An abridged version of this story appeared in Issue 7 of The Ahlahasa.
My first encounter with pseudoarchaeology was in elementary school, and it was unwittingly. One day, while me and my mother were at a garage sale, a flashy book title caught my eye: “1421: The Year China Discovered America”. My mother bought the book for me, and I immediately read from cover to cover. It purported that a Chinese fleet circumnavigated the globe and discovered the North American continent 71 years before Columbus landed in the Caribbean. Not knowing any better, I believed every word, and it took until an entire year later before I looked up the book online and found that it was actually completely false. I was embarrassed by my gullibility, and the incident gradually slipped out of my mind. But what I didn’t realize at the time was that it was not my fault, that I didn’t know any better, and this is true for lots of other people who also fall for the same pseudoarchaeological books. These books are designed to prey on people who have no other information to counter their claims, which is how fake historical claims are able to spread and proliferate. This book preyed on my growing skepticism of the common narrative that Columbus “discovered” America, even though the first people on the North American continent were the Native Americans that crossed over the Bering Strait. It preyed on my lack of knowledge of Chinese history and had me deceived for an entire year. I forgot about this incident for many years, up until recently. While out shopping at a Barnes & Noble, I unsurprisingly gravitated towards the History section. But propped up on a shelf, stuck in between Chinese history books written by accredited historians and archaeologists, was the book, “1421: The Year China Discovered America”.
Pseudoarchaeology is defined as interpretations of the past that ignore or misinterpret accepted archaeological facts and the use of archaeological material to substantiate their interpretations. In other words, pseudoarchaeology is creating theories about the past that reject actual evidence and instead utilize assumptions. Common examples of pseudoarchaeology include belief in alien intervention in ancient societies, Atlantis, in past races of giants, etc. Pseudoarchaeology is considered a type of pseudohistory. While pseudoarchaeology may appear harmless on the surface, it actually can be quite dangerous. Pseudoarchaeology is heavily tied to other conspiracy theories, like lizard people or that a minority group controls the entire world, and belief in these conspiracy theories has been proven to increase the likelihood of falling into far right and neo-Nazi pipelines. Therefore, actions must be taken to combat the spread of pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory.
To first understand how pseudoarchaeology has embedded itself so deeply within modern society’s consciousness, we must first start from the beginning. In 64 CE, the Great Fire of Rome devastated the city. The Emperor Nero was gone from the city at the time, so conspiracies started to circulate, claiming that Nero started the fire on purpose. This is one of the first documented conspiracy theories in history. Another example of a historical conspiracy was the popular belief in medieval Europe that Jews were the cause of all the problems in European society, including being the instigators of plagues and the reason for setbacks during the Crusades. Jewish people have been one of the main targets of conspiracies due to the prevalence of antisemitism, which eventually led to one of the largest atrocities in human history: the Holocaust. With the various improvements of communication technology during the 19th and 20th centuries, this allowed for conspiracy theories to spread much more quickly than before.
The rise of pseudoarchaeology coincides with the increase in conspiracy theories, although archaeology itself does not have the most pure beginnings. While historical and archaeological study has been present in societies around the globe, the modern field of archaeology had its main origins in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, but it first began more so as art collecting rather than an organized field of study. This time period also marked the beginning of Western Europe’s mass global colonization, and multiple cultures were victims of organized looting and grave robbing. Much of early archaeological study was only possible through the deprivation of colonized people’s cultural heritage. For example, the field of Egyptology, which is the study of ancient Egypt, began after Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt. One of the artifacts stolen during this period was the Rosetta Stone, which is known as the key artifact that led to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics finally being deciphered. Despite Egypt’s government repeatedly requesting the return of the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum (where it is currently housed) refuses to return it. From the Aztec’s golden artifacts being melted down by the Spanish conquistadors, to the looting of the Benin Bronzes by the British, much of the artifacts held in Western museums are remnants of the brutality of Imperialism. But these artifacts were not treated with the respect that they or their cultures deserved but instead were used by early European archaeologists and historians to justify their own supremacy. Entire groups of people were dismissed as “primitive” and their artifacts were treated as “savage”, while other artifacts were falsely claimed to have actually been created by white people, since these academics could not believe that such impressive accomplishments could have been made by people of color. These early racist theories within history and archaeology bear some similarity to current conspiracy theories, including a popular one that claims that the monuments created by all ancient civilizations were actually created by a globe-spanning civilization thousands of years earlier.
One of the largest pseudoarchaeology programs was the Ahnenerbe, a branch of Nazi Germany’s SS. Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, the Ahnenerbe was devoted to attempting to justify the supremacy of the German/“Aryan” people. The Ahnenerbe conducted excavations of archaeological sites, both in Germany and occupied territories. In occupied territories, the Ahnenerbe sought to find evidence of previous inhabitation of the land by Germans, therefore “justifying” their occupation and their brutal subjugation of groups of people that they deemed as inferior. Himmler was a fanatic occultist and conspiracy theorist, and his beliefs in Atlantis, the Holy Grail and other pseudoscientific theories influenced the Ahnenerbe’s own motivations.
