JASON COLAVITO
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image 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 >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • 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 >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • 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
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • 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 >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • 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 >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • 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 >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • 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 Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • 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
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • 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
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • 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
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • 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
      • 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 >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • 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
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • 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 >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • 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 >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search

University of New Mexico Revises Reason for Studying Olmec Heads on Trip Exploring "African Presence" in Mexico

2/21/2019

66 Comments

 
The University of New Mexico came under fire online from anthropologists, archaeologists, activists, and skeptics after a flyer for an upcoming study abroad trip sponsored by their Chicano Studies department caused outrage by promising to help students learn about the “African presence” in Mexico during Olmec times. The trip, scheduled for May, was intended to explore the African experience in Mexico across time, including in the colonial period and in contemporary Mexico. But it was the decision to follow the Afrocentric claim that Olmec society had an African component that set off alarm bells.
Picture
​According to online records, UNM’s Chicano Studies has been running the “Exploring the African Presence in Mexico” trip for a decade, each time implying in their published descriptions that the colossal stone heads of the Olmec are evidence of African visitors. The flyer makes fairly clear that the Olmec heads are meant to be seen as African, since one appears alongside images of Afro-Mexicans.

Now, after weeks of bad publicity on social media, it appears that UNM has backed down—partially. The description of the trip has been altered. Here is how they described the Olmec portion of the trip in a 2010 flyer:
As detailed in the acclaimed museum exhibit, the African Presence in Mexico, our trip explores the African presence in Mexico from three different perspectives; Olmec Culture, colonial slavery, and contemporary Afromestizo communities.  Dr. Sagrario Cruz, one of the exhibits co-curators, will lead us as we explore African communities, visit historical locations associated with slavery in Veracruz, and guide us as we delve into the roots of Olmec culture where we will [visit] almost all of the colossal Olmec heads of Los Tuxtlas, La Venta, and San Lorenzo de los Negros. Beyond the African Presence we will also take advantage of many other cultural opportunities in and around the communities we are scheduled to visit (the Great Pyramids at Tajin for example).  
As you can see, the original description quite heavily implies that Olmec culture has an African origin, though it does not explicitly state this. Here is how the revised description appeared after being updated in the past week:
As detailed in the acclaimed museum exhibit, the African Presence in Mexico, our trip explores the African presence in Mexico in three different epochs; Olmec Culture, Colonial Slavery, and Contemporary Afromestizo Communities. UNM Faculty members Dr. Doris Careaga Coleman and Dr. Finnie D. Coleman join Dr. Sagrario Cruz from the Universidad Veracruzana to team teach a vibrant and important history - the history of people of African descent in Mexico.  We will visit a number of Afromexican communities and historical locations associated with the slave trade in Veracruz.  We will delve into the roots of Olmec culture and examine all but a few of the colossal Olmec heads of Los Tuxtlas, La Venta, and San Lorenzo. Our purpose is not to claim that these heads reflect a pre-Columbian African presence, but to help our students understand how and why many people of African descent have come to revere these magnificent heads. Acknowledging concerns of anthropologists, it is important to note that we do not claim that the Olmec are of African descent beyond the notion that all of humanity finds its origins in Africa. For more than a decade we have allowed UNM students to view these magnificent works of art in person and to visit with anthropologists in Mexico about their origins. We discuss the visceral and often hostile responses to Jose Melgar’s and later Ivan Van Sertima’s suggestion that the Olmec reflect a pre-Colombian African presence. We make sure that our students know that research offers no credible evidence that proves a pre-Columbian connection to Africa. Anthropologists in Mexico help our students to understand that in spite of this absence of anthropological evidence, many people of African descent continue to believe these heads do reflect a pre-Colombian African presence and use those beliefs to inform their notions of what it means to be of African descent in Mexico.
​There’s a lot to unpack there, but it’s interesting to see how defensive the trip organizers are in their discussion. It is implausible that they spent ten years visiting the Olmec heads and explicitly stating that they were evidence of an “African presence” in Mexico without really meaning it. Now they claim that their importance lies in how Afro-Mexicans have used American Afrocentrist pseudoscience to create a false cultural history tied to indigenous Mexico. While this is certainly interesting on its own, it’s also clearly not what the trip’s organizers have been teaching for ten years, to go by the descriptions they themselves wrote. It’s also interesting that they describe opposition to Afrocentrism as “visceral” and “hostile” even though they admit that Afrocentrism lacks any evidence for African Olmec. Their words belie a viewpoint that sees Afrocentrism as culturally empowering, regardless of its factual correctness.
 
