Pseudoarchaeology Meets Archaeology… in court?

Ossuary. Cast
Ossuary. Cast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Simcha Jacobovici -an apparent purveyor of pseudoscientific “discovery” related to biblical mythology is suing Joe Zias for “libel.”

This is a tactic skeptics have seen of those peddling in woo lately, particularly in Europe where libel laws are a bit more lax than they are in the U.S. Simon Singh was recently involved in a legal battle with chiropractors for saying out loud (and quite publicly) that their claims are untrue. He won, but the ordeal still cost him some money. The hope for the chiropractors is, of course, that fear of litigation would cause the opponent to back down. I even came under attack by a “scientific conference” that I publicly criticized (elsewhere, not on this blog). An attorney sent a cease and desit/takedown demand to my dean and the president of my university. I told the attorney to stick it if the plantiff wasn’t willing to be specific with what he found disagreeable. Never heard from them again.

I suspect Joe Zias might not be so lucky, but I think he’s got a good case. Simcha Jacobovici is a hack. He’s produced several questionable “films” of demonstrable pseudoarchaeology and Zias has called him on it -as a scientist should. Zias has long had little patience for those that begin with a conclusion and then start looking for data that are agreeable.

Points of contention have been Jacobovici’s films and written works. In 2002 he created the film James, Brother of Jesus, which featured an ossuary (a bone box) alleged to have belonged to the person of the films title. This was later discovered to be a colossal forgery. Although the defendents charged with the forgery were ultimately acquitted, a fair amount of legitimate scholarly examination of the artifact revealed it to be a fake. One of the defendents had the materials to “age” the box in his flat when he was busted with the ossuary itself being stored on his toilet tank.

More recently, Jacobovici had a documentary film about the so-called Talpiot Tomb where 10 limestone ossuaries were found that in which he claimed were the remains of Jesus and his family. The names Jacobovici claimed were on the ossuaries were Yeshua bar Yehosef, Maria, Yose, Yehuda bar Yeshua, Maramene e Mara, and Matya. Very little else was known and Jacobovici and his tiny group were about the only ones that thought they were as claimed. In fact, nearly every scholar thought they were largely insignficant.

Still, that didn’t stop Jacobovici with getting a scholar to put together some statistics, which have been called into serious question.

Zias has been on Jacobovici like glue through it all. And, it would seem, rightfully so. And it’s had some effect: National Geographic pulled out of one of Jacobovici’s projects. Zias has cost Jacobovici money and he’s pissed that Zias has accused him of “forging archaeology,” but that’s what it appears Jacobovici has done to date. He begins with a conclusion then finds data that are in agreement.

This isn’t a case of two scholars duking it out. It’s a case of a hack /

pseudoarchaeologist getting called out by a genuine archaeologist.

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About Carl Feagans 396 Articles
Professional archaeologist that currently works for the United States Forest Service at the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee. I'm also a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Army and spent another 10 years doing adventure programming with at-risk teens before earning my master's degree at the University of Texas at Arlington.

1 Comment

  1. Actually its been failure after failure since the James ossuary, Exodus Decoded, Jesus Family Tomb both produced by Cameron in hopes that this shtick would sell, well colleagues got their act together, Reed termed it archaeo-porn and the films along with the book failed miserably. Then their next ‘doc. the Jesus Dialogue, colleagues were quiet and then after they had their fun, outed the fact taht their discovery was actually an amphora published by a colleague in 1981 and again NG refused to purchase it. so they decided to ‘get even’ and sue me even though NG wrote that Joe Zias was not on the panels and had nothing whatsoever to do with it. It’s all about money and one of them running his cult with its messianic agenda in which people tithe. Have a look at Dorthy King’s blog in January with “Tabor Teabowing for Tithes’ dressed as an Orthodox Jew in the middle of the nite here in Jerusalem,. this is where the money is…..just have to find a way to keep it hidden from the public and its non-prophet passing itself off as non-profit.

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