Today I’d like to take a little break from U.S.-centric alternative history to look at an ongoing debate in the alternative history of New Zealand. The material I’m going to discuss comes to me from Matthew Dentith, a New Zealander with a Ph.D. in the epistemology of conspiracy theories (how cool is that?), who runs a blog where he has carefully examined conspiracy theories about New Zealand, including a twelve part series on the allegation that the New Zealand government and sundry other dark forces are conspiring to hide the hidden ancient “white” history of New Zealand in order to turn the country over to the Māori.
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I would be remiss if I didn’t pause for a moment to acknowledge the death this week of special effects master Ray Harryhausen at the age of 92. Harryhausen’s masterpiece was the 1963 Jason and the Argonauts, whose brief scene of skeleton warriors battling the Greek heroes ranks among the most impressive few minutes of special effects I’ve ever seen. Its obvious derivative in Army of Darkness is longer and more sustained, but not as exuberant. I mention all of this because the film left such an impression on my father that I ended up named for the Argonaut.
I think it’s pretty much beyond doubt that alternative history authors, particularly in the ancient astronaut genre, manipulate, mistranslate, and deceptively edit ancient and medieval texts in order to supply spurious evidence for their various pet ideas. What I can’t figure out is why they do it. In some cases the motive is simple cynicism and the need to supply the publishing maw with endless new meat; but in other cases I just can’t fathom the motivation. Going in to Jacques Vallee’s work on the recommendation of Steven Mizrach, I genuinely expected to be confronted with a higher level of ancient astronaut material, but it’s nothing but absolute bullshit and I cannot understand why.
Note: This article has been edited to correct the name of excavation expert Kevin Richeson.
You’ll recall that America Unearthed decamped to Rockwall, Texas to investigate a geological formation called a clastic dike that local residents have tried to represent as a prehistoric artificial wall since its discovery in the nineteenth century. Most recently, local businessmen have tried promoting the formation as the remains of the antediluvian civilization of the pre-Flood giants, a claim that even creationist geologists like John Morris have debunked as categorically untrue. (I have a fuller discussion of the history and geology of the formation here.) Well, filming is apparently complete, and the Rockwall Herald-Banner is reporting on the production. It’s an enlightening and somewhat depressing article. In 1961, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow declared television “a vast wasteland” populated by sadism, violence, and advertising. He advocated for programming in the public interest, calling on broadcasters to take responsibility for the content of their shows. How quaint. The satellite television station The Documentary Channel, which is not subject to FCC regulations, has been re-airing this week a 2010 series called “The Pyramid Code,” produced by an independent production company and sold to stations in 34 countries.
As many of you know, the editor of Paranthropology asked me to write a response to Steven Mizrach’s article on the possibility that beings from another dimension are responsible for the UFO phenomenon, the so-called Ultra-Terrestrial Hypothesis (UTH). I’ve been struggling with a couple of issues as I consider my response. The first is the disconnect between the article and Mizrach’s later posting on my website about it. The article is titled “The Case for the UTH,” and in it Mizrach says that the evidence leads him to support the UTH as “the best model, for now” to explain UFOs (p. 17); his later posting on my blog walks this back somewhat: “I only put forward the UTH as a hypothesis. Not necessarily even the best or only one, just one that could be considered for some cases.” Do I respond to the article as written, or as amended? Tentatively, I will respond to the article as written.
As part of the online material supplementing America Unearthed, H2 has posted a deleted scene from the season finale of the show, “Hunt for the Holy Grail.” The scene features show host Scott Wolter discussing (what else) imaginary Templar voyager Henry Sinclair with Steve St. Clair. The two speculate wildly about how the government of Nova Scotia is hiding the truth about the Templar-Holy Bloodline connection and have encoded this information in the Canadian province’s flag.
I've begun receiving another round of snarky messages complaining that I am misrepresenting myself as a bestselling author without book sales equal to the wording. I am frankly surprised that I still need to explain that the word "bestseller" means literally that, a best seller in a category; it is not an absolute numerical measure of book sales, and never has been. Similarly, an H2 series can be a "hit" program in the cable category with just 0.3% of the U.S. population watching, while a broadcast network "hit" might have ten or twenty times the audience.
While my use of the word is a publisher- and literary-agent-approved marketing application of "bestseller," I've decided that the marketing puffery isn't worth the hassle. Just as Caesar said of Pompeia at their divorce, "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion" (Plutarch, Caesar, 10.9), I want to make sure no one is confused or upset by my use of marketing words. Therefore, I have amended my biography page to highlight that my Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens achieved Amazon.com bestseller status in the archaeology category in 2012, something that has always been acknowledged in the footnotes. By bringing this to the fore and shifting the adjective "bestselling" from my name to the book's, I hope this will clear up the angry confusion. I have posted all of this information here to ensure that this change is public and documented so I can't be accused of "secretly" changing anything. Arizona Newspaper Columnist: Earth Is a Prison for Alien Criminals, Ancient Aliens Are Real5/4/2013 If the national media are too willing to give voice to believers in ghosts, aliens, lost civilizations, and other assorted fantasies, the local media are even worse. Unfortunately, critics like me simply don’t have the ability to monitor the opinion columns of every local newspaper or minor blog in the United States—let alone the rest of the world—and that means some things simply fall through the cracks. This is a problem because surveys show that news consumers are more likely to read local newspapers than national ones and to watch local TV news than national news. Consumers also trust their local news outlets more than other sources; 81% in one 2010 survey, for example, cited local TV news as their single most important news source.
That’s why it’s so disconcerting to see outright lies and ignorant misinformation passed along as fact by the opinion columnist at a local Arizona newspaper. Writing in the Troy Media today, columnist Fred Donnelly took on the ancient astronaut hypothesis, specifically the version presented on the History/H2 series Ancient Aliens. Donnelly covered ground that I’ve discussed repeatedly, drawing parallels between the program’s attributions of oversized ruins to aliens with earlier generations’ attempts to attribute those same ruins to giants. He mentioned the usual material that I’ve covered before, including the ancient Greek claims that the ruins of the Mycenaean era were built by the giant Cyclopes and the claim by Geoffrey of Monmouth that Stonehenge had been built by another lost race of giants.
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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
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