This article summarizes my experience at Baltimore AlienCon in 2018. The programme offered a curious blend of themes explored in Ancient Aliens and similar programming, alongside other domains of ‘pseudoscience’, ‘rogue’ archaeology, and conspiracy theory, with an added touch of science-fiction fandom and marketing for Prometheus Entertainment. Framed by the event, this article considers aliens, heritage, and belonging in the United States at a moment of unprecedented misinformation campaigns and historical racial reckoning. It explores how archaeological expertise is implicated, invoked, and rejected in such forums and their associated media; and questions how anthropologists and archaeologists might reckon with the often-troubling widespread public uptake of their knowledge into influential conspiracies.

这篇文章总结了我在 2018 年巴尔的摩AlienCon的经历。该计划提供了在古代外星人和类似节目中探索的主题的奇妙融合，以及“伪科学”、“流氓”考古学和阴谋论的其他领域，并增加了一点科学-普罗米修斯娱乐的小说迷和营销。本文以该事件为框架，在前所未有的错误信息运动和历史种族清算的时刻考虑了美国的外星人、遗产和归属感。它探讨了考古专业知识如何在此类论坛及其相关媒体中受到牵连、援引和拒绝；并质疑人类学家和考古学家如何看待经常令人不安的公众广泛吸收他们的知识进入有影响力的阴谋。