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Published by Maney Publishing (c) Palestine Exploration Fund
© Palestine Exploration Fund 2011 doi: 10.1179/003103211X12971861557115
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 143, 2 (2011), 79–86
EDITORIAL: MYSTERIOUS BOOKS FROM JORDAN
The explosion, in the popular media, of stories about lead codices apparently discovered in Jordan
has been followed by a burst of ‘revelations’ on the internet about them and about some of the persons
involved. The confident claims, on the one hand, that these are genuine early Christian (or Jewish)
products have been met with equally confident assertions that these are a transparent forgery.
There remain a few, including myself, who find some of the reactions on both sides premature and
unscholarly. Faced with certainties on both sides, it is becoming harder and harder to insist that we
do not know the full truth yet and possibly never will, and that in the meantime there are clues but
no certainty.
The outline of the story of these lead books has already been well publicized. About five years
ago — in all probability — parts of a cave somewhere in northern Jordan were accidentally exposed
and a Jordanian Bedouin discovered inside several metal ‘books’ — the number reported varies from
30 to 70. These ‘books’, and a few other items, are currently in the possession of an Israeli Bedouin
(named as Hassan Sa‘eeda) who claims that they have been in his family’s possession for 100 years.
(If this is true, his identification of the place of discovery is probably untrue). In September 2007 a
David Elkington and his wife Jennifer were contacted by a third party and later shown one of the
objects that had been brought to England on behalf of the ‘owner’. There is, however, some evidence
that parts of this ‘find’ had already been shown to, among others, staff at the British Museum,
who regarded them as of no historical value. In June 2009 a metallurgical expert was consulted by the
Elkingtons. I have seen his report, which comments that:
‘The crystallization implies a rejection of impurities from the metal matrix over a very long period
of time. The lead is not ductile and feels very hard, totally different from modern sheet lead. There
are no obvious corrosion or oxide deposits because the item has been well handled and polished in
contemporary times’. He concluded: ‘I fi nd it astonishing to think of how many hours of work it would
take to manufacture each and struggle to conceive of a method of faking the corrosion build up and
hardening of the lead, never mind the content and meanings.’
A later test conducted in the Oxford Materials Characterisation Services (the report is confiden-
tial, but I have seen it) concluded that the lead was not of recent production and the pattern of cor-
rosion suggested storage in a dry place for a long period, but further tests on another codex are being
conducted at present. I should add that neither report is foolproof, but neither can they be simply
dismissed either. They remain part of the wider puzzle.
Elkington approached a number of scholars, including myself. He told me his theory but asked
me to try and check on the likely antiquity of the symbols and lettering. I consulted a number of col-
leagues around the world, and not one of them suggested that these were an obvious forgery: many
agreed that a first century date could not be ruled out on the evidence of the images. Most adopted
the same position as I did, and do (a position erroneously represented in much of the press as being
an endorsement of the Elkington theory): that these are intriguing artifacts, but needing physical
examination before any conclusions can be drawn. It seemed a further oddity of this affair that Elk-
ington was anxious to consult as widely as he could from among scholarly experts, while insisting
on con fidentiality. This pattern did not seem to fit a publicity-seeking fraudster. Indeed, it was not he
and his wife who leaked the story to the press, though they have since made the most of that leak to
promote their own theory that the codices emanate from first-century Christians who fled to Jordan
when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans.
These speculations apart, the really interesting features of these ‘books’ are that, despite the
apparent care taken in making them (and, if fraudulent, elaborately creating the impression of age),
they are really quite uninformative. The vast majority of the sheets are covered in a limited repertoire
of standard Jewish images — menorahs, date-palms, stars, cups, grape clusters, together with
fragments of wall and palaeo-Hebrew letters (Fig. 1 shows a fairly typical example). Some of the
lettering is quite formal, closely resembling Jewish and Samaritan writing in use two millennia ago.
Other scripts are less formal, while some of the letters are unrecognisable and the yod is often written
backwards. The letters are mostly purely decorative, sometimes in repeated sequences (and sometimes
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palestine exploration quarterly, 143, 2, 2011
Fig. 1. Selected pages from the enigmatic codices from Jordan; photographs courtesy of
David Elkington.
