Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed a rare 1,300-year-old lead medallion decorated on both sides with images of a seven-branched menorah, a ceremonial menorah unique to the Second Temple.
Researchers believe the medallion was placed on a necklace by Jews in the late 6th or early 7th century, when the city and surrounding area were under the control of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The city fell only a few decades ago, first to the Sassanid Persians in 614 and then to mainly Arab Muslim invaders around 638.
you may like
“One day, as we were digging inside the ancient structure, we suddenly saw something different and gray among the stones,” Ayayu Berete, an archaeologist with the nonprofit City of David Foundation, said in a statement. “When I picked up the object, it turned out to be a pendant with a menorah attached to it.”
The discovery came as a surprise to archaeologists, as Jewish access to the city was restricted at the time. Centuries ago, the failed Jewish Bar Kochoba (also spelled Kokhba) revolt (also spelled Kokhba) (the third major revolt against Roman rule in Judea), which took place between 132 and 136 AD, led the Roman Emperor Hadrian to rebuild Jerusalem as “Aelia Capitolina” and declare the surrounding Judean province to be known as Syro-Palestine. This ancient name was inspired by the long-dead Philistines, the enemies of the Biblical Israelites who lived on the nearby Mediterranean coast.
rare medallion
The newly discovered medallion was found inside a late Byzantine building that had been buried under a thick layer of rubble from construction work ordered by Umayyad rulers decades after the Islamic conquest, the statement said.
The medallion is disc-shaped with a loop at the top. Both sides depict a type of seven-branched menorah that was only used in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. (Nine-branched menorahs are now used on Hanukkah.) At the top of each medallion menorah branch is a horizontal bar from which the flame rises. One side of the medallion is well preserved, while the other side is covered in a natural patina from weathering. According to analysis, it was made almost entirely of lead.
Only one other thousand-year-old lead medallion inscribed with the menorah symbol has ever been discovered, the statement said. “A pure lead pendant decorated with a menorah is an extremely rare find,” IAA archaeologists Yuval Baruch, Filip Vukosavović, Esther Rakow-Meret and Shulamit Tellem said in a statement. “The double appearance of the menorah on each side of the disc indicates the deep meaning of this symbol.”
Hadrian’s city
Jews were probably prohibited from entering the city during Byzantine times, and had been banned since the Roman victory in the Bar Kochba revolt. But Günther Steenberger, professor emeritus of Jewish studies at the University of Vienna, said the ban was sometimes relaxed, and many Jews lived in nearby cities and territories.
However, it is unclear what meaning these medallions had for their owners. “Were they the personal belongings of Jews who came to the city for various reasons? Perhaps merchants, people on administrative duties, or individuals who came to the city in unofficial circumstances as clandestine pilgrims?” the archaeological team wrote in a statement.
Baruch, the IAA’s Jerusalem district archaeologist, said the newly discovered medallion reveals that “during the period when the edict banning Jews from living in the city was issued, it did not stop Jews from coming there.”
Baruch said the fact that the medallion was made of lead indicates that it was worn as a talisman, and perhaps concealed, rather than as jewelry. “Lead was considered a common and particularly popular material for making amulets at the time,” he said.
Source link
