Of Pyramids and Galleons: Pseudoscience, archaeo-appeal and colonial identity in southeast Queensland, Australia
Event Details
- Date:
- Friday, 23 May 2008
- Time:
- 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
- Room:
- Lecture Theatre S603
- UQ Location:
- Social Sciences Building (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.archaeologyweek.com/states/qld.php
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Mr Steve Nichols
- Phone:
- 69551
- Email:
- s.nichols@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Social Science
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Free public talk by UQ archaeologist Steve Nichols on pseudoscience, archaeo-appeal and colonial identity in southeast Queensland as part of National Archaeology Week.
Abstract
The popular archaeology of southeast Queensland has a strong tradition of pseudoscientific claims about ‘secret visitors’ in the past. Two well-known examples are the claims of a mysterious ‘pyramid’ at the hinterland township of Gympie, and the purported wreck of a ‘Spanish Galleon’ on Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay.
The promotion of these theories has become a thriving cottage industry, with books, news stories, websites and documentary film being produced for consumption within and beyond the region. Analysis of this material shows that it blatantly exploits all the elements of popular ‘archaeo-appeal’, combining adventure, mystery and conspiracy with buried treasure, established stereotypes, and the promise of an explosive secret that will inevitably ‘rewrite the history books’.
But the enduring public fascination with these theories is also firmly situated in long-standing and deep-seated Eurocentric discourses about the past which continue to reproduce colonial identities within the dominant settler culture of contemporary Australia.
In light of recent postcolonial trajectories in Australian archaeology, it is suggested that local manifestations of ‘fringe archaeology’, such as the case studies considered here, are a key public arena in which to engage and unsettle the colonial ‘tropes’ that characterise much popular thinking about the past.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
Event Tools
Share This Event
Print
Email
Share
