King Solomon's Tablet Of Stone [4/5]

"The authenticity of many Holy Land artefacts is thrown into doubt"

In 2001, a clandestine meeting of leading Israeli archaeologists are shown a remarkable artefact. It's a stone tablet, apparently from 1,000BC. The writing on its face

describes repairs to the temple of King Solomon. It is the first archaeological evidence ever found of this legendary building.

The relic caused a sensation. But this was only just the start.

For authentification, the tablet was taken to the Geological Survey of Israel. Here, after a battery of tests, including radiocarbon dating, scientists officially pronounced

the stone to be genuine. The tests even revealed microscopic particles of gold in the outer layer of stone. These were apparently the result of the tablet surviving the fire

which, according to the bible, destroyed the temple when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 586BC.

The stone tablet was offered for sale to the Israel Museum, home to many of Israel's greatest treasures. Rumours suggested the asking price was as high as $10million.

But the museum needed to know where the stone had come from. Even its owner was a mystery. To make matters more complex, the stone itself had disappeared again. The Israeli

Antiquities Authority wanted answers. A nine month search for the mysterious stranger who had first appeared with the stone eventually led them to a private detective who had

been hired by a well known antiquities collector, Oded Golan.



Golan insisted he too was just a front man for another collector. But the authorities were suspicious. He was known to be the owner of the James Ossuary, another extraordinary

artefact which had appeared a couple of years earlier. This was a burial box with an inscription linking it to Jesus' brother.

The authorities raided Golan's apartment and recovered both the ossuary and the elusive stone. It was time to establish once and for all if both were genuine. So they set up a

committee of linguists and scientists to examine them.



Looking at the stone, several linguists said 'fake'. Some of the Hebrew, they claimed, was not ancient. Other experts claimed that so little is known of ancient Hebrew that

it's impossible to be sure.

The committee turned to geology. Dr Yuval Goren, a geo-archaeologist and head of the Archaeological Institute at Tel-Aviv University, soon found evidence that a team of

sophisticated forgers had led the earlier experts astray.
The patina on the stone had in fact been manufactured artificially
The charcoal particles which produced the convincing radiocarbon date had been added by hand
The gold fragments hinting at an ancient fire were a clever final addition
The authorities presented their conclusions. They announced that the stone tablet, and the James Ossuary, were elaborate fakes.



But who was producing these fakes and how? Dr Goren decided to piece together how the stone tablet had been made. He tracked the origin of the stone itself - apparently a

building block taken from a Crusader castle. It was even possible to work out how the fake patina had been manufactured and the ingredients used. What was clear was the team of

forgers included experts in a range of disciplines.

When the police took Oded Golan into custody and searched his apartment they discovered a workshop with a range of tools, materials, and half finished 'antiquities'. This was

evidence for an operation of a scale far greater than they had suspected.

Investigators have established that collectors around the world have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for artefacts that came through Oded Golan's associates. Dozens of

these items have now been examined by Dr Goren, and all have been revealed to be forgeries. Police now suspect that artefacts made by the same team of forgers have found their

way into leading museums around the world.

Some archaeologists have now concluded that everything that came to market in the last 20 years without clear provenance should be considered a fake. Many of these objects,

like the stone tablet which started the investigation, were cynically playing on the desire of many of the collectors to see the bible confirmed as history. For those in search

of the temple of Solomon - their goal is as far away as ever.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Solomon
• Temple
• Mount
• Jerusalem
• Fake
• Forged
• Forgery
• Oded
• Golan
• Bible
• Al-Aqsa
• Al-Quds
• Islam
• Muslim
• Muhammad
• Mohamed

[estelle715]

the Israeli government wants to authenticate every artifact .They don't want fakes. What are they trying to hide? Nothing! They want the truth. If the govt. wanted too they could of passed fakes off as the genuine article in order to prove their claims about the Bible but they didn't.

[westwatford]

why do people like you need proof of a God?

is it not obivous!

[Wunji1]

Yuval Goren?? lol what a joke! He is a top turd who is so inconsistent with everything he studies, reports, and touches!! Unfortunately, TAU is stuck with this boob of a "scholar"...

[callumnik117]

@westwatford erm no, it really isnt once you have proof of how the world works without god. the only question left is why the universe exists at all and that may not even be a relevent question to ask in the first place. read some science, you might like it, seriously. quantum physics is mind blowing for a start.

[eacans]

@estelle715 shut up, using a fake artifact to justify your occupation of Palestinian lands. SHAME SHAME SHAME! big conspiracy to justify Israels claim to the Holy Land. Hail Jesus!

[mralanv]

I wouldn't say he never existed, there's a stone which mentions David, which was mentioned in the previous video. They might one day unearth something that proves the existence of biblical figures. I don't think the bible lies about those figures but I do think it exaggerates. The bible might have praised Salomon and David far beyond their true status. They may have possessed a small kingdom or may have never been an official King. I wouldn't be so quick to pass judgement though. We must wait.

[mralanv]

I wouldn't say he never existed, there's a stone which mentions David, which was mentioned in the previous video. They might one day unearth something that proves the existence of biblical figures. I don't think the bible lies about those figures but I do think it exaggerates. The bible might have praised Salomon and David far beyond their true status. They may have possessed a small kingdom or may have never been an official King. I wouldn't be so quick to pass judgement though. We must wait.

[nyscholartist]

@westwatford No, far from it. It is not obvious at all. There isn't a shred of evidence for a god.

[kapil1ly4u]

@datvsbling1 I am Muslim and we cannot say it never existed, the QURAN says it existed. No need for any other proof. Let the Monkeys and the Donkeys continue their search and waste their Life.

[datvsbling1]

Because it never Fucking existed now get the fuck out of Palestine!!!!!!!!

[richardhaw]

jesus freak - FAIL

[bvgatti]

they'll find what they are looking for on Mount Hermon or under Baalbak in Lebanon go back to the roots of the canaanite/phoenicians and their gods u'll find the truth.