Archaeologist ⛏️ | YouTuber 🎬 | Anti-intellectualism is the real cancel culture | Winner of 2024 Ockham Award | he/him | it's my real name | Cancer Fighter
THREAD 🧵🧵🧵 Let’s dive into the #MudFlood#Tartaria is the wackiest rabbit hole in the world of fake archaeology. Supposedly, the #OldWorld was destroyed 1-200 years ago, and an advanced global society and its #FreeEnergy were wiped out
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[ARCHAEOLOGY THREAD] One of the most pernicious racisms I see regularly is the myth that Africa has been an unimportant place in human history
But the archaeology of Africa is incredible. Black Lives matter, and so does their history
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Ackshually, cuneiform was made by quickly impressing wedge shapes with a stylus into wet clay. It took no longer than it takes you to write out a couple paragraphs
The more you know, the more you can ruin stupid memes
Nothing to see here…the closing ceremony of the Olympics has a headless angel with no arms.
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Community note
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, or the Niké of Samothrace, is a votive monument originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the beginning of the 2nd century BC (190 BC).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Vi
In his new Netflix “documentary” #AncientApocalypse, @Graham__Hancock has declared war on archaeologists
His rhetoric sows distrust in experts, and #Atlantis conspiracy theories promote white supremacy
Buckle up, it’s time for an #ARCHAEOLOGY THREAD 🧵
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ALT Screenshot from Ancient Apocalypse episode 1, “Once there was a flood,” showing Graham Hancock at an archaeological site rotated sideways (the rotation is from the film)
Flight attendant: Is there a doctor on the plane?
Mom: *nudges* me
Me: Yes, but I'm an archaeologist, not that kind of …
Flight attendant: The pilots are debating where to reroute so we can fly over Atlantis
Me: We're all gonna die
Wow! Lex Fridman @lexfridman is a coward
He invited me on his podcast. Ghosted me. Invited Graham Hancock instead, and asked him a leading question to trash my reputation
When called out, he first chides me and then blocks me and dirty deletes when his dishonesty is revealed
I have stage 4 cancer
@joerogan recently mocked my physical appearance to millions, calling me a “weird kind of bitchy weak man”
I’m ripping out the IV and clapping back at this troll in this video: piped.video/V0tMcWeOuFY?si=YH35…
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[ARCHAEOLOGY THREAD] Apollo’s sanctuary at Delphi is the stuff of legends
For over a thousand years, the famous oracle foretold the futures and fortunes of the city-states and heroes of ancient Greece
This thread explores whether she was stoned on geological vapors
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People: Aliens could've built the pyramids, right?
Archaeologists: No
People: How could the ancients build such huge things?
A: They were smart, like us
People: But they didn't have our technology. It must've been aliens!
A: I lied. Ancient people were smarter than you!
This is cancel culture, calling for firing someone. Straight up harassment of scholars who are simply doing their jobs. Archaeologists don't excavate entire sites. It's against heritage management ethics
This is just a pseudoscientist riling up their mob of trolls to cancel us
Most people have zero sense of what 21st century archaeology actually is, and we need to share what it is wherever people are
To really think that a multiphase site "isn't complicated" is absurd
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You do realize that similar polygonal masonry styles existed in ancient Greece where there was no knowledge of maize (corn)? It's just an effective and durable way to build a dry stone wall
Why do so many people follow these accounts spouting fake stuff?
Joe Rogan's shameful treatment of me has revealed to countless people who he really is
Joe's not open minded nor interested in truth. He's just an entertainer captured by the toxic conspiracist wing of his audience. When we go high, he goes low
I am annoyed with the editors of Archaeological Prospection and the media and how it handles this Gunung Padang controversy
Nobody has gone and talked with local Indonesian archaeologists. None provide the correct date of the monument nor even stated it's not a pyramid
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Ancient ruins fascinate us. Some archaeological finds are so baffling that they challenge everything we know about the past. Will we ever learn the truth about these mysterious ruins? Or will they continue to present more questions than answers? Tonight on @history@theunxplained
But excuse me, despite what you’ve learned in school, there’s far more to African history than Egypt
The histories and archaeologies of Nubia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Timbuktu, Mozambique and more are often ignored as less than what they were
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Did it hurt? When you realized scientists on the internet write clearly and provide solid evidence when fighting back against personal attacks from pseudoscientists?
