Dr. Amos Bein
Director, Geological Survey of Israel
(for Discovery Channel – July 2003)
(In reference to the IAA and Ayalon’s report)
A: I need to correct you. We did not decide that the inscription is fake... What I can say, or what our discipline is able to say, is that the patina (the film which covers the inscription) contains elements, which indicate that they are humanly manipulated, and they are not in the natural composition expected from background information.
Q: When you say manipulated, what are the options?
A: For example:… if somebody would like to preserve the inscription, or would like to improve its appearance and he would like to clean it, and therefore to make it shine better, and he made a procedure of cleaning thereafter, adding warm water and so on, he may have created some carbonate particles which nay provide this significantly different isotopic composition.
Q: So it could still be authentic?
A: Yes. I think so. … The inscription may be authentic and the film which covers the letters false, or false by accident.
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