With allegations of fakery flying around, the authorities decided to crack down. Police and Antiquity Authority agents raided Oded Golan’s home. They found an incriminating photograph of the collector clutching the missing Jehoash tablet, which he had always denied owning. They made him hand it over then confiscated the ossuary too. The artefacts and their collector were about to be subjected to intensive scrutiny ... In charge of the investigation was Professor Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University. He began with the stone tablet ... But when Goren examined the patina he found it was different on the front to the back of the stone. The patina on the front did indeed appear to come from Jerusalem but instead of being bonded to the stone, it lifted off quite easily.
He [Goren] concluded that someone had taken an old stone from somewhere else and carved an inscription on the front which had then been concealed under a new artificial patina. He could even see evidence that the carving was recent. And what of the ancient charcoal and traces of gold which had convinced earlier scientists? Goren concluded they had simply been added to the artificial patina applied to the front of the stone. ibid.
The he turned to the Brother of Jesus Ossuary. The bone-box itself appears to be genuine. The stone was covered by a chalky patina. Just what he’d expect if it had spent many years in an underground tomb. But the patina in the grooves of the inscription was different. Like the Jehoash Tablet it was not firmly bonded to the surface. It looked as if the engraver had cut through the original patina then filled in the grooves with a new material to make it look ancient. On June 18th 2003 the Israel Antiquities Authority goes public. Both objects are declared fake. It hits the headlines worldwide. Experts who authenticated the artefacts have their names dragged through the mud. ibid.
But more damning evidence comes to light when police and authority inspectors raid Oded Golan’s premises again. They find engraving tools, chemicals and soil samples taken from sites all over Israel together with scores of artefacts; many look freshly minted or half finished. ibid.
So it was inevitable that attention would return to that priceless object in the Israel Museum, the Ivory Pomegranate ... Experts have discovered it wasn’t actually made of elephant ivory, but came from a quite different beast ... Then he [Goren] turned his attention to the inscription ... He noticed that the grooves cut by the engraver appeared to stop short of the break. ibid.
Pumapunku is a large temple complex located on a high plateau in Bolivia. Archaeologists date the site from approximately 200 B.C. The people who lived here had neither a written language nor the wheel, yet somehow they built one of the world’s baffling and complex structures. Ancient Aliens s1e1: The Evidence, History 2010
The Temple was said to house the Ark of the Covenant ... Could an advanced energy source within the Ark of the Covenant have allowed King Solomon to wield immense power? Ancient Aliens s3e3: Aliens and Sacred Places, History Channel 2013
A stone larger than any used in the Great Pyramids is discovered under the holy temple complex. Mysteries of the Bible s1e10: Jerusalem: Holy Deadly City, A&E 1994
Little is known of Jerusalem’s earliest history. ibid.
The temple would stand for nearly four hundred years ... No remnants of Jerusalem’s holy temple itself have been discovered. ibid.
3,000 years ago a vast complex stood here: it was a Hebrew Temple said to be the resting place of God. Mysteries of the Bible s3e6: Life and Death in the Holy Temples, A&E 1996
Temple mount: three great religions took root here. ibid.
Built by Herod the Great, the temple had dominated the city ... Where Jesus himself once prayed. ibid.
Built by King Solomon a thousand years earlier ... No archaeological remains have been found. ibid.
The disappearance of the Ark is one of the Bible’s most compelling mysteries. ibid.
Not one shred of evidence has been unearthed to support the existence of either Solomon’s palace or temple. Mysteries of the Bible s4e9: King Solomon
The Ark of the Covenant: down through the ages it has inspired terror and obsession. This gold-encrusted chest held the Ten Commandments and gave Moses a direct hotline to God. With it the Israelites conquered the Holy Land and they built a new temple. Then in perhaps the greatest Biblical riddle ever, the Ark of the Covenant, simply vanished from scripture. Riddles of the Bible s2e3: The Hunt for the Ark of the Covenant, National Geographic 1997
God’s blueprint for the Ark was exceedingly specific. It was to be a portable wooden chest, about four feet long by two feet wide by two feet high. Made of an extremely resilient wood called acacia. And plated inside and out with pure gold. At the corners of the Ark there would be four gold rings into which gold-plated poles could be inserted for carrying. Its lid – God’s footstool – would be pure gold, with golden-winged angels called cherubim at each end facing each other. The Ark served as Moses’s direct hotline to God. ibid.
