Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2010 17:20:04 GMT 10
Is the shroud of Turin a sham?
A linen cloth kept under close guard at the Turin Cathedral in Italy is either the burial shroud of Jesus or the work of medieval pranksters.
Moon rock is just petrified wood
Mankind apparently took one giant leap towards tomfoolery when U.S. ambassador William Middendorf gifted a purported moon rock to Dutch Prime Minister William Drees during a 1969 good will tour of the Apollo 11 astronauts.
The rock wound up in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum where a space expert questioned its authenticity. An investigation ensued. The researchers concluded the rock is actually a piece of petrified wood worth about $50, not the half million the museum had at one point insured it for
Alas, Indiana Jones is fiction and so too are most known crystal skulls linked to the legend, according to scientists.
For example, the skull shown here from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and several others like it at museums around the world, are fakes hawked in the 19th century by antiquities dealers eager to capitalize on a hunger for Mesoamerican artifacts, according to Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh, who has studied the skulls for more than a decade.
A thumb-size ivory pomegranate long-thought to be the only relic from Solomon's Temple is a fraud, according to an investigation by the Israel Museum where the artifact is housed. The pomegranate was thought to be the top of a scepter, or staff, carried by a temple priest. An inscription in Hebrew lettering on the artifact reads: "Belonging to the Temple of the Lord."
Researchers found, however, that the inscription was added recently and the pomegranate itself dates to about 3,400 years ago, much older than the first Jewish Temple. Some scholars, including Yitzhak Roman of the Hebrew University, maintain the inscription is authentic
A 2,000-year-old limestone chest, or ossuary, used to hold bones of the dead contains the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Ever since the box was revealed in 2002, the archaeological world has been atwitter over whether it really contained the remains Jesus' brother.
The Israel Antiquities Authority in June of 2003 concluded the second half of the inscription –- the reference to Jesus -– was a fake. Several antiquities dealers were arrested.
According to the antiquities authority, the ossuary, ivory pomegranate and several other artifacts are part of a decades-long forgery ring that spans the globe and generated millions of dollars. A trial over the authenticity of the ossuary inscription has been ongoing since 2005
Happy New Years Everybody!!!
