bibleland artifacts, even professionals want to believe
Offline [matt@dawn text2]$ cat israel-antiquities-forgery
guardian.co.uk
Faking it
The discovery that ancient artefacts sacred to Jewish history are forgeries
has sent shockwaves through the museum world. But was the gang behind the
scam only interested in cash, or did they have other motives? Rachel Shabi
investigates
Rachel Shabi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday January 20 2005 12.09 GMT
Ivory pomegranate, Israel Museum
It started with the pomegranate and ended with a stash of fake Bible-era
artefacts. Photo: AP
It all started with the pomegranate. On Christmas Eve, the Israel museum in
West Jerusalem made an announcement about a tiny ivory pomegranate that had
been on display at the museum since 1988, believed to have come from the
First Temple of Israel. The pomegranate, the museum sheepishly revealed, was
actually a fake. It was still a very old and beautiful carving, but the
inscription denoting its First Temple origins had been forged.
Five days later, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared that it
had uncovered a sophisticated forgery ring, based in Israel, which had
produced a stash of fake Bible-era artefacts. In addition to the
pomegranate, it revealed that two other objects, both similarly revered, had
also been rumbled as bogus. One was a limestone ossuary box said to have
held the bones of James, the brother of Jesus, and supposedly the oldest
physical link to the New Testament. The other was a stone tablet, from the
ninth century BC, inscribed in ancient Hebrew with instructions by King
Joash for maintaining Solomon's Temple.
The revelation sent shockwaves around the world of antiquities, as museums
were warned to expect more precious relics to be revealed as fakes. "We only
discovered the tip of the iceberg. This spans the globe. It generated
millions of dollars," warned Shuka Dorfman, director of the IAA. Museums
were urged to examine all objects of suspicious origin; the forgery ring,
the IAA cautioned, spanned 20 years.
So what tipped off the investigators? "We got some information in September
2002 about a stone with an inscription about the third temple of Joash in
Jerusalem," says Amir Ganor, head of investigations at the IAA. "This stone
would be very important to the Jewish people and to the antiquities
community." At that point the investigators were looking for a rumoured
relic, not a forgery. Informers said that it had been offered to several
institutions, including the Israel museum. "We heard that some guy, ex-Shin
Bet [the Israeli security service], had been showing the stone, but we
didn't know anything more," says Ganor.
The IAA eventually discovered the identity of the former security service
man (How? "Using our methods," says Ganor), who in turn led them to Oded
Golan, a leading Israeli collector and one of the five men alleged by the
IAA to be part of the forgery ring. Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper describes
Golan as a 51-year-old production engineer, based in Tel Aviv, who has
worked in engineering, tourism, real estate, and who now describes himself
as the "head of a of a hi-tech company". He told the IAA that he collects
antiquities as a hobby, and has been doing so since the age of 14. A search
of Golan's home took place in February 2003. "We found a lot of documents
about the stone, and pictures, but not the stone itself," says Ganor. "Oded
said that he was not the owner, but was representing some Arab guy." One
month later, threatened with another search warrant for another of his
premises, Golan handed over the stone.
It was not the first time he had come in contact with the IAA. Back in
October 2002, the authority had issued Golan with a licence to take an
ossuary ("just an ossuary, not an important ossuary," says Ganor) to the
Montreal museum in Canada. Soon after giving him approval, the IAA got a
phone call from CNN asking about the remarkable inscription on top of the
stone, apparently reading: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
The IAA, realising that it had granted an approval licence for a potentially
very special artefact, requested that Golan hand over the relic upon its
return from Canada, which he did in March 2003. Now the authority had the
stone and the ossuary, both of which were checked and found to be fakes.
What's more, the method of forgery in both cases was the same - the patina
on each object had been artificially contrived. At this point, the authority
launched its fraud investigation with the police, having for some time heard
rumours of more fakes on the market.
The IAA paid another visit to Golan, who had been given back his ossuary.
This time, says Ganor, the IAA "found all the evidence for the fraud
process, all the materials, all the patinas, some artefacts in the process
of being forged". The ossuary was found on the flat rooftop of Golan's
rented apartment, in the toilet. "He said it was the safest place to put
it," says Ganor. "This is the ossuary that millions of Christians have been
speaking about ... and that was insured for $1m when it was sent to Canada."
The investigation has so far named four men, in addition to Golan, whom it
alleges were involved, among them Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who
teaches at Haifa University, and Rafael Braun, former head of the
antiquities laboratories at the Israel museum. "We have found a key witness
who told us that [he was asked] to prepare thousands of artefacts," says
Ganor. He adds that witnesses have mentioned possible fakes at British,
American and German institutions. Golan, meanwhile, has insisted: "There is
not one grain of truth in the fantastic allegations related to me," while
Deutsch has pronounced the indictment "ridiculous".
