Ancient Gold Ring Depicts the Holy Sepulchre

Home > Magazines > BAR > May/June 1986

A gold ring was found in 1974 in the excavations south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.a At the time, the suggestion that the ring depicted the Holy Sepulchre, or tomb of Jesus, met with considerable scholarly skepticism. The ring has never been studied or published. My own view is that the structure on the ring does in fact represent the Holy Sepulchre. Although the ring was uncovered in an excavation, unfortunately, the locus and level of the find give no indication of its date.b The ring must therefore be dated principally on the basis of its style. On […]

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Footnotes

The excavations were directed by Professor Benjamin Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, by whose kind permission the ring is published here.

The ring was found in a Byzantine house near the Triple Gate and was originally dated to the sixth century A.D., a date that now seems clearly wrong.

These screens formed part of the Crusader lintels in the facade of the Holy Sepulchre church before it was damaged in a fire over a hundred years ago.