James Ossuary

The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription meaning "Jacob (James), son of Joseph, brother of Yeshua" is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attracted scholarly attention due to its apparent association with the Christian holy family.^[1]

The existence of the ossuary was announced at an October 21, 2002, Washington press conference co-hosted by the Discovery Channel and the Biblical Archaeology Society. The owner of the ossuary is Oded Golan, an Israeli engineer and antiquities collector.^[2] The inscription was initially translated by André Lemaire, a Semitic epigrapher, whose article claiming that the ossuary and its inscription were authentic was published in the November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.^[3][4]

In 2003, The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) argued that the inscriptions were forged at a much later date.^[5] In December 2004, Oded Golan was charged with 44 counts of forgery, fraud, and deception, including forgery of the Ossuary inscription.^[6] However, in an external expert report, dated September 2005, Wolfgang E. Krumbein's conclusions contradict those of the IAA stating "Our preliminary investigations cannot prove the authenticity of the three objects beyond any doubt. Doubtlessly the patina is continuous in many places throughout surface and lettering grooves in the case of ossuary and tablet. On the other hand a proof of forgery is not given by the experts nominated by the IAA.".^[7] The trial lasted seven years before Judge Aharon Farkash came to a verdict. On March 14, 2012, Golan was acquitted of the forgery charges but convicted of illegal trading in antiquities.^[8] The judge said this acquittal "does not mean that the inscription on the ossuary is authentic or that it was written 2,000 years ago".^[9] The ossuary was returned to Golan, who put it on public display.^[10] The Israeli Antiquities Authority has failed to offer any report explaining why it concluded the ossuary is a forgery. The lack of transparency with the IAA's findings have deterred international experts from giving their opinions on the authenticity of the ossuary.