The story gets cloudy where the pomegranate enters. The Israel museum bought
this relic in 1988, paying $550,000 (£287,000) into a numbered Swiss bank
account. For more than 20 years, it has been hailed as the only surviving
physical evidence of the First Temple. This temple is the holiest of holies
in Jewish tradition; it is said to be where Abraham, the father of the
Hebrew people, prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. (The Wailing Wall
in Jerusalem is the western wall of the Second Temple, built on the site of
the first in the sixth century BC). Scholars thought that the
thumbnail-sized fruit, which has a hole in the bottom, was used as the top
of a temple priest's sceptre.
The pomegranate is a high-profile example of a relic acquired "through the
market", meaning that it was not uncovered during a licensed excavation.
Such objects carry no official documentation denoting their origin. The
theory is that they come from looted sites. "The pomegranate surfaced a
number of years before it was acquired and displayed here," says James
Snyder, director at the Israel museum. "It was examined by a lot of
scholars, and it wasn't accepted into our collection until ithad the
consensus of all available experts that it was authentic." Snyder says that
there is always a question mark over the authenticity of an object acquired
through the market, but none the less, some 10% of the museum's 70,000
antiquities come from this channel. Why? "Because the objects are very
special, and so they can be placed in a museum setting and benefit the
public. You wouldn't want to miss that opportunity."
Unless, of course, the object is a fake. The museum insists that the
pomegranate was found to be a forgery through its own investigation,
independent of the IAA. However, one source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, says that this is rubbish. "The authority heard about the
pomegranate from a witness in the investigation," he says, adding that the
museum was asked to take the relic to the IAA but refused, negotiating
instead to conduct its own analysis. Such analysis revealed that the
pomegranate dates from the Bronze period - 3,400 years ago and long before
the First Temple period. The temple-specific inscription was added to the
fruit recently but it was the relic's patina - older than the first temple
period - that gave the game away.
Commentators have suggested that the museum might not have been sufficiently
scrupulous with the fruit relic over the years but Snyder insists that
analysis methods have recently developed in one significant direction:
"Until a few years ago, we would have had to remove a piece of the
pomegranate in order to scan it," he says. "We did not want to do that."
What this episode shows is the extent to which the antiquities community has
laid itself open to abuse. According to Israel Finkelstein, archaeology
professor at Tel Aviv university, most biblical land has been officially and
rigorously excavated and produced few relics. "Do you want me to believe
that robbers are then going with a flashlight at night and managing to find
50 inscriptions? Of course I don't believe it."
Still, the sale of marketplace antiquities is booming. Aren Maeir,
archaeology professor at Bar Ilan university in Ramat Gan, describes it as
"an astounding market, particularly among private collectors with millions
of dollars at their disposal". Objects can sell for $1m apiece, and
academics say that top forgers hunt academic journals for the objects that
would be considered significant if unearthed, and then sneak fake finds into
the market - giving the antiquity community exactly what it wants. "There is
an eagerness all over the world, in museums, to display antiquities of great
value," says Finkelstein, "and there is no question that some of them were
not careful enough in their [evaluation] methods. It was some sort of
naivety, something about wanting to believe."
The discovery of a Temple-era pomegranate, in particular, was always going
to provoke excitement. The pomegranate is a deeply resonant fruit in Judaism
that, according to the Bible, was used as a decorative motif in Solomon's
temple. There is a Rabbinic reference to its seeds, which in legend always
number 613 - one for each of the commandments of the Bible. One Israel
museum press officer explains the effect of seeing such relics: "It is very
exciting, very emotional, very Jewish feelings," she says. "Any time you see
something like this, it feels very special because you can see your roots."
It underlines the intense political significance that antiquities,
particularly Biblical-era artefacts, attain in Israel, where discoveries of
ancient sites or relics can be claimed by particular groups as proof of
their historic claim to a particular piece of land. Early Zionism was
enthusiastic in promoting Bible-era relics - they cemented the Jewish
connection to the land, and were seen to give credence to the new state of
Israel: ancient facts on the ground, if you like. It is telling, suggests Dr
Shimon Gibson, archaeology professor at the Albright Institute, Jerusalem,
that the Joash stone emerged at around the same time - early 2003 - that
Palestinian leaders were becoming more vociferous over the "alleged" Jewish
connection to the Temple Mount. The stone's inscription describes repair
works to the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. "Those who forged, if that is what
they did, would be trying to identify key spots of interest to Israel at
that moment," he says. "One of those is, of course, the Temple Mount,
because in any deal made with the Palestinians, the status of Jerusalem and
who controls the holy places is one of the key things that will be on the
table."
