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Spanish ariseologist Eliseo Gil was sentenced to prison for faking his findings

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Eliseo Gil, former director of excavation at Roman archeological site Iruña-Veleia, was sentenced to prison and fined for “manipulating” writings that were considered historical at the time, either by herself or “through a third person,” according to the sentencing document seen by CNN.
In 2005 and 2006, Gil announced that his team had found pieces of clay in that location, near the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country of Spain. The artifacts, he said, date from the third century CE and contain references to Egyptian hieroglyphics, representations of the crucifixion and signs of the Basque language, Spanish newspapers El Pais reports.

At the time, the discovery was considered revolutionary, and was thought to show the first written example of the Basque language, 800 years earlier than the previous example, El Pais reported.

However, two years later, the multidisciplinary committee of linguistics, ancient history, archeology, chemistry and philology considered the discovery false, Reuters news agency. reported.
Experts who study the pieces find inconsistencies such as the absence of syntax, the spelling of modern words, and names and phrases that are not consistent with the period of time they should, El Pais noted before.

According to the newspaper, experts in ancient philology and history questioned the appearance of Latin words with more modern features, such as the use of the letter J on Jupiter instead of the Latin spelling, “Iupiter,” or “Octavianus Augustus” to refer to the Emperor Augustus

Initially, Gil and his team defended their controversial findings from the “big uproar” they caused.

In a statement seen in the archived version of the excavation team’s website, Gil is no longer active, Gil and his team defended the findings, which they said consisted of “a thick set of graffiti – inscriptions and graffiti engraved in various media – from the extraordinary character of text and themes represented. “

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In February, Gil defended his innocence in a statement made to the press.

On Wednesday, the head of the court in Vitoria-Gasteiz found Gil guilty of forgery and fraud, sentencing him to two years, three months and 23 days in prison.

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