Breaking News: The Controversial James Ossuary and the Talpiot Tomb
Sunday’s New York Times broke a major full-page story (page A-4) based on new chemical tests done on the ossuaries (i.e. lidded limestone bone boxes) from the Talpiot “Jesus” tomb comparing it with the controversial “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” ossuary. Dr. Aryeh Shimon is interviewed on the results of these tests that compare extensive scrapings from inside and outside ossuaries carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority of comparative ancient tombs of the same period in Jerusalem. Previously, tests had been done on patina, as noted below, but the new tests were of a far more telling nature, accessing the limestone beneath the patina. Limestone ossuaries over time absorb the soil and chemical environs of the tomb they are placed in. Each tomb has a characteristic chemical profile unique to its environment. Dr. Shimron’s conclusion is thatthere is an extremely high probability that the James ossuary was originally taken from the Talpiot tomb–either around 1980 when it was discovered, or perhaps earlier–since the tomb itself was unsealed. I might also point out that an ossuary from the nearby Talpiot tomb B was also sampled, just 60 meters away, and it did not match at all the Talpiot “Jesus” tomb ossuaries (Tomb A). This shows that Tomb A had a very specific and unique chemical environment–even with a tomb quite close by. Everyone seems to agree in terms of our statistics that adding the James ossuary to the names that are already in the Talpiot tomb changes everything in favor of its high probability of being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family, see the calculations by Kilty and Elliot, “The James Ossuary and the Talpiot Tomb.”
Read the entire article here: http://jamestabor.com/2015/04/04/breaking-news-the-controversial-james-ossuary-and-the-talpiot-tomb/
