BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Ivory Pomegranate Revisited: A Relic from Solomon’s Temple?

Under the microscope at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Stored in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem is an ivory pomegranate the size of a thumb with writing on it. Its authenticity has been debated since it first came to the attention of the public over 30 years ago. Is the object’s paleo-Hebrew inscription—which as reconstructed contains the divine name Yahweh used by the ancient Israelites—real, or is it a forgery? If authentic, the ivory pomegranate may have been the head of a scepter from King Solomon’s Temple—and the only surviving relic from the Temple.

As recounted in “Ivory Pomegranate: Under the Microscope at the Israel Museum” by Hershel Shanks in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, a meeting between world-class paleographers André Lemaire, Ada Yardeni and Robert Deutsch in the summer of 2015 may have settled the debate.

ivory-pomegranate

If authentic, the famous inscribed ivory pomegranate may have been the head of a scepter from Solomon’s Temple. Photo: Left: Collection Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Photo ©Israel Museum, by Nahum Slapak; Right: Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

The famous inscribed ivory pomegranate is about 1.5 inches high and less than an inch in diameter. It has a hole at the bottom where a scepter rod had been presumably inserted. The inscription around its shoulder reads lby[t yhw]h qdsû khnm, or “Belonging to the Tem[ple of Yahwe]h, holy to the priests.” Only a portion of the inscription has been preserved, since a third of the shoulder was broken off.

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zuckerman-ivory-pomegranate

University of Southern California professor Bruce Zuckerman, who specializes in Reflectance Transformation Imaging, took dozens of digital photos of the famous ivory pomegranate inscription at the Israel Museum in June 2015. He was aided by his team of Marilyn Lundberg, Associate Director of USC’s West Semitic Research, and brother Kenneth Zuckerman, pictured here peering into the camera. The thumb-sized pomegranate sits on a stick under the camera. Photo: Biblical Archaeology Society.

Eminent Sorbonne paleographer André Lemaire first saw the ivory pomegranate in 1979 at an antiquities shop in Jerusalem. Lemaire published a note on the object in the French scholarly journal Revue Biblique in 1981. It was not until his longer article in the January/February 1984 issue of BAR, however, that the inscribed ivory pomegranate was propelled into the limelight.

For 15 years, the inscribed ivory pomegranate could be seen at the Israel Museum, displayed in a special room with a direct beam of light on it. In 2005, however, a committee comprised of Israel Antiquities Authority and Israel Museum scholars published a report in the Israel Exploration Journal concluding that the inscription was a forgery. The committee argued that some of the letters artificially stopped short of the ancient break on the pomegranate—reflecting the work of a forger.

In the criminal indictment in the trial that would be known as the “Forgery Trial of the Century,” the ivory pomegranate was referenced as a forgery, although it was not on the list of forgeries attributed to individual defendants.

Let’s flash forward to June 2015. The previous year, renowned paleographer Ada Yardeni had studied the ivory pomegranate at the Israel Museum. She concluded that one of the letters, a taw, did not reach the ancient break.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Yardeni wrote to BAR editor Hershel Shanks. “In view of my examination of the inscription, I cannot confirm its authenticity.”

In the summer of 2015, Yardeni agreed to have another look. On June 15, she and fellow paleographers André Lemaire and Robert Deutsch met at the Israel Museum. Included in this meeting were museum staff, Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Society president Sue Laden, and University of Southern California professor Bruce Zuckerman and his team, who specialize in Reflectance Transformation Imaging. Throughout the day, Zuckerman and his team photographed the pomegranate, and the scholars examined the object under the museum microscope.

imj-2015

In a meeting at the Israel Museum on June 15, 2015, paleographers Ada Yardeni (center), André Lemaire (right) and Robert Deutsch (left) met to examine the ivory pomegranate inscription. Photo: Biblical Archaeology Society.

After the meeting, Yardeni sent a note to Shanks stating that she had changed her mind about the critical letter taw. What did she see under the microscope with Lemaire and Deutsch? Learn the full story of the ivory pomegranate—the only surviving relic from Solomon’s Temple if authentic—and what took place in June 2015 by reading the article “Ivory Pomegranate: Under the Microscope at the Israel Museum” by Hershel Shanks in the March/April 2016 issue of BAR.


BAS Library Members: Read the full article “Ivory Pomegranate: Under the Microscope at the Israel Museum” by Hershel Shanks in the March/April 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library member yet? Join the BAS Library today.


Related reading in Bible History Daily:

First Person: A New Target

First Person: A Scepter from the Temple?

Is the Ivory Pomegranate a Forgery or Authentic?

Is the “Brother of Jesus” Inscription on the James Ossuary a Forgery?

James Ossuary Forgery Trial Resources Guide


 


8 Responses

  1. Maria Sridhar Devadoss says:

    Is this is under display for public and international Tourists. I am form India and i wish to see that in Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Is name of the Museum is ” Israel Museum” in Jerusalem. Can any one give this information as it will be very much great-full. Iam available in [email protected]

  2. eliezerp3 says:

    Of course it means something linguistically. It is a form of “to be”. Look it up, as I don’t feel like explaining Hebrew grammar to you.

  3. David says:

    That name in Hebrew is actually yud-heh-vav-heh or YHVH. “Yahweh” is an Anglicization that means nothing linguistically. “Jehovah” was created by adding the vowels in “Adonai”, or “Lord” to the Tetragramaton. You can prove nothing from a transliteration.

