John Philip Cohane, born in New Haven, Connecticut, was an American author. He later moved to Ireland where he wrote books on etymology and ancient astronaut themes.Randall Fitzgerald, Cosmic test tube: extraterrestrial contact, theories and evidence, Moon Lake Media, 1998, p. 55Natalie Robins, Steven M. L. Aronson, Savage Grace: The True Story of Fatal Relations in a Rich and Famous American Family, 2007, p. 488
Books
Cohane published The Indestructible Irish in 1968 in which he proposed that the Irish peoples were of 'Mediterranean origin’.Éire-Ireland: a journal of Irish studies, Volume 5; Volume 5, Irish American Cultural Institute., 1966, p. 145 In the book he claimed that the original blood stock in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales is Semitic.The Critic, Volume 27, Issue 6, Thomas More Association, 1969 Cohane also published The Key: A Startling Enquiry into the Riddle of Mans Past, which claimed that before Egyptian, Greek, Phoenician and Carthaginian eras two major worldwide Semitic migrations took place from the Mediterranean and scattered across the earth.
The American linguist Cyrus Herzl Gordon was a friend of Cohane and wrote a preface to Cohane's book The Key, Gordon was supportive of many of Cohane's theories.Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, Antiquity: a quarterly review of archaeology, Volumes 51-53, Antiquity Publications, 1977The Reprint bulletin, Volumes 23-24, American Library Association, Oceana Publications, 1978, p. 14
Cohane claimed that geographical names in America have a Semitic origin.Cyrus Herzl Gordon, Before Columbus; links between the Old World and ancient America, Crown, 1971, p. 138 He also believed that six word roots are found in most place names of most languages.Eugene R. Fingerhut, Explorers of pre-Columbian America?: the diffusionist-inventionist controversy, Regina Books, 1994, p. 222 Another claim by Cohane was that the Phoenicians adopted the alphabet from a prior Semitic culture.
In 1977 Cohane published Paradox: The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Man in which he claimed man is a product of interplanetary colonization (see ancient astronauts).The New York Times book review, The New York Times Company, 1977 p. 40
Reception
Cohane's controversial ideas were rejected by professional archaeologists and historians as "fantasy" and "pseudoscience".
Archaeologist Phil C. Weigand described The Key as a "fantasy masked as science" and suggested that the linguistic analysis is "methodologically unsound to be ever seriously considered."
Bibliography
1968 The Indestructible Irish 1969 The Key: A Startling Enquiry into the Riddle of Mans Past 1972 White Papers of an Outraged Conservative 1977 Paradox: The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Man
See also
Tertius Chandler Hugh Fox Theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas
References