on the wild (but funny!) side of archaeology
TRANSCRIPT
On the Wild (but funny!) Side of Archaeology
Larry ZimmermanDepartment of Anthropology/Museum Studies IUPUI
As an archaeologist you can get involved in a lot of serious work:
Teotihuacan, Valley of Mexico (1 AD-800 AD)
Crow Creek Massacre, South Dakota (ca. 1325 AD)
Excavations in the James J. Hill House Gardens, St. Paul,
MN
Photo intentionally blurred
Campsites of the Homeless
in Indy(2011 AD)
Ancient
Mysteries?
You don’t need to go to exotic places to find
them!!
We’ve got plenty of them right here in the
heartland!
Ancient
Tablets
The Moundbuilder MythAtlantis
BigfootSunken Pyramids
UFOs
Photo: Greg Griffo/Indy Star
Why People Believe Weird Things•Fun
•Fantasy and escapism•The truth is too simple•Mistrust of science•Poor science education•“Received” wisdom
1. To show some examples of fantastic archaeology around us all the time—and things we’ll study in the class
2. To provide some tools for examining fantastic claims
3. To have some fun
Purposes of this lecture:
Many people have long wondered who made the ancient earthworks of the Midwest like these in Anderson, IN
And made up all kinds of strange
stories!
The Mound BuildersThe Archaeology of a Myth
The Core belief: Indians could not have built the mounds and other amazing earthworks, therefore someone else must have.Who? Almost anyone—Irish, Scandinavians, Libyans, Tartars, Lost Tribes of Israel, and many othersWhy? Lack of reliable data, theological modes of explanation, non-existence of a tradition of scientific thought, a continuing sense of wonder at the exotic nature of the New World
The Result? Wild speculation
A European (i.e., white) History of America?
There was an apparent need for an heroic past that would resemble that of Europe. The reasons are complex: •The colonists were in one sense a "people without a history" •Those living in Europe thought that something must be wrong with the environment here to cause such revolutions•Needed a "white" history to claim the land - a precursor to Manifest Destiny
A Case from Iowa, 1877
The Davenport Conspiracy
Jacob Gass
Goodbye to the Mound Builders
Or was it?
Mound Builder Survivals In religion
In science
In cult archaeolo
gy
Kennewick & the “Solutrean Connection”
Hyper-Diffusionists
Ignatius Donnelly and Atlantis, 1882
Barry Fell and Epigraphy
Graham Hancock’s Lost Civilization at 12,500 BP
The Problem of HoaxesHoaxes thrived from the late 1800s onward.•Social contexts similar to Mound Builder Myth
Piltdown Man, 1912
Cardiff Giant, 1868 : An Iowa Connection “There’s a sucker born every
minute.” David Hannum
Grave Creek Stone 1838, Ohio River
Bat Creek Stone discovered in 1885 in
Smithsonian archaeological dig in
Tennessee. Hebrew writing dates to 135
AD.
People made many amazing discoveries over the years!
In 1860 David Wyrick found a stone box and tablet with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew in a Newark, Ohio, burial mound
One of many recent “discoveries” from
Burrows Cave, Illinois
One of the relatively few marble slabs removed from the Illinois site portrays
either a Mauritanian ruler or high priest of the 1st Century A.D.
The Saga of Burrows Cave―Olney, Illinois
The scarification of this man identifies him as
Senegalese.
A Mauritanian warship
A cache of Mauritanian
coins from the cave
The Crucifixion
Wow! Leaving all these rocks around, these Pre-Columbian explorers really must have
been “stoned.”Unlikely, you say?
Well, this ancient alien obviously was!
Hoax or not?The Kensington
RunestoneOlaf Ohman, 1898
“2nd Minn. Runestone a hoax, say carvers”
AVM stone inscription
Not Olaf Ohman, 2003
“This is a very interesting and informative review of both the Kensington Runestone and the process of archaeological (and historical) inquiry. In true Kehoe style, it is not only well written and organized, but also provocative.
Although the artifact has long ago been discounted and forgotten by most archaeologists, Kehoe argues convincingly that it deserves a second look.” —
George Nicholas, Simon Fraser University
“Kehoe challenges readers to evaluate their own attachment to taken-for-granted paradigms. An ideal, fittingly controversial topic for critical thinking.” — Guy
Gibbon, University of Minnesota
“Larry Zimmerman for once didn’t see eye to eye with me, but we had good discussions; maybe seeing the argument laid out here will satisfy him.” From
the acknowledgements.
The Kensington RunestoneApproaching a Research Question Holistically
Alice Beck Kehoe2005
On and on and on…
They really got around!Kensington Runestone - April 24th, 1362 Heavener Runestone - November 11th, 1012 Poteau Runestone - November 11th 1017 Shawnee Runestone - November 24th, 1024
Tulsa Runestone - December 2nd, 1022
They really got around!
Just how many Vikings came?
This book says there are now fewer than 42 Viking settlements in Chickasaw, Howard, and Mitchell Counties in Iowa and Mower County in Minnesota. Mooring stone?
Apparently, quite a few!
Map of the grave of 12 Vikings found by dowsing near Spring
Grove, MN
Too many people have too much of their identity wrapped up in whether a stone
is real or a hoax.
Why won’t such controversies go away?
Big Ole outside the Runestone Museum,
Alexandra, MN
And you thought Big Ole was make-
believe!
Do you suppose Scott does?
Colavito seems to think he might!
