Antiquities and Ancient Art

Coin Find Rewrites History of the Temple Mount

From the What Good are a Few Bronze Coins Department....

Lots of media buzz today over a new discovery at Jerusalem's Western Wall. A small cache of bronze coins minted around 17 A.D. by the Roman official Valerius Gratus could re-write the history of one of the world's most sacred sites.

Herod has generally been credited with building the complex known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. But Herod died in 4 B.C., which means that if he oversaw the completion of the complex, it would not be possible for coins minted 21 years later to be found underneath the massive foundation stones on the Western Wall.

Read the full story here and also in the Daily Mail.

Antiquities Catalog Offers Early Christian Artifacts from Important Boston Collection

Fragments of Time, Inc., a leading international dealer in museum-quality ancient art, today released its latest catalog, Ancient Art XLIV, containing more than 50 antiquities all of which come from the collection of renowned Byzantine scholar Carroll F. Wales (1918-2007) of Boston.  Fragments of Time acquired the antiquities collection in its entirety directly from the estate, and is pleased to offer these objects to the market for the first time since they were collected by Wales several decades ago.

All of the objects highlighted in Ancient Art XLIV are related to a single theme—the art of Early Christianity—and offer collectors a unique opportunity to acquire objects of impeccable quality and provenance at prices starting at less than $200.

“Many antiquities collectors of antiquities focus on one or more of the “big three” cultures -- Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Until recently, art from the late Roman, Coptic and Byzantine periods was sometimes relegated to second class status,” said John Ambrose, founder and director of Fragments of Time. “This has changed with a blossoming of scholarship and important museum exhibitions over the past two decades. Objects from these periods, are enjoying renewed popularity and intense collecting interest.”

Such interest, though belated, is certainly justified. Byzantium was a cultural crossroads. It is where the classical age converged with the Enlightenment of Western Europe. It was the bridge between eastern culture and classicism. And it was the cradle of modern European civilization.

Highlights from the Wales collection featured in the catalog include:

• Processional Cross featuring images and inscriptions for St. George, St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Nicholas

• Unopened reliquary cross inscribed for St. George and Michael

• Ornately incised Reliquary cross depicting a crucified Christ with small crosses place where nails pierced his outstretched arms

• Reliquary cross with Mary surrounded by the four Gospel authors – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

All of the objects features in Ancient Art XLIV were collected by Wales, a distinguished Harvard-educated scholar and conservator, over two decades from 1952-1970. Wales traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and North Africa. He spent the 1950s restoring Byzantine frescoes in Istanbul under grants from the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, and is also known for his restoration of the famous Roman mosaic panel from Antioch at the Worcester (MA) Art Museum.

He enjoyed an enduring friendship with archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife, Agatha Christie, and conserved ivories for Mallowan during excavations at Nimrud, Iraq.

While his collection spanned an 800-year timeframe and includes sculpture, pottery, bronzes, fine oil lamps, and jewelry, the heart of the Wales collection is a fine concentration of objects from the dawn of Christianity. Chief among these is a remarkable collection of bronze enkolpia engraved with a rich variation of saints, angels, Apostles, Mary, and Jesus Christ.

For more than fourteen years, company founder John Ambrose, who had previously spent 15 years as a private collector in Europe and the USA, has been one of the few American antiquities dealers publishing quarterly, fully researched and illustrated, fixed-price catalogues dedicated to fine antiquities.  With a fixed price catalog the price listed in the catalog is the price – no hidden fees or costly premiums that now run an additional 25% at major auction houses. Fragments of Time enjoys an international reputation for quality antiquities, scholarly expertise, competitive prices, and unrivalled service.  The catalogs span more than 6,000 years of ancient history and feature objects in price ranges from $100 - $10,000+. 

Fragments of Time quarterly catalogues are consistently rated among the best in the antiquities field and are used by collectors, scholars and museums as reference works. A complimentary catalogue is available upon request at www.fragmentsoftime.com or by calling (508) 359-0090. An annual subscription is just $15 in the continental US and is free to clients who make at least one purchase per year.

Roman Gold Earring with Pearls and Emeralds Found in Jerusalem Excavation

A 2,000 year old Roman gold earring inlaid with pearls and precious stones was discovered in excavations that the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the Giv‘ati car park at the City of David, in the “Walls around Jerusalem National Park”.

The earring, which is made of a coiled gold hoop, has a large inlaid pearl in its center. Connected to the hoop are two identical gold pendants, each of which is adorned with one emerald and pearl. The emerald is held by a kind of gold cap that connects it to the main hoop by means of a small hoop that is also fashioned from gold. Another pearl that is relatively smaller than the one inlaid in the upper hoop is attached to the other side of the emerald. The pearl is fastened to the emerald by means of a gold finding, which passes through a tiny hole that was drilled in it.

