Weapons raid uncovers coins, oil lamps dating back thousands of years.

By World Israel News Staff

Police raiding the home of a man in northern Israel suspected of weapons offenses made a surprising discovery – a large stash of antiquities, including coins dating back thousands of years.

As part of an effort by Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to crack down on organized crime and weapons offenses in the Arab community, the Border Police and Northern District police conducted a joint operation to search for illegal weapons.

During a search of the home of a 48-year-old man in the Arab town of I’billin, police found metal detectors, ancient coins believed to date back several thousand years, and oil lamps that are likely hundreds of years old.

The man was detained for questioning at the Shfar’am police station and the items were confiscated by the authorities.

The artifacts have been transferred to Israel’s Antiquities Authority for safekeeping and restoration.

“In quite a few cases, we find criminals who steal antiquities are also known to us [for other criminal offenses],” said Inspector Nidal Abdel-Halim, a senior chief intelligence and investigation officer at the Shfar’am police station, in a media statement.

“Behind every ancient object, like the ones that were seized, there is a historical story thousands of years old. [These artifacts] deserve to be in the right hands, accessible to the whole public, and not be the private property of one criminal or another.”

In May 2022, the Israeli Antiquities Authority busted a major dealer who illegally sold artifacts looted from numerous archaeological sites throughout the country.

“It’s heartbreaking to think about the many antiquity sites that have been destroyed for the sake of greed of traders of heritage values,” Ilan Hadad, the authority’s supervisor of antiquities trade, said at the time.

“It’s the history of all of us, [which] will no longer be possible to recover.”

The post Treasure trove of stolen Israeli artifacts unearthed in police raid appeared first on World Israel News.

The rare 16th century manuscript was a huge drew at Riyadh’s major cultural event.

By World Israel News Staff

The Riyadh International Book Fair, a highlight in the annual cultural calendar, unveiled a significant exhibit this year: a 500-year-old Torah scroll.

The artifact, which captured the attention of attendees, is one of 26 ancient manuscripts on display at the event.

The explanation accompanying the scroll reads that it is “a scroll of leather…of the Torah in Hebrew. Length: (40 meters x 90 cm). It dates back to the 16th century AD, according to estimates.” It does not mention where the scroll came from.

The historical manuscripts on display hail from esteemed institutions such as the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries, the King Salman Library at King Saud University, and the King Fahd National Library.

The book fair, which opened to public audiences on Thursday, has gathered nearly 1,800 global publishing houses and features 800 pavilions. It anticipates hosting approximately a million visitors during its tenure.

The fair, spanning an expansive 46,000 square meters, is recognized as the Arab world’s largest in terms of cultural diversity and inclusivity.

The post Ancient Torah manuscript displayed at book fair in Saudi Arabia appeared first on World Israel News.

The exposed section of the aqueduct, which carried water to the city’s elite 2,000 years ago, was well preserved, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Archaeologists uncovered a 300-meter portion of a Second Temple period aqueduct in Jerusalem, the longest such continuous stretch ever found in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

The waterway was discovered the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat HaMatos ahead of a planned neighborhood expansion.

“The aqueducts for Jerusalem tell the story of the city,” said Antiquities Authority director Eli Eskosido. “Their construction required huge budgets, extensive engineering knowledge and daily operation. They bear witness to the glory days of the Temple, to the destruction of the city and its construction after the destruction of the Temple and in the days of Aelia Capitolina – as an idol city.”

Excavation managers Dr. Ofer Shion and Rotam Cohen explained that the waterway was built to bring water from further away because Jerusalem’s primary water source, the Gihon spring, couldn’t meet the needs of the growing number of residents and pilgrims.

They said that the Hasmoneans King Herod built two elaborate aqueducts for Jerusalem, which were among the largest and most complex waterworks in the land of Israel. The system concentrated spring water in the Bethlehem area and transferred it to Jerusalem by taking advantage of topography, the laws of gravity and large pools.

The aqueduct known as the “Upper Aqueduct” brought water to the Upper City — the area of the Old City’s current Jewish and Armenian Quarters. Meanwhile, the so-called “Lower Aqueduct” transferred water directly to the Temple.

According to Dr. Shion and Cohen, the Upper Aqueduct remained in use, even after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE.

The Roman 10th Legion “carried out extensive renovations in it, and raised the ancient level by half a meter,” they said. “We found about 25 coins, scattered at relatively equal distances. In our opinion, this is not a coincidence: just like the practice today, the coins were placed there for good luck.”

