The SAA Archaeological Record • NOVEMBER 2019 - Volume 19 Number 5 • Page 30

The SAA Archaeological Record NOVEMBER 2019 - Volume 19 Number 5: Page 30

PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY, SCHOLARSHIP, AND POPULAR INTERESTS IN THE PAST IN THE PRESENT Panther (Godfrey 2012:231–239; Figure 3). This connection would be dubious from the perspective of archaeologists and iconographers but grows unchallenged in the world of popu-lar documentaries, radio, podcasts, and other media. For those more serious about finding ancient mystical wisdom outside of institutions of materialist science and traditional religion, Hancock is the rock star of alternative archaeology. His interviews on the highly popular podcast program The Joe Rogan Experience and various appearances on other radio and podcast shows or at conventions, as well as his many books, have made him the most respected “alternative” theorist on the past. Hancock’s explicit turn to articulating “sacred wisdom” mirrors recent develop-ments in paranormal culture. The supernatural and magic have been reconfigured as part of a broader knowledge that includes but exceeds science (Radin 2018; Strieber and Kripal 2016). For example, Hancock (2019:476) claims that the knowledge of the lost civilization would seem like magic even today. Hancock’s ur -civilization of indigenous Atlanteans with psychic abilities and mystical knowledge that disappear into the mists of time like elves or noble savages in the face of disenchantment provides a powerful charter myth (in the sense of myth explaining the present, not in whether or not it is “true”) for anti-materialist critiques of institutions of science, and of broader society. Judging it as “wrong” due to this or that archaeological evidentiary problem is a grievous category error. Hancock is not a failed version of an archaeologist. He is a successful mythographer of a post-science age. Notes 1. Graham Hancock, “Elves, Aliens, Angels, and Ayahuasca,” lecture posted on YouTube, October 26, 2010, https://youtu.be/0qgMFO0KU-I, accessed July 26, 2019. 2. Hancock discusses archaeological monuments as portals to the Otherworld, though he hedges in the text on whether he accepts that monuments are literal interdimensional portals or just that they were believed to be such places. The idea of interdimensional portals, often at archaeological sites, is increasingly common in paranormal culture. References Cited Bishop, Greg 2017 The Co-Creation Hypothesis: Human Perception, the Informational Universe, and the Overhaul of UFO Research. In UFOs: Reframing the Debate , edited by Robbie Graham, pp. 189–208. White Crow Books, Hove, UK. Card, Jeb J. 2018 Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past . University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean 2017 Glowing Auras and “Black Money”: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program. New York Times , 16 December. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html, accessed October 11, 2019. Coppens, Phillip 2012 The Ancient Alien Question: A New Inquiry into the Existence, Evidence, and Influence of Ancient Visitors . New Page Books, Pompton Plains, New Jersey. Donnelly, Ignatius 1882 Atlantis: The Antediluvian World . Harper and Brothers, New York. 1887 Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel . 11th ed. R. S. Peale and Company, Chicago. Evans, John 1872 The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain . Longmans, Green, and Co., London. Godfrey, Linda S. 2012 Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America . Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, New York. Hancock, Graham 2006 Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind . Disinformation Company, New York. 2015 Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization . Thomas Dunne Books, New York. 2019 America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization . St. Martin’s Press, New York. Kelleher, Colm A., and George Knapp 2005 Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah . Paraview Pocket Books, New York. McGarry, Molly 2003 Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America. University of California Press, Berkeley. Radin, Dean 2018 Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe . Harmony Books, New York. Squier, Ephraim G., and Edwin H. Davis 1848 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 1. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Stout, Adam 2008 Creating Prehistory: Druids, Ley Hunters and Archaeologists in Pre-War Britain . Blackwell, Oxford. Strieber, Whitley, and Jeffrey J. Kripal 2016 The Super Natural: Why the Unexplained Is Real . TarcherPerigee, New York. Whitesides, Kevin 2019 The Highest Common Factor: Heterodox Archaeology and the Perennialist Milieu. Nova Religio 22(4):44–59. 30 The SAA Archaeological Record • November 2019<br>Issue List<br>May 2026, Volume 26...