As an archaeologist, I'm not just guilty of taking such photos, I'm guilty of adopting the damn cat, like our Tavros (short for Minotavros) who we found in the labyrinth of Knossos
I find solace in contextualizing the world around me through my study of history and archaeology. I hope we can all learn from it
So, buckle up, here’s my first thread on the Plague of Athens. It struck in 430 B.C., lasting years and devastating the city and its population
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This #archaeology thread gives a behind-the-scenes look at the new @discovery show “Hunting Atlantis” hosted by @stelpavlou & @jessphoenix2018
I present findings based on years of interdisciplinary research into the archaeological and historical context around Atlantis
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Kid: I want to be an archaeologist when I grow up!
Archaeologist: Oh yeah, what do you want to find?
Kid: Dirt! My mom hates it when I play in the dirt, but I love it!
Archaeologist: That actually might be the best reason I've ever heard for wanting to be an archaeologist
ALT photograph of me from when I was a student, absolutely covered in dirt at Pompeii after one of the roughest, dirtiest days of digging I've ever had (an intense backfill day)
I have no way to get in touch with Keanu Reeves
I invite him to have a frank conversation with me about archaeology
I believe that after a chat, where I answer his questions & show him how archaeology works, I could convince him real archaeology is better than this fake stuff
Hugely grateful to Keanu Reeves. To stand by me in so public a way risks the hatred of archaeologist zealots who believe that only they have the right to interpret the past and who leverage the media to vilify alternative voices. Season 2 launches 16 Oct.
deadline.com/2024/09/ancient…
Hey @joerogan, this is exactly why you need to talk to real archaeologists
You've talked about Ötzi, aka the Iceman, on the show. He had Lyme disease 5300 years ago, genetically sequenced from his mummified tissue
Joe Rogan: "Lyme disease turns out was man made. Turns out there's a lot of real evidence that Lyme disease was weaponized, and that it leaked out of a lab called Plum Island."
Community note
Lyme disease was not “man made”. The Borrelia spirochetes causing Lyme disease can be traced back 60,000 years, before humans first entered North America.
medicine.yale.edu/news-article/a
Imagine the strength of will and mind and body to carve those blocks
And to figure out how to haul them
And to figure out how to build them one on top of another to the sky above
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Real archaeologists aren't hunting for Atlantis because it was a story made up by Plato. He admitted he was making it up when he told it
It isn't lost and we'll never find it. I'm tired of pseudoarchaeology dominating archaeology TV
Just realized I'm wearing the same grey shirt I'm wearing as a base layer in the image from today's @THR announcement about @Discovery's Hunting Atlantis show. I swear I have more clothes than just one shirt. Hah.
Reality TV at its finest, folks!
Pseudoarchaeology and fake history causes real harm in our society
Many people think, what’s the harm of hunting for a lost city? It’s entertainment, right! It even exposes children to real science
CW: The harm leads directly to racism and eugenics
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An immigrant attacked me today with a knife. Slicing my face right near my eye. He removed a carcinoma and made a wide excision. Expertly stitching me up to ensure the wound wouldn't impact my eye and minimize the scar. Big props to the NHS and to immigrants!
ALT Photo of me with a large bandage near the eye and nose
A public letter to @joerogan, @Graham__Hancock, and Matt Staggs.
I finally listened to JRE #1897, and found the invitation - stated clearly by Joe, Graham, and @randallwcarlson - for any archaeologist to sit down and chat with Graham on JRE
I look forward to their response
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ALT January 14, 2023
Dear Joe Rogan, Graham Hancock, and Matt Staggs,
I am writing to take up Joe Rogan's invitation for an archaeologist to come on JRE and chat about Graham Hancock’s unsubstantiated idea for a “lost,” “advanced” Ice Age civilization.
I am a qualified archaeologist with over 20 years of experience. I have taught archaeology at Dartmouth College and the University of Cincinnati. I currently hold a grant from the European Commission with a research position at Cardiff University. I have excavated Neanderthal caves in France, Neolithic living areas in Albania, predynastic tombs at Abydos in Egypt, the Bronze Age Tomb of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos in Greece, an industrial quarter in the ancient Greek colony at Histria in Romania, and a fabulous Roman latrine at Pompeii in Italy.
alt-text continues in next Tweets
It’s in Africa that we see early, larger-than-life monuments. Great human achievements
Those pyramids were not built by aliens. They were designed and built by Africans
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Kid: I want to be an archaeologist when I grow up!
