Some Rotten Apples of the Archaeological & Anthropological Communities - Hoaxers

Though there are many legitimate archaeological and anthropological discoveries, there are a separate breed on charlatans or con men in the archaeological and anthropological community who use any method to get name, fame and the moolah.

many of these con men may be familiar to you, but still for those who don't know them, here is the chance to know more about such creeps.

1. Shinichi Fujimura (Japanese Amateur Archaeologist)
This chap caused serious damage to the archaeological community of japan. He planted fake artifacts at his excavation sites, which extended the Paleolithic period in japan to about 300,000 years. A Japanese Newspaper Mainichi Shimbun published photographs of Fujimura burying the artifacts.

Due to many finds on the paleolithic age in Japan, even High School textbooks had included that the paleolithic period was 300,000 years based on his findings.

Read More about this creep

On October 22, 2000 Fujimura and his team announced the discovery of a cluster of stone pieces they believed to be the work of primitive people. They also found several holes that, they hypothesized, had held pillars supporting primitive dwellings. The stones and holes were believed to be over 600,000 years old, making them one of the oldest signs of human habitation in the world. For this reason, the discovery drew international attention.

The Stone Age Discoveries of Shinichi Fujimura

Six publishers of high school history textbooks are considering revising entries in their books about Japan's earliest stoneware, following Sunday's disclosure that a leading archaeologist had fabricated his discoveries of such artifacts. The textbooks contain descriptions of stoneware unearthed at the Kamitakamori ruins in Tsukidate, Miyagi Prefecture, purportedly dating back as far as 700,000 years. Shinichi Fujimura, 50, who served as deputy director of the Tohoku Paleolithic Institute, admitted Sunday that he buried stoneware in late October to make up the finds at the Kamitakamori ruins. He also said he similarly planted stoneware at the Soshinfudozaka ruins in Shintotsukawa, Hokkaido, in September.

Archaeological hoaxes spur history text rethink


Shinichi Fujimura on Wikipedia

Next creep..in next post

[edit on 13/6/10 by coredrill]

[edit on 13/6/10 by coredrill]

[edit on 13/6/10 by coredrill]

I remember that guy! And the flap over the fake Archaeoraptor from China, first reported in National Geographic ( en.wikipedia.org... ). Piltdown man is, of course, an old fraud but there were many more.

Thank you. I hope that you will continue to unearth bogus archaeology. Some of the most famous "finds" in the history of archaeology have been tainted with suspicion of fraud. Some of Heinrich Schliemann's artifacts from Troy and the celebrated bust of Nefertiti fall into the "dubious" category.

the next rotten apple is from the Anthropological Community

2. Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten
He was an anthropologist and carbon dating specialist at the University of Frankfurt (please note the stress on the word "was"). He had studied archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles and got a doctorate in 1973.

This dude falsified the data of the skulls and stuff he found at excavations, falsifying the carbon dating results.

He had dated the skull fragment of the "Hahnhöfersand Man", a supposed Neanderthal skull, as 36,300 years old when further investigation proved it was only 7500 years old. Another fossil, of the "Binschof-Speyer Woman", which was supposedly 21,300 years old, was actually only 3090 years old. "Paderborn-Sande Man", supposedly 27,400 years old, was from the 1700s. In one case he had also claimed that a fossil named "Adapis" had been found in Switzerland, which would have meant it was a rarity; it was, however, from France, where other specimens had already been found.

source - wikipedia.org

This creep was found trying to sell the University's Chimpanzee Skull collection to a Private American Collector and was fired for the effort.
He even hoaxed a genealogy to claim descent from a famous Prussian general Hans Joachim von Zieten to claim some nobility.

He was caught when one of his colleagues Thomas Terberger developed serious doubts about his claims. He and british archaeologist Martin Street brought the hoaxer to light.


Now, gotta search for the other hoaxers to follow up.

Have a nice read!



[edit on 13/6/10 by coredrill]

reply to post by Byrd


Yeah! The Hoax that started the trend was the Piltdown man.

The next Hoaxer was not an anthropologist, but a layman - Manuel Elizalde, Jr., who was the adviser to the overthrown dictator of Philipnes Ferdinand Marcos on Filipino national minorities.
This Hoax electrified millions across the world.

The Stone Age Tasaday Tribe of Philippines.

The Tasaday are an actual tribe, who were paid by Elizalde to act like a stone age tribe which lived in complete isolation.

read More at

Tasaday controversy

and

Stone Age Tasaday - at the Museum of Hoaxes

[edit on 13/6/10 by coredrill]

What is wrong with people? Why fake a part of history? People are too hungry for money.

reply to post by coredrill
Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten is a good example of professional fraud and deceit. He cheerfully sailed upon the waves of success for thirty years until his boat ran aground in 2004.

He was Professor of Anthropology at Frankfurt and had the privilege of dating significant finds through C14. Instead of using the technology, he simply pulled dates from his ass with the assurance that he wouldn't be doubted. This went on for some years. His worst deceit identified a 300 year old skull as almost 30, 000 years old! His ass was surely deep, as he continued to drag out wild numbers for a long time.

Science is an adversarial world populated by highly educated people without social skills...joking. If people are submitting evidence to support their theories and this guy keeps destroying them...people will notice! He was caught out eventually and exposed as an extravagant fraud. Even his name was a lie...the Von Zieten was added by him to claim family ties with a Prussian general.

Museum of Hoaxes

El Wiki

ETA: Dammit, you've already done the guy!

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Kandinsky]

Originally posted by packinupngoin
What is wrong with people? Why fake a part of history?

It's not just the money and fame.

It's the shear joy of putting one over on the whole world - which probably deserves it anyways.

Nowadays such a person would be known as an 'IRL Troll'.

On the anthropology side, perhaps we should examine the case of Cyril Henry Hoskin, who claimed in a series of books to be a Tibetan named "Tuesday Lobsang Rampa."

In November 1956 a book called The Third Eye was published in the United Kingdom. It was written by a man named Tuesday Lobsang Rampa and purported to relate his experiences while growing up in a monastery in Tibet after being sent there at the age of seven. The title of the book is derived from an operation, similar to trepanation, that Rampa claimed he had, in which a small hole was drilled into his forehead to arouse the third eye and allow stronger powers of clairvoyance....

During the story, Rampa meets yetis and, at the end of the book, he encounters a mummified body that was him in an earlier incarnation. He also takes part in an initiation ceremony in which he learns that during its early history the Earth was struck by another planet, causing Tibet to become the mountain kingdom that it is today...

The explorer and Tibetologist Heinrich Harrer was unconvinced about the book's origins and hired a private detective from Liverpool named Clifford Burgess to investigate Rampa. The findings of Burgess' investigation were published in the Daily Mail in February 1958. It was reported that the author of the book was a man named Cyril Henry Hoskin, who had been born in Plympton in Devon in 1910 and was the son of a plumber. Hoskin had never been to Tibet and spoke no Tibetan. In 1948, he had legally changed his name to Carl Kuon Suo before adopting the name Lobsang Rampa.

en.wikipedia.org...

When confronted, Hoskin would eventually claim that his soul had migrated from Tibet to the body of an Englishman. Many "New Agers" continue to believe the hoax, despite all the wealth of information about Tibetan culture and religion freely accessible today.

reply to post by DJW001


I used to love to read Lobasang rampa's books when i was young/in college. but when i came to know that he is a hoaxer..i grew wise on him.

Great thread! I love reading about archaeology and knowing who the hoaxers are helps. I haven't come across these names before but I will keep them in mind.

It's sad to me that people who say they want to know the truth go and hoax the world into thinking something is true and it isn't when they know they are deceiving everyone. We already have a hard time getting answers out of most finds, we don't need people making stuff up for sheer entertainment, money and sick personal satisfaction.