Relief panel, ca. 883–859 B.C. Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian Gypsum alabaster; 93 x 70 x 4 1/4 in. (236.2 x 177.8 x 10.8 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1932 (32.143.7).
"He Saw Mysteries and Knew Secret Things”: The Use and Abuse of Near Eastern Archaeology and Myth in Paranormal Discourse
Jeb Card
Miami University (Ohio)
This lecture is part of the ISAW Library events series and will take place in person at ISAW.
Registration is required at THIS LINK.
Prof. Jeb Card will present a primer for understanding the use and abuse of archaeology and mythology of Ancient Southwest Asia in current and popular paranormal and conspiracy myth-making. While Biblical alternative archaeology has a long history, Card will present on direct inspirations and appropriations of Near East scholarship for more recent ideas, such as secret missions to seize a Babylonian stargate, intelligent plasma jinn, Ubaid reptilians, Denisovan Gobekli Tepe, star-sent Anunnaki, and more. These ideas are utterly discarded by professional scholars, yet they remain extraordinarily popular. Nearly half of Americans support the concept of alien involvement in human antiquity, and Card's analysis suggests that Abrahamic and Near Eastern archaeology and mythology are the largest component of how this concept is created and discussed by authors and adherents. In the twenty-first century, this idea has dramatically expanded into stranger ideas with a heavily conspiratorial aspect and an even greater emphasis on ideas wrenched and transformed from the study of ancient Southwest Asia.
Jeb J. Card is an archaeologist of Southeast Mesoamerica in the Classic, Postclassic, and Early Spanish Colonial periods. His recent research has focused on the development of paranormal subculture and practices, particularly their relationship to archaeology and antiquity. He wrote on this topic in 2018 in Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past with University of New Mexico Press. He is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Miami University.
The doors to the lecture hall will close 10 minutes after the lecture starts.
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Contact
David M. Ratzan, dr128@nyu.edu.