[CPProt.net] Key finds in Temple Mount trash heap

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Key finds in Temple Mount trash heap

Jerusalem, Israel, Apr. 15 (UPI) -- Archaeologists sifting through piles of
rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount have found rare
artifacts dating to 3,000 years ago. 

The artifacts were found in the last five months in a city garbage dump used
by Islamic officials six years ago when they built a mosque at an
underground area of the Temple Mount, the Jerusalem Post said Friday.

In the process they trashed more than 10,000 tons of rubble in a
construction project that the head of Israel's Antiquities Authority called
"an unprecedented archaeological crime."

Bar Ilan University archeology professor Gabriel Barkay gained private
funding last year to sift through 68 truckloads of the rubble from the
garbage dump.

Although Barkay and his volunteers have only sifted about 15 percent of the
rubble, they already have uncovered scores of history-rich artifacts, from
the First Temple Period to more recent times.

http://washingtontimes.com/