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Unexplained, Unexplored, and Unexpectedly Dumb

12/18/2019

20 Comments

 
A couple of days ago, I watched the TV program Unexplained and Unexplored for the first time. Although I knew the show existed because of Jason Colavito's reviews, I was unprepared for how bad it would be. It was bad. Really really bad.

I tuned into the episode "Mystery of the American Maya" because I learned that J. Hutton Pulitzer would be on the program. Given my recent interactions with him, I was curious what he would say about the Maya.  I have a few things to say about that and then a few things to say about the rest of the episode, which was just ridiculous. Seriously: it made America Unearthed look like a master class in scholarship and the scientific method.

First: the Pulitzer part.

Early in the program, Pulitzer (identified on screen as "Jovan Hutton") is introduced as "one of the most respected experts on the Maya." That's an amazing statement, and one that I'm sure will surprise many experts on the Maya. We are then told that Pulitzer has "spent a lifetime decoding the Dresden Codex." 

So what insights has this lifetime of study produced? We learn nothing about the glyphs on the codex, but are instead are told that an image apparently depicting a caracara bird means that the Maya must have traveled to Florida. Pulitzer says that
​"this flightless [non-migratory] bird is only located one other place outside of the old Mayan empire. What if I told you that place was Florida?"
PictureBase map from Wikipedia.
Well, if you told me that I'd tell you you were wrong. And then I'd show you why.

First, if you look at the Wikipedia page for the caracara, you will quickly see that the bird's distribution is far, far wider than just the Maya region and Florida. Look, I made a map: the dark red is the distribution of the northern crested caracara (Caracara cheriway); the Maya region is superimposed. The present day distribution of the caracara is much wider than Pulitzer tells us.

And we know something about how the distribution got that way. Spoiler alert: the birds didn't get to where they are today by being boated around on Maya canoes. The current distribution of caracara populations is reduced from a much wider distribution during the Pleistocene. Here, again, Wikipedia can shed light on what, apparently, a lifetime of study missed:

"The state of Florida is home to a relict population of northern caracaras that dates to the last glacial period, which ended around 12,500 BP. At that point in time, Florida and the rest of the Gulf Coast was covered in an oak savanna. As temperatures increased, the savanna between Florida and Texas disappeared. Caracaras were able to survive in the prairies of central Florida as well as in the marshes along the St. Johns River."

In other words, the caracara were in Florida way before the Maya existed, and, in fact, probably before any humans ever set foot in Florida. There's a fossil record of the bird in the region. Here's a story, for example, about a 2,500-year-old caracara skeleton from the Bahamas.

So, in actuality, the presence of the caracara bird in Florida says exactly nothing relevant to the claim that the ancient Maya traveled to Florida.

Following the conceit that the Maya were boating around the Gulf with eagles, however, Unexplained and Unexplored goes on to pretend to find evidence of Mayan canoes, Mayan step pyramids, and Mayan stele in Florida.  They use a drone, sonar, and LiDAR to look for Mayan sites and artifacts in various areas that, I'm sure, have all been well-mapped and explored. The canoes are cool, but I see nothing to suggest that they were made by the Maya (finds of prehistoric canoes are common in Florida relatively to other places -- the oldest dates to about 5000 BC). The "stepped pyramid" they pretend to discover near the end of the program was documented extensively in a 2016 article in American Antiquity.

Someone should invent a word for simultaneously cringing, yelling, and yawing. I actually feel a bit sorry for anyone and everyone involved in this tragicomic attempt at a television program: it is so full of misrepresentation, idiotic fantasy, and pretend "discovery" that it's hard to watch. I'd like to say that you can't really produce anything much dumber than this show, but I bet someone will find a way.

And, to be clear, I don't think it's a crazy idea that pre-Columbian societies around the Gulf of Mexico may have interacted in one way or another. They were all coastal peoples, after all, and the entire region was populated. But there is a lot of daylight between accepting the idea that contact of one form or another was possible (or even probable) and accepting as evidence the kind of baloney that this program builds its case on.

