Pseudo-Historical Theories

[Tomislav Addai]

Recently I ve taken a look at a history book claiming that Dravidians (Tamils) have arrived in Slovakia and were the ones who developped the area. Right now I am looking at the book by Oskar Cvengrosch called Secret History of Slovaks. It claims all East Germanic peoples were inf act Slovaks. It also claims that there used to be a Slavic language in sweden

How about you? What pseudo-historic theories have you come across? And which could arise in an Alt-hist?

 

[UCB79]

A common one- that it was aliens, E.T.’s in
other words, who actually built the pyramids.

 

[Atterdag]

There was a theory popularized in the 18th century that Swedes were decendant of Turks. Nowadays it's mostly popular amongst turkish nationalists claiming they're the ur-people of the world, but it has it's origins in the middle ages. Snorri Sturlasson made the connection between ancient Troyans and the Norse god, thinking that the asir must have come from Asia, which he also called Turkland. People then didn't understand that there's quite a difference between Turks and the ancient peoples of Anatolia.

 

[Mort the Reaper]

The phantom time hypothesis, a frankly bizarre conspiracy claiming that almost 300 years' worth of history was fabricated.

 

[piratedude]

One that I've personally read is Graham Phillips' Chalice of Magdalen in which he tries to connect a first century alabaster jar he found to the holy grail and to who he believes is the real King Arthur and sir Percival of the fisher king stories. He also argues that the fisher king story comes from an alternate apostolic succession (via Joseph of Arimathea of course), and connects it to tarot cards and the cathars of southern france. He further tries to connect his grail to Robin Hood in the same book.

The jar is real, at least, and the Victorian aristocrat who hid it certainly believed that it was the grail.


As for alternate psuedo histories, i think it would be very easy for Geoffrey of Monmouth to say that the Britons where descended from Atlanteans rather than trojans.

 

[Red Wolfe]

The phantom time hypothesis, a frankly bizarre conspiracy claiming that almost 300 years' worth of history was fabricated.

I think bizzare is an understatment. I think insane is a better descripter.

 

[Midnight-Blue766]

There was a theory popularized in the 18th century that Swedes were decendant of Turks. Nowadays it's mostly popular amongst turkish nationalists claiming they're the ur-people of the world, but it has it's origins in the middle ages. Snorri Sturlasson made the connection between ancient Troyans and the Norse god, thinking that the asir must have come from Asia, which he also called Turkland. People then didn't understand that there's quite a difference between Turks and the ancient peoples of Anatolia.

This reminds me of a page I once saw that used pseudo-etymological derivations of characters in the Illiad to argue that it was originally Turkish. I also remember joking that it was very well thought out except for the fact that the author overlooked the minor detail that Turkish people did not inhabit the Anatolian peninsula until 2000 years after the writing of the Iliad.

 

[oshron]

This reminds me of a page I once saw that used pseudo-etymological derivations of characters in the Illiad to argue that it was originally Turkish. I also remember joking that it was very well thought out except for the fact that the author overlooked the minor detail that Turkish people did not inhabit the Anatolian peninsula until 2000 years after the writing of the Iliad.

that's what They want you to think!

 

[Tempered Zen]

You guys haven't laid your eyes on the terrifying world of pre-Columbian pseudohistory. Goodness, where do I begin? I'll leave these three here as a start.

The infamous Solutrean hypothesis, and it's wacky variants.

That fringe theory that claims Siouan and Welsh are related.

The Mi'kmaq are descendants of the ancient Egyptians.

 

[Thon Taddeo]

I came across some YouTube videos a while ago which claimed that Russia was a technological superpower until Napoleon nuked it.

 

[mythmonster2]

I've seen the "Olmecs were actually black Africans" many times, but what makes it especially egregious is that I saw it on a black history month poster in the school I taught at. There's plenty of black achievements without having to resort to pseudoscience!

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

Out-of-Australia Theory.

 

[Bavarian Raven]

The infamous Solutrean hypothesis, and it's wacky variants.
.

To be fair, its very likely that sometime over the coarse of very ancient history some peoples from Europe did make the journey but that in the long run it had no real sig. impact on the people of the America.

 

[Tempered Zen]

To be fair, its very likely that sometime over the coarse of very ancient history some peoples from Europe did make the journey but that in the long run it had no real sig. impact on the people of the America.

It's not proven, so maybe. I put it on the list because we all know why people advocate for this hypothesis, and it's not to hypothesize about the prehistory of the Americas.

 

[Philip]

The phantom time hypothesis, a frankly bizarre conspiracy claiming that almost 300 years' worth of history was fabricated.

That's clearly false. Everyone knows history began in the year 800.

 

[stevej713]

My favorite is the theory that trans-Atlantic trade was occurring during the time of Rameses II because traces of tobacco were found on his mummified body. Of course, proponents of this theory ignore the fact that the 19th century archaeologists who examined his body were all chain smokers who didn't follow modern sanitation practices.

 

[Nivek]

That fringe theory that claims Siouan and Welsh are related.

To give credit some welsh/cymru would have got loss in the americas but would not be nothing and their blood diluted among natives

(Unironically Marvel use that, pasing a time displaced captain america as a white native american and claiming his ancestor come from wales)

 

[Tempered Zen]

To give credit some welsh/cymru would have got loss in the americas but would not be nothing and their blood diluted among natives

(Unironically Marvel use that, pasing a time displaced captain america as a white native american and claiming his ancestor come from wales)

That wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility, but Siouan has a time depth of going back to 2000 BCE at least, and that's without Yuchi. Realistically, the proto-language was probably spoken around 4000 BCE. I'm not even including the broader Macro-Siouan proposal, which would set the date back by at least double the amount.

By comparison, Proto-Indo-European was still being spoken during this timeframe. Welsh only became a thing in the common era (OTTOMH 500 CE). It's a very easily debunkable theory.

 

[Nivek]

That wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility, but Siouan has a time depth of going back to 2000 BCE at least, and that's without Yuchi. Realistically, the proto-language was probably spoken around 4000 BCE. I'm not even including the broader Macro-Siouan proposal, which would set the date back by at least double the amount.

By comparison, Proto-Indo-European was still being spoken during this timeframe. Welsh only became a thing in the common era (OTTOMH 500 CE). It's a very easily debunkable theory.

Of course is it. Just the basis welsh got loss and stuck in the americas make sense but would be too little and nothing to do an impact and would be assimilated among native very easy anyway.