Unprovenanced Artefact from Illegal Artefact Hunting on Known Site is Centre of Controversy

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse...

thou shalt set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim,

and the curse upon Mount Ebal.”

(Deuteronomy 11:26, 29)

In response to an article in Haaretz, the "Shomron/Samaria Regional Council", a Jewish organization claiming jurisdiction over West Bank settlements that are still considered illegal under International law employs a classical 'Two Wrongs" argument. They say they are: “proud of the fact that an archaeological heritage was found and preserved. [...]. We recommend that Haaretz deal with the daily destruction of the historical sites of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria even if the destruction is done by the Palestinian authority". So there. 

 The article concerned (Nir Hasson, 'From West Bank Debris to Evangelical Hands: The Shady Journey of a Bible-era Curse' Haaretz Apr 4, 2022) recounts how the council gave informal encouragement to a group of enthusiasts to remove soil and archaeological material from the known Bronze Age site at Mount Ebal, just north of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. This soil was interpreted to be from the spoil heaps from an earlier excavation of the site by Adam Zertal from 1982 to 1986. The discovery of one object in this soil was announced by the Associates for Biblical Research of Houston, Texas announced in March this year.

[...] headlines worldwide heralded “an earthquake in biblical studies” after Israeli and U.S. archaeologists reported on the discovery of the inscription from the 13th century B.C.E., which, they said, makes it the earliest Israelite inscription discovered to date. If that were not sufficient, those who deciphered the inscription – 40 ancient proto-Sinaitic letters on a lead sheet that was subsequently folded – identified the word “YHW,” which is a clear representation of the Hebrew God. The researchers believe [...] that the 0.3-square inch (2-square-centimeter) lead tablet confirms [...] that the Israelites were literate during that period, which enabled them to write the Bible earlier than commonly believed. According to [one of the scholars involved in the project], this is the “silver bullet” that will eliminate all doubts about the Bible in Israeli archaeology.

The announcement prompted discussions about the issue of the difference between archaeologists and antiquities looters, especially as it was made by what the newspaper declared 'a group of Evangelicals that are not interested in findings and science. It is part of a missionary process of messianic prophecies'.

The academics concerned are: Prof. Gershon Galil – head of the Institute for Biblical Research and Ancient History in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa; Prof. Scott Stripling, provost and professor of biblical archaeology and church history at the Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, and director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at ancient Shiloh; and Pieter Gert van der Veen of Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.

The object was recovered by wet-sieving of a huge sample of earth removed from (and apparently also not returned to) the site at Mt Ebal where wall foundations and floors lie exposed to weathering from an earlier excavation. This earth had been transported (apparently with no excavation permit having been issued) to be processed at the settlement of Shavei Shomron, 10 km away. The lead tablet was then taken (again no export licence seems to have been nvolved) to Prague for CT scanning and it is claimed it is a curse tablet reading: "Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed.” Since the object is not grounded in any kind of archaeological context, the group's dating of the object to the 13th century B.C.E. is reportedly based on the shape of the letters, some of which are similar to archaic writing discovered in Sinai. Haraatz note that most scholars are very sceptical about the nature and dating of the object, recovered loose from soil taken from a disturbed site. They add:

Before even considering the raging academic debate about the curse tablet, we have to ask a more fundamental question: How did a finding from a site under Palestinian control come into the hands of Israeli and U.S. researchers? Was it excavated legally, and what is its legal status? The Israel Defense Forces’ Civil Administration, which is in charge of all archaeological activity in the West Bank, called the dig “private activity.” The Mount Ebal site is in Area B of the West Bank – in other words, nominally under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control. According to the Oslo Accords and international law, Israel can’t issue an excavation license at the site. And, of course, removing findings from it without such a license is forbidden. An attempt to get answers from the Civil Administration via the staff officer for archaeology proved unsuccessful. As far as is known, Stripling, together with Aaron Lipkin – a resident of the settlement of Ofra and an activist on issues of tourism and archaeology in the occupied territories – and Associates for Biblical Research, under the auspices of the Samaria Regional Council, organized a group of volunteers in 2019. The volunteers arrived at Mount Ebal and worked on three large piles of waste that remained from Zertal’s excavations in the ’80s. They loaded the waste into dozens of large plastic bags and drove them to the Samaria Touring and Study Center, in the settlement of Shavei Shomron.[...] Archaeologist Alon Arad is the CEO of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO working to prevent the politicization of archaeology in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He believes that a preoccupation with the finding is in itself problematic. “What difference does it make whether it’s the 11th century or the 13th century?” he asks. “Simply paying attention to it cleanses its dubious origin and subverts the professional foundations of archaeology. An archaeological dig is fundamentally supervised demolition, and therefore it requires a license and must be carried out under a consensual methodology. When a finding arrives that originates in a pirate dig, it is treated accordingly,” says Arad [...] Where is the license for this activity? [...] PA officials say the Israeli and U.S. researchers did not ask for permission to take the soil or to work at the Mount Ebal site, and in any case didn’t receive such permission. “We condemn this activity, which was done in violation of international law,” said a senior official in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.