Apparently Porcupines Are 'Excellent Archaeologists'. See the Ancient Artifact One Dug Up in Israel.

Human archaeologists get all the credit when it comes to finding treasures that give us a glimpse into antiquity, but not this time.

This time it was a porcupine who is being hailed as discovering a 1,400-year-old oil lamp in Israel.

According to the Jerusalem Post, inspectors were making rounds at a a Roman-Byzantine site in central Israel when they saw the lamp just sitting on top a pile of dirt the animal had dug up.

"The porcupine is an excellent archaeologist, a relentless digger," Ira Horovitz with the Israel Antiquities Authority told the Post. "It often happens that porcupines dig their burrows at the site of archaeological digs ... he skillfully throws the dirt aside, and with it whatever archaeological findings are in his path."

Despite the valuable find for researchers, the authority reminded everyone — porcupines included — that "digging at an archeological site without a license is a criminal offense."

(H/T: ABC)