Forbidden Archeology is an extremely controversial book that has attracted a great deal of attention in the acacemic world. As might be expected, its anti-Darwinian thesis has provoked many negative reviews. But even those who disagree with the book's conclusions have recognized it as a genuine scholarly contribution to the debate on human origins."Michael Cremo, a research associate in history and philosophy of science, and Richard Thompson, a mathematician, challenge the dominant views of human origins and antiquity. This volume combines a vast amount of both accepted and controversial evidence from the archeological record with sociological, philosophical, and historical critiques of the scientific method to challenge existing views and expose the suppression of information concerning history and human origins." Journal of Field Archeology, vol. 21., 1994, p. 112.
"I have no doubt that there will be some who will read this book and profit from it. Certainly it provides the historian of archeology with a useful compendium of case studies in the history and sociology of scientific knowledge, which can be used to foster debate within archeology about how to describe the epistemology of one's discipline." British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 28, 1995, p. 379.
"It must be acknowledged that Forbidden Archeology brings to attention many interesting issues that have not received much consideration from historians; and the authors' detailed examination of the early literature [on archeology] is certainly stimulating and raises questions of considerable interest, both historically and from the perspective of practitioners of sociology of scientific knowledge." Social Studies of Science, vol. 26, no. 1, 1996, p. 196.
"While decidedly antievolutionary in perspective, this work is not the ordinary variety of anti-evolutionism in form, content, or style. In distinction to the usual brand of such writing, the authors use original sources and the book is well written." Gearchaeology, vol. 94, no. 4, 1994, p. 338.
"M. Cremo and R. Thompson have willfully written a provocative work that raises the problem of the influence of the dominant ideas of a time period on scientific research. These ideas can compel the researchers to orient their analyses according to the conceptions that are permitted by the scientific community. . . . The documentary richness of this work is not to be ignored." L'Anthropologie, vol. 99, no. 1, 1995, p. 159
"This is a catalogue and discussion of numerous Precambrian to Pleistocene fossils and artifacts accepted by some as evidence of anatomically modern humans. . . . The descriptions and extensive bibliography of obscure references will be very useful to a 'main-stream' scientist." Journal of Geological Education, vol. 43, 1995, p. 193
"Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson are to be congratulated on spending eight years producing the only definitive, precise, exhaustive, and complete record of practically all the fossil finds of man, regardless of whether they fit the established scientific theories or not. To say that the research is painstaking is a wild understatement. No other book of this magnitude and calibre exists. It should be compulsory reading for every first year biology, archeology, and anthropology student--and many others, too." Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, August 1994, p. 28.
"Forbidden Archeology takes the current conventions of decoding to their extreme. The authors find modern Homo sapiens to be continuous contemporaries of the apelike creatures from whom evolutionary biologists usually trace human descent . . . . Forbidden Archeology reads surprisingly well for what is basically an 828-page critical catalogue of two centuries of archeological evidence doubted or spurned by Western scientists." Journal of Unconventional History, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 75-76.
The author, Michael A. Cremo , July 18, 1998
Reactions to Forbidden Archeology
Readers interested in scientific reactions to Forbidden Archeology may want to check out my recently released book Forbidden Archeology's Impact, which includes all reviews from scientific publications and my responses.
From The Publisher
Over the centuries, researchers have found bones and artifacts proving that humans like us have existed for millions of years. Mainstream science, however, has suppressed these facts. Prejudices based on current scientific theory act as a "knowledge filter," giving us a picture of prehistory that is largely incorrect.
