“Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self evident.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)
This essay presents a brief overview of the circumstance of the discovery of the Lead Codices.
The recent cases of the James ossuary and the Jehoash inscription have demonstrated very adequately the fact that many antiquities are found as a result of a range of circumstances which owe nothing to archaeological excavations and are thus unprovenanced: however, the uniqueness of the discovery of the Lead Codices was, to us, what made it worthy of further investigation.
That the codices were not uncovered during such an archaeological excavation is far from unusual. Smuggling and forgery are a way of life throughout the Middle East and the authorities are always on the lookout for the latest scam or for the latest genuine artefact. The struggle of the authorities in Israel in these matters is a case in point. At the outset what set the codices apart from other, more predictable, artefacts was the simple matter of them being comprised entirely of impure lead. This chapter sets out the bald facts of how Jennifer and I got involved and our efforts to understand the nature of the hoard.
In September 2007, Jennifer and I were introduced, over a supper given by a journalist at The Sunday Times, to a series of images he had received by email that day. Only later did we learn that the find came from Jordan.
When I inspected the initial images, I was rather surprised. They comprised a series of ancient-looking “metallic” codices – but the images were so poor that at the time I thought they were probably leather codices, like those discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. They were covered in detritus; if they were made of metal, then limescale seemed the most obvious identification for this deposit. I took some hastily drawn notes and proceeded to make further enquiries, albeit knowing very little about the provenance.
In November, a small group of professionals were brought together with the aim of determining the origin and antiquity of the objects concerned. The decision to do this was taken on the basis of a sample from one of the objects in question. Hassan Saida, the Bedouin owner of the artefacts, was willing to underwrite the costs of the tests involved. If the hoard did consist of a series of forgeries, why would the “prime suspect” be willing to expend such a considerable outlay? To what aspect of the black market was he aiming? A review of the illicit market in the run-up to the press announcement in 2011 revealed very little.
A second metal analysis was completed in November 2008 and presented to Hassan Saida, who I was finally able to meet in England in early February 2009. Hassan, an Israeli Bedouin, attended the meeting with his Israeli lawyer, Sasson Bar-Oz. The object of the meeting was to “break the ice” with Hassan and to see if he was amenable to allowing further research work. With this in mind, and believing that Hassan was the rightful owner of the artefacts, I undertook further research and steadily became convinced of the authenticity of the discovery.
The condition of the codices in Hassan’s care varies: in order to glimpse what it was that he had in his possession, Hassan, in his excitement, had used solvents (bathroom and kitchen cleaners) to rub away some of the ancient detritus from a few of the books. The solvent traces were picked up on some of the metallurgy analyses. Aside from this, Hassan has taken very good care of the artefacts and treated them with relative respect. Overall, from what he was able to tell me, I had the firm impression that he had gathered all the books together by purchasing them as a collection.
Upon viewing the items from the hoard for the first time in northern Israel, I noticed how delicate, fragile and corroded they were, particularly near the edges in relation to the rings that bind them. Hassan insisted, despite our protestations, that we open and photograph some of the books. Fortunately, I had come well prepared for such an eventuality, with cotton wool buds, brushes and surgical gloves. The codices were unwrapped on plastic sheets and all the dust and detritus was collected and catalogued. The binding rings were surprisingly brittle and fell apart easily. Some of the books were difficult to open because the pages were fused together.
I took a detailed photographic record, on a Nikon D3X 24.5 megapixel DSLR using a 200mm macro lens, of everything that Hassan chose to reveal to me. I specifically chose a macro lens for micrographic or high-definition analysis. He showed us a range of artefacts – metal plates and scrolls all made from similar material – supplemented by further verbal detail of the cave site where they had been found. There were a few copper items – bowls and plates – in the hoard. Upon our return to the UK, he started to send us images of what appeared to be copper or bronze codices. My reaction was to hold them in abeyance until a physical investigation could take place.
By Easter 2009 we had finally taken possession of the initial metal report by the Oxford and Dübendorf (Switzerland) laboratories and noticed that reference was made to the artefacts having been found in Jordan. This crucial detail appears to have emerged during a conversation between Hassan and the metallurgist undertaking the analysis. In the light of this previously unknown information, I consulted a reputable London-based law firm, Eversheds, in order to appreciate the political aspect of the situation as it was now developing. They advised me that under international law the discovery was the personal property of the ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a direct descendant of the Prophet, Muhammad.
For the purpose of provenance our objective now was to make contact with the Jordanian government. A meeting was subsequently arranged, via the Office of HRH The Prince of Wales, with Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who put us in touch with Jordanian Military Intelligence. From details and photographs provided to us by Hassan we were able to locate the cave site in northern Jordan.
