You’ll find tricksters, hoaxers and forgers in all walks of life, so it’s no surprise to find that the world of archaeology has had its fair share. The temptation to pull the wool over the eyes of experts has often proved all too strong, particularly where there is money to be gained or reputations to be tarnished…
- April Fools’ Day: the hard-to-believe history behind the pranks
- 10 of the most epic April Fools' Day hoaxes in history
The most infamous archeological hoaxes in the world
Piltdown man, UK
Undoubtedly Britain’s most notorious archaeological hoax was the ‘discovery’ in 1912 of a prehistoric skull in a gravel pit near Piltdown, East Sussex. Solicitor Charles Dawson declared the find to be an important link in the evolutionary chain between apes and humans. Though some were sceptical, Dawson’s claims were backed by many luminaries of the day. It was only in 1953 that the skull’s jawbone was shown to be that of an orangutan.
Tiara of Saitaphernes, Ukraine
Talented Ukrainian goldsmith Israel Rouchomovsky was commissioned by Leiba and Schapschelle Hochmann to make a golden tiara adorned with Greco-Scythian art from the 3rd century BC – chiefly scenes from Homer’s Iliad. Rouchomovsky’s work looked so authentic that the Hochmann brothers sold it to the Louvre in 1896 as a treasure from Ancient Greece. The Parisian museum paid 200,000 francs, only discovering the tiara was fake seven years later when Rouchomovsky himself tipped them off.
Cardiff Giant, United States
Unearthed in 1869 during the digging of a well in Cardiff, New York, this ten-foot tall ‘petrified man’ was paraded as proof that the biblical reference to the existence of giants (Genesis 6:4) was true. Thousands came to view the marvel, paying 50 cents a time. However, the giant was merely a statue carved from gypsum commissioned by a local businessman. The following year the ruse was rumbled.
Fawcett’s idol, Brazil
A ten-inch high basalt statuette of a man holding a tablet, this fake idol was bought by author H Rider Haggard in Brazil and given to one Percy Fawcett. The British explorer became obsessed with it, believing it to be a genuine artefact from Atlantis. In 1925, he consequently took his son and his son’s best friend Raleigh Rimmel into the Amazon on an expedition to find the lost city. They disappeared and were never seen again. A book based on Percy Fawcett's expedition was published in 2009, called The Lost City of Z; a film with the same name was released in 2017.
Etruscan terracotta warriors, Italy
During World War I, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art spent tens of thousands of dollars on three Etruscan statues – Big Warrior, Old Warrior and Colossal Head. Sadly for the museum proprietors, all three were the work of an Italian family called Riccardi who dedicated themselves to creating such forgeries. The deception only came to light in 1960 when the glaze on the statues was found to contain very non-Etruscan manganese.
Amarna Princess, UK
Perhaps Britain’s most able forger of antiquities has been Shaun Greenhalgh. Arguably his finest work was the creation of a small alabaster statue of an Egyptian princess in the Amarna style popular in the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Sotheby’s auction house declared it genuine and it was bought by Bolton Museum for £440,000 in 2003. The forgery was only exposed when three of Greenhalgh’s ‘Assyrian reliefs’ were pronounced fake by the British Museum.
Main image: model of the skull of Piltdown man, as reconstructed by Dr Smith Woodward/Getty
More cultural stories from around the UK
- "Amdani!" Rediscover Britain's once-lost languages and how you can help save them
- Tea bags, ketchup – and football's most famous song? The 'British' inventions that are actually American
- Sea shanties sail on: The relentless appeal of sea shanties and how one tiny Cornish village is bringing global acts to its festival audiences – in a fish and chip shop
