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UNC CHARLOTTE MOUNT ZION EXPEDITION / SHIMON GIBSON

CURIOUS CUP. This 6-inch-tall limestone mug was found broken into four pieces in the remains of a lavish Herodian-era home in Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Once the fragments were carefully cleaned, a tantalizing feature appeared: numerous lines of a spidery inscription were scratched into the pared facets of the mug’s exterior. Using both ordinary Hebrew and mysterious cryptic symbols known also from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the inscription may have facilitated incantatory chanting used in early Jewish purity rituals.