Name: "Aliens built the pyramids" and other absurdities of pseudo-archaeology | Sarah Kurnick
Uploaded: 2021-03-18T18:40:35.000Z
Duration: 12 min 8 s
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a few years ago, a stranger sitting next to me on a plane asked what I did for a living.

I told him that I'm an archaeologist and I study the ancient Maya.

He said, Wow, I love archaeology and told me how excited he gets when hearing about new fines.

Then he told me how amazing it is that aliens from the Planet Knee Baru had come to Earth and establish the ancient Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia.

I have these conversations a lot on planes, in bookstores and in bars.

People want to talk with me about pseudo archaeology, something that seems like archaeology but isn't it involves making wild and unproven claims about the human past.

Things like aliens built the pyramids or survivors from the Lost Continent of Atlantis invented hydrographic writing.

Now most of us know that claims like these are unfounded and, frankly absurd.

They're on TV shows, in movies and in books.

Ancient Aliens, currently in its 15th season, or of the most recent Indiana Jones movie about the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Erich von Daniken, is classic book Chariots of the Gods Here's the crucial question.

Isn't it a nice escape from reality and a fun way to think about the world?

Most pseudo archaeology is racist and xenophobic, and like other forms of entertainment, it influences our culture in real ways.

It's common to hear pseudo archaeologists claim that groups like the ancient Egyptians or the ancient Maya accomplished incredible things, but only with the help of outside groups like aliens or people from Atlantis.

What you rarely hear is pseudo archaeologist claiming that, say Romans had helped building the Coliseum or that Greeks had helped building the Parthenon.

Europeans could have accomplished their feats on their own, but non Europeans must have had outside guidance.

Claims like these are not just outrageous.

They are offensive here and in so many other instances, pseudo archaeology sustains myths of white supremacy, disparages non Europeans and discredits their ancestors achievements.

I've spent the last 12 summers doing archaeological fieldwork in the Maya area.

Several years back, I was staying in a small village along the Belize Guatemala border.

I spent day after day in the lab, staring at tiny, brown eroded pieces of ceramics.

The Maya man who lived across the street made slate carvings to sell to tourists.

He'd stopped by every once in a while to chat, and one day he brought over a slate carving.

And it was this image, the image carved into the sarcophagus lid of the Mayan king Pakal around his death in 6 83 a.

This image is incredible, and it's complex.

It shows the deceased king rising from the jaws of the underworld to be reborn as a deity.

In the center is a stylized world tree that extends from the underworld through the realm of the living into the upper world.

Around the edges is a sky band with symbols for the sun, moon and stars.

I was so excited to talk with my neighbor about ancient Maya, religion, cosmology and iconography.

Instead, he wanted to talk about an ancient aliens episode.

He had seen the one about the Maya, and he told me that this image was of an astronaut at the controls of a rocket ship.

Instead of marveling at his own ancestors, he was in awe of a fictional alien.

He even told me that one day he hoped to give this carving to Erich von Daniken, father of the ancient aliens phenomenon.

Pseudo archaeology undoubtedly harms its subjects, often indigenous people like the Maya, but it also harms its viewers.

Like other forms of racism, it exacerbates inequality and prevents us from appreciating and benefiting from human diversity.

What's really scary is that pseudo archaeology is a small part of a much bigger problem.

It's just one example of people getting history wrong on purpose of people knowingly changing historical and archaeological facts.

Often the past is knowingly changed either to justify racism in the present or to present a nicer version of history, a version of history that we can all take pride in.

Six years ago, Jefferson County, Colorado, became a battleground over how to teach American history to high school students.

The advanced placement curriculum had been expanded to include things like, uh, the removal of Native Americans to reservations and the rise of extreme economic inequality.

Members of the local school board were upset.

They vigorously protested the changes, arguing that the new curriculum didn't do enough to promote capitalism or American exceptionalism.

Right now, we are in the midst of a heated debate over public monuments to controversial figures people like Robert E.

Should these monuments be left as they are destroyed or put in museums?

And what should happen to the protesters who defaced these monuments?

Should they be praised for helping debunk myths of white supremacy?

Or should they be punished for vigilante ism and lawlessness?

Debates about history, curricula and public monuments suggests similar messages.

What we choose to remember and forget relates directly to current political concerns.

Second, we need to consider who presents the past, who chooses the content of history, textbooks and the subject matter of public monuments.

Imagine how our understanding of history might be different if it was told by the marginalized rather than the powerful.

We can help combat racism and xenophobia today by changing how we think about the past, archaeologists need to do two things.

First, we need to make our discipline more inclusive.

We need to work with and for the descendants of the people we study.

Richard Leventhal's work at Ti Atsuko Mexico is groundbreaking pun intended.

For over a century, foreign archaeologists have traveled to the Maya area to excavate the things they thought were interesting, mostly temples and pyramids.

Instead, he asked the contemporary Maya of T Etsuko what they thought was interesting, and it turns out they didn't particularly care about temples or pyramids.

They were interested in the cast war, a major but understudied colonial period.

Second, we need to make archaeology more accessible.

The last time I walked into a bookstore, I asked where I could find the archaeology books.

The clerk took me to a section labeled Ancient Mysteries and Lost Knowledge.

It had books with titles like Extra Planetary Experiences.

And what is absolutely absurd about this is that real archaeology archaeology based in scientific facts and historical context is fascinating.

You don't need aliens to make it interesting.

It's up to US archaeologist to find new ways to share our work with the public, and this used to be the norm.

In the 19 fifties, there was a game show on CBS called what in the world the host would present an object, an artifact and the archaeologists.

Contestants would try to figure out what this thing was and where it was from.

The show was funny and interesting and exposed viewers to the diversity of human cultures.

Beginning in the mid to late 19 sixties, archaeology changed focus.

Instead of concentrating on public engagement, archaeologists began working together to professionalize the discipline.

On the plus side, we now have things like Bazian analysis of radiocarbon dates and theoretical approaches, like the new material ISMs.

But in the process, archaeology left the public behind shows like What in the World became less common and pseudo archaeology emerged to fill the void.

But we can all contribute to changing how we think about the past.

When you see a pseudo archaeological claim, be skeptical and know that if you post about Atlantis, tweet about ancient aliens or forward a clip from a pseudo archaeology TV show, even if it's not your intention, you may be promoting racism and xenophobia.

Also know that the past is alive, It is political, it is ever changing, and it influences our daily lives in meaningful ways.

So the next time that you watch the History Channel, read an archeology book or view a public monument.

Remember that every statement about the past is a powerful statement about the present.