S. Phila.woman finds rare gem amid ruins

It's sort of like finding a needle in a haystack.

Only the haystack is an ancient Phoenician seaport on Israel's Mediterranean coast, the needle is a priceless gem and the searcher is a budding archaeologist on her first dig.

Megan Webb, 28, of South Philadelphia, was managing a ceramics-supply store and workshop when she began studying art history.

A 2005 graduate of University of the Arts with a fine-arts degree in ceramics, Webb enrolled in a summer field program through the University of Washington Tel Dor Archaeological Excavations and Field School.

In July, she was one of about 25 students who flew to Israel to work at Tel Dor, about 20 minutes outside Haifa. The site, a thriving seaport in its day, was host to Greeks, Persians and Romans, according to Sarah Stroup, director of the Field School at Tel Dor.

Webb and the others rose at 4 a.m. every day to beat the midsummer heat, sifting through pottery, coins, old nails, figurines, beads, and layers and layers of dirt.

One day midway through, Webb was working in the southeast corner of the foundation of an ancient Greek-influenced industrial building.

"I was digging within the Hellenistic walls, and working on the techniques that were taught to me, and leveling out the floor. And I had my trowel, working on the ground, and that's when [I found] the gemstone," Webb said.

"It was covered in dirt, but could tell by the small size and shape that it was different than a rock," she said. "It kind of stood out from anything else I had seen."

Webb had discovered a 2,300-year-old carnelian - a semiprecious, reddish-brown gemstone - into which had been carved a portrait of Alexander the Great.

The age of the half-inch long stone, which most likely would have been set in a ring, and the subject and quality of the carving made the object "a once-in-a-lifetime find," Stroup said.

It was "probably the most significant find to come out of the Mediterranean this year and maybe the last several years," she said, explaining that there are only 20 to 30 such stones in museums around the world, and the validity of several have been questioned.

"I wasn't expecting to find anything like that," Webb said.

"It was a lot of fun to see their [her professors' and fellow students'] reactions."