  4. brentd4 says:

    Babylon totally destroyed the first temple ad everything in it was taken to Babylon. If there was anything that could prove the pomegranate authentic one would expect to find some sort of supporting evidence in Babylonian dig sites; ie. in Iraq.

  5. Scott Irving says:

    Shout out some praise to posters, no. 1 and 2, for their good quality comments. I still think that Clement’s mentioning the vowel sounds of God name in IAUE Or IAOE, which exactly fails my memory at this moment. But if you sound them out by vowel sounds, you end up with E-ah-oo-eh/ay. It is yet another witness and could be of help.

  6. franciscog10 says:

    This pomegranate discovery was done by Ron Wyatt in 1978 when he was looking for the Ark of the Covenant, which he found in a cave as the IAA know very well. Indeed it belongs to Solomon’s temple as the other objects that he found, including a Menorah, and of course the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone commandments.

  7. Born Again Disciple of Jesus/Iesus/Iesous says:

    “Is the object’s paleo-Hebrew inscription—which as reconstructed contains the divine name Yahweh used by the ancient Israelites”

    This is utterly dishonest to claim the hybridized literary composite word “Yah-Weh” formed after the late 1800s, by Talmudic Rabbinic Kabbalists, is the name of the God of the Holy Bible, utterly wicked to claim such. Even PhD. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg of Jerusalem Hebrew University wouldn’t agree that “Yah-Weh” is the name of the God of the Holy Bible, for this in an invented name using 2 words of Aramaic for the “War ‘god’-man’ / “Thunder ‘god’-man / “Moon ‘god’-man” etc depending on which pagan or heathen culture is using the word. Even the Paleo-Hebrew word “YAH-reach(e)” for “Full Moon” reveals that “YAH” is NOT the name of God and it is utterly intellectual dishonesty in such linguistics to claim such, but such is expected from them who control the information on this. “Yah” / “Jah” / “Iah” / “i-Lah” are all corruptions of “IEH”/”YEH” as in “Iehoshua”. It becomes extremely frustrating to see such false linguistics being promoted in a bed of intellectual truth and deceit.

    Further evidence why the name “Yah-Weh” is NOT the name of God;

    http://www.jesus-messiah.com/studies/yahweh-full-copy.html
    http://spiritoftruth.ca/BibleStudy/Yahweh of Samaria.htm

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8 Responses

  1. Maria Sridhar Devadoss says:

    Is this is under display for public and international Tourists. I am form India and i wish to see that in Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Is name of the Museum is ” Israel Museum” in Jerusalem. Can any one give this information as it will be very much great-full. Iam available in [email protected]

  2. eliezerp3 says:

    Of course it means something linguistically. It is a form of “to be”. Look it up, as I don’t feel like explaining Hebrew grammar to you.

  3. David says:

    That name in Hebrew is actually yud-heh-vav-heh or YHVH. “Yahweh” is an Anglicization that means nothing linguistically. “Jehovah” was created by adding the vowels in “Adonai”, or “Lord” to the Tetragramaton. You can prove nothing from a transliteration.

  4. brentd4 says:

    Babylon totally destroyed the first temple ad everything in it was taken to Babylon. If there was anything that could prove the pomegranate authentic one would expect to find some sort of supporting evidence in Babylonian dig sites; ie. in Iraq.

  5. Scott Irving says:

    Shout out some praise to posters, no. 1 and 2, for their good quality comments. I still think that Clement’s mentioning the vowel sounds of God name in IAUE Or IAOE, which exactly fails my memory at this moment. But if you sound them out by vowel sounds, you end up with E-ah-oo-eh/ay. It is yet another witness and could be of help.

  6. franciscog10 says:

    This pomegranate discovery was done by Ron Wyatt in 1978 when he was looking for the Ark of the Covenant, which he found in a cave as the IAA know very well. Indeed it belongs to Solomon’s temple as the other objects that he found, including a Menorah, and of course the Ark of the Covenant containing the stone commandments.

  7. Born Again Disciple of Jesus/Iesus/Iesous says:

    “Is the object’s paleo-Hebrew inscription—which as reconstructed contains the divine name Yahweh used by the ancient Israelites”

    This is utterly dishonest to claim the hybridized literary composite word “Yah-Weh” formed after the late 1800s, by Talmudic Rabbinic Kabbalists, is the name of the God of the Holy Bible, utterly wicked to claim such. Even PhD. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg of Jerusalem Hebrew University wouldn’t agree that “Yah-Weh” is the name of the God of the Holy Bible, for this in an invented name using 2 words of Aramaic for the “War ‘god’-man’ / “Thunder ‘god’-man / “Moon ‘god’-man” etc depending on which pagan or heathen culture is using the word. Even the Paleo-Hebrew word “YAH-reach(e)” for “Full Moon” reveals that “YAH” is NOT the name of God and it is utterly intellectual dishonesty in such linguistics to claim such, but such is expected from them who control the information on this. “Yah” / “Jah” / “Iah” / “i-Lah” are all corruptions of “IEH”/”YEH” as in “Iehoshua”. It becomes extremely frustrating to see such false linguistics being promoted in a bed of intellectual truth and deceit.

    Further evidence why the name “Yah-Weh” is NOT the name of God;

    http://www.jesus-messiah.com/studies/yahweh-full-copy.html
    http://spiritoftruth.ca/BibleStudy/Yahweh of Samaria.htm

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