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Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory
The landscape of the nineteenth century, Williams asserts, is dotted with fakes, frauds, and humbugs whose fantastic claims of purported findings would make even P. T. Barnum blush. In Fantastic Archaeology, Williams takes them all on with gusto—illuminating, debunking, and instructing on the modes, methods, manners, and manifestations of American archaeology through the past two centuries.
The author begins his walk on the wild side of North American archaeology with a fascinating introduction to the continent's real past. Then, acting as detective, he answers the questions, Who Found It? Who Done It? Who Twisted the Facts? From solemn old professionals like Samuel Haven to eccentric "odd fishes" like Constantine Rafinesque, from brash "free thinkers" like Harold S. Gladwin to stoic strategists like A. V. Kidder, Williams enthusiastically portrays them all.
The big issues are here, the quest for the first Americans, the transoceanic search for links to distant civilizations, and the meaning of ancient writings. From monstrous stone giants to mysterious messages from the past, right up to the real story of America's archaeological past, the author unearths a wondrous tale that will amaze, delight, and inform professional and general readers alike.
The author begins his walk on the wild side of North American archaeology with a fascinating introduction to the continent's real past. Then, acting as detective, he answers the questions, Who Found It? Who Done It? Who Twisted the Facts? From solemn old professionals like Samuel Haven to eccentric "odd fishes" like Constantine Rafinesque, from brash "free thinkers" like Harold S. Gladwin to stoic strategists like A. V. Kidder, Williams enthusiastically portrays them all.
The big issues are here, the quest for the first Americans, the transoceanic search for links to distant civilizations, and the meaning of ancient writings. From monstrous stone giants to mysterious messages from the past, right up to the real story of America's archaeological past, the author unearths a wondrous tale that will amaze, delight, and inform professional and general readers alike.
424 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 12, 2015
Williams' book delivers pretty much exactly what the title promises: a survey of cranks, hoaxes, and misconceptions in the archeology of North America. He tiptoes around a bit when it comes to the Mormon "revelations" but for the most part pulls no punches. He's as charitable as he can be when it comes to amateurs and the victims of hoaxes, but uses humor and dry ridicule a lot and keeps things entertaining. We meet a series of fascinating characters, as well some really repugnant frauds and opportunists. By the time we get to the twentieth century, the story is getting a little redundant, with relatively notorious cranks like Barry Fell and Ivan Van Sertima blatantly ignoring the work of actual historians and archeologists and retreating into the "hidden" or "suppressed" work of discredited 19th century hacks. So despite the humorous treatment of many topics, it looks a little dismal. But the final chapter of the book is a welcome change: the author explains the current (as of 1991!) understanding of North American prehistory and enthuses that the truth, as far as it has been uncovered, is actually pretty fantastic in its own right and all the talk of precolumbian contacts and influences is really an insult to the amazing things the indigenous people were up to.
June 15, 2018
This was another one that I wanted to like way more than I actually did. First, I appreciated that the focus was on North American archeology, since many of the books about archeology in general, and frauds specifically, focus on the Old World. The tidbits of history of the Native Americans was really interesting. I had one main complaint about this book, and one secondary concern.
First, you need a freaking chart to keep up with all the of the people mentioned in every chapter. Sometimes a person is mentioned in one sentence and never mentioned again, sometimes they're mentioned once, then pop up again pages later, leaving you wondering who exactly the author's talking about. The writing jumps around so much that trying to keep track of who is being discussed is really, really difficult. Maybe that's just me, since the ratings for this book are generally pretty high, but I found it really difficult to follow just who the author was talking about at any given moment.
The other thing I found kind of odd is the introduction and subsequent treatment of Joseph Smith and the supposed discoveries that led to the founding of the Mormon religion. While the author tries not to out and out call anyone a fraud in this book, he isn't shy about calling a specific "artifact" a complete sham. Which makes me wonder why on earth he wouldn't declare the golden plates supposedly found and translated by Smith a fraud. According to all of the author's own standards on where they were found, in what context, and with what other objects (completely ignoring the ridiculous story of the translation and the fact that no one else saw the plates and that they were "miraculously" taken back to heaven by an angel when the translation was complete), this story definitely qualifies for the fraud stamp. I understand if the author didn't want to offend anyone's religious sensibilities, but why introduce it in the first place if it's going to be treated with kid gloves?
