The Daily Fake

[feralimal]

Once their minds have been formatted with a couple of false foundational beliefs -- "Ancient Rome existed two thousand years ago", "There was no high technology in the past", all you have to do is sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch these good little ants produce a better rationalization than the forgers themselves could have come up with, since these innocent souls actually believe what they're saying.

Yes - that's the whole trick. Once the provided context is believed then, click whirr, everything else follows and slots easily into place.

 

[feralimal]

Ancient footprints upend timeline of humans’ arrival in North America
and https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7586

Raised footprints (and pollen) - at least 21000 years old. Take care though they are fragile - a butter knife can cut them. (And has a prehistoric native written "18L" next to their print?)

Sunken footprints. Is that a child playing?

What I learnt:
There's a new gizmo to tell you the date of things. Using a "Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit" one can undertake an "analysis of quartz crystals" and plant seeds - this is called "optically stimulated luminescence". Its better than dendrochronology, as you can go further back, k?

How does luminescence work?

The method makes use of electrons trapped between the valence and conduction bands in the crystalline structure of certain minerals (most commonly quartz and feldspar).[1] The trapping sites are imperfections of the lattice — impurities or defects. The ionizing radiation produces electron-hole pairs: Electrons are in the conduction band and holes in the valence band. The electrons that have been excited to the conduction band may become entrapped in the electron or hole traps. Under the stimulation of light, the electrons may free themselves from the trap and get into the conduction band. From the conduction band, they may recombine with holes trapped in hole traps. If the centre with the hole is a luminescence center (radiative recombination centre), emission of light will occur. The photons are detected using a photomultiplier tube. The signal from the tube is then used to calculate the dose that the material had absorbed.

The OSL dosimeter provides a new degree of sensitivity by giving an accurate reading as low as 1 mrem for x-ray and gamma ray photons with energies ranging from 5 keV to greater than 40 MeV. The OSL dosimeter's maximum equivalent dose measurement for x-ray and gamma ray photons is 1000 rem. For beta particles with energies from 150 keV to in excess of 10 MeV, dose measurement ranges from 10 mrem to 1000 rem. Neutron radiation with energies of 40 keV to greater than 35 MeV has a dose measurement range from 20 mrem to 25 rem. In diagnostic imaging, the increased sensitivity of the OSL dosimeter makes it ideal for monitoring employees working in low-radiation environments and for pregnant workers.[citation needed]

To carry out OSL dating, mineral grains have to be extracted from the sample. Most commonly these are so-called coarse grains of 100-200 μm or fine grains of 4-11 μm. Occasionally other grain sizes are used.

from Optically stimulated luminescence - Wikipedia

Of course it makes perfect sense! Its absolutely not the case that they are attempting to lose people in a bunch of technical jargon.

Back to the article, here's the science:

The provocative finding threatened the dominant thinking on when and how people migrated into the Americas. Soon afterward, a technical debate erupted about the method used to estimate the age of the tracks, which relied on an analysis of plant seeds embedded with the footprints.

They began the work in January 2020, taking samples of seeds from an aquatic plant called ditchgrass that was interspersed with the footprints. Using careful geologic studies and radiocarbon dating, they got an astonishing result: The prints were 21,000 to 23,000 years old.

For the follow-up, they gathered ancient pollen from coniferous trees that was embedded around the footprints. This type of material would not have the same problem as aquatic plants, because trees take carbon from the atmosphere. They also used a technique called “optically stimulated luminescence” to measure the energy built up in crystals of quartz within the White Sands sediments. This method allowed them to calculate the last time the mud that contains the footprints was exposed to sunlight or heat.


White Sands National Park resource program manager David Bustos works in a trench dug to expose sediment layers at the study site. (National Park Service)
The pollen study was an arduous undertaking, requiring scientists in four laboratories scattered across the United States to work together to prepare and analyze the age of 75,000 grains of pollen. Using radiocarbon dating, they found the pollen from conifer trees dated to 22,600 to 23,400 years ago, matching their first results.

It’s more or less a master class in how you do this,” said Edward Jolie, an anthropological archaeologist at the University of Arizona who has studied the White Sands footprints in the field but was not involved in the new study. “As Carl Sagan said, ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ They have some extraordinary evidence.

The stories:

The thousands of footprints found in White Sands are an extraordinary but evanescent record of life around Lake Otero, the body of water that rested inside the basin during the Pleistocene. The ancient tracks are the remnants of complex interactions. Children played. Humans stalked giant sloths. A person walked a mile, carrying a child and placing them down occasionally. But the fossilized prints are slowly being destroyed by erosion — they are so soft they can be cut with a butter knife.

