Graham Hancock is an entertainer and popular author who's never done an ounce of archaeology and whose only appearance in academia is when we ask ourselves, "Where did we go wrong that so many people like Graham Hancock?"

I've responded to some of Hancock's more recent "work" here, as presented on Joe Rogan's podcast. This appearances shows just how regularly, and I must assume intentionally, he misrepresents what archaeologists actually think so that his own words sound interesting. He claims archaeologists ignore evidence for drug use, when there's stacks of published material on the practice. He claims the idea of pre-Clovis people in the Americas is radical, when "mainstream" archaeologists have been excavating potential pre-Clovis sites since the '80s. Why does he do this? He knows most listeners won't know squat about actual academic consensus, so he can make-up whatever sounds right for a middle school textbook and call that "mainstream archaeology."

I've responded to one of his chapters in Fingerprints of the Gods on a different sub. My main point here is that refuting his claims is difficult because, when making them, he first asserts that everything is mysterious and unknowable, even when it is easily and imminently knowable- or even just literally a pile of dirt. Others of his claims are so subjective or baseless that they have no base to refute. You think that blob looks like an extinct mammal? Well, that mammal had not tail and this blob does, but whatever suits you! Any facts put forward are just "other theories" and thus easily dismissed. How do you debate this? Well, you don't- if Hancock was interested in representing anything accurately, he wouldn't ignore, and seemingly go out of his to never mention, the decades and decades of research on the topics he discusses. Seriously, I've yet to see Hancock specifically mention a person or publication he disagrees with, and I suspect that's because he doesn't want readers/listeners knowing that there's other people out there doing actual research.

There's so many things one can talk about here- check out my earlier posts and see if those address your thoughts. If there's anything more specific you want to ask, please do so!