Academic literature on the topic 'Archaeological fakes'

In this paper we present discussions on archaeological authenticity in Turkey, advanced both from scholarly as well as popular scientific point of views. In Turkey in the last five years a recent public debate has become on previously inconspicuous "archaeological fakes". The problem was previously known, but not permanently entered in scientific research. It will probably still be a long way to go until Turkish archaeologists to deal with this matter in scientific terms with it and accept it as an important study area. Although Turkey is a key country for both originals, as well as for forgery production, we known little about which materials should be categorized as replicas or fakes, which objects were classified, what materials were faked, why and by whom.

Although scientific methods are frequently applied in archaeology and are often considered as indispensable, their results do not always agree with archaeological expectations. This can usually be resolved by detailed discussions and by acknowledging the potentials and limitations of the different approaches. To do this it is necessary to accept the competence and experience of each other and, foremost, accept and understand the different methodologies. Here a case is presented, in which such a conundrum could in principle be solved but archaeological arguments are given a priori more weight and discomforting scientific results are thus suppressed. The case deals with a number of decorated gold foils and pieces of amber that were found near a Late Bronze Age structure at the hamlet of Bernstorf near the small town of Kranzberg, Lkr. Freising, in Bavaria. They were interpreted as clear evidence for contacts between Mycenae and Bavaria in the Late Bronze Age and it was suggested that the gold derives from Egypt. It was also maintained that this find would corroborate the widely accepted hypothesis of an “amber road” and a link between the Mediterranean cultures and Central Europe. Analyses of the Bernstorf gold showed it to be exceptionally pure which is not only unknown in natural gold but also in all prehistoric gold objects hitherto analyzed. It was therefore concluded that the finds from Bernstorf were made from modern gold foil, which is supported by radiocarbon dates of soil intentionally enveloping an amber “seal” containing gold foil of similar composition. However, this unavoidable conclusion is dismissed by some archaeologist, claiming that “mere chemical analysis” and “a chemist” cannot decide on the authenticity of an object and that archaeological reasoning has to be given priority.

Authenticity is frequently seen as crucial in archaeology. In this paper, we examine the nature of authenticity and question by implication whether so much attention should be given to determining the actual age and thus the genuineness of archaeological objects. We show that numbers of authenticated objects are potentially fakes. There is an acceptance that many archaeological sites and reconstructions are not actually really old, although the acceptability of this view depends on one's flexibility towards the concept of authenticity. It is clear that the public does not necessarily put the same value on genuineness as do archaeologists. We suggest that certain aspects of the past have always been a potentially renewable resource. We suggest that a more relaxed approach to genuineness and authenticity is acceptable today and is already accepted by the public as consumers of the past.

In addition to archaeologists who make stone tools for experimental purposes, there is a growing number of flintknappers who make lithic artifacts for fun and for profit. The scale of non-academic knapping is little known to archaeologists, and is connected to a flourishing market for antiquities, fakes, replicas, and modern lithic art. Modern stone tools are being produced in vast numbers, and are inevitably muddling the prehistoric record. Modern knappers exploit some material sources heavily, and their debitage creates new sites and contaminates old quarry areas. Modern knapping is, however, a potential source of archaeological insights, and a bridge between the professional community and the interested public. Modern knapping also is creating a “twentieth-century stone age,” and archaeologists working with lithic artifacts need to be aware of the problems and potentials.

“Hidden in dark forests, shifty characters with shady pasts were producing caps full of coins or Polish groschen from base metal in peasant cottages” (Komáromy 1893, 648). It is as if András Komáromy in his 1893 story for the journal Századok was describing the archaeological finds from Tolna County we will present below. The scene he portrays was of the difficult times following the Battle of Mohács, when even poor people tried their hand at the forbidden activity of counterfeiting. We can learn of the efforts of noblemen at counterfeiting from the work of Komáromy through the confession of a man (master Nicholas) accused of this activity. One of the most interesting parts of the science of numismatics is counterfeiting, because it is only a slight exaggeration that there have been fakes ever since the birth of money. Despite the distinctive nature of the topic, little is known of it even today. Knowledge is particularly scanty about so-called rural counterfeiting workshops, with few written sources – in contrast to those on counterfeiting by noblemen. In our paper we would like to provide some useful archaeological data primarily through surveys with metal detectors and field walks on a relatively small but intensively studied topic of the Ottoman Period.

