A very large portion of the fighting force that the IDF has deployed is made up of reservists, who pursue a host of different careers in their civilian lives. For one such reservist, Lieutenant-Colonel Yair Amitsur, his nonmilitary training proved useful when he and a fellow reserve officer came across a large bowl-shaped item in the staging ground just outside Gaza, which he recognized as an ancient mortar. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich reports:
Amitsur, the commander of the civilian frontline in Division 143, and Major Eliashiv Buhbut discovered the tool made of basalt, which weighs more than ten kilograms. . . . Amitsur, who ordinarily is an IAA archaeologist, immediately recognized that it was an ancient grinding tool.
“Black-colored basalt is familiar from the north of the country as in Tiberias or Safed, or from other remote areas,” Amitsur explained. “It was clear to me that the tool we found was brought here from afar and was probably used in the past in the home of one of the residents of the area to grind grain or other products, which is done with a heavy pestle. We were excited to . . . receive a greeting from the past and engage in some good news. The tool reminds us that throughout the generations, the Western Negev served as a significant settlement area where a variety of cultures settled. There were also wars in the past, but in the end, settlement always returned, and the area again flourished,” he added.
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-781162