Ancient artifacts always cause a buzz in the archaeology world, or at least we think so thanks to you know which movies. Indeed, really old timey-objects hold the promise of being as awesome as the Dead Sea Scrolls, or even as scientifically fascinating as the Antikythera mechanism. Other times, they’re just sexy sex stuff, because we’re all pervs. And other times they’re just creepy, like something you’d see in the first act of a horror movie

In this Pictofact, we’re focusing on something different: bullshit. Not, like, actually fossilized poop (ew), but ancient artifacts that turned out to be useless crap. And having treated this subject before, we know that we’ll inevitably have to deal with hoaxes. Because random stuff may be taken as priceless objects, but most of the time they’re just used by sketchy people desperate for attention. So we’re giving them attention right now, happy? Actually, wait, we are happy. After all, from finely made forgeries to truly random trash, you won’t believe the stuff that almost made the history books.

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