A raid by the Israel Police and the Antiquities Authority on a house in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem revealed a real treasure: Bone and ivory items are decorated and rare from the biblical period and ancient bowls that are about 1500 years old, carry spells and spells in Hebrew script.
Suffering from a medical problem? Maybe you deserve to get 6,400 NIS every month
In the raid, a city resident suspected of illegal trade in antiquities was arrested.
Hundreds of antique coins, glassware and weapons were also discovered during a search of the inspectors of the Antiquities Authority’s Robbery Prevention Unit, in collaboration with Lev HaBira police.
The spell bowls, known as the ‘swearing bowls’, were used as a kind of amulet in ancient times, and date back to the 8th-4th centuries AD. Most of the time, they used to bury them under the floor of the house for protection. Inside the bowls were written magic circles in circles, in Hebrew script and in the Aramaic-Babylonian language.
The sentences and words in the bowls are meant to fight curses, demonic diseases and pests.
Amir Ganor, director of the Antiquities Authority’s Robbery Prevention Unit: “Bowls of this type came from antiquities sites in the Mesopotamia area of present-day Iraq. The text was written by artists for a specific client, according to his personal needs. Sometimes – as can be seen in one of the bowls that has now been captured, the field figure, the “night”, was painted in the center of the bowl, in which the bowl is supposed to struggle.
Following the Iraqi civil war, since 2003, thousands of stolen seven bowls, stolen from there, began to reach international trade markets.
The Antiquities Authority believes that the suspect glued the bowls and restored them to put them up for sale. In addition to the antiquities, chemicals were seized in his house, which were allegedly intended for the restoration of the pottery, as well as for cleaning ancient metals and coins.
In addition to hundreds of coins, rare items from the biblical period were discovered in the suspect’s house – bone and ivory objects decorated in a Phoenician style, with Egyptian motifs, and including scenes from the animal world, alongside geometric ornaments. In one of the panels appear two griffons – winged lions (having wings) whose face is human, facing each other. In the second panel, there is a description of a convoy of four winged lions marching one after the other.
Similar ivory slabs have been discovered in the past in excavations at an antiquities site in Samaria, where a large group of ivory so-called “Samaria ivory” was discovered – but also at other antiquities sites in the northern region, such as Tel Megiddo.
These are decorative details that were attached to nails to wooden furniture in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. Finding decorated ivory details from this period is extremely rare, and the assessment in the Antiquities Authority’s Anti-Robbery Unit is that the items were excavated illegally in one of the biblical wires in Samaria, or in the north of the country.
Documents were seized at the suspect’s home, which may teach about his connections with antiquities robbers and unauthorized dealers in antiquities.
Following the investigation of the suspect, the inspectors of the Antiquities Authority arrived at an auction house in the central area, where they seized additional antique items that had been put up for sale by the suspect, in violation of the law. Among the finds were antique weapons, glassware and bronze and silver coins.
At the end of the investigation, the investigation file will be transferred to the Legal Bureau of the Antiquities Authority to examine the filing of an indictment for attempted trading in antiquities without a permit, failure to report antiquities, failure to register a collection and possession of property suspected of being stolen – criminal offenses.