Pseudo-Archaeology · The Archaeology Podcast Network

Another Silly Symposium: Quest for Ancient Civilizations - Ep 173

·39 min·2 clips

David Childress is presenting the 1909 Grand Canyon Kincaid expedition, which Kinkella calls a long-debunked story.

1. Pseudo-Archaeology episode 173 focuses on the Quest for Ancient Civilizations conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. 2. Host Dr. Andrew Kinkella says he is the only speaker here and uses the conference as a case study in pseudo-archaeology presentation choices. 3. He asks what the conference is for and treats it as a test of whether the organizers want a serious image or a new-age image. 4. Kinkella says a Google search for “Scottsdale, December 5th through 7th, 2025” returned a melanoma course and the Dirt Expo before Quest for Ancient Civilizations. 5. He says the conference title is so vague that he forgot it and had to look it up. 6. He compares the event name to more specific titles like “20th annual practical course in dermoscopy and update on malignant melanoma.” 7. He says the conference ticketing starts at $250 for general admission and rises to $325 for better seats. 8. He says the higher-end packages reach $1,200 and $1,900 and may include hotel and dinner access. 9. He argues that cheaper tickets would likely bring more people than expensive add-ons. 10. He describes the poster as extremely new-age, with a pyramid, Göbekli Tepe, a Sedona-style swirl, and a dark-night-sky calendar design. 11. He says the visual style makes the event look like a fringe, experiential conference rather than a serious archaeology meeting. 12. He previews Friday talks on “lost consciousness, psychedelics in the ancient world” and the 1909 Grand Canyon Kincaid expedition. 13. He says psychedelic talks in this scene often overreach by treating rock art or altered states as obvious proof of supernatural contact. 14. He says the Grand Canyon Kincaid story is a long-debunked claim about Egyptian relics in a cave. 15. He says the better version of that topic would be the history of the hoax and the people who spread it. 16. He previews Dan Richards on elongated skulls of the Americas and says Richards’s prior presentation was badly prepared. 17. He says Jimmy Corsetti’s “Mysteries of Lost Ancient Civilizations” sounds like a broad, sweeping argument about Gobekli Tepe and excavation demands. 18. He says the weekend also includes titles like “Enigmatic Americas,” “Golden Gate of the Ecliptic,” and “Before Karahan Tepe and Winter Solstice,” which he reads as more alignment-heavy claims. 19. The episode is informal, sarcastic, and lecture-like, with Kinkella pausing to check his own notes and using conference titles as running material. 20. Listeners who like archaeology criticism, conference analysis, and pseudo-archaeology commentary will get the most out of it, while people seeking neutral conference coverage may skip it.

As heard by us

A skeptical look at a Scottsdale pseudo-archaeology meeting, strongest when it presses unsupported claims and the Grand Canyon Kinkade story.

This episode gives the Quest for Ancient Civilizations meeting in Scottsdale a skeptical, conversational treatment, with Andrew Kinkella framing pseudo-archaeology as something live and messy rather than fixed in place.

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You want a blunt take on the Quest for Ancient Civilizations meeting.

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