American researcher Edward Malkowski claims in his book Before the Pharaohs that Egyptian civilization is the successor to a much older, more technologically advanced culture that existed at least 10–12 thousand years before the dynastic period.
British author Adrian Gilbert (co-author of The Mayan Prophecies from 1995) in The End of Time offers the most thorough and sober modern interpretation of the Mayan calendar and the so-called "2012 prophecy", completely rejecting New Age hysteria.