Forging Antiquity

The website for the Australian Research Council Discovery Project: Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri

Workshops, Seminars, and Conferences

Updates and results of the project have and will be given in papers in various seminar series, including the Markers of Authenticity seminar series. Papers given by team members are listed on the research page. The project has also held workshops or symposia in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Workshops, Symposia, and Conferences

‘Imagining the real: Alternative (arte)facts from antiquity to the present day’

Co-Sponsored by the Ancient Cultures Research Centre and the Australasian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies 13–14 October 2017, Museum of Ancient Cultures, Macquarie University

This symposium examined forged objects from a range of genres and periods, as well as the discourses of authenticity that surround them, and the contrasting approaches and implications of Humanities and Scientific approaches to authentication.

For more information, click here.

‘Manuscripts from the Margins’

Supported by the Ancient Cultures Research Centre, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Sir Asher Joel Foundation, and the Society for the Study of Early Christianity 20–22 September 2018, Macquarie University, Sydney

The conference “Manuscripts from the Margins” gathered together a group of the world’s leading experts in fake texts from throughout history to examine the forging of manuscripts (defined widely to include all surfaces on which writing is found) of all sorts. The conference had two parts. A two-day workshop on the 20th–21st September, “How to Edit a Forgery”, and a day of public lectures on synthetic themes, “Faking it”.

For more information, click here.

‘Deviant Expertise and Malicious Thievery: Markets, Makers, and Illicit Artefacts on the move’

Supported by the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and the Environment 19 September 2019, Macquarie University, Sydney

From Thucydides to the New Testament, Zoroaster to hieroglyphs, from Egypt to e-Bay, this showcase highlighted research undertaken as part of project, featuring presentations from Macquarie staff and students, and our overseas partners.

For more information, click here.