Ancient Apocalypse is a Netflix series that premiered in 2022 in which Graham Hancock, a British crackpot and journalist (who is in no way an archaeologist) exposes the world to his deranged theories on lost prehistoric civilizations, attempting to disparage the accomplishments of real prehistoric peoples across the Americas and Pacific.
Throughout the series, from the beginning to the end of every episode, Hancock focuses more on inflating his own ego rather than actually backing up his theories. Going on and on about how he’s a rebel waging war against “mainstream archaeology” and a martyr for the real truth. The first seven minutes of the first episode are a montage of Hancock talking about his ideas on podcasts, and screenshots of articles that claim he’s incorrect.
In reality, Graham Hancock has for years, presented completely baseless archaeological theories about Atlantis or prehistoric master races responsible for all the world’s cultures, and then says that nobody takes him seriously when he’s ignored. Whenever he’s refuted by historical experts, he complains that he’s being silenced for his views. His methods do nothing but propagate anti-intellectualism, which slows actual scientific progress and understanding.
Now that that has been made clear, the series ancient apocalypse, while it may be well edited in some parts, is exhausting, repetitive, and disgusting from a production perspective, manipulating the statements of actual experts to propagate false claims.
The series focuses on many fascinating prehistoric or ancient landmarks, like Gunung Padang in Indonesia, Nan Madol in Micronesia, the great pyramid of Cholula in Mexico, the Gigantia ruins on Malta, the mounds of poverty point, and many other wondrous sites. Unfortunately, instead of appreciating them, Hancock disparages their creators and uses them as pieces of propaganda to try to convince viewers of his theories.
Each of these sites are fascinating examples of prehistoric architecture. Gunung Padang is a terraced structure built out of Volcanic rock on a sunny mountain top. Nan Madol is a magnificent garden and palace built with a series of interlocking canals so that small boats could pass through it. The Cholula pyramid, like many of the other wonders built by the Olmec, Toltec, and Maya peoples who inhabited Southern Mexico, is seemingly the largest structure built by any humans of that time, being as large as 17 football fields of solid rock. But to Graham Hanock, these accomplishments are meaningless, and he claims that the “simple hunter gatherer’s” that lived in these regions couldn’t possibly have had the technical skills to build them.
The term “simple hunter gatherers” is particularly insulting, as it’s clear even from the first episode that Hancock only uses it as a more acceptable way of calling them savages. Through archaeological discoveries around the world, it’s become clear that almost every prehistoric human population had a basic understanding of mathematics as well as wheels, ropes, levers, and pully systems that would be necessary to build any stable structure. The idea that the people who had lived in these regions for thousands of years were incapable of these feats of construction and engineering is at best reductive, and at worst extremely racist.
To Graham Hancock, all those accomplishments can be ignored. Forget the capabilities of what a motivated group of thousands of people could accomplish. Forget the basic technological knowledge that would come with the formation of any organized society, and the more advanced mathematics, religions, and astronomical knowledge of more advanced civilizations like Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Maya. To Graham Hancock, they were all simply regressive and backwards people incapable of understanding basic math and with no real beliefs of their own.
To justify these beliefs, Hancock takes mythological tales at their word rather than appreciating any of the cultural backgrounds of these stories. Things like the arrival of Quetzalcoatl, which served as a divine mandate for Maya royalty, and various myths of great floods which would obviously become common in cultures based around rivers or islands, Hanock takes completely literally. He uses this to try to prove the existence of a prehistoric super race of advanced humans who he believes were based on the earths poles before being mysteriously wiped out. Not only is this erroneous, but it harps on many detested theories like the ancient Aryans theory and ideas of the lost civilizations that were propagated by Heinrich Himmler and the Nazis.
Along with the rancid ideas and theories that this horrid show attempts to popularize, the production of the show was also very unprofessional. Many of the archaeologists and actual qualified experts who appear on the show were not informed they would be working with Hancock until they arrived, and after the show was released many of them criticized how Hancock manipulated their statements out of context to fit his own views.
Ancient Apocalypse is a boring show produced by and starring a maniac who attempts to convince you of theories and ideas that have hurt a lot of real people, whether they be in the ancient past or in the last few decades, and slowed our progress and understanding of our own history. I would not recommend it to anyone under any circumstances, as in our own advanced society there are so many other more nuanced and respectful ways to engage in history that are readily available at a moment’s notice.
