Much of the ancient world inherited by our ancestors now lies under water after melting ice caps flooded vast areas at the end of the last Ice Age. Advances in geology and marine technology mean that the great archaeological finds of the 21st century are most likely to be found under the oceans. It appears highly probable that large populations of early humans were obliterated from the historical record by this catastrophe, over 10,000 years ago. But who were these populations - pre-civilized hunter-gatherers or more sophisticated peoples altogether? In this text, Graham Hancock seeks to find out some of the answers.