For Fame or Fortune: Forgery of Archaeological and Palaeontological Artefacts

Stimuli to forgery have been manifold throughout history. This paper offers insight into two of such stimuli that prove primary significance: money and ego. It uses a series of case studies from the fields of archaeology and paleontology – namely, two religious relics, the Shroud of Turin and the James Ossuary, and two osteological remains, the Piltdown Man Skull and the Archaeoraptor Fossil – to expose the motivation and intention driving the mischievous acts in a comparative historical perspective. The paper also looks at the reception of these “discoveries” by the contemporary and later audiences, and how such a reception changed over time.