How is forgery of ancient silver identified? A reply to Elsayed-Ali (2021)

We respond to Hani E. Elsayed-Ali's critique according to which silver-copper alloys produced in the Southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age III (∼1200‒1150 BCE) do not constitute forgery, as we proposed. We argue that the technical analyses of weight and reflectance suggested by Elsayed-Ali are not reliable stand-alone means for the identification of forgery in silver-copper-(arsenic) alloys, and that deliberateness, rather than identifiability should be used to tell apart debasement from forgery. We stand behind our original claim, that the addition of arsenic, and the use of silver coatings of copper cores are evidence of deliberate, standardized forgery.