Evidence and Justification

In the Middle Ages, husbands locked up their wives’ virtue with iron chastity belts before going off to war, as protection against adultery or violation. This is a pretty entrenched myth. After all, we’ve seen chastity belts in museums and online, right? Well, it turns out what you have seen are nineteenth-century artefacts produced for a joke or as fabricated evidence of barbaric medieval practices. These days such devices are actually used by those who participate in rather unsavoury carnal activities. There was also some use of similar devices in the 19th and early 20th centuries – both for females and for males (mainly children) – to prevent auto-erotic behaviour. But as for the Middle Ages? There is no credible evidence of the use or even existence of chastity belts. It’s just part of the standard anti-medieval slander industry. See here, here, here, here, and A. Classen, The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Process (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). As historian James Brundage (U Kansas) says: ‘Chastity belts did and do exist, but no known evidence supports the belief that they were medieval, were ever in common use, or had anything to do with the crusades.’

In Canada there are mass graves of indigenous children who died at church-run, state residential schools. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, various churches – the Catholic Church and sundry Protestant denominations – ran residential schools for indigenous children who had been removed from their families in order to educate them and promote assimilation. In 2021, investigations began into alleged ‘mass graves’ containing thousands of bodies of these children. No doubt there were disease outbreaks and children died, so one would expect some bodies to be found. To date, however, not a single body has been unearthed. The Canadian government has spent over CAD$200 million so far on these investigations. Perhaps mass graves will be found in the future, but to date not one has been identified. See here; here; here; here; and here. NB: if and when mass graves are verified (not a few bodies but actual mass graves, even if due to a disease outbreak and not homicide) this post will be taken down.

The Dark Ages were a time of barbarism and benighted ignorance. The standard line on the history of Western Civilization is: Classical Greece and Rome (wonderful, glorious) → Dark Ages (boo, ignorant, superstitious, chaos) → Middle Ages (damn theocracy, whatever, no science) → Renaissance (back to Greece and Rome, yay, Christianity came to its senses) → Enlightenment (yay, no more Christianity, loads of science, onward to a bright new future) → Everything that Followed (you be the judge). Amongst all this arrant nonsense, what we know of the Dark Ages is that they were not in fact dark, literally or metaphorically. Yes, the collapse of the Roman Empire was dislocating, to say the least, and there was much instability and turmoil. What would you expect? But the period of C5th to C10th AD, better called the Early Middle Ages (EMA), was a period of educational flourishing, the preservation and transmission of knowledge amidst the ruins of empire, and progress in many fields of human achievement – including science! It is hard to look at the art of the EMA and think of the period as dark. You can read about the falsehood of the Dark Ages slander here; here; here; here; here; here; and: Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages (London: Penguin, 2009); Walter Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship (London: Methuen, 1969); H. St. L. B. Moss, The Birth of the Middle Ages, 395–814 (Oxford: OUP, 1935); R. McKitterick (ed.), The Early Middle Ages: Europe 400-1000 (Short Oxford History of Europe) (Oxford: OUP, 2001).

We do not know who Jack the Ripper was. Jack the Ripper is the most infamous serial murderer in history. His identity has been debated ever since he committed his crimes in 1888. A Wikipedia article lists over thirty main suspects and many other lesser ones. Maybe it was true for many decades that we didn’t know who he was. We do now. The Ripper was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew. Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Police Commissioner in London at the time of the murders, believed the killer was Kosminski. We know that, at least with medium-high confidence, because Donald Swanson, the Chief Inspector who was put in charge of the investigation, wrote in the margin of his copy of Anderson’s memoirs that Anderson believed Kosminski was the prime suspect. In any case, the first DNA match was found in the 2010s from examination of a shawl belonging to one of the Ripper’s victims: see here and the full paper. Russell Edwards, owner of the shawl, published a book on the matter. He reports a 100% DNA match to one of Kosminski’s descendants. Note, however, the challenges to this paper, in the form of an ‘expression of concern’ published by the journal. That said, even the Jewish Chronicle in the UK says: ‘Jack the Ripper identity is revealed, but the JC cracked case years ago…Prof [Geoffrey] Alderman [retired professor of politics] added: “I don’t want to denigrate the Russell Edwards book. But to those of us interested in the whole Ripper story, this has not come as a surprise.”‘ As an aside, the famous graffito ‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’, found in the area of the murders, has been debated for as long as the identity of the Ripper. Was it a reference to Freemasons? Did it have some other hidden meaning? If the killer was Kosminski, the meaning becomes obvious, as a writer and investigator at the time, Robert Stephenson, thought. The writer of the graffito was likely semi-literate, as might be expected of many denizens of the East End of London at that time.

