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Cameron accused of publicity stunt

Scholars claim Titanic director James Cameron has pulled off a publicity stunt by claiming he has found a limestone box that could be Jesus Christ's coffin.Ten boxes, known as "ossuaries" were found in a cave in Jerusalem in 1980 by builders and they were excavated by a British archaeologist.Some bones were found severely disintegrated in the coffins and they were reburied according to tradition.Cameron and his colleagues working on a documentary for the Discovery Channel claim the aramaic inscription on one of the boxes reads 'Jesus, son of Joseph' and another in Greek reads 'Mariamene e Mara', which filmmakers claim translates to Mary Magdalene's real name. But archaeologist Amos Kloner, who also carried out excavations at the tomb, is not convinced.He said: "I can say positively that I don't accept the identification as belonging to the family of Jesus in Jerusalem. I don't accept that the family of Miriam and Yosef (Mary and Joseph), the parents of Jesus, had a family tomb in Jerusalem.""They were a very poor family. They resided in Nazareth, they came to Bethlehem in order to have the birth done there, so I don't accept it, not historically, not archeologically."Filmmakers claim DNA obtained from human remains in the coffins suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple.The inscriptions on six of the ten boxes were so common they did not excite the people who first catalogued them.Filmmakers say statistical analysis shows the odds are 600-1 in favour of the tomb belonging to Jesus's family.Mr Cameron said: "I have never doubted that there was a historical Jesus, that he walked the Earth, but the simple fact is that there has never been a shred of physical archaeological evidence to support that fact until right now."This is the beginnings of an ongoing investigation. If things come to light that erode this investigation, then so be it."© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | February 27, 2007Watch more videos from ITN

Tags:. .couple. .human. .ten. .parents. .mary











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