October 23, 2002: Ancient Evidence - Graham Hancock

Art Bell announces his retirement from the program effective December 31st, citing chronic back pain from a pole-climbing accident years earlier that has made maintaining his rigorous broadcast schedule impossible. He confirms George Noory will take over as permanent host while Art remains available for occasional fill-in appearances. The evening also covers breaking developments in the D.C. sniper case and the Chechen rebel hostage crisis at a Moscow theater.

Author and researcher Graham Hancock joins to discuss his book Underworld, examining underwater ruins found off the coasts of Japan, Cuba, Malta, and the Bahamas. Hancock describes the massive stone structures at Yonaguni, Japan, including megalithic constructions and a stone circle with 12-foot uprights at 110 feet depth, which he argues were built by the ancient Jomon culture before rising sea levels submerged them at the end of the last ice age.

Hancock argues that mainstream science has been reluctant to investigate these sites because confirming a lost civilization would undermine established models of human history. He draws parallels between flood myths found worldwide and the documented 400-foot sea level rise that swallowed over ten million square miles of habitable land between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago.