UNVERSITY OF SURREY PRESS RELEASE:
Disputed Jordan codices reveal age variations under ion-beam scrutiny (edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan, PhyOrg).
Scientists have delivered the most detailed assessment yet of a set of disputed lead books known as the Jordan codices. With debate centered on whether they could date back to the early Christian period, a study led by the University of Surrey's Ion Beam Center has now shed new light on their origin.
The study, published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, finds that while some of the external pages of one of the books have been found to be contaminated by interactions with the environment, giving ambiguous age determination, inside pages are less contaminated and give clear scientific readings showing they are at least 200 years old, and possibly older.
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The underlying article is open-access in the journal Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms:
On the analysis of lead objects in an attempt to determine their age
Roger P Webb a, Catia Costa a, Vladimir Palitsin a, Julien L Colaux a b, Finlay M. Stuart, Karin Hain d, Silke Merchel d, Peter Steier d
a Surrey Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
b Namur Institute of Structured Matter (NISM), University of Namur 5000 Namur, Belgium
c Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
d University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Isotope Physics, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Abstract
This paper reports on the materials analysis of a set of lead objects, commonly referred to as “the Jordan codices” in an attempt to shed some light on when they were manufactured. The codices are controversial, debate centring on whether they date to the early Christian period or are modern fakes. We report, for the first time, trace element analysis of samples from the lead codices as well as pieces of modern lead by PIXE and RBS to explore the trace element “fingerprint” of the metal used; the lead isotope composition by MC-ICP-MS can identify the geo location of the origin of the materials used; the alpha particle emission from the lead due to the presence of the 210Pb isotope; and the amount of helium that is trapped in the lead due to the radioactive decay of trace amounts of 238U and 232Th contained in the material − the (U + Th)/He age. No single technique is able to show conclusively that the objects are either modern or ancient. All four techniques suffer weaknesses, which prevent a definitive conclusion from being reached. However, there are indications that while some of the objects examined show signs of being contemporary, others appear to be older. It can be concluded that for some key examples we have been unable to show them to be made from contemporary materials and would suggest that this provides a good reason for scholars to treat the objects seriously and to perform further research on these objects.
It's been a while since we heard anything about the Jordanian lead codices. This article leaves us none the wiser in that we already had good indication that some of the codices are modern and some could be a couple of hundred years old or even older. But the main point of interest is that these results have now been published in a peer-review journal.
The article is technical, but surfaces occasionally with accessible section summaries, so it's worth a read. The results are not terribly conclusive, given that sample contamination seems to be a significant issue and the supposedly ancient Roman control sample may actually be from a modern replica. But still, it is of some interest.
In 2017 I put up a detailed series of posts on Samuel Zinnner's comprehensive report on the Jordanian lead codices. The links are as follows:
The first post, on the materials tests on the codices, is here.
The second post, on the inscriptions on the codices, is here.
The third post, on the quotation of the Abgar-Selaman epitaph in the codices, is here.
The fourth post, with concluding remarks, is here.
In 2018, I posted the following summary of my views in response to a Jordanian Department of Antiquities press release that concluded that the codices are forgeries.
That is more or less what I concluded, with the caveat that the tests on the lead of a couple of the codices pointed toward their being at least a century or two old, and thus not a recent forgery. They could be early modern or perhaps from the Renaissance era. I have difficulty seeing them as any earlier than that. Their inscriptions and iconography are based on some ancient coins and a second-century CE tomb inscription from Madaba, Jordan (corrected: I originally wrote Amman). Someone used their coin collection and one or two other things to create the objects. Superficially they look ancient, but they combine text and iconography from different periods in an oddly anachronistic amalgamation whose texts border on making sense without ever actually doing so. They may be forgeries intended to deceive, in which case they are clumsily executed. Conceivably, they could be artifacts crafted to evoke the ritual power of the past for magical purposes, in which case there may have been no intention to deceive. I don't know who made them or why, but they are not genuinely ancient artifacts.
My position remains the same today. I see no reason to alter any of it in light of this new article. That said, it is good news finally to see a peer-reviewed publication on the codices. I look forward to following any results from further materials tests.
A more recent post involving the Jordanian lead codices is here. In earlier posts I referred to the objects as "fake metal codices." It is clear that some, possibly many of them are recent fakes. But it is unclear what exactly some of the older ones are. I run through possibilities in the quote above.
UPDATE (20 November): At LBV Guillermo Carvajal covers the story, with some helpful background for those new to it:
An ion-beam analysis reveals that some fragments of the controversial Jordan Lead Codices may be ancient
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