"Finding out what actually happened in the deep past can be a slog, so when ancient history is packaged as mystery-spine-tingling but solvable-it's hard to resist. Who doesn't want to know how a lost civilization got lost, or where it might be hiding? The trouble is that what gets touted as a lost civilization often turns out to have been there all along."
"The people who can't or won't see the continuity in front of them have typically been European adventurers or armchair archeologists, busy spinning dismissive theories about the cultures of non-Europeans. The idea that the Pyramids of Egypt are so awesome they could only have been built by aliens is now a meme-able joke, fodder for Reddit debunkers and cheesy History Channel shows."
Ancient history frequently becomes packaged as tantalizing mystery because sensational narratives sell. European adventurers and armchair archaeologists have often overlooked or denied cultural continuity, instead proposing outsider origins for Indigenous monuments. Popular ancient-astronaut claims, especially since von Däniken, suggested extraterrestrial assistance for works like Egypt's pyramids, Easter Island statues, and the Nazca Lines, reflecting assumptions that non-European peoples lacked capable ancestors. Before modern archaeological techniques, monumental stone constructions seemed inexplicable without metal tools, which reinforced outsider-origin theories. These tendencies perpetuate racialized and dismissive explanations that obscure the achievements and continuities of Indigenous societies.
Read at The New Yorker
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