page_title: Beringer's Lying Stones
hierarchical_section_title: Beringer's Lying Stones
caption_attribution_description: English: So-called Würzburger Lügensteine, fake fossils produced in the 18th century in order to deceive Professor Adam Beringer, by seeming to confirm his theories about fossil-formation. These are displayed at the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands Deutsch: Sogenannte Würzburger Lügensteine. Gefälschte Fossilien aus dem Muschelkalk von Würzburg, die Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts in erheblicher Anzahl von dem Würzburger Professor Johannes Bartholomäus Adam Beringer (1667–1738) erworben wurden. Die abgebildtenen befinden sich in der Ausstellung des Teylers Museum, Haarlem in den Niederlanden.
context_page_description: Beringer's Lying Stones are pieces of limestone carved into the shape of various animals, discovered in 1725 by Professor Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg. Beringer believed them to be fossils, and because some of them also bore the name of God in Hebrew, he suggested that they might be of divine origin. In fact, he was the victim of a hoax, perpetrated on him by his colleagues ex-Jesuit J. Ignatz Roderick, Professor of Geography and Mathematics, and Johann Georg von Eckhart, privy counselor and university librarian. Upon discovering the truth, Beringer took his hoaxers to court, and the scandal that followed left all three of them in disgrace.
  Some of the stones are now on display at the Oxford University Museum, and Teylers Museum in the Netherlands.
context_section_description: Beringer's Lying Stones (Lügensteine) are pieces of limestone carved into the shape of various animals, discovered in 1725 by Professor Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Würzburg. Beringer believed them to be fossils, and because some of them also bore the name of God in Hebrew, he suggested that they might be of divine origin. In fact, he was the victim of a hoax, perpetrated on him by his colleagues ex-Jesuit J. Ignatz Roderick, Professor of Geography and Mathematics, and Johann Georg von Eckhart, privy counselor and university librarian. Upon discovering the truth, Beringer took his hoaxers to court, and the scandal that followed left all three of them in disgrace.
  Some of the stones are now on display at the Oxford University Museum, and Teylers Museum in the Netherlands.
caption: Some Würzburger Lügensteine displayed at the Teylers Museum, Haarlem
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