Anyway, others may not be bothered by these issues, and might enjoy this book, but for me it just wasn't a good read.
First, you need a freaking chart to keep up with all the of the people mentioned in every chapter. Sometimes a person is mentioned in one sentence and never mentioned again, sometimes they're mentioned once, then pop up again pages later, leaving you wondering who exactly the author's talking about. The writing jumps around so much that trying to keep track of who is being discussed is really, really difficult. Maybe that's just me, since the ratings for this book are generally pretty high, but I found it really difficult to follow just who the author was talking about at any given moment.
The other thing I found kind of odd is the introduction and subsequent treatment of Joseph Smith and the supposed discoveries that led to the founding of the Mormon religion. While the author tries not to out and out call anyone a fraud in this book, he isn't shy about calling a specific "artifact" a complete sham. Which makes me wonder why on earth he wouldn't declare the golden plates supposedly found and translated by Smith a fraud. According to all of the author's own standards on where they were found, in what context, and with what other objects (completely ignoring the ridiculous story of the translation and the fact that no one else saw the plates and that they were "miraculously" taken back to heaven by an angel when the translation was complete), this story definitely qualifies for the fraud stamp. I understand if the author didn't want to offend anyone's religious sensibilities, but why introduce it in the first place if it's going to be treated with kid gloves?
Anyway, others may not be bothered by these issues, and might enjoy this book, but for me it just wasn't a good read.
December 1, 2010
Not having any work to do at home, I wanted to immerse myself in the long pseudo-novel I’m writing, but got sidetracked by a book called FANTASTIC ARCHAEOLOGY: the Wild Side of North American Prehistory.
From “Chariots of the Gods?” to Atlantis, from religion to “psychic” archaeology, from Viking runes to Indiana Jones (book’s too old for Lara Croft), this is the funniest and most entertaining debunking in the history of skepticism.
I particularly like an analogy the writer used to describe “experience” as opposed to “belief.” We all know that some people will believe anything they want to be believe, regardless of the facts, and can never be talked out of it. Thing is, their egos have to find justifications, and they come out with the silliest of theories that they think explain their point of view. Problem is, for those who actually know what they’re talking about. . . well, they sound just like the other guys. Anyway, one of the writer’s students on a dig found an object, which the writer quickly identified. “How do you know?” the kid asked, suspicious. “Well, how can you tell the difference between a ‘57 Mustang and a ‘62?” You learn and remember, but even when you’ve got your cred it might sound like you were just making something up. Sigh. . .
Quick quiz--who was the first American archaeologist? Thomas Jefferson!
My favorite story was about a scientist who stumbled across some strange-looking rocks in Boston, which experts quickly identified as being from the Thames River in London. So of course people started coming up with all kinds of theories, about how the English had been in the New World before Columbus and so on, because the rocks were so old. Thing is, rocks are rocks, and can be moved from place to place, so it doesn’t really matter how old they are--it doesn’t mean they’ve been in that place for thousands of years. It simply turned out that in the middle eighteen hundreds old sailing ships came to American to get the lumber that would build all those Victorian structures all over England, but they didn’t have any cargo to take to the U.S. Still, they needed ballast for the journey across the Atlantic, so they scooped up the river rocks and then dumped them when they got to the U.S. Simple, huh? And yet there are huge mounds along the South Carolina coast where people said the ancient Romans visited, because some shreds of ancient pottery were found on these “islands.”
Quick fact: there’s actually a place called Big Bone Lick, Kentucky.
