Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the PublicGarrett G. Fagan Did aliens build the pyramids? Do all the world's civilizations owe a debt of gratitude to a single super-civilization in ancient times? Was Egypt the home of magicians? Is there a fantastic body of ancient wisdom awaiting discovery, which will help solve the world's problems? These and other scenarios are thrown up by purveyors of what is often dubbed alternative, fringe or popular archaeology and ancient history. In reality, such work is properly called pseudoarchaeology since it is a muddled imitation of the real thing. In this collection of stimulating and engaging essays, a diverse group of scholars, scientists, and writers consider the phenomenon of pseudoarchaeology from a variety of perspectives. They contemplate what differentiates it from real archaeology; its defining characteristics; the reasons for its popular appeal and how television documentaries contribute to its popularity; how nationalist agendas can warp genuine archaeology in to a pseudo-version; and the links between pseudoarchaeology and other brands of false history and pseudo science. Case studies include surveys of esoteric Egypt and the supposedly mystical Maya, Nazi pseudoarchaeology, and ancient pseudohistory in modern India. |
Contents
Diagnosing pseudoarchaeology | 23 |
The attraction of nonrational archaeological hypotheses The individual and sociological factors | 47 |
Skeptics fence sitters and true believers student acceptance of an improbable prehistory | 71 |
Memoirs of a true believer | 96 |
Five case studies | 107 |
Esoteric Egypt | 109 |
The mystique of the ancient Maya | 129 |
Pseudoarchaeology and nationalism essentializing difference | 154 |
Ramas realm Indocentric rewritings of early South Asian archaeology and history | 203 |
Pseudoarchaeology in its wider context | 233 |
The Atlantean box | 235 |
The colonization of the past and the pedagogy of the future | 259 |
Pseudoscience and postmodernism Antagonists or fellow travelers? | 286 |
Concluding observations | 362 |
| 368 | |
| 405 | |
Common terms and phrases
academic alternative ancient astronaut ancient Egypt archaeology Argolid arguments Aryan assertions astrology Atlantis Bauval believe Bricmont CCSU CCSU and Penn Celtic century chapter claims Classic Maya context Copán critical cultural Däniken disagree discovery early Egypt Egyptian energy field esoteric evidence example Externsteine fact film Giza Graham Hancock Greek Helleniko Hindu Hindutva historians human past ibid ideas Indian Indus inscriptions intellectual interpretation justification knowledge Levels of student lost civilization Maya civilization Mayanists method modern science monuments mysterious mystique myth Nanda nationalism nationalist Nazi nursing Orion Orion correlation theory percent philosophy political popular postmodernism postmodernist professional pseudo pseudoarchaeology pseudohistory pseudoscience question reason recent religion religious revisionists Robert Bauval Robert Schoch Schoch scholars scientific scientists skeptical social Sokal Sphinx story student agreement television texts theory Therapeutic Touch tion tomb traditional truth University Vedic Witzel writing