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Запретная Археология
Ученые и археологи настойчиво уверяют нас в том, что им известно все о нашем происхождении и истории. По правде говоря, это совсем не так.
Каждый год открываются новые факты, которые неимоверно расширяют привычные, уютные, но весьма узкие границы современного мира.
Новая книга Майкла Бейджента, автора многочисленных бестселлеров, заставляет нас пересмотреть устоявшиеся представления об эволюции, датировке появления первого человека, сроках строительства египетских пирамид и о многом другом. Его сенсационная теория коренным образом меняет общепринятый взгляд на глубокую древность и предлагает решение 12 самых необъяснимых загадок нашей цивилизации.
Каждый год открываются новые факты, которые неимоверно расширяют привычные, уютные, но весьма узкие границы современного мира.
Новая книга Майкла Бейджента, автора многочисленных бестселлеров, заставляет нас пересмотреть устоявшиеся представления об эволюции, датировке появления первого человека, сроках строительства египетских пирамид и о многом другом. Его сенсационная теория коренным образом меняет общепринятый взгляд на глубокую древность и предлагает решение 12 самых необъяснимых загадок нашей цивилизации.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
9 people are currently reading
364 people want to read
About the author
Michael Baigent
42 books164 followersMichael Baigent was born in New Zealand in 1948. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Canterbury University, Christchurch, and holds a master's degree in mysticism and religious experience from the University of Kent in England. Since 1976 he has lived in England with his wife and children.
Baigent is a Freemason and a Grand Officer of the United Grand Lodge of England. He has also been an editor of Freemasonry Today since 1991. As an author and speculative historian, he has been published in 35 languages; he is the author of From the Omens of Babylon, Ancient Traces, and the New York Times bestseller The Jesus Papers; he is the coauthor of the international bestsellers Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy (with Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh); and the coauthor of The Temples and the Lodge, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, Secret Germany, The Elixir and the Stone, and The Inquisition (with Richard Leigh).
Baigent is a Freemason and a Grand Officer of the United Grand Lodge of England. He has also been an editor of Freemasonry Today since 1991. As an author and speculative historian, he has been published in 35 languages; he is the author of From the Omens of Babylon, Ancient Traces, and the New York Times bestseller The Jesus Papers; he is the coauthor of the international bestsellers Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy (with Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh); and the coauthor of The Temples and the Lodge, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, Secret Germany, The Elixir and the Stone, and The Inquisition (with Richard Leigh).
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 11, 2020
Книга ставит под вопрос теорию эволюции и происхождение человека. Также в ней рассказывается о выживших динозавров и других животных которые считались вымершими. Последние части книги затрагивают историю древнего Египта, искусство алхимии и реинкарнации. Автор предлагает ряд "доказательств" которые утверждают его теорию но, для меня "запретная археология" остаётся конспирологией.
April 29, 2013
At the time that I read this book (over fifteen years ago) I found it very interesting, and would have probably given it a four-star rating. However, over the subsequent years I've become more skeptical and many of the theories in the book have since been proven wrong.
June 17, 2020
Not what I was expecting from the description... I’d hoped for this to be a more historical book than it turned out to be. Instead, I read a wildly ahistorical collection of conspiracy theories which made little coherent sense following one after the other.
November 6, 2015
I've read it during the period of my life when I could believe absolutely anything... and even then this book was extremely unconvincing!
August 8, 2017
Modern Theories on the existence of Atlantis
26 December 2011
This is one of those books that it is difficult to put into a specific category. In a sense it would be non-fiction if you actually believe anything Baigent writes, and in the same sense it could also be considered history. The problem is that Baigent's writings tend to sit at the fringe of accepted academia (if in fact he is considered academia) and in turn his evidence, or at least his interpretation of the evidence, is dubious at best. This does not necessarily mean that what he writes is wrong, but a lot of it is based on opinion, and in parts, it is based on a belief that cannot be measured scientifically.
Now, the theme of this book is the question of whether there was a significantly advanced society that has been lost in the mists of pre-history, of which only small clues and 'ancient traces' remain. He then further goes onto explore the possibility of some world wide catastrophe that destroyed this civilisation and pretty much wiped all but the smallest of evidences of its existence from the face of the planet. Now while a lot of people, both from the scientific and religious communities, would consign this book to the rubbish heap, I do actually believe that he does raise some very interesting points.
