{
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  "kind": "Source",
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    "generated": "2026-09-12T06:52:38Z",
    "language": "en",
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  "data": {
  "id": "underworld-hancock",
  "title": "Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization",
  "description": {
    "en": "Graham Hancock's 2002 Crown work — the principal extension of the catastrophist-civilization hypothesis to submerged archaeological sites. Hancock surveys evidence for submerged prehistoric structures off Malta, India (Gulf of Cambay, Mahabalipuram), Japan (Yonaguni), Cuba, and the Bahamas (Bimini Road), arguing that the substantial post-glacial sea-level rise (~120 m between the Last Glacial Maximum and the early Holocene) submerged substantial coastal civilizational evidence that survives as the underwater \"traces\" Hancock catalogues. The work substantively engages mainstream marine archaeology while drawing alternative-archaeology conclusions."
  },
  "authored_by": [
    "Graham Hancock"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Lost Civilization",
    "Submerged Sites",
    "Sea-Level Rise",
    "Ancient Builders"
  ],
  "stance": "neutral",
  "source_type": "academic_monograph",
  "publish_date": "2002",
  "source_family": "archaeoastronomy",
  "relation_to_wheel": "scholarly_context",
  "licensing_status": "licensed",
  "follow_url": "https://grahamhancock.com/underworld/"
},
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}
