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`Titanic' director shows caskets from `tomb of Jesus'

The director of the movie Titanic presented on Monday what he said was evidence the tomb of Jesus had been uncovered, but scholars greeted the assertion with skepticism, some dismissing it as a publicity stunt.

James Cameron and a team of scholars showed two stone ossuaries he said might have contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The findings are the subject of a documentary he produced called The Lost Tomb of Jesus and a book, The Jesus Family Tomb. The two caskets were part of 10 found in 1980 in South Jerusalem.

Several caskets had inscriptions translated as Jesus, Mary Magdalene and "Judah, son of Jesus," Cameron told a news conference at the New York Public Library surrounded by scholars and archeologists.

"This is the beginnings of an ongoing investigation," Cameron said. "If things come to light that erode this investigation, then so be it."

The filmmakers said that statistically there was a one in 600 chance that the names found on the inscriptions were not the family of Jesus.

They also argued that the name "Mariamene e Mara," the only inscription written in Greek, translated to Magdalene's real name.

If this was the tomb of Jesus, the revelations are likely to raise the ire of Christians because the discovery would challenge the belief that Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

The documentary comes on the heels of the huge success of the novel The Da Vinci Code, which contends that Mary Magdalene had a child with Jesus.

But Shimon Gibson, one of the archeologists who discovered the tomb, told reporters at the news conference he had a "healthy skepticism" the tomb may have belonged to the family of Jesus.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli archeologist who also carried out excavations at the tomb disputed the documentary's conclusions.

Amos Kloner, said the 2,000-year-old cave contained coffins belonging to a Jewish family whose names were similar to those of Jesus and his relatives.

"I can say positively that I don't accept the identification [as] ... belonging to the family of Jesus in Jerusalem," Kloner said.

"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," Kloner said.

Cameron said he was excited to be associated with the Jesus film.

"We don't have any physical record of Jesus' existence," he said. "So what this film ... shows is for the first time tangible, physical, archaeological and in some cases forensic evidence."
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