I believe I have some very ancient Christian/Judaic artifacts what should I do?

Question

My great uncle Bill, dead for many years, fought in First World War in the Palestine campaign and brought many souvenirs back, including numerous antiquities, some of which were quite valuable. His son Jack died a last year, and as he had no children and his wife had predeceased him he bequeathed me some of his father’s war loot. Two of the most interesting and puzzling items are a beautifully made large inlaid box with some kind of written script as part of the inlay, and a very ancient looking hand written book or codex which is written in a similar script. The codex is delicate but in quite good condition. Jack told me that his father said it had been originally obtained in a tightly sealed pottery jar, but was unaware what had become of the jar. Bill had referred to these to artefacts as the Jewish things, which is significant as they were obtained before the state of Israel existed, when there were very few Jews in Palestine.
I forwarded some photographs of both items, including close-ups of the first few pages of the Codex’s text to an expert on Middle East languages, who identified the script as Aramaic, an almost extinct Semitic script and gave me an approximate translation of the text. The explanation of approximate is that there are not exact translations to English of some ancient
Aramaic words and some of the phonetic sounds are not the same or unknown as Aramaic has no vowels. It is not obvious who the Codex is written by or who it is about but it appears to be refer to a difficult journey with a group of people and their leader, their leader is ill or injured and there are references to ‘the brothers’.
The box is identified as an ossuary, a box for the storage of the bones of the dead, as per the custom of the Jews of the first century. The inscription on it translates as Josua, son of Yusef. Due to this inscription I believe that possibly have some very important early Christian artefacts. It is even possible that the ossuary is that of Jesus, as Jesus is a Greek form of the Hebrew Josua and Yusef is the ancient form of Joseph. However both names were extremely common amongst 1st century Jews.
What should I do with these artefacts? I am nominally Christian and would not want to be the source of religious conflict. It is possible that the items are forgeries but this is unlikely as most forgery of Christian/Judaic artifacts in recent times has been after 1948. If they are as ancient as I believe, and that should be easy to date scientifically they are extremely valuable, but I am unsure if my ownership of them is valid. If they are Christian artefacts I would like them to be studied not disappear into a private collection or the Vatican cellars.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to get ripped off either, but the deciding what to do is beyond my experience and skills.

I don't know why anyone could assume I was trying to foll christians on the first question I have asked here. I did not send the items to the language expert only photographs. I don't know about museums some have very bad reputations.
I cannot send the things back as I do not know where they came from, Syria, Jorden, Palestine, Lebanon and Israel are all possible but I believe my great uncle spent most of his war years in Syria and Damadcus was the centre of the Anitquities market then. If I send them to Arab Syria they could end up being dumped or sold

Answer 1

It is very uncommon to find items like you have described. The use of the term codex is a folding method in order to more easily read a scroll. It was not uncommon for multiple codei to be placed into a wax sealed box for storage. If they had been found in a pottery jar they would have been scrolls.

My suggestion would be to photograph the box. Very delicately handling the codex photograph each page. DO NOT TOUCH THE PAGES WITH YOUR FINGERS. Wear non-powered surgical gloves when handling them.

Send the photographs to

John M. Fahey, Jr.
President and CEO
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688
(800 647 5463)

Enclose a letter describing how you came to have the box and its contents. Explain that the you would like to know if the contents are real and how they could be authenticated.

If they are they are authenticated as being real texts of ancient times you have a very very very valuable find.

DO NOT GIVE THEM TO ANY CHURCH OF ANY KIND.

For proper storage of the box and the consents place them in a safe-deposit box at a bank. The temperature and humidity should be maintained as constant as possible.

Answer 2

You seem to distrust the Catholic Church, so forwarding photos to the local Bishop seems out of the question. How about contacting him and the news media, since you are afraid of a 'cover up?'

I suppose you could contact the head of your nearest synagogue, or some professor at the closest accredited university or museum of Christian or natural history.

You should take steps to preserve the text (codex). Even if it is a forgery, it sounds ancient and should be of some interest somewhere along the line.

My first choice would be to contact the local Catholic Bishop and news media, but that is me. You might prefer to query someone like NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine and enclose photos.

The magazine might even pay you to do the story.

That is a fascinating find. Please share it with the world. Good luck.

H

Answer 3

These items it would seem really belong back where they came from, as they are indeed "loot" from a war zone. Why not contact the Israelis, they have an antiquities authority of some kind, and explain that you have these things and ask them what to do with them? Or you could ask around places like Christie's or Sothby's about dealers in antiquities, or search the net, and see if you can get somebody to buy them, but as you mention, if you don't know what you've got, you could get ripped off.

Basically, I feel they should be evaluated and returned if they are genuine antiquities.

Your story is hard to evaluate, as these things do happen, but it is fishy.

Answer 4

Very clever. But no, you do not have the bones of Jesus.

You forgot, there was no ossuary for Jesus, He was buried in the tomb borrowed from Joseph of Arimathea. He was wrapped in guaze and put into the tomb quickly as the Sabbath was about to begin, and he could not be entombed on the Sabbath, per Jewish law.

Try again hon, that was a lovely lie, you are good at it ... too bad you can't use that good mind you have for a higher, nobler purpose, rather than trying to fool Christians.

Answer 5

Donate them to a Christian Museum. Ebay?

Answer 6

I don't know. Didn't the people that did some of the translating for you say anything? I would find that weird. Here you got something and they just hand if back to you without any advise. Try Smithsonian.

Answer 7

I read your question but not the accompanied statement. (too long) The answer to the question is ....take it to a museum.

Answer 8

You should donate it to a museum

Answer 9

Do whatever you feel is right.