Thief returns ancient loot that brought him "trouble"

A bag containing Roman sling stones was found in the courtyard of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Beersheba, Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

"These are two Roman ballista balls from Gamla, from a residential quarter at the foot of the summit," the thief said in a note written in Hebrew.

"I stole them in July 1995, and since then they have brought me nothing but trouble. Please, do not steal antiquities!"

The thief did not provide details of the misfortune he or she suffered due to the artifacts.

The bag also contained a map of the ancient city of Gamla, located on Golan Heights, with the original location of the stones. Gamla was built as a fort some two centuries before the birth of Christ and played an important role during the Jewish anti-Roman revolt, which started in 66 A.D and lasted for six years.

Artillery from the times past

The city suffered a bloody siege during the revolt, making it a symbol of heroism for the modern Israel and a well-known tourist attraction. Almost 2,000 of the ballista balls have been found in the area, according to archeologist and Gamla expert Danny Syon.

"The stones were manually chiseled on site by soldiers or prisoners," Syon said.

The Romans used the ballista balls while trying to approach and break the walls of the embattled city.

Each object a 'world unto itself'

Although a large number of such stones has already been stored in Israel's National Treasures Department, the ones returned by the thief were of immeasurable historic value, Israel Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Yoli Shwartz said.

"We don't give the financial value of archeological artifacts, because for us each ancient artifacts is the world unto itself," she added.

This is not the first case of people returning Israeli antiquities, the officials said, noting that a man from Tel Aviv had an ancient coffin in his bedroom before realizing its "morbid nature".

dj/jil (AFP, dpa)