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Cast almost entirely of lead, the pendant is decorated on both sides with an identical image of a menorah framed within a circular border.<\/p>\n
A remarkably rare 1,300-year-old lead pendant bearing a seven-branched menorah has been uncovered in Jerusalem, shedding new light on Jewish presence in the city during a period when imperial authorities officially barred Jews from entering, the Israel Antiquities Authority<\/a> announced on Monday.<\/p>\n The discovery was made in an archaeological park adjacent to the Temple Mount during large-scale excavations conducted in recent years.<\/p>\n The small, disk-shaped pendant dates to the 6th to early 7th centuries CE, during the Late Byzantine<\/a> period. Cast almost entirely of lead, it is decorated on both sides with an identical image of a menorah framed within a circular border. Only one other ancient lead pendant bearing the menorah symbol is known worldwide, an object of unknown provenance housed at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.<\/p>\n The pendant was discovered by chance within the rubble of a Late Byzantine structure buried beneath an approximately eight-meter-thick layer of fill. That fill was deposited in the early 8th century as part of extensive construction associated with the erection of monumental Umayyad buildings in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day while I was digging inside an ancient structure, I suddenly saw something different, gray, among the stones,\u201d said Ayayu Belete, a City of David<\/a> worker who uncovered the artifact. \u201cI picked the object up and saw that it was a pendant with a menorah on it. I immediately showed the find to Esther Rakow-Mellet, the area director, and she said it was an especially rare find. I was deeply moved and excited!\u201d<\/p>\n