Tom Caldwell writes:

Via Flickr, Stuart writes:

The staff of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) gets very nervous whenever news breaks that a large archaeological treasure has been found. Thatis what happened Feb. 17, when amateur divers discovered a treasure trove of rare, ancient coins near the ancient port town of Caesarea. "We knowthat the discovery of a treasure of this size, and the publicity that such a find receives in the media causes people to think that they can findtreasures just about anywhere," Eitan Klein, deputy director of the Unit to Prevent Antiquities Theft at the IAA, told Al-Monitor.

Klein said, "People take the law into their own hands and set out to find antiquities themselves, even though this means breaking the law andcausing destruction to important archaeological sites. For the most part, they don't even find anything. What was discovered last week is the kind ofthing that happens just once every 50 years."

Israel has been considered a major crossroads of international commerce throughout almost all of human history. As such, it is full ofarchaeological sites. The IAA estimates that there are about 30,000 such sites in the country, most of them not even fenced off. Anyone who wants tocan start digging. And as it turns out, a lot of people do.

The IAA believes that the discovery of some 2,000 gold coins dating to the year 1000 at the bottom of the sea, in the submerged ancient port ofCaesarea, will send the imagination of the country's antiquities robbers into overdrive.

Just last December, a gang of six Palestinians was caught stealing antiquities in the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert. They were hoping tofind ancient scrolls from the Second Temple period, and were carrying numerous artifacts including a lice comb from the Roman era. In another case, agang of gold robbers was uncovered in the Hefer Valley, in the coastal central region of the country, while excavating a cave from theRoman-Byzantine period, 1,800 years ago, as well as Ottoman artifacts from 500 years ago, hoping to find gold there. On Feb. 1, robbers were caughtbreaking into ancient tombs in the Tel Ashkelon area. In their defense, they claimed that they were "just looking for worms to use as fishingbait."

To read the complete article, see:
Israel struggles to stoparchaeological site raids (www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/israel-palestinians-antiques-raiders-gold-coin-trove-theft.html#)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ISRAELI SCUBA DIVERS FIND GOLD COIN CACHE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n08a27.html)