We Already
Know the Answers - there are quite a few definitions of archaeology
(see
here) but most of them are some variation on "The
scientific study of the remains of past human life and activities"
or "The scientific study of the physical evidence of
past human societies recovered through the excavation. Archaeology not
only attempts to discover and describe past cultures, but also to
formulate explanations for the development of cultures." These are
reasonable enough but they leave out one element - that of asking
questions. Archaeology is a way of answering our questions about past
human societies/cultures by excavation, and also by observation and
interpretation of landscape features. The important point is the asking of
questions and using archaeology to supply answers - there is obviously an
element of discovery, but a proposed dig has to have inquiry at its heart.
This is demonstrably not so with those who already have the answers, the
answers they want or need, and seek to find evidence to support those
answers/beliefs/theories. These people do not usually soil their hands by
actual excavation but tend to observe in a hands-off fashion, often using
out of date or questionable references. The evidence
from real archaeology is sometimes used by these characters but only where
it fits, otherwise it is warped to do so or just ignored. These people and
their ideas receive a disproportionate amount of attention from the press and
television in particular. One mention of Atlantis or Noah's Ark is enough
to get you noticed. They are, of course, the pseudo- or cult archaeologists,
of whom 80 has written before. The label applied to them is cumbersome
even if pleasingly derisory, but it is a pity something better has yet to
be coined. (email any
suggestions) They may be divided into different categories, although this
is not to say that there isn't considerable crossover between them. One
bunch, biblical archaeologists, (BA) are prejudging their findings by
their very name. They assume that the Christian bible is a reliable
historical record and then proceed accordingly. Many are searching for a
way to confirm their religious faith by physical evidence, something that
surely should not be necessary. Occasionally, others from outside the BA
world, whose one wish is provide "plausible explanations" for biblical
miracles, catch the media's attention as well. Think how many times the
tabloids, and others who should know better, hail some scientist who can
explain the Plagues of Egypt, or the crossing of Red Sea, or how the
Burning Bush remained unconsumed, or how Lot's wife became a
pillar
of salt and on and on...... Perhaps the best known still of these
"explainers" is Immanuel
Velikovsky, who played billiards with the Solar System in order to fit
chosen biblical events into his scheme of history. That the events had no
historical validity or that his hurtling planet Venus played merry hell
with the laws of physics bothered him not at all. Famously he has the
planet Earth cease rotating so that Joshua (10:13)
could carry on slaughtering his, and God's, enemies in good lighting (see
below, Long Day of Joshua). Even
neater, he has the rotation start up again just as it was before. This
may have been because Velikovsky was neither a physicist or an historian
but a psychiatrist, a discipline ill-fitted to his self-imposed role of
alternate historian. Where they matched his preconceptions, he used not
just biblical fables, but the mythologies of other cultures - although
naturally anything that did not fit was ignored. (A recommended
page on Atlantis is
here although
slightly marred by typos, and Adrian Barnett's very funny, satisfyingly
scathing look at the Noah's
Ark story is
here.)
Pyramidiot*-
It is surprising that Velikovsky's ideas are still held dear by some folk.
when even a cursory examination shows them to be bunkum. See
The Long Day of Joshua and the
Library of Halexandria
(sic).
The list of references at the end of Long Day... shows that Velikovsky's 1951 masterwork,
Worlds In Collision, appears to be the most recent work consulted.
Cutting edge stuff, this. 80 also corresponded a while back (Sept.
2001) with director Larry Pahl of AIP, not American International Pictures
but the American
Institute of Pyramidology. In an early View (Birthday
Triangle Pyramid) 80 had made a suggestion which did not sit well with
Mr Pahl, which was that he should take a course in Egyptology. This advice
was based upon that gentleman's obvious lack of knowledge of the subject.
His reply was notable for two things, ignorance and arrogance. He wrote "You
(sic) above suggestion that taking an elementary course in Egyptology is
really ludicrous to me. The point is I have read all that and side with
Velikovsky...it is obvious to me he is more correct." This
dismissive description of Egyptology and his unlikely assertion that he
had read "all that" and yet preferred
Velikovsky's fantasies says much about Mr Pahl's beliefs, but nothing
about acceptable standards of evidence. The correspondence ended abruptly
with Pahl's trump card - an answer that, at least to 80, was a total non
sequitur although I am sure it makes perfect sense to members of the AIP.
