Publisher's Ethics Team Launches Investigation into Flawed Gunung Padang Article

11/28/2023

A couple of weeks ago, the Wiley journal Archaeological Prospection raised eyebrows by publishing a paper by Daniel Natawidjaja, the geologist who wrote Plato Never Lied: Atlantis in Indonesia, and his team claiming that the volcanic hill of Gunung Padang was a 27,000-year-old pyramid. Natawidjaja did not provide any evidence that the radiocarbon dates he took from organic material within the hill were deposited by humans, or that there had been any human occupation beyond the relatively recent surface structures. Now the journal and its publisher have launched an ethics investigation into the flawed paper, according to a report in Nature:

Archaeological Prospection and its publisher, Wiley, have since launched an investigation into the paper. Eileen Ernenwein, an archaeological geophysicist at Tennessee State University in Johnson City, who is co-editor of the journal said in an e-mail to Nature: “The editors, including me, and Wiley ethics team are currently investigating this paper in accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines.” She declined to elaborate on the nature of the concerns raised.

The whole thing is rather bizarre. It was patently obvious to me--and I don’t have a PhD—that you would first need to prove an association between the material you are dating and human occupation, or else you are simply dating dirt. The earth has been making dirt for a long time, even without people around. Natawidjaja never had any evidence of human occupation, and surely someone should have noticed his oversight before the paper made it to publication.

Natawidjaja argues that the visual similarity of buried basalt columns to human-quarried stones is enough to claim them as the work of humans—a claim hat has led researchers astray since antiquity, when geological formations like the Giant’s Causeway sparked legends about mysterious ancient builders.

I am more curious about what the ethics complaint entailed. I wonder what ethical violations someone alleged transpired.

10 Comments

Crash55

11/28/2023 06:57:16 pm

My guess is the ethics complaint is not about the paper itself but rather how it got published. Such rubbish is supposed to be filtered out during the peer review process. That it made it through raises questions about the process. Did the reviewers know the author personally? Did the author know who the reviewers were and pressured them to accept the paper? Did the author payoff someone to get the paper accepted? Etc.

I am guessing Wiley is annoyed that such rubbish got through the process and wants to minimize the chances of it happening again. Having such stuff published is not good for their reputation.

Kent

11/28/2023 11:12:05 pm

I don't understand the last sentence.

12/4/2023 01:51:33 pm

I’ll rephrase it for you:

“I wonder if this sentence will cause Kent to suffer an aneurysm.”

Frank

11/29/2023 10:54:07 am

"I am more curious about what the ethics complaint entailed. I wonder what ethical violations someone alleged transpired."

Plato Never Lied: Atlantis in Indonesia.

The title itself is an ethical violation. Plato never lied? He lied about Atlantis having been in the Atlantic ocean, unless Indonesia is really in the Atlantic ocean. But then, what's in a name? as the oceans are all connected with the same common sea water which is stirred and moved around by sea currents, both on the surface and under the surface, just like the locations for Atlantis. But at least in Indonesia they do have lots of elephants. And which is something that you, Jason, always demand to be shown the elephants, whenever any hypothesis is presented, proposing a possible location for Plato's Atlantis.

She is nowhere and everywhere, all at the same time. Why can't poor Atlantis rest in peace, wherever she may be?

What I wonder is why? Why would an incomplete 2,400 years old story still command such interest in the minds of educated people? I know, it's Plato, a man of good reputation and well respected for centuries. Atlantis is also a subject which is of interest here too, obviously.

12/2/2023 01:01:47 pm

Your complaint is itself an ethical violation. Plato told a story about someone telling about someone telling a story about someone telling someone about someone telling someone a story.

Plato never lied. Pogue ma hiney won't you?

You need to embrace the critico-historical model. The time saved by not thinking about Atlantis should be part of the CPI (yeah I know but it's in the same basket as imaginary foofy drinks and non-existent "pre-law" waitresses.)

An Over-Educated Grunt

11/29/2023 12:01:39 pm

Went back and read the original article, and it's just bad. Like the things he uses as evidence of infill are obviously breaks on the rock's natural fracture planes due to roots or water infiltration, which then just get wedged open further by roots or soil formation. The materials are all laid down in exactly the sequence you'd expect to see if they occurred naturally, with minimal churn of the deeper layers due to human activity, and he used exactly none of the tests you'd use to test rock for last atmospheric exposure, like luminescence testing. This is actually WORSE than the time Scott Wolter claimed he'd used the ASTM standard for thin slice petrography for the KRS.

I don't know if it's unethical but it is incompetent.

AAA

11/29/2023 02:19:26 pm

Instead watch Tucker Carlson's episode 42 on X. Aliens exist and are here!!!

Clete

12/3/2023 05:22:24 pm

Tucker Carlson would certainly know, After all he communcates with them on each and every day. they take the form of his favorite breakfast cereal.

Mean Re Queried

11/29/2023 08:43:13 pm

Hello, Jason. No idea what allegedly transpired other than digging. Coincidentally, I found this most recent post immediately after I found this article.
https://arkeonews.net/new-evidence-suggests-indonesias-gunung-padang-could-be-worlds-oldest-known-pyramid/
The surrounding links to content look like real news in archaeology, but seeing them around the suggestion that old dirt suggests a natural hill in Indonesia could be the oldest pyramid reminds me of websites like Ancient Code and Ancient Origins, not your favorites obviously. The real ruins atop the hill are around 2000 years old, plenty ancient and mysterious, but not if you want to place "Atlantis by any other name" in Indonesia like the late
Brazilian professor Arysio Santos did. This is like what happened with Dr. Sam Osmanogich and the so called Bosnian "Pyramids" all over again. Graham Hancock has the good sense to recognize the Bosnian "Pyramids" as natural hills atop medieval mines. Julie Ryder of Galactic Facets in Montana said she got email and a visit by Dr. Sam to the stacks of big rocks in Montana now threatened by gold mining giant companies. Ever look into the Giant's Playground in Montana?
Speaking of "Atlantis by any other name", apparently David Grusch told big game hunter and former game show host Joe Rogan he read books by Graham Hancock as well as books by Jacques Vallee as we suspected all along.
https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/372450/us-government-possesses-a-variety-of-alien-bodies-claims-david-grusch
https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/372450-david-grusch-interviewed-by-joe-rogan/
No surprise. Unexplained Mysteries sounds redundant. Click the embedded videos to skip commercials.
Sorry, this is off topic, but I feel like I should share this too.
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2023/11/The-Bizarre-World-of-Bigfoot-and-Extraterrestrials-Tied-Together/
Looks like N. R. saw Star Wars.
Thanks for allowing comments.

Jessy Jay

12/4/2023 04:23:25 pm

We do know who built the Gian's Causeway - a *giant* (duh). Finn McCool was in Ireland when he heard his terrifying, murderous rival, the Scottish Cucillin, building it so he could 'drop by'. Finn's wife Oona disguised him as a baby ... when Cucillin finished the walkway, and walked over - he was impressed by such a huge kid, and Oona told him that the child's father was 'very large indeed' and invited Cucillin to put his fingers in the baby's mouth to feel it's brand new teeth, at which point Finn bit one off. Cucillin fled back to Scotland, pulling out the middle of the causeway in his terror, because if the baby could do that, imagine what the father was like?

You folks with all your book-learning ignore the truths of the natives, handed down through generations, that conceal secret Earth technologies, Telluric Chakras, and errrmmm other stuff. And we all know the Celts are especially wise because of Braveheart, druids and, actually, haggis is nice.

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Publisher's Ethics Team Launches Investigation into Flawed Gunung Padang Article

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