Collector cleared, but ‘Jesus’ burial-box facts clouded

ISRAEL: A Jerusalem court has acquitted Israeli antiquities collector Oded Golan of forging a stone burial-box with the inscription ‘‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’’.

But the decade-long legal drama left open the archaeological and historical mystery of the ossuary, allegedly found in the Silwan area of Jerusalem, which if real would be the oldest known archeological record of Jesus.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority suspected the James Ossuary and other items held or sold by Golan were forgeries, including another dramatic artefact known as the Jehoash Tablet that described renovations done on the First Temple. Experts on their behalf ruled the findings forgeries and Golan was indicted along with several others.

But after seven years of trial, 138 witnesses, 52 experts in fields including archaeology, Semitic languages, forensic science, geology and carbon-dating and 12,000 pages of transcripts, Judge Aharon Farkash ruled it impossible to prove the artefacts were forged. Stressing this did not prove their authenticity either, he acquitted Golan of forgery but convicted him on lesser charges including unlawful possession of antiquities.

Golan expressed satisfaction at being acquitted of the graver charges and told reporters he, along with a few colleagues, had ‘‘saved hundreds of thousands of archaeological artefacts,’’ mostly from the West Bank, from being smuggled out of the country. He accused the Antiquities Authority of ‘‘inflating a balloon that blew up in their face and now they will have to explain how they lost 1.5 million archaeological artefacts since 1967.’’

Prosecutor Dan Bahat said one reason he could not prove the main counts of forgery was because one of the key witnesses is from Egypt and Israeli authorities did not let him in to testify. Local media described the mystery man as a master-forger.