Monday, November 28, 2016

The Shapira investigation

REFLECTIONS ON THE SHAPIRA SCROLLS: Fascinating Archaeological Matter Reminds Us That Archaeology Used To Matter More (Jenna Weissmann Joselit, The Forward). I think archaeology matters more today than the author realizes. She has some legitimate concerns about the investigation and media coverage of the Shapira Scrolls in the nineteenth century, but nobody has ever been able to make a scholarly argument in peer-review literature that they were anything but forgeries.

Background on the Shapira Scrolls, and on Chanan Tigay's recent book on them, is here and here and links.