|
It may not seem like it some days, but I’m a journalist, not just a critic of alternative history. This means that I am interested in the story behind alternative history as much as I am the specific claims made by alternative theorists. And what I’ve found is somewhat disturbing. You’ll remember that last year I obtained documents from the National Archives about Erich von Däniken’s efforts to advise Gerald Ford during the 1976 presidential election; well, now I’ve found some interesting paperwork about H2’s highest-rated show, America Unearthed.
32 Comments
Yesterday the History networks sent out a press release confirming that America Unearthed has been renewed for a second season, to be filmed this spring, probably for a fall airing. However, more importantly, the press release provided us with our first hard numbers about who is watching America Unearthed and just how many:
In our conversation this week, America Unearthed star Scott Wolter asked me to explain to him what I thought of the so-called “mooring stones,” medium- to large-sized rocks in which are found small, round holes obviously carved by iron chisels. Hjalmar R. Holland, one of the early advocates of the Kensington Rune Stone, first claimed in 1907 that these rocks were mooring stones used by Vikings to anchor their longboats along the edge of a vanished Minnesota lake.
For those of you who do not follow the comments on my older blog posts, America Unearthed star Scott Wolter replied to my discussion of the alleged Roman-Jewish colony in Arizona. Wolter initially accused me of (a) “near-religious zealotry” in debunking him, (b) participation in a conspiracy against him organized by his former friends in Minnesota, (c) abject “fear” that he is right, and (d) not doing my own research. After our discussion, Wolter revised these positions, and it seems we have come to an understanding about my purpose in reviewing his program. You can read our complete discussion here.
I sense that something is changing in the realm of “alternative” history. Since 2009, Ancient Aliens has pretty much dominated the genre, making the ancient astronaut “theory” the most popular of the pseudo-historical claims in the media. But since the program’s move to H2 last year, and the subsequently smaller audience, it seems like emphasis is shifting away from ancient astronauts. Four years was a good run, nearly matching the 1973-1978 high water mark for the first go-round after the In Search of Ancient Astronauts TV documentary. Instead, it seems that “alternative archaeology,” specifically diffusionism, is making a comeback.
Note: This post has been edited to fix incorrect information about spherical geometry.
I think there has been some confusion over my reviews of America Unearthed. A great number of people who have commented or emailed take my reviews for a comprehensive examination of the claims made for the ancient sites featured on the show. In most cases, that would take a book, and I can only write so many books per year. My purpose is to review the program as a piece of television and to consider whether the evidence presented on the program makes the case it wants the viewers to accept as true. This is a different beast altogether, and it is theoretically possible that the program could fail miserably through sheer incompetence while missing genuine evidence for an alternative interpretation of history. What the heck was that? Nobody on tonight’s Ancient Aliens S05E06 “Secrets of the Tombs” seemed really into it this week. Everyone seemed to realize that the material was rehashed from so many previous episodes that there was precious little new to talk about, and they didn’t even try to justify their wild assertions. Even Giorgio Tsoukalos didn’t bother to dress up in his customary suit and tie for the interview, while David Childress wore what looked like pajamas (it was actually a green shirt apparently a size too small). Continuity was at such a low ebb that we flicked back to the blue title card introduced two weeks ago rather than the standard brown one because this season’s episodes are apparently shown out of production order. Based on the clothes the pundits were wearing and their hair, this episode appears to have been shot much later than most of the preceding weeks’ offerings.
In his interview with Skeptiko host Alex Tsakris last week, Ancient Aliens Debunked filmmaker Chris White discussed his beliefs about Noah’s ark, the Great Flood, and the beings that lived before the Flood, whom he considers to be supernatural beings from another dimension that interbred with humans and gave rise to a hybrid race, which the Flood destroyed. These are the Nephilim of Genesis 6, the “sons of God” (literally: sons of the gods) and their children, the “mighty me of old, the men of renown.” Here’s part of what he told Tsakris:
The Voice of Russia reported that a 300-million-year-old piece of aluminum machinery turned up in a piece of coal a Russian man was using to heat his home. News reports alleged that the artifact resembled the teeth of a cog wheel, even though the object itself is not curved, and Sharon Hill of Doubtful News quickly explained that the object is in all likelihood a natural crystal. Russian media have been promoting false “ancient alien” artifacts since Soviet times, so this bit of tabloid hype is nothing new or out of character.
