Fake and Alien Mummies

Abstract

Mummies’ popularity and attractiveness is a well-established fact for all museums that have placed them on display. Public fascination is rooted in the apparently counter natural avoidance of decay these bodies have achieved in some unfathomable ways. Nevertheless, this morbid attraction has also fueled the creativity of some people in wrong ways, probably from time immemorial. In recent academic memory, though, it is known that purported mermaids and makeshift Egyptian mummies, for instance, toured Europe and North America from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, as part of circuses’ side and freakshows. Although most of visitors saw them tongue-in-cheek, their continuity was guaranteed by their display being profitable. It was education and respect of fellow humans’ demise, which slowly phased out these once prevalent elements of popular culture.

The academic world has not been spared by the manipulation of human remains, in order to escalate positions in an ill manner, or as an easy way to obtain quick fame, popularity, and even income. Though the Piltdown skull case stands as the foremost from a historical perspective, sadly, it is far from standing alone. Recent on-line and television appearance of purportedly extraterrestrial remains excavated in unknown circumstances in the Southern Peruvian coast has revealed itself as the end product of a long process which joins grave looting, yellow press, and some disoriented professionals. Organizers and attendees to the IX World Congress on Mummy Studies held in Lima, Peru, faced a disinformation campaign by presenting a declaration preventing the public and the media of this hoax. Since then, the producers of this scam program have kept, unfortunately, trying to validate their claims by using fallacious strategies, fueled by the revenue of selling the show.

Forgeries are obscure in their own nature. Scammers purposefully hide the true origin of their products. This has been the case of these false alien mummies supposedly found near Nazca by grave looters. The location remains in secrecy, the discoverer only accessible to the production ring; and any attempt to oppose their plot faces attacks and more deception build up on, namely, conspiracy theories.

In the time of artificial intelligence development to unprecedented levels, and of deep fake creations quickly distributed online, we could only foresee newer attempts to not only fool the media and the public, but also academia. The main aim of this chapter is to prevent this from happening, through exposure and education.