Imagine a young Bedouin looter exploring one of the hundreds of complicated and dangerous caves in the Judean Desert by the Dead Sea. He discovers an extraordinary ancient gold artifact with a Hebrew inscription referring to King Solomon.
One of the Israeli antiquities dealers who sees it reports it to the authorities, who quickly trace it to the young Bedouin and seize it from him. It is displayed in the Israel Museum, which has to remain open until midnight to accommodate the crowds. It is an international sensation. The New York Times sends two of its most knowledgeable reporters to write the story.
The young Bedouin looter is arrested by the authorities and tried for looting and sentenced to two years in prison. The gold inscription soon comes to be regarded as Israel’s most valuable ancient inscription.
This of course is a thoroughly fictional account. But it does bear some resemblances to a real occurrence—something that is reported in the Archaeological Views column of this very issue of BAR.
What makes me feel the need to explore the situation is the fact that the looters alert the archaeologists to the existence of the other valuable finds in the cave and get sent to jail for it, while the archaeologists learn from the looters where to dig.
There are thousands of caves in the Judean Desert. They are large and twisting and dangerous. They have produced archaeological riches beyond avarice. Yet for some reason they cannot all be located and explored. They are often accidentally explored—sometimes by looters. When the looters are caught, they are jailed—instead of congratulated—for the find. Somehow it doesn’t seem right. But somehow I am pretty sure I am wrong. Maybe an archaeologist can explain why to me.
The Archaeological Views authors tell us that “the Cave of the Skulls is part of the Large Cave Complex located at the top of a high vertical cliff in the northern bank of Nahal Ze’elim Valley in the Judean Desert.”a In 1960 the eminent professor Yohanan Aharoni, then of Hebrew University and later of Tel Aviv University, excavated here, but—as we will see—somehow his excavations did not uncover all of the archaeological treasures in the cave.
His discoveries did, however, drive “the archaeological institutions in Israel to embark on a large-scale archaeological project in the Judean caves, known as the Judean Desert Operation,” during which dozens of cliff caves were surveyed and excavated. “[T]he Large Cave Complex has been a preferred target for looters” since Aharoni’s time. Surveys “have made it clear that despite the frequent looting, there is still much to discover.”
After a report that looters were operating in the Cave of Skulls, they were arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison. It was apparently their looting that caused the Israeli authorities to undertake the excavation. In short, as a result of the looting, an archaeological excavation headed by the authors of the BAR article was undertaken. But, for their discovery, the looters were imprisoned.
I’m sure this is justified, but somehow I’m not able to explain it entirely satisfactorily to myself. I would be happy if the looters would be stopped and the authorities would move in. On the other hand, it was their work that initiated the archaeological excavation.
Imagine a young Bedouin looter exploring one of the hundreds of complicated and dangerous caves in the Judean Desert by the Dead Sea. He discovers an extraordinary ancient gold artifact with a Hebrew inscription referring to King Solomon.
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