The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage (GDKE) of Rhineland Palatinate is having the trouble of confirming one of the biggest archaeological frauds of recent times in Germany. The first suspicion came from a confidential request from a university that had doubts about the conclusions of one of its employees, an elderly man. Doubts had arisen about the proposed thesis and verification was requested. That was the thread that began to be pulled, until discovering that at least 18 finds from the house had been deliberately misdated, supposedly to make them more spectacular. Related News From 4,400 standard years ago Yes The inscription that challenges the origin of the history of writing Celia Fraile GilThe correct dating now changes the view of prehistory in the region while a debate breaks out about the need to audit the discoveries by third parties not directly involved in the investigations. «Numerous projects in which the suspected employee participated have already been examined and so far we have 18 suspected cases, including the Ochtendung Neanderthal and the Riol Battlefield, but we are not sure that some more do not appear,” said the Secretary of State, Simone Schneider. Neanderthal from OchtendungThe Neanderthal from Ochtendung, whose study was published in 1997, is the skull of a man between 30 and 40 years ago discovered near Koblenz and which appeared broken into three pieces, broken under the pressure of the ground but easily reconstructable. At that time it was attributed to the Paleolithic, as a sample of “primitive Neanderthal.” Now subjected to an age determination using the radiocarbon/C14 method, in an external laboratory, it has turned out that it dates back to the Early Middle Ages (7th/8th centuries AD), which represents a difference of 160,000 to 170,000 years compared to what was previously thought. Another sensational find at the time was the Riol Battlefield, whose study was published in 2015 and interpreted as the scene of the supposedly 2,000-year-old battle described by Tacitus, between the Romans and the Treveri, a Celtic-Germanic tribe. in the year 70 AD The review of the dating has concluded for the moment that the archaeological database is insufficient for verification and a dating is pending definitive. “We have assured the public and especially the scientific community that we will continuously report on the results of the investigations to avoid further scientific damage,” promises Schneider. By the time the investigation was started, the first checks had already shown that at least 21 Human skulls or skull fragments guarded by the institution were incorrectly dated. Consequently, the disciplinary procedures, which were originally processed at the GDKE, were expanded and the proven experts Ulf Ickerodt, state archaeologist of Schleswig-Holstein, and Silviane Scharl, from the Institute of Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Cologne, were involved. There are another 21 skulls falsely dated to the 5th century BC, of which only two actually correspond to that dating. The rest date, according to new tests carried out now, from the Middle Ages or even modern times. The GDKe has not made public the identity of the former employee, a state official who has been out of service for some time. There are ongoing disciplinary proceedings against him for deliberate tampering.
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