The review analyses the work of a historian and media studies scholar Stefaniia Demchuk on the everyday life of the Middle Ages. The scholar focuses her research on the medieval man, with all his fears, desires, joys, and sorrows. The work consists of 7 chapters, which are logically structured from the birth of a person to their death, with life between these periods filled with work, holidays, love, and education. The value of the work lies in the fact that the researcher draws attention to the least represented, especially in Ukrainian historiography, class - the peasantry. The analysis of the work revealed that the researcher used interdisciplinary methods, anthropological and hermeneutical approaches. Geographically, the work covers the territory of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, which Stefania Demchuk proposes to consider within the time frame from the 5th till the 16th century. While the researcher relies on a significant number of archaeological, written and visual sources, works by well-known European medievalists, the material is aimed at readers of any level. The study is a popular science story about the Middle Ages, with additional recommendations for readers, illustrations, and quotes from works of art and treatises. As part of her work, Stefania Demchuk not only presents the history of everyday life in an accessible way, but also debunks the most common and popular myths and stereotypes about the Middle Ages: backward medicine and lack of hygiene, the low, disenfranchised position of women, church-controlled celebrations, poverty, hunger, no proper childhood experiences, etc. Stefania Demchuk's work "The Age of Fasting and Carnivals. How They Lived, Drank and Loved in the Middle Ages" promotes the popularisation of history and media studies, and is aimed at combating historical myths and fakes. This work will be of interest and use to both the scientific community and anyone interested in the Middle Ages.

Abstract:Provenance, the ownership history of an artifact or work of art, has become one of the primary mechanisms for determining the legal status and authenticity of a cultural object. Professional associations, including museum organizations, have adopted the “1970 standard” as a means to prevent the acquisition of an ancient object from promoting the looting of archaeological sites, which is driven by the economic gains realized through the international market. The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), one of the museum world’s most influential professional organizations, requires its members to list the ancient artworks and artifacts that they have acquired after 2008 that do not conform to the 1970 standard in an online object registry. The study presented here of the AAMD’s Object Registry for New Acquisitions of Archaeological Material and Works of Ancient Art analyzes the extent to which AAMD member museums do not comply with the 1970 standard and, perhaps of greater significance, the weaknesses in the provenance information on which they rely in acquiring such works. I argue that systematic recurrences of inadequate provenance certitude are symptomatic of the larger problem of methodology and standards of evidence in claiming documented provenance. A museum’s acceptance of possibly unverifiable provenance documentation and, therefore, its acquisition of an object that may have been recently looted, in turn, impose a negative externality on society through the loss of information about our past caused by the looting of archaeological sites.

Cette thèse se focalise sur l’analyse des missions scientifiques françaises dans la région du Caucase et des collections ramenées en France à la suite de ces expéditions. L’étude couvre la période du milieu du XIXe siècle au début du XXe siècle, avant les grands changements politiques des années 1910-1920. L’attention se porte principalement sur les missions scientifiques mandatées par le ministère de l’Instruction publique, tout en ne négligeant pas les collections issues de voyages non scientifiques ou d’antiquaires. Cette recherche met en lumière l’intérêt de la communauté scientifique française pour le Caucase au XIXe siècle, ainsi que les motivations des chercheurs qui s’y sont rendus et les travaux qu’ils ont menés sur le terrain. Une autre priorité de cette étude était d’examiner les collections archéologiques, ethnographiques et photographiques conservées dans divers musées et archives en France. Pour ce faire, l’inventaire d’une base de données des collections caucasiennes ainsi que la collecte d’informations biographiques sur les chercheurs français ayant contribué à ces missions ont été nécessaires. La contribution de ces collections à la réflexion sur les transferts culturels entre le Caucase et la France est aussi examinée. L’objectif ultime était l’identification et l’étude de ces collections en vue de leur future intégration dans la muséographie, mettant en lumière les noms de chercheurs et de photographes dont les voyages dans le Caucase étaient jusqu’à présent méconnus
This thesis focuses on the analysis of French scientific missions in the Caucasus region and the collections brought back to France following these expeditions. The study covers the period from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, before the major political changes of the 1910s-1920s. The primary focus is on the scientific missions mandated by the Ministry of Public Instruction, without neglecting collections from non-scientific journeys or antiquarians. This research highlights the interest of the French scientific community in the Caucasus in the 19th century, as well as the motivations of the researchers who went there and the work they conducted in the field. Another priority of this study was to examine the archaeological, ethnographic, and photographic collections held in various museums and archives in France. To do this, an inventory of a database of Caucasian collections and the collection of biographical information on French researchers who contributed to these missions was necessary. The contribution of these collections to the reflection on cultural transfers between the Caucasus and France is also examined. The ultimate goal was the identification and study of these collections for their future integration into museography, highlighting the names of researchers and photographers whose journeys in the Caucasus were previously unknown