Interest in pseudoarchaeology has grown within recent decades due to the work of pseudoarchaeologists like Erich von Däniken and Graham Hancock. Von Däniken’s 1968 book, “Chariots of the Gods?” popularized the belief that aliens were responsible for the creation of the Giza Pyramids and other ancient structures. Von Däniken’s disproven theory still remains strong, as evidenced by the popularity of T.V. shows like the History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens”. Another well known pseudoarchaeologist is Graham Hancock, who in his book “The Fingerprints of the Gods” proposed his own theory that all of the monuments created by ancient civilizations were actually created by a single globe-spanning civilization thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age. Just a few years ago, he was given a T.V. show deal with Netflix, which was promoted as a factual documentary, instead of a work of pseudoarchaeology that it truly was. Many archaeologists and historians were tricked into appearing on the show, and their words were twisted by the editors to make it appear as if their knowledge aligned with Hancock’s.
Pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory are harmful because they diminish the achievements of other cultures and sow distrust of academics and experts. Many pseudoarchaeological theories are rooted in racism and bear similarities to the theories used to justify European imperialism or the ones used by the Nazis to justify their racial hierarchy. Even though lots of pseudoarchaeologists do not think of themselves as racist and are not necessarily intending to be, even something appearing innocuous, like the ancient aliens theory, has negative undertones. An example would be the belief that aliens built the ancient Egyptian pyramids; Egyptologists have established how the pyramids were built through water transportation and the hauling of blocks by Egyptian work gangs, yet there are still people who deny all of the facts set in front of them and instead claim it was all the work of aliens. While the Giza Pyramids are impressive, a large part of their impressiveness is that ancient people were able to create something like that without the use of modern technology and instead through intense planning and many years of hard work. We rarely see these same conspiracy theorists claim that European monuments and architecture was created by aliens, so it begs the question: why does it seem like people of color always bear the brunt of conspiracy theorists’ attacks? Everywhere from Egypt to Mesoamerica, to even the Aboriginal people of Australia; all these people constantly have to defend themselves against the attacks of pseudoarchaeologists, who claim that their ancestors were too stupid to build these monuments by themselves. Instead of dismissing the accomplishments of the civilizations that came before, we should instead be celebrating the feats of human achievement. Humans have always been able to make amazing things with enough drive and motivation, so dismissing past achievements not only insults other cultures, but insults the entire human race too.
While social media has brought benefits to the world, it has also been shown to have many disadvantages. By allowing people to voice their opinions anytime they want, from wherever they are, it has made it infinitely easier to spread misinformation, disinformation, and misinterpretations of history. It takes only seconds for someone to claim that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens or that Atlantis is real, and their baseless claims can be spread to thousands, even millions of people. The rise of AI has only further contributed to the substantial harm being done to the field of history, since it is often weaponized by conspiracy theorists by creating fake evidence to back up their false claims. This endless stream of pseudohistory on social media has led to archaeologists and historians constantly having to be on the defensive. It takes mere moments to spread lies, yet can take hours upon hours of research to both refute false information and to finish sifting through various reliable sources to back up a response. This means that the burden of proof lies solely on archaeologists themselves, which means not only are they in a constant battle against conspiracists, but they also are forced to spend much of their time and energy re-establishing the truth rather than on new research or preservation work.
Besides how societal problems are a major cause of the birth of conspiracy theories, there is still a problem in regards to the accessibility of academic resources. A vast amount of scholarly articles and journals are hidden behind paywalls, and it can cost hundreds of dollars just to pay an annual subscription fee. This means that new historical and archaeological research can only be disseminated to the public through mainstream media outlets that have access to these articles, and many of these outlets tend to use sensational headlines that attract the most readers. One example of this was a year ago, when a pseudoarchaeological report about massive underground structures beneath one of the pyramids of Giza gained traction through mainstream news outlets. Even though the report was discredited by archaeologists and Egyptologists, the damage was already done, and conspiracists online still love to use the report to try and justify their claims that the pyramids were built by aliens. By leaving the duty of educating the public on scientific matters to news outlets that are motivated by profit rather than the truth, conspiracy theories will continue to spring up to fill in the gaps of knowledge. Scholarly resources being inaccessible also reinforces the biases of existing conspiracists, by making it seem like mainstream archaeology is an exclusive group that has a monopoly on information. This alienation between academics and the general populace makes people think that learning is restricted to only the college-educated. Therefore, one way that academia can combat the spread of pseudoarchaeology is through making information more readily accessible.
Not all conspiracy theorists have ill intentions, and some genuinely believe they are making the world a better place. But they all share a critical mistake: they blame society’s problems on historians, archaeologists and scientists, rather than look at the root cause of them. They see how the average person can feel alienated by academia, yet blame it on scholars having malicious intent, rather than realize it is the greed of the companies that place paywalls behind truth, the pitilessness of our society that the lower classes are unable to obtain quality education, since even the mere act of learning has a price on it. Historians and archaeologists are not your enemy. The entire reason they chose their careers is because they care about people and want to tell their stories, the stories of humanity. While engaging in pseudoarchaeology may seem fun at first, it causes extreme damage to the archaeological and historical fields and diminishes the accomplishments of other cultures. Isn’t it more impressive that humans were able to build such astounding feats of architecture, all without the aid of modern technology, than if these monuments were all chalked up to the work of extraterrestrials? Humans have always been full of potential, and we shouldn’t diminish anyone’s past achievements, regardless of culture.
Sources used in this article are the articles “The Nazis’ Archaeology” by Megan Young and “Conspiracy Theories as Part of History: The Role of Societal Crisis Situations” by Jan-Willem van Prooijen and Karen Douglas. Encyclopedia Britannica and EBSCO were also used.
