Jew World Order

[Ed. note – Coming across this AP story made me think of a story about another rather amazing, presumably happenstance discovery of a trove of antiquities–almost, coincidentally, exactly a year ago. Below is the AP article published today, and directly beneath that you’ll find a piece I posted on March 19, 2015. As I commented then, the Israelis seem “remarkably blessed with good fortune these days.” ]

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Israeli Hiker finds Rare, 2000-Year-Old Gold Coin

AP

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Antiquities Authority says a hiker has found a rare, nearly 2,000-year-old gold coin.

The authority said Monday that the ancient coin appears to be only the second of its kind to have been found. It said London’s British Museum possesses the other coin.

The coin, from the year A.D. 107, bears the image of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. It was minted as part of a series of coins honoring Roman rulers.

Antiquities Authority official Donald T. Ariel said the coin may have paid part of the salary of a Roman soldier.

The hiker, Laurie Rimon, happened upon the shiny coin on a recent walk in Israel’s eastern Galilee region. The authority said she will receive a certificate of appreciation for handing over the coin.

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Israelis By Chance ‘Discover’ Gold Coins and Other Archaeological Treasures

By Richard Edmondson

(Originally posted March 19, 2015)

It seems that Israelis are rather remarkably blessed with good fortune these days.

Within a month of each other, two amazing archaeological discoveries have been uncovered in the Jewish state–not by means of an archaeological dig or excavation, but simply happened upon by chance, we are told.

Back in February, approximately 2,000 gold coins were reportedly found by “amateur scuba divers” lying upon the ocean floor, some twelve meters deep, in the harbor of what was once the ancient port of Caesarea.

Then just earlier this month it was announced that a cache of jewelry and ancient silver and bronze coins were discovered in a cave in northern Israel by three members of a spelunking club. The precise location of the cave has not been disclosed, but the discovery reportedly includes rings, bracelets, earrings, and coins minted during the reign of Alexander the Great. One side of the coins features an image of Alexander, while the other portrays an image of Zeus sitting on a throne with arm raised. (H/T Jake Gittes)

In an article posted last week I discussed an exhibition of Iraqi cuneiform tablets at Israel’s Bible Lands Museum along with questions that have been raised about the provenance of the artifacts on display. The owner of the 2500-year-old tablets is an Israeli collector by the name of David Sofer, who says he purchased them in the 1990s but has reportedly refused to name the person from whom he bought them.

And as I noted, the exhibition comes at a time when archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria are being raped and pillaged, while a $7 billion black market in stolen artifacts has taken root. What I wrote, in part, was:

The attacks upon the Mosul Museum and the ancient city of Nimrud, as well as the earlier ransacking and burning of documents at the Mosul library–these and other incidents like them exact a dreadful toll. They are, in essence, “taking us back to the dark ages,” as an Iraqi official recently described it.

The coins from the find attributed to the divers in Caesarea are believed to be around a thousand years old and apparently are of pure gold. The discovery is described as “so valuable that it’s priceless,” and some have speculated on its possibly being the result of a ship wreck.

“The coins are in an excellent state of preservation, and despite the fact they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not require any cleaning or conservation intervention,” said Robert Cole, of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israel’s shoreline is not exactly virgin territory. How did the coins manage to sit there all this time, a thousand years, in water only 12 meters deep, and not get noticed until now? The Israelis actually have an answer for that. The coins, they say, were most likely hidden beneath the sand until a winter storm shifted the seabed.

Gold coins, photographed supposedly upon their discovery on the ocean floor in February in the harbor of Caesarea.

Be that as it may, the discovery is indeed a rather stunning one, and has turned heads and captured the attention of the media. Here is a bit from National Geographic’s report:

That was just for starters, though. On a second trip back to the underwater site, they purportedly found another thousand coins.

Of various sizes and denominations, the coins date to the Fatmid caliphate, a Shia caliphate which arose in the late ninth/early tenth century and which lasted for a couple of centuries until it was absorbed into the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin. A bit more from National Geographic:

At its height in the mid-tenth to mid-eleventh centuries A.D., Fatimid rule stretched across North Africa and Sicily to the Levant, with trade ties that extended all the way to China. From its capital in Cairo, the caliphate controlled access to gold from sources in West Africa to the Mediterranean, and the currency crafted from the precious metal conveyed the Fatimids’ formidable power and wealth.

It may well be that the coins were discovered just as the Israelis say. Likewise the items found earlier this month in the cave. It is entirely possible, as the report on the latter discovery has it, that three spelunkers simply “wriggled through a narrow passage” at the entrance to the stalactite cave and then happened upon the stash of jewelry and coins.

Certainly there have indeed been instances of archaeological discoveries made by average people who just stumbled upon them. There is the case of the Lascaux Cave in France, with its Paleolithic paintings of animals on the cave walls–discovered in 1940 by four teenagers and a dog. (H/T JS).

But one thing that needs to be pointed out is that there is no independent verification of the provenance of either of the two recent discoveries in Israel. All we seem to have to go on is the word of the Israelis themselves. A couple of other things bear mentioning as well:

• that in ISIS-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, illegal excavations of archaeological sites are occurring on a massive scale, with antiquities thieves sometimes even employing heavy equipment and machinery;
• that items looted from these sites are ending up in London and other Western cities;

If a portion of these looted items are finding their way into London, where else do you suppose they might be ending up?