The goal of Chapter 5 is to examine the interactions between the movement of ancient vehicles and the Pompeian streetscape. Roman vehicles are therefore examined to show how their construction and design defined their interactions with that environment. Ruts, the most resonant of such interactions, are subjected to a comprehensive study here for the first time, including a description of how they were formed and what they tell us about vehicle size and driving behavior. New forms of evidence inscribed on the vertical faces of street features—the marks of carts overriding or sliding along these features—expand the information beyond ruts. This new evidence permits the determination of the direction of travel at hundreds of locations throughout Pompeii and forms the archaeological foundation for the existence of the traffic systems there.

Abstract This chapter examines the particular issues of looting of archaeological sites, a phenomenon that became a significant factor in the middle of the twentieth century and continues today. It looks at the negative externalities and losses imposed on society, which increased as the application of scientific methodologies increased the knowledge that could be derived from proper excavation. The chapter begins with a consideration of the harms both to global society through the loss of knowledge caused by the destruction of archaeological context and to the communities and States of origin through loss of cultural and intellectual capital, damage to artefacts, the acceptance of fakes and forgeries, and finally the funding of armed conflict and other illegal activities. The chapter then turns to the legal responses to these issues starting with the historical approaches of the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century and spanning to contemporary laws that rely on State control and ownership of archaeological artefacts. The purpose of this legal regime is to discourage looting by imposing consequences on looters and all those involved in the market chain and to provide legal recourse for the return of illegally taken artefacts. The chapter includes an analysis of judicial decisions in market States that recognize foreign State ownership of archaeological artefacts, along with international conventions that together constitute the legal framework to protect archaeological heritage.

Abstract Among the major domains studied in the history of archaeology are museums, as institutions and as sites of knowledge. In this chapter, we consider how museums have contributed to the making of archaeological knowledge—such as the National Museum of Denmark’s Three Age System, or notions of prehistoric industries at the 1867 Universal Exhibition. Another example concerns fakes—establishing the authenticity of artefacts has led to an understanding of their mode of production and use, while questions of provenance have broadened to issues of assemblage and context. The second part of this chapter considers how the history of archaeology has been mobilized as a means of outreach and education, with examples drawn from Northern Italy, Oxford, Paris, and Berlin. We conclude that museums nowadays cannot fulfil their functions without some consciousness of their history, and therefore should integrate the material and ideological conditions of archaeological knowledge into their objectives and displays.

The chapter analyzes, through case history, the evolution of online communication in the cultural sector, which has been increasingly developing in recent years. The numerous online platforms available allow a potentially enormous diffusion of cultural contents and allow reaching a very wide audience. Even the archaeological sector has adapted to the new media, but creating a good strategy is often not a simple thing. The blogging platforms, associated with a good use of social media, allow you to practice the right communication of archaeological sites, museums, and places of culture, improving the knowledge and participation of the public, and above all countering the diffusion of fake news.

This research assesses who is involved in the trafficking of archaeological objects and fake antiquities from Turkey; how they are involved; and how they operate, both online and offline. It highlights the volume and visibility of indicators of illicit activity by suspects in online forums and social networks like Facebook and Instagram. With automatically-generated data, netnographic data and other open data, this research documents online social organisation of mass disorganised crime. It also documents corruption; transnational crime, organised crime and transnational organised crime; and financing of political violence from repression to terrorism and conflict.

American ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft continues his struggle to understand Dighton Rock and place it in his understanding of American prehistory. He visits the rock in 1849 and declares its markings to be a mix of Icelandic and Indigenous. He then reverses himself and says it is purely Indigenous, based on the reading provided him by the Ojibwa leader Shingwauk. Schoolcraft’s investigations are situated within the rise of the American Ethnological Society and his leading role in the New-York Historical Society, the growing controversy over polygenism and monogenism within his intellectual circle, his friendship and falling out with Ephraim Squier, and Schoolcraft’s conviction that an archaeological fake, the Grave Creek stone, is genuine.

Imagination has informed ‘the writing of the past’ since the birth of European antiquarianism. However, the prominence and reputation of the archaeological imagination has fluctuated greatly through time. Both a product of its times and a force for change, the archaeological imagination has been variously central to the discipline, marginalized, and ridiculed. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, antiquarians such as John Leland, John Aubrey, and William Stukeley referenced druids, proto-Christianity, and classical Rome to creatively people England’s past, producing past worlds that ‘made sense’ in the context of the nationalist politics and religious mores of the time (Daniel 1981; Piggott 1985; Trigger 1989). By contrast, the tendency towards empirical study squeezed imagination to the margins of mid-twentieth-century processual archaeology (Hodder 1989). This chapter picks up some threads of the story of archaeological imagination as it has been ‘written’ during the last few decades, as well as reflecting on some opportunities for the future, specifically in the study of death, mourning, and emotion. In recent years, many archaeologists have experimented with different styles of writing in an attempt to give faces and voices to people in the past. For example, Mark Edmonds (1999) wrote imaginative vignettes of life in Neolithic Britain, while Ruth Tringham (1991) evoked the drama and emotion surrounding the death of people and the burning of houses in Neolithic south-east Europe. These attempts to ‘people the past’ were, at the time, complemented by multi-vocal narratives that sought to give voice to different contemporary interpreters of the past, such as Barbara Bender’s collaborative work on Stonehenge and Leskernick (Bender 1998; Bender et al. 1997). These bodies of work encourage us to think critically about the process ofwriting the past and the ‘will to truth’ in our stories. We are also invited to ask who is writing, whose voices are heard, what types of language are being used, and to what effect. These genres also question the type of past that we wish to write. Narratives may be variously based on power and politics (Parker Pearson and Richards 1999), emotion and bereavement (Tarlow 1999, 2000, 2012), action and performance (Pearson and Shanks 1991; Shanks 2012), material culture and identity (Thomas 1996).

This chapter frames the challenges brough in relief by the Covid-19 pandemic as a predicament, and utopia-as-a-systematic-method as a way of addressing them. Our human predicament has two faces: complexity and hegemony. Both explain the often futile and counterproductive efforts at collective problem solving. Complexity means that the outcomes of a system are determined by the dynamic interactions between its elements. It makes the world unpredictable and resistant to policy interventions. Hegemony describes a situation in which we are unable to see beyond our cognitive and moral horizon, to the point that the world as it is appears self-evident to us. To overcome complexity and hegemony we use a systematic approach of utopian thinking that consists of three elements: An ‘archaeological’ part in which we construct or reconstruct a particular image of the good society. An ‘ontological’ part in which we address the question of what kind of people specific social and institutional arrangements encourage. And an ‘architectural’ part which is concerned with the design of alternative institutional and social arrangements that bring about the desired form of human flourishing.

