Thursday, July 30, 2009
Can You Read This?
If so - contact the archaeologists!
From the Jerusalem Post:
Jul 29, 2009 16:53 Updated Jul 30, 2009 9:38
Know what this says?
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A unique Aramaic inscription on a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during the first century has been uncovered in a dig on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, an archeologist said Wednesday.
The six-week excavation is being carried out within the Gan Sobev Homot Yerushalayim national park, close to the Zion Gate of the Old City.
The 10-line Aramaic script, which is clear but cryptic, is being deciphered by a team of epigraphic experts in an effort to determine the meaning of the text, said Prof. Shimon Gibson, of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who is co-directing the excavation.
"This is a difficult script, not one that is worn or graded, which demands research," Gibson said.
He estimated that it would take a couple of months to determine what the inscription says.
"It is like digging out grandparents' hand-written letters," he quipped. [Oh please, it wouldn't take me a 'couple of months' to read anything written by my grandparents, unless it was in Polish.]
Gibson said the find uncovered two weeks ago was rare because few inscriptions from the Second Temple Period had been discovered in Jerusalem.
The dig also uncovered a sequence of building dating from the First and Second Temple periods through to the Byzantine and Early Islamic eras.
The additional finds include a house complex with a mikve ritual bath featuring a remarkably well preserved vaulted ceiling. Three bread ovens - dated to 70 CE, when Titus and the Roman army stormed the city - were also found in the house.
Archeologists believe that this area of Jerusalem's Upper City was the priestly quarter during Second Temple times.
A large arched building with a mosaic floor from the Byzantine period preserved to a height of 3 meters was also uncovered. It may be part of a building complex or street associated with the nearby Church of St. Mary.
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