Case file · High strangeness
The Jordan lead codices
In 2011 dozens of small lead 'books' said to come from a cave in northern Jordan were announced as possibly the earliest Christian documents.
2011 CE · 32.33, 35.75 · status: hoax
The account
They reached the media through an Israeli Bedouin owner and a British couple; Jordan's government said they were smuggled national treasures.
The sceptical view
Specialists found that the texts copied a known tombstone inscription and a Greek alphabet in garbled form; most consider them modern forgeries.