Authorities Recover Stolen Antiquities

August 5, 2008

The antiquities recovered included pottery and glass vessels, hundreds of coins from various periods of time, and bronze tools. Also found were three anchors, one of them stone from around 5,000 years ago, the oldest item in the seized collection. An amphora jar (with an oval body, a narrow neck, and two handles) more than one meter (3.2 feet) in height was found with two Greek stamps on the handles. All of the items came from various maritime archaeological sites along Israel’s northern shoreline near Haifa. A small Roman Period (63 BC–AD 333) figurine of a woman was also discovered, an item common to mariners of the time.

Some of the stolen antiquities recovered from a home in Haifa Shai Bar-Tura is the Deputy Director of the IAA’s Theft Prevention Unit and led the raid in Haifa. He said that there are some 30,000 known antiquities sites in Israel with perhaps another 10,000 unknown or not fully documented, but that his team has only about 50 full-time officers nationwide to protect those sites. Each year, Bar-Tura said, the IAA catches about 150–200 people involved in the illegal acquisition and trade of antiquities, which he described as a serious problem in Israel.

“It’s our mission [the Theft Prevention Unit] to preserve and protect the heritage of our country. This piece of land here in Israel,” Bar-Tura said, “has tremendous historical significance for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.”

By Will King, Correspondent
BFP Israel Mosaic Radio

Photo Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority