JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Israeli Border Police caught a man with a metal detector and digging implements at the Roman and Byzantine-era town Khribat Marmita. A search of the man's home by Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspectors yielded over 800 illegally excavated coins from the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman eras, as well as seals and bronze necklaces. Eitan Klein, deputy head of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery told The Times of Israel that the man is one of over 100 looters apprehended in 2014 by the IAA and that the coins he removed now have no scientific value. “Disconnecting the coin from an archaeological site is irreversible damage,” said Klein, “which doesn’t allow a restoration of the data, and effectively erases a whole chapter of history from an archaeological site.” To read about a scientifically excavated coin, see "Rare Coin Discovered in Israel."
