Fingerprints of the Gods
everywhere with me, sharing the risks and the adventures, sharing the
highs and the lows. Sitting across from us was our friend Ed Ponist, a
medical-surgical nurse from Lansing, Michigan. A few years previously Ed
had worked on the reservation for a while, and it was thanks to his
contacts that we were now here. On my right was Paul Sifki, a ninety-sixyear-old Hopi elder of the Spider clan, and a leading spokesman of the
traditions of his people. Beside him was his grand-daughter Melza Sifki, a
handsome middle-aged woman who had offered to translate.
‘I have heard,’ I said, ‘that the Hopi believe the end of the world is
coming. Is this true?’
Paul Sifki was a small, wizened man, nut-brown in colour, dressed in
jeans and a cambric shirt. Throughout our conversation he never once
looked at me, but gazed intently ahead, as though he were searching for
a familiar face in a distant crowd.
Melza put my question to him and a moment later translated her
grandfather’s reply: ‘He says, “why do you want to know”?’
I explained that there were many reasons. The most important was that
I felt a sense of urgency: ‘My research has convinced me that there was
an advanced civilization—long, long ago—that was destroyed in a terrible
cataclysm. I fear that our own civilization may be destroyed by a similar
cataclysm ...’
36 Community Profile: Hopi Indian Reservation, Arizona Department of Commerce.
37 Breaking the Maya Code, p. 275.
38 Book of the Hopi.
39 World Mythology, p. 26.
480
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
There followed a long exchange in Hopi, then this translation: ‘He said
that when he was a child, in the 1900s, there was a star that exploded—a
star that had been up there in the sky for a long while ... And he went to
his grandfather and asked him to explain the meaning of this sign. His
grandfather replied: “This is the way our own world will end—engulfed in
flames ... If people do not change their ways then the spirit that takes
care of the world will become so frustrated with us that he will punish the
world with flames and it will end just like that star ended.” That was what
his grandfather said to him—that the earth would explode just like that
exploding star ...’
‘So the feeling is that this world will end in fire ... And having viewed
the world for the past ninety years, does he believe that the behaviour of
mankind has improved or worsened?’
‘He says it has not improved. We’re getting worse.’
‘So in his opinion, then, the end is coming?’
‘He said that the signs are already there to be seen ... He said that
nowadays nothing but the wind blows and that all we do is have a
weapon pointed at one another. That shows how far apart we have drifted
and how we feel towards each other now. There are no values any more—
none at all—and people live any way they want, without morals or laws.
These are the signs that the time has come ...’
Melza paused in her translation, then added on her own account: ‘This
terrible wind. It dries things out. It brings no moisture. The way we see it,
this kind of climate is a consequence of how we’re living today—not just
us, but your people as well.’
I noticed that her eyes had filled with tears while she was talking. ‘I
have a cornfield,’ she continued, ‘that’s really dry. And I look up into the
sky and try to pray for rain, but there is no rain, no clouds even ... When
we’re like this we don’t even know who we are.’
There was a long moment of silence and the wind rocked the trailer,
blowing hard and steady across the mesa as evening fell around us.
I said quietly, ‘Please ask your grandfather if he thinks that anything
can now be done for the Hopi and for the rest of mankind?’
‘The only thing he knows,’ Melza replied when she had heard his
answer, ‘is that so long as the Hopi do not abandon their traditions they
may be able to help themselves and to help others. They have to hold on
to what they believed in the past. They have to preserve their memories.
These are the most important things ... But my grandfather wants to tell
you also, and for you to understand, that this earth is the work of an
intelligent being, a spirit—a creative and intelligent spirit that has
designed everything to be the way it is. My grandfather says that nothing
is here just by chance, that nothing happens by accident—whether good
or bad—and that there is a reason for everything that takes place ...’
