Fact versus fantasy: Critical approaches to pseudoarchaeology

Literature list AE1014

Mandatory:

Chalmers, A. 2014, What Is This Thing Called Science? (4th edition), University of Queensland Press, Open University press. Mandatory chapters:

• Chapter 1: Science as knowledge derived from the facts of experience
• Chaapter 2: Observation as practical intervention
• Chapter 3: Experiment
• Chapter 4: Deriving theories from the facts: induction

= 55 pages

Feder, K.M. 2025, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology (11th edition), Oxford University Press. Mandatory chapters:

• Chapter 1: Science and Pseudoscience
• Chapter 3: GIANTS! Anatomy of an Archaeological Hoax
• Chapter 4: Dawson’s Dawn Man: The Hoax at Piltdown
• Chapter 8: Lost: One Continent—Reward
• Chapter 9: Atlantis 2.0: Comets, and Glaciers, and Floods, Oh My
• Chapter 10: Prehistoric E.T.: The Fantasy of Ancient Astronauts
• Chapter 11: OK, So How Did People Get So Smart?
• Chapter 13: Epilogue: A Past We Deserve

= 140 pages

Rafferty, S.M., 2022, Misanthropology: Science, Pseudoscience, and the Study of Humanity, Routledge. Mandatory chapters:

• Chapter 1: Bias and fallacy in anthropology and beyond
• Chapter 7: Archaeology and ancient aliens
• Chapter 8: Archaeology as the handmaiden of ideology

= ca. 54 pages (estimation)

Rafferty, S.M., 2025, Mythologizing the Past: Archaeology, History, and Ideology, Routledge: Mandatory chapters:

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Atlantis: mother of all white history myths
• Chapter 3: Mythologizing Europe: The Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, and Celts
• Chapter 5: The Ayrans
• Chapter 6: What’s the harm? Historic lies and the damage done

= ca. 150 pages (estimation)

= 399

Anderson, D.S. & Card, J.J. 2012, “The varieties of pseudoarchaeology”. (10 pages) Available online on Academia.edu

Anderson, D.S. & Card, J.J. 2012, “I don’t believe, I know: the faith of modern pseudoarchaeology”, The SAA Archaeological record 19(5), pp. 31-34. (4 pages) Available online on Academia.edu

Anderson, D.S. 2016, “Black Olmecs and White Egyptians: a parable for professional archaeological responses to pseudoarchaeology”, in J.J. Card & D.S. Anderson, City Lost, Pyramid Found: Understanding Alternative Archaeologies and Pseudoscientific Practices, University of Alabama Press, pp. 68-80 (13 pages)

Arnold, B. 2006, “Pseudoarchaeology and nationalism”, in G.G. Fagan (ed.), Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public, pp. 154-179. (25 pages) Available on Academia.edu

Arnold, B. 2008, “Past as propaganda: totalitarian archaeology in Nazi Germany”, in T. Murray & C. Evans (eds.), Histories of archaeology: a reader in the history of archaeology, Oxford University Press, pp. 120-144. (24 pages) Only available through a physical copy of the book in the library.

Bond, S.E. 2018, “Pseudoarchaeology and the racism behind ancient aliens”, *hyperallergic.com*

Campbell, A. 2021, “The forgotten fascist legacy: Benito Mussolini’s role in preserving ancient Roman monuments”, Ancient World Magazine, https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/forgotten-fascist-legacy/

Cornell, P. & Andersson, A. 2025, “The past, ethnic purity, and the foundations of Nazi ideology: archaeology at war”, Journal of Archaeological Research. (35 pages)

Colavito, J. 2015, “Atlantis and other lost civilizations”, in J. Colavito, Foundations of Atlantis, ancient astronauts, and other alternative pasts, pp. 102-118. (19 pages)

Colavito, J. 2019, “Whitewashing American prehistory”, The SAA Archaeological Record, pp. 17-20 (4 pages).

Defiant, M. 2017, “Conjuring up a lost civilization. An analysis of the claims made by Graham Hancock in Magicians of the Gods”, Skeptic Magazine 22(3), 33-41. (9 pages)

Derricourt, R. 2012, “Pseudoarchaeology: the concept and its limitations”, Antiquity, pp. 524-531. (8 pages)

Dyson, S.L. 2019, “Archaeology and urbanism in Fascist Rome”, S.L. Dyson (ed.), Archaeology, Ideology, and Urbanism in Rome from the Grand Tour to Berlusconi, Cambridge University Press, pp. 154-179. (16 pages) Specific chapter requested in e-format.

Fagan, G.G. 2006, “Diagnosing pseudoarchaeology”, in G.G. Fagan, Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public, Routledge, pp. 23-46. (23 pages) Specific chapter requested in e-format, physical book available.

Fagan, G.G. & Feder, K.L. 2006, “Crusading against straw men: an alternative view of alternative archaeologies: response to Holtorf (2005), World Archaeology 38, No. 4, Debates in “World Archaeology” (December 2006), pp. 718-728. (7 pages)

Fritze, R.H. 2009, “On the perils and pleasures of confronting pseudohistory”, Historically speaking 10(5), pp. 2-5. (4 pages)

Halmhofer, S. (2021). Did Aliens Build the Pyramids? And Other Racist Theories. Retrieved from https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/pseudoarchaeology-racism/

Holtorf, C. 2005, “Beyond crusades: how (not) to engage with alternative archaeologies”, World Archaeology 37, no. 4, Debates in “World Archaeology” (December 2005), pp. 544-551. (7 pages).

Hoopes, J., Dibble, F., & Feagans, C. 2023, “Apocalypse not: archaeologists respond to pseudoarchaeology”, The SAA Archaeological record 19(5), pp. 28-35. (7 pages)

Jordan, P. 2006, “Esoteric Egypt”, in G.G. Fagan (ed.), Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public, pp. 109-128 (20 pages) Physical book available, but ebook cannot be purchased online.

Kenneth, S. 1932 “Mussolini and the Roman Empire”, The Classical Journal 27, pp. 645-657 (13 pages)

Kerr, J.F. 2008, “Indiana Jones and the readers of the Lost Art: making the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull educational”, Screen Education 51, pp. 14-20.

Lancaster, L. 2000, “Mussolini’s Rome: archaeology as the pawn of politics”, Forum Magazine of Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences, pp. 11-16 (5 pages) Available on Academia.edu

Naddaf, G. 1994, “The Atlantis myth: an introduction to Plato’s later philosophy of history”, Phoenix 48(3) (Autumn 1994), pp. 198-209. (21 pages)

Nelis, J. 2007, “Constructing fascist identity: Benito Mussolini and the myth of “Romanità”, The Classical World, 100(4), 391-415. (25 pages)

= 306 pages

Recommended literature:

• Feder 2025, Chapter 2, Epistemology: How You Know What You Know (20?)
• Feder 2025, Chapter 5: Who Discovered America? (22p)
• Feder 2025, Chapter 6: Who’s next? After the Indians, before Columbus (35 p)
• Feder 2025, Chapter 7: The myth of the Moundbuilders (32 p)
• Rafferty 2025, Chapter 4: Americas B.C. (31 p)
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 2: Cultural Anthropology and the Invented Primitive
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 3: Ethnology vs. Pseudoethnology
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 4: Apes and Sign Language: Another "Clever Hans"?
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 5: Pseudolinguistics
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 6: Biological Anthropology and Pseudoscience: The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
• Rafferty 2022, Chapter 9: Science, Pseudoscience, and Anthropology

= ca. 246 p

= 951 pages including recommended literature and excluding several internet articles without page numbers.