Históricamente, las personas han tratado de adaptar el entorno a sus necesidades. Hoy en día, el diseñar adecuadamente un entorno implica tener en cuenta a todos los usuarios. Por ello, la accesibilidad ha pasado a ser una característica básica a tener en cuenta desde el inicio de cualquier proyecto, lo que introduce la cuestión de cómo intervenir el patrimonio histórico para hacerlo accesible, es decir, cómo plantear la intervención en monumentos, jardines históricos, hallazgos arqueológicos, etc., teniendo en cuenta que todas las personas tenemos derecho a acceder al patrimonio como una parte fundamental de nuestra propia cultura. A pesar de ello, muchos de los bienes patrimoniales presentan barreras importantes de acceso. Además, la posibilidad de actuación sobre estos bienes es limitada debido a las necesidades de conservación de los mismos como parte fundamental de la cultura. Combinar los conceptos de patrimonio y accesibilidad puede parecer contradictorio, debido a que el primero busca intervenciones mínimas mientras que el segundo requiere de intervenciones que eliminen las barreras de acceso con el fin de conseguir una accesibilidad integral. El reto radica en facilitar el acceso a los contenidos de los bienes patrimoniales por toda la población. Para ello, es necesario el desarrollo de metodología específica para hacer accesible el patrimonio y que tenga en cuenta sus características especiales y sus necesidades de conservación. Actualmente, el proyecto “PATRAC Patrimonio Accesible: I+D+i para una cultura sin barreras” (proyecto liderado por GEOCISA y LABEIN en el que participa el IBV con otros 22 socios) ha desarrollado esta metodología incluyendo un análisis de la diversidad funcional de la población española, un análisis de las barreras existentes en el patrimonio español, un análisis de los productos de apoyo que pueden facilitar la accesibilidad al patrimonio y, al mismo tiempo, se está abordando el desarrollo de productos específicos que permitan el acceso a la cultura de todos. Con el objetivo de desarrollar los productos y sistemas necesarios para garantizar un acceso seguro y confortable al monumento, de forma no discriminatoria, para todos los ciudadanos, y de forma compatible con el bien cultural y reversible, tanto en las fases de conservación, como en la de “explotación” del patrimonio existente. En este contexto el IBV está desarrollando junto con AZTECA y ACCIONA soluciones específicas para la accesibilidad horizontal consistentes en estructuras ligeras con pavimentos cerámicos que permitan la inclusión de elementos que aporten información y orientación sobre el bien patrimonial y con un impacto reducido. Este sistema mejoraría la accesibilidad a la vez que permitiría distinguir la intervención con respecto del original. Para la construcción de un pavimento cerámico sobre-elevado accesible se deben considerar los aspectos que deben satisfacer los pavimentos en cuanto a su seguridad, su accesibilidad, y las cargas asociadas al uso. Además, el producto resultante habrá de tener en cuenta los requisitos emocionales y funcionales de los usuarios. Este desarrollo se espera que tenga un gran impacto debido a que de esta forma se conseguirá el acceso al patrimonio de visitantes que hasta ahora han tenido grandes dificultades, permitiendo que disfruten del derecho de acceder a los bienes patrimoniales y teniendo también en cuenta las necesidades de conservación del bien patrimonial. Historically, people have tried to adapt the environment to their needs. Today to design adequately an environment it is required to keep on mind all the potential users. Therefore, accessibility has become a basic condition to consider from the very beginning of the any architectural project. So, access to heritage is a right for all the people as a fundamental part of its own culture, which poses the issue: how to intervene in built heritage to make it accessible, which includes monuments, historic gardens and archaeological sites without excessive disturbance. There are important barriers in many heritage sites. Besides, the possibilities for intervention in the heritage are limited due to the needs of conservation as an important part of the culture. The novelty to combine the concepts of heritage and accessibility at first may seem antithetical, because the first looks to preserve existing assets while the second tends to remove whatever is possible to achieve integral accessibility. The thread connecting both ideas is the usability of the property by the entire population. To do so, it is very important to have tools and methodologies to make accessible the heritage and to take into account their special characteristics and needs. Currently, the project "PATRAC Accessible Heritage: R & D for a culture without barriers" (project led by GEOCISA LABEIN and in which the IBV with 22 other partners) has developed a methodology including an analysis of the functional diversity of Spanish population, an analysis of existing barriers in the Spanish heritage, an analysis of the product support that can facilitate access to heritage and at the same time, it is addressing the development of specific products that enable access to heritage for all the people. The goal is to develop products and systems that ensure a safe and comfortable access to the heritage for all citizens, in a reversible way which ensures the compatibility with the cultural assets, in phases of conservation and exploitation of existing buildings. In this context, an example of how to improve horizontal access is the creation of specific floors, which are being developed by AZTECA, ACCIONA and IBV. The idea is to use an in-ground-present irregularities elevated walkways composite tile digitally printed with the original pavement and the proper signals. Such a system improves the accessibility of the path and at the same time allow distinguish the intervention from the original. For the construction of a ceramic surface on high-accessible areas, requirements regarding safety, accessibility and use loads of the pavement should be took in account. Moreover, the resulting product will have to take into account emotional and functional requirements of users. The impact is very high by the novelty of the topic of the project. The devices to be generated will enable to carry out visits without any difficulty for the part of users who today have the biggest problems for access to the property because of their condition. And it will take in account the conservation needs of the heritage as well.