View source for Phantom time conspiracy theory

{{short description|1991 pseudohistorical conspiracy theory}}
[[File:Charlemagne denier Mayence 812 814.jpg|thumb|The phantom time hypothesis claims [[Charlemagne]] did not exist.]]
'''Phantom time conspiracy theory''' is a [[pseudohistorical]] [[conspiracy theory]] first asserted by Heribert Illig in 1991. It hypothesizes a conspiracy by the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Otto III]] and [[Pope Sylvester II]] to fabricate the [[Anno Domini]] dating system retroactively, in order to place them at the special year of AD 1000, and to rewrite history<ref>Hans-Ulrich Niemitz, [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/volatile/Niemitz-1997.pdf ''Did the Early Middle Ages Really Exist?''] pp. 9–10.</ref> to legitimize Otto's claim to the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation and forgery of documentary and physical evidence.<ref name="fomenko1">{{cite book | last = Fomenko | first = Anatoly | year = 2007 | publisher = Mithec | isbn = 978-2-913621-07-7 | title = History: Chronology 1: Second Edition}}{{rs?|date=March 2022}}</ref> According to this scenario, the entire [[Carolingian period]], including the figure of [[Charlemagne]], is a fabrication, with a "phantom time" of 297 years (AD 614–911) added to the [[Early Middle Ages]]. 

Evidence contradicts the hypothesis and it failed to gain the support of historians, and calendars in other European countries, most of Asia and parts of pre-Columbian America contradict this.<ref name="Dutch" /><ref name="Foessel" /><ref name="Muetz" /><ref name="Adams" />{{Excessive citations inline|date=March 2025}}

== Heribert Illig ==
Illig was born in 1947 in [[Vohenstrauß]], [[Bavaria]]. He was active in an association dedicated to [[Immanuel Velikovsky]], [[catastrophism]] and [[historical revisionism]], 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: ''Prehistory-Proto-History-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]].

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 [[recension|recensions]], but was universally rejected as fundamentally flawed by historians.<ref>Johannes Fried: ''Wissenschaft und Phantasie. Das Beispiel der Geschichte'', in: Historische Zeitschrift Band 263,2/1996, 291–316.
Matthias Grässlin, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 1. Oktober 1996</ref>
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.<ref>EuS 1997 Heft 4.
Theo Kölzer (Bonn University) refused to contribute, and the journal printed his letter of refusal instead in which Kölzer criticizes the journal for lending credibility to Illig's "abstruse" idea. A favourable review was published by sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn, which later led to a collaboration between Illig and Heinsohn until 2011, when Heinsohn left the board of editors of Illig's journal and published his rejection of Illig's core idea that the figure of Charlemagne is a high medieval fiction.</ref>
After 1997, there has been little scholarly reception of Illig's ideas, although they continued to be discussed as [[pseudohistory]] in German popular media.<ref>[[Michael Borgolte]]. In: [[Der Tagesspiegel]] vom 29. Juni 1999. Stephan Matthiesen: ''[http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de/de/texte/archaeologie-geschichte/erfundenes-mittelalter-illig.html Erfundenes Mittelalter – fruchtlose These!]'', in: Skeptiker 2/2001</ref>
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]], on [[German Renaissance]] master [[Anton Pilgram]], but again proposing revisions to conventional chronology, and arguing for the abolition of the art historical category of [[Mannerism]].<ref>''Meister Anton, gen. Pilgram, oder Abschied vom Manierismus'' (2013).</ref>

== Claims ==
[[File:LessayAbbaye3.JPG|thumb|[[Lessay Abbey]], an example of [[Romanesque architecture]]]]
Illig's claims include:<ref name="Illig 1">{{cite book
 | first = Heribert | last = Illig
 | title = Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht? |isbn=3-548-75064-8 | publisher = Econ Verlag | year = 2000
}}</ref><ref name="Illig 2">{{cite book
 | first = Heribert | last = Illig
 | title = Das erfundene Mittelalter | year = 2004
 | publisher = Ullstein
 |isbn=3-548-36429-2 
}}</ref>
* That there is a scarcity of [[Archaeology|archaeological]] evidence that can be reliably dated to the period AD 614–911.
* That the dating methods used for such recent periods, [[radiometry]] and [[dendrochronology]], are inaccurate.
* That medieval historians rely too much on written sources.
* That the presence of [[Romanesque architecture]] 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]] in AD 1582, there should have been a discrepancy of thirteen days between the [[Julian calendar]] and the real (or tropical) calendar, when the astronomers and mathematicians working for [[Pope Gregory XIII]] had found that the civil calendar needed to be adjusted by only ten days. From this, Illig concludes that the [[Anno Domini|AD]] era had counted roughly three centuries which never existed.