Archaeologist: Oh yeah, what do you want to find?
Kid: Dirt! My mom hates it when I play in the dirt, but I love it!
Archaeologist: That actually might be the best reason I've ever heard for wanting to be an archaeologist
Ackshually, as an archaeologist who studies ancient Greece, this entire situation is eerily similar to the Trojan War
If we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. A #history thread:
This is a thread of threads of threads on my archaeology Twittering. Yes it is
The lore contained in each thread & thread of threads will inform and astound you, dear reader
Translation: This is some high-quality edutainment. And share to make this the viral strain of the day!
From metal chisels to saws, invention after invention were found in Africa first
Ancient Africans were expert smelters and designed all sorts of kilns
Over 2000 years ago, well before Europeans, the Haya people of Tanzania were smelting high-quality carbon steel
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Monumental f*kin tombs. We have found sarcophagi and human remains in the pyramids. Ancient Egyptian texts say they were tombs
It's so simple & obvious that you'd need to be obtuse to ignore the multiple pieces of evidence that clearly demonstrate the pyramids were looted tombs
AI generated art depicting history and archaeology is actively spreading ignorance
Follow real archaeologists and historians and creators sharing real stuff, not this fake crap that looks nice and pretends to be authentic but gets everything wrong
ALT Account named Aesthetica tweets out an AI generated image with the caption, 'Ancient Sumerian City of Uruk.' The Fall of Civilizations podcast account notes, 'Seems to be a confused AI image generator. There aren't any jungles or mountains in the South of Iraq'
This meme is completely absurd. If it was turned in as an answer in my class it'd get a 6%. And that's rounding up, it's really a 5.55555555%
Let's walk through it:
Final induction dose of immunotherapy is finished! Didn't think I'd make it after serious allergic reaction
Early signs say it's working but I'll know more after scans over next month
Working on a future sci comm video "Science Biohacked my Cancer." Fuck cancer, love the NHS
deleting my dating apps because i want to meet someone the old fashioned way (shipwrecked on an island, I confront her and demand she turns my pigs back into men)
Hi all, I appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience yesterday for an in-depth chat with Graham Hancock (link in next tweet)
You can read my essay about my motivations for doing this in @SAPIENS_org magazine
sapiens.org/archaeology/grah…
Nearby in Border Cave, archaeologists have found the oldest mathematical object in the world
The notches on the Lebombo bone are the earliest evidence for counting. Twenty-nine notches might represent a lunar phase calendar
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Graham Hancock is right. Mankind is a species with amnesia. We have been here many times before, we suffer from a collective amnesia. Afforded to us by the many resets, and the parasites that have altered and destroyed all surviving records. It is estimated that anatomically modern humans appeared on Earth 200 to 300 thousand years ago, but if we are talking about humanity as an industrial civilization, that is barely two centuries. With so many unknowns and gigantic gaps in our history, how far-fetched is it to imagine an advanced species inhabiting this planet millions of years ago? That's the Silurian Hypothesis, by scientists Gavin A. Schmidt and Adam Frank of NASA and the University of Rochester.
Rome could not have been Rome without North Africa
From the imperial ambitions jumpstarted from wars with powerful Carthage, to the wealth and prosperity of the North African provinces that stabilized the Roman economy
Even some of Rome’s emperors were African
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And who could forget coffee?
Not me
It’s African too, originally native to the highlands of Ethiopia. The story goes that the goatherder Kaldi first noticed the stimulant effects on his goats. The local abbot boiled the beans into a drink that helped him study
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The history we’ve learned in school must be rewritten. History and archaeology should be honest and give credit where credit is due
And African history has been erased time and time again
Black Lives Matter, and their history matters too
/end
Africans were the first to invent a whole range of technologies and skills we still use today
Around 40,000 years ago, Africans living in the area of South Africa and Eswatini built the earliest mine at Ngwenya (they mined ocher used as a red pigment)
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Africa invented humanity
Not just once, but twice
Homo erectus first stood tall in Africa. Using tools, these clever ancestors of ours spread out all over the globe
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On behalf of all archaeologists, I've got two simple things to ask of you all:
1) Can you please leave your trash where you used it, so we've got some context for it all?
