Nails used to nail Jesus to the cross 'discovered'

Two of the nails used to crucify Jesus have been discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb, according to a documentary maker, in claims which have sparked a row among historians.The rusted, bent iron nails were found more than 20 years ago in a tomb outside Jerusalem which contained a number of ossuaries - boxes containing ancient bones.Two of the boxes were inscribed with the word Caiaphas, which was the name of the Jewish high priest who presided over Christ's crucifixion, according to the New Testament.

Simcha Jacobovici, who has made a documentary about the find for the History Channel, contends that the nails were used to hammer Christ to the cross.

He believes the high priest may have wanted them buried alongside his body for their talismanic powers and as divine protection in the afterlife."What we are bringing to the world is the best archaeological argument ever made that two of the nails from the crucifixion of Jesus have been found," he said."If you look at the whole story, historical, textual, archaeological, they all seem to point at these two nails being involved in a crucifixion.

"And since Caiaphas is only associated with Jesus's crucifixion, you put two and two together and they seem to imply that these are the nails."His thesis relies largely on the circumstances in which the nails were found and he admitted that he cannot be 100 per cent certain that they were used in Christ's crucifixion, but said the evidence was "compelling".

"If you accept that this is the tomb of Caiaphas and if you accept that these nails came from that tomb, given that Caiaphas is only associated with the crucifixion of Jesus they very well could be those nails," he said.The nails were discovered in the first century tomb in 1990 during construction work on a hillside a few miles south of Jerusalem's Old City.They then disappeared but Mr Jacobovici claims to have tracked them down to a lab on Tel Aviv where a forensic anthropologist has been studying them from the past 15 years. The nails, he said, were sent to the lab by the Antiquities Authority.

Mr Jacobovici's documentary, "The Nails of the Cross", is the culmination of three years of research and will air in the US on April 20 and in Israel on May 15.His claims have however been dismissed as a publicity stunt.The Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversaw the excavation, said that it had never been proven beyond doubt that the tomb was the burial place of Caiaphas. It also said that nails are commonly found in tombs.Gaby Barkay, an archeologist from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said Mr Jacobovinci's claims lacked scientific proof.

"There is no proof whatsoever that those nails came from the cave of Caiaphas," he said. "There is no proof that the nails are connected to any bones or any bone residue attached to the nails and no proof from textual data that Caiaphas had the nails for the crucifixion with him after the crucifixion took place and after Jesus was taken down from the cross."