80 described Velikovsky thus in his reply "a man
whose unstinting acceptance of Jewish mythology as history led to not only
Worlds in Collision but also Ages in Chaos. Admittedly the chronology of
the period discussed in the latter is still subject to revision, as with
all data. To treat biblical stories as a basis for such revision is
hopelessly naive" to which Pahl relied with just this one oblique
phrase "You prefer Egyptian mythology...(sic)
and thus are more righteous?". Pahl seems to be unable to differentiate
between Egyptian mythology and Egyptology - no doubt such nescience is no
barrier to membership of the AIP and probably is actively encouraged.
Indiana Wyatt
- Velikovsky is an atypically well-known instance of a non-archaeologist
dabbling in pseudoscience and pseudohistory, but there are others less
celebrated than he (and a few much more successful - at least financially -
see below). These lesser lights cover a spectrum from archaeologists with
a particular hobbyhorse to Indiana Jones wannabes. A fine biblical version
of the latter was the late Ron Wyatt, pictured
here complete with
Harrison Ford's hat. 80 looked briefly at Wyatt's claim of having
discovered the true resting place of Noah's Ark and the
Wyatt Archaeological Research
website, run by others since his demise, a while back. On the site, in among the
offers of becoming a benefactor of the Wyatt Archaeological Museum for a
trifling $1200 a
year is a list of the subjects covered. Apart from
Noah's tub we have
Sodom and
Gomorrah, the
Red Sea Crossing,
Mount Sinai and, best of all, the
Ark of the
Covenant. Now we really are in Indiana Jones territory as we follow
the story of Ron Wyatt's discovery of that artifact - or as the site puts
it "Ron Wyatt claimed that he found the Ark of the
Covenant. He was never allowed to provide conclusive evidence." His
wife tells of how he found the site by miraculous means. She says that he
was walking in a
quarry near Jerusalem when he "stopped walking, and Ron's left hand
pointed to a site being used as a trash dump and he stated, "That's
Jeremiah's Grotto and the Ark of the Covenant is in there." Mrs
Wyatt goes on to say "Even though these words had
come from his own mouth and his own hand had pointed, he had not
consciously done or said these things." (You can now tell we have
left anything with the remotest resemblance to archaeology far behind) In
true pseudoarchaeologist fashion he then found "facts" to support his
pre-existing belief. After much hard work and excavation, goes the story,
he found the Ark (did you ever doubt that he would?) What's more, he
determined that above the grotto was the very place of Christ's crucifixion
and, during that event, blood had seeped down onto the Ark! Naturally the
resourceful Wyatt took samples of the blood which contained "living
particles...too small to be seen using normal light microscopy."
containing "genetic material yet to be understood by
the scientific community". We are told that these particles are "somatids"
named by French scientist Gaston Naessens, (apparently known elsewhere as a
cancer quack)
who "developed a light microscope capable of viewing
these tiny particles which are normally invisible to standard medical
microscopes." Handily, Richard Rives, President of Wyatt
Archaeological Research, knew of these somatids and had built his own
version of a Naessens microscope in order to see them in the blood samples
found by Wyatt. This whole farrago is interspersed with what the writers
assume are applicable biblical verses, in an unsuccessful attempt to add
verisimilitude. Quite why Wyatt was "never allowed
to provide conclusive evidence" is not clear although 80 strongly
suspects that it is because there wasn't any. (This is reminiscent of the
free energy
crooks and whackos who are always on the verge of demonstrating their
devices but somehow never quite get there.)
