Whereas archaeologists start with objects, Hancock starts with ideas - in this case, the idea of the flood. "We have 600 flood myths around the world," he says. "Archaeologists tell us these are meaningless; all they represent are psychological archetypes - memories of birth, in the case of the flood - or exaggerations of local river floods. I thought, OK, we can say that, but suppose they are true - that they are our memory of what happened at the end of the Ice Age? "The other thing that almost always goes with these myths is the notion of an antediluvian civilisation - something which existed before the flood and was destroyed by it. I couldnt see any good reason why these universal myths shouldnt be a memory of that event, yet I found that this idea hadnt been explored."
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