HOAX / FAKEBEINGS · SCULPTURE & ARTEFACTS
The Forged Lizard People
Modern forgeries · Sulaymaniyah Museum · Iraq
WHAT IT IS
Two 'lizard-headed' figurines seized before they could be sold as genuine Mesopotamian antiquities. Compare them with the real ones from Ur.
THE ALIEN READING
Fakes like these circulate online with the genuine ones, and feed the 'reptilian' story with objects that have no find-spot at all.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
The museum confiscated them as archaeological forgeries made for the antiquities market. Real Ubaid figures come from recorded excavations at Ur, Eridu and Tell al-Ubaid.
WHERE IT STANDS
Hoax / fake. A fake: made, altered or misdated to look like an ancient record of visitors.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- Modern forgeries
- PLACE
- Sulaymaniyah Museum · Iraq
- MADE BY
- Unknown forgers · confiscated
- MEDIUM
- Sculpture
- TECHNICAL
- Clay forgeries · confiscated, not on display · Sulaymaniyah Museum
MORE FROM VOL. II · BEFORE THE CAMERA
FOLIO 01 · EXPLAINED
The Ubaid 'Lizard People'
c. 4000 BCE
FOLIO 06 · EXPLAINED
The Goggle-Eyed Dogū
c. 1000–400 BCE
FOLIO 07 · EXPLAINED
The Sanxingdui Stalk-Eyed Mask
12th–11th century BCE
FOLIO 09 · EXPLAINED
The Goddess on the Throne
5700–4500 BCE
FOLIO 10 · EXPLAINED
The Hooded Spirits
Early 3rd century AD
FOLIO 24 · EXPLAINED
The Salamanca Cathedral Astronaut
Carved 1992