Antiquities trial ends in acquittals
Following eight years of indictments and an extraordinarily lengthy trial, Oded Golan, a prominent Israeli collector in Tel Aviv, and Robert Deutsch, a distinguished dealer and highly respected scholar in Jaffa, were acquitted on 7 March by judge Aharon Farkash of the District Court in Jerusalem of charges of creating and forging biblical antiquities, most prominently the 'James ossuary' and the 'Jehoash tablet'.
In 29 December 2004 the Israeli police had filed criminal charges against them and two other men who were later acquitted. The trial, which drew worldwide attention, lasted some six years, with 116 hearings, 138 witnesses, including 52 scholars, experts, and 36 museum and auction house employees, conservators, dealers and collectors. The scholars and experts were called mostly in defence of the authenticity of both of the principal pieces. The transcripts totaled 12,000 pages and the judge's ruling was 475 pages in length!
The ossuary (shown above right) was first published in the November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (then, in Minerva January/February 2003). It is a limestone casket (L. 56cm, W. 25cm, H. 30.5cm) of the type commonly used to house human skeletal remains in Jerusalem from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD. The incised inscription, 'Yakov, son of Yosef, brother of Yeshua', could be the earliest known reference to Jesus except for the Bible. Yakov, or James, was the brother of Yeshua, or Jesus.
It was claimed by the Israel Antiquities Authority that the second part of the inscription, concerning Jesus, was added in 2000, following its earlier acquisition by Mr Golan. In addition the prosecution also charged him with being the head of a forgery ring for over 30 years. The 'Jehoash tablet', a sandstone slab, (H. 61cm, W. 30cm) has an incised Hebrew text that confirms the repairs made to the Temple of King Solomon in Jerusalem during the reign of King Jehoash, ruler of Judea, as written in the Bible, Kings 2, Chapter 12, and is purported to be the first extant royal Israelite inscription. It has been dated both to the 9th century BC and as a copy made in the 6th century BC.
While both Mr Golan and Mr Deutsch were both acquitted on the charges of forgery and fraud, Mr Golan was found guilty of dealing in antiquities without a permit and of a second minor offence of acquiring objects that were suspected of being stolen property. He will be sentenced next December.
Dr Jerome M Eisenberg