He also said a next step could be to compare the language of the text to other inscriptions from Kos from the same period, as well as texts from other regions-including Nazareth. He told Newsweek the findings were 'perfectly plausible' but that finding the origin of the stone does not necessarily show the origin of the inscription. Jonathan Prag, Professor of Ancient History at the U.K.'s Univeristy of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, commented on the study.

In terms of Froehner, they say the collector and/or the people he bought the tablet from 'were duped by a clever merchant.' They continue: 'The violated tomb and removed corpse in question on the Nazareth Inscription are not those of Christ, but Nikias.' The team says the tablet was probably issued by Emperor Augustus 'to establish law and order in the eastern Mediterranean in the years after he had defeated Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium' following the incident with Nikias' tomb. Nikias would likely have been a strong supporter of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra before they were defeated by Rome. For the people of the city pried open the bars of his tomb, and dragged out the wretch for the punishment of a second death.' Having already been laid to rest among the shades, his corpse was dragged out into the sunlight. According to the researchers, a poet from the time wrote about the event: 'Observe the fate of Nikias of Kos. The 'famous person' they connected with the tablet was Nikias of Kos, a tyrant who ruled this region of Greece around 30 B.C. Researchers have said a marble tablet thought to be linked to Jesus was actually issued after the desecration of the tomb of a Greek tyrant. 'We got lucky in that we had a direct match with a rather unusual marble quarry-not one of the big Mediterranean export centers-and that we know of a famous person whose tomb was scandalously violated from exactly this place,' Harper said. With this, they were able to trace it back to a quarry on the Greek island of Kos, far from Nazareth. The team was provided with a small sample of the marble to carry out analysis on it. Their findings are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Harper and colleagues have now published research to show where the marble used to create the tablet originally came from. 'I have been fascinated by this mystery for years, and I wanted to partner with scientists to use geochemical analysis to unlock the origins of the stone.' 'The marble was long linked with Christianity because Nazareth is known for literally nothing else but Jesus of Nazareth,' Kyle Harper, from the University of Oklahoma, told Newsweek. It was thought the tablet may have been issued by the Roman emperor after Jesus' body went missing from his tomb.

In his notes, Froehner said it had been 'sent from Nazareth,' which led it to be connected to the death of Jesus. Five years later, in 1930, the text was published for the first time. The tablet was owned by Wilhelm Froehner, who bought it in Paris in 1878 and kept it in his private collection until his death. Read more Ancient Skeleton of Woman Who May Have Been Bludgeoned to Death Discovered

Nomacs tomb achint tablet