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said that the Givat HaMatos development plans would be adjusted to work around the new discovery.

“Jerusalem is the city whose past and future are intertwined. The Municipality of Jerusalem is happy to discover that during the construction of three schools on Givat HaMatos, which will contribute to the education of the future generation, we received a greeting from the past – an aqueduct from the time of the Second Temple,” Lion said.

“The development boom that will contribute to the future of Jerusalem also requires the preservation of its glorious past. Therefore, we agreed with the Antiquities Authority that the planning will be done in full coordination and with complete consideration of the preservation of the aqueduct that will be integrated into the project.”

The post Archaeologists uncover longest section of aqueduct in Jerusalem appeared first on World Israel News.

2,000 year old mirror with special engravement believed to protect against the “Evil Eye” found in northern Israel by 17-year-old.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli high school student discovered an ancient mirror dating back nearly 2,000 years at a site in northern Israel while participating in an outdoor trip for youth group leaders.

Seventeen-year-old Aviv Weizman from the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Motzkin was one of around 500 participants in an Education Ministry-sponsored program, which took students on a weeklong hike across northern Israel.

During the trip, students had the opportunity to participate in archaeological excavations alongside professionals from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Weizman found the mirror while digging at Usha, a site just a few kilometers away from her hometown.

“The fragment is part of a ‘magical mirror’ from the Byzantine period, the 4th–6th centuries CE. A glass mirror, for protection against the Evil Eye was placed in the middle of the plaque,” Navit Popovitch, curator of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Classical Period division, said in a statement.

“The idea was that the evil spirit, such as a demon, who looked in the mirror, would see his own reflection, and this would protect the owner of the mirror,” Popovich added.

“Similar mirror plaques have been found in the past as funerary gifts in tombs, in order to protect the deceased in their journey to the world to come.”

Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, noted that Weizman wasn’t the only participant to discover an ancient artifact in recent days.

“During the week-long trek, the young leaders made additional finds, including pottery jars, coins, decorated stone fragments, and even a water aqueduct,” Escusido said.

“History, which is usually taught in the classroom, comes to life from the ground up. A student who uncovers a find in the course of an excavation will never forget the experience. There is no better way to bond the youth to the land and our heritage.”

The post Israeli teen discovers ancient ‘magical mirror’ at archaeological site appeared first on World Israel News.

Palestinians pillage areas in Judea and Samaria, unearthing ancient artifacts which then end up on the black antiquities market.

The post WATCH: Underground war between Palestinians and Jews over antiquities in Judea and Samaria appeared first on World Israel News.

“It’s too bad Israel can’t call on Indiana Jones as a final recourse.”

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli officials are reportedly struggling to reclaim artifacts that were intended for a White House exhibition but have allegedly ended up at Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

The artifacts, a collection of ceramic oil lamps, were loaned in 2019 for a White House exhibition that never took place due to bureaucratic issues, according to the Haaretz daily.

“Then COVID broke out, and everything got stuck,” Israel Hasson, the director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, told the newspaper.

How these objects ended up at Mar-a-Lago remains uncertain, as does whether Trump was aware of their presence. The Israeli Antiquities Authority reports several unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the antiquities.

Rolling Stone magazine quipped: “It’s too bad Israel can’t call on Indiana Jones as a final recourse.”

“These items clearly belong in a museum, and Mar-a-Lago a museum is not,” the music magazine said.

News about the missing antiquities came hours before Trump released a statement saying he was the “target” of a DOJ criminal probe into the Jan 6 riots.

The post Israelis struggling to reclaim valuable antiquities being held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate appeared first on World Israel News.

Thousand-year-old Hebrew Bible – the oldest known copy in existence – to go on display in Tel Aviv, before auction; expected price of at least $30 million.

By World Israel News Staff

The world’s oldest known copy of the Hebrew Bible could be yours – for as little as $30 million.

The Codex Sassoon, comprising all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, is believed to date back to between the late 9^th or early 10^th century of the Common Era, and takes its name from its former owner, David Solomon Sassoon, an Indian-born Iraqi-Jewish book collector who acquired it in 1929.

After Sassoon’s death in 1942, the codex was passed on within the family, until it was sold to the British Rail Pension Fund in 1978, and later to Jacqui Eli Safra, member of the Lebanese-Swiss Jewish Safra banking family.

