| What proves this wasn't placed there by archeologists (I'm not accusing this particular discovery, just trying to elicit reflexion on the topic of faked archeology). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Paleolithic_hoax > The Japanese Paleolithic hoax (旧石器捏造事件, Kyū Sekki Netsuzō Jiken) consisted of a number of lower and middle paleolithic finds in Japan discovered by amateur archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura, which were later all discovered to have been faked. The incident became one of the biggest scandals in archaeological circles in Japan after the story was published by the Mainichi Shimbun on November 5, 2000. > Hearing the rumour of fraud, journalists from Mainichi newspaper installed hidden cameras at a dig site where Fujimura was working and caught him planting artifacts. The newspaper later confronted Fujimura with the video, and he was forced to confess his fraud. > It was also reported[by whom?] that prior to discovery of the hoax, Japan's paleolithic period was thought to have started earlier than anywhere else in Asia at around 700,000 BCE. > It is clear that a number of the artifacts found by Fujimura are rather unnatural and do not make archaeological sense, such as those exhumed from pyroclastic flow strata, but nonetheless majority archaeological groups as well as local and government organisations which substantially benefited from his find ignored these inconsistencies. Now let's focus on the discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Howard Carter. I will bring an alternate story, by merely quoting Wikipedia's page about this man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Carter > Howard Carter was born in Kensington on 9 May 1874,[1] the youngest child (of eleven) of artist and illustrator Samuel John Carter and Martha Joyce Carter (née Sands). His father helped train and develop his artistic talents.[2] > he showed talent as an artist. The nearby mansion of the Amherst family, Didlington Hall, contained a sizable collection of Egyptian antiques, which sparked Carter's interest in that subject. Lady Amherst was impressed by his artistic skills, and in 1891 she prompted the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF) to send Carter to assist an Amherst family friend, Percy Newberry, in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan. > Although only 17, Carter was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration. > In 1899, Carter was appointed Inspector of Monuments for Upper Egypt in the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS).[8] Based at Luxor, he oversaw a number of excavations and restorations at nearby Thebes > In 1907, he began work for Lord Carnarvon, who employed him to supervise the excavation of nobles' tombs in Deir el-Bahri, near Thebes. > In 1914, Lord Carnarvon received the concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings.[17] Carter led the work, undertaking a systematic search for any tombs missed by previous expeditions, in particular that of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. However, excavations were soon interrupted by the First World War > By 1922, Lord Carnarvon had become dissatisfied with the lack of results after several years of finding little. After considering withdrawing his funding, Carnarvon agreed, after a discussion with Carter, that he would fund one more season of work in the Valley of the Kings.[18] > Carter returned to the Valley of Kings, and investigated a line of huts that he had abandoned a few seasons earlier. The crew cleared the huts and rock debris beneath > Carter returned to the Valley of Kings, and investigated a line of huts that he had abandoned a few seasons earlier. The crew cleared the huts and rock debris beneath. On 4 November 1922, their young water boy accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the bedrock > In spite of evidence of break-ins in ancient times, the tomb was virtually intact, and would ultimately be found to contain over 5,000 items. > Towards the end of February 1923, a rift between Lord Carnarvon and Carter, probably caused by a disagreement on how to manage the supervising Egyptian authorities, temporarily halted the excavation. Work recommenced in early March after Lord Carnarvon apologised to Carter.[35] Later that month Lord Carnarvon contracted blood poisoning while staying in Luxor near the tomb site > Harold Plenderleith, a former associate of Carter's at the British Museum, was quoted as saying that he knew "something about Carter that was not fit to disclose" TL;DR Carter had the skills necessary to fake the artifacts he discovered, which is what he did in the huts he had set up above the tomb's emplacement, as the funds that were allotted to the expedition were drying up. He attributed the discovery of to their young water boy accidentally stumbling on a stone to give the discovery the touch of innocence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_the_tomb_of_Tutan... > The unexpectedly rich burial consisted of more than five thousand objects It just sounds too good to be true. The same reflexion can be applied to: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/feb/research-stonehenge-firs... > Professor Mike Parker Pearson (UCL Institute of Archaeology) discusses his research which has found a dismantled stone circle in west Wales which was moved to Salisbury Plain and rebuilt as Stonehenge. The same pattern of a last successful dig can be noticed: > Yet after having no luck with other circular monuments in the area, we returned to Waun Mawn for a final speculative dig. To everyone’s delight, our dig supervisor Dave Shaw discovered two empty stoneholes, one on each end of the arc of stones, where missing stones had once stood. |
Today there is procedure, as dull as that sounds, that makes it very difficult to plant evidence and get away with it (as evidenced by your linked story).
The majority of significant digs are proposed and planned some months, years even, in advance. The sites are photographed, scanned with geophysical instruments, and the stakeholders are many - land councils, archeological councils, the actual teams with feet on the ground, etc.
As trenches are dug photographs are taken, when 'something' pokes up a bit it's immediately photographed up close and measurements are taken before being carefully removed.
To stage a find would generally take more than one person and they'd have to operate in a sea of oversight.
I wouldn't claim that this is impossible, I would say that's its very hard to pull off and even harder to keep a secret for many years without someone being suspicious.
Significant artifacts get a great deal of scrutiny .. so one would have to be created that had no trace of modern tools, materials, post atomic age isotopes, etc.