Phantom Time Hypothesis

A pseudo-scientific conspiracy theory claims that almost 300 years of the early Middle Ages never existed. Charlemagne as a power- ful ruler, the Viking raids through Europe, numerous kings, popes and wars – all made up. The rulers in Europe at the time would have simply skipped 297 years to live in the year 1000. For them, the year 614 was directly followed by the year 911, meaning that our calendar is wrong – we are today actually still living in the 18th century. These adventurous theories can be traced back to the German scholar Heribert Illig, whose book Das erfundene Mittelalter (The Invented Middle Ages) became very well known. However, historians agree that such a large-scale falsification of history can be ruled out.