AI says Archaeology's Gatekeepers Hinder Discovery

Graham Hancock @Graham__Hancock

"Until archaeology embraces science as a process, not a credential, it will remain stuck in self-congratulatory loops."

Quoting from Sigrid Salucop, 'How Archaeology's Gatekeepers Hinder Discovery' HubPages Jun 10, 2025:

"In a remote hall of stone, amid whispers of lost civilizations, one hears the pulse of human hearts long buried. Yet for centuries, archaeology [...] has been constrained not by the absence of evidence but by the rigidity of its keepers. Too often, the gatekeepers of academia have favored conservatism over curiosity...

and so on.

It is rather an odd article, at the end it lists 42 "references", but only two of them are explicitly cited in the text, while other work is mentioned in the text that is not in the bibliography (Steen-McIntyre, Saxe–Goldstein, Kossinna, Mckenzie and Doherty). It looks to me as if it's entirely written by AI. I would cite as additional evidence that the person putting their name to this cherry-picked tendentious junk-text that its "author" has apparently not heard of one guy it uses as example to uphold the thesis. Ms Salucop has no idea who this guy is, what he did, the texts quotes a generic (and his most successful) work that does not in any way back up what she says about him: " When [...] Ian Hodder challenged the model, [he] met institutional resistance - funding denials, editorial rejections, and professional exile". Yeah? He did go to the US to teach at Stanford buyt was invited, not "exiled", his work at Catal Huyuk was pretty well funded. The British Institute at Ankara (@theBIAAnkara Oct 20, 2019) shoiws a photo of him being honoured by the Queen with the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to archaeology and UK/Turkey relations.

Here she is, barefoot at Gunanug Padang showing her contempt for archaeologists

Sigrid Salucop  3rd July 2024:

"We made it to Gunung Padang or the Mountain of Enlightenment. It is likely one of the oldest step pyramids in the world. Keyword: likely. There are a lot of archaeologists who would immediately deny this likelihood without examining it. Oh well, we must admit, many people are a few sandwiches short of a picnic. (Insert evil laugh)

"Examining it" now the trenches are filled in is not going to tell anyone what is there allegedly under the visible remains. Examining the publication of the results will reveal what actual evidence the excavators had for it being a "step pyramid" in the first place and for its dating. When both are found lacking, and the report bungled (which it was - I have it downloaded and marked up), I think archaeologists are justified in questioning the existence here of any manmade structure 27000 years old - whether or not they have visited the site (barefooted or not). That is what reports are for - presentation of evidence for an interpretation, allowing the strength of the argument to be assessed. 

By the way, compare Ms Salucop's spoken English (I think she might be Filipina) with that of the text, another reason to think the text is an AI construction. I wonder what her prompt was? But here she tells us multi-linguistically that she's writing a book on the beginnings of civilization... 

  

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