Doc
05-19-2012, 12:13 AM
Virginia Steen-McIntyre was a graduate student who was invited to go along with a team from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1966 to determine a date for the Hueyatlaco dig in Mexico. The plan was that she would assist with the field work and come home and write up the results as her dissertation to finish her degree. In 1981 she was still fighting to have her paper published. What went wrong? The geology team came up with a date for the site of 250,000BP. That was too old to fit the accepted theory that human beings had only entered North America 12,000 years ago.
Cynthia Irwin-Williams had excavated Hueyatlaco in 1962. She had a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard. The dig had followed all of the proper protocols and they wanted to date the site precisely, so they called in geologists to get the most accurate date possible for the levels where the human artifacts were found. They did not expect a controversial date for the site. The geologists followed proper procedures as well. They came up with a date for the dig at Hueyatlaco of 250,000BP. The archeologists and anthropologists would not accept the date even though it was tested by four of the most sophisticated testing methods of the day. As a result, Cynthia Irwin-Williams threw Hueyatlaco under the bus and walked away. Steen-McIntyre was not allowed to write her dissertation on that subject and had to choose another subject to write about to complete her degree. She wrote up her results for the dig and tried to get them published. Her manuscript went down the Rabbit Hole and disappeared for fifteen years or so. She inquired and either got excuses or no response. Her manuscript, by then her only copy, got "lost". She wrote it once again.
Meanwhile, for Virginia Steen-McIntyre there was still some hope in getting her work published. She presented a paper on Hueyatlaco at a conference. Such conferences make a permanent record by afterward publishing the papers that are presented in a document called "the proceedings". This is not quite as good as being published in a peer-reviewed journal but it is considered being "published" and carries some prestige. That meant that although her work was suppressed by peer review, by her presenting the paper she would get published when the proceedings were printed. The proceedings never got published. That is not the way things are done. The proceedings are always published. Apparently someone got to the conference people and had them kill the entire proceedings to stifle Steen-McIntyre's paper. The powers that be did not want the controversial date for the Hueyatlaco dig to get out.
Virginia Steen-McIntyre has written a documented account of how her work was suppressed and has given copies of some of her documentation and correspondence to various impartial and trustworthy venues. A pretty complete summary can be found here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg40306.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hueyatlaco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hueyatlaco)
Cynthia Irwin-Williams had excavated Hueyatlaco in 1962. She had a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard. The dig had followed all of the proper protocols and they wanted to date the site precisely, so they called in geologists to get the most accurate date possible for the levels where the human artifacts were found. They did not expect a controversial date for the site. The geologists followed proper procedures as well. They came up with a date for the dig at Hueyatlaco of 250,000BP. The archeologists and anthropologists would not accept the date even though it was tested by four of the most sophisticated testing methods of the day. As a result, Cynthia Irwin-Williams threw Hueyatlaco under the bus and walked away. Steen-McIntyre was not allowed to write her dissertation on that subject and had to choose another subject to write about to complete her degree. She wrote up her results for the dig and tried to get them published. Her manuscript went down the Rabbit Hole and disappeared for fifteen years or so. She inquired and either got excuses or no response. Her manuscript, by then her only copy, got "lost". She wrote it once again.
Meanwhile, for Virginia Steen-McIntyre there was still some hope in getting her work published. She presented a paper on Hueyatlaco at a conference. Such conferences make a permanent record by afterward publishing the papers that are presented in a document called "the proceedings". This is not quite as good as being published in a peer-reviewed journal but it is considered being "published" and carries some prestige. That meant that although her work was suppressed by peer review, by her presenting the paper she would get published when the proceedings were printed. The proceedings never got published. That is not the way things are done. The proceedings are always published. Apparently someone got to the conference people and had them kill the entire proceedings to stifle Steen-McIntyre's paper. The powers that be did not want the controversial date for the Hueyatlaco dig to get out.
Virginia Steen-McIntyre has written a documented account of how her work was suppressed and has given copies of some of her documentation and correspondence to various impartial and trustworthy venues. A pretty complete summary can be found here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg40306.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hueyatlaco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hueyatlaco)