socraticgadfly's review
4.0
Nina Burleigh gives us a story within a story in "Unholy Business." The shell, or outer story, is the trade in fraudulent and illicit genuine antiquities, with her focus being on the fraudulent ones.
That's the first "f" - the "forgery."
It's quickly united with "faith" and "fundamentalism." Fundamentalist and conservative evangelical non-fundamentalist Protestants, after centuries of their forefathers skewering the Catholic hankering for relics, are shown to be roundly hoist by their own petard. Maybe they're not after body parts, like saints' bones, but ostraca, etc, with Hebrew or Greek writing, let alone an ossuary? Different story.
(That's not to overlook the Jews in the story wanting a reinforcement of their connection with their heritage, whether their religious beliefs are that literalistic or not.)
Then, along comes the James ossuary to make the story inside a story, and to bring in the fourth "F," of filthy lucre. Long before this incident, Biblical Archaeology Review publisher Herschel Shanks was looked at askance by some for some of the ads his magazine ran and other things that had the possibility of boosting either the trade in illicitly acquired actual archaeological relics, or else a trade in forgeries.
Shanks, never a man to shy away from a good controversy, also gets hoist by his own petard. The book is worth it alone for her description of him:
"Shanks is an odd duck — lawyer, crank, P.T. Barnum and Indiana Jones all rolled into one man."
Sorry, folks, but "biblical" archaeology still isn't that scientific and, to the degree that it is, it hasn't verified a lot of biblical historicity.
That said, on a reread, after several moves, at a new library, new city, I moved the rating down from five stars to four. Without a second edition or a follow-up volume, this book was written too soon, in a sense. And it does have enough minor errors (or one larger one, claiming in one spot the temple was destroyed in 62) that it's not quite five stars. Given the wheels of Israeli justice grinding slowly even compared to America, as Burleigh notes, Golan's trial didn't finish until 2012. And, arguably due in part to sloppiness in investigation, he was acquitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary is a decent but not fantastic background source. It contains notable errors, including that no paleographer of repute has challenged Lemaire and Yardeni, when epigrapher (similar to paleographer) Rochelle Altman early on (before Golan's trial) repeatedly called the second half of the inscription a forgery. I added this to the Wiki page; see if it sticks. http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/altmanupdates.shtml
That's the first "f" - the "forgery."
It's quickly united with "faith" and "fundamentalism." Fundamentalist and conservative evangelical non-fundamentalist Protestants, after centuries of their forefathers skewering the Catholic hankering for relics, are shown to be roundly hoist by their own petard. Maybe they're not after body parts, like saints' bones, but ostraca, etc, with Hebrew or Greek writing, let alone an ossuary? Different story.
(That's not to overlook the Jews in the story wanting a reinforcement of their connection with their heritage, whether their religious beliefs are that literalistic or not.)
Then, along comes the James ossuary to make the story inside a story, and to bring in the fourth "F," of filthy lucre. Long before this incident, Biblical Archaeology Review publisher Herschel Shanks was looked at askance by some for some of the ads his magazine ran and other things that had the possibility of boosting either the trade in illicitly acquired actual archaeological relics, or else a trade in forgeries.
Shanks, never a man to shy away from a good controversy, also gets hoist by his own petard. The book is worth it alone for her description of him:
"Shanks is an odd duck — lawyer, crank, P.T. Barnum and Indiana Jones all rolled into one man."
Sorry, folks, but "biblical" archaeology still isn't that scientific and, to the degree that it is, it hasn't verified a lot of biblical historicity.
That said, on a reread, after several moves, at a new library, new city, I moved the rating down from five stars to four. Without a second edition or a follow-up volume, this book was written too soon, in a sense. And it does have enough minor errors (or one larger one, claiming in one spot the temple was destroyed in 62) that it's not quite five stars. Given the wheels of Israeli justice grinding slowly even compared to America, as Burleigh notes, Golan's trial didn't finish until 2012. And, arguably due in part to sloppiness in investigation, he was acquitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary is a decent but not fantastic background source. It contains notable errors, including that no paleographer of repute has challenged Lemaire and Yardeni, when epigrapher (similar to paleographer) Rochelle Altman early on (before Golan's trial) repeatedly called the second half of the inscription a forgery. I added this to the Wiki page; see if it sticks. http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/altmanupdates.shtml
ejdecoster's review
2.0
The "mystery" behind this book is interesting in its own right, but I think the story might have been better served in a New Yorker essay than a full-length book. The author gets distracted towards the middle of the book, introducing new characters and making tangential descriptions. While there was some relationship between the two stories being told in the book - that of attempted forgery and that of Biblical archaeology in the Middle East - the reader isn't well served by the author's choice to tell these stories concurrently.
scotchneat's review
4.0
Very interesting investigation into the "James Ossuary" from Israel that was on exhibition here in Canada at the ROM - and then exposed as a forgery several years later.
Burleigh uses her journalist's eye and some pretty good connections in Israel to follow the antiquities industry from all sides - the collectors, the investigations, the tomb robbers...
She covers a lot of ground and characters, and shows how much major religions and churches (particularly god people from the Southern US) influence archeology with their money and need for "actual" proof of the literal bible. I was also surprised to read about athiest jews (Not quite sure why I was surprised, but I was).
Recommended, particularly if you have an interest in archeology and/or relic hunting.
Burleigh uses her journalist's eye and some pretty good connections in Israel to follow the antiquities industry from all sides - the collectors, the investigations, the tomb robbers...
She covers a lot of ground and characters, and shows how much major religions and churches (particularly god people from the Southern US) influence archeology with their money and need for "actual" proof of the literal bible. I was also surprised to read about athiest jews (Not quite sure why I was surprised, but I was).
Recommended, particularly if you have an interest in archeology and/or relic hunting.
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