Authenticity examination of the inscription on the ossuary attributed to James, brother of Jesus

Abstract A First Century CE ossuary belonging to a private collector, bearing engraved Aramaic inscription ''Ya'akov bar Yosef achui de Yeshua'' (James son of Joseph his brother of Jesus), has been attributed to James, Jesus' brother, first head of the Jerusalem church. The ossuary was reportedly found around Jerusalem. Previous examination suggested that the ossuary and the inscription were genuine. Our research focuses on the authenticity of the patina that covers the inscription (''letters patina''), based on its petrography and oxygen isotopic composition (d O). We compared the d 18 O values of the letters patina from the James Ossuary, with the patina sampled from the uninscribed surfaces of the same item (''surface patina''), and with surface and letters patinas from legally excavated ossuaries from Jerusalem. In addition, the results were compared with d 18 O values of carbonates formed naturally from groundwater in the Judean Mountains. Our results show that the petrography and the d 18 O values of the letters patina of the James Ossuary differ significantly from the other patinas. The oxygen isotopic composition of the letters patina could not have formed under natural temperature and water oxygen isotope composition that prevailed in Judea during the last 3000 years. The patina was most likely artificially formed from powdered chalk immersed in hot water. These observations clearly call into question the authenticity of the inscription on ''James Ossuary''

Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years

Current global warming necessitates a detailed understanding of the relationships between climate and global ice volume. Highly resolved and continuous sea-level records are essential for quantifying ice-volume changes. However, an unbiased study of the timing of past ice-volume changes, relative to polar climate change, has so far been impossible because available sea-level records either were dated by using orbital tuning or ice-core timescales, or were discontinuous in time. Here we present an independent dating of a continuous, high-resolution sea-level record1,2 in millennial-scale detail throughout the past 150,000 years. We find that the timing of ice-volume fluctuations agrees well with that of variations in Antarctic climate and especially Greenland climate. Amplitudes of ice-volume fluctuations more closely match Antarctic (rather than Greenland) climate changes. Polar climate and ice-volume changes, and their rates of change, are found to covary within centennial response times. Finally, rates of sea-level rise reached at least 1.2 m per century during all major episodes of ice-volume reduction

Tree-ring Isotopes Adjacent to Lake Superior Reveal Cold Winter Anomalies for the Great Lakes Region of North America

Tree-ring carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) and oxygen isotopes (δ18O) collected from white pine (Pinus strobus) trees adjacent to Lake Superior show potential to produce the first winter-specific paleoclimate reconstruction with inter-annual resolution for this region. Isotopic signatures from 1976 to 2015 were strongly linked to antecedent winter minimum temperatures (Tmin), Lake Superior peak ice cover, and regional to continental-scale atmospheric winter pressure variability including the North American Dipole. The immense thermal inertia of Lake Superior underlies the unique connection between winter conditions and tree-ring Δ13C and δ18O signals from the following growing season in trees located near the lake. By combining these signals, we demonstrate feasibility to reconstruct variability in Tmin, ice cover, and continental-scale atmospheric circulation patterns (r ≥ 0.65, P \u3c 0.001)

The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (δ 18O, δ 13C) measurements are referenced by distance from the top or bottom of the speleothem. Additional tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information, information on the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem and information on the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data. The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.147

Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial

Although quantitative isotopic data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to use the speleothem data for data-model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally-distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates procuring large numbers of records if data-model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotopic values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model’s ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotopic data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on 18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline, and the selection of an appropriate time-window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo time slices

Timing and hydrological conditions of Sapropel events in the Eastern Mediterranean, as evident from speleothems, Soreq cave, Israel

This paper explores the connection between the timing of sapropel events in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the time of low δ18O events in speleothems of the Soreq cave (Israel). A new well-dated δ18O and δ13C profile of the Soreq cave speleothems for the last 140 kyr reveals five prominent low δ18O events dated at: 124 to 119 kyr, with the main peak at 122 kyr (event #V); 108 to 100 kyr with peaks at 107 and 102 kyr (event #IV); 85 to 79 kyr with peak at 80 kyr (event #III); 55 to 52 kyr with a peak at 54 kyr (event #II) and 8.5 to 7 kyr with peaks at 8.5 and 7 kyr (event #I). These events are characteristic of period of enhanced rainfall in the Eastern Mediterranean area, particularly so for events #V and #I, where the marked decrease in δ18O and the correspondingly marked increase in δ13C indicate very wet conditions. The chronology of the low δ18O events #V, IV, III and #I match the ages estimated for the formation of sapropels S5, S4, S3 and S1 which are also associated with high hydrological activity. Thus, it is suggested that the low δ18O events in the Soreq cave speleothems constrain the maximum duration of the sapropel formation. Pollen data from the sapropel layers and the isotopic pattern of the speleothems indicate that sapropels S5 and S1 were deposited during very wet periods when there were major decrease in the sea surface salinity, coupled with frost-free winters and drought-free summers. Sapropels S4 and S3 were formed during periods of increased precipitation, but ones in which the general climate was Mediterranean semi-arid

