Film-maker shows relics from disputed Jesus tomb
11:18 AM February 27
Hollywood director James Cameron has displayed artefacts that he says may have come from the tomb of Jesus.
He says the remains of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their son Judah may have been kept in the tomb.
But others say Cameron's claims amount to a publicity stunt to promote a documentary and a book by the film-maker, who directed Titanic and The Terminator.
Cameron and a team of scholars showed two stone ossuaries, or bone boxes, that he said might have once contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
The findings are the subject of a documentary he produced called The Lost Tomb of Jesus and a book The Jesus Family Tomb.
The two small caskets were part of 10 found in 1980 during construction in South Jerusalem.
Several had inscriptions translated as Jesus, Mary Magdalene and "Judah, son of Jesus," Cameron told a news conference at the New York Public Library surrounded by scholars and archaeologists.
"This is the beginnings of an ongoing investigation," he said.
"If things come to light that erode this investigation, then so be it."
If true, the revelations are likely to raise the ire of Christians because the discovery would challenge the belief that Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
The documentary comes on the heels of the huge success of the novel The Da Vinci Code, which contends that Mary Magdalene had a child with Jesus.
Dr Shimon Gibson, one of the archaeologists who discovered the tomb, told Reuters at the news conference he had a "healthy scepticism" the tomb may have belonged to the family of Jesus, but the claims deserved to be investigated.
In Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner, who also carried out excavations at the tomb on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, disputed the documentary's conclusions.
Professor Kloner, from the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said the 2,000-year-old cave contained coffins belonging to a Jewish family whose names were similar to those of Jesus and his relatives.
"I can say positively that I don't accept the identification [as] ... belonging to the family of Jesus in Jerusalem," he told Reuters.
"I don't accept that the family of Miriam and Yosef [Mary and Joseph], the parents of Jesus, had a family tomb in Jerusalem.
"They were a very poor family. They resided in Nazareth, they came to Bethlehem in order to have the birth done there - so I don't accept it, not historically, not archaeologically."
After they were discovered, the bones were reburied according to Orthodox tradition, leaving just the boxes with inscriptions and human residue to be examined though ongoing DNA testing.
Professor L Michael White of the University of Texas says he also doubts the claims were true.
"This is trying to sell documentaries," he said, adding a series of strict tests needed to be conducted before a bone box or inscription could be confirmed as ancient.
"This is not archaeologically sound, this is fanfare."
- Reuters Source: Reuters
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