Let's face it, we all make mistakes. Fortunately most of us don’t have the media breathing down our necks when we blunder. But some archaeologists aren’t so lucky, and end up with red faces when their discoveries turn out to be less than earth shattering.

For example, there was the carved rock found on a beach at Gorleston near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The two-tonne lump of granite was engraved with intertwined serpents, a dragon and runic symbols.Excited archaeologists at Norfolk county council declared that it could be up to 2000 years old. Only after the rock had been transported away for safe storage did unemployed construction worker Barry Luxton, 50, reveal that he had made the carvings for a modern druid celebration nearby. The rock had become buried in sands and shingle. County archaeologist Bryan Ayers admitted, 'It seemed too good to be true even at the time.'

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Or there was the Viking settlement in Buckhaven, Fife, that turned out after months of excavation to be a 1940’s patio. Douglas Speirs, chief archaeologist at Fife council, said it was 'an easy mistake to make.' The patio 'had all the hallmarks of ancient building techniques' although he admitted that his team had ignored finds of a WW2 child’s gas mask and an old television remote in their search for Viking evidence. 'The chap next door, who has lived there since 1939, was absolutely certain that there had never been a patio in that back garden,' Mr Speirs said. The owner of the patio, Marion Garry, 50, said she hoped to turn it into a garden feature. 'It looks quite messy now but I think it will look pretty with flowers and plants growing around it,' she said.

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