In archaeology, the distinction between buried truths and buried lies is made through the rigorous application of the scientific method. Unlike treasure hunting, which often relies on luck and speculation, archaeology is a systematic and meticulous science. Its core principles are built on the careful observation of stratigraphy—the layering of soil and artifacts—to determine the chronological order of a site.

The scientific method is the primary tool used to expose hoaxes and frauds. A famous example is the Piltdown Man, a supposed early hominid fossil that was celebrated for decades before being exposed as a fraud in the 1950s. Using modern forensic techniques like fluorine dating and microscopic analysis, scientists were able to prove that the skull and jawbone were a forgery, combining a human skull with an orangutan jaw

Ultimately, the process of authentication in archaeology is a collective effort based on peer review and reproducibility. A major discovery is not accepted on the word of a single person. Instead, it must be presented to the global community, where other experts can examine the evidence, verify the methods used, and confirm the findings. This rigorous, self-correcting system of scrutiny is what gives archaeology its authority.