“It was hard to believe that humans could be walking along with the mammoth prints nearby, and that the prints could be of the same age,” Bustos said.

“It’s a fun way to think about a shared common past for a lot of Native people,” Jolie said. “You can visualize little kids splashing in the mud. There’s nothing quite like seeing that little toddler footprint in the sand.”

The lesson:

“Think about the rest of the world [and] how much our understanding of human evolution has grown and been informed due to more archaeological work in the advancement of sciences. However, in the Americas, it has remained static,” Steeves said. “When it comes to adding Indigenous voices and expanding the time frame for Indigenous peoples in the Americas, there is still a lot of racism and bias in American archaeology.”

We are talking about 21-23,000 year-old footprints in sand, that are so fragile they can be "cut with a butter knife", and yet tell us stories of giant sloths, native children playing, etc.

So, next time you walk on a beach with an ice cream, or step out of the shower onto a bath mat, just consider how those very prints you leave behind may also be found in 20,000 years and tell your story!

 

[ViniB]

How does luminescence work?

from Optically stimulated luminescence - Wikipedia

Hah! The usual may do this, so it can may do that and may show results of xyz..... this is as good as a bunch of guesswork, or simply making it up. Oh, it's not explained how in the actual hell does pollen last undisturbed, untouched onto something so fragile for 20k years.

Like, the footprints are sturdy enough to last for that long, yet are so fragile that are eroding fast and can be destroyed by a butter knife?? Pick one option, both can't work here

 

[feralimal]

In first, archaeologists extract DNA of ancient Israelites


2500+ year old, Hebrew pottery, definitely maybe.

What's it about:

In First, Archaeologists Extract DNA of Ancient Israelites
A rare First Temple-period family burial opens the door to genetic studies on the true origin of the ancient Israelites - and their links to modern Jewish populations

ancient Israeli DNA + their modern populations

This achievement, a Holy Grail in the study of lost civilizations, was enabled following the discovery near Jerusalem of a rare family tomb dating to the Iron Age.

the Holy Grail - good one!

So far the collaboration of archaeologists and geneticists has been able to extract genetic material from two individuals, producing partial information, which is a tiny sample indeed.

Collaboration... they're not lying!

The conference has since been delayed due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.

timely!

The technique of extracting genetic material from ancient bones, teeth and other organic remains began to emerge over 20 years ago, and has since reached such sophistication that researchers are even divining (some) information on creatures that lived over a million years ago. It is rare for bones to be preserved well enough to provide any genetic material at all, yet the ability to extract and sequence genetic material from ancient remains has given researchers major insights into the origins, migrations and history of human populations, as well as prehistoric hominins, animals and plants.

we can divine DNA ...

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, well-preserved DNA is harder to find in the hot Middle Eastern climes. But this technical issue was partly overcome by the 2015 discovery that the petrous bone, a part of the skull located behind the ear, contains a much higher concentration of DNA than other bones, meaning that at least some genetic material may survive in it even in warmer weather.

... sadly there's not much DNA.. but happily there is more in a special bone - 'the petrous bone'.

That has been partly because of the rarity of ancient Hebrew graves and largely because in Judaism, excavating or disturbing graves is a big taboo. Particularly in Israel, human remains are not considered antiquities by law, and archaeologists who find ancient graves are often pressured by ultra-Orthodox groups to quickly rebury any bones they unearth.

... but its taboo to touch bones...

It’s true that no ancient Hebrew inscriptions were found in the burial confirming that the deceased were Israelites. However, the pottery assemblage is typical of what is found in late First Temple-period burials in Jerusalem, Finkelstein explains. Together with Kiryat Yearim’s proximity to what was then the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, this suggests that the locals can indeed be identified as ancient Hebrews, he says.

... and we don't really know they are Hebrews anyway. The pottery is Hebrew though! except that it wasn't inscribed.

“In the last 30-40 years there is a general understanding that the Hebrews were mostly of local origin, which means they were Canaanites and became Israelites in an identity-forming process that probably took a long time,” Finkelstein says.

The story is ancient Hebrews came from the Canaanites and this find supports this! Yay!

What I learnt:
You can tell someone's nationality from their "pottery assemblage".

DNA is more highly concentrated in the Petrous bone. Petrous etymologically must relates to stone - petra. So, 'stone bone'. If 'stone bone' sounds like the punchline to a bad joke told by masons about the profane, that is entirely accidental!

 

[ViniB]

What's up with so many bog bodies being "discovered" over the last 2 decades??

Anyway, aparently the bogs preserve the bodies so well that nowdays we know their last meals, also what they ate on the months prior to death!

