Bogus! An Introduction to Dubious Discoveries

SOURCE: Archaeology
by Brittany Jackson and Mark Rose

Why do fakes get made? Why do people fall for hoaxes? Greed, pride, revenge, nationalism, pranks, and gullibility mix in an archaeological setting

There's no avoiding it--fakes are everywhere. Jane Walsh of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History says, "any museum--I don't care what museum it is--has fakes." While some hoaxes have humorous elements, this is a serious problem. Fakes pollute the archaeological record and skew our understanding of the past. The infamous Piltdown Man, which matched conceptions of what an early hominid should look like, misled scientists for decades. Crystal skulls were first faked in the later 19th century, when little was known about Mesoamerican religious practices. Today, they are still taken as real by many people. Biblical artifacts, faked or enhanced with inscriptions, play on peoples' religious beliefs.

Bogus artifacts vary in subject and complexity. The Cardiff Giant and similar petrified men involved only the crudest technique, while the Tiara of Saitaphernes is the work of a gifted goldsmith. They come with a range of price tags. There are low-cost ones on eBay and million-dollar ones, as the Getty kouros may be.

The reasons for perpetrating hoaxes and forgeries range as widely as the kinds of fakes. Common motives for making bogus artifacts include publicity and self-promotion, monetary gain, practical jokes, and revenge, but some fakers have had the goal of supporting their own theories about the human past. Fakes have often been inspired by nationalism, with patriotic perpetrators boosting their country through spurious links to past civilizations.

Complete article, and many more on this topic at link.

LINK: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hoaxes/intro.html

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This is a new feature of the online version of Archaeology Magazine, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America.