Covid was a lab leak. OK, so this one has of course been the subject of intense controversy for years, indeed from the minute Covid was widely known about. Although there were occasional dissenters from the establishment line that Covid originated naturally via a so-called ‘wet market’ (e.g. Prof. Richard Ebright of Rutgers early on considered a lab leak a real possibility), the near-universal view of governments, medical bodies and scientists speaking publicly on their behalf, was that the lab leak hypothesis was false at best, conspiracy theory at worst. We now can be pretty sure that it is true: Covid was a lab leak, not a natural escape via a market or other naturally occurring source. Anyone who read Nicholas Wade’s May 2021 article suggesting a lab leak would already have been put on alert. We now have: the CIA favouring the lab leak explanation; also the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic; Dr Alina Chan, an MIT/Harvard biologist published in the NYT; the US Department of Energy; the FBI; the National Center for Medical Intelligence; Prof. Tim Spector, UK government COVID advisor. There is still disagreement, and there likely always will be, but at Debunked we think this one can now be put to bed.

Herodotus was right about an Egyptian ship. We are including this not because it is particularly exciting in itself, but because it is an object lesson for historians and academics generally. Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC), called by Cicero the Father of History, was a Greek historian and scholar who wrote the famous Histories, a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars including much biographical, military and geographical information. He mentions an Egyptian ship called a ‘baris’, used on the Nile, which he encountered on visiting Egypt. He gives a detailed description of its construction. However, so it goes: ‘For centuries, scholars and archaeologists believed that the type of ship Herodotus described never actually existed because such ships had never once been discovered by anyone on Earth.’ But then we are told: ‘Nile shipwreck discovery proves Herodotus right – after 2,469 years’. The wreck of a baris was discovered by Franck Goddio and a team from the Institut Européen d’Archoléogie Sous-Marine in the early 2000s. The details of the finding were published in A. Belov, Ship 17: A Baris from Thonis-Heracleion (Ships and Boats of the Canopic Region 1) (Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology Monograph 10, 2018). The larger point is that we disregard, or diminish, the veracity and scholarship of ancient historians at our peril. See also here, here, and here.

We only use ten percent of our brains: This is a popular myth, possibly originating with the psychologist and philosopher William James and the psychologist Boris Sidis, who promoted the idea of people’s not using their full mental potential – in the context of research into the raising of Sidis’ son, child prodigy William Sidis. Although it is likely true, and encouraging, to assert that our learning potential is far greater than we typically actualise, it is also a fact that all areas of the brain have a function and that virtually all parts, if not all without exception, are in use all of the time, even during sleep. For more on this myth, see: here; here; here; here; here; S. Hughes, F. Lyddy, and S. Lambe, ‘Misconceptions about Psychological Science: A Review’, Psychology Learning and Teaching 12 (2013): 20-31; and Sergio Della Sala (ed.) Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain (New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1999).

In ye olden times, everyone believed the Earth was flat: This is false, however you specify ‘ye olden times’, e.g. the Ancient World, the ‘Dark’ Ages, the Middle Ages, all of history before Christopher Columbus, at whom ‘they all laughed when he said the world was round‘ according to the learned Gershwin brothers, or all of history before Copernicus or Galileo. There are more Flat Earthers in existence right now than in all of recorded history. Maybe there were many ‘ordinary folk’ from ye olden times who believed the Earth was flat, but we do not know since they have left no record. Of those who have left a record, you could probably count on one hand the people who believed the Earth was flat. The Ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round. Eratosthenes (C3rd BC) calculated its circumference with astonishing accuracy. See: here; Stephen Jay Gould, ‘The Late Birth of a Flat Earth’, in his Dinosaur in a Haystack (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011): ch.4; and the seminal book by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Inventing the Flat Earth (New York: Praeger, 1991).

‘First they came for the Communists…’: German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984) is widely thought to have written these famous lines, two versions of which you can read here. They usually end: ‘Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.’ He did not write them. They are an embellishment of something he said in a speech given in 1946. The words in that speech did not even mention the Jews. Over time, his prose was made more ‘poetic’ by various hands in various versions. Ironically, Niemoller himself was both anti-semitic and a supporter of the Nazis, though Hitler imprisoned him for opposing state control of the churches. For the truth, see here, here, here, and here.