 

[ProfessorHotStuff]

Ancient footprints upend timeline of humans’ arrival in North America
and https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7586

View attachment 30480​

Raised footprints (and pollen) - at least 21000 years old. Take care though they are fragile, a butter knife can cut these.

I briefly lived in nearby El Paso as a child. The weather heats up (expanding materials), freezes (contracting them), features crazy high winds and sandstorms (that erode) and yearly monsoons (that also erode). The idea fragile upraised shapes could withstand 21,000 years is absurd.

 

[papaganda]

I’m posting this here because the ‘debunking‘ video is unspecific enough (IMO) to be relevant for inclusion in the nigel cheese thread, and it’s a better example of a cheap fake. I want to explain the process here too - I sent the free energy alternator video posted on the Nigel cheese thread a to an industry friend, a self starter who runs their own business building all sorts of sheds and backyard structures for clients. She responded with this Jeremy Fielding video, the subject of this post.


View: https://youtu.be/sbdU7AkH6QM?si=E_xeUAZ0g2CbBjd9


I sent her this message as a response:

“This guy made a whole bunch of unsimilar comparisons and strawman arguments, without directly discussing why the magnets couldnt be arranged properly to create a continuous motion. He jumbles his and his audiences understanding of alternator tech as well, rather brutally. He looks stoned and his name is fielding. Hes got sponsors and he admits it (people who pay him to sell you specific tools and information). He claims the videos are made to deceive you, but i see him using the most deception, including his consistent reliance on the theories and 'laws' of physics, which have been proven dubious (they work in a closed system, most of the time)...

But when he actually starts talking about the video i sent you, he gives it all away. He has no argument other than insinuating they faked it and saying its ridiculous and cant be done. Meanwhile, he asks for donations and has sponsors. His video garnered almost 6 million views, roughly 12 times his normal viewership . Thats because he made the video specifically because the video he was debunking was already very popular (over 12 million views) increasing fieldings relative popularity. Mwanwhile, the guys who made the video i sent you dont take donations, dont have apparent sponsorships, and the merchandise they sell is all pushing their own brand and channel, which seems to be very popular amongst spanish speaking peoples.

Point is, IMO, mr. Fielding made this video to convince people not to learn, before they have the chance. It pisses me off because thats what his sponsors what, and its so obvious to me. That way you keep paying for their overpriced and inefficient tools!

But truly, if you look at it as a controlled response to deter people from seriously looking into the first video, ask yourself - what are we supposed to be afraid of? That it wont work? That we will learn why it doesnt work? Or that we'll waste our time? Learning never occurs when we succumb to fears like this.”

I am curious to know if any of you have had similar experiences, and maybe if you’ve found which arguments work the best to open someone’s mind to attempting to understand this new old science. Hope this is appropriate for this spot - the fakers are working overtime these days, I’m sure you all know - but it must be because their work is becoming less and less valuable… Less bang for the buck recently? Indicator that people are waking up?

 

[feralimal]

I’m posting this here because the ‘debunking‘ video is unspecific enough (IMO) to be relevant for inclusion in the nigel cheese thread, and it’s a better example of a cheap fake. I want to explain the process here too - I sent the free energy alternator video posted on the Nigel cheese thread a to an industry friend, a self starter who runs their own business building all sorts of sheds and backyard structures for clients. She responded with this Jeremy Fielding video, the subject of this post.


View: https://youtu.be/sbdU7AkH6QM?si=E_xeUAZ0g2CbBjd9


I sent her this message as a response:

“This guy made a whole bunch of unsimilar comparisons and strawman arguments, without directly discussing why the magnets couldnt be arranged properly to create a continuous motion. He jumbles his and his audiences understanding of alternator tech as well, rather brutally. He looks stoned and his name is fielding. Hes got sponsors and he admits it (people who pay him to sell you specific tools and information). He claims the videos are made to deceive you, but i see him using the most deception, including his consistent reliance on the theories and 'laws' of physics, which have been proven dubious (they work in a closed system, most of the time)...

But when he actually starts talking about the video i sent you, he gives it all away. He has no argument other than insinuating they faked it and saying its ridiculous and cant be done. Meanwhile, he asks for donations and has sponsors. His video garnered almost 6 million views, roughly 12 times his normal viewership . Thats because he made the video specifically because the video he was debunking was already very popular (over 12 million views) increasing fieldings relative popularity. Mwanwhile, the guys who made the video i sent you dont take donations, dont have apparent sponsorships, and the merchandise they sell is all pushing their own brand and channel, which seems to be very popular amongst spanish speaking peoples.

