Free Evidence of the Gods by Erich von Däniken

Chapter 3
STONES
CAN
TALK
    I once learned in high school that our ancestors—only recently descended from the apes—vegetated in caves, groomed each other’s fur for lice, hunted mammoth or other animals from time to time, and otherwise chewed on berries and roots. Maybe so. But another group of the Stone Age family behaved in a highly intellectual way. Its mathematic and geometric performance shows that. No doubt about it! I constantly hear scientists demanding facts. They would respond positively to facts. Which scientists? It is really the responsibility of “Paleolithic specialists.” But they can be counted on the fingers of one hand and are, furthermore, geographically fixated. They restrict themselves to a particular area. The framework of their thinking follows evolution. Higher geometry, for example, has no place in the Stone Age. As a wanderer between the sciences, I learned a long time ago that facts are also filtered, that they are bent and squeezed until suddenly everything fits again and we can return to the same old things. However, the monuments from the Stone Age—stone circles, dolmens, menhirs, for example—are found just as much across a range of countries as rock drawings and geoglyphs. It appears there must have beensome kind of prehistoric tourism in which the sages traveled from tribe to tribe and passed on their tidings. In Central America, and this is generally known, the Maya built pyramids and temples in accordance with astronomical principles. In that respect, scholars refer to a “magic imperative” of calendar and astronomy. What was the situation in Europe at a time, furthermore, long
before
Central America? What “magic imperative” caused the Stone Age tribes to do the same thing? Who taught them the Pythagorean theorem, the number pi, the pentagram, and other achievements of mental geometry? Why did they all have the idea of aligning their mass graves astronomically and building huge stone or wood circles? The proof of my claims is available. It can be checked, photographed, measured—as demanded by high-flown science. Yet no one is interested. Any documentation just produces a confused shake of the head. What do we prefer? To adjust our thinking or to continue to live with a product that has passed its sell-by date?
    In the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France, not far from the town of Carnac with its thousands of menhirs (stone columns), there are two small green islands: Gavrinis and Er Lannic. The tiny island of Er Lannic has the remains of a stone circle, or more precisely a slight oval, of between 58 and 49 meters diameter, consisting of 49 megaliths. Only half of these stones are positioned on land; the other half is submerged by the tides. ( Images 163 and 164 ) In the same location, almost 9 meters deeper, there is a second stone circle consisting of 33 blocks. They can just be recognized at low tide during a calm sea. The two stone rings merge like a figure of eight. The circle under water has a diameter of 65 meters.
    Flooding? No, the water has risen. When? About 18,000 years ago. How do we know that?
Underwater Rock Drawings
    One September morning in 1985, Monsieur Henri Cosquer, an employee of a diving school in Cassis (east of Marseille, France) dived into the depths off Cape Morgiou. He was not actually looking for anything in particular—other than to admire the wonders of the sea. At a depth of 35 meters, directly next to a small rockslide, Henri Cosquer noticed the entrance to a cave and cautiously swam into it. The diver quickly realized that the cave led to an ascending underwater tunnel. On that morning, Henri Cosquer did not dare to go further. Time was limited; he only had enough oxygen for another half hour. Also, he had neither underwater lights nor a camera with him.
    A few weeks later, Henri Cosquer tried again in the same spot. This time his diver friends Marc and Bernhard were with him, and the diving equipment was also more professional than what