Discover Truth / Field Guide
An independent inquiry from Society of Explorers. Discover Truth checks claims about our past; Meridian studies authority in the systems we build next.
The Origins
Field Guide
How to check claims about ancient texts, the historical Jesus and human evolution, with the sources on the page. It isn’t a book of answers. It’s a book of receipts: the passages, the dates, the translations and the arguments, each labeled so you can see what kind of statement it is.
$19 on sale now · PDF, 59 pages, 6×9 in (~23 MB)
Read the free sample first
13 pages: the label key, human evolution chapter, field checklist and credits. PDF, 4.9 MB. No email required.
Payhip handles payment and emails your full download. Full refund within 30 days. Prices are in USD; sales tax is added at checkout where it applies.
01 / Look inside
Previews
Preview images are pages and images from the product. Credits are printed on each item and listed in the Credits section below.
Not sure yet? Download the free sample (13 pages, PDF, about 5 MB: the cover, the label key, all of Chapter 3, the field checklist and the image credits). No email required.
02 / What it is
A reading companion, not a revelation
Online arguments about where we came from mix very different kinds of statement as if they were the same. A tablet exists. A tablet says something. A scholar thinks it means something. A believer holds it to be true. Someone imagines what might have happened. Every claim in the guide carries one of six labels:
- Evidence. A physical or documentary fact anyone can check: an object exists, a date was measured, a dictionary lists a meaning.
- Ancient text. What a translated ancient text says, with the translator named, because translations differ.
- Interpretation. What scholars (or we) infer from the evidence. Reasonable people can disagree.
- Belief. A religious faith claim, described respectfully. History and science can’t test it.
- Speculation. An untested or untestable proposal, including ancient-astronaut readings.
- Unverified. Something we haven’t been able to check ourselves yet, marked as such in the text.
It doesn’t claim to settle these questions, and it doesn’t argue for aliens, against faith or for faith. Each chapter ends with what would change our mind, and with open questions you can help us check.
03 / What's inside
What you get
- Chapter 1: The Anunnaki and the clay people (pp. 7–20). What Enki and Ninmah, Atrahasis and Enuma Elish say, who does what in Atrahasis (Anunnaki, Igigi, humans), a timeline of where the modern “ancient astronaut” version comes from (King 1902 through Sagan 1966, von Däniken 1968 and Sitchin 1976), a claim-check table, and how to read a museum record.
- Chapter 2: Jesus outside the Gospels (pp. 21–31). Paul’s letters, Josephus’ two passages and the debate over them, Tacitus and the single manuscript the key passage survives in, and the Pilate Stone. Also a claim-check table, and the mainstream, mythicist and religious readings set side by side.
- Chapter 3: A messy family history (pp. 32–41). What fossils and ancient DNA say about where our species came from: the ~300,000-year date and its error bars, Neanderthal DNA in living people (Green 2010, Prüfer 2014), and what the molecular clock can’t promise. Included in full in the free sample.
- The source reader (pp. 42–44). Key passages at length in public-domain translations (L. W. King 1902, Whiston 1737, Jackson/Loeb 1937, King James Version), with margin prompts.
- The field checklist (pp. 45–46) and worked examples (p. 47). Ten questions to ask of any claim about the ancient past, then three claims you’ll meet online run through them.
- For groups and classrooms (p. 48). Discussion questions for each chapter and across the guide.
- How to contribute (pp. 49–50), glossary (pp. 51–52), sources (pp. 53–54) and image credits (pp. 55–58). Every source and every image credited, with links. The back cover is p. 59.
- Free updates. Buyers get each corrected version at no cost. Changes are listed in the public corrections log.
04 / How it was made
Images, AI use and what’s unverified
- No AI-generated images. Every photograph is a real archive image used under a public-domain, CC0 or open (CC BY) license: mostly from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, NASA, the British Museum (via Wikimedia Commons) and Wikimedia Commons contributors. Each is credited where it appears and again in the image credits, and is unaltered apart from cropping and scaling. The one reconstruction is labeled “Reconstruction (artist’s impression)”.
- The diagrams are ours, drawn in code from the numbers in the sources and labeled “Diagram: Discover Truth (data: …)”.
- The text was researched and drafted with AI assistance (Grok Bot) from the Discover Truth research dossiers and checked against the cited sources. No independent scholar review is claimed.
