This video was made possible by Skillshare. Start learning for free for two months by
being one of the first 1,000 to sign up at skl.sh/hai33. Now, here at HAI we don’t want to spread
conspiracy theories, but we do want to get lots of views in order to further our never-ending
quest for money, power, and URL extensions that give us free two free months of Skillshare
and so when we come across a conspiracy theory that we want to tell you about, because it’s
hilarious, we’re in a conundrum: how can make a video on it while maintaining our status
as the preeminent source of super-accurate, hard-hitting factual content on YouTube. So today, here’s the plan: we’re gonna
tell you all about this very fun and very insane conspiracy theory, and then we’re
gonna very clearly explain why it’s not true, and along the way, you’re gonna learn
a whole bunch about calendars. That’s right, everybody: calendars, the
coolest, sexiest thing since the abacus. Alright so the theory, which is known by the
super-credible sounding name, “the Phantom Time Theory,” goes like this: the middle
ages didn’t happen, they were made up. That’s right, according to this guy, Heribert
Illig, whose name sounds like a piece of IKEA furniture, the years 614-911 simply did not
happen, but were instead invented by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II,
and possibly the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII because, I mean, if you’re gonna do
a conspiracy theory, go big or go home. Now, you may ask, why would two kings and
a pope invent three centuries of knights, pillaging, and cholera? Well, according to Illig, Otto, Constantine,
and the Pope were actually alive in the early 700s, but wanted to live in the year 1000
AD, because—and this is true—round numbers are cool. Plus, they could create a fake historical
record full of their own personal Charlemagne-based fan-fiction that would strengthen Otto III’s
claim to the Holy Roman Empire. The evidence—and I’m using the word evidence
very lightly—for the Phantom Time Hypothesis lies on three pillars: First, there isn’t
a lot of existing archaeological evidence from the supposed period of time from 614
to 911. Second, 10th Century Western Europe is littered
with Roman architecture, which Illig says doesn’t make sense given that the Roman
Empire fell in 475 AD, supposedly over 400 years prior. And the final reason has to do with calendars. That’s right folks, try to hold in your
excitement, because it’s finally calendar time. Now, the earth rotates 365.24219 times every
year, which is pretty close to 365.25, so we round up and pretend it’s 365 and a quarter,
which means every four year we have an extra day, which we account for with leap day. But the thing is, it’s not actually 365.25,
it’s 365.24219, which is 0.00781 less. That may not sound like a lot, but every 128
years, that 0.00781 adds up to a day, which means every 128 years, we should subtract
a day to keep on track. But the Julian calendar didn’t account for
that, so between when it was introduced in 45 BC and when the new Gregorian calendar
was introduced in 1582 to fix the problem, 1,627 years had passed, or about 13 sets of
128 years, which meant that the Julian calendar should have been behind by about 13 days. But it turned out, and try to stop your brain
from exploding here, the Julian calendar was actually only off by about 10 days, and because
each of those missing days takes 128 years to accumulate, that means there’s 300 something
years unaccounted for. By the way, if you’re wondering, the Gregorian
calendar fixes the problem by skipping a leap day every 100 years, but then adding it back
in every 400 years, which still means we’re behind by a day every 1000 years, but the
world probably only has a few decades left anyways so, you know, c’est la vie. So that’s the theory. It’s probably got you giving a big, “hmmm.” Now, let’s talk about why it’s not true. First of all, even if there isn’t a ton
of archaeological evidence, there still is some—and we have reliable ways of dating
these artifacts, through both carbon dating, and looking at tree rings, which can also
be called dendrological dating if you’re pretentious. Second, the Roman architecture in 10th century
Europe. So… yeah… have you noticed how there’s
Roman columns and arches like… everywhere? The White House, Buckingham Palace, the Arc
de Triomphe, Townsville Hall from the Powerpuff Girls. There’s still Roman architecture being built
today, so yeah… people also built it in the 900s. Third, the calendars. For an apparent calendaropthamist, Illig weirdly
didn’t realize that the Gregorian calendar wasn’t trying to reset things to 45 BC,
when the Julian calendar was introduced, but rather to 325 AD, which is when this thing
called the Council of Nicaea met and did some calendar fixing. They didn’t reset things all the way back
which accounts for the missing 300-odd years of date shifting. And believe it or not, there are even stronger
pieces of evidence that show that this whole thing is impossible. Most notably, astronomy. You see, certain astronomical events are highly
predictable—for example, for complicated astronomy reasons that I totally, definitely,
understand but just don’t have time to explain, we know with absolute certainty that there
must have been a solar eclipse over Campania, Italy, between 7 and 8 am, on April 30th,
exactly 1,961 years ago, and we know that a guy named Pliny the Elder recorded exactly
that in 59 AD, which means that 59 AD must have been 1,961 years ago. If the Phantom Time Hypothesis were true,
that eclipse would have happened in 238 BC, and Pliny the Elder couldn’t have recorded
it because he wasn’t elder at all at that point, or even existent. If that didn’t make sense to you, maybe
this will: all of the rest of the world also records that 614 to 911 happened. Otto and the Pope would have had to convince
ancient Arab writers to make up Mohammad, convince the English to fabricate most of
the Anglo-Saxon period, and convince the Chinese to invent the entire Tang dynasty, which is
a level of coordination that seems unlikely, especially considering I can’t even figure
out how to do a multi-person Zoom call. If you’re on Zoom calls a lot because you’re
stuck at home, you might also, like me, be getting pretty bored. Well I’ve got the perfect thing for you:
this great class on making cinema-style iPhone filmmaking by Niles Grey and Caleb Babcock
that’s available right now on Skillshare—perfect for feeding your creative side. Skillshare, of course, is an online learning
community with millions of members who want to further their creative goals. When you’re a member, you can take that
class, and thousands of others on pretty much any subject you can imagine. It’s perfect for learning something to advance
your career, to help you in school, or to just have fun, but best of all, you can get
two months free when you’re one of the first 1,000 to sign up at skl.sh/hai33, and you’ll
be supporting HAI while you’re at it.
Yes!!!