There is, of course, some irony in the Afrocentrist acceptance of the idea that the Olmec stone heads represent Black Africans instead of the actual Maya people of the region, whom they so clearly resemble. The original claim that the heads were of Africans was made in the nineteenth century—as a racist argument that Native peoples of the Americas were so racially inferior that the even accepted Black Africans as their superiors, even though the Black Africans were obviously the slaves of white Atlanteans.
 
Here is Ignatius Donnelly making the case in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882):
The features are unmistakably negroid. As the negroes have never been a sea-going race, the presence of these faces among the antiquities of Central America proves one of two things, either the existence of a land connection between America and Africa via Atlantis, as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, or commercial relations between America and Africa through the ships of the Atlanteans or some other civilized race, whereby the negroes were brought to America as slaves at a very remote epoch.
​Ultimately, the claim originates, as best I can tell, with Augustus Le Plongeon, who wrote of “ancient relations that existed between [the Maya] and the inhabitants of the west coast of Africa.” It’s disconcerting to see that more than a century later, we are still stuck in Victorian fantasies. 
66 Comments
William Fitzgerald
2/21/2019 09:19:51 am

Sad, but not surprising that this type of nonsense has crept into university studies. A reflection of post-modernism? I don't know, but unfortunate.

Reply
Pops
2/21/2019 02:26:55 pm

As a academic within the Humanities, I in reality don’t see this kind of thing often. I hate when rare events like this occur then people yell “post-modernism!” and “universities are getting bad!” as a slogan. It’s worse because it gives a false impression that we scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences are ok with advocating for pseudoscience. I agree that this African Olmec debacle is moronic and would scold the people responsible for even considering this useless trip but the ultra post-modern university boogeyman is exaggerated.

Reply
“Disco” Demolition Night
2/21/2019 02:37:12 pm

Pop, that was a good attempt at explaining post-postmodernism.

Pops
2/21/2019 03:31:34 pm

@Disco. Maybe I wasn’t clear. I’m not defending nor ignoring the effects of post-modernism. I was just saying that people blow it out of proportion when a minority fringe do something moronic then blame a collective of people. Seeing that you’re not a academic who who has luxury and the time to troll others you clearly don’t understand the problem. Is it really that important for you to get the last word to the point you have to shitpost because of it? I swear I feel like I’m talking to edgy teenagers sometimes in this blog. Jason, you should start moderating the comments or something. I come here to read what nonsense the history charlatans are up too, not have a flame war with a troll who has the need to feel like the smartest guy in the room.

“Disco” inferno
2/21/2019 04:03:07 pm

Check your grammar there pops. You wrote that I’m not “a [sic] academic who has the time and luxury to troll others.” You’ve actually declared that you’re the troll, although I doubt that’s what you intended. I’ve read more lucid sentences from “edgy teenagers”!

Doc Rock
2/21/2019 04:36:14 pm

Pops,

It can always get worse. A while back someone was on here claiming that archaeologists can't be trusted at all because they are all under the sway of post-modernism. Missing the fact that plenty of dirt archaeologists look upon post-modernism as heresy.

jockobadger
2/21/2019 04:36:15 pm

Thanks Disco. After seeing that grammar problem not once, but twice, I suspect that our "humanities academic" is anything but.