Havana Syndrome: This is still generally considered ‘disputed’, ‘controversial’, and so on. No offence is meant to any person who claims, sincerely, to have been harmed by something under the name ‘Havana Syndrome’. We are simply making fair comment on a serious matter of public interest. In our view, you should do no more than read the book by Robert W. Baloh Robert E. Bartholomew, Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria (Cham: Springer, 2020), as well as their follow-up article ‘“Havana Syndrome”: A post mortem’, International Journal of Social Psychiatry 70 (2024): 402-5. They demonstrate, conclusively in our view, that Havana Syndrome was the latest in a long history of mass psychogenic illnesses reported in various parts of the world. Their follow-up article highlights the fact that in March 2023, five separate United States intelligence agencies announced the results of their investigation, concluding (we quote from their article at p.402) that it was ‘“highly unlikely” that the constellation of symptoms comprising the condition were caused by a sonic or microwave device or that a foreign adversary was involved. Instead, they concluded that “Havana Syndrome” was a socially constructed catch-all category for an array of pre-existing health conditions, responses to environmental factors, and stress reactions that were lumped under a single label.’

Amazons: It was long thought that savage female warriers from ancient times, known as Amazons, were a myth. The origin of the name (from which ‘Amazon’ in Latin America is derived) is uncertain. These warriors are mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and elsewhere. Inside all the legends and mythology is the truth: ancient, fearsome female warriors did exist. Evidence has been uncovered in the Russian Steppes near Kazakhstan, and elsewhere. They may not have called themselves ‘Amazons’ – we have no idea – but they likely inspired ancient Greek storytelling. See here, here, and here; also Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons : Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014).

Troy: It was held by most historians and archaeologists, right up until the late nineteenth century, that the city of Troy, famous from Homer’s epic The Iliad, was a myth – a legend, just another unbelievable part of Homeric fiction. Actually, it wasn’t. It existed. The city of Troy was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s, building on work already done by Frank Calvert. See here and here; also Heinrich Schliemann, Ilios: The City and Country of the Trojans (New York: Harper, 1980); Abigail Baker, Troy on Display: Scepticism and Wonder at Schliemann’s First Exhibition (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020); Susan Heuck Allen, Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020).

Galileo 2: It is often said, in criticism of the Catholic Church, that Galileo was tortured into recanting his heliocentric theory that the earth revolved around the sun. He was not. See here, here, and: Karl von Gebler, Galileo and the Roman Curia: From Authentic Sources (London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879): ch.VIII; Henry Kelly, ‘Galileo’s Non-Trial (1616), Pre-Trial (1632–1633), and Trial (May 10, 1633): A Review of Procedure, Featuring Routine Violations of the Forum of Conscience’, Church History 85 (2016): 724-761; Maurice A. Finocchiaro, ‘Myth 8. That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism’, in Ronald L. Numbers (ed.) Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2009): 68-78.

Galileo 1: Galileo is thought by many to have said, at his trial before the Roman Inquisition in 1633, ‘And yet it moves’ (‘Eppur si muove’), despite being forced to recant his view that the earth revolved around the sun (heliocentrism). This act of defiant resistance should be filed under ‘Things that Never Happened’. See here, here, and: Karl von Gebler, Galileo and the Roman Curia: From Authentic Sources (London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1879): ch.X; Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter (London: Fourth Estate, 1999): 291; Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Retrying Galileo: 1633-1992 (Berkeley: University of California Press): 114.

Marie Antoinette: The Queen Consort, wife of King Louis XVI, has long been said to have told the starving citizens of Paris to eat cake since they had no bread. She never said that. She never told them to eat brioche either (that’s the French version of the legend). See here and here; also John Hardman, Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019); Antonia Fraser, Marie-Antoinette: The Journey (London: Phoenix, 2001): xviii. The Wikipedia article on this is also good.

Lemmings: Worth starting this site with a golden oldie. Many people know this is a myth but you do hear it a fair bit: lemmings throw themselves off cliffs, committing mass suicide, etc. Crowds are still accused of sometimes ‘acting like lemmings’, following each other off a metaphorical cliff. It’s false. Lemmings do not do that. They were pushed. Blame Walt Disney. See here, here, here, and Dennis Chitty, Do Lemmings Commit Suicide? Beautiful Hypotheses and Ugly Facts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996): 7-15. They are pretty strange little critters all the same.