- What we haven’t checked yet is marked UNVERIFIED in the text. In this edition that’s the Black & Green (1992) p. 34 citation, two Sitchin page references (his “fifty” gloss and his ~300,000-year date), and the later Arabic and Syriac versions of Josephus. Separately, a few cited papers we haven’t read are marked “not read”: Wolpoff, Hawks & Caspari (2000) in the sources, and the papers behind Chapter 3’s “structured stem” models. One dating question (Jebel Irhoud) is labeled “Debated”.
05 / Who it’s for
Who it’s for
Curious readers, students, teachers, study groups, people of faith and skeptics who want the primary sources without a sales pitch for a conclusion. If you already read Akkadian, this will be too basic for you, but we’d love your corrections.
06 / Questions
FAQ
What’s in the free sample?
13 pages: the cover, the label key, all of Chapter 3 (human evolution), the field checklist and the image credits. No email required.
What format is it?
A 59-page PDF, 6×9 in, about 23 MB, with embedded fonts. It reads well on phones, tablets and e-readers that open PDFs, and prints on letter or A4. Each page carries the buyer’s email and purchase date (top left), which helps discourage piracy. There’s no DRM.
Is this an academic book?
No. It’s an AI-assisted research guide written for non-specialists, built from published translations and scholarship that we cite. No independent scholar review is claimed. Where we’re unsure, the text says UNVERIFIED or Debated.
Does it say the Anunnaki were aliens?
No. It shows what the ancient texts say in standard translations, traces where the alien reading comes from (mainly books from the 1960s and 1970s), and labels that reading as speculation. It also lists what evidence would change our mind.
Is it religious, or anti-religious?
Neither. Beliefs are described respectfully and labeled as belief, kept separate from historical and scientific claims.
Can I use it with a class or study group?
Yes. Page 48 has discussion questions for each chapter. You may print your copy for your own use. For printing copies for a whole class or a library, please email us. We’re setting up a simple educational license.
I found a mistake.
Thank you. Email us or use the contribution form with the source. Corrections are logged publicly, and buyers get each fixed version free.
Will the free videos and pages go away?
No. The investigation stays free. The guide is for people who want everything in one organised, sourced file.
07 / Refunds
Refund policy
If it isn't useful to you, email christaylor17+shop@gmail.com within 30 days of purchase with the email you bought with, and we'll refund you in full. No questions asked, and you don't need to delete anything. Refunds go back to the original payment method, usually within 5–10 business days for cards. If you think something in the files is wrong, please tell us. That goes into our public corrections log, and updated versions are free to past buyers.
08 / Credits
Credits
Research and writing: Discover Truth / Society of Explorers (Christopher Taylor, with AI assistance from Grok Bot). Diagrams: Discover Truth, drawn in code. Public-domain translations: L. W. King (1902), W. Whiston (1737), J. Jackson (Loeb, 1937) and the King James Version. Short quotations from modern translations and scholarship (for example ETCSL, University of Oxford, and Brisch 2016) are used for commentary with full credit. Images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access, CC0), the Cleveland Museum of Art (CC0), NASA and Wikimedia Commons contributors (public domain, CC0 and CC BY 2.0–4.0). Every image is credited with its license and source link on pp. 55–58. Typefaces: EB Garamond, Inter and Noto Sans Cuneiform (SIL Open Font License 1.1).
09 / About
About the shop
- Who makes it. Discover Truth is made by Christopher Taylor, a sole proprietor publishing as Society of Explorers / Discover Truth. It’s a small independent project: one person, with AI assistance for research and drafting.
- What’s for sale. Two digital downloads: the Origins Field Guide ($19, a 59-page PDF) and Origins & Futures ($12, 18 high-resolution images in a ZIP). Each has a free sample on its page. There are no physical items and no subscriptions.
- Sources, rights and AI. Every archive image is public domain, CC0 or openly licensed (CC BY), and is credited with its source and license. The diagrams and original art are our own work (© 2026 Discover Truth / Society of Explorers). No AI-generated images. The text is researched and drafted with AI assistance, then checked against the cited sources. Anything we haven’t checked yet is marked as unverified.
- Checkout and delivery. Payhip handles checkout, payment and delivery. Your download link appears as soon as you pay and is also emailed to you. Updated editions are free to past buyers.
- Refunds and support. Full refund within 30 days, no questions asked (see the refund policy). For refunds, download problems, licensing questions or corrections, email christaylor17+shop@gmail.com.
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