It is very clear that Baignet is not a Christian: his book Holy Blood Holy Grail is the book that the idea of The Da Vinci Code was borrowed from (I will not use the word stolen as others used because authors always borrow their ideas from other writers, or even history itself: nothing can truly be considered new or original) however he opens his book outlining the problems with evolution. While I myself am a creationist, I do not consider evolution to be a major issue within Christianity. Some Christians believe in evolution, others (like myself) do not (though my views on creation are nowhere near extreme as some are, and I do believe that there is some merit in Darwin's theory). Unfortunately, some kick up such a fuss over this minor issue that it causes rifts and creates huge amounts of dissension within and outside of the ranks. To me, it is actually refreshing to see a non-Christian write about problems with evolution, which to me, goes to show that this theory has quite a lot of unanswered questions.
The next thing that I wish to discuss is the belief in a long lost ancient civilisation. Now, most of us will immediately think of Atlantis, however the earliest indication of the existence of this lost continent is from Plato, and one of the dialogues on the subject is unfinished. Now the accepted belief is that Plato was using Atlantis as an example of his perfect society, and it is suggested that the reason the dialogue on Atlantis is unfinished is because he decided to discard the idea of using Atlantis as an example of his society and wrote 'The Laws' instead, which (at this time I have not read) is simply a rundown on how his society should be constructed without any reference to some mythical place.
Plutarch gives a bit more of a background on the origins of the story, and though Plutarch wrote some 500 years after Plato, the sources that he would have had available to him were much more significant than what we have available to us. In short, while we have Plutarch, the sources that Plutarch uses we do not have, so we are pretty much relying on second or even third and forth hand accounts of the story of Atlantis. Plutarch suggests that the story came to Greece after the Athenian Lawgiver, Solon, traveled to Egypt where he learnt of this lost continent from the priests. Where the priests learnt this, and whether it was actually written down, is lost to us (as far as we know), though it is highly likely that between the priests, and Plato writing the legend down, at lot has been changed.
There is, ironically, another possible source for this information, though in this source Atlantis is not actually named. This source is the Bible. The reason I raise this is because in Genesis there are at least two pre-historic societies mentioned in passing, one being the Tower of Babel, and the second being the antediluvian civilisation. I suspect that this ancient society is likely to the the antediluvian one. The reason I suggest this is because straight after the account of the fall we have Cain's genealogy. This genealogy, after three generations, indicates that humanity had developed ironworking technology and musical instruments. To suggest that this society did not grow much beyond this, I believe, is to ignore the evidences before us. Further, Genesis was complied over the time period between the Flood and the Exodus, with Moses putting it into its final form. It is highly unlikely that Moses, or even Abraham, living in the societies that they did, would have been able to expound on a technological society that was in essence greater that the society in which they were living. While they could understand the concept of ironworking, I doubt they would have been able to understand anything beyond that.
I won't go into details of the world wide catastrophe that destroyed this civilisation beyond mentioning that the world wide flood is not something that is confined to the Bible. The flood narrative appears in cultures as distinct as the Greeks and the Australian Aboriginies. This is evidence that our collective memories knows of a disaster that destroyed all civilisation with the exception of a handful of people. If one wonders how such an event could have happened, the evidence that I generally point to are the two crater like gulfs on the east coast of North America. One of them is Hudson Bay, the other is the Gulf of Mexico. If these two locations are actually the impact points of ancient meteorites, then the destruction that the impacts (both of them) would have had on the world would have been extensive indeed.
There are a number of other books that I have read on this topic, so I think I should leave this until such a time as I get around to reviewing those books. However, I will point out that the conclusion of this book was a little disappointing. The reason is that it concludes with a chapter on reincarnation. While Baigent has every right to believe this, I do find the concept of reincarnation to be very subjective, and a little strange. First of all, people seem to always be reincarnated from famous (or wealthy) people, and never from poor peasants. Further, it is very subjective, and while a lot of the aspects of this book are difficult to test, some of the theories that I have outlined above can be tested with evidence. Unfortunately, reincarnation cannot. However, once again, this is a topic that I will leave for another time.
26 December 2011
This is one of those books that it is difficult to put into a specific category. In a sense it would be non-fiction if you actually believe anything Baigent writes, and in the same sense it could also be considered history. The problem is that Baigent's writings tend to sit at the fringe of accepted academia (if in fact he is considered academia) and in turn his evidence, or at least his interpretation of the evidence, is dubious at best. This does not necessarily mean that what he writes is wrong, but a lot of it is based on opinion, and in parts, it is based on a belief that cannot be measured scientifically.
Now, the theme of this book is the question of whether there was a significantly advanced society that has been lost in the mists of pre-history, of which only small clues and 'ancient traces' remain. He then further goes onto explore the possibility of some world wide catastrophe that destroyed this civilisation and pretty much wiped all but the smallest of evidences of its existence from the face of the planet. Now while a lot of people, both from the scientific and religious communities, would consign this book to the rubbish heap, I do actually believe that he does raise some very interesting points.
