(photo by Israel Antiquities Authority via Ashernet)
Inspectors of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery during a June 14 raid on a store in Jerusalem’s Mamilla Mall. Bronze arrowheads, coins bearing the names of the Hasmonean rulers, vessels for storing perfumes and hundreds of items that are thousands of years old were being offered for sale by the store, which was not licensed to trade antiquities. New regulations have been in force since March requiring that antiquities dealers manage their commercial inventory using a computerized system developed by the IAA. The system, which allows the tracking of items, aims to prevent antiquities dealers from selling artifacts that are the product of robbery, namely the illicit excavation of archeological sites.