Oded Golan
Oded Golan (b. 1951 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli engineer and laterly antiquities dealer. Some of the artifacts he claims to have uncovered have produced great excitement in religious and archeological circles, and allegations of fraud and forgery.
The son of an engineer and a microbiologist, Golan served in the Israeli Defence Force before studying engineering at Technion. He later went on to work in a variety of high-technology roles, before founding his own informatics company.
Golan also has a keen interest in archeology and antiquities. Golan and those working with him claim to have found a number of remarkable ancient artifacts, the discovery of which have excited great controversy. These include the Jehoash Inscription, an inscribed tablet detailing repairs done to the Temple of Solomon in the reign of King Jehoash, and (in 2002) the James Ossuary, an ossuary with an inscription which (if genuine) supports the historicity of Jesus.
A number of scholars have questioned the authenticity of Golan's finds, with some deriding them as obvious forgeries. Following investigations by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israeli police announced in December 2004 that they intended to charge Golan with crimes including fraud and forgery.
The documentary film The History Merchants covered investigations into Golan and the provenance of his finds. The film alleged Golan (working with a team of people, including an expert in ancient semitic languages and an artisan) had produced a number of forged artifacts for sale on the religious antiquities market. Oded Golan describes the film as "rumor", saying it contained no real evidence and was part of a "media circus". He claims the IAA and police investigation was mishandled and persecutory.