antiquities 449.ant.0002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Probably most of Dayan�s looting was done in areas conquered after 1967 and under his own military rule. There he faced no democratic institutions to oppose him. For exactly this reason, we know very little about his deeds in the West Bank and Gaza after 1967.� The cases brought above are not exceptional, nor the worst. Perhaps the worst case of antiquities robbery by Dayan happened at Deir el Balah in the Gaza strip and concerned dozens of Late Bronze Age anthropoid coffins and their contents (for the site and the finds see Dothan 1973; 1978; Giveon 1977; Hestrin 1972; New Acquisitions 1972; 1975). However, it is a long story, whose details are partly still obscure. Surprisingly, photographs of Dayan looting sites were published, mainly after the six days war, when he became a national hero. A large photographic album of victory edited by P. Yurman (1968, without page numbers), shows pictures under the following captions: �The amateur archaeologist surveys the area, equipped with a shovel� (Dayan with two soldiers in uniforms behind him). �After surveying a cave which may have had antiquities� (Dayan sorting a hewn cave). �Checking carefully something in the far away Negev: an ancient sherd? A sherd of a jug? Behind him his chief of staff� (this picture shows both men in uniforms, with hunched backs, looking after antiquities in the ground).