[berned]

How hard is it to transport a stupid box without breaking it? Even if it's really old and fragile, hows about you take that into consideration and pad accordingly.

I'm sure they did. The box is worth $2 million. It's just that the box is 2000 years old, and is very, very, very, fragile.

TOO FRAGILE for someone to RECENTLY hack the words "Brother of Jesus" into it without the whole thing crumbling!

[AFPhys]

hmmm... i dunno... here at the lab, i've seen more than on example of a ceramic machined intact that failed after very mild subsequent handling. i'm not very familiar with the materials properties of rocks such as this, but i could imagine that the inscription could be added ok, but after a period of time, and some mild vibration or handling, that stress cracks could appear. the additional inscription could cause a change in the surface stresses that could render it even more fragile in that area. if so, i would expect a crack to be propagated beginning in the area of the additional inscription.

[ccmay]

The box is worth $2 million

Says who? Seems to me it could be a sight more valuable than that.

-ccm