I watched part of a history channel special on archeology this evening and caught a bit about Crystal Skulls.
A quick look at a well referenced Wikipedia article shows that the show glazed over some facts to make it appear as if an ancient culture could have made them and also flat out lied about other facts.
The Mitchell Hedges skull was presented (with shots of ancient temples and maps) as being genuine while the origin, according to this section of the article, is murky at best and once mechanical tooling (as well as evidence of a hole being drilled with metal) the owner of the skull refused all future requests to test the skull.
Not only does the history channel not mention this, but they outright LIE and say that an (unnamed) engineer saw NO evidence of tools being used to make it and said “this shouldn’t even exist!”
While not stating that it has healing properties themselves, the history channel then lets her ramble for a couple of minutes about how some mystical magic man saved her daughter’s life with the skull and that she saw him cure hundreds of people with it.
All of this is voice over as the camera shows her knocking on a door (she goes on tour with the thing… for free I’m sure) and allowing people to touch it.
She then states that it was in a box in her closet then one day in her head she heard this voice saying “I’m not called skull, I’m called Max!” and she says “Ohmygod! I have a skull named Max!”
There then is someone who is listed as a “crystal skull enthusiast” who goes on for a minute or two about a back injury it fixed and how he doesn’t need painkillers anymore. :o
So… to make this more pitworthy… fuck you History channel.
I miss the days when there was only The Discovery Channel and it only showed nature documentaries. I was just longing for that today, in fact. I feel bad for people who watch The History Channel, TLC, Discovery, etc. these days and think they’re being educated. They’re getting the high hard one for the sake of ratings.
They recently had a special on U.F.O.s (they always have a recent episode on U.F.O.s for some reason…) they interviewed astronauts who said they saw questionable objects in space. Fine… While not really “history” its interesting and they’re interviewing someone with some credibility. They also looked at some footage of U.F.O. activity and tried to debunk it to show some balance. Fine. Good.
What got me is the cameraman must’ve been drunk.
To make it more “interesting”, I guess, they zoomed in on plaques and pictures in the astronaut’s home, on his face (zoom waaaaaaay in on his nose, move to forehead, zoom waaaaayyy out, repeat), on anything in the room, etc…
I was watching the History Channel last night and sawome quasi-documentary compatring Indiana Jones with real archaeologists. I thought it was an interesting hook – you could draw people into some real archaeology this way, and make it interesting. One archaeologist was really getting into it – describing the way the priests set the stage, bringing candidaes down into their underground tunnels. I appreciate and could get into THAT. But there wasn’t enouggh of it, and they quickly veered off into too much Indy and not enough archaeology, and a rotten treatment of the Holy Grail, and too much Dan Brown. It was, ultimately, disappointing. But I wouldn’t mind seeing a few more genuinely excited archaeologists talking about their real work.
I watched last night’s program on Crystal Skulls as well, and more than a few times rolled my eyes. They heavily tied it into the meridians and vortexes on the planet, and to the ancient Maya 2012 prophesy. I was switching back and forth between that and the Science Channel which I find much more entertaining…
Hmmm. A supposedly “educational” channel runs a special shamelessly hoping to cash in on the latest Hollywood blockbuster and you’re surprised that it isn’t particularly accurate?
Modern archeologists aren’t much like Indy at all, it’s true. It’s not that long ago, though, that the line between archeologist and treasure hunter/grave robber was nearly nonexistant.
Long time ago, when I was an undergraduate, the university library had on the shelves a multi-volume set of books written about Howard Carter and his hunt for and discovery of Tut’s tomb. They were quite old, and IIRC, written by Carter himself. The author mentioned several times that on digs there was danger from bandits. One of the photographic plates showed Carter overseeing a dig site with a Winchester rifle cradled in his arms. He looked very Indiana Jones-esque, indeed.
Carter’s discovery was exciting because it was a far-outlier. The thing is, 99.9% of archaeology is NOT interesting, at least by Joe Public’s standards. Scraping dirt a millimeter at a time? Reassembling busted pots? Interpreting the scraped dirt and busted pots? BO-ring and VERY bad TV.
I agree. Back when the History Channel was kind of new, it had some halfway decent stuff–mostly run-of-the-mill WWII footage and such. But lately, it seems it’s all just pandering to the masses for ratings: little fact, mostly “cool” angle shots and a lot of speculation. I don’t really watch that much of it anymore, except for some of the ‘Engineering Marvels’ shows (which also have a fair amount of liberal writing)
I once wrote a letter to the HC about what I call their ‘tabloid-like programming’, and I got a response back from them saying they have top men working on it right now.
At this point, I even miss The Hitler Channel. Actually, History International used to be good for actual programming about history, but now it seems to just re-run “Histories Mysteries,” “In Search Of…” and “The Young Indiana Jones Adventures.” Which is strange and disappointing.
I noticed that the world has trully gone strange when the only programs on a scientific channel, that have any scientific merit, have RoboCop as the authority.
I’m sure it would be. Unfortunately, you and I would count for two of the nine people who would watch it until it either went out of business or started showing “Hitler’s UFOs” again.
Was this the same one where that wanker supposed that he had the actual holy grail and it was some little pink onyx nubbin? I wanted to kick my TV while that was on.
1.) The guy appatrently wasn’t an archaeologist, and didn’t claim to be one.
2.) He claimed to have found the “grail” that some old British guy sasid he hid away, which might actually be true. It’s a big leap from there to the belief that this thimble really was the Grail, but, of course, he made it.
Around the time that they claimed that ancient civilizations were somehow able to view the Face on Mars and it somehow drove their spirituality, my optic nerves knotted from all of the eye rolling and I hit the ground in convulsions. That guy made Paula Abdul sound coherent.
It’s an interesting story as to how he found it, and I can see why they included it in the show for that reason, but when he flat out stated that he was sure that this was THE holy grail I wanted to buy him a plane ticket to Alexandria so I could show him all the other holy grails and peices of the true cross and what not that could be had for mere dollars on the street.
I think it is better if you picture that authority as a top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock star and comic book hero Buckaroo Banzai.
History Channel also shows “Cities of the Underworld” which is fascinating. I had no idea there were so many cities with undergrounds and huge tunnels. Most predate the cities by many ,many years. Some are huge and complex. Very interesting.
