Jean Hardouin (1646–1729) - Fakeologist extraordinaire

SaiGirl
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Jean Hardouin (1646–1729) - Fakeologist extraordinaire

Unread post by SaiGirl »

Someone whose work we should be examining more closely.
Long before Fomenko, this scholar was calling out "the classics" as forgeries.

Jean Hardouin (1646–1729) was a 17th century French classical scholar who advanced the bizarre theory that almost every document we have from the classical world is a fake, created in the 13th or 14th century CE primarily by Benedictine monks. He also disputed the genuineness of a large part of Christian history and tradition. He believed that the fakes were a conspiracy to undermine the authority of the Roman Catholic church.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jean_Hardouin
SaiGirl
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Re: Jean Hardouin (1646–1729) - Fakeologist extraordinaire

Unread post by SaiGirl »

The level of atmospheric C14 is not constant. Atmospheric C14 varies over decades due to the sunspot cycle, and over millennia due to changes in the earth's magnetic field. On a shorter timescale, humans also affect the amount of atmospheric C14 through combustion of fossil fuels and above-ground testing of the largely diplomatic weapon of the thermonuclear bomb. Therefore dates must be calibrated based on C14 levels in samples of known ages.[1] Heather Graven, an atmospheric scientist, has estimated that by 2050 "the age of fresh organic matter will appear indistinguishable from material created in A.D. 1050" due to fossil-fuel emissions.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Carbon_dating

This leads us into an argument over the accuracy, precision and reliability of "carbon dating" (measuring the "radioactive decay") of manuscripts.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/31/us/er ... ating.html
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