But by around 620 B.C. references to the most important artefact in the Jewish religion simply ceases ... But three decades after that, in 587 B.C. came another crisis ... The city and its temple were overrun and looted by Babylonians, led by the famous Nebuchadnezzar. ibid.
Hancock is among those who believe that the high priests in charge of the Ark somehow managed to save it before the city of Jerusalem was sacked along with the Temple of Solomon in 587 B.C. ibid.
The Book of Kings is replete with details of this Temple: dressed masonry with interlaced cedar beams, quarry-dressed stones, elaborate columns, rooms with carved olive-wood cherubs and an inner sanctum made of pure gold. Riddles of the Bible: Lost Kings of Israel
So the argument was that Solomon’s Temple was merely too magnificent to have been built and decorated in the 10th century. But in 1980 archaeologists were astounded when they found a temple from Solomon’s time in Ain Dara, Syria. It proved to be a stunning parallel to Solomon’s Temple. ibid.
Not a single artefact from the Temple has been found to date. ibid.
Solomon’s Temple was merely a representation of the sex act. Jordan Maxwell, lecture The Illuminati
We now know that there are ancient temples found in the ocean and all over the world. Jordan Maxwell, Forbidden Knowledge
There is little evidence outside the Bible that either Hiram Abiff or Solomon’s Temple ever existed. Decoding the Past s3e7: Mysteries of the Freemasons – The Beginning, History 2007
The Biblical portrayal of the Jerusalem Temple is almost identical to the remains of this ancient temple in Syria – Ain Dara. Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Bible’s Buried Secrets: The Real Garden Of Eden 3/3
The Garden of Eden was found inside the Temple. ibid.
Did the High Priests here at the Temple in Jerusalem hide their most sacred items before their city was ransacked by the Romans? Jamie Theakson, Forbidden History: The Treasure of Solomon, Yesterday 2014
The Temple of Solomon contained some of the greatest treasure of the ancient world. ibid.
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o’ the building! William Shakespeare, Macbeth II iii 72
There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.
If the ill spirit have so air a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with’t. William Shakespeare, The Tempest I ii 460-462, Miranda
Malta: the world’s oldest underground temple. When it was unearthed more than six thousand skeletons found. And since then, stories of children disappearing and voices of the dead. Ancient X Files
The real life Temple of Doom ... The temple is unique; archaeologists know of no other underground prehistoric temple. ibid.
The stone passage leads down to a series of mass tombs. ibid.
The world’s oldest temple: three times as old as the Egyptian pyramids. Evidence of the earliest religion ever discovered. But ancient images and carving could show this religion was a death cult. Ancient X Files: Death Cult Temple & Bog Bodies
The discovery of Gobekli Tepe has radically challenged our concept of stone age man. ibid.
There is evidence that the temple structure was associated with death. ibid.
The People of Pompeii do the opposite: they try to appease their gods by re-making the temples of the fallen. Clad in white marble on the eve of the eruption it must have appeared indestructible. Rome Revealed s1e3: Doomsday Pompeii, National Geographic 2010
Pyramids and temples towered over plazas and ball courts. Nova: Cracking the Maya Code, PBS 2008
One of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs created this impossibly vast monument to himself at Abu Simbel … The largest temples ever carved out of solid rock. Ancient Impossible s1e2: Monster Monuments, History 2014
Stonehenge: it appears to be a structure years ahead of its time. ibid.
‘These stones from this quarry were transported well over a hundred miles.’ ibid.