Archaeological follies revisited

An archaeologist, Victor Sarigiannidis, claims that the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia originated in Turkmenistan 4,000 years ago. This is, to say the least, a controversial claim. But there's more. He also claims that the religion had been brought to the region by settlers from northern Mesopotamia who were fleeing a drought there. So now he has linked his current project, the Turkmen site of Gonur Tepe, to Mesopotamia [earlier] and Persia [later]. But wait, there's more. He also hints at a link to Minoan Crete, based on some architectural similarities in temple gate construction.

Read it here.

Clearly this guy is stretching for significance. But ask yourself, "why would a Greek archaeologist want to trace the origins of Persian religion back to the Eastern Mediterranean?" The answer is obvious from the news account.

Sarigiannidis has called on the Greek government to continue to fund his excavations at the site and said the 17,000 euros per year grant he had been accorded until 2007 by the former socialist government had been cut by the current minister of culture.

So, once again we have an archaeologist [remember, they claim to be "scientists"] rushing to the news services with half-baked extravagent theories that are designed solely to generate funding. How can they expect anyone to take them seriously? Things really haven't changed that much since the days of the amateur adventurers who are so often treated with contempt by the "scientists."