WHAT IF? The Question Humanity Has Always Asked begins with a simple question about what might lie beneath Mesa Verde. But one question leads to another, and what begins as curiosity becomes an unexpected journey across thousands of years of human history.
B. K. Anderson follows the trail from the ancient Pueblo world and Hopi traditions to Sumer, Enki and Enlil, the Seven Sages, Eridu and the mysterious Abzu. From there, the investigation moves through Dilmun, the lost landscapes beneath the Persian Gulf, ancient trade routes, valuable metals, Tukris, Anatolia, the Hittites, and the rise and transformation of civilizations.
Along the way, extraordinary modern claims are put to the test. Some lead toward genuine history. Others cannot be verified. Rather than forcing the evidence to fit a predetermined conclusion, Anderson allows each investigation to go where the evidence leads-even when the answer is no.
Because sometimes a wrong question can open the right door.
As the journey unfolds, a larger pattern begins to emerge. Human beings cooperate and build. Knowledge grows. Trade expands. Civilizations become increasingly complex. Wealth and power accumulate. Competition and control increase. Resources are strained. Then environments change, political systems weaken, populations move, and societies reorganize.
Civilizations change, but humanity continues.
Could the familiar saying that "history repeats itself" describe something deeper? Are civilizations simply rising and falling independently, or has humanity been moving through a recurring cycle?
Blending archaeology, ancient texts, mythology, history, scientific research, and carefully identified speculation, WHAT IF? does not ask readers to accept a predetermined theory. It invites them to examine the evidence, recognize where certainty ends, and continue asking questions of their own.
The journey ultimately leads to a question larger than the one that began it:
What if we have been moving through a cycle?
And perhaps more importantly-
What if we don't have to go around again?