According to Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, directors of the excavation at the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The earring was astonishingly well preserved, so much so that it seems it was manufactured only yesterday. The data we have available today about jewelry and the manufacture of jewels in the ancient world indicate that the earring, which was discovered in the ruins of a building which dates to the Byzantine period (fourth-fifth centuries CE), was apparently originally produced during the course of the Roman period (between the first century BCE and the beginning of the fourth century CE). Gold jewelry inlaid with precious stones and pearls were used throughout the Roman Empire – from the Roman provinces in the east to Britain in the west.

One of the most detailed and impressive sources of information we have that were preserved from this period are the Fayum portraits that were discovered in Egypt. These drawings, which decorated the tombs of the mummies at Fayum, present an entire gallery of the deceased images dressed in their best attire and wearing expensive jewelry. It is interesting to note that in the portraits of the women from Fayum they are wearing gold earrings and necklaces that in most cases are inlaid with pearls and emeralds. These earrings are surprisingly reminiscent of the earring from the City of David, and it seems that they were fashioned in a similar technique.”

A year ago a large impressive edifice that dates to the end of the Second Temple period was exposed in the excavations in the Giv‘ati car park. Based on evidence from the writings of Josephus Flavius, the building that was uncovered was probably erected by the Hadyab family. The most famous member of that family was Queen Heleni, who converted to Judaism and moved to Jerusalem, where she was buried.

Justice Ministry Asked to Decide Fate of 'Jesus Ossuary' After Israeli Antiquities Authority Case Fails After Two Years

The Justice Ministry has been given six months to decide how to proceed in the trial of an antiquities dealer suspected of forging a purported reference to Jesus on an ancient burial box and a stone tablet with biblical passages, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

Both items were hailed as major archaeological finds but subsequently claimed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority to be clever forgeries.

The ministry has been forced to reevaluate the case after the Jerusalem District Court judge in the case advised the prosecution to reassess its position in the three-year-old trial because it failed to prove that the key suspect, Tel Aviv antiquities collector Oded Golan, had indeed faked the biblical-era artifacts, according to the Post.

The burial box, or ossuary, bears the inscription, "James, son of Joseph brother of Jesus," leading some scholars to believe it was used to store the remains of James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth. The 15-line inscription on the tablet was thought to have described First Temple "house repairs."

Read the full article here.

Ancient St Augustine Manuscript Unearthed in German Library

Not all spectacular discoveries are the result of digging through dirt with a trowel. Scholars from the Austrian Academy of Sciences "digging" through the Bibliotheca Amploniana in Erfurt, Germany, made a remarkable discovery when they turned up six previously unknown sermons attributed to St. Augustine.   

The sermons, dating to the 12th century, were concealed in a medieval parchment manuscript they were studying.  Some of the sermons were know only by their titles cited in Possidius' Indiculum.

Three sermons are on the topic of brotherly love and alms-giving, one is on martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas, and another on the martyr Cyprian who condemned alcoholic indulgence on saints' feast days. Another sermon discusses resurrection of the dead and biblical prophesies.

The manuscript, which may have originally been produced in England, was part of an enormous collection of 630 books donated in 1412.  Click for more color images of the manuscript.

Israeli Archaeologists Announce Coin Find Related to Second Temple Head-Tax

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli archeologists have unearthed a coin in Jerusalem's City of David that, they now believe, was used to pay the head-tax in the Second Temple period. The find was announced by the Antiquities Authority.

The rare silver coin was discovered in an archeological excavation outside the walls of the Old City in what was Jerusalem's main drainage channel 2,000 years ago.

Archeologists earlier uncovered thousands of nondescript small bronze coins that were used in every day life, said Prof. Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa.

"A drainage pipe is, not surprisingly, a place where you find lots of history," he said.

In the book of Exodus, Jews over age 20 are commanded to contribute half a shekel each year to pay for public sacrifices and the furnishings of the Temple.

Israeli archeologist Eli Shukron said the coin found at the dig was probably dropped in the drainage ditch by accident.

"Just like today when coins sometimes fall from our pockets and roll into drainage openings at the side of the street, that's how it was some two thousand years ago - a man was on his way to the Temple and the shekel that he intended to use for paying the half shekel head-tax found its way into the drainage channel," Shukron said.

The shekel weighs 13 grams, and shows the head of the chief deity of the city of Tyre on one side, and an eagle upon a ship's prow on the reverse.

Despite the importance of the half-shekel head-tax to the economy of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period, only seven other shekel and half shekel coins have been found in archeological excavations in Jerusalem.

Jewish Mosaics Exhibit at Boston College Examines Links Among Religions

The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College hosts Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire, on view now through June 8, 2008.

According to the Brooklyn Museum—which organized the exhibition and first displayed it in 2005-2006—it examines the role of Roman-period mosaics in the development of synagogue decoration in the late Roman Empire.