Now, Safra is preparing to auction off the codex via Sotheby’s, with the sale scheduled for May 16^th.

Since its discovery, the codex has only been publicly displayed once, in the British Museum in 1982.

Ahead of the auction, the codex will be put on display in five venues including New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, and Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv showing will take place from March 23^rd to the 29^th at the ANU – Museum of the Jewish People.

Only the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few partial fragments of other texts are older than the Codex Sassoon – none of which contain a complete Hebrew Bible.

“An entire Hebrew Bible is relatively rare,” Bar Ilan University professor Yosef Ofer told Fortune, noting that there are only two other known Hebrew Bibles form the same era, both of which are more recent.

The post World’s oldest Hebrew Bible going up for auction, expected to sell for over $30 million appeared first on World Israel News.

Egyptian antiquity authorities discovered a secret corridor, 9 meters long, behind the main entrance to the pyramid using non-invasive technology.

The post What’s the newest discovery inside the Great Pyramid of Giza that is getting Egyptologists so excited? appeared first on World Israel News.

Coins and jars from the Roman, Umayyad and Byzantine periods found in undercover investigation.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An undercover investigation led to the seizure Monday of dozens of ancient artifacts from the home of an Arab in Hebron.

The finds included coins and pottery ranging from the late Bronze Age (1200-500 BCE) to the Roman, Umayyad and Byzantine periods, a nearly 2,800-year span.

It is suspected that the artifacts come from a looted burial cave in the Tel Hebron site, which dates back to Biblical times. A 55-year-old local was arrested and the antiquities were transferred to the Archeology Department of the Civil Administration.

The raid on the home was conducted by the Hebron police and staffers of the Archeology Department in a joint operation with the local office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories that included the aid of soldiers of the Haruv Battalion.

“The rare archaeological finds that were discovered tonight in Hebron constitute another layer to the ancient story that we learn every day about the history of Judea and Samaria,” said Civil Administration official Hanania Hizmi.

“The Civil Administration will continue to act with a harsh hand against those who seek to damage the archaeological sites and findings in the area. I welcome this action and thank all the partners in the security system who work together with us on this important goal.”

The tel, or mound is unusual in that it is nestled in one of the Jewish residential areas of the city called Admot Yishai, which was established in 1984. Several families live there in caravan-style homes and a building called Beit Menachem, which was built in 2005 and contains the carefully preserved ruins of an Israelite home from 4,000 years ago.

Hebron’s ancient lineage goes even further back, as attested to a three-meter-high wall in the tel estimated to be 500 years older than that.

In July, the Israel Antiquities Authority and police notched an even bigger victory over archeological-treasure-hunting thieves, when they raided a home in Afula and found thousands of items, including ancient gold, silver, and bronze coins, seals with Greek inscriptions, and primitive weapons.

In March, a similar arrest operation in Jerusalem uncovered biblical-era artifacts which included rare objects made of bone and ivory that had Egyptian motifs.

The post Ancient artifacts seized in home of Hebron Arab appeared first on World Israel News.

Coin returned 20 years after Palestinian looters smuggled it out of the country.

By JNS

An extremely rare Judean quarter-shekel coin, minted by Jewish rebels fighting the Roman empire some 2,000 years ago, was returned to the State of Israel in an official ceremony in New York on Monday, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The coin, known as the Year Four Quarter Shekel is one of only two such coins from “The Great Jewish Revolt,” that began in 66 C.E., known to exist, and is valued at more than $1 million. Minted in 69 C.E., it marks the fourth year of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (known as the First Jewish-Roman War), which raged from 66 to 73 C.E.

The minting of silver coins by the leaders of the Great Revolt was a declaration of independence by the Jews in the land of Israel, and a proclamation against the vast empire that they faced, according to the IAA.

The coin was returned in a ceremony attended by Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, IAA Director General Eli Eskozido, Israel’s Consul General in New York, Assaf Zamir, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel.

“This singular artifact is a stark reminder of the Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to the land of Israel. We thank the IAA, HSI, and the DA’s office for restoring this priceless coin to its rightful home,” said Erdan, according to a statement from the Manhattan D.A.’s office.

“This event is especially important to me because the Palestinians are working at the U.N. to hide the history of our people and erase our connection to the Land of Israel. But no matter how many lies are spread, the truth cannot be erased, and the truth is laid out here this evening for all to see. This coin is evidence of the eternal bond between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, and as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, I can also utilize it in my mission to fight the lies of our enemies,” he added, according to the IAA.

