Scroll wars

May 7, 2009 - 3:07 PM by Harry · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Crime, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, Religion, War, coexistence

The scroll seized by authorities this week A sad byproduct of the tragic media war we’re currently engaged in is that Zionists and Palestinian nationalists seemingly can’t even agree on what the region looked like 2000 years ago. Forget about the possibility that we just might have common ancestors – if the “facts on the ground” are disputable today, then all the more reason to dispute what they were in ancient times.

Because for hard-core dogmatists, much of the “whose land is it, anyway” debate boils down to whose land it was back in the day. For many years, the Palestinians have been excavating the Temple Mount, with Israelis decrying the destruction that these excavations have allegedly wrought. Many have even posited that the digs have a goal of finding and destroying any evidence of a historical Jewish connection to the area, with a nationalist agenda.

Archeology and nationalism can go hand in hand easily. In the best cases, they can even build bridges of international cooperation, as we saw this past winter with the Italian government’s interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But in Jerusalem, where high-stakes heists and sleuthery are known to rear their heads every now and then, sometimes the powers that be feel the need to exert their power in order to maintain an edge in the information war.

And that’s how it came to be that a crack team made up of several Israeli bureaucracies came together to put the sting on two area Arabs this week. The Undercover Unit of the Jerusalem Border Police, the Intelligence Office of the Zion Region, the Archaeological Staff Officer of the Civil Administration and the super-specialized Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery all worked together to recover what experts are calling a Second Temple-era Jewish legal document.

As the AP tells it:

Undercover Israeli officers foiled an attempt by two Palestinian men to sell an ancient, valuable papyrus document on the black market, police said Wednesday. The men were arrested at a Jerusalem hotel Tuesday after a sting operation lasting several weeks, police said. The 1,900-year-old Hebrew document, previously unknown and valued at millions of dollars, was rescued, and police showed it to reporters.

…. They are suspected of violating Israeli antiquities laws by illegally possessing and trafficking in archaeological artifacts and could face several years in prison if convicted. Police are trying to determine how the document fell into their hands.

This specimen of Second Temple-style Hebrew calligraphy (pictured), written on six square inches of papyrus scrolls seems to be from around the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it could help (Jewish nationalism-tolerant) historians to better understand what life was like in the region some 2000 years ago, about 500 years before the birth of Muhammad.

Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains:

“From an initial reading it seems that this document deals with the property of Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov, who was apparently a widow. The deciphering of the entire document by expert epigraphers and historians may shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life. What we have here is rare historic evidence about the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago, during the days following the destruction which sent the people of Israel into exile for a very long time – until the creation of the State of Israel.”

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Tags: Amir Ganor, archeology, cops, dead sea scrolls, dig, excavation, facts on the ground, Israel Antiquities Authority, media war, papyrus, police, scroll, second temple, sting operation, Temple Mount

Foto Friday – From the Antiquities Authority

November 21, 2008 - 11:59 PM by Rachel Neiman · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, History and Culture

A 2,000 year old gold earring inlaid with pearls and precious stones was discovered in the excavations at the car park adjacent to Jerusalem’s City of David. This makes me sad both for the lady who lost it 2000 years ago and for the truly lovely silver earring I lost last year at the Reading parking lot in Tel Aviv. (If anyone has found it, please contact me at c/o ISRAEL21c). On the bright side, there are treasures aplenty to view at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s website. A few choice items:

Glass and Gold Earrings
Left: Assemblage of cosmetic products, Late Roman period; Right:
The Akeldama tombs, gold earrings from Cave 1, the Late Roman period (1st-4th centuries CE)

Ossuary and Glass Bowl
Above: Decorated and red-painted stone ossuary from Tomb 3, the Second Temple period; Below: Large glass bowl, the Late Roman period