10-20-2007, 02:29 PM
Some time ago, a friend of mine wrote this article in a Dutch newspaper: it describes how archaeologists use exaggerated media claims to draw attention to their discoveries, and raise money. Usually, those finds have less spectacular interpretations when the official report is printed. Ever since, I am awarding a non-existing monthly award to the most inaccurate press release, which I have called the "Castle of Amsterdam Award", after another fake discovery in my hometown. Here are some winners:
Coins of Cleopatra show she was not beautiful
These coins have been known for at least three centuries; Blaise Pascal joked that this was the nose that changed history.
Wall of the Temple/Palace of Salomo discovered
A wall does not indicate the name of the owner
Zahi Hawass
He actually announces nothing.
The Some parts of the Bible are proven correct!
Not even the greatest skeptic has ever proposed that the book of Jeremiah was unreliable
The walls of Romulus
A wall does not indicate the name of the builder - worse, the dating of Latial Iron Age has been changed
The Palace of Vercingetorix
No serious scholar maintains that the Gauls were savages; there is nothing surprising about a monumental structure
Coins of Cleopatra show she was not beautiful
These coins have been known for at least three centuries; Blaise Pascal joked that this was the nose that changed history.
Wall of the Temple/Palace of Salomo discovered
A wall does not indicate the name of the owner
Zahi Hawass
He actually announces nothing.
The Some parts of the Bible are proven correct!
Not even the greatest skeptic has ever proposed that the book of Jeremiah was unreliable
The walls of Romulus
A wall does not indicate the name of the builder - worse, the dating of Latial Iron Age has been changed
The Palace of Vercingetorix
No serious scholar maintains that the Gauls were savages; there is nothing surprising about a monumental structure
