The Cygnus Key

The Cygnus Key: The Denisovan Legacy, Göbekli Tepe, and the Birth of Egypt
By Andrew Collins 
Published in May 2018
464 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 3/5

The Cygnus Key is a book that seemingly collects a jumble of ancient mysteries ranging from Denisovian technology, to pre-historic anatolians, to ancient Egyptians into a chaotic mash of ideas.

The beginning of the book is fascinating, giving a clear overview of Göbekli Tepe and explaining how many of the ideas found there are common throughout other sites inhabited by denisovans. He makes a fascinating argument that denisovans - pre-human hominids - were significantly more technologically and mathematically advanced than previously believed. Then, his narrative deteriorates into speculation about symbolism.

Most of the book is devoted to ancient symbolism and numerology. He makes many highly speculative guesses about what different building alignments and animal carvings may represent. In the absence of knowledge about the day to day lives of the people of these civilizations, they are nothing but guesses. Also, the topic of sacred geometry and star alignment isn’t of much interest to me.

If you are into the history of sacred geometry, then this book might be fascinating. It might also have some interest to people who are into the history of the development of mathematics. However, I found it quite dull.

This isn’t a bad book - it just isn’t a book for me. I read about halfway, then put it down and moved on.

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