481
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
At the millstone grinding
When human beings from around the globe, and from many different
cultures, share a powerful and overwhelming intuition that a cataclysm is
approaching, we are within our rights to ignore them. And when the
voices of our distant ancestors, descending to us through myths and
sacred architecture, speak to us of the physical obliteration of a great
civilization in remote antiquity (and tell us that our own civilization is in
jeopardy), we are entitled, if we wish, to stop our ears ...
So it was, the Bible says, in the antediluvian world: ‘For in those days,
before the Flood, people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking
husbands, right up to the moment that Noah went into the Ark, and they
suspected nothing till the flood came and swept all away.’40
In the same manner it has been prophesied that the next global
destruction will fall upon us suddenly ‘at an hour we do not suspect, like
lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west ... The sun will
be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will fall from the
sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken ... Then of two men in the
fields, one is taken, one left; and of two women at the millstone grinding,
one is taken, one left ...’41
What has happened before can happen again. What has been done
before can be done again.
And perhaps there is, indeed, nothing new under the sun ...
40 Matthew, 24: 38-39.
41 Matthew, 24: 27-41.
482
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
Selected Bibliography
Aldred, Cyril, Akhenaton, Abacus, London, 1968.
— —Egypt to the End of the Old Kingdom, Thames & Hudson, London, 1988.
Ancient America, Time-Life International, 1970.
Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (trans. R. O. Faulkner), British Museum Publications,
1989. Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (trans. R. O. Faulkner), Oxford University
Press, 1969.
Antoniadi, E. M., L’Astronomie egyptienne, Paris, 1934.
Apocryphal Old Testament (ed. H. F. D. Sparks), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989.
Arguelles, José, The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology, Bear & Co., Santa Fe, New
Mexico, 1987.
Atlas of Mysterious Places (ed. Jennifer Westwood), Guild Publishing, London, 1987.
Aubet, Maria Eugenia, The Phoenicians and the West, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Aveni, Anthony F., Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, Univer
sity of Texas Press, 1990.
Aztec Calendar: History and Symbolism, Garcia y Valades Editores, Mexico City, 1992.
Aztecs: Reign of Blood and Splendour, Time-Life Books, Virginia, 1992.
Bailey, James, The God-Kings and the Titans, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1972.
Baines, John and Malek, Jaromir, Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Time-Life Books, Virginia, 1990.
Bauval, Robert and Gilbert, Adrian, The Orion Mystery, Wm. Heinemann, London, 1994.
Bellamy, H. S., Built Before the Flood: The Problem of the Tiahuanaco Ruins, Faber &
Faber, London, 1943.
——and Allan, P., The Calendar of Tíahuanaco: The Measuring System of the Oldest
Civilization, Faber & Faber, London, 1956.
Berlitz, Charles, The Lost Ship of Noah, W. H. Allen, London, 1989.
Bernal, Martin, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vintage
Books, London, 1991.
Bethon, Simon and Robinson, Andrew, The Shape of the World: The Mapping and
Discovery of the Earth, Guilt Publishing, London, 1991.
Bhagavata Purana, Motilal Banardess, Delhi, 1986.
Bierhorst, John, The Mythology of South America, Wm. Morrow & Co., New York, 1990.
—— The Mythology of Mexico and Central America, Wm. Morrow & Co., New York, 1990.
Black, Jeremy and Green, Anthony, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia,
British Museum Press, 1992.
Bloomgarden, Richard, The Pyramids of Teotihuacan, Editur S. A., Mexico, 1993.
Blue Guide: Egypt, A & C Black, London, 1988.
Bolivia, Lonely Planet Publications, Hawthorne, Australia, 1992.
Breasted, J. H., Ancient Records of Egypt: Historical Documents from the Earliest Times
to the Persian Conquest, Histories and Mysteries of Man, London, 1988.
—— The Dawn of Conscience, Charles Scribners Sons, New York, 1944.
Butzer, Karl W., Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: A Study in Cultural Ecology,
University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Cameron, Ian, Kingdom of the Sun God: A History of the Andes and Their People, Guild
Publishing, London, 1990.
Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Paladin Books, London, 1988.
Canfora, Luciano, The Vanished Library, Hutchinson Radius, London, 1989.
Casson, Lionel, Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times, University of Texas Press, 1994.
Cieza de Leon, Pedro, Chronicle of Peru, Hakluyt Society, London, 1864 and 1883.
Coe, Michael D., The Maya, Thames & Hudson, 1991.
483
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
—— Breaking the Maya Code, Thames & London, 1992.
Cole, J. H., Survey of Egypt, Cairo, 1925.
Comber, Leon, The Traditional Mysteries of the Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya,
Eastern Universities Press, Singapore, 1961.
Community Profile: Hopi Indian Reservation, Arizona Department of Commerce.
Complete Works of josephus, Kriegel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1991.
Cooraswamy, Ananda K. and Sister Nivedita, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, George
G. Harrap & Co., London, 1913.
Corteggiani, Jean-Pierre, The Egypt of the Pharoahs at the Cairo Museum, Scala
Publications, London, 1987.
Cotterell, Arthur, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends, Guild Publishing,
London, 1989.
Cuvier, Georges, Revolutions and Catastrophes in the History of the Earth, 1829.
Darwin, Charles, Journal of Researches into the Natural History of Countries Visited
during the Voyage of HMS Beagle Round the World.
—— The Origin of Species, Penguin, London, 1985.
David, Rosalie, A Guide to Religious Ritual at Abydos, Aris and Phillips, Warminster,
1981.
——and David, Anthony E., A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Seaby, London,
1992.
Davidovits, Joseph and Morris, Margie, The Pyramids: An Enigma Solved, Dorset Press,
New York, 1988.
Davis, Nigel, The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico, Penguin Books, London, 1990.
Desroches-Noblecourt, Christine, Tutunkhamen, Penguin Books, London, 1989.
Devereux, Paul, Secrets of Ancient and Sacred Places, Blandford Books, London, 1992.
Diodorus Siculus (trans. C. H. Oldfather), Loeb Classical Library, London, 1989; Harvard
University Press, 1989.
Donnelly, Ignatius, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1882.
Edwards, I. E. S., The Pyramids of Egypt, Penguin, London, 1949.
Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs, Time-Life Books, Virginia, 1992.
Egyptian Book of the Dead (trans. E. A. Wallis Budge), British Museum, 1895; Arkana,
London and New York, 1986.
Emery, W. B., Archaic Egypt, Penguin Books, London, 1987.
Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt (ed. Margaret Bunson), Facts on File, New York and
Oxford, 1991.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1991 edition.
Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Classics, London, 1988.
Evolving Earth, Guild Publishing, London, 1989.
Facts on File Encyclopaedia of World Mythology and Legend, New York and Oxford,
1988.
Fakhry, Ahmed, The Pyramids, University of Chicago Press, 1969.
Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Time-Life Books, Virginia, 1990.
Fernandez, Adela, Pre-Hispanic Gods of Mexico, Panorama Editorial, Mexico City, 1992.
Fiedel, Stuart J., The Prehistory of the Americas, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Filby, Frederick A., The Flood Reconsidered: A Review of the Evidences of Geology,
Archaeology, Ancient Literature and the Bible, Pickering & Inglis, London, 1970.
Flem-Ath, Rand and Rose, When the Sky Fell, Stoddart, Canada, 1995.
Flint, R. F., Glacial Geology and the Pleistocene Epoch, 1947.
Fowden, Garth, The Egyptian Hermes, Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Frankfort, Henry, The Cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos, 39th memoir of the Egypt
Exploration Society, London, 1933.
—— Kingship and the Gods, University of Chicago Press, 1978.
484
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
Frazer, J. G., Folklore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and
Law, Macmillan, London, 1923.
Gardner, A. H., The Royal Canon of Turin, Griffith Institute, Oxford.