If the codices are forgeries, what are they forgeries of? They vary greatly in size, from the very small (palm-sized) to a much larger format akin to a medium-format modern book. Codices are known to have been used by early Christian communities. Many of the books from the hoard consist of a series of metal plates bound, in book form, by thin, lead wires to seal them all around, which suggests concealment. The layout of each codex seems to represent a specific objective: to reflect the layout of the Temple of Jerusalem, with specific reference to its first incarnation – the Temple of Solomon.
The symbol of the fruiting palm tree is seen on a lot of the codices. This represents the Tree of Life, so frequently associated with the Temple in scripture. These trees are given further emphasis by the presence of eight-pointed stars. This motif is depicted elsewhere in this particular fashion in very few places: notably, for example, on the top left-hand and top right-hand corners of the icon of Christ Pantocrator at St Catherine’s monastery, Sinai, and within frescoes at Visoki Decani monastery, Kosovo, as well as a small number of more obscure sources. These stars are indicative of a coming Messiah.
However, perhaps the most striking symbol is the menorah: it is a seven-branched example and beneath it are ranged two intertwined branches that were initially difficult to identify.
Semi-circular in depiction and more widely spread than is usual in known ancient forms, the images of the menorah are unique. Some have said that they show a nine-branched menorah and are therefore forgeries. Such observations are not well thought out. The clear division between the lower two branches of foliage and the top section, in most examples by a clear script, indicates that it is a seven-branched menorah rather than a nine-branched version.
Old Testament texts (such as Exodus 25. 31–40) do not tell us that the seven-branch menorah was to be found at the heart of Solomon’s Temple, which was heaven on Earth, where the greatest of all the divine secrets were located. Depictions of this kind of seven-branched menorah were forbidden beyond the boundary of the Holy Place. The Talmud (Menahot 28b) confirms the prohibition. Christianity envisioned the menorah in the most sacred place; Revelation (4.5) is explicit on the matter, depicting it in the sancta sanctorum, whereas in Judaism its place was in the Hall of the Temple.
It is apparent that the representation of the fruiting palm tree is not a naturalistic one from nature, whereby the fruit grows at the intersection of the trunk and the bough. On the codices the fruit is shown halfway along the bough. This is not unique: there is a plethora of good provenanced examples depicted on coins, ostraca (potsherds) and other media, dating to the 1st century BCE and later.
In some of the books there are also depictions of the interior of the sancta sanctorum. Bowls and platters can be seen loaded with fruit and what appears to be bread, all gathered together upon a table, with Roman-style wine cups. The fruits include etrogs (etrogim), the yellow citrons used in Judaic ritual, which may be a reference to the temple festival of the offering of first fruits (as described in Leviticus 23.9–14). Initial metallurgical analysis, in March 2008, of samples from the codices has given a date consistent with lead from the Roman period (early 2nd century BCE–late 1st century CE) and that a Mediterranean origin is feasible.
The most eye-catching of the books is the codex with a face on its frontal plate. The face is set within a halo, as if telling us that the figure, a Nazarene-type figure in the form of the Man of Woes, is set apart from the world. In the context of the other books this remarkable image seems to act as the central point of the entire hoard. The image is telling us that here is a divine, kingly and high priestly figure, the Man of Woes, in the pure Nazarene sense of the descriptions given of Jesus in the gospels. The writing on this book is superior and more fluid than that on the others, which suggests it may have been composed by a master scribe.
The book has seven seals on the right-hand side, where the book is to be opened, four seals on the top and on the bottom and three seals on the left-hand side. To its Bedouin guardian, this book is regarded as very special. I was given limited access to it and little time to photograph it properly when it was opened, before it was then stored away again.
My initial suspicion was that the lettering on the codices was a Canaanite script. Initial speculations pointed towards Samaritan culture.
Later analysis of the script by an eminent scholar, based in the north of England, also suggested a Samaritan origin. Due to university and other commitments the scholar concerned was unable to devote any more time to the matter, but it was a good start and I remain grateful to him for his time and effort. In November 2010, I received an email from Professor John Sawyer, then at the University of Perugia, Italy, and president of the Society for Old Testament Study (SOTS). He confirmed that the script was in fact Palaeo-Hebrew. It was legible – and lucid and meaningful rather than nonsensical. It pointed to the book of Proverbs 10.9. Further analysis continues.
On our first trip to Israel we were at pains to ask Hassan, for reasons of provenance, about the location of the cave where the codices were uncovered, how it had happened and when. Hassan was able to describe, in some detail, the number of caves and told us that there were other artefacts in the hoard that we had yet to see, still, apparently, in situ inside the main cave, including bodies and organic items. Hassan refused to divulge the location of the cave.