Point is, IMO, mr. Fielding made this video to convince people not to learn, before they have the chance. It pisses me off because thats what his sponsors what, and its so obvious to me. That way you keep paying for their overpriced and inefficient tools!

But truly, if you look at it as a controlled response to deter people from seriously looking into the first video, ask yourself - what are we supposed to be afraid of? That it wont work? That we will learn why it doesnt work? Or that we'll waste our time? Learning never occurs when we succumb to fears like this.”

I am curious to know if any of you have had similar experiences, and maybe if you’ve found which arguments work the best to open someone’s mind to attempting to understand this new old science. Hope this is appropriate for this spot - the fakers are working overtime these days, I’m sure you all know - but it must be because their work is becoming less and less valuable… Less bang for the buck recently? Indicator that people are waking up?

It sounds like you have some history about this subject. I've no idea about free energy devices or any of that.

My position on 'videos' though, is that anyone can show or appear to prove anything. 'Videos', or any other information or media that is mediated for us, can never be considered to be knowledge imo (unless the video debunks itself, in which case we can know a fake). The only way to know something is to verify it personally.

If you believe you have done that with some free energy devices, please feel free to post your video or breakdown of this. I will certainly tale a look. In fact, if it is easy to reproduce whatever steps you took and not expensive, I will try to repeat whatever process so that I am able to verify the free energy principles for myself.

 

[ViniB]

A fragment of an iron mask, alledged 1800 years, but the fine details are all visible '-' that's now how rust works

 

[feralimal]

View attachment 30489
A fragment of an iron mask, alledged 1800 years, but the fine details are all visible '-' that's now how rust works

Pff! How can they say it belonged to a soldier, as opposed to being a bust, or something else? Could it even be a female?

They always have to 'storify' stuff, where 'storify' is a new term I just coined to indicate the unwarranted addition of leading information.

PS I should probably have said 'historify'!

 

[papaganda]

It sounds like you have some history about this subject. I've no idea about free energy devices or any of that.

My position on 'videos' though, is that anyone can show or appear to prove anything. 'Videos', all relayed media really, can never be considered to be knowledge - unless the video debunks itself. The only way to know something, is to verify it personally.

If you believe you have done that, with some free energy devices, please feel free to post a video. I will certainly watch it. In fact, if it is true and easy to re-produce whatever steps you took and not expensive, I will try to repeat whatever process so that I am able to verify the free energy principles for myself.

I appreciate the invitation! I am still a relative novice with the tech and understanding - what I do understand is that the principles of the electromagnetism that allow for free energy are the same principles that make a car alternator work at all.

for that matter, this video is very easily ‘debunkable’. The maker displays his lack of knowledge (I read this as a specific intent to deceive, given how basic and common this information is) at 13:08 in the video, when he confuses alternators, motors, power loss and power generation. I’ll quote him, for posterity:

”your car alternator is going to draw 100 watts of power to put out 80 watts of power into the battery. That doesn’t account for any power being used to actually drive the car; (Images of alternator giving 80 watts to battery, getting 100 watts from it, battery giving motor 100,100 watts, tire getting 80,000 watts, motor ’losing’ [math is totally unclear here, numbers seem pointless without an explanation but I get what he’s trying to say, just wait for it]) that’s a whole separate thing. your electric motor is not only putting out enough power to drive the car, it’s also drawing enough additional energy from the battery to run the alternator. So we can just ignore the electric motor for a moment and say that the alternator is running off the battery. And what you end up with is the battery is losing a hundred watts and getting 80 watts back, and you can see very quickly we have wasted a whole bunch of power, and this is why car companies don’t put them in cars because you’re literally just wasting extra power, there’s no benefit to having it there“
(not really sure what he’s talking about here in the last sentence, unless he’s referring by ’them’ to ‘free energy devices’ which, per his analysis, the answer would be because they don’t exist; either way total garbled meaningless mess. if he’s referring to alternators, then he’s talking about electric cars, also garbling, likely intentionally, his message.)

more to the point, and hopefully easy to see now - if your alternator was giving the battery less power than the battery gave it back (with or without the motor, as mr. fielding wants to pretend) your battery would die while your car was running, all the time. The whole point of the alternator is to take the battery chemical 12 volts DC and convert it to a high current, higher voltage load. This process exemplifies the idea that magnets can be used to ‘create’ electricity, as the alternator is a spinning electromagnet, designed to push and pull current from the atmosphere around it (hard to find someone who explains it this way when you google this, but then nobody explains where the current and voltage increase come from except for saying ‘electromagnetism’, this is fundamentally how it is working, from what I understand, the magnetic field pulls current as the alternator spins it). The faster you Rev your engine, the more current the alternator can generate.

