[MSN] Antiquities Authority manhandled Leviticus scroll, says archaeologist

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    Antiquities Authority manhandled Leviticus scroll, says archaeologist
By Yair Sheleg <mailto:yairs at haaretz.co.il>

Professor Hanan Eshel, the archaeologist who two years ago uncovered 
scroll fragments of the Book of Leviticus, says the Israel Antiquities 
Authority, which now has the finds, has cut out large chunks of the 
scroll on the pretext that its dating needed to be examined.

This was not a necessary procedure, says Eshel, since "experts say it 
was possible to test the dating without an intrusive examination and in 
the worst case scenario by cutting a tiny, peripheral portion of the 
scroll."


Relying on internal sources in the Antiquities Authority, Eshel says 
"there had even been plans to cut letters from the scroll but the 
employees that were asked to do so refused."

Eshel ties the behavior of the Authority to a dispute that emerged 
between him and officials there and "their desire to prove that the 
scroll is a forgery."

Amir Ganor, director of the unit for the prevention of theft in the 
Antiquities Authority, said in response that "in order to carry out the 
examination we could not avoid making certain cuts in the scroll itself. 
This is acceptable in every examination of this sort. We cut only two 
small parts, one-half centimeter each, from the end of the scroll. At no 
stage was there any thought of cutting letters, only to scrape off some 
ink in order to examine it. The minute it became clear to us that we 
could not have unequivocal results from such an examination, we did not 
do it."

However, the photographs published here suggest the scroll cuts are 
significantly more extensive than what Ganor acknowledges and encompass 
nearly all the part of the scroll that has no writing on it.

Ganor said examinations of the scroll have undermined Eshel's claim that 
the finding is authentic.

"I can not give any details because the topic is part of an ongoing 
investigation of this matter, but the examinations show that different 
portions of the scroll were written in different periods, which is a 
blow to the claim that the scroll is homogeneous."

Eshel, on the other hand, is eager to offer more information on the 
subject. He says: "The information that I have is that the examination 
that was carried out at the Weizmann Institute did indeed show that the 
two portions that were sent for examination belong to different periods 
- one about 2,000 years ago, and the other about 1,200 years ago. On the 
other hand, another examination carried out at Oxford [University] 
attributed both to a period 2,000 years ago."

Eshel says the Weizmann test results were flawed because of "the use of 
cleaning and preservation materials. I am not an expert on such exams, 
but the experts told me that such treatment may certainly result in a 
flawed examination. In any case, the writing on both segments clearly 
belongs to the Second Temple period and definitely does not conform to 
the Mameluk period, which is what the Weizmann Institute examination 
points to. Moreover, during the search in the cave where we found the 
scroll, we uncovered other archaeological finds for the period of the 
Bar-Kokhba revolt, proving the dating."

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