Unpapered Biblical Antiquities Trade

Roberta Mazza "Evangelical trade in Biblical antiquities in the United States: It is still happening" Posted on March 2, 2022

Would you like to see plenty of “Biblical” antiquities of unknown provenance including some forgeries too? Then download the two pdf brochures that a Mr Brandon Witt is circulating to institutions and individuals for sale [...] Many of the pieces seem related with Scott Carroll and other evangelical dealers/collectors/morons. Cuneiform tablets, the usual Ptolemaic papyrus from cartonnage, a post-2002 Dead Sea scroll fragment and late antique parchments. Real, forgeries or replicas? Who knows?

What's a "scholar of record"? Seems to be a term used here to refer to somebody offering an opinion on these items (for example on authenticity). I'd love to see a record of why they opine that way. I have an opinion on that amulet ("etched" but the photo shows it is on "bronze lamella" that has been folded, not just rolled, and then has some weird patina that is pretty evenly spread across the surface even though the object supposedly was deposited in a rolled state... and now has been unfolded/rolled (I suspect a divine miracle was involved here as there is no visible cracking). "Encased in archival glass". Meaning what? An inert silicate material of some kind? You know, like um... er... glass? Hmm. And somehow there seems to be a little bit of information missing, where was it discovered, who unrolled it and when, how did it get into private hands, and how did it leave the source country? My opinion is that there is nothing here to show it is genuine 3rd to 5th century and not of more recent manufacture and I think it looks "too good to be true". Does that make me a "blogger of record"? It seems this is looked at from one aspect, a "thing" with writing on it. Where is the matching opinion of it as a "thing that they are saying was in the ground and dug up which is why it looks like this"? Because I think there are some questions somebody looking at this from that point of view might like to ask... Dr Stephen Pfann, the comments are open. 

 Apparently the ubiquitous "Wilfred G. Lambert [deceased], Historian, Archaeologist, Specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology, British Museum, London, England", "examined and Studied Items in this Collection"... yeah? When was that then? He died in November 2011, so was this "collection" already created then? Has this any connection with a collection currently trickling onto the market through a London auction house that is full of Lambert notes? 

Årstein Justnes considers the small fragment of Dead Sea Scroll on leather that appears in this assemblage as belonging to the post-2002 fake group.