Fig. 2. Selected pages from the enigmatic codices from Jordan; photographs courtesy of
David Elkington.
Published by Maney Publishing (c) Palestine Exploration Fund
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editorial
in exactly the same relative position). Many of these features can be seen in Fig. 2, showing a sheet
that is in some ways untypical, being only the size of a credit card, instead of about 20cm x 12cm, and
not bound into a codex. On some sheets (relatively few), there is extended and non-repetitive writing
that gives the impression of a text, but it has not yet proved possible to make sense of this. One
respected academic colleague has identified the words ’lk btm’ (‘I will walk uprightly’). Though I per-
sonally have been unable to verify this reading, that may yet be confirmed by others. Whether the
remainder of the writing is in a code remains to be seen. But overall, these ‘books’ do not make any
claims to be from a certain time or place or to point to particular events. Deception, where it exists,
can only be in the appearance of antiquity; that may, of course, be enough, but it is nevertheless a
poor and disappointing effort!
Once the objects are in public possession it should be possible to discover the full truth about
them. But that may not happen. The effect of the recent publicity is unpredictable. Elkington has (and
I have no reason to doubt this) been attempting to persuade the owner with the aid of the Jordanian
Department of Antiquities, which believes they belong to the Kingdom of Jordan. But Mr Sa‘eeda is
apparently under the impression that they are worth millions of dollars and would like to sell them.
They may, then, either come into Jordanian possession, or go into private possession, or simply dis-
appear. Whether or not Mr Sa‘eeda knows where these came from, whether they are indeed of
modern origin, may become a factor in their fate. Dr. Ziad al-Saad of the Jordanian Department of
Antiquities is reported as believing that they are valuable, although he has clearly written (I have seen
the email) that he is aware of the possibility that they are not, and therefore wishes to have them
tested ‘with involvement of an international team of experts’. But of course he is very hopeful of
something valuable.
In the meantime, a few useful things can be learned from careful inspection of the images. The
method of manufacture seems to have been by casting from a mould (according to the scientific test,
a clay mould). This is a laborious way to create a single object, but ideal for mass production. Perhaps
one reason, therefore, why lead was used for the majority of the plates is its low melting point. I have
not yet tried to work out whether there are any identical sheets among these codices, but it would not
surprise me if there were. Certainly many are very similar, but many are also illegible. The sheets
have been bound into codices, many of them fastened by metal loops or wires on two, three or four
sides. The reason for this is unclear, as is the reason for making them into codices in the first place,
unless this procedure was inspired by the example of the lead books of Sacromonte, which were found
between 1595 and 1606, and comprise 22 volumes of lead books, each containing inscribed circular
lead leaves and folded lead covers, bound with lead wire.1
Just one of the sheets (apparently of copper) whose image I have seen looks to contain an explic-
itly Christian image, but unfortunately it is one of those images with a rather low resolution, making
it impossible to be reproduced here. The image appears to me to include a cross in the foreground,
in the shape of a ‘T’ (but topped by a circle — reminiscent of the Ankh symbol). The cross stands in
front of what looks like a city wall and behind it, inside the wall, is a small isolated stone building that,
if we are dealing with a cross, probably depicts the Holy Sepulchre. Behind both at the top is a wall,
rather like the fragments of wall that appear on other sheets, and so representing the Temple.2 To the
right of the cross, running vertically across most of the plate is something resembling a ladder, making
one think of the ladder of Jacob. This, the only composite image I have seen makes sense theologi-
cally, though the placing of the cross outside the wall is suspicious. I am also surprised that David
Elkington did not single out this image until I drew his attention to it. It may be, therefore, that this
was sent to him later than the previous images (giving rise to a suspicion that it might have been
concocted by its manufacturer in order to support the ‘Christian’ theory).
Another image (again apparently on a copper sheet) shows Alexander the Great (the horns are
clearly visible) as well as an animal that might be a crocodile or possibly a serpent. Also to be seen
are draught-animals pulling a cart in which sits a driver, and a wreathed head. At the top are Greek
letters (Fig. 3). In 2010 David Elkington sent Peter Thonemann of Oxford the image of this sheet, and
Thonemann identified the Greek as a quotation (with the letters alpha and lambda confused) of a stone
tombstone from Madaba in Jordan, precisely dated to 108/9 CE, on display in the Archaeological
Museum in Amman for the last fifty years.3 Hence it is almost certainly a very modern product.4
Another codex contains sheets with portraits of a round smiling clean-shaven face surrounded by either
unkempt hair, or possibly flames, in a cartouche. This is thought by Elkington to be Jesus, with a
Published by Maney Publishing (c) Palestine Exploration Fund
82
palestine exploration quarterly, 143, 2, 2011
crown of thorns. A recent blogger, James Deltrick, has suggested that it is a replica of a photograph
of the ‘Mona Lisa of the Galilee’ — a mosaic from Sepphoris that was uncovered by excavation in
1987. This is again likely, though not certain. In fact, there is another face, a rather modern-looking
bearded one (Fig. 4), and to me reminiscent of 20th-century depictions of an Aryan Jesus. But
whoever it is supposed to be, the style is hardly ancient.
So we should accept that there are some modern items here. The variety of images (Jewish,
Christian, Greek, Egyptian) might suggest that not all the images come from the same source and that
the cave may have been a repository for more than one hoard. But only testing of the sheets themselves
can determine this. Thonemann, for one, is in no doubt that the entire collection is a modern forgery
and that scholars should not be wasting their time on them. I disagree: they may well turn out all to
be quite modern or fairly modern. I think the balance of evidence is falling in this direction. But it is
not wise for anyone to draw such definitive conclusions about things one has not seen. Moreover, in
any case much about the artifacts themselves is intrinsically curious, as is the story of their ‘finding’
and of the subsequent publicity. If this all turns out to be a ‘story about a story’ (in my view quite
likely), it will nevertheless be a story worth unravelling. Meanwhile, the wave of scepticism now sweep-
ing the internet is washing over David and Jennifer Elkington and their personal histories. Some
fairly serious charges are being laid against them, including by those claiming to be family members.
Paul/David Elkington and his wife are themselves accused of being ‘forgeries’.
The list of dramatis personae is not complete, either: Robert Feather, a metallurgist who has written
on the Qumran Copper Scroll, and seems first to have broken the story, has been in contact with
Mr Sa‘eeda and has himself a theory that in some places the Hebrew letters on the sheets appear to
Fig. 3. Selected pages from the enigmatic codices from Jordan; photographs courtesy of
David Elkington.
Published by Maney Publishing (c) Palestine Exploration Fund
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editorial
stand for Bar Kochba, leader of the second-century Judean revolt against the Romans, and for the
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who according to legend hid from the Romans in a cave for 13 years and
also instituted the Kabbalah. There are indeed some features of these codices that might indicate
a mystical or magical character, and perhaps these sealed books have some such character; not
intended to be read at all. Feather states that he has had a piece of leather submitted for scientific
analysis, the results indicating that it is nearly 2,000 years old. (I am also in possession of a piece of
leather, courtesy of David Elkington, which I may try to have analysed, but without demonstrable
proof of provenance the results will mean little, and in any case modern forgeries often use ancient
materials.)
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has commented that they are a ‘mixture of incompatible
periods and styles — without any connection or logic. Such forged motifs can be found in their thou-
sands in the antiquities markets of Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East’. There are many reasons
why the IAA might not be interested in dealing with articles that are both claimed by Jordan and
possibly being offered for private sale (and export). Whatever the number of such motifs, lead books
are not that usual. But at any rate, it seems that Israel will raise no objection to Jordanian efforts to
reclaim these and may, if approached, be willing to assist in such a bid.
All that can safely be said at present is that between the writing of this report and its publication
a good deal more information will have been discovered about the entire affair, and some of it made
public. It seems to me worthwhile trying to secure them for scholarly and scientific examination, not
least because if they are evidence of a dubious Jordanian industry it is worth knowing as much as one
can about its methods (much useful research has been done on Israeli forging techniques). I do not at
Fig. 4. Selected pages from the enigmatic codices from Jordan; photographs courtesy of
David Elkington.
