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Preface
On September 7, 2022, the Israel Antiquities Agency announced that it had obtained a papyrus artifact from an American with ancient Hebrew written on it.
According to the bureau, the artifact is about 2,600 years old.
The incident quickly attracted the attention of the archaeological community and Christianity, and if the papyrus artifact is genuine, it is likely to be the most influential discovery in recent years.
However, a considerable number of people are pessimistic about this, why is that?
The authenticity of papyrus artifacts is in doubt
According to Xinhua news agency, the Americans who gifted the papyrus letter to Israel were not the original owners of the artifact.
The man's mother traveled to Jerusalem in 1965 and met the museum curator and an antique dealer who obtained the papyrus fragment by chance.
On the surface, the fragment is not large, but it is clearly written, with the words "To Ishmael" written on it.
It is not difficult to deduce that these words should be the beginning of the whole article.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel examined the fragment and believed that it was at least the product of the 6th to 7th centuries BC and was more than 2,600 years old.
The news caused a global sensation, with both exclamation and skepticism, and most Christians were willing to believe that the artifact was genuine, although historians did not fully agree with it.
Papyrus first appeared more than 3,000 years ago, and the ancient Egyptians first used it to become papyrus after two processes: dehydration and crushing.
Strictly speaking, it is not paper, and at the same time, it is brittle and has the risk of breaking when bent, so the ancients often rolled it up for storage.
More than 2,000 years ago, the ancients did not know how to brush the surface of wood products with grease, thinking that it would prolong their life, so many ancient wood products will gradually become moldy or rotten, and eventually cannot escape the fate of being unrecognizable.
The reason why papyrus in Egypt can be stored for a long time is because the local environment is too dry, which avoids mold or decay of wood products, and prolongs the preservation period of cultural relics.
However, more than 2,000 years ago, Jews were leaving Egypt for the Mediterranean, which meant that the storage environment was slowly changing from the relatively dry Egyptian region to the Mediterranean zone with some humidity.
Since there is no way to determine the true location of this artifact, it is impossible to talk about the local humidity, which in turn affects the experts' judgment of the authenticity of the papyrus.
In addition, the handwriting on the fragment is too legible, which has also attracted the attention of some people.
If these artifacts can be examined by a third party, their authenticity can be revealed.
Just as people were speculating about the true nature of the fragment, more unexpected news came.
On March 16, 2021, Israeli archaeologists found dozens of fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls in a desert cave, as well as a 10,500-year-old basket and the body of a child more than 6,000 years old, the Associated Press reported.
The contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be described in more detail later, but let's take a look at this basket first.
The media published archaeological sites and close-ups of the excavation baskets.
As you can see from the existing pictures, the basket is made of hay and has no damage on the surface, as if it were new, which is a bit unbelievable.
And the excavated soil layer obviously belongs to the soil structure of sand mixed with gravel, which is completely inconsistent with the geological layer of 10,000 years ago.
Although there is no strong evidence to prove the authenticity of the basket, many scholars have reason to suspect that Israel is faking it.
The question of the authenticity of the papyrus has not been confirmed before, and this time the topic of baskets has increased the doubts of the outside world about the Israeli archaeological community.
The inexplicable inexplicability of Israel's archaeologists has been met with ridicule from the industry.
In fact, the way to break the rumors is very simple, as long as the cultural relics are handed over to a third-party agency for testing, you can identify your innocence.
No artifacts were tested in Israel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were thundered.
True and false Dead Sea Scrolls
Prior to the discovery of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 2021, several similar artifacts had been unearthed, and they recorded the same content, so they were collectively known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The controversy over the Dead Sea Scrolls begins with the time of the first excavation.
In 1947, a shepherd boy lost his sheep and stumbled upon a cave along the Kumran River in search of sheep.
The cave contains more than a dozen jars, some of which contain parchment scrolls, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The shepherd boy did not know the true value of the parchment scrolls, but thought they might be enough to support his family, so he took seven of them with him.
The shepherd boy's father also did not know the preciousness of the parchment rolls, and he only wanted to use them to make leather shoes, so he brought them to the shoemaker.
The shoemaker, who was not an ignorant man, saw the words on the parchment scrolls and decided that they were worth far more than the shoes, so he bought them from the shepherd boy's family and sold three of them.
The three scrolls changed hands several times until they reached the hands of archaeology professor Sukenic, who quickly recognized the parchment scrolls as ancient Hebrew and the Bible in content.
Sukennik was overjoyed, and he found the man who sold the parchment rolls, and asked the shoemaker about it.
Knowing that the other party had acquired a total of 7 volumes, his heart was even more wild, expressing his willingness to buy the remaining 4 volumes at a high price.
But the shoemaker did not put his eggs in the same basket, and he had already sold the other 4 volumes to the bishop of a church in Jerusalem at that time.
Sukenik found the bishop after hearing this, but had to give up because the other party's asking price was too high.
Later, due to a number of complex geopolitical reasons, Jerusalem became full of conflicts and dangers, and the bishop could not stand alone, so he decided to sell some of the collection to make ends meet.
So Sukenik successfully collected seven rolls of parchment, and the value of these artifacts became unique thanks to the endorsement of archaeologists and bishops.
These things were quickly noticed by those who were interested, and since then there has been a wave of archaeology in the West Bank, who follow the places where the shepherd boys have walked to carefully search for cultural relics, eager to turn the land upside down.
Since 1950, 11 caves and more than 40,000 fragments have been discovered in the Kumran area.
A considerable number of them have been eroded by time, and the original clear text has long been blurred and illegible, but even the most weathered fragments can be sold for a good price.
Unlike those who are completely keen on gold panning, archaeologists have carved out new directions of research based on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
They believed that these discoveries filled a gap in history, and as a result, a group of scholars specializing in the Dead Sea Scrolls were born, and scholars gave them names:
Kumlanology.
At this time, the excavation and research work around the Dead Sea Scrolls was rapidly establishing and growing, which was encouraging news for both the Christian and archaeological communities.
But just when everyone thought there were more secrets to be unearthed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a global reversal was quietly brewing.
After more than ten years of sorting and research, archaeologists have deciphered the contents of the ancient scrolls, which are the Book of Genesis, Exodus, Kings, Deuteronomy, and parts of the Hebrew Bible.
After research, these scrolls were probably written between the first and second centuries B.C.E., later than the Bible's record of their arrival in Jerusalem more than 1,000 years B.C.E.
In other words, there is still a gap of eight or nine hundred years in the history of the Bible, and it has not achieved what experts call "filling the gap in history."
Even if the scrolls were later identified as genuine, it would only indicate that the Jews had been active and spreading their faith in Jerusalem around the first century B.C.E.
However, there is no historical support for the discontinuity of the Bible in the process of dissemination.
Due to the limited means of archaeology, the Dead Sea Scrolls are involved in many unresolved propositions, and it has never been possible to draw a definite conclusion.
At the same time, the Dead Sea Scrolls have a transcendent status among the Christian community, so there has been a lot of confusion about their true origins. Judging from people's impression of it, praise has seized the initiative and gradually overshadowed doubts.
The influence of the Dead Sea Scrolls is so far-reaching that both official and civil society groups are sparing no effort to excavate them, and some fragments of the scrolls inevitably flow into the people, which also gives many believers or merchants the opportunity to collect the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Later, the scrolls in his possession gradually found their way into well-known collectors and collections, such as the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., one of the more famous ones.
The museum officially opened its doors in November 2017 and was attended by both Trump and Israel's ambassador to the United States.
The Museum of the Bible houses 16 fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are so precious that they attract many Christians.
The people who came here spread the news to more areas, increasing the influence and popularity of the pavilion, and of course, bringing in a lot of revenue.
In 2014, the fragments were found in the Vatican's exhibition halls for greater viewing.
Steve Greene, the owner of the Museum of the Bible, is a devout Christian who is keen to share Christ-related artifacts with others, and Greene has always had a good reputation with nearby religious groups.
But among the visitors, some professionals found clues.
They realized that almost every Dead Sea scroll contained Bible verses, which was contrary to what many archaeologists have come to conclusion.
In fact, only 1/4 of the fragments in the official possession of the Bible contain Bible verses, while the fragments in the Bible Museum are a large number of scriptures, which is obviously different from previous discoveries.
This view was shared by many experts, who could not determine the authenticity of the scroll fragments, but their doubts gradually fermented over time.
These doubts affected Green's prestige and the operation of the Bible Museum, and he was so distressed by this that he decided to use scientific means to uncover the true situation of the fragments.
In October 2018, the Museum of the Bible handed over five of the fragments to the German Federal Institute for Material Research and Inspection.
The agency used 3D digital microscopy and X-ray scanning to detect that the ink on the fragment was not an ancient writing feature, meaning that the fragment was fake.
The news seriously affected the reputation of the museum and Greene. Annoyed, he refused to accept the result, saying that he would find an authority to re-evaluate.
At this time, those who support the historical value of the Dead Sea Scrolls and admire Grimm also focus on this area, and it is here that the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls is revealed.
The Western archaeological community is in trouble
In 2019, the Museum of the Bible commissioned a professional art appraisal company to verify the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The company's CEO, Lore, is well-known in the forensic industry, having worked for U.S. security agencies and instructed government officials in verifying the authenticity of artifacts.
After the Dead Sea Scrolls were handed over to Lore, it took months for his team to make the final findings public.
In the course of his research, he quickly discovered the clues.
Depending on the level of civilization at the time, the Dead Sea Scrolls would normally have been made of tanned parchment, but 15 of the artifacts submitted by the Museum of the Bible were made of leather.
The texture of leather is obviously thicker than parchment, and there are many bumps and tissues, and the gap with parchment is still very large.
After further research, the identification company found that the forger soaked the leather fragments in a mixed liquid, so that the properties of the leather surface became stable and smooth, which was convenient for writing and preservation.
And both visually and tactilely, it looks like real parchment.
In terms of handwriting, Lohl's team also came up with the same answer as the German Federal Institute for Research and Inspection of Materials:
These handwritings have been copied in modern times.
In November, Lore's team submitted a 214-page report that determined that all of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Museum of the Bible were fake.
Green, who got the news, said dejectedly:
We are the victims.
When the report was made public, it quickly swept through the archaeological community, and only a few people questioned the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but now most people also felt cheated.
If the artifacts in the Museum of the Bible are fake, are there fakes in other museums and official institutions?
To this day, the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls have not been examined.
They lie peacefully in special collections, some surrounded by bright lights, and are open to the curious and reverent gaze of visitors.
And the truth, as if it had disappeared forever with that period of history, in the past years.
From papyrus letterheads to baskets 10,000 years ago, to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Western archaeological community seems to have fallen into a strange circle-
They excavate monuments everywhere, but they are unable to convince the public with authoritative appraisal results.
However, among the cultural relics that have been asserted, the main focus of the Western archaeological community is a rollover, which has almost become their characteristic.
On August 5, 2018, the newspaper Reference Notícias reported that Swiss archaeologists had found inscriptions and related tools used in the forgery in the home of the deceased British senior.
After research, these inscriptions are consistent with the artifacts of the Catalan Mound Cultural Site in Turkey.
On November 15, 2023, the French newspaper "20 Minutes" reported:
Five related personnel, including Palo, an art appraisal expert, teamed up with an antique gallery in Paris to counterfeit antiques, resulting in the reputation of many institutions, including the Palace of Versailles in France.
At the same time, the ancient Egyptian civilization and the ancient Greek civilization have been a controversial topic in the archaeological community, and some people believe that these ancient civilizations have been exaggerated due to political factors.
Mysteries like Stonehenge in England, which have never been solved, are even more questionable.
Summary:
In the history of human development, there are always some brilliant civilizations that are fascinating, and there are also some fantastical stories that are thought-provoking.
But among those amazing remnants of civilization, there are also examples of indiscriminate filling or stealing from pillars to pillars, temporarily deceiving people's trust.
However, the truth often stands the test of time, and even if it is buried underground, it will eventually see the light of day again.
What is true is true, and what is false is what is fake.
Resources:
"Western Media Inventory of Fake Archaeologists: National Pride Suddenly Turns into Disgrace" by Chinanews.com
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/m/gj/2018/08-05/8589721.shtml
"Liu Boyun丨The Dead Sea Scrolls Are All Fake" surging news
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_6747703
"Exclusive: The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Museum of the Bible Are All Fakes," National Geographic
https://www.natgeomedia.com/history/article/content-10867.html
"Fragments of Papyrus Letters in Ancient Greek Polish Handed Over to Israel About 2,600 Years Ago," Xinhua News Agency
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1743376395064946818&wfr=spider&for=pc
"Fragments of New Dead Sea Scrolls Found in Israel, Hidden in Caves for Nearly 1900 Years", Chinanews.com
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/gj/2021/03-16/9433769.shtml
"The Story of Archaeology, <圣经>the Excavation of the Dead Sea Scrolls That Caused a Revolution in Research" The Paper
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2633117
"The Counterfeiting Case Shocked the French Antique Circle! Treasure Appreciation Experts Suspected of Joining Forces to Counterfeit, Versailles Palace Was Fooled" surging news
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25329856
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