Oded Golan

Oded Golan (Hebrew: עודד גולן‎) (b. 1951 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli engineer and artifact collector, who was placed on trial for forgery of antiquities. Some of the artifacts he has uncovered have produced great excitement in religious and archaeological circles, and have caused allegations of fraud and forgery. He was accused by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and others of faking the James Ossuary, the Jehoash Inscription and other items in order to trap gullible collectors. In December 2004, he was indicted with four other defendants and accused of being at the center of an international antiquities forgery ring. Much interest was generated by this case, with a book written on the subject. In 2012, he was acquitted of these charges.

Background

The son of an engineer and a microbiologist, Golan served in the Israel Defense Forces before studying engineering at Technion. He later went on to work in a variety of high-technology roles, before founding his own informatics company.