mch

THE POLAR MYSTERIES 139
ago brought the South Pole to the middle of the great icy continent
of Antarctica.
At least half of Antarctica toward South America and the
South Atlantic was ice free for 100,000 years, while Palmer Peninsula
and Cape Horn that may not have then been separated
from each other, enjoyed a fairly warm cHmate. There is no valid
reason to doubt that during these periods of the last three polar
rounds a very advanced civilization could have existed in this region
and might have been the origin of all civilization and
knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, metallurgy, and a variety
of arts.
Much has been written about the polar rounds but very little
has been said about the accompanying shift of the equator. The
displacement of the tropical zones around the globe had certainly
much more influence upon humans than the shift
of the
ice caps. Certainly climatic changes in the Temperate and Torrid
zones have caused many more migrations and led to the destruction
of many more civilizations than any changes in polar regions.
The polar rounds and the shift of the equator also explain why
we have found traces of civilizations in regions of the earth that
today seem unfit for human habitation. The jungles of Guatemala
and Cambodia, the icy high plateaus of Tibet, or the deserts
of Arabia were all quite different at different turns of the
polar rounds, and this simple explanation solves many archaeological,
ethnological, and geological mysteries.
If we consider where the equator was 90,000 years ago we discover
that this line was very close to many famous archaeological
sites like Hoggar in Algeria; Tibesti in Chad; the northem
part of Egypt; Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf; Dilman, in
Azerbaijan; Sumer, in Mesopotamia; the southern part of Persia;
the Indus valley; Angkor, in Cambodia; Malekula, in the New
Hebrides; Rapa, in Polynesia; Easter Island, in the South Pacific;
Pisco Bay and the Nasca plateau in Peru; Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia;
and the Amazon delta.
This illustration shows the positions and motions of the North Pole
and South Pole at different times in the past. It shows in particular
that, until 12,000 years ago, Antarctica had a much warmer climate
and could have been the site of a long-forgotten advanced civilization.