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

[Nuno Lourenço]

Fiz questão de ler este livro até ao fim. Pela forma como está escrito mereceria apenas 1 estrela.

Pelo assunto poderia merecer muitas mais. O tema não é desinteressante, longe disso. Não custa acreditar que antes da civilização suméria possa ter existido um sistema de medição cujos registos se tenham perdido (ou que não tenham ainda sido encontrados). Não me espantaria que esses conhecimentos tivessem sido transmitidos através de ensinamentos e rituais entre gerações (a associação da ciência ao divino deveria ser comum, olhemos o "recente" Pitágoras) e que, ao longo do tempo, se fossem transformando noutras. Tal como não me espantaria que a transmissão desse conhecimento estivesse de alguma forma ligada ao desenvolvimento de grupos fechados (escolas?) que estado na origem de organizações para proteção do conhecimento e influencia social como a maçonaria (no que ela contém de "guarda" de conhecimentos ligados à construção e, claro, de prepeonderância social).

No entanto a orientação tomada ao longo do livro toma como certas premissas e calculos que, à falta de melhor prova, dificilmente se enquadram numa "civilização" de parcos recursos e, sobretudo, sem escrita. O que resta é bastante ressentimento face à "academia" e uma concepção baseada na hipótese de uma civilização superior (divina ou semi-divina?) ter espalhado "a palavra".

O tema fica à espera de muitos melhores dias.