Archaeology depends on ethics.
That's quite a statement, and I'm not so sure it makes any sense. Would you please elaborate?
Yes.
Until someone invents a time machine, no one can replicated the initial conditions of a dig. It's a one-time experience to uncover, map, and recover artifacts.
When archaeologists dig a site, they destroy it.
If they lie (or are deceived) about what they find as they dig, the results of the dig will be unreliable.
The obligation to tell the truth is a metaphysical reality. It is not an artifact that can be dug out of the ground and dated. You cannot see, hear, taste, touch, or smell "truth." It is knowable, but not through the methods of the physical sciences.
Archaeology depends on a commitment to a metaphysical principle.
Archaeologists are human beings.
They are neither infallible nor impeccable (two distinct concepts).
We know that there have been archaeological hoaxes.
We don't know how many archaeologists have gotten away with lying about their results. Some hoaxes are easier to detect than others.
Deciding which archaeologist to trust and which one to doubt is not a scientific issue. It is a matter of forensics. How credible does the archaeologist seem to be? How competent? How much can be cross-checked with other reliable archaeologists on the site?
Neither photos nor videos of a dig can substitute for this judgment about the credibility of the diggers. Photos and videos can easily be manipulated. If someone wishes to deceive, they can find a way to subvert photography. The value of photographic evidence therefore depends on the credibility of the photographer, just as the value of archaeological evidence depends on the credibility of the archaeologist.
To come back to the issue at hand, there is no way to secure TIGHAR against the accusation of salting Niku with some Any-Idiot Artifacts. Of course, Malcolm never
made this accusation himself. He deliberately and explicitly refrained from making any such accusation when
he wrote, "As to belonging to the castaways I could have added that this would exclude salting the island with items sourced from elsewhere to falsify a proof - but as I cannot conceive why anyone would do such a dishonest thing then I felt that it needed to be left unsaid as irrelevant."
Such doubts about the ethical integrity of TIGHAR's expedition members cannot be resolved by archaeology or by any other natural science. You either judge that they are truth-tellers or you do not. That is why
there is no Any-Idiot Artifact. Of every item that TIGHAR claims to have found on the island that
might be related to the castaway or to the crew of the Electra, any idiot can say, "You cannot prove that you didn't put that artifact on the island during a previous visit."