What happens if a master's thesis turned out to be FAR more powerful than a PhD thsis?

Question

Well, believe it or not, this happened to me. 24 years ago, scholar X was awarded his PhD for a thesis dealing with a very famous archaeological sword. In his thesis, scholar X claimed that this sword no longer existed. After earning his degree, scholar X continued his post-doctoral studies about this very famous sword and composed many articles about the sword which he said were a "revision of his earlier thoughts" he gave in his PhD. Again, he claime dthat this very famous sword must have been lost. 15 years after receiving his being awarded his PhD, scholar X composed an article about the same very famous sword and again he said it was lost!

However, I was able (during the preparation of my master's thesis) to correctly identify this same very famous sword. I wrote an article about the identification of this very prominent historical masterpiece and gave full proof about its existence. I decided to make this article an appendix for my master's dissertation, which itself was full of countless new results on arms and armour.

Anyhow, I politely telephoned Scholar X and asked him for the last time what he thought about the whereabouts of this very famous historical sword and he informed me that he still believes that it must have been lost. I then asked him whether he liked me to send him the article about my discvovery of this sword and he said that he'd love to.

So, I sent him the article.

My question is: If it turned out that I was the discoverer of this sword, what happens?

Answer 1

that may happens.

  some times a drop of water is heaver then the ocean.

Answer 2

A dissertation gets its power from the theory behind it, not from whether some "fact" in it is found to be true or not.  In fact, it is the job of someone doing research to show that prior theories are insufficient explanations of some phenomenon.  Thus, if a dissertation tackled an interesting subject matter which attracted attention, it could expect to be repeatedly challenged until thoroughly disproven.  This doesn't weaken the value of the dissertation, nor does it make the challengers superior to the writer of the original dissertation.  In fact, the fact that the original writer raised an interesting question is what gives that writer his/her academic status, not the outcome.

Stumbling upon a fact can happen at any stage.  Imagine you had found the sword in 2nd grade in your grandfather's attic, along with a note making it very clear that this was the lost sword, and you presented this at show and tell.  Would this make you a better scholar in 2nd grade than the scientists who were convinced the sword was lost?  I'm not saying you didn't do a good job on your masters thesis, but you spent a few months writing it and used the methodologies you learned in a masters program, rather than the years and methodologies available to someone with a Ph.D.  Your masters is still a masters.  His Ph.D. is still a Ph.D.

So the answer is yes, a Ph.D. is always considered a higher academic degree than the master's degree, even if the master's thesis disproves the thesis of a particular writer's Ph.D.   If it turns out that you have found something thought to be lost, you may get some attention from the press, but will probably not hear much from those in the field of archaeology.