Davidic Drivel - another of these
adventurers is "maverick archaeologist"
David Hatcher Childress, author of
innumerable fantasies posing as archaeology. In fact he is multi-talented,
for he has also written on UFOs, antigravity and free energy. His most far
out "archaeological" work must be EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY. We are
told it is a "comprenhensive (sic) volume of photographs, drawings and
maps, view for yourself the astounding evidence that many of the planets
and moons of our solar system are in some way inhabited. Takes you to the
strange and fascinating worlds of Mars, the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter,
Saturn, Neptune and beyond in a visual search for ancient structures,
unusual surface features, & evidence of extraterrestrials on nearby
planets. Using offical NASA and Russian photographs, as well as other
pictures and drawings done by telescope, the large format photos allow you
to view for yourself the pyramids, domes, spaceports and other anomalies
that are profiled in this amazing book." (Doubtless he has
shared his findings with Richard Hoagland of the absurd
Enterprise Mission) The Wyatts and the Hatchers of
this world are in the main harmless, even though anyone with even a
passing interest
in the real world will find their breathless adventures childish and
silly. A much darker side to pseudoarchaeology is when it is used for
political purposes. (For a wider look at this subject
Archaeology and Nationalism is recommended, as is
War On Archaeology) One
such example in the Biblical archaeology world are
the efforts of some to "prove" the historical reality of
Greater Israel,
the empire ruled by Solomon, based on the kingdom he inherited from his
dad, David.
This fiction is popular with the loonier end of Judaism and fundamentalist
Christianity. Owing to the nature of its proportional voting system, small
but fanatical religiously parties, who support those euphemistically known
as "settlers", can form coalitions within the
government of modern day Israel. They achieve influence out of all
proportion to the number of votes cast their way, and it is often their
vote that can tip the balance in parliamentary debates. It is their wish
to settle all the land they believe was held by their biblical
ancestors and in this they find international backing from fundamentalist
and evangelical Christians in the US. The ramifications of this unholy
alliance are not favorable for peace in the Middle East. The Christians in
particular need the
biblical Israel reinstated before Armageddon can get
going and all these idiots can be "raptured to safety". The fact that real
archaeological evidence for a Solomonic empire, or even a Davidic kingdom
is lacking does not bother these folk one wit. The truth is in the bible
and all else must be made to fit. It is a good example of a pseudoscience
having a baneful effect on what could yet prove to be a global scale.
(This
article on the excavation and interpretation of the site at Qumran
illustrates how bias can alter findings. For
a "non-Abrahamic" example of the unhealthy mix of archaeology, politics
and religion you need go no further than
the story
of the Ayodhya temple in northern India.
Here is an
article from Reason on the misuse of the law by native Americans in order
to stifle archaeological and anthropological research, a famous instance
of which is the
Kennewick man saga.)
Nazi Leftovers - one of the most
notorious regimes for the perversion of science in pursuit of political
aims was that of the Third Reich (we will leave
Lysenko and Stalin for
another day). If you could picture the least likely
example of a magnificent Aryan master race, the repulsive little man who
rose to be Reichsfuhrer of the SS has to be it. Heinrich Himmler was a great
believer in the pseudoscience of race and actively sought "evidence" to
confirm his beliefs. Notice again the order of things, believe first and
then "prove". His quest led him to set up a group called the
Ahnenerbe,
The Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society some of whose ideas
and theories, cockeyed as they are, survive up to the present day, and
afford some pseudoarchaeologists a comfortable living. The Ahnenerbe's job
was to supplant history with a Nazified version, one that purported to
reveal the roots of the superior Aryan race and culture of which the Third
Reich was to be the renaissance. Such an attitude also led to the founding
of The Institute for Germanic Archaeology, which drew upon Norse mythology
for some of its inspiration. It was in its way the Nordic equivalent of
Biblical archaeology and is equally baseless. The Ahnenerbe sent expeditions far and wide
in the years leading up to, and during, World War 2. Places visited were
Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Poland, and Rumania, occupied Russia and North
Africa. They were also in South America and Tibet. What were they up to?
