Renowned (by whom?) Egyptologist, scholar and Pythagorean, John Anthony West (The Traveler's Key to Ancient Egypt, Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt), will be at the Conference of Precession and Ancient Knowledge (CPAK) this fall at UCI. West will share his insights and the results of years of exhaustive study on ancient Egypt. The Conference will take an in-depth look into many important but little known (because they don't exist) aspects of the very ancient past.
Joined by other innovative scientists, thinkers (because no one else really does, right?) and researchers for this third annual conference, West will show that Egyptian architecture and art disclose a richer and more universal wisdom (smarmy New Age claptrap word) than conventional Egyptology has assumed. Other presenters include: best-selling author, GRAHAM HANCOCK, (The Sign and The Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods and Heaven's Mirror), archaeo-astronomer WALTER CRUTTENDEN, author of Lost Star of Myth and Time, Mayan scholar JOHN MAJOR JENKINS, author of Maya Cosmogenisis 2012, GEOFF MARCY, professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, and famed geologist ROBERT SCHOCH
West will present evidence that shows that ancient cultures, particularly that of Egypt, were likely more advanced than many scholars now believe. According to West, the ancient Egyptians themselves attributed their wisdom (smarmy New Age word alert again) to an earlier age going back over 10,000 years. West set out to test the hypothesis that the Sphinx was much older than its conventional date of 2500 BC. His findings provide the first hard evidence (???)that an earlier age of civilization preceded the known development of civilization in the Nile valley. That over 100 years of digging all over the place has yet to discover evidence of. But I digress. . .)
An accomplished author, West's plays have been produced on stage, television and radio, and he writes articles, essays and criticism for The New York Times Book Review, Conde Nast's Traveler and other general interest and specialized newspapers and magazines in America and abroad (Hmmmm. . didn't see The Journal of Field Archaeology, The Journal of Archaeological Science, Egyptian Archaeology, or any other peer-reviewed journal listed. . .). He won an EMMY Award for his 1993 NBC Special Documentary The Mystery of the Sphinx, hosted by Charlton Heston.
I'm surprised this got onto EurekAlert, as they're generally pretty straightlaced as far as science reporting goes. It doesn't seem a total waste, however; I recognize Geoff Marcy from numerous astronomy docs, and he doesn't seem to be a left-fielder amongst astronomers. Then again, his biography page has this for his topic: He will be going out on the edge of astronomical research and discussing a subject that NASA would like to avoid.
This is the conference page: The Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge is an academic conference bringing together some of the greatest thinkers in Archaeo-Astronomy and Esoteric Archaeology to discuss the topic of precession, both from a modern and ancient perspective, hear arguments supporting a cyclical theory of civilization (tied to precession) and its possible causes, and highlight potential archaeological, mythological or astronomical evidence surrounding these theories. The mission of the conference is to develop a true dialog among experts in a wide range of fields to illuminate the ties between ancient cultures, mythology, and our ancestral knowledge of the stars.