Ivory Pomegranate Fraud

This ivory pomegranate was on the staff of the ancient high priest in Jerusalem. It was discovered in 1979 by French paleographer AndrÃ© Lemaire. It contains an inscription in Hebrew script that says, "Belonging to the Temp[le of Yahw]eh, holy to the priests." This artifact proved recently to be a forgery: "The Israel Museum removed the ivory pomegranate, touted as the only existing relic from Solomon's temple, from public exhibition last week." CBC Dec 29, 2004.