Another "Real Life Indiana Jones" Claims Dramatic Discovery

_ There certainly are plenty of alternative theorists calling themselves the “real life Indiana Jones.” David Hatcher Childress says that media attention “certified” him as the “Real Life Indiana Jones” (his capitalization). Giorgio Tsoukalos is described as the “real-life Indiana Jones” by Coast to Coast AM and “THE REAL INDIANA JONES” by Magic Image magazine (their capitalization). This is fairly good press for people who conduct no excavations and recover no artifacts. I think the comparison comes down to their choice of clothes.

Another in this pantheon of reflected cinematic glory is Michael Tellinger, a self-described “real-life Indiana Jones” who has carved out a unique niche in alternative history by focusing his energies on southern Africa, an area frequently ignored by other ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians. Sub-Saharan Africa's relative paucity of spectacular archaeological ruins and the lingering colonialist assumptions that African people are incapable of high culture have contributed to widespread ignorance of the continent's prehistory.

Tellinger believes southern Africa was home to an advanced civilization 200,000,000 years ago that he has deemed the First People (not the same as the ones on Fringe). These people were obsessed with gold mining (of course) because, well: Zecharia Sitchin, I guess. (Tellinger’s theories build on Sitchin, his inspiration.) Tellinger believes the First People had a free energy system and passed their knowledge on to the Egyptians and the Sumerians.

Anyway, that aside, Tellinger now claims to have made a dramatic discovery: the footprint of a giant preserved in South African granite. Well, he didn’t make the discovery. The piece of granite has apparently been known (and ignored) since 1912, according to Tellinger. The “footprint” is either a bit of natural erosion that very roughly resembles a footprint or perhaps a carved hoax (or carving added to natural erosion). It lacks the details of genuine petrified footprints (the entire foot should not be equally impressed), and granite, being an igneous rock (one formed from solidified lava or magma), would imply that the giants walked across cooling lava flows without burning their feet. Ancient aliens and lost civilizations, of course, did not wear shoes. [Edit: As Terry Harding has so astutely observed in the comments, granite actually forms under intense pressure deep underground, making the chances of a giant stepping in it even more remote. I guess that's why the King James

Here’s Tellinger’s YouTube video with his “footprint.” The best part? Tellinger now claims to have found a right foot, too. Only this one is even bigger.

_Naturally, the story has exploded among ancient astronaut theorists, alternative historians, and biblical literalists who see the footprint as belonging to the Giants of the King James Bible.

Indiana Jones' discoveries were little more than movie magic, and I imagine the "real" Indiana Joneses' "discoveries" are about equally valid.