---
author: Eric Wagoner
date: '2000-06-14T05:23:32'
draft: false
title: Last August, the Dallas Observer
---

Last August, the _Dallas Observer_ wrote a nice even-handed [story on Romeo Hristov](http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1999-08-26/feature2.html/index_html?qs=1), the Bulgarian archaeology who made waves by publishing an article about a possible terra cotta Roman head found buried in a pre-Columbian tomb in Mexico. Many art historians feel the head is genuine; many archaeologists are rather skeptical. Hristov had a devil of a time even getting to see the head, which was discovered by one of the fathers of modern Mexican archaeology, Jose García Payón, in 1933, and locked away in a museum. "_I was looking for the piece two and a half years. It's not easy to convince to check. But if you persist, bring beer, tell dirty jokes, eventually they start to like you._ " Not everyone does, though. One archaeology professor said "_I'm actually teaching a course this spring, based on my encounters with Mr. Hristov and others. The title is Fantastic Archaeology._ "