|
Yesterday I mentioned white supremacists and their efforts to recast fringe history claims about prehistoric Old World contact with America as evidence of a global Caucasian master race. Today I’d like to look at one specific aspect of that: the embrace by white supremacists of the Solutrean Hypothesis for the peopling of the Americas, which suggests that Europeans from Spain traveled to America at least 14,000 years ago and gave rise to the Clovis culture. To do so, we’ll need to explore the porous boundary between fact and fiction and the way “entertainment” is used as a vehicle for delivering political and historical claims while avoiding mainstream scrutiny.
185 Comments
Yesterday was a depressing day in the field of ancient astronautics. UFOTV released a new video in which they acknowledge that the 2012 Maya prophecy of doom failed and instead propose a new timeline for the return of the aliens, based on “Vatican revelations” about an “infrared planet” (?) hurtling toward the earth. The general point is: Forget that we were wrong about 2012 and start fearing the upcoming disaster. But let’s move on from this miserable bit of exploitation.
Yesterday the Huffington Post released one of its periodic excursions into ancient astronauts. Ex-New York Post gossip editor, current Playboy writer, and bestselling novelist Paula Froelich visited the National Museum of Art in Iraq. What did she take away from her trip? Aliens. Before we begin, take a look at this article in the Epoch Times and weep. It takes America Unearthed at face value and presents it as the “History Channel” confirming the cultural impact of Celts on pre-Columbian America, particularly at Anubis Cave in Oklahoma. The Epoch Times is an international, multilingual newspaper and internet news organization publishing in 35 countries. It is one of the most-read publications among the Chinese diaspora. The reporter, Paul Darin, regularly writes credulous articles about UFOs and conspiracies. He has confused America Unearthed for science by placing faith in the History brand name, and he also cites Ancient American magazine as though that amateur diffusionist publication were a serious scholarly journal.
Now on to today’s material. Yesterday we had interesting news that genetic research determined that Europeans 7,000 years ago were not white but rather had dark tan or brown skin. This is strong circumstantial evidence that the 12,000-year-old white world-bestriding master race of Ignatius Donnelly, James Churchward, David Childress, and Graham Hancock could not have existed, though, of course it is not conclusive proof. There might have been a pocket of white people in a technologically-advanced island citadel, but it looks less likely now since 5000 BCE is well after the period (c. 10,500-9,500 BCE) when these authors claim the lost civilization/Atlantis/Mu dispersed its white people around the world to found civilization.
I may have more to say about this after I’ve had some time to digest the study. Meanwhile, on to today’s topic. What is it about the so-called “long” nineteenth century (broadly defined—1789-1914 in Europe or 1776-1917 in the U.S.) that is so endlessly fascinating to fringe history folk? So much of what America Unearthed investigates comes directly from material published during these years, from the “mystery” of the Newport Tower (1839) to the Stone of Destiny (1861) to “Aztec” pyramids in Wisconsin (1837/1900) to the Grand Canyon “Egyptian” tomb (1909) to tonight’s investigation into the alleged connection between the Serpent Mound of Ohio and—let’s not mince words—a glacial deposit mistaken for an artificial mound in Scotland in 1871, a claim first published in April 1890.
There seems to be a bit of confusion over exactly what this episode of Ancient Aliens was supposed to be. According to my cable company’s on-screen guide, this was the first episode of season seven, but History’s website says that this is another episode from season six. I’m labeling this Ancient Aliens S06E12 “Aliens and Stargates” for now, but if I find something official about its designation, I’ll come back and change the episode number.
Tonight Ancient Aliens returns from a month-long hiatus, and it looks to be more of the same rehashed material from earlier episodes. However, regular readers will be interested to note that next week (not tonight) the show will be investigating… wait for it… the Tibetan-Egyptian underground city in the Grand Canyon! Since they plan to relate this to the Native American legend of the “Star Beings,” it sounds like they’ll be interviewing the same Zuni elder as America Unearthed, this time to support a completely different fringe theory!
This post is to inform readers of my blog of changes in policy regarding comments posted on my blog. I have received an unusual number of complaints from readers, including many who do not participate in the comments regularly or at all, complaining about the increasing barrage of comments that are off topic, verbally abusive, and repetitive. These readers inform me that such comments are negatively impacting their ability to read and enjoy the blog and the ensuing conversation. I take such complaints seriously, and I am therefore compelled to intervene.
Television is apparently a medium where consistency doesn’t matter, and as long as you’ve been on some show somewhere you can always find a new program higher up the dial. Ancient Aliens pundit Mike Bara, author of Ancient Aliens on Mars and Ancient Aliens on the Moon, has a new show from production company Raw TV, Uncovering Aliens, airing on various Discovery networks (Animal Planet and Science Channel), where he is the skeptic, casting cold water on recent American UFO claims. I can’t wrap my mind around it.
|
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
January 2025
|
- 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
© 2010-2025 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.