Published by Maney Publishing (c) Palestine Exploration Fund
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palestine exploration quarterly, 143, 2, 2011
present rule out the possibility of some historical value in some of these objects, but that is something
that will have to be proved. Meanwhile, readers of the PEF are invited to recall the words of Daniel
12:4 and 8:
But you, Daniel, keep the words secret and the book sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be
running back and forth, and evil shall increase.
… I heard but could not understand; so I said, ‘My lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?
notes
1 See further M. J Hagerty, Los libros plúmbeos del
Sacromonte. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1980 (repr.
Granada: Editorial Comares, 1998); A. K. Harris,
‘Forging History: the Plomos of Granada in Francisco
Bermúdez de Pedraza’s Historia eclesiástica’, Sixteenth
Century Journal 30 (1999), 945-966.
2 In fact, part of this wall is strangely reminiscent of
the Herodian masonry of the ‘Western Wall’!
3 Subsequent to the news of the fi nd, and of
Elkington’s claims, Thonemann has publicized his
Notes and News
anson rainey: The death has been reported of Anson Rainey, a leading expert of ancient Semitic
languages and much else on 19 January 2011. He was born in Dallas, Texas, in January 1930 and had
a multifaceted education in the USA, encompassing studies at military academies, a Baptist seminary
and secular universities, leading to the award of a PhD for a thesis on The Social Structure of Ugarit from
Brandeis University (1962). He then undertook research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
specialising in ancient Egyptian and Semitic Languages. In 1963 Anson obtained a position at Tel Aviv
University as Instructor teaching Ugaritic and Akkadian, and rose to the rank of Professor of Ancient
Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Linguistics at the same institution (1981). He gained experience of
field archaeology at various sites in Israel over the years.
His research activities at universities in Israel and the USA, largely through the successful award
of grants, led to a grammar of the West Semitic language reflected in the el-‘Amârna letters. Anson
collated all the el-‘Amârna Tablets in the Cairo Museum together with other related textual material
bearing Canaanite and North Syrian names from sites including Karnak, Luxor and Medinet Habu.
In 1996, he published a four volume monograph on Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets. Although he made
significant contributions to knowledge of other aspects of the ancient Levant including historical
geography, through his numerous publications, the el-‘Amârna Tablets formed the main focus of
his research. Over the years, he examined the collections of el-‘Amârna tablets in London (British
Museum), Oxford (Ashmolean), Berlin (Vorderasiatische Museum), Moscow (Pushkin Museum),
New York (Metropolitan Museum) and Chicago (Oriental Institute). In fact, he is probably the only
scholar who has personally read all the extant ‘Amârna letters. In the last years of his life, Anson was
busy formatting and proofing all 350 ‘Amârna Tablets for publication, to include an introduction,
glossary and collation notes.
Anson enjoyed an excellent reputation among his students. He was as conscientious about his
teaching as he was about his research and, although a demanding taskmaster, he was generous in his
encouragement of younger scholars.
His position on the Bible was somewhat traditionalist. Thus, Anson endorsed Lemaire’s reading
of bytdwd, ‘House of David’, on the Mesha stele, believing that both the Mesha and the Dan inscrip-
tions related to the events recorded in the Bible with events in 853-851 BC, which included the battle
in which Ahab, king of Israel, died fighting the army of the king of Damascus while his ally,
evidence: see ‘The Messiah Codex Decoded’, TLS April
6th, 2011.
4 The possibility that this phrase itself exists only on
this tombstone, and that it could have been copied from
elsewhere from the second century CE onwards cannot
actually be ruled out: hence ‘almost certainly’ and not
‘certainly’. But having sought Thonemann’s opinion,
and got it, Elkington did not share the news with
anyone, nor modify his opinion. I fi rst heard of this
discovery from the internet along with everyone else.
Philip Davies
© Palestine Exploration Fund 2011 doi: 10.1179/003103211X12971861557151