Equally worth considering in all this are what appear to be ties or links between Israel and terrorist forces operating in Syria. Here is what I wrote on that last week:

There has of course been abundant evidence of Israeli support for terrorist rebels in Syria (see here, here, here, here, here, here, andhere, for instance) and it has been noted that neither ISIS nor Al-Nusra have launched attacks against Israel, even though the latter, in particular, seems to be active in the Golan Heights very close to Israel’s border.

And not only do Israel and Al-Nusra not attack each other, but Israel has even transported wounded terrorists across the border for medical treatment in Israel.

Most people seem to be of the opinion that the Jewish state’s motivation in all this is its desire for regime change in Syria, but are there perhaps are a few lesser-discussed fringe benefits as well?

Interviewed in the video below is the highly respected Dr. Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of Syria’s Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), who discusses the trafficking in stolen artifacts.

Dr. Abdulkarim is author of the book Archeological Heritage in Syria During the Crisis 2011-2013. The book documents destruction to Syrian archaeological sites in the two-year period mentioned, and in one section, entitled “Illegal Excavation,” the author gives a specific, site-by-site rundown of sites and tells where looting has occurred. Here is a quote from that section:

The danger threatening archaeological sites in Syria is increasing because of the absence of the government institutions concerned and the archaeological authorities in certain areas. Several archaeological sites have been seriously damaged by illegal excavations, some of which were carried out by armed gangs, particularly in areas near borders or where violent conflicts have occurred.

• The sites of Deir ez-Zor, Mari, Dura Europos, Halbia, Buseira, Tell Sheikh Hamad and Tell es-Sin have all been damaged by thieves who excavate for objects which are sold to local and foreign dealers.
• Many violations that have damaged the archaeological levels at Tell al-Bay’ah and other neighboring tell sites at Raqqa have been recorded.
• The site of Ebla has been subject to illegal excavation for some time, causing the destruction of some parts of the site. Efforts made by members of the local community have succeeded in controlling the situation temporarily, but it has been observed that illegal excavation has taken place during the past month.
• Some sites in the Idlib region, within the area of the Dead Cities, which are inscribed on the World Heritage List (Gebel al-Aala, Gebel al-Woastani and Gebel Barisha) have been subject to destruction and serious damage, in particular some of the unique churches. Information has been received that illegal excavations are being carried out at these churches by gangs of thieves coming from Turkey. Kafr Oqab, according to our information, is the most damaged site in the region.
• The site of Apamea is considered to be one of the sites most affected as a result of the ongoing pillage at the site, which has occurred in the eastern, northeastern and western sectors of the city. A comparison between two photos taken by satellite, the first taken before the beginning of the crisis in Syria and the second on April 4, 2012, shows the extent of looting and destruction at the site of Apamea due to illegal excavation.
• Illegal excavation has become very common in the city of Daraa with hundreds of hired men and armed antiquities thieves taking part in excavations inside the al-Omari Mosque and at the archaeological sites along Wadi al-Yarmouk and at Tell al-Ash’ari, which will cause irreparable damage if continued.
• Large areas of Tell Qaramel near Aleppo were destroyed by means of heavy machinery; other sites in this region are permanently damaged.

Reports from the antiquities departments of some governorates warn against the expansion of the destruction zone engineered by organized armed gangs at the sites mentioned above, especially during the past three months. This destruction affects sites that are highly significant in the history of Syria, and demonstrates that tragically, some components of Syria’s archaeological heritage are lost forever.

Keep in mind that the thefts and damage itemized by Dr. Abdulkarim above are only those which occurred through 2013.

In addition to illegal excavations at archaeological sites, his book also discusses thefts from museums, including a gilt bronze statue of the Aramaean period taken from the Hama Museum; a stone marble piece from the Apamea Museum; 17 pieces of pottery and some clay dolls from the exhibition hall of the Jaabar Castle; as well as historical pieces from Aleppo’s Museum of Folklore. But of all the regions in Syria where museums have been ransacked, it is perhaps the northeast governorate of Raqqa, now under control of ISIS, that has been hit the hardest in this regard:

Due to the events that occurred in the city of Raqqa and the absence of governmental and cultural institutions, robbers seized six boxes stored in the Raqqa Museum’s warehouse which contained archaeological objects. Previously, an armed group moved three boxes containing artifacts which belong to the National Museum to an unknown location under the pretext of protecting them. Efforts made by the officials of the department have not so far been successful in implementing the return of these boxes.

In some cases looted museum pieces have been recovered, though in others, as indicated, the stolen artifacts remain missing.

A visit to the DGAM website provides us with additional information. One of the more important archaeological sites in Syria is Dura Europos, a former Roman colony located in the eastern part of the country, less than 50 miles from the Iraqi border. The city was founded in 303 BC by the Seleucids, the successors to Alexander the Great, and during the Roman period it became a fairly cosmopolitan city, inhabited by Pagans, Christians, and Jews alike. In December of 2014 DGAM posted “before” and “after” photos showing illegal excavations at the site.

Dura Europos, Temple of Bel. Notice the churned and broken ground in the lower-left portion of the “after” photo.