This Friday 2nd of June at 4:00–5:30 pm, the Markers of Authenticity seminar series continues in X5B 321 (Museum of Ancient Cultures Seminar Room, Macquarie University), with a paper sharing insights from the first six months of work on the new  Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri’.

‘Forging Antiquity: Insights from a new ARC Discovery Project’

Malcolm Choat, Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, and Vanessa Mawby (Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University)

The Australian Research Council Discovery project ‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri’, a collaboration between Macquarie University and the University of Heidelberg, began in early 2017 with a study of two early modern scholars, Pierre Hamon and Jean Mabillon, and the earliest forged papyrus in the modern age. The treatment of the papyrus by these two scholars illuminates the emergence of methods and resources for the authentification of documents which are still in use today. By comparing the techniques developed to both construct and uncover the forgery, we will demonstrate how the two processes are entwined and provide salient lessons about the communication and reception of scientific practice.