Samir Osmanagich
Heinrich, Paul V.
Paul V. Heinrich is a geologist and archaeologist at Louisiana State University and described by some as a professional sceptic. He has an interesting website(a) where he discusses what he describes as the ‘wild side of geoarchaeology’ and elsewhere(b) attacks Charles Hapgood’s interpretation of ancient maps that seem to support the idea of an ice-free Antarctic.>Similarly, he wrote a critique(f) of the American TV show, The Mysterious Origins of Man, fronted by Charlton Heston, which also dealt with the Antarctica question.<
He has also heavily criticised(c) Andrew Collins’ Gateway to Atlantis. Furthermore, Heinrich denounced what he describes as ‘old-time cosmic catastrophism’ including an attack on Emilio Spedicato, apparently intent on shooting both message and messenger. Among his other targets were the Bosnian pyramid claims of Samir Osmanagich, which he pointed out are natural geological features that are “called ‘flatirons’ in the United States and you see a lot of them out West.”(e)
(a) https://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/wildside.shtml
(b) https://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mom/oronteus.html
(c) See: https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-2040/
(d) https://theepistlesofpaul.blogspot.ie/2009/12/old-time-cosmic-catastrophism-is-alive.html
(e) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mystery-of-bosnias-ancient-pyramids-148990462/
Nationalism
Nationalism was clearly the motivation behind some of the Atlantis theories that have been proposed over recent centuries. Olaf Rudbeck audaciously promoted his native Sweden in the 17th century, just as the eccentric William Comyns Beaumont claimed that Britain was Atlantis in the early 20th century and some Albanians, Azoreans, Maltese and Sardinians make comparable claims today. However, the most sinister manifestation of Atlantis based nationalism was the attempt to hijack it as the original homeland of the Aryan predecessors of the Nazis, probably borrowing the idea from Blavatsky. This was partly to replace the Abrahamic cultural lineage claimed by so many western nations. Today elements of modern Russian nationalism also look to an Aryan ancestry based in the Arctic.
*The linking of nationalism with (pseudo)archaeology is exemplified by the Bosnian pyramid claims of Samir Osmanagich and the manner in which the local media and politicians have used them to boost national pride, in spite of the contrary views expressed by qualified geologists and archaeologists(b).*
Vanessa Ward gives a good overview of the Atlantis based nationalism of both Rudbeck and the Nazis(a).
(a) https://pseudoarchaeology.org/a10-ward.html
*(b) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mystery-of-bosnias-ancient-pyramids-148990462/*