The patina (a thin layer produced by age that forms on the surface of stone) is believed to be from antiquity. According to an article by Hershel Shanks in this month's Biblical Archaeology Review (July/August 2014) the patina of the Jehoash Inscription stone contains gold globules between 1-2 micrometers in diameter. Gold in this form is not available commercially. Ernst Pernicka, a gold specialist from the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen and professor of archaeometry and archaeometallurgy, explained that gold melts at 1,947 degrees Fahrenheit and boils at 5,378 degrees Fahrenheit. When gold melts it forms into larger droplets. After considering the micrometer gold droplets in the ancient patina Pernicka agrees with the international team of scholars from Israel, Germany and the United States that had previously said, “Our analyses strongly support the authenticity of the Jehoash tablet and its inscription.” This Jehoash Tablet would have been displayed on or near the Temple beginning around 820 BC. This royal inscription would have fallen to the ground and been engulfed in the same intense heat of the flames that consumed the Temple and turned the temple's decorative gold molten in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem.
(See an earlier BAR article here)
(Access a good article with insight and detail here)
Galyn Wiemers Generation Word