Looters' arrest uncovers 2,000-year-old workshop near Jerusalem biblical pilgrimage path

Authorities in Israel recently conducted a sting operation against antiquities thieves - and uncovered a 2,000-year-old workshop that once supplied pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced the discovery Feb. 16. 

In a press release shared with Fox News Digital, authorities said the workshop was found in an underground cave on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.

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Officials arrived at the cave one night after carefully tracking the robbers - and caught them in the act.

The suspects were caught red-handed with quarry tools and a metal detector. The five suspects were arrested and confessed to the charges against them, according to officials.

"They will soon be indicted both for damage to and for illegal excavation of an antiquities site - offenses punishable by law, for which the proscribed penalty is up to five years in prison," the IAA release stated.

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But what began as a theft investigation quickly turned into a major archaeological discovery.

The workshop dates to the Second Temple period - the era in which Jesus lived and preached in Jerusalem.

In the cave, officials found "hundreds of stone vessel fragments, production waste and unfinished items," per the release.

"To their amazement, they discovered hundreds of unique stone vessel fragments," the statement said.

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The site was once located along a main road once used by Jewish pilgrims - particularly those traveling to and from the Jordan Valley, Jericho and the Dead Sea region.

"It seems that the vessels produced here were marketed in the streets of Jerusalem to both the city's residents and to visitors making a pilgrimage during the Second Temple period," the IAA said.

Officials also said the production and use of the stone vessels were "unique to the Jewish population," as religious rituals came into play.

"Ancient sources describe a revolution in the field of purity and impurity during this period, in which there was widespread strictness in the laws of impurity and purity that affected every person," said the release.

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"During this period, archaeology has found that purification mikvahs began to be installed in private homes, in villages and towns in the countryside, alongside large purification mikvahs in the city of Jerusalem, near and around the Temple environs, and along the roads leading up to Jerusalem."

The vessels were used for multiple purposes, including drinking and storing grain, said Eitan Klein, the deputy director of the Theft Prevention Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Klein told Fox News Digital the evidence suggests the workshop once operated at a large scale.

"This was probably an industrial-scale workshop that produced vessels for the large Jewish population and pilgrims who arrived in Jerusalem in those days," he said.

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In the press release, Klein said the discovery of the workshop is "particularly important, because now a broad picture of the region is emerging."

The artifacts are now on display at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.

In a statement, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu described the cave as "not merely an archaeological site, but a window into a world preserved deep within the ground, waiting for us."

"Attempts by our enemies to loot antiquities are not crimes of financial theft, but efforts to steal our identity," said Eliyahu.

"We will not allow this, and will continue to act decisively to preserve and safeguard what has always been ours, and always will be."