It is very clear that Baignet is not a Christian: his book Holy Blood Holy Grail is the book that the idea of The Da Vinci Code was borrowed from (I will not use the word stolen as others used because authors always borrow their ideas from other writers, or even history itself: nothing can truly be considered new or original) however he opens his book outlining the problems with evolution. While I myself am a creationist, I do not consider evolution to be a major issue within Christianity. Some Christians believe in evolution, others (like myself) do not (though my views on creation are nowhere near extreme as some are, and I do believe that there is some merit in Darwin's theory). Unfortunately, some kick up such a fuss over this minor issue that it causes rifts and creates huge amounts of dissension within and outside of the ranks. To me, it is actually refreshing to see a non-Christian write about problems with evolution, which to me, goes to show that this theory has quite a lot of unanswered questions.
The next thing that I wish to discuss is the belief in a long lost ancient civilisation. Now, most of us will immediately think of Atlantis, however the earliest indication of the existence of this lost continent is from Plato, and one of the dialogues on the subject is unfinished. Now the accepted belief is that Plato was using Atlantis as an example of his perfect society, and it is suggested that the reason the dialogue on Atlantis is unfinished is because he decided to discard the idea of using Atlantis as an example of his society and wrote 'The Laws' instead, which (at this time I have not read) is simply a rundown on how his society should be constructed without any reference to some mythical place.
Plutarch gives a bit more of a background on the origins of the story, and though Plutarch wrote some 500 years after Plato, the sources that he would have had available to him were much more significant than what we have available to us. In short, while we have Plutarch, the sources that Plutarch uses we do not have, so we are pretty much relying on second or even third and forth hand accounts of the story of Atlantis. Plutarch suggests that the story came to Greece after the Athenian Lawgiver, Solon, traveled to Egypt where he learnt of this lost continent from the priests. Where the priests learnt this, and whether it was actually written down, is lost to us (as far as we know), though it is highly likely that between the priests, and Plato writing the legend down, at lot has been changed.
There is, ironically, another possible source for this information, though in this source Atlantis is not actually named. This source is the Bible. The reason I raise this is because in Genesis there are at least two pre-historic societies mentioned in passing, one being the Tower of Babel, and the second being the antediluvian civilisation. I suspect that this ancient society is likely to the the antediluvian one. The reason I suggest this is because straight after the account of the fall we have Cain's genealogy. This genealogy, after three generations, indicates that humanity had developed ironworking technology and musical instruments. To suggest that this society did not grow much beyond this, I believe, is to ignore the evidences before us. Further, Genesis was complied over the time period between the Flood and the Exodus, with Moses putting it into its final form. It is highly unlikely that Moses, or even Abraham, living in the societies that they did, would have been able to expound on a technological society that was in essence greater that the society in which they were living. While they could understand the concept of ironworking, I doubt they would have been able to understand anything beyond that.
I won't go into details of the world wide catastrophe that destroyed this civilisation beyond mentioning that the world wide flood is not something that is confined to the Bible. The flood narrative appears in cultures as distinct as the Greeks and the Australian Aboriginies. This is evidence that our collective memories knows of a disaster that destroyed all civilisation with the exception of a handful of people. If one wonders how such an event could have happened, the evidence that I generally point to are the two crater like gulfs on the east coast of North America. One of them is Hudson Bay, the other is the Gulf of Mexico. If these two locations are actually the impact points of ancient meteorites, then the destruction that the impacts (both of them) would have had on the world would have been extensive indeed.
There are a number of other books that I have read on this topic, so I think I should leave this until such a time as I get around to reviewing those books. However, I will point out that the conclusion of this book was a little disappointing. The reason is that it concludes with a chapter on reincarnation. While Baigent has every right to believe this, I do find the concept of reincarnation to be very subjective, and a little strange. First of all, people seem to always be reincarnated from famous (or wealthy) people, and never from poor peasants. Further, it is very subjective, and while a lot of the aspects of this book are difficult to test, some of the theories that I have outlined above can be tested with evidence. Unfortunately, reincarnation cannot. However, once again, this is a topic that I will leave for another time.
November 5, 2017
Baigent presents some 20 odd events, discoveries or sightings that would not appear to sit within the standard historical or scientific evolution of man or animal.
On the surface there is an argument that the linear approach to historical development maybe too rigid and does not allow for cross over. For example even today you can see certain parts of a population have access to incredible technology but some parts still do not have access to regular electricity supplies. Imagine being an archeologist in a couple of thousand years and looking back to now.
