Who Faked the 'Darius' Shard? You Won't Believe It
The Israel Antiquities Authority has admitted that the shard featuring the inscription 'Darius Year 24' is not authentic. So who is behind the forgery, and how did they manage to deceive leading scientists?
(Photo: Yuli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)Following last week's exciting announcements about hikers finding an ancient shard at Tel Lachish inscribed with 'Darius Year 24', it turns out the shard is not authentic. Although the announcements distributed by the Israel Antiquities Authority stated that the object had been examined by them and declared as one "bearing a 2500-year-old inscription from the Persian Empire", it's now clear this was a mistake.
If this story weren't so absurd, it could be mistaken for a Purim joke in keeping with the season. It turns out the mistake was uncovered by a foreign researcher, one of the few experts worldwide in ancient Aramaic inscriptions. She explained that she had been demonstrating to her students how inscriptions were traditionally engraved on ancient pottery and subsequently left it in the area, which eventually led to the confusion.
The Israel Antiquities Authority quickly released the facts to avoid misleading the public, clarifying that the researcher acted in good faith and had no malicious intent. Prof. Gideon Avni, the chief scientist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, clarified that it was a "dress-up inscription" and even noted that despite the shard being studied by a world-renowned expert in ancient Aramaic script and an archaeologist researching Tel Lachish, they were misled, resulting in the distortion of scientific truth. "This is a very serious incident," he added, "leaving the inscribed shard on site was negligent and led to misleading the researchers. Such events in archaeological research can be counted on one hand."
