scale and suggests new lines of investigation. Hapgood applied the theory to the problems of the ice ages, mountain building, extinctions, and the process of evolution. Recent developments in solar physics22 are suggestive23 of a mechanism for the displacements. This paper has applied the theory of ECD to the two persistent problems of: the “why,” “where,” and “when” of the origins of agriculture; and the sequence of pristine civilizations. In future papers I hope to expand the model to other problems in archaeology.
FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER 1. MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
a. SAC stands for Strategic Air Command
b. Portolono projections were used in “port-to-port” maps familiar to Europeans in the sixteenth century.
c. It’s perhaps just a fascinating coincidence that the Jewish calendar begins at 3760 BCE.
CHAPTER 4. ATLANTIS IN ANTARCTICA
a. Some ancient sources claimed Plato purchased (or otherwise illegally obtained) three books written by Pythagoras and used them to compose the Timaeus dialogue containing the legend of Atlantis.
b. The perspective articulated by Sonchis is usually attributed to the fourth century BCE Sicilian philosopher Euhemerus, yet Sonchis lived in the sixth century BCE, some two hundred years before Euhemerus.
CHAPTER 5. THE LOST ISLAND PARADISE
a. Goats were mentioned by Plato in Laws as one of the first animals to be domesticated.
b. The name Gwaai means “first son” in Haida and is not to be confused with Gwaii, which means “islands.”
c. The Raven is a trickster. In Haida mythology, the Raven and the Eagle are the two most important creatures.
d. The Haida Nation stopped the experiments when it was learned that the scientists had other than medical reasons for obtaining the samples. They had introduced an anthropological agenda. The Haida blood samples were to be DNA tested to compare them with other tribes. The Haida felt they had been tricked and withdrew their cooperation.
CHAPTER 8. EMBERS OF HUMANKIND
a. The term antipodal means “on opposite sides of the earth.” The North Pole is antipodal to the South Pole. Each place on the earth’s surface has an antipode.
b. One of their students, Tim Denham, was not convinced that the paleochannel was in fact man-made. He undertook tests that called into question the artificial attributes of the channel. Nevertheless, whether it was by design or just good luck, the people of the highlands of New Guinea made very constructive use of land that was once a swamp. And they certainly did become very effective water manipulators as time went on.
c. Temperature drops as one goes up in altitude varying from 1 degree Celsius in “dry” areas to half a degree in “damp” areas for each 150 meters. In the case of Kuk, the temperature is around 6–10 degrees Celsius cooler than temperatures at sea level.
CHAPTER 9. THE RING OF DEATH
a. The only competing theory is that of a radical shift of the Earth’s axis (see chapter 13).
b. This anomaly has remained unaddressed by geologists for nearly two centuries. The problem is simply ignored because there is no acceptable geological theory to address it. Without a competing theory, the logic of science dictates that any theory that can address the problem must be taken seriously, yet Hapgood’s work goes largely unrecognized.
CHAPTER 10. BROKEN PARADIGM
a. 48,100 square kilometers, or 18,572 square miles
CHAPTER 11. FINDING ATLANTIS
a. A case can be made for giving this title to Sonchis, whose materialistic explanation for the destruction of Atlantis invoked physical events rather than supernatural forces as the cause of the Great Flood (see chapter 4).
b. Aristotle wrote nothing about Atlantis.
CHAPTER 12. CITY OF ATLANTIS
a. It is within this area that, using the “Atlantis Blueprint,” we located the possible circular remains of the city under the ice.5
CHAPTER 13. WHY THE SKY FELL
a. For Hapgood the quest began in 1949 and only ended with his death in 1982. Einstein grappled with the problem from November 1952 until his death in April 1955. The Hapgood-Einstein correspondence is discussed in chapter 1 of The Atlantis Blueprint.1
b. Theories that assume an overall lowering of the globe’s temperature are presented with the problem of how the earth’s atmosphere generates enough evaporation to create snow. The earth crust displacement theory provides a mechanism for this problem. In Hapgood’s theory there are always tropical zones hot enough to cause evaporation and thus generate the snowfall inside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.
c. Freedman’s theory also makes sense of the stories told around the globe that attribute the Flood to a change in the sun (please see chapter 3).
d. The authors do not give a specific location on central Greenland for the pole. For the map in Figure 13.1, we used the location on Greenland where the ice sheet is thickest (72° N, 38°W).
e. As a result of the various positions of the earth’s crust (see figures 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4) and the former positions of the Antarctic polar zone, Antarctica’s ice cap is thickest in the area that gets the least amount of snow and thinnest in the area that gets the most amount of snow—conditions that defy expectations (see figure 9.2).
APPENDIX. A GLOBAL CLIMATE MODEL FOR THE ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE AND THE SEQUENCE OF PRISTINE CIVILIZATIONS
a. The reader will appreciate that Rand could not mention the word Atlantis in a paper for a scientific journal and still expect to be published. Traditional diffusion theories assume civilization spread from Egypt, Sumer, or India, and sometimes China. Diffusion from Atlantis took place thousands of years before these civilizations emerged.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. Evans, “Electronic Publications.”
CHAPTER 1. MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
1. Hapgood, memorandum to President Eisenhower.
2. Inan, Life and Works of the Turkish Admiral: Piri Reis.
3. Illustrated London News, “Columbus Controversy,” February 23, 1932.
4. Yusuf, “Turkish Interest in America,” 307.
5. Arlington Mallery with moderator Matthew Warren and M. I. Walters in a 1956 radio show sponsored by Georgetown University. In White, Poleshift, 36–49.
6. Hapgood, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, 2.
7. Ohlymeyer, letter to Charles Hapgood.
8. Burroughs, letter to Charles Hapgood, in Hapgood, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, 243.
9. Hapgood, letter to Rose and Rand Flem-Ath.
10. Sobel, Longitude.
11. Hapgood, letter to Arch C. Gerlach.
12. Burroughs, letter to Charles Hapgood, in Hapgood, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, 244.
13. Flem-Ath, “Piri Reis Map.”
14. Statement of James H. Campbell, 1893, cited in Hapgood’s Memorandum to President Eisenhower.
15. Hapgood, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, Preface.
16. Concas, “Report,” vol. 2, 1500.
CHAPTER 2. THE EARTH’S SHIFTING CRUST
1. Einstein, letter to Charles H. Hapgo
od, in Hapgood, Path of the Pole, 328.
2. The Einstein–Hapgood correspondence is covered in detail in Flem-Ath and Wilson, Atlantis Blueprint.
3. Einstein, “Report on Hapgood.”
4. Einstein, letter to Charles H. Hapgood, in Hapgood, Path of the Pole, 341, no. 5.
5. Einstein, in Hapgood, Earth’s Shifting Crust, Foreword.
6. Hapgood, Earth’s Shifting Crust, Foreword.
7. Ibid.
8. Horgan, “Profile,” 40.
9. Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 5.
CHAPTER 3. THE WAYWARD SUN
1. Powell, “Mythological Philosophy.”
2. Boas, Kutenai Tales, 281.
3. Ibid., 287.
4. Turney-High, Ethnology of the Kutenai, 96.
5. Baker, Forgotten Kueteni, 7.
6. British Columbia Department of Education, Kootney.
7. Turney-High, Ethnology of the Kutenai, 11–12.
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