Oded Golan
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Oded Golan (; born 1951 in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
) is an Israeli
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
, entrepreneur, and antiquities collector. He owns one of the largest collections of
Biblical archaeology Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land (also known as Land of Israel and ...
in the world.


Biography

Oded Golan is the son of an engineer and a professor of microbiology. He served as an officer in the
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
before studying industrial and management engineering at the Technion, graduating with honors. Since childhood, Golan has had a keen interest in archeology and antiquities. At the age of 10, during a visit to the ancient site of Tel Hatzor, he discovered the world’s oldest dictionary, which was later published by Professor Yigael Yadin. At the age of 12, Golan participated in excavations at
Masada Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising ov ...
.


Antiquity collection

Golan's collection, amassed over a period of more than 50 years, contains thousands of archaeological artifacts, the vast majority of which were purchased from antiquities dealers, mostly in East Jerusalem. Golan’s collection includes a wide range of artifacts which together represent the culture of Israel and TransJordan from the fifth millennium BCE to the fifth century AD. Among the items that attracted international attention is the James Ossuary, the bone box possibly used to intern the bones of James, brother of Jesus.


Controversy

In June 2003, Golan was accused by the
Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...
(IAA) of involvement in the forgery of one half of the
James Ossuary The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription reading "Jacob (James), son of Joseph, brother of Yeshua" in translation is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attra ...
inscription, the
Jehoash Inscription The Jehoash Inscription is the name of a controversial artifact claimed to have been discovered in a construction site or Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount of Jerusalem in 2001. The inscription describes repairs made to the temple in Jerusal ...
and other items. Golan denied any involvement in forgery and argued that he purchased the two items from licensed antiquities dealers in 1976 and 1999 respectively. Four other defendants were indicted along with Golan, including two of the largest antiquities dealers in Israel. In 2012, the court acquitted Golan of forgery and fraud, but convicted him of illegal trading in antiquities. In late 2013, the Supreme Court ordered the State to return to Golan the James Ossuary, the Jehoash Inscription and hundreds of other items that had been confiscated by the IAA "for the purpose of investigation." The IAA claimed that Golan and numerous antiquity dealers were involved in forgery assisted by experts in ancient Semitic languages. Media coverage and documentary films which reported the case created what Golan called a “media circus". The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
reported that when the police took Golan into custody and searched his apartment they discovered a workshop with a range of tools, materials, and half finished 'antiquities'. According to the allegations, collectors around the world paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for artifacts that came through Golan's associates. Dozens items were examined. Police suspected that artefacts made by these forgers had found their way into leading museums. The documentary film ''The History Merchants'' alleged Golan (working with a team of people, including an expert in ancient semitic languages and an artisan) had produced forged artifacts for sale on the religious antiquities market. In 2004, ''
Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...
'' aired ''King Solomon's Tablet of Stone'' on the BBC. This program included allegations of forgery and fraudulent activity by Golan. On December 29, 2004, Golan was indicted in an Israeli court along with three antiquities dealers; Robert Deutsch, one of Israel’s leading antiquities dealers and an inscriptions expert who has lectured at the
University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...
; dealer and conservator Refael Braun; and dealer Shlomo Cohen; Faiz al-Amla, a Palestinian dealer from the village of Beit Ula in the Hebron Hills was charged with trading in antiquities without a license. Early in the trial, charges were dropped against Braun and Cohen, leaving Golan and Deutsch as the only defendants. Golan denied any involvement in forgery and argued that the inscriptions were purchased from licensed antiquities dealers. He presented evidence that he had purchased the James Ossuary in 1976 and the Jehoash Table in 1999. Golan stated that to the best of his understanding and judgment, these are authentic ancient inscriptions.


Court ruling and acquittal

In a trial that lasted almost eight years (2004–2012), the District Court of Jerusalem heard testimony relating to the authenticity of the inscriptions on the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet from over 50 experts from a wide range of fields, who examined the inscriptions and submitted dozens of scientific reports, and 70 other witnesses including antiquities dealers and well-known collectors. Trial transcripts covered over 12,000 pages, and the court ruling was 438 pages long. The IAA announced that they accepted the court's ruling. The State accepted the main decision of the District Court and did not appeal against the judgment. After the judgment, the State moved to confiscate the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet for the State Treasury, arguing that these items may well be of enormous historic, religious and archeological significance and therefore should not remain in private hands. The District Court and the Supreme Court denied this motion and ordered the State to return to Golan all the antiquities that had been taken from him. The James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet, as well as hundreds of other antiquities, were returned to Golan in late 2013.


See also

* Three shekel ostracon


Notes


References


Further reading

Nina Burleigh, (2008)
Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land


External links


Alleged forger of Holy Land antiquities held
23/07/2003,
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
,
"Written in Stone,"
David Samuels, A Reporter at Large, The New Yorker, April 12, 2004, p. 48
Oded Golan's refutation of the documentary's claimsReview of ''The History Merchants''
by Nadav Shragai, 14/04/2008
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
,
King Solomon's Tablet of StoneThe Authenticity of the James Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet Inscriptions – Summary of Expert Trial Witnesses, Oded Golan (2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golan, Oded 1951 births Living people 20th-century Israeli engineers 21st-century Israeli engineers Israeli collectors Archaeological forgery Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni People from Tel Aviv Israeli criminals People acquitted of fraud Tel Hazor