Discovering the Secrets of Ancient America: Lost History and Legends, Unearthed and Explored

by Frank Joseph (Editor), Zecharia Sitchin (Contributor), Wayne May (Contributor)

The nursery rhyme begins, "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Less well-known is the line that follows: "…to learn if the old maps were true." How can there be "old maps" of a land no one knew existed? Were others here before Columbus? What were their reasons for coming and what unexplained artifacts did they leave behind?

The oceans were highways to America rather than barriers, and when discoverers put ashore, they were greeted by unusual inhabitants. In Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America, the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia turns his sextant towards this hemisphere. Here is a collection of the most controversial articles selected from seventy issues of the infamous Ancient American magazine. They range from the discovery of Roman relics in Arizona and California's Chinese treasure, to Viking rune-stones in Minnesota and Oklahoma and the mysterious religions of ancient Americans. Many questions will be raised including:

What role did extraterrestrials have in the lives of ancient civilizations?

What ancient pyramids and towers tell us about the people who built them?

Are they some sort of portals to another dimension?

What prehistoric technologies have been discovered, and what can they tell us about early settlers, their religious beliefs, and possible other-worldly visitors?

Did El Dorado exist, and what of the legendary Fountain of Youth?

Was Atlantis in Cuba?

What are America’s lost races and what happened to them?

Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America brings to the fore the once-hidden true past of America’s earliest civilizations

Frank Joseph is the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia (New Page Books), as well as a dozen other books on history, prehistory, and metaphysics. He has been the editor-in-chief of Ancient American magazine since its first issue in 1993. He lives in Wisconsin.

Wayne May is the founder-publisher of Ancient American. Laura Lee is the award-winning producer and host of the nationally syndicated "The Laura Lee Show". David Hatcher Childress wrote the best-selling Lost Cities series. Zecharia Sitchin is the author of the best-selling Earth Chronicles series. Andrew Collins is world-renowned for his consistent bestsellers, including Gateway to Atlantis.

Genres: History, Ancient History, Anthropology

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2003

About the author

Frank Joseph is the pen name of Francis Joseph Collin, a former activist with the American Nazi Party/National Socialist White People's Party and the founder of the National Socialist Party of America. In 1979, Collin was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison, and he lost his position in the party.

Upon his release from prison, Collin reinvented himself under the pseudonym of Frank Joseph, a New Age writer and a pagan worshiper. In 1987, he had his first New Age book published, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization.

He wrote articles for the magazine Fate, and between 1993 and 2007 he was also an editor of Ancient American. This magazine focuses on what it considers to be evidence of ancient, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between the Old World and North America, with the implication that all complex aspects of North America's indigenous cultures must have originated on other continents.

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Be careful. A lot of conspiracy theories BASED on facts...,

This book is a compilation of articles that take facts and add conjecture or speculation to arrive at a possible thesis.
The articles in this book are generally based on large leaps of faith which have little or no basis.
The editor, Frank Joseph, is from a historical conspiracy theory type magazine called Ancient American.
The book is a collection of articles from the magazine, printed in book form for a quick buck.
If you looked for this book in your local bookstore, you would most likely find it in the "new age" or "alternative history" section.
It is not possible to read this book as non-fiction because some of it is based on guesswork or patchwork history.
If fact and fiction are mixed, you have fiction, no matter how much fact is involved.
Unless you are a conspiracy theorist or you are looking for a book full of magazine articles of historical fiction, you can probably skip this one.
Some of the stories are interesting, but all are portrayted as journalism when they would more accurately be described as historical fiction.

[Klaudia Litwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Zaginiona historia starożytnych Ameryk" jest utworem zebranym z artykułów opublikowanych w czasopiśmie popularnonaukowym Ancient American, wraz z komentarzem redaktora naczelnego magazynu-Franka Josepha. Jest to pozycja pełna ciekawostek na temat obiektów odnajdywanych na terenach obu Ameryk, a także ludów potencjalnie je zamieszkujących. Szeroko omawiane są znaleziska jak m.in. człowiek z Kennewick czy dysk z Niebry.Oprócz wydarzeń historycznych znajdziemy tam również mnóstwo kontrowersyjnych hipotez, które nie znajdują potwierdzenia w źródłach. Autorzy artykułów, w większości przypadków, atakują wręcz specjalistów w swoich dziedzinach i skarżają ich o ukrywanie prawdy. Samego redaktora także możemy uznać zaciekawą osobę, ponieważ większość jego publikacji skupia się wokół tajemnic i legend. Pozycja ta nie jest według mnie lekturą obowiązkową, ale może być ciekawostką dla osób zainteresowanych historią lecz bardziej w kontekście rozrywkowym niż jako rzetelne źródło informacji.

[CynthyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book showing evidences of visits by ancient civilizations to the American continent prior to 1492 and the visit of Columbus--some visits occurring thousands of years ago by peoples such as the Minoans, the Romans, the Kelts, and, of course, the Vikings. The interesting thing is that the majority of mainstream anthropologists, scientists, and archeologists won't accept the proofs and evidences as legitimate, because it doesn't match traditional scientific belief systems. Yet, there they are: the tower in Rhode Island, the ancient crosses unearthed in Arizona, the Minoan type dye, the rune markers in Oklahoma, and on and on.

One thing I appreciated about the book was that the author often provided both sides of the controversy. Worth reading.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting "alternative" histories of the early colonizers of the Americas. Some articles had to be read with a bit of salt but others were believable if not close to accurate. For decades I have known that Columbus (re)discovered the New World. Do not know what current school texts say about the "age of discovery" but we are always in the discovery mode. Hoping a new age is beginning in the study of our history and prehistory.

Those who cannot except new evidence and new discoveries in whatever discipline they follow will miss out in some of the most exciting facets of an inquisitive mind. If you do not grow you die.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great science book about non-mainstream archeology! This book doesn't harp on assertions that the Americas had visits and settlement from Europe/Asia/Africa/Norway; it mentions the artifacts found which indicate This was the case. How a book full of science documenting this evidence can go unmentioned to school children (taught only Columbus found the New World; oh, maybe L. Erikson stopped by on fishing trips to Maine) would be wondered by most... But mainstream science skeptic that I am, it's not the least bit surprising to hear how they work to disguise and refute such artifacts as frauds. This should be of interest to anyone interested in how much science dismisses science evidence which conflicts with their popular theories!

[Dan Zarfati · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really deserves five stars, amazing articles from reputable writers that analyze interesting theories that are backed up by interesting construction remains and with some very consistent artifacts. The articles list the presence of different influences, such as the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Minoans, and the Templars. the Irish, the Chinese, and so on, it goes further to explain that probably before the arrival of the Siberians and the Polynesians there was a probable presence of White people native to America, and that makes the ancient civilization of the Americas much more ancient.

[Valiant Thor · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of articles from multiple authors on artifacts and sites evidencing presence of 'Old World' peoples in the Pre-Columbian Americas, with a focus on North America. I would recommend this book as an entry-point to the subject, covering much key information.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book consisting of articles taken from Ancient America magazine. They center around the subject of whether or not the America's were visited by people before Columbus (not counting those who migrated her and became the Native Americans, Incans, Aztecs, etc.)


The book examines a number of artifacts that have been found in this country, particularly, that can be interpreted as being left from explorers from other countries, well before Columbus ever landed on North American shores. The quality of the artifacts and their importance vary; some could be forgeries; some could be things that were made by nature and just appear to be made by humans; others are harder to dismiss, such as statues, coins, or even skeletons.


The book holds that the orthodox archaeological establishment does not want to admit to anyone being in this country before Columbus (again, other than Native Americans, etc.) The book says that there is evidence that this country was visited by Egyptians, Phoenicians, Black Africans, Chinese and various other peoples from an assorted group of countries.


In recent years, the orthodox community has grudgingly admitted that the Vikings were in North America before Columbus; but this book makes it seem as if a rather large group of visitors had been here before him.

The first problem in this assumption is that none of these individuals or groups are still here. At best, the groups seem to consist of individuals or perhaps groups numbering around twenty or so. None of them established any lasting colonies, indicating that, if they were here, they either died here, or returned to where they came from.

The difference between them and Columbus is that, after Columbus, the explorers ended up becoming settlers, and they stayed here.


The evidence the book presents for earlier visitors seems fairly impressive at times, and a few pieces seem almost undeniable evidence, but scientists can be very, very arrogant in their assurance that they are right and everyone else is wrong (even though there are many times when scientists have been sure they knew just the way things were, and reality slapped them in the face and showed them that things didn't necessarily work they way they had thought.)


I think that this is all going to be an argument for a long, long time, and orthodox academia will not accept the existence of pre-Columbus visitors and settlers until the amount of physical evidence becomes overwhelming.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles from their magazine. It's kind of nice reading a book that's broken up into small selections. My complaint would be that there wasn't much new information for me and only some of the articles were interesting. Also, there seem to be a lot of typos which detracts from it's academic force. They should have had years to proof-read some of these articles.

Makes for a good introduction to prehistoric America but you'll need to follow up with a more in-depth selection.

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author so I may be biased, the way he lays this book out is easier than most to read as it is more a compilation of articles by archeologists. Absolutely fascinating, I highly recommend it!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It lead me to investigate and learn of all the anomalies found in the state I live in. If I had the time I would love to spend time going to the archeological anomaly sites and conducting my own research.

[Ernie Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read from a non-LDS perspective.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of articles describing various historical anomalies that can't be explained by the current historical dogma.