Jesus H Christ

Deodand
2/21/2019 08:14:31 pm

This has been going on since the late 1980s. Here is the Encyclopedia of American Loons page on Hunter Adams the 'Researcher' at Muse-Argonne National Laboratory who supplied the Baseline Essay on African and African-American Contributions to Science and Technology which the State of Oregon promoted as a good and proper thing for teachers to use nationwide to encourage African-Americans to stay in the sciences.

http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2015/02/1298-hunter-adams.html

Quoting that site the material taught:

"...the ancient Egyptians were black and their culture ancestral to African-Americans. They also flew around in gliders and were the inventors of most of modern science, in particular the use of the zodiac and “astropsychological treatises,” which Adams implies is science. Furthermore, the ancient Egyptians were “famous as masters of psi, precognition, psychokinesis, remote viewing and other undeveloped human capabilities.”

The parallels with 19th Century nonsense about Ancient Egyptians being White are obvious and telling.

Skeptics tried to counter this and similar material but were drowned out by cries that they were only doing it because they were racist.

This all happened in the 1990s, Afrocentrism renamed itself 'African Studies' and the rest is sadly history.

It would be interesting to see just how far back this particular course goes and just what was being taught when.

Reply
Human Centipede Head Segment
2/23/2019 06:59:15 am

Firstly, that this episode of pseudoscience baloney occurred and spread to other states' education boards is emblematic of zero federal oversight on state education standards (at that time).

Secondly, the reason no one of sound intellect bothered to critique these essays or question the author's credibility could be due to the fact that Portland, being the whitest city in the U.S.A, had a miniscule population of blacks living under institutionalized disdain and contempt for their existence. The most attention given to anything written by an African American in that town was their tax paperwork.

Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 04:38:46 pm

"..This all happened in the 1990s, Afrocentrism renamed itself 'African Studies' and the rest is sadly history..."

*Wrong! You don't know what you're talking about!!! African-centered scholarship, Africology and Afrocentrism mission was too bring a level of "truth and historical importance" that's been suppressed by the white RACIST academia.

Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 04:34:30 pm

"..this type of nonsense has crept into university studies..." *What kind of nonsense are you referring to, the hundred of year of EUROCENTRIC psuedo-historical and pusedo-scientific lies the university system has forced upon the rest of the planet?!!! Are these the fuckin' nonsense you're talking about?!!

Reply
Lloyd George
2/21/2019 10:17:56 am

How did Africans get to Central America during the time of the Olmecs? Regularly scheduled airlines has got to be the answer. However after carving the heads, they left no other evidence...no tools, graves, other carving, ruins of villages or oral tradition. They came, they carved, they left.

Reply
“Disco” Man
2/21/2019 10:41:56 am

At least today’s post saves us from another endless and meandering Joe Scales screed about how Colavito is a dishonest liberal who hates white people and by implication himself.

Reply
Rational Man
2/21/2019 11:07:02 am

But you are all Christian fundamentalists

Reply
Pops
2/21/2019 03:53:09 pm

I do notice that religious fundamentalists sometimes roam the comments. It’s ironic that these people could see the bullshit of the fringe writers but don’t question their own wild interpretations of their faith.

Not the Comte de Saint Germain
2/22/2019 12:30:39 am

"Rational Man" is the latest pseudonym of a longtime commenter who seems to think that anyone who disagrees with his pet theories about the origins of religion is a fundamentalist.

Joe Scales
2/21/2019 11:37:33 am

But apparently not the ramblings of a burgeoning cyber-stalker in love with yours truly.