The exhibition presents the reconstruction of an ancient mosaic floor from a synagogue in Hammam Lif, Tunisia—the ancient town of Naro, later called Aquae Persianae by the Romans.

“Superbly conceived by the Brooklyn Museum to pose larger questions about links among various faith communities in Late Antiquity, this exhibition and its public programs draw on strengths of the Boston College faculty’s research and curriculum and on the University’s commitment to exploring the relationship among Jews, Christians and Muslims from antiquity to the present,” according to McMullen Museum Director and Professor of Art History Nancy Netzer. “We look forward to welcoming at the McMullen visitors from all three faith groups.”

A Latin inscription in one of the surviving panels records that the mosaic floor was a gift to the synagogue from a certain Julia, a resident of Naro in about 500 C.E. Other mosaic panels in the exhibition, datable to the first or second century C.E., originated either in an earlier part of the same synagogue or in a nearby building.

The mosaics were discovered by chance in 1883 by a French army captain, Ernest de Prudhomme, while preparing ground for gardening. In 1905, the Brooklyn Museum acquired most of the panels Prudhomme had owned and transported back to his home in Lyon. According to Ruth Langer, associate professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department and academic director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, “Today, these panels provide a fascinating contrast to the much richer archaeological evidence for synagogues of this period now known from the Land of Israel.”

Twenty-one mosaics—along with some 40 works from the Brooklyn Museum’s Roman art collection, including contemporary jewelry, coins, marble statues, ritual objects and textiles—shed light on the role of synagogues in the Diaspora during Late Antiquity, the development of Jewish art in the Roman period, the importance of female patrons in the ancient Jewish community, connections among early Christian, Jewish and Pagan symbolism in this period, and the relationship between ancient and modern understanding of the synagogue as an institution. The works of art included in the exhibition reveal a society where Jews were more integrated and accepted than ancient texts would suggest.

A catalogue by the exhibition’s curator, Edward Bleiberg, Curator of Egyptian, Classical and Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum, accompanies the exhibition.

Museum Hours: Monday – Friday 11-4, Saturday and Sunday 12-5.
Closed: March 21 and 23, April 21, May 26.

   

Dead Sea Scrolls on Display in San Francisco are Outside Israel for First Time

For those living in or planning to visit the San Francisco Bay area this year, don't miss Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority: The Dead Sea Scrolls and 5,000 Years of Treasures, at the Legion of Honor from February 9 to August 10, 2008, which will include rotating examples of the rare and precious Dead Sea Scroll fragments in addition to artifacts spanning over 5000 years, from the Chalcolithic Age (4,000 BC) to the Fatimid Period (11th century AD). 

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history. They were uncovered by Bedouin herders and excavated by archaeologists in caves along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.  Fragments of the scrolls were pieced together to form more than 800 documents, many of them Biblical and Apocryphal manuscripts.

All of the treasures on view are on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and most have never been seen outside of Israel.

Located in Gallery 1, this small-scale exhibition is the first in a series, and provides an introduction to future joint exhibitions with the IAA.  Highlights among the nearly 50 objects include funerary ossuaries, cultic altars from the Canaanite period, Roman glass vessels, a mosaic from a Byzantine monastery in Jerusalem, and gold coins and jewelry from Tiberias dating to the Fatimid Period.  On display for the first time anywhere is a newly excavated and restored glass table with gold foil from a Byzantine villa.  The first Dead Sea Scroll on view is from the Book of Psalms, one of the best-preserved biblical examples and dates to the 1st century AD.

In conjunction with Highlights  from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Helen Diller Family Foundation’s Annual Lecture Series focusing on recent archaeological discoveries in Israel continues with “City of David: Present Discoveries,” organized by IAA and scheduled for April 9, 2008, at 7:00 pm at the de Young Museum’s Koret Auditorium.  Professor Ronny Reich, Senior Archaeologist of the City of David Excavations is the guest lecturer.

18th Century BC Bronze Age Site Uncovered in Syrian

A burial site dating back to the 18th century BC has been discovered during an archaeological excavation near Damascus, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

The agency quoted on Monday a source in the Syrian General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums as saying several human skeletons and burial items, including 120 ceramic vessels and plates, had been found.

Archaeologists believe the find could date back to the reign of Arabian tribes in the first half of 2000 BC. They say the burial site is similar to Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian locations, which suggests a common civilization existed in the region before the arrival of Islam.

Israeli High Court Petitioned to Halt Temple Mount Digging

Members of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities petitioned the High Court of Justice yesterday to stop an excavation by the Waqf, or Muslim religious trust, on the Temple Mount, according to the Tel Aviv newspaper Ha'aretz.

Waqf officials say the digging of the trench, 500 meters long and 1.5 meters deep, is necessary to replace 40-year-old electric cables. But the petitioners say the work "is causing irreversible damage to antiquities and archaeological artifacts of the greatest importance, and is being carried out illegally, without the requisite authorizations."

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