The Michigan Relics

From 1890 copper tablets, clay bowls and slate slabs bearing cuneiform, Egyptian signs and biblical scenes were taken out of mounds all over Michigan — proof that the continent had been settled from the Holy Land. Some three thousand objects accumulated, and nearly every one was found by, or with the help of, the same man: a travelling sign-writer named James Scotford. Professor Francis Kelsey of the University of Michigan showed that the ancient inscriptions were a mixture of alphabets copied from a schoolbook, and that the copper had been cut with modern tools. In 1911 Scotford's stepdaughter's husband swore an affidavit describing how he made the objects and buried them the night before a dig.

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Clever Hans

The residential inner courtyard at 10 Griebenowstraße in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. At the turn of the 20th century, this urban setting hosted public demonstrations of the Orlov Trotter stallion known as Clever Hans (Der Kluge Hans). The horse's apparent mastery of arithmetic and human language captivated international audiences, revolutionized animal cognition research, and led to the discovery of the observer-expectancy effect ("Clever Hans effect").