A precious, 2,000 year old bronze sculpure of Apollo has mysteriously appeared in the Gaza Strip…only to just as mysteriously disappear again!
Fisherman Joudat Ghrab claims to have dragged the treasure from the sea last August, but, after the statue appeared on eBay for $500,000, the local Hamas authorities descended on Ghrab and took it into custody.
As a result, archaeologists are yet to come face to face with the statue and have had to rely on a handful of photos to try to come to some initial conclusions about the find. Some, such as Jean-Michel de Tarragon, a historian with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem, are doubtful that the statue really did come from the sea, citing the lack of erosion and barnacles. There is rising suspicion that the statue was acquired illegally on land. Somehow. Somewhere.
Hopefully, though, the tale will have a happy ending:
Officials at Gaza’s tourism ministry told Reuters the statue would not be shown to the public until a criminal investigation into who tried to sell it was completed.
However, Ahmed al-Bursh, the ministry’s director of archaeology, said he had seen it and promised that Ghrab would receive a reward once the issue had been resolved.
“It is a precious treasure, an important archaeological discovery,” said Bursh. Once the statue has been released by police, his ministry plans to repair it and put it on show in Gaza.
To learn more about this mystery, click the link below:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/10/priceless-bronze-statue-apollo-gaza-strip
To learn more about the god Apollo, click the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo
"Nonne delectamini?" 