The Lying Stones of Marrakech Read Online Free

shortened his days.
    Modern textbooks tend to present a caricatured “triumphalist” account in their “obligatory” introductory pages on the history of their discipline—the view that science marches inexorably forward from dark superstition toward the refining light of truth. Thus, Beringer’s story tends to acquire the additional moral that his undoing at least had the good effect of destroying old nonsense about the inorganic or mysterious origin of fossils—as in this text for first-year students, published in 1961:
    The idea that fossils were merely sports of nature was finally killed by ridicule in the early part of the eighteenth century. Johann Beringer, a professor at the University of Würzburg, enthusiastically argued against the organic nature of fossils. In 1726, he published a paleontological work … which included drawings of many true fossils but also of objects that represented the sun, the moon, stars, and Hebraic letters. It was not till later, when Beringer found a “fossil” with his own name on it, that he realized that his students, tired of his teachings, had planted these “fossils” and carefully led him to discover them for himself.
    A recent trip to Morocco turned my thoughts to Beringer. For several years, I have watched, with increasing fascination and puzzlement, the virtual “takeover” of rock shops throughout the world by striking fossils from Morocco—primarily straight-shelled nautiloids (much older relatives of the coiled and modern chambered nautilus) preserved in black marbles and limestones, and usually sold as large, beautifully polished slabs intended for table or dresser tops. I wondered where these rocks occurred in such fantastic abundance; had the High Atlas Mountains been quarried away to sea level? I wanted to make sure that Morocco itself still existed as a discrete entity and not only as disaggregated fragments, fashioning the world’s coffee tables.
    I discovered that most of these fossils come from quarries in the rocky deserts, well and due east of Marrakech, and not from the intervening mountains. I also learned something else that alleviated my fears about imminent dispersal of an entire patrimony. Moroccan rock salesmen dot the landscape in limitless variety—from young boys hawking a specimen or two at every hairpin turn on the mountain roads, to impromptu stands at every lookout point, to large and formal shops in the cities and towns. The aggregate volume of rock must be immense, but the majority of items offered for sale are either entirely phony or at least strongly “enhanced.” My focus of interest shifted dramatically: from worrying about sources and limits to studying the ranges and differential expertises of a major industry dedicated to the manufacture of fake fossils.
    I must judge some “enhancements” as quite clever—as when the strong ribs on the shell of a genuine ammonite are extended by carving into the smallest and innermost whorls and then “improved” in regular expression on the outer coil. But other “ammonites” have simply been carved from scratch on a smoothed rock surface, or even cast in clay and then glued into a prepared hole in the rock. Other fakes can only be deemed absurd—as in my favorite exampleof a wormlike “thing” with circles on its back, grooves on both sides, eyes on a head shield, and a double projection, like a snake’s forked tongue, extending out in front. (In this case the forger, too clever by half, at least recognized the correct principle of parts and counterparts—for the “complete” specimen includes two pieces that fit together, the projecting “fossil” on one slab, and the negative impression on the other, where the animal supposedly cast its form into the surrounding sediment. The forger even carved negative circles and grooves into the counterpart image, although these