Deconstructing Forgery
On January 16–18, 2007, the Biblical Archaeology Society sponsored a private conference in Jerusalem to discuss many of the ancient inscriptions that have recently been alleged to be forgeries. The participants included many of the world’s leading epigraphers and material scientists.
Hershel Shanks’s fascinating report on this conference is now available electronically info at no charge.
Attached to the report are the participants’ abstracts and papers—also available electronically info at no charge.
This material is available in several forms. You may wish to read a short summary of the report. You may wish to read, either now or after reading only the summary, the full report (26 pages). Or, you may wish to order some or all of the appendices. Simply go to our Web site at info www.biblicalarchaeology.org/forgeryreport, and select your preferred option. We will send you the requested material in electronic format info free of charge.
If you would like a hard copy of this report and its appendices, it is available at a cost of $39.95, plus shipping and handling.
André Lemaire
“You need to be suspicious when you check the inscription, but when you check it—and very carefully—and there is no serious argument, [the suspicion should evaporate]. Suspicion is usual at the beginning, but you have to do your work, not just stand there and say, ‘It is suspicious. It is suspicious.’”
Wolfgang Krumbein
“You see this reddish material [showing us a picture on the screen] … There is a lot of red material … Again you see this reddish material that was never there before 2005 … This was done by the police when it was in their custody.”
Chaim Cohen
“Either the [Yehoash] inscription is authentic or the inscription is a brilliant, brilliant forgery.”
Andrew Vaughn
“As a scholarly community, are we promoting looting if we go and talk to people who collect antiquities? . . . We do have to make ethical and moral choices. . . To separate ourselves from these moral obligations I feel is wrong.”
Ada Yardeni
“I am sure that [the James Ossuary Inscription] is no fake, unless Oded [Golan] comes and tells me he did it. So he’s a genius. But I don’t believe it.”
Aaron Demsky
“The onus of proof is on the [pomegranate] inscription . . . It’s a little hard to believe that a minute object lies around for three or four hundred years and is then dedicated to the Temple . . . It’s possible, but not too probable.”