In 2006, Gil had announced that he had found a number of relics at the Roman archaeological site Iruña-Veleia in Spain’s Basque Country. (Photo: telegraph.co.uk)
In 2006, Eliseo Gil announced that he had found a number of relics, which he claimed dated back to the third century AD.
Over a decade after rising to fame for what were then believed to be ‘pathbreaking’ historical discoveries, Spanish archaeologist Eliseo Gil has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for allegedly forging artefacts found at an ancient Roman settlement, CNN reported.
Gil and his collaborator, physicist Rubén Cerdán, on Wednesday were found guilty of fraud and keeping false records. Cerdan allegedly helped Gil produce false authenticity certificates for the artefacts in question. While Cerdán received a 15-month sentence, Gil will spend two years three months and 23 days behind bars, according to a report by The Telegraph.
In 2006, Gil announced that he had found a number of relics at the Roman archaeological site Iruña-Veleia in Spain’s Basque Country. The artefacts, which he claimed dated back to the third century AD, included one of the oldest depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as well as some of the earliest signs of the Basque language carved onto pieces of clay. At the time, Gil claimed his discoveries would “rewrite history books”, The Guardian reported.
However, two years later a multidisciplinary panel of experts accused Gil and his team of manipulating ancient artefacts after finding several inconsistencies in the data they had presented. The writing on the clay clippings did not have proper syntax, and some of the spellings were more modern than the team originally claimed, the panel said.
Gil and his former colleagues maintained that the artefacts were real and they were not guilty of deception when they went on trial in February. According to The Guardian, under Spanish law — prison sentences of less than two years are generally suspended as long as the accused has no prior convictions.
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