Some have argued that the only way to stop antiquity fraud is to properly
ban the sale of objects with unknown provenance. Others, such as Snyder,
counter that this would serve only to bury precious artefacts in the hands
of private collectors, not evaluated by experts and not appreciated by the
public.
Meanwhile, no one can say how many more relics from the world's great
museums will be rumbled as fakes. Snyder says that the Israel museum is
alert to the investigation, but it clearly wants to move on, celebrate its
40th birthday and show off its other collections - including the Dead Sea
scrolls. The museum plans to turn its misfortune with the pomegranate into
an opportunity to mount a display on antiquity dating methods. On my way out
of his office, Snyder hands me a lemon, from a basket on his desk. He tells
me that they come from his own garden; he also grows pomegranates.
[blockquote][font color="#ff00ff"]We have a museum run by professionals and known to archaeologists around the world displaying a forgery for decades. Is it not appropriate to question all the artifacts supposedly confirming the bible stories? It is very important to do so as they stopped being discovered a century ago when real scientists replaced adventurers who would, like Constantine's mother, buy anything to show off back home.
Clearly the fact that recognized authorities have blessed a find authenticity means nothing.[/font][/blockquote]
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
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Offline spin: Every dog and its fleas knows that there is a market for fake artefacts especially out of Israel for christian and Jewish religionists. However, it doesn't change the fact that there is evidence from out of the ground from different sites in Mesopotamia, from Elephantine from Lachish and Arad that demonstrate that there was a Judea, there were Hebrew speakers and believers in Yahweh, ie there was a Jewish society by the 6th century BCE. Like a millhorse you keep running around in circles never getting anywhere.
ANM: Were we not just over "judea" which you insist on calling Judah? Was it spelled D or DH?
spin: I really don't see any point in you flaunting your ignorance.
ANM: Lets get this straight. I say there were vowels, You say there were not. I show you Aleph and Y used as a vowel with the inscriptions showing their use. You say it is too hard for me to understand.
No, actually you are showing it is too hard for you to understand.
Here I agree with you that there were no vowels and my agreement with you is a sign of my ignorance. With that I have to agree. Agreeing with you is a sign of ignorance.spin wrote:A_Nony_Mouse wrote:The issue of course is artifacts confirming the substance of the OT, not a name for a geograhic region, but of artifacts identifiable as having a direct bible context. When it comes to the religious context there is no problem finding such items in all other ancient cultures in the "western" ancient world, Persia to Egypt to Rome. The only exception is for the god of bibleland. Not one single artifact establishes the religious context of the good guys of the OT.And that leads us to the ones you like to use. They are all 19th c. and were all found and translated by adventurers. They have not been re-examined for authenticity since then.
Maybe back then any name with a D in it could be taken as referring to Judah or Judea but back then people still believed Exodus actually occurred and that there was a biblical Isarel.
What is there besides the letter D?
Apparently you are unaware of how desperately believers want to believe.
Put your ouija board away.
After decades the pomegranate was determined to be a forgery by use of a magnifying glass. The inscription was across cracks in the original. The inscribing tool had made different marks as it moved across the cracks. ANYONE could have seen that from the day one if they did not want to believe so badly.Currently there is some ballyhoo about five lines of writing on a piece of broken pottery. If the article is complete it includes the one fact the arkies gave, that the language is <b>only</b> described as proto-canaanite. But the religious writers claim it is in Hebrew. They claim the five words on a broken piece of pottery is a legal document which shows there was a King David. Four nouns does not make a legal document. Any document on a piece of broken pottery shows the person who wrote it was impoverished not able to afford special made flat fired clay. An impoverished king David?
Believers are desperate people.
Does that justify awful scholarship??
spin
Trust the evidence, Luke
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Offline Quote:spin: Every dog and its fleas knows that there is a market for fake artefacts especially out of Israel for christian and Jewish religionists. However, it doesn't change the fact that there is evidence from out of the ground from different sites in Mesopotamia, from Elephantine from Lachish and Arad that demonstrate that there was a Judea, there were Hebrew speakers and believers in Yahweh, ie there was a Jewish society by the 6th century BCE. Like a millhorse you keep running around in circles never getting anywhere.
ANM: Were we not just over "judea" which you insist on calling Judah? Was it spelled D or DH?
spin: I really don't see any point in you flaunting your ignorance.
ANM: Lets get this straight. I say there were vowels, You say there were not. I show you Aleph and Y used as a vowel with the inscriptions showing their use. You say it is too hard for me to understand.
No, actually you are showing it is too hard for you to understand.
