HADERA, ISRAEL—Relatives who inherited a collection of ancient metal artifacts have turned them over to the Israel Antiquities Authority, according to a report in Live Science. The objects were gathered over a period of many years from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, near the power plant in northern Israel where the collector worked. Among the objects are a toggle pin and the head of a knife thought to be more than 3,500 years old. Other items, such as mortars and pestles and candlestick fragments, were probably manufactured in Syria and imported to Israel during the eleventh century. The collection also includes also a hand grenade thought to date to the Crusader, Ayyubid, or Mamluk periods. Archaeologists suggest that the artifacts may have been part of a metal merchant’s cargo lost in the early Islamic period. To read about another recent find from the waters off Israel, go to "Sun and Moon."
