6 Historical Artifacts That Turned Out to Be Fake

1. piltdown man

In 1912, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson addressed to the curator of the department of geology of the British Museum, Arthur Woodward, stating that he had discovered the skull of an ancient humanoid creature at Piltdown. Woodward and other reputable British scientists examined the find and came to the conclusion that the skull belonged to some third branch of human evolution - not Cro-Magnon or Neanderthal.

For almost 40 years, the best scientists of the era argued about what constitutes the so-called Piltdown man. Alone called his long awaited "missing link" in evolution between modern Homo and apes. Others have pointed out that the exhibit's jaw does not fit well with all other parts of the skull.

Despite the presence of skeptics, most paleontologists were inclined to think that Piltdown Man actually existed.

But a few decades later, the deception was exposed - it turned out that Dawson did the head of a primitive man from the skull of a modern woman and the filed jaw of an orangutan. He treated all this with potassium bichromate to age the “exhibit”.

In addition to Piltdown Man, Dawson fabricated at least 38 other fossils. For what? I just wanted to be a famous archaeologist.

2. Ica stones

Ica stones are a huge collection of boulders that collected in Peru in the 1960s, the brothers Carlos and Pablo Soldi, and the archaeologist Javier Cabrera. These cobblestones are interesting in that they depict the ancient inhabitants of the Andes and dinosaurs.

Did you think that terrible lizards became extinct 65 million years ago? But no, primitive people existed side by side with dinosaurs! And they fought with them with spears and stone axes!

The reality of Ica stones is still firmly believed in conspiracy theorists. They consider them to be strong evidence of the fallacy of the chronology of earth history, which modern scientists adhere to. Surely these wise men bribed by the world government are hiding the real state of affairs from ordinary people!

But in fact, most of the Ica stones were purchased from a farmer named Basilio Uschuya. At first, this young man declared the reality of his boulders, some of which, by the way, weighed half a ton and reached a length of one and a half meters. But after confessedwho made them with an old drill and aged them by burning the stones on a fire from burning cow dung.

It should be noted that the stones met images of dinosaurs, the remains of which were found exclusively in North America and never in South. But Uschuya is a farmer, not a paleozoologist, so he can be forgiven for that. By Basilio's own admission, he simply copied ancient animals from popular magazines.

3. cardiff giant

October 16, 1869, workers digging a well behind William Newell's barn in Cardiff, New York found petrified man more than three meters tall. The landowner announced that the find dates back to biblical times - and therefore, it is urgent to do business.

Many curious people began to come to see the giant from the Book of Genesis, from whom Newell took 50 cents. Archaeologists immediately announced that the giant could not possibly be real. But this did not stop the flare up in the press.

Some Christian preachers even began to defend the authenticity of the giant, because he was proof of the veracity of biblical chronology.

After a while the giant sold a group of entrepreneurs for 23,000 US dollars - at the moment it is almost half a million! And they began to show it for money at various exhibitions throughout the country.

It was only after a couple of months that the scam came to light. It turned out that the giant made from plaster, a New York tobacconist named George Hull, cousin of William Newell, with whom they conspired to swindle the American public.

Hull was an atheist and argued with a local priest that the giants described in Genesis did not exist. But he failed to convince the opponent, who was strong in faith. Then George decided to demonstrate to the world the gullibility of people and forged a giant, and then, after waiting for the fame of him to spread throughout America, he exposed his own deception.

On December 10, 1869, Hull officially confessed press that he was the creator of the Cardiff giant. Mischief managed.

By the way, one then famous showman, Phineas Barnum, tried outbid the statue from its new owners, but could not. Therefore, he made a copy of the giant and showed it in his museum, assuring that his exhibit was definitely real, and that made by Hull was a hoax. Barnum even tried to prove the authenticity of his giant in court, but of course he failed.

4. Persian princess

In October 2000 in the Pakistani province of Balochistan discovered the mummy of what was supposed to be a Persian princess. The inscription on a golden plate on her chest said that she was a certain Rodugune, the daughter of the Persian king Xerxes I from the Achaemenid dynasty. Mummy was exhibited at the National Museum of Pakistan.

However, as often happens, stray American scientists spoiled all the joy of local museum workers. They found that the coffin where the body was stored is 250 years old, the mat under it is five, and the mummy itself is only two years old.

Moreover, it was made wrong, without the corresponding extraction of the insides. And on the tablet on her chest was not the Persian form of the name of the daughter of Xerxes, Vardegun, but the Greek one - Rodugun.

Further study body showed that it was a modern woman aged 21-25, killed in 1996 - the nature of the injuries suggested that the cause of death was a collision with a car. To this day, it is not known who came up with the idea to turn the corpse of an accident victim into a mummy - perhaps it was such an original way to hide the crime.

5. Chinese archeoraptor

In 1999, a hitherto unseen dinosaur was discovered in the Chinese province of Liaoning, which dubbed archeoraptor. The fossil was unveiled at a National Geographic magazine press conference. Archeoraptor was supposed to be the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.

But immediately after the article was published, the journal was criticized by Storrs Olson, curator of birds at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

The US Geographical Society investigated and discoveredthat the archeoraptor was glued together from several fossils by a Chinese farmer from Xiasanjiazi. The find consisted of pieces of a real miniature microraptor dinosaur, Janoris fish-eating bird from the Cretaceous period, and some other animals - there were five samples in total.

The Chinese created this chimera to sell to collectors and earn extra money.

6. Babylonokia

A photograph of a “petrified” telephone is circulating on the Internet, which supporters of alternative history use as evidence of the existence of advanced technologies in antiquity. Possibly given by aliens. And this device received from them the name "Babylonokia" - from the words Babylon and Nokia.

That's just really it blinded made of clay in 2012 by artist Karl Weingertner. He saw the exhibition “From Cuneiform to SMS: Communication in the Past and Today” at the Museum of Communications in Berlin and was inspired to create his own piece of art on the subject. Then he posted a photo of his sculpture in social networks, fans of conspiracy theories copied it from there - and away we go.

Weingartner himself said about "Babylonokia" the following: "The photo was used without my knowledge and consent. This is not what I would like. I don't believe in UFOs and aliens."

And by the way, the name "Babylonokia" wrong, because it's not Nokia, but Ericsson S868.