Forbidden archaeology

"New Evidence of Early Man Suppressed" is a UFOTV documentary about the controversies surrounding Hueyatlaco, an archaeological site in Valsequillo, Mexico. The site is prominently featured in Michael Cremo's books "Forbidden Archaeology" and "Forbidden Archaeology's Impact". Cremo is a supporter of the Hare Krishna who claims that evidence for the immense antiquity of man has been ignored or suppressed by the scientific establishment. Hueyatlaco is also mentioned in the notorious documentary "Mysterious Origins of Man", narrated by Charlton Heston. "New Evidence of Early Man Suppressed" is marketed as a kind of sequel to "Mysterious Origins of Man".

In 1962, Cynthia Irwin-Williams excavated the Mexican site and found evidence of early human habitation. Her work was soon mired in controversies. Jealous Mexican colleagues accused Irwin-Williams of "incompetence", sent armed guards to threaten her workers, and finally confiscated all the Stone Age artefacts found by the American team. They are lost to this day. Fortunately, Irwin-Williams' team had made plaster casts of the ancient tools and managed to send them to the Smithsonian. Things went from bad to worse when various radiometric dating techniques suggested that Hueyatlaco might be 250,000 years old! According to received scientific wisdom, humans didn't settle the Americas until about 15,000 years ago. Irwin-Williams refused to publish the erratic dates, but the case was taken up by one of her assistants, Virginia Steen-MacIntyre. Today, Hueyatlaco is mostly associated with her. Steen-MacIntyre is featured in Cremo's books and "Mysterious Origins of Man". Needless to say, mainstream science regards her claims as completely erroneous, since they contradict virtually everything else we know (or assume we know) about human prehistory.

"New Evidence" attempts to reopen the case for the antiquity of Hueyatlaco. The documentary features Marshall Payn, a millionaire who has financed new digs at the site. Virginia Steen-MacIntyre is interviewed, and we get to meet the old controversialist George Carter. Hal Malde, who co-authored several papers with Steen-MacIntyre, and the "token sceptic" Michael Waters are also shown. Robert Schoch's name is shown in the end credits (Schoch is a geologist who created a stir among Egyptologists when he attempted to re-date the Sphinx).

The documentary is slow-paced and pedagogical, and explains the various issues involved in a relatively comprehensible manner. Of course, it's fiercely partisan, rejecting Waters' "official" explanation that the stratigraphy of the Mexican site has been misinterpreted. It also spins various conspiracy theories, claiming that "They" want to stop further excavations at Hueyatlaco, suppress critics, etc. A more rational explanation is that Payn's team was stopped by corruption and Mexican resentment towards meddling "gringos". Somebody has illegally built a large house at the exact spot of the Hueyatlaco site, which is federal property. I suppose the people involved in this land grab don't like foreigners peeking in. The situation at the "secret warehouse" sounds like a typical case of local officials showing muscle because they can.

So yes, I'm sceptical. I believe Waters is correct when pointing out that one apparent anomaly simply isn't enough to overthrow the present paradigm (which is also based on DNA evidence, etc). Of course, people like Cremo and Steen-MacIntyre (a Christian creationist) believe that the number of anomalies in the archaeological record is legion...

Those who believe that the Illuminati are out in force, that there really is a dark side of archaeology, or simply suspect the scientific establishment of hopeless dogmatism, will presumably love "New Evidence". The rest of us await further developments á la rabbits in the Precambrian!