“The plunderer is a great option”:

Roberta Mazza shared this 'gem from the world of Biblical Archaeology' 

David really needs to look more carefully. The "great option" plunderer does not "prerserve" all the "stuff". He takes only what is most saleable and can easily be carried (and then hidden) . Look at any antiquities dealer's stock and then ask how typical that is of any excavated assemblage. the answer is not at all. So the recent Bonhams sale, think: Egyptian tomb. What did Bonhams sell in fact from the tombs that said "great option" plunderer had "preserved stuff" from? Actually they rifled the shabti box, therew the box away,, but had a couple of little "mummy-statues" to flog off. They then found the deceased, took a crowbar to the coffin, wrenched off the block of wood on the front with the face on it, destroying the integrity of the coffin itself and dumped the rest. They might saw from one of the boards a random fragment, less than a meter long if it has some colourful pictures or a segment of inscription. All the rest is dumped.

hat tip: Malcolm Choat