For those of you who missed it, America Unearthed star Scott Wolter replied to my blog post discussing his now-rescinded claim to have received an honorary master’s degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1987. According to Wolter, the degree was in fact unofficial and consisted of a cup of coffee with whipped topping presented to him by his undergraduate professors.
|
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. 
Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
December 2024
|
- Home
- Blog
- Books
-
Articles
-
Newsletter
>
- Television Reviews >
- Book Reviews
- Galleries >
- Videos
-
Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud
>
- Chariots of the Gods at 50
- Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
- Of Atlantis and Aliens
- Aliens and Ancient Texts
- Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
- Blunders in the Sky
- The Case of the False Quotes
- Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
- David Childress & the Aliens
- Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
- Intimations of Persecution
- Zecharia Sitchin's World
- Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
- Extraterrestrial Evolution?
- Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
- Collection: Ancient History >
- Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
- Collection: UFOs >
- Scholomance: The Devil's School
- Prehistory of Chupacabra
- The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
- Magicians of the Gods Review
- The Curse of the Pharaohs
- The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
- Whitewashing American Prehistory
- James Dean's Cursed Porsche
-
Newsletter
>
-
The Library
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
-
Ancient Texts
>
- Mesopotamian Texts >
-
Egyptian Texts
>
- The Shipwrecked Sailor
- Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
- The Papyrus of Ani
- Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
- Inventory Stela
- Manetho
- Eratosthenes' King List
- The Story of Setna
- Leon of Pella
- Diodorus on Egyptian History
- On Isis and Osiris
- Famine Stela
- Old Egyptian Chronicle
- The Book of Sothis
- Horapollo
- Al-Maqrizi's King List
- Teshub and the Dragon
- Hermetica >
- Hesiod's Theogony
- Periplus of Hanno
- Ctesias' Indica
- Sanchuniathon
- Sima Qian
- Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
- The Book of Enoch
- Slavonic Enoch
- Sepher Yetzirah
- Tacitus' Germania
- De Dea Syria
- Aelian's Various Histories
- Julius Africanus' Chronography
- Eusebius' Chronicle
- Chinese Accounts of Rome
- Ancient Chinese Automaton
- The Orphic Argonautica
- Fragments of Panodorus
- Annianus on the Watchers
- The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
-
Medieval Texts
>
- Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
- The Hunt for Noah's Ark
- Isidore of Seville
- Book of Liang: Fusang
- Agobard on Magonia
- Book of Thousands
- Voyage of Saint Brendan
- Power of Art and of Nature
- Travels of Sir John Mandeville
- Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
- Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
- Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
- The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
- Islamic Discovery of America
- The Aztec Creation Myth
-
Lost Civilizations
>
-
Atlantis
>
- Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
- Fragments on Atlantis
- Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
- Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
- Gómara on Atlantis
- Sardinia and Atlantis
- Santorini and Atlantis
- The Mound Builders and Atlantis
- Donnelly's Atlantis
- Atlantis in Morocco
- Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
- W. Scott-Elliot >
- The Lost Atlantis
- Atlantis in Africa
- How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
- Termier on Atlantis
- The Critias and Minoan Crete
- Rebuttal to Termier
- Further Responses to Termier
- Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
- Amazing New Light (Hoax)
- Lost Cities >
- OOPARTs
- Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
- Caucasians in Panama
- Jefferson's Excavation
- Fictitious Discoveries in America
- Against Diffusionism
- Tunnels Under Peru
- The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
- Mound Builders
- Gunung Padang
- Tales of Enchanted Islands
- The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
- The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
- The Interglacial Period
- Solving Oak Island
-
Atlantis
>
- Religious Conspiracies >
-
Giants in the Earth
>
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
- Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
- Fossil Elephants
- Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
- Fossil Mammoths and Giants
- Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
- Fossils and the Supernatural
- Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
- Man During the Stone Age
- Fossil Bones and Giants
- Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
- American Elephant Myths
- The Mammoth and the Flood
- Fossils and Myth
- Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
- History of Paleontology
- Fragments on Giants
- Manichaean Book of Giants
- Geoffrey on British Giants
- Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
- Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
- Book of Howth
- Purchas His Pilgrimage
- Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
- The Giants of Sardinia
- Giants and the Sons of God
- The Magnetism of Evil
- Tertiary Giants
- Smithsonian Giant Reports
- Early American Giants
- The Giant of Coahuila
- Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
- Index of Giants
- Newspaper Accounts of Giants
- Lanier's A Book of Giants
-
Fossil Origins of Myths
>
-
Science and History
>
- Halley on Noah's Comet
- The Newport Tower
- Iron: The Stone from Heaven
- Ararat and the Ark
- Pyramid Facts and Fancies
- Argonauts before Homer
- The Deluge
- Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
- Old Mythology in New Apparel
- Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
- Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
- Devil Worship in France
- Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
- The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
- The Mutinous Sea
- The Rock Wall of Rockwall
- Fabulous Zoology
- The Origins of Talos
- Mexican Mythology
- Chinese Pyramids
- Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
-
Extreme History
>
- Roman Empire Hoax
- American Antiquities
- American Cataclysms
- England, the Remnant of Judah
- Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
- Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
- Vestiges of the Mayas
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
- Origins of the Egyptian People
- The Secret Doctrine >
- Phoenicians in America
- The Electric Ark
- Traces of European Influence
- Prince Henry Sinclair
- Pyramid Prophecies
- Templars of Ancient Mexico
- Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
- The Faith of Ancient Egypt
- Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
- Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
- Book of the Damned
- Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
- The Shaver Mystery >
-
Ancient Texts
>
-
Alien Encounters
>
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
- Fortean Society and Columbus
- Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
- The Skyfort Document
- Whirling Wheels
- Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
- Soviet Search for Lemuria
- Visitors from Outer Space
- Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
- "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
- UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
- Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
- The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
- Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
- Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
- Noah's Ark Cables
- The Von Daniken Letter
- CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
- Scott Wolter Lawsuit
- UFOs in Ancient China
- CIA Report on Noah's Ark
- CIA Noah's Ark Memos
- Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
- Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
- Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
- House UFO Hearing
- Ancient Extraterrestrials >
- A Message from Mars
- Saucer Mystery Solved?
- Orville Wright on UFOs
- Interdimensional Flying Saucers
- Poltergeist UFOs
- Flying Saucers Are Real
- Report on UFOs
-
US Government Ancient Astronaut Files
>
-
The Supernatural
>
- The Devils of Loudun
- Sublime and Beautiful
- Voltaire on Vampires
- Demonology and Witchcraft
- Thaumaturgia
- Bulgarian Vampires
- Religion and Evolution
- Transylvanian Superstitions
- Defining a Zombie
- Dread of the Supernatural
- Vampires
- Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
- Science and Fairy Stories
- The Cursed Car
-
Classic Fiction
>
- Lucian's True History
- Some Words with a Mummy
- The Coming Race
- King Solomon's Mines
- An Inhabitant of Carcosa
- The Xipéhuz
- Lot No. 249
- The Novel of the Black Seal
- The Island of Doctor Moreau
- Pharaoh's Curse
- Edison's Conquest of Mars
- The Lost Continent
- Count Magnus
- The Mysterious Stranger
- The Wendigo
- Sredni Vashtar
- The Lost World
- The Red One
- H. P. Lovecraft >
- The Skeptical Poltergeist
- The Corpse on the Grating
- The Second Satellite
- Queen of the Black Coast
- A Martian Odyssey
- Classic Genre Movies
- Miscellaneous Documents >
- Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
-
Ancient Mysteries
>
- About Jason
- Search
RSS Feed
© 2010-2024 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.