A rare 1,800-year-old stone sarcophagus found by construction workers at a building site in the coastal city of Ashkelon has been appropriated by the Israel Antiquities Authority after the workers allegedly damaged the relic and concealed their discovery.
The IAA announced on Thursday that the valuable, ornately decorated stone tomb was seized by the authority’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery on Wednesday, in coordination with detectives from the Ashkelon Police.
“This is one of the rarest sarcophagi ever discovered in Israel,” the IAA said in a statement.
“They decided to hide it, pulled it out of the ground with a tractor, while aggressively damaging it, concealed it beneath a stack of sheet metal and boards and poured a concrete floor in the lot so as to conceal any evidence of the existence of the antiquities site.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Rare-1800-year-old-sarcophagus-discovered-in-Ashkelon-415076
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