THE BEIT SHEAN ARSON: Ha'aretz (via Bible and Interpretation News) has a very long and informative article on what happened and what was lost. Excerpts:

Up in smoke
By Avihai Becker
When a fire swept through an antiquities warehouse near the Beit Shean archaeological site earlier this month, thousands of artifacts were destroyed. Now it is clear the fire was set deliberately, but no one knows why.

It was apparently just another routine fire. Two weeks ago Wednesday, the Beit Shean firefighters were called to a structure next to the local mall that was engulfed in flames. The time was 7:57 P.M. Within two minutes, word of the fire reached the regional fire station in Afula as well. Two fire engines, a water tanker and a control car carrying veteran officer Avraham Tal rushed to the scene. When Tal arrived, he found that the basalt structure, 30 meters long, was burning from end to end and its ceiling was collapsing. Frantic onlookers told him that the structure was an antiquities warehouse.

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"Eighteen years of excavations down the drain" was the title of the joint press release issued by the Antiquities Authority and the Nature and Parks Authority. Amos Sabag, commander of firefighting and rescue services in the Jezreel region, sent fire investigator Miki Cohen, who found "at least two separate fire centers, with no connection between one and the other," as he wrote in his report. "The main entrance door to the structure was broken into," he added, and the lock was found to be broken. "I did not find any signs of an electrical short or of materials that could spontaneously combust," Cohen wrote. "I used a machine to test for gas fumes, which detected a relatively sharp odor next to the two fire centers, indicating the use of a flammable substance." The conclusion was "premeditated arson." The Beit Shean police went into action.

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"The Beit Shean national park is the most ambitious archeological project ever undertaken in Israel," explains Gabi Mazor of the Antiquities Authority, who directed the excavation project together with his colleagues from Hebrew University, professors Yoram Tzafrir and Gideon Foerster. His previous position in the Antiquities Authority was chief archaeologist for the northern district. A native Jerusalemite, after the army he settled on Kibbutz Revivim and became a teacher in the Ma'aleh Habesor regional school. Among other places, he has excavated in Halutza, Mamshit and Tel Dan. In the coming months, he will be working with an American group excavating at Omrit to uncover a temple whose construction is attributed to Herod. The work in Beit Shean is especially dear to him.

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The only bit of consolation left is the realization that the damage could have been much greater. "Statues, coins, inscriptions, glass, artifacts of some significance and worthy of restoration were already sent to our labs in Jerusalem," says Mazor. "Everyone knew that in the warehouse there were no items of great financial value. The main worry, if there was one, was that they would steal columns and capitals - fantastic things that were scattered around. But they didn't touch those."

The motive, therefore, if not money, was simply a desire to wreak destruction. "I can't remember any other acts of vandalism and so I am genuinely surprised," says Mazor. "Valuable artifacts, the kind that are displayed to the public in the various museums, are not here. So what's the problem? The answer is that while the shards that were stored here weren't destined for museums, they were crucial for scientific research and for use in writing scientific articles. Luckily, I'd already finished processing most of the raw material I needed for a summary report on the excavation, which will be published starting next year. Unfortunately, this is not the situation for two other groups involved in the project. The direct damage done to their work is worse than it is to mine."

And that's not all. "A researcher - either tomorrow or 20 years from now - who wants to examine the validity of the publication and authenticate the data upon which the conclusions were based will need to have all the pottery available. Because of the fire, all this documentation is lost to us."

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