Category:Arch-fi

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Arch-fi (or Fantastic Archaeology) refers to a series of theories developed outside (or against) the canons of critical archaeology.

Overview

Unsubstantiated claims of lost historical documents or overt forgery have affected the field of Biblical Studies since its inception as Modern Apocrypha.

At the end of the 19th cent. some theories exited the real of fiction and began to be developed into scholarly form. Some of most notorious theories include the belief that Jesus lived in India, inaugurated by Notovitich in 1894. Such a belief developed in even more elaborated theories based on the assumption that Jesus survived the crucifixion and/or had a wife or fathered a child.

What all these theories have in common is a total disregard for, if not an overt opposition against, the rules of the historical method. Instead of testing the evidence to see what hypotheses it fits, Arch-fi frames the archaeological data to fit the "desired conclusion."