I somewhere read that there was a news ban but the news was spread via social networks and if you reach enough people, some looters will pop up.
Sadly, obviously the side had not been guarded well.
So some idiots destroyed potentially invaluable insights into the past for a couple of bucks on the black market.
Although I'm not a fan of penalties I'm thinking about whether fines for breaking the news coverage ban would be any effective. I mean, tracing the social networks shouldn't be difficult.
Israel has quite a serious problem with looting of antiquities. I was talking to an archaeologist a few months ago and suggested adopting something like the UK's Treasure Act so that people who find artefacts have a way of legally being paid for them and was met with blank incomprehension.
Israelis also have a serious problem with following rules (source: am an israeli)
finding workarounds and doing what you want is almost a national pastime
"In a video released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, gobsmacked archaeologists shine flashlights on dozens of pottery vessels in a variety of forms and sizes, dating back to the reign of the ancient Egyptian king who died in 1213 BC."
The items are neatly arranged in some places but scattered in others. If no one has entered this cave since it was sealed, how did the items get scattered? Earthquakes?
> The items are neatly arranged in some places but scattered in others. If no one has entered this cave since it was sealed, how did the items get scattered? Earthquakes?
The article said there was some looting that happened after it was discovered. Maybe the looters messed things up?
considering its supposed age, if there are any muslim or arabic artifacts in it, it wouldn't just be an extremely rare find, it would overturn all known history.
> a few items had been looted from it in the short period of time between its discovery and closure.
I mean, wth? It’s 2022 and people are still looting this stuff? There wasn’t any gold found in the cave, so the value of what is taken is lost when it is removed from its context.
What do you mean "still"? Stealing is not something that depends on the year we are in.
This kind of looting goes either to collectors (money) or to personal trophies in private houses. All things that human beings like to have from millenia.
Sure, but where did I say that I approve that? I just explained the motivation of people who do not care about that. And for some rich collectors it is enough, to have old objects of historic value.
I sincerely hope it's a team of international and independent archeologists, we should not trust countries with a strong religious leadership, they'll either silence, hide or destroy anything that goes against their religious narrative
This is an interesting find because it is contemporaneous with The Merneptah Stele [0] that declared “Israel is wasted, its seed is not” in 1208 BC. This find confirms that ancient Egyptians were present in the Holy Land at that time. Although Merneptah’s claim may not have been entirely accurate with regards to the success of his mission in Canaan.
This finding could shed more light on the timing of the so-called 'bronze age collapse' which Jared Diamond and Eric Cline (author of 1177 BC) have popularized. Cline's conclusion is that the collapse began around 1230 and continued on for 50-100 years throughout the mediterranean.
Be careful citing Jared Diamond on anything, the guy is a bit of a disreputable quack and a trap for intelligent folks without experience in the field.
I know this is a joke, but pottery is kind of the road sign of archaeology. Pottery can tell all kinds of stories about technology levels, trade routes, cultural patterns, foods eaten and agriculture (from seed impressions and residues), the list goes on. Pottery is pretty important.
Take your anti-semitism out of HN. Israel’s Knesset is composed of religious and secular parties, the 2nd largest party today is a secular liberal party.
How is that anti-semitism? it's anti-obscurantism, and my comment is valid for both Israel and Palestime, as the article mentions, both are the bottleneck of humankind, also valid for the Church in the US, silencing, hiding and destroying Aztec/Maya and Indian heritage
The odd case is the dead sea scrolls; "Nimmer has shown how this freedom was in the theory of law applicable, but how it did not exist in reality as the Israeli Antiquities Authority tightly controlled access to the scrolls and photographs of the scrolls."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls#Ownership_dis...
Not destruction, but seeming suppression. (Perhaps with more Catholic than Jewish intervention, if memory serves.)
Since that time religious freedom, re publication has in fact declined in Isreal under pressure from the religious right, although this applies more to what can be sold in bookstores in Isreal.
This is the exact opposite. Those scrolls were initially discovered in an era when no one knew how to properly treat papers like that. They literally crumbled under the light. This created a serious danger of inadvertent destruction of these important documents so the access to the physical documents is highly restricted. The content is scanned and available online for all.
The problem is made worse by rich collectors (mostly from the USA) who pay for fake scrolls often to justify some religious view. There was a pretty interesting documentary (I believe from Vice if I remember correctly) on this subject.
Again, Israel is a secular country. 26% of Israeli citizens aren't Jewish. Of the people classified as Jews, secular are the VAST majority and control all branches of government. I won't say there's no influence of religion but in many regards but its influence is on par with the influence in the USA.
