The "Yehoash Tablet" is a forgery - at least according to a board of experts convened by the Antiquities Authority. The panel included archaeologists and ancient Hebrew script experts, whose findings will be published next week. It appears that Oded Golan, an antiquities dealer who tried to sell the stone, will be indicted - although he claims that the committee did not even hear him out before coming to its conclusion.
The stone, whose existence became publicly known last November, was found to be genuine by Israel's Geological Institute. It was thought at the time that its ten lines of Phoenician script described activities carried out by King Yehoash in the First Temple some 2,700 years ago, and was written at his behest. In March, the police took hold of the tablet, after MK Uri Ariel demanded an investigation into the activities of the Arab who claimed to have found it on the Temple Mount, as well as of the antiquities dealers acting on his behalf. At least two antiquities experts told Arutz-7 last March that they though the tablet was a fake.