Yes it is difficult to understand how you do not want vowels in one case but want to use the vowel marks of Masoretic from about 1000 AD to use to make the D of Judah look like another word from 1600 years earlier.
[quotw=spin]
Here I agree with you that there were no vowels and my agreement with you is a sign of my ignorance. With that I have to agree. Agreeing with you is a sign of ignorance.spin wrote:A_Nony_Mouse wrote:The issue of course is artifacts confirming the substance of the OT, not a name for a geograhic region, but of artifacts identifiable as having a direct bible context. When it comes to the religious context there is no problem finding such items in all other ancient cultures in the "western" ancient world, Persia to Egypt to Rome. The only exception is for the god of bibleland. Not one single artifact establishes the religious context of the good guys of the OT.And that leads us to the ones you like to use. They are all 19th c. and were all found and translated by adventurers. They have not been re-examined for authenticity since then.
Maybe back then any name with a D in it could be taken as referring to Judah or Judea but back then people still believed Exodus actually occurred and that there was a biblical Isarel.
What is there besides the letter D?
Apparently you are unaware of how desperately believers want to believe.
Put your ouija board away.
The desire to believe does not need any help to recognize. I am surprised you, as an atheist, cannot recognize it in yourself.
A_Nony_Mouse wrote:After decades the pomegranate was determined to be a forgery by use of a magnifying glass. The inscription was across cracks in the original. The inscribing tool had made different marks as it moved across the cracks. ANYONE could have seen that from the day one if they did not want to believe so badly.Currently there is some ballyhoo about five lines of writing on a piece of broken pottery. If the article is complete it includes the one fact the arkies gave, that the language is <b>only</b> described as proto-canaanite. But the religious writers claim it is in Hebrew. They claim the five words on a broken piece of pottery is a legal document which shows there was a King David. Four nouns does not make a legal document. Any document on a piece of broken pottery shows the person who wrote it was impoverished not able to afford special made flat fired clay. An impoverished king David?
Believers are desperate people.
Does that justify awful scholarship??
spin
Nothing justified the non-existent scholarship that declared the pomegranate authentic for some four decades. Nothing justifies the refusal of believers to apply the rule of provenence used today to things found before the rule was developed. Crudely the rule is, if there is no provence it is ain't worth jack shit. For believers the exception is if it confirms their belief in the books of magic they love.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
- Login to post comments
Every dog and its fleas knows that there is a market for fake artefacts especially out of Israel for christian and Jewish religionists.
However, it doesn't change the fact that there is evidence from out of the ground from different sites in Mesopotamia, from Elephantine from Lachish and Arad that demonstrate that there was a Judea, there were Hebrew speakers and believers in Yahweh, ie there was a Jewish society by the 6th century BCE.
Like a millhorse you keep running around in circles never getting anywhere.
spin
Trust the evidence, Luke
Were we not just over "judea" which you insist on calling Judah? Was it spelled D or DH?
The issue of course is artifacts confirming the substance of the OT, not a name for a geograhic region, but of artifacts identifiable as having a direct bible context. When it comes to the religious context there is no problem finding such items in all other ancient cultures in the "western" ancient world, Persia to Egypt to Rome. The only exception is for the god of bibleland. Not one single artifact establishes the religious context of the good guys of the OT.
And that leads us to the ones you like to use. They are all 19th c. and were all found and translated by adventurers. They have not been re-examined for authenticity since then.
Maybe back then any name with a D in it could be taken as referring to Judah or Judea but back then people still believed Exodus actually occurred and that there was a biblical Isarel.
What is there besides the letter D?
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml
I really don't see any point in you flaunting your ignorance.
spin
Trust the evidence, Luke
Lets get this straight. I say there were vowels, You say there were not. I show you Aleph and Y used as a vowel with the inscriptions showing their use. You say it is too hard for me to understand.
Here I agree with you that there were no vowels and my agreement with you is a sign of my ignorance. With that I have to agree. Agreeing with you is a sign of ignorance.
spin
Apparently you are unaware of how desperately believers want to believe. After decades the pomegranate was determined to be a forgery by use of a magnifying glass. The inscription was across cracks in the original. The inscribing tool had made different marks as it moved across the cracks. ANYONE could have seen that from the day one if they did not want to believe so badly.
Currently there is some ballyhoo about five lines of writing on a piece of broken pottery. If the article is complete it includes the one fact the arkies gave, that the language is <b>only</b> described as proto-canaanite. But the religious writers claim it is in Hebrew. They claim the five words on a broken piece of pottery is a legal document which shows there was a King David. Four nouns does not make a legal document. Any document on a piece of broken pottery shows the person who wrote it was impoverished not able to afford special made flat fired clay. An impoverished king David?
Believers are desperate people.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml