Things looking grim for the ossuary...

[juliod]

Oops. The beeb is getting involved:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3000040.stm

Mr Golan said he bought the ossuary from an antiques dealer in Jerusalem in the mid-1970s for around $200.

However, police are interviewing dealers in Jerusalem's Old City following suspicions that the ossuary was bought only a few months ago.

DanZ

[Celsus]

Someone else posted a comprehensive article from Archaeology.org (www.archaeology.org) on another board:
Gold Dust and James Bond (http://www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=online/features/ossuary/index)

I particularly liked:
Strangest of all was the "James Bond," the chalky material that coated the letters. It contained numerous microfossils called coccoliths, naturally occurring as foreign particles in chalk, but not dissolved by water. Hence it was clear that this was not a true patina formed by the surface crystallization of calcite, but rather powdered chalk--microfossils and all--that was dissolved in water and daubed over the entire inscription. Thus, the forger's technique was apparent: the James Ossuary was an authentic artifact on which a decorative rosette originally marked the "front" side. At some time long after the natural processes of varnish and patination in a damp cave environment had been completed, someone carved a series of letters through the natural varnish on the ossuary's "back" side. Then he or she covered the freshly cut letters with an imitation "patina" made from water and ground chalk.
And:
And what of the two styles of handwriting on the James Ossuary that had been discerned by some early critics? The physical examination showed that the entire inscription was carved at the same time, so two different hands seemed unlikely in an inscription of only five words. Or did it? And examination of the very same catalogue of published ossuaries that Professor Lemaire had used as comparison for the letter forms in the ossuary Inscription, now seemed possibly to be their source. In an age of readily available scanning software it is entirely possible to make flawless copies of ancient letters as they appear on genuine artifacts. For example, taking the word "Jacob" (from catalogue no. 396); the words "son of Joseph (from catalogue no. 573); "brother of" (from catalogue no. 570); "Jesus" (common enough to have many examples) and resizing them and aligning them with the computer software Photoshop or PageMaker can create a puzzlingly authentic template for a faked inscription, that seemed to be carved by more than one hand.

Joel