Reply
Pops
2/21/2019 02:55:12 pm

I knew that Joe was a slightly loony conservative but I didn’t know he had such far-right views. I once called him out for it when he was defending Trump and the GOP in other blogs and this one. He then claimed he was a political centrist. Reminds me of Only Me, a commenter here who’s a Republican bot and amusingly attempted to claim that liberals are more dangerous than conservatives (Not true, right-wing extremism is 4x more common than left-wing violence. Read anything from David Neiwart and Cas Mudde for some eye opening stuff). Joe is such a hypocrite. He calls himself a skeptic and claims to care about the truth but then blindly believes whatever the conservative hive mind tells him. He apparently didn’t get the memo that 60-70 percent of Anti-science think tanks, organizations, and law centres are politically conservative. He’s not much different from the pseudoscience charlatans themselves. I’m always stunned. How do conservative skeptics ignore the fact that the GOP out of ignorance are repealing environmental laws backed up by studies and actual scientists? How do they ignore that their political party denies climate science, evolution, push a strongly religious agenda and much more. Once they drank the punch I guess there’s no reasoning with them.

Reply
Joe Scales
2/21/2019 04:06:13 pm

"He then claimed he was a political centrist."

Wrong. I've claimed the truth; that I am politically independent and always have been.

Now Pops... you imbecile... how long have you peppered this blog with multiple monikers, trolling all the way with your "smartest man" jibes when you were doing impressions; most unfunny at that. Now you're back with this moniker again and posing as a serious academic? Give me a break child...

InfiniteMagentic
2/25/2019 04:56:12 pm

"How do conservative skeptics ignore the fact that the GOP out of ignorance are repealing environmental laws backed up by studies and actual scientists?"

*Point blank, the GOP doesn't care about science!

Riley V
2/21/2019 11:32:49 pm

Thanks for answering for me Cisco "Disco" Kid Molester i'm genarally able to answer for myself.

Hit must be hell to be an InCel. Especially given your age, reputation, and livery.

Reply
Doc Rock
2/21/2019 11:45:47 am

Some of these two week "study abroad" programs are not a whole lot more than Spring Break with an extra week of drinking tacked on. I was told at one university where I worked that they wanted me to do one and would give me 3 or $4k. I told them I would pay 3 or 4k to not have to do it.

I can see why burning a couple days by pointing out statues of people with thick lips would be seen as a good play no matter how they spin it considering the folks who are often running these programs.

Reply
Jane Smith
2/21/2019 11:55:09 am

I always thought the Olmec heads looked polynesian. But what do I know?

Reply
Smoking Mirror
2/21/2019 12:46:34 pm

Thank you for highlighting this. Native people haven't had good platforms (yet) to counter this new form of colonial erasure. Most people are unwilling to call it out for fear of being accused of racism as well.

Reply
“disco” man
2/21/2019 01:00:07 pm

Native people in Mexico practiced ritual human sacrifice up until the time of European contact. Perhaps that aspect of “colonial erasure” wasn’t such a bad thing?

Reply
Doc Rock
2/21/2019 01:34:59 pm

Except that this erasure corresponded roughly to the period of Spanish slaughter of vast numbers of people in europe under the guise of the Inquisition and trying to get rid of all those pesky Protestants. And in the longterm they racked up much higher numbers than the Aztecs.

Guess everybody needs a little erasure.

“Disco” Dude
2/21/2019 02:28:59 pm

Rock, you’ve obviously never watched Mel Brooks’ sweeping epic film “History of the World, Part I” in which the Spanish Inquisituon which was quite accurately portrayed as a fun loving madcap affair, replete with singing, dancing, synchronized swimming, and the hilarious Jackie Mason!

V
2/21/2019 09:12:57 pm

Christians practice ritual cannibalism every Sunday. Maybe we should erase Christianity, and completely ignore every bit of good it ever did just based on that one thing.

Jim
2/22/2019 12:00:01 am

Nah, let's erase Christianity for the hundreds of years of terror they subjected the world to with their endless inquisitions.

Joe Scales
2/22/2019 10:01:55 am

Well, it's pick your poison. Do you want to control your population by fooling them with religion, or do you want to undertake a more physical approach.

Infinite Magneticc
2/25/2019 09:01:43 pm

"Native people in Mexico practiced ritual human sacrifice up until the time of European contact. Perhaps that aspect of “colonial erasure” wasn’t such a bad thing?"

