Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is a British-Irish actor. He is best known for playing Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), and Charlie Pace on the ABC television drama Lost (2004–2010).
Ancient astronauts refer to a pseudoscientific set of beliefs that hold that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of modern cultures, technologies, religions, and human biology. A common position is that deities from most, if not all, religions are extraterrestrial in origin, and that advanced technologies brought to Earth by ancient astronauts were interpreted as evidence of divine status by early humans.
In Search of... is an American television series that was broadcast weekly from 1977 to 1982, devoted to mysterious phenomena. It was created after the success of four one-hour documentaries produced by creator Alan Landsburg: In Search of Ancient Astronauts in 1973, In Search of Ancient Mysteries (1973) and In Search of Ancient Mysteries (1974), and The Outer Space Connection in 1975, all of which featured narration by Rod Serling, who was the initial choice to host the spin-off show. Serling died before production started, and Leonard Nimoy was then selected to be the host. The series was revived with host Mitch Pileggi in 2002 and again in 2018 with Zachary Quinto for the History channel.
History, formerly and commonly known as the History Channel, is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company's General Entertainment Content Division.
National Geographic is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Entertainment and National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%), with the operational management handled by Disney Entertainment.
Adrienne Mayor is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist.
Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and TV. Over the years, the genre has grown to be a staple of television and even changed the programming focus of networks like the History Channel and the Travel Channel. By highlighting beliefs in topics ranging from Bigfoot to aliens, paranormal television continues to elevate popular interest in the paranormal.
Relic Hunter is a Canadian television series, starring Tia Carrere and Christien Anholt.
Simcha Jacobovici is a Canadian-Israeli journalist, documentary filmmaker and pseudoarcheologist.
Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder is an emeritus professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. His book Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum was published in 2010. His book Ancient America: Fifty Archaeological Sites to See for Yourself was published in 2017. He is the founder and director of the Farmington River Archaeological Project.
Michael Alexander Arbuthnot is an archaeologist, instructor and archaeological filmmaker.
Ancient Aliens is an American television series produced by Prometheus Entertainment that explores the pseudoscientific hypothesis of ancient astronauts in a non-critical, documentary format. Episodes also explore related pseudoscientific and pseudohistoric topics, such as: Atlantis and other lost ancient civilizations, extraterrestrial contact and ufology, and popular conspiracy theories. The series, which has aired on History since 2010, has been a target for criticism of History's channel drift, as well as criticism for promoting unorthodox or unproven hypotheses as fact. According to Smithsonian, episodes of the series overwhelm the viewer with "fictions and distortions" by using a Gish gallop.
Graham Phillips is a British author. Phillips has a background working as a reporter for BBC radio, and he was the Founding Editor (1979) of Strange Phenomena magazine. He has made a number of controversial claims concerning the Arthurian legend, such as the discovery of the 'Hawkstone Grail', a small stone cup that he claims is the original Holy Grail; the identification of a Roman ruin as the "historical Camelot"; and the claim to have discovered King Arthur's grave. He has also investigated various biblical mysteries, again presenting some controversial theories, such as an alternative location for Mount Sinai at Petra in Jordan, an Egyptian staff in a British museum as the staff of Moses, and a grave on the British island of Anglesey as the tomb of the Virgin Mary.
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is a Swiss-born writer, and television presenter and producer. He is a ufologist and a promoter of the pseudoscientific ancient astronauts hypothesis. He is best known for his appearances on Ancient Aliens, a History channel series of which he is also producer.
In American television in 2018, notable events included television show finales, cancellations and information about controversies and carriage disputes.
Ella Al-Shamahi is a British explorer, paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist, writer and stand-up comic. She specialises in the study of Neanderthals. She is also the presenter and producer of BBC2's Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors. She is a Trustee of the International Association for the Study of Arabia.
Ancient Apocalypse is a 2022 Netflix series, where the British writer Graham Hancock presents his pseudoarchaeological theories about the alleged existence of an advanced civilization active during the last ice age. Academic archeologists describe many of the claims made as easily disproven.
