Attacking Pseudoarcheology

I just finished reading a book I had purchased at a used bookstore in Ohio before I made the move to Mexico.  The book is entitled "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries - Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology".  The author, Kenneth L. Feder, is a professor emeritus of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University.  I bought it because I have long been fascinated by archaeology, especially the pre-Hispanic civilizations of Mexico. 

The book is now in its tenth edition (I picked up the seventh edition), and it is now required reading in archaeology classes at some colleges.  Although the book is rigorously researched, the author adds humor and anecdotes to make it enjoyable reading even for the layman.

Feder tears apart the outrageous claims that have been made about ancient civilizations.  For example, the popular belief in the 19th century that the Native Americans were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel has absolutely no basis in fact from the archaeological record.  He refutes claims that the remains of Noah's Ark rest on top of Mount Ararat and of the existence of the Lost Continent of Atlantis.  He debunks the veracity of the Shroud of Turin.

I especially enjoyed how he went after Erich von Daniken, whose wildly popular 1970 book, "Chariots of the Gods", claimed that civilizations such as the Mayas were visited by ancient astronauts from outer space.  Back when I was teaching, when I would do a unit on the pre-Hispanic civilizations in my advanced classes, I would mention the preposterous theories of von Daniken.  One thing which I would always mention, and which Feder cites in his book also, is the lid of the sarcophagus of the Mayan king of the city of Palenque.  Von Daniken claimed that it shows an astronaut seated at the controls of his spaceship.

(image taken from the internet)

Anyone with any knowledge of the Mayas would be able to tell you what is pictured on this stone... and now that Mayan hieroglyphics have been deciphered, we know with even greater certainty.  King Pakal of Palenque is shown at the moment of his death, poised between the jaws of the monster of the underworld and the celestial tree leading to the heavens.

The author mentions something else that I always thought, and which I expressed in the classroom.  These fanciful theories that ancient civilizations developed because of extraterrestrial visitations smack of racism, the idea that non-European peoples could never have developed their civilizations on their own without the help of ET.

If you have any interest in archaeology, I recommend this book.