*What in the hell are you talking about?! "Colonial erasure?!" You're making fun of Native people in Mexico?! What's the functionality of your rhetorically racist comment? Europe and Europeans are still practicing ritual human sacrifices, kidnappings, sexual perversions and abominations all under the name of the father, son and holy ghost.

Paul S.
2/21/2019 01:50:28 pm

All of these unsupported claims of early contact across the oceans seem to involve people from the "Old World" continents going to the Americas. I'm curious if any fringe writers have ever claimed the reverse - that people from the Americas journeyed to Europe or Africa or Asia before Columbus.

Reply
Lloyd George
2/21/2019 03:39:56 pm

They attempted to do so, but were stopped by the Kings and Queens of Europe, Asia and Africa proclaiming a "National Emergency" and then attempting to build a wall to keep them out.

Reply
Pops
2/21/2019 03:41:18 pm

Not that I’m aware of. As Jason stated before, fringe history was strongly based on racism and discriminatory ideologies. Even today, a significant subset of fringe writers are openly alt-right, neo-Nazis etc. Even the fringe writers that aren’t racist still use old and debunked material from those past writers and their works. Maybe some fringe writers have claimed that people from the Americas traveled to Oceania but I’m not absolutely sure about that.

Reply
Poodleshooter
2/21/2019 05:09:12 pm

I find that everything I don't like is strongly based on racism and discriminatory ideologies and people I disagree with are openly alt-right, neo-Nazis etc.

V
2/21/2019 09:15:10 pm

I've only heard of one claim that I can think of, that there was a "Native American canoe" found somewhere in England. It was, of course, bupkiss. Nowhere NEAR the volume of claims of Europe/Africa/Asia claims.

Reply
Mike Morgan
2/21/2019 10:29:45 pm

"An actual Native American voyage to Europe is, in fact, possible, and every so often new scholars make claims that some historical tale references actual transoceanic voyages. One of the more convincing accounts of such a voyage relates that in 1508 a seven-man bark canoe carrying what seemed to be Inuit was captured by a French ship near England. Unlike Mela’s Indians, these people spoke an unknown language, wore clothes made of fish skins, and drank blood. [12] They were decidedly not merchants in a trading ship, but like Mela’s Indians, the one captive who survived was presented to the King of France as a gift. As we move forward in time, we find better-attested stories of an Inuit-style canoe reaching the Orkney Islands in 1682 and again in 1684, [13] though the people of Orkney thought the sailors to be Finns. ****A mysterious sailor arriving in Scotland due to a storm in 1700 left a canoe, now in the Marischal Museum at the University of Aberdeen, which has been identified as Inuit.**** [14] The people encountered in 60 BCE could not have been Inuit, however, since the Inuit did not enter eastern Canada before 1000 CE, when they began to replace the earlier Dorset culture."

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/native-american-discovery-of-europe.html

Mike Morgan
2/21/2019 10:17:43 pm

In the late 19th century, Augustus Le Plongeon theorized that Mayan Yucatán was the cradle of civilization and that Mayan civilization and knowledge spread eastward to ancient Egypt by way of Atlantis.

Reply
Accumulated Wisdom
2/25/2019 04:17:03 pm

Mike,

If all of your citations we're done free recall...Much Respect!

There are a couple of other examples of contact by boat. I have been unable to find, or recall the references.

A few authors have touched upon the idea of a "Yucatan Genesis", "Dual Genesis", and one Pangea splitting, dividing the human herd into two distinct groups". Unfortunately, I am only recalling "Martian Genesis"(Brennan).

No one ever mentions Plumbing. Pipes found at the Palace of Knossos highly resemble plumbing pipes found at Tiahuanacco. IF...BIG IF...Tiahuananacco is as old as claimed in Fringe literature...Which Plumbing system came first? Here, or there? Common thread? Independent Discovery?

Mention the possibility of Technology starting here, and Fringe people tend to let their biggoted preconceived notions out.








Mike Morgan
2/25/2019 07:53:31 pm

Anthony,

"If all of your citations we're done free recall...Much Respect"

Uh, no. Quotation marks indicate I lifted the passage from the referenced source.

