Τετάρτη 31 Οκτωβρίου 2012

Rare Second Temple-Period Gold Bell Discovered in Jerusalem


(July 2011)



A rare gold bell with a small loop at its end was discovered during an archaeological excavation in the drainage channel that begins in the Shiloah Pool and continues from the City of David to the Jerusalem Archaeological Gardennear the Western Wall
Gold Bell
According to the excavation directors, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, “It seems the bell was sewn on thegarment worn by a high official inJerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period (first century CE). The bell was exposed inside Jerusalems main drainage channel at that time, among the layers of earth that had accumulated along the bottom of itThis drainage channel was built and hewn the length of the Western Wall of the Temple Mounton the bottom of the slope descending to the Tyropoeon ValleyThis drainage channel conveyed rain water from different parts of the city, by way of the City of David and the Shiloah Pool, to Nahal Kidron”.
The main street of the Jerusalem is in the region of the excavationabove the drainage channel. This road ascended from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David and an interchange, known today asRobinson’s Arch’, was built in it, by way of which people entered theTempleMountApparently, the high official was walking in the Jerusalemstreet in the vicinity of Robinson’s Arch and lost the gold bell that fell from his garment into the drainage channel beneath the road.
We know from sources that the high priests, who served in the Templeused to hang a gold bell from the fringes of their robe. Thus, for example, in the ‘Tetzaveh’ Torah portion, in the Book of Exodus, there is a description of the high priest Aaron’s robe: “All of blue…it shall have a binding of woven work …And upon the skirts of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the skirts thereof; and bells of gold between them round about”. It is impossible to know for certain if the bell did indeed belong to one of the high priestshowever, the possibility should not be entirely discounted

Source and Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

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