From the photographs and details Hassan provided, we were able to ascertain that the site is near Lake Tiberias and not far north of Pella. Finally, with the help of Jordanian Military Intelligence, we were able to corroborate the exact location of the site in Jordan.
In one of Hassan’s images four rows of four niches, 16 in all, can be seen. These niches are reminiscent of an Orthodox Church iconostasis, which was – as far as is known – a development of the 3rd–4th century. This suggests that the artefacts were known to early Orthodox Christians, who may have viewed the site as sacred, or that the items were removed from elsewhere at an early date and rehoused in this particular cave at a later date.
Until recently, the area was unsafe to visit, either because of the PLO or rumoured Al Qaeda associations. For these reasons the site had never been surveyed, a point confirmed to us by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities in 2011.
The location is in a very deep limestone gorge that begins its descent from just outside the village of Saham. The valley floor is highly fertile, with running water, crops, pomegranate and other fruit trees growing there.
Winding and twisting its way around the village and towards the border with Syria, the gorge area is extensive and riddled with caves. Just outside the village is a site locals call the Deir – a sheer cliff-face, it contains the remains of early Syrian Christian monastic cells, dating from the late 1st and early 2nd centuries.
Organic remains have been found in the caves, along with sarcophagi. Hassan informed us that a lot of the books from the cave were wrapped in pieces of ancient cloth and, if not in the niches, were to be found in a number of lead boxes. The cloths remain there, along with other organic items, having been discarded by the cave-finders. From what Hassan told us, the boxes appear to have been sealed, possibly with wax. The Bedouin would only go as far as the boxes and their contents; they did not go near the bodies that lay nearby. Hassan described one of them as being wrapped in a serpent’s or crocodile’s skin. This is remarkable because it matches a description by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, of the serpentine effect that was produced by the weave in the vestments of a high priest of the Temple.
Overall, the conclusions that can be drawn thus far reveal a level of complexity to the discovery that effectively removes it from a run-of-the-mill crude fake. One question then has to be: is it a sophisticated fake?
The answer raises more questions that urgently need to be addressed. Why forge something so entirely unique? What would be the purpose of such an act? How many forgers from the region are really likely to be up to date with the latest expert analysis in Temple Theology and the role of the Temple in the early Church? Hassan paid for the initial scientific analysis; Bedouin are not known for paying for scientific research into artefacts in their care. Neither I nor anyone familiar with Bedouin ways has heard of them acting in this manner – how do we explain such actions?
In 2011 Hassan informed me that a number of fakes had been placed onto the Jerusalem market. We were able to obtain images of one of them. The object was very beautiful and it was made out of lead; however, it was easy to see by sight alone that it was a fake. When compared to the codices from the hoard, the differences are startling. The fake is incoherent and haphazard in its placing of symbolic detail and script. But the biggest problem of all is that the lead is new. We have been informed that it is easy to fake lead by immersing it in camel urine. However, such a process also washes away any surface crystallization – a telling detail on the codices from the hoard, which offer a level of sophistication, in terms of script and symbolism, as well as corrosion data, that challenge the idea of them being forgeries. Would forgers really be able to produce such a convincing level of crystalline detail? Would they have access to quality corrosion data of this type in order to produce such high-level fakes? Furthermore, the script and symbolism are sophisticated and well beyond the knowledge of local forgers – there are very few scholars in the world who can decipher good grammatical Palaeo-Hebrew of this type. The books are an enigma that has yet to be solved. Academic archaeological access to the cave site should be the next objective.
Since 2009 there have been ten separate scientific analyses carried out on specific aspects of the codices (see Appendix). Isotopic analysis has so far proved inconclusive and it is at present not possible to date lead. Metallurgical analysis has revealed much, but it is a broad canvas – producing inconclusive sets of results, and yet in certain instances pointing away from the possibility of forgery. Analysis continues. Mineralogical and crystallographic investigations continue to offer – through the ongoing study of the data – further insights, as has atomic analysis conducted by the Jordanian government.
In June 2012, scholars from the Society for Old Testament Study sent a letter to The Times in London. They requested that the government of Jordan offer a clear strategy for an official announcement and an evaluation of the hoard. The Jordanian authorities have remained mysteriously silent in the face of such interest, a state of affairs that has caused considerable concern because of the potential importance of the hoard. It is imperative that samples from the organic remains at the site be subjected to tests. Only the outcome of such tests can provide clear dates of manufacture and, finally, strengthen or weaken some of the more controversial aspects of the hoard.