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| B.C.E. 9th Century YoꞋâsh Beit ha- |
2003.02.10 Jerusalem Report –
'Temple tablet' is genuine, insist experts at Geological Survey Though many Israeli scholars have expressed doubts about the authenticity of a newly revealed, purportedly 2,800-year-old inscription attributed to Biblical king [YoꞋâsh], the Geological Survey of Israel (GSI) is standing by its determination that it is the real thing.
"It can't have been faked," Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld, who, together with Dr. Shimon Ilani, conducted the GSI's check of the sandstone tablet bearing the text, told The Report. By examining the stone, a carbon patina that covered it, and gold traces on the surface, the two scientists determined that the tablet and writing dated from the time that [YoꞋâsh] would have lived according to the Bible.
"We found gold globules in a massive quantity, and we checked the crack that runs through the letters," he says. "The gold is spread in a natural way, and the crack would have been impossible to forge." Rosenfeld added: "Maybe if you had billions of dollars, you could have forged this."
The 15-line inscription, purported to be a fragment of a declaration from [YoꞋâsh], who was king of Judea in approximately 1200 BCE, closely resembles descriptions in II Kings 12 of the repairs undertaken by the monarch in Solomon's Temple. In it, the king orders his priests to "buy quarry stones and timber and copper, and labor to carry out the duty with faith."
If authentic, not only would the 12-inch by 9.6-inch tablet provide evidence supporting the veracity of the Biblical account, but also the first physical proof of the existence of the First Temple.
Owned by a Tel Aviv antiquities collector and engineeer, Oded Golan, the tablet was first offered to the Israel Museum – for a reported $5 million – but museum deputy director Dor Lin says archaeologists there could not properly study it because the owner did not supply full information about its discovery and excavation.
One person who is confident it is a forgery is Joseph Naveh, professor emeritus of Hebrew epigraphy at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, who says he examined it in a Jerusalem hotel room in mid-2001. "The writing is not typical of the 9th century BCE," says Naveh. Asked what other examples of writing from the period exist, Naveh mentions the Mesha Stele, named for King Mesha of Moab, and the Tel Dan inscription that mentions King David: "The forger knew these inscriptions, too, but made a mishmash of them."
Tel Aviv University history professor Nadav Neeman also smells a fake, and suggests that it was inspired by an article he wrote in 1998. In that article, Neeman postulated that [YoꞋâsh] may have inscribed an account of his Temple repairs, and that this may have formed the basis for the text in n Kings. "Mistakes in the phrasing and style lead to a strong suspicion of forgery," says Neeman. "Then you wonder why, of all things, do we have an inscription by [YoꞋâsh], and I can't help but suspect that it's because they saw my article."
The GSI's Rosenfeld counters that Neeman is "shooting himself in the foot... First, he says there must be such an inscription. But when it's found, instead of saying, 'I'm a genius,"' he concludes it's a forgery."
David B. Green
We only inform our readers of this situation so that you are aware of the development and its surrounding controversy. Based on my past personal experience, I have more confidence in geologists as scientists than a number of archeologists who have routinely proven themselves logical incompetents (documented in the Orion archives; though this refers neither to Prof. Naveh nor to Prof. Neeman, if memory serves). Therefore, until the scientists reach a consensus, we withhold making any judgment but are inclined to think the geologists have, so far, stated the more logically sound case.
2003.02.10 Jerusalem Report – 'Temple tablet' is genuine, insist experts at Geological Survey. Though many Israeli scholars have expressed doubts about the authenticity of a newly revealed, purportedly 2,800-year-old inscription attributed to Biblical king [YoꞋâsh], the Geological Survey of Israel (GSI) is standing by its determination that it is the real thing.
Update 2003.06.18 – The "Jesus Ossuary," ‘discovered’ by the same Israeli, Tel Aviv engineer Oded Golan, and hyped by the same magazine publisher, BARs Hershel Shanks, has been determined by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to be a fake. We expect a similar determination for his other ‘discovery,’ the "Beit ha-
Late update 2003.06.18 – As expected, IAA has announced that the inscription on the ‘Temple Tablet’ is also fake.
Update 2014.09.04 Follow-up – In the interim, the Israeli Supreme Court has found that the forgery charge relative to the YᵊshuꞋa Ossuary by the IAA and Tel Aviv University Prof. Goren are baseless. The forgery charge was thrown out. The YᵊshuꞋa Ossuary is authentic, which means the bones that the Ultra-Orthodox
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