The author, Stephen Williams, even does reviews of the nineteenth and twentieth century books that inspired all the popular myths that lasted far longer than they should have, even past the time they were debunked. My favorite review is of American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West, where Williams says the author starts talking about Romans in North America on page 40, then doesn’t go back to that till page 385. “In between we meet the Lost Tribes, some wandering Danes, traces of Egyptians in Kentucky, Norwegians and Welsh in America 900 years ago, Mongol Tartars landing on the West Coast, voyagers from Italy and Africa to America, and resemblances of western Indians to ancient Greeks.” Everything but Atlantis in one 400-page tome!
If you’re like me in that you love to make fun of idiots, this is the book for you!
;o)
From “Chariots of the Gods?” to Atlantis, from religion to “psychic” archaeology, from Viking runes to Indiana Jones (book’s too old for Lara Croft), this is the funniest and most entertaining debunking in the history of skepticism.
I particularly like an analogy the writer used to describe “experience” as opposed to “belief.” We all know that some people will believe anything they want to be believe, regardless of the facts, and can never be talked out of it. Thing is, their egos have to find justifications, and they come out with the silliest of theories that they think explain their point of view. Problem is, for those who actually know what they’re talking about. . . well, they sound just like the other guys. Anyway, one of the writer’s students on a dig found an object, which the writer quickly identified. “How do you know?” the kid asked, suspicious. “Well, how can you tell the difference between a ‘57 Mustang and a ‘62?” You learn and remember, but even when you’ve got your cred it might sound like you were just making something up. Sigh. . .
Quick quiz--who was the first American archaeologist? Thomas Jefferson!
My favorite story was about a scientist who stumbled across some strange-looking rocks in Boston, which experts quickly identified as being from the Thames River in London. So of course people started coming up with all kinds of theories, about how the English had been in the New World before Columbus and so on, because the rocks were so old. Thing is, rocks are rocks, and can be moved from place to place, so it doesn’t really matter how old they are--it doesn’t mean they’ve been in that place for thousands of years. It simply turned out that in the middle eighteen hundreds old sailing ships came to American to get the lumber that would build all those Victorian structures all over England, but they didn’t have any cargo to take to the U.S. Still, they needed ballast for the journey across the Atlantic, so they scooped up the river rocks and then dumped them when they got to the U.S. Simple, huh? And yet there are huge mounds along the South Carolina coast where people said the ancient Romans visited, because some shreds of ancient pottery were found on these “islands.”
Quick fact: there’s actually a place called Big Bone Lick, Kentucky.
The author, Stephen Williams, even does reviews of the nineteenth and twentieth century books that inspired all the popular myths that lasted far longer than they should have, even past the time they were debunked. My favorite review is of American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West, where Williams says the author starts talking about Romans in North America on page 40, then doesn’t go back to that till page 385. “In between we meet the Lost Tribes, some wandering Danes, traces of Egyptians in Kentucky, Norwegians and Welsh in America 900 years ago, Mongol Tartars landing on the West Coast, voyagers from Italy and Africa to America, and resemblances of western Indians to ancient Greeks.” Everything but Atlantis in one 400-page tome!
If you’re like me in that you love to make fun of idiots, this is the book for you!
;o)
April 15, 2018
Ruins and archaeological artifacts fire the imagination--we humans can't help it. We also have agendas, and hopes for a past worthy of our expectations. FANTASTIC ARCHAEOLOGY explores these fantasies, and sorts them out from the reality, which is turning our to be stranger that anyone had imagined. Another book that will make my travels more interesting.
April 1, 2019
A very interesting volume on hoaxes, odd beliefs, and just general strangeness related to American archaeology. Relatively light reading, though he gets into things pretty deep and has clearly researched them a lot.
March 13, 2022
Much better than I expected from the title--very nicely researched debunking of many archaeology stories (like the Grave Creek Stone).
September 10, 2010
A wonderful account of the underside of North American archaeology--- frauds and delusionaries, visionaries and con men, Phoenicians in Kansas, Vikings in Minnesota, Africans in the Yucatan, Canaanites in Nebraska. This is a well-crafted and dryly witty account of the kind of archaeology that seems (alas!) to have corrupted History Channel, but says so much about the dreams, hopes, needs, and scams of 19th-c. America.
July 21, 2008
I read this for my Archaeology program.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews