Fascists use archaeology as propaganda. Mussolini justified his invasion of Libya by citing the Roman presence in Africa millennia earlier. Hitler promoted a nonsense idea of Germany being the root of all European and Indo-European culture and peoples to justify the invasion and colonisation of other European countries. The British regime in India plied the high caste Rajah rulers with riches, and told them about their Indo-European heritage, supposedly shared with whites but not the Indian proletariat. Modi’s Hindutva ideology continues this myth today for its own political gain. Imperialist and fascist regimes in South America and New Zealand spread lies of ancient white gods living in those lands prior to the Maoris and Native Americans. This is done in order to belittle the indigenous peoples, and to wrongly claim the pre-colonialist era inventions and cultural achievements as their own.
The fascists do not care about the accuracy of their tales. Usually there is none. Their care is about the potential to warp minds, divide and conquer. Fascists today continue this sick tradition in order to spread white pride and hatred of foreigners. They cherry pick, exaggerate and fantasise; they kid themselves on that they are descended solely from blood soaked ubermensch. The most frequent periods which fascists draw upon are Prehistory and the Medieval. There is a notable avoidance of reviewing the Age of Enlightenment and Reason in the 1700s or events since. This is because fascists hate the advances in human ingenuity and wish to see them undone; they yearn for simpler times of rape and pillage.
There have been some half-hearted attempts from academics to counter against this abuse of their discipline, however often the academic discourse suffers from its own poisons of liberalism and post-modernism (yes, the left can oppose this too). For these reasons, 0161 is pleased to publish a series of articles which will review the archaeological evidence and detail the anti-fascist version of events. The tales serve to educate, to boost morale, and to honour our long and rich heritage of struggle. The series is inspired by the ‘History from Below’ movement. This does not merely comprise outlining the banal everyday routine of common folk. It goes the full mile in celebrating their ability to drive the course of history through collective action.