Looking for remains of an original elder race (Aryans) which had once
ruled the world before some catastrophe overwhelmed them, leaving behind
only traces of their artifacts and people. It was their superior knowledge
that enabled lesser races such as the Egyptians and the Inca to achieve
their architectural and technological feats. Is this beginning to sound familiar? Much of
the same claptrap is still around today, shorn of its racism but still as
ridiculous. Whether the vanished super race were Aryans or Atlanteans the
story is the same and the same tired arguments are trotted out, these days
in books by the likes of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval. This is not to
suggest in any way at all that these authors have any connection with Nazi
ideology whatsoever, but they are happy to make use of the same
pseudoscientific arguments to advance their case and increase their bank
balances. Whether pseudoarchaeology or cult archaeology is used to pursue
personal beliefs unsupported by normally accepted standards of
evidence, or to make money or to advance racist ideas or the invasion of
other countries, it is a perversion of science, with some of the trappings
of the real thing, but none of the method. The uncritical acceptance of
pseudoarchaeological claims is but part of a general assault on science as
a way of learning about our universe and our past. It goes hand in hand
with the absurd post-modernist idea that science is mere cultural
artifact, no more valid than any other. This completely misunderstands the
self-correcting nature of the scientific method, which does not rely upon
the personality, race, gender, nationality or religion of experimenters to
supply accurate and repeatable answers to our questions.
The Good Guys - there is an
amazing (and depressing) amount of alternate history, cult or
pseudoarchaeology on the Web. In fact the internet has made this trash
more accessible than ever before. Luckily there are some sites that take
on the fakes and try and redress the balance. Jason Colavito is a name
that 80 has mentioned before and his
Lost Civilizations Uncovered is
well worth some investigation, particularly Colavito's Lovecraftian
theory. Also recommended is
In the Hall of Maat
which is replete with essays and articles rebutting and refuting
pseudoarchaeological silliness. The
Talk.Origins
archive also has much relevant material. Lastly is
Doug's Archaeology Site where
there are not only many very useful links to sites that critically examine
the claims of cult archaeology but also to sites about the real, and
genuinely exciting archaeological research that is being carried out
around the globe. Highly Recommended. The Nearing Zero cartoon site has
this wonderful
take on the "lost wisdom of the ancients" and
much else that is
good.
Only Sheep Need a Shepherd - is
the phrase that greets visitors to Adrian Barnett's excellent
Atheist site, followed by this warning "This
page contains information and ideas which may be disturbing or offensive
to people with a strong belief in a deity." Many subjects are
covered here under the broad headings of Atheism, Theism, Humour and the
catch-all Misc. Barnett's sane perspective is a most welcome antidote to
the religionist output on the web, and all the more so for his great use
of humor to make a point. The Noah's Ark
page
mentioned above is a fine example of this combination, as is
The Ten
Amendments, bringing much-needed clarification to Yahweh's somewhat
sketchy original commandments. This is a large site, and 80 has not had
time to look at everything, but what has been seen is of a consistently
high standard, and deserves a wide audience. (Even more impressive is that
the pages 80 has seen are but a subsection of Barnett's main site.) His
essay on the feelings of awe at gazing upon a starry night,
This godless
universe, informed by the knowledge of science and unshackled from
religion, is highly recommended and certainly strikes a powerful note with
80. "This is a godless universe and it thrills me
that I have the chance to ride along with it, even if only for my few
decades of awareness. Many people turn to religion saying, "But there has
to be more to it all than this." To them I say, "Look around you! What
more could you ask for?" In terms of Truth, Beauty and Wonder, all the
worlds religions cannot compete with a clear, cold, moonless night. We are
star-stuff, you and I. We are children of the supernova and our beginnings
lie in the death of a star." Thank you, Adrian.
Sublimely Ridiculous - some
things perform exactly as advertised.
The Lyer online magazine claims to contain,
among other things, "BAD poetry, NO big words, MEAN spiteful articles about
people we don't know, CHEAP shots, NO typodgraphgical erros ERRONEOUS
information, ACID comment and PENETRATING sarcasm". And that's what you
get. 80 managed to cut right down on productivity by the simple expedient
of visiting The Lyer. There is much here that is hilarious, and some that
is, in 80's view, incomprehensible. If you want a quick flavor of the
lunacy here take a look at
Blimey, a page devoted to news snippets such as
"Bill, the Bedlington terrier, brought 10 miles of the A324 to a
standstill when he mistook a 45 tonne articulated lorry containing toxic
waste, for a tennis ball." And while you are at it check out the
Horoscopes
page which is at least as accurate as any other and a damn' sight funnier.
