Amphor fraud



Amphor fraud (Амфорный скандал) is discovery of two amphoras (one of them was declared to be datef with century VI BC) at the bottom of the Taman bay in 2011 August 10 by Vladimir Putin, that is qualified as scientific fraud. This page is copied from TORI.

2011 August 10, at the bottom of the Taman bay, Putin had found two amphoras; these amphoras were advertised as archeological discovery and important contribution of Putin in the historical science . The "discovery" of Putin looks as a grotesc in the description by Mikhail Pribylovsky . The "discovery" is documented by the video-records . The videos show the following: (1) The operator found such a position, that the amphoras are just between the camera and Putin. (2) Putin moves along the rope tied in vicinity of the amphoras. (3) Both amphoras are placed at some elevation and oriented with the handles up – to simplify their collecting. (4) At the moment of "discovery", the amphoras are already cleaned from the clay, sand, sea-shells and water-plants. Such facts are commented: persons that have nothing to do with science, are allowed to participate in the archeological excavations .

The dating of the amphoras is problematic. According to video, Vladimir Putin claims that the amphoras correspond to the 6th century before Christ. Later, in the publications, the age of the amphoras is shifted for eleven centuries, to the 6th century. Also, the estimates "11 century" were expressed. Perhaps, the two amphoras correspond to very different centuries; at the pictures, one of them looks darker than another one. Such mistakes are unavoidable, while the persons who have nothing to do with the historical science are allowed to participate in the scientific excavation. Vladimir Kuznetsov (Kuznetsov Vladimir Dmitrievich) had indicated that unfortunately, sometimes such persons get a permission to participate in the archeological work. (Much smaller mistakes with timing, "only" 15 minutes, takes place while Putin used to "investigate" the catastrophe Katyn-2; the ground records of the parameters of the flight, which could help to reveal the true, seem to be destroyed.)

The comparison of references mentioned indicates that the event described should be qualified not as "discovery", but as fraud, scientific misconduct, falsification of historic events and misinformation. The attempt of such a fraud may be aimed to raise up the rating of Vladimir Putin dropped due to the corruption (see the article What 10 Years of Putin Have Brought) and the apparent support of the terrorism (see articles Nevsky Express bombing (2009) and Katyn-2).

The top officials seem to be involved in the fraud. The role of Vladimir Putin (Путин Владимир Владимирович), Viktor Kuzntsov (Кузнецов Виктор Дмитриевич), Nikolai Sudarev (Сударев Николай) in such a fraud should be investigated.

The absence of any "errata" about the contradictions in the publications indicates that not an error, but the intended alteration of scientific results takes place. The primitive realization of the scientific fraud caused an avalanche of jokes and parodies .

In October 2011, the Putin's image-makers realized the inconsistency of the claim for the archeological discovery. Dmitry Peskov at the TV program "Dozhd" ("Дождь") told, that the amphoras were planted especially for Putin. Peskov stressed, that he was at vacation during the falsification, and did not answer the question wether the amphoras were planted according to the wish of Putin. Also, Peskov indicates that the fraud could be organized by the representatives of the Russian Geographic Society (Русское Географическое Общество) which assign grants for the expeditions .