How to forge "centuries-old" documents & artifacts today?

Fenestella

Banned
Is there technology available to generate substance to mislead carbon dating to a centuries-old conclusion?

If so, there need to be experts in relevant languages, literary styles, fonts, handwritings.

What are the missing ingredients to make the forgery look authentic in every way?
 
There ARE experts in them. Or did you mean a forger needs to be an expert? Anyways, one of the best ways to go about it is to have an old painting, piece of paper, etc and alter it a bit. It they carbon date the paper and find it is several centuries old, then that helps make it seem authentic. Though of course people are going to want to know the province of it, as paper (Yah, they used o use cotton and animal skin, I know) isn't exactly something that stays around forever if not put somewhere safe.
 
Yes. Use authentically old parchment or other writing materials. You can scrape off the writing which is already there if you need to, which was a common practice. The tricky part comes with making sure everything's contemporary and authentic with the document you are creating. The ink needs to be exactly the same composition as used in the era. The fonts and language used needs to be exactly the same and contemporary with something of that age. Quite a few forgeries have been discovered since the forger(s) messed up and used the wrong word, wrote a letter in a way not used until centuries letter, etc.

But in theory, I think it would be possible to create a perfect forgery which although might be questionable by some scholars, would otherwise be defended by many others.
 
Um, the art world has reported enough forgeries, with period canvases being re-worked. Sometimes, they were a genuine me-too 'In The Style Of' that was later 'talked up'. Sometimes, they have taken a leap in tech to resolve. Beyond multi-spectral imaging, there's x-ray emission spectroscopy which can look at the precise elemental content of ink or paint, report, 'anachronistic'...

I suppose the classic example is the Turin Shroud. Provenance suggests a medieval or renaissance date. Actual age is uncertain because it has been damaged, repaired, damaged and repaired often enough to 'muddy the waters'. Identifying any truly representative part that's 'disposable' to allow robust carbon dating is a sensitive subject...

Worst case, it was an authentic, but plain burial shroud looted from some desert tomb, then accessorised...

There was a thriving market in relic-manufacture: 'Tis said the Crusaders and centuries of pilgrims collected enough fragments of the Cross as wood and nails to build the impossibly vast Noachian Ark. Current equivalent is 'Chinese Fossils'...

I've heard of genuinely old documents being re-worked as palimpsests. Also, IIRC, the Mormons / LDS are still reeling from the scandal of learning their top researcher forged much archival material to supplement his many genuine finds. He had such access, and his extensive output was so perfect, that *everything* he handled must now be considered suspect...
 
Worst case, it was an authentic, but plain burial shroud looted from some desert tomb, then accessorised...

From what I've read this seems to be the most successful type of forgery; taking authentic period items or artworks and creating fake details that make it far more valuable. Whether paper, a statue, or a painting, it makes it much harder to detect because it actually is real on some level. It also passes carbon dating tests that way.
 
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