Blog – Fragments of Time

World’s Oldest Ten Commandments Tablet Sold

An important artifact of early biblical archaeology has a new owner after a fierce bidding war.

The world’s earliest known tablet of the Ten Commandments sold at Heritage Auction November 16 in Beverly Hills for $850,000. The lot opened at $300,000, a 50% premium to the $200,000 reserve. Two telephone bidders battled to the ultimate sale price, and so far the winner has wished to remain anonymous.

Known as the Yavneh Ten Commandments Stone, the two-foot square white marble slab weighing 200 pounds, the table is inscribed with 20 lines of Paleo-Hebrew characters rendered in Samaritan dialect. The punctuation and distinctive rendering of the Samaritan letters led scholars to date the tablet to the period between the fourth and eight centuries A.D.

“The first two lines form a dedication, the second line of which is underlined to distinguish it from the 18 subsequent lines. These contain the Mosaic 10 Commandments in the form used by the Samaritans, with an additional admonition to build a temple on the holy mountain of Gerizim, now located near the West Bank city of Nablus,” according to Heritage.

Scholars have suggested the slab once originally adorned the entrance to a synagogue that may have been destroyed by the Romans or during the Crusades. It is first documented in a scholarly report published in 1947 by the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society which recounts the slab being first uncovered in 1913 during railroad construction along a southern coastal plain of Palestine. The workmen, unaware of the importance of the tablet, apparently sold it to a local wealthy Arab gentleman who set the stone in the threshold to his inner courtyard. Foot traffic over the ensuing three decades smoothed the center portion leaving the inscription difficult to read in areas.

The stone table was consigned for sale by Brooklyn-based Living Torah Museum established by noted American Rabbi Saul Deutsch. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which granted export approval for the object in perpetuity to Deutsch’s Museum, consented to the sale on the condition that the tablet be placed on public display “where all can view it and enjoy,” according to the auction house.

Roman Catacomb Painting Raises Questions on Role of Women

Excerpted from ArtNews:

At the Catacombs of Santa Priscilla, Rome’s oldest Christian cemetery, ancient art may indicate that woman were once priests, reports the BBC.

Scholars have long been in disagreement over the meaning of one fresco, the Fractio Panis, which appears to depict a Eucharistic meal, with seven seated figures at a table, one breaking bread. The traditional reading of the work assumes that “if that figure is breaking bread, then he has to be male, because women wouldn’t break bread and be leading the Eucharist,” Nicola Denzey Lewis, a professor of religious studies at Rhode Island’s Brown University, told the BBC.

Denzey Lewis claims that someone has removed some of the paint from the face of the figure breaking bread to make it look darker, suggesting the presence of a beard. Many modern academics share her belief that the figures are wearing female garb, particularly the veiled individual in the middle, but Denzey Lewis isn’t convinced the scene depicts a celebration of Mass, as game-changing as that would be for the history of the Catholic church.

“It was only called a Eucharist because the 19th-century Catholic clergyman who discovered it, when he saw a meal, that’s where his mind went,” Denzey Lewis explained. “I think it’s a woman in charge, absolutely. But I don’t see evidence in that scene for women priests.” Alternately, the women could be holding a funereal banquet, a religious ritual for both pagans and early Christians…

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Fascinating Images of the Discovery of Britain’s Largest Saxon Coin Hoard

Check out these amazing pictures of the unearthing of the largest Saxon silver coin hoard ever found. The hoard of more than 5,000 nearly perfect silver coins were discovered in the Buckinghamshire village of Lenborough, near Padbury, on December 21, 2014 at a metal detecting rally that took place with the permission of the landowner.

They were found wrapped in a lead sheet and depict the heads of kings Ethelred the Unready and Canute and come from 40 different mints around England.

A final valuation has yet to be completed, but it is thought the coins could be worth up to £1.3m.

Interesting BBC news report here: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-31361054

Fascinating photos of the excavation of the coins: http://www.weekendwanderersdetecting.com/INTRODUCTION/SAXON_HOARD_/saxon_hoard_.html

Byzantine-era Pottery Vessel Saved Before Tumbling into the Sea

A strong storm this week on the Southern Coast of Israel partially revealed a Byzantine-era pottery jar precariously positioned on a cliff above the sea.

Emergency excavations safely extricated the vessel which is believed to date to the 4th-6th Century AD when the area was home to a prosperous Byzantine costal community.

Picture and details:

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Emergency-Antiquities-Authority-storm-excavation-saves-ancient-jug-off-Israeli-coast-390876

Egyptian Museum Criticized for Hasty Repair of King Tutankhamun’s Beard

Photo said to show repair of King Tut’s beard

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is making international headlines after disclosure that tee-shirted workmen hastily reattached the blue and gold braided beard of the iconic burial mask of the boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun. Some reports say the repair was made with epoxy known for its strong adhesion properties but also rarely used on archaeological objects because it is not fully reversible.

Further, reports say that residue from the “repair” dried on the face as well and a second worked attempted to remove it with a spatula damaging it with scratches.

There have been past reports of objects being mishandled and lacking proper conservation at the world famous museum but this is the first time it involves an object of such stature. Such heavy-fisted conservation certainly stands in start contrast to Egypt’s aggressive and heavy-handed attempts over the past two decades to repatriate ancient objects safely conserved with the utmost care and security in museum collections in Berlin, Paris, London.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30944815