Asked to investigate the Sphinx at Giza, Schoch was troubled to find evidence of a much greater age than the 4,500 years suggested by Egyptologists. This led him to examine the possibility of a lost civilization dating back to at least 10,000 B.C. Looking at linguistic, geological, and archaeological evidence from around the world, he proposes an outline of prehistory that differs markedly from our received wisdom--after all, if the Lascaux cave paintings really are star maps, then we've got a lot of catching up to do. Schoch's willingness to dismiss implausible evidence and to use Occam's razor to cut away unnecessary complications is admirable and refreshing in a field in which credulity pays and skepticism is viewed with deep suspicion. Ending on a note of warning, Voices of the Rocks reminds us that by weakening the planet, we have made ourselves much more vulnerable to the next global cataclysm, which may come at any time. --Rob Lightner

Product Description
Could the Egyptian Sphinx have been built many centuries earlier than conventional history would have us believe? Could the great natural disasters that propelled the evolution of life on Earth have played a dominant role as well in the rise and fall of civilizations? Could Earth have been home to civilizations far greater in number -- and far older -- than orthodox researchers have suspected? In Voices of the Rocks, Dr. Robert M. Schoch examines these and other crucial questions about our past and shows how the answers can guide us in the future.

In 1990, Robert Schoch, a scientist and tenured university professor, traveled to Egypt and conducted geological testing to evaluate the accepted date for the construction of the Great Sphinx of Giza. His research revealed that the Sphinx is actually thousands of years older than previously supposed, a discovery that upended the standard history of ancient Egypt.

Following the intellectual trail uncovered by his redating of the Sphinx, Schoch became convinced that we are in the midst of a profound scientific paradigm shift. The predominant notion that our species inhabits a slow-changing, steady-state planet is falling by the wayside. Instead, we are coming to see that the history of Earth, all living beings, and human civilizations comprises a series of stops and starts, in which equilibrium abruptly ends during a sudden severe catastrophe, like the extraterrestrial impact that initiated the extinction of the dinosaurs. Meteors, asteroids, and comets are potential sources of such disasters, as are shifts in Earth's axis, movements of the continents, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

According to Dr. Schoch, Earth's long, catastrophic history has obscured and obliterated evidence of lost civilizations. But the traces remain for those who know where to look and what to look for. At its core, Voices of the Rocks is the story of Schoch's own search, his fascinating discoveries, and the warnings we must heed if we wish to survive whatever catastrophes the future has in store for us.

The book is sprinkled throughout with genuine, if most often highly speculative, science, and this distinguishes Schoch's efforts from those of pseudoscientific cranks like Graham Hancock or Rand Flem-Ath. So, for example, Schoch visits the superficially strange underwater "monolith" near Yonaguni, but unlike many (and, most likely, unlike Hancock, who is currently writing a book that will deal with Yonaguni and other underwater "monuments") he concludes that the structure is most likely a product of natural forces of erosion, as evidenced by the processes that can be observed on the beaches of Yonaguni now. Similarly, the notion of "polar shift" first proposed by Charles Hapgood and currently championed by Flem-Ath and Hancock is dealt with summarily here. In these parts of the book, it is refreshing to see a genuinely scientific approach being taken to questions that to date have been given only the most sensationalized and credulous of treatments.

Schoch's approach occasionally falters. Immediately after determining that the Yonaguni "monument" shows erosion and weathering consistent with what is happening naturally on the beaches today, he mentions the fact that this does not altogether rule out the possibility that human hands did have a role in shaping it. In the concluding paragraphs of this chapter, Schoch's narrative suddenly veers away from his scientific perspective as he incorporates a manmade Yonaguni monument into speculative and nearly baseless notions of ancient civilizations existing on the now submerged coasts of Ice Age-era antiquity. Although the possibility of extensive neolithic cultures that have been erased by sea-level rises since the last Ice Age is a real one (see Stephen Oppenheimer's "Eden in the East" for a fair summary of the evidence for this), Schoch completely forgets that he has no evidence whatsoever for a human influence on Yonaguni, and plentiful evidence for natural processes.

Even with such slips, "Voices" is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for a more reasoned and less sensationalized perspective on the question of lost civilizations, the legend of Atlantis and the "facts" that might underlie it, and the possibility that cometary impacts have had profound effects on the course of human history.


New evidence for catastrophism   September 27, 1999
 30 out of 31 found this review helpful

Dr. Robert Schoch's Voices of the Rocks is a scientific expose demonstrating a logical shift from the classical uniformitarian view of the ancient world to one frought with periodic catastrophe. By a combination of hard scientific observation and a more face-value interpretation of mythology and folklore, Dr. Schoch redates the Great Sphinx and pushes back the long held dates of the dawn of civilization. He also attempts to address some mysteries from ancient times. Although, how all those cities burned down at the end of the Bronze Age is still open to debate, Dr. Schoch's hypothesis is intriguing. This is an insightful, information-packed book perfect for the reader who is more inclined to science and less to flights of fancy. I am, however, surprised that Graham Hancock endorsed this book as some of his work is criticized here.


Very Disappointing.   October 16, 2001
 16 out of 29 found this review helpful

If you saw this guy on Discovery or The History Channel, you probably won't find much of interest in this book. The amount of space devoted to the Sphinx and Yonaguni Monument is almost an afterthought. And sadly, this is the only original work in the entire book.

Most of this book deals with uniformitarianism (gradual change) and catastrophism (rapid change) in geology, evolution, and human history. The author's main credibility in presenting this evidence is that he is a dispassionate scientist that went to Yale and you are not. In creating a dispassionate work, Schoch has only managed to write a book that is very boring.

Nearly half the book is simply looking at various theories to explain impacts with space rocks. So we're treated to rocks of varying densities and speed impacting at various angles sometimes on land and sometimes on water and sometimes both. These rocks are used to explain everything from the Ice Age to Polynesian emigration to Genghis Khan leaving Mongolia to conquer the world.

In the end, there is still little science here and a lot of conjecture. Schoch clings ferociously to some "facts" and theories while tossing others aside because they weren't advanced by the right discipline. In the end, I realize that Carl Sagan did all this earlier and much better.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED   October 3, 1999
 15 out of 17 found this review helpful

Such moments are rare these days when one takes a book in the hand and is completely captivated by it after reading the first few pages : this is what happened with *Voices of the Rocks*. The author, a geologist and a professor, is one of this era's best academics. He articulates his vast knowledge, experience and research into our ancient past in an engaging and scholarly fashion. In this book he brings us beyond the limits of our need to think and to find answers. He explains the numerous theories available and then tries to work them out so we can truly understand the reason of each venue. At every page we feel the exciting moment of truth and of discovery, but only to fall back on our feet to the reality. This is a rollercoaster for the newcomer. The book also serves as a travelogue since we follow Professor Schoch in his travels from the sandy deserts of Egypt to the bottom of the ocean in Japan. This book does not answer questions but makes us wonder. A definite must for all.