That's not the point I'm making here. I'm not suggesting that amateurs and non-academics can't contribute to the field. Of course they can. My point is that he
isn't contributing to the field. At all. He doesn't actually do any archaeology or anthropology, his version of "studying" is just talking about re-hashed 19th century nonsense from the sidelines. He doesn't go on digs, he doesn't write published research, he doesn't understand dating techniques, he doesn't engage with the research community (in fact he has spent his life ignoring their counter-arguments), he doesn't take part in peer review. He doesn't propose new studies or new ways of looking at our body of knowledge.
It discredits every working archaeologist who does this for a living to act like this guy is doing anything but harming the discipline. It's like claiming that homeopaths are just as qualified as trained doctors. He spends his entire time acting like a victim, misleading the public and disingenuously undermining the archaeological community about things he knows are incorrect. He is the world's most obvious grifter, he might as well be wearing neon signs saying as much, but some people still won't see it now we live in this Trumpian world where facts don't matter. The SAA has sent a letter to Netflix, asking them to correct some of the damaging bollocks that he spouts:
https://documents.saa.org/container...mentaffairs/saa-letter-ancient-apocalypse.pdf
I have a degree in Mathematical Finance and the idea of bracketing this guy with the likes of Fischer Black - a brilliant mathematician who contributed massively to the field, earned a PhD and published tonnes of research that challenged existing paradigms while being actively engaged in the community - well, it's just laughable.