So I could appreciate part of the argument but it soon moves into presenting opinions as facts and relying on hearsay. Too many times there was a section about some fantastic object found, that should not be there but only for the evidence to have disappeared.
Plus the assumptions that people of the past did not create some of these strange beasts but they must have actually seen them. He is particularly keen on this theory with a set of long neck animals on an Egyptian shield. Using Baigent's logic there are an awful amount of dragons in our skies at the moment given the drawings I have seen.
Yet Baigent is right that we are still making new discoveries of animals and plant life. We do not know everything about our planet. However what he points to strengthen his argument are verified scientifically proven whereas a great deal of what is in this book is not.
It is an interesting reading, interesting theories and a useful catalogue of some of the anomalies many consider point to a lost civilization.
On the surface there is an argument that the linear approach to historical development maybe too rigid and does not allow for cross over. For example even today you can see certain parts of a population have access to incredible technology but some parts still do not have access to regular electricity supplies. Imagine being an archeologist in a couple of thousand years and looking back to now.
So I could appreciate part of the argument but it soon moves into presenting opinions as facts and relying on hearsay. Too many times there was a section about some fantastic object found, that should not be there but only for the evidence to have disappeared.
Plus the assumptions that people of the past did not create some of these strange beasts but they must have actually seen them. He is particularly keen on this theory with a set of long neck animals on an Egyptian shield. Using Baigent's logic there are an awful amount of dragons in our skies at the moment given the drawings I have seen.
Yet Baigent is right that we are still making new discoveries of animals and plant life. We do not know everything about our planet. However what he points to strengthen his argument are verified scientifically proven whereas a great deal of what is in this book is not.
It is an interesting reading, interesting theories and a useful catalogue of some of the anomalies many consider point to a lost civilization.
July 21, 2022
После прочтения такое чувство, что ортодоксальная археология - это очень-очень плохо. Навязано и надо верить, а всё ж сплошная неправда. Из-за этого доверие к книге постепенно падало на протяжении всего текста.
Автор хочет донести до читателей интересные моменты, когда некоторые находки или явления не вписывались в общепринятые знания. На основе этих "аутсайдеров" автор создал свои теории, о которых прямо не заявляет, но подводит к ним множественными предположениями и вопросами без ответа. Эти вопросы без ответов ассоциируются со школой, когда не знаешь ответа на вопрос учителя, и потому довольно сильно раздражают.
В целом впечатление такое, что заплатка здесь, заплатка там. Какие-то отрывочные факты и сведения. Но на их основе предлагается пересмотреть подход ко всей истории в целом.
Несистемно.
Затянуто.
Много раз хотелось бросить.
Лично меня автор безвозвратно потерял на том моменте, где речь зашла про реку Днестр в России.
Автор хочет донести до читателей интересные моменты, когда некоторые находки или явления не вписывались в общепринятые знания. На основе этих "аутсайдеров" автор создал свои теории, о которых прямо не заявляет, но подводит к ним множественными предположениями и вопросами без ответа. Эти вопросы без ответов ассоциируются со школой, когда не знаешь ответа на вопрос учителя, и потому довольно сильно раздражают.
В целом впечатление такое, что заплатка здесь, заплатка там. Какие-то отрывочные факты и сведения. Но на их основе предлагается пересмотреть подход ко всей истории в целом.
Несистемно.
Затянуто.
Много раз хотелось бросить.
Лично меня автор безвозвратно потерял на том моменте, где речь зашла про реку Днестр в России.
March 21, 2022
The book that really started my journey away from all of this alternative history, by the author that put me there in the first place.
Eqch chapter has the same writing style, asks questions and then doesn't answer them.
Feels like he's just accusing the establishment with no answers of his own. I'm giving it one star but it deserves zero.
Eqch chapter has the same writing style, asks questions and then doesn't answer them.
Feels like he's just accusing the establishment with no answers of his own. I'm giving it one star but it deserves zero.
February 7, 2020
Humans co-existing with dinosaurs, Atlantis, alchemy, reincarnation and more. Give me a book by Richard Dawkins any day.
April 30, 2024
Somewhat interesting, but doesn’t make any actual points, also kinda insane. I did pick it up from the esoteric section of oxfam tbf but wasn’t expecting it to fully deny evolution lol
September 16, 2012
I've read it before, no real new stuff, but well written. Would be interesting if you're a science student cause it asks about stuff that is assumed in science. It describes itself as Mysteries in Ancient and Early History. Questions accepted timelines. Interesting.
November 14, 2013
Interesting, insightful. A historical book that can turn conventional thoughts around, and doesn't need imagery to paint a world of artifacts and theories that could change your mind on history itself.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews