Pseudoarchaeology
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Pseudoarchaeology, also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology, refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the academic archaeological community, which typically also reject the accepted scientific and analytical methods of the discipline. These pseudoscientific interpretations involve the use of archaeological data to construct theories about the past that differ radically from those of mainstream academic archaeology.
There is no one singular pseudoarchaeological theory, but many different interpretations of the past that are at odds from those developed by academics. Some of these revolve around the idea that prehistoric and ancient human societies were aided in their development by intelligent extraterrestrial life, an idea most notably propagated by Swiss author Erich von Däniken in books such as Chariots of the Gods? (1968). Others instead hold that there were human societies in the ancient period that were significantly technologically advanced, such as Atlantis, and this idea has been propagated by figures like Graham Hancock in his Fingerprints of the Gods (1995).
Many alternative archaeologies have been adopted by religious groups. Fringe archaeological ideas such as Pyramidology have been embraced by religions ranging from the British Israelites to the Theosophists. Other alternative archaeologies include those that have been adopted by members of New Age and contemporary Pagan belief systems. These include the Great Goddess hypothesis, propagated by Marija Gimbutas, which argues that prehistoric Europeans worshipped a single female monotheistic deity—and various theories associated with the Earth mysteries movement, such as the concept of ley lines.
Academic archaeologists have heavily criticised pseudoarchaeology, with one of the most vocal critics, John R. Cole, characterising them as relying on "sensationalism, misuse of logic and evidence, misunderstanding of scientific method, and internal contradictions in their arguments." The relationship between alternative and academic archaeologies has been compared to the relationship between intelligent design theories and evolutionary biology by some archaeologists.
Contents |
Examples
Nationalistic pseudoarchaeology
- The belief, commonly held by European settlers, that the mound builders were a long vanished non-Native American people.
- The Kensington Runestone of Minnesota, held to prove Nordic Viking primacy in discovery of the Americas.
- Nazi archaeology, the Thule Society, and expeditions sent by the Ahnenerbe to research the existence of a mythical Aryan race.
- The Bosnian pyramids project, which has projected that natural geological hills in Visoko are ancient pyramids.
- The Hill of Tara in Ireland, excavated by British Israelists who thought that the Irish were part of the Lost Tribes of Israel and that the hill contained the Ark of the Covenant.
- Piltdown man.
- Neolithic hyperdiffusion from Egypt being responsible for influencing most of the major ancient civilizations of the world in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and particularly the ancient Native Americans. This includes Olmec alternative origin speculations.
- Jovan I. Deretić's serbocentric claims in the ancient history of the Old World.
Religiously-motivated pseudoarchaeology
- Repeated claims of the discovery of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat or neighboring mountain ranges.
- Insistence that questionable artifacts such as the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone represent proof of the presence of a pre-Columbian Semitic culture in America.
- Numerous spurious claims regarding archaeological evidence to support statements in the Book of Mormon that three lost tribes of Israel settled in the Americas during pre-historic times.
- Various New Age assertions about Atlantis, Lemuria, and ancient root races derived from the writings of authors such as 19th-century channeller Helena Blavatsky.
General pseudoarchaeology
- The work of 19th and early 20th century authors such as Ignatius Donnelly, Augustus Le Plongeon, James Churchward, and Arthur Posnansky.
- The work of contemporary authors such as Erich von Däniken, Barry Fell, Zecharia Sitchin, Robert Bauval, Adrian Gilbert, Frank Joseph, Graham Hancock, Colin Wilson, Michael Cremo, Immanuel Velikovsky, and David Hatcher Childress.
- Lost continents such as Atlantis, Mu, or Lemuria, which are all contested by mainstream archaeologists and historians as lacking critical physical evidence and general historical credibility.
- The ancient astronaut theory regarding Mayan ruler Pacal II.
- Speculation regarding pre-Columbian contact between Egypt and the Maya.
- Mayanism and other New Age beliefs about ancient civilizations.
Works of pseudoarchaeology
Legitimate archaeological sites often subject to pseudoarchaeological speculation
- Stonehenge
- The Great Pyramid
- The Sphinx
- Etruscan inscriptions
- Easter Island
- Teotihuacan
- Palenque
- Chichen Itza
- The Nazca lines
- The stone spheres of Costa Rica
See also
- Anthropologica
- 2012 phenomenon
- Afrocentrism
- Ahnenerbe
- Ancient astronaut
- Antikythera mechanism
- Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
- Baghdad Battery
- Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology
- Mayanism
- Nationalism and archaeology
- Nazi archaeology
- Out-of-place artifact
- Phaistos Disc
- Pathological science
- Phantom island
- Pyramid inch
- Theosophy