Israel Charges 'Jesus Box' Relics Ring with Fraud
Wed Dec 29,12:40 PM ET World - Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli prosecutors charged four antiquities
dealers on Wednesday with forging a slew of biblical artifacts
including a "Jesus box" that had been claimed as proof of
Christianity's origins.
"Had they pulled off this fraud, they would have succeeded in changing
the history of the Jewish and Christian people," said Israeli police
spokesman Gil Kleiman.
The indictment said Oded Golan, Robert Deutsch, Shlomo Cohen and Faiz
al-Amaleh added inscriptions to real antiquities which would link them
to major biblical events or persons, commanding greater prices from
collectors and fooling scholars.
The most notorious case was an ossuary, or ancient burial box,
purported to contain the bones of Jesus' brother James.
Scholars had speculated that the find, bought by an Israeli collector
in the 1970s, could be the earliest reference to Jesus.
But Israel's Antiquities Authority last year declared that the
inscription on the box -- "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" --
had been faked.
Also cited in the charges was an ivory pomegranate which the Israel
Museum bought for $500,000, believing it to be the only relic of King
Solomon's Jewish Temple based on the inscription: "Belonging to the
Temple of the Lord (Yahweh), holy to the priests."
But the museum said this month that experts had determined the
artifact in fact predated Solomon by as much as six centuries and had
nothing to do with the holy shrine.
"This was a multimillion-dollar crime ring, and the suspects can
expect to serve many years in prison if convicted," Kleiman said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20041224/ts_nm/mideast_relic_dc
Biblical King Solomon Treasure Turns Out to Be Fake
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A tiny ivory pomegranate once believed to be the
only relic of King Solomon's biblical era Jewish Temple turns out not
to be an artifact from the holy shrine, the Israel Museum said on
Friday.
Israeli experts have determined the thumb-sized object is a lot older
than believed, dating to the 13th or 14th Century BC, rather than to
the 8th Century BC, which scholars say was around the time of Solomon.
Israeli archaeologists had authenticated the item in 1988, believing
it had been smuggled out of Israel nine years earlier. The museum
bought it for more than $500,000 from an unknown owner who was paid
through a numbered Swiss bank account.
Researchers then thought the pomegranate was an ornamental top for a
priest's scepter, based in part on an inscription which read:
"Belonging to the Temple of the Lord (Yahweh), holy to the priests."
But in a statement on Friday, the museum said a new examination it
conducted with the Israel Antiquities Authority found the inscription
was a forgery. "The object itself dates to the Late Bronze Period but
its inscription is not ancient."
The fake engraving is the latest of a series of scams uncovered
recently in Israel involving archaeological finds.
Last year, an inscription on an ancient burial box that had led
experts to believe it held the remains of Jesus' brother James, was
found to be a forgery.
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