Michael A. Cremo, also known by his devotional name Drutakarma Das, is an American freelance researcher who identifies himself as a Vedic creationist and an "alternative archeologist" and argues that humans have lived on the earth for millions of years. In case of artifacts allegedly found in the Eocene auriferous gravels of Table Mountain, California and discussed in his book, Forbidden Archeology, Cremo argues for the existence of modern man on Earth as long as 30 to 40 million years ago. Forbidden Archeology, which he wrote with Richard L. Thompson, has attracted attention from mainstream scholars who have criticized the views given on archeology and describe it as pseudoscientific.

Early life and education

Cremo was born in Schenectady, New York. Cremo's father, Salvatore Cremo, was a United States military intelligence officer. Michael Cremo lived with his family in Germany, where he went to high school. They spent several summers traveling throughout Europe. He attended George Washington University from 1966 to 1968, then served in the United States Navy. Religious views

Cremo is a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He has written several books and articles about Hindu spirituality under the name Drutakarma Das. He has also been a contributing editor to the magazine Back to Godhead and a bhakti yoga teacher. Cremo told Contemporary Authors that he decided to devote his life to Krishna in the early 1970s, after receiving a copy of the Bhagavad Gita at a Grateful Dead concert. In the end of the 1990s he authored a paper on the official ISKCON statement on capital punishment. His work on "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record" was published in ISKCON Communications Journal and Time and Archaeology.

Forbidden Archeology

Cremo's central claim in Forbidden Archeology is that humans have lived on the earth for tens to hundreds of millions of years and that the scientific establishment has suppressed the fossil evidence of extreme human antiquity. In case of grooved spheres from pyrophyllite mines of Ottosdal, South Africa, Cremo proposes that they might be man-made artifacts as much as 2.8 billion years old. Forbidden Archeology has been criticized by mainstream scholars from a variety of disciplines.