science

All 16 of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments displayed at Museum of the Bible are forgeries


All 16 of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments displayed at the Museum of the Bible are FORGED, claims investigation

  • A report reveals the 16 scrolls on display are forgeries
  • Experts found inconsistencies with materials and inscriptions
  • The report casts doubt on all Dead Sea Scrolls found after 2002

An entire collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments on display in Washington D.C. are actually forgeries, according to new research.

National Geographic reports that a group of independent researchers has confirmed that the 16 fragments owned by the Museum of the Bible are fakes that fooled collectors, some biblical scholars, and the museum that had the scrolls on display. 

In October 2018, Museum of the Bible announced five of the fragments it had on display were apparently faked and decided to retain to commissions experts to investigate its entire collection. 

In 2018, the museum found that five of its fragments like the one pictured were actually faked, prompting it to launch an investigation into the others

In 2018, the museum found that five of its fragments like the one pictured were actually faked, prompting it to launch an investigation into the others 

Real pieces of Dead Sea Scrolls like the one pictured had a number of discrepancies compared to the faked counterparts, including the materials on which they were inscribed (stock)

Real pieces of Dead Sea Scrolls like the one pictured had a number of discrepancies compared to the faked counterparts, including the materials on which they were inscribed (stock)

The more than 200-page report conducted by researchers from Art Fraud Insights, says that the fakes, though likely printed on ancient leather, actually bore a number of glaring differences compared to the more than 100,000 real fragments of the ancient text.

For one, a team lead by art fraud investigator Colette Loll says that real scrolls were made from tanned parchment as opposed to the museum’s leather versions. 

Investigators hypothesize the forgeries could have been re-purposed from ancient leather sandals found during the Roman-era.

The fakes also appear to have been soaked in an amber-colored solution thought to be some kind of animal-skin glue which smoothed out the leather and made it look aesthetically similar to the real versions. 

As explained by National Geographic, collagen in the parchment on which the real Dead Sea Scrolls are written broke down to form a gelatin that gives them their characteristic look.

Microscopic analysis of the fakes also revealed characteristics like ink pooling and torn edges caused by the inscription that wouldn’t have been likely if the leather was new at the time they were made. 

‘The material is degraded, it’s so brittle, so inflexible,’ investigator Abigail Quandt, the head of book and paper conservation at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum told National Geographic. 

‘It’s no wonder that the scholars were thinking these were untrained scribes, because they were really struggling to form these characters and keep their pens under control.’

Findings cast doubt on scrolls that surfaced in the early 2000's which may now be reexamined as a result

Findings cast doubt on scrolls that surfaced in the early 2000’s which may now be reexamined as a result

While the report doesn’t illuminate  much about the provenance of the fakes, it does cast doubt on an entire class of Dead Sea Scrolls that surfaced after 2002 – a class the Museum of the Bible’s fakes belong to.

According to National Geographic, about 70 snippets of biblical text suddenly poured into the antiquity market in the early 2000’s. 

The origins of the scrolls have never been determined, but scholars have long cast doubt on their authenticity.  

‘Once one or two of the fragments were fake, you know all of them probably are, because they come from the same sources, and they look basically the same,’ Årstein Justnes, a researcher at Norway’s University of Agder who also is invovled with Lying Pen of Scribes, a project tracks the post-2002 fragments, told National Geographic.

The museum says it plans to reorganize its exhibit to show how the scrolls were proven to faked and is revaluing the origin of other artifacts in its collection.

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS?

Discovered between 1946 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 ancient manuscripts dating back to 2,000 years ago.

The texts include tends of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments and in rare cases entire manuscripts.  

They contain parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible as well as a range of extra-biblical documents.

The scrolls were found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in what was then British Mandate Palestine – now the West Bank.

The story goes that in a cave in the dark crevice of a steep rocky hillside, Muhammed hurled a stone into the dark interior and was startled to hear the sound of breaking pots.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include tends of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments (file photo), contain parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible. They also feature a range of extra-biblical documents

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include tends of thousands of parchment and papyrus fragments (file photo), contain parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible. They also feature a range of extra-biblical documents

Venturing inside, the young Bedouin found a mysterious collection of large clay jars in which he found old scrolls, some wrapped in linen and blackened with age.

The texts have since been excavated by archaeologists, who are now racing to digitise their contents before they deteriorate beyond legibility.

The texts are of great historical and religious significance and include the earliest known surviving copies of biblical and extra-biblical documents, as well as preserving evidence of diversity in late Second Temple Judaism.

Dated to between 408BC and 318AD, they are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus and bronze.

The scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups.

‘Biblical’ manuscripts, which are copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible comprise 40 per cent of the haul.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found by shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib as he searched for a stray among the limestone cliffs at Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea



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