Israel nabs thieves trying to steal a 2000-year-old comb from the Dead Sea cave

A gang of thieves tried to steal a 2,000-year-old comb, used to remove hair lice, from a desert cave in the Dead Sea near to where the Dead Sea scrolls had been found. The comb was a part of ancient relics dating back to the Roman period, 2,000 years ago, and the Chalcolithic period, 5,000 years ago.
The items had been left behind by the rebels in ancient times and these ranged from shoes and tools to texts written on papyrus. These have remained preserved for centuries in the arid desert air and are worth their worth in gold. Hence are good propositions for looters because the relics can fetch large sums on the black market.
A set of ancient relics - known as the Dead Sea Scrolls – had been discovered in caves in this region between 1947 and 1956. These scrolls included among other things, the oldest copies of many Biblical texts, apart from secular writing relating to life in the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD.
The alleged thieves were caught by Israeli police as they were leaving a site known as the "Cave of Skulls", halfway down a sheer cliff.
Robbers have long been targeting archaeological sites in the remote area, which was a hideout for Jewish rebels in the days of the Roman Empire.
The Israel Antiquities Authority have indicated that thefts had been going on undetected for a long time and this was one instance when they have been caught. The suspects were all young men from Seir, a village near Hebron, and had expertise in rock climbing because they reached the cave by climbing and rappelling down the cliff.