The phantom time hypothesis is a historical theory asserted by Heribert Illig. First published in 1991, it hypothesizes a conspiracy by the Holy Roman Emperor

Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King ...

Pope Sylvester II Pope Sylvester II ( – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Gre ...

, and possibly the

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as l ...

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zo ...

, to fabricate the

Anno Domini The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...

dating system retroactively, in order to place them at the special year of AD 1000, and to rewrite history to legitimize Otto's claim to the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation and forgery of documentary and physical evidence. According to this scenario, the entire

Carolingian period The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pi ...

, including the figure of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...

, is a fabrication, with a "phantom time" of 297 years (AD 614–911) added to the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the M ...

. Evidence contradicts the hypothesis and it failed to gain the support of historians.

Heribert Illig

Illig was born in 1947 in

Vohenstrauß Vohenstrauß (or ''Vohenstrauss''; ) is a town in Germany, located in the north-eastern part of the Bavarian region Upper Palatinate. The town is situated in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab. It is the birthplace of Heribert Illig. Dis ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. He was active in an association dedicated to

Immanuel Velikovsky Immanuel Velikovsky (; rus, Иммануи́л Велико́вский, p=ɪmənʊˈil vʲɪlʲɪˈkofskʲɪj; 17 November 1979) was a Jewish, Russian-American psychoanalyst, writer, and catastrophist. He is the author of several books offering ...

catastrophism In geology, catastrophism theorises that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. This contrasts with uniformitarianism (sometimes called gradualism), according to which slow incrementa ...

and

historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

, the ''Gesellschaft zur Rekonstruktion der Menschheits- und Naturgeschichte'' (English: ''Society for the Reconstruction of Human and Natural History''). From 1989 to 1994 he acted as editor of the journal ''Vorzeit-Frühzeit-Gegenwart'' (English: ''Past-Early-Present''). Since 1995, he has worked as a publisher and author under his own publishing company, ''Mantis-Verlag'', and publishing his own journal, ''Zeitensprünge'' (English: ''Leaps in Time''). Outside of his publications related to revised chronology, he has edited the works of

Egon Friedell Egon Friedell (born ''Egon Friedmann''; 21 January 1878, in Vienna – 16 March 1938, in Vienna) was a prominent Austrian cultural historian, playwright, actor and Kabarett performer, journalist and theatre critic. Friedell has been described ...

. Before focusing on the early medieval period, Illig published various proposals for revised chronologies of prehistory and of Ancient Egypt. His proposals received prominent coverage in German popular media in the 1990s. His 1996 ''Das erfundene Mittelalter'' (English: ''The Invented Middle Ages'') also received scholarly recensions, but was universally rejected as fundamentally flawed by historians. In 1997, the journal ''Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften'' (English: ''Ethics and Social Sciences'') offered a platform for critical discussion to Illig's proposal, with a number of historians commenting on its various aspects. After 1997, there has been little scholarly reception of Illig's ideas, although they continued to be discussed as

pseudohistory Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudoh ...

in German popular media. Illig continued to publish on the "phantom time hypothesis" until at least 2013. Also in 2013, he published on an unrelated topic of

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

, on

German Renaissance The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and sciences ...

master

Anton Pilgram Anton Pilgram (also Anton Pilchramb) (around 1460, Brno (?) – 1516, Vienna) was a late medieval Moravian and subsequently Austrian architect and sculptor active in the area of today's Czech Republic ( Moravia), Austria and western (Germany) S ...

, but again proposing revisions to conventional chronology, and arguing for the abolition of the art historical category of Mannerism.''Meister Anton, gen. Pilgram, oder Abschied vom Manierismus'' (2013).

Claims

Illig's claims include: * That there is a scarcity of

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...

evidence that can be reliably dated to the period AD 614–911. * That the dating methods used for such recent periods,

radiometry Radiometry is a set of techniques for measuring electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. Radiometric techniques in optics characterize the distribution of the radiation's power in space, as opposed to photometric techniques, which ch ...

and dendrochronology, are inaccurate. * That medieval historians rely too much on written sources. * That the presence of

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this lat ...

in tenth-century Western Europe suggests that the Roman era was not as long ago as conventionally thought. * That at the time of the introduction of the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years di ...

in AD 1582, there should have been a discrepancy of thirteen days between the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematics, Greek mathematicians and Ancient Greek astronomy, as ...

and the real (or tropical) calendar, when the astronomers and mathematicians working for

Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...

had found that the civil calendar needed to be adjusted by only ten days. From this, Illig concludes that the AD era had counted roughly three centuries which never existed.

Refutation

* Observations in

ancient astronomy Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in ...

, especially those of

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mo ...

s cited by European sources prior to 600 AD (when phantom time would have distorted the chronology), agree with the usual chronology and not with Illig's. Besides several others that are perhaps too vague to disprove the phantom time hypothesis, two in particular are dated with enough precision to question the hypothesis. One is reported by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

in 59 AD.Pliny the Elder
''Natural History'' (Book II)
, accessed 14 June 2017 This date has a confirmed

eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...

. In addition, observations during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

in China, and

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a List of periodic comets, short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye fr ...

, for example, are consistent with current astronomy with no "phantom time" added. * Archaeological remains and dating methods such as dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) refute, rather than support, "phantom time". * The Gregorian reform was never purported to bring the calendar in line with the Julian calendar as it had existed at the time of its institution in 45 BC, but as it had existed in 325 AD, the time of the Council of Nicaea, which had established a method for determining the date of

Easter Sunday Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

by fixing the vernal equinox on March 21 in the Julian calendar. By 1582, the astronomical equinox was occurring on March 10 in the Julian calendar, but Easter was still being calculated from a nominal equinox on March 21. In 45 BC the astronomical vernal equinox took place around March 23. Illig's "three missing centuries" thus correspond to the 369 years between the institution of the Julian calendar in 45 BC, and the fixing of the Easter Date at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.Karl Mütz: ''Die „Phantomzeit“ 614 bis 911 von Heribert Illig. Kalendertechnische und kalenderhistorische Einwände.'' In: ''Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte.'' Band 60, 2001, S. 11–23. * If

and the

Carolingian dynasty The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pi ...

were fabricated, there would have to be a corresponding fabrication of the history of the rest of Europe during the same era, including Anglo-Saxon England, the

Papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, and the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

. The "phantom time" period also encompasses the life of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...

and the Islamic expansion into the areas of the former

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

, including the conquest of Visigothic Iberia. This history too would have to be forged or drastically misdated. It would also have to be reconciled with the history of the

of China and its contact with the Islamic world, such as at the

Battle of Talas The Battle of Talas or Battle of Artlakh (; ar, معركة نهر طلاس, translit=Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās, Persian: Nabard-i Tarāz) was a military encounter and engagement between the Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, ...

Bibliography

Publications by Illig: * ''

und

. Vom Weltbild zweier Außenseiter'', Basel 1985. * ''Die veraltete Vorzeit'', Heribert Illig, Eichborn, 1988 * with Gunnar Heinsohn: ''Wann lebten die Pharaonen?'', Mantis, 1990, revised 2003 * ''Karl der Fiktive, genannt Karl der Große'', 1992 * ''Hat Karl der Große je gelebt? Bauten, Funde und Schriften im Widerstreit'', 1994 * ''Hat Karl der Große je gelebt?'', Heribert Illig, Mantis, 1996 * ''Das erfundene Mittelalter. Die größte Zeitfälschung der Geschichte'', Heribert Illig, Econ 1996, (revised ed. 1998) * ''Das Friedell-Lesebuch'', Heribert Illig, C.H. Beck 1998, * Heribert Illig, with Franz Löhner: ''Der Bau der Cheopspyramide'', Mantis 1998, * ''Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht?'', Heribert Illig, Ullstein 2003, * Heribert Illig, with Gerhard Anwander: ''Bayern in der Phantomzeit. Archäologie widerlegt Urkunden des frühen Mittelalters.'', Mantis 2002,

References

* Illig, Heribert: ''Enthält das frühe Mittelalter erfundene Zeit?'' and subsequent discussion, in: Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften 8 (1997), pp. 481–520. * Schieffer, Rudolf: ''Ein Mittelalter ohne Karl den Großen, oder: Die Antworten sind jetzt einfach'', in: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 48 (1997), pp. 611–17. * Matthiesen, Stephan
''Erfundenes Mittelalter – fruchtlose These!''
in: Skeptiker 2 (2002).

External links

Explanation of the "phantom time hypothesis" in English
(pdf)

* ttp://www.damninteresting.com/?p=164 A short explanation of the "phantom time hypothesis"* {{Authority control Historical revisionism Pseudohistory Chronology Conspiracy theories 1991 introductions Alternative chronologies et:Heribert Illig