JERUSALEM (AFP).- Archaeologists have doubted the authenticity of a 7th century BC text that Israel says contains the earliest mention in Hebrew of Jerusalem outside the Bible, a newspaper said on Friday.

Israel's antiquities authority unveiled the papyrus on Wednesday amid a row with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization over a UN resolution on the city of Jerusalem.

A UNESCO resolution this month criticised the Jewish state for restricting access to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem, angering Israel which said it denied Judaism's historical connection.

"How do we know it isn't a forgery intended for the antiquities market?" an archaeology professor from Bar-Ilan University said in comments published by the daily Haaretz on Friday.

Aren Maier on Thursday said carbon 14 dating to prove the document's age was insufficient in view of "well-known cases in which writing was forged on an ancient platform".

"It's very possible that only the papyrus itself is ancient," he said.

Professor Christopher Rollston from George Washington University has also voiced his doubts.

"Ancient papyrus is readily available for purchase online," he wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "No modern forger worth his or her salt would forge an inscription on modern papyrus."

But a professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem defended the text's authenticity, saying the words used on the papyrus were very rare.

"If I were a forger, I'd choose a more impressive text," Shmuel Ahituv said.

The antiquities authority on Wednesday said the papyrus, found near the Dead Sea, was seized from traffickers after a lengthy investigation as it was about to go on sale on the black market.

Amir Ganor of Israel's antiquities authority told AFP on Wednesday that it was "the first mention in Hebrew of the city of Jerusalem outside the New Testament", and proved that "Jews were in this city 2,700 years ago".

Israel is furious that the UNESCO resolution refers to the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City only by its Muslim name, Al-Aqsa or Al-Haram al-Sharif.

Jews refer to the site as the Temple Mount, and it is considered the holiest site in Judaism.


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