A rare bronze scale pan was discovered during excavations in the ancient Jewish town of Sussiya by a father and daughter participating in an educational dig, the Mount Hebron Regional Council announced on Thursday.
The dig was conducted by schools from the area, in cooperation with the Civil Administration’s Staff Officer for Archaeology in the West Bank and the Mount Hebron Regional Council.
Neta, a second-grader at Sussiya's regional school, and her father, Nachshon, discovered the pan inside a residential building near the town’s main street.
According to the statement, the bronze pan was part of a set of portable hanging scales common in ancient Israel, which included two small bowls with tiny holes along their rims suspended across a balance.
The find will undergo a formal conservation process and is expected to be displayed to the public in the future.
'Project is invaluable'
“Finding a scale pan in the heart of an ancient Jewish settlement is like finding a book of ethics buried in the ground,” Dr. Achiya Cohen-Tavor, archaeologist and director of the excavation, said, adding that the discovery “illustrates how the residents of Sussiya put the biblical commandment of 'Just balances, just weights shall you have’ [Leviticus 19] into practice.”
“In a world where every human action was understood as capable of tipping the scales of the entire world between merit and debt, this physical find is testimony to a life of social and spiritual responsibility."
Eliram Azulay, head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, affirmed the importance of the communal and educational digs, as they allow the “younger generation to take an active part in uncovering our heritage and connecting to our roots.”
“It's an amazing project that connects children to heritage, culture, and the land,” Nachshon added, echoing Azulay’s words. “It's uplifting to see young children digging with such professionalism and according to careful, delicate excavation protocols. The project is invaluable.”