Faked Japanese Paleolithic Archaeology

Faked Japanese Paleolithic Archaeology

An article which we missed some months ago in the The Scotsman refers to the recent story of a Japanese archaeologist who faked top finds of artifacts to make his archaeological reputation.

Much of Japanese paleolithic history will have to be "rewritten" as a result.

The archaeologist was only caught by a hidden camera as he himself "pre-buried" a future find out of a plastic bag in his pocket. This has been going on for 30 years.

In fact:

"[the archaeologist] entirely fabricated his astonishing finds at 159 of the 178 sites he worked on...."

How could such a thing have happened?

Interesting as an explanation is the quote at the end of the article:

"Young archaeologists do not challenge revered senior scholars," said Hisao Baba, an anthropologist at the National Science Museum. "It is extremely difficult to directly deny others' work because it is taken as a grave personal and professional insult."

We are often very critical about the overall discipline of mainstream archaeology, and frankly, it is often justified.