Six months after the James ossuary was declared a fake, the ancient burial box bearing an inscription mentioning Jesus continues to rock the world of biblical archaeology.Scholars are now on the trail of more possible forgeries and questioning the roles their colleagues play in the authentication of relics that turn out to be fake."The James ossuary shows that Jesus sells," said archaeologist Alexander Joffe, a Near Eastern antiquities expert. At the American Schools of Oriental Research meeting last week, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Amir Ganor said the James ossuary investigation has expanded to encompass Bible-era archaeological artifacts collected over the past 15 years by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. First reports last year of the ossuary in Biblical Archaeology Review created a frenzy over the relic that bears the Aramaic inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Throngs visited the Royal Ontario Museum to see the empty stone box. Scholars, however, questioned not only its authenticity but also whether it was an illegally excavated item, a growing problem in archaeology. In June, the Israeli authority declared the ossuary's inscription a fake. Chemical analysis revealed the reference to Jesus had been chiseled in modern times and covered with an ancient-looking coating, dubbed the "James bond" by archaeologist Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University.
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