The Israel Antiquities Authority admitted yesterday that a historic artifact said to have been discovered in the southern Israeli city of Asqalan and claimed to date back to 521 BC was fake after a foreign archeologist discovered the forgery.
An Israeli archeologist working for the Israel Antiquities Authority and an expert in ancient script forged writing on a piece of pottery bearing the name of Darius I and claimed to have left it at the archaeological site of Tal al-Duwair, southeast of Asqalan.
The forged artifact bears the name of the third Achaemenid king, Darius I, who ruled Persia from the year 521 BC to the year 486 BC. The Israel Antiquities Authority said that a group of hikers found the piece, which bears the inscription “Darius in the year 24”, while they were touring the area of Tal al-Duwair, also known as Tal Lachish, an area located southeast of Asqalan and on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza.
In the wake of the announcement, an archeologist from outside Israel, who had participated in excavations in Tal al-Duwair as part of a group of international archaeologists, checked the alleged artifact and confirmed the forgery.
The Israeli archeologist responsible for the forgery is considered one of the few archeologists in the world who specializes in writings in the ancient Aramaic language, and she admitted to forging the piece while giving an example to a group of students about writing on an ancient piece of pottery and that she just left it at the location, which the Israel Antiquities Authority said was “deceiving.”
SOURCE: PALESTINE NEWS & INFO AGENCY