O[c]c[kh]am's Razor

In a course on fringe archæology (stuff like Atlantis & Mu & Lemuria, space-alien explanations of the Egyptian Pyramids and the Nazca Lines, and so on – things that would be supressed by the International Archæological Conspiracy™ if it existed, which it doesn't, so I can't possibly be paying annual dues, can I?) our instructor, Glenn Storey, told us his hypothesis explaining reports of both arks and fragments of wood returning old radiocarbon dates on Mt. Ararat. Ostensibly these prove that Noah's ark existed, but Glenn's more parsimonious explanation is that people built shrines there, perhaps even ark-shaped ones.

This was brought to mind by Nathan D. Wilson's brilliant hypothesis for the genesis of the Shroud of Turin. This article was the first I'd heard of it, and it's a marvellous read. But if you're impatient, you can visit his website first. One criticism I do have: Mr. Wilson writes, "I am no scientist." Perhaps not vocationally, but job descriptions or titles are not what make scientists.

Since I'm on the subject, I would also like to commend whoever it was who came up with a counter-argument to the idea that all of the kinda-sorta-almost if-you-squint-just-right high-tech-looking motifs in various prehistoric media are proof of space aliens or Atlanteans or whomever. Rather than having these advanced folks paying visits to the past, why couldn't they have just transported various subjects to their wherever/whenever? Or, come to that, what about telepathy? I mean, if you're going to open the door to one crackpot idea, you have to let in all of them that fit the (cough) evidence.