Cops put squeeze on suspected looters at ancient olive oil complex
Four suspects, already under investigation, nabbed while attempting to loot artifacts from remote Galilee site linked to Hasmoneans
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
A group of four suspected antiquities looters were “caught red-handed” over the weekend attempting to break into an underground area at a Galilee archaeological site associated with olive oil production during the Hasmonian period, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.
The four suspects, residents of the nearby Arab town of Kafr Kana, were apprehended by officials from the IAA’s robbery prevention unit and volunteers from the Border Police at Horbat Binit, a remote antiquities site northeast of Nazareth in the Lower Galilee. The IAA did not say what day the arrests took place.
The suspects, who were not named, had various excavation tools in their possession and had reached the site using two ATVs, which were confiscated, the IAA said.
The four had been under “intensive surveillance” for a week, the IAA said, without elaborating. They admitted under questioning to carrying out previous illegal excavations at the site, according to the agency.
Formal charges against the looters will be brought at a later date, after an official investigation, the notice said.
Horbat Binit, a small settlement in the Lower Galilee hills, is known for a complex of hewn stone installations that were primarily used for olive oil production going back thousands of years. Excavations in the late 1990s uncovered four olive oil presses and a winepress at the site.
The site, which covers around 10 dunams (2.5 acres), was occupied during the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, indicating a significant olive oil production operation that played an essential role in the agricultural and economic infrastructure of the region, the IAA said.
Although small, the Horbat Binit site is “a unique archaeological treasure,” said Nir Distelfeld, the IAA robbery prevention unit supervisor who led the operation.
The area was active during the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty in the second century BCE. The Hasmonean defeat of the Greek Seleucid army is commemorated annually during Hanukkah, which begins this week.
“The fact that this robbery took place just before Hanukkah adds a symbolic layer to our efforts,” Distelfeld said. “Just as the Hasmoneans worked to secure Jewish economic independence, so do we protect their heritage and the remnants of our history for future generations.”
