The man behind the recently reported codices hoard, David Elkington, hits back in the current TLS, arguing that Peter Thonemann has dismissed the lead artifacts having only examined photos of the copper books – a confusion Elkington himself never made.
He points out that the corrosion of the lead implies ancient provenance, not that they are a product of a ‘factory of forgery in Jordon’. Further, Thonemann’s Greek specialism doesn’t qualify him to judge the Hasmonean Hebrew of the lead books.
There’s a Due Diligence dossier soon to appear, presenting over two years analysis of them. Could be life in the old books yet.