as a ‘case in point’, about five years back a friend and I modified my Subaru forrester to include a backup battery kit (Motorhomes and RVs are built with these included, fyi, I believe all cars ought to have them). The mentioned kit was 2 deep cycle batteries connected in series, which when fully charged would give me roughly 100 amp hours of electric (at 12 volts) meaning I had a 1200 watt battery setup. Granted, they were deep cycle motorcycle batteries, so I learned that they ought not be discharged past 70-50% full, as the internally conductive plates oxidize quickly past this drain level - either way, 30-40 amp hours is plenty for a computer, tv, small space heater, propane fridge, sound system, lights, etc. it’s only with power tools and large current draw items (think 1500 watt hot water kettle) that you’d need a larger setup. I just wanted to be able to park anywhere for a little while and be cozy.
how this all worked is part of what got me so invested in understanding this science. Your regular car alternator is capable of producing so much more power than it is using, to the point that you can very quickly and easily charge a backup battery set, rated for 1200 watts, in minutes. Like, 5 minutes. the way this works - an alternator is typically rated to produce different levels of amperage at different RPMs. Spinning it faster will create a higher current. if you’re idling, your alternator is barely keeping your battery from draining. If you are doing 65 on the freeway, it is not only charging it - it’s releasing a ton of electricity back into the atmosphere. That’s because your alternator is typically producing (at peak rpm’s at around 65 mph) 130 amps of current. At 12 volts, after an hour of this, you’d have created well over 1500 watts of power. If you’re only drawing at most 600 watts over the course of the day, even if you’ve drained your battery halfway (not a great idea) a regular passenger car alternator will recharge your backup batteries in around 30 minutes (wires and length and thickness matter for this, you do lose energy if your wires are too long or too thick, it’s dc current, it’s going through the wire and back).

what I actually did was replace my alternator with a more powerful upgraded version from
High Output Alternators 101: A Comprehensive Guide to High Output Alternators
i think, it could have been a different company. This increased the total amps at peak rpm’s significantly, reducing all charge times. If I wanted to really hit it home, I would have expanded the battery setup (maybe to 3600 watts), replaced my normal battery cables with 00 thick gauge copper, and started to run power tools. alas, life, covid, etc got in the way. I sold the car and moved into a motorhome.

point is the same though. An alternator (or dynamo, a single phase alternator, or magneto, historically) is just a big magnet with copper wire wrapped around it in such a way so that the two can spin against and around each other, creating a magnetic field, which generates current. The fact is, when you type into googoo ‘how does an alternator work’, the number of responses that don’t mention magnets at all is astounding. this technology is hidden for this reason. It is actually putting out more than it takes in. This video debunks itself, but not for this notion, simply because this guy decided to try and drag vehicle knowledge into his spiel. Seems to me like he is a robotics guy with some heavy duty tool company sponsorships, and I imagine they’d like to keep selling us the same stuff, rather than have to upgrade to serve a more intelligent world.

i really do appreciate your invitation to post videos of my tech. I am working on a small scale model of this generator from scratch first. Might take a couple months given what else is happening in my world (everything’s changing for everyone around me all at once it seems), but I promise when I finally finish it, you’ll all be amongst the first to hear. I am so grateful to have found the site a year ago - it’s pretty much the only place I go for unadulterated information anymore. Thanks all!

 

[feralimal]

Hittite hieroglyphs identify ancient tunnel maker – The History Blog
https://arkeonews.net/3500-year-old...rkapi-tunnel-in-hattusa-have-been-deciphered/

3500 years old

there are 249 of them

Archeologists traipsed through "Arisadu's" tunnel for over a century, before they finally spotted the hieroglyphs

The 249 hieroglyphs were found on the massive stones of the tunnel in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa. They were painted with a red root dye (likely madder), and were preserved for thousands of years in the dark of the tunnel which has a remarkably even and temperate microclimate year-round.

Excavations of Hattusa began in Yerkapı in 1907, but despite dozens of archaeologists traipsing through its cool darkness for more than a century, none of them spotted the symbols until Dr. While Bülent Genç visited the tunnel with students to take some photographs in August of 2022.

In the hieroglyphs found at the western and eastern ends of the tunnel, it is understood that a person named ‘Arişadu’ was responsible for the construction of the tunnel. This information is considered the most significant discovery regarding the tunnel’s construction.

 

[feralimal]

This next submission is not a usual DailyFake style of a link + some commentary. Instead it talks to some deeper issues with historical research. Its a follow on from a conversation I had elsewhere, where I was discussing the issues relating to source material, specifically looking at the bible and I thought I'd share my wikipedia "research"/deconstruction here too.

