Ivory pomegranate

It is not actually made of ivory, but of hippopotamus bone and bears an inscription; Holy (Sacred) to the Priest of the House of God (YHWH).

However, experts of the Israel Museum have declared the inscription to be a modern forgery, and that the item dates back to the 14th or the 13th century BCE, well before the time of Solomon.

Archaeologist Aharon Kempinski has argued that, even if the inscription is authentic, the chance of it belonging to Solomon's Temple is extremely small as its origin is unknown and there were many "houses of Yahweh" outside Jerusalem, many of which "have not yet been excavated but are constantly ransacked by [illegal] treasure seekers".

[3] The thumb-sized ivory pomegranate measuring 44 millimetres (1.7 in) in height, bears an ancient Hebrew inscription that reads, depending on the point chosen as the beginning in the circular inscription, "Belonging to the Temple [literally 'house'] of YHWH, holy to the priests" or "Sacred donation for the priests of [or 'in'] the Temple [literally 'house'] of YHWH".

[5] In 2004, the Investigative Committee of Israel alleged it was a part of an antiquities fraud and was involved with other suspected archaeological forgeries such as the Jehoash Inscription.

This resulted in a major investigation by the committee which determined that the artifact dated back to the 14th or 13th century BCE and that the inscription was a modern forgery.

Although the indictment alleged that the pomegranate inscription was a forgery, the judge did not consider its authenticity in his findings, as it was not included in the individual counts.