back in 1970s jerusalem, there is a vibrant market for antique ossuaries. i didn t see anything particular in this ossuary. it was sat for many years at my parents apartment together with several other ossuaries that i purchased at that time because i didn t put any special attention to this ossuary. but in april 2002, golan invites andre lemaire, a renowned scholar of ancient aramaic, to examine some items in his collection. lemaire s attention is immediate drawn to the unidentified ossuary golan bought 30 years before. lemaire deciphers the mysterious inscription. it reads, james, son of joseph, brother of jesus. he found that there is a very high probability that it
Belonged to james, the brother of jesus christ. frankly, i didn t even know that jesus christ had brothers or sisters. golan immediately sends the ossuary to the geological survey of israel to help with its authentication. using high-power microscopes, they inspect the patina coating the box and the inscriptions. they conclude the lettering has not been made by modern tools. it s not the question of authentic. it s a question, if it belongs to james. intrigued about the probability of finding the names james, jesus and joseph in more than one family in first century jerusalem, golan asks renowned statistician camil fuchs to audit the names on the inscription. we have 168 inscribed ossuaries from that period in
the story of the james ossuary, the casket that may have held the bones of james, the forgotten brother of jesus, starts with one of the world s greatest antiquities collectors. oded golan is one of the great experts on archaeologist artifacts. i have actually the biggest private collection of ossuaries in israel, probably in the world. most of his collection tells the story of the development of the civilizations here, and that includes the biblical era. his collection must be worth millions and millions of dollars. according to golan, in the early 1970s, he bought an empty
First-century ossuary from a dealer in jerusalem. i could see some of the names which are mentioned and especially ya akov, the first name, meaning james. it came by itself without any item to accompany it. in first century jerusalem, the bones of the dead were placed in ossuaries in underground tombs. archaeologist byron mccane is a leading expert on burial practices in ancient palestine. we re just south of the old city of jerusalem. there are a number of burial caves from the time of jesus right around here. in the jewish tradition, on the first anniversary of the death, they gather the bones of their deceased loved ones. those bones are placed in an ossuary. the ossuary is marked with the name of the deceased and then placed somewhere in the tomb.