Looking specifically at the New Testament, we can see these lists of documents:
Biblical manuscript - Wikipedia

• List of New Testament papyri
• List of New Testament uncials
• List of New Testament minuscules
• List of New Testament lectionaries
• List of New Testament Latin manuscripts

Of the papyri, we read:

Before 1900, only 9 papyri manuscripts were known, and only one had been cited in a critical apparatus (𝔓11 by Constantin von Tischendorf). These 9 papyri were just single fragments, except for 𝔓15, which consisted of a single whole leaf.[3]

We only have 9 fragments from before 1900 - and we are talking about fragments - not even whole pages!

Among the most important are the Chester Beatty Papyri

From the Chester Beatty Papyri - Wikipedia

The papyri were most likely first obtained by dealers in illegal antiquities. Because of this, the exact circumstances of the find are not clear. One account states that the manuscripts were in jars in a Coptic graveyard near the ruins of the ancient city of Aphroditopolis. Other theories have proposed that the collection was found near the Fayum instead of Aphroditopolis, or that the location was a Christian church or monastery instead of a graveyard.[4] Most of the papyri were bought from a dealer by Alfred Chester Beatty, after whom the manuscripts are named, although some leaves and fragments were acquired by the University of Michigan and a few other collectors and institutions.[3]: 118

"obtained by dealers in illegal antiquities" found "in jars in a Coptic graveyard" near Aphroditopolis or "found near the Fayum" or "a Christian church or monastery instead of a graveyard". 'I don't know' is not an option apparently.

The above is not a solid provenance. And then:

The papyri were first announced on November 19, 1931

So 1931 is when the public record of these papyri begins.

Perhaps the uncials ("written on parchment or vellum") will be better...
List of New Testament uncials - Wikipedia

New Testament uncials are distinct from other ancient texts based on the following differences:
New Testament papyri – written on papyrus and generally more ancient

The New Testament papyri are "more ancient"?? Good god! We have just read that there were only 9 fragments before 1900 (or 1931, depending on how you want to read the information).

In 1751, New Testament theologian Johann Jakob Wettstein knew of only 23 uncial codices of the New Testament.[1] By 1859, Constantin von Tischendorf had increased that number to 64 uncials, and in 1909 Caspar René Gregory enumerated 161 uncial codices. By 1963, Kurt Aland, in his Kurzgefasste Liste, had enumerated 250, then in 1989, finally, 299 uncials.

1751 = 23 uncials
1859 = 64 uncials
1909 = 161 uncials
1963 = 250 uncials
1989 = 299 uncials

The uncials page references the Codex Sinaiticus. What of its provenance?
Codex Sinaiticus - Wikipedia

The Codex may have been seen in 1761 by the Italian traveller Vitaliano Donati, when he visited the Saint Catherine's Monastery at Sinai in Egypt. His diary was published in 1879

"may have been seen".

Then we read:

German Biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf wrote about his visit to the monastery in Reise in den Orient in 1846 (translated as Travels in the East in 1847), without mentioning the manuscript. Later, in 1860, in his writings about the Sinaiticus discovery, Tischendorf wrote a narrative about the monastery and the manuscript that spanned from 1844 to 1859. He wrote that in 1844, during his first visit to the Saint Catherine's Monastery, he saw some leaves of parchment in a waste-basket. They were "rubbish which was to be destroyed by burning it in the ovens of the monastery",[15]: 313 although this is firmly denied by the Monastery. After examination he realized that they were part of the Septuagint, written in an early Greek uncial script. He retrieved from the basket 129 leaves in Greek which he identified as coming from a manuscript of the Septuagint. He asked if he might keep them, but at this point the attitude of the monks changed. They realized how valuable these old leaves were, and Tischendorf was permitted to take only one-third of the whole, i.e. 43 leaves.

In 1846 he does NOT mention this document. Then in 1860 he "wrote a [retrospective] narrative about the monastery and the manuscript" and his important 1844 waste basket discovery!

BTW, papyrus oxyrunchus - another foundational biblical document - is also found in a rubbish dump - in 1897 - by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Hunt.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri - Wikipedia

Since 1898, academics have collated and transcribed over 5,000 documents from what were originally hundreds of boxes of papyrus fragments the size of large cornflakes. This is thought to represent only 1 to 2% of what is estimated to be at least half a million papyri still remaining to be conserved, transcribed, deciphered and catalogued. The most recent published volume was Vol. LXXXVII, released on 31 August 2023.

