[MSN] Ancient treasures lure modern thieves. With Israeli, Palestinian authorities busy with other matters, Bedouins rob tombs much as forefathers did.

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Ancient treasures lure modern thieves 
With Israeli, Palestinian authorities busy with other matters, Bedouins rob
tombs much as forefathers did 
- Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service
Friday, November 24, 2006 

 

(11-24) 04:00 PST Herodion, West Bank -- At least two nights a week, Abu
Moussa, the Bedouin leader of Herodion, takes his sleeping bag, tools and a
small group of men and heads into the mountains to practice the trade he
learned from his father and grandfather before him -- robbing the treasures
of ancient tombs. 

It's a tradition that goes back centuries, and these days it is considered
illegal by both Israeli and Palestinian police. But as the Palestinian
economy crumbles in the face of Israeli security restrictions and crippling
international sanctions against the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian
Authority, ancient treasures buried in the biblical landscape have become a
major source of income for many West Bank residents. 

"The mountains and valleys in this area are full of caves. All the boys and
men in the village search the caves to look for antiquities, and they bring
whatever they find to me, because I am the mukhtar, the leader of the
village, and I know about all these things," said Abu Moussa, 50, displaying
a table covered with treasures, including a 3,000-year-old Canaanite
earthenware jug, several oil lamps, decorated bowls, and fistfuls of ancient
coins, weights and arrowheads. 

"I take everything and I sell it to dealers in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and
we share the proceeds among all the village. This is how we support
ourselves and make a living," he said. 

The tiny Bedouin village has only 150 inhabitants, who until recently earned
a living as shepherds who tended the flocks and sold milk and cheese, or as
day laborers in Israel. But since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising,
began in September 2000, they have been unable to enter Israel, and the
spiraling economic crisis has drastically reduced demand for their dairy
products. 

"We used to have 700 sheep in the village; now we have only about 100 left.
I myself had more than 100 sheep, and now I have only 15. We had to sell
them or kill them for food because we have no money," said Abu Moussa, who
would not allow his full name to be used. 

"Today these treasures are the main income for the village," he said. "The
most expensive piece I ever found was a coin from Bar Kochba, the Jewish
prince at the time of the Romans. I sold that one for $15,000. But usually
even the most expensive items are only worth about $300 or $400, and we
might find one or two of them in a month," he said. 

Sleeping by day and moving at night to escape the scrutiny of Israeli army
patrols and Palestinian antiquities police, Abu Moussa and his fellow
villagers move through the mountains and valleys around Wadi Kareitoun,
which winds from the spectacular first-century palace of Herodion through
the Judean desert to the Dead Sea about 15 miles away. 

The barren landscape is perforated with thousands of natural caves, many of
them used as burial tombs dating back to the Canaanite period about 3,000
years ago. Some are still sealed. Others were robbed long ago, perhaps by
Abu Moussa's ancestors. Many contain the bones of poor hermits and simple
shepherds, but others were used to bury wealthy people whose worldly goods
accompanied them to the grave. 

"Buried along with the bones are all sorts of coins, jugs and jewelry," said
Abu Moussa. "The ancient people believed in reincarnation, and they thought
that if they buried their possessions in the grave, they would have them to
use when they came back to life. There are jugs and bowls and lamps.
Sometimes the jugs and other items are full of gold coins. 

"Everything has been preserved because the caves were sealed after the
burial and the water has never touched it. Only the metal objects have
survived in the open fields, because other items have decayed over the
centuries," he said. "Many coins were dropped on the ground, and as the
rains come, they are washed up to the surface and we can find them." 

The Israel Antiquities Authority has been trying for years to stop the
activities of scavengers like Abu Moussa, but without success. The removal
of archaeological artifacts, valuable or not, from ancient tombs destroys
their scientific value and hinders detailed research. 

Under Israeli law, antiquities must all be registered and cannot be sold to
private collectors. But the law is widely flouted, and vast quantities of
ancient treasures are spirited out of the country to collectors abroad
willing to pay ever-increasing prices. The Antiquities Authority has a
special unit, with police powers, that patrols the areas under Israeli
control to catch tomb robbers, and an intelligence network that tries to
trace the movement of antiquities dug up from the Holy Land. It also cracks
down on dealers suspected of trading in pilfered treasure. 

Since the withdrawal of Israel from large areas of the West Bank, the
outbreak of the intifada and the building of the separation barrier, Israel
has just about given up trying to police desert areas like the one where Abu
Moussa operates. 

Not just Bedouins are in on the search for antiquities -- impoverished
Palestinians, too, take part in the illegal searches. The Palestinian
Authority has a special Tourist and Antiquities Police unit, but they were
never very vigilant in protecting artifacts, and with the breakdown of
Palestinian Authority control under the Hamas government, they are almost
completely ineffective. 

Abu Moussa is every inch the traditional Bedouin mukhtar. He has two wives
and 19 children, and on the belt of his robes he carries a well-greased
shabriyeh, a traditional Bedouin dagger with a jewel-encrusted silver
handle. He also has a small library of books on ancient coins and
antiquities in English, German and Hebrew. 

"I have a metal detector; it's 80 years old. My grandfather got it from the
British. This is now my profession. I can tell everything. I am an expert --
Byzantine, Roman, Islamic, Canaanite," he said. 

On a rocky ledge just below his home, there is a cave whose entrance has
been carved into a fine stone doorway. This old tomb has been empty for
decades, but in just a few minutes' searching among the rocks outside, Abu
Moussa's children pick up more than a dozen items, including a rare
Byzantine coin found by 7-year-old Mountasser. They hand the treasure to
their father, who will sell it to the dealer next time he calls. 

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