A 1,300-year-old lead pendant decorated with a menorah was uncovered during an archaeological excavation beneath the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, north of the City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Monday.
Only one other ancient lead pendant bearing the menorah symbol is known in the world, the government agency added.
The personal necklace dates to the 6th to early 7th centuries in the Late Byzantine period, and was recently discovered in a large-scale archaeological excavation in the Davidson Archaeological Park of Jerusalem.
It is decorated on both sides with an identical image of a seven-branched menorah and was apparently worn by a Jew who traveled to Jerusalem despite a ban prohibiting Jews from entry, according to the IAA.
Ayayu Belete, a City of David worker, recounted how he found the pendant.
“One day while I was digging inside an ancient structure, I suddenly saw something different, gray, among the stones. I picked up the object and saw that it was a pendant with a menorah on it. I immediately showed the find to Esther Rakow-Mellet, the area director, and she said it was an especially rare find. I was deeply moved and excited,” he said, according to the IAA statement.
“Research has identified pendants of glass and other metals decorated with a menorah, but we know of only one other pendant in the world bearing the symbol of the menorah, made of lead. That pendant, of unknown origin, is housed in The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, USA,” said IAA researchers Yuval Baruch, Filip Vukosavović, Esther Rakow-Mellet and Shulamit Terem.
Baruch assessed that wearing the personal item when access for Jews to Jerusalem was barred “is not only the essence of a personal commitment to one’s religious faith ... but it also attests that during periods when imperial edicts were issued prohibiting Jews from residing in the city, they did not stop coming there!”
He added that the choice of lead strengthens the assumption that the owner of the pendant wore it as an amulet, not jewelry. “There is a strong basis to this contention, because lead was considered a common and particularly popular material for making amulets at that time.”
The rare artifact is being displayed to the public for the first time during Chanukah as part of family tours and activities taking place at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.
The excavation in the Temple Mount area has been conducted in recent years by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the City of David Foundation and the Company for the Restoration and Development of the Jewish Quarter.
