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Title: Voices of the Rocks : A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations by Robert M. Schoch Ph.D, Robert Aquinas McNally ISBN: 0-609-60369-8 Publisher: Random House Inc Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: More reasonable than not
Comment: Prior to the publication of this book, Robert Schoch was best known outside of academic geology as the scientist John Anthony West called in to investigate the idea, by way of Schwaller de Lubicz, that the Sphinx shows signs of water erosion that indicates an age far greater than orthodox Egyptologists are currently willing to consider. As detailed in Chapter Two of "Voices of the Rocks," Schoch came away from his examination convinced both that the Sphinx and its enclosure had been subject to extensive precipitation-induced weathering and that this weathering could only have occurred if the stone had originally been carved at least as far back as 7000-5000 BC, if not earlier, as compared to the previously accepted date of 2700 BC. Anyone looking for a real resolution to the scientific debate that Schoch started with these conclusions will be dissatisfied, as Schoch fails to acknowledge the inconsistencies in his findings (which can be found in Paul Jordan's "Riddles of the Sphinx," among other places), or viable alternative hypotheses, such as one I have seen mentioned on the web that accounts for the Sphinx' characteristic weathering via a model involving its burial in waterlogged sand. Nevertheless, it is this conclusion that Schoch uses as a springboard to consider the possibility of lost civilizations of greater antiquity than Egypt or Sumer, and (more importantly) the concomitant possibility that such civilizations were destroyed by worldwide cataclysms triggered by cometary impacts.
The book is sprinkled throughout with genuine, if most often highly speculative, science, and this distinguishes Schoch's efforts from those of pseudoscientific cranks like Graham Hancock or Rand Flem-Ath. So, for example, Schoch visits the superficially strange underwater "monolith" near Yonaguni, but unlike many (and, most likely, unlike Hancock, who is currently writing a book that will deal with Yonaguni and other underwater "monuments") he concludes that the structure is most likely a product of natural forces of erosion, as evidenced by the processes that can be observed on the beaches of Yonaguni now. Similarly, the notion of "polar shift" first proposed by Charles Hapgood and currently championed by Flem-Ath and Hancock is dealt with summarily here. In these parts of the book, it is refreshing to see a genuinely scientific approach being taken to questions that to date have been given only the most sensationalized and credulous of treatments.
Schoch's approach occasionally falters. Immediately after determining that the Yonaguni "monument" shows erosion and weathering consistent with what is happening naturally on the beaches today, he mentions the fact that this does not altogether rule out the possibility that human hands did have a role in shaping it. In the concluding paragraphs of this chapter, Schoch's narrative suddenly veers away from his scientific perspective as he incorporates a manmade Yonaguni monument into speculative and nearly baseless notions of ancient civilizations existing on the now submerged coasts of Ice Age-era antiquity. Although the possibility of extensive neolithic cultures that have been erased by sea-level rises since the last Ice Age is a real one (see Stephen Oppenheimer's "Eden in the East" for a fair summary of the evidence for this), Schoch completely forgets that he has no evidence whatsoever for a human influence on Yonaguni, and plentiful evidence for natural processes.
Even with such slips, "Voices" is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for a more reasoned and less sensationalized perspective on the question of lost civilizations, the legend of Atlantis and the "facts" that might underlie it, and the possibility that cometary impacts have had profound effects on the course of human history.
Rating: 5
Summary: Talkin' Rocks
Comment: This book is not technical and well worth reading. It's easy going and most will polish it off in no time. The early chapters deal with the geological dating of the Sphinx. His critiques of some of the other writers about the Sphinx and the other monuments of Giza are cogent and not condescending, which reveals his good character as well as his intelligence. Schoch highlights the difficulty or impossibility of explaining the onset of the ice ages (for example) using uniform principles, and discusses interesting and scientific catastrophic alternatives, all the while remaining philosophically uniformitarian. His citation of Mary Settegast's "Plato Prehistorian" led to my reading that book.
Rating: 1
Summary: Don't buy this waste of paper
Comment: Well I got SUCKERED, what a grandly misleading title. Seeking hard science arguments from a reputed ph.D further explaining the anomities of the geological record, as the title suggests, I was greatly disappointed with the lack of story or revelations as claimed, and the petty partual inclusions of airy-fairy wish wash "Hype" themes. Lord behold, I was worried when I read the dubious praises on the rear cover by the renown cranks Hancock, West, and Bauval.
Nothing at all new, the only compelling area covers little more than the intial pages where the dating of the Sphinx
is detailed. The book then slips into crank theories where the author hovers around the sides like a timid scum-sucking iliterate fearful to be judged to be of any persuasion or belief. Everything from Atlantis in Antartica to Hapgood's maps are rehashed revealing zip.
NOTHING new, BIG disappointment, much grandstanding with a hint of "just trying to fill a book". Any beneficial data could easily have been published in a single article, and has been.
A author I would never purchase again.
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Title: Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America by Robert Schoch, Robert Aquinas McNally ISBN: 1585422037 Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher Pub. Date: 06 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Origin Map: Discovery of a Prehistoric, Megalithic, Astrophysical Map and Sculpture of the Universe by Thomas G. Brophy ISBN: 0595241220 Publisher: Writers Club Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock ISBN: 0517887290 Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA) Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization by Frank Joseph ISBN: 1879181851 Publisher: Bear & Company Pub. Date: 30 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age by Charles H. Hapgood ISBN: 0932813429 Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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