Near the end, the narrator states that "our journey has confirmed the presence of the Maya throughout Florida." Cool story, bro -- tell it again. I bet they will. Probably many more times.
20 Comments
Peter
12/18/2019 01:04:02 pm

Hutton Jovan has actually promised to never be on TV again. Quoted from FB: "NOTE: As for me, this will be my last TV appearance in an “exploration/research” capacity supporting any networks programming." It's a Christmas miracle, a gift to mankind. As far as the Fake Mayan Canoe (see what I did with caps, haha) goes, it's Manasota culture, but the fact that facts matter will never get in the way of Bill Kelly just making up sh*t. Amazing that whoever makes this show has zero interest or capacity to vet both people and factual content.
http://www.weedonislandpreserve.org/prehistoric-canoe.htm http://www.weedonislandpreserve.org/pdf/CanoeWeb.pdf

Reply
Jim
12/18/2019 03:19:09 pm

Don't get your hopes too high, he also promised a white paper.

Reply
Anthony
12/18/2019 11:34:39 pm

"Seriously: it made America Unearthed look like a master class in scholarship and the scientific method."

Thanks for the laugh. I lost my coffee and almost destroyed my phone. I couldn't find a coffee spitting emoji to demonstrate.

Why are seriously interesting topics always reduced to ridiculousness on these shows? Why does JHP have more aliases than most criminals? If not for the "Argumentative Archaeologist" I would still be trying to figure out what a "Philyaw" is. Was most recently called "Philyaw" by Joe Scales which piqued my curiosity about the name. I made it through 19 seconds of JHP's linked video before closing it out. I would rather sit through 20 hours of "Ancient Aliens" than 20 seconds of that video.

Reply
Peter
12/18/2019 11:43:52 pm

Hutton is one of the top experts in lost ancient artifacts. He's been on the History Channel, Science Channel, and speaks at top conferences. I'm sure there is some jealously going on here but expect to see more of him. My colleges just invited him to keynote a prestigious academic conference where his team is going to preview some major things he's working on prior to the release of his book and documentary. I know he hasn't been respected by the traditional archeologist but that will soon changes with the forthcoming discoveries that are soon to be made public. Yes he's a little strange and rough, just like a Nikola Tesla. Andy hope all is well with you and look forward to your own research studies.

Reply
Paul
12/19/2019 06:52:50 am

Jhp is an expert but not in lost ancient artifacts. We will leave it at that.

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Peter
12/19/2019 06:57:51 am

Thanks for the update Jovan/Bill. XRF results? White paper? Solomon's Secret? Commodus's Secret? Roman helmet? Roman armour? Roman shipwreck? Roman amphora? Viking navigation tool? Reports from Middle Eastern Universities? 100% Still Waiting.

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Putziller
12/23/2019 12:33:14 pm

If it is a prestigious academic conference then people would tend to just identify it by its actual name. So what is it?

Reply
Victor Thompson
12/19/2019 04:15:02 am

"The "stepped pyramid" they pretend to discover near the end of the program was documented extensively in a 2016 article in American Antiquity."-- As one of the people who excavated the site and a co-author on the study, I'm disappointed and little angry that it is presented as such in this program. SO.... how is this not plagiarism?

Reply
Andy White
12/19/2019 06:39:48 am

This sort of "pretend discovery" is common in these kinds of programs. I don't believe for a second that they didn't already know what was there when they did the LiDAR. The irony is that they rely on good, solid mainstream research to build a case that they are "exploring and explaining" some mystery that has been ignored. It's a joke and everyone involved in that program should be embarrassed.

Reply
Jon. Feinstein
12/20/2019 06:16:13 am

Andy,

Every time I encounter one of these programs I wonder if we could cobble together a show with good archaeology and anthropology, but present it in the same manner as "Conspiracy Theory" so that maybe the uninformed might actually believe it.

Or is my cynicism showing? :)

Saluki
12/23/2019 12:43:25 pm

Jon,

Pseudoscientists often work pretty closely together and piggyback off of each others "work." As I sometimes point out to fringe believers, the real conspiracy is not academics trying to suppress fringe research but rather fringe writers working together to fool people into buying books, watching videos, TV series, etc. So, maybe some sort of series where real anthropologists explore the fringe as a conspiracy.