The IAA learned in 2002 that the coin had been looted from Israel’s Ella Valley, and spent the next two decades tracking it down, according to the Manhattan D.A.’s office. The coin was eventually smuggled out of Israel through Jordan and into the United Kingdom, where false papers were prepared to export it to the United States. It was offered for sale in an auction scheduled for 2017.

The coin was seized at this point by HSI Denver, and the investigation was taken over by the Manhattan D.A.’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) in 2022. According to the D.A.’s office, the investigation, which lasted several months, involved informants in five different countries.

Col. Matthew Bogdanos, chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, said, “Today’s repatriation to Israel of this extraordinary coin represents a cherished piece of history finally going home. But it also represents an equally extraordinary partnership between New York’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit and the Israeli Antiquities Authority. It is a partnership that should be used as a model in recovering pillaged cultural heritage around the world.”

The post Extremely rare Judean quarter-shekel coin repatriated to Israel from the US appeared first on World Israel News.

Using a metal detector, the suspect is believed to have stolen precious artifacts from numerous archaeological sites.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspectors and local police discovered thousands of valuable archaeological artifacts at the home of a man in northern Israel.

Ancient gold, silver, and bronze coins, seals with Greek inscriptions, and primitive weapons, including spearheads, were among the thousands of items seized from the suspect’s Afula home.

The raid was the culmination of an investigation into black market trafficking of the items and involved a number of international law enforcement agencies, according to a Ynet report.

Using a metal detector, the man visited numerous archaeological and historical sites in Israel in search of precious artifacts.

The suspect would then illicitly remove his findings from the locations, violating Israeli law and damaging the sites in the process, authorities said.

Several of the items he stole from historical sites were sold at auction in the United States.

“The [suspect] was previously known to the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit, and he was even convicted in the past for looting historical sites, but apparently he was not deterred by the punishment and did not learn his lesson,” said Ilan Hadad, the head of the IAA’s Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit, in a statement.

“Now, we suspect he attempted to commit additional crimes, including trading antiquities without a permit and exporting antiquities illegally — both criminal offenses that are punishable by two years in prison. It’s heartbreaking to see how people hurt historical sites and loot artifacts, disrupting…the history of all of us for the sake of greed.”

The man reportedly confessed to police, and is expected to be indicted in the near future.

“The inspectors of the Antiquities Authority work day and night to protect and preserve the antiquities sites in the State of Israel, in order to preserve them [and ensure that they] are not destroyed,” said IAA Director Eli Escozido.

The post Ancient gold coins, precious artifacts discovered in Israeli raid appeared first on World Israel News.

The antiquities authority threw the material into dozens of sacks and drove away over the objections of the Jewish community.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Egyptian authorities have confiscated a newly discovered cache of Jewish archives from an old Cairo cemetery, angering the Jewish community that demands a role in documenting the rare find, Kan Radio’s “This Morning” program reported Thursday.

According to Jewish law, fragments of religious texts, usually with God’s name on them, must not be thrown out in the trash; rather, they should be buried with the proper respect in what is called a “genizah.”

This collection, which has yet to be dated, was found last month in a newly uncovered burial plot in the al-Basatin Jewish cemetery. Historians believe it to be the second-oldest Jewish cemetery in the world, dating back to the ninth century, and so the find could be of tremendous historical and cultural importance.

“It’s possible that there are treasures from ancient Jewish history here, and therefore a more professional approach is required,” said Prof. Yoram Meital of Ben-Gurion University, a historian who works in the field of preserving Egyptian Jewish culture who was interviewed on a separate program on the network.

“Genizah [materials] are excavated like antiquities by professional teams of archaeologists who are manuscript experts….It’s very delicate work,” he said.

Instead of painstakingly documenting the papers together with their owners, namely the Jewish community, staff from the Egyptian Antiquities Authority broke into the cemetery, according to the report. Over a period of two days, the piled everything into dozens of huge sacks and drove off with them.

Members of Cairo’s tiny Jewish community tried stopping them, saying that a rabbi had to oversee the work, but they were ignored, the report said.

“We have to be involved in the issue,” a source close to the community told the network. “”We want the genizah because it is Jewish documents that can be related to Jewish families. These are community and private documents. It does not belong to the government.”

The source came up with a reason for the authorities’ action, surmising that in recent years, Egypt has become concerned about their antiquities being taken out of the country.

The source added that the community contacted the U.S. embassy in Cairo, asking for its intervention in the matter. The American connection stems from the funding that Washington has provided, along with private benefactors, to clean and preserve the remains of the once-large cemetery, only part of which has survived until today.

Tons of garbage have been removed and a new wall was built to protect the site.

This work was being done in full coordination with the Egyptians, which gives Meital hope.

“In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have actually helped preserve Jewish heritage…. It’s not too late,” he said. “We estimate that the government has an interest in not shattering the image of inter-religious tolerance that it has been working on, and good treatment of the Jews.”

The most famous genizah collection in the world was also found in Cairo, in an attic of an ancient synagogue in the capital. Excavation began at the end of the 19th century, eventually yielding some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that trace a 1,000-year history of the Jewish community, from the ninth to 19th centuries. It is considered the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.

The post Egyptian authorities confiscate valuable Jewish archives in Cairo appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli police seized a trove of antiquities dating back the Jewish Revolt against the Romans after stopping a car driving suspiciously in Jerusalem.

Researchers believe the robbers found the treasures while illegally excavating a tunnel. The trove included hundreds of Roman-era coins.

The post WATCH: Israeli police pull over bad driver, make shocking discovery in his car appeared first on World Israel News.

In a strange twist, the criminal work also uncovered a seemingly ancient water system that had not been discovered by any archeologists to date.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Roman-era amphitheater in the ancient Israelite Kingdom’s capital of Sebastia that has been claimed by Palestinians as part of their own heritage has been severely damaged by would-be robbers looking for items to sell.

Guides from Shomrim al Hanetzach (Guarding Posterity), a group that tries to protect and develop archeological sites in Israel so that Jewish heritage in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley in particular do not get erased, located the destruction in the Shomron National Park. The current assumption is that the illegal work took place about a month ago.

Many steps and seats in the amphitheater were broken and even uprooted by the diggers in their search for ancient artifacts. It is considered one of the biggest and best-preserved theaters of its age and is a “site of vast importance,” Dr. Aaron Tavger of Ariel University’s Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Department told Israel Hayom Wednesday.

In a strange twist, their criminal work also uncovered a seemingly ancient water system that had not been discovered by any archeologists to date.

The destruction has been announced by the Palestinian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry as well, since in November 2020 the Palestinian Authority unilaterally named Sebastia a Palestinian heritage site and started doing archeological work there funded by Belgium. In a Facebook post, the ministry said it had already started repairing the damage.

Both moves violate the terms of the Oslo Accords, as Sebastia is in Area C, under Israel’s full civilian and military control, and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan was angered by the announcement.

“For years, I have warned and cried out about the disgrace in ancient Samaria, but now it has reached a peak,” he said. “This place is under the authority of the [IDF] Civil Administration, but there is no enforcement, and there is no governance. The Palestinian Authority is conquering historic Jewish sites step by step.”

This isn’t the first time the amphitheater in Sebastia has been damaged. In July 2018, three would-be robbers were caught there working with metal detectors and excavation equipment. Their sentence could be considered more of a slap on the wrist than a deterrence, however, as they received 36 days in prison, with another nine months possible if they broke probation during the next three years, and a fine of NIS4,000 each.

Plundering archeological sites is a lucrative business and Israeli authorities are hard-pressed to keep up with the pace of the criminals. On Monday night they recorded a rare success, when Jerusalem detectives saw three Arabs who aroused their suspicions, and searched their cars only to find dozens of stolen items from the Roman and Byzantine periods. Some were confirmed by the Israel Antiquities Authority as being from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt nearly 2,000 years ago.

The post Ancient Samarian site claimed by Palestinians damaged by treasure hunters appeared first on World Israel News.

Suspect from Umm al-Fahm planned to sell scroll from Baghdad for hundreds of thousands of shekels.

By TPS

Israel Police detective arrested for suspects from the north who are suspected of dealing in stolen property, a centuries-old Torah scroll from Baghdad.

The four were arrested on suspicion of trading in antiquities and holding property suspected as stolen.

According to the investigation, a resident of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm kept the Torah scroll in his home and planned to sell it for hundreds of thousands of shekels.

“In a creative and proactive activity” by the detectives, the suspect presented the book for sale and demanded hundreds of thousands of shekels in return.

The police seized the scroll and arrested the main suspect, a 64-year-old resident of Umm al-Fahm, together with three other suspects, residents of the north.

Three suspects were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing and their detention was extended until Thursday.

Another suspect, who was arrested Wednesday morning, is being questioned by the police.

The post Police arrest 4 Arabs in possession of stolen centuries-old Torah scroll appeared first on World Israel News.

What’s known about what lies below Hebron’s holy site?

By Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom via JNS.org

On Aug. 25, 1859, Italian archaeologist and engineer Ermette Pierotti tried to sneak into the sanctuary at the Cave of the Patriarchs with the assistance of some Muslim friends. But before they had even made it down five steps, they were caught by the guards who dragged them back out.

“The beatings I received and the curses I was subjected to in no way diminished the satisfaction that I felt,” Pierotti wrote in his diary, “I can say that I managed to see something of the cave—ossuaries of white stone … a wall of rock separating the lower and upper caves. When the day comes that someone is able to enter this dark place, they will see that my description was accurate.”

Pierotti and Meinertzhagen, who visited the underground caverns below the above-ground (Herodian) structure—Muslims today prevent any access to them—are not the only ones to have succeeded in peeking into the depths of the earth to try and unlock the site’s secrets. All of them sought to confirm whether it is indeed the biblical Cave of the Patriarchs in the field that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite.

A 600-page doctoral thesis, composed over the past eight years by Dr. Noam Arnon, reveals and explores the details of these visits, and much more. Arnon’s research covers a period of 2,500 years in the history of the site, and, like his previous works on the Cave of the Patriarchs, deals with a broad complex of geographical, geological, archaeological and Jewish and historical sources that were not all available to those researching the cave in the past.

Up to the seventh step

Over the generations, the Cave of the Patriarchs has had a place of honor in heritage, tradition and legend, but it was in religious faith and mysticism where it stood out. Arnon’s work (completed at the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University) now compiles for the first time a scientific database about the cave and its secrets. Its advantage lies in Arnon’s intimate knowledge of the site, which he has lived, breathed and researched for almost five decades.

Reminder: Over the course of 700 years, ever since the conquest of the land of Israel by the Mamluks in 1267, access to the site has been denied to Jews and other non-Muslims. Jews were only allowed as far as the “Seventh Step” on the stairway leading down to the structure, and this became synonymous with the discrimination against Jews at the site.

Researchers exploring the site, such as British archaeologist Ernest Mckay, French scholar Father Louis-Hugues Vincent or the British delegation led by Claude Reignier Conder in 1882, dealt in detail with the famous 2,000-year-old above-ground structure, but had great difficulty in gaining access—if at all—to the underground caverns below it.

Arnon, a resident of Beit Hadassah in Hebron, who is better known to the wider public as the spokesman of the Hebron Jewish Community, touches on this issue, as well. A fascinating part of his research deals with the secret visits made by him and others to the caves underneath the main building, as well as visits that took place openly with permission.

One of the earliest visits to the Cave of the Patriarchs (in the second century C.E.) is documented in the Talmud, which tells of Rabbi Bana’ah, who would mark out burial caves so that people would not suffer ritual contamination. A thousand years later, in the 12th century, these caverns were entered by monks from the canonical order, who located in the depths of the earth several rooms of different shapes and sizes that contained urns full of bones. The site was also visited in the 12th century by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi Petachiah of Regensburg and Rabbi Yaakov ben Netanel HaCohen.

Pierotti and Meinertzhagen reached the depth of the cave only centuries later, and the next documented visit was that of a young British Jew, Jack Seklan, in 1933.

A secret kept for 80 years

Arnon found out about Seklan through his daughter, Yehudit, who lives in Ofra, after her father decided it was time to reveal the secret that he had been keeping for almost 80 years. They met in 2012, when Seklan was already 97, but still sound of mind and with a fantastic memory. He described in detail to Arnon how, accompanied by the British officer in charge of the site, he descended three flights of stairs into the subterranean hall, deep underground, where they found another door.

“From that door,” recalls Arnon, “they descended another few steps and reached a barred window overlooking an underground hall. Seklan told me that the hall was quite large and built out of natural rock or stone. In the dim light, he managed to make out tombstones similar to those on the upper floor that is now open to the public. But, unlike the upper tombstones that are covered with a magnificent parochet, the tombstones below ground were bare. The Muslim guide explained to them that these were the graves of the forefathers themselves and Seklan prayed kaddish.”

Arnon recalls how he was stunned by what he was hearing from Seklan: “We arranged to meet again the following Sunday so that I could show him drawings and photos and try to locate with him the caverns that he had described. On the Saturday night before our second meeting, I received a phone call from his daughter informing me that he had been run over and killed by a jeep as he left Shabbat prayers at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. I just held my head in my hands. I was sorry for the man, who was truly a man of deeds, and also for the missed opportunity. I was glad at least that on the eve of his death he had revealed his secret.”

Arnon received a similar account from Arieh Ariel, the grandfather of Tamar Ariel, Israel’s first religious female pilot, who was killed in an avalanche in Nepal in 2014. Arnon met Ariel eight years ago at his home on Moshav Massuot Yitzhak near Ashkelon. He told Arnon how, as a nine-year-old, he accompanied his father on one of his visits to Hebron after the 1929 massacre. Together they joined British archaeologists who were visiting the caverns underneath the above-ground structure.

“We went down the stairs and I remember that they said: ‘these are the graves of the forefathers,’” Ariel told him.

About a month after the Six-Day War, Arieh Golan, a sergeant in the Paratrooper Corps reconnaissance unit, Sayeret Tzanchanim, entered the caves at the head of a force searching for terrorists and weapons. He, too, provided Arnon with a detailed description.

The most famous incident in which Jews entered the caves occurred a few months after the Six-Day War. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was worried that the fact that Jews had set up a synagogue at the Cave of the Patriarchs could lead to inter-racial violence between Muslims and Jews. Dayan turned to Yehuda Arbel, the head of the Jerusalem District of the Shin Bet, and asked him to try and find a solution to separate the sides.

Dayan, who knew a thing or two about archaeology, noted that the Cave of the Patriarchs itself was located below the floor of the mosque at a lower level. “If we find an exterior entrance to the caves,” Dayan told Arbel, “then we will have solved the problem—the Muslims will pray above and the Jews below.”

Arbel waited for the right opportunity, which arrived just 10 days later, when a grenade was thrown at Jewish visitors, resulting in the town being placed under curfew and the mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs being closed. Arbel lost no time; he lowered his 13-year-old daughter, Michal, down via rope through the “candle shaft” on the floor of the Hall of Isaac so that she could document the underground passages. First of all, however, Arbel spent weeks training Michal how to draw and document built spaces.

Michal, who today is Dr. Michal Arbel, a lecturer in Hebrew literature, was lowered down via an opening just 28 centimeters (11 inches) wide on Oct. 10 of that year. She was equipped with matches and candles in order to make sure there was enough oxygen to breathe and, in addition, with a camera, paper and pencils.

The operation lasted for three-and-a-half hours. Michal identified three tombstones on the western wall, two of them smooth and one bearing an inscription. She also found an opening on the eastern side that led into a passageway. Michal drew every detail she managed to see, and her father passed the drawings on to Defense Minister Dayan. The young girl was lowered into the structure another two times, once on Oct. 18 of that year, and again in November. However, she never reached the double chamber itself.

First Temple-era pottery

Another secret operation at the site was carried out by the army in Feb. 1973. Titled “Operation Adar,” it was initiated for research purposes by the head of the IDF central command, Rehavam Zeevi. Lt. Avner Tzadok was chosen for the mission due to his small frame. Wearing just swimming trunks, his body was covered in grease to help him squeeze through the narrow opening. The photographs taken by Tzadok along with other items discovered during the operation remain, to Arnon’s disappointment, classified to this day.

The cave itself was exposed only in 1981, during an operation organized one night during slichot, the prayers for forgiveness during the High Holidays. The chants of the worshipers, who sang the prayers with great fervor and particularly loudly, provided cover for Arnon and a team of volunteers to chisel their way through the stone on the floor of the Hall of Isaac. Cloaked in excitement, they found themselves descending a steep stairway at the end of which was a long, dark and narrow tunnel that they crawled through until they reached a large underground hall.

“We started looking for an entrance to the original cave, the one we knew from historical descriptions,” recalls Arnon. “We found various stones in the corners and on the walls. Some of them had Latin and Arabic inscriptions. Suddenly, we felt a gust of wind coming up from the floor at the entrance to the room. With great effort, we lifted the stones from the floor, and in front of our eyes, we saw the entrance to a cave carved out of the stone.”

