One of the strongest evidences of forgery is the consistent use of repeated, identical "babble-text," arranged in such a way to make it look as if the actual blocks of letters are larger, unique, and have "more to say." With sand/clay casting this is easily done by making a master impression stamp and impressing it multiple times into the casting medium.

They occur in the following specimens (click below):

Menorah Palm Codex		Christ Head Codex		"Membership Card"
Tall Palm Codex			Corroded Leaf

Use the slider to fade the text in and out.

Use the slider to fade the text in and out.

Use the slider to fade the text in and out.

Use the slider to fade the text in and out.

Use the slider to fade the text in and out.

One of the codices contains a Greek inscription and David Elkington consulted Dr. Peter Thonemann to decipher it. Thonemann discovered that it was a poorly copied piece of text from a 2nd century bi-lingual tombstone.

The Copper Codex

A number of impressions and motifs were found taken from coins from different eras, as well as several modern fakes. Click below:

Tourist Trinket (modern)

Alexander the Great (As Heracles) (~350 BC)

Herodian 8-Prutah Piece (~40 BC)

Ambiblius Prutah (~10 AD)

Use the slider to fade the coin in and out.

Use the slider to fade the coin in and out.

Use the slider to fade the overlap between two plates in and out.

Use the slider to fade the overlap between two plates in and out.

A number of the motifs and entire sections on different plates are identical, pressed from the same mold. However, there is no care to preserve context. Click below:

Two Menorah Plates

Another Two Menorah Plates

Use the slider to fade the foreground plate in and out.

Use the slider to fade the foreground plate in and out.

Scholars who are familiar with the iconography found on the Codices are able to see where different styles and eras of writing are interspersed with numismatic (i.e. coin) stamps. The illustrations in this section are designed to be metaphors that the average person can understand by incorporating familiar elements taken out of context in a similar manner.

Pocket Change

Tom Verenna put together a rather informative video which displays many of the visualizations shown here in motion with background information.