John Philip Cohane

Paradox is one of the most intelligent books ever written on the subject of paleocontact, which is why it's been forgotten while shameless junk like Chariots of the Gods? and its myriad sequels continue to fly off the shelves almost fifty years after the concept of "ancient astronauts" first gripped the popular imagination. John Philip Cohane eschews the hucksterish von Däniken approach, using linguistic evidence and gaps in the theory of evolution to suggest extraterrestrial intervention in human development at some remote point in prehistory. Cohane is cautious, not rushing to attribute the construction of every ancient monument to visiting aliens (while still marveling at the sheer inexplicability of the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge). One especially interesting item to which he draws the reader's attention is the virtually identical resemblance of the symbols on Easter Island's rongo-rongo boards to an inscription from the ancient Harappan civilization; to this day, both scripts remain undeciphered. Who traveled from the Indus Valley to the South Pacific 4,000-5,000 years ago, and by what means?… (mais)