Anthony
12/19/2019 03:13:34 pm

Victor Thompson,

Are there any links to the article that don't cost $25? I could buy 50-100 books for the same price as the one article. Very interesting topic and I appreciate your work.

Reply
Peter
12/19/2019 03:57:07 pm

Anthony - Here’s a free one regarding Crystal River, and another good one regarding the panel of the Dresden Codex that the guy metaphorically trying to make a name for himself got completely wrong, calling it ‘Times Square’ and all the other panels were a ‘nondescript brochure’, this after ‘spending a lifetime’ decoding it. The jokes write themselves folks.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301575335_Evidence_for_Stepped_Pyramids_of_Shell_in_the_Woodland_Period_of_Eastern_North_America

https://www.academia.edu/12954972/The_Maya_Deluge_Myth_and_Dresden_Codex_Page_74_Not_the_End_but_the_Eternal_Regeneration_of_the_World_2015_?fbclid=IwAR2LShcJrIs7mF9-lF9hTH2Ya47eeSxOzn66MSeuK--YAwgrpZFVRc-xhrM

Anthony
12/25/2019 05:43:09 pm

@Peter,

THANK YOU!!!

Beano
1/10/2020 04:18:54 pm

"SO.... how is this not plagiarism?"

Did they use your words or images? No? THAT's how it's not plagiarism. Ask me some time about how I discovered the Grand Canyon. I can give you hours on that without any plagiarism. Are you sure you're in academia?

Reply
Bob Jase
12/19/2019 07:55:30 am

I drew a pigeon therefor I must live in Central Park, NY, NY.

Because it couldn't have been inspired by the one in my yard.

Reply
Sara Drake
9/26/2020 02:32:12 pm

Explorers or amateur scientists are actually quite valuable for turning up new ideas and findings. This is particularly the case in paleontology, and geology has learned to incorporate their findings in a useful way. The canoes may not be definitive evidence of Maya in Florida but the Mandeville site with the Swift Creek pottery in Georgia has intriguing resemblances to Maya ceramics. Not just Georgia: It is thought that the Maya also fled after the Aztec attacks to Paquime in Chihuahua. Mexico. Again, a record in ceramics remains. Later Paquime was also attacked, and again the people fled, removing to the north and ending up in the pueblos of the Southwest, bringing with them their pottery motifs, which are also similar to the Mandeville motifs. So perhaps the pottery is better evidence of the movements of the Maya following the destruction of their original domain in the Yucatan. Exploration precedes rigorous science but is no less useful to the process of discovery, based on the continuous incorporation of new findings and their subsequent validation.

Reply
Taylor Borowiec
5/6/2021 03:05:36 am

I actually found this web page based on my disdain for this show...it honestly ruins my trust in some of what I used to believe was solid television programming..clearly fake...clearly over produced...clearly two idiots that somehow pitched a make believe proposal and somehow got the green light. This should be a preschool television program..at least it would make sense why its so cheesy and make believe.

Reply
Jon/ Feinstein
5/6/2021 04:28:27 am

Actually if it were aimed at preschoolers I would find it even more alarming. I can watch the show and chuckle every time the narrator repeats what someone just said as a question, and how the people involved come up with a wacky hypothesis (like the Knights Templars buried their treasure there) and somehow only find stuff that makes their idea look credible-ish.

If the show were intended for pre-schoolers, who would be likely to believe everything, not having the context of an education to judge it by, I should hope that the facts and conclusions at least would be presented accurately, even if dumbed down to be understandable to the audience. Is something a mystery? That's okay. None of us know everything. Say it is an unknown for now and move on... That's the point of archaeology, to take all the pieces of the puzzle and attempt to put it together into a coherent picture. All to often, there are missing pieces, but that's why we keep looking.

Reply
Peter Browne
6/27/2021 03:29:29 am

Just watching this now, so, as with many of these shows there was an oozing of bullshit about it, so I googled it and found this write up. Discovery and the likes have a lot to answer for. It's a travesty that they can both get away with giving these dicks a platform and having no respect for truth. Between Mountain monsters and the multiple ghost hunting shite that so many people have trust in them being the truth, because they're supposedly on a reputable channel,ffs

Reply



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