Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought it Was

by Christopher Knight, Alan Butler

This is the extraordinary story of how the quest to try to crack the mystery of the Megalithic Yard - an ancient unit of linear measurement - led to the discovery of compelling evidence pointing to the existence of an unknown, highly advanced culture which was the precursor to the earliest known civilizations such as the Sumerians and the Egyptians. There must have been a Civilization One. The authors show how this very precise unit of 82.966656cm, proven to have been used in the construction of thousands of megalithic structures in Britain and France, was derived from observing the rate of the spin of the Earth - based on a form of geometry that had 366 degrees to match the 366 rotations of the Earth in a year. They reveal how this is part of an integrated system, far more advanced than anything used today, which forms the basis of both the Imperial and the Metric systems. The ancient scientists understood the dimensions, motions and relationships of the Earth, Moon and Sun - they measured the solar system and even understood how the speed of light was integrated into the movements of our planet. The implications of these revelations go far beyond the fascination of discovering

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Science, Alternate History, Archaeology, Conspiracy Theories

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Christopher Knight is an author who has written several books dealing with pseudoscientific conspiracy theories such as 366-degree geometry and the origins of Freemasonry.
In an interview about the book Who Built the Moon?: 2005 Knight stated that the moon is an artificial construction probably built by humans with a message in "base ten arithmetic so it looks as though it is directed to a ten digit species that is living on Earth right now - which seems to mean humans." He believes that it was created to make life on Earth possible, including humans, and that the most likely builders were humans of the future using time travel.

Reviews

[Ferio]

Este es uno de esos estudios de los que uno no tiene nada claro qué pensar. Por una parte las pruebas que presentan parecen terriblemente coincidentes con su teoría pero, por otra parte, no estoy seguro de que pudieran pasar el filtro de la Teoría de Errores a la hora de hacer los redondeos. Además cometen una serie de maguferías al querer equiparar el sonido y las ondas electromagnéticas con motivos espirituales que no vienen a cuento; luego ya te confiesan que al menos uno de ellos es masón y entiendes todo, pero creo que el libro ganaría si depurasen un poco estas cosas menos científicas.

Aún así, no deja de ser una teoría curiosa y hasta probable; ahora bien, se centran demasiado en los megalitos más conocidos por el gran público pero no realizan ningún comentario sobre yacimientos arqueológicos de los que se sabe a ciencia cierta que no encajan con la Historia conocida y que probablemente desbarajustasen sus teorías. Tsk tsk.

[Adosinda]

Increíble teoría sobre una civilización prehistórica muy avanzada tanto matemática como astronómicamente. A pesar de los razonamientos y los cálculos aparentemente muy exactos - no soy quien para juzgarlos- chirría que todo encaje tan bien around the world.
En cualquier caso, constituye un clásico que se debe leer si eres un interesado de la prehistoria y las civilizaciones megalíticas.