Since the controversial documentary series "Ancient Apocalypse" dropped on Netflix last November, academics and journalists around the world have been incensed at its false claims and misinformation.
Earlier this month, the Society for American Archaeology wrote a letter to Netflix urging the platform to reclassify the show as "science fiction" rather than "documentary," arguing it "publicly disparages archaeologists and devalues the archaeological profession."
University of Alberta archaeologist André Costopoulos and misinformation fighter Timothy Caulfield have taken to social media and the blogosphere—Costopoulos to evaluate its claims about the past, and Caulfield to contend that the series is a dangerous attempt to discredit science and the academy, all the more so because of its enormous global appeal.
In its first week the show garnered 25 million viewing hours and climbed to Netflix's top 10 in 31 countries.
Costopoulos and Caulfield urge viewers to critically weigh the evidence and come to their own conclusions about a series that professes to "overthrow what we know about history."
Lost civilization—or logical fallacy?
The premise of the series is as old as Plato's allegory of Atlantis, an ancient civilization built by half-god/half-humans and eventually submerged in the Atlantic Ocean by the gods as punishment for its creators' greed and hubris.
In "Ancient Apocalypse," British journalist Graham Hancock proposes a similar advanced civilization "lost to history"...
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