I agree that Graham is a great writer but the "crap" is what sells books. I learned a lot from Underworld about sea level rise, isostatic rebound and the meltdown. He can write scientifically accurate books without venturing into 'fringe' theories.

There are enough mysteries in American archeology that might benefit from a researcher outside the field that is not constrained by peer pressure or grant funding.

1) some tool making hominid species spread from Africa all across Asia to north China 1.7 million years ago but apparently never reached the Americas. Yet horses, camels, cheetahs, mammoths, etc. migrated from the Americas to Asia.
2) why are the oldest human remains from the Americas dolichocephalic but later remains are mesocephalic?
3) Where did Clovis culture originate and how did it spread across North America in only a few hundred years. Why did it suddenly disappear to be replaced with a multitude of regional variants?
4) Why is zea mays the only grain crop with no wild precursor?

"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil"

-- Sheikh Zaki Yamani