Based on the painter George Catlin’s comments: •The Mandans spoke Welsh (he didn’t know Welsh!) •They used a boat which was know as the Welsh Coracle •Many of the Mandans had blond hair and blue eyes
Prince Madoc: The Founder of Clark County Indiana
…and progenitor of the Mandan Indians of the Missouri
RiverA fortification against hostile Indians?
Coracle or “bull boat” DAR Plaque at Mobile Bay
Welsh armor from a grave?
Do people in Indiana take Madoc seriously?
The people at the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center
certainly seem to.
Perhaps the location of the Welsh warrior at the rear end of the mammoth is entirely
appropriate.
Does all of this start to seem familiar?
…and by the way, the Romans got to the Falls of the Ohio
too.
Claudius II (left, 268 AD), Maximinus I (right, 312 AD)
Roman coins found at the Falls of the Ohio in 1963, purportedly part of a cache left by
Roman explorers
There were giants in the earth in those days…
(Gen.6:1-4) George W. Hill, M.D., dug out a skeleton "of unusual size" in a mound of Ashland County, Ohio. In 1879, a nine-foot, eight-inch skeleton was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana. The bones, which were stored in a grain mill, were swept away in the 1937 Flood (Indianapolis News, Nov 10, 1975).
Photo is a 2004 Web hoax
Could this be the remains of
one?
In his books Erich von Däniken suggests that many of the earth’s monuments were built by
ancient astronauts.
Ancient Astronauts?
“Looking into his past, we should not be too surprised to find that his rather broad criterion of truthfulness has, at times, brought him into conflict with the law. A court in his native Switzerland found Von Däniken guilty of embezzlement, forgery, and fraud, sentencing him to three and a half years in prison” (Ref: New York Times Book Review). “A court psychiatrist called him a pathological liar” (Ref. Playboy).
Von Däniken’s Swiss Mystery World
Themenpavillons VimanaOrient MayaMegaStonesContactNazcaChallenge
MegaStones – a time machine for the high priests?
On the Salisbury Plains of southwest England, one finds Stonehenge, a cult worship site that was built thousands of years ago. Is Stonehenge a megalithic time machine that reaches not only into the past but also far into the future?
From the MegaStones Pavillion,
a Stonehenge lightshow.
Ancient Astronauts:An industry in itself
Ancient Astronauts and The Pyramids of Rock Lake,Wisconsin
Could Wisconsin’s pyramids have been built by ancestors of the occupants of this UFO (left) reported in in West Central Minnesota, November, 2003, as suggested initially by Fate magazine writer Frank Joseph?.
Mutual UFO Network of Indiana logo
It’s aliens, we tells ya!!
No, it’s not!!!
Maybe this UFO photographed over Indiana made the crop circles near Ft. Wayne…
…or the ones near Wausau, Wisconsin. After all, both places are in the
Frankly those Midwestern Crop
Circles are second-rate…
Here are some that are more to my liking!
Artist Lee Krystek’s conception of the Iceman
The Minnesota Iceman
A juvenile Bigfoot?
Frank Hansen and the Iceman
The tour trucks
”[I]f there is a Barnum Award, my vote would go to Frank D.
Hansen.”Anthropologist John Napier, 1972
Bigfoot and Other Critters
Mike Quast and Bigfoot sightings in Minnesota A few of the reported monsters in the
MidwestIllinois:The Hardin Monster, Murphysboro Mud Monster, Indiana: The Beast of Busco (Churubusco), The Crawfordsville MonsterWisconsin: The Lake Koshkonong Monster, Long Lake, Elkhart Lake, Lake Geneva, Lake Kegonsa, Lake Michigan, Oconomowoc Lake, Pewaukee Lake, Red Cedar Lake,Rock Lake, Lake Superior, Sturgeon Lakes, Mendota and Monona in Madison
Yep, even right here in good ol’ Indiana.
30 reported Bigfoot sightings just since 1997, the majority in southern Indiana
Sound? Bigfoot “talk” from near
Akron, OH
Whats’ the Harm?Many diminish human abilities &
accomplishments. They deprive people of knowledge about their real history.They draw funding away from scientific
research.
Other than that, not much.
Belief in pseudoscientific ideas about “harmless” notions supports belief in
pseudoscientific belief about harmful notions, such as false medical claims.
Recognizing Pseudoscientific Claims about the Past
Sometimes you can read a book by its cover!
Are seemingly outrageous claims made?Does the claimant have a
ny training or
credentials in the subject about which
the claim is made?Are leading questions being asked?Are real scientists talking
about it?
Be a skeptic…
…but have the good sense to recognize when a belief or belief system about the
past is profoundly important to an individual or culture.
Science has a profoundly difficult time persuading someone to change deeply held beliefs, and if a
scientist presses too hard, they may damage self-esteem and alienate.
A Skeptic’s Tools
Irrefutable hypothesisArgument by authorityAppeal to mythArgument by spurious similarityHeresy does not equal correctnessOccam's razorExtraordinary claims demand extraordinary proofGood old common sense
Always keep an open mind, but use these tools:
http://www.skeptic.com
http://www.csicop.org/si/
Satan’s Corpse in South Dakota?
Which is all very interesting given that just a few years later troops captured him in
Iraq!
Bat Boy must have helped them!
I guess it’s too bad this
didn’t really happen…
At least you wouldn’t have had to go through this!
Maybe it won’t be as funny, but you’ll be a lot saner if you are
a skeptic!
At least people won’t laugh and point at you… …as much!
Some sources with good and credible discussion of issues raised in this talk”
Read Archaeology Fantasies blog and listen to podcasts