Archeologists working in the North have discovered a three-millennia- old jewelry
trove they say may be one of the most valuable ever discovered from the biblical
period.
Experts from Tel Aviv University uncovered the hoard at Tel
Megiddo, a man-made hill near Afula, inhabited since the eighth millennium
BCE.
The newly discovered jewels date to the dawn of the Iron Age, when a
Canaanite city occupied the site just before it was subsumed into the Kingdom of
Israel.
The dig, in progress for nearly two decades, is co-directed by
Tel Aviv University’s David Ussishkin and Israel Finkelstein, with George
Washington University’s Eric H. Cline of George as associate
director.
The clay vessel in which the jewels were found was excavated in
2010. In July the vessel was emptied, and experts were stunned to find what they
described as some of the most valuable jewels ever unearthed from the biblical
period. A Tel Aviv University spokesman said the find was announced only this
week because it took the experts months to analyze and date the
jewels.
The Megiddo cache is notable for its abundance of gold jewels,
including nine large earrings and a ring seal. It also includes more than a
thousand small beads of gold, silver and carnelian – a semiprecious stone of
orange-to-amber hue. All of the artifacts are in good condition.
One of
the collection’s most remarkable items is a gold basket- shaped earring bearing
the figure of a bird, possibly an ostrich. Experts believe one of the items may
be the first of its kind ever discovered in Israel, and that its use of gold
points to possible Egyptian influence.
Megiddo, the Armageddon of
Christian Scripture, was for centuries a major trading post on the Egypt-Assyria
trade route.
So far 25 Iron Age jewelry hoards have been uncovered in
Israel, with most of them containing only silver artifacts.
“The hoard
includes a lot of gold items, which have origins in Egypt,” said Eran Arie, a
Tel Aviv University archeologist who was supervising the dig at the time of the
jewels’ discovery.
“The moment the Egyptians leave Canaan, gold begins to
disappear,” Arie told The Jerusalem Post. “It’s possible that at this stage
silver is already being used as payment, and not just raw material.”
The
items are now undergoing intensive analyses at Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann
Institute of Science and the Israel Museum. A date for their presentation to the
public has yet to be set.