A biblical bazaar
Treasures, trinkets, and fakes mingle in Israel's controversial antiquities market
Call it a coincidence or providence, or dismiss it as the ruse of a clever hoaxster. Within a recent three-month span, two ancient artifacts of breathtaking biblical importance turned up in Israel: a first-century limestone box said to have held the remains of James, the brother of Jesus, and a tablet bearing what could be a 2,800-year-old royal inscription from the walls of the First Temple. If authentic--a big "if"--the objects would constitute the first tangible evidence corroborating the existence of Jesus of Nazareth and of an ancient Israelite temple erected by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C.
But the authenticity of both is murky, to say the least. Both artifacts emerged from Israel's lucrative antiquities market rather than in archaeological digs. Archaeologists, biblical scholars, and other experts are sharply divided over whether they are genuine or fakes, and tests may take months. In the meantime, the objects have kindled debate over the trade in biblical antiquities, conducted by private collectors and in hundreds of shops in Israel and the West Bank selling everything from statues of Canaanite fertility goddesses to oil lamps from Jesus's time. Some critics are asking whether Israeli efforts to restrict the possession and sale of ancient artifacts actually encourage forgeries, as well as the plunder of priceless historical treasures--a problem that the looting of Iraqi museums has brought to worldwide attention.
Reports last fall of the discovery of the James burial box, or ossuary, in the possession of an Israeli antiquities collector made international headlines and set the archaeological world abuzz because of an Aramaic inscription etched into its side: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." French and Israeli scientists who initially examined the box said they found no evidence of forgery and that it dates to about A.D. 63, a year after James is said to have been martyred.
Some others who have studied photographs of the inscription accept the antiquity of the ossuary itself but contend that the part mentioning Jesus appears to have been added and could be the work of an ancient or modern forger. A new book and television documentary put a favorable spin on the evidence for the inscription's authenticity. "Is it 100 percent certain?" asks Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and coauthor of the book, The Brother of Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco). "No. But I like to say that if you're looking for certainty, go into mathematics."
The box's owner, Tel Aviv engineer Oded Golan, says it is one of three ossuaries he bought from antiquity dealers in Jerusalem in the mid-1970s, and is among some 3,000 artifacts he has collected. It was only after he showed it to an expert in ancient inscriptions last year, Golan says, that he became aware of its biblical significance. "How was I to know the son of God had a brother?" he asks.
It was Golan, too, who turned over the so-called temple inscription to Israeli authorities earlier this year, saying he was acting as a middleman for another collector who wished to remain anonymous. The 15-line inscription in a tablet of dark sandstone tells of repairs to the temple under Judah's King Jehoash. Some scholars suggest the inscription was built into the walls of the renovated temple. Others find it deeply suspect (story, Page 46).
While Israeli scientists continue to analyze the two contested artifacts, some prominent archaeologists already are suggesting that both should be dismissed out of hand because of their murky provenance. "If we have questions about certain antiquities found in a dig," says Hebrew University archaeologist Eilat Mazar, "then we have that many more doubts about items like these." Because the lucrative market provides a strong incentive for forgers and looters, she says, scholars should simply ignore antiquities not excavated from archaeological digs.
Shanks, whose magazine first broke the story of the James ossuary, says he abhors looters and concedes that the market is glutted with forgeries. But, he adds, "this does not mean that we should ignore everything that comes from the antiquities market." He notes that most of the Dead Sea Scrolls, widely considered to be the most significant archaeological discovery of the 20th century, "were looted and purchased from middlemen. Yet no one today suggests that the scrolls are modern forgeries."
Past perfect. But clever fakes have deceived experts. Perhaps the most notorious incident occurred more than a century ago after the discovery of a ninth- century B.C. Moabite tablet that loosely parallels events in the Bible's 2 Kings. Within a few years, the antiquities market became flooded with fake Moabite inscriptions. The most prolific forger was a collector and dealer named Moshe Shapira, a Polish-born Jew who came to Palestine in 1855 and eventually converted to Christianity. Shapira sold some 1,700 "Moabite" inscriptions to the Berlin Museum, all manufactured by his team of workers. When his deceptions were exposed, Shapira committed suicide in 1884.
Archaeologists and curators have become more adept at ferreting out phonies. But an occasional ringer still slips through. In the 1980s, an acclaimed epigrapher, Nahman Avigad of the Hebrew University, published a series of articles analyzing a set of seals he believed were from the First Temple period. The artifacts later were found to be fakes.
Professional forgers, says Mazar of Hebrew University, do "thorough academic research and use the latest laboratory techniques" to confound experts. "We're talking about people who will hold on to a forgery for 15 years before they put it on the market. It's going to give them millions of dollars in the future so they can afford to invest time and effort."
More troubling than forgery, experts say, is the illicit trade in genuine antiquities plundered from thousands of unguarded archaeological sites throughout Israel and the West Bank. Cases of illegal digging and tomb-robbing, normally in the hundreds each year, have multiplied since the start of the intifada in 2000. High unemployment and a breakdown of law in the Palestinian territories have emboldened looters, who have little trouble finding buyers for pilfered goods.
Attempts by the Israeli government to crack down on the illegal traffic have proved controversial, and, some contend, of questionable effect. Under a 1978 law, all archaeological finds after that date are considered property of the government. Yet antiquity dealers are still permitted to sell artifacts discovered before 1978. (Golan says both the James ossuary and the Jehoash tablet were purchased before then, although Israeli authorities have doubts.) Critics of the policy say it has done little to stem the pillaging of archaeological sites and may have actually heightened demand for smuggled artifacts. "The best of the antiquities simply end up overseas," says Golan. Israel's historical treasures would be better protected, he says, if private citizens were permitted to keep recently discovered artifacts "as long as they were shown to scientists and documented."
Restricting the antiquities trade is all the more difficult because of the fascination these artifacts exert. Whether the James box and the Jehoash tablet are authentic or clever forgeries, says historian Neil Asher Silberman, director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology in Belgium, the two objects "have been irreversibly transformed into relics" imbued with religious significance that rests "not in what they are but in what they symbolize." That kind of impulse is unlikely to subside any time soon.
With Leora Eren Frucht
This story appears in the May 5, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.