Two popular theories seem to provide answers. One is that civilization arose as a result of the survivors of sunken Atlantis reaching foreign shores, bringing with them remnants of their high technology and profound ancient wisdom.
The other is that the greatest civilizations on earth arose through either direct or indirect intervention from aliens.
Yet today we have a third alternative; this being that civilization was gifted to us by an advanced human society that had developed an increased level of technological and spiritual development even before the majority of our ancestors departed Africa around 50,000-60,000 years ago! We speak of the Denisovans, whose existence was not even known about until the genome of a finger bone from the Denisova Cave in Siberia was sequenced in 2010. Exploration has shown that before vanishing from the pages of prehistory some 40,000 years ago the Denisovans achieved an extraordinary level of development—in fact, the Denisovans might well have recorded the motions of the celestial bodies, including long-term eclipse cycles, which they used to create numerical systems involving key numbers such as 54, 108, 216 and 432 preserved to this day in cosmological myths and legends, as well as in sacred architecture, all around the world.
How was this possible? What type of mind can have achieved such an advanced state of development even before the rise of human civilization? We’re joined by Ancient Origins contributor and author Andrew Collins for an exploration into the prehistoric past, and the mysterious founding of civilization.
Andrew Collins is author of new book
The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe and the Birth of Egypt. Andrew is one of the world’s foremost experts on Göbekli Tepe, having first visited the site in 2004. He has been investigating its Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture for over 20 years, and is the author of various books that feature the subject including
From the Ashes of Angels (1996), The Cygnus Mystery (2006) and Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods (2014). Visit
AndrewCollins.com and find out more in his book
The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe, and the Birth of Egypt
