Religious Aspects of Pseudoarchaeology

Abstract

While pseudoarchaeology often presents claims in a scientific register, it favors fantastic or romantic theories of the past over the findings of professionalized archaeology. As archaeologists have attempted to interpret pseudoarchaeology, it has been implied that it often resembles religion more than science, both in terms of its epistemology and the types of worldviews it is deployed to legitimate. This article synthesizes the work of the authors in this special issue of Nova Religio to further articulate these “religious” aspects of pseudoarchaeology.