America Unearthed

I do understand that H2 has to sell this as " entertainment " and this will undoubtedly anger the " science " community, too bad.... You ( the science community , can poke holes at the ideas presented, but you have admit to the prevailing answer he receives with nearly every site he goes to. NO NO NO !!!!! You can not go ( fill in the blank ) or you can NOT do any digging or further investigation. If there is nothing there, then it wouldn't hurt for him, under proper guidance, to look a bit deeper. However, if there is something there, that's when the " brothers and sisters of science " band together and belittle or tear down ANY hypothesis other than what is collectively accepted as " fact "... Before science, religion has the same view ( I mean EVERYONE knew the earth was flat ), it wasn't until explorers and global expeditions proved them wrong and even then they denied their findings.. It is human nature to mock what we don't know and science is no different. If an individual without a degree finds something he is a footnote in history, but the scientist he told usually will get all the credit, I think that's called ego. After all, with all that publicity the funding will surely follow and then the university will love you...

The show is based in discovery and exploration, but it is also a form of entertainment. Take it for what it is, sit back enjoy a wonderful show and if you are from the science community.... Turn the channel!!!

One episode of this program, purportedly discussing the connection between the Maya and the Creek Indians of Georgia, was enough to convince me of the abject wretchedness of this also-ran. It doesn't take one very long to conclude that Scott Wolter is jumping onto the conspiratorial bandwagon. His problems are (1) he knows next to nothing about archeology; (2) his "evidence" is beneath ridiculous; and (3) the "experts" he interviews are patently non-expert. His examination of a purported Maya site in northern Georgia begins with some ominous verbiage about The Government (ooh!) refusing to allow him to access the site--although they posed no objection when he later flew over it and mapped it with LIDAR. He offers up a random pile of stones as evidence that talented architects constructed ceremonial cairns and temples and what-not--even going so far as to suggest that well-known Mayan sites in Mexico and Guatemala, in fact, looked like mere piles of rocks until archaeologists (!) came in to reconstruct them, apparently stone-by-stone. We next examine a boulder with the most primitive circles and dots-within-circles carved into it (quite poorly carved, though the glyphs incised in legitimate two-thousand-year-old Maya monuments and stelae are remarkably sharp) and conclude--along with an "expert" in Mayan archeology--that it represents a star map and a comet impact and such. (Most entertainingly, the putative university expert in Mayan archeology is entirely ignorant of the correct pronunciation of Chichen Itza.) Lord have mercy, what next? Oh, yes: we see the vaguest of ridges on the top of this boulder and are told that they are "cupules" (I think he meant "cupolas," but the expert archaeologist didn't question the term: he was evidently bluffed out by the lesser expert who vociferated more loudly. We next examine a putative Georgian artifact that supposedly resembles yonder Mayan artifact and--after being told that they're "almost identical" (which they're not)--we learn that they represent a shaman, which is interesting, given that shamans are a feature of animist religions and do not occur in Mayan culture. (The image looked like Xipe Totec or Itzamna or some deity but, alas, was whisked away before the viewer could collect a solid gawk at it.) Please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and find another way to spend sixty precious minutes of your life that can never be recovered.

I watched the episode about the Medieval man in the Arizona desert. I would love if some reputable program would do stories on things like "Kennewick Man" and other archaeological finds that upset the establishment. There should be NO place in science for political-correctness. Having said that, this corn-ball scripted reality completely detracts from any scientific validity a find they may exhibit. The host pretending to get a phone call from a rune analyst telling him things (in the same day!) about his analysis of images is just silly. Also, the presumptuous nature of the "questions" posed by the host to the people with him is like watching a lawyer ask and answer his own questions. One funny scene was when the one fellow said to dig in an area you need a qualified archaeologist to be attached to the project, implying that the host, a self-titled "forensic archaeologist" isn't what he seems. I have no idea if he is qualified. Lastly, the manipulative music is overbearing and aimed at simpletons to get them interested.

I guess Scott Wolper is trying to hang onto his 15 minutes of fame from examining the Kensington Stone. This show is so ridiculous! But then the History Ch., to me, is becoming ridiculous with its programming...what in the world do Swamp People, Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers have to do with History!? Wolper wouldn't know real history or archeology if they jumped up and bit him on the face! It took one show for me to realize, no matter what he found, he could and would put his on spin on it. Doesn't matter if it's truth or not. And, oh no, the conspiratorial government won't let him have access, blah, blah to examine this or that site. They probably thought it was all a joke. And, to me it is! Go back to geology, Wolper, or either go to school and study history and archeology since you obviously know nothing about either.

I am a scientist, with degrees in both geology and biology, with some dabbling in marine chemistry. And I am so saddened by this show. It is just awful.

Sorry annaeyes12, he is no Bretz or Wegener. But his name may be considered as damning to science as Schliemann's for the damage he causes with shoddy work like this. And I am not an "angry, white men who think they know everything tell you it's not a good program". It is not a good program because it is not good science. We live and die by our reputations. Just ask Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons. Or more recently Hwang Woo-suk.

I'm not saying that there are no curiosities in the worlds, there are. And I do believe in an open mind, I have to as a scientist. We often begin an inquiry (or even just an enquiry) due to some observed phenomenon. But it takes a long time to "prove" something. Lots of digging, searching, and testing. Then having someone, or many people, retest, to validate our own work. To check us. To try to prove us wrong. THAT is the scientific method... TRYING to prove it wrong. Over and over and over and over. We (scientists) have to be EXTREMELY careful to not get too cozy with our own hypothesis. And we can't throw out random thoughts without confusing some people - look at "Global Warming" renamed as "Climate Change" - too many confused people.

This is on the HISTORY channel, which some people will assume to be reputable. Sounds reputable. (Well, until you read their program lineup.) People will believe this crap. And some of it really is crap. But maybe I am too hard on him. I remember a lot of pseudoscience as I grew up, and I enjoyed it, so maybe it will inspire some kid to be into real science someday... Maybe this should be aired with the kids cartoons? Nah, I am really not too hard on him. We live in a world where we are ignored or outright attacked about our warnings of climate change, derided and attacked about endangered species and pollution, and... wait for it... PROSECUTED FOR NOT PREDICTING EARTHQUAKES! No. I am not kidding. It happened. Italy, last year.

As long as ignorance and fantasy are held up as reality and good, things will keep declining. These pseudoscience shows are harming the real thing, and I don't like it.