The three shekel ostracon is a
pottery fragment bearing a forged text supposedly dating from between the 7th and 9th centuries BCE.[1] It is 8.6 centimeters high and 10.9 centimeters wide and contains five lines of
ancient Hebrew writing.[2] The inscription mentions a king named Ashyahu (אשיהו ’Ašyahu) donating three shekels (about 20–50 grams of
silver) to the House of Yahweh. No king named Ashyahu is mentioned in the Bible, but some scholars believe it may refer to
Jehoash (יהואש Yəhō’āš), who ruled
Judea 802–787 BCE.[3]
The ostracon was purchased by
Shlomo Moussaieff from the Jerusalem antiquities dealer
Oded Golan. Doubts about the authenticity of this and other artefacts sold by Golan began to be expressed in the late 1990s, and in 2003 Professor
Christopher Rollston, a leading authority on
Northwest Semitic inscriptions, said he is "confident beyond a reasonable doubt" that the "three shekel ostracon" is a forgery.[4] The same negative conclusion was reached on the basis of a scientific examination of the
patina.[5]
^Yuval Goren, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Avner Ayalon and Bettina Schilman (2005). "Authenticity Examination of Two Iron Age Ostraca from the Moussaieff Collection". Israel Exploration Journal. 55 (1): 21–34.{{
cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
The three shekel ostracon is a
pottery fragment bearing a forged text supposedly dating from between the 7th and 9th centuries BCE.[1] It is 8.6 centimeters high and 10.9 centimeters wide and contains five lines of
ancient Hebrew writing.[2] The inscription mentions a king named Ashyahu (אשיהו ’Ašyahu) donating three shekels (about 20–50 grams of
silver) to the House of Yahweh. No king named Ashyahu is mentioned in the Bible, but some scholars believe it may refer to
Jehoash (יהואש Yəhō’āš), who ruled
Judea 802–787 BCE.[3]
The ostracon was purchased by
Shlomo Moussaieff from the Jerusalem antiquities dealer
Oded Golan. Doubts about the authenticity of this and other artefacts sold by Golan began to be expressed in the late 1990s, and in 2003 Professor
Christopher Rollston, a leading authority on
Northwest Semitic inscriptions, said he is "confident beyond a reasonable doubt" that the "three shekel ostracon" is a forgery.[4] The same negative conclusion was reached on the basis of a scientific examination of the
patina.[5]
^Yuval Goren, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Avner Ayalon and Bettina Schilman (2005). "Authenticity Examination of Two Iron Age Ostraca from the Moussaieff Collection". Israel Exploration Journal. 55 (1): 21–34.{{
cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)