Ancient Apocalypse

Ancient Apocalypse
Promotional poster
Presented by	Graham Hancock
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	14
Production
Executive producer	Bruce Kennedy
Producers	Clementine Mortelman, Joshua Gray, Rebecca Joy, Marc Tiley
Running time	29-34 minutes (first season) 40 minutes (second season)
Production company	ITN Productions
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	10 November 2022 (2022-11-10) – 16 October 2024 (2024-10-16)

Ancient Apocalypse is a Netflix series, where the British writer Graham Hancock presents his pseudoarchaeological theory that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age and that it was destroyed as a result of meteor impacts around 12,000 years ago. He proposes that survivors passed on their knowledge to hunter-gatherers around the world, giving rise to all earliest known civilizations. The episodes feature Hancock visiting archaeological sites and natural features which he claims show evidence of this. He repeatedly alleges that archaeologists are ignoring or covering up the evidence.

Archaeologists and other experts say that the series presents pseudoscientific claims that lack evidence, cherry picks, and fails to present the counter-evidence. A statement from the Society for American Archaeology condemned the theories presented as having a "long-standing association with racist, white supremacist ideologies" and accused Hancock of "seeking to cause harm to [...] our profession in the public eye". Some non-academic reviewers also found the theories unconvincing and criticized Hancock's complaints about 'mainstream archaeology' as one-sided and evocative of conspiracy theories. Some experts featured in the first series complained that footage of them was presented in a misleading way.

The first season of the series, produced by ITN Productions, was released on Netflix in November 2022. A second season, featuring actor Keanu Reeves alongside Hancock, is focused on the Americas and was released in October 2024.

In the series, Hancock argues that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age. He speculates that it was destroyed around 12,000 years ago by sudden climate change during the Younger Dryas cool period, but that its few survivors taught agriculture, monumental architecture and astronomy to primitive hunter-gatherers around the world.^[1] Hancock does not accept that the earliest known civilizations could have arisen independently or that faraway peoples developed the same ideas, and argues that they all came from one advanced ice age civilization. He attempts to show how several ancient monuments and myths are evidence of this, and claims that archaeologists are ignoring or covering up this alleged evidence.^[2][3] It incorporates the controversial Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, which has been comprehensively refuted,^[4] and which attributes climate change to an impact winter caused by a massive meteor bombardment.^[5]

The series was produced by ITN Productions and released by Netflix on 10 November 2022.^[6][7] Hancock's son Sean is a manager at Netflix responsible for "unscripted originals".^[6] It was the second most-watched series on Netflix in its week of release.^[8]

Two archaeologists who were featured in the first season, Katya Stroud, a senior curator at Heritage Malta, and Necmi Karul, the director of excavations at Göbekli Tepe, said that their interviews were manipulated and presented out of context.^[9][10]

A second season was released on Netflix on 16 October 2024^[11] and featured the actor Keanu Reeves alongside Hancock.^[12] Plans to film parts of the second season of the show in the USA were cancelled following opposition from Indigenous groups over Hancock's depiction of their history and culture.^[13]

Archaeologists and other experts say that the theories presented in the series are pseudoscientific, lack evidence, and that many claims are easily disproven. The Society for American Archaeology objected to the classification of the series as a documentary and requested that Netflix reclassify it as science fiction,^[7][14][15] stating:

"the series devalues the archaeological profession on the basis of false claims and disinformation;... repeatedly and vigorously dismisses archaeologists and the practice of archaeology with aggressive rhetoric, willfully seeking to cause harm to our membership and our profession in the public eye; ... the theory it presents has a long-standing association with racist, white supremacist ideologies; does injustice to Indigenous peoples; and emboldens extremists."^[7][14]

Archaeologist Flint Dibble said the show is "lacking in evidence to support Hancock's theory", while there is "a plethora of evidence" which contradicts the dates Hancock gives.^[1] John Hoopes, an archaeologist who has written about pseudoarcheology, said the series fails to present alternative interpretations or evidence contradicting Hancock.^[2] Archaeologist David Connolly said that Hancock's work relied on cherry-picked evidence for his claims, noting, "what he'll do is take a piece of real research [by others], insert a piece of 'why not?' and then finish it off with a bit of real research [by others]".^[15] Dr. Colin Elder, supervising archaeologist at the University of Salford, said Hancock is "not trying to corroborate with multiple sources ... He's finding one person who agrees with him, and putting them on TV. He's not looking at the counterarguments".^[15] In the same vein, archaeologist Julien Riel-Salvatore argues that it is simple, from a scientific point of view, to demonstrate that the main theses of Ancient Apocalypse are wrong. He also believes that the series undermines critical thinking.^[16]

Answering Hancock's claims of a coverup, archaeologists said they and their colleagues would be thrilled to uncover an ice age civilization and would take Hancock's theory seriously if the evidence really existed.^[15][2]

Courrier International notes that Hancock's claims are never questioned on screen: in Ancient Apocalypse, he calls the archaeologists "pseudo-experts" and repeats that they treat him patronizingly, but he does not name them nor explains their arguments.^[17] The Guardian opined that Netflix had "gone out of its way to court the conspiracy theorists" with the series, speculating that Hancock's son's role as head of unscripted originals at the company may explain why it was commissioned.^[18]

Author Jason Colavito said Ancient Apocalypse was "not the worst show in its genre" but criticized it for "casting doubt on expertise, privileging emotion over evidence, and bending history to ideological ends ... making common cause with the right against academia".^[19] Writing in The Spectator, conservative commentator James Delingpole (who described himself as a "huge fan of Hancock" who finds his ideas plausible) criticized the series' production for "continually reminding [the viewer] that this is niche, crazy stuff that respectable 'experts' shun" and for portraying Hancock as "slippery and unreliable".^[20]

German scholar Andreas Grünschloß describes Hancock as misrepresenting Indigenous traditions to support his ideas, for example the descriptions of Quetzalcoatl as "white", which were a Spanish colonial invention. He says that Hancock is a writer who presents his science fiction as independent "research".^[21] In one episode, Hancock says the Megalithic Temples of Malta, built in 3600–2500 BC, were actually built ten thousand years earlier during the last ice age. Maltese archaeologists dismissed these claims.^[9] Experts in Pacific geography and archaeology characterized Hancock's claims about Nan Madol as "incredibly insulting to the ancestors of the Pohnpeian [islanders] that did create these structures", linking them to 19th century "racist" and "white supremacist" ideologies.^[22] Writing in Skeptic magazine, impact physicist Mark Boslough criticized the series' presentation on the largely discredited Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.^[23]

• Archaeology and racism
• Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox, a 2018 documentary series

• Hartlep, Michael (8 December 2022). "'Ancient Apocalypse' Netflix series unfounded, experts say". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
• McMaster, Geoff (14 December 2022). "'Ancient Apocalypse' is more fiction than fact, say experts". Folio. University of Alberta. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2023.

• Ancient Apocalypse at IMDb