Posted on 01/10/2007 9:57:32 AM PST by SunkenCiv
"The mountains and valleys in this area are full of caves. All the boys and men in the village search the caves to look for antiquities, and they bring whatever they find to me, because I am the mukhtar, the leader of the village, and I know about all these things," the 50-year-old Abu Moussa told visitors to his tiny village southeast of Jerusalem, which residents call Herodion after the archeological site nearby. He displayed a table full of artifacts, including a 3,000-year-old Canaanite earthenware jug, several oil lamps and decorated bowls, and fistfuls of ancient coins, weights, and arrowheads... Abu Moussa said. "Today these treasures are the main income for the village." He said the most expensive piece he ever found was a coin from the Bar Kochba era, when the charismatic Shimon Bar Kochba led a failed Jewish revolt against the Romans from 132 to 135 AD. "I sold that one for $15,000," he said. "But usually even the most expensive items are only worth about $300 to $400, and we might find one or two of them in a month," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Mountasser Moussa, 7, displayed ancient coins he found in the West Bank. (David Blumenfeld for the boston Globe)
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
When the 'pickings' thin out...expect to see them manufacturing ancient artifacts.
"...after personally laying out $3000 on a 1st-century BC scroll being sold by Bedouin, the enormously respected Professor Hanan Eshel from Bar-Ilan University has found himself in the dock for handling illegally looted finds. The case continues, even though Eshel made the discovery known to the Israel Antiquities Authority and ought to be applauded for saving his country's cultural heritage for the State. One thing is clear: future Bedouin finds will simply disappear over the borders on to the antiquities market. Little has been learnt about managing the Bedouin since the Muhammad ed-Dib (the 'Wolf') found the first scrolls 400m above Qumran."
60 Years of Dead Sea Scrolls Controversy
Dr Jerome M. Eisenberg & Dr Sean Kingsley
http://minervamagazine.com/issue1801/news.html#n1
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