Respect belongs to Jason.

Accumulated Wisdom
2/25/2019 08:32:06 pm

Just remembering, where to find the quotes, was the intent of my respect. So much of this stuff gets repeatedly recycled, it is difficult to remember which book?

Riley V
2/21/2019 05:03:45 pm

I’ve been affiliated with enough universities to know that their is at least one confabulist on every faculty.

Universities love travel programs over the summer. Lots of students will enroll, a couple of faculty will have summer pay. The University makes money and can advertise a fun product/class. Sometimes actual research gets done.
I got to work on a dig in New Mexico for 3 weeks. And spent an entire summer studying Etnobotany.

I learned all kinds of stuff both summers. Even a program based on scurrilous ideals will get students out and familiar with new ideas and new places.

Reply
Doc Rock
2/21/2019 05:41:42 pm

Sounds like you benefited from some actual extended well structured summer programs that undergo some degree if vetting. This one is one of those two week wonder term break programs that are often of uneven quality and just get rubber stamped after a token review. That's how you end up with controversies like this.

Reply
Riley v
2/21/2019 09:51:22 pm

Well Doc, I definitely benefitted from having a certain part of my male anatomy getting “actually extended” by a certain “well structured” female student in the program. And let me tell you that it was no “token review”!

Doc Rock
2/21/2019 10:30:19 pm

An added benefit of a Summer long program. No doubt said extension occurred on multiple occasions and/or without the financial considerations that would likely be necessary to make the magic happen on a much more businesslike basis during a whirlwind tour.

An Anonymous Nerd
2/21/2019 10:59:21 pm

In my ideal world, academics would be at the forefront of debunking. It's saddening that academia seems actively to discourage that kind of public engagement. But to read about academia actively promoting bunk is beyond saddening.

"But it's only one University, it's not all academia." Isn't that enough?

"But this isn't as bad as what many Christian colleges teach." Actually, yeah, it is. Especially when this is a public University we're talking about, not a private religious college with private, religious concerns.

"This isn't the first time." Perhaps not. If I thought about it hard I'm sure I'd think of other times. For one example, and semi-related to the discussion of Post-Modernism others are having here, I suppose I've read plenty about academics trying to promote "other ways of knowing" and such. That's pretty bad too.

"Academia's done worse things." I suppose.

But, still. I want to throw up.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Doc Rock
2/22/2019 02:20:18 pm

Except that criticism, including criticism from disciplines like Anthropology within academia, has resulted in the initiation of a process of self-correction within what may be the only institution in the US (or possibly one of a handful of programs) that was pitching this type of field trip. I'm quite confident that this dust-up will serve to intensify pre-existing criticism of the Olmec/African business.

What you are trying to spin as an indictment of academia is actually an illustration of intellectual health. Similar to the fringe people who attack science on the basis that scientists regularly come to acknowledge that they are wrong about something and then modify their perspectives accordingly. Which is how it is supposed to work.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
2/22/2019 07:50:58 pm

This post seems to believe that my horror resulted from the removal of the imagined Olmec/African connection. I don't know how you got that. My horror resulted from the fact that any University could buy into such a thing, at all.

It's great that they finally backed off from it. But it would've been worlds better if they hadn't have bought into it at all.

[What you are trying to spin as an indictment of academia is actually an illustration of intellectual health. ]

Hopefully now that you see what I'm actually angry at, you'll see that, no, it's not an illustration of intellectual health. Again, great that this was stopped. But worlds better that it wouldn't have started.

[Similar to the fringe people who attack science on the basis that scientists regularly come to acknowledge that they are wrong about something and then modify their perspectives accordingly.]

Not similar in the slightest. This is the second time you've attempted to associate me with the Fringe without any actual justification.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Doc Rock
2/22/2019 08:34:17 pm

Well, this is the second time that you have tried to use what would at best be statistical outliers, shaky logic, and ignorance (in the traditional sense) of academics to support what any objective reader would see as broad generalizations. So it is what it is....

