Amid coronavirus fears, Israeli thief returns stolen 2000-year-old artifact

An Israeli man has returned a 2000-year-old ballista stone that he stole from a Jerusalem archaeological site over 15 years ago amid fears around coronavirus pandemic. incident was made public by man named Moshe Manies, who narrated incident on Facebook saying that stone was returned to him by a man, on account of anymity, to deliver to  City of David National Park. 

According to Manies' post, guilt-ridden thief asked him to keep his identity a secret and informed him that he along with a friend landed on collection of ballista stones on ir trip to Jerusalem. “One of boys took one of stones home,” Manies wrote in his Facebook post. “And w, when he came across it while cleaning for Passover, toger with apocalyptic feeling that coronavirus has generated, he felt time was ripe to clear his conscience and asked me to help him return it to Israel Antiquities Authority (sic),” Manies added. 

Read: UK’s Top Epidemiologist Says Coronavirus Infections Showing Signs Of Slowdown

Read: Coronavirus: Fear Of Widespread Hunger Looms Large As Zimbabwe Enters 21-day Lockdown

Inspector at ft Prevention Unit ticed

post caught attention of  Israel Antiquities Authority, as an inspector in IAA’s ft Prevention Unit named Uzi Rotstein was tagged in comment section by one of site users. officer n initiated process to retrieve rare artifact, as per Israel’s state media report.

Officer Rotstein told Israeli press that thousand years old artifacts, such as this one, were national treasure. He was quoted saying that its burglary was regretful. stone expressed hidden stories of land and people that lived re before today's modern civilization, he added. It was meant to be documented and displayed in museum.  

Dr. Yuval Baruch of Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem region told international media that stone was an ancient weapon that was employed to besiege opposition forces by projectiles at fortress walls. ballista stones, she added, were significant of deadly battles fought in Jerusalem with soldiers of Roman Legion.

Read: Iran Reports 117 More Coronavirus Deaths, Total Cases Reach 41,495

Read: Coronavirus In Italy: Maxi Lopez Slams Wanda Icardi For Risking ir Kids' Lives