Re: FREDA BEDI CONT'D (#4)
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:59 am
Part 1 of 4
Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal
Created by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
Research and Script by Natan Odenheimer
Narrated by Natan Odenheimer
Times of Israel
Jul 22, 2022
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
Does a private individual hold two of the most important archeological items ever discovered in Israel? In 2002, antiquities collector Oded Golan was accused of forging two items of the highest importance: the ossuary of James, brother of Jesus, and the Jehoash Inscription - the only physical proof of Solomon’s Temple. Twenty years on, after repeated expert examination, it’s still unclear if these items are authentic or fake.
In this second episode of The Times of Israel’s new, original ‘Into the Land’ docuseries, we explore the international controversy behind this alleged archeological forgery -- and the uncertainty and interests that appear inherent to historical verification.
Transcript
[Tzaki Tzuriel, Private Investigator hired by antiquities collector Oded Golan.] This man comes to me one day, he's an antiquities dealer. And this guy tells me he's got this find.
His story was that he got it from a Palestinian antiquities dealer in East Jerusalem.
He tells me, "It's one of the most important finds for the State of Israel." It's a stone, inscribed with specifications for renovating the Holy Temple. And if that's true, if it's authentic, it could be one of the greatest archaeological finds ever.
He asked me to take the stone, and my mission was to go around and show it to whoever it needed to be shown to, and then disappear with it immediately so no one would know it existed until it got some sort of seal of authenticity. One day, I'm sitting in my office, I hear a knock on my door, "Hello, we're from the Israel Antiquities Authority." And they ask me, "Do you know Oded Golan?" I said yes. They took out a camera like this one, and started questioning me. I know that later on Oded Golan was put on trial. Truth is, I'd love to hear where this stone is, what happened to it, and is it really authentic?
The Times of Israel presents an original docuseries
Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal
[Narrator] Twenty years ago, two seemingly unrelated archaeological finds surfaced in Israel. Both items were of unprecedented importance. That was the starting point to what turned into the biggest archaeology-related scandal in the history of the country.
[Simcha Jacobovici, Journalist & Filmmaker] I documented it before the world knew about it.
I got this scoop, I brought the tools of an investigative journalist, you know, how do we know it's not forged? And then I saw the difference between what was really happening, and how it was being manipulated and reported.
[Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division, Israeli Antiquities Authority] There were reports about an artifact circulating among collectors in the antiquities market, about how it was of great significance, because it had an inscription that mentions historical figures that every child knows from reading the Bible.
[Narrator] The first of the two items, known as The Jehoash Inscription, is an ancient Hebrew tablet, made of heavy dark stone.
Not only does it mention King Jehoash from the Bible, it also details constructions and renovations in the Holy Temple.
If true, it's the only physical proof for the existence of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, and supports the Jewish claim for the most contested hilltop in the Middle East.
[Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division, Israeli Antiquities Authority] Is it authentic? Is it really from 2,000 years ago? That's one story. The second story, which miraculously unfolded at the exact same time ...
[Lenny Wolfe, Antiquities Dealer] I heard about it from one of the dealers that said to me, "there's an ossuary on the marketplace."
[Simcha Jacobovici, Journalist & Filmmaker] And I said, "What's an ossuary?"
And he said, "It's a bone box, and on it it says, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Front page news around the world, the first concrete, carved in stone proof that Jesus even existed.
[Narrator] The news made headlines around the world, and shortly after, the ossuary was displayed as a centerpiece in a blockbuster exhibition at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. The ossuary, a small stone bone box with an inscription that reads, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," attracted top experts from all over the world who came to observe the item up close in disbelief.
Some experts were excited, even suggesting that the ossuary may hold specks of Jesus's DNA. But others were skeptical, immediately raising questions about its authenticity.
[Expert] It's done beautifully. If it's forged, it's by a genius.
[Robert Hager, NBC News] Could the box, just now coming to public attention, really have once held the bones of that James?
Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal
Created by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
Research and Script by Natan Odenheimer
Narrated by Natan Odenheimer
Times of Israel
Jul 22, 2022
NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
-- Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal, created by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
-- King Solomon's Tablet Of Stone, directed by Sean Smith
-- Oded Golan, by Wikipedia
-- False Testament: Archaeology Refutes the Bible's Claim to History, by Daniel Lazare
-- The Bible Unearthed: The Making of a Religion, directed by Thierry Ragobert
-- The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History, by Keith W. Whitelam
-- The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine
-- Letting Go of God, by Julia Sweeney
-- The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
-- Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Highlights:
This man comes to me one day, he's an antiquities dealer. And this guy tells me he's got this find. His story was that he got it from a Palestinian antiquities dealer in East Jerusalem. He tells me, "It's one of the most important finds for the State of Israel." It's a stone, inscribed with specifications for renovating the Holy Temple. And if that's true, if it's authentic, it could be one of the greatest archaeological finds ever. He asked me to take the stone, and my mission was to go around and show it to whoever it needed to be shown to, and then disappear with it immediately so no one would know it existed until it got some sort of seal of authenticity....
It had an inscription that mentions historical figures that every child knows from reading the Bible...
Not only does it mention King Jehoash from the Bible, it also details constructions and renovations in the Holy Temple. If true, it's the only physical proof for the existence of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, and supports the Jewish claim for the most contested hilltop in the Middle East....
The ossuary, a small stone bone box with an inscription that reads, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," attracted top experts from all over the world who came to observe the item up close in disbelief. Some experts were excited, even suggesting that the ossuary may hold specks of Jesus's DNA....
It's done beautifully. If it's forged, it's by a genius....
The people that got really riled up were the then-heads of the Israel Antiquities Authority. And suddenly they were talking about fake....
You know, there is enough money to be made by everyone who is involved with antiquities that he doesn't need to make fakes. But some people are too greedy....
There's a very, very sophisticated manipulation here that someone carried out today, to create an artifact that is ostensibly ancient, and ultimately make a lot of money from it....
Coincidentally, both investigations led to one man....
His name is Oded Golan....
"I bought the ossuary when I was a university student at the Technion from an antiquities dealer in Silwan... [A]lmost all the Jameses in the world are named after him, from James Bond to James Baker, to many other people, of course, with that name.... The stone itself had been in an antiquities dealer's shop for a very long time.... And the IAA wasn't even interested! It didn't set off a warning bell, let alone an alarm, or anything like that."...
How much did you pay for it? Are you free to say?
"First of all, I'm not at liberty to say."...
Even the Israel Museum got involved in some sort of negotiation to buy one of these artifacts.
Front-page news around the world. And the IAA wasn't part of it, right? ... And they didn't even know what was happening. So, one way to look at it, was that the reason they got so aggressive with Oded Golan, and on the whole issue, was because they were embarrassed. They're supposed to be the experts. Nobody kept them in the loop...
"[H]ow is it that the State of Israel's most important items are exported to an exhibition abroad, and these items weren't even found in an official archaeological excavation? And that frustration later turned into a desire to confiscate these items, and seize them from me without any compensation."...
[O]nly after searching his parents' home did they find the ossuary. The Jehoash Inscription was nowhere to be found. Under pressure, Golan agreed to bring in the inscription for examination, hoping he wouldn't be charged with any crime in return. ...
The Materials Committee determined quite clearly, based on scientific parameters, that the Jehoash Inscription was forged. When it came to the ossuary, there was a question as to whether part of the inscription was authentically ancient, and another part was added later on....
"And what they wanted, in effect, was to take the important items from me."...
In my opinion, this is just the tip of the iceberg. No one -- listen carefully to what I say -- has contradicted the findings of the committees to this date, not in this country, or anywhere else. The Jehoash Inscription was offered to the Israel Museum for $4 million. And it's nothing more than a stone....Indiana Jones pales by comparison....
The prosecution claimed that together with top-tier dealers, including the former chief renovator of the Israel Museum, Golan had led an international network of forgers for over 20 years....
And they came up with pseudo-scholarly things, "Look, you know, it doesn't look right. It's a dot. No, it's a scratch."...
Soon, a trial that had started as a criminal investigation unfolded into an academic symposium, with over 120 witnesses, many of whom were world-renowned geologists, archaeologists, chemists, geochemists, linguists, epigraphers, polygraphers, Bible experts, as well as the former head of one of the FBI's forensic labs. ...
If they appeared as exhibits in a court case, and experts renowned throughout the world, some of them said they were genuine, and some said they were fake, then they are good forgeries. If they are forgeries, then they are good forgeries....
There's no dispute: This was the work of consummate artists....
The experts disagree....
Ultimately, the judge said, "Look, my dear friends from the academia, I'm a judge, I know how to judge by evidence. I can't determine for scientists whether their scientific conclusions are correct or not."...
Over time, I learned that this world of archaeological excavations and findings is a world full of what we like to call "monkey business."...
