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Unprovenanced, yes, but forged? Perhaps the most heated discussions at the San Antonio conferences were the debates over artifacts that come from the antiquities market. Scholars refer to such items as unprovenanced—it is not known where or how the objects were discovered and so their authenticity must always be questioned. The “Widow’s Plea” ostracon (an inscribed sherd) is a noteworthy example: Containing a legal plea from a woman concerning her dead husband’s estate, it appears to date from sometime between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C.E. Experts at the Israel Antiquities Authority, however, disagree. The PowerPoint slide was part of a presentation by Uzi Dahari, deputy director of the IAA, who is convinced that the presence of paraffin under the ink on the ostracon proves that it is a fake. Others in the scholarly world still maintain it is authentic.