Climatic and environmental conditions in the Western Galilee, during Late Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, based on speleothems from Manot Cave, Israel

Early Ahmarian, Levantine Aurignacian and Post-Levantine Aurignacian archeological assemblages show that the karstic Manot Cave, located 5 km east of the Mediterranean coast in the Western Galilee region of Israel, was intensively occupied during the Early Upper Paleolithic. The coexistence of these rich archaeological layers with speleothems in Manot Cave provides a window of opportunity for determining the relationships between climatic conditions and the nature of human activity and mobility patterns in the Western Galilee region during the Early Upper Paleolithic period. This study, based on four stalagmites that grew almost continuously from ∼75 to 26.5 ka, covers most of the last glacial, and overlaps with the human occupation of the cave. The speleothems oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotopic records indicate that climate and environmental conditions fluctuated during the last glacial, some of which correspond with Dansgaard–Oeschger (D-O) cycles 12, 10, 7 and Heinrich (H) events VI and V. Consistent with independent evidence from botanic and faunal remains, these climatic shifts brought about significant environmental changes in the region, ranging from dominant thick Mediterranean forest to more open landscape. A good correlation with less negative δ13C values is most pronounced during the Early Ahmarian time period, but there was also a change to less negative δ13C values during the Levantine Aurignacian and Post-Levantine Aurignacian industries in the Levant. These positive δ13C shifts suggest that environmental transformation towards a more open grassy landscape dominated by C4 vegetation might have played an important role in the development of these cultural entities (mainly the Early Ahmarian) in Manot Cave region

Last Glacial warm events on Mount Hermon: the southern extension of the Alpine karst range of the east Mediterranean

This study focuses on warm Last Glacial episodes in the southernmost extension of the Alpine karst range of the Eastern Mediterranean (Levant) region through the study speleothems in Mizpe Shelagim Cave, located in Mt. Hermon. The Alpine karst range extends from Turkey through Syria and Lebanon, reaching its southern limit in Mt. Hermon at an elevation of more than 2000 m. Under present-day conditions, southern Mt. Hermon receives 1000–2000 mm precipitation, mostly as snow, that originates in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Speleothems deposition in this high altitude region was continuous during interglacials, but during the Last Glacial growth occurred when average annual temperatures exceeded ∼3 °C as inferred from the study of speleothem fluid inclusions. Warming episodes occurred at: ∼65 ka, ∼56 ka, 54.5 ka, ∼52.5–51 ka, ∼49 ka, ∼42 ka, and ∼36 ka and are coincident with maximum insolation at 65 °N. The main depositional period from ∼56 ka to 51 ka coincides with Dansgaard–Oeschger interstadial 15 and 14, and warming in the northeastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Warming in the southern Alpine karst range of the Eastern Mediterranean was manifested by vegetation development, together with significant snow melting that resulted in the drainage of large amount of water to the Dead Sea Rift Valley

The vadose flow above Soreq Cave, Israel: a tritium study of the cave waters

32 tritium analyses were performed on 13 different water sources within Soreq Cave, Israel; eight of the water sources were analyzed once each, and the other five between 3 and 6 times each, on samples collected between 1990 and 2000. The results were compared with similar analyses of a 1981–82 collection and with the tritium concentrations of the annual rainfall from 1952 to 1998. The tritium in several of the cave waters was so high (up to 110 TU) that they must have originated mainly in the peak tritium rain year 1964. Most of the other cave waters had tritium concentrations, which though somewhat lower, must have originated largely from rain that fell between 1962 and 1966. The consequences of these tritium observations are that: (1) it generally takes 26–36 years for rainwater to percolate from ground surface to Soreq Cave ceiling; and (2) the type of flow undergone during this percolation is in several cases very similar to ‘piston flow’, hence the annual packets of rainfall reach the cave without undergoing much mixing with either earlier or later rains. In about one-third of the cases, tritium was too low to determine the percolation time. Finally, the time variations of the tritium concentrations in specific cave water sources seem to indicate that the conduits which bring water to these sources may have undergone physical changes which affect the amount of time it took for rain to reach the cave ceiling