Pseudoarchaeology

US-based international satellite and cable TV channel

Rennes-le-Château (; ) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza, in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in Southern France.

pseudoscientific claims of past alien contact

set of three artifacts which were found together: a ceramic pot, a tube of one metal, and a rod of another

thumb|upright=1.4|An 1876 map illustrating the supposed location of Lemuria and the hypothetical dispersal routes of the "12 Race (human categorization)|varieties of men" from their alleged Lemurian origin across the globeLemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the discovery of plate tectonics and continental drift in the 20th century.

The '''' (, "Ancestral Heritage") was a pseudoscientific organization founded by the Schutzstaffel in Nazi Germany in 1935. Established by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on July 1, 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to promoting racial theories espoused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, the Ahnenerbe'' consisted of academics and scientists from a broad range of academic disciplines who fostered the idea that Germans descended from an Aryan race which was racially superior to other racial groups.

misuse of the scientific method to justify racism

historical secret occultist and nationalist group in Bavaria

a pseudoarchaeological notion in Bosnia and Herzegovina

19th-century pyramids in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

human skull stone carvings made of clear quartz, claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican

submerged rock formation

decorated andesite stones found in Ica Province, Peru

form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that (as stated in religious texts) the Earth and its lifeforms were created in their present forms by supernatural acts of a deity between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago

object of historical or archaeological interest found in a very unusual context

supposed ancient Egyptian electrical lighting technology

Pseudoarchaeology (sometimes called fringe archaeology and previously also called alternative archaeology) consists of attempts to study, interpret, or teach about the subject-matter of archaeology while rejecting, ignoring, or misunderstanding the accepted data-gathering and analytical methods of the discipline. These pseudoscientific interpretations involve the use of artifacts, sites or materials to construct scientifically insubstantial theories to strengthen the pseudoarchaeologists' claims. Methods include exaggeration of evidence, dramatic or romanticized conclusions, use of fallacious

Egyptian carvings misinterpreted as depicting helicopters

bird-shaped artifact made of sycamore wood

Rune-covered stone slab unearthed in 1898 in Kensington, Minnesota

thumb|Babylonokia Babylonokia (also Babylon-Nokia, Alien-Mobile, and Cuneiform Mobile Phone) is a 2012 artwork by Karl Weingärtner in the form of a clay tablet shaped like a mobile phone, its keys and screen showing cuneiform script.

mountain in Brazil

grave south of Jerusalem, Israel

about 33,000 small ceramic figurines allegedly found by Waldemar Julsrud in July 1944

thumb|300px|Great Pyramid of Giza

large aggregate structure in Doğubayazıt, Ağrı, Turkey

Christian movement, according to which the people of England are the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

small mineral objects, often spherical to disc-shaped, found in pyrophyllite deposits near Ottosdal, South Africa

cave with prehistoric art

underwater rock formation near North Bimini island in the Bahamas

spark plug supposedly encased in a 500,000-year-old geode

2007 television film

Amusement park in Switzerland

hammer made of iron and wood that was found in London, Texas, U.S.

archaeological find

cave in Ecuador

archaeological site

Xenoarchaeology, a branch of xenology dealing with extraterrestrial cultures, is a hypothetical form of archaeology that exists mainly in works of science fiction. The field is concerned with the study of the material remains to reconstruct and interpret past life-ways of alien civilizations. Xenoarchaeology is not currently practiced by mainstream archaeologists due to the current lack of any material for the discipline to study.

Theosophical term to indicate the stages of human development

large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico

thumb|Grafton Elliot Smith: Map of Hyperdiffusionism from Egypt, 1929 Hyperdiffusionism is a pseudoarchaeological hypothesis that postulates that certain historical technologies or ideas were developed by a single people or civilization and then spread to other cultures. Thus, all great civilizations that engage in what appear to be similar cultural practices, such as the construction of pyramids, derived them from a single common progenitor. According to proponents of hyperdiffusion, examples of hyperdiffusion can be found in religious practices, cultural technologies, megalithic monuments, a

golden objects made by the Quimbaya culture, dated around 1000 CE

Pipe-like features found on and near Mount Baigong

preserved body found in Wyoming, United States

victorian artefact interpreted as ancient to support fringe theories

stone disks believed by some to be extraterrestrial

inscribed stone tablet

assertion that none of the Temples in Jerusalem ever existed or were not located on the Temple Mount

Regarded as pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists

ancient Egyptian commemorative tablet

Spartel Bank or Majuán Bank is a submerged former island located in the Strait of Gibraltar near Cape Spartel and the Spartel Sill. Its highest point is currently below the surface. Spartel Bank is one of several seamounts in the bed of Gibraltar Strait; similar but deeper seamounts are found at Camarinal Sill and further east. These represent landslide blocks which slid south from the north bank of the Strait of Gibraltar when the strait was formed, possibly through erosion by inflowing waters of the Zanclean flood.

historical movement aimed at studying German history to strengthen nationalism

Small cuboid mass of iron that was found buried in Tertiary lignite in Wolfsegg am Hausruck, Austria, in 1885

archeological stonework site in New Hampshire

American television series

Possible locations for the mythical city of Atlantis.

Stones with alleged runic inscriptions

ceramic bowl about 1 m in diameter. Probably for religious purposes. It has zoological and anthropomorphic drawings, as well as signs resembling cuneiform. Found in the 1950s near Puma Punku and Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Archaeological site in South Africa

incorrect belief that humans and non-avian dinosaurs existed on Earth at the same time