Geography of Strabo (trans. H. L. Jones), Wm. Heinemann, London, 1982.
Gifford, D. and Sibbick, J., Warriors, Gods and Spirits from South American Mythology,
Eurobook Ltd., 1983.
Gleninnen, Inga, Aztecs, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Gordon, Cyrus H., Before Columbus: Links between the Old World and Ancient America,
Crown Publishers, New York, 1971.
Grey, George, Polynesian Mythology, London, 1956.
Grimal, Nicholas, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1992.
Hadigham, Evan, Lines to the Mountain Gods, Harrap, London, 1987.
Hallet, Jean-Pierre, Pygmy Kitabu, BCA, London, 1974.
Hancock, Graham, The Sign and the Seal, Mandarin, London, 1993.
Hapgood, Charles H., Earth’s Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth
Science, Pantheon Books, New York, 1958.
—— Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, Chillon Books, Philadelphia and New York, 1966;
Turnstone Books, London, 1979.
—— The Path of the Pole, Chilton Books, New York, 1970.
Hart, George, Egyptian Myths, British Museum Publications, 1990.
—— Pharoahs and Pyramids, Guild Publishing, London, 1991.
Ha
wkins, Gerald S., Beyond Stonehenge, Arrow Books, London, 1977.
Hemming, John, The Conquest of the Incas, Macmillan, London, 1993.
Herm, Gerard, The Phoenicians, BCA, London, 1975.
Herodotus, The History (trans. David Grene), University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Heyerdahl, Thor, The Ra Expeditions, BCA, London, 1972.
Hodges, Peter and Keable, Julian, How the Pyramids Were Built, Element Books,
Shaftesbury, 1989.
Hoffman, Michael, Egypt before the Pharoahs, Michael O’Mara Books, London, 1991.
Homer, Odyssey (Rouse translation).
Hooker, Dolph Earl, Those Astrounding Ice Ages, Exposition Press, New York, 1958.
Hopkins, David M. et al., The Paleoecology of Beringia, Academic Press, New York, 1982.
Imbre, John and Imbrie, Katherine Palmer, Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery, Enslow
Publishers, New Jersey, 1979.
Inglis, Brian, Coincidence, Hutchinson, London, 1990.
Ions, Veronica, Egyptian Mythology, Newnes Books, London, 1986.
Irwin, Constance, Fair Gods and Stone Faces, W. H. Allen, London, 1964.
Ivimy, John, The Sphinx and the Megaliths, Abacus, London, 1976.
Jacq, C., Egyptian Magic, Aris and Phillips, Warminster, 1985.
Jewish Encyclopaedia, Funk and Wagnell, New York, 1925.
Johanson, Donald C. and Eddy, Maitland C., Lucy: The Beginnings of Mankind, Paladin,
London, 1982.
Joseph, Pablo, The Extirpation of Idolatry in Peru (trans. L. Clark Keating), University of
Kentucky Press, 1968.
Kanjilal, Dileep Kumar, Vimana in Ancient India, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Calcutta,
1985.
Kerenyi, C., The Gods of the Greeks, Thames & Hudson, London, 1974.
Kitchen, K. A., Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, Aris and Phillips,
Warminster, 1982.
485
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
Lamy, Lucy, Egyptian Mysteries, Thames & Hudson, London, 1986.
Landa, Diego de, Yucatan before and after the Conquest (trans. William Gates),
Produccion Editorial Dante, Merida, Mexico, 1990.
Langway, C. C. and Hansen, B. Lyle. The Frozen Future: A Prophetic Report from
Antarctica, Quadrangle, New York, 1973.
Lee, J. S., The Geology of China, London, 1939.
Lemesurier, Peter, The Great Pyramid: Your Personal Guide, Element Books, Shaftesbury,
1987.
—— The Great Pyramid Decoded, Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1989.
Lewin, Roger, Human Evolution, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, 1984.