PVSwan - Ancient History Page

Our interest in ancient history tends toward the 'non-mainstream' or exotic ideas and theories. In fact, most of our interests are non-mainstream - but that's running off the subject. Some of our favorite authors include Erich Von Däniken, Zecharia Sitchin, David Hatcher Childress, Olaf Hage and Immanuel Velikovsky.

About the time these books were published in English in the United States Star Trek had finished its original run and astronauts had walked on the moon in front of our very eyes on TV. We were craving another fantasy. Von Däniken gave that to us in Chariots Of The Gods? complete with pictures. Later we went to the theater and saw the movie!

Chariots Of The Gods? and Gods From Outer Space introduced us to places we didn't even know existed and ideas we certainly hadn't thought of. We didn't care if we were supposed to believe or disbelieve these books about ancient astronauts - we just devoured them. They set us on our course of investigation of the off-beat. Oddly, at the same time we were running away from religion we were on a path to a new understanding of the Bible.

For the record, we were not together at that time, we were in junior high school. But it appears we were thinking along the same lines even then.

Sitchin researches original translations of numerous Biblical (from the Hebrew), Egyptian and Sumerian texts to develop his theories on the history and origin of man. By translating a few 'troublesome' words in their literal instead of figurative form, he completely transforms the meaning of numerous Old Testament stories. You may not believe his conclusions that the ancient gods were actually mortal beings who descended from an, as yet undiscovered, 12^th planet, but the way he explains his evidence is hard to dispute.

We began reading Sitchin around 1980 and were hopeful that every word was fact. We hoped that the god of the Bible was an ancient mortal astronaut with all of the same human flaws that we have. We had never carefully studied the Bible so we assumed that the things we heard from ministers were Biblical facts.

Years later, while researching the Bible, we discovered that many ministers had been making Biblical statements up as they went along. About that same time we were reading the last of the "Earth Chronicles" when we realized that almost every reference back to the early books was in error. So we lost a lot of trust in Sitchins Biblical work.

While re-reading portions of The Stairway To Heaven I came across the chapter entitled "Forging The Pharaoh's Name". I knew I had to read the entire chapter again. Sitchin begins with some background information about the different types of pyramids and their builders. Then he hits you with evidence in the form of an Inventory Stela discovered in the 1850's that was erected by Khufu, the supposed builder of the Great Pyramid. The Stela, now on display in the Cairo Museum, basically says that Khufu (also known as Cheops) restored the "House (temple) of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid" along with everything found inside. It goes on to say that this temple sits beside the Sphinx. The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx must have already been there if the "House of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid" was crumbling nearby. The Stela also states that Khufu built a pyramid dedicated to one of his wives near the temple of the goddess. Archeologists have confirmed that there were three small pyramids flanking the Great Pyramid and one of them was dedicated to Henutsen, a wife of Khufu. There was no mention on the Stela of Khufu being the builder of the Great Pyramid.

Sitchin then launches into the story of Colonel Richard Howard Vyse, an Englishman, and discoverer of the cartouche of the name Khufu inside the Great Pyramid. Vyse actually wrote of his exploits in Egypt in his book "Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837". Vyse sounds like a pretty shady fellow and more of a treasure hunter than an antiquarian.

It appears Vyse was not averse to paying people off or naming hidden chambers inside the Great Pyramid after English nobility to keep the money flowing. After blasting his way from chamber to chamber Vyse suddenly came across a cartouche. The experts agreed that the cartouche said Khufu but that the script appeared to be from a much later dynasty. For the next 100 years Egyptologists expressed doubts on the authenticity of the cartouche found inside the Great Pyramid. Of course, scholars are unwilling to upset "Pyramidology" with a possible forgery.

To sum up the story it must be mentioned that Colonel Vyse had two close associates, a Mr. Hill and a Mr. Perring. Mr. Hill ended up owning the Cairo Hotel when Vyse left Egypt and Mr. Perring became a well known Egyptologist. Colonel Vyse was promoted to General Vyse. But there's more and you'll just have to read it in The Stairway To Heaven.

Childress does not attempt to prove or disprove some radical theory about the origins of man. His books are written as travelogues, visiting ancient sites and relating differing theories about artifacts that don't fit the 'accepted dogma'.

Childress does manage to present compelling evidence that many of our so-called scientific advances, are simply rediscovery of ancient knowledge.

Unlike Sitchin, Childress does not believe in 'alien' intervention. Instead, he believes that traditional archaeology is blinded by the preconception that ancient people could not possibly have been as intelligent or civilized as we are today. Through wars, famine or other disasters, much ancient knowledge has simply been lost. Is it pre-ordained that the more civilized and technologically advanced society always wins in war against a more savage enemy?

One could say that the Tower of Babel was instigated by the process of restricting words to have a single, specific meaning within a sentence context. The ancient Hebrew conveyed its meaning in images. The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies. Olaf Hage asserts the modern translations of the Old Testament is only one level of the multiple levels intended by the author.

Hage is continuously researching the Bible and a multitude of related Hebrew and Greek documents. He espouses theories and follows chains of evidence to bring Biblical characters to life.

Read the web pages. Buy the tapes. Hage is even more fun to listen to than to read. He'll tell you up front if an idea or theory is new and could be incorrect. He'll come right out and tell you that due to further investigation he needs to revise a theory. He doesn't pretend that a previous theory never existed, as some authors do... He makes you feel as if you're a part of the process of finding out what makes these character tick.

Don't be surprised if you hear Olaf Hage as a guest on a radio show (or web radio show) discussing current events. He's a multifaceted guy!

This is our commentary on Worlds In Collision. It was recommended to us by Olaf Hage (thank you!). The book is out of print but we easily purchased a very clean, used copy on-line. We enjoyed the book so much that we plan to purchase all of Velikovsky's books in the near future.

On first inspection Worlds In Collision looks like a difficult college text book. Put that out of your mind. It's an incredibly fun read. We found ourselves laughing out loud as Velikovsky put Old Testament events into simple to follow logic.

The book goes into great detail to decipher and explain ancient myths and legends of wars between the gods and catastrophes on earth and in space and how they all relate.

We found Chapter 8 very enjoyable. Velikovsky spent the entire chapter subtly quoting researchers of the 20th century, saying that they don't care how much ancient documentation is put in front of them, if it doesn't match their theories the ancients must be wrong. The researchers express amazement at the level of advanced mathematic and astronomy skills of some of these ancient cultures but then want to claim that the mathematicians and astronomers couldn't count the number of days in a year. Maybe something happened to the Earth that changed the number of days in a year - you think?

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