Eliyahu Yanai/ City of David Foundation
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a financial record in Jerusalem, dating back 2,000 years – the first of its kind to be found in the heart of ancient Jerusalem.
The financial record, inscribed on a broken piece of chalkstone includes seven rows of text comprising of names, measurements and numbers.
It is likely to be a receipt, with legible lines representing the Hebrew abbreviation for ‘money’ (mem- ma’ot) and ‘quarters’ (resh – reva’im). The final letters of the name ‘Shimon’ are also inscribed, a popular name in the early Roman period and Temple time.
The stone was discovered during excavations of the City of David’s Pilgrimage Path and was featured in the recent edition of the journal ‘Atiqot’ by Nahshon Szanton, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s excavation director, and Professor Esther Eshel, epigrapher at Bar Ilan University.
Mr Szanton said: “It’s an example that doesn’t make you say wow… but it’s worth is precisely in its simplicity. It’s a minute taken from daily life. There’s no monument to what happened on a day-to-day basis”, he added.
Professor Eshel added: “The more we find inscriptions from daily life… the more I think that there were many who knew to read and write during this period, especially simple instructions such as found in this inscription”.