Ten years on, the institutional conviction is that both items were at least partially forged.
-- Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal, Created by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
Does a private individual hold two of the most important archeological items ever discovered in Israel? In 2002, antiquities collector Oded Golan was accused of forging two items of the highest importance: the ossuary of James, brother of Jesus, and the Jehoash Inscription - the only physical proof of Solomon’s Temple. Twenty years on, after repeated expert examination, it’s still unclear if these items are authentic or fake.
In this second episode of The Times of Israel’s new, original ‘Into the Land’ docuseries, we explore the international controversy behind this alleged archeological forgery -- and the uncertainty and interests that appear inherent to historical verification.
Transcript
[Tzaki Tzuriel, Private Investigator hired by antiquities collector Oded Golan.] This man comes to me one day, he's an antiquities dealer. And this guy tells me he's got this find.
His story was that he got it from a Palestinian antiquities dealer in East Jerusalem.
He tells me, "It's one of the most important finds for the State of Israel." It's a stone, inscribed with specifications for renovating the Holy Temple. And if that's true, if it's authentic, it could be one of the greatest archaeological finds ever.
He asked me to take the stone, and my mission was to go around and show it to whoever it needed to be shown to, and then disappear with it immediately so no one would know it existed until it got some sort of seal of authenticity. One day, I'm sitting in my office, I hear a knock on my door, "Hello, we're from the Israel Antiquities Authority." And they ask me, "Do you know Oded Golan?" I said yes. They took out a camera like this one, and started questioning me. I know that later on Oded Golan was put on trial. Truth is, I'd love to hear where this stone is, what happened to it, and is it really authentic?
NARRATOR: For millions of people of different faiths the authentification of the Stone Tablet was a fantastic affirmation of their belief. Here was a genuine archaeological find that correlated almost word for word with a biblical episode that happened nearly 3,000 years ago. But for the stone itself, the next stage was to find a fitting home. And one place seemed ideal: the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This remarkable museum is home to a stunning collection of biblical antiquities. They have the Dead Sea Scrolls, the most important biblical manuscripts in existence. They also have Israel's only other royal inscription from close to the time of Solomon -- The 'House of David' Stele. This is the only reference to Solomon's father, David, that exists outside the bible. The Stone would be a fitting companion for these priceless artefacts.
JAMES SNYDER: We would of course be interested in acquiring something if we felt that it would help to amplify the story which our museum is meant to tell, and our story is the story of biblical archaeology in the ancient Holy Land, so if something were to surface of great significance for the full telling of that story we would be interested.
NARRATOR: With its authenticity confirmed the stone was offered for sale to the Israel Museum. The price was rumoured to be high.
BOAZ GAON: There was a series of meetings with the Israel Museum, initial negotiations going on between the two parties, all sorts of sums are thrown around. It's difficult to know exactly what the sum was at that point -- some people say three million, some people say four million, some people say ten million.
NARRATOR: But before the museum would part with several million dollars, it wanted to know just one more thing -- where exactly had the stone been found? The Bible said that Solomon's temple had been situated on Jerusalem's temple mount. So the stone must have come from there originally.
JAMES SNYDER: If an object is excavated then you have a much simpler time verifying its authenticity because you are taking it from its source of excavation.
NARRATOR: However, there are no official excavations on the Temple Mount -- because it is home to one of Islam's holiest shrines, the Dome of the Rock. The whole area is politically far too sensitive for archaeology. Still, rumours said the stone had been found in rubble left from recent illegal building projects being carried out on the Temple Mount. But James Snyder needed more than rumour. He wanted the full story of the stone after it had been found.
JAMES SNYDER: You want to be able to track the history of the object from the time of its excavation, if it is possible to do so, through its history of ownership until it comes to you.
NARRATOR: It was then that the saga of the stone became very mysterious indeed. Just when the museum wanted to do their own checks, both the private investigator who had first revealed it -- and the stone -- disappeared.
NARRATOR: So Amir Ganor an investigator with the Israeli Antiquities Authority was called in. For nine months he searched for the man who had first taken the stone to the Jerusalem hotel.
AMIR GANOR: (VO translation): We travelled all over Israel from the north to the south. That detective was a very wily person, he left us very few clues. In the end we found him in an office in Ramat Gan and he told us that he'd been hired by Oded Golan.
NARRATOR: Oded Golan is a businessman and renowned collector, owner of Israel's largest private collection of antiquities. He explained that he wasn't the owner of the stone and that he didn't know where it was. He had just been involved as a middleman.
