Fine 19th century German craftsmanship!
So I am watching a show on History International all about Indiana Jones, as told from a historical perspective. I came in part-way through and right in time for them to start talking about the crystal skulls.
Ok, let’s get this out of the way. The crystal skulls are all made with modern tools and the best studies show they were made in Germany from crystal that came from places like Madagascar and were crafted in the 19th century. This is what science tells us.
What this show, however, is telling us, and what many other people want us to believe, is that these are “magic”, and they have mysterious orgins! The show is going on about them featuring in American Indian mythos (they don’t), and all about the healing powers they have (but actually haven’t), and all about the special legends and myths that date back thousands of years (if the 20th century is counted as thousands of years). Hell, they flat-out lie in this show about the origins of the skulls and completely fail to mention any of the evidence of them being anything other than what the con-artists say they are.
*sigh* You know, I like the History Channel and History International, I really do. I just wish they’d spend more time covering actual, real history and debunk pseudoarchaeology and pseudohistory like what they are pushing on this program.
I’ve bitched about the History Channels before, and I’ll continue to do so as long as they continue to crank out credulous crap like this.
