Tjerk Vermaning

Tjerk Vermaning (born 1929 in Smilde, died 1987 in Assen) was a Dutch amateur archaeologist who is now mostly remembered for the court case and media frenzy that followed claims made by two academic archaeologists that he had forged certain of his prehistoric archaeological 'finds'.

Before these accusations surfaced Tjerk Vermaning was a well-respected collector who in 1966 received the Cultural Prize of Drenthe for his contributions to furthering the understanding of the prehistoric heritage of the province. On 18 March 1975, however, he was arrested on suspicion of forgery. The accusations were made by Professor H.T. Waterbolk and then-Drs. D. Stapert of the State University of Groningen. An arduous court case followed, in which several well-known Dutch and European professional archaeologists (including French prehistorian François Bordes and German archaeologist Gerhard Bosinski) put forward additional evidence and arguments to substantiate the accusations. Many amateur archaeologists, on the other hand, were convinced of Vermaning's innocence and mounted their own campaigns to get him acquitted (most notably Ad Wouters, who produced detailed and voluminous counterarguments to the accusations). Vermaning was initially found guilty and was sentenced to one month in prison in 1977, but he appealed the verdict. In 1978 Vermaning was acquitted on appeal because it had not been proven, in the eyes of the judge, that he had himself forged the artefacts in question.

Despite Vermaning's acquittal, consensus among academic archaeologists was and is that the artefacts are not authentic. Vermaning felt that as a result of the court case his integrity had been shattered, and he remained bitter about the affair and resentful toward academic archaeology for the rest of his life. For years or even decades the Vermaning affair strained the relations between Dutch amateur and academic archaeologists, especially in the northern region where Vermaning had been active.