The Jesus Discovery documentary on those Talpiot (Talpiyot) Tombs etc. is airing in North America this evening. Here are a couple of recent blog posts to get you ready:
James McGrath, Exploring Our Matrix: Talpiot Tombs, the “Jesus Discovery” and the “Jonah Ossuary” in the News.
Mark Goodacre, NT Blog: "The Jesus Discovery": Summary and Top Ten Problems.
Background here and links.
UPDATE: The name Jonah on the "Jonah Ossuary"? James Tabor: Name of “Jonah” Encrypted on the Jonah and the Fish Image.
I see some problems with reading letters here. (1) Some of these supposed letters are supposed to be part of a drawing of a stick figure of a man and a fish face, but some are not. How do we know which lines to pick and choose? Why, for example, ignore the line above the head of the yod? (2) The supposed letters are oddly shaped: the waw curves in the wrong direction, the horizontal of the nun is bent down to make the letter close to a straight line, and the top line of the he is much too long. There is no base line. (3) There are leftover lines that are not used or explained at all. Look at the top photo, where the extra lines are most visible. Now look at the left leg of the he. See the line extending from it to the intersection of the two lines to the left? Why ignore that? What is it? Also, the vertical line of the nun also continues past the base line and across the supposed body-of-Jonah line. In fact, it does not look to me as though the vertical of the nun even connects to its supposed base line, although it's hard to be perfectly sure from the photograph.
I will defer to the collective judgment of epigraphers who work with ossuary inscriptions, but my initial judgment is to agree with Christopher Rollston in the Globe and Mail article. There are no letters there.
UPDATE: Antonio Lambatti seems to see pretty much what I see: Arbitrary interpretation.
UPDATE: Stephen Goranson e-mails: "Also, which lines were chosen for the “stick figure” have changed, Compare http://jamestabor.com/page/3/ [= http://jamestabor.com/2012/03/06/the-fish-and-the-man/ JRD] (March 5) and http://www.bibleinterp.com/PDFs/Jonah_2012.pdf (April 11)"