2) could you drop something imperishable that dates your trash assemblage? (A coin minted that year works)
Bioarchaeologists: I study dead people
People: creepy
Archaeologists: I rifle through dead people's trash
People: creepster
Zooarchaeologists: I study dead people's dead animals. Can I have your dog's penis bone when he dies? I need it for reference
People:
Why trust me?
No idea. I’m just a dude who won’t pay for a checkmark
But I am a real archaeologist. I’ve excavated at sites spanning tens of thousands of years of human history & prehistory
Trust my credentials or don’t. But I’ll present real evidence why this show is crap
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ALT photograph of me working on archaeological material from a Stone Age site
I literally do organic chemistry, testing ancient Greek animal teeth for stable isotope ratiosin a mass spectrometer and analyzing the results statistically to understand ancient Greek animal husbandry
These people have just been lied to about what archaeology is
Don't know @FlintDibble nor do I care for defamation from University profs.
Archaeology is mostly pseudoscience because many profs could barely pass Calculus, Physics, or Chemistry, that's why they choose soft sciences! @FlintDibble prove yourself with science, not defamation...
The purpose of twitter is to gain enough followers that you can post something like “Mycenaean boars' tusks helmets were probably made from domesticated boars' tusks, not wild ones” and have 40 people reply saying hell yea
nope, archaeologist here. we'd still be able to read hieroglyphs. this is an unfounded reading in how we do history. and it's a terribly colonialist take
Terrible colonialist take
Our understanding of language, history and archaeology is more than one artifact
other inscriptions in Egypt have demotic & hieroglyphs and still others have demotic & ancient Greek. Without the Rosetta stone we'd still be able to decipher hieroglyphs
The volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 entombed Roman Pompeii in ash
Whether the eruption was in August or September matters. This thread examines the relationship of seasonality with ancient foodways, tourism, athletic games, Roman jobs, disease & more
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Typical histories of ancient European civilizations like the Greeks and Romans too often erase the influence of North African people
North Africa was a bustling crossroads between continents and cultures, facilitating the exchange of people, goods, and ideas
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I’m missing a lot of African history here, because my own research focuses on ancient Greece
But I can tell you for sure that the historical narrative so often told, one of “Western Civilization” is selective & wrong
It intentionally ignores the beauty and history of Africa
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OK, I've now seen this video. I will reply in this thread to the defamatory accusation here, made both by @Graham__Hancock and @dedunkingpast, that I somehow "conned" Graham Hancock and @JoeRogan
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After our debate on JRE 2136 I emailed @FlintDibble to tell him: "You speak well for your cause. I was impressed". It's disappointing, now new information has come to light, to discover that @joerogan and I were conned. Evidence here:
piped.video/Z1de_GHm63k?si=Mllp…
Plus, Africans domesticated several super-important plants and animals
Donkeys were the middle-class version of a car before there were cars
All over Africa, Europe, and Asia these beasts of burden helped fuel the economy and build humanity's great monuments
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I know everyone thinks this Notre Dame sarcophagus is lined with lead to keep an unspeakable evil in, but as an archaeologist I can assure you that the lead lining is to protect the occupant from x-rays produced by sunlight
A mysterious leaden sarcophagus discovered in the bowels of Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral after it was devastated by a fire will soon be opened and its secrets revealed, French archaeologists said u.afp.com/w7XQ
The history of Great Zimbabwe shows the trend
This site is splendid. It dates from 11th to the 15th century CE
It’s enormous (7.22 square km) and it has some damn fine monumental architecture
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As an archaeologist I've got 3 requests:
1. Prominent decolonization & antiracism themes
2. Archaeological "mystery" solved through close examination of archaeological context and stratigraphy
3. Final boss fight at auction house, exposing evils of the modern antiquities trade
With news that Indiana Jones 5 finally begins filming this week in the UK, what’s the one thing you hope to see from the sequel when it opens July 2022?
WTF is wrong with people... This super viral thread is word-for-word plagiarism of a two decade old essay (that's mostly been debunked: snopes.com/fact-check/railro…)
Scholars with large followings are sharing this
Do some due diligence! Share Twitter threads based on real research
A history lesson for people who think that history doesn't matter:
What's the big deal about railroad tracks?
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
Well, because that's the way
Dear @elonmusk,
The culture of harassment against scholars & scientists on @X chills free speech
Those without energy to deal with hordes of hateful trolls quit X
X isn't pro free speech. It's only free speech for harassers who cancel others. Pure hypocrisy
1/6 cc:@support
Ahhh I see Joe Rogan is giving politics the same slanderous treatment he gave me. Hilary conceded the election immediately. Trump and his side stormed the Capitol after losing, and he pardoned them for vandalism
Don't believe people who rewrite history you saw with your own eyes
Joe Rogan: "They'll pretend that Hillary Clinton didn't do multiple speeches where she said that the election was stolen, Russia stole the election, with no evidence. But when [Trump] questions the election, it's a threat to democracy."
You think we’re a successful species?
Nah… Not on evolutionary terms. Homo sapiens have only been around a few hundred thousand years
Homo erectus thrived for a couple million
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Hi @Graham__Hancock, I'm glad we had a cordial exchange. But please explain how I conned you? I cited every single source in our conversation on @joerogan.
That's not conning, that's thorough scholarship, which this YouTube video is not
It’s in Africa that we find and have always found the greatest diversity of humanity, in a braided stream of evolution
It’s in Africa that anatomically modern humans emerged and developed art and technology and cooperation and compassion
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The intellectual flourishing of the medieval Arabic world, with philosophical, scientific, and mathematical ideas & inventions that underpinned the later European age of discovery and Renaissance
It wasn’t possible without Africa
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Nothing here matches any period of history at all. The main reason some people live in hard times is because greedy or bigoted assholes shit on other people
I am going to private mode for a bit as I formulate my reply to this ridiculous harassment and slander
Thankful for the support of all my colleagues and followers
This is bollocks. We have plenty of tools from ancient Egypt... In stone and in copper and in bronze and later on in iron. How do people believe this stuff?
Terrible colonialist take
Our understanding of language, history and archaeology is more than one artifact
other inscriptions in Egypt have demotic & hieroglyphs and still others have demotic & ancient Greek. Without the Rosetta stone we'd still be able to decipher hieroglyphs
Had it not been discovered by the French shortly after their arrival in 1799, the Rosetta Stone would still today be part of an unknown back-alley wall in a random Egyptian flea market.
The entire hieroglyphic language would be unreadable; we would know nothing of ancient Egypt.
Now that things are calming down a bit on social media, I want to emphasize the importance of doing your homework. I did a lot of prep and had a lot of help from colleagues to try to approach this high profile event in an effective manner
Thanks to all for the kind comments
Hi all, I appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience yesterday for an in-depth chat with Graham Hancock (link in next tweet)
You can read my essay about my motivations for doing this in @SAPIENS_org magazine
sapiens.org/archaeology/grah…
So, as an archaeologist, I'm here to tell you the best way to destroy a racist statue
Please only do this on racist statues that deserve to be destroyed
There's lots of examples of destroyed statues. Iconoclasm is the fancy term
Just a reminder that statues of The President & Vice President of the Confederacy, a so-called nation founded on the very idea of racism & inequality, still reside inside the US Congress
The difference between weakness & courage
@joerogan punches down, slandering a scholar who showed up in his studio for a hostile debate after a year on chemo
I punch up, taking on celebrities who promote ignorance & anti-intellectualism
Full video: piped.video/V0tMcWeOuFY
100,000 people have witnessed Joe Rogan's hypocrisy towards me. My wife, who @joerogan met when we were in Austin, even nicknamed our working folder "Fuck off Joe Rogan" because of how he's shat on me
How many more will see Joe for who he truly is?
piped.video/V0tMcWeOuFY?si=MCmH…
The knee-jerk response with thousands of insulting comments about me in last few days is exactly why many colleagues don't want to engage with the pseudoscience community
It's punishment for my speech. Cancel culture in order to silence me. No free speech for scholars
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OK, I've now seen this video. I will reply in this thread to the defamatory accusation here, made both by @Graham__Hancock and @dedunkingpast, that I somehow "conned" Graham Hancock and @JoeRogan
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It’s tough to trust legends though
Too often Africans have had their heritage robbed from them
Their historical accomplishments explained away by racist Europeans as the work of other people
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But, of course, that’s ridiculous
Great Zimbabwe was not some isolated outpost of Mediterranean or Arab gold traders
Similar architecture is found throughout the region, many smaller zimbabwes & later fortresses, attributable to the local predecessors to the Shona people
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