Has there ever been a period of 300 years in our history? According to the phantom time hypothesis, we were added 3 centuries that never existed. This kind of conspiracy theory borders on absurdity (common in conspiracy), but German historian Heribert Illig's idea has some very compelling, if not obvious, points.
So what year is it now?
In 1986 (or was it 1689?) Illig began to develop the phantom time hypothesis. This theory states that the years 614 through 911 have never actually existed in our history. Apparently the suspiciously small amount of documents from that time made Illig think. What if the early Middle Ages were fabricated? Illig and other supporters of the hypothesis believe that all historically significant personalities who lived, allegedly, during this period of time (for example, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great), either existed at different times, or were even fictional. Illig considered Charlemagne's legacy too extraordinary to actually exist.
Such a huge leap in the timeline could have been the result of some confusion when, in 1582, the Pope switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, the discrepancy between which is about 10 days. Perhaps there was an accidental misinterpretation of documents around this time, since fake historical documents are not uncommon. Or maybe this did not happen by accident.
That would be cool
But the most important question is: why? What could serve as a prerequisite for the movement of the world time scale for as much as 300 years forward? The main theory is that Pope Sylvester II and Holy Roman Emperor Otto III were behind it all. Cause? They decided that it would be cool if they ruled exactly in 1000. Most scientists don't take this theory seriously. While theorists cite incorrectly dated documents and artifacts as examples, scientific dating methods such as dendrochronology and radiometry confirm exactly what we all learned in school: that "phantom time" was really, as boring as it sounds.
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