Unholy Business

Starred review from September 22, 2008
Can old rocks and bones support the Bible? The inscription on an ancient ossuary put this question to the test.
Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
Nina Burleigh
. Collins/Smithsonian
, $27.50 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-145845-3

In November 2002, the public display of an ossuary (an ancient burial vessel) inscribed “James, the brother of Jesus,” sent ripples of excitement, doubt and consternation through both the religious and scholarly worlds. But when scholars took a close look, they declared the inscription a forgery based on the lack of provenance and a tremendous disparity between the physical writing of the word “James” and the rest of the inscription. In her captivating chronicle, veteran journalist Burleigh (Mirage
) enters a dark world full of shady dealings, illicit collectors and monomaniacal archeologists. Along the way we meet an improbable cast of characters, including Oded Golan, the ossuary's owner; André Lemaire, an epigraphist who early on testified to the authenticity of the ossuary's inscription; Shlomo Moussaieff, a billionaire collector with a warehouse full of artifacts of uncertain value; and Israel Finkelstein, a maverick Israeli archeologist who questions the historicity of many biblical events. Burleigh draws readers in from page one and brilliantly captures the compelling debates about archeology's relationship to narratives of faith.

Starred review from October 15, 2008
Fascinating bad guys; exotic locations; lost religious treasures too good to be true; and a cast of characters made up of scholars, religious believers, antique dealers, cops, and millionaires make this book a strangeand truetale and a delight to read. In 2002, the James Ossuary, an ancient limestone box for bones with an inscription on it that said "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" was publicized as the first real physical evidence of Jesus Christ's existence. The plot thickened when the ossuary went on tour, creating lots of publicity, a book by advocate Hershel Shanks, and a Discovery Channel documentary. Then the ossuary's owner, Oded Golan, and his antique-dealer associates were charged with forgery. The trial of Golan and a colleague has lasted years (and has also led to the uncovering of other important forgeries). Burleigh (staff writer, "People" magazine) does a fabulous job of tracking down and talking to the major players in what the Israeli authorities call the "fraud of the century." Whether or not readers believe the ossuary is authentic, they will thoroughly enjoy this book. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries supporting classes on archaeology.Melissa Aho, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2008
Shrewd andpiquant journalist Burleigh, whose last book, Mirage (2007), offers fresh insights into the discovery of the Rosetta stone, tells the full story behind one of the greatest hoaxes of all times, the ancient stone box that was presented to the world in 2002 as the ossuary that held the bones of Jesus brother, James. With brio and acumen, Burleigh follows the trail of antiquities fraud in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, visiting collectors lairs, biblical sites, and archaeological digs. She wryly profiles Oded Golan, the man responsible for the fraudulent ossuary, and Amir Ganor, the Israel Antiquities Authority investigator who broke the case, as well asa motley crew ofscholars, tomb looters, dealers, true believers, and antiquities forgers. But Burleigh is most intrigued with the mix of science and wishful thinking that characterizes biblical archaeology as Israel struggles to preserve evidence of this bloodiedlands Jewish heritage, and Christians seekHoly Land artifacts that allegedly offer physical proof of biblical stories. In all, a provocative inquiry into the age-old pairing of faith and folly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)