Ancient Crowns

One day in 1898, a man appeared at the University Museum in Ann Arbor with two wooden trunks containing a few human bones and an assortment of artifacts, resembling those dug up in Montcalm County Michigan.  He explained that the objects had been on tour as an exibit; but now that he was in need of funds, he would be willing to sell them to the museum for one-thousand dollars.  Percieving that he was not being taken seriously, the man soon reduced his price to one-hundred dollars.  After being informed that he was dealing in forgeries, he asked if he could leave the trunks in the museum storeroom until he should come for them.  The curator consented to this request, and the trunks remained there.

Found in the trunks in addition to the artifacts and bones, were admission tickets to the exibit, a certificate attesting to the witnessing of the discovery of one of the caskets, and a handbill advertising the exibit.  Proponets of the authentictyof the artifacts argued that since they had been uncovered in the presence of witnesses, they must be genuine.  The jumble of oriental characters was explained by pointing out that the colony consisted of a mixture of Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians.  They colony must have been established before the Exodus, they pointed out, because Moses spoke of Iron, and these people only used only Copper and Bronze.