Method & sources

How we grade — and where it comes from.

Every claim on this site carries a grade and a source. This is the method behind the grades, the one test that gates the bold claims, and the full peer-reviewed citation index — so you can check us, not just trust us.

The scale

Evidence, graded A–E

A

Mainstream-accepted fact — often a forced revision. Physical, dated, peer-reviewed (e.g. Göbekli Tepe ~9600 BCE; sapiens ~300 ka; the Antikythera mechanism).

B

Strong and mostly accepted, with a genuine interpretive seam (e.g. the Great Pyramid's true-north precision — real, method debated).

C

A live, legitimate scholarly dispute, unresolved — a real pressure point, not proof (e.g. the Sphinx enclosure weathering; Younger Dryas meltwater routing).

D

Popular, but explained or unsupported — kept on the map for honesty, never built on (e.g. Nazca “runways”; pyramid “power plant”).

E

Refuted, retracted or fabricated — on the map only so it cannot be smuggled back in (e.g. the Gunung Padang “pyramid”, retracted 2024; the Younger Dryas shocked-quartz papers, retracted 2025–26).

The covenant

Three honest labels

What no other site on this topic does: we mark, on every claim, whether it is fact, our reading, or speculation.

■ Grounded — graded A/B evidence (mainstream-carried)
□ Proposed — the theory's reading (mainstream counter shown)
◇ Speculation — a frontier hypothesis, never claimed as fact

THE WALL — the one test for the bold claims

To lift any “lost high-tech” or “paleocontact” claim above D, we require one period-anomalous physical artifact from a securely dated, undisturbed layer, irreproducible by the era's means. The Antikythera mechanism shows what that looks like — yet stays human. Across 12 classic out-of-place artifacts and an independent AI re-check of 12 more: 0 breach the Wall. So the frontier stays the frontier.

The receipts

Citation index

The load-bearing peer-reviewed and primary sources behind the pillars. Full synthesis: the cited research backbone in the project vault.

Deep human origins

Göbekli Tepe / Taş Tepeler

Submerged coasts & sea-level

Younger Dryas (climate vs impact)

Megalithic & precision engineering

Astronomy

Antikythera

Early urbanism (the overturns)

Cautionary (graded E)