Friday, March 04, 2005

Rollston and Parker on the Forgery Scandal

Jim West (thanks, Jim) points to this excellent article by Chris Rollston and Heather Parker on the Bible & Interpretation website: "Responses to the Epigraphic Forgery Crisis: Casting Down the Gauntlet to the Field and to Museums." It is highly recommended.

I found the paragraph below of interest:

Rollston recently requested permission to collate (for a two-hour period "before or after exhibit hours") a non-provenanced object (the "Marzeah Papyrus") which is currently a part of the "Ink and Blood Exhibit." It is being touted as "five hundred years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls." Rollston is suspicious about the authenticity of the inscription. However, the owner of this papyrus, along with the director of the exhibit (knowing Rollston's views), have denied access and have provided the following rationale: "it would inconvenience and disrupt the show."

Readers of Ralph may remember my previous post advising wariness of the Marzeah Papyrus. Note: the link given there to the hi-res photo of the papyrus is dead. This is where to find it now.

1 comment:

Jim said...

The exhibit you reference has the papyrus dimly lit, behind a case, and it is scarcely possible to examine it in any event without taking it out. I'm not surprised at the hesitance of the organizers to allow that. But, and this is the interesting part- there is an identical, and I mean identical, copy in the gift shop. One is forced to wonder if the one in the case is not also.... well, you know.