The rest of the inscription is Lemaire's securely read and palaeographically dated first century text, but the final clause survives only through a chain of contested physical evidence: the Israel Antiquities Authority's 2003 committees read a difference in patina and letter depth at exactly that clause, Oded Golan's 2012 criminal trial ended in acquittal for want of proof rather than a finding that the clause is ancient, and subsequent patina and isotope analyses from scientists on both sides of the case read the same kind of physical evidence in opposite directions.
What would resolve this A single non-destructive patina or isotope protocol agreed by laboratories on both sides of the dispute, run on samples taken from across the whole inscription rather than only the disputed clause, with the raw data and method published for independent review rather than each side re-reading data produced under its own protocol.
OpenEpigraphy; archaeometry; forensic materials scienceAndre Lemaire, Burial Box of James the Brother of Jesus