A Skeleton in God's Closet

Author:Paul L. Maier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

The White House limousine delivered Jon to the address he had specified in Georgetown. Sandy McHugh wouldn’t hear of his staying at a hotel, though Jon did have one proviso: that evening, when he would be fighting jet lag, they would simply enjoy themselves, sipping the margaritas for which Sandy was famous. Maybe for one night only they could for-get Rama and its tyranny over their lives. Sandy cheer-fully indulged the scheme—his wife and children were visiting her parents in Philadelphia—and that evening he recited so many ribald limericks that Jon, already punchy from jet lag, was reduced to tears of laughter.

But it was all business the next morning. McHugh had assembled a panel of twenty of the nation’s fore-most scientists at the Smithsonian, and he introduced each of them and their specialties. Jon now unloaded his attaché cases onto the large, mahogany conference table, explained each item, and passed the photographs around for all to study. Next he gave a color slide presentation of the Rama dig that focused on the cavern area and its artifacts, after which he detailed the carbon 14 tests that had already taken place in Israel and Arizona. Then he fielded technical questions from the scholarly specialists.

After a break for lunch, they reached a consensus on testing procedures. “As to the specific samples,” Sandy announced to the group, “we’ve agreed on the following schedules. Let me read the list again so that we all concur: ‘For the two jar handles inscribed “to Joseph”: magnification survey of the inscribed seals to determine if they were fashioned by ancient or modern tools, followed by optical emission and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, and thermoluminescence, to determine the age from kiln firing. The two oil lamps, unguentarium, oil flask, juglet, and clay plug: ditto the above, omitting the inscription survey. The “titulus” parchment: pollen analysis, texture analysis via electron microscopy, pigment/ink analysis of a small portion of one of the letters.’ And thanks for allowing us that, Jon!”

“I had a choice?” he chuckled. “I regret it, but it has to be done. Otherwise, critics would point to it as the big chink in our testing procedure.”

“Absolutely. We’ve also agreed to do a PIXE on the ink.”

“What’s that?” Jon wondered.

“Particle Induced X-ray Emission Analysis. That procedure’s particularly useful for very small samples. We’ve used it to test for metal oxides in the ink of the Gutenberg Bible, for example.”

“Superb! Can it tell the age?”

“Unfortunately, no. Most of these tests, except for thermoluminescence, are merely analyses, but they’ve spotted as many forgeries as C-14 by finding traces of elements not used at the time claimed—Yale’s notorious Vinland map, for example. So, if we find any iron oxides in the ink or pigment, we’ll suspect forgery, since pure carbon inks were the norm then.”

“Well, you could find some copper too,” Jon replied. “In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earlier ones used pure carbon-based inks, but the later ones show some copper.”

“We’ll bear that in mind,” Sandy commented, then resumed

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