Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum

306 Pages·2010·4.15 MB·English

by  Kenneth L. Feder

Encyclopedia of Dubious
Archaeology

Encyclopedia of Dubious
Archaeology
From Atlantis to the Walam Olum
Kenneth L. Feder
Copyright 2010by KennethL. Feder
All rightsreserved. No part of thispublication may bereproduced,
stored ina retrieval system, ortransmitted, in anyformor by any
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except for theinclusion of briefquotations in a review, without prior
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feder,Kenneth L.
Encyclopedia of dubiousarchaeology :from Atlantis to the WalamOlum/
Kenneth L.Feder.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references andindex.
ISBN 978-0-313-37918-5 (hardcopy :alk. paper) — ISBN978-0-313-37919-2
(ebook) 1. Archaeology—Encyclopedias. 2.Antiquities—Encyclopedias.
3.Civilization, Ancient—Encyclopedias. 4.Archaeology—Philosophy—
Encyclopedias. 5.History—Errors, inventions, etc.—Encyclopedias.
6.Pseudoscience—Encyclopedias. 7.Curiosities and wonders—Encyclopedias.
I. Title.
CC70.F43 2011
930.103—dc22 2010025313
ISBN: 978-0-313-37918-5
EISBN: 978-0-313-37919-2
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
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This book isprinted onacid-free paper
Manufactured in the UnitedStatesof America
Some text reprinted from Invisible Visitors: Explaining Archaeological Skepticism and
The Lost Civilization in Historical Perspective: De(cid:2)ja(cid:3)Vu All Over Again, with apprecia-
tion tothe Hall of Ma’at (www.thehallofmaat.com).
Text in ‘‘The Mars Face’’ entry reprinted from The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudo-
science by Michael Shermer, pp. 136–40. Copyright (cid:2)C 2002 by Michael Shermer.
Reprinted with permission fromABC-CLIO, LLC.
CONTENTS
List of Entries vii
Introduction ix
Entries 1
References 273
Index 281
About the Author 293
v

LIST OF ENTRIES
African Inspiration of the Olmec Crop Circles
Afrocentrism Crystal Skulls
Alexandria Project Cult Archaeology
America B.C.
American Genesis Davenport Tablets
America’s Stonehenge Dawson, Charles
Anchorites Diffusionism
Ancient American Dighton Rock
Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis Discovery of America
Archaeoastronomy Donnelly, Ignatius
Astronomical Alignments Dorak Treasure
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World Dowsing
Atlantis, the Lost Continent
Easter Island Moai
Bat Creek Stone Egyptian Pyramids
Beardmore Relics Electromagnetic Photo-fields
Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary at Eoanthropus Dawsoni
Glastonbury
Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild
Bent Pyramid
Side of North American Prehistory
Bhaktivedanta Institute
Fell, Barry
Bond, Frederick Bligh
Flint Jack
Bosnian Pyramids
Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden
Brendan, Saint
History of the Human Race
Burrows Cave
Frauds
Calaveras Skull Fujimura, Shinichi
Cardiff Giant Fusang
Carter, Howard
Gordon, Cyrus
Cayce, Edgar
Gosford Glyphs
Celt Discovery of America
Grand Canyon Lost Civilization
Chariots of the Gods
Grave Creek Stone
Chinese Discovery of America
Great Sphinx
Collapsed Pyramid
Gungywamp
Critias
vii
viii | List of Entries
Hall of Records Occam’s Razor
Hancock, Graham Ogham
Harmonic Convergence Olmec Colossal Heads
Heavener Runestone Ossowiecki, Stefan
Heyerdahl, Thor
Holly Oak Pendant Palenque Sarcophagus
Palos Verdes Stones
Ica Stones Petroglyphs and Pictographs
Imhotep Piltdown Man
Piri Reis Map
Jesus Ossuary Plato
Pre-Clovis Sites
Kensington Stone
Pseudoarchaeology
Khufu
Psychic Archaeology
King Tut’s Curse
Pyramid Air Shafts
Kon-Tiki
Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel
Lemuria
Lenape Stone Sagan, Carl
Los Lunas Decalogue Stone Sandia Cave
Lost Civilizations Santorini
Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents Scarith of Scornello
Serpent Mound
Madoc, Prince
Shroud of Turin
Man Tracks
Shroud of Turin Research Project
Mars Face
(STURP)
Maya
Sitchin, Zecharia
McCrone, Walter
Spence, Lewis
Michigan Relics
Starchild
Moundbuilder Myth
Stonehenge
Mystery Hill
Mystery Park Thomas, Cyrus
Trenton Gravels
Navigatio
Tucson Artifacts
Nazca Geoglyphs
2012
Nazi Archaeology
New Age Archaeology Van Sertima, Ivan
New England Antiquities Research Vinland Map
Association (NEARA) Von D€aniken, Erich
Newark Holy Stones Vortex
Newport Tower
Noah’s Ark Walam Olum
Norse in America Westford Knight
INTRODUCTION
Archaeology is one of a handful of sciences—astronomy is another example that
comestomind—thatgeneratesatremendousamountofgeneralinterestoutsideof
its small coterie of practitioners. In turn, that interest has led to a spate of sources
of information about the human past directed toa generalaudience. There are, for
example, a number of archaeology magazines aimed at public readership. Some,
like Archaeology and American Archaeology, are pretty mainstream, with articles
written by professional archaeologists or trained science writers. Others, like An-
cient American, are less conventional and present a specific, unorthodox perspec-
tiveaboutsomeelementorelementsofthehumanpast.
Archaeological topics also are a staple of cable television documentaries.
There are weeks when it seems that, if it weren’t for archaeology, there would
be an awful lot of dead air on cable or, at least, an overabundance of programs
about Hitler or psychic pets (or maybe Hitler’s psychic pets) on the History
Channel, National Geographic, Discovery, and so on. I have appeared as an
archaeological talking head on all of these cable channels and also on the SciFi
Channel (now SyFy), the BBC, PBS’s Nova, and even, improbably, the
Weather Channel. Bookstore shelves—both real (take a walk through the book-
shop at your local mall) and virtual—are replete with works about human evo-
lution, lost continents and lost civilizations, ancient astronauts, the true
meaning of Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids, and ancient Maya predictions
about the end of everything.
Everybody finds fascinating and wants to know about human antiquity, and
most people, justifiably or not, think they do know something about it. Often,
however, what they think they know is, at best, questionable and, at worst, utter
nonsense. While it may be difficult for most of us to propose or even contem-
plate hypotheses about string theory, quantum mechanics, or the time-space
continuum, it’s relatively easy for many of us to come up with or at least com-
prehend other people’s speculations about who built the pyramids, the origins
of the Maya civilization, or the purpose of Stonehenge. Plenty of people have
speculated about such things and have even, in some cases, perpetrated outright
fraud in attempting to convince others of the righteousness of their specula-
tions—or just to make a bucket of money. Unfortunately, the cumulative weight
of such speculations has led to an entire genre of archaeology based on dubious
assumptions about the abilities of ancient people, dubious interpretations of
ix