Otisci bogova: Potraga za početkom i krajem

Hancock claims that 12,000–15,000 years ago there was an advanced global civilization ("lost mother-culture") that possessed knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, navigation, and construction superior to that of today. This civilization was destroyed in a catastrophic global flood caused by the shifting of the Earth's crust and the melting of glaciers at the end of the last ice age (~10,900 BC).

The surviving "gods" (white-skinned, bearded teachers) brought knowledge to the surviving hunter-gatherers and launched all later civilizations: Egypt, Sumer, Mesoamerica, Peru, and even India and China.

Evidence:

• Maps by Piri Reis (1513) and Oronteus Finae (1531) show Antarctica free of ice, which was only possible 12,000 years ago.

• The Sphinx shows erosion from heavy rains (10,500–8000 BC), not desert sand.

• The pyramids at Giza and Teotihuacán encode precise astronomical data and the ratio of π to φ.

• Flood myths exist among 500 peoples of the world with identical details.

• Goebekli Tepe in Turkey (9600 BC) shows sophisticated astronomy 7000 years before Sumer.

Hancock concludes that academic archaeology deliberately ignores this evidence because it would overthrow the official chronology. The book ends with a warning: the next catastrophe (the return of a comet or a pole shift) could happen already in our time.

The book has sold over 8 million copies, has become the bible of alternative history and has caused a lasting controversy with mainstream science.