
From Vilified to Vindicated: The Story of Jacques Cinq-Mars - hownottowrite
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-long/vilified-vindicated-story-jacques-cinq-mars
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dmix
While I'm sympathetic to Cinq-Mars and the amount of time it took to become
vindicated, I don't find much fault in the original scientists who demanded
more evidence than was available.

It seems he only had the one bone with indication of human butchery. It wasn't
until decades later that another scientist was able to review hundreds of
bones and found 15 other examples.

This must be considered in context. Someone claiming that humans were in North
America ten thousand years earlier must automatically bring skepticism. Were
there many charlatans at the time, or in history, making similar claims that
were proven false?

The only question was why it took so long for enough resources to be invested
in fully researching the cave? How much was it the fault of lack of funding?

~~~
mannykannot
> I don't find much fault in the original scientists who demanded more
> evidence than was available.

As the article makes clear, it was not just one site or one researcher.

>Were there many charlatans at the time, or in history, making similar claims
that were proven false?

No, that's a conspiracy theory of your own making.

>The only question was why it took so long for enough resources to be invested
in fully researching the cave? How much was it the fault of lack of funding?

I guess you did not see the connection between the hostility of the nominal
experts and the lack of funding?

~~~
dmix
Asking if a common occurrence in science had also previously happened in this
field is "a conspiracy theory of my own making"? No, it's actually an
important question to ask when something doesn't get the funding and research
it needed.

"Build it and they will come" nonsense doesn't need a conspiracy against it
either. Just indifference from people who have heard many unfulfilled big
claims from other people.

These scenarios where big discoveries are left in funding purgatory have
happened many times in the past. And these things never happen in isolation
but in a fast moving field of research.

I'm merely asking for greater context. Not sure why that brought out such
hostility.

------
Nomentatus
My grandfather, a pioneering (unpaid) archeologist in Alberta during the
1930's was one of the thoroughly silenced voices. He had plenty of evidence of
pre-Clovis points, but the priesthood of science had already decided the
matter.