Best be prepared to live in a constant state of nausea if you expect an ideal world and something like this triggers you this badly.

You are welcome to the last word, but it won't help. In the meantime I shall be sipping chardonnay at the Olive Garden with a lady friend who serves as an excellent designated driver. Hopefully, 6 to 8 chards and several nightcaps will help me to wake in the morn with no memory of this.



Bill W.
2/22/2019 09:48:29 pm

So, drinking to forget. Cool!

An Anonymous Nerd
2/22/2019 10:19:01 pm

[Best be prepared to live in a constant state of nausea if you expect an ideal world and something like this triggers you this badly.]

So you're essentially saying that I can expect to see academic support Fringe things like an African/Olmec connection, on a more-or-less constant basis?

Are you sure it's me that's generalizing in a negative way about academia? Because I'm the one who saw something reprehensible and called it out for what it is and you're the one who's saying, essentially, "yep, this is normal and healthy."

Ummm....No. No normal or healthy academia should be supporting an Olmec/African connection. If this is happening on a "constant" basis (your word), then maybe the Fringe, ironically, is right about academia.

Fortunately I think this is an aberration and I don't know why you'd be defending it.

It's a little odd to me that I should have to be the one to point this stuff out to someone who claims to be an academic....

And if you're the one getting drunk to forget about this discussion are you sure it's me that was really triggered?

[You are welcome to the last word, but it won't help.]

What an odd thing to say....

*shrugs*

-An Anonymous Nerd

RiverM
2/24/2019 09:58:18 am

We wuz MexiKangz!

Das Rite!!!

Reply
Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 04:31:55 pm

I'm getting sick and tire of "some" white (with their "people of color" lawn jockeys) academics and intellectuals try to smear any African people (African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, etc.) who is "seeking truth" in a midst centuries of EUROCENTRIC lies, distortions and fallacies.

It seems, that white academics (not all, but most) have a problem with people of African descent seeking a level of 'agency' in their own historiography and narratives. You don't want to credit BLACK PEOPLE for anything, except the continuous manufactured stereotypes and artificial lies that's been passed down to you and "legitimate" and meaningful scholarship.

Just come out, be honest and say that you HATE BLACK PEOPLE with ever grain of your existence!

Reply
RiverM
2/25/2019 04:53:46 pm

"I'm getting sick and tire(sic) of "some" white (with their "people of color" lawn jockeys) academics and intellectuals try(sic) to smear any African people (African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, etc.) who is(sic) "seeking truth"(sic) in a midst(sic) centuries of EUROCENTRIC(?) lies, distortions and fallacies. It seems,(sic) that white academics (not all, but most) have a problem with people of African descent seeking a level of 'agency'(?) in their own historiography and narratives. You don't want to credit BLACK PEOPLE(?) for anything, except the continuous manufactured stereotypes and artificial lies that's(sic) been passed down to you and "legitimate"(sic) and meaningful scholarship.

Just come out, be honest and say that you HATE BLACK PEOPLE(?) with ever(sic) grain of your existence!"

Learn to code.

Reply
Accumulated Wisdom
2/25/2019 04:33:54 pm

ALL of this reminds me of the literature and belief system of African American Gangs. If, I can find the handbook, I will quote some of it for Y'all.

I had no idea, this stuff was being promoted by a University. Outside of Gang System beliefs.

Reply
Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 04:49:04 pm

"...ALL of this reminds me of the literature and belief system of African American Gangs. If, I can find the handbook, I will quote some of it for Y'all..."

*You sound very ignorant!!! and most likely a white racist" for equating what's being discussed as a "literature and belief system of African American Gangs."

Reply
Infinite Magetic
2/25/2019 04:41:43 pm

Nothing but a bunch of racists on these boards. Why does the "alternative research" community attract so many white racist, Jared Taylor psuedo-scientific henchmen and neo-Nazi types?

