How Does One Spot a Biblical Fake?

From time to time, I come across a story about some exciting archaeological discovery that, a few weeks later, proves to be inauthentic, if not a straightforward forgery. Other times, forged artifacts are taken to be genuine for years before some scholar comes along to argue that they are not. This is what has recently happened with a relief statue of a female figure, bearing a Greek inscription, currently on display at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. Jonathan Klawans explains the clues that led him to conclude it is in authentic, but he begins with the story of its discovery: