The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest-known Biblical texts, and most of them belong to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. “Not only did the coating facilitate the writing on these uneven and bumpy surfaces, but it also served to mimic the degradation you would see in the authentic scrolls.” “It’s the First Domino” The fragments from the Museum of the Bible were “heavily impregnated with an amber-colored animal skin glue,” Loll said. “This confirmed our conclusion that ancient materials were repurposed for the creation of these fragments,” said Loll.Īnother clue was that parts of the real Dead Sea Scrolls look a bit like they’ve been coated in glue, because the collagen in parchment breaks down over the millennia, turning into gelatin. One of the fake Dead Sea Scrolls from the Museum of the Bible at high magnification, revealing anomalies. More damningly, a close examination showed that the writing had been applied to a surface that was already fragmented-the ink dripped over the sides and fell into cracks that wouldn’t have existed when the leather was new. “Until you do a high magnification analysis, as well as a chemical and elemental analysis, you really can’t tell the difference.”īut under a microscope, there were several dead giveaways-first of all, the leather was very bumpy and rough. “It was obvious to us that the scribe had a very difficult time writing on the surface, unlike the clean smooth parchment that would have been used 2,000 years ago,” Loll explained. “After 2,000 years, leather and parchment look very similar,” said Loll. Instead of being made from tanned or lightly tanned parchment, like the real Dead Sea Scrolls, the Museum of the Bible’s fragments were made of leather-likely ancient, perhaps from the soles of old shoes. Loll cited several pieces of evidence that led her team to its conclusion. “We came to an unanimous conclusion that they were all forgeries,” Colette Loll, founder of Art Fraud Insights, which conducted the tests, told Artnet News. “There were a lot of anomalies that we identified through microscopy.” How the Fakes Were Caught The findings were first announced by National Geographic, and have already launched a contentious debate on Twitter. In a 200-page report, the five-person team judged the artifacts to be 20th-century forgeries meant to mimic the famed Dead Sea Scrolls first discovered in 1946 in Israel’s Qumran caves. The museum announced the news at an academic symposium on Friday, presenting the results of a battery of tests conducted by outside experts between May and October of 2019. And since the Museum of the Bible’s trove was a small part of a much larger group of scroll fragments that have since spread around the globe, the finding could have big implications for the field. Every single one of its 16 fragments of the famed Dead Sea Scrolls have been found to be modern-day forgeries-not just the five previously identified fakes. Independence Mall East.There’s more bad news for the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. The Faith and Liberty Discovery Centerwill occupy the first two floors of a building on Independence Mall where the American Bible Society relocated several years ago. Active military tickets must be obtained in person. Admission is free for children ages 6 and under and for active-duty military members. The price is $9 for those 65 or older, as well as college students, military, police and fire department members with ID. Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $8 for youth ages 7 to 17. It will "guide people down cobblestone streets and alleys allowing them to experience landmarks of faith and liberty for themselves," according to the Center.Īdvance tickets are now available to buy online to visit this spring. The Center's immersive experience is being designed by the award-winning design studio Local Projects.The devices allow visitors to collect and save information, which they can access after leaving. Guests of the Center in Philadelphia will be able to use the Faith and Liberty Trail app. Rendering/Courtesy of Faith and Liberty Discovery Center
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