Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed a uncommon 1,300-year-old lead medallion adorned on either side with the picture of a seven-branched menorah — the ceremonial candlestick distinctive to the Second Temple.
Researchers assume the medallion was worn on a necklace by a Jewish individual within the late sixth or early seventh century, when town and surrounding area have been underneath the rule of the Christian Byzantine Empire — solely a long time earlier than town fell, first to the Sasanian Persians in 614 after which to largely Arab Islamic invaders in about 638.
“Someday whereas I used to be digging inside an historical construction, I all of the sudden noticed one thing completely different, grey, among the many stones,” Ayayu Belete, an archaeological employee for the nonprofit Metropolis of David Basis, stated within the assertion. “I picked up the thing and noticed that it was a pendant with a menorah on it.”
The invention is a shock to archaeologists as a result of Jews have been restricted from coming into town at the moment. Centuries earlier, the Jewish folks’s failed Bar Kochba (additionally spelled Kokhba) Revolt from 132 to 136 (the third main rebel towards Roman rule in Judaea) led the Roman emperor Hadrian to declare that Jerusalem can be rebuilt as “Aelia Capitolina” and that the encircling province of Judaea can be referred to as Syria-Palaestina. This historical title was impressed by the long-dead Philistines, biblical enemies of the Israelites who had lived alongside the close by Mediterranean coast.
Uncommon medallion
The newfound medallion was found inside a Late Byzantine-era constructing, which had been buried beneath a thick layer of rubble from building work directed by town’s Umayyad rulers a couple of a long time after the Islamic conquest, the assertion stated.
The medallion is disc-shaped, with a loop on the prime. Each side depict a seven-branched menorah, a kind of menorah that was used solely in Jerusalem’s Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. (9-branched menorahs are used these days at Hanukkah.) The highest of every candlestick department on the medallion has a horizontal crossbar with flames rising above it. One facet of the medallion is nicely preserved, however the different facet is roofed by a pure patina from weathering; evaluation exhibits it was made virtually fully of lead.
Just one different millennia-old lead medallion bearing the menorah image has ever been discovered earlier than, the assertion stated. “A pendant product of pure lead, adorned with a menorah, is an exceptionally uncommon discover,” IAA archaeologists Yuval Baruch, Filip Vukosavović, Esther Rakow-Mellet and Shulamit Terem wrote within the assertion. “The double look of the menorah on either side of the disc signifies the deep significance of this image.”
Hadrian’s metropolis
Jews have been supposedly forbidden from coming into town in Byzantine occasions and had been because the Roman victory within the Bar Kochba revolt. However in response to Günter Stemberger, an emeritus professor Jewish Research on the College of Vienna, the prohibition was generally relaxed, and plenty of Jews lived in close by cities and territories.
Nonetheless, it is unclear what significance these medallions held for his or her homeowners. “Had been they personal objects of Jews who got here to town for varied causes — maybe retailers, or these on administrative missions, or people who got here to town as secret pilgrims, and underneath unofficial circumstances?” the archaeological crew wrote within the assertion.
The newfound medallion reveals that “during times when imperial edicts have been issued prohibiting Jews from residing within the metropolis, they didn’t cease coming there,” stated Baruch, the IAA’s Jerusalem District archaeologist.
The truth that the medallion was constituted of lead indicated it was worn as an amulet — and possibly hidden — somewhat than as jewellery, in response to Baruch. “Lead was thought of a standard and significantly in style materials for making amulets at the moment,” he stated.
