Agents Raid Jerusalem Souvenir Store

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) agents confiscated bronze arrowheads, 2,000-year-old coins, perfume vessels, and other ancient artifacts during the raid of a souvenir store in an upscale Jerusalem mall that was lacking a proper license. The Times of Israel reports that earlier this year, the IAA mandated licensed dealers of antiquities use a digitized inventory system and upload detailed descriptions of their items for sale into an IAA database. According to the IAA, the new system should prevent licensed dealers from “laundering” artifacts acquired illegally and manipulating inventories. Eitan Klein, deputy head of the IAA's theft prevention unit, said that before the new regulations were implemented “it was abundantly clear that in order to supply the merchandise antiquities sites in Israel and around the world were being plundered and history was sold to the highest bidder.

2,000-Year-Old Estate in Israel Yields Coin Cache

MODI’IN, ISRAEL—A cache of silver coins was discovered during salvage excavations at a 2,100-year-old agricultural estate in Israel. The coins had been placed in a crevice against a wall of the estate. Olive presses and wine presses suggest that the family grew olive trees and vineyards. Ritual baths, vessels made of chalk, and bronze coins minted by Hasmonean kings were also found. The Times of Israel reports that the 16 silver coins include one or two tetradrachms or didrachms minted in the city of Tyre from every year between 135 and 126 B.C. “It seems that some thought went into collecting the coins, and it is possible that the person who buried the cache was a coin collector,” said coin expert Donald Tzvi Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Excavation director Abraham Tendler thinks that the estate’s Jewish residents may have participated in the rebellion against Rome in A.D. 66, based upon bronze coins found at the site. Hiding places connected by tunnels to cisterns and storage pits were found under the floors of the house. An opening in a ritual bath led to a hiding place that contained artifacts that date to the Bar Kokhba rebellion, which occurred in A.D. 132.