Antiquities thief returns ballista balls stolen from Gamla 20 years ago

Two ancient ballista balls were left by an anonymous robber in a bag in the courtyard of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures.

By GIL STERN STERN ZOHAR
ballista stones from the Early Roman period (photo credit: DR. DALIA MANOR, MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC AND NEAR EASTER)
ballista stones from the Early Roman period
(photo credit: DR. DALIA MANOR, MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC AND NEAR EASTER)
Though professional antiquities thieves are the scourge of Israel’s cultural heritage, pilfered relics are occasionally returned by remorseful amateur robbers.
Such was the case earlier this month when an astonished Amos Cohen of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Beersheba discovered two ancient ballista balls left by an anonymous robber in a bag in the museum’s courtyard.
Beside the two sling stones was a typed note with the following apology: “These are two Roman ballista balls from Gamla, from a residential quarter at the foot of the summit. I stole them in July 1995 and since then they have brought me nothing but trouble. Please, do not steal antiquities!” The penitent thief also included a map of the Gamla National Park on the Golan Heights with an X marking the spot where he had stolen the stones.
Each ballista ball weighs one kilo and measures 10 cm. by 12 cm., according to Antiquities Authority official Yoli Shwartz. The deadly weapons were fired during the siege of the Jewish city in 66 CE during the Great Revolt (or First Jewish-Roman War), from either a hand-held manuballista or a cart-mounted carroballista.
Museum director Dr. Dalia Manor returned the 2,000-year-old artifacts to the authority, but the ballista balls will not be returned to Gamla, where many similar stone balls are already on display, she noted.
Shwartz added that while uncommon, the return of stolen or misappropriated antiquities to the authority is not unprecedented. In the past a 2,000-year-old Jewish ossuary was returned to the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery. A Tel Aviv resident had kept it in his bedroom until he realized the morbid meaning of the stone bone box.
In another case, a Protestant minister from New York State asked for forgiveness on behalf of a congregant whose conscience was tormented by the fact he had stolen an antiquity from Jerusalem more than a decade earlier.
Antiquities Authority archeologist Dr. Danny Syon, who excavated at Gamla for many years, welcomed the return of the stolen artifacts.
“Almost 2,000 such stones were found during the archeological excavations in the Gamla Nature Reserve, and this is the site where there is the largest number of ballista stones from the early Roman period,” he said.
“The Romans shot these stones at the defenders of the city in order to keep them away from the wall, and in that way they could approach the wall and break it with a battering ram. The stones were manually chiseled on site by soldiers or prisoners.”