"cornflakes". 99% is still to come too.

On Grenfell's wiki page (Bernard Pyne Grenfell - Wikipedia) we can read:

His mother, Alice Grenfell, was living with him after his father died in 1897. She took a great interest in Egyptian Scarab shaped artifacts. She taught herself to read hieroglyphics. She published her own papers and a catalogue of the scarab collection belonging to Queen's College.[1]

In 1908, he became professor of papyrology at Oxford and was part of the editing team of The Oxyrynchus Papyri and other similar works. However he was ill for four years and during that time the professorship lapsed. Grenfell was cared for by his mother and he had recovered by 1913.[1] In 1920 he travelled to Egypt for the last time in his life and bought P.Ryl. III 457 (𝔓52), the earliest surviving witness of the Greek New Testament.

His mother was self-taught Egyptologist, he then "finds" the papyri. I wonder whether it is possible he himself placed them there? Or even created them with his mother while at Oxford?

On Hunt's page we read the following about Grenfell's illness (it is not on his own page):

In 1913 he became Professor of Papyrology at Oxford succeeding to his lifelong friend and colleague Grenfell, whose professorship lapsed due to the latter’s breakdowns and depression.

So, Grenfell was depressed.... a guilty conscience perhaps? Coercion?

My broader point is that you can go on and on attempting to find a real source and will fail. Its like a game of Chinese whispers, but you can never break out of the chain: eg uncials are useful, but papyri are 'more ancient'. Except that the papyri were found in the last 150 years. But they are foundational. Except that uncials are older. Etc.

 

[trismegistus]

My broader point is that you can go on and on attempting to find a real source and will fail. Its like a game of Chinese whispers, but you can never break out of the chain: eg uncials are useful, but papyri are 'more ancient'. Except that the papyri were found in the last 150 years. But they are foundational. Except that uncials are older. Etc.

Moreover you would pretty much have to become a full time researcher just to attempt to put the pieces together on the narrative of establishing a narrative for documents like the New Testament. It seems to me that it is easier to obscure the origins of these documents the more you splinter the sources IE it is much easier to make a claim about an interpretation if you have a few hundred scraps of paper versus an intact document. It also goes without saying that in order to reach these "exalted" positions at prestigious universities you must be willing to play the game.

Furthermore - it is more likely that you not only have to play the game but most in those roles have been groomed and selected specifically for their traits. My guess is those who have no qualms with deception, sociopathy, and a penchant for arts and crafts would be elevated much quicker. Forgery, like stonework or brick laying, is a skilled trade after all. Not everyone has the skills to forge documents as it requires an intimate knowledge of materials, language, and narrative. Of course, this is less important if you also assume that those who are trained to identify forged documents are paid off, or part of the scam. It would also make sense that some of these people who were selected over time could not psychologically handle the weight of the scam, and over time suffer from breakdowns and depression as you pointed out.

 

[feralimal]

It seems to me that it is easier to obscure the origins of these documents the more you splinter the sources IE it is much easier to make a claim about an interpretation if you have a few hundred scraps of paper versus an intact document.

Yes - its easy to poison the well... But this doesn't explain where the original idea came from.

Furthermore - it is more likely that you not only have to play the game but most in those roles have been groomed and selected specifically for their traits.

I agree - and I also think it takes far fewer people to be 'in the know' than might be imagined. Just a bit of judicious nudging/funding, and I think almost everyone will follow along.

I was considering the idea of a magic trick the other day. How many times have we seen someone apparently be sawn in half? We all know we are being tricked, so that's fine.... But how many have then investigated how the trick works?

What's in play with magic tricks and conspiracies is the same. I would say its a lack of curiosity (or inappropriate trust) along with the simple, learned acceptance of a label (eg 'trick') as an acceptable stand in for knowing/personal verification. This 'magic trick' method is similar (or the same as) to conspiracies - and explain how it is possible to get away with spinning these crazy narratives in history and elsewhere. In history the label would be 'historian says', in science its 'scientists say', etc.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tah3LgoFUL8

 

[ProfessorHotStuff]

His mother was self-taught Egyptologist, he then "finds" the papyri. I wonder whether it is possible he himself placed them there? Or even created them with his mother while at Oxford?

I'm trying to remember where I've seen this before; the "discoverer" just happens to be one of the only people who could make or determine a forgery.

If anyone recalls the Korben Dallas thread where he outlines that there are essentially no texts older than (I think) the 1400s, I'd love a link. This is the sort of thing I could read a thousand pages on.

