There must have been a Civilization One: a highly advanced precursor to what is currently the earliest recognized civilization. That’s the astounding revelation from a powerful duo of writers that includes the author of the bestselling The Hiram Key. Christopher Knight and Alan Butler’s startling conclusion comes from their quest to crack the mystery of the ancient "megalithic yard"—an incredibly precise unit of measurement that’s based on a deep understanding of the solar system. It seems beyond the comprehension of the supposedly unsophisticated people of Stone Age Britain, and yet not only is it visible in the thousands of megalithic structures built in Britain and France, but this measurement keeps recurring throughout nature and science. The implications of the authors’ breakthrough discovery go far beyond the idea of a super-science or prehistory: they indicate a grand plan that will have far-reading theological ramifications.
Interesting theoryJune 20, 2008 Really interesting review of alternative theory of pre-historic people and technology they could have had. Provides lots of examples and evidence, highly recommended if anybody is interested history.
Great book.May 11, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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This was an interesting read with much food for thought. It explains how a `primitive' people would have developed a standard for weights and measures.
This is a fantastic presentation of the technologies used by our ancestors. The arguments are clearly presented and explained, and the experiments are easily duplicated with some effort.
RepetitiveMarch 31, 2008 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Not the best work that these authors have produced. They state their case at the outset - that an ancient high tech civilization pre-existed ancient Sumeria and ancient Egypt - based on evidence of an primordial unit of measurement that was incredibly accurate. The problem is that they spend the rest of the book laboring this theme ad nauseum. Most thinking readers are already open to the likelihood of an antediluvian society with advanced technology - it's not a big deal. Neither is it an original premise. Conventional archaeologists differ, but only their students listen to them. So basically this book is lecturing to the choir, but unfortunately it's a boring sermon.
Not to be filed under "Nonfiction"March 20, 2008 9 out of 14 found this review helpful
I'm always interested in alternative takes on human history, but unfortunately the subject is a minefield of half-baked tinfoil hat conspiracy rubbish. Despite showing some early promise, this book fell into that category.
I admittedly have only read the first 1/3 or so of this book, so I might not be entirely qualified to review it. However, the first 1/3 lays the foundations on which the remainder is based, so I suppose it doesn't matter how good the rest of it is.
The basic premise of the argument put forth is that ancient people had an astronomically based unit of measure that was precise, simple, repeatable and widely used. Fascinating, if true! Unfortunately it's all very shaky. This supposed unit of measure was discovered by creating a pendulum on a string of an arbitrary length and then allowing it to swing 366 times whilst the line of sight to Venus moved through a square arpeture set on the end of a rod. If the pendulum swung more or less than 366 times, it was too short or too long respectively, and was adjusted acordingly until the right length was found. Sounds ok on the surface, but there are of course a few minor problems with this. Firstly, the size of the square arpeture is not specified, despite being a cruicial part of the process. So the magical unit of measure is based on... another unit of measure. It's a Chicken/Egg problem, without the measuring device, how do you make the object with which you measure the measuring device?
Secondly, once Venus moves out of your box, you'd ostensibly have to move either your box or your viewpoint through the box, in order to be able to see Venus through the box. This brings up another problem: if either the box or the viewer moves even slightly, the system fails.
Thirdly, why does it have to be Venus? Presumably, you're using the rotating motion of earth to measure off a precise amount of time during which your pendulum should complete 366 swings, so isn't ANY star or planet (or the moon) usable?
The author mentions at one point that this had to be done during the solstice, also. For what reason? And doesn't this make it a little impractical if the only way you can get a measuring stick is to wait till one particular day of the year?
Not to mention one of the biggest problems, which is that air drag would probably stop your pendulum swinging before it completes 366 swings.
It's all very ad-hoc and made up. Just because you can find a common unit of measure between various ancient artifacts does not prove it's existance. I could equally say that the ancient people used bananas as units of measure, because stonehenge is 300 bananas across and the pyramids are 1000 bananas across. It's nonsense.
Steer clear of this childish bit of prattle.
A rehash of Uriel Machine only worseFebruary 10, 2008 6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Skip this book and read Uriel's Machine instead. This book is simply an overcomplicated rehash of the core material in Uriel's machine and Uriel's Machine is much more entertaining on a wider range of topics. The crux of this book is that the author made a slight error in figuring the megalithic yard in Uriel's code and spends an entire book trying to correct it and reexplain why he is still right. This book is very heavy on mathematics and an extremely difficult read. Uriel's Machine doesn't get as bogged down as this book does.
If you are looking for information about who "Civilization One" is, forget about it, there's nothing here. It's just a giant term paper on how to figure a megalithic yard. The only people who I would recommend this book to are those who have already read Uriel's Machine and loved it so much that they want more.
