A citizen of Israel, he was afraid of the Apocalypse because of the coronavirus, decided to confess the crime and return the 2,000-year-old core for a catapult, which he stole 15 years ago.
«The time has come to clear his conscience. It seems the world is ending,» said the man, whose name was not called, according to the online news site Times of Israel, which quoted a press release of the Israel Antiquities Authority, published on Monday.
The man, who was tortured conscience, have used the services of a man named Moshe Manis as an intermediary to deliver the core about the size of a bowling ball in the national Park «City of David». Manis, who has kept the identity of the thief in secret, said that the theft occurred 15 years ago, when 2 young men noticed the collection of cores to the catapult, told the online news site of Israel.
«One of the boys took one of the stones home,» Manis wrote in the post in Facebook, which attracted the attention of the Antiquities Authority. «While there was time he married and raised children, and told me that the last 15 years the core stone was placed on his heart,» he wrote. «And now, when he stumbled upon it during the purification before the Passover, and considering the feelings of the impending Apocalypse, he felt that the time had come to clear his conscience, and asked me to help him return to the core of the Israel Antiquities Authority».
Ultrasound Rothstein, the inspector of the Israel Antiquities Authority, which was specified in one of the comments to the post of Manisa, told about the return of the core. «These artifacts that are thousands of years, are our national treasure. They tell the story of the country and those who inhabited it before us. They should be documented and put on display,» said Rothstein.
Dr. Yuval Baruch said that the ancient weapons were used during the siege to hit the walls of the fortress. «Kernel for catapults, which were found in the City of David, is likely to involve heavy combat between forces besieged Jerusalem and soldiers of the Roman legions in the year 70 ad – the year of the destruction of Jerusalem,» he explained.
