Review of Ancient Aliens S21E02 “The Top Ten Mysterious Monoliths”

​It’s been a miserable week in which the current administration in Washington devastated what remains of American science with indiscriminate cuts that will compromise everything from disease detection to cancer research to weather forecasting. So it’s entirely appropriate, I guess, that the same day that saw a governmental attack on science happened as the History channel launched another broadside against public knowledge and the integrity of knowledge with yet another Ancient Aliens clip show larded with commercials for still more programs promising “mysteries” upon “mysteries”—because, apparently, nothing can be known for certain except about the Confederacy and the Nazis. 

​As for this week’s clip show: I’m not sure what the purpose of this rehash is since Ancient Aliens has already done a dedicated episode in 2022 about standing stones and one in 2013 specifically on monoliths. But they redid it anyway, even after previously dedicating a 2014 clip show to stone structures. Here, then, is the list of the parts of this week’s slapped-together, money-saving cut-and-paste episode:
 
10. The Rudston Monolith. From the 2022 episode on standing stones linked above.
9. The Ishi no Hōden Monument. From a 2017 episode about the Ishi no Hōden.
8. Obelisks. Sorry, but I can’t tell you which of the dozens of episodes touching on obelisks this clip came from, but it seems to be from the same standing stones episode, or the preceding monoliths one.
7. The Stelae of Copan. A segment from a 2020 episode about stone giants.
6. The Gate of the Sun. Tiwanaku gets mentioned so frequently, it’s hard to remember which episode this clip came form. They just recycled this same content last fall.
5. The Stone Spheres. Bosnian spheres covered in last year’s episode on stone spheres (rehashing point-for-point a season 5 episode on monoliths).
4. The Colossal Heads. This clip about the “African” features of the Olmec stone heads appears to be from a 2019 episode on the Maya. It’s pretty racist and the racism is repeated unchanged.
3. The Carnac Stones. Another frequently repeated segment, this is probably the 2022 updated version from an episode on standing stones rather than the 2013 episode whose footage it reused.
2. The Moai of Easter Island. This seems to be from a 2018 episode on stone statues.
1. Stonehenge. Again, this is material so frequently repeated, with so little change, that it’s hard to identify the original. I’d guess it’s from the 2019 episode on “The Secrets of Stonehenge,” which covered Merlin and portals, but, really, it could have come from a dozen episodes.