[Supposed primary source document of worldshaking importance]
-What actual material history is it based on?
-Who found the earliest copy?
-How complete is it?
-When did they find it?
-Under what circumstances?
-What are the holes or uncertainties (black market purchase, "maybe it was found in the Fayum," yo mama so old I found uncials in her underwear drawer etc)

And of course I distrust translations of obscure or ancient languages.

 

[feralimal]

Michelangelo’s Secret Room opens to the public – The History Blog
Michelangelo’s secret sketches under church in Florence open to public

"like having an album of his works” says museum director Paola D’Agostino. It was a previous museum director Paolo Dal Poggetto who found the lost, unknown room, in 1975.

Michelangelo's room - a "trip down memory lane" - is now available for practical uses inc exclusive tours, despite being previously unknown and undocumented, and covered in 2 coats of plaster.

Forty-eight years after it was first discovered, the room where Michelangelo was said to have hidden from his political enemies for three months in 1530 is officially opening to the public.

- history blog: "three months"

Michelangelo is thought to have spent about two months hiding in the tiny chamber beneath the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in 1530, making dozens of drawings that are reminiscent of his previous works, including a drawing of Leda and the Swan, a painting produced during the same year that was later lost.

- guardian - "two months"

drawn in sticks of carbonized wood and red chalk.

Carbonized wood, aka charcoal

Whether Michelangelo actually secreted himself in the room under the New Sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo until the coast was clear is unknown, but his masterful drawing is seen all over the walls.

- history blog: "Whether Michelangelo actually secreted himself in the room ... is unknown"

Now a “secret” room in Florence whose walls are sketched with doodles that the Italian Renaissance master is believed to have created while evading a death sentence ordered by Pope Clement VII amid his falling out with the powerful Medici family is to officially open to the public for the first time.

- guardian: "believed"

Michelangelo was closely involved in the Florentine Republic, appointed by the government as one of the Nine of the Militias, in charge of the fortifications of a city that was soon to be besieged by the combined forces of Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and their new ally Clement VII.

- history blog: Michelangelo was making war, not art, in Florence.

The room, never publicly known or documented, was put to practical uses. The walls with their glorious sketches were plastered over (twice) and it was a charcoal dump until the middle of the 20th century when the trap door leading to it was covered with furniture. It was rediscovered in November of 1975 when restorers were cleaning a corridor under the New Sacristy on the hunt for a new possible exit for the Museum of the Medici Chapels.

- history blog: "never publicly known or documented", "plastered over (twice)", "rediscovered in November of 1975"

Charcoal dump aka carbonized wood dump. Maybe they removed the plaster, and bits of charcoal on the walls that were were in the way of the underlying Michelangelo drawings, in a subtractive process...?

The existence of the charcoal and chalk drawings remained unknown until 1975 when Paolo Dal Poggetto, then the director of the Medici Chapels, one of five museums that make up the Bargello Museums, was searching for a suitable space to create a new exit for the museum.

- guardian: a museum director found the drawings.

Paola D’Agostino, the director of the Bargello Museums, said it was as if the artist had wanted to produce a catalogue of his works, not knowing whether he would emerge from the chamber dead or alive.

“He drew things from the past as if he was taking a trip down memory lane … it was like having an album of his works,” D’Agostino said as she accompanied journalists on a visit to the room on Tuesday.

- guardian: "a catalogue of his works", "an album of his works", no less. Its almost as if a museum had access to a time machine and commissioned this!

He emerged in November when the Pope announced that Michelangelo would be pardoned if he went back to work on the Medici tombs in the New Sacristy.

- history blog

He was eventually pardoned by the Medicis and the sentence was lifted by the pope so that the artist could complete work on the Sistine Chapel and the Medici family tomb.

- guardian: the war mongering artist was pardoned, by those kind hearted Medicis.

History or licensed grift?

 

[Jd755]

If this is too recent to count as history just say so and I'll bin it.
When David Bowie died rather too suddenly, I caught his manager, whom I had never come across before acting in this fashion in a news clip.
Intrigued by what looked like a jovial man in a wig wearing false teeth and a presenter who could not stop giggling I found it again on YouTube and played it back slower and slower to see if I was seeing things. I wasn't.

This is one way fakes are made to appear real using contemporary tech. Must have been more difficult in times gone by but then again stage makeup and wigs have been around a long time.
Only question is where in the known, or unknown world did a dead David go?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt2ba3R51aI

 

[feralimal]

A fake classic.

Only question is where in the known, or unknown world did a dead David go?

Antarctica? To join Elvis and Kurt Cobain?

 

[ViniB]

Sure, that totally looks like wood that was in shallow waters for 800 years -_- funny, the ship looks like 19th century ships that can be found on period chinese photos