Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China

Fake artefacts are objects of fascination. This volume is devoted to fakes and forgeries of written artefacts from Mesopotamia to modern China. Produced for economic, political, religious or more personal reasons, fake artefacts can be identifi ed by studying their contents and materiality. They are sold on the antique market today along with real artefacts that have often been looted, and therefore require ethical refl ection from scholars. Cecile Michel, Michael Friedrich Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts: An Introduction Part I: From Copies to Forgeries Cecile Michel Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day Catherine Breniquet How Writing Came about in Glozel, France Uta Lauer Venerable Copies: The Afterlife of a Fragment of a Letter by Wang Xizhi (303–361) Francois Deroche Fakes and Islamic Manuscripts Part II: Forgers and Their Motives Ekkehard Weber Fake Ancient Roman Inscriptions and the Case of Wolfgang Lazius (1514–1565) Olivier Gengler Michel Fourmont and His Forgeries Jan Just Witkam Sicilian Sweets. The Fanciful Frauds of Wily Father Vella Dan Shapira Et tout le reste est litterature, or: Abraham Firkowicz, the Writer with a Chisel Malachi Beit-Arie Supplement: The Forgery of Colophons and Ownership of Hebrew Codices and Scrolls by Abraham Firkowicz Part III: Identifying Fakes Claudia Colini La invencion del Sacromonte: How and Why Scholars Debated about the Lead Books of Granada for Two Hundred Years Jost Gippert Identifying Fakes: Three Case Studies with Examples from Different Types of Written Artefacts Ira Rabin, Oliver Hahn Detection of Fakes: The Merits and Limits of Non-Invasive Materials Analysis Michael Friedrich Producing and Identifying Forgeries of Chinese Manuscripts Contributors