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A Mammoth Fraud in Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James B. Griffin ,
David J. Meltzer ,
Bruce D. Smith  and
William C. Sturtevant
James B. Griffin
Affiliation:
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
David J. Meltzer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275
Bruce D. Smith
Affiliation:
Sturtevant, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
William C. Sturtevant
Affiliation:
Sturtevant, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560
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Abstract

The Holly Oak pendant is a shaped piece of marine whelk (Busycon sinistrum) shell with two holes drilled in one end that bears an incised depiction of an extinct proboscidean (woolly mammoth or mastodon). It allegedly was recovered in 1864 from an archaeological site in Delaware. There was speculation in the 1970s as to its age and significance, and it was illustrated and cited as a Paleoindian artifact of Pleistocene age. Subsequent analyses indicated the artifact was fraudulent: The engraving probably was done in the 1880s on a shell recovered from an archaeological site. This has been confirmed by a recently obtained AMS radiocarbon date. The Holly Oak pendant is a modern forgery.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , July 1988 , pp. 578 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1988

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