BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Another Gold Ring from Hellenistic Jerusalem

Find may reveal an ancient coming-of-age custom

The gold ring uncovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David. Courtesy Eliyahu Yanai, City of David.

While excavating in Jerusalem’s City of David Archaeological Park, archaeologists came across a fantastic find: a small gold ring inset with a red gemstone. Dating to the early Hellenistic period, roughly 2,300 years ago, the ring joins another discovered in the area only a few months earlier. According to researchers, the small collection of jewelry provides a window into a fascinating Hellenistic custom.

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Hellenistic Gold

The newly discovered gold ring was found in the foundations of a large domestic building dated to the late third or early second century BCE. Both rings were made of gold with red gemstones, a style of jewelry that was very popular in the period and had been adopted from lands to the east, such as India and Persia, following their conquest by Alexander the Great.

The ring came to light while sifting soil from the Givati Parking Lot excavation site on the outskirts of Jerusalem’s Old City. According to Rivka Lengler, one of the excavators who made the discovery, “We sifted the dirt through a sieve, right near the excavation area, and suddenly Ben, who works with me, pulls a gold ring out of the dirt. At first, he was sure it must be a modern item dropped by one of our excavators, but when I examined the ring, I immediately assessed it as something ancient. We called over the archaeologists, and everyone gathered around us and marveled at the special find. It was very exciting. Already at first glance, you could see its great similarity to the ring discovered in our excavation only a few months ago, just that this one was even smaller.”

The gold earring and gold bead uncovered in the City of David from the same period. Courtesy Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Besides the two gold rings, numerous other discoveries have been made in the same area of the excavations, including bronze and gold earrings. All the jewelry dates to the same period and was included in the foundation of a large domestic building. “That the two small rings and the rest of the jewelry were all discovered under the building’s floors raises the possibility that they were buried there on purpose,” said Marion Zindel, who studied the rings. “One of the possibilities now being examined is that the jewelry found in the building’s foundations was in the context of executing a well-known Hellenistic period custom in which betrothed women would bury jewelry and other childhood objects in the house foundations as a symbol of the transition from childhood to adulthood.”

These and other finds continue to shed light on Jerusalem’s wealth during the Hellenistic period and demonstrate how culturally connected the city was to the rest of the Hellenistic world.

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