A 2,200-year-old gold earring has been unearthed near the site of the ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem, providing rare evidence of Hellenistic influence on the region.
The four centimetre (1.5 inch)-long filigree hoop was discovered during excavations outside Jerusalem’s walled Old City, and is adorned with a horned animal that is believed to be an antelope or deer.
The ‘unique’ find is the first earring found in Jerusalem that dates to the Hellenistic period around the third or early second centuries BC, researchers aid.
The Hellenistic period sat between Jerusalem’s conquest by Alexander the Great and the Jewish revolt against pagan rule recounted in the biblical Books of the Maccabees.
A 2,200-year-old gold earring has been unearthed near the site of the ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem in what archaeologists have called rare evidence of Hellenistic influence
The earring was found at a site around 200 metres (660 feet) south of the Temple Mount, which today houses al Aqsa mosque and is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
‘This is the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem,’ said Yuval Gadot, a Tel Aviv University archaeology professor involved in the dig.
The Israel Antiquities Authority said the trinket might have been worn by wealthy men or women at the time.
Its owner would probably have been either a Greek living in Jerusalem or a local ‘Hellenised Jew’, he said.
‘We connect it to other things and maybe we will have a better understanding of Jerusalem – not just the text but how people really behaved here,’ Dr Gadot told Reuters.
‘During the course of over a century of archaeological digs in the city, many small discoveries have been made from this period’, directors of the excavation, Dr Gadot and Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the Antiquities Authority told Israel National News.
Found at the Givati Parking Lot dig in the Old City of Jerusalem, the ancient piece is adorned with a horned animal that is believed to be an antelope or a deer
The ‘unique’ find is the first earring found in Jerusalem that dates to the Hellenistic period around the third or early second centuries BC
The Hellenistic period was roughly between Jerusalem’s conquest by Alexander the Great and the Jewish revolt against pagan rule recounted in the biblical Books of the Maccabees
The 4 centimetre (1.5 inch)-long filigree hoop was discovered during excavations outside Jerusalem’s walled Old City
This mainly consisted of ‘pottery fragments and a few coins – but hardly any remains of buildings that could be accurately dated to this period’, researchers said.
The animal on the earring has large eyes, a mouth and other facial features.
Not only is the piece very high quality but it was also found near to the Temple Mount and the Temple, which were both in use at the time.
Experts say the piece was created using a technique called filigree in which threads and metal beads are combined to create complex patterns.
Similar earrings have been found across the Mediterranean but they are rare in Israel.
The Israel Antiquities Authority said the trinket might have been worn by wealthy men or women at the time. Similar earrings have been found across the Mediterranean but they are rare in Israel
The animal on the earring has large eyes, a mouth and other facial features. Not only is the piece very high quality but it was also found near to the Temple Mount and the Temple, which were both in use at the time
Experts say the piece was created using a technique called filigree. This is when threads and metal beads are combined to create complex patterns
Similar earrings have been found across the Mediterranean but they are rare in Israel. Researchers say that the earrings reveal residents were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but were well-off individuals
Researchers say that the earrings reveal residents were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but were well-off individuals.
The Hellenistic period is ‘a fascinating era about which we know very little when it comes to Jerusalem’.
Researchers believe that during the early Hellenistic era, settlement in the city ‘did not reach farther than the top of the hill in the City of David, but then spread slightly to the west into the Tyropoeon Valley.’
The jewellery will be on display at the City of David’s annual archaeological conference starting in September.
The Hellenistic period is ‘a fascinating era about which we know very little when it comes to Jerusalem’, researchers say. Pictured is a view of the dig
Old bones found by Israeli archeologists are seen at the site where a rare golden earring believed to be more than 2,000 years-old
Old bones and pieces of ceramic found by Israeli archeologists at the site. Researchers say that the earrings reveal residents were not peasants who settled in empty areas on the periphery of the central area, but were well-off individuals
The jewellery will be on display at the City of David’s annual archaeological conference starting in September. Pictured are archaeologists working at the site
WHAT IS THE MYSTERIOUS ‘POOL’ DISCOVERED IN JERUSALEM?
A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority have been excavating an ancient site near Jerusalem between 2012 and 2016.
The site is located in Ein Hanya, which is the second-largest spring in the Judean Hills.
Experts say Ein Hanya was also the site of a key story described in the New Testament, wherein St. Philip the Evangelist baptised and converted an Ethiopian man to Christianity.
It’s unclear what the pool was actually used for, but scientists say it may have been used for baptisms.
The pool dates back the Byzantine Era, which occurred some 1,500 years ago.
Scientists believe the pool (pictured) may have been served as a place for irrigation, washing or landscaping. It may have also been the site of a storied baptism from the New Testament