Jupiter from Nidderau
The Jupiter of Nidderau was on 5. September 1972 at a archaeological excavation in Heldenbergen , a district of Nidderau discovered. As it later turned out: a fake .
Find
The "find" was salvaged by an excavation worker during an excavation in Fort Heldenbergen , a Roman military installation northeast of Frankfurt am Main . It is a completely undamaged, approximately 12 cm high representation of the face of a bearded man made of baked clay, similar to a mask. The object is now owned by the State of Hesse and is part of the holdings of the HessenArchäologie , but has been loaned from there to the Hanau Municipal Museum .
reception
The "find" was picked up as a sensation by the media. Among other things, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Hanauer Anzeiger reported on it.
genesis
As it turned out on closer examination - after cleaning, the ceramic began to form cracks while drying, which is completely atypical for Roman ceramics - the piece was made by a souvenir workshop in the Mediterranean region . Allegedly, the portrait even bears the traits of the excavation worker who smuggled it into the excavation context. At the beginning of 1973 everyone involved was sure that it was a fake. The alleged perpetrator never officially admitted that.
literature
- Rolf Hohmann: Find and forgery. The "Jupiter von Nidderau" was a cuckoo's egg .
- By Rolf Hohmann: Was the well builder Georg Bausch a master forger? The case of the "Wetterau fire graves" is being reopened .
- Peter Köhler: Leonardo's bicycle. The most famous fake news from Ramses to Trump . CH Beck, Munich 2018. ISBN 978-3-406-72814-3
Remarks
- ↑ Currently (2019) still without an inventory number.