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the
University of Würzburg only on 11 December 1725 and was in Münster when the stones were found in the summer of 1725. The authors suggested that Beringer himself may have been responsible for the fraud. Beringer spent many years recovering copies of his book. A second printing of his book was made in 1767, well after his death and it was translated into English in 1963.
161:...the figures...are so exactly fitted to the dimensions of the stones, that one would swear that they are the work of a very meticulous sculptor... seem to bear unmistakable indications of the sculptor's knife... One would swear that he discerned in many of them the strokes of a knife gone awry, and superfluous gouges in several directions.
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still exists, and in the testimony the hoaxers make clear that they did indeed want to discredit
Beringer, because, they said, "he was so arrogant and despised us all". A 2005 book suggests that Roderique may not have been responsible for the fabrications of the fossil since Roderique was posted to
101:, librarian to the university, and Baron von Hof, a local noble, decided to prank the professor as he was considered arrogant. Roderique had figures carved in limestone and had them planted through one of Beringer's assistants. To some of these stones, they added inscriptions such as the
157:, but he had to rule this out since pagans had no knowledge of the name of God. The idea that they were impressions of former living forms was supported in his time by the belief of the Biblical flood. Some critics had pointed out chisel marks on the rocks and Beringer noted that:
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Johann
Bartholomew Adam Beringer was born in 1667 to German physician Ludwig Behringer. Beringer held high positions including chief physician to the Julian Hospital and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University. In addition to all this, he took an interest in
65:, suggested that they might be of divine origin. The scientific community at the time was still unsure as to what fossils actually were, the notion that they were the petrified remains of once-living organisms being merely one of several competing hypotheses.
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characters. They planted these stones on Mount
Eibelstadt where Beringer and his assistants frequently went to search for fossils. Beringer began to find many such rocks and without suspecting them began to document them. The hoaxers carved fragments of
129:(1726). Shortly after the book went into print, he realized that he had been duped and took legal action against Roderique and von Eckhart and won the case. The two were removed from their positions at the university and Roderique was banished from
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but
Beringer's reputation was forever destroyed. Eckhart lost his post and privileges to use the library and archives. This hampered his own historical research, which was left unfinished at his death. The stones became known as
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Beringer published a book on his findings but shortly after discovered that he had been the victim of a hoax. He took the hoaxers to court and won the case but his reputation was forever besmirched.
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In his book
Beringer examined multiple hypotheses to explain the origin of the stones including that they were the remains of former life forms, formed inorganically,
153:, by special creative forces of divine nature or the "capricious fabrications of God". He also considered the possibility that they were the carvings of prehistoric
93:. He had hired Christian Zänger (aged 17), and the brothers Niklaus and Valentin Hehn (aged 18 and 14) to help him search for unusual rocks around
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Kelber, K.-P.; Okrusch, M. (2006). "Die geologische
Erforschung und Kartierung des Würzburger Stadtgebietes von den Anfängen bis 1925".
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However, this evidence of sculpting only convinced him more strongly that the chisel was wielded by the hand of God.
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49:) are pieces of limestone which were carved into the shape of various fictitious animals and "discovered" in 1725 by
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138:, or "lying stones". Some of the stones have survived to the present and a few are now on display at the
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Taylor, Paul D. (2017). "Fake fossils by the hundred – the story of Johann
Beringer's 'lying-stones'".
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84:(1726) with a monument at the top to the head of Franconia, Prince Bishop Christoph Franz von Hutten.
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556:. University of California Press. Translation of: Beringer, Johann; Hueber, George Ludwig (1726).
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in 1725. J. Ignace
Roderique, a professor of geography, algebra and analysis at the university,
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The lying stones of Dr. Johann
Bartholomew Adam Beringer: being his Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis
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Pain, Stephani (25 December 2004). "Histories: Johann Beringer and the fraudulent fossils".
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into shapes of animals such as lizards, frogs, and spiders on their webs.
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Jahn, Melvin E. (1963). "Dr. Beringer and the Würzburg "Lügensteine"".
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487:. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 15–16.
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Jahn, Melvin E. (1972). "A note on the "editions" of Beringer's
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Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History
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Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History
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Beringer published a book with illustrations of his findings
481:
Jahn, Melvin (1970). "Beringer, Johann Bartholomaeus Adam".
422:"Fossil fraud: A new interpretation of the Beringer story"
53:(1667–1740), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the
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571:Drawings of the "fossils" in Beringer's book
510:: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History
401:. Archaeological Institute of America. 2009
550:Jahn, Melvin E.; Woolf, Daniel J. (1963).
365:Proceedings of the Geologists' Association
580:(Latin), Beringer's book, online at the
254:"Om Beringer werd iets te snel gelachen"
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359:Edmonds, J.M.; Powell, H.P. (1974).
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592:– full digital facsimile from the
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508:The Lying Stones of Marrakech
429:Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
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547:. pp. 71–115. Würzburg.
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464:10.3366/jsbnh.1972.6.3.143
346:10.3366/jsbnh.1963.4.2.138
311:10.1080/00033798200200471
197:Showing spiders with webs
16:18th century hoax fossils
614:Archaeological forgeries
420:Taylor, Paul D. (2006).
293:Mallatt, Jon M. (1982).
140:Oxford University Museum
99:Johann Georg von Eckhart
39:Beringer's Lying Stones
29:Naturmuseum Senckenberg
629:University of Würzburg
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25:Würzburger Lügensteine
582:University of Bologna
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63:name of God in Hebrew
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542:Mainfränkische Hefte
146:in the Netherlands.
609:18th-century hoaxes
399:"The Beringer Hoax"
377:1974PrGA...85..549E
233:Hebrew inscriptions
594:Linda Hall Library
503:Gould, Stephen Jay
103:Hebrew name of God
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624:Hoaxes in science
619:Hoaxes in Germany
299:Annals of Science
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560:. Würzburg.
538:(in German)
136:Lügensteine
47:Lügensteine
603:Categories
264:2020-07-28
260:(in Dutch)
239:References
72:Background
435:(2): 314.
319:0003-3790
120:limestone
33:Frankfurt
505:(2000).
405:25 April
131:Würzburg
95:Würzburg
91:oryctics
373:Bibcode
209:Insects
59:fossils
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155:pagans
142:, and
115:Hebrew
113:, and
111:Arabic
43:German
425:(PDF)
258:Trouw
221:Birds
107:Latin
23:Some
518:ISBN
489:ISBN
407:2010
315:ISSN
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