In find of ancient gold earring, echoes of Greek rule over Jerusalem

In find of ancient gold earring, echoes of Greek rule over Jerusalem

by Joseph Anthony
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An employee of Israel’s Antiquities Authority holds a gold earring believed to date back more than two millennia after been unearthed near the site of the ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem, outside Jerusalem’s Old City, August 8

A gold earring believed to date back more than 2000 years has been unearthed near the site of the ancient Jewish temples in Jerusalem, in what Israeli archaeologists called rare evidence of Hellenistic influence.


The 4 centimetre long filigree hoop with a ramโ€™s head mould, shown here, was discovered during excavations outside Jerusalemโ€™s walled Old City. The dig is around 200 metres  south of the Temple Mount, which today houses al Aqsa mosque and is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said the trinketโ€™s crafting was consistent with jewellery from the early Hellenistic period โ€“ the 3rd or early 2nd-century BCE, roughly between Jerusalemโ€™s conquest by Alexander the Great and the Jewish revolt against pagan rule recounted in the biblical Books of the Maccabees.

โ€œThis is the first time somebody finds a golden earring from the Hellenistic times in Jerusalem,โ€ said Yuval Gadot, a Tel Aviv University archaeology professor involved in the find.

Such jewellery might have been worn by wealthy men or women, at the time, and its owner would probably have been either a Greek living in Jerusalem or a local โ€œHellenised Jewโ€, he said.

โ€œWe connect it to other things and maybe we will have a better understanding of Jerusalem โ€“ not just the text but how people really behaved here,โ€ Gadot told Reuters.

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