Ivory Pomegranate: Under the Microscope at the Israel Museum

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The famous inscribed ivory pomegranate, which, if authentic, may have been the head of a scepter from Solomon’s Temple, has endured decades of debate. Is the inscription real, or is it a forgery? A meeting between world-class paleographers in the summer of 2015 may have settled the debate.

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Footnotes

1. André Lemaire, “Probable Head of Priestly Scepter from Solomon’s Temple Surfaces in Jerusalem,” BAR 10:01, with sidebar, “Pomegranate ‘Priceless’ Says Harvard’s Frank Cross.”

2. See Hershel Shanks, “Predilections—Is the ‘Brother of Jesus’ Inscription a Forgery?” BAR, September/October 2015.

3. Strata: “BAR Editor Charged with Pivotal Role in Fraud and Forgery,” BAR 35:01.

4. Hershel Shanks, First Person: “A New Target,” BAR 40:06.

5. See Hershel Shanks, “Assessing the Jehoash Inscription: The Paleographer: Demonstrably a Forgery,” BAR 29:03; Hershel Shanks, “Ossuary Update: What About the Jehoash Inscription?” BAR 29:05; David Noel Freedman, “Don’t Rush to Judgment,” BAR 30:02; Strata: “New Study Supports Authenticity of Yehoash Inscription,” BAR, May/June 2009; Hershel Shanks, First Person: “Gold from the Temple?” BAR 40:04.

Endnotes

1. André Lemaire, “Une inscription paléo-hébraïque sur grenade en ivoire,” Revue Biblique 88 (1981), pp. 236–239.

2. Compare the remarks of Gaby Barkay at the conference I called to discuss the various allegations of forgeries, referred to below: “No committee and no court can establish the authenticity of an inscription. If a committee made up of the most important experts in the world decides that the earth is flat, it is not going to make the earth flat. So the decision of committees is neither originating in the Israeli law of antiquities, nor is it a procedure which is common in scholarly methods. Committees I think are good for communist regimes. They establish a view that has to be accepted by all, but they are not for scientific methods.”

3. Pieter W. van der Horst, Saxa Judaica Loquuntur: Lessons from Early Jewish Inscriptions, Biblical Interpretation Series 134 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 67–87.

4. Yuval Goren, Shmuel Ahituv, Avner Ayalon, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Uzi Dahari, Michal Dayagi-Mendels, Aaron Demsky and Nadav Levin, “A Re-examination of the Inscribed Pomegranate from the Israel Museum,” Israel Exploration Journal 55 (2005), pp. 3–20.

5. Shmuel Ahituv, Aaron Demsky, Yuval Goren and André Lemaire, “The Inscribed Pomegranate from the Israel Museum Examined Again,” Israel Exploration Journal 57 (2007), pp. 87–95.