Switched my thinking on those 'fake' Roman artifacts after a museum visit last month

For years I figured most small Roman artifacts you see for sale online were fakes. I figured people just cranked them out in a basement somewhere. Last month I went to the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for a job painting their main gallery. I got to talking with one of the curators during my lunch break. She showed me a collection of Roman oil lamps that had been dug up in the 1930s from a site in Jordan. She pointed out tiny tool marks and clay impurities that modern forgers rarely get right. I realized I was being too cynical about the whole thing. The real stuff has a certain irregular feel to it that's hard to copy. Has anyone else changed their mind after seeing artifacts in person?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryan_gibson8418d ago

Same here. Actually seeing the tool marks changed my mind completely.

ray_hernandez18d ago

Man it's wild how that changes everything. Seeing the actual evidence just makes it real in a way reading about it never does.

john_cooper18d ago

Yeah @ray_hernandez next thing you'll tell me you actually read the instruction manual too.