Fragments of an Unbelievable Past?
Constructions of Provenance, Narratives of Forgery
University of Agder
Wednesday
Open lecture at Myren Gård:
18:00– Nina Burleigh (Newsweek), “Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land”
20:00 Dinner
Thursday (A7–006)
9:00 – 9:15 Årstein Justnes (University of Agder), “[An Unbelievable] Introduction”
Session I, chair: Årstein Justnes (University of Agder)
9:15 – 10:15 Nina Burleigh (Newsweek), “The Post-Factual Museum: Curating Ancient History to Influence Politics 101”
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break
10:30 – 11:30 Roberta Mazza (University of Manchester), “Papyrology and Ethics: The Problem of Provenance”
11:30 – 12:30 Nils Hallvard Korsvoll (MF Norwegian School of Theology), “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: How Is Authenticity Dealt with When Provenance Is Not an Issue?”
12:30 – 13:15 Lunch (meeting room A)
Session II, chair: Tor Vegge (University of Agder)
13:15 – 14:15 Nicola Denzey Lewis (Brown University), “Rethinking the Origins of the Nag Hammadi Library”
14:15 – 15:15 Eva Mroczek (University of California, Davis), “The Secret Lives of Texts: The Discovery Narrative as a Literary and Theological Tradition”
15:15 – 15:45 Coffee break
15:45 – 16:30 Torleif Elgvin (NLA University College), “Nine Suspicious Fragments with Problematic Material Features”
16:30 – 17:30 Kipp Davis (Trinity Western University), “Gleanings from the Cave of Wonders? Patterns of Correspondence in the Post-2002 DSS Fragments”
17:30 – Prosecco and a light meal
19:30 Dinner
Friday (A7-001)
Session III, chair: Torleif Elgvin (NLA University College)
9:00 – 10:00 Liv Ingeborg Lied (MF Norwegian School of Theology), “Media Dynamics and Academic Knowledge Production: Tracing the Role of the Media in the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Saga”
10:00 – 11:00 Tommy Wasserman (Örebro School of Theology & Ansgar School of Theology), “Simonides’ New Testament Papyri: Their Production and Purported Provenance”
University Library, 2nd floor
11:30 – 13:00 “The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus’s Wife”: A conversation between journalist Ariel Sabar and professor Liv Ingeborg Lied about his Atlantic Magazine investigation into the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife
13:00 – Lunch (meeting room A)
The Lying Pen of Scribes 
A conversation between Årstein Justnes and Torleif Elgvin about whether the unprovenanced ink-on -stone text Hazon Gabriel should be considered genuinely ancient might be interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How does one apply to attend this event?
LikeLike
The lecture with Burleigh on Weds evening and the session with Sabar and Lied on Friday are open. The rest of the conference is only open for the presenters and a few other invited guests.
Årstein Justnes
LikeLike
David Meadows made some interesting comments (June 24, 2016) about the “Jesus Wife” ms case. For example, the photo of a Greek papyrus posted by the Walter Fritz Nefer Art company that looks like a modern fake may include drawing of a “fascinum” near a woman’s pudenda. If so, it apparently would be the winged variety.
https://rogueclassicism.com (scroll down for the post and comments)
The research and reporting by Ariel Sabar in The Atlantic is indeed fine. Yet I wonder how he regards his earlier contract with The Smithsonian that may have imposed not only an embargo but also, reportedly, a stipulation not to consult with “outside” scholars. Also, to what extent did online contributions questioning the provenance claims spur him (or you, if you read this) to further research?
LikeLike
[…] of Provenance, Narratives of Forgery, hosted by Agder University from 14 to 16 September (click here for the full program). Since we were a small group and I know you would have liked to be there but […]
LikeLike
[…] ‘Manuscript Forgeries and Counterfeiting Scripture in the Twenty-First Century’ in April and ‘Fragments of an Unbelievable Past? Constructions of Provenance, Narratives of Forgery’ in September (read Roberta Mazza’s report on the latter here). As well as the […]
LikeLike
[…] Pen” project has hosted two conferences in Norway. The second of these conferences – “Fragments of an Unbelievable Past? Constructions of Provenance, Narratives of Forgery,” September 14-16 – tackled the problem of origin stories head-on, with a particular interest […]
LikeLike
[…] 2016, some scholars started raising concerns regarding the authenticity of the post-2002 fragments.10 Two years later the wider scholarly community seemed to have reached a consensus that most of the […]
LikeLike