Endnote 4 – First Person: Don’t Buy Forgeries

One of the almost identical inscriptions (from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud) was published only in 1992, after the forgery—if it is a forgery—was thought to have been made, so a question arose as to how the forger could have known about it. Eph‘al and Naveh note, however, that Ze’ev Meshel, who published the Kuntillet ‘Ajrud inscription in 1992, gave numerous public lectures on this reading about ten years before he published it, and a forger of the three-shekel ostracon could have learned about it this way. If so, this only emphasizes how well informed the forger was.