February 16th, 2008 by Wes
The Phantom time hypothesis is a theory developed by Heribert Illig (born 1947 in Vohenstrauß) in 1991. It proposes that there has been a systematic effort to make it appear that periods of history: specifically that of Europe during Early Middle Ages (AD 614–911) exist, when they do not. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation and forgery of documentary and physical evidence.
The theory also stems from the belief that during the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Europe (AD 1582), while compensating for a ten day discrepancy in the old Julian calendar, many dates were falsely (or ineptly) recalculated as the new system created a thirteen day discrepancy.
In addition to Illig’s hypotheses, there exist several variations. Notable examples include those of Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko, who hypothesized that history - as is generally accepted - consists of a series of events that have been recorded multiple times from different perspectives, with each iteration being assigned to a different time period, thus making a few events over a short period appear to be many events over a long time period. Uwe Topper hypothesized that most of the world’s history was written after the 16th century, and that much of that which occurred prior to AD 1400 should not be considered factual. Other notable proponents include Hans-Ulrich Niemitz, Christoph Marx, Angelika Müller, and Manfred Zeller.