Strata: In Their Own Words

The question of how to handle artifacts recovered from illicit excavation, or looting, is an ongoing debate for archaeologists.^a William G. Dever expresses his opinion on the matter in a paper by André Lemaire that deals with the Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions from Khirbet el-Qom, an Iron Age cemetery in the Judean foothills that had recently been looted by tomb robbers when it was recorded by Dever in 1967.¹ One of the significant and controversial inscriptions found in the cemetery refers to the Israelite God Yahweh and his “Asherah.”

Illicit digging of these proportions [as occurred at Khirbet el-Qom] is an embarrassing matter for the professional archaeologists and the various authorities concerned, but once it has occurred, it must be reported with as much detail as possible so that it is at least possible to salvage something of historical significance.