In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them through the Kando family. In this article we will present evidence that nine of these Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments are modern forgeries.

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License. Fake Fragments, Flexible Provenances: Eight Aramaic "Dead Sea Scrolls" from the 21st Century Årstein JustnesMuseums and researchers often describe the origins of a particular object-its provenance, or place of discovery and subsequent chain of ownership-with only a few words and a date. This is a huge problem. The way we present provenance affects our ability to authenticate antiquities, their legal status, the professional ethics tied to them, even their price. We must ask difficult questions about the origins of the objects we study.1

In the last fifteen years, more than 70 new Dead Sea scrolls fragments have surfaced on the antiquities market. The fragments come with epic stories of origin, but are of uncertain provenance. Over 90% of these are probably forgeries. This article is particularly concerned with one of the fragments, DSS F.154 (Deut 27:4-6, also called the "Har Garizim-fragment"), and will demonstrate how a forgery is introduced, accepted and eventually becomes part of the dataset. Keywords post-2002 Dead Sea scrolls fragments, forgeries, DSS F.154, Deut 27:4-6 SAMMENDRAG De seneste femten årene har mer enn 70 nye dødehavsrullfragmenter kommet på antikvitetsmarkedet. Fragmentene kommer med storslåtte opphavshistorier, men er alle av usikker opprinnelse. Over 90 % av dem er trolig forfalskninger. Denne artikkelen følger saerlig ett av fragmentene, DSS F.154 (5 Mos 27,4-6, også kalt «Har Garizim-fragmentet»), for å vise hvordan en forfalskning lanseres, aksepteres og etter hvert blir en del av datasettet.

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