There is a particular kind of tremor that passes through the academic world whenever the earth beneath our feet seems to whisper something that lines up unusually well with the biblical record.

In biblical archaeology, a handful of dirt or a thumb-sized piece of carved ivory is rarely treated as just another relic of antiquity. The stakes are different. A discovery can immediately find itself caught between religious faith, scholarly skepticism, the antiquities market, and the political sensitivities surrounding the history of the Land of Israel.

Few objects illustrate that tension better than the famous ivory pomegranate.

The tiny object first came to scholarly attention after André Lemaire encountered it in a Jerusalem antiquities shop in 1979. The Israel Museum eventually purchased it for $550,000.

The pomegranate itself is unquestionably ancient. Scientific examination identified it as carved from the canine of a hippopotamus and suggested that the object probably originated in the Late Bronze Age.

But around its shoulder is an extraordinary inscription.

Approximately one-third of the inscription is missing because part of the object broke away long ago. André Lemaire reconstructed the complete text as:

“Belonging to the Temple of YHWH, holy to the priests.”

If that inscription is ancient, its importance is hard to exaggerate. It would constitute exceedingly rare physical evidence of a sanctuary dedicated to the God of Israel during the First Temple period. For a time, it was regarded as perhaps the only surviving object that could be directly associated with the Temple in Jerusalem.

For years, leading scholars accepted the inscription as authentic. Then came the microscope.

In 2004, amid growing concern over sophisticated antiquities forgeries, the Israel Museum and the Israel Antiquities Authority assembled experts to take another look at the object. Their study reached a striking conclusion: the pomegranate was ancient, but the inscription was modern.

Their case rested on several observations. They argued that certain letters appeared to have been engraved only after an ancient portion of the pomegranate had already broken away. They also found patina-like material containing substances........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)