Posted on Friday 24 October 2003

The Israel Antiquities Authority declares that the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Inscription are both forgeries.

James Ossuary Epigraphical experts divided on authenticity of inscription Ossuary is made of local limestone Ossuary surface covered with a natural rock varnish overlaid by patina in places Inscription carved through the varnish "Patina" coating only the inscription was made from a solution of hot water and chalk Conclusion: At some time long after the natural processes of varnish and patination in a damp cave environment had been completed, someone carved a series of letters through the natural varnish on the ossuary. Then he or she covered the freshly cut letters with an imitation patina made from water and ground chalk.

Jehoash Inscription Numerous mistakes in grammar and eccentric letter forms Made of a metamorphic stone found in western Cyprus and points west, not local sandstone Patina covering inscription made from a solution of hot water, clay, chalk, carbonized particles, and micron-sized globules of metal--possibly gold Conclusion: An obvious forgery

Nothing too surprising here but there are lots of things of interest in this article both about the artfulness of 21st century forgers and the techniques used by experts in order to expose them.

IAA scientific panel member, Yuval Goren of Tel-Aviv University, had already expressed skepticism about the authenticity of Jehoash inscription before this current investigation. His skepticism focussed on the nature of the patina

, a natural coating that forms on rocks over long periods of time. If an inscription can be shown to have been made prior to when the patina had formed then this implies that it is very old. However, as Goren has demonstrated, it's not all that hard for forgers to fake a convincing looking patina. By directly examining both of these artifacts, Goren and Avner Ayalon (of the Geological Survey of Israel) were able to determine that this kind of faking had in fact occurred.

Calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO₃) is the primary component of naturally formed patina on buried archaeological artifacts in calcareous areas, such as the Jerusalem region. This is due to the fact that calcite dissolves in groundwater. With the loss of CO₂ from the groundwater by evaporation, the calcite crystallizes again on the stone's surface (just like the "stone" that collects inside a tea kettle). The oxygen within this recrystallized calcareous coating--the patina--has the same isotopic ratio as the water from which it was produced. And that value can even be used to determine the temperature at which the crystallization took place.

Ayalon determined in his analysis that while the calcite of the patina from the uninscribed surface of the James ossuary, and indeed the surfaces and inscriptions of other authentic ossuaries that he examined, had ratios that were normal for average ground temperature of the Jerusalem vicinity, the ratios of the "James Bond"--that strange mixture that covered only the letters of the inscription--was entirely different. In fact, they suggested that the crystallization took place in heated water, not the "cave environment" that the earlier geologists had claimed. The evidence pointed to an intentional faking of the patina over the letters of the "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" inscription--and nowhere else.

...the fake patina on the Jehoash Inscription shared the most telltale characteristics of the "James Bond" on the James Ossuary." The presence of undissolved microfossils in the mixture showed that it was made from powdered chalk, not natural crystallization and its isotopic ratios of oxygen for the calcite in the fake patina of the Jehoash inscription indicated again the crystallization was produced in hot water--not in the ground.

Incidentally, isotopic analysis of calcium carbonate is an powerful technique which has some other interesting uses. For example, in the study of long term climate change. Sea temperatures over periods of millions of years can be determined simply by analyzing the ratios of the oxygen isotopes trapped in the shells of molluscs.

Water, the compound making up the oceans of the Earth, is composed of the elements oxygen and hydrogen. These elements have several similar forms, known as isotopes. For example, the isotopes of oxygen are oxygen-16, oxygen-17 and oxygen-18, where the number refers to the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

...In the hydrologic cycle, evaporation preferentially removes water with oxygen-16 (i.e. light oxygen). This oxygen isotope is therefore rich in the gas phase of water in clouds. Precipitation and runoff returns water with high oxygen-16 to the Earth's surface. During glacial epochs, this precipitated oxygen-16 is preferentially stored in polar icecaps and continental ice sheets. This leaves the oceans enriched in oxygen-18. In the opposite case, when the cliamte is very hot, icecaps do not exist, and oceans are no longer enriched in oxygen-18.

The stable isotopes of oxygen are used to reconstruct palaeoclimates. The abundance of oxygen-18 compared to oxygen-16 is displayed in a ratio of the the two isotopes. The relative value of this ratio is compared to a standard so that the climate change with respect to time can be measured.

The ratio of isotopes (signatures) can be recorded in the rocks that are forming at that time. For example, forams create their shell of calcium carbonate from the water and food they consume. When they die and their body sinks to the bottom of the ocean, this isotope signature is preserved in these shells. Sediment accumulates and eventually forms a rock which can become uplifted and be available for study.

Update: Rochelle Altman comments on the IAA finding. She disagrees that the entire inscription of the James Ossuary is a forgery, instead she says that the first part "Jacob son of Jospeh" is authentic while the "his brother of Yeshua" was a later addition. She concludes with this parting shot at Hershel Shanks (" And just who is this Rochelle Altman anyway? Has anyone ever heard of her?")

On October 21, 2002, Mr. Hershel Shanks, lawyer turned publisher and managing editor of the Biblical Archaeological Review (BAR), a glossy popular pulp magazine, announced to a group of journalists, assembled for the purpose of a media circus...

Update: The Geological Survey of Israel (GSI) clarifies its position regarding the Jehoash Inscription which it had earlier this year declared as authentic. Despite this error, it's worth recalling that the GSI provided the services of Avner Ayalon whose work was of critical importance to the IAA finding. Update: Hershel Shanks remains the optimist: Why I Am Not Yet Convinced the Ossuary Inscription Is a Forgery. Yuval Goren replies.