i feel like it would be possible for them, or us, to be compliant and a participant in it without us, or them being aware of it, i'll use the 'petri dish effect' as an analogy/allegory, pde is, you put microscopic things on a petri dish, and observe them with full capacity, but those, that life inside the petri dish cannot even peer out and see, the dish is entirely controlled in every aspect without its inhabitants ever knowing, this is term and definition is most applied to theories of the universe, but i am applying it to your scenario, that basically all archaeologists are lying/compliant with the lies.

those archaeologists, us people could be complicit without ever knowing it.