Discovery of The Hoax
The truth behind Fujimura's archaeological fraud was exposed by the newspaper Mainichi Shinbun, in a morning edition article on November 5, 2000. At the time, Fujimura was working as deputy director of the Tōhoku Paleolithic Institute, a private research center. Hearing the rumour of fraud, journalists from Mainich newspaper installed hidden cameras on a dig site Fujimura was working on and caught him implanting artifacts. With video, the newspaper later confronted Fujimra and he was forced to confess his fraud.
The Mainichi Shinbun exposé concerned just the Kamitakamori site near Tsukidate, Miyagi Prefecture, and the Sōshin Fudōzaka site in Hokkaidō, but news of the hoax sparked reappraisals at all the sites Fujimura had been involved in. It was discovered that most of Fujimura's artifacts had been collected from other Jōmon-era sites in the Tōhoku region, and planted at the sites where he was working. Evidence was found of scrapes and damage from prior unearthing on many of the paleolithic artifacts Fujimura had been connected with. Investigations showed that the hoax went as far as the same items being "discovered" more than once, and fake paleolithic items being buried for later "discovery".
It was later revealed that Fujimura's hoax extended beyond the paleolithic era to include Jōmon period artifacts as well.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Paleolithic Hoax
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