Peter Kolosimo,
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
of Pier Domenico Colosimo (15 December 1922 – 23 March 1984), was an Italian journalist and writer. He is ranked amongst the founders of
pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...
(in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
: ''fantarcheologia''), a controversial topic in which interpretations of the past are made that are not accepted by the
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
science community, which rejects the accepted data-gathering and analytical methods of the discipline. He also popularised
ancient astronaut
Ancient astronauts (or ancient aliens) refers to a pseudoscientific hypothesis which holds that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this ...
theories of contact between extraterrestrial beings and ancient human civilizations.
During the late 1950s and the 1960s, he was published in some of the first Italian science fiction magazines, such as ''
Romanzi del Cosmo'' ("Cosmic Novels"), and his articles were regularly featured in the science/science fiction magazine ''Oltre il Cielo'' ("Beyond the Sky"). He published many more books, all widely popular and translated in 60 countries, including Russia, Japan, and China. In the 1970s and early 1980s until his death, he was the editor of many magazines, including ''Pi Kappa'', a "fantarchaeologia" magazine covering the same topics that Kolosimo did in his books. In later life, he wrote a few books with his wife, Caterina, by whom he had a daughter, Alessandra (born 1970).
Kolosimo also founded and coordinated the Italian Association for Prehistoric Studies (ASP).
He died in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in 1984.
Reception
Kolosimo's claims about ancient astronauts influencing human civilizations are considered to be
pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohist ...
.
In a review of Kolosimo's ''Not of This World'',
Jason Colavito
Jason Colavito (born 1981) is an American author and independent scholar specializing in the study of fringe theories particularly around ancient history and extraterrestrials. Colavito has written a number of books, including ''The Cult of Alien ...
has alleged that the book fabricates evidence, mistranslates sources and conflates science fiction and fact.
Wu Ming
Wu Ming, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna.
Four of the group earlier wrote the novel '' Q'' (first edition 1999). Unlike the open nam ...
, an Italy-based collective of writers, considered Kolosimo a "fellow novelist" and wrote about him on several occasions, including a story published in GQ (Italian edition), where they stated, "we like to think he just left the planet, and is still travelling across the universe." He is remembered lovingly as well by the writer Massimo Pietroselli in Fantascienza.com, an Italian science fiction online magazine, as a dreamer who was writing for the people, and encouraging the Soviet alternative to regular, conservative science, and did so successfully. Pagine 70, another Italian magazine, described ''Non è terrestre'' as his "first official revenge on the academic world" that tended to reject his ideas. The author goes on to describe Kolosimo as "an affable man, perhaps a great conversationalist, certainly an uncommon man." He describes Kolosimo’s work as undeterred against the repeated "snobbery of the academic world" and argues that it demonstrates that "imagination is a social weapon, which can break down regimes, give birth to states, and think … even manage to land on the moon."
Selected bibliography
Books
*''Il pianeta sconosciuto'' (1957)
*''Terra senza tempo'' (1964; translated into English as ''Timeless Earth'')
*''Ombre sulle stelle '' (1966)
*''Psicologia dell'eros'' (1967)
*''Non è terrestre'' (1968; translated as ''Not of this World'')
*''Guida al mondo dei sogni'' (1968)
*''Il comportamento erotico degli europei'' (1970)
*''Cittadini delle tenebre'' (1971)
*''Astronavi sulla preistoria'' (1972; translated as ''Spaceships in Prehistory'')
*''Odissea stellare'' (1974)
*''Fratelli dell'infinito'' (1975)
*''Polvere d'inferno'' (1975)
*''Italia mistero cosmico'' (1977)
*''Civiltà del silenzio'' (1978)
*''Fiori di luna'' (1979)
*''Io e l'indiano'' (1979)
*''Viaggiatori del tempo'' (1981)
*''I misteri dell'universo'' (1982, with Caterina Kolosimo)
Novels
*''Fronte del sole'' or ''I cavalieri delle stelle'' (''From Outer Space''; 1979, with Caterina Kolosimo)
*''Missione uomo'' (1982, with Oscar Warner)
Editor
* ''Pi Kappa, rivista di mistero, archeologia ed esobiologia'' (director), I-II, (1972-1973)
* ''Dimensione X, enciclopedia del mistero'' (coordinator), 1-10, (1982)
* ''Italia misteriosa'' (editor, 1984)
* ''Scrutando nel futuro'' (editor, 1984)
References
External links
UFOs and Revolution an article on Kolosimo by
Wu Ming
Wu Ming, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett community in Bologna.
Four of the group earlier wrote the novel '' Q'' (first edition 1999). Unlike the open nam ...
, published on
GQ magazine (Italian edition), July 2009.
Review of Kolosimo's works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolosimo, Peter
1922 births
1984 deaths
Writers from Modena
Italian non-fiction writers
Italian male journalists
Ancient astronauts proponents
Pseudoarchaeologists
Pseudohistorians
20th-century Italian writers
20th-century Italian male writers
20th-century Italian journalists