Researcher seeks fakes in UMaine collection

ORONO — With museum curators struggling to distinguish genuine archaeological artifacts from forgeries, a Colorado researcher has begun to look at centuries-old insect remains in ancient Mexican art at the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum.

Robert Pickering wants to use the remains to determine the exact age of the artifacts.

Pickering, who is chairman of the anthropology department at the Denver Museum of Natural History, has encountered a few pieces in the Maine collection he suspects are fake, but he can’t be sure.

“I’ve run into a few, but I’m a little hesitant to say something is an out-and-out fake without further evidence,” he said.

Researchers can use carbon-dating techniques to determine the age of the insect casings, but the technique does not work with the pottery itself. The insect pupa were attached to figurines found inside ancient tombs.

“These casings date back to the time that the tomb was actually being used,” he said. “We scraped some casings off a vessel and got a carbon date off the casing, because these are organic and pottery is not.”

Pickering’s work as a forensic anthropologist helped him develop the theory that insect remains could be useful in archaeology.

“I identify remains for coroners and medical examiners, and one of the things that happens when you work with remains is sometimes you run into nasty little bugs,” he said.

Pickering left Maine on Monday, after about a month of research at the university. He plans to return next year to continue his research.

Art forgers have become very good at imitating ancient styles, and they have even learned to replicate the telltale manganese stains researchers once used to determine a piece’s authenticity, Pickering said.

“Modern fakers are not only good artists, but well-read,” he said. “They know what people are looking for and take that into consideration when they make the next generation of fakes.”

But while forgers have become adept at re-creating the external appearances of artifacts, researchers look to the internal construction to find out which pieces are genuine.

Pickering has been using CAT scans to get a feel for the insides of figurines, and he plans to work with a physician to use fiber-optic technology designed for looking at the insides of human bodies.