I guess this would be called a “dupe”, but it's interesting.  “Holy stones” from Newark, Ohio, were claimed to be found in 1860 which supposedly gave a scientific foundation for “monogenesis”, which was the view that all people originated from Adam and Eve.  A competing view at the time, “polygenesis” evidently claimed multiple origins.  It was later discovered that the stones found there were actually fakes.Hoax thrust area into slavery debateIt's an interesting way in which science and archaeology were used as socio-political tools, even if the end seems to have been noble.  But I wouldn't put it past people nowadays to use the same kind of manipulating scheme for political purposes.