‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, Forgery & Fake Papyri’

Part of the 'Forging Antiquity' Project

‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, Forgery and Fake Papyri’ 19 September 2019, Macquarie University Sydney, Australia

Every interpretation of the past involves some creative imposition and, yet, folk understandings of the historian’s task admit no room for this rich dynamic between known and unknown, us and them. The idea that the past is made and made through our engagement with it seems to threaten the integrity of our sense of where we come from and who we are. The stakes are even higher when it comes to antiquity understood as material remains, as object of art or inquiry. Particular ire is reserved for those who compromise the guarantee of truth and immediacy offered by the physical reality of the material by adjustment, appropriation, or downright fabrication. Looted or forged artefacts packaged up with false declarations of authenticity and fictional accounts of provenance speak to the criminal underbelly of our engagement with the ancient world. These objects exploit the vanity of our confidence in scientific technique and expertise. Deviant artefacts upset traditional assumptions about the protection afforded the past by the academy. They open up the past to contributions made by marginalised groups and to creative interventions which demonstrate how porous, how live, and how important the past is today. From Thucydides to the New Testament, Zoroaster to hieroglyphs, from Egypt to e-Bay, this showcase will highlight research undertaken as part of the Australian Research Council-funded Project ‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery, and fake papyri’, featuring presentations from Macquarie staff and students, and our overseas partners.

Speakers and paper titles

(all speakers from Macquarie University except where noted)

Richard Bott, ‘Assumed Authenticity: Expertise, Authentication, and the Sheikh Ibada Fakes’

Malcolm Choat, ‘Constantine Simonides and his New Testament Papyri’

Lauren Dundler, ‘#antiquitiesdealers – The Construction of Dealer Persona in the Internet Antiquities Market’

Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel), ‘The challenges of Writer Identification on papyrus’

Vanessa Mawby, George Topalidis, and Penny Blake, ‘Theopompus (of Chios?) and his Hieroglyphs: Constantine Simonides and 19th century Egyptology’

Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, ‘Forgery as an act of creative decolonisation: Constantine Simonides between Thucydides and Zoroaster’

'Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri' is an Australian Research Council Discovery Project. Here's their blurb:

To forge is creative, but forgery now means creating a fake. ‘Forging Antiquity’ explores this ambiguous dichotomy by situating an examination of forged papyri within an historical analysis of the development of forgery, authentication techniques, and public debates over forgeries from the 19th century to the present day. By contextualising technical study of fakes within analysis of strategies of authenticating ancient papyri, traditional and emerging de-authentication practices, and the cultural context of forgery, its outcomes will provide a tool for future assessments of authenticity, illuminate the parallel development of the professional personae and skills of forgers and authenticators, and contribute to debate on who has the authority to pronounce on the past. The project is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery project grant from 2017–2019, and is a collaboration between Macquarie University and the University of Heidelberg.

There is a small gallery of fake papyri, illustrating the sort of material there is today on the market eagerly bought by collectors.