---

I følge dagens Jerusalem Post:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFu
ll&cid=1042690519957

har man fundet en plade der daterer sig til det første tempels tid, mere
præcist til kong Joash' regeringstid 835-793 før Kristi fødsel.
Begivenhederne der beskrives skal udmærket svare til passager i 2.
Kongebog:

Controversial 'First Temple tablet' reputedly dates to King Joash
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Etgar Lefkovits Jan. 16, 2003
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A stone tablet inscribed with biblical passages in ancient Phoenician
script is the cause of an archeological controversy, with the Israel
Geological Institute (IGI) backing its authenticity while archeologists
remain skeptical.

The 10-line fragment, which was apparently found on the Temple Mount, is
written in the first person on a black stone tablet. The inscription's
description of Temple "house repairs" ordered by King Joash, who ruled
Judea from 835-793 BCE, strongly resembles passages in the Second Book
of Kings.

It is unclear who owns the tablet, which could be worth millions of
dollars if found to be genuine, but its owner is being represented by
former cabinet secretary Isaac Herzog, who is a Labor Party candidate
for the Knesset.

The tablet first surfaced in November 2001, when a messenger brought it
to the Jerusalem offices of the IGI to determine its authenticity.

Tests carried out by the institute's researchers on a section of the
tablet showed "that we had something which was interesting on our hands,
something that did not have any suspicious appearances," researcher Dr.
Shimon Ilani said on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, Ilani would not confirm that the tablet is genuine. "We do
not give out authenticity certificates," he said.
If the inscription was made in the time of King Joash, it would help
refute those who deny that the Jewish Temple ever stood on the Temple
Mount, who include leading members the Islamic Wakf, the present-day
custodians of the site.

When the object first arrived in their offices, the IGI was not told
that the client they were addressing was really a third party, and only
found out later that the chief attorney representing the owner was
Herzog.

After their initial report was made on a tests of the lettering and
cracks on the stone, the geologists were sworn to silence by Herzog,
Ilani said. The tablet's owners then took their case to curators at the
Israel Museum, offering to sell them the piece.

However, museum curators who examined the fragment at several meetings
last year cast doubt on its authenticity, Ilani confirmed Wednesday.

Sources say the museum curators who performed the examination and voiced
skepticism were forced by museum director James Snyder to sign a letter
forbidding them to talk about the issue.

The Israel Museum and Herzog's office both refused to comment Wednesday
on the affair as well.
The institute said that the inscriptions on the tablet are similar to
passages from Kings II, 12:1-6, 11-17.

In the inscription, King Joash tells priests to take "holy money... to
buy quarry stones and timber and copper, and labor to carry out the duty
with faith."

If the work is completed well, "the Lord will protect his people with
blessing," reads the last phrase.

There are legal problems associated with a potential sale of the
artifact. A 1978 law stipulates that all archeological finds from after
that date belong to the State of Israel, and can therefore not be sold
or used by private citizens.

The mystery surrounding the stone tablet its uncertain origins, sudden
appearance on the private antiquities market, and a collector unwilling
to identify himself leaves many prominent archeologists with questions
about its authenticity.

Despite the geologists' favorable report, some experts put the
likelihood that the artifact is genuine at 50 percent.

"I am highly skeptical and very suspicious about any 'find' that is not
discovered as part of an archeological dig," said Hebrew University
archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, a spokeswoman for the Committee Against
the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount.

Mazar also noted the irony that Herzog is representing someone who is
trying to sell findings which supposedly originated from the Temple
Mount, "at the time when the most widespread destruction of Temple Mount
artifacts was taking place."

The committee has revealed that truckloads of dirt excavated from a
mosque building site on the Temple Mount, presumably intermixed with
artifacts from Judaism's holiest site, were being dumped uninspected
into the nearby Kidron Valley.

Copyright 1995-2003 The Jerusalem Post

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