Arnon and his friends went deep into the cave. “It transpired that we were indeed in the Cave of the Patriarchs, which consists of two caves, one in front of the other, in the style of the shaft tombs that were characteristic of the period of the forefathers. The first cave was larger and full of earth, almost up to its ceiling, but a passageway from that cave led to a second, much smaller cave. On the floor of the smaller cave, also full of earth, between fragments of ancient pottery, we found ourselves crawling among remains of human skeletons.”

The double cave was dated back to the middle Bronze Age, the time of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The group removed four earthenware pieces from the cave, which were examined by the chief archaeology officer for Judea and Samaria, Dr. Zeev Yavin, who found them to be from the First Temple period.

It was only recently, some 40 years after that adventure, that a scientific analysis was conducted by Prof. David Ben Shlomo, head of the Land of Israel Studies and Archeology Department at Ariel University, and Prof. Hans Mommsen of the University of Bonn, a leading expert on identifying pottery through compositional analysis.

The analysis found that the items of pottery that were brought to the cave from various sites around Israel—the Hebron Hills, Jerusalem and the Judean foothills—by people who lived in these areas and had gone to the cave. This shows us that most likely the cave was a pilgrimage site during First Temple times.

Yavin, together with Doron Chen (a lecturer in archaeology) entered the cave a few months later with a delegation led by the then-commander of the region, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. The two conducted an independent review and a few years later published a scientific study.

Yavin, too, reached the conclusion that the caves were a Bronze Age burial site from the time of the forefathers. The bones in the cave were left there and were not analyzed. Yavin summarized his findings, writing: “An ancient tradition saw one of these caves [there are others in the area] as the burial site of the forefathers and therefore the monument was built above it.”

He also found a clear affiliation between the upper tombstone chamber and the caves below it.

“Abraham is buried here”

But that wasn’t enough for Arnon, and in 2014, the Midreshet Hebron college ordered a ground-penetrating radar analysis from the Geotech company. Interpretation of the results found that just as in the southern part of the Temple Mount (in the area around Solomon’s Stables) vaults had been built at the Cave of the Patriarchs and the floor of the upper structure was built on top of them.

Q: Who really built the upper structure?

Arnon: “Herod. The walls of the cave are double walls, and between them, there is a layer of concrete and stones. We climbed up there and removed some material. We found charcoal grains there and sent samples to the Weizmann Institute of Science, which dated them back to the first century BCE. It could be Hasmonean- or Herodian-era. But to me, given the historical circumstances, the style of building, and comparison with other buildings, it is clear that it was Herodian.”

[The Cave of the Patriarchs] is the only Herodian structure in Israel that has survived in its entirety and it is much smaller than the Temple Mount; just one 77th the size of the Mount, two dunams versus 144 dunams. Herod’s workers [possibly] conducted a trial run in Hebron for the construction on the Mount, as the upper structure of the Cave of the Patriarchs was built without any foundations on top of the native rock, which in certain parts of the building, under the southern and eastern walls of the structure, can still be seen. It is probably the “edge of the field” that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite, which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis.

Q: And it is under that structure that the patriarchs and matriarchs are buried?

A: We didn’t find a grave on which it was written “Abraham is buried here,” but when you weigh all the historical and archaeological data, the writings of travelers, biblical sources, topography—all of that together shows us that this is indeed the case.

Q: People will surely ask themselves: “If Arnon reached the conclusion that it isn’t the biblical site of the Cave of the Patriarchs, would he write that?”

A: Yes, he would write that.

Q: You write in your thesis that there is no possibility of conducting “open research” at the site. Was there covert research conducted at the site?

A: I can’t answer that.

Arnon’s thesis also reveals some Greek and Hebrew names from the Byzantine period (the 4th- and 5th-century BCE) that were photographed by the Waqf after it peeled off the plaster from the walls of the structure. The names were those of Jews who had engraved them on the walls, such as “Nachum, Tanchum and Yaakov.”

One of Arnon’s most interesting findings regards the existence of a synagogue on the site for some 600 years on the northern side of the structure, alongside a church that operated on the southern side. This, he says, is an example of Jewish-Christian cooperation that has support from historical sources, and is also supported by other testimonies and findings from the Hebron area.

“This reality,” says Arnon, “softens somewhat the plentiful information about the long rivalry between the two religions across the span of history.”

The post Secrets of the Cave of the Patriarchs exposed appeared first on World Israel News.