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Reconstruction of the Piltdown Man hoax hominin by Cicero Moraes et al.	Source: (© Cicero Moraes et al.)

Hoax Hominin ‘Piltdown Man’ Could Equally Be ‘Piltdown Woman’

The Piltdown Man scandal is arguably the greatest scientific fraud ever perpetrated in the UK, with faked fossils being claimed as evidence of our earliest ancestor. It is highly likely that an...
Representational image of a fake Egyptian tomb interior. Source: Amith / Adobe Stock

Fake Egyptian Tomb Fraudsters Almost Pull Off Legendary Hoax

Egypt’s Public Prosecution office just issued an arrest warrant for a group of crafty criminals who cooked up an ingenious scheme to swindle antiquities traffickers. These daring fraudsters went all...
A Hollowed-Out Gourd Contains the Blood of Louis XVI. Or Does it?

A Hollowed-Out Gourd Contains the Blood of Louis XVI. Or Does it?

While it’s not what I’d do, legend has it that when King Louis XVI was beheaded in 1793, onlookers in Paris rushed to the scene to dip their handkerchiefs in the dead king’s blood. Years later, one...
Marie Antoinette was entirely innocent of the crime. Source: oksana_bondar / Adobe Stock.

Marie Antionette’s Diamond Necklace: The Fraud That Killed A Queen

This is the story of Marie Antoinette, the 18 th century Queen of France, and a diamond necklace that was never actually hers. Although the story seems so outlandish as to be fiction, it is all true...
Pseudo-History or Famed Fiction? Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia

Pseudo-History or Famed Fiction? Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia

Geoffrey of Monmouth has gone down in history for his classic epic, the Historia Regum Britanniae , known in English as The History of the Kings of Britain . This masterpiece of medieval literature...
Hoax of the Century? The Truth About Pierre Plantard’s Priory of Sion

Hoax of the Century? The Truth About Pierre Plantard’s Priory of Sion

Emerging in the Middle Ages in monarchic circles, chivalric orders gradually morphed into fraternities and social circles, predominantly in Christian societies. These knightly orders were a privilege...
Death Photo of Abraham Lincoln Proved, or More Fake News?

Death Photo of Abraham Lincoln Proved, or More Fake News?

The discovery of a haunting photograph of Abraham Lincoln on his deathbed has created controversy thanks to the airing of a documentary which follows a California investigator on her hunt to discover...
The Vinland Map: A Most Non-European Artifact

The Vinland Map: A Most Non-European Artifact

The Vinland Map carries with it the air of mystery and, some would say, the stench of deception. In the vaults of Yale University, and insured for $25 Million, it is either a colossal fraud or an...
Barbara Erni was a famous con artist in the 1700s whose treacherous trunk trick earned her a reputation, and ultimately an untimely end. Source: Thicha & Andrey Kiselev / Adobe Stock

The Brazen Cons of Barbara Erni and Gregor MacGregor

Throughout our relatively modern history, con artists, thieves, and scammers have been a dime a dozen. In dire times of poverty and lawlessness, shrewd and mischievous people resorted to the world of...
Archaeologist Busted for Faking Artifacts Showing Jesus Crucifixion

Archaeologist Busted for Faking Artifacts Showing Jesus Crucifixion

Archaeologists stand on trial, accused of faking a collection of holy artifacts including the earliest depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. Archaeologist Eliseo Gil, geologist Óscar Escribano, and...
Tsarevich Dimitry by Mikhail Nesterov. (1899)

Dmitri of Uglich and the Three False Dmitris: One of the Most Bizarre Episodes in Russian History

Dmitri (Dmitry) of Uglich, known also as Tsarevich Dmitri or Dmitri Ivanovich, was the youngest son of the first Tsar of All the Russias, Ivan IV Vasilyevich, more commonly known as Ivan Grozny or...