Editorial: Sell the Dump

Sell the dump. Yes, sell the dump!

Test the claim. Test the theory. That’s what science is all about, isn’t it?

BAR has recently been exploring the arcane world of the antiquities market. For the first time, we are asking where the high-end items—not the oil lamps and juglets, but the rare small pieces, such as seals and bullae—come from. The self-righteous clique that wants to solve all problems by outlawing antiquities dealers claims illegal diggers are looting sites and finding them.

But even expert archaeologists can’t go out looking for high-end items. And, alas, they rarely find them, even in large-scale legal excavations. High-end items rarely come from illegal digs, either.

So where do they come from? There is no single answer. One source is legal excavations: Workers simply pocket these finds at the moment of discovery. The dig director never hears of them. Then, one way or another, they come onto the antiquities market. These thefts occur more frequently at digs that use paid workers rather than volunteers, but even volunteers have been known to steal.

Talk to experienced field archaeologists in moments of candor and they will admit all this.

Take the famous inscribed ivory pomegranate, the only probable relic from Solomon’s Temple.^a No one supposes this was found in an illegal dig. Most likely, it was stolen by a worker from a legal Jerusalem excavation.