== Refutation ==
* Observations in [[Archaeoastronomy|ancient astronomy]], especially those of [[solar eclipse]]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]] in 59 AD.<ref name="Pliny">Pliny the Elder. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170101063545/http://www.masseiana.org/pliny.htm ''Natural History'' (Book II)]}}, accessed 14 June 2017</ref> This date has a confirmed [[Lists of solar eclipses|eclipse]]. In addition, observations during the [[Tang dynasty]] in China, and [[Halley's Comet]], for example, are consistent with current astronomy with no "phantom time" added.<ref name="Hermann">{{citation|surname1=Dieter Herrmann|periodical=Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte&nbsp;3|title=Nochmals: Gab es eine Phantomzeit in unserer Geschichte? |year=2000|at=pp.&nbsp;211–14|language=de}}</ref><ref name="Dutch">{{cite web|last=Dutch|first=Stephen|title=Is a Chunk of History Missing?|url=http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/Phantom%20Time.HTM|access-date=14 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527014124/http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/Phantom%20Time.HTM|archive-date=27 May 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Archaeological remains and dating methods such as [[dendrochronology]] (tree-ring dating) refute, rather than support, "phantom time".<ref name="Foessel">{{cite magazine |first=Amalie |last=Fößel |title=Karl der Fiktive? |magazine=[[Damals]], Magazin für Geschichte und Kultur |issue=8 |year=1999 |pages=20f }} NOTE: This is just a letter to the editor with no academic references, it is not a valid refutation.</ref>
* 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 [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]], which had established a method for [[Computus|determining the date]] of [[Easter Sunday]] by fixing the [[March equinox|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.<ref name="Muetz">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.</ref>
* If [[Charlemagne]] and the [[Carolingian dynasty]] 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 [[History of the papacy|Papacy]], and the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The "phantom time" period also encompasses the life of [[Muhammad]] and the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic expansion]] into the areas of the former [[Western Roman Empire]], including the conquest of [[Visigothic Kingdom|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 [[Tang dynasty]] of China and its contact with the Islamic world, such as at the [[Battle of Talas]].<ref name="Dutch" /><ref name="Adams">{{cite web|last=Adams|first=Cecil|title=Did the Middle Ages Not Really Happen?|work=The Straight Dope|date=22 April 2011|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2992/did-the-middle-ages-not-really-happen|access-date=9 July 2014}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
Publications by Illig:
* ''[[Egon Friedell]] und [[Immanuel Velikovsky]]. Vom Weltbild zweier Außenseiter'', Basel 1985.
* ''Die veraltete Vorzeit'', Heribert Illig, Eichborn, 1988
* with Gunnar Heinsohn: ''Wann lebten die Pharaonen?'', Mantis, 1990, revised 2003 {{ISBN|3-928852-26-4}}
* ''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, {{ISBN|3-430-14953-3}} (revised ed. 1998)
* ''Das Friedell-Lesebuch'', Heribert Illig, C.H. Beck 1998, {{ISBN|3-406-32415-0}}
* Heribert Illig, with Franz Löhner: ''Der Bau der Cheopspyramide'', Mantis 1998, {{ISBN|3-928852-17-5}}
* ''Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht?'', Heribert Illig, Ullstein 2003, {{ISBN|3-548-36476-4}}
* Heribert Illig, with Gerhard Anwander: ''Bayern in der Phantomzeit. Archäologie widerlegt Urkunden des frühen Mittelalters.'', Mantis 2002, {{ISBN|3-928852-21-3}}

== See also ==
* [[Cultural depictions of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor]]
* [[Historical negationism]]
* ''[[The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended]]''
* [[Glasgow Chronology]]
* [[New Chronology (Fomenko)]]
* [[New Chronology (Rohl)]]
* [[Immanuel Velikovsky#Revised chronology|Revised chronology]] of [[Immanuel Velikovsky]]
* [[Jean Hardouin]]
* [[Historicity of Muhammad]]
* [[Simulation hypothesis]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* Illig, Heribert: ''Enthält das frühe Mittelalter erfundene Zeit?'' and subsequent discussion, in: Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften 8 (1997), pp.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;611–17.
* Matthiesen, Stephan: [http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de/texte-blog/geschichte/31-erfundenes-mittelalter-illig.html ''Erfundenes Mittelalter – fruchtlose These!''], in: Skeptiker 2 (2002).

== External links ==
* [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/volatile/Niemitz-1997.pdf Explanation of the "phantom time hypothesis" in English] (pdf)
* [http://www.philjohn.com/papers/pjkd_h04.html Critique of Illig personal interactions, not his hypothesis in English]
* [http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=164 A short explanation of the "phantom time hypothesis"]
* {{Skeptoid|id=4332|number=332|title=The Phantom Time Hypothesis|date=2012-10-16}}

{{Chronology}}{{Conspiracy theories}}{{Falsification of history}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Historical negationism]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Chronology]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:1991 introductions]]
[[Category:Alternative chronologies]]
[[Category:Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor]]
[[Category:Charlemagne]]

[[et:Heribert Illig]]