Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [257]
Thomas E. Lee’s attempts to get articles about Sheguiandah published (Section 5.4.1.2) exemplify what can happen. Also, we heard from a paleontologist at the San Diego Museum of Natural History that a forthcoming paper by other researchers on an incised elephant bone found in the Anza-Borrego Desert of southern California and dated at over 250,000 years would never make it past peer review (Section 2.3). The word was out that the article was coming, and competent authorities had already decided what would happen to it.
Virginia Steen-McIntyre experienced many of the above-mentioned social pressures and obstacles. In a note to a colleague (July 10, 1976), she stated: “I had found out through backfence gossip that Hal [Malde], Roald [Fryxell], and I are considered opportunists and publicity seekers in some circles, because of Hueyatlaco, and I am still smarting from the blow.”
The publication of a paper by Steen-McIntyre and her colleagues on Hueyatlaco was inexplicably held up for years. The paper was first presented in 1975 at a joint meeting of the Southwestern Anthropological Association and the Societe Mexicana de Antropologia and was to appear in a symposium volume. Four years later, Steen-McIntyre wrote (March 29, 1979) to H. J. Fullbright of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, one of the editors of the forever forthcoming book: “We received your name and address from Dave Snow, who said you were the one to contact about the publication date for the SWAA-SMA symposium volume. We hope that it is soon! I personally have been put in an awkward position by the publication delay. Our joint article on the Hueyatlaco site is a real bombshell. It would place man in the New World 10x earlier than many archaeologists would like to believe. Worse, the bifacial tools that were found in situ are thought by most to be a sign of H. sapiens. According to present theory, H.s. had not even evolved at that time, and certainly not in the New World.”
Steen-McIntyre continued, explaining: “Archaeologists are in a considerable uproar over Hueyatlaco—they refuse even to consider it. I’ve learned from second-hand sources that I’m considered by various members of the profession to be 1) incompetent; 2) a news monger; 3) an opportunist; 4) dishonest; 5) a fool. Obviously, none of these opinions is helping my professional reputation! My only hope to clear my name is to get the Hueyatlaco article into print so that folks can judge the evidence for themselves. (Geologists have no trouble with it.) The longer the delay, the more archaeologists will be convinced that the whole thing is just a crass attempt of another egomaniac for publicity. I’m quite certain the archaeologist who was in charge of the excavations and who no longer corresponds with me feels this way.”
Steen-McIntyre, upon receiving no answer to this and other requests for information, withdrew the article. Later she got a letter from Roger A. Morris of Los Alamos, who explained that he had taken the liberty of opening a letter addressed to Fullbright, who had been transferred to another group of researchers. Morris said he would return her manuscript, but it never came.
A year later, Steen-McIntyre wrote (February 8, 1980) to Steve Porter, editor of Quaternary Research, about having her article printed. She first explained its status. “It’s been languishing down in Los Alamos for almost five years, awaiting publication as part of a symposium volume. During that time I have written or called a dozen times to learn the status of the volume only to receive no response. (The original editor was always ‘in conference’ or ‘out of the office’ or would ‘return my call,’ which he never did.) In the meantime, there’s been a lot of false information circulated