Archaeologists skeptical on authenticity of Temple tablet
By Debbie Berman January 17, 2003
The tablet's unknown origin and its use of contemporary Hebrew idiom point to a forgery attempt reminiscent of the recently discovered "Jesus box."
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The discovery of an ancient sandstone tablet with inscriptions attributed to contemporaries of King Joash of Judea claims to provide proof of a parallel Biblical passage describing renovations on the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Israeli archaeology experts say the unknown origin of the tablet and the use of contemporary Hebrew idiom in its inscription, point to a forgery attempt reminiscent of the recently discovered "Jesus box."
The tablet, which measures twenty-four inches wide and twelve inches high and is just over three inches thick, bears a ten-line inscription, written in the first person, in an apparent ancient Hebrew script. The text resembles descriptions in Kings II, 12:1-6, 11-17 and refers to King Joash Ben Ahaziya, who ruled Judea from 836-798 B.C.E. In it, the king tells priests to fund repairs on the Temple by taking "holy money ... to buy quarry stones and timber and copper and labor to carry out the duty with faith." If the work is completed well, "the Lord will protect his people with blessing," reads the last sentence of the inscription.
According to experts from the Israel's Geological Institute, including Dr. Shimon Iloni and Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld who examined and tested the tablet, the stone is not a forgery. Researchers believe that the sandstone was brought from Jordan or the Dead Sea area, and say that its script is almost identical to that of Misha, King of Moab and Hazael, King of Aram, unearthed at the Tel Dan archaeological dig.
Microscopic flecks of gold were found embedded into the surface of the tablet, which may have been burned on if the tablet was present during the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, experts suggested.
Either greatest archaeological find in history, or a fake
Bar-Ilan archaeologist Dr. Gabi Barkai told Maariv that if the tablet was proven to be authentic it would be considered one of the greatest Israeli archaeological finds in history since it would offer for the first time physical evidence of the existence of a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
According to Dr. Mordechai Kidar, an eastern scholar specializing in the connection between Islam and the Temple Mount, proof of the presence of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount would create a problem for Islamic groups, who deny all claims of a Jewish temple in the area. Dr. Kidar said that during recent renovations near the El-Aqsa Mosque, the Islamic Waqf disposed of large quantities of archaeological soil dug up from the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount area. The tablet may have been among items unearthed in the discarded soil, he said.
Adnan Husseini, the director of the Islamic Trust that administers the Temple Mount mosque compound, denied that the tablet was found on the Temple Mount. "At the best this is a joke. I'm sure the item was not taken from the Temple Mount grounds, and it does not provide any proof of the existence of a Jewish Temple," Husseini said.
The greatest obstacle to determining the authenticity of the tablet is the lack of information available regarding the origins of the tablet. The Jerusalem collector has not identified himself, and David Zailer, a lawyer for the collector, would not say where the tablet was found or give any further details.
"There is no information on where and under what circumstances the item was found, and these are important details to determining credibility," Barkai said.
Experts: Authenticity is doubtful
Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist at Hebrew University specializing in Temple Mount excavations said, "I am speculative about the authenticity of an item that is not found in an organized archaeological dig. In a case like this, authenticity is doubtful."
Barkai says another one of the major problems regarding the tablet's authenticity is that geologists, instead of historians, archaeologists and ancient language specialists, are currently conducting the research effort. Israeli archaeological scholars are equally doubtful, and believe the tablet is a forgery citing that the tablet bears contemporary Hebrew idiom, rather than biblical language and because artifacts unearthed in the "Solomon's Stables" area of the Temple Mount have dated at most to the 1st century BCE.
Ha'aretz reported that the anonymous collector offered to sell the tablet to the Israel Museum, but his offer was rejected due to speculations regarding its authenticity. Israel Museum officials refused to comment on the report.
If the tablet was discovered after recent renovations on the Temple Mount, its sale would be forbidden by Israeli law which regulates archaeological finds discovered in the last thirty years.
Hershel Shanks, editor of the Washington-based Biblical Archaeology Review, said the tablet, if authentic, would be "visual, tactile evidence that reaches across 2,800 years." Shanks recently announced the much-publicized discovery of the "Jesus box," which was purported to be an ossuary that contained the bones of James, the brother of Jesus. Though the ossuary was believed to be genuine, linguistics experts provided evidence showing that the inscription was dated centuries after the time of Jesus.
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