2,000-year-old stone receipt found in Jerusalem

Several years ago, archaeologists discoveredIsrael is an unusual and very rare artifact - a financial document about 2000 years old. The most interesting thing is that it was not made on any papyrus scroll or piece of leather, but on a palm-sized flat stone. The text mentions the amounts, as well as the names of the parties to the transaction. The very fact of the existence of such a stone is surprising. It turns out that thousands of years ago, people in Jerusalem used financial documents in the same way they do today. According to scientists, the stone contains information about wages or a list of people who borrowed money. It seems that the document was very important, since they decided to carve it in stone.

An ancient 2000-year-old receipt was made on a piece of limestone

Pilgrimage Road - the shopping center of ancient Jerusalem

It may seem that in the list with names andthere is nothing interesting in the sums, but according to scientists, this is a very rare find. It gives us a glimpse into the daily lives of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who lived two thousand years ago.

The stone was found among the debris during excavationsback in 2016, but it was only now reported. The artifact was located on the pilgrimage road (pilgrimage road), which was once the main road of the city. According to historians, during the main holidays, up to three million people visited Jerusalem. At the same time, the road was the main artery.

This is what the pilgrimage road might have looked like 2,000 years ago

Other finds indicate that at that time,when Jerusalem was a province of the Roman Empire, the pilgrimage road was also a trading center, which is not surprising, given the huge traffic at that time. Previously, scientists have found stone scales, measuring tables and other artifacts here, indicating that trade was once active along the road.

The length of the road is about 600 meters.Once it led from the city gates of Jerusalem to the gates of the Temple Mount and the Temple itself. Recall that the latter was destroyed in 70 AD. It is noteworthy that this road was founded by the notorious ruler of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

One study found that wealthy residents of ancient Jerusalem suffered from serious infectious diseases.

I must say that the road was discovered in 2004In 1998, quite by accident, a sewer failure occurred in the center of the eastern neighborhood of Jerusalem, known as Silwan. However, scientists started archaeological work only in 2013. The work was complicated by the fact that the road passes under the Arab houses. Local residents began to complain that the work threatened their homes.

The Pilgrims' Road is currently underground.

Unusual archaeological find - stone financial document

According to the researchers, those parts of the textthat can be parsed contain names and numbers side by side. The list consists of seven lines. One of the lines indicates the Hebrew name Shimon, which was popular from 37 to 70 AD, when Jerusalem belonged to the Roman Empire. The tablet also contains the word “money” in Hebrew. This indicates that the stone is a financial document.

I must say that this is not the first stonefinancial board. Previously, scientists discovered four others that are similar to the current find. However, this stone is the first one discovered in Jerusalem on the pilgrimage road. The type of writing and the stone itself, as well as the similarity with other similar stones, helped scientists date the find. According to them, the stone with the list of people was created in the period from the first century BC to the first century AD. The researchers report this in the journal Atiqot.

According to scientists, the ancient document was executedon a fragment of the cover of the crypt or the burial casket-ossuary. Caskets of this type were widespread in Jerusalem and throughout Judea in the early Roman period. However, they were always located outside the city limits.

The layout of the pilgrimage road in ancient Jerusalem

An ossuary is a chest or boxsometimes a well in which skeletal remains were kept. In Russian, it is customary to call it a “bone”. Ossuaries were used not only by Jews, but also by Zoroastrians, Roman Catholics and even Orthodox.

In this case, the fragment of the ossuary wasfound in a mall. Most likely, someone used a fragment of the funerary element for other purposes. To write the text on limestone, most likely, a hard, sharp tool was used.

Follow the link to our YANDEX.ZEN CHANNEL. We have prepared for you a lot of interesting, exciting materials dedicated to science.

Finally, we recall that recently in Israel there wasmade another, no less interesting find - the gold mines of King Solomon. True, they were not gold, but copper. According to scientists, it was copper, not gold, that adorned the legendary temple of King Solomon.