Японский археолог-любитель и скандал с подделками

Japanese amateur archaeologist

Fujimura Shinichi (藤村 新一) is a Japanese amateur archaeologist who claimed he had found a large number of stone artifacts dating back to the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic periods. These objects were later revealed to be forgeries.

Fujimura was born in Kami, Miyagi, in 1950. After graduating from a high school in Sendai, he obtained a job in a manufacturing company. He became intrigued by archaeology when he was a child, finding shards of Jōmon pottery in the backyard of his house. In 1972 Fujimura began to study archaeology and to look for Paleolithic artifacts during his holidays. Within the few years to follow, he rose to fame among amateur and academic archaeologists in Sendai by which he was appointed the head of the NGO group, Sekki Bunka Kenkyukai(石器文化硏究会, literally translated to stone tool culture research association) in 1975. Fujimura discovered and excavated many Paleolithic stone artifacts in Miyagi prefecture, such as at Zazaragi site in 1981, Nakamine C site in 1983 and Babadan A site in 1984. From a cross dating investigation of the stratum these stone tools were estimated to be about 50,000 years old. He established his reputation as a leading amateur archaeologist because he found most of the artifacts on his own. Shizuo Oda and Charles T. Keally also mentioned some peculiarities in their article

On October 23, 2000, Fujimura and his team announced another finding at the Kamitakamori ruins near Tsukidate in Miyagi Prefecfure. Fujimura claimed to have found the postholes of an early Paleolithic period dwelling, which would have been the nation's oldest, between 600,000 and 120,000 years old. On November 5, 2000, the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun published pictures of Fujimura digging holes and burying 61 objects at Kamitakamori, which he and his team later unearthed. In 2001 the Japanese Archaeological Association reviewed all of Fujimura's "discoveries" and concluded that he'd planted artifacts at 42 excavation sites. Fujimura was expelled from both the Japanese Archaeological Association and the Tōhuku Paleolithic Institute, whose chairman resigned as a result of the scandal.