-- King Solomon's Tablet Of Stone, directed by Sean Smith
So what tipped off the investigators? "We got some information in September 2002 about a stone with an inscription about the third temple of Joash in Jerusalem," says Amir Ganor, head of investigations at the IAA. "This stone would be very important to the Jewish people and to the antiquities community." At that point the investigators were looking for a rumoured relic, not a forgery. Informers said that it had been offered to several institutions, including the Israel museum. "We heard that some guy, ex-Shin Bet [the Israeli security service], had been showing the stone, but we didn't know anything more," says Ganor.
The IAA eventually discovered the identity of the former security service man (How? "Using our methods," says Ganor), who in turn led them to Oded Golan, a leading Israeli collector and one of the five men alleged by the IAA to be part of the forgery ring. Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper describes Golan as a 51-year-old production engineer, based in Tel Aviv, who has worked in engineering, tourism, real estate, and who now describes himself as the "head of a of a hi-tech company". He told the IAA that he collects antiquities as a hobby, and has been doing so since the age of 14. A search of Golan's home took place in February 2003. "We found a lot of documents about the stone, and pictures, but not the stone itself," says Ganor. "Oded said that he was not the owner, but was representing some Arab guy." One month later, threatened with another search warrant for another of his premises, Golan handed over the stone.
-- Israel Faking it: The discovery that ancient artefacts sacred to Jewish history are forgeries has sent shockwaves through the museum world. But was the gang behind the scam only interested in cash, or did they have other motives?, by Rachel Shabi
The Times of Israel
Is the James Ossuary for Real?
by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
***
Court: Israel Can't hold Jehoash tablet
by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
***
Dealer is fined for illegal trading
by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
***
Antiquities fraud case continues in court
by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
***
Surprising end to antiquities case
by Eiv Kristal and Natan Odenheier
The Times of Israel presents an original docuseries
Into the Land: The Forgery Scandal
[Narrator] Twenty years ago, two seemingly unrelated archaeological finds surfaced in Israel. Both items were of unprecedented importance. That was the starting point to what turned into the biggest archaeology-related scandal in the history of the country.
[Simcha Jacobovici, Journalist & Filmmaker] I documented it before the world knew about it.
I got this scoop, I brought the tools of an investigative journalist, you know, how do we know it's not forged? And then I saw the difference between what was really happening, and how it was being manipulated and reported.
[Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division, Israeli Antiquities Authority] There were reports about an artifact circulating among collectors in the antiquities market, about how it was of great significance, because it had an inscription that mentions historical figures that every child knows from reading the Bible.
2002
Item 01
The Jehoash Inscription
[Narrator] The first of the two items, known as The Jehoash Inscription, is an ancient Hebrew tablet, made of heavy dark stone.
[ I]t's nothing more than a stone. I suggest you follow this affair as it plays out in court.It's going to be very special. Indiana Jones pales by comparison. -- Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman, Head of the IAA, 2000-2014
Not only does it mention King Jehoash from the Bible, it also details constructions and renovations in the Holy Temple.
If true, it's the only physical proof for the existence of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, and supports the Jewish claim for the most contested hilltop in the Middle East.
[Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division, Israeli Antiquities Authority] Is it authentic? Is it really from 2,000 years ago? That's one story. The second story, which miraculously unfolded at the exact same time ...
[Lenny Wolfe, Antiquities Dealer] I heard about it from one of the dealers that said to me, "there's an ossuary on the marketplace."
[Simcha Jacobovici, Journalist & Filmmaker] And I said, "What's an ossuary?"
And he said, "It's a bone box, and on it it says, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Front page news around the world, the first concrete, carved in stone proof that Jesus even existed.
Item 02
The James Ossuary
Biblical Archaeology Review
World Exclusive!
The Ossuary of Jesus' Brother James
Spectacular Find in Jerusalem
[Narrator] The news made headlines around the world, and shortly after, the ossuary was displayed as a centerpiece in a blockbuster exhibition at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. The ossuary, a small stone bone box with an inscription that reads, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," attracted top experts from all over the world who came to observe the item up close in disbelief.
Some experts were excited, even suggesting that the ossuary may hold specks of Jesus's DNA. But others were skeptical, immediately raising questions about its authenticity.
[Expert] It's done beautifully. If it's forged, it's by a genius.
[Robert Hager, NBC News] Could the box, just now coming to public attention, really have once held the bones of that James?