Ziad Al-Saad, the Director General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan has said that the manuscripts stolen by Israel are of great value on both historical and religious aspects. Al-Saad pointed out that those manuscripts go back for the early stages of Christianity as they contain many of the first Christian teachings.

Al-Saad has told AmmanNet that the Department has taken the needed procedures to retrieve the stolen pieces. The Department has prepared a complete legal document that shall be submitted to the specialized international sides throughout national institutions under the umbrella of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to retrieve the manuscripts.

The Director General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan has reveled that antiquates were smuggled to Israel in an illegal way.

An antiquity expert has described the press conference as a ‘scandal’, as the announcement should have been about retrieving the stolen pieces not the other way round.

This expert, who asked not to unveil his identity, has expected that the stolen antiquities will not be retrieved and shall meet the same fate as Joshua’s engravings and the façade of Al-Mashta Palace that the Department is still unable to get hold of them yet.

Some unmentioned sides were accused by the expert of facilitating the steeling of such antiquities when he expressed his astonishment of the fact that this large number of pieces has left the country without being discovered.

The stolen pieces are 70 books of led plates in addition to rolls and panels of copper go back to the first century.