The Beringer Hoax

As Beringer describes the stones and weighs the interpretations in his book, he passes by one telltale clue after another: "The figures...are so exactly fitted to the dimensions of the stones, that one would swear that they are the work of a very meticulous sculptor." The fossils have a "smoothness suggesting the polished effect of applied pumice, though the lower side retains its natural soiled roughness." "One would swear that he discerned on many of them the strokes of a knife gone awry...."

Beringer's experience shows how hoaxers can exploit a single-minded belief that can blind those unwilling to question their own initial conclusions despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Trapped by their own hoax, Roderick and Eckhart tried to shift the blame. Roderick threatened the Hehns with irons and fetters if they did not admit to having carved and hidden the stones. They promised Zanger "much money and many favors if he would state that the Hehn brothers made the stones." To his credit, Zanger refused and the hoaxers were disgraced. (He did, however, ask "the commission for help in obtaining the wages owed to him by Roderick for eight days of stone polishing for which he had received no compensation.")

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© 2009 by the Archaeological Institute of America
www.archaeology.org/online/features/hoaxes/beringer.html