by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem announced last week that they unearthed a rare 1,700-year-old oil lamp with a clearly defined Jewish Temple Menorah engraving on it, Crosswalk reports.
Experts have said discovery of the lamp is all the more remarkable as little evidence has been uncovered of Jewish life in Jerusalem from the third to the fifth centuries, after Roman Emperor Hadrian suppressed the Bar Kochba rebellion and expelled Jews from the city in 135 AD.
Announcing the find on Thursday December 26, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the ancient lamp is believed to be a “Beit Nattif-type” named after an ancient workshop unearthed nearly 100 years ago near Bet Shemesh, a town west of Jerusalem.
“Oil lamps with menorah decorations are exceedingly rare, and only a few similar Beit Nattif-type lamps can be found in the National Treasures archive, IAA research archaeologist Benjamin Storchan said in a statement.
“The choice of symbols on the lamp is not accidental. This is a fascinating testimony connecting everyday objects and faiths among ancient Jerusalem’s inhabitants. It seems that the lamp belonged to a Jew, who purchased it because of its religious affiliation and memorial to the Temple,” Storchan explained.
“It is evident that the lamp maker dedicated a great deal of time and effort to its decoration,” Storchan added. “The molds were made in two parts (upper and lower). To create the lamp, the potter pressed the clay into the molds and then pressed them together. Finally, the vessel was fired, and it could be used. This method of producing lamps in molds allowed for refined designs, as well as the addition of delicate and intricate decorations,” he said.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Austria’s fiercely anti-migration Freedom Party (FPO) was likely to appoint its first chancellor after being invited by the Alpine nation’s president to explore forming a government in what amounted to a political earthquake in this country of roughly 9 million people.
Despite political turmoil, South Korea rang in the New Year with a digital pledge to citizens aged 17 and over: They will soon be able to store their resident registration cards on their smartphones.
Family members faced more agony on Sunday after fighters of Hamas released a video of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.
Christians in Islamic-ruled Sudan were recovering from their injuries on Thursday after Muslim fighters reportedly attacked a church service in the nation’s Al Jazirah state with 14 Christians.
Christians in Pakistan’s Punjab province are mourning Suleman Masih, a 25-year-old Christian farmer, who they say was “brutally murdered” by “Muslim landlords” on New Year’s Day.
South Korean anti-corruption investigators have failed to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a nearly six-hour standoff with his security team on Friday.
A young boy who disappeared in northern Zimbabwe after wandering into a game park teeming with lions and elephants has miraculously survived five agonizing days alone in the jungle, Worthy News learned Saturday.