The Lyer's editor-in-chief, the fragrantly (and scatalogically) named A.
Guano has rendered humankind a great service - recommended.
Merely Ridiculous
- from the sublimely ridiculous to the merely ridiculous. When you first see the
World Net Daily (WND) page the
first impression is that it has to be a parody of some kind. A little
further reading shows you that these people are actually serious about the
stuff they put out. Apart from where WND reposts items from other news sources
the rest of the content strongly resembles the kind of material you
casually scan standing in line at a supermarket checkout, except with an
overpoweringly
strong conservative odor. The slogan at the top left of the home page is
"A Free Press For A Free People" The content must be free as well, as
surely folk don't pay money to read this stuff? But they do, WND has
been around since 1997, which is a long time in the world of the web.
Still, it must be fairly cheap to produce, as many "stories" are in fact
links to real news sites. To be fair these are credited and there is
original content but it does give some of the pages a "hollow" feel. One
headline caught 80's fickle attention -
AOL Blocks Christian e-mail - the
only oddity being that it appears under a Special Offers heading. One
click takes you to Business Reform, which is described as "Business news
from a Christian Worldview", where the story is posted. 80 expected the
usual Christian persecution complex about how the evil world is against
them, but the story only ran for four (small) paragraphs, described as a "free
preview". Clicking on the
Read More link merely takes you to a page where you can hand over money
for a subscription to read the rest. It wasn't that interesting. What
little story there is shows yes, the writer, Marilyn Barnewall, is a
Christian paranoiac. Her complaint that AOL is blocking Christian email is
ignorant and silly. AOL's spam filters are a clumsy setup, and 80's AOL
readers will know that The View from Number 80 was blocked a while back.
The solution was not for 80 to run a headline saying "AOL blocks atheist
e-mail", but to contact some of the subscribers, who then informed AOL of
80's undoubted purity and - voila, the problem was solved. Too much time spent with
WND can lead to nausea and reactive left-wing tendencies, but a quick
mention must be made of what WND calls both "Commentary Highlights" and "scintillating columns",
which are neither. Perhaps they are highlights compared to rest of the
dross and this appears to be a rare and
specialized meaning of the word scintillating, not found in regular
dictionaries, which is "scare-mongering, religionist, right-wing garbage".
These headlines give a taster 'Socialism is evil' By Walter E. Williams,
'800,000,000 marijuana joints' By Joel Miller and 'Has the
counterrevolution begun?' By Pat Buchanan. If you worry about the
pollution of our environment - don't. In the irresponsible never-never
land of WND the threat from global climate change is
exaggerated and there's plenty of oil
untapped,
so gas-guzzlers can relax and carry on as usual. WND, Writings of No Distinction - a website with
more nuts than a truckload of Snickers. (Thanks to Tachyonis 2000)
Quotes
"Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily."
George Santayana
"To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle,
is a deep delight of the blood." George Santayana
"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval." George
Santayana
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George
Santayana,
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
there." Will Rogers
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."
Will Rogers
"No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple state of fact:
for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized."
Rod
Serling
*".......There is
really no particular reason why these mystics should have chosen or
limited themselves to the Pyramid of Khufu......We might go further and
suggest that if the Crystal Palace were substituted for Khufu's pyramid an
enormous increase in the possible number of measurements would be found,
and undoubtedly a great many of them would yield the exact values of a
number of things. If a suitable unit of measurement is found - say versts,
hanks or cables - an exact equivalent to the distance to Timbuctu is
certain to be found in the roof girder work, or in the number of street
lamps in Bond Street, or the Specific Gravity of mud, or the mean weight
of an adult goldfish. It has been customary in some circles to dub (these
people) 'Pyramidites', but after all 'Smyrniot' and 'Cypriot' are used for
'those of Smyrna' and 'those of Cyprus'; so why not Pyramidiot?"
Lieutenant-Commander N.F.Wheeler, Egyptologist, early 20th century
