Oded Golan (b. 1951 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli engineer and lately 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. 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Tel Aviv at night Dizengof Center Allenby Street Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew תל אביב-יפו; Arabic تل ابيب-يافا Tal Abīb-Yāfā) is an Israeli city on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. ... Antiquity means different things: Generally it means ancient history, and may be used of any period before the Middle Ages. ...

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. The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (הטכניון - מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a university in Haifa, Israel. ...

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. Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... The James Ossuary is a sepulchral urn for containing bones, which was found in Israel in 2002 and was claimed to have been the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus. ... Solomons Temple was the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem which functioned as a religious focal point for worship and the sacrifices known as the korbanot in ancient Judaism. ... Jehoash (Jehovah-given), was king of Judah, and sole surviving son of Ahaziah. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The James Ossuary is a sepulchral urn for containing bones, which was found in Israel in 2002 and was claimed to have been the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus. ... An ossuary is a chest, building, well or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. ... The existence of Jesus, known by Christians as Jesus Christ (Jesus the Messiah) and by Muslims as Isa (عيسى), is accepted by the followers of two world religions, Christianity and Islam, on the basis of their respective scriptures - the Bible and the Quran. ...

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.

External links

• Biography of Oded Golan
• Article about arrest
• Oded Golan's refutation of the documentary's claims
• Review of The History Merchants