Moshe Dayan: to archeologists, no hero

This is no news at all to anyone familiar with the recent history of the antiquities trade, but is surely generally unknown to the general public:

Stunning military victories made Israeli general Moshe Dayan an iconic figure on the international stage, but his reputation for looting antiquities is little known outside the country where his myth was born.

Across three decades until his death in 1981, Dayan, of the trademark eye patch, established a vast collection of antiquities acquired through illicit excavations. He also traded in archaeological finds in Israel and abroad, antiquities experts say.

“Moshe Dayan didn't deal in archaeology. He dealt in antiquities plundering,” said Uzi Dahari, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “He was a criminal. He knew he was breaking the law. He knew that all his activity was against the law, and he did it nevertheless” . . .

The best known of Dayan's “collecting expeditions” — and one he wasn't able to deny — occurred near Tel Aviv in 1968. There, he was badly injured in a landslide while robbing a burial cave and hospitalized for three weeks . . .

Nor did he limit his activities to Israel proper, taking advantage of his positions in the military to extend his trajectory to territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. . .

“Probably most of Dayan's looting was done in areas conquered after 1967 and under his own military rule,” Kletter wrote. “There he faced no democratic institutions to oppose him.”

Posted by David on June 17, 2006 9:52 PM