Reply
InfiniteMagetic
2/25/2019 04:52:31 pm

Let's discuss the centuries of EUROCENTRIC/American historical lies and distortions, and how much damage it's done too the world!

Reply
Doc Rock
2/25/2019 06:26:32 pm

I agree with much of the whole Eurocentric thing. Have argued with a couple hardheads here about how sub-Saharan Africa gets left out of a lot of discussions. Have pointed out African/African American contributions to what many people would like to think of as lily white western culture or American culture.

But none of that changes the fact that the Olmec/African connection is unsubstantiated wishful thinking.

Reply
Accumulated Wisdom
2/25/2019 06:47:35 pm

"But none of that changes the fact that the Olmec/African connection is unsubstantiated wishful thinking"

Doc,

This stuff is used to recruit young men into an ideology. Same ethnocentric BS, as any other Pigmentation Zealot.

I never took my "Doc" as a bigot. He always swore, "Olmecs we're Nubians". His "partner" claimed, "Nubians were censored from the Torah". I have never seen anything proving Doc's assertion. I did see something about his Partner's claim several years ago. I do not recall which program. Thinking it was "The Naked Archaeologist". Could be mistaken. HC recycles so much stuff, it's difficult to recall which program came first.

Accumulated Wisdom
2/25/2019 07:39:52 pm

"were"

Damn phone keeps adding an apostrophe. I didn't catch it, this time.

Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 08:44:08 pm

"I agree with much of the whole Eurocentric thing"

Poor and shoddy scholarship is just what it is, no matter who the culprits are. Whether it's "Eurecentric" or Afrocentric, if doesn't stand on truth it's no damn good for anyone.

Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 09:16:16 pm

"But none of that changes the fact that the Olmec/African connection is unsubstantiated wishful thinking."

Doc Rock,

I want to respond to this comment because it's important that we understand what "unsubstantiated wishful thinking", as opposed to "substantiated non-thinking/lack of deep reading and research".

Infinite Magnetic
2/25/2019 08:48:15 pm

"Have pointed out African/African American contributions to what many people would like to think of as lily white western culture or American culture."

*Interesting point!

Reply
Pacal
3/5/2019 04:46:36 pm

Jason it is my understanding that the consensus is that the Olmecs were not Mayans.

As for Africans visiting Mesoamerica in Olmec times. It is based on the notion that stone heads that resemble modern day natives of the area are actually representative of sub-Saharan Africans. Well that is politely dubious.

Reply
Michael
2/17/2020 09:00:05 am

Although I'm not a Mesoamerican expert nor an archeologist, I'd like someone to explain why we could find the scupture called "El Negro" in Tres Zapotes, Mexico which is, as we all know, far, very far from Africa.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Blog
    Picture

    Author

    I 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.

    Become a Patron!
    Tweets by JasonColavito
    Picture

    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.

    powered by TinyLetter

    Blog Roll

    Ancient Aliens Debunked
    Picture
    A Hot Cup of Joe
    ArchyFantasies
    Bad UFOs
    Mammoth Tales
    Matthew R. X. Dentith
    PaleoBabble
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative History
    Alternative History
    America Unearthed
    Ancient Aliens
    Ancient Astronauts
    Ancient History
    Ancient Texts
    Ancient Texts
    Archaeology
    Atlantis
    Conspiracies
    Giants
    Habsburgs
    Horror
    King Arthur
    Knights Templar
    Lovecraft
    Mythology
    Occult
    Popular Culture
    Popular Culture
    Projects
    Pyramids
    Racism
    Science
    Skepticism
    Ufos
    Weird Old Art
    Weird Things
    White Nationalism

    Terms & Conditions

    Please 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

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
Home  |  Blog  |  Books  | Contact  |  About Jason | Terms & Conditions
© 2010-2023 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image 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 >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • 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 >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • 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
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • 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 >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • 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 >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • 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 >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • 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 Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • 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
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • 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
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • 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
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • 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
      • 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 >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • 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
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • 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 >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • 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 >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search