S1 Ep13: Episode 13: Faking Fossils and Reading Livers

In this week’s episode Tracey talks about the Mexican Congressional Hearing into UFO’s and some pretty fake looking alien corpses, while Ashley tells us all about the upsurge of syphilis cases in Texas. Tracey’s piece of stuff this week continues the fakery theme with part of two episodes she will be doing on the infamous Piltdown Man hoax of a 500,000 year old hominid in Sussex. Ashley reveals a bronze object used for divination from sheep’s livers and reveals an unanticipated liver-centric world view in ancient times.


Tracey’s Stuff in the News

Tara Cobham, “Alien Corpses’ shown to Congress as UFO expert is forced to testify under oath,” Independent, September 13, 2023. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alien-corpses-in-mexico-found-congress-ufo-b2411144.html

David Nelson, “Claims of Alien Corpses made at Mexican Congress hearing into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Diario AS, September 13, 2023. https://en.as.com/latest_news/claims-of-alien-corpses-made-at-mexican-congress-hearing-into-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-n/

Megan Janetsky, “Scientists call fraud on supposed extraterrestrials presented to Mexico’s Congress,” Associated Press, September 13, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/extraterrestrials-ufo-mexico-congress-af7d54fabf3278ef83c39d899c457c76

Ashley’s Stuff in the News

Karen Brooks Harper and Jayme Lozano Carver, “‘An Epidemic’: Syphilis Rages through Texas, Causing Newborn Cases to Climb amid Treatment Shortage.” Texas Tribune. September 13, 2023. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/13/texas-syphilis-newborns-treatment/.

Texas Department of State Health Services, “Congenital Syphilis – Exploring an Epidemic” Podcast. 2022. https://www.dshs.texas.gov/hiv-std-program/hiv-aids-std-information/syphilis/congenital-syphilis/congenital-syphilis-exploring-an.


Tracey’s Piece of Stuff

Isabelle De Groote, “Following the Piltdown Man crime: how we worked out there was only one forger,” The Conversation, August 10, 2016. https://theconversation.com/solving-the-piltdown-man-crime-how-we-worked-out-there-was-only-one-forger-63615

Kate Nelson, “Piltdown Hoax: Culprit behind one of history’s greatest ruses finally exposed,” Independent, August 10, 2016. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/piltdown-hoax-solved-who-did-it-evolution-link-arthur-conan-doyle-a7182286.html


Keith Stewart Thompson, “Piltdown Man: The Great English Mystery Story,” American Scientist, May-June 1991. https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/djoyce/piltdown/map_prim_suspects/abbott/abbot_defense/piltman_englishmystery.html

Angela Muthana and Ray Ellen, “The Great Eolith Debate and the Anthropological Institute,” Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, Vol. 30, May 8, 2023. https://archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha-623

Michael Price, “Study reveals culprit behind Piltdown Man, one of science’s greatest hoaxes,” Science, August 9, 2016.
https://www.science.org/content/article/study-reveals-culprit-behind-piltdown-man-one-science-s-most-famous-hoaxes

Nandini Subramaniam, “The Problem of Piltdown Man,” Distillations Magazine, April 27, 2023.
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-problem-of-piltdown-man/


Ashley’s Piece of Stuff
Olmsted, David. “Translation of Bronze Etruscan Piacenza Liver Reveals Liver Divination Practices (400 BCE).” HCommons, 2021. https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:39396/datastreams/CONTENT/content.

Orlandi, Riccardo et al. “‘I Miss My Liver.’ Nonmedical Sources in the History of Hepatocentrism.” Hepatology Communications 2, no. 8 (2018): 982-9.

Riva, Michele Augusto, Enrica Riva, Mauro Spicci, Mario Strazzabosco, Marcello Giovannini, and Giancarlo Cesana. “‘The City of Hepar’: Rituals, Gastronomy, and Politics at the Origins of the Modern Names for the Liver.” Journal of Hepatology 55, no. 5 (2011): 1132–6.

Roffi, Luigi. “Liver in Mythology: A Different Version of Tityos' Myth.” Journal of Hepatology 57, no. 3 (2012): 710–1.

Van der Meer, L.B. The Bronze Liver of Piacenza. Leiden: Brill, 2023.

Van Gulik, Thomas M. “The Bronze Liver of Piacenza.” Hepatobiliary Surgery and Nutrition 10, no. 4 (2021): 433. https://doi.org/10.21037%2Fhbsn-2021-17.

Visit Piacenza, “Etruscan Liver,” https://visitpiacenza.it/en/art-and-culture/etruscan-liver/.