forging artifacts in the holy land. deep in the basement of the israeli antiquities authority, a storeroom right out of raiders of the lost ark. joe zias took me to see priceless archaeological treasures and bogus archaeological trash. here we see this decanter with inscriptions going all the way around it. but what it is it s just simply a jumble of letters. it means nothing nothing whatsoever. these fakes were made to be sold to unsuspecting tourists. other more elaborate techniques are used to fool professionals. go and take, for example, this decanter here, okay? this decanter here, which is from what s called the iron age it goes back approximately 3,000 years. this is authentic, okay? now, what will a forger do? a forger then will go and put an inscription on this, and that s where you get fooled. inscriptions add great value to an artifact, especially when the name can be tied to a biblical character. they ll take an object which maybe costs $200 and add a name
have thought. here now, a look at a day in the life of nazareth at the time of jesus. modern-day nazareth is predominately an arab city. today you d hardly know this as the place jesus grew up. but right in the center of town stands a small village built to show what life was like at the time of christ. this is how, really, the majority of the people lived in palestine in the first century. there was no middle class. you either lived very, very well, like the people in sepphoris or in caesarea or in jerusalem, or else you lived like most of the people here simple peasant existence. anthropologist joe zias is a former senior curator for the israel antiquities authority. he spent the last 40 years investigating ancient life in the holy land. the peasants, which most of the people were, made their living off the things like we see before us the sheep, the goats, the olive trees, the vineyards. growing up nazareth, jesus probably had daily chores to help his parents. kids did
a fake? we found out that the inscription was freshly cut through, though, a general patina. there is, of course, a police investigation. other inscriptions were found in a cave outside jerusalem. the archaeologist who excavated the site claims it was used by john the baptist. i don t believe that there s any connection between this cave, which is a water system from the iron age, with john the baptist. uzi dahari is deputy director of the israeli antiquities authority. there s a face on the wall. there are crosses on the wall. does that does that suggest. no. it s one bedouin or another went there to make this kind of drawing, which can be found everywhere in israel and everywhere in the world. joe zias also took me to a well-known site in jerusalem absalom s tomb. absalom was a son of king david and is infamous for, among other