Ancient Sarcophagus Found in Southern Israel

The Fellowship  |  September 10, 2015

The Holy Land is a land of history, ancient and biblical. So we love it when yet another piece of that history is uncovered. JTA reports that a rare 1,800-year-old sarcophagus was discovered last week in Ashkelon:

The sarcophagus — one of the rarest ever discovered in Israel — was removed early Wednesday morning from the building site by authority inspectors and Ashkelon police, the authority said in a statement issued Thursday.

Construction workers excavated the coffin last week and hid it under building materials, then poured a concrete floor to hide the evidence of the antiquities site, The Jerusalem Post reported…

“This is an extremely serious case of damage to a rare antiquity of unprecedented artistic, historical and cultural importance,” said Amir Ganor, who heads the antiquities authority’s Inspection Department. “The IAA is attentive to the development